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The Atheist Rally
Mar. 24th, 2012 06:08 pmThere is probably something inherently wrong about illustrating an atheist rally post with an icon I made of a picture I took at the Vatican. But it's been that kind of an odd day, going nothing like planned.
No day that starts in the emergency room ever does.
Long oogy story as short as I can make it, something got into my eye last night and despite the best efforts of myself, Mo, "a good night's sleep," and a bottle and a half of eyedrops, 10 hours later I still couldn't get it out. So I woke up Mo and told her I was driving myself to the ER. She told me not to be an idiot, I wasn't driving myself anywhere one-eyed - especially if, as we'd both decided several years ago, I was going to the hospital in the next county over. And a good thing she did take me, as we drove directly back into the fierce thunderstorm that had passed over the house.
I love me Howard Co. Hospital; the doctor saw the backwards eyelash immediately and I was taken care of and sent home within an hour. This was enough stress for Mo to decide she was spending the day on the couch after all but, having arrived home newly able to see and at about the same time as I'd planned on leaving for the Atheist Rally on the mall, I hopped in the car.
There were official banners all over: Compassion. Reason. Diversity. Charity. Equality. Apparel pickup.
I'm glad I got there early - I got to actually talk to Professor PZ Myers and even get his autograph on one of the American Humanist Good Without God posters. (Terribly fangirlish, I know, but not anywhere near the depths of devotion of the group of women with Pharyngula T-shirts and signs that I saw coming in.) This put me near the Exhibit tent as it opened at 10:00, so in I went.
( You would not believe the swag! )
I got out of the tent in time for someone handing out Good Without God posters with other poster sayings written on the back. How could I resist "Atheism Is Myth Understood"?
I wandered around taking pictures of signs and T-shirts. "Science is the enemy of fear and credulity; it invites investigation, challenges the reason." "I was an atheist until I realized I was a sex god." "Standing up for what I don't believe in." "I support Science, Reason & Secular Values." "Religion is like a penis. It's OK to have one. It's OK to be proud of it. But it's NOT OK to whip it out in public, shove it in my face, tell me what to do because you have one, or marginalize me because I don't." Blag Hag had "Obama isn't trying to destroy religion - I AM!"
There was a Waldo. (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
thefannishwaldo, I think he's one of the ones from the reason/fear rally you had your picture taken with.) And someone wanted *my* picture because I had the Keep Calm and Carry Yarn bag and she wanted a shot of it to prove there were other atheist knitters. (And while she was talking the woman next to us turned and said "Oh! I knit too!")
The speakers had geared up. I got close enough to the stage... side note: by the standards of other rallies I've been at, this was small. Verging on rinky-dink. The entire thing fit the single city block across from the Smithsonian Museum of American History, although even in the rain we outdrew Glenn Beck.) I got close enough to the stage to see the flags of the armed forces, the POW flag, and the American flag trooped in. We all stood, took off our hats, and gave the pledge as it had been originally written. As the Greatest Generation gave it (which the speaker pointed out.)
And by then, I was very hungry and starting to get wet, so I walked up to my favorite restaurant in Chinatown.
By the time I got back -- passing two street preachers along the way holding their "Wisdom Rallies" to one or two people, and being handed "turn or burn" literature -- I saw the crowd had swelled significantly, but I wondered what I'd come back to. The signs being waved that I could see were saying things like "Trust in Jesus," "Atheism is Just a Theory," "Study and obey the Bible" and "In 5 seconds I can prove there is a God." The musician on stage was singing "Thank you God, Thank you God," in a song all about how he'd found religion.
I wondered if the atheists had been run out while I was getting my exercise and eating salmon with tzatziki sauce. But it turned out that our handful of protesters -- none hateful enough to qualify for Westboro Baptists -- weren't in the protester pen. (The only one to stand there ever was a guy with a "Repent Heretics and return to Cthulu" sign.)
And the guy onstage was Tim Minchin.
Thank you God for fixing the cataracts of Sam’s mum. I have to admit that in the past I have been skeptical but Sam described this miracle and I am overcome!
How fitting that the sighting of a sight-based intervention should open my eyes to this exciting new dimension. It’s like someone put an eye chart on the wall in front of me and the top five letters say: I C G O D.
Thank you, Sam, for showing how my point of view has been so flawed. I assumed there was no God at all but now I see that’s cynical. It’s simply that his interests aren’t particularly broad.
He’s largely undiverted by the starving masses, or the inequality between the various classes. He gives you strictly limited passes, redeemable for surgery or two-for-one glasses
Alas, while I was gone, I'd missed both Adam Savage and Jessica Ahlquist, who were among the handful of people I wanted to hear. Also, I was cold and wet and my ankle hurt, and it was going to be another 2+ hours to hear PZ Myers speak (They were running about half an hour late). So I held out for The Amazing Randi, then headed home.
It turns outmusecleo's down there; hopefully there will be more discussion of the rally at her LJ.
