Please note - the sound is not in sync with the video and we are working on trying to get a better copy.

Good Evening. My name is Ed Golly and I reside in South Tampa.

My purpose in coming before you tonight is to address the unfunded mandate imposed upon this and every school board in Florida by the State legislature in its previous session. This amounts to the mandatory posting of the state motto in every building in every public school in the state, which you are required to be in compliance with through this summer.

I represent a 25-year-old non-profit organization that strongly supports a free public education system accessible to all Americans. We recognize the financial stresses burdening our public school system here in Florida brought on by the deplorable underfunding by the state government combined with the efforts of the current administrations, both state and federal, to completely dismantle our public school system and replace it with a profit-oriented private system. Accordingly, we are here tonight to offer a helping hand to accommodate this foolish and unnecessary mandate of the state.

Atheists of Florida proposes to provide entirely at its own expense either of the posters distributed before you in sufficient quantity to fully satisfy the state mandate. Simply advise us of the number of posters required for every building in this county’s public schools and we will deliver the number of units suitable for display in each building.

I would like to direct your attention to the United States Supreme Court ruling in the Greece, New York case that was brought several years ago to address diversity in invocations delivered before government assemblies. While the Court determined invocations themselves do not violate the Constitution, they ruled that invocations must be inclusive of any and all religions, as well as those of us who reject all religious beliefs.

The larger poster we are presenting for your consideration has been designed specifically to satisfy the spirit of this ruling in its recognition of a sampling of many of the gods commonly believed in throughout our nation and the world today. Either presentation recognizes the original motto of our nation embraced by our Founding Fathers acknowledging these United States as a secular nation embracing immigrants from all corners of the world unifying in the common pursuit of our national agenda, free of any religious endorsement by the government.

If you accept our offer in a timely manner and would like to modify either design we anticipate having time to accommodate your changes.

We can think of no reason either design would be considered unacceptable to anyone of faith, or anyone who rejects faith in their lives.

Our contact information is included with the submission. We look forward to hearing from you soon.