Let Your Representatives Know You’re Here

Before the National Atheist Party imploded, they had a really great campaign in which they asked atheists to ask politicians how they would represent their atheist voters. This was a brilliant campaign because it let politicians know that atheists exist and that we vote. Today, I want to call your attention to another opportunity to let your politicians know you exist.

The American Humanist Association and the International Darwin Day committee have been able to get Representative Jim Himes (D-CT) to introduce H. Res. 67, the Darwin Day Resolution. Not only that, but there are currently a small handful of co-sponsors for the resolution too.

What does this resolution do exactly? Well, nothing… except that it puts politicians on notice that there are reason-minded people who support science and science education in this country. While that sounds obvious to us, it isn’t so obvious in Washington. Keep in mind that the Religious Right have been very successful in fooling politicians into taking them seriously. By pushing politicians to support meaningless resolutions proclaiming God and Jesus, they are able to also push politicians to re-write science and history textbooks, discriminate against women, gays, atheists, and others, and even push our foreign policy toward what some believe to be the climactic battle of Armageddon.

We need to let our politicians know that science-minded people are out there. This resolution is one way to do it and the good people at AHA have made it really easy too. All you have to do is put your zip code in to the Darwin Day page and a pre-written letter will come up addressed to your congress person asking him or her to support the Darwin Day resolution. You then just have to fill in your name and address and send it away. I however would also recommend that you add your own flair to the letter because we are atheists and that’s what atheists do. 😉

For example, last year I saw my Congressman at a political event few weeks after Darwin Day. I cornered him and asked him why he did not co-sponsor that resolution given his very liberal record. He told me that he didn’t know about it and asked me to remind him next year. So I made sure to recount that encounter in my letter to him this year. I also intend to call his office and remind him.

I should add that Delaware Governor Jim Markell actually issued a Darwin Day proclamation this year. You can read about that in my Examiner article (feel free to spare that article and this blog post around the web).

People of reason need to let our politicians know we exist. If we don’t, then they will assume we don’t exist and they will continue to cater to the whims of the religious extremists.

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