One of a thousand

I, Steve Ziolkowski, declare as follows:

I am a citizen of the United States and a resident of the State of California.

I am a member of the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

I consider myself an atheist.

I have watched the inaugurations of 1993, 1997, 2001 and 2005 on television. I also saw the 2009 inauguration at home on the internet.

As I watched this inaugural celebration, I was disappointed by how much religion was a part of it. I understand that the phrase "So help me god" has been a tradition that has been used by many (though not all) presidents over the last hundred years or so. While it does bother me, I can let it slide; as so many oft repeated sayings go, the underlying message usually gets watered down and becomes more habit than anything truly meaningful.

However, the prayers I found to be truly exclusionary. Rick Warren, Jospeh Lowery, Gene Robinson, these men all invoked god multiple (and in Dr. Lowerys case way too many) times and Rick Warren specifically mentioned Jesus which to my mind excludes everyone but Christians.

The inauguration is supposed to be for everyone. Not just the religious. Barack Obama was the first President I've ever voted for who I truly thought would represent me, and he did in fact mention nonbelievers in his inaugural speech. But one passing remark does not make up for the fact that religion, and specifically the Christian religion, was such a major part of the ceremony and that it excluded so many people. The unchurched, according to some recent polls, make up anywhere from thirteen to seventeen percent of the population. That is a huge amount of folks who are left out as second class citizens when politicians invoke specific deities.

Being 38 years old, I expect to witness at least 10 more inaugurations during my lifetime.

I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct.

Executed on February 19, 2009.