Rob
Sherman Advocacy
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Rob
Sherman Advocacy
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"Fighting injustice, one victory at a time."
Here is why Rob Sherman Advocacy is recognized as the nation's leader for atheist civil rights and the separation of state and church.
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Rob Sherman Advocacy is the social activist organization that does have a place at the table when dealing with government, whether dealing with atheist issues or the many secular issues that we confront. We have a place at the table because we know what we're doing. We contact government and private industry officials directly when there is a dispute and we work knowledgably with them to resolve those disputes in a win-win situation.
Another organization, American Atheists, claims to be the leader for atheist civil rights and state/church separation. They used to be, many years ago, while Madalyn O'Hair was alive and leading the way, but if you've read their press releases and newsletters for the past decade, you've noticed that they now only criticize bad policy or talk about what others are doing about bad policy. They never actually do anything about bad policy, themselves. In fact, you have to go back over ten years in their press release archives, all the way to their press release of June 29, 1992, to find the last time that they scored a state/church separation victory, and that victory was one that I won for them! That victory was in the Rolling Meadows, Illinois and Zion, Illinois, city seal cases.
You'll notice in the last paragraph of that 1992 press release a reference to additional city seal disputes in Palatine, Illinois; Wauwatosa, Wisconsin; and Austin, Texas. I successfully handled the ones in Palatine and Wauwatosa. I got the Christian cross removed from both of those seals. Others at American Atheists handled the case in Austin, Texas. They lost. The cross remains on that city seal.
It's been over ten years since they've succeeded in leading the way. Meanwhile, if you check the Liberal News & Commentary home page, you'll see victory after victory, just this year alone, by Rob Sherman Advocacy. Just search on the word, "Succeeds," to see all the headlines that begin with "Sherman Advocacy Succeeds" or "Sherman Advocacy Succeeds Again."
Rob Sherman Advocacy actually does something about bad policy. We get bad policy changed, whether that bad policy is related to the civil rights of atheists or related to other, secular issues, such as the safety of children who don't have the political clout necessary to get their rights protected. We lead the way by having our leadership contact officials directly and by having our leadership work with officials directly, rather than issuing a press release complaining about bad policy. Our leadership urges officials to make changes, and by being obstreperous, thorough, competent, knowledgeable and persistent, we almost always win. On those rare occasions when we don't win, officials are left feeling embarrassed and humiliated by their decision to sustain policy that is so obviously wrong and unjustifiable. Also, we make our points so convincingly that others are deterred from engaging in similar conduct in the future, so even when we lose in the short term, we win in the long run.
American Atheists sends members of their Speakers Bureau all over the country, at great expense, to talk to their fellow atheists. That's what's known as "preaching to the choir." It makes everyone feel good, but it doesn't accomplish anything. Rob Sherman Advocacy makes contact, all over the country, with government and business officials, but we usually do it through the economical means of telephone calls.
We use the telephone for two reasons. First, by engaging in a two-way conversation with officials, rather than a one-way press release, we can help them to quickly gain an understanding of what's wrong with their policies and how our proposed changes would actually be an improvement over what they've been doing. Secondly, at 3.47 cents per minute on our Sam's Club AT&T Calling Card, it's much more economical to talk by phone than to transport our bodies all over the country.
We explain to officials by telephone and in follow-up documentation why they should change their policies. Often, the error in policy is inadvertent and the result of an innocent lack of awareness of our enlightened perspective. For example, public school teachers are experts on education. They are not experts on minority civil rights. Once we explain things to them, they usually recognize that our way is, in fact, an even better way of accomplishing the things that they were trying to achieve, already.
Sometimes, if it is felt that a presentation to a group of officials will help move the project along, one or more of us will make a trip to the office of a government official or to a government meeting, such as a city council meeting, school board meeting, a meeting of the state legislature or a meeting of Congress. When we make phone or in-person contact with officials, our presentations are so thorough and persuasive that the officials almost always recognize the merits of making the changes we seek. As a result of our outstanding and competent presentations, they usually implement most or all of our proposed changes.
