The Reason Rally is a Year Away… April 22, 2011

The Reason Rally is a Year Away…

By Guest Contributor
April 22, 2011

I’m so glad this is finally public news. David Silverman, president of American Atheists, announced it at the group’s Convention in Des Moines this morning.

For over a year now, a group of atheists representing many different national organizations have been working to put together a rally in Washington D.C. for atheists. (I was representing the Secular Student Alliance for a while, though I stepped out of that position a while ago.)

We wanted to do this well before we heard about the Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert “Rally to Restore Sanity” — and I went to DC for that event, too — but I don’t think that will ruin the excitement and attendance of this rally.

For those of you who are new to the movement, atheists have done something like this before. In November of 2002, there was the Godless Americans March on Washington. At the time, it may have been the largest ever gathering of atheists in one place. But keep in mind: That was before any of the “New Atheist” books became bestsellers, before the billboards went up, and before atheism really exploded in popularity.

I suspect the 2012 Reason Rally will blow the 2002 numbers out of the water. We’re still working to find an exact date, but the plan is to have it in the spring — almost 10 years after the GAMOW event and right in the midst of the 2012 election season.

You think the publicity atheists have received for our billboards has been incredible? Just wait till tens (hundreds?) of thousands of us are marching in Washington.

There will be more details in time. For now, keep all of Spring, 2012 open 🙂

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  • a spring trip to DC to celebrate reason would be so fun! thanks for the heads up.

  • dj

    I’ve always wanted to go see Washington. What better time?

  • Roxane

    I wanna go! I haven’t been to a rally in forty years!

  • Simon

    Silverman couldn’t be more specific on a date? Some of us in DC are planning spring events as well…

  • Richard Wade

    I’m saving my money now. I’ll be there, come (ahem) hell or high water. The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear was such a huge lift to my (ahem) spirits, and I want more.

  • GregDallas

    Sweet! The Rally to Restore Sanity was the first time I ever travelled to DC for an event like that. (and met Hemant and some great peeps from CFI. Woot!)

    I will keep the Spring open. Would love to support it.

  • Dan

    Yay! Very excited! And already I’m planning on attending!

    Simon.. This rally isn’t for another year, so I don’t really think it’s fair to pressure them to give us an exact time already. A year is a long time.

    If you have your own thing going on, I’m sure you can wait until you hear a date from this rally before making a decisions and still have plenty of time to plan for yourself.

  • Silverman couldn’t be more specific on a date? Some of us in DC are planning spring events as well…

    @Simon — It’s a matter of getting the permit for the date we’d like to have. It would have been nice to announce the event and date all at once, but since we know this is happening on *some* day, I think Dave wanted to make the general announcement about the Rally at the AA Convention.

  • ACN

    Live in DC. Will be there.

  • Simon

    No worries, I know the permit/planning process especially for a large rally has a lot of moving parts. I’m sure it will be announced sooner than later to ensure maximum attendance. And just like the Stewart/Colbert rally CFI DC will once again come out in large numbers.

    I can’t really complain too much since I can walk to the mall from my house 🙂

  • Kamaka

    since I can walk to the mall from my house

    Some of us have to, y’know, save up. Thanks to the heads-up, I can start to do just that.

    I will likely make it for the march, if the Smithsonian doesn’t suck me in for days.

  • Ubi Dubium

    I’m in! The Rally for Sanity was great, but so crowded it was hard to meet up with anybody specific until afterwards. I’ll wear my Pirate hat again!

  • Yes YES YES!!! Who’s stayin at my house?!?

  • ursulamajor

    Woo-hoo! We’ve been waiting for this announcement. Only live a little over an hour from DC.

  • Excellent! Time to start networking and letting as many Freethinkers know about this as we can. Woo. Hoo. 🙂

  • I was at the Godless Americans March in 2002. It was a lot of fun. I still live in the DC area and I don’t see that changing any time soon, so I’m looking forward to this! 🙂

  • Meg

    I was at the Godless Americans march in 2002, also. It felt small but empowering. We had a toddler and an infant at the time, and we were so glad to be there as a family.

    My family is a little bigger, a little older, and a lot less located in the DC area. So thanks for the heads-up! I’ll start working on a trip to DC next spring — Cherry Blossom Time!

  • Katie

    I will make sure to keep my entire spring 2012 open!

  • Bernie Klein

    I was there in 11/2002 for the Godless Americans March and I sure would like to do this one too….hope my health holds out.

  • Sue

    Triangle Freethought Society will be there en masse!

  • Gordon

    A word of advice to the organizers: pay Metro to run extra trains. Thousands of people were stuck in Subway Hell trying to get to the Stewart/Colbert rally last year because Metro was running on a normal Saturday schedule.

  • Anton Kozlik

    I tried to use the site’s contact form in order to secure a table, but there is a “glitch” . . . like NO submit button.

  • Nick Andrew

    We should do one in Australia too, on the same date.

  • Steve

    I live in Maryland, so I’ll definitely be going.