Contact High!

Imagine having the opportunity to spend an entire weekend with some of the best bloggers ever, and you will begin to know how I’m feeling today! Quite fortunate!

The second annual AU Blogger Meet Up took place in Washington, DC this past weekend. It was a time to reconnect with friends I’ve had the good fortune to meet, and new friends I was just meeting in person for the first time.

What can I say about Blue Gal, my blog mentor – when I think of ‘blogger community’ I always think of Blue Gal. And Tengrain, who so deserves his Postie Award, is like a brother! I love you guys!

The all-star line up included the fabulous bloggers PZ Myers of Pharyngula, Patriot Boy from Jesus’ General, Leo from Neural Gourmet, Lambert and Vast Left from Correntewire, Ed from Dispatches from the Culture Wars, Card-carrying Buddhist from No Blood for Hubris, Fran from Fran I Am, Lisa (DCup) from Politits, Sue from Nailing Jello to the Wall, Dennis from One Pissed Off Veteran, Bruce from Mainstream Baptist, Alicia from Last Left Turn Before Hooterville, DCap from DistributorcapNY, and my very favorite simian blogger Dr. Zaius.

The blogger meet up is a component of the annual meeting of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. AU Executive Director Rev. Barry Lynn shared an election analysis, and everyone took home a copy of “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Separation of Church and State … but Were Afraid to Ask!”

I feel so fortunate to work for an organization that recognizes the value of reaching out to bloggers. Mainstream media only tells part of the story about why it’s so important to safeguard separation of church and state. Through the blogosphere we can truly tell the rest of the story.

We now have a progressive president and Congress, but that is no guarantee that our rights are secure. If history is any indicator, one of the first causalities of challenging times is our First Amendment guarantee of separation of church and state. For that reason, we must remain vigilant!

Thanks again to everyone who came to the meet up. Let’s spend the weekend together again NEXT year!