Last year, organizers of the Sacramento Freethought day asked for and received a proclamation from Governor Schwarzenegger.
This year, organizers asked Governor Brown for the same thing. Organizer David Diskin says the governor made proclamations for Harvey Milk and the National Day of Prayer…but nothing for the freethinkers.
DISKIN: " When someone endorses all of these different things, and then comes to us and says that they don't have time to support ours, it's really hurtful I think. And it shows the kind of discrimination I think that other atheists and freethinkers get. "
The Governor's press office issued a statement saying it can not accommodate all such requests, but it does "encourage all Californians to think free and independent thoughts."
The group did receive a proclamation from the state senate.
Sunday is the tenth Sacramento Freethought Day. Organizers moved the event to the 23rd this year to make a point. Noted end-of-the-world prognosticator and preacher Harold Camping's latest forecast has the world ending today.
Freethought Day celebrates the stand taken by Massachusetts Governor William Phips in 1692 against those who claimed to see spirits and devils cavorting with those being tried in the Salem Witch Trials.
