Platform
Meetings – 2004
December 19
Richard Wark
A Winter Solstice Celebration
December 5
Angela Kraus
The Goddesses Revisited: What If?
Platform Overview: This platform will revisit a number of
goddesses who have been dismissed from our collective consciousness
and ponder the ethical implications of the adoption of monotheism
on the human race. It will attempt to connect this history
to present-day political culture in the U.S., and will include
the art work of Susan Seddon Boulet and Kris Waldherr, as well
as songs by various female artists.
November 21
Randy Best, Ethical Culture Leader
A Stone Soup Thanksgiving Celebration
November 7
Jan Broughton, President of NCSEC
Fall Membership Meeting
October 17
Norris Brock Johnson, Professor of Anthropology at UNC Chapel
Hill
Nature as Virtue; The Virtue of Nature
Platform Overview: What can the study of Zen Buddhist gardens
and temple architecture tell us about including nature in the
discussions of virtue? Features of nature for many Zen Buddhists
are considered manifestations of Buddha-Mind: the state of
being experienced by Siddharta Gautama, the historical Buddha.
Through the Four Noble Truths and the Eight-Fold Path, Buddhism
is concerned with the suffering of all beings. Therefore, what
is to be said concerning the suffering we perceive in nature,
such as the suffering of an animal, an aspect of Buddha Mind,
being eaten by another animal, an aspect of Buddha Mind? Illusion
(Maya)? Seeing this, how can we then choose to "follow
nature?" How then, can nature be considered virtuous?
October 3
Enid Handler
An Odyssey: From Left to Right Wing - THE NEOCONS
Platform Overview: The speaker will trace the origins of the
neo-conservative movement from its founding group of leftist
intellectual thinkers in the 1960's. "I will briefly outline
the three 'pillars' of the movement -- economic, cultural and
political -- and enumerate the major magazines, think tanks
and institutes promulgating their views today."
September 19
Polly Weiss
Bisexuality: Myths and Legends
Platform Overview: Unreliable, unable to make a commitment,
greedy and oversexed. What to do with Bisexuals? Shunned by
the gay community for sexing it up with partners of the opposite
sex; dismissed by the straight world for loving same-sex partners,
bisexuals have walked a sometimes solitary and often misunderstood
path for many centuries… and yet by refusing
to choose homosexual or heterosexual, many bi people have found
joy in the freedom that exists when passion and possibility
abound.
September 5
James Coley & Paul Nagy
Virtues: East and West
Platform Overview: How can the contemplation and discussion
of virtues help us better understand ethics, and become better
people? We will explore these questions through an examination
of virtues from both Eastern and Western perspectives, including
the six paramitas of Mahayana Buddhism, and the Golden Mean
of Aristotle.
August 29
James Coley, Ruth Kravitz, Amy Piersma, Graduates, Lay Leadership
Summer School 2004
Report on Lay Leadership Summer School
August 15
Fritz Williams, Ethical Culture Leader, Baltimore Ethical Society
Everyday Courage
Platform Overview: The stories of human courage we read in
newspapers or experience in film and television documentaries
are hard for us to relate to. They involve feats of death-defying
bravery that make the rest of us look and feel like cowards.
Yet, very ordinary human beings often show real courage in
coping with the day-to-day challenges of life. Fritz Williams,
Leader of the Baltimore Ethical Society, explores what he understands
about courage and what continues to puzzle him.
August 1
Andy Blackburn
The Ethics of Happiness: The Happiness of Ethics
Platform Overview: Is it better to be smart or happy? How
Ethical Culture and lots of water saved my life! A look at
depression from a psychological, physiological and philosophical
perspective.
July 18
Randy Best, Ethical Culture Leader-in-Training,
Ethics as Spiritual Practice
Platform Overview: I simply cannot understand how somebody
can be a spiritual being and not be actively involved in transforming
the world. -- Rabbi Michael Lerner.
The ability to have transcendent experience is part of our
human nature - but do such peak experiences inform our ethical
outlook? Do these spiritual experiences lead us to act in the
world? The Buddhist tradition of the Bodhisattva illustrates
one connection between spiritual experience and ethical action.
What other factors in our lives inspire ethical action? Many
traditional religions view people as sinful and bad - requiring
redemption. Some psychodynamic theories view life as a series
of frustrations and trauma -- requiring resolution and integration.
I propose an alternative model where we act out of wholeness,
joy, and our connections to each other. Our experience of life
can heighten our sense of connection to others and inspire
ethical relations and ethical action. In this way ethics becomes
a spiritual practice.
July 4
Tim Marr, Assistant Professor in American Studies at UNC
The Declaration of Interdependence
Platform Overview: What should be the role of America in establishing
a more just international order? This platform will examine
that question in terms of the teachings of the Baha'i Faith.
