Prior Platform Meetings -- 2004

Our platform speakers are selected based on their knowledge and expertise on a given subject, not necessarily on the degree to which they agree with the basic values and principles of Ethical Culture. We may invite speakers with dramatically opposing views in order to challenge the existing "politically correct" views.

Presentations are on Sundays at 1:30PM at Extraordinary Ventures in Chapel Hill, NC. Childcare is provided.

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

Prior Platform Meetings -- 2004

Transcripts

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