Also hopefully, someone can point me at youtube of the speeches that I missed. I'm confident that they'll be posted somewhere.
No day that starts in the emergency room ever does.
Long oogy story as short as I can make it, something got into my eye last night and despite the best efforts of myself, Mo, "a good night's sleep," and a bottle and a half of eyedrops, 10 hours later I still couldn't get it out. So I woke up Mo and told her I was driving myself to the ER. She told me not to be an idiot, I wasn't driving myself anywhere one-eyed - especially if, as we'd both decided several years ago, I was going to the hospital in the next county over. And a good thing she did take me, as we drove directly back into the fierce thunderstorm that had passed over the house.
I love me Howard Co. Hospital; the doctor saw the backwards eyelash immediately and I was taken care of and sent home within an hour. This was enough stress for Mo to decide she was spending the day on the couch after all but, having arrived home newly able to see and at about the same time as I'd planned on leaving for the Atheist Rally on the mall, I hopped in the car.
There were official banners all over: Compassion. Reason. Diversity. Charity. Equality. Apparel pickup.
I'm glad I got there early - I got to actually talk to Professor PZ Myers and even get his autograph on one of the American Humanist Good Without God posters. (Terribly fangirlish, I know, but not anywhere near the depths of devotion of the group of women with Pharyngula T-shirts and signs that I saw coming in.) This put me near the Exhibit tent as it opened at 10:00, so in I went.
( You would not believe the swag! )
I got out of the tent in time for someone handing out Good Without God posters with other poster sayings written on the back. How could I resist "Atheism Is Myth Understood"?
I wandered around taking pictures of signs and T-shirts. "Science is the enemy of fear and credulity; it invites investigation, challenges the reason." "I was an atheist until I realized I was a sex god." "Standing up for what I don't believe in." "I support Science, Reason & Secular Values." "Religion is like a penis. It's OK to have one. It's OK to be proud of it. But it's NOT OK to whip it out in public, shove it in my face, tell me what to do because you have one, or marginalize me because I don't." Blag Hag had "Obama isn't trying to destroy religion - I AM!"
There was a Waldo. (
thefannishwaldo, I think he's one of the ones from the reason/fear rally you had your picture taken with.) And someone wanted *my* picture because I had the Keep Calm and Carry Yarn bag and she wanted a shot of it to prove there were other atheist knitters. (And while she was talking the woman next to us turned and said "Oh! I knit too!")The speakers had geared up. I got close enough to the stage... side note: by the standards of other rallies I've been at, this was small. Verging on rinky-dink. The entire thing fit the single city block across from the Smithsonian Museum of American History, although even in the rain we outdrew Glenn Beck.) I got close enough to the stage to see the flags of the armed forces, the POW flag, and the American flag trooped in. We all stood, took off our hats, and gave the pledge as it had been originally written. As the Greatest Generation gave it (which the speaker pointed out.)
And by then, I was very hungry and starting to get wet, so I walked up to my favorite restaurant in Chinatown.
By the time I got back -- passing two street preachers along the way holding their "Wisdom Rallies" to one or two people, and being handed "turn or burn" literature -- I saw the crowd had swelled significantly, but I wondered what I'd come back to. The signs being waved that I could see were saying things like "Trust in Jesus," "Atheism is Just a Theory," "Study and obey the Bible" and "In 5 seconds I can prove there is a God." The musician on stage was singing "Thank you God, Thank you God," in a song all about how he'd found religion.
I wondered if the atheists had been run out while I was getting my exercise and eating salmon with tzatziki sauce. But it turned out that our handful of protesters -- none hateful enough to qualify for Westboro Baptists -- weren't in the protester pen. (The only one to stand there ever was a guy with a "Repent Heretics and return to Cthulu" sign.)
And the guy onstage was Tim Minchin.
Thank you God for fixing the cataracts of Sam’s mum. I have to admit that in the past I have been skeptical but Sam described this miracle and I am overcome!
How fitting that the sighting of a sight-based intervention should open my eyes to this exciting new dimension. It’s like someone put an eye chart on the wall in front of me and the top five letters say: I C G O D.
Thank you, Sam, for showing how my point of view has been so flawed. I assumed there was no God at all but now I see that’s cynical. It’s simply that his interests aren’t particularly broad.
He’s largely undiverted by the starving masses, or the inequality between the various classes. He gives you strictly limited passes, redeemable for surgery or two-for-one glasses
Alas, while I was gone, I'd missed both Adam Savage and Jessica Ahlquist, who were among the handful of people I wanted to hear. Also, I was cold and wet and my ankle hurt, and it was going to be another 2+ hours to hear PZ Myers speak (They were running about half an hour late). So I held out for The Amazing Randi, then headed home.
It turns out
musecleo's down there; hopefully there will be more discussion of the rally at her LJ. Also hopefully, someone can point me at youtube of the speeches that I missed. I'm confident that they'll be posted somewhere.
