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| Dan Courtney |
I met Dan Courtney recently at a board meeting of the
Rochester chapter of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State,
and was excited to learn that he was the atheist who had applied to deliver the
first non-religious invocation at a Greece town meeting since the Supreme Court
decision, in which the conservative court members reasoned that continuing the
mostly Christian prayer was ok because it was part of a tradition – these guys
would have fit right in with the majority in Dred Scott v. Sandford or Plessy
v. Ferguson... He seemed very
intelligent and reasonable, and all of the recent press led me to believe he
would give a concise and dispassionate non-prayer (which he did).
According to 13 WHAM News, “Greece Town Supervisor Bill Reilich
said the town is trying to be more inclusive…than the Supreme Court offered,”
yet he has “turned away others because they wanted to make a mockery of
this. One said he told the town he
worshipped spaghetti.” Yes, satire
is lost on the town of Greece, which apparently has never heard of the Flying
Spaghetti Monster! Still, it seems
a slippery slope for the town supervisor to be in the business of deciding
which religions and mythical deities are “genuine” and which are not…
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| Linda Stephens |
I got to the town hall early, in anticipation of a large
crowd. Many secular humanists had
turned out for the event, including Linda Stephens, the atheist plaintiff in
the case (whom I’d also met and been impressed with at the AU meeting), and a
large contingent from the Center for Inquiry. We only had to pass one Jesus nut
on our way in, and he later made his point by loudly repeating the “under God”
phrase of the Pledge of Allegiance.
Almost all of the 110 seats in the meeting room were filled, and people
stood along the walls, as well.
The podium was cluttered with TV microphones, and camera crews, which I
suspect were unusual for a routine town meeting, located themselves
strategically to film Dan as he spoke.
There were probably very few in the audience who were actually Greece
residents there to hear the mundane business on the agenda (like authorizing
bid dates for the purchase of police vehicles and authorizing a contract for
data center services).
It was quickly apparent that most of us were there in
support of the “atheist invocation,” which Justice Scalia couldn’t imagine in
his narrow-mindedness. The board
filed in a few minutes before 6pm, and a hush descended on the room. After the Pledge, Dan was invited to
give the invocation. He thanked
the board for letting him speak, on behalf of freethinkers, atheists, and
non-believers, and referenced the Declaration of Independence in his two-minute
delivery, reminding the officials that their duty is to “heed the counsel of
the governed, to seek the wisdom of all citizens.” The board members were mostly respectful, either watching
Dan or bowing their heads (although one or two looked a bit impatient to have
this done with…). There was no
“amen,” just an eruption of applause after Dan thanked the board.
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| Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF |
The room emptied and most of us reassembled on the lawn for
some short speeches given by Ron Lindsay (president of the Center for Inquiry),
David Niose (past president of the
American Humanist Association), Greg Lipper
(Senior Litigation Counsel for Americans United for the Separation of Church
and State), and Annie Laurie Gaylor (Co-Founder and Co-President of the
Freedom from Religion Foundation). Someone
passed out “One in Five” signs (signifying the percentage of non-religious
Americans) which we proudly held for the cameras. The speakers
focused on the message of inclusion, and encouraged the non-believers to stand
up for their non-beliefs. Ms. Gaylor exhorted those in government to “get off
(their) knees and get to work.”
Before the crowd dispersed, I took the opportunity to pass out some
cards for Rochester’s
Sunday Assembly, which is looking to start up in
September. As I departed,
inspired, I couldn’t help but wonder – have I found my tribe?
Very nice writeup!
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