A Villa Park atheist today fired the latest shot in the battle to place “In God We Trust” in that city’s council chambers.
Bruce Gleason announced the launch of NoOnAA.info, an anti Measure AA website with information about the proposal, arguments against it, and church-state separation history.
Gleason is the founder of “Backyard Skeptics”, a group for freethinkers and atheists in and around Villa Park. The group is an affiliate of Atheists United, a national group also fighting for church-state separation.
According to Gleason, “asking the electorate to vote on this issue is an attempt to sidestep the real issue of the constitutionality of the motto. The majority of citizens might not have any objections to that motto, but it’s the government’s duty to preserve the rights of the minorities regardless of the opinion of the majority”.
Villa Park voted in April to let the city’s residents decide on whether to display “In God We Trust”. In contrast, every other Orange County city that has voted to display the motto has done so by vote of the council alone.
Fountain Valley and Yorba Linda are the most recent cities to approve motto displays, both doing so September 16. In June, Los Alamitos approved a display, following Tustin, which voted to display the motto in May (along with city and state mottoes). Huntington Beach approved the motto in April, San Clemente and Mission Viejo in March, Cypress in February, and Westminster in July 2007.
Great job Bruce! I sat in on the HB city council discussion about this motto and even though about 20 to 1 spoke against it, the council passed it. Seems like we need a national effort to get rid of this as the national motto. Anyone know of such an effort that is under way?
- I will be having Eddie Tabash and Stuart Beckman speaking at the Villa Park Town Hall Meeting this Wed the 29th at 7pm concerning measure AA - the IGWT issue. It will be worth attending. C