Guess who said the following: “What you have to spew and spread is extremely dangerous ... it's dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists!”

Was it Hillary Clinton telling off General Petraeus at the recent Armed Services Committee hearing on the Iraq War as he once again played lapdog for an administration intent on remaining in the Middle East to secure oil for America, at a price tag of $177-million-a day? Was it Barack Obama confronting the evil folks who run Fox News, a media outlet that shamelessly promotes right-wing causes in its “news” broadcasts?

No. It was Illinois State Representative Monique Davis, telling an atheist that he was unwelcome at a State Government Administration Committee hearing into shenanigans involving a Baptist church.

Said the self-proclaimed Christian legislator: “This is the land of Lincoln where people believe in God. Get out of that seat ... you have no right to be here. We believe in something. You believe in destroying! You believe in destroying what this state was built upon.”

Wasn’t Davis’ state and the entire country built on the idea of freedom of speech and religion? Freedom to believe what one chooses to believe? Freedom to be a Jehova’s Witness, a Muslim, an atheist or even a Scientologist?

Perhaps Illinois changed that basic cornerstone of our Constitution and forgot to let the rest of the country know about it.

Davis can believe anything she wants about atheists. She can think that we’re dangerous to her kids or her pets. She can imagine that we sacrifice Christian babies and howl at the full moon. I don’t care. But she has absolutely no right to tell anyone they’re not welcome in the halls of a government that purports to be by and for the people. The last time I looked, atheists were people too.

Politicians should learn to think before they speak.

Tommi Avicolli Mecca is a radical southern Italian queer atheist performer and writer with a website: www.avicollimecca.com