Camp Sunshine donations (again)

Posted on December 24, 2012 by Michael

Once again, this is a scheduled post because I’m out of the country, so I want to make sure I can be as active as possible about the fundraising I’m doing for a place here in Maine called Camp Sunshine. They’re there for children with life-threatening illnesses, so what they do is pretty amazing. Along with Atheists of Maine, I’m hoping we can raise a few thousand dollars by the time this is all said and done in February. (Incidentally, this whole thing culminates in a February polar dip off the coast of Maine.)

So if you can donate, please go here. Every dollar counts.

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Camp Sunshine

Posted on November 23, 2012 by Michael

One of the things we’re doing with Atheists of Maine is a fundraiser and subsequent polar dip for Camp Sunshine. Hemant Mehta of Friendly Atheist wrote about us:

The Atheists of Maine are trying to raise money for a truly worthy cause: Camp Sunshine, “a retreat for children with life-threatening illnesses and their families.”

Right now, the atheists are the top fundraising group for the cause, but there’s a long way to go for the camp to raise the $30,000 it needs. So if you have the ability to help out, please donate to group members Ryan Dalessandro or Michael Hawkins.

There are other group members, but I think it’s clear that anyone who wants to donate should donate to my page specifically. Why? Because this is my blog, that’s why.

We’re ultimately hoping to find a church group to compete with us for position of top donor, so if any Maine-based group is interested, let us know.

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Atheists of Maine Thanksgiving charity work

Posted on November 21, 2012 by Michael

I recently mentioned my radio interview about the charity work my group Atheists of Maine did up in Brewer this past weekend. We had a decent turnout and we did some decent work, but I think I was most struck by how much having a group like this meant to some of the people there. What we did packing Thanksgiving baskets made a small difference, I’m sure, but I think our mere organization and existence may have had a bigger impact than anything.

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My radio interview for Atheists of Maine

Posted on November 17, 2012 by Michael

I was recently interviewed on The Pulse, a radio program here in Maine. I was given the opportunity to talk about Atheists of Maine and some of the charity work we’re doing tomorrow and in the future. I think overall it went pretty well, but I do need to polish up on the charisma a little bit. Saying “uh” and having a tendency to pause a lot tends to make for a little rough radio.

So, check out the November 15th interview here and go here to read about Atheists of Maine’s charity work in Brewer. (Skip to about the 43 minute mark in the interview.)

(And for anyone wondering, I have a part 2 to my most recent post in the works. I just don’t have time to finish it right now.)

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Atheists of Maine volunteer effort

Posted on November 12, 2012 by Michael

Everything that follows is from Atheists of Maine:

We’ve been talking about making an effort to get Atheists of Maine involved with a charity this Thanksgiving. We want to do something hands-on that will enable us to do some good while also showing people that atheists are good without God. We were open to a number of possibilities, including teaming up with religious organizations, but as of today we have found our charity: . Here’s their mission statement:

Food AND Medicine’s mission is to organize, educate, and empower workers and our communities in the fight for economic and social justice. Food AND Medicine believes that by working together with unions, farmers, community groups, small businesses, and faith-based organizations we will create solutions and positive change.

Right now they’re looking to put together 1000 meals at $30 a piece. As it so happens, one of our members has generously offered to put $1,000 towards the charity we help, so that means Food AND Medicine will be able to put together about another 33 meals to feed another 33 families.

Stuff like this makes a big difference.

In addition to the monetary donation being made in the name of Atheists of Maine, our members will be volunteering time this Sunday (and potentially other days) to put these baskets together and help make this whole show work. If interested – atheist or not – let us know! The more help, the better.

Location and Time

Food AND Medicine is located at Solidarity Center, 20 Ivers Street, Brewer, ME 04412 and they need help over the course of a number of days. For Atheists of Maine, we will be helping this Sunday, November 18. For those who can’t make that date but still want to help, here is a copy and paste from an email we received earlier today:

Sort Preparation– Tuesday November 13th – Thursday November 15th
Times: 10am – 5pm each day
Location: 20 Ivers St (Solidarity Center)
Projects: washing and sorting produce, preparing bags, sorting stuffing, setting up for weekend sort

SORTING DAYS! – Friday November 16th – Monday November 19th
Times: 8am – 6pm each day. Our biggest needs are all day Friday and Saturday in the morning
Location: 20 Ivers St (Solidarity Center)
Projects: carrying produce to hall from basement, helping sort produce, carrying full bags back to basement, helping load trucks

Final truck and clean up — Tuesday November 20th
Times: 8am – 10am
Location: 20 Ivers St (Solidarity Center)
Project: Loading final 150 baskets onto semi truck, help with Solidarity Center clean up

Again, Atheists of Maine will be helping this Sunday. Any time between 8:00am and 6:00pm is fine, and we’ll update our Facebook page as to when Michael, Ryan, and/or Will (the AoM co-leaders) plan on getting there.

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Atheists of Maine blog and store

Posted on November 4, 2012 by Michael

We’re really vamping things up with Atheists of Maine. We originally started out as just a Facebook group, but now we’ve been involved in newspaper interviews, we’ve had a couple of meetings (check our Facebook page), and now we’re expanding our operations with the creation of a cafepress store. We hope to become a 501(c)3 in the near future, but that remains to be seen. We also have a brand new blog.

The Store

The goal of opening this store is to raise funds to cover costs associated with IRS filings to become a 501(c)3. Of course, as I said, it remains to be seen if this happens. And why? Well, we don’t know what we’re going to have for funds. If we only end up raising $25, we may keep things lower key. I don’t see that happening, but it’s a possibility. However, no matter what we raise, all the money will go towards non-profit causes. That almost certainly means our filing costs, but worse comes to worst, we’ll just donate the money to the Red Cross or some local charity.