The speaker will explore a genealogy of traditions within the
historical experience of the United States that would suggest
an alternative mode of world leadership.
June 20
Lou Lipsitz, Poet
Fatherhood as Seen from the Perspective of "Men's Work"
Platform Overview: How can we understand the value of men
and fathers in the midst of ongoing changes in gender relationships?
Lou Lipsitz has published three books of poetry and has been
active in the men's movement for 15 years. He was for many
years a professor of political science at UNC Chapel Hill.
Lou is currently on the Leadership Council of the Raleigh Men's
Center. Lou will read poetry as part of the presentation.
June 6
Ron Bell, M.A. Psychology
Our Beloved Sons, Genocide-Ready
Platform Overview: Ron Bell served in the National Guard,
Marine Corps, and the Army for a total of eleven years. Looking
back at the twentieth century, the claim that we have an inborn
aversion to killing humans seems preposterous. In a mere thirty
years, military trainers applying psychological techniques
made hundreds of thousands of our boys kill-ready, if only
temporarily. The platform will look at America's accelerated
militarization and its inexorable result in a pre-emptive war.
Americans like to see themselves as peaceful, yet we have put
up very little resistance to the over 265 military operations
launched by our government during the last fifty years.
May 16
Ethics School Children & Loretta Gilson, local storyteller
Learning Ethics from Stories
Platform Overview: Loretta Gilson, a local storyteller, and
the Ethics School Children will provide everyone a chance to
experience the fun and learning experience of using stories
to delve into making ethical choices. Chris Kaman, Co-Coordinator
of the Ethics School, will preside.
May 2
Jan Broughton, President, N.C. Society for Ethical Culture
Founder's Day and Membership Meeting
Platform Overview: We will be celebrating our organization's
17th birthday via relfection and music. We will also be holding
a special meeting for our membership regarding the potential
hiring of a part time leader. Friends and visitors are welcome
to attend.
April 18
Helen E. Dannatt, Personal Growth and Team-Building Facilitator
The Liberating Amend and How To Make One
Platform Overview: Do you have difficult people in your life?
Are you occasionally a difficult person yourself? Do you sometimes
find it difficult to release memories of old hurts? Learn a
technique to repair your relationship with others and with
yourself.
April 4
Richard I. Wark, Ph.D. (Kraw), Adjunct Professor, University
of Maryland-European Division
Ethic Implications of the Volunteer Military: Who Dies for
Their Country?
Platform Overview: At a time when the United States is involved
in at least two active wars, it is especially important to
think about how the people who actually do the fighting end
up on the battlefield. Do people enlist because they are really
volunteers or because their economic and social situation tends
to make it the best available alternative? How ethical are
the recruiting strategies used by the military? To what extent
does having a volunteer military impact political decision-making?
Does it make it easier for a president to lead the nation to
war? Does it make protest both inside and outside the military
less likely?
March 21
Kate Lovelady, American Ethical Union Leader-in-Training
Ethics: The Next Generation
Platform Overview: Will the next generation of young people
be more ethical than the current generation? Is America in
a state of moral decline, or will the next generation truly
learn from today's moral lapses? Ms. Lovelady will cover some
current trends in ethics among the younger set, as well as
shed light on some about research on what makes people ethical
and how we can teach ethics.
March 7
Rev. Audrey Addison-Williams, Director of Authentic Life Ministries
Program
Women and Power
February 15
Chris Saade, Director of The Intentional LIving Institute,
Inc.
Fear and Dialogue
Platform Overview: There is oppression and there is a violent
reaction to oppression. An old and well known cycle of violence
(emotional or physical, or both). And there is a third way
says Gandhi -- the path of dialogue. However, dialogue, which
is an invitation to the other to speak to us, is also a path
that can trigger a great deal of fear in us. The fear of the
'others' and what they would say. The fear of the change in
us that would evolve from dialogue. The fear of saying what
we forbid ourselves to say. And the fear of treading into new
uncharted territories! Fear often paralyzes us into a silence
of withdrawal, a silence of the unsaid, a silence of walking
away from dialogue. This is a silence that freezes individuals
and nations, when as Elie Weisel says, the time demands that
the word be exchanged between us and not be hindered- not only
for our own good but also for all those that cannot speak.
Dialogue is an affirmation of the humanity of all those involved.
Dialogue is healing and transformative. Dialogue is a reinvention
of relationships and of the world. It is a heroic path, a statement
of care and of courage.
February 1
Lois Alpern, President Triangle Congregation for Humanistic
Judiasm
Is Secular Humanistic Judaism a Religion?
January 18
Jan Broughton, President, NC Society for Ethical Culture
Annual Meeting of Members
January 4
Enid Handler, Health & Human Services Consultant
Reaping the Rewards of Ethical Parenting: A Mom's Story
