The invocation delivered by Joe Reinhardt to Largo City Council on 2/5/2019.
Here is the text.
Greetings council members, neighbors, and friends. Thank you for inviting Atheists of Florida to again offer the Largo City Council invocation.
An invocation is defined as the summoning of a deity or the supernatural. We feel this is surely a quest to involve religion in our government.
We at Atheists of Florida would like to remind all present that we are all in this together. Although we keep separating ourselves from ourselves by color, by money, by creed, by boundaries, by age, etc. We need something to pull us together.
We encourage you to consider replacing the invocation with a much more inclusive moment of silence before each meeting, honoring everyone in our community as well as our constitution.
This would allow each individual, despite their beliefs or non-beliefs, to participate and show acceptance of the diversity that is in our community. This allows those that wish to pray the time to do so and yet allow others to reflect on the importance of the upcoming meeting. It gives us a moment to rededicate ourselves to improving the lives of the people in our community and to remind ourselves to face the reality that confronts us, without losing sight of our ideals of what we could achieve.
At this time, we ask that you please take a few moments of calm and peace prior to starting the work of the meeting.
silence for about 15 seconds.
As stated by the great agnostic Robert Green Ingersoll: “Justice is the only worship. Love is the only priest. Ignorance is the only slavery. Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now, the place to be happy is here, the way to be happy is to make others so.”
Thank you for your service to the community and for honoring its diversity.