The U.S. government was created with the mandate to not establish any state religion or to forbid any religion. There were a couple of ways this could have gone.

Here’s one path that was not taken. The freedom of religion and the separation of religion from the state could have encouraged a widespread understanding of what a crock of malarkey religion all is. If no religion can actually persuade everyone of its claims, if people choose their various and sundry religions based on factors wholly unrelated to persuasive argument, then why not let religion fade away with other myths and superstitions?

Here’s a large part of what actually happened. The freedom of religion created the practice of respecting as beyond question multiple conflicting and contradictory dogmas because each was declared by some person or group to be their religion. The right to believe what you declare it important to you to believe is more widely cherished in the United States than is the right to a decent standard of living.

COLUMBUS, OH: June 17, 2020 - Today a lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for Southern Ohio, demanding the immediate suspension of a unique Columbus City Charter provision which places a one year timeline on ballot initiative petition gathering. The City’s June 18 deadline on signature gathering for the petitioners is unconstitutional during the Covid-19 pandemic, because it effectively kills ballot access, according to the lawsuit.

“The City cannot have its cake and eat it too,” says volunteer petitioner Kathy McGlone. “One day they say democracy and a safe response to the pandemic can co-exist. Yet they refuse to take action to safeguard the petition process, effectively killing our promising ballot initiative drive.”

On March 12, 2020 petitioners were forced to suspend their petition campaign. They had secured almost 9,000 signatures to place a Columbus Community Bill of Rights (CCBOR) city charter amendment on the November 2020 ballot that would assert the right of people and ecosystems to “clean water, air, and soil, and to be free from activities that would violate this right.” The current deadline to turn in 9,870 valid signatures is June 18.

Over 700 people have now signed