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What does the United States' incarceration rate say about this country? The U.S. has the highest rate of incarceration in the Western world. People of color and the poor are disproportionately represented in jails and prisons throughout this country. What is the fallacy in the oft-repeated adage "If you do the crime, you do the time?" There is a relationship between the structural barriers to meaningful participation in the United States placed in the paths of people of color and the poor and incarceration. If we are to live in a society that truly values all human beings equally, we must understand and address the way the criminal justice system targets people of color and the poor. lt;brgt;lt;brgt;Adjoa A. Aiyetoro is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and the Director of the Racial Disparities in the Arkansas Criminal Justice System Research Project. She began her legal career as a staff attorney with the United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Special Litigation Section, where she litigated cases involving the rights of the institutionalized and developed an expertise in prisoner rights. She joined the ACLU National Prison Project in 1981 where she remained until 1992. Since 1992 she has served as the Executive Director of the National Conference of Black Lawyers, the Director of Ad-ministration for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc., a consultant to the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and the Chief Legal Consultant for the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N'COBRA).

Start your engines, Ethical Society, it's pledgin' time! The theme of the pledge campaign this year is Bridges to the Future and as part of that campaign Society members and lay leaders will be imaging the Society of 2025. But in order to cross those bridges and get to that future, we will need to make some decisions and some commitments. Do we want to keep coasting along at our leisurely pace, or is it time to rev our engines and shift into higher gear? It's up to us - What do we want, and When do we want it?

HateBrakers was founded with the goal of helping people overcome hate - hate between races, cultures and even schoolchildren who bully each other. It's based on the premise that people can change. lt;brgt;lt;brgt;Susan Balk is the Founding Director of HateBrakers. She has written for Rolling Stone, The New York Times, and Vogue, and is the author of "Fame" and "Vienna's Conscience: Close-ups and Conversations after Hitler," which was published in 2007, followed by an international exhibit on permanent display at the UN in Vienna. Susan was literary editor of Playboy. She consulted for TimeWarner, NewsCorp, Disney, Daishinsha (Tokyo) and Groupe L'Express (Paris). She taught at The Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University.

Practically every person in the world has felt lonely at some point in life. For some, loneliness is a more chronic condition. We can feel lonely because we don’t have enough companionship in our lives, or sometimes even if we’re surrounded by people. Loneliness is a topic that often provokes shame or self-blame, and so it is discussed less often than it should be. Loneliness has real physical and psychological consequences if left unattended, but if we pay attention to our loneliness and the messages it might be telling us, we can address it and make our lives better.

You never know what you will find at the center of these classic chronicles of intrigue, passion, and destiny, but one thing is certain: it will leave you thinking. So sit back and immerse yourself in these touching tales geared toward older teens and adults to discover just what can happen when fate moves its huge hand in these simple, ordinary circumstances. lt;brgt;lt;brgt;Chris Sutton is an experienced actor, voice talent, public speaker, storyteller, and educator. He has created workshops, educational programs, and living history interpretations for the Saint Louis Zoo, Missouri State Parks, the National Association of Interpretation, and individual entities. Each captivating story provokes thought to every wanderer, romantic, and dreamer in the room. Whether listening to an intense account of living history, the narrative of a traveling stranger, or a tale of lost love, you will never forget his voice.

Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol has become part of our national mythos - those stories that almost everyone knows to some extent, and that form our shared culture, whatever religions or holidays we may or may not observe. This platform will look at this influential story for its ethical messages, some of which may be different from what they appear at first glance.

Missourians now have new options for health insurance through the Missouri Health Insurance