Seattle Atheists

When: Sunday, September 19, 5:00 p.m.
Location: The 2100 Building, 2100 24th Ave South

Are you interested in playing an integral role in Seattle Atheists direction? Do you have a talent for organizing, leading, or getting things done? Are you itching to use that vote that your membership dues get you? This year we will be electing nine Board of Directors positions, and we need you! It’s your organization, and this is how to make sure your voice is heard. Only current members will be permitted to vote or run, so please update your membership.

What’s up for election this year:

There are 4 officer positions: President, Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary. The President, Vice President, and Treasurer are two-year terms. The Secretary this year is a one-year term. Next year, it will be a two-year term, as we’ve set it up to overlap the other positions to create some organizational continuity.

There are five Member-at-Large positions, each with one-year terms.

We will begin accepting nominations (yes, you can nominate yourself!) by e-mailing us, NOW. As we get them, we will be posting candidate statement here.

Candidates for the officer positions should have business and leadership skills, as well as experience running a business or a non-profit organization. Skills such as public speaking, writing and editing, graphic design, and secretarial skills are desired. Experience with a board of directors is very useful.

Board meetings are held every other month, and generally run 2 to 3 hours. Board members are expected to attend the membership meetings, which take place on alternate months.

How the voting works:

During the meeting, we will still be accepting nominations (although we encourage you to submit yours early along with a statement). We start with the President position, and move down through there, so that anyone who does not win the position they are hoping for, may run again for a lower position.

The five Member-at-Large positions are all voted on at once, after the Officers have been elected.

Then the new Board will close out the rest of the meeting.

Interested? E-mail us for the job descriptions!

Nominees should submit a statement ASAP!

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Mary Keiser, candidate for Member-at-Large:

Hello! My name is Mary Keiser and I am running for Member at Large on the Seattle Atheists Board. I have been a member of the community for a year and a half and have enjoyed getting to know the amazing people involved in building an Atheist community in the Seattle area.

I have a BA in Psychology and a MA in Counseling Psychology, with 12 years as a therapist helping families, children, and the chronically mentally ill and homeless. I am currently a stay-at-home mom to 2 beautiful girls, ages 2 and 6 months.

I strongly believe that our community can effectively fight to maintain the separation of church and state in the face of strengthening opposition. Religious groups are making increasing inroads towards revisionist “Christian Nation” history, creationism in our textbooks and government-approved prayer in our schools.

Non-Christians are not accepted or even understood by the majority of Americans, and I hope we can be a positive face to change that perception. I want my children to grow up in a world with a strong First Amendment, where their thoughts and choices are their own, and they are free to express them.

Another of my goals is to build community around our children. The Seattle Atheist community has a wealth of love and knowledge to help them become kind, loving and empathetic people. I want to bring our people and our many secular resources together to help raise our children free of dogma in an increasingly crazy religious world.

I am an organized, flexible person who is able to take direction and give thoughtful input. I think these strengths, and my experience as a therapist and mother, would be of benefit to the board as a member at large. Thank you for your consideration.

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Scott Leopold, candidate for President:

I hereby submit my candidacy for the position of President.

1. Put your money where your mouth is.
2. Lead by example.
3. Be the change you want to see in the world.

Raised in a secular Jewish home, I grew up with a healthy dose of skepticism and distrust toward religion in general and toward extremely religious individuals in particular, with the distrust always in direct proportion to the orthodoxy: The more religious the individual, the more wary I felt toward him/her. In our family, religion was not important. Community and the well-being of others was. My parents were members of the ACLU and probably a few other orgs.

In high school and in the Navy I experienced anti-Semitism as well as unreasonably pushy and offensive “suggestions” that I convert. The thought of becoming one with those whom I so distrusted was alarming. I kept my guard up. It eventually paid off.

In 1985 I attended my first Pro-Choice demonstration, and it was quite an introduction: Two of us counter-demonstrated against an army of Christians, Catholics and other self-righteous bible thumpers in Olympia in front of the Capitol building. Aside from a bit of not-so-civil but EXPECTED verbal abuse and one minor attempt at violence against my person, it was an invigorating and eye-opening experience.

