The Reason Rally, and Why It's Good to Keep Hammering On About Diversity

There’s no way I can do just one Reason Rally report. It was something of a life-changing event, it was almost certainly a history-changing event, and I’m probably going to keep bringing ideas I got from it into my writing for some time.

So here’s the Reason Rally Idea For Today.

Those of us who keep hammering on about diversity in the atheist movement?

We need to keep doing it.

Why?

IT’S WORKING.

There was wonderful diversity at the Reason Rally. It wasn’t ideal; it wasn’t a perfect or even close reflection of the demographics of America or the world. (I don’t think it was, anyway: I was kind of in a distracted, blissed-out haze all day, and I wasn’t out there with a clipboard ticking off demographic boxes.) But I saw lots of women there, and lots of people of color, and lots and lots and lots of young people. As if it were the most natural thing in the world. As if it were obvious that this would be the face of atheism.

This is significantly different from the demographics we were seeing at big atheist events, even a few years ago. It’s so different, I have to assume that our conscious efforts to make ourselves more diverse have been paying off.

There are specific, nuts-and-bolts ideas about promoting diversity that many of us have been yammering about for a while now. And heaps of these ideas were implemented at the Reason Rally. The speakers and performers at the Rally were diverse: not ideally so, not in a perfect reflection of the demographics of America or the world, but there were plenty of women and young people and people of color on that stage. There were charter buses to the Rally from around the country, so students and others on tight budgets could attend. There was an online forum for ride shares and room shares. Discount hotel rooms were arranged. Child care was provided. Organizers in this movement are clearly listening. Not all of them, and not perfectly — but many of them, and better than they used to. Some of the organizers are even the ones squawking about diversity themselves, and have been for a while.

It’s working. And people are noticing. More than one news story I saw about the Reason Rally pointed out the diversity of the crowd. My favorite money quote was this one, from Kimberly Winston of the Religious News Service, and printed in The Huffington Post and elsewhere:

Also visibly different was the composition of the crowd, which was largely under the age of 30, at least half female and included many people of color. Ten years ago [at the The Godless March on Washington ten years ago], the crowd was mostly white, over 40 and predominantly male.

The news reporters noticed. Some of them, anyway. And that means that every woman, every young person, every person of color seeing those reports noticed. Every woman, every young person, every person of color who’s questioning their religion, or who’s already an atheist but is afraid to tell anybody, and who read those news reports, now knows that they can come out, and that atheism might be an okay place for them to land.

I know it gets tiring. Every time I write a piece about sexism or racism or some other -ism in the atheist community, I brace myself for the barrage of insulting stupid that almost inevitably emerges. Every time I post something about diversity that I think should be totally freaking obvious — like, “Hey, look, someone is attacking women’s ideas by insulting their personal appearance, isn’t that fucked-up and sexist” — some nimrod will find a way to argue and whine and gas on for days about how unfair I’m being. And I confess, this sometimes makes me shy away from writing about sexism and racism and other -isms.

But usually, I don’t. Usually, I grit my teeth and plow on ahead. And I want to passionately encourage the other people who are working on these issues to grit their teeth and plow on ahead, too.

Because something is changing. Because for every nimrod I see on my blog whining about how sexism isn’t sexist and I should just shut up about it, I now see ten comments or emails from people saying, “You’ve really changed my thinking on this.” Because for every thoughtlessly racist or sexist or other-ist comment I see on the Internet, I now see ten other people dogpile onto them. Because for every time I get into the same argument about this that I’ve gotten into a hundred times, I now hear my arguments, and other writers’ arguments, being explained by ten other people — often better than we did. Because for every time I have to explain Diversity 101 to some well-meaning person who’s seriously never considered these questions before, I now have ten other times when the people I’m talking with nod and say, “Yes, Diversity 101, totally on board — let’s talk about how to make it happen.”

And because at the Reason Rally, I saw young people, and women, and people of color… in droves. Because at the largest secularist gathering in world history, at the event where we were putting on our best, nicest, happiest, angriest, funniest, snarkiest, most compassionate, most defiant, proudest game face, to the media and the world, we could be reasonably confident that this face was not monolithic. Because at the time when thousands of us were willing to stand in the rain for eight hours to represent atheism, it wasn’t 10,000 middle-aged white guys — it was 20,000 people who looked something more like America, and something more like the world.

A few years ago, I wrote a piece on why it was so important for atheists to get this diversity thing right — and to get it right early, now, before bad habits get entrenched, before resentments have years and decades to build, before vicious circles and self-fulfilling prophecies get set into a deep groove. I don’t think we can be complacent; I think we have a huge amount of work to do in these areas. Every horrible conversation I have about these ideas reminds me of that.

But the work we’ve been doing has been paying off. And it’s paying off early, now, in the early years of the very visible and vocal and activist phase of our movement. I have real hopes that, because we’re doing this work now, in ten and twenty and fifty years we’ll avoid the worst of the problems that other social change movements before us have had to deal with. I have real hopes that, because we’re having these horrible, stupid, infuriating conversations now, we won’t be having nearly as many of them in ten or twenty or fifty years… and we’ll be able to just get on with the business of changing the world.

So let’s keep it up.

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The Reason Rally, and Why It's Good to Keep Hammering On About Diversity
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46 thoughts on “The Reason Rally, and Why It's Good to Keep Hammering On About Diversity

  1. ash
    2

    I think we also have to give religion some credit for doing such a spectacular job of alienating empathetic, compasionate people!

  2. 3

    After hearing you speak at the Rally on Saturday I felt invigorated and ready to shout to the world why I’m angry! And your right the crowd was full of women, young people, and people of color. I think there is still some work to do but we’re headed in the right direction. I’m excited to help the movement grow in any way and I have a lot of positivity about how diverse it will be. 🙂

    It was an honor to hear you speak and I am inspired by your words more then I can adequately express.

  3. 5

    Every man and woman alive was born an atheist. Our challenge is to convince people to be honest with themselves and unfraid to announce it. I was personally impressed to see so much diversity and a bit shocked. But we are gaining momentum, it is religion after all which encourages racism sexism and homophobia and other artificial barriers.

  4. 6

    Much of Jamie Kilstein’s monologue was about women facing sexual harassment in atheist spaces, and it was awesome.

    These discussions are about making our god-free communities better.

  5. 7

    “Every time I write a piece about sexism or racism or some other -ism in the atheist community….”
    Frankly I think thís is changing history, not a somewhat isolated event that did not stir up much in Europe and probably nothing elsewehere.

    “other social change movements”
    I’d say it’s too early to call atheism a social change movement; it certainly isn’t in Western Europe, where atheism has been accepted widely for a few decades.
    Don’t confuse the USA with the ROW.

  6. 8

    I’m going to second Lou Doench, since I’m also a member of the same organization.

    Greta, I’ve been reading your blog for only a few months, but you have been opening my eyes (we all hope). The funny thing is all the things that rub me the wrong way turn out (upon reflection) to be altogether too true.

    So, here’s a glass of strong drink raised to all the women, kids, and articulate folk of all kinds of background getting a few good words in edgewise. Have at it, you all. Thanks.

  7. 11

    Nice one, Greta, as always.

    @Simon Frankel Pratt: it will be a completely lost cause if they go to America. It’s been an insult for 50 years or so, since Bugs Bunny used it sarcastically on Elmer Fudd. Nimrod is “the mighty hunter” in the bible – which everybody knew back then, but very few know now.

    It’s my theory that Bugs Bunny is also responsible for the misuse of “theory” to mean “wild guess”. And that one day Einstein will come to mean “idiot”.

  8. 12

    After spending most of the Rally lounging in the crowd thirty or so feet behind Greta and her fellow VIPs (lucky stiffs!), I have to concur about the diversity of the folks who showed up. In my estimation we crowd members were still pretty heavily white, but there were huge numbers of girls and women and probably more under-30s than over.

    The last two of those three facts are, as Greta says, fabulous.

  9. 13

    I just want to say I noticed this at the rally too and thought it was incredible. I can’t speak from personal experience(though I am a young man in my early twenties so I suppose there’s that) but I also think that the diversity at the rally changed the tone of things in an incredible way.

    The highlight of that to me is that I went along with a female friend, and the speech that most excited her wasn’t Dawkins or Hehmant’s or even Nate Phelps, it was when Dr. Cornwell gave her invisible burka speech. I think that giving important and brilliant woman like her(and yourself, I loved your speech. If you heard someone screaming “hell yeah, tell it like it is, Greta”, that (maybe) was me!) a chance to speak will not only make our movement stronger, but help make it obvious why we atheists and our movement are needed(especially in this year of the war on women.)

