FFRF Day 2

Saturday, Sept 16 started off with the "Nonprayer Breakfast" in the Monona Center. Really good turnout, and a good opp for connecting with other members. We shared a table with two guys from Santa Fe, New Mexico, another man from Ohio and a third, a woman from Nebraska. Now why didn't I get any pictures of these good folks? ... ?

A cute part of the Nonprayer Breakfast is the "Moment of Bedlam" led by FFRF co-President Dan Barker, as opposed to the more-typical "Moment of Prayer" hoisted upon attendees at various events before sharing a common meal. It was raucous, indeed.

We skipped a few events after breakfast but made it back for the Freethinkers of the Year awards. It's inspiring to hear the tales of everyday citizens like you and me who discover a state/church violation and decide to stick their necks out to correct it. Becoming a local plaintiff, to establish standing to bring suit, can be a rough experience, depending upon how insane the locals are about their Biblical BS.

The first Freethinker of the Year Award went to Jesse Castillo and Kevin Price. They both live in Alpine, Texas. Jesse is a cop; Kevin is in the military, and could not attend, as he was on duty in Syria. 

In 2015, Brewster County (Texas) Sheriff Ronny Dodson decided that all his patrol cars needed to have a Latin cross on them, because Dodson wanted "God's protection over his deputies." And we all know how well that works. Jesse is a deputy under Sheriff Dodson.

The story is detailed here, but strangely, the fact that Castillo is a deputy that worked for Dodson is not mentioned. Jesse told us that at the convention. Castillo and Price brought suit, with the aid of FFRF, on March 2, 2016, to remove the crosses from the patrol cars. Inevitably, FFRF won the case and the crosses came down. Happily, Castillo and Dodson are still on good terms. Dodson's wife is the local animal Vet, etc etc. 

Castillo, and the other winners can be seen and heard below.

We were on our own for lunch and ducked into Lucille, just a block from our hotel. Craft beers everywhere!

Madison is a pretty cool town. Lots of bike rentals all over with serious bike lanes; vegetable gardens scattered around the grounds of the state capitol with lots of tomatoes; flowers, flowers, everywhere; tomatoes and herbs growing here and over there, down the street. A rather limited outdoor growing season, I suppose. Make fruit while the sun shines.

Weather was perfect. Where would we be with the app Yelp!? It's amazing! And essential. How else are you going to know what is where and their hours and menus, etc., etc.?

We returned to hear Brent Michael Davids give a talk titled, "Do you know an American Indian atheist?" Uh, Dan Barker.

His talk was pretty moving:

I got the chance to chat with him for a while and, as with other Indians I have talked with (very few, actually), took an instant liking to him. He's even on Facebook.

Michelle Goldberg, now a columnist for the New York Times, was next up and chilled everybody with "Donald Trump & Christian Nationalism." It's one of the great hypocrises of modern Christianity that Trump is so tightly embraced by Christian evangelicals. Hey, if that doesn't tell you Trump is a real fraud, nothing will.

Just about all of the speakers can be seen and heard at the FFRF YouTube channel here.

We skipped Steven Pinker's talk (but it can be seen at the link above) and came back for the ticketed dinner. Here we sat with another great and random group of people. Four from Michigan, two from Pennsylvania, and us. The

Mitch and Dan

name tag on one guy read Mitch Kahle, and I knew his name was familiar but couldn't recall why until we talked. Check out Mitch's exploits here, here, and here. He was a nice, down to earth person, as was his wife Holly.

Roy Zimmerman

Alas, we didn't win any money during the Clean Money drawing (they give away money that was printed before the U.S. mints added "In God We Trust" to everything), but thoroughly enjoyed Roy Zimmerman's performance after that. And you didn't even need subtitles. 

We caught a part of Julia Sweeney's speech. I think she was on meth or something. She went into a long, rapid exposè of recent "Christian" movies and there are some really ridiculous ones out there, that are making tons of money. Those poor deluded Christians. On second thought, it's probably enough to drive anyone bonkers. I'm glad she's watching them so I don't need to. Her talk was also recorded.

In short, we loved it. Next year's convention is already set for San Francisco, and that sounds like a great reason to get to SF.