Metroplex Atheists "If you're interested in us, we're interested in you!" Palestine TX School Prayer Rally Protest Palestine TX is becoming a trouble spot for state-church separationists. On October 18th, a Palestine school held a "pep-rally", which turned out to be a mandatory prayer rally complete with presiding preacher. To further the problem, Texas governor Rick Perry attended the rally and signed a petition supporting returning coerced prayer to public schools. This was his reasoning: "Maybe it's time that we talk about clarifying just exactly what we can do and what we can't," he said. "I think what people are concerned about is that their ability to say their prayer, whether they are Jewish or Muslim or Christian or whatever, is being impeded by a very small minority. A couple of angry local parents had been keeping us abreast of this situation, along with the parents of one of the kids who was at the school rally. She said that the entire rally was mandatory and the doors were locked after everyone arrived. In furtherance of this goal, a local church decided to hold a "Return Prayer to School" rally on 12/17/2001. They invited Perry (who didn't show up) and several local legislators (who did). We decided to let everyone know that their point of view was not the only one around, so a couple of us made the 2.5 hour trek down to Palestine to show our support for state-church separation. Who'd have thought that we'd have friends there! Brian, John, and Shelly carpooled there, while David Penn and Danny & Ginny Barnett came separately. When we finally got to Palestine, we stopped at the local Kroger's for a pit-stop and some sodas (there were ads for the KKK in the bathroom stall). By complete coincidence, we met up with Carol who was shopping there. She's a longtime supporter of our group and has been to a couple of our meetings. When we told her why we were there, she decided to grab her boyfriend and join up with our protest! Furthermore, when we arrived and parked at the church, we had company! A couple of Wiccans from nearby Athens had already arrived with their own signs. They appreciated seeing us there. It was good that we could make some of the local atheists know that they're not the only ones out there. This was especially true, because we had media there --the local paper along with a local PBS and NBC affiliate interviewed several of us. We had a good laugh about the Tyler Morning Telegraph newspaper guy, eventually calling him the "proselytizing reporter". Most reporters just try to get the facts and don't try to convince you of their side, but this guy must've missed that day in reporter-school. He was asking us ridiculous questions like "You do realize it takes as much faith to believe prayer doesn't work as it does, don't you?" Eventually most of us just laughed at him and blew him off. Needless to say, the story in the paper the next day wasn't very kind to us. Two stories made the front page, referring to how "many of the atheists started spewing political rhetoric at the singing group." Gee, the proselytizing reporter didn't paint us in a positive light. We're shocked :) After about an hour outside during the rally, our 7-months pregnant chairperson needed to rest her feet and headed inside sans-sign. She stayed inside for about 15 minutes, flanked by two male parishioners who I guess were there to make sure that a pregnant woman didn't suddenly attack hundreds of people. Shelly was amazed by what they were saying in the rally --mostly fearmongering about how bad violence in schools is since they got rid of coerced prayers (school crime is actually at a 20-year low) and how teachers will throw away your Bible if they see it in the hall (complete bull). It was pretty obvious electioneering for the state senators and representatives who spoke. Even they have to know that their positions cannot hold up in court. We protested peacefully on the sidewalk. At one point, one of the parishioners angrily told us that we'd have to stand in the street. We calmly informed him that we were on city right-of-way and if he had a problem with it, he oughta call the cops. The police were in attendance, but they didn't have much to do beyond shooing away the couple of cars that stopped in the street to yell at us. A local wiccan (and atheist) brought his own little display of gods for the sidewalk. Once in a while, he'd entertain us with a chant. A protester talks to a local PBS affiliate while Ginny gets punny. After the rally, folks leaving entertained us with a little singing. One of the rally officials (at the left with the earphone) tried to keep things moving along as best he could. Surprisingly, we had a couple of walk-ons. Here is Vivian's husband, the step-father of the girl who was sent to the rally against her will. Finally near the end of the rally, we met up Vivian (who is not an atheist), the local mom who's been fighting the local school district all by herself. There are many families who are upset with the school district for violating the separation of state and church. They are all too afraid to come forward. She later emailed our group and signed our web guestbook, telling us that we were terrific for what we did and how we made her feel a little less alone in a town that doesn't understand the concept of tolerance. That makes the long trek and braving the cold all worthwhile! Return to the Metroplex Atheists main page