tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23565217718996621942024-02-19T04:18:50.239-06:00The New Orleans Secular Humanist Assoc. BlogContemporary resources for atheists and freethinkers in LouisianaNOSHAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02423636756548589951noreply@blogger.comBlogger139125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2356521771899662194.post-92019939563793824462018-04-05T17:06:00.000-05:002018-04-05T17:06:18.468-05:00BOOK REVIEW-- The Triumph of Christianity: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the World<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Readers interested in the early history of Christianity will enjoy
<b>historian Bart Ehrman’s</b> latest book and bestseller, </span><i style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><b>The Triumph
of Christianity: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the World</b></i><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">. The
book focuses mainly on what happened, and why things happened the way
the did, during the 4th century. In 301 CE, Christians were a small
but visible minority within the Roman Empire, subject to persecution
by decree of emperor Diocletian. By 399 Christianity was the official
religion of the empire, and probably half the population practiced
it. How did so dramatic a change unfold? What factors made the rise
of Christianity improbable? What factors contributed to its success?</span><br />
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Unlike some historians, Ehrman fully accepts the conversion of
Constantine the Great, Rome’s first Christian Emperor, as entirely
authentic. Constantine’s edict (312 CE) tolerating all religions,
and the prestige of having an emperor who was Christian, spurred on
the growth of the religion. But Ehrman gives less importance to these
facts than some historians do. He describes a number of factors
restraining the growth of Christianity. It’s insistence on
worshipping only one god, excluding all others, was quite alien to
the world view of pagan Rome, which encompassed a nearly infinite
pageant of gods, spirits, and heroes. The idea of blending ethical
philosophy with religion would also have seemed strange, maybe even a
little bit crazy, to most Greeks and Romans, whose gods and priests
had little say to about how humans should behave toward other humans.
Moreover, Christianity’s emphasis on an afterlife might have seemed
rather superstitious to people who mostly had only very vague and
fuzzy notions about such things. Ehrman points out that many Roman
graves of the era had an inscription that was as familiar to them as
R.I.P. would be on our tombstones. It often read simply
N.F.F.N.S.N.C., standing for Non Fui, Fui, Non Sum, Non Curo, meaning
I was not, I was, I am not, I care not. Many modern secularists may
share a similar notion today, expecting no more cares after death
than before birth.</span><br />
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">But some of Christianity’s oddities might also have made the
religion attractive. An afterlife that included rewards in heaven
could have appealed to a large portion of the population, whose lives
were often hard. The possibility of punishments in hell, coupled with
the claim that a final judgment was near at hand, added a sense of
urgency. More than most of the religions of the empire, Christianity
claimed to offer a plan, a method for getting that heavenly life ever
after. Ehrman emphasizes, too, the importance of miracles in
persuading many of the validity of the new religion. Miracles then,
Ehrman suspects, were much the same as miracles today, meaning that
most of the people who believed in miracles never experienced one
personally nor witnessed one directly. People hear about miracles
that happen to other people, and some come to believe those miracles
are facts, and are persuaded by them. Miracles, or at least stories
about miracles, were a major selling point of early Christianity.</span><br />
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">One common understanding that Ehrman tries to dispense with is the
notion that the Christianization of the Roman Empire required
repeated conversions on a massive scale. Of course no solid numbers
are available. But reasonable estimates of the population of the
empire and the numbers of Christians at different points in time tell
a story that is distinctly non-dramatic. The shift from tiny minority
to clear majority took several centuries, and could have been
achieved at an average growth rate in the range of 3% to 4% per year.
That is, each group of 100 Christians had to increase their number by
3 or 4 persons every year, something that could easily result from
converting a single family. That doesn’t sound like much, but like
compounded interest the growth curve is exponential over time. Ehrman
makes a strong case that a modest growth rate, sustained mostly by
one-on-one, face-to-face communication, continued over several
centuries, converted a vast empire.</span><br />
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><i>The Triumph of Christianity: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the
World</i></span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">, by Bart D. Ehrman (Simon and Schuster, 2018), is currently
available in hardcover, ebook, and audible editions.</span><br />
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><b>Jim Dugan<br />NOSHA Board Member and Secretary</b></span></div>
NOSHAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02423636756548589951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2356521771899662194.post-51689356510230505042018-04-03T22:19:00.002-05:002018-04-05T17:06:47.564-05:00If the Humanist Manifesto Were a Book It Might Look Like This<h3>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Editor's note: The following is a continuing and expanded review of Steven Pinker's newly released book referenced in the previous post.</span><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-6effa74c-8e7f-48c7-251e-797e7cec9e5f"></span><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-6effa74c-8e7f-48c7-251e-797e7cec9e5f"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In what must be the most robust recent defense of the 18th Century social, political, and intellectual movement known as The Enlightenment, Steven Pinker stays true to the movement’s foundations by methodically presenting its case in his latest book </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress</b> (</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Viking, 2018)</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, affirming his belief in the certainty of increasing progress and the widening of the availability of the necessities of well-being to more people across the globe. From the use of the human capacity to reason, tempered with another very human characteristic, </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">sympathy, </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">life is not nearly as pitiless and severe as it once was. Through the study of the natural sciences, whose practical applications are its fraternal twin offspring </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">technology</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> medicine</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a body of knowledge and infrastructure has evolved to provide more of the basic necessities for prolonging life and maintaining good health to an increasing number of the population.On the political front, the use of the rule of law, and rational debate and criticism in a better educated population in an open society helps identify and correct overbearing social and political injustices, and has resulted in less violence, fewer catastrophic wars, and a more even-handed distribution of human rights and wealth.</span></span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-6effa74c-8e7f-48c7-251e-797e7cec9e5f"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">***
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-6effa74c-8e7f-48c7-251e-797e7cec9e5f">
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-6effa74c-8e7f-48c7-251e-797e7cec9e5f"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pinker explains very early in the book that the Enlightenment principles of reason, science, humanism, and progress are in need of a “wholehearted defense," since the wisdom that has been gained and the progress that has been made are not a “cosmic birthright,” but rather human accomplishments, and not guaranteed to advance or even remain at the current level of universality. He sets as the goal of the book to “restate the ideals of the Enlightenment in the language and concepts of the 21st century.” The movement has had its detractors almost from its beginning nearly 300 years ago. But today’s opposition can be classified in several major categories: ideologies that suggest people are expendable units of a “superorganism—a clan, tribe, ethnic group,race, or nation”; or religious appeals and theological promises of eternal life and transcendent salvation through belief in gods; concerns about the dangers of an unchecked rush to technology (the Frankenstein effect); the moral concerns of superabundance and the materialization and increasing emptiness of character associated with consumerism; and the movement away from the humanities disciplines in educational institutions in favor of STEM curricula. Aside from opposition from the human side, physical laws of nature also work against improvement, specifically the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which states that in a closed system, entropy does not decrease—which means, in practical parlance, that a physical arrangement either remains constant or tends to become disordered, so that no increase in ordering (which we can assume would, for the sake of the argument, be required to increase progress) can occur without investing energy captured elsewhere.
As all of the concepts listed above have much to do with a certain ordering of the structures of animal and plant life, machines and structure, and information itself, a portion of any energy entering the system must be used to maintain the current standard or possibly increase the ordering (or lowering of entropy) for a beneficial outcome. The biological law of evolution is another burden to progress in a couple of ways: our genetic individuality “gives us our different tastes and needs, and it also sets the stage for strife.” Additionally, “our cognitive , emotional, and moral faculties are adapted to individual survival and reproduction in an archaic environment, not to universal thriving in a modern one.”</span></span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-6effa74c-8e7f-48c7-251e-797e7cec9e5f"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> But two features of human cognition work to overcome the tendency of these natural laws and the ill-advised grand schemes of humans to resist order and progress: abstract thought and “combinatorial and recursive power,” which, combined with language and writing, are recorded and can be “shared across a community of thinkers.This allows large and connected communities to take shape and come up with ways of organizing their affairs that work to their members’ mutual advantage,” including all sorts of practical applications such as food production, transportation infrastructure design, and educational principles.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With this abstract background of his premise, Pinker proposes 15 theoretical topics as metrics by which to evaluate the overarching concept of progress, and a steady (if not always smooth) increase of conditions and results indicative of human well-being and flourishing are demonstrated. He uses a similar approach in his 2011 book </span><b><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence has Declined. </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In </span></b><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Enlightenment Now</b>, </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">no fewer than</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> 75</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> graphs are spread out among chapters titled</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Life The Environment Equal Rights</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Health Peace Knowledge</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Sustenance Safety Quality of Life</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Wealth Terrorism Happiness</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Inequality Democracy Existential Threats</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">each chapter containing other confirming evidence drawn from the wealth of knowledge provided by the sources listed in the 20-page References section of the book. He makes what seems to an irrefutable case affirming the human condition has been improving, and that the principles of the Enlightenment—which is “also called humanism, the open society, and cosmopolitan or classical liberalism”—is the driving force behind it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So why, if the human condition is better for more people, doesn’t it seem like it? A shroud of pessimism has been a fixture in the psyche of modern man, and all the advances made since the dawn of modernism in the mid- to late 19th century seem to have been of little consolation. Certainly two major world wars, genocide, and the introduction of the specter of a nuclear Armageddon didn’t help. Existentialist and post-structuralist philosophies, social and cultural critics, and postmodern literature all help in unfolding and widening the shroud. In the chapter “Progressophobia,” Pinker sees a possible clue in this paradox of doom in the age of plenty in what psychologists Tversky and Kahneman call the “Availability heuristic: people estimate the probability of an (bad) event...by the ease with which instances [of it] come to mind. Frequent events leave stronger memory traces….” and thus establish as fact a questionable figment of that often unreliable source we call recollection. We hear from the news media of starvation in Africa, wars in the Middle East, but do not hear of the well-nourished in China or peace in Vietnam.
So part of the “blame” in this positive feedback loop of pessimism and confirmation biases lies with the news media, with the academics and intellectuals, and some on the basic psychology of how we process and file incoming information. The author relates that he learned from interviewees' questions and objections while working on </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Better Angels</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that “resistance to the idea of progress runs deeper than statistical fallacies.” “The answer is to </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">count</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,” he quips later. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pinker does not address what is the most troubling premise of the primacy of reason in Enlightenment and progressive thought. That is the assumption that anything which cannot be defended by means of argument or experience must be dismissed. This is what philosopher Karl Popper calls “uncritical (or comprehensive) rationalism.” Since that assumption itself “cannot, in its turn, be supported by argument or by experience, it should itself be discarded.” It is “logically untenable,” and analogous to the liar’s paradox. This point lies at the heart of the criticism of rationalism itself, and leads to charges that rationalism is nothing more than another faith. Pinker does, in at least one place, demonstrate the “contra-paradox” involved in this match of dueling reason that</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">one</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> cannot argue in a logically valid form a case</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> against </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">reason. </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Think about it. Pinker also acknowledges that humans are not </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">perfectly </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">rational animals, and that what seem as perfectly rational ideas and actions one day prove to be off the mark the next. It is a self-correction process, much like the scientific method. It is trial and error and retry. Popper recommends tempering the function of reason to “</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">critical</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> rationalism,” with the understanding that, even though there is no axiom behind it, it is superior to abandoning rationalism altogether in favor of its antithesis <i>irrationalism</i>. To him “The choice before us is not simply an intellectual affair, or taste. It is a </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">moral decision</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">….
Rationalism is closely connected with the belief in the unity of mankind. Irrationalism, which is not bound by any rules of consistency, may be combined with any kind of belief in the brotherhood of man; but the fact that it may easily be combined with a very different belief, and especially the fact that it lends itself easily to the support of a romantic belief in the existence of an elect body, the division of men into leaders and led, into natural masters and natural slaves, shows clearly that a moral decision is involved in the choice between it and a critical rationalism.”(1)
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And Steven Pinker does make this point, over and again—the moral point, that is. Working “reasonably” together as humans, practicing a utilitarian, consequentialist ethics, and pulling back that dark shroud that drapes the modern age to reveal the lighted way forward is simply the only moral choice. Will </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Enlightenment Now </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">become the Bible of secular humanism? Well, no: we don’t do Bibles; but a more comprehensive and persuasive polemic will likely be a long time coming; and one is not going to find a better sourcebook on current trends and topics in humanist thought.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(1) Popper, K. 1950,1956. </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Open Society and Its Enemies. </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. pp 417-418</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Marty Bankson</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>The Humanist Advocate</i></span></div>
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MarBanxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06337624636656409507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2356521771899662194.post-25816659519703910862018-03-03T23:36:00.003-06:002018-04-02T08:42:07.454-05:00Elimination Through Enlightenment: Humanism and Capital Punishment<h2>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-14c3238f-ef81-efba-a238-d208d9b12fd1"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXZo6g0jeXfK5FQWrFyBufqcypYKCH-9AjtbBzTJOnoQUIhojsTZjGpY2ODrKWH8GRQqAl1JwvLPgyzOoy9OFi04R3bEaxuoY3ah5Ryq0C_EluH1kAqCQegpWxKDecDass8uxStevU1Xw/s1600/crisis.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="193" data-original-width="261" height="147" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXZo6g0jeXfK5FQWrFyBufqcypYKCH-9AjtbBzTJOnoQUIhojsTZjGpY2ODrKWH8GRQqAl1JwvLPgyzOoy9OFi04R3bEaxuoY3ah5Ryq0C_EluH1kAqCQegpWxKDecDass8uxStevU1Xw/s200/crisis.jpeg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The trend in mass shootings has been to find the body of the perpetrator among or nearby the dead and dying, prone on the killing floor with his victims— either from his own hand or “neutralized” by the rescuers. (I use the masculine pronoun since these atrocities are always carried out by men.) We are then left with the multiple crises of grieving, the unending questions of causes and answers, and attempts to ferret out some sense of closure as we go about burying the dead.
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That is the trend, but occasionally the murderer escapes the scene alive, and is either captured in flight, or is subdued on the site. Once in custody, we are faced with another crisis, that of the choice involving continuing or ending the life of the accused: should this person live or die? The state, as a representative of the people forming it, has the legal monopoly to carry out killing, mandated through law. Should it?
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As it turns out in the case of Nikolas Cruz, the troubled teenager who shot dead seventeen in a high school building, this crisis of choice rests primarily with the jurisdiction’s district attorney or other designated prosecutor. Cruz’ defense attorney has already made the offer to agree to the defendant’s plea of guilt if the death penalty is excluded from the sentence. Almost two weeks has passed since this proposal was floated, but to date, no response has been forthcoming from the prosecutor. It is a “crisis” of choice inasmuch that if the prosecutor proceeds to send the case to trial seeking the death penalty, there is a good chance that, barring any legal snafus or abuses, Cruz will be found guilty. The defense of Cruz would boil down to his unfortunate circumstance of an unstable family life involving adoption, the loss of both adoptive parents, the move to a third family, and the failure of the state to recognize him as potentially sociopathic, and then failing to follow up with him—even with fair warnings from police records and personal testimonies. Neither of these, alone or together, are usually sufficient grounds for meriting a reprieve. The prosecutor in cases that involve the death penalty has a morbidly serious decision that no mere mortal should be confronted with, but usually manages anyway with a clear conscience, assuming a mandate has been proffered from the voting public which, in the United States, approve of the death penalty by over 60%. The United States government law allows for execution only in certain cases of terrorism and treason, but leaves individual states free to make their decisions about it. It is not certain why the U.S. lags behind other developed countries in abolishing this archaic ritual of ultimate vengeance, it could be a hangover from mythical (read: religious) concepts of retributive and redemptive violence, wherein one is somehow “repaid” or redeemed through acts of violence; but allowing individual states their own option on moral issues involving matters of life and death is not a good idea.
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Even so, the practice is on the decline according to <b>Steven Pinker</b> in his newly released book </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress</b> </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(Viking, 2018)</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Seven states have banned capital punishment in the past decade, bringing the total to 19. Of the 31 states where it is still legal, 16 have moratoria against it. Some states have not used it in over five years. Pinker describes this retreat as a breakdown of the machinery “of the intricate apparatus of death and the team of mechanics to run and repair it,” and further, “As the machine wears out and the mechanics refuse to maintain it, it becomes increasingly unwieldy and invites being scrapped.” That cycle began with the “historical expansion of sympathy and reason,” to the point that even the strongest supporters of the death penalty “lost their stomach” for the brutality of it. Factors playing a role in the growing revulsion are forensic DNA and fingerprinting methods showing that the wrong person is sometimes executed; the relative “dignity” and humanity associated with even its “cleanest” iteration, lethal injection—although a long way from the “gory sadism of crucifixion and disembowelment”—is still fraught with unreliability and pain; and the increasing dependability of penitentiary design and operation making them escape- and riot-proof have made life terms of incarceration within them the more desirable option. </span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-14c3238f-ef81-efba-a238-d208d9b12fd1"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“The pathways [to abolition of the death penalty] are manifold and tortuous,” writes Pinker, “the effects are slow and then sudden, but in the fullness of time an idea from the Enlightenment can transform the world.” And why not? Many ideas from that age have transformed the world, literally . But for the present, unfortunately, Mr. Cruz’ fate rests on the grim choice the district </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">attorney makes with his state-invested authority to avenge death with death. And we know what that means.</span></span></div>
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MarBanxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06337624636656409507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2356521771899662194.post-62919395733813119262018-02-20T09:48:00.000-06:002018-03-04T10:14:58.841-06:00Young People Speaking Their Minds<h2>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">There's a man with a gun over there, Telling me I got to beware.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Everybody look what's going down. </span><span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i>Stephen Stills, 1966.</i> </span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-24d43ddb-b38b-b2cd-1bb9-4f8e5678271b"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of the most significant and unlikely political movements involving constitutional policy in United States history may have started Valentine’s Day, 2018. That day a mentally unbalanced teenager caught an Uber ride to his former high school in Parkland , Florida, and with his legally acquired assault rifle rained fire and bloody death on 17 students and teachers, and left a dozen others with injuries.