From 2003 I have been an ardent supporter of NARAL Pro-Choice Washington, both verbally and financially. In 2004 I flew to Washington D.C. to participate in the million-strong “March for Women’s Lives” and have plenty of Pro-Choice t-shirts to show for it.

In 2004 I joined Seattle’s Aradia Women’s Health Center’s Board of Directors, and during my first year was Scribe (Secretary) and worked extensively in fund-raising. In 2006, Evening Magazine Host John Curley urged viewers to support my “Swim for Life” across Lake Washington buy contributing money to Puget Sound Blood Center and Aradia Women’s Health Center.

In 2006 I was unanimously elected President of Aradia’s Board of Directors. Faced with the retirement of our Executive Director, a massive increase in liability insurance, dwindling funds, and a sudden increase in the number of poor women who needed our services, the Board decided to close the clinic, distribute its assets to the community and provide a reliable health care transition for every one of its clients. I hired an Interim Executive Director to oversee daily operations and a Closing Specialist to ensure a smooth transition of service to other providers. In its 34-year history Aradia Women’s Health Center served over 54,000 women.

I’ve been a blood donor since high school, so it was very gratifying to hear Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens extol the virtues of donating blood. I have donated over 400 times and in 1998, I decided to do something special: Promote Puget Sound Blood Center. There were always shortages of blood, especially in the summer when school is out. On September 19, 1998 I swam solo from Medina Park Beach to Husky Stadium, about 3 1/2 miles. Last month was the 13th annual Swim for Life raised over $50,000 from 357 participants in 80 teams. In 2006 Puget Sound Blood Center awarded me the highest honor given to a volunteer: The Dr. S Maimon Samuels award for “extraordinary leadership, service and commitment” to their mission.

VALUES

Two things are sacrosanct: Reason (the individual mind) and the rule of law (the Constitution).

I consider every human being a fellow traveler, whether I know him/her or not. Being a fellow traveler means that regardless of age, gender, nationality, faith or non-faith, or sexual orientation or physical impairment, we all have common goals and have a vested long-term interest in the well-being of fellow travelers and of our little planet. I don’t need to follow any religion or dogma to respect others. I don’t have to be gay to support gay and lesbian rights. And I have the right to live free from religion and its trappings. I can respect a person without having to respect his/her faith.

Everyone can come up with a reason why they don’t like this religion or that, but none of us would deny a person their right to worship as they please. We recognize that free thought, civil liberties and the power of the human mind are undeniably the single most important assets there are.

Separation of Church and State is absolutely essential to the well-being of a free society. That’s why Jefferson wrote about it in 1802. There are plenty of living examples of what happens when you destroy that wall of separation: Church-states like Afghanistan, Iran and North Korea are theocracies where the state and the church act as one; where individuals are the mere property of the state and enjoy no civil liberties.

Atheists and skeptics do not enjoy a “default respect” that religion has enjoyed for so many centuries. We are still stigmatized like abortion still is and homosexuality. The self-righteous and pious still condescend to us. Their deep-seated cultural bias against atheism crosses all races, ages and nationalities. We are still seeing a mild form of the Inquisition in how the military’s leadership gives itself the right to harass, discriminate and stigmatize servicemen and women who dare to show individual freedom of thought – the very essence of what they are fighting for.

The clash between faith and reason is intensifying. We see it daily in politics, at work and in our personal lives. Atheists and skeptics are still very marginalized. We need to win elections and important appointments, but a religious and credulous population makes that prospect look dim today.

Sam Harris suggests that we not use the word “atheist”. He says (in his book Letter to a Christian Nation) that people don’t go around identifying themselves by what they AREN’T: “I’m a non-racist.” “I’m a non-stamp-collector.” “I’m a non-teacher.” So we might not be saying anything useful by saying “I’m a non-believer.” Instead, he says, we need to show by our very actions and lives what our values are; by just being good, decent and moral citizens. In other words by what we ARE, not by what we AREN’T.