    I also found that I discovered a lot of fascinating people I had no idea existed, including tombstone da dead man(whose song poison is to me every bit as awesome as Minchin’s pope song) and OMGITSKRIS in addition to lots of other voices I would have otherwise missed.

    So I guess I agree 100%, I think that pushing for diversity is making us a stronger movement, a wider movement, and frankly a more relevant and more interesting movement.

    (So hell yes, keep telling it like it is Greta!)

  10. 14

    Since I couldn’t be there, I’ll have to depend on your’s and other’s observations. I do know that the more diversity we have, the stronger and more effective we will be. Nobody should feel like an outsider.

  11. 15

    Observable changes in our movement’s makeup like the one you’re documenting for us now, that have occurred over just a few years within the span of our own lifetimes, are exactly the type of concrete images we need to be able to point to when naysayers claim that we have no business addressing women, POCs, youth, queer and trans folk, anyone with whose alleged “need” for faith is tangled up in a history oppression. It’s a foothold in our tug-o-war with the Noble Agnostic who paradoxically declares that marginalized groups are subjugated to and dependent upon faith-communal structures, AND that belonging to a religion (or not) is a matter of independent free choice, so criticizing religion in nothing but bigotry and coercion. But we are not a white, straight, middle class, cisgender, able-bodied ideology; your voice, Sikivu Hutchinson’s voice, Hemant Mehta and Ian Cromwell and Natalie Reed’s voices, and the image of a changed landscape of atheist gathering are steadily eroding false notions of who atheism is for, and erode the ground under the feet of religious apologists masquerading as defenders of the oppressed.

    Thank you. Keep up the hard, often unrewarding work. It’s paying off, and it helps others of us find our voices to speak out as welcome and needed advocates.

  12. 16

    This was rather inspiring. Coming from Canada, myself and six other students came down from my school. I personally was actually expecting more white males, and was pleasantly surprised by the diversity of the crowd. To see people even younger than university students being out, women, people of different “races” (we all belong to the human race), etc.

    Though there is definitely work to do, things like the sign Jen McCreight noticed of the transphobic insults sent towards Shirley Phelps and others like when Tim Minchin dedicated part of a song to Rebecca Watson and the crowd was rather quiet. Still, progress!

  13. 17

    Adding to Simon Frankel Pratt: Not only is Nimrod a common Hebrew name, it is an anti-religious name. It’s one of the names that make rabbis freak out because it translates as ‘we shall rebel’. Therefore it is more common in the secular sector.

  14. 20

    I loved that the Rally was accessible to people with disabilities, with a sign language interpreter and wheelchair accessible transportation, and info about both provided on the Rally’s website. Let’s keep that up and try to make it the standard at atheist events.

  15. 21

    My aim is to ask a question to those of you who attended the Rally. Some introduction first.

    But I saw lots of women there, and lots of people of color, and lots and lots and lots of young people. […] This is significantly different from the demographics we were seeing at big atheist events, even a few years ago.

    You say so and I accept it as a fact.

    Every woman, every young person, every person of color who’s questioning their religion, or who’s already an atheist but is afraid to tell anybody, and who read those news reports, now knows that they can come out, and that atheism might be an okay place for them to land.

    This is not so obvious. For such an aim demographic diversity – important as it is – is not enough. From my own, personal point of view (I’m an atheist, so I guess I count :-)) I would say: an “okay place for me to land” would be in addition a place with a diversity of views and values. I say “in addition”, because I agree that demography is important – a place with a “nur für Deutsche” sign definitely wouldn’t be ok. The diversity of views and values clearly goes beyond a demographic diversity (oh well, you can have e.g. a church full of women, most of them more patriarchal than the pope himself!) And my question to you (the people who attended the Rally) is: was the Rally such a place? Was it a place for the atheists in general, for the people with a broad variety of views and values? Was it a place where they openly discussed their beliefs, confronted them with opposite ones, even quarreled about them passionately, but always safely? In short: how diverse was the spectrum of views and values represented at the Rally?

    Thanks in advance to anyone who cares to answer. (I’m leaving for a couple of days and won’t be able to participate in a discussion. Anyway, I didn’t really ask this question in order to engage in a discussion; I’m just being curious about what it looked like from a participant’s point of view.)

  16. 22

    Great post Greta. I agree with you completely. I wrote a few posts on my blog a few weeks ago in regards to sexism and could not believe the nimrods that came out of the closet. Equally surprising was the number of people who came out in support of my anti-sexism posts. Things are changing and we need to plow ahead in the fight against “isms” for lack of a better word.

    I do think that the fact that so many young people were present at the Reason Rally is very telling. I think that today’s young generation is less connected to religion than previous generations. This must be due, in some part, to things such as their awareness of science and their disagreement with dogma. Hopefully this trend will continue and will bring even more diversity with it.

  17. 23

    Years ago it was often thought that an organized atheist movement would not be likely to take hold. It was said that atheists are, in general, not group-joining types of people. They tend to go their own direction and “march to their own drummer.”

    Back then I agreed. It was me and fellow atheists saying this stuff. Looking back I see that we were forcing a stereo-type on ourselves.

    As they say — hindsight is always… (yes I am nauseating myself with all the cliches.) I should have realized that simply not believing in the supernatural is not connected with any particular personality type. And there is no reason that it ought to be. In fact there is no reason that it even CAN be.

    Then I see the results from the Reason Rally. It is one of those moments when I say — I was wrong. Yippie!!! I’m so glad I was wrong.

  18. 26

    This is the second thing today that made me think “Wow, that’s a huge relief…. Oh, it’s really not enough, and it’s opening up new battlegrounds. But wow, this is a place from which we can keep moving.” I’m really happy.

  19. 27

    Ariel @21:

    I would say: an “okay place for me to land” would be in addition a place with a diversity of views and values. …. The diversity of views and values clearly goes beyond a demographic diversity (oh well, you can have e.g. a church full of women, most of them more patriarchal than the pope himself!) And my question to you (the people who attended the Rally) is: was the Rally such a place? Was it a place for the atheists in general, for the people with a broad variety of views and values?

    I didn’t see any Ideological Purity Proctors patrolling the Mall, no. Possibly I missed them, though; I was mainly paying attention to what was going on on stage.

    Was it a place where they openly discussed their beliefs, confronted them with opposite ones, even quarreled about them passionately, but always safely?

    In my corner of the crowd, no, not really. We didn’t discuss “beliefs” much at all; we did so pretty much only as they were directly relevant to the speaker or performer on stage at the moment—and even that not in any noteworthy depth. My crowd-neighbors and I talked a lot more about where we were from, what we did for a living, and similar personal small-talk than anything particularly ideological. It was socializing, not Lincoln-Douglas debate.

    In short: how diverse was the spectrum of views and values represented at the Rally?

    I presume reasonably broad; unquestionably there exists meaningful disagreement within the atheist movement on a fair number of philosophical and policy questions. (The same goes for pretty much every other movement made up of human beings.) Much of the time, such disagreement is perfectly acceptable; occasionally it’s even positive.

    That said, I don’t particularly find welcoming “a broad variety of views and values” to be a fundamental imperative for this (or any worthwhile) movement. Not incidentally, certain “views and values,” including a handful that are held by a non-negligible number of atheists, happen to be somewhere on a spectrum between troublesome and nauseating.

    If a visitor (atheist or not) to an atheist event complained because event organizers’ or attendees’ negative response to the visitor’s racism, sexism, homophobia, cissexism, classism, ableism, majority privilege, or other destructive “view or value” made the visitor feel uncomfortable, well, then, frankly: tough. The right of despised and disempowered minorities to be free from prejudiced mistreatment is vastly more important and valuable than the right of ignorant members of the hegemon to feel that ugly “views and values” they happen to hold are respected.

    As we frequently have to inform the purveyors of religious privilege, ideas, beliefs, “views and values” are not people; they have no rights. They deserve to stand and fall and be treated as welcome or unwelcome on their own merits. The question of whether it makes any sense to complain that particular “views and values” you hold are not treated nicely in a community simply reduces to the question of whether those “views and values” deserve respectful treatment in and of themselves. If they don’t, I’m afraid no one owes you an apology for dealing with them in a fashion you find unwelcoming.

