Prior Platform Meetings -- 2006

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 17
A Winter Solstice Celebration

Platform Overview: Our Winter Solstice Celebration is a celebration of our connections to each other, and to our natural world. Winter Solstice Celebrations are very old, dating back at least 4,000 years. Our celebration will include poetry, music, song, and reflections.
December 3
Dr. Clay Whitehead
Neo-Psychoanalysis: An Evolving View of Mind, Brain, and Spirit
November 19
Steevie Jane Parks
A Stone Soup Thanksgiving Celebration
November 5
Jim Haberman
Middle East: Multiple Realities

Platform Overview: Jim Haberman will show slides and discuss his experiences in the making of his forthcoming photography book on the Middle East. This project is funded by a Projects Grant from the Orange County Arts Commission.
October 22
Fritz Williams, Leader of Baltimore Ethical Society
The Binding of Isaac

Platform Overview: The Biblical story (Genesis 22) of God putting Abraham to the test by commanding him to take his son Isaac's life and offer him up as a sacrificial burnt offering is one of the most poignant and troubling passages in the entire Bible. Through the centuries, rabbis, imams, priests, and ministers have attempted to make theological and moral sense of it. Fritz Williams provides a deeply personal and humanistic encounter with this ancient story.
October 15
Amy Piersma, President of the North Carolina Society for Ethical Culture
Fall Membership Meeting

Platform Overview: This meeting is a business meeting where members and friends of the society will hear reports from the board and various committees (EGAD) on society activities during the last 12 months.
October 1
Sgt. Ricky Clousing
A Soldier's Story: The Unjust War in Iraq

Platform Overview: Sgt. Clousing will tell how he came to believe that the war in Iraq is an unjust war. He has served in active duty in Iraq. See this for more information.
September 17
Paul Cuadros
Immigration

Platform Overview: Paul Cuadros is a writer. His book, A Home on the Field, to be published by HarperCollins, is about a high school soccer team he founded, coached, and won a state championship with -- in three seasons -- made up mostly of immigrants. Mr. Cuadros is also an investigative reporter, freelancing for Time and Time.com, and he is the winner of numerous awards such as the Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship, to write on the migration of Latin-Americans to rural Southern towns, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists online award for a series he wrote for Time.com on an unaccompanied minor who was detained by INS for more than a year.
September 3
Nancy Applegate
Labor Day Reflections

Platform Overview: Nancy Applegate will preside over a series of reflections, and observations on the topic of Labor Day from the lovers and haters of the holiday, labor unions, etc.
August 20
Nancy Applegate
I Have Been to 'The Mountain': Been There, Done That, Got the T-Shirt
August 6
James Coley
Beyond Spirituality

Platform Overview: Try as we might to redefine it, the language of spirituality carries with it connotations of the otherworldly, at least for some. Ethical Culture should be open to many different viewpoints, including those that embrace this traditional religious language. But we may also allow for other views, including the renunciation of religious language for those among us for whom it compromises the appreciation of meaning in this world.
July 16
Jan Broughton
A Look at the 2006 AEU General Assembly
July 2
Steevie Jane Parks, Psychologist
Transforming Thought and Feeling Into Action: A Motivational Exercise Involving Art and Music!!

Platform Overview: Art and music will be used as a tool to help us transform a thought, emotion, or even a vision into something tangible. This will involve sculpting clay, so attendees should wear something very casual, and light colored; stained clothing is a very real potential. The finished pieces can not be taken home but pictures of each work will be taken and will be saved as a digital photo for anyone who wants one.
June 18
Richard Wark, Ph.D. Professor, University of Maryland, European Division
Bethlehem Blues: Reflections On A Journey
June 4
Ina Evans, Kim Ashley
Celebrating 20 Years of NCSEC
May 21
Brian Thomas
A Fresh View on Racism

Platform Overview: We usually understand beliefs to play a dominant role in the way in which we understand racism. In some recent discussions of racism, however, being a racist is not tied to believing things about certain persons, be quite simply to not caring enough about certain persons because of their race. I want to discuss what this new view might mean and how such a view might help us understand such interesting questions as whether African-Americans can be racist or how we might understand systemic racism or how we might describe certain events, such as the Federal government’s perceived indifference towards the African-American victims of Katrina as ''racist''.
May 7
Randy Best, Ethical Culture Leader
Reflections on Ethical Culture: A Founders Day Retrospective
April 16
Dr. Sharon Milgram, PFLAG Triangle
What You Can Do to Create a World Devoid of Homophobia and Heterosexism
April 2
Randy Best, Ethical Culture Leader
Giving Meaning to Life

Platform Overview: Life does not come with an operating manual. It is up to each of us to bring meaning and purpose to our lives. The questions: Who am I? Why am I here? What is the meaning of Life? can only be answered by each of us as individuals. To form answers to these questions, we are informed by our own experience and the experience of others. Examining how others have answered these questions allows us to benefit from the accumulated wisdom of human history transmitted to us through philosophy, art, science and religion.
March 19
Lanya Shapiro, MSW, MPH, Founding Director of Traction
Traction: the Gateway Drug to Activism? Hooking Generation X & Y Today for a Progressive Tomorrow
March 5
Dr. Donald N. Wood, Professor Emeritus, Media Studies and Cultural Criticism California State University, Northridge
Bishop John Spong and Christian Humanism

Platform Overview: John Shelby Spong served as Episcopal Bishop of the New Jersey Diocese for 25 years (retiring in 2000), where he served as a very controversial church leader. First, he was a crusading civil rights spokesmanÑfighting anti-Semitism, and arguing for the rights of Blacks, women, and gay Americans. Second, he preached against the image of a theistic God: God does not perform miracles or answer prayers; Jesus was not born of a virgin, did not bodily ascend to Heaven, and did not perform miracles. Basing his ministry on the underlying presence of God and on the love and example of Jesus, Spong provides us with the basis for a new look at humanism, a humanism based on Judeo-Christian foundations.
February 19
William Manson, Ph.D., Columbia University
Group-Narcissism -- or Empathic Humanism

Platform Overview: "Nothing that is human is alien to me," proclaimed the Roman poet Terence (around 160 BCE). Conversely, militaristic nationalism has for millennia murdered and enslaved its dehumanized victims. After the horrific 20th century, can global humanism -- with its ideals of individual dignity and universal rights -- still prevail over exploitative "group-narcissism"?
February 5
Dr. Scott Madry, Chair of the Disaster Services Committee and Member of the Board of the Orange County Chapter of the American Red Cross
The International Red Cross Movement and the Orange County Chapter of the American Red Cross: Origins and Current Activities

Platform Overview: Dr. Madry will speak about the origins of the International Red Cross Movement, and the current activities of the Red Cross internationally, for Hurricane Rita, and locally in Orange County.
January 15
James Coley, President, NC Society for Ethical Culture
Annual Meeting of Members
January 1 -- No Meeting

Prior Platform Meetings -- 2006

Transcripts

Other Years: