Indivisible Day! As American as Apple Pie!

Dear LA Brights (and SF Atheist's United):  First, many thanks to Stuart Beckman, he's a force of nature!  Well organized (once we found each other!), a terrific table and set of literature, and so many PIES!  In the aftermath, we agreed that this type of event is a great way to spread awareness...and I'm definitely committed to further participation, even if the next opportunity doesn't present until July 4, 2009!  

Your Fearless Leader became a "Carnival Barker*", John and friend Steve strummed and sang, Rolf Juggled Like Nothing I've Ever Seen Before (WOW!), and Ajay reminded the crowd that Brights are people too, while answering questions and collecting names...

* Carnival Barks included:  
"Separation of Church and State is As American As Apple Pie!"
"Protect, Maintain, Support the Constitution"
"Freedom - you must work at it!"
"Atheism is as American As Apple Pie!"
"There are ATHEISTS amongst you, have a pie!"
"Obesity is as American As Apple Pie! - that was a crowd pleaser!  Full credit to Ben from USC, with whom we'll interact again soon I hope!

Names were collected, (over 1100 pies were shared, it was great!), probably 10,000 people heard our message, THE SUN was in attendance, and lots of homeless and foreign tourists and non-English speakers were served.  

The BULGARIANS(!) were interesting...I handed them pies and let them know I knew they were from Europe (just an educated guess, but that got their attention...).  They TOTALLY got it "we've lived under Communism and appreciate separation of Church and State"!

One lovely young woman wanted to add "under god" to our signage.  We had a discussion and she walked away knowing that "under god" was never part of the original Pledge firstly, and that separation of church and state helps her just as much as us!  I'm sure she felt that her role was to "defend god", but I can't figure out why can't he needs defending or why he can't defend himself!  I didn't get into it with her, diplomacy ruled the day...

One old fellow let me know that I shouldn't "rewrite" the constitution, since it says Freedom OF Religion, not Freedom FROM Religion...got him to agree that separation is important regardless...PHEW!  

Another SUPER SERIOUS male made sure I knew that HE KNEW THE CONSTITUTION, AND DIDN'T WANT A PIE.  I believe he was seriously "religiously MAD" in the psycho sense and was sure glad he agreed that Separation was important and even more glad he didn't stick around long...he was the only truly scary and potentially threatening person I saw all day...but we did have them coming out of the woodwork so to speak!

A few said they'd pray for me, which is always nice (and a waste of time, but hey, not my time so: "What, me worry?")

Had a couple of people take pies and then give them back since they were "Christians".  I suggested that Christians like pie too and benefitted equally from separation of church and state...they weren't utterly convinced, but refused the pies...

My best moment was giving a pie to a 10 year old girl, reminding her to study the Constitution and know that Separation of Church and State was really important...She returned to let me know she was Australian, and didn't know what the Constitution or Separation of Church and State meant!  Took 4 minutes to explain, she was grateful and went off with her parents to the beach, as she enjoyed the pie...

No press, but there was a random film maker who was shooting a documentary about what Americans thought about America!  I immediately signed the release and am on tape, along with Dr. Milt who did the same...so we're both in his documentary saying whatever we said about being American.  I worked in some stuff about Brights, nature, and being childfree, it was great, hope we don't get placed on the cutting room floor!

See you Sunday July 13th!

Very Proud to be:  Frish "Fearless Leader, L.A. Brights" Frishberg