  20. 28

    I started going to atheist, humanist, and skeptic conventions back in the early 90’s. As a consequence, when people a few years ago were complaining about the lack of diversity in the atheist/humanist/skeptic community, I was surprised. It wasn’t that I didn’t agree that having more women, people of color, and young people wasn’t a good idea. It was a great idea! But I was surprised that it was considered such a problem … because I was personally rather overwhelmed by the contrast between what it was like a few years ago — and what it was like back in the early 90’s.

    In my rough estimation (and vague recollection), when I first started hopping around the atheist circuit, conventions or conferences were about 75-80% white guys over 50. Being female and in my early 40’s, I felt a bit conspicuous. I remember being at a convention once and thinking “hey, those 4 people over look like they’re under 30! Maybe even under 25!” It made me very happy.

    What started the change? Imo, the internet. It breeds diversity and is the natural environment of the young. The internet and the fact that the James Randi convention was heavy on the entertainment and was held by a new organization whose members predominantly came from the internet. Other groups started to feed off the energy, I think. Or so it seemed to me at the time (I’ve been to all the TAMs and then 1 or 2 others each year.)

    The rise of the religious right, 9/11, and the gnu atheists were big factors, of course. Others have pointed that out, a lot. And once women, minorities, and The Young started participating more, there seemed to be a tipping point at some unknown point and it snowballed. Greta is exactly right.

    I’m thrilled that the Reason Rally (which, to my deep regret, I couldn’t make) appears to have set a new standard and possibly been a new tipping point. It’s ironic that the so-called militancy of the gnu atheism has grown along with the diversity of outspoken atheists. Ironic because I vaguely remember discussions of how to encourage more women or people of color or young people to attend — and one of the suggested solutions was that we atheists/humanists/skeptics needed to be less cranky, less ornery. Plus, we were too intellectual. Maybe we were frightening people off?

    I didn’t think so, not even back in the early 90’s. When somebody ranted a bit during a speech I thought it was a rather welcome relief from the relentless let’s-all-be-positive message I was always getting back home from the ‘spirituality’ crowd. I was a woman. I didn’t think the conventions needed to lay off the village atheism and hard science and philosophical discussions and strive for a kinder, gentler face for freethought. But maybe I wasn’t representative.

    Seems I do have company.

  21. 30

    Hi Greta,

    I was at the Rally, and I completely understand the otherworldly feeling of the event. I have it too. I met Jen and JT, AronRa and Thunderf00t. I had my picture taken with Hemant and PZ. I was a total fanboy.

    I didn’t want to post this right away so as not to pee on anyone’s campfire; it really was a life changing event for me. I’m still electric about the experience.

    But…although I completely understand why they did it. I have to forcibly object to the military related part of the programming. This is not to say I don’t respect the troops. I don’t speak in bumper stickers. What I want to say is, I object to someone telling me to take off my hat to show respect for the cross….oh sorry…I meant “colors.” “Everyone repeat after me…Our father who”…..wait, sorry, I did it again…what was it I was pledging allegiance to? A color, a piece of cloth, a great symbol, the concept of bravery? Sorry, perhaps I’m a terrible person, but blind patriotism is no better than blind faith.

    Show me a brave soldier that did an honorable and brave thing and I will honor him. Show me a firefighter that ran into a burning building and saved a life by risking her own and I will show her a deep respect. But the honor that those courageous people earned does not gild the mindless bomb dropper, the village burner, the iron fist, or the woman who just washed the fire truck. There is no such thing as vicariously earned respect! Not all people or actions are equally worthy.

    Will I honor the military? Sure, usually, I mean, I can still see all that blood after all. Do I respect the heroic firefighter? Yes, I do, but a pissing Calvin sticker doesn’t mean you can ignore traffic laws. The point is, if you ask me to take off my hat to show respect for some undefined, nebulous cause or job description, demographic, or ideal, sacrament or idol, or icon. Then you can go fuck yourself. It’s raining. My hat stays on.

    As for the rest of the Rally….. Aces all around.

  22. 31

    “Simon Frankel Pratt says:
    March 29, 2012 at 4:09 pm
    BTW ‘Nimrod’ is a Hebrew name, both given and a surname (usually ‘Nimrodi’ in that case). I know a couple people who have it. I wonder if they realise we use it as a slur?”

