Blogging is dangerous work

Quick post: A blogger that I like very much was bullied into leaving the blogosphere, recently
(let's count how many times I can fit the word "blog" into this post. Blog). Going by the handle "Possummomma," this particular writer used her space on the internet to broadcast her thoughts on her family, religion, and atheism. She mainly documented the challenges she faced as an atheist and as a parent. Given my interest in developmental psychology, and the fact that I am also an atheist, her topics were relevant to me.
It's a long story, but here is a good link that explains what happened to her (there is also a short summary at the top, for all of you with goldfish-like attention spans).

It's so sad that this woman has to endure death threats, zealots posting her personal information, and threats to her family simply because she isn't afraid to talk about her atheism. She has been stalked and threatened on numerous occasions, all by people claiming to be Christians (Jesus is LOVE, DAMMIT). By the way, she's a mother of four and she has LUPUS. Way to bully a mother with a severe illness. Totally what Jesus would have done.

Sometimes I forget that we live in America. Because I thought that not only were we allowed to have free speech, but that we could also have any religion (or non religion) that we wanted. I didn't know that we all had to believe in a god. What a great fucking country this has turned out to be. We're all so very free.

My sincere condolences to the P-momma family, and I certainly hope that she is able to eventually return to the online community.

Atheists are still the most-hated minority in America. People seem to think that it's okay to hurt us, to intimidate us, and to keep us from holding public office in 7 states. This, despite the fact that we never knock on your door with pamphlets, tell you that you're going to burn in hell, or try to indoctrinate/convert your children. We've never started a war based on our non-religion. And we've never told you that you can't practice your religion within your home or church/synagogue/mosque. We rarely commit crimes (less than 1% of the prison population is atheist). So why all the hatorade? Seriously. If you want to have an open discussion, that's okay. But if your intent is to make us miserable because our non-belief makes you insecure, then just go away and leave us alone.