Bonjour, amis de la Libre Pensee!

"The mighty are only mighty because we are on our knees. Let us rise!"

Camille Desmoulins

"A person came in and announced the taking of the Bastille, the governor of which is beheaded, a crowd carries his head in triumph through the city. Yesterday it wa the fashion at Versailles not to believe there were any disturbances in Paris. I presume today’s transactions will induce a conviction that all is not perfectly quiet."

Gouverneur Morris, a framer of US Constitution, at the Royal Gardens of Versailles, July 14, 1789

"If I could have found 2,000 men filled with the anger that tore my heart, I would have placed myself at their head, stabbed Lafayette to death, burned the despot in his palace and impaled our odious representatives on their benches. When I proposed this to Robespierre, he listened to me in horror, paled and remained silent."

Jean-Paul Marat, L’ami du peuple.

"One must frighten those who govern; one must never frighten the people."

Antoine Saint-Just

votre ami Fred, le Marat de Kansas,

This is a short notice to let you all know of a vicious attack which took place a few days ago. Justin Trottier, for those of you who do not know, is head of the Secular Freethought center in Toronto. He has done extensive work as well in organizing campus Humanist groups among other activities. I will let his description of the attack below speak for itself. I want you all to be aware so you can write letters to newspaper in your area, MPs, anyone who can bring this hate crime to light so the general public will know that being an athiest is still considered by many to be an anti social choice. The facts speak for themselves.

"While my colleague Peter and I were postering for an event “God: The Failed Hypothesis”, we noticed two individuals very interested in our postering. We noticed the two men reading the posters we had already placed on the walls.

Peter and I were postering by the stairs on the second floor of the Podium (near Gould St.), just past the main cafeteria, when an individual came up to ask us what we were doing, seemingly wanting to initiate a confrontation. Peter handed him a poster and invited him to our event “God: The Failed Hypothesis”. He looked at the poster, mumbled under his breath and through it to the ground, whereupon I picked up the poster and yelled after him “You could have at least recycled the poster.” The guy and his colleague were outside the building at this point. They made a face, indicating they had heard me yell something.

About 15 minutes later we were postering in the tunnel leading between Jorgensen and Kerr Hall, near the swimming pool, when we heard the two individuals shouting at us to stop. Realizing what was happening, we kept walking in the direction of Kerr Hall. The two individuals ran to catch up with us. They were clearly out of breath when they arrived

The second individual walks past Peter, who asked them if they had questions about our event and/or would like another poster. Instead, the second individual said “we have words with your friend.” He comes right up to my face saying “you owe my friend an apology”. I was on the phone with my girlfriend at the time and told her to call security. He says “we’re not going to wait until security arrives. You have two minutes to decide what to do.” Then I said "what happens after two minutes", to which he responded "wait and find out".

He says to me “what did you say to my friend before”, to which I replied “you could have recycled the poster.” He claims not to believe that and then says, “I think you said – I believe what I want, you believe what you want.” I denied this, so he says, “Well I believe you said it, and I believe what I want, and you believe what you want, so you owe my friend an apology.” I started to walk away and he said “we’re not going to let you walk away.” This altercation lasted about a minute. The first individual then smacked me in the face twice with his left hand, and said "watch your smart mouth." I said “don’t touch me” at which point he head butted me hard in the face, causing my nose to bleed profusely. It is likely that the cause of my injury was due to brim of his hat slicing into my nose, because he took off his hat afterwards to make sure it wasn’t ruined. We then each left the scene in opposite directions.

After we left the building and came outside, they existed a couple of minutes later and began walking down the sidewalk towards us. It was not until they recognised us that they crossed the street and changed direction, heading between buildings.

The perpetrators were last seen on the north side of Gerrard St., midway between Church St. and Yonge St., walking northward through a pathway. The first perpetrator (the head butter) was about 6’, black, with short black hair. He was slim build and clean shaven. He was wearing dark jeans and a blue and white hat. He had on prescription glasses. The second perpetrator was shorter, about 5’6”, of Arabic/Middle Eastern descent, was 5’4”-5’6” with short, curly, black hair. He was also clean shaven (possible five o clock shadow) with a stalky, muscular build. He was wearing a grey golf shirt, with beige pants. He had prescription glasses and was not wearing a hat. They both appeared to be well groomed and given what time of night it was, were likely Ryerson University students.

Since then I have visited the doctor who was extremely concerned. He gave me a tetnus shot, and prescribed anti-inflammatory medication and antibiotics, which I am currently on. He also sent me for an x-ray to see if my nose is broken, chipped, offset or fractured. The results haven’t come in yet."

Now it’s up to us to make sure Justin’s attack does not go un-noticed.

Pat O’Brien

L’Idée Libre, revue de la Fédération nationale de la Libre Pensée (France)

Numéro consacré à Espagne-Portugal

Sommaire :

Espagne

 L’anticléricalisme en Espagne (1900-1939) (Gabriel Garcia Volta)
 La seconde république espagnole (Joachim Salamero)
 Barcelone 1936-1937 ( Jean-Michel cathala)
 Du franquisme à la maonoarchie constitutionnelle (Joachim Salamero)
 l’Opus dei en Espagne (Paul Klein)
 La laïcité sous le gouvernement Zapatero (Joan Carles Marset)
 La laïcité en Espagne en 2006 (Juan Francisco Gonzalez Baron)

Portugal :

 Le Portugal des origines à 1910 (Roger de Nascimento)
 Aperçu d’un siècle de laïcité au Portugal (Luis M. Mateus et Ricardo Alves)
 La loi de séparation de l’Eglise et de l’Etat du 20 avril 1911
 L’Eglise et sa doctrine sociale contre la Révolution au Portugal (Philippe Besson)
 le Manifeste de Republica & Laicidade

Idée Libre - Fédération nationale de la Libre Pensée (France) - 10/12 rue des Fossés St Jacques 75005 PARIS

Libre.pensee@wanadoo.fr

Numéro de l’Idée Libre consacrée aux rapports Eglises Etat aux Etats-Unis

Idée Libre (FNLP’s revue) about separation between Churches and State in USA.

Summary :

 Story of the separation between Churches and State (Fred Whitehead)
 James Madison and the separation (Robert Boston)
 Catholic church ’s social doctrine during the great depression (Philippe Besson)
 Robert G. Ingesoll (Sam Ayache)
 Actuality of the separation in USA ( Olivier Frayssé)
 A nation under god ? (Philippe Besson)
 Frank Zappa, a freethinker (Christian Eyschen)
 interviewing Ellen Johnson (Americain Atheists)

Idée Libre - fédération nationale de la Libre Pensée (France) - 10/12 rue des Fossés-St-Jacques 75005 PARIS

Libre.pensee@wanadoo.fr