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-24d43ddb-b38b-b2cd-1bb9-4f8e5678271b"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s an old story, right? Another week, another mass shooting; another month, another <i>school</i> shooting. As news reports start coming in, the first question that comes to mind is “<i>how many</i> this time?” Then come the </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">whys</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">—why here? why now? why does this keep happening? why can’t we stop this? But the first question is the only question that ever seems to get answered, and that comes pretty quickly. Seventeen, fifty-nine, forty-nine, nine, thirty-two, fourteen, twenty-six, fourteen, twenty-six….
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-24d43ddb-b38b-b2cd-1bb9-4f8e5678271b"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And then the </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">whys</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> just stop coming and are left unanswered after a few days, or a week—the time before forgetting them just depends on the numbers (only three?), or depends on the relative heinousness (children? church-goers?). The demands for changes to gun laws fade to silence as lawmakers assure us that it is too early, it is a time for healing, it is a time for deep thoughts and piteous prayer. Changes can be made when cooler heads prevail. Like….never.
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<b>Then February the 14th happened</b></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">. The grim circumstance presented the same questions and the same silence... but not for long. Perhaps it began with two heartbroken students talking between themselves, maybe more; perhaps it got networked through Facebook or Snapchat or Instagram... but however it developed, it was soon viral. It seems for the first time a political movement has the potential of affecting some serious changes to laws dealing with firearms, and possibly even shaking the Second Amendment from its perception as being the most inviolable of all rights, which all but allows every individual to become one’s own personal military arsenal. </span></div>
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At last, a group has seized on the opportunity created from horror, the same horror that has created so many missed opportunities before. And that group —the</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> movers </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">of the movement, the spirit that drives it—are the students themselves. Fourteen to eighteen year-olds, mainly. This is the most unlikely part of it, though on second thought, it shouldn’t necessarily be so. Most of them can’t even vote. But it</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> a matter of self defense, after all. What else can they do? <i>There are no grown-ups in the room</i>. It started with Parkland students speaking loudly and often this past weekend, and seems to be attracting young students in other parts of the country. Today a lie-in was held by students in the D. C. area near the White House. They are saying “these are our lives and dreams being shattered, and we </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">will </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">have something to say about it... if we can’t vote, we’ll be in the streets; and when we can vote, all of you NRA puppets will be out of here!”
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Plans have been announced for a </span><b style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">“massive rally against school and gun violence in Washington, D.C., on March 24, with smaller rallies and protests in cities around the U.S.,”</b><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"> reported NPR yesterday. Women’s March organizers have planned a nationwide walk out of schools to protest gun violence. This seems to be a cause created for humanists. NOSHANs have been active in making their views seen and heard at events during the last few years, including several members going to Baton Rouge to join with other groups in a counter-rally to then-Governor Jindal’s love fest and rally with the American Family Association on the LSU campus; participating in two Women’s Marches; joining in with the March for Science last Spring, and a curbside sign-waving rally on Clearview Parkway in objection to the Hobby Lobby corporation's decision to refuse including payment for contraceptives in their employees' insurance plan (which later became the landmark </span><i style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Burwell vs. Hobby Lobby </i><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">case heard before the Supreme Court).</span></div>
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If students of local schools plan a version of this march for our area, we belong with them; if they don’t, perhaps we should take it on ourselves to become a visual or vocal presence on this issue. It would be an opportunity to show our solidarity with our young citizens, our children and grandchildren; and, for once, it can be an opportunity not missed.</span></span><br />
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</b></span></span></span><b style="font-family: arial; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">report by Marty Bankson</b></div>
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MarBanxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06337624636656409507noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2356521771899662194.post-58262096972813095842018-02-06T22:02:00.001-06:002018-02-07T10:33:34.387-06:00Looking at Identity from the Center<h2>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH3EonxHFJU7ouZH1dRsHK2KoAJ6zI23zgjOJc8L8XCe0ZcOQ8Kf8yfaG7Gx6VKF3ouqXHa5BaCrTMnpti6Kk4fwNiXBsCKXDM3eOUgxwUpi0XLY2VFsuO9KGc40nNsuD_oPpijMwHIdM/s1600/liberal.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="271" data-original-width="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH3EonxHFJU7ouZH1dRsHK2KoAJ6zI23zgjOJc8L8XCe0ZcOQ8Kf8yfaG7Gx6VKF3ouqXHa5BaCrTMnpti6Kk4fwNiXBsCKXDM3eOUgxwUpi0XLY2VFsuO9KGc40nNsuD_oPpijMwHIdM/s1600/liberal.jpeg" /></a>A Liberal Opinion from Mark Lilla</h2>
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<span class="s1"><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-style: italic;"> </span><i>“...the most profound and potentially most radical politics come directly out of our own identity, as opposed to working to end somebody else’ oppression.”</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"><i> </i>—from the Combahee River Collective Statement, 1977</span></span></div>
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<i>"anything achieved through movement politics can be undone through institutional politics."—Mark Lilla, </i>The Once and Future Liberal </blockquote>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-bab83a6d-6e6b-25f9-5ff6-490c9b84d267"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Once upon a time in recent history, someone altered the quotation “All politics is local,” reportedly said by former Speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives <b>Tip O’Neill</b>, to fit a blossoming cultural trend and controversial niche of higher educational study and curricula to “All politics is </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">identity politics</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">” (and its corollary “all politics is personal”), which has proven to be, at the very least, a fail proof title for bloggers and journalists under which to express their own two cents worth on the subject. A few examples can be seen</span><a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/1/29/7945119/all-politics-is-identity-politics" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> here</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,</span><a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/1/26/1625393/-All-politics-is-identity-politics" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> there</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and </span><a href="https://mediadiversified.org/2016/12/09/all-politics-is-identity-politics/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">everywhere</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. One ambitious writer even tries stirring interest with its antithesis</span><a href="https://kenanmalik.wordpress.com/2017/07/23/not-all-politics-is-identity-politics/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> yonder</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-bab83a6d-6e6b-25f9-5ff6-490c9b84d267"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Mark Lilla</b>, author of last year’s much-discussed book </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Once and Future Liberal </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(HarperCollins, 2017, Kindle Edition) is Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University and a dyed-in-the-wool liberal, and has written other books about political philosophy and history, including </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Stillborn God, The Shipwrecked Mind, </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Reckless Mind. </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The oddly simplistic titles of the books, along with a lucid and straightforward writing style belie his thorough understanding of the history of ideas of politics. In this book he takes a position that is usually associated with the thinking of both those farther left of liberalism and farther right at the same time, those which challenge the idea that identity politics is</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> true </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">politics in the first place; a paradox that I’ll try to illuminate later.</span></span><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-bab83a6d-6e6b-25f9-5ff6-490c9b84d267"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He sets up his premise looking at twentieth century U. S. history based on two different and opposing grand political themes—which he calls “dispensations,” borrowing from the theological term meaning, loosely, “ divine ordering of the world”—named for their association with the presidents that inspired them and became recognized as the guru of each. The Roosevelt dispensation began with the New Deal escape from the Great Depression and excesses of monopoly capitalists, and continued through the defeat of fascism, the civil rights movement—up to the Great Society days of Johnson. It “pictured an American where citizens were involved in a collective enterprise to guard one another against risk, hardship, and the denial of human rights.” and could be tagged with words like solidarity, opportunity, and public duty. The Reagan Dispensation “pictured a more individualistic America, where families...and businesses would flourish once freed from the shackles of the state,” with watchwords like self-reliance and minimal government. The early 1970s is generally accepted as the time the transition began, culminating in 1980 with the election of Ronald Reagan. Lilla’s ultimate message is to emphasize party politics over movement and identity politics as the only successful way to achieve progress, but that about this time, democrats abdicated power to the Republican Party by not following this prescription. The New Left of the 1960s spawned </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">issue-based </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">movements that helped bring about progressive change, writes Lilla, but did nothing to contribute to the unification of the Democratic Party and develop a liberal vision of America’s shared</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> future</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Remnants of the New Left were left scattered following their attempt at a radical transformation of American society. Scattered, but not forgotten: many of the group, now with degrees, returned to campuses as instructors or activist hangers-on and “turned the university into a pseudo-political theater for the staging of operas and melodramas” which, “generated enormous controversy about tenured radicals, the culture wars, and political correctness.” On the other side, however, Republicans were spreading out across the country through small towns, rural counties, and big cities participating in “real” politics by getting people elected to offices of magistrates to judges to governors, where the power for change really rests.
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-bab83a6d-6e6b-25f9-5ff6-490c9b84d267"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Enter Reaganism—the new vision of bootstrapping one’s way to success if only big government would get out of the way was presented in 3D and replayed through political campaigns and commercial media. The economic lull of stagflation after the post-war boom years and flattening wages was blamed in whole or part on big government with its proliferation of welfare and social aid programs, byzantine bureaucracy, and appetite for war (even if was about Communism). The vision of the newly empowered individual speaking true to the power of the monolithic state swept Republicans into the driver’s seat in statehouses, federal offices, and the Presidency. And this is the paradox: another form of individualism was populating our campuses and writing policy in the Democratic playbook. That form being self-definition, construction of personal brands, self-regard, and training students to become “spelunkers of their personal identities.</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Reaganism for lefties</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lilla calls it.
We now had two identitarian groups; one of wallet-watchers and the other of navel-gazers, neither concerned much about the concepts of reciprocal rights and duties, civic responsibility as a virtue, a common vision for the future, or the priority of citizenship over group or personal identity. (Sam Harris claims we deny the common </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">rationality</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> shared by humans.) The conservatives are correct in saying that liberals run academia, but fail to see that it works in their own favor, since collegiate identity politics has a fragmenting, anti-political quality built in, which should affirm that the Republican has no need to feel threatened or challenged for power, at least from those quarters. The left identitarians create their own problem, with the backlash from white supremacists gaining a renewed feeling of empowerment—courtesy of the student body’s lead that it was now okay for everyone to get along with expressing their own identity.</span></span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-bab83a6d-6e6b-25f9-5ff6-490c9b84d267"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Some reviewers of </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Once and Future Liberal </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">see it as more of a polemic than a scholarly social analysis, filled with over-simplifications, stereotypes, and buzzwords. Lilla himself admits to being “harsh” in his criticism of the phenomenon. But often it takes a rousing polemic to refresh interest in a topic that has tended toward the over-analyzed and a sameness that triggers the glaze-over-zone-out effects in readers. The feedback from writers in the national media demonstrates the controversy his book has created. Lilla’s insistence on moving on from what is now a four decades-long move from the civic-minded citizen working with others to get through troubling times and plan for the better future into today’s hyper-individualistic, atomizing, de-politicizing, and self-absorbing libertarian ideology is probably a project those who identify as humanists could agree with as project worth pursuing. Whether they would agree that working through grassroots Democratic party politics to accomplish that is another question. After all, the accusation that both major party organizations, as servants to a larger neoliberal capitalist ethos are systemically corrupting in themselves cannot be ignored. That the ethos motivated by profits alone can, in the course of one television program, promote ideal of all people of various cultures and skin colors celebrating life while enjoying their soft drink in one commercial; and in the next, offer inexpensive DNA test kits to show you just how different you are from the folks in the previous commercial shows where the vision of the current party politics is likely focused.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So is Lilla’s solution to the problem viable? Is the problem really a problem? Whatever the correct answers are, it is a good bet they won’t be the coming from one person, one party, or one identity group alone. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;">~reported by </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Marty Bankson
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MarBanxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06337624636656409507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2356521771899662194.post-52093478673208890652018-01-05T21:14:00.000-06:002018-01-10T16:14:05.476-06:00We Got to Admit It's Getting Better...All the Time<h2>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Even though that wall calendar with photos of wide-angle landscapes or cuddly kittens is now out with the trash, I’ll bet some of you are still writing 2017 in your checkbook (if you still use checkbooks), or just find it hard to break the habit of the year just passed in some other insignificant way; so I’ll use that as a justification to look back one more time at that curious time that was 2017— through the lens of NOSHA activity. Though most versions of “Year in Review” (and its concomitant long list of notable deaths) appear in media platforms the week after Christmas, this</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> only a week behind schedule, so please indulge me and overlook the lame checkbook reasoning.</span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-6af04464-c957-f696-b6d8-8009c6a1952c"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>In Memoriam:</b></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>The Winter Solstice celebration of the year before (2016) was probably the last time many of us saw Harry Greenberger. His wry smile belied the almost limitless generosity of his spirit. He was the</i> élan vital <i>of The New Orleans Secular Humanist Association as President. </i></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> He had just recently resigned from the Board of Directors; and following a brief illness, died weeks before his 90th birthday. He is NOSHA’s notable.</span><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-6af04464-c957-f696-b6d8-8009c6a1952c"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>So….Just In Case You Missed It —</b>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-6af04464-c957-f696-b6d8-8009c6a1952c"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The year began with a shared and uncharacteristically cheerless mood for most progressive and optimistic humanists following the election in November of the current occupants of the White House, so much so that no January program was scheduled, as if in mourning to the dream of a better world that could soon possibly turn into a nightmare…...
Several members attended the first-ever national <b>Women’s March</b>, on January 21st, coincidentally held the day after the inauguration…... In February, in lieu of a formal program centered around <b>Darwin Day</b>, and in keeping with the spirit of Mardi Gras, a dozen or two gathered at Monkey Hill Bar on Magazine Street to pay tribute with drinks and and birthday cakes to the Evolution Guy…..
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-6af04464-c957-f696-b6d8-8009c6a1952c"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Returning to Jefferson East Bank Regional Library in March, NOSHA members and guests were presented a screening of the film</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Bag It! </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and an address by <b>Max Ciolino</b>, with the <b>No Waste NOLA </b>group, both the film and talk about the potential for environmental—and thus human—catastrophic poisoning from the accumulation of indestructible plastic containers, packaging, and grocery bags. New Orleans goes through 225 million plastic grocery bags a year (!) Where do they go?…...
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-6af04464-c957-f696-b6d8-8009c6a1952c"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="text-align: center;">To my knowledge, the first field trip in NOSHA’s 17-year history hit the highway to Livingston, La., the site of the <b>Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO)</b>.</span>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.8px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">A description of this marvel of science and engineering is too long for this format, but some background about it and our experience can be read </span></span><a href="http://noshablog.blogspot.com/2017/05/field-trip-nosha-meets-in-remote.html" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;">here</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;">. In short, no better way to experience Einstein’s prediction of the effects of the “warping” of space-time and how it can be measured….... </span></span></span><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-6af04464-c957-f696-b6d8-8009c6a1952c"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">In May, <b>Seth Andrews</b>, the man behind </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>The Thinking Atheist</b> </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">blog was our guest speaker and drew one of our largest audiences of the year. There is nothing quite like scheduling a “big name” atheist to pack them in. </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">The previous year, <b>David Silverman</b> resulted in similar interest…...
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The summer side of the solstice celebrations went off smoothly with the help and graciousness of <b>Membership Coordinator Beth Deitch</b>, once again offering her home as the venue. She cannot be thanked too many times…….
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Marjorie Esman</b>, the now-retired Executive Director of <b>Louisiana’s American Civil Liberties Union</b>, addressed the audience at the July monthly meeting, emphasizing some changes for the better that had been taking place within state and federal government laws through the ACLU’s diligent and legal involvement, such as bans on immigration on religious grounds, voter discrimination laws, reducing prison populations (and encouraging the establishment of programs to reduce recidivism), and sharing the good news that the theocratic lobby Louisiana Family Forum is losing its once very powerful influence in legislative and court battles…...
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Williams and Bust of Volney, France</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Thomas Christian Williams</b>, probably the leading historian on the works of the 18th Century French author Volney, and specifically, </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Ruins of Empires, </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">which is a “book of secular general principles,” most notably as the book that Thomas Jefferson began translating into English until a run for the presidency forced him to abandon the project. </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Williams’ presentation was proof that a lecture on the history and implications of a</span><a href="http://noshablog.blogspot.com/2017/09/renaissance-man-lessons-from-lost.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> single book</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> need not be dry or boring…...
The subject matter of October’s meeting became deadly serious as <b>Julie Hanway</b> of <b>The Final Exit Network</b> came to town to tell us about her group’s dedication to and work for securing the<a href="http://noshablog.blogspot.com/2017/10/halloween-horror-365-right-to-life-laws.html"> right to die </a>for the terminally ill and those suffering from chronic unbearable pain. The group was founded by some of the original members of the <b>Hemlock Society</b> (hemlock being the poison Socrates drank to emphasize his right to choose the time, place, and by whose hand he would die). This is a somber subject and occupation—but someone needs to do it ......
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The third Saturday in November, NOSHA’s scheduled monthly meeting date, ended up on election day this year and we were forced to find an alternative meeting place since the Jefferson Parish library is also a designated polling place. The good folks at the <b>Unitarian Universalist Church</b> on Claiborne Avenue were kind enough to provide (for a nominal fee) their sanctuary for our “service,” which this month was an open discussion on atheism in general and as a movement (no irony here, right?), free speech and tolerance within the movement, and how our organization in particular could polish its public face with visitors and potential new members. Ms. Deitch did a professional job of moderating the discussion as she has done several times previously. Did I mention she was capable of hosting large parties as well?…...
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> But for the <b>2</b></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>017 Solstice Celebration, Winter edition</b></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">, Marshall Harris took over the reins as “official” host at his home on Bayou St. John. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Celebrating the Solstice</td></tr>
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The gleaming white living area, all trimmed in red and strings of lights (similar the decorating theme of that</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> other </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">holiday happening around this time of year) also served as a perfect setting and time for the presentation of the <b>Harry Greenberger Humanist Award</b> to <b>Marjorie Esman</b>, who was a lock to be the selection for this award as soon as she became able to except it. As the now-retired ACLU chief, she was no longer restricted from accepting gifts or awards from partisan groups, save possible accusations of conflicts of interests. Free of that, there has never been a more powerful group sharing NOSHA’s concern of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment than Louisiana’s ACLU, and Ms. Esman continued that tradition as well or better than her predecessors in the role of Executive Director. We should be humbled by the fact that she took our award to be a true honor and compliment.
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">President Klasson (l.) Presenting the<br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Behind the scenes of the public third-Saturday lectures, discussions, and parties are a couple of other projects that deserve a mention to appreciate the dedication of our members to getting out our message that one can be <b><i>Good Without God</i></b>. Some of our members took part in demonstrations having shared common interests with, and sponsored by, larger groups: The March for Science in April, the <b>Chevron NO/AIDS Walk<i>™</i></b> walk in October, and the <b>Second Line for Equal Justice</b> in November all drew at least a few NOSHAns.
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Harris, Stage Right</td></tr>
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Our own <b>Marshall Harris</b> served as the Master of Ceremonies for the No/AIDS Walk™ for the second straight year…...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since taking over “The Humanist Perspective,” the television program aired on the access cable network NOA-TV, the team of <b>Deitch, Dugan</b>, and <b>Klasson</b> have, through scheduling interesting guests and with their unique interviewing styles, added a new a new twist to program. Dare I say a new perspective? A re-make of the introduction of the program is in the planning stages, so stay tuned. Archived programs can be seen on YouTube’s<b> “New Orleans Humanists”</b> channel…...
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB2TgEj0PT8WEAtAdpVNoT7l-zfvqgzAM1yuLRW7nx0SgM64Wrbt2FRWcv6G9GtvQNWE7uc8jqJAd1AYnbB4cMagPCN5XqD3YIrTO4w0VT4x2K6th5Osg8AZtG1CTWBtXN4kuNrK5odnU/s1600/Diggers2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB2TgEj0PT8WEAtAdpVNoT7l-zfvqgzAM1yuLRW7nx0SgM64Wrbt2FRWcv6G9GtvQNWE7uc8jqJAd1AYnbB4cMagPCN5XqD3YIrTO4w0VT4x2K6th5Osg8AZtG1CTWBtXN4kuNrK5odnU/s320/Diggers2.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our commitment to public service volunteer projects is undergoing a revitalization and evolution of the <b>NOSHA Social Aid and Pleasure Club</b>, by expanding the scope of activities with which we will try to involve ourselves, and adding the name <b>NOSHA Service Corps</b>.
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What started out as clean-up crew under the city’s Save Our Cemeteries organization five years ago, the effort has grown to include usually two shifts at the </span><b style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Second Harvest Food Bank</b><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and this year, tree-planting excursions to Port Manchac, La.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now that the shock of the national political turmoil has faded for most of us, we should expect nothing but a better year. It’s here!</span></div>
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<i style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>January 4, 2018</b></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i style="font-size: 11pt;"><b>The Humanist Advocate</b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><i style="font-size: 11pt;"><b>Marty Bankson</b></i></i></span></div>
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MarBanxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06337624636656409507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2356521771899662194.post-54274842718094070552017-12-11T12:24:00.003-06:002017-12-12T10:48:59.920-06:00Defining Our Terms—and Ourselves<h2>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">An event that would not have been expected is one of several current definitions of </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">irony</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">. NOSHA’s November program—in a group discussion format— </span><b>"Atheist Infighting: Is the Movement Falling Apart or Just Growing Up?”</b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> fit the definition perfectly when the monthly meeting at the Jefferson Parish East Bank Regional Library had to be moved because it was election day and the library also serves as a polling place. </span><b>The First Unitarian Universalist Church</b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> on Claiborne Avenue became the most practical venue substitute, offering a flexibility of attendance size and affordability. Not that NOSHA has been averse to meeting in churches; it has done so before; but it’s likely the gods couldn’t have been more devilishly gleeful at the prospect of atheists discussing their own demise in a house of worship.
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-c421d0b4-46a2-b740-0732-e850e48def9f"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As is usual, however, group discussions raise more questions than are (or can be) answered. Membership Coordinator and moderator <b>Beth Deitch</b> was well-prepared to lead the discussion, and with a deep background on the current movement to keep the discussion moving and even offering a few suggestions—if not hard answers—of her own. A sampling of interesting questions that brought mention on the topic were:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Are we (speaking of NOSHA) an atheist group or a humanist group? This one seems easy: “Secular Humanist” is part of our group name. “Secular” implies non-theism.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What do we claim as our position and whom do we claim to be our spokespeople? </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What, exactly, do we want? Political power? Community?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How much did social media contribute to opening up the atheist movement to racist, anti-feminist, and more generally, anti-social justice and reactionary political opinion. And its logical follow-up question:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do we have to be accepting of all viewpoints? Does the ideal of freedom of speech require us to tolerate the intolerant? </span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-c421d0b4-46a2-b740-0732-e850e48def9f"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Some may question where the title subject for the program came from to begin with. New members and followers of our local group, and even old veterans might ask what all the fuss is about. Is there really “infighting” about atheism, and how can that even be? Is atheism really a ”movement,” or just a mindset or philosophical opinion about metaphysical questions, and is the movement no more than local organizations of like-minded folk? More than one person shared with me (and I’ll bet there are more than a few others) that she wasn’t up on all the current goings-on in the cybersphere or skeptic and atheist national conventions. So maybe a very brief history—as I can relate with my recently refreshed memory on it—about when and what the disagreements and bickering began, and, for some, how it has become a Manichean duel to the death.</span></span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-c421d0b4-46a2-b740-0732-e850e48def9f"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Atheism has been around human culture as least as long as belief in gods, and its voices in literary and philosophical thought have waxed and waned since at least the classical Greek civilization. September 11, 2001, many have been the trigger for the most modern version,<b> “New Atheism,”</b> a term coined by <b>Gary Wolf</b> in 2006 after the publication of <b>Sam Harris’</b> </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason,</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> mostly</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">inspired by the 9/11 attack. It was the first of a group of books published by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, journalist Christopher Hitchens, philosopher <b>Daniel Dennett</b> about the foibles of true belief and religious thinking. This latest iteration was the first to benefit from the internet era, where it became a topic of blog writers, videographers, social media and news platforms, sub-reddits and YouTubers. Almost from the beginning, both ends of the political spectrum were showing up in what had been more generally also secular, atheist webpages. <b>Susan Jacoby</b>, a longtime skeptic and humanist, pointed back to secularright.org in</span><a href="https://www.onfaith.co/onfaith/2011/02/24/how-rare-are-godless-right-wingers-4/4159" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> this</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> article in 2011, opening with “The world, it seems, is waking up to the existence of politically right-wing atheists,..” </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Secular Right</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> still displays archives from 2008.
At the same time (2011), a decidedly uglier offshoot of secular righties’ conflation of social justice with social Darwinism was starting be heard. <b>Skepchick’s Rebecca Watson’s</b></span><a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Elevatorgate" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> “Elevatorgate” </span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">reporting seemed to offer for some a prime example of why feminism—and for a few of them, all three waves of it—was not only unnecessary bitching, but symbolic of the inherent evil embodied in all forms of identity politics. Blogger <b>Thunderf00t</b> was fired from <b>PZ Meyer’s</b> enlightening <b>Freethought Blogs</b> for his increasing anti-feminist posts, and the war was officially on. Now that feminism was an acceptable object of fear and scorn, race, religion, and the basic liberal foundations of an open society became available for the next round of hate-thy-neighbor-in-the-name-of-atheism wannabe YouTube stars like The Amazing Atheist, Sargon of Akkad, The Armored Skeptic, and —the appropriately named—Slymepit and Shoe0nHead.</span></span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-c421d0b4-46a2-b740-0732-e850e48def9f"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These perversions should be expected in a free press, but do the divisions among atheists on political, social, or, more fundamentally, “human nature” spell the end of the “atheist movement?” If one could define atheism in one sentence, it might be “a metaphysical concept of natural causes and explanation of the universe versus a supernatural one.” No basis of a movement there, in my opinion. Indeed, part of the vulnerability of atheism to “being hijacked” (as one commenter observed), lies in its breadth and vagueness. Secular humanism, said another, has an advantage of a more specific identity because it has its own code, viz., </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>The Humanist Manifesto</b></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. We should be thinking in terms of different sects of atheism, because atheism, in itself, is not a sufficient measuring stick to make a judgement between an alt-right atheist oozing anti-feminist, Islamophobic and anti-semitic bile over there, and a liberal humanist encouraging inclusivity and respect</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> for all </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">over here. And given that insufficiency, we are not obliged to either support or even defend bullshit coming from a fascist playbook or its readers. As the commenter above also noted, the best thing we can do is partner with other groups, growing a community of people committed to a much higher ideal.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> And in doing so, perhaps the irony of a NOSHA program in a U.U. sanctuary becomes not quite so great as it first seemed to be.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thanks again to <b>Beth Deitch</b>, The First Unitarian Universalist Church, and everyone who participated by offering your thoughts in the discussion.<i> And have a Great Holiday Season, Solstice, or any other favorite flavor you may have for celebrating the season!</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>The Humanist Advocate
</i></span><i style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">~</i><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Marty Bankson
</b></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">December, 2017</span></div>
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MarBanxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06337624636656409507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2356521771899662194.post-91512834158644547232017-10-31T13:13:00.000-05:002017-11-01T20:17:08.773-05:00Halloween Horror, 365<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Socrates Chooses to Self-Administer Death</td></tr>
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Right-to-Life Laws Punish as Hell Could Only Dream</h2>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-d0afed54-7385-5322-3c93-71ef464f0c3a"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The <a href="http://www.finalexitnetwork.org/" target="_blank">Final Exit Network</a> “is the only organization that educates individuals that are suffering, either with terminal illness long term untreatable pain, and provides a compassionate presence at their bedside,” said <b>Julia Hanway</b>, who had come to New Orleans to make a presentation at NOSHA’s October meeting. Most would agree with little argument that is a noble calling.
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-d0afed54-7385-5322-3c93-71ef464f0c3a"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Part of the “education” she refers to, however, is counseling the individual on humane ways to end suffering by terminating the patient’s life, which, most states prohibit through archaic religious-based laws. Leaders and activists in the <b>Final Exit Network</b> (FEN) have paid the price for following their conviction and dedication to their humane mission. In 2009, Thomas Goodwin, former president of FEN, and Deems Egbert, the medical director of the then Georgia-based organization, along with two others, were arrested and charged under Georgia’s assisted suicide law in the death of John Celmers. At the time, FEN only accessible method for assisting the patient’s life was through asphyxiation, using helium and plastic “exit hoods”. All charges were dropped when the Georgia Supreme Court found the state law prohibiting assisted suicide in violation of the free speech provision of the First Amendment.
Things did not go so well for FEN in a Minnesota case involving decedent Doreen Dunn, however. In 2015, FEN was convicted for violating Minnesota’s assisted suicide statute and was order to pay a fine of $30,000 and reimburse the family $3,000 for funeral expenses. In December, 2016, a Minnesota appeals court refused to reverse the decision, and the case awaits a review before that state’s Supreme Court, and if the case is not taken there, it is also to be considered for a hearing at the U.S. Supreme Court. </span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSVLie_FehJjJ8uf7XHQhpbQm53_6Sd7vR7LbIW2febdQN6qR9fFkHKMmSp5aYPIKUP7bBKs_3X5wyjLf8kMFOc-NYQFzHX0PXsK6F0jXAoC3toy6jFIFX5vD5QrHRJTzZRZkvdcw2ODY/s1600/death.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="256" data-original-width="197" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSVLie_FehJjJ8uf7XHQhpbQm53_6Sd7vR7LbIW2febdQN6qR9fFkHKMmSp5aYPIKUP7bBKs_3X5wyjLf8kMFOc-NYQFzHX0PXsK6F0jXAoC3toy6jFIFX5vD5QrHRJTzZRZkvdcw2ODY/s200/death.jpeg" width="153" /></a><span id="docs-internal-guid-d0afed54-7385-5322-3c93-71ef464f0c3a"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Much of the legal challenge is based on the language of “advising and encouraging” the patient, resulting in the free speech defense being used in these cases; another, can lead to an even more varied interpretation of “suicide”, or, as FEN calls it, “self-deliverance.” </span></span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-d0afed54-7385-5322-3c93-71ef464f0c3a"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It would seem that the ultimate goal of the Final Exit Network would—indeed, </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">should—</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> be the end of the need of </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">itself,</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> or any other organizations providing the same service. Oregon was the first to adopt a <b>Death with Dignity Act</b>, followed by Washington, Vermont, California, Colorado, and the District of Columbia. The laws, also categorized as physician-assisted dying and aid-in-dying laws, provide that physicians may provide pharmaceutical options for ending life to patients with prognoses of death within 6 months. The Canadian Supreme Court recently “threw out” existing laws, said Hanway, and deemed that under their national healthcare system, doctors “must provide for your wishes in dying.” Still, many states refuse to recognize the inhumanity of forcing people to go through the suffering of pain or the anxiety of waiting on the inevitable and cling to punishing laws based solely on Biblical and Koranic ethics. (While euthanasia and assisted-suicide are prohibited in the Islamic faith, turning off life support systems is permissible in hopeless cases.) </span></span><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-d0afed54-7385-5322-3c93-71ef464f0c3a"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE-D_isVnH7xvZ62a5sigQKTgTtxYyQjRUNPfhTL79-MHDGVf_NDujZ2LRzdUcxwNYgWm9GQuB69MczEhmLLhSs1kTAICCRXd4JNjT2w80H3Aj2s2gqIoR3WxCLTrNTA2OFdIvAGB5wbU/s1600/pain.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE-D_isVnH7xvZ62a5sigQKTgTtxYyQjRUNPfhTL79-MHDGVf_NDujZ2LRzdUcxwNYgWm9GQuB69MczEhmLLhSs1kTAICCRXd4JNjT2w80H3Aj2s2gqIoR3WxCLTrNTA2OFdIvAGB5wbU/s200/pain.jpeg" width="200" /></a></span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-d0afed54-7385-5322-3c93-71ef464f0c3a"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is a certain irony of that goal of eventual self-extinction by the Final Exit Network and its current function of providing counseling and—usually—assistance to those in dire need of escaping traumatic pain and grief through “self-deliverance.” But given the current conservative climate in many statehouses, the goal may yet remain in faraway territory for a while longer. In the meantime, families, loved ones, and lone individuals alike need to take precautions for any and all eventualities regarding end-of-life issues, including preparing a Living Will, stipulate a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) clause, and generally become educated on the options and support groups available for guidance on those issues. Bookmark websites like </span><a href="http://www.finalexitnetwork.org/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">www.finalexitnetwork.org</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> , The Conversation Project </span><a href="http://www.theconversationproject.org/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">www.theconversationproject.org</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> , and National Healthcare Decisions Day </span><a href="http://www.nhdd.org/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">www.nhdd.org</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Support efforts to dismantle laws restricting the individual’s freedom of choice on life and death matters. And support and encourage groups like the Final Exit Network to continue their challenge to cruel laws, including their acts of civil disobedience of disregarding and breaking the law. Without these test cases to the criminal statute, the faraway land of sane and rational laws could be a hopeless destination.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Reporting: Marty Bankson</i></span></span></div>
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MarBanxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06337624636656409507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2356521771899662194.post-62797147121087172482017-09-21T15:55:00.000-05:002017-10-05T13:44:47.263-05:00Renaissance Man? Lessons from a Lost Classic on Secularism <span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the current (Sept/Oct 2017) edition of </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Humanist</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, former president of the American Humanist Association Lyle L. Simpson marks the centennial anniversary of the modern humanist movement with a brief summary of its improbable beginning in a Minneapolis Unitarian Church, while also mentioning its ancient origins with Greek and Roman literati Epicurus and Lucretius.
