Lobby Day 2008 - A Pilgrimage Worth Making

By Greg Epstein

Walking out of Senator Kerry's office building into the bright Capitol Hill sunshine, I couldn't help but think of my mother, as a 13 year old girl, being flown into this country as a refugee from Cuba. She came here with nothing, and there I was a generation later having had this amazing opportunity to walk into the halls of Congress and speak to my representatives about some of the issues that matter most to me. It made me feel proud to be American, and proud to be working with the Secular Coalition for America.

What Lori, Sasha, and everyone at the Coalition most helped me to realize is, when you walk into those Congressional and Senate office buildings, you should feel at home, because you own them. They really are our taxpayer dollars at work: we Humanists, nontheists and secularists are just American citizens, no more or less valued than anyone else.

And that is just how we were treated on our visits. Of course, the fact that we went in well prepared thanks to the Secular Coalition's briefs made a difference too--but I still didn't expect Congressman McGovern's legislative director to sit down with us for over a half hour and not only show great sympathy for our cause, but also that she probably knew more about some of our issues than we did! She told us the story of her niece who had recently gone off to the Air Force academy, and how she too hoped the young woman wouldn't be subject to inappropriate proselytizing by military chaplains. As a Humanist Chaplain I was particularly glad to be able to work on that issue.

In short, lobbying with the Secular Coalition for America is something every single member of the Humanist, atheist, and secular movement in the U.S. ought to try at least once. In our community we may not have prescribed prayers or mandatory holiday celebrations, but this is a pilgrimage worth making.

Greg Epstein is the Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University. Information is at http://www.harvardhumanist.org/.