Observations and inanities by a second-shift assistant supervisor in the Puppy-Grinding division of the Evil Atheist Conspiracy® (our motto: "Sure it's cruel, but think of the jobs!"), your host, Brent Rasmussen.
This DART missed the mark.
Gee, this is *so* surprising:
DART: Controversial Bus Ads Pulled
Atheist advertising signs on Des Moines Area Regional Transit buses that created a storm of controversy when they first went up on Aug. 1 have been taken down.
And what did these offensive, despicable, inflammatory advertisements say? Did they mock the absurdity of Zombie Jesus, or point out that the Mormon magical underwear was just silly? Did they cite conflicting verses of the Bible, or run a tally of how many people God killed in the Old Testament? Maybe show chanting kooks at soldier's funerals or members of the Taliban beheading some infidel?
Of course not.
What they did was say this: "Don't believe in God? You are not alone."
And then give the name of the group sponsoring the ads: Iowa Atheist and Free Thinkers. Here's their comment on the whole absurd thing:
Obviously this is a very upsetting turn of events. Our experiences dealing with the people at DART were very positive until now. We have a signed contract and they printed the signs for us.
We would like our members to please contact DART either via telephone or email. They can be reached at 515-283-8111 or at dart@ridedart.com. Please be polite, rational, and non-threatening. We do ask all members to speak only for themselves and that all organization-related inquiries be forwarded on to Lily or Randy.
Our ads were deliberately chosen to be as inoffensive as possible and this is discriminatory behavior. Any church can (and many do) advertise on DART, which means that we should be able to as well.
DART is a publicly-funded entity. If they accept advertisements from churches, then they should accept these ads from the Iowa Atheist and Free Thinkers. It's that simple. And I bet a court would decide the same thing.
Jim Downey
HT to ML for the news.
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They changed their mind (surprise!)
According to this story, "[t]he agency has since decided its advertising policy was outdated, and is changing it to better align with other policies regarding civil rights, the state's obscenity and profanity laws and the diversity of the community." Gee.
Well, that is good news.
Thanks for the link, ML - that is good news, though the statements from the DART spokesperson strike me as spin more than reality. Still, the new policy seems to be going in the right direction.
Jim Downey
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Time as atheist advisor
Their message was simple and welcoming. I spent 5 years as the campus advisor to the student atheist group. One of the things that amazed me was how grateful students form other cultures, or places in parts of the US, were to be able to openly express their non-belief/unbelief as well as interact with like-minded people. It was interesting to find you had so much in common with someone with an entirely different background or one that came from half a world away than from the religionist that might live right next door to you.