American Atheists has put together a Godless March on Washington to proclaim that American Atheists' current leadership is so ineffective, after seven years on the job, that they don't have "a place at the table." Rob Sherman Advocacy is so busy going from our place at one table to our place at the next table that we don't have time to wander aimlessly through the streets of Washington, two days before the national election, whining to an audience of nobody. Hey, the national elections are going to be two days after the Godless March! Everybody important is going to be out of town on the campaign trail! There won't be anybody there to notice the godless march.
You couldn't pick a worse, more ineffective time to conduct a protest demonstration if you tried! Going to Washington to hold a protest march during the first weekend in November will be just like praying: You'll be talking to nobody because there won't be anybody there to listen. Even press coverage of the event, if any, will get buried so deeply underneath the mountain of last minute election news that nobody will notice. What a waste of time, money and effort!
This level of incompetence by the leadership of American Atheists (holding a rally in the nation's capital when nobody's there because it's two days before a national election) can only be addressed by a complete house-cleaning of American Atheists management. American Atheists President Ellen Johnson certainly is a fine party hostess at their annual national conventions, and doesn't she look lovely in her many beautiful sleeveless gowns, but the atheist community needs real leadership, not a party queen. You'll notice in her little bio that she claims to have "led our historic 'breakthrough' meeting with officials of the White House Liaison Office." What the bio doesn't reveal is that I was actually the one who conceived of the idea to have a meeting with the Clinton administration. I created, produced, arranged, led and ran the whole affair, and after all of the arrangements were complete, I invited Ellen, as a courtesy, to tag along with me and about seven other atheist leaders from around the country that I selected. I extended that courtesy because of the long relationship that I previously had with American Atheists, including nearly a decade as their national spokesman. Ellen was an invited follower. She wasn't the leader and had no role, whatsoever, in organizing or leading the event, as she falsely claims.
I don't know what's worse: Having to reach back a half-decade to point to anything important that she's been involved in, or the need to point to somebody else's nearly five-year-old accomplishment as supposedly being her big achievement. Ellen, haven't you accomplished anything on your own in the past five years that you can point to, instead of pointing to one of my long-ago accomplishments as supposedly being your most recent big deal?
The most recent atheist civil rights victory for Rob Sherman Advocacy was just last week, when Rob Sherman Advocacy got Chicago's 9/11 memorial changed from a prayer service to a secular ceremony, and RS Advocacy is already working on a new issue, as reported in yesterday's Liberal News & Commentary. Our accomplishments in just the past two weeks seem to represent the equivalent of about twenty years of accomplishments for the other guys.
While we at Rob Sherman Advocacy were doing battle with Chicago during the two weeks leading up to September 11th, I contacted Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Illinois Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and American Atheists to seek their participation and any help that they could add to the RS Advocacy efforts. Rob Boston, Assistant Director of Communications at AU, stayed in constant telephone contact with me, several times per day, for the full two weeks as the situation unfolded. Barry Lynn, Executive Director of AU, sent a magnificent, three page letter to the City of Chicago supplementing my assertions that their plans were blatantly unconstitutional. AU also issued a press release supporting RS Advocacy's efforts. Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the IL ACLU, consulted extensively with me by telephone, discussing strategy and the constitutional and political issues. Meanwhile, American Atheists never even responded to RS Advocacy's request that they get involved in this major atheist civil rights battle. They not only didn't lead the way. They didn't even get involved, in any way, whatsoever. Perhaps they were too busy planning their next big party.
If you were thinking of going to Washington for the godless march, consider this: Instead of throwing your money away on that kind of feel-good project that actually harms our cause because it makes atheists look like buffoons for their inept timing, send your money here where it will be well spent accomplishing the things that you want done but that the other guys only complain about.
Being a part of the victories of Rob Sherman Advocacy will give you something to really feel good about. I've created a new financial support form to make it easy for you to join the winning team.
Switch to the winning team: Rob Sherman Advocacy, because we are the ones who really are leading the way for atheist civil rights and the separation of state and church, not the other guys. Here's how to join the winning team and support Rob Sherman Advocacy:
Rob Sherman P. O. Box
7410
Buffalo Grove, IL 60089-7410
A post office box is used
because
the street address uses a curb mail box,
which is not secure.
Telephone: (847) 870-0700
Fax: (847) 870-1156
E-mail: rob followed by the at symbol followed by robsherman dot com
