back to Table of Contents From The American Atheist Volume 36 No. 4 http://www.AmericanAtheist.org/ Presidential Welcoming Speech Opening the American Atheists 24th National Convention Given in Washington, DC By President Ellen Johnson Friday, June 12,1998 ood morning! On behalf of the board of directors and staff of American Atheists I want to welcome you all to the 24th National Convention of American Atheists. It has been a great pleasure to have talked with so many of you already, and I look forward to meeting the rest of you - especially the many new members in our organization who are here today. It’s also a special honor to again be meeting so many of our Life Members. I am very pleased that so many of you are here today. We have a very exciting convention planned. We are honored and fortunate to have so many distinguished speakers, such as Dr. William Provine, Dr. Marci Hamilton, Dr. Rita Swan, and James Monroe from the Secular Organization for Sobriety. It is a most impressive lineup. We have a stimulating debate scheduled with our National Media Spokesman, Ron Barrier, and Mr. Steve McFarland from the Christian Legal Society who has been so gracious in agreeing to come to our convention as well. Ladies and gentleman, this convention is a first for both me and for this organization. Three years ago, there were plenty of doubts that American Atheists would even survive, let along grow. The fact that I’m standing here today, the fact that you are here as well, is all evidence that we must be doing something right! It has been a rough three years. But before I spend a few minutes trying to recap some of what we have done in that time, I want to talk about the situation involving the Murray-O’Hair family, and what it means for this organization. It has been - and will continue to be - the policy of American Atheists to speak the truth on all matters, and on this one in particular. As the president of this organization, I’m in the hot seat. I, along with the Officers and the Board of Directors of American Atheists have the responsibility not only for the fiduciary integrity of this organization, but for conveying to you, the members, the truth. We have also made it a policy to convey this information to you through the American Atheist Newsletter. We have been scrupulously careful to report only the facts that we knew at the time. In many cases, we even had our attorneys review these reports for accuracy. Let me very briefly lay out some essentials for you. Firstly, we do not know the whereabouts of the Murray-O’Hair family. Secondly, I - contrary to what has been suggested (unfairly, I might add) - had nothing to do with the disappearance of the family, and I think that each and every Board Member can stand before you or anyone and say the same. Thirdly, we have taken prudent action to safeguard the assets of American Atheists, and we are involved in active litigation to recover monies which were taken from this organization. This includes, but is not limited to, filing claims against the estate of Jon Murray. We have reported on this and related events in the membership newsletter and will continue to do so. We are being very careful to make no statement or take any action which could jeopardize that process. Fourthly, we will continue to implement the kinds of organizational and fiduciary changes in this organization that will guard against possible abuses in the future. Finally, there is the matter of the claims and innuendoes which have appeared in some media accounts or have been made by other individuals and groups. I just don’t know where to begin with some of this; it’s very frustrating on a personal level. There have been claims that certain officers of American Atheists could have been involved in kidnapping or murdering the O’Hairs. There have been suggestions that I (or some other officer) was involved in bank fraud because I happen to live in New Jersey and a certain bank account was there. It goes on and on. We have tried to deal calmly and factually with most of these claims. In fact, if you take the time, go back through your newsletters, you’ll see what I mean. So, some of these claims are factually untrue. Some are the result of poor reporting; there was one story, for instance, that Robin Murray-O’Hair’s credit card was used after the disappearance. It was never true. In fact I heard one report that Madalyn had gone to Cuba for dermatologic treatments because she couldn’t wear wool! Why that would be a problem in Texas is beyond me. It was also interesting to hear a “private detective” on television describe Jon Murray’s cellular phone bill. The genius couldn’t even determine that the phone calls he claimed Jon was making to me were actually calls that I made to Jon. Of course I was calling Jon: we were planning the New York picketing of the pope. We cannot control what the media, or anyone else, choose to say. But I want you to know that our first and foremost obligation as officers of this organization is to tell you, the membership, the facts as we know them in a truthful, forthright fashion. We have done that, and we will continue to do so. I cannot and will not ask for your trust. It might shock some of you to hear me saying that, but I really cannot do that. All we can ask from you is an opportunity to earn that trust. Much of what we are doing takes a lot of time. Much of what we are doing takes a lot of time. Much of what we are doing proceeds according to schedules imposed by courts and attorneys. We are doing our best, and we will continue to try. Our greatest challenge was in “jump-starting” this organization and preserving American Atheists following the disappearance of the Murray O’Hair family. So many people helped in that effort. Frank and Ann Zindler stepped forward to take over the awesome responsibility of editing and producing the American Atheist Newsletter and the American Atheist magazine, as well as the business of American Atheist Press. Orin Tyson, whom we all affectionately refer to as “Spike,” went back into the American Atheists Headquarters in Austin and got that operation up and running again - from scratch. Spike has practically lived in that building ever since! Ron Barrier stepped forward to be our National Media Spokesman. As with many of us, this has been “on-the-job training” for him, and he has represented us so effectively in the national media! Another challenge we have faced has been the urgent task of reinventing and energizing this organization. We realized that if American Atheists were to survive, we had to start doing some things differently. We had to adopt our own style, we had to start reaching out. Neal Gary stepped forward to become our National Outreach Director, and today we have American Atheists Directors in over a dozen states. We have members of our Volunteer’s Network all over the country. Our goal, by the end of next year, is to have Directors in every state of this country, giving us eyes, ears, and a presence in capitals everywhere. That’s a full-time job for Neal, and we thank him for his efforts. Already, that effort is producing some truly amazing results. In just the last few months, American Atheists has conducted demonstrations in Michigan, Texas, Ohio, California, and elsewhere. We have become the only