 |
Metroplex Atheists
Promise Keepers 2002 Protest
Four veteran protesters showed up at 6:00 am at the Reunion Arena in Dallas, Texas, on Saturday, August 17th. The reason was the same old Promise Keepers conference doing their same old thing. There were already people in line when we set up near the curb. Reunion Arena's entrance pavement (I'm sure there's a word for that but I can't come up with it) stretches uninterrupted from the front doors to the street curb. They have two-inch diameter black dots painted on the pavement near the street to indicate where a public sidewalk would be and we protested in that area. We had plenty of signs ready and hoped for a larger protest turnout but I'm so glad (thankful?) for the three others that did come out, all four of us members of Metroplex Atheists (affiliated with American Atheists and the Atheist Alliance.) As the protest got under way, a young boy came by and offered us McDonalds breakfast sandwiches. I declined but some took them and thanked the lad. I put on my "Uncle Sam" hat and got out my power bullhorn while Shelly Hattan, Linda Sharlow and Dave Penn took up signs and began picketing. I would chant into the bullhorn, "Atheist Pride - We Don't Hide," "Church & State - Separate." Some of the PK's would come over and voice their displeasure. One older gentlemen said to me, "I fought for that hat. Take it off!" I told him that not only had I fought for the hat but I had also PAID for it and I was damn sure going to wear it. He walked on. So many PK men will come up to us Atheists and say why won't you believe in Jesus? They will say, "My entire life was a shambles. My wife divorced me. I was stuck into alcoholism and drugs. There was no way I could be strong enough to break out by myself. It took belief in JESUS. I just couldn't have done it without him." I usually answer that I drink some but have never been an alcoholic and I've never done drugs; that I've provided for my family without ever having any outside help; that I've never ever been arrested nor spent one-minute in a jail. I tell them that why is it I can live my kind of life without believing in their superstitions and they get into trouble even when they've believed all their lives. Dan Barker wrote an atheistic version of "God Bless America." The lyrics are: God-Less America Free from bible God-Less America Now I don't really have a good music voice and I can hardly carry a tune but I sang this into my bullhorn many times toward the men standing in line for the PK conference's doors to open. Ha! I had me a captive audience. Hee-Hee. They tried to counter by getting together and singing, "Amazing Grace." You know, I think me and my bullhorn were louder. Then they did another funny thing. They would chant, "I love Jesus, yes I do! I love Jesus, how about you?" Funny they didn't get an answer. There is an article on the American Atheists' website. "Why American Atheists Are Picketing The Promise Keepers." We had printed quite a few copies of this and attempted to hand them out to the PK men but hardly any would accept them. I then got the idea of reading the article over the bullhorn. You should have seen them as they began to pay attention. I really think they had no idea of the agenda behind the movement. I had almost finished reading the entire article when some "official" men came up to us and told us we were going to have to move off Reunion Arena property. Now, this came a long time after we had been protesting, I'd say we were already about 1-1/2 hours into it. These "officials" came and wanted us to leave only after I had began reading the article over the bullhorn critical of the PK movement. I'll let Shelly Hattan give her report about this run-in with the Arena officials. Since the conference began at 8:30, the lines had ended and we closed down the protest and found a nice little restaurant to wind down in. It was a great breakfast. I had a lot of fun!
We showed up at Reunion Arena at 6:00 am on a nice “balmy” August Saturday. The line was already forming that early in the morning. Thanks go out to Randy Gorman, Linda Sharlow, David Penn and Shelly Hattan for making the early trip to protest these gentlemen. This year seemed to bring out an angrier group of men. Two years ago, many men approached Linda and Shelly first. This year, gentlemen approached Randy and the women were pretty much ignored. Randy showed up with his patriotic hat and his loud speaker. He sang “God-less America” with the alternate lyrics as penned by Dan Barker. This sparked a rousing rendition of Amazing Grace by much of the PK’ers waiting in line. Randy was also prayed over, many times! Around 8:00 am, the Events Supervisor for Reunion Arena visited us. He demanded from Randy to see our permit. The city ordinance is for Dallas is very explicit. We can publicly demonstrate without a permit if the protestors are less than 75 people and if we do not block traffic. We told the gentleman that we did not need a permit to demonstrate. He then told us that he is going to treat us like scalpers and we were to leave immediately. We were not selling anything and told him that we were allowed to demonstrate as long as we are in the public right-of-way. Reunion arena has black dots painted on the sidewalk that shows where the R.O.W. is located. He then said that we’d be allowed to stay if the organizers of the Promise Keepers said they would allow us to stay. I again told the gentleman that the organizers of the Promise Keepers were the ones we were demonstrating against and that it was not appropriate for him to ask them permission. I then accused the Events Supervisor that his personal feelings may be interfering with his judgment. I said this because he had given us many reasons for why we had to leave and when we were able to refute his claim, he’d come up with a new reason for us to leave. He then said that he’d have a policeman come to tell us to leave. A policeman did come. We pointed to the black dots and told him that we were peacefully demonstrating within the Right-Of-Way. The Events Supervisor said that the Arena controls the sidewalk. The policeman said that we HAD to move to the other side of the road. We did so because it looked like we were not being given an option. FWIW, Randy had called the Reunion Arena Supervisor in 2000 in order to find out where we could protest. The supervisor was the one who told Randy about the black dots. Most of the gentlemen had already entered the arena by this time. We stayed on the other side of the street for another 30 minutes. Some brave gentlemen still crossed the street to talk to us.
See you at the next protest, folks! |