    So are Dick and Peter. 🙂

    @Greta, I’m sorry I missed you. Glad my son was able to hang out with you! I’m was very excited to see him perform at the Rally. I am hoping that if we hold a another rally in another 10 years,there will be 200-300,000! We should increase by tenfold with each Rally. We should start having rallies all over the country, heck, all over the WORLD!!

  23. 32

    I drove down from Boston for the rally, and I was expecting to see a demographic similar to going to a Rush (the band) concert — white guys. I was quite happy to see a diverse crowd.

  24. 33

    @ Rieux and Sastra: I agree, the Internet was/is huge. I would also say that 9/11 was a wake-up call to a great many non-believers. I remember reading Sam Harris’ “The End of Faith” and thinking to myself “Man, that guy is courageous.” That was less than eight years ago! Sam’s book (and subsequent Dawkins/Dennett/Hitchens/manyManyOthers) made clear the obligation we have to stand up and stand out. But the Internet made the community possible. I’m 61 years old and never thought I’d see anything as marvelous as this movement. And I sure wish I had been able to bee at the Reason Rally!

  25. 35

    That’s really good to hear, Greta. Thanks very much for continuing to talk about this issue, even when it seems people may be reluctant to listen.

  26. 37

    Those of us who keep hammering on about diversity in the atheist movement?

    We need to keep doing it.

    Why?
    IT’S WORKING.

    Of course it’s working. Why do you think the privilege-denying shallow thinkers whine so much?

  27. 38

    As an Afro-Cuban atheist (and so much more of course lol) I was pleasantly surprised by the number of women, young people and persons of colour. It meant so much to me that it is hard to articulate how moving the whole experience was.

  28. 39

    Just wanted to say that I am a white, 41 year old mother of 8 children. I recently deconverted from extreme fundamentalism. Anyway, I just found your blog and am really enjoying it. I have only come out to my husband and mother. My husband has pretty much deconverted with me and my mother has been understanding, but is fervently praying for me to come back to the Lord lol It really isn’t funny as my older children have been fully indoctrinated and I have no idea how to deal with this situation. They are very devout Christians. I guess I did my job too well : ( I am afraid telling them right now would cause too much upheaval. They are teenagers and this time in life is crazy enough as it is. I have zero idea what to do.

  29. 40

    Tonya Richard wrote:

    I have zero idea what to do.

    Religion is hard enough: religion + teenagers sounds like a logistic nightmare. My own experience with the latter doesn’t include the former.

    Sorry if you’re already aware of these blogs, but you would no doubt find advice from those who have been through that particular form of crazy both here and here.

  30. 42

    I was so excited to Come Out at the Reason Rally. Here I was, nearly 54 years old, facing down the truth after a lifetime religious journey starting with being baptized and raised Catholic. Since telling people, I’ve been shunned, de-friended, and told of my eternal damnation by former friends and strangers alike. The Reason Rally has become a touchstone for me. A place where I felt a part of something bigger than myself. It felt so wonderful to see all the youth and diversity as I entered the crowd that day. Yet I’m still guilty of being a middle-aged white male.
    Part of me feels, reading this, maybe I wasn’t as welcomed as I thought I was that day. But I understand. It just makes me a little sad. It’s not my fault, you see… evolution made me this way.

  31. 43

    jazkelly @ #42: You are absolutely welcomed, on that day and any other. It’s not that we don’t want middle-aged straight white men in the movement — of course we do! We’re just happy to see the movement become more diverse, and not be dominated by just one demographic. We want all demographics — including yours.

  32. 44

    We all know demographic is an often used word in politics,advertising,and all media.
    The coolest thing about the Reason Rally was the fact that EVERYONE was invited. And a good sampling of everyone CAME.
    The infusion of young people was so inspiring. Of so many stripes. Mixed with everything up to octogenarian people who had waited a lifetime for this day. A lot of people…and with the rain, all of us there knew it meant nothing.
    It was the day WE cast our footprints in the sand.
    The day I declared. Declared what I always knew. The multiverse is expanding as it should…perhaps. 😉
    I’m an atheist.
    A pretty diverse person, once you know me. Like You.

  33. 45

    I meant to say, to those of us there, the rain meant nothing. The DAY meant about EVERYTHING. Sorry if I seem gushy. You should have been there.

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