I think Sam has a point, but we won’t get there in the next ten years, or even twenty if we don’t reverse the trend of bigotry and default intolerance the faithful have gotten away with for so long. Before we can stop declaring who we are by what we don’t believe in, we have to win important battles.

We will win these battles and start earning respect as we demonstrate to society that we are good people. We are ethical parents. We are reliable laborers. We are trustworthy bankers. We are moral software engineers. We raise intelligent and thoughtful children. We are honorable and respectable tax-payers. Don’t ever tell us that we don’t have a “moral compass”:

Put your money where your mouth is:

• I’ve raised over $125,000 for Puget Sound Blood Center since 1998.
• President of the Board of Directors, Aradia Women’s Health Center.
• Long-time activism and financial contributions in support of Washington NARAL Pro-Choice and Planned Parenthood.

I put my money where my mouth is, and I am unmistakable about it.

Lead by example:

• Over 400 blood donations since high school.
• Be the change you want to see in the world.

Thirteen years of consistent growth, leadership and vision with my Swim for Life for Puget Sound Blood Center with over $125,000 raised so far. I am the change I want to see in the world.

Sincerely,
Scott Leopold

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Rich Lyons, candidate for Vice President:

Dear Seattle Atheists,

Please allow me to introduce myself. I am Rich Lyons, and I would like to announce my candidacy for vice president of the Seattle Atheists. I believe my qualifications and passion for Atheism make me a viable candidate for this position.

I began my career in media in 1979, as a radio reporter in a small market in Texas. I grew from there to a News Director in that market, and eventually became a newspaper reporter and Managing Editor for the Marshall News Messenger.

I covered the fall of the Berlin Wall for the Messenger and AP. I also wrote what may be the first series on what at that time was a new drug; crack cocaine. That series caught the eye of then-Senator Phil Gramm, who sponsored legislation and hundreds of millions of dollars to “fight” this new drug.

This background demonstrates my abilities as a communicator, both spoken and written, and my leadership abilities, as I managed a newsroom with 11 reporters and other support staff.

One aspect of my background may seem to be counterproductive, but in reality, it’s my strongest qualifier. I was pastor of an ultra-fundamentalist Christian church for 20 years, 10 of those years as my primary income and full-time job.

It was toward the end of this time that I realized there couldn’t possibly be a God, and realized I could no longer continue saying there was. I resigned, entered cult recovery and P.T.S.D. recovery. That was six years ago (Dec. 1, 2004). I realized when I turned from Christianity I would lose the 4,000 square foot home I lived in, the salary, and everything I owned. I didn’t realize I would lose my wife and daughter. Regardless, I know who I am and know that my integrity could not be bought by income, a large home, or even family, leaves me confident as I face life without a “personal savior.”

Pastoral experience shows my abilities as a motivator, leader and manager. My church had an annual budget of more than $250,000. We grew from 23 members when I started as Sr. Pastor, to more than 200 when I resigned 10 years later.

During this time I became a pioneer in the “Small Group” concept in church growth and management, and specialized in implementing these strategies in other churches. Many of these concepts would go a long way toward increasing our viabilities as an atheist organization.

There was a time when I was bitter, angry and belligerent towards Christians. I’m past that. But I do understand the damage Christianity and other religions do to people as individuals and society as a whole. As a man who believes in humanity, I believe in building a stronger world through better understanding, and compassionately serving our human brothers and sisters.

In conclusion, I believe there is a need now, more than ever, for atheists to band together and become a safe place for Christians who are emerging from the church, but still have needs they cannot meet themselves.

As humanists, properly equipped, we can provide the things people lose when they escape Christianity, and can work together to build a better world.

I don’t feel hopeless as an atheist. I don’t feel like I’m empty because I “believe in nothing.” I have hope greater than any god could give, because I believe in humanity, and what a great species it is, and even greater species it shall become.

Rich Lyons

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