national organization that we know of that is speaking out against the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Religious Liberty Protection Act. In New Jersey, our new State Director, David Silverman went on television with public service announcements against the RFRA in that state. In California, Dave Kong just issued a written statement to the State Senate Judiciary Committee, and we think that both of these Directors may end up giving live testimony. This is a breakthrough for Atheists and for this organization. This is the kind of work that we are trying to train people for and encourage them in. One of our newer members, Jim Heldberg, heads up an extremely important activity on behalf of our organization, and that’s the American Atheists Affiliation Program. It is another example of how we are working to “reinvent” this group by reaching out, by becoming more inclusive. We want to thank as many of you as we can at the Awards Banquet, but let me take this opportunity to say to so many of you: we couldn’t have done this without your support! And what you have done and made possible is just incredible! As a functioning organization, American Atheists is back. Let me just share with you a few of the things we have been doing. Every month you receive a copy of our newsletter, or maybe you subscribe to the magazine. Those are essential components in our organization. In addition, if you’re on line, you know that we have made an incredible amount of progress in using that new medium. Margie Wait came all the way from Colorado. Margie is our State Director there but she also works as our Internet Representative. Thank you, Margie, for helping us to reach so many new people, particularly younger people. Last October, we held our “Defending the Wall - No Submission” conference here in Washington, and later picketed the “solemn assembly” of Promise Keepers. We are here in the same city for our National Convention. And this symbolizes a new and very important direction for American Atheists. One of our major goals is to build a civil rights movement on behalf of Atheists and to get Atheists actively and explicitly more involved in the important debate over state-church separation in this country! No Atheist, freethought, or rationalist group has ever had the audacity to do that! Our objective is to establish what we call our “beachhead on the Potomac,” by building a full-time, trained, professional presence inside the Beltway, here in our nation’s capital! We took one small step in that direction last year when we walked into the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution - which was debating the Religious Freedom Amendment. We have taken another step by appointing Chris Prokop as our Washington, DC, Regional Director, and Mr. Robert Zauner as our National Legislative Affairs Director. I can proudly say that your organization for the first time has at least a presence in Washington, DC. This is a learning process for us, we’re new, we’re “wet behind the ears,” but we have made a start. On May 4 - thanks to the efforts of Rob Sherman - Ron Barrier, Bob Zauner and I had a meeting with the Office of Public Liaison for the White House. At that meeting I told Ms. Maureen Shea and Mr. William Marshall that American Atheists wanted a “seat at the table” when the White House was formulating policy on issues that affect the Atheist population in America. That was a very important meeting for American Atheists and for Atheists in America. We continue, as our resources permit, to litigate in the arena for First Amendment rights and state-church separation. We continue to challenge violations of the First Amendment where we encounter them as our resources permit. Our biggest case right now involves the Mt. Davidson cross in San Francisco. The city is trying to dispose of this 107-foot high Christian monument by selling off a sliver of real estate on which the cross sits, in the middle of a public park. Our California Director, Dave Kong has pursued that case along with another plaintiff, Ray Romano. I might add that the other groups which originally challenged the Mt. Davidson cross have now signed-off, and it seems that only AMERICAN ATHEISTS is willing to at least try to stop the government from doing by indirect means what it knows it cannot do by direct means. Another project we are involved in is the relocation of the national office from Austin, Texas, to New Jersey. We are very excited about this move which, if all goes as planned, will be underway very soon. This move will give us many things, but one great advantage is that we will be closer to the center of media and political action. I can’t stress the importance of that enough as American Atheists moves into the future. In addition, it will provide us with a substantial pool of both professional and volunteer help to draw upon. It will also house the Charles E. Stevens American Atheist Library and Archives, which we intend to continue building as the foremost collection of Atheist books, manuscripts, and other materials of its kind in the nation - possibly in the world. Many of you have noticed a new style of leadership, something which we speak of as a new organizational culture. We will continue to reach out, to build bridges, to be inclusive of those groups and individuals who honestly seek us as allies and comrades. You’ll also hear this over and over: it is the official policy of American Atheists to not respond to personal attacks which are made on this organization. And we also know that working with others is a two-way street. Not everyone agrees with American Atheists all of the time, and that’s fine. But what we ask, in fact, what we demand is that cooperation with anybody - another group, other individuals - must be predicated on mutual respect, not only for those things we can agree on but concerning our differences as well. Finally, there is a new tradition which I would begin today, at this convention. The theme of this year’s gathering is to honor the 35th Anniversary of the MURRAY v CURLETT case. We honor that case as a preeminent statement not only on behalf of the First Amendment, but as having been the first explicit case of its kind which spoke out for the civil rights of Atheists. It was brought to end forced prayer and bible-verse recitation in the public schools of Baltimore. But it also declared, openly and proudly, “YOUR PETITIONERS ARE ATHEISTS...” We honor the courage, and we honor the principle behind it, which saw that case through the US Supreme Court and into the history books. That case stands, proudly, and on its own merits. With that said, let me inaugurate this “new tradition.” We consider this convention to be a new beginning, but one with an eye to the history of this organization. And it is my intention never to disavow that history. I will open this and subsequent American Atheists conventions using this principle, and I hope that when the time comes to pass it on, my successors in the years to come will use it well. I think that we need to see this as a symbol of our continuity and our very rich history. And I think that we should also consider it a symbol of our optimism about the future of this organization. So, I now declare this 24th National Convention of American Atheists open.