Meet a member: Reason Station founder keeps up the fight
Name: Douglas Marshall.
Where I live: Warren, Mich.
Education: B.A. in business administration with a major in transportation management.
Occupation: Retired, but worked for 31 years in transportation and logistics.
Military service: Two years in the U.S. Army (1968-1970).
How I got where I am today: At the end of my service in the Army, I took a European separation and traveled around Europe until my money ran out. In 1976, I took a six-month leave of absence from work and hitchhiked out west from Montana to Puno, Peru. During that time, I backpacked in the Bob Marshall Wilderness area in Montana, horse packed in the Wind River Mountains in Wyoming, backpacked from the North Rim to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, and hiked the Inca Trail unguided to Machu Picchu. In October 1980, I quit work and rode my bicycle from Flint, Mich., to Little Rock, Ark., then joined HikaNation in Yellville, Ark., and walked to Cape Henlopen, Del.
Where am I headed: Eventually the grave, but before I get there, I want to get the city of Warren to stop violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
Person in history I admire: Thomas Jefferson, because he is the one who came up with the idea of separation of church and state.
A quotation: “Question with boldness even the existence of a god.” — Thomas Jefferson
Things I like: At my age, I do not do much anymore other than manage the Reason Station, which is a protest of the city of Warren’s violation of the Establishment Clause. The Reason Station operates on Tuesdays and Wednesdays to take away the respect the city gives to a religious group which operates a table to proselytize. When I was younger and physically fit, I enjoyed backpacking, walking, bicycling, cross country skiing, fishing, boating, racquetball and gardening.
Things I smite: People proselytizing and Christian nationalism.
My doubts about religion started: I stopped believing in the Christian religion between the age of 11 and 12. When I was in the eighth grade, my parents would take me to church and we would separate, each going to our different Sunday schools. I would go out the back of the church and spend my donation money in a pool hall down the block. When I started ninth grade, my dad suggest that he and I stop going to church on Sunday mornings. I did not think of religion much after that until the mid-70s, when I started to self-identify as a Taoist. In the mid-80s, I returned to identification as an atheist. Other than self-identifying as an atheist, I did not participate in the atheist movement other than doing what I enjoyed on Sunday morning. That changed in 2009 when I visited my city hall and found a prayer table with people proselytizing. I complained to the mayor, which only made me mad, so then I went on the internet and found FFRF and contacted them. That interaction led to me joining FFRF. In 2010, when I found out that the city was holding a National Day of Prayer event, I created a protest sign and went to the event to protest. I was almost immediately surrounded by the police who told me that I was trespassing and that if I did not get off of City Hall property, I would be arrested. I replied that I had an invitation in my monthly water bill. They responded that the event was only for Christians and if I did not leave, I would be arrested. In 2011, FFRF offered my “Let Reason Prevail” solstice sandwich board because when I questioned a nativity display in City Hall, I was told that the city would allow any seasonal display in the City Hall atrium. The city refused to allow the sandwich board and I ended up filing a suit in federal court, which I lost in 2013. In 2014, the Michigan Atheists named me “Atheist of the Year” and, in 2015, FFRF named me “Freethinker of the Year.”
Ways I promote freethought: At the FFRF convention in 2013, I met with FFRF Attorney Patrick Elliott and we discussed the Reason Station. FFRF agreed to supply the insurance coverage required to have a table in the Warren City Hall. I also talked to ACLU and Americans United to see what they had to say about my rights to table in City Hall. In March of 2014, I applied for a table in the City Hall, which was refused because I was a member of FFRF and an atheist. After a federal suit, backed by FFRF, ACLU, AU and an outside attorney, we reached a consent decree, where the city paid the ACLU $100,000. I started the Reason Station in 2015. The Reason Station operated from April 2015 until the Covid pandemic in March 2020. The Reason Station resumed operation in September 2023 when we found out that religion had returned to City Hall. The Reason Station has also kept a nativity display off of the Mound Road median for a number of years. Although the Reason Station only has a membership of 10 or 12 people, the Reason Station tables in the Warren City Hall atrium about 400 hours per year, making it the most publicly active freethought organization in Michigan. The Reason Station volunteers have given more than 3,700 hours of their time to promote the separation of church and state.
