hope that Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers don’t budge on this. No changes are necessary

You can’t possibly make it more innocuous. If they want changes, it can be changed to something stronger, I guess. “In the Beginning Man Created God” or something.

DART has asked the atheist group to submit a new advertisement for consideration.

I hope that Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers don’t budge on this. No changes are necessary, except perhaps some free extra time on the buses to make up for their inappropriate and illegal removal. Call it a gesture of good will to AVOID A BIG FAT LAWSUIT.

What the hell changes would DART want? Maybe they want it to say something like:

Don’t believe in something that much more wise, moral and intelligent people do believe in? You’re not alone, but there aren’t many of you. Just go away.

I will say however I do think it’s a bit laughable that so many of you are throwing such blanketed statements towards Christians when you clearly don’t appreciate the same treatment yourselves. It certainly doesn’t stir up any sort of eagerness within me to back your cause, but I won’t let ignorant generalization detract me from supporting what is right and fair: your freedom of speech just the same as my own.

I’d imagine, as one above said, this is probably more an insiders doing. Unfortunate that funding controls so much on both sides of the spectrum (Repubs + Dems alike). That may not be the case though—I guess we won’t really know unless they get honest instead of playing dumb (doubtful).

Thursday the chair of DART’s Board of Directors, Angela Connolly, told Channel 13 that DART has now actually received more calls supporting the ads than against them.

DART has asked the atheist group to submit a new advertisement for consideration.

(emphasis added)

That is the mindset, anyway. In other words, to even discuss what an atheist is to one of these guys who got offended by the ad is to spend an hour unpacking the meaning of the word because they have these deeply entrenched beliefs about what an atheist is like.

Anyone remember that guy who wrote the book “What is so great about Christianity?” The guy who was wondering why he could not see any atheists at a rally to support victims of 9/11? Unable to see them, of course, because he could not spot their characteristic demon horns? He is a good example of what I mean.

Are you an atheist?
You are not alone.
[group name & contact info]

Certainly, bigots would still try to get that message removed for being “controversial” or “offensive”, but they would find it far more difficult to defend such a position of obvious intolerance.

By the way, I’m really getting sick of this trend that seems to keep happening involving atheist bus ads. First an atheist organization puts some ads on buses. Then it gets taken down by the local transit authority or whatever, who claims the ad was “offensive” or some other bullshit excuse. So, the atheists have to make a huge uproar and possibly threaten (or even go through with) a lawsuit before the ads can be put back up.

All this is just irritating. I really wish we didn’t have to go through this whole ridiculous process just to get some atheist ads put up. And of course churches and the like can put up their ads and nothing happens at all- no cries of “offensive”, no lawsuits to get their ads back up, nothing. It just annoys me.

Dear Sirs,
I am not at all convinced by your transparent excuses for taking down the ads on Des Moines area buses paid for by the Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers. Your claim that the innocuous statement “Don’t believe in God? You’re not alone.” is being called offensive by “many callers” is preposterous. Clearly, the only offense comes from your own sensibilities because you are simply “offended” by the very existence of atheists and freethinkers. Even if you are getting many complaints, that is not a legitimate reason to deny these ads, especially when you have displayed ads by religious organizations in the past. This is naked discrimination.

When you decide to arbitrarily stifle the free speech of one group, you set the stage for any other group to be similarly stifled, including yourselves. The speech and religious freedom that you take for granted simply because you are in the majority is yours to enjoy only because the First Amendment guarantees those freedoms for everyone. If that was to be taken away, you would no longer be able to choose your beliefs for yourselves. You would be forced to worship whatever and however the government dictated, and you would not be happy about that. Freedom of religion must include freedom of all religions and freedom to have no religion. Freedom of speech must include speech that you like and speech that you dislike.

You are giving the rest of the world the impression that Des Moines, Iowa is a place of backward bigots who don’t have the courage to stand up for the principle of liberty for all. Allowing only the speech that pleases you is a cowardly and un-American act. I urge you to reverse yourselves immediately, to restore all those ads to the buses immediately, and to reject those who would, for their short-sighted desire to force others to conform, bring about the destruction of our civil rights. If you don’t, then you richly deserve the costly lawsuit that will surely follow.

Yours truly,
Richard Wade