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Darrick Banda for DA

Posted on October 31, 2012 by Michael

It isn’t often that I cross political lines and endorse a Republican. I’m a pretty liberal person, and while Democrats often don’t match up with my views as well as I would like, it’s definitely the candidates with the “D” next to their names that most closely reflect my politics. However, this election is a little different. For 2012, I have an overwhelming reason to endorse Darrick Banda for DA: His opponent is Maeghan Maloney.

As many readers know, Maeghan Maloney attempted to sue me on behalf of her quack husband, Christopher Maloney. They believed I had made libelous statements by calling “Dr.” Maloney a quack. (He practices the scientifically bogus discipline of naturopathy.) However, they soon backed away from their pursuit of that claim when I brought on an excellent defense team – a defense team made up of three lawyers who were working pro-Bono because they all value the protection of basic free speech rights. Here is what one of them, Ken, had to say about Mrs. Maloney:

5. Dr. and Ms. Maloney’s demand for injunctive relief, to me, perfectly represents how unprincipled, contemptible, un-American, and freakishly censorious their entire threat scheme was. The complaint they served on Mr. Hawkins was incomplete — it cut off at the seventh page, so you can’t tell what’s in the prayer for relief — but here’s what they demand in the text of the injunctive relief cause of action:

35. . . . . Injunctive action is necessary to prevent further expansion of Defendant Hawkins’ comments. A temporary restraining order, a preliminary injunction or a permanent injunction is necessary, as Defendant has refused to limit or remove postings.

36. Such injunctive action would need to apply all [sic] blogging and social media, as Defendant Hawkins has threatened he will repost all his material. It would also need to apply to all allied bloggers reposting Defendant Hawkins’ materials since several have explicitly offered to host him and maintain a copy of his blog. [Emphasis added]

That’s right — a Maine state legislator just suggested that a Maine court should issue an injunction prohibiting unnamed, unserved people — potentially including you — from re-posting what Mr. Hawkins had to say about Dr. Maloney.

And that was some of the nicer stuff he had to say.

Of course, Maloney isn’t the only reason I’m endorsing Banda. As it happens, I think Banda is more qualified for the job given his background. He has been involved with the DA’s office far more than Maloney and I believe he is a far more respected figure than she is. Moreover, this position is not one that is political in the same way a legislative job is. I think Banda recognizes that, whereas I’m not so sure Maloney does. (After all, she can’t seem to even recognize basic First Amendment rights.)

Vote Darrick Banda.

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Thanks, Hallowell P.D.

Posted on July 22, 2012 by Michael

I don’t normally thank the police for their services – I’m more suspicious of them than anything – but this past weekend was Old Hallowell Day, an annual event celebrating the anniversary of when Hallowell, Maine became a town. As usual, the police were out in full force, including a number of state troopers. They did a fine job of keeping the peace, even breaking up one potential fight only a few feet away from me.

I’m glad they were there.

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Here’s a terrible idea

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Michael

I bet it passes:

A bill put forward by Gov. Paul LePage proposes allowing religious schools in Maine to qualify for public tuition dollars.

LePage unveiled the proposed bill with the state’s education commissioner Stephen Bowen in Skowhegan on Wednesday. Currently students in ‘school choice’ communities can attend some private schools and have their tuition paid for by the school district they live in.

I can see both sides of this argument. I went to a Christian school from K through 8 and I know it was an excellent education (minus the time wasted on religion). My class alone produced 4 high school valedictorians around the area. That’s 30 students who spread into various high schools with hundreds of kids per class and managed to succeed at a very high rate. That point acknowledged, none of this justifies using public dollars to send children to such schools. This is little more than an excuse to promote Christianity.

It’s too bad I fully expect to see a few more “Christian children” (as if there is such an absurd thing) running around in the coming years.

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A letter to the editor

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Michael

I have again written a letter to the editor of my local paper. Here it is:

The media is an interesting thing. In its desire to appear objective it will pretty consistently go out and seek ‘both sides of the story’. When discretion is not used – and let’s be honest, how often is it? – the result is kooks getting exposure for their causes. For instance, anti-vaccine nuts have become a prevalent danger over the past decade or so because of people willing to give Andrew Wakefield and Jenny McCarthy a platform from which to tell lies.

This is bad, but it gets worse when the media does manage to use its discretion but in the wrong way. Take the recent articles and reports all across the state on this new legislative prayer caucus. I have yet to find a single dissenting view. Apparently there are no atheists in the state of Maine.

Of course, it isn’t easy to find organized atheists. We don’t have any central dogma. We don’t have tenets of faith (also known as belief without evidence). So I can cut a little slack on that point – though let’s be honest, it’s unlikely anyone bothered to open up Google and do a search for some Maine groups – but how about talking to some historians? Surely someone could have found a qualified person to slap down garbage like this from Maine Senate President Kevin Raye: “Let us keep in mind this nation’s founders placed such importance on prayer and God’s role in the life of our fledgling experiment in democracy…”

This is blatantly false. The founders placed importance on individual freedoms and the right to believe or not believe as one pleased. They did not want church and state to be entangled, or to have one’s religious beliefs be the de facto principle by which the nation operates.

Even when the media only gets one side of the story I guess it’s still possible to find the kooks.

(Letter appears as I wrote it, not as the KJ edited it. AP style can go to hell.)

The legislative prayer caucus, from what I gather, is just a bunch of Bible-thumpers in the legislature getting together to prayer after their sessions. I don’t have an issue with that (except insofar as it’s dumb). My problem is with the fact that if an atheist group did anything locally, the first thing the paper would do is seek out a response from a church.

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