Last month, I witnessed a Fountain Hills town employee using a Fountain Hills town vehicle to erect a sign at the east end of Avenue of the Fountains promoting the National Day of Prayer.

Using taxpayer funds and resources to promote prayer is not a constitutionally-protected activity. Any government entity promoting prayer is a de facto exclusionary event and insulting to a large minority of residents who disagree with our town using taxpayer funds to advance this behavior.

The mayor signed a proclamation on April 20, 2017, proclaiming May 4, 2017 as Fountain Hills Day of Prayer. This is an incredibly selfish and self-centered action.

The mayor should stop using government resources to promote this activity under the authority of her elective position. Prayer has no basis in reality (i.e., there is no proof of a supreme being; and, advocating praying with a government imprimatur to a non-existent entity is a cruel joke being perpetrated on the unsuspecting by the mayor) and it is harmful to the mental health of our entire community.

People have plenty of opportunities to pray on their own to one of more than 1,000 gods that humanity has created over the centuries. There is no need for the government to get involved in this charade.

A very sad day for Fountain Hills.