I know next week is the last week of classes, and that this is the first of two reading days, but I really want to meet one last time before the semester is over. Will this day work out for people? I want to go ahead and plan on it, knowing some people won't be able to come. Some people will, because they won't have an exam until Monday the 11th (at the earliest).
So...Let's plan to meet Thursday, Dec. 7, 7 PM, CLB 414.
Gator Freethought is a registered student organization at UF that provides freethinkers of any religious background the opportunity to discuss religion and nonreligion alike.
Friday, December 01, 2006
Dixie County Lawsuit media coverage
Because The Alligator's website underwent a great deal of revision, the old links to the article covering my interview on H&C and the related editorial are dead, and the archives are not yet working that far back. According to the editors, it may be a very long time for the pages to be updated. Thus, I decided to use my cached version of the page (thank you Google Desktop) to paste the text of these articles into posts here, so that interested readers can follow the story. Also, I have updated the list of media related to the whole Dixie County debacle as it has unfolded.
Here is the article, then the editorial:
________________
Technorati tags: Gator Freethought
Here is the article, then the editorial:
Student debates on FoxNow the editorial:
By BRITTANY DAVIS
posted Thursday, November 30, 2006 1:00 a.m.
http://www.alligator.org/pt2/061130atheist.php
"Do you love the Lord?" locals asked strangers who visited the Dixie County Courthouse on Wednesday.
Daniel Morgan drove about an hour west of Gainesville to Cross City, the seat of Dixie County, to argue against the courthouse's six-ton monument bearing the Ten Commandments on a segment of the Fox News program "Hannity & Colmes."
Morgan, a UF chemistry graduate student who is president of UF's Atheist, Agnostic and Freethinking Student Association at UF, said Fox News called him at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday and asked him to come to the debate.
When introducing the segment, Hannity accused him of coming to Cross City to find someone who would sue the city over the monument. Morgan said that he hadn't and that he had never been to Dixie County before he was invited by Fox News.
He said he was thrilled to be invited.
"They offered me a ride, and I said I didn't need one because I was afraid he would get someone else to go (who didn't need a ride)," he said.
Morgan, who speaks with a Southern drawl, comes from Richlands, Va., a town of about 4,000 people.
His opponent was former county attorney Joey Lander. Lander is one of two lawyers in Cross City, a town of about 1,775 people and at least 20 churches.
Lander said the community supports the monument and the media is making an issue out of nothing.
The $20,000 monument, which also bears the phrase "Love God and keep his commandments," was given to the city by a private donor.
"It's already there, and it's not meant to coerce or endorse any particular religion," Lander said.
Lander is half-owner of the daily newspaper, which he said had only received calls in support of the monument. The one complaint the newspaper received was an editorial from a Gainesville resident.
Each man had about two minutes to present his interpretation of the First Amendment and the legal and philosophical implications of the monument before the satellite link was disrupted and the interview came to an early end.
Morgan argued that legal precedent demonstrated that a religious monument on government property is unconstitutional.
A crowd of 20 people gathered before the event, and many argued in favor of the importance of Jesus and the monument to their community.
The group was irked by the presence of Morgan and the Fox News cameramen.
One member of the group yelled, "This atheist is coming down here to take away our Ten Commandments!"
Copyright © 1996–2007 Alligator Online and Campus Communications.
Next, we pass a godless-in-a-good-way LAUREL to UF's own Daniel Morgan, who ventured into the lion's den - Fox News Channel - to argue against a Ten Commandments monument in a Dixie County courthouse this week. Morgan appeared on "Hannity & Colmes" opposite a local attorney, who apparently fears a rash of graven images, false gods and ass-coveting if the six-ton Decalogue is removed.And here is a media roundup on the whole affair (for LTE's, "con" means the person writing is against the 10C monument & "pro" means they approve of it):
He's not the only one. Locals greeted the UF student with outright hostility - one shouted, "This atheist is coming down here to take away our Ten Commandments!" as if Morgan planned to rip the monument in two with his superhuman atheist strength. Which is absurd. He only uses his powers to fight crime.
Besides, the really important parts of the Ten Commandments - thou shalt not kill, for instance - are already enshrined in American law. And in every other kind of law, for that matter. As for the other stuff? Keeping the Sabbath holy and all that? We say the Christians' real beef is with the National Football League, not the justice system.
- Gainesville Sun -- 11/28/06
- Dixie County Advocate -- 11/30/06
- Alligator -- 11/30/06
- Alligator -- 12/1/06 (editorial)
- FFRF Press Release -- 12/1/06
- Gainesville Sun -- 12/02/06
- 3 Letters to the Editor at the Sun -- pro, pro, con (12/2/06)
- Dixie County Advocate -- 12/7/06
- 2 More Letters to the Editor at the Sun -- pro (12/12/06), con (12/17/06)
- St. Petersburg Times -- 1/3/07
- St. Petersburg Times (LTE) -- con, 1/13/07 (4th letter down; response to 1/3/07 article)
- Gainesville Sun -- 2/7/07
- ACLU News Release -- 2/7/07
- Reuters (Miami) -- 2/7/07
- Gainesville Sun -- 2/8/07
- St. Petersburg Times -- 2/8/07
- Alligator (LTE): -- con, 2/9/07, (see text here)
- Dixie County Advocate -- 2/15/07
- Orlando Sentinel -- 2/17/07
- Gainesville Sun (LTE) -- pro, 2/17/07
- Dixie County Advocate (LTE) -- con, 2/24/07
- Liberty Counsel -- 3/8/07
- CNS News -- 3/12/07
- Florida Humanists Association -- 4/9/07, (also here and here)
- atheism.about.com -- 4/27/07, Austin Cline
- Dixie County Advocate -- 9/27/07, Issue 40, Page 18
- Dixie County Advocate blog -- 6/11/08, linked to my YouTube video
- KipEsquire -- 11/28/06
- Florida Progressive Coalition -- 4/4/07
- John Pieret -- 4/15/07
- Prof. Friedman -- 8/14/08
________________
Technorati tags: Gator Freethought
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)