EthicalStL.org

While the goal of diversity in any community is noble, it is one of many steps in building community. Diversity in the room builds capacity to achieve the ultimate goal of cross-cultural engagement and community building. Such engagement is characterized by an acceptance of multiple worldviews, a willingness to co-create rather than control and the patience to endure. Cecilia will discuss how cross-cultural engagement can transform us and our community.

Cecilia Nadal is founder and executive director of Gitana Productions Inc., an arts and education organization that uses music, dance and drama to bring diverse groups together in acceptance and mutual understanding.

Bringing together our monthly theme of the arts with Women’s History Month, this platform address will look at data and ethical issues on representations of women in TV and films. What are some of the reasons for these representations? What messages are sent about gender and gender roles by our popular culture? To what extent should the media show us the world as it is or the world as it “should be” (and according to whom)?

Every person has or will experience the death of people close to them. This platform address will describe one person’s story of the first significant death experienced, but hopefully it will have universal relevance to how our personal experiences with death influence our worldview, choices, and lives. Images to accompany this platform (PDF).

One of the biggest issues any worldview wrestles with is death. Why do people die? How does the fact of death shape human culture, understanding, and meaning? As a tradition based in a naturalistic understanding of life, Ethical Humanism looks at death as a part of the endless evolutionary process that produced human beings. What evolutionary purposes does death serve? How should we think about death? What would it re-ally mean for humans to live greatly extended lives?

Having conversations about death and dying are critical. Having awareness and knowledge about choices and alternatives available is imperative. This talk aims to break down some of the taboos associated with speaking about death and bring to light understanding about what choices each of us have in life and for our remains after each of our deaths.

Tracy Gomillion is an Adjunct Instruct of Sociology and Social Work at Jefferson College, and a social worker. She founded the Willow Foundation, a non-profit start-up that will provide the St. Louis area with affordable death care products and services. Tracy has 10+ years of work/volunteer experience serving vulnerable populations. Tracy also facilitates the local STL Death Cafes, where community members gather to talk about death and dying.

All communities have a story: a narrative of who they are, why they exist, and where they are going. What is the story of the Ethical Society of St. Louis, and how can we tell that story in a way that reaches more people?

Through the process of reclaiming her grandparents’ homes in Krakow, Poland, Chrissy’s family opened a treasure of memories and stories of the survival of her grand-parents, Teresa Allerhand and Marion Puffeles Poleski. Their story of surviving the Holocaust displays strength and resolve to never give up on humanity, even in one of the darkest chapters in our history. Their story is one of hope and chance and a reminder that even in times of evil, kindness and goodness can be found.

It’s pledge time! Time to kick off the Ethical Society’s annual pledge campaign. This morning we will be brave and talk about the important topic of money in our lives and in our ethics; we will learn about some of the lesser-known but important contributors to the success of the Society over the years; we will celebrate the recent achievements of the Ethical Society community; and we will learn how we can contribute to its future.

In July of 2016, the Ethical Society of Police (ESOP), a mostly African American police association, created a 118-page “Comprehensive Evaluation of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.” The evaluation was a critical review of the department, Commissioner Dotson, and the policies and practices the commissioner has implemented with crime, promotions, transfers, community engagement, and discipline. The evaluation detailed examples of cronyism, implicit biases, racism, and other issues. Since the publication of the evaluation, little has been done to improve internal practices. Furthermore, members of the ESOP have faced retaliation.

Providing holistic legal advocacy and combating the criminalization of poverty and state violence against poor people and people of color, ArchCity Defenders has exposed systemic abuses by municipal courts and local police in the St. Louis area. A non-profit civil rights law firm using direct services, impact litigation, and policy and media advocacy as its primary tools to promote justice, protect civil and human rights, and bring about systemic change on behalf of the poor and communities of color directly impacted by the abuses of the legal system. They received the Award for their outstanding efforts on behalf of this underserved community.