</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Epicurus' teaching, "centered on each of us maximizing our life here on Earth instead of our life being regulated by the gods" was "spelled out in detail" in Lucretius' poem "On the Nature of Things" writes Lyle, and was later translated into Latin and adopted by the Medici family, Florentine rulers in the early 1400s, as a code for living.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Missing from Lyle's abbreviated history was an entire movement generally referred to as Renaissance Humanism, beginning with the efforts of Italian poet Petrarch, promoting the idea of human progress—only three centuries removed from the Dark Ages— and as an alternative to the static outlook of Catholic scholasticism. Petrarch's belief was that in order for humanity to advance and regain "cultural excellence"—and thus "progress"—Classical-era texts and histories of needed to recovered, restored, and thoroughly studied and then emulated in life. He considered the Greek and Roman classical age as the high point of civilization, and emphasized the need to get back to a culture modeled after it. From the late 1300s to the 1600s, humanists went about searching "private and monastic libraries, [the region of] Byzantium, and [interviewing or uncovering works by] Muslim scholars and merchants," (1) collating and cross-checking translations for accuracy. The rebirth of the Classical age was the goal, and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">that</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> would be progress. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Williams and Bust of Volney</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Thomas Christian Williams</b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> introduced attendees to the NOSHA September monthly meeting to the signature accomplishment of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Constantin-François de Chassebouef, compte de Volney</b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: his book </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Les ruines; ou Méditations sur les révolutions des empires</b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">; author and book hereinafter referred to as Volney, and the English title </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ruins of Empires</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, or just </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ruins. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Williams' lecture, titled "The Modern Day Relevance of Volney's Ruins" suggested that there can be lessons for humanity in this book he calls a "lost classic," "lost" even though it was popular in the late 18th and through much of the 19th centuries.
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Perhaps the most interesting points about the history of the author and book is that Volney was acquainted with Benjamin Franklin, who, in turn, introduced him to Thomas Jefferson during the fledgling days of the American republic. Jefferson apparently liked </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Ruins</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> well enough to attempt (anonymously) translating it into English, completing about 80 percent of it before abandoning the project to pursue running for the office of President. The remainder of the translation was completed by Joel Barlow and first published in the United States in 1828. The book was read by George Washington (the pre-Jeffersonian edition), Frederic Douglass (Volney was also an abolitionist), Abraham Lincoln (who wrote an essay about it), atheist crusader Robert Ingersoll, poets Walt Whitman (whose "Leaves of Grass" is based upon) and William Blake, and women's rights pioneer Elizabeth Cady Stanton. With a list of readers such as these, it should easy to believe in Williams' claim that this book of "secular general principles" is one "our species needs in the tumultuous opening decades of the 21st Century," and is one "people could use to build a peaceful, prosperous, and transparent democracy."
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Williams is, by some accounts, the world's leading expert on Volney's </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ruins, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and that pedigree would be hard to deny. His expertise on the different editions and translations of the book can been seen on the Amazon website under comments section where he himself contributes to reviews of several versions of the book, including in some of them </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>"Five General Rules to Purchase a Jefferson-Barlow Translation"</b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. He is the searching, diligent 15th Century humanist in this respect—making sure the Jefferson translation is properly identified, while giving background on other editions, motivated by the belief that a true understanding and implementation of Volney's works would be a progressive move forward. Unlike the Renaissance Humanists, though, his reflection to the past is not toward the cultural Shangri-la of the classical Greek era, but rather to a much more recent period of—primarily—intellectual history known as the Enlightenment, of which Volney and Jefferson could be considered exemplary heirs.
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For today's reader, getting through a translation of an 18th Century French work will probably prove to be cumbersome and tedious. One reviewer describes it as a "belated example of 'philosophic' polemics," so, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">dear reader</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, be prepared to add to the already slightly arcane language layers of hyperbole and obscure allusions; and wading one's way through it could become an even slower slog for all but the most dedicated scholar. It is here where Williams' world class expertise is again on display by distilling the highfalutin and flowery prose to straightforward interpretations for the modern day audience.
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">ISIS Execution Event at Ancient Palmyra: Cause and Effect of Fundamentalism</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Volney was a secularist, who believed the cause of the demise of empires was rooted in a conflict between fundamentalism and modernity; the fundamentalist system of morality being based on "metaphysical assertions," where modernists' moral code is based on the "physical realities" of nature.
And the most evident of all physical realities to living creatures is based on the imperative to survive. Humanity—in the form of governments and groups and individuals alike—can flourish only by accepting this basic natural law and encourage an ethic of "enlightened self-interest," which Volney defines as self-interest combined with education, moderation, and always applying the Golden Rule. This ethic, Williams writes in Amazon, is "a direct challenge to Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Social Contract—if you refute the Social Contract, you refute the moral foundation of the big government social programs that exist in the world today."
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The principle of enlightened self-interest, at least Volney's definition, may not sit well with many humanists who believe that government social programs are not a bad thing in themselves; on the contrary: it can be shown that they help mitigate many excesses of "self-interest" run amok, unfettered by any enlightened constraints, which has resulted in gross concentrations of wealth and political power in a world of capitalist economics.
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But Volney’s ideas of a morality based on naturalism over the "metaphysical assertions" of religions; his promotion of strict separation of church and state; and his abolitionist stance on slavery should be enough for secular humanists to at least familiarize themselves with his work, but not, as did the Renaissance Humanists, for the purpose of a nostalgic trip back to the past—where they believed were better books and a better life—to aid any attempt to emulate or recreate it in the present.
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>NOSHA extends its appreciation and thanks to Mr. Williams for his interesting and thought-provoking presentation! </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>—Marty Bankson</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(1)The Teaching Company, LLC. (2007). </span><a href="https://thegreatcourses.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://thegreatcourses.com</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Great Scientific Ideas that Changed the World, </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Steven L. Goldman, Professor.</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Progress Enters into History"</span>MarBanxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06337624636656409507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2356521771899662194.post-55683969062730649622017-09-13T15:30:00.000-05:002017-10-05T13:32:44.218-05:00Where Everybody Knows Your Name: A Case of Mistaken Identity<h2>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrroHnR7wdvcLx0TvijuTF2N4yiqLsgaqUG-82gh8hGnLdjuDcLwjpuy6ludIBtFF2-Fbgz0mld7gtSrSvq5JPNVRgNuWqX-TDREwXi4qxiIgsyHYxvC-IWzUgUA2wqot2nMm6wZ2eedg/s1600/Facebar.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrroHnR7wdvcLx0TvijuTF2N4yiqLsgaqUG-82gh8hGnLdjuDcLwjpuy6ludIBtFF2-Fbgz0mld7gtSrSvq5JPNVRgNuWqX-TDREwXi4qxiIgsyHYxvC-IWzUgUA2wqot2nMm6wZ2eedg/s1600/Facebar.jpeg" /></a></h2>
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Someone once told me that opening up your Facebook app was like going to the neighborhood bar. The lyrics:</div>
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<i>"Sometimes you want to go</i><i> <br />Where everybody knows your name,</i><i> <br />and they're always glad you came.</i><i> <br />You wanna be where you can see,</i><i> <br />our troubles are all the same</i><i> <br />You wanna be where everybody knows</i><i> <br />Your name.</i>"<br />
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soon came to mind and continue—complete with the sappy melody from the <em><b>Cheers</b> </em>sitcom theme of the '80s—to initiate a daylong ear worm every time I think about it.<br />
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For my purpose, the barroom analogy may be well-suited. Whether you sit there reading, scrolling—latte or Red Bull within arm's reach of your keyboard—or with elbows and forearms prone on the counter guarding the micro-brew standing between them, with a co-relaxant/conversationalist on the next barstool, the inevitable interloper will walk through the door. How she got here if she were not otherwise on a "Friends with" list or a page group member, we may not know, possibly gaining entry through algorithmic aberrations of the Facebook master plan to have eventually everyone become friends of everyone else. But your space is public, just like the pub, so no explanation is ultimately necessary—it just happens. But this character is not the overly-welcomed Norm or the just-irritating trivia monster Cliff of <em>Cheers</em>, but a full-on goddamned troll; and just when you thought the day's stress was evaporating with each passing minute, she's on a mission. The analogy fails when, as most in-the-flesh disagreeable strangers keep to themselves in public settings like pubs, the newcomer, seeing a group expressing opinions contradictory to his own, is more likely to grab a stool at the far end of the bar. Likewise the troll without the cover of his basement or bedroom, or the road-raging driver without two tons of Ford F-150 armor is effectively neutered. Isolation seems to bring out the worst in us.<br /><br />***<br />
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The rather extended lead-in here is to illustrate that possible mistaken or just haphazard confluences of associations of people with others or groups that would not, on the face of it, appear as natural matches, in fact, occur; and when confined to the internet, telephones, or other non-physical modes of contact they can lead to very acrimonious verbal exchanges. This is not news to anyone who participates on social media or has ever had to deal with an inept customer service rep; and it is not news to frequent visitors to group pages like our own NOSHA page. There can be some interesting speculation on how these ill-matched conversationalists end up in the same place though.<br />
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There can be some confusion to the assumed general outlook and reason for being of the NOSHA organization itself, which can carry over as a misrepresentation in the social media. Some incorrectly assume that disbelief in the supernatural—all variations of atheism, etc.—is, pretty much, the beginning and end of the conversation, when, for NOSHA, it is really just the beginning. The American Humanist Association recently published a brief and<a href="https://americanhumanist.org/paths/atheism/"> insightful look into this topic </a> with a very brief review of historical highlights of atheism through the ages and a statement of principles of humanism, concluding with quotes from influential writers and scientists involved in AHA.<br />
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With the advent of the New Atheism in the mid-2000s came a resurgence of interest in the topic, and a new cottage industry of book and essay writing and speaking tours was born, followed not long after by the more contemporary communications available through social media, blogs, and podcasts. The underlying theme of most of it was that atheism was a "movement". The NOSHA Facebook discussion page doubtlessly benefited from this surge, now approaching 1,000 members, doubling the number from five years ago. And since the <b><a href="http://nosha.info/" target="_blank">New Orleans Secular Humanist Association</a></b> was founded before both New Atheism and social media, it could be considered a placeholder when referencing the birth, development, and outlook of similar groups that have sprung up since.<br />
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But atheism—in itself—cannot be the foundation of a movement: the dialectical refutation of an idea (or, in this case, gods) can lead only to a 'higher" truth, not a validation of itself as the end. It is only a method, a tool. Negation alone leads to nihilism. So it should come as no surprise that lately cracks have begun showing in the unity of the mission, perhaps the most glaring being the woeful attendance at the 2016 Reason Rally in Washington. Some blamed the scheduling at the beginning of summer, but much of it was due to atheist "purists" refusing to attend in reaction to programming geared more towards social justice and identity politics issues. Podcaster <b>David Smalley</b> most recent contribution to the cybersphere is titled <i>Eating Our Own: How You Can Save the Movement</i>, which acknowledges that there are divisions within "The Movement," but tries to demonstrate that none of the divisive issues can be of more importance than keeping <b><u>The Movement</u></b> together. One would need not look far to find other examples or commentary on the subject.<br />
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But there are some bad actors who are atheists, let's face it; and the web is being populated with more white nationalists/supremacists and closet fascists by the day, not to mention the standard complement of politically mainstream Democrats and Republicans—many avowed atheists— that hold unprogressive notions antithetical to the goals of humanism. Smalley can't be further from the truth with his call for unity for unity's sake. All atheism may be created equally, but where one proceeds with it is what matters.<br />
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A recent dust-up on the NOSHA Facebook group page is what drew my attention to this conflict. It happens sometimes, but I suppose we should still—in the spirit of humanism—maintain a policy of open membership to anyone requesting it, and even let members speak their piece, even if that opinion involves an obviously anti-humanist agenda. That same antagonist, on the other hand, should expect pushback. If he (in this case) is unaware of the ideals of humanism, he needs to be informed, given that some may see NOSHA as primarily a gathering place for "just" atheists. Once informed that the tenants of humanism stand in sharp contrast to his own agenda, but he relentlessly pushes on, "speaking one's piece" becomes miserable trolling in its worst form.<br />
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In this case, the reactionary atheist interloper decided to leave the group. That happens sometimes as well, reminding me of another interesting analogy that compares entry into Facebook Land to "....like being hit with the braggart Christmas letter every single day—Johnny is doing this, Jane is doing that—thereby making you feel bad about all the things you're <em>not </em>doing. It's pushing you to participate in a game you didn't really want to play." (1) We have too many positive things going on, and that may, just may, be our "braggart Christmas letter" to reactionary and misanthropic atheists who really have nothing much other going on themselves.<br />
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<i>CHEERS!</i><br />
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Havens, Sara. <em>The Bar Belle, Vol. 2. </em>lulu.com: 2015<br />
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An afterword, taken from the AHA's link above.....<br />
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<em>“It is quite possible to be an atheist and be quite deluded about other things other than religion. ‘Atheism’ is an empty category. ‘Humanism’ may be deluded about human potential, but at least it is a hopeful and non-exclusionary delusion!” – <b>Joyce Carol Oates</b>, AHA Humanist of the Year and prolific author.</em></div>
MarBanxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06337624636656409507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2356521771899662194.post-91265383325729520452017-05-23T19:31:00.003-05:002017-06-04T08:09:08.291-05:00FIELD TRIP!<h2>
NOSHA Meets in Remote Livingston Location to Learn About LIGO </h2>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dimples in Spacetime</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">Many, if not most of the advances in the discipline of</span><i style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"> science </i><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">and its utilitarian child</span><i style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"> technology</i><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"> have come from man’s ability to devise new ways to observe, measure and record the physical world around him—and the worlds beyond his own.</span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-b2012dec-37b9-986c-ff4f-4c2389d85123"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At last count, there are five space observatories in Louisiana, all but one resemble the image most visualize when hearing the term, of an igloo- or dome-shaped building with a the barrel of a telescope jutting out at an angle. It works on the very old math of focal lengths and the craft of lens making. Thanks to this measuring stick (and Galileo, of course) we know that we are not at the center of our solar system, much less the universe.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The fifth space observatory is an example of a new way to observe nature. It was conceived, designed, and constructed for the purpose of observing, unlike telescopes, phenomena that are invisible. And not only invisible, but, at the time, were only known to exist as a necessary consequence of <b>Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity</b>. The phenomena are </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">gravitational waves</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, the ripples in spacetime proposed by the theory that undulate outward from a large celestial events. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In April, about fifty NOSHA members went on a field trip to the <b>Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO)</b> ten miles or so north of Livingston, La., for their monthly educational meeting, and got a first hand experience and tour of how it works. The LIGO operation is funded by the National Science Foundation and operated by Caltech and MIT universities, with assistance from students and staff from LSU. An identical facility is located in Hanford, Washington; the idea being that with two observatories, any errors in measurements at either location—false positives—caused by local conditions or glitches would be cancelled by the other. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In the Control Room</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">LIGO began taking its first measurements in 2005, and made upgrades to the facility in 2015, which included the Science Education Center, a building designed for the general public with an auditorium, classroom, pre-control room area, and exhibit hall with about 50 interactive exhibits. The NOSHA group spent time with the hands-on giant, suspended slinky, bobbing and wagging their heads following the pendulum apparatus, trying to determine the heat source from a large concave mirror, and other exhibits while waiting for the guided part of the tour. <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">DIY Physics</td></tr>
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The guide walked about half of us (our group was split up due the the numbers and others outside of the group mixed in) to the main building where a short film was presented, followed by a visit to the central control room of the complex. Banks of monitors, almost floor to ceiling on three walls looked down on the three or four operators staffing the control.
The operators seemed unfazed by the crunch of tourists that squeezed in the the tight space down the center aisle and around their desks and were prompted by the guide to take questions from the guide. (There always seems to be a smart ass in these open question sessions, who purposefully ask a very technical question that would possibly leave a technician without an answer, thereby showing off his own expertise on the subject. Our group had one.) One of our members commented later that this part of the tour might better be served with a more dramatized presentation of goings-on with the maze of data displayed in the monitors and work being done by the operators rather than allowing questioners wander down rabbit holes with their abstruse musings.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So how do we observe something we cannot see (or is not detectable by any of our other four basic senses)? This is possible by </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhbMpe17fzA" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">observing the </span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">effects </span></a><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the phenomenon. In the case of the LIGO observatory, two 4-kilometer arms resembling inverted concrete half-pipes radiate at a 90° angle from a common point from within which a laser beam is sent traversing through a vacuum tube and reflected back to the center by suspended ultra fine mirror.
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The passage of a gravitational wave alters the length of the tubes, causing a difference in the time it takes for the beam to travel, and shows up as a slightly out of phase wave length.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Heading toward the Vanishing Point</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On September 14, 2015, such a disturbance was noted with the observatory in Livingston, and then, milliseconds later, at the Washington installation. By triangulation, the origin of the wave is determined, and the result agreed with a previous observation of the merging of two black holes over a billion years ago. “Slightly” is a vague and greatly understated term to describe the actual measurement: the variation amount to a mere 1/1000th of the diameter of a proton was all there was on the wavelengths. The precision involved in locating the mirrors to this degree of measurement is almost incomprehensible, as well as the technology to assure that the foundations in the ground were perfectly level; the concrete base poured to offset the curvature of the Earth, which would be a significant factor for error, even over the relatively short 2.5 mile length. Another wave was observed on December 26 of the same year at both locations. One gets a feel for the sensitivity of the equipment upon entering the facility. The two-lane road is lined on both sides and down the middle with traffic cones and the posted speed limit of 10 mph about a quarter mile before arriving at the main entry and guard shack. Some restrictions on tours are in effect to minimize traffic vibrations.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NOSHA brought a few scientists and engineers of our own!</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Some philosophers of science have pointed out that in the course of building new devices for observing natural phenomena-—even though the original conception may be sound and the intentions admirable-—may have biases built into them, causing them to yield results that they were specifically designed to observe or validate. Understandably, an area where the actual phenomenon remains invisible to the human sensory apparatus, </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iphcyNWFD10" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">doubt about the validity </span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">of positive results can persist, even among those involved in the project. Einstein himself waffled on his own idea, at least once publicly doubting the existence of the gravitational waves. But to Rainer Weiss, who by 1972 had drawn up a design for these long-armed “antennae” as a way to catch lightning in a bottle, a Nobel Prize may soon be on its way, and the burden of disproof remains on the skeptics.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thanks to Charlotte for putting this together and everyone who helped with the carpooling!</span></div>
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MarBanxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06337624636656409507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2356521771899662194.post-42533101891838048642017-05-21T14:15:00.002-05:002017-05-21T14:15:46.072-05:00Together we lost our great friend and mentor, Harry Greenberger ( June 22, 1927 - May 3, 2017 )<b><i>Marshall Harris addressed the audience at the monthly May 20 program of NOSHA and we felt this was a wonderful statement to share with everyone who knew and loved Harry.</i></b><br /><br /><br /><br />Harry was the most unique of friends in his way of giving, his honesty and sincerity. <br /><br />
I don't think I'll ever come across a friend quite like him ever again in my lifetime. <br /><br />
He lived his life his way. <br /><br />
He pretty much took charge of every aspect, even his exit.<br />
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Harry had accomplish many things in his 90 years, but ultimately it was NOSHA, The New Orleans Secular Humanist Association that gave him great joy in his life. <br />
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He told me many times how he had always wanted to create an organization where people who felt alone in their thinking could come together to feel a part of something that would keep them from that loneliness. He wanted nonbelievers to have a place where they could be around like-minded people, and could share, discuss their thoughts and views freely, without judgment or ridicule. <br />
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He knew it would be tough because there was nothing like that available back during the time he began NOSHA. Not to mention there being such a stigma out there about Atheists, Humanists, nonbelievers under any name, your choice. <br />
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Harry said to me one morning while I drove him to his very first New Orleans City Council Secular Invocation…<br /><br />
"I don't want to rid the world of religion, I just want my seat at the table, when all others are asked to gather." <br /><br />
He said… "There are lots of people,Marshall, really good people, that simply need religion to function in their life."<br /><br />"I don't want to take that comfort from anyone. I just want to be respected for my not wanting or needing religion in my life." <br />
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Watching Harry I've learned... If you really want people to accept you for who you are, you need to approach them as a gentleman. If you come across as a screaming radical, you just don't get the same result. You'd be surprised how the gentleman's approach will open doors, and even sometimes have your chair waiting for you to arrive at that gathering table.<br />
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The simple proof his way worked was how at first he had to push and really wedge his way in, to even have a secular invocation considered at the City Council of New Orleans, but later after hearing his eloquent words that very first time, Harry was then invited to do so several times thereafter. <br />
These small victories made him so proud. He was making a difference in some way.<br />
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With his television program <b>"The Humanist Perspective</b>". His regular appearances giving secular invocations to open the daily business of the City Council of New Orleans', and with you, NOSHA, Harry has accomplished something very unique. He made a difference.<br /><br />
If we look around here now, we see a room full of people here today that would not be gathered here, or even know each other at all, if it were not for one man's vision. Harry Greenberger's hopes have come true. We are not alone here today... now are we. <br />
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I'd like to take this time to thank <b>Charlotte Klasson</b>, who was there next to me when I needed a friend the most. I appreciate and love her so much for loving Harry and continuing to carry on his life's work so wonderfully as President of NOSHA. <br />
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I thank you NOSHA, for being Harry's incredible extended family. He loved you all very much and was so proud to speak of this organization wherever he went. <br /><br />
He wanted me to give you this special gift of $10,000.00, in hopes you guys will continue to work together, keeping his dream alive by reaching out and letting more and more people know NOSHA is here for them. Letting non-believers know... "they are not alone."<br />
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<b>All My Love & Gratitude,</b><br />
<b>MARSHALL HARRIS</b>NOSHAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02423636756548589951noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2356521771899662194.post-59041859343638188102017-05-06T08:05:00.000-05:002017-05-21T13:49:58.560-05:00New Orleans Has a (Plastic) Trash Problem<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Max Ciolino with</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">No Waste NOLA</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The ubiquitous plastic grocery bag, with high tensile strength disguised in its tissue paper sheer, along with water bottles and coated aluminum cans, is deservedly near the bullseye of environmentalists’ target for elimination. New Orleanians go through 225 such bags PER DAY, which comes to nearly 2.5 billion in a typical year. <b>No Waste NOLA</b> was a part of the larger coalition <b>Louisiana Reusable Bag Alliance</b> supporting a city ordinance which would have placed a ten-cent fee on non-recyclable plastic bags. The ordinance was withdrawn in September 2016 by councilwomen Guidry and Cantrell, who introduced it, as it appeared to have little support. There is a well-funded lobby opposing placing fees or reducing consumption of non-recyclables.
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The reasoning is that such restrictions would be “job killers,” but the underlying agenda is corporate profit. State legislator <b>Paul Hollis</b> attempted to introduce a bill in the state house earlier that year which would have prohibited New Orleans from imposing fees on their use, which probably also was a clue to the opposition in conservative, pro-business Louisiana and the councilwomen’s decision to withdraw it. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">From the <b>Texas-size Great Pacific Garbage Patch</b> (formally know as the North Pacific subtropical gyre) where water bottles, styrofoam cups, and wrappers float, trapped in an spinning cesspool of “single use” packages, to the invisible chemical reaction to human hormonal systems from bisphenol-a (BPA) and pthalates on newborns, to the image of the dead albatross in the Midway atoll, its partially decomposed body revealing plastic bottle caps and disposable lighters it had ingested, we have a constant reminder that “jobs” will be irrelevant on a dead planet.
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG0uijm3pxnf7Nus9OXIUmEEs7KLOWMROiYLcuy1pqG2zX76ekZy40GuagRzd262iU4ETTYmEDd2opHbFscJfCXFCSt0-kWd-kIw7OQ2PGX972C4jNWH1DyuXLna3FeLU8GeoyCnUhdIs/s1600/AA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG0uijm3pxnf7Nus9OXIUmEEs7KLOWMROiYLcuy1pqG2zX76ekZy40GuagRzd262iU4ETTYmEDd2opHbFscJfCXFCSt0-kWd-kIw7OQ2PGX972C4jNWH1DyuXLna3FeLU8GeoyCnUhdIs/s200/AA.jpg" width="200" /></a><span id="docs-internal-guid-733c6565-ddd0-bf11-c173-604ebee14fcd"><span style="font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The month of March brought NOSHA members and supporters back to their meeting home base, the East Bank Regional Jefferson Parish Library, for the first time since November of last year. The annual Winter Solstice party during the holiday season and the unsettling changes in the national political outlook in January, along with renovations to our meeting space and the usual Mardi Gras break, all contributed to our three month absence from the venue.
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKZ_9mVBJmVDjpeGAs7g_1w39aZ8iLY-D5Ns0MdUCItY9AqdUGqdFuGUeDchVh8yvnAl0m0Ll7fG0I6Bz2hLHaVeYeW1sQF-PO5jkxBy7LXvY-cG5AcPu1OHpRHP-xxy5Mb4VcRTswb2A/s1600/la-altered-oceans-trashing-our-oceans-video-20140917.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKZ_9mVBJmVDjpeGAs7g_1w39aZ8iLY-D5Ns0MdUCItY9AqdUGqdFuGUeDchVh8yvnAl0m0Ll7fG0I6Bz2hLHaVeYeW1sQF-PO5jkxBy7LXvY-cG5AcPu1OHpRHP-xxy5Mb4VcRTswb2A/s200/la-altered-oceans-trashing-our-oceans-video-20140917.jpg" width="200" /></a><span id="docs-internal-guid-733c6565-ddd0-bf11-c173-604ebee14fcd" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For our first full meeting of the year, <b>Max Ciolino</b>, a local attorney and president of the advocacy group No Waste NOLA introduced the screening of the 2010 documentary film </span><span style="font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Bag It! Is Your Life Too Plastic?</b></span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and followed the hour-long film with an open discussion about the scope of the local plastic pollution problem and his group’s efforts to reduce it by working through city and local governments. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Usually arguments against “job-killing regulations" favoring a cleaner environment are never balanced (in their makers’ minds) against cases of animal and human life preservation without them. The accumulating disaster of the petrochemical products that we throw away is in plain sight—maybe not in your backyard, but somewhere else on the planet—because there is no “away”, toward which shit can be thrown, other than another part of the planet. Degraded organics may fall apart and end up being ground into topsoils or sinking to ocean floors, but there they enter fresh water supplies and food chains. In </span><span style="font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bag It!, </span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">film director Susan Beraza</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> balanced the apparent apocalyptic consequences of a throw-away consumer culture left unchanged with a light-hearted—at times, almost comedic—role of the documentary’s protagonist Jeb Berrier, who is on a mission to do his part by eliminating these plastics from his life (and others, as well) showing the process of his awakening and education about the problem. Jeb and partner were expecting the birth of their first child in the narrative, which made for a clever allegory of the life-death-rebirth cyclical</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> mythos </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">of the ancients. His easy going portrayal did not, however, marginalize the enormity of the problem.</span> </span></span><br />
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MarBanxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06337624636656409507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2356521771899662194.post-57200556120056308212017-04-24T20:48:00.000-05:002017-04-25T09:54:12.500-05:00News... More or Less. Non-Fake<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2VEsUecyy7e57qpMawL6ZnYp24M8GRBjqbX0MNtXZCVoRouXpsGW5MV_joMq-StBnrlLyoMu-qzzvaAADrlmfuySX-RiW9qgDuIC0nmxOApE_7j0rOmMedRFQu_r4exF2HqV4jCZgqM8/s1600/Human+Advo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="81" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2VEsUecyy7e57qpMawL6ZnYp24M8GRBjqbX0MNtXZCVoRouXpsGW5MV_joMq-StBnrlLyoMu-qzzvaAADrlmfuySX-RiW9qgDuIC0nmxOApE_7j0rOmMedRFQu_r4exF2HqV4jCZgqM8/s320/Human+Advo.png" width="320" /></a>Since the recent retirement of the production manager at the <i><b>Humanist Advocate</b></i>, (NOSHA's quarterly newsletter) the editors will use this blog to report on the recent goings-on with our group—official events or impromptu get-togethers, or co-participation with other groups' events. Many thanks to <b>John Simon</b> for putting up with Charlotte and me for nearly two years, and good luck to him and his career. If anyone has the experience and software tools to design and publish to the web a four-page newsletter letter every three months, please contact either of us about a chance to sharpen your skills and burnish your image as a dedicated freethinking volunteer!<br />
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<i><b>JANUARY 2017</b></i><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihLQ-yGbQE9NvDY5WGUOA3xoRTUto2-0oc-TWm_sfT1XK4KHk7RijCUua-fgYMdvaLTdP0ds43WDHzpH3Twu-sCyCW9TFpNHJgxyREa3GqgLoU3eZoDf0UxaeSjy6ynwWcOSfrBfata-Q/s1600/IMG_1562.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihLQ-yGbQE9NvDY5WGUOA3xoRTUto2-0oc-TWm_sfT1XK4KHk7RijCUua-fgYMdvaLTdP0ds43WDHzpH3Twu-sCyCW9TFpNHJgxyREa3GqgLoU3eZoDf0UxaeSjy6ynwWcOSfrBfata-Q/s200/IMG_1562.JPG" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jennifer Porter</td></tr>
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For the past several years, February has been set aside for a celebration of Charles Darwin's birthday, February 12. Since February is usually the month Mardi Gras falls, the celebration, in the form of an educational forum of several speakers covering evolution and other related science topics, has been a good fit for the end of the holiday season and getting the new year jumpstarted.<br />
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Except this year. This year, every humanist, every social liberal, and every science advocate and human rights champion came face-to-face with a sense of dread not many had experienced before, caused the election of a United States President with one of the most unworthy agendas of nationalist hubris, racial and religious exclusion, and climate and environmental disregard not seen since the days when the world was going nuts with fascism The board of directors for NOSHA decided to take the month of the inauguration as an appropriate time for mourning and reflection, scheduling only an informal group discussion, since several others in management had chosen to join forces with nation-(world-)wide <b>Women's March </b>scheduled Saturday, January 21, the day following the official Inauguration Day in Washington, D.C. <b>Beth Deitch</b> led the discussion theme <b>"<i>Secular Humanism 2017: Where Do We Go from Here?"</i></b>. Over thirty made their way to Loyola University to sit in and participate on the topic. Meanwhile, on the other side of town—<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWEjGrweye-XDuMEYIl9Lf79j1QdDsNVYzJMR5_-0zHE23BTc_cBFgNQUwfrxco-H5cVCy-z9D_QkbaS57IqxkA3ICQzrX4nVSqHb_hqBA385vHmC8U2OdIXRol6CiB_kTX9I8bferiJ8/s1600/IMG_1571.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWEjGrweye-XDuMEYIl9Lf79j1QdDsNVYzJMR5_-0zHE23BTc_cBFgNQUwfrxco-H5cVCy-z9D_QkbaS57IqxkA3ICQzrX4nVSqHb_hqBA385vHmC8U2OdIXRol6CiB_kTX9I8bferiJ8/s200/IMG_1571.JPG" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">...and the other suffragettes</td></tr>
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From Washington Square in the Marigny, NOSHA members <b>Jennifer and Ricky Porter</b>, <b>Michelle Abeyta </b>and I hung together for the march all the way across the French Quarter, through the CBD, and ending up at Duncan Plaza, where <b>Charlotte Klasson</b> was holding down the info table for <b>NOW</b> (National Organization for Women) alongside the pavilion. <b>Joyce and Dave Thomas </b>and <b>Jim Dugan</b> were also among the other verified Unholy Strollers, as well as <b>Adam and Ariel Kay</b>, who were met along the way; but NOSHA's group remained mainly separated in the unanticipated large crowd of 10-15 thousand.<br />
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<i><b>FEBRUARY 2017</b></i><br />
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Charles Darwin's traditional role as subject and centerpiece for our January event may have been postponed, but it was not forgotten. His memory was a fine excuse to enjoy a a pint or glass of wine, even though excuses for toasting are hardly required in New Orleans—much less at the run-up to Mardi Gras. After a few suggestions at an earlier planning meeting, a "social" at <b>Monkey Hill Bar</b> in Uptown, complete with a cake was set for Sunday, February 12.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzFh68Sdlde9dhS2IvmSDHTbraD8R4cyYJZWLE7F1GeOxo6d-_cK5xY9LbQdb6l3O1FJktkBcOLX3pS_ZA4Jk15Pp3X8T7g1bvP2qQrvxE4_Au7ROsJreK_4zLr86WU9ORYIQiPOK23WM/s1600/IMG_0007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzFh68Sdlde9dhS2IvmSDHTbraD8R4cyYJZWLE7F1GeOxo6d-_cK5xY9LbQdb6l3O1FJktkBcOLX3pS_ZA4Jk15Pp3X8T7g1bvP2qQrvxE4_Au7ROsJreK_4zLr86WU9ORYIQiPOK23WM/s200/IMG_0007.jpg" width="171" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photographer arrives one slice<br />
too <span style="font-size: 12.8px;">late!</span></td></tr>
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As watering holes go in the Crescent City, Monkey Hill was quite civilized—unusually comfortable, in fact, with over half of the area furnished with sofas and cocktail tables and overstuffed armchairs, and warm, ambient lighting accenting the hunter green walls—although the early Sunday afternoon time may have contributed some to the relaxed atmosphere.<br />
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A dozen or two members and supporters turned out, several from out of town, including <b>Douglas and Yvette Parfait</b> of Slidell, <b>Jon Kennedy </b>from down-da-bayou Cut Off, La., friend Chris from JPL, and a follower who made it all the way from Baton Rouge.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrZcZ4m5cnINZOYMkG57dUQB6AYMkzyO6wdzwvEgkXdQwQkSFDUAtL_36JsiDV4j_c1SbReITcq7N3ztAKv6aaWUFzbK9PdB3px4zlx1wiPQmFkUPuvT9etElgD3nAO6zrI0n6jcJJYBA/s1600/IMG_0002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrZcZ4m5cnINZOYMkG57dUQB6AYMkzyO6wdzwvEgkXdQwQkSFDUAtL_36JsiDV4j_c1SbReITcq7N3ztAKv6aaWUFzbK9PdB3px4zlx1wiPQmFkUPuvT9etElgD3nAO6zrI0n6jcJJYBA/s200/IMG_0002.jpg" width="108" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ms. Beth!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhHhjT6bQIEHiT9wKLxOZrSWp0A8IMvT2W2LLlm8tASmVsHCrxYRcm92rXkIejZef-V8S7MeW9ZPiJCcw4RUvWNMky8emsIeoxIbmv5_kzN3SBRQVIqVw4YB4IvvyYzezacQxxk7OPLAk/s1600/IMG_0003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhHhjT6bQIEHiT9wKLxOZrSWp0A8IMvT2W2LLlm8tASmVsHCrxYRcm92rXkIejZef-V8S7MeW9ZPiJCcw4RUvWNMky8emsIeoxIbmv5_kzN3SBRQVIqVw4YB4IvvyYzezacQxxk7OPLAk/s200/IMG_0003.jpg" width="98" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ms. Rose!</td></tr>
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<i></i><br />
<i></i>Tall tales and bad romance find a welcome home in public drinkeries. A story was overheard about Darwin's misadventure into the Gulf of Mexico. Navigational errors, ill winds and ocean currents steered the helm and blew the sails of H.M.S. Beagle into the Gulf of Mexico and up the mouth of the Mississippi River, eventually to dock at the port of New Orleans. After several days of observing the native population, a sizable a percentage of which was considered the "property" of the rest, it was rumored that C.D. was on the verge of reformulating his theory after plugging in the data sets he gathered there.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqp1brFVR7de-9xPsHxtf1NmN1VtRnKch_dO9RlrbuXeeKTX867RkcgbT3mrDsstMVNmhSjfWYVy_cMhp8m4JA2aP6u6nc7A115DdqDgs22y7yLh56uDqMymfu2VDDiCBLb-Nv6eypyMQ/s1600/IMG_0005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="156" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqp1brFVR7de-9xPsHxtf1NmN1VtRnKch_dO9RlrbuXeeKTX867RkcgbT3mrDsstMVNmhSjfWYVy_cMhp8m4JA2aP6u6nc7A115DdqDgs22y7yLh56uDqMymfu2VDDiCBLb-Nv6eypyMQ/s200/IMG_0005.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Will, Thomas, Charlotte, Jim</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2dBxoi2fUZ0SVg2u34HutzfGL7kjgBqhRBOiPG7JbXsd6l7os-DCTmgkE-kLhFwk8WwjvrbjO7p7sYatTiBs1ohI5HZPQ6jLMLO3n-wqzCdsdR3xm98AFCXduTZQDXIwRBPQopAO3CGU/s1600/IMG_0006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="126" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2dBxoi2fUZ0SVg2u34HutzfGL7kjgBqhRBOiPG7JbXsd6l7os-DCTmgkE-kLhFwk8WwjvrbjO7p7sYatTiBs1ohI5HZPQ6jLMLO3n-wqzCdsdR3xm98AFCXduTZQDXIwRBPQopAO3CGU/s200/IMG_0006.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Smiths, Schultze</td></tr>
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But all jokes aside, NOSHAns know he had it right from the beginning; but we still need to work around that Mardi Gras thing to get his birthday tribute on a more regular schedule.<br />
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<b><i>See ya in a few...</i>Marty Bankson</b></div>
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MarBanxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06337624636656409507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2356521771899662194.post-61426735589638628152017-03-31T14:47:00.002-05:002017-03-31T14:47:54.463-05:00Trans-Up!<b> <i>(Another newsletter submission from our November 19 meeting)</i></b><br /><br /><b>Sally Jackson</b> was, at different times, a
band director, trumpet player, and professional
photographer before she moved to New
Orleans from Houston and subsequently
began to express herself through writing
novels and poetry. That was also the time
she transitioned at the mature age of of 57,
though she had known she was different at
the age of four. <b>Caroline L’huillier</b> was born
into a military family two months premature
on All Saint’s Day, and thus had a special
remembrance of Halloween, when she liked
costuming as woman. She married and had
a child, but could no longer keep her identity
from her wife, and the marriage was
ended. She spent 18 years enlisted in the
military herself, but was ignobly discharged
because of her sexuality. <b>Maxx Sizeler</b> knew
at three he wanted to marry a girl; he knew
he was different, but decided on taking the
process slowly, spending half of his life in
the gay community. He finally had chest
surgery, and has spent the other half in the
trans community.
<br /><br />NOSHA members got an introduction to one
of the newest human rights issues that has
been gaining ground in the quest for resolution
in media and cultural discussions and
political legislation—transgender sexuality.
It has typically been bunched together with
gay, lesbian, and other non-traditional sexual
orientations, but was the topic of a panel
discussion <b>“Transgender 101”</b> at the November
meeting in Metairie. The three panelists
backgrounds were as varied as their experiences;
but there was a common thread of
the rational, intellectual decision-making
on initiating the transition process to the
gender identity each knew was the only
correct one.
But the transgender cause remains one with
no national spokesperson; and the legal support
groups are in their infancy.<br /><br />Religious or
just conservative lawmakers and enforcers
seem to have their heels dug in against what
is the last barrier for hetero- and cis-gender
bigotry have to defend. Jackson said that
even though the name changes, employment
opportunities, and public accommodations
are difficult, the emotional changes
are the hardest of all, even with the best
reasoned plans. When asked about <b>Caitlyn
Jenner</b>, the Olympic gold medalist decathlete
and current co-matriarch of the celebrity
(famous for being famous) family, the
Kardashians, Jackson said she was really not
typical because of the money and celebrity,
but that she should be given a chance.
<br /><br />L’huiller became emotional as she said it
would have been so much easier for herself
to have remained the sex her body agreed
with, but…She then continued with an
introductory overview of the terminology
everyone needs to know: cis- and transgender;
gender identity vs. gender expression,
sexuality, and the “gray area” that most
people could be placed in—one’s identity
and expression are never black and white.
And sexuality (who your really loved loving)
adds another element to the complexity.
Caroline updated the definition of the
procedures that had previously be termed
“sex change ” to “gender confirmation”—
which makes much more sense. She herself
had agonized on going through with it, but
realized immediately after waking up in the
hospital room she had done the right thing.
<br /><br />Sizeler addressed a question about the
same topic from another perspective:
“When I hear the word transsexual, I think
of changing one’s genitalia. Is that always to
be expected?” asked one from the audience.
“No,” said Sizeler, “...that change is no longer
that important...it’s not about what’s
between your legs but what’s up here,” he
said pointing to his head.
<br /><br />A young lady in the audience from a more
rural suburb asked what the panel would
recommend for support for a young person
who would be dealing with parents, friends,
and schoolmates. Jackson and L’huillier
recommended <b>Louisiana Trans Advocates</b>,
which has been around for about 6 years
and has 1250 members. Support groups like
this one will be essential, along with other
non-specific human rights and humanist
groups to overcome the societal stigma
and all its dehumanizing consequences
placed on these brave souls who were born
with bodies unrepresentative of their true
sexuality.<br /><br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<b><i>~Marty Bankson</i></b></div>
NOSHAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02423636756548589951noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2356521771899662194.post-29606326794887342252017-03-18T10:12:00.002-05:002017-03-18T10:12:44.828-05:00Just a Walk in the ParkTo f<span style="font-family: inherit;">ollow i</span>s an article from our current newsletter, The Humanist Advocate (Issue 1, 2017)<br />
<br />
<b>September 24</b><br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga-3JzZHLsx0s9e2KS6wUNJ4WuiZ_xcC-THqpU9mHOxYdNv4__k88sM57CM4xFnJGffS-45w0wYmhSbw0ScO8w4GXDXmT1dvtG4OzQAy7e4H8e-I2ZwRl8hRdI62lB5pr00mhuTvZ03-Y/s1600/NOAIDS+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga-3JzZHLsx0s9e2KS6wUNJ4WuiZ_xcC-THqpU9mHOxYdNv4__k88sM57CM4xFnJGffS-45w0wYmhSbw0ScO8w4GXDXmT1dvtG4OzQAy7e4H8e-I2ZwRl8hRdI62lB5pr00mhuTvZ03-Y/s320/NOAIDS+2.jpg" width="320" /></a>The <b>“Unholy Strollers,”</b> the unofficial walking (and parading) group of the also unofficial <b>NOSHA Social Aid and Pleasure Club</b> turned out a good participation for The 27th Chevron No/AIDS Walk—a yearly fall fundraising event organized by the No/AIDS Task Force. Not only did 11 walkers make the two-lap trip around Audubon Park, but the <b>NOSHA group pledged at least $650</b>, both of which are probably records since NOSHA has been active in this community project for about the last five years.<br />
<br /><b>Marshall Harri</b>s, also one of our own, was chosen as the<b> Grand Marshall</b> (not a pun) and <b>Master of Ceremonies</b> of this year’s rendition of the fundraiser. He turned in a strong performance singing the national anthem at the Newman Bandstand; and then led the way in his trademark plumed tophat and baton in hand, to begin the 3-mile trek around the park’s walking and biking path.NOSHAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02423636756548589951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2356521771899662194.post-8242279264034428962017-03-03T11:03:00.002-06:002017-03-18T09:50:07.161-05:00A Cornucopia, Through Research<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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To follow is an article from our current newsletter, <b><i>The Humanist Advocate</i></b> (Issue 1, 2017)<br />
<br />
<b>October 15</b><br />
<br />
A research director with the <b>U. S. Department </b><b>of Agriculture</b> brought a large, open-mouth shopping bag with him for his presentation to our October meeting. In the bag were many of the products the <b>Agricultural Research Service (ARS)</b>, a branch of the USDA is credited with developing.<br />
<br />
The director, <b>K. Thomas Klasson, Ph.D</b>, has been known to the regulars and some occasional guests of NOSHA meetings as the husband of NOSHA President Charlotte Klasson. He broke the speaker-audience ice by quipping that although many knew him as such, he corrected it to “Dr. Charlotte’s Husband”. His educational background is deep with a Masters Degree from the <b>Royal Institute of Technology</b> in Stockholm and a doctorate from the <b>University of Arkansas</b>.<br />
<br />***<br /><br />He worked for both UA and the <b>Oak Ridge National Laboratory</b> before joining USDA in 2004. His contributions to research papers are extensive.. His subtle and wry sense of humor emerged frequently throughout the presentation, and complimented the reserved and soft-spoken polite manner common in those with a Swedish heritage. He solved the problem of a cumbersome microphone by tying it to what looked like a piece of thick yarn and looped it around his neck. Before he began pulling examples from the shopping bag, he presented his shirt sleeve to a lady in the audience.<br />
“Check out the shirt. See that nice crease right here? Pretty nice? It’s wrinkle-free cotton. This was invented right here in New Orleans!” The fabric, also know as permanent press, was created by the ARS which added a chemical to cotton that binds the molecules of the fiber so that once ironed,<br />
they stayed in place.<br />
<br />
Back to the bag: one by one, Klasson gave a short background narrative on each of the familiar and ubiquitous products he pulled from the bag (after the obligatory disclaimer of endorsement for the commercially branded articles), including: a vial of penicillin, a spray can of insect repellent, a can of tomato sauce, baby formula, a box of butter, a loaf of sourdough bread, a bunch of red, seedless grapes, a potato, blueberries, a can of frozen orange juice, a box of instantmashed potatoes. All these, and more, are pictured and explained in a colorful booklet published by the USDA entitled <b><i>Science in</i></b><br />
<b><i>Your Shopping Cart</i></b>; and all courtesy of your hard-working tax dollars at the ARS; and some, like the perma-press fabric, coming from right here at the Southern Regional Research Center campus of the USDA located on federal land in City Park.<br />
<br />
The New Orleans location is one of four regional centers in the U. S. and is home to 50 scientists (Ph.D.s and post-docs) and 100 employees, and has an annual budget of 21 million dollars. The complex also houses the local offices <b>FEMA</b> and the <b>Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry</b>. The USDA currently has about 750 ongoing projects; the ones that our local ARS is involved with fall into one of six major categories: Cotton Structure and Quality; Cotton Fiber Bioscience; Cotton Chemistry and Utilization; Commodity Utilization (which Klasson heads up); Food and Feed Safety; and Food Processing and Sensory Quality. The ARS is considered the “in house” research branch of the USDA because some of its research is done by “external” entities such as universities through grants and contracts.<br />
<br />
Those research headings may sound like wordy bureaucratese, but from those or similar projects they have developed a process for freezing orange juice for worldwide distribution; bred the Roma tomato, which seems to be the only tomato that remains tasty throughout the year and is used exclusively in tomato paste; and invented a healthier cooking oil by a crystallization of cotton seed oil (hence the acronym “Crisco”). That single-serve cup of fresh fruit great for brown bag lunches or anytime snacks? Kept fresh longer by adding a calcium salt and vitamin C. In 1935, Dupont Corporation came up with an advertising slogan that ran, with modifications, for almost 50 years. We have all heard it: <b><i>“Better Things for Better Living...Through Chemistry”</i></b>.<br />
<br />
It could well have been adopted by the USDA and its Agricultural Research Service.<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
<b></b><br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<b><b><i>~Marty Bankson</i></b></b></div>
<b>
</b>NOSHAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02423636756548589951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2356521771899662194.post-49474814436092747642017-02-27T12:45:00.000-06:002017-03-03T10:24:52.199-06:00Times-Picayune Columnist Has Guides for Understanding Politics<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixjfTPmwW_Cy2a_PN1obSJPFLzTzgUryUCZirBGon2FfndKYriVp3EvjchrEvg8QxuDMMeKoiNoHPObrXU1AQs1qevSHBM9MZk4FPX_x0jxelPnwwELtmXa2uy6mPl7LxjP_Fc0mi7854/s1600/Mann-HA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="319" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixjfTPmwW_Cy2a_PN1obSJPFLzTzgUryUCZirBGon2FfndKYriVp3EvjchrEvg8QxuDMMeKoiNoHPObrXU1AQs1qevSHBM9MZk4FPX_x0jxelPnwwELtmXa2uy6mPl7LxjP_Fc0mi7854/s320/Mann-HA.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
To follow will be a series of articles from what would have been our current newsletter, <b><i>The Humanist Advocate</i> (Issue 1, 2017)</b>. Unfortunately, our production manager, <b>John Simon</b>, was unable to continue volunteering his time with us into the new year due to changes to his professional work load. Many thanks to John for his help this past year! However, that doesn't mean you have to miss the excellent reviews of our fall events by Board Member and reporter, <b>Marty Bankson</b>. Please enjoy!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>September 17 (NOSHA's <i>Humanist Advocate</i> Newsletter)</b><br />
<br />
<b>Robert “Bob” Mann, Jr.</b> — college instructor,
author, and political columnist, has
been living and writing politics for most of
his career , but told me his talk on the subject
at the September NOSHA meeting was
a kind of test for him. It would be the first of
several presentations he would be making
to groups other than his classes of twenty-ish
students--and he wasn’t sure how
he might be received by older assemblies,
being the liberal Democrat he is in red state
Louisiana, which was at the time much like
the rest of the country, engulfed in a polarized
political atmosphere that was nearing
the breaking point prior to the November
Presidential elections.
<br /><br />***<br />
<br />
As might be expected, he was received
favorably by the group of mostly liberal-leaning
humanists. His presentation was
centered around the upcoming election,
how political prognosticators come to their
predictions about winners, and observations
on the phenomenon of Trump’s ascendancy
in national politics.
<br />
<br />
Trump’s nomination as the Republican
candidate for President was unforeseen by
just about every political pundit across the
country, and challenged some of the foundations
upon which they make predictions
and handicap elections. “Common sense”
is usually considered the overarching judge
to which all other metrics stand before; and
even it was betrayed by the outcome.
<br />
<br />
But a handful of conditions have nonetheless
been shown historically to be reliably
good indicators of predicting winners and
losers in presidential races and remain
principles in spite of this outlier. Mann
included these, each with explanations
and examples: Which party is in the White
House, and for how long has it occupied it?
Is the country on the right or wrong track?
What is the current President’s approval
rating? What are numbers on the economy?
Which party? (the Democratic “Blue Wall”
reliably delivers states totaling 242 electoral
votes). Who has been in the news more?
(More exposure doesn’t bode well--he used
the analogy of the prison yard spotlight).
Who’s going to turn out to vote? Of these,
he and political scientists agree that the
first may be the most important; and using
that measure, would point to a statistical tie
come election.
<br />
<br />
Mr. Mann allowed enough time with his
talk to have an extended Q and A period of
about 30 minutes in the meeting. A sampling:
<b>Do debates really have any effect on
voters?</b> He thinks most people watching
debates have already decided and watch
only to reinforce their choice. Another,
more anxious questioner expressed concern
that a Trump win may have negative
repercussions on our basic democratic ways
of governing, to which he responded that
it was not likely, thanks to the system of
checks and balances. However an important
decision that could have regressive
consequences would be the appointment
of at least one Supreme Court justice, and
possibly two or three. <b>What about hacked
voting machines, or just an overall rigging
of the election</b>, asked a pair of questioners.
The fact that voting machines are not connected
to the internet would make altering
voting records impossible by that method.
And the idea of a corrupt, systemic rigged
election process, through voter fraud or
other manipulation? Trump used this early
on in his campaign, but abandoned it as his
nomination was cinched and his poll numbers
were climbing. (As fate would have it,
with 3 weeks left before the election and
the bottom falling out of his campaign, he
revived that conspiracy with a vengeance,
and went so far as refuse to commit to
accepting as legitimate (in the event that
he lost) the results of the election during
questioning in the final debate.)
<br />
<br />
To some people, it may be “just politics”,
but for analysts like Mann, sorting out the
implications of that short, four-letter word
has been a life’s work. Mann might even put
it this way: “It depends on what your definition
of ‘just’ is.”<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<b><i>~Marty Bankson</i></b></div>
NOSHAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02423636756548589951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2356521771899662194.post-38259003852434035022017-02-10T20:13:00.000-06:002017-02-27T12:06:19.754-06:00The Duty, the Irony: We're All in the Same Boat in More Ways than One<h2>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAAfHvX821nFtAOhW2Y-hQz4AapzwoaIW5Im7j54A-bGjF-EZNxU51p1I4A-dXqMNtGDUSIKzqmtQulLT6i0FHcEKKCu3KiyQCumrbRVmJreqtuUkSDqsonjT3_WGcaSd0UCEu9lkYyFY/s1600/davis_meme_washington_delaware.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAAfHvX821nFtAOhW2Y-hQz4AapzwoaIW5Im7j54A-bGjF-EZNxU51p1I4A-dXqMNtGDUSIKzqmtQulLT6i0FHcEKKCu3KiyQCumrbRVmJreqtuUkSDqsonjT3_WGcaSd0UCEu9lkYyFY/s200/davis_meme_washington_delaware.jpg" width="200" /></a></h2>
<br />
On November 7, 2016, most of us involved in the humanist end of
secular, or non- or atheist activism, or to those with just
enough interest or curiosity about human rights issues, from race
relations to sexual identity and much more, probably started
the day with a sense of a coming renewal of the confidence that went
with recent legislation and court decisions, for the most part
favorable, and a sense that the last bulwarks against an equal
appreciation and respect for all groups were crumbling; and that our
day had come, or least was within sight. The socially liberal Barack
Obama was the aloof, “Just chill” enabler-in-chief. The
President-in-the-wings, Hillary Clinton, was the heavy favorite to
succeed him and continue steering the secular liberal Republic on the
same course.<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">Then November 8th happened. A campaign of demagoguery played electoral vote of the many small rural states and population against the “blue wall” of the large coastal states and big city voters— and prevailed. The campaign that appealed to desperation, fear, false national pride, misogyny, hyper-masculinity, and racial and religious bigotry—parlayed with a widespread distrust of the opposition and her machine—was set to reverse the progress of the past few years—more likely </span><span style="font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">decades</span></span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">, as it may well turn out.
</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">
In the three weeks since the succession to power, the administration has been operating a manic machine of petty lies, vindictive personal insults, shameless attacks on the judicial branch, and daily degradations of the media—all the while signing executive orders as if they were the Make America Great Again ball caps at campaign rallies. Executive orders beginning with de-structuring AFA, cutting funding to organization providing abortions overseas, placing a hiring freeze the federal government, requiring two regulations struck for every new one added, approving the go-ahead of the Keystone pipeline, orders to review and recommend changes to Dodd-Frank financial regulations, ordering a report on military preparedness and threats from ISIS, and a ban on entry into the U. S. of travelers from seven predominately Muslim countries. The last has been the most contentious, though maybe not any more insidious than the rest, when all taken into account of one big, reactionary turn in policy ideology.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">***
</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">
And the last one is perhaps the one secularists need most to concern themselves: are they themselves partially responsible for planting the seeds and tending the crop of intolerance of Muslims? Do we share a responsibility as much as any Christo-fascist, or any rural church lady terrified by someone she has never even seen? It is true that radical Islamic factions have wreaked havoc across the world for the past 2 decades and has expressed a nihilistic evil in ways not seen before. These horrors have also served as easy-picking, low fruit for everyday atheists and learned advocates of the supremacy the overriding jurisdiction of secular law alike; radicalized Muslims, almost single-handedly were a key to the rapid growth of the non-theist movement beginning in the mid-2000s. Also fueling what could easily be classified as “reaction” against religion during this growth period were fundamentalist and evangelical (American) Christians and Roman Catholic doctrine, though neither of the two (at the time) were involved in wholesale slaughter of non-combatant civilians. Theirs was (is) a more subtle meddling in public welfare (contraception bans by the Vatican), and ongoing attempts to hurdle the metaphorical wall of separation between church and state (opposing equal rights for non-traditional sexual relationships and identity) by fundamentalist Protestants. Perhaps ironically, the hew and cry by Christian fundamentalists against Islam in general after 9/11, with a cheerleading President Bush, <i>together</i> with the Islamic terror campaign, was a tipping point in deciding to get actively involved for yours truly. My conversion to non-belief had hibernated 30-odd years since college, but now I was<i> d-o-n-e </i>with these holy warriors—all of them. It was </span><span style="font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">game on</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">!</span><br />
<div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-2ed6fbb2-2ae1-ffd7-8295-aef4f21a8034">
</span>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>---------------------------------------------------</i></span></span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-2ed6fbb2-2ae1-ffd7-8295-aef4f21a8034">
</span>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-2ed6fbb2-2ae1-ffd7-8295-aef4f21a8034"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of the original “Four Horsemen” of New Atheism, <b>Sam Harris</b>, and celebrity iconoclast and atheist <b>Bill Maher</b> are also known for anti-Muslim polemics and rhetoric over the past years. <b>David Silverman</b>, President of American Atheists, looks a little like a fundamentalist atheist (if there is such a thing). From his latest book </span><span style="font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World</span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, which he brought with him to a recent NOSHA talk, says</span></span></span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-2ed6fbb2-2ae1-ffd7-8295-aef4f21a8034">
</span>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-2ed6fbb2-2ae1-ffd7-8295-aef4f21a8034"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“</span><span style="background-color: whitesmoke; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m sometimes called Islamophobic. And while I do admit to fearing some major factions of Islam, I don’t like the connotation or the politically correct assertion that such fear is irrational. Concerns about Islam are very different from, for example, concerns about Judaism because Islam is unique among religions today in posing a real threat to the human condition. I would go so far as to say an educated fear is a completely rational position.</span></span></blockquote>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-2ed6fbb2-2ae1-ffd7-8295-aef4f21a8034">
</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-2ed6fbb2-2ae1-ffd7-8295-aef4f21a8034"><span style="font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">NOSHA has no official statement or adopted policy on the subject, but its most used and viewed media, Facebook, has been a continuously charged magnet for Muhammed memes, links to bad behavior by ISIS, and the shame of burkas and girl brides. It’s easy, it’s uncontroversial, it's the echol chamber; and the material is easily found. We have all taken part.
</span><span style="font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">
But I think now we have seen where this could lead. A bigoted, racist, misogynistic, egomaniacal charlatan is the President. Harris and Maher, together in a very recent discussion realize we should </span><a href="https://youtu.be/LV7eVvph69Y" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">rethink</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the wholesale condemnation of a religious group that restrict previously approved visas with even tougher regulations as the President called for. The latest issue of </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Humanist </span><span style="font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(published by the American Humanist Association) has a topical essay subtitled “</span><a href="https://thehumanist.com/magazine/january-february-2017/features/will-speak-humanist-movements-role-defending-human-rights-civil-liberties" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Humanism’s Role in Defending Human Rights and Civil Liberties</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.” And it seems from conversations and participation in the Women’s March and social media posts that most of those in our group are rightfully shocked that authoritarian attempts to restrict travel for religious reasons was proposed.
</span><span style="font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">
If, for no other reason, all members of the non-theistic community would do well to practice an exercise in self-preservation and join in opposition to the bigotry against Muslims, as misdirected as we might find the religion of Islam itself. Those this should go without saying, we all have allowed our emotions to focus on the group and the individual rather than the ideal. But the current administration’s agenda is underwritten and becoming staffed with ideas and officials that could qualify as Christian fascists, and if there is a non-religious group </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">about religion</span><span style="font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> more reviled than religious Muslims and Jews, it is freethinkers, humanists, and atheists.</span></span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-2ed6fbb2-2ae1-ffd7-8295-aef4f21a8034">
</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<h4>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather"; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>“From even the greatest of horrors irony is seldom absent.” H. P. Lovecraft</i></span></h4>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<b>~Marty Bankson</b> </div>
</div>
MarBanxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06337624636656409507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2356521771899662194.post-649152186179530242017-02-05T09:29:00.002-06:002017-02-05T09:29:38.945-06:00A Dispatch from Kenner: Meeting Muslims for the First Time<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPExtTDlB8OBrXh9b9qV2lyPj9_Zz6qAyZB2bHnjbiTIhwweSHprYQc6JewtP5QTg5z2zOt2g2JKk-EeXhPqVF1VLn_Aq9ivE9eBmngsUpc8W2engHWvO-PJefsjyrHc8iOYH_oSc31cw/s1600/Meet+a+Muslim.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPExtTDlB8OBrXh9b9qV2lyPj9_Zz6qAyZB2bHnjbiTIhwweSHprYQc6JewtP5QTg5z2zOt2g2JKk-EeXhPqVF1VLn_Aq9ivE9eBmngsUpc8W2engHWvO-PJefsjyrHc8iOYH_oSc31cw/s320/Meet+a+Muslim.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Twenty four hours ago I attended a <b>"Meet-A-Muslim"</b> gathering in Kenner, Louisiana at the <b>Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Center</b>.<br />
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<a href="http://www.wwltv.com/news/local/muslim-community-holds-meeting-hopes-others-will-put-misconceptions-aside/395901727" target="_blank">Every Wednesday</a> from 6-7pm people of "all faiths, or no faith" are invited for a short talk about the origin of that particular brand of Islam, listen to a short incantation from the Qoran view a short video and have the opportunity to ask any question that one might have concerning Islam.<br />
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Then you mingle while enjoying the most delicious cake and coffee.<br />
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Having been a refugee as a child, as well as an immigrant in my early adulthood, I very much feel the pain of those Muslims now denied entry into our country,<br /><br />I am 81 years old, yet had never met a Muslim and I had been looking for an opportunity to do so. This is a really positive way to have contact with the hosts as well as other non-Muslim members of the community who want to make it clear that not all Americans are full of hatred of this particular religion. <br /><br />I would encourage everybody to go and Meet-A-Muslim. It it will be worth your while.<br />
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<b><i>~Chris Struppeck</i></b></div>
<br />NOSHAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02423636756548589951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2356521771899662194.post-52778190420481140152017-01-06T15:29:00.001-06:002017-01-06T15:29:32.043-06:00NOSHA in 2017 - Hail and Farewell <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-1EhWjjLo0Juxve6wSE0XX3srD4kmSQcxKYfGlFHQGl0YMeTwKEB7SPzYMLWz6rwQCGMCPj1kz5Buk5nva_8bpHjoolkyW3YOFEzU8D5j5qlyfT3up5nEMNVP2K-QgprkZ_XepaNMyXk/s1600/Thank+You+Hanging.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-1EhWjjLo0Juxve6wSE0XX3srD4kmSQcxKYfGlFHQGl0YMeTwKEB7SPzYMLWz6rwQCGMCPj1kz5Buk5nva_8bpHjoolkyW3YOFEzU8D5j5qlyfT3up5nEMNVP2K-QgprkZ_XepaNMyXk/s320/Thank+You+Hanging.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
As we move into a new year, we would like to remember and give many thanks to those who are stepping down and welcome those who have stepped up to help NOSHA with our organization going into 2017.<br /><br />
Both <b>Grant Smith</b> and <b>Ricky Adams</b> are leaving our board of directors after many terms of service. Smith has been a tireless volunteer at our monthly meetings handling our directional signs and Adams initiated the design and ongoing maintenance of our fun and functional website as well as being an enthusiastic "regular" at many of our social activities. <b>Rita Premo</b> finished her service in August as our board secretary and made herself indispensable by volunteering to take our out-of-town speakers on a tour of the city before our afternoon meetings.<br />
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<b>Each one performed a vital role in the ongoing success of our operations and we couldn't have done it without them!</b> We all wish them well in their new endeavors.<br /><br />Our new members are <b>Anne McKinley</b> and <b>Glenn Pearl </b>who joined us in December and September respectively. McKinley brings a lot of organizational experience to the table and has already become instrumental in our Last Supper Dinner Club and our Book Discussion Group. Pearl will take over the general maintenance of our website and also has been a key organizer of our volunteer activity with Second Harvest Foodbank over the past couple of years. <br /><b><br />We are very lucky to have them both!</b>NOSHAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02423636756548589951noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2356521771899662194.post-92092899726331693462016-12-23T12:32:00.000-06:002017-01-06T15:54:06.123-06:00Holiday Spirit by Audrey Coulter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyGtFTIoG6DoHW8qbCpSkN9ega6rHcwTCM_xmrGAb9daSFV1tY3YCX7k-DZbeea6PIHGI2t1wZQqnTRUFWYfW-Sx9Ziz644t-bHRy46tEnLnG6MKf2prILq1OIFQqHD32dRZ8GvKlOr5c/s1600/Candle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyGtFTIoG6DoHW8qbCpSkN9ega6rHcwTCM_xmrGAb9daSFV1tY3YCX7k-DZbeea6PIHGI2t1wZQqnTRUFWYfW-Sx9Ziz644t-bHRy46tEnLnG6MKf2prILq1OIFQqHD32dRZ8GvKlOr5c/s320/Candle.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><i>This is a poem by NOSHA member, Audrey Coulter. She read it to attendees at our annual Winter Solstice party earlier this month and we thought it was so good that we should highlight it for everyone who couldn't be there!</i></b><div class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I no longer believe in Christmas</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Nativity scenes make me cringe</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Halleluiah choruses assault my ears</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Santa and elves bring me to tears</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I once believed in the myth</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Believed in peace, hope and love</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Decked the largest evergreen tree</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For all to see and complement me</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I baked the puddings, pies and cakes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Wrapped and tied a mountain of presents</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Tipped the postman and the teacher</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Prayed in church with the eloquent preacher</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But in my subconscious year after year</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I began to understand my deepest fear</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That all of this was a grand delusion</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Resulting in profound confusion</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">While I am celebrating the season</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The chaotic world fights wars without reason</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Religions fight over which one is right</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There’s no peace on earth this Christmas night</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">No more will I drink from the cup of mirth</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Toasting the season and expanding my girth</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Maxing my credit to give more and more</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I’m turning it off and shutting the door</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I’ll light a warm fire and reflect in the glow</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dream of a world tranquil and free</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Where nations agree that war should cease</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Where all are free and live in peace</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Than like the old man that flies through the sky</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I’ll open my wallet and give my best try</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To assist those who need me and have much to fear</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Now that’s the true Christmas year after year.</span></div>
NOSHAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02423636756548589951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2356521771899662194.post-83800771327041951312016-11-22T07:42:00.002-06:002016-11-23T18:44:44.234-06:00The Joy of Politics: An Opinion from a Humanist<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEsVvXYF-YfitjzoQVa44tK9ZWwuxi104XKGM1daT0DzYoDAhVg2RqYqN_skmGUXDoabvMwVdX07XpwhE9TJrCG2S5zZV1oNbLzRa73qLkOHH98LNMprdyhXQqI3RcmxxxZBOAVr4DqRI/s1600/2016+Politics.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEsVvXYF-YfitjzoQVa44tK9ZWwuxi104XKGM1daT0DzYoDAhVg2RqYqN_skmGUXDoabvMwVdX07XpwhE9TJrCG2S5zZV1oNbLzRa73qLkOHH98LNMprdyhXQqI3RcmxxxZBOAVr4DqRI/s320/2016+Politics.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The recent Presidential campaign and election has revived a question about the role of NOSHA when political issues steal quietly into our discussions, or when they smack us smartly across the face, as this grotesque campaign and its regrettable cast of candidates have. Are we a political group? Should our group be involved in politics? If no, why not, or why should it be; and if so, how much involvement is appropriate?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">This much we </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;">do</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;"> know without looking back at our history in this area or doing any soul searching about the “should” question: there are some limitations on what we can do. As a chartered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, loosely categorized as a “charitable” organization, the IRS does not permit direct campaigning for or against candidates in an election, or endorsing or contributing to candidates. If found in violation, we could lose our tax exempt status. That is the worse case scenario and is usually applied only to flagrant or repeat offenders; but an excise tax could be levied and an infraction could still end up being costly. This only applies to the organization and officially sponsored activities—individuals within the group are free to do as they please as long as the group is not directly endorsing such participation. Legislative “action”, or lobbying, is not permitted if it is a “substantial part of its activity”. Read </span><a href="https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/charitable-organizations/exemption-requirements-section-501-c-3-organizations" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">here</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"> about the restrictions and follow the links for definitions of “political and lobbying activities”.</span>
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<span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">Beyond those specific regulations about campaigning for candidates and frequent lobbying, the field seems almost wide open about political activism. There are no restrictions on legislative and issue </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">advocacy,</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> which, together would cover just about any political activity imaginable— from demonstrating in front of a Planned Parenthood clinic, to holding placards on a busy boulevard alongside a shopping center, to offering opinions as a witness in a legislative education committee about the problems of laws allowing for religious interpretations of the origins of life on earth being given equal time in public schools. It could mean delivering a secular invocation at a city council meeting, or setting up a table in the rotunda of the state capital and speaking with legislators and civilians alike about some of our concerns about keeping religion out of the business of government officiating and laws. It could be participating in or observing a reading of Sinclair Lewis’ prophetic play on right wing populism based on his novel </span><a href="http://noshablog.blogspot.com/2016/10/on-reading-drama-and-advisories-when-is.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: italic; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It Can’t Happen Here.</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Except for the first, we have, as an organization, had representatives at each of these; and did not participate in the first only because it was cancelled by the officials of Planned Parenthood as being possibly provocative and counterproductive. So we do have a history.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">History also shows that “education” might be a more apt description than “charity” when categorizing our programs; and the charity operation is more accurately a volunteer labor pool. The speakers we schedule and the educational programs we produce or take part in generally center around the common core of a worldview, or ideology, for living well while respecting our fellow humans and other lifeforms in our biodiverse and common home, Planet Earth. Humanism we call it, specifically </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">secular</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> humanism. The foundation for this worldview was established beginning with new approaches to scientific study and a philosophical optimism: the possibility that there were some absolute truths, and that new advances in sciences and the letters could make these truths knowable. Mankind would necessarily improve his lot accordingly with this knowledge . This movement began in the 16th Century and continued to the 18th came to be called The Enlightenment. Secular humanism holds that the knowledge that leads to truth is discoverable in the natural world and documentable with the aid of the rational human mind; but warned that a pursuit of knowledge based on revelation from supernatural beings or the tutelage of ancient mythological tales will lead nowhere but backward.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A humanist ideology may, in a nutshell, be characterized as a union of </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfhQhdA-zss" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">two concepts of liberty</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> philosopher Isaiah Berlin wrote of in 1958. The human citizen of the world would be the embodiment and balance of 1) having certain protections from other individuals or state taking away choices or placing constraints on her; and, at the same time 2) having the freedom to be her own autonomous agent, living and flourishing as the director of her own pursuits. This ideal arrangement may be a contrivance in the evolution of human thought in an expanding population whose stability was becoming more dependent on a variety of social constructions, but it does not mean it is not natural or that it and cannot succeed. This is the intersection of a progressive secular humanism and politics, because politics is the vehicle for dispensing or withholding rights, freedoms, and justice among divergent interests. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It would follow from this that humanism, and especially secular humanism, would come a-courting the power of politics. Without the vehicle to propose and construct such a complicated rights-based framework for improving the quality of life, humanism would remain as only another idea floating around in a nebulous land of broken dreams, unlived afterlives, and visions of fantasy from religious and mythological deities. Secular humanism needs a particularly cozy relationship to stay planted in terra firma and its </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">polis, </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">because from that aforementioned ephemeral land emerge very natural-looking and convincing prophets of mysterious gods, well equipped to slick talk the virtues of theocracy.
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A more politicized version of our local chapter of secular humanists may be necessary not simply to keep alive the promise and actuality of a humanist world, but to work against the new administration’s troubling visions and venomous threats of compromised rights and opportunities expressed during the campaign. Federal court appointments and cabinet heads that share their leader’s nationalist notions of returning to the greater country that America was in days past is not a conservative idea, but a reactionary one. We need to aid and assist in coalitions with groups that are potential targets of scorn and repression, including Muslims. (There, I’ve said it.) Mexicans. Pakistanis, Jews and Black Americans. Homeless Syrians and Hondurans. Women’s and LGBTQ rights have always been works in progress but now become even more tenuous. For that matter, the atheist and secular community could be subject to more scrutiny and derision, particularly if they get too vocal, if the executive and legislative branches cave to much more influence from the religious right. We need to defend the premise of dignity communicated through standards of common decency known pejoratively as political correctness. We need to resist the temptation to normalize the rogues’ gallery of white supremacists set to run this country.
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Political activism is not for everyone, conservative or liberal, maybe including many in this group. But in this unknown and unprecedented environment, it looks to be a necessity for assisting in the conservation of the pinnacle of American law: The Bill of Rights. The amount or depth of political involvement should be the only real question here: </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">how much can </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">you<span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">do?</span></span></h4>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>—Marty Bankson</b></span></span></div>
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MarBanxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06337624636656409507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2356521771899662194.post-92077038414663237632016-10-30T16:25:00.000-05:002016-10-31T08:08:17.275-05:00On Reading, Drama, and Advisories<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVS9CJmiUg8B9QZU7pE2mdUkkHd3KewOsieo29Qha0DFnvK-nY-af_Wgmm2j6fJ6Zz62tbNQO18CUHUPthjzdxVDaLjYH6u8ACU3DfjRpjjQJq8gX00ep_tTcf9R97UxvmjIIwzDjCYzg/s1600/facsism_comes_to_america.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVS9CJmiUg8B9QZU7pE2mdUkkHd3KewOsieo29Qha0DFnvK-nY-af_Wgmm2j6fJ6Zz62tbNQO18CUHUPthjzdxVDaLjYH6u8ACU3DfjRpjjQJq8gX00ep_tTcf9R97UxvmjIIwzDjCYzg/s200/facsism_comes_to_america.jpg" width="148" /></a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "helvetica";">When is a theatrical production not a play? When it is a </span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica;">reading</i><span style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "helvetica";">, with</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "helvetica";"> </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "helvetica";">script readers</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "helvetica";"> </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "helvetica";">taking the place of actors and reading—while either seated or standing—the dialogue of a play written for actors by the playwright, and without a designed set or choreographed movement and action across a stage. It is still a theatrical production, but one stripped to the bare bones of voice.</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "helvetica";"> </span><br />
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Five of the 13 players sitting in a closely packed row of chairs in front of the conference room-turned-theater at <b>Jefferson Parish Regional Library </b>in Metairie were members and directors of NOSHA in what was a special invitation to participate in a reading of <b>Sinclair Lewis’</b> play <i><b>It Can’t Happen Here </b></i>on.<i> </i>The occasion was the 80th anniversary of its release; the play was adapted and distributed by the Berkeley Repertory Theater. Berkeley Rep, a non-profit community theater established in 1968 is currently running the complete theatrical version of the play at its home base in California through November 6. It was a special invitation for JPL and our own secular humanist group to participate, as it was one of the fewer that 50 venues in the country that hosted and produced the event on the evening of October 24th. </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The story was a preview into what America could look like if democracy succumbed to a political solution lead by a nationalist demagogue. Getting his gloomy inspiration from the election of Hitler in Germany and the rising influence of Louisiana’s populist Governor and Senator Huey P. Long, Lewis followed the career of small town Vermont journalist Doremus Jessup, who, though deeply motivated by the ideals of truth and justice, delayed getting involved in the growing movement that elevated a folksy charmer, a fictionalized authoritarian Long named Buzz Windrip. Windrip ends up winning the nomination of the Democratic Party, and is set to run for (and win) the Presidency against the Republican Trowbridge and Franklin Roosevelt (who ended up running on a third party ticket after losing the Democratic nomination).</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVS9CJmiUg8B9QZU7pE2mdUkkHd3KewOsieo29Qha0DFnvK-nY-af_Wgmm2j6fJ6Zz62tbNQO18CUHUPthjzdxVDaLjYH6u8ACU3DfjRpjjQJq8gX00ep_tTcf9R97UxvmjIIwzDjCYzg/s1600/facsism_comes_to_america.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span></a><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Probably a more significant motivation than the 80th anniversary for Berkeley Rep’s staff to re-release the program was the current Presidential election campaign and to confirm that, yes,<i> it could happen here</i>. The rise of presidential candidate <b>Donald Trump </b>has uncovered an undertow of a new and septic populism—a populism founded on nationalism and some degrees of xenophobia and racism—and has found in Trump, warts and all, a bona fide advocate. Lewis’ story includes Windrip’s paramilitary Minute Men to deal with dissidents; Trump’s deportation force will be assigned to sort out the rapists and drug dealing illegals and place them on the right side of his Mexican-funded, beautiful wall. A probable adaptation by the Berkeley writers has Windrip reveling at a rally about how protesters were handled in the good old days. The historical Father Coughlin’s and his incendiary anti-semitic radio rhetoric becoming an ally of Long-Windrip parallels the evangelical Grahams’, Falwells', and<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/pat-robertson-polls-have-been-skewed-against-trump/"><span class="s3"> Robertsons</span></a>’ current romance with strongman Trump. The boorish everyday Donald we see is merely a simulacrum of the master wheeler-dealer of foreign trade, the ultimate job creator, and Isis-slayer <i>Generalissimo Trump </i>that he has cultivated and grown "bigly" with assistance from a ratings/profit-driven media. The power of the media in shaping pseudo-leaders and charlatans was a major factor in the rise of yokel Lonesome Rhodes, portrayed by Andy Griffith in the 1958 film <a href="https://youtu.be/Z_m3vdPLQ68"><span class="s3">A Face in the Crowd</span></a><i>, </i>who also had a bad mouth/hot microphone problem, which cost him dearly.</span></span><br />
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The program of <i>It Can’t Happen Here </i>on the Berkeley Repertory Theater website has the following advisory:</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">It Can’t Happen Here <i>includes the use of herbal cigarettes, haze, and gunshot sound effects. Berkeley Rep offers an advisory about any stage effect of potential concern to patrons’ health. We don’t offer advisories about subject matter, as sensitivities vary from person to person. If you have any concerns about content, please contact the box office.</i></span></span></blockquote>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">For those having seen enough of the similarities already, a trigger warning might indeed have been welcomed. Or at least, please, a caution about a possible circuit overload. But to those who are just about done at this point, and are happy to just plug their ears and hum along with with this <a href="https://youtu.be/svdrAHn_LGo"><span class="s3">50 year-old ditty </span></a>from <i>The Mothers of Invention</i>, this advisory: Don't do it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;"><i> Now, please, introducing our troupe, with kudos and congratulations to: </i></span></span><span class="s1"><span style="font-size: small;">Beth Deitch, Jim Dugan, William Gautreaux, Anne McKinley, and Charlotte Klasson.</span></span></span></h4>
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MarBanxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06337624636656409507noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2356521771899662194.post-25809479633757149252016-10-23T07:42:00.000-05:002016-10-23T11:07:01.752-05:00Goodwill Takes on God's Will -- Late August 2016<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aunt Connie's Home--Before</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The crew of NOSHA volunteers who made the trip to Denham Spri</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ngs to assist in the cleanup from the flooding that swamped nearly 90 percent of the homes in the area traveled in separate cars—with the exception of <b>Dave and Joyce Thomas</b>, who shared their ride. Joining in on the project with the Thomases were <b>Eve Ortiz</b>, <b>Kathleen Branley</b>, <b>Jennifer Porter</b>, <b>Glenn Pearl</b>, Marty </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bankson, and <b>Cecelia</b> (a young woman referred by previously committed <b>Adam Kay</b>). Most used smartphone GPS to guide them into the subdivision and onto the street where the project was, but most all had to park and locate a mailbox along the street to find the house number if they didn’t recognize anyone working outside. The mailboxes were buried along the curb’s edge in the heaps of soggy mattresses, broken dining furniture, stacks of wadded clothes, and rolls of ragged-edged carpeting. A small hill of ruined doors, millwork, cabinetry and sinks and fridges would continue filling the front yard from the street back toward the house as the day passed.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eve Ortiz sampling jambalaya, surveys the progress</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Thomases' acquaintance Paul was coordinating the work. Paul calls Connie Donovan “Aunt Connie”—though their actual relationship may have been less direct. Connie is a 63-year old widow, living alone, and is still working. She was one of the fortunate few who had flood insurance, if “fortunate” is indeed even fit in the description of a </span><a href="http://www.wwltv.com/news/local/90-percent-of-homes-in-denham-springs-flooded/298547707" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">500-year flood</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Many of the modest houses in this neighborhood were built on piers and were elevated about three feet above the ground, but the neighborhood got 6-7 feet of floodwater from the overflowing Amite River just to the west of it. The math of that equation added up to more than three feet of water in the house . Every house in the subdivision and many more subdivisions like it went under, along with most of the business along the main thoroughfares.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Paul got the crew quick-schooled and started at the basics of house gutting: taking the door and baseboard trim off with hammers and pry bars, removing the electrical switch and receptacle plates, then pulling the soggy sheetrock from the wall studs at the seam four feet above the floor. Then the crumbling and saturated mess had to be shoveled and wheelbarrowed out of the house down the front porch steps, adding more to the misery of the front yard. Bathroom vanity cabinets, toilets, kitchen cabinets, pots, pans, dishes and foodstuffs in the pantry all had to go. Two mice were sent scampering when their space inside a wall was uncovered. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkqh8UUGfxe32jcPbE7emzBw3b1GV9p9XijAJBouv5Y-EnPABcWvSjFUqkvneatmJ-XwBCWKkCQvfQoJ2ziSzmcF6VBsU3oPFgjhaza4PncVG2hOyYAwnwJyh_FsBFVtdYnOv0zxZB9DA/s1600/IMG_1291.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkqh8UUGfxe32jcPbE7emzBw3b1GV9p9XijAJBouv5Y-EnPABcWvSjFUqkvneatmJ-XwBCWKkCQvfQoJ2ziSzmcF6VBsU3oPFgjhaza4PncVG2hOyYAwnwJyh_FsBFVtdYnOv0zxZB9DA/s200/IMG_1291.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Big Fans Matter</td></tr>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The feeling of overwhelming loss never seems to be strong enough to keep the victims from finding something—anything—left in the wreckage that was salvageable, something to cling to; and those things become special and dear. Aunt Connie had set up a makeshift table in the front yard near the driveway, where she placed and cleaned and dried some things she found. Maybe a crystal dish; maybe a child’s trophy from a past school competition, or a stuffed panda that had been placed on a high shelf: things once mundane and overlooked now became priceless survivors. A pop-up summer shower was about to spoil what the floodwaters missed as she fussed over them, but we managed to get some scraps of plastic sheeting and a tarp over them before the hardest rain fell. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">About midday someone delivered some go-boxes of jambalaya; so those that didn’t pack a lunch didn’t go hungry. And there was plenty of water for hydrating, but Cecelia had an overheating episode anyway. She later seemed confident that she had recovered to point of being able to get to her car and drive back to New Orleans. The heat and humidity was reminiscent of the hot tropical conditions that smothered New Orleans after Katrina. Joyce and Dave’s experience in the Katrina disaster was evident as they breezed through the day’s work like small potatoes, as if pantomiming “¡No problema!”.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwJ7QfxBN2rCN1quUUqJhWY9q9HPMwSzK6FIrw87qvQXVq3aUHBm37lcascEm9aYcBRjyBufq7zpK_yOf4XTxbqgUeIQ1bLvKqOPZv9Z_rkPlrTg0Vhvf1WZAIeUnplTKv45fxZ5qo1SY/s1600/NOSHA+Demo+Crew.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwJ7QfxBN2rCN1quUUqJhWY9q9HPMwSzK6FIrw87qvQXVq3aUHBm37lcascEm9aYcBRjyBufq7zpK_yOf4XTxbqgUeIQ1bLvKqOPZv9Z_rkPlrTg0Vhvf1WZAIeUnplTKv45fxZ5qo1SY/s400/NOSHA+Demo+Crew.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paul (left) and NOSHA Volunteers (missing: Glenn Pearl)</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This volunteer effort was the most labor-intensive the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>NOSHA Social Aid and Pleasure Club</b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> has experienced; a true test of physical stamina and heat tolerance. But it may be remembered also as most edifying when thinking of Aunt Connie’s words of appreciation and thanks to each of us; and when reflecting on her little makeshift table, and the keepsakes that took on a new and special meaning for her—and for us.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>~Marty Bankson</i></b></span></div>
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<br />MarBanxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06337624636656409507noreply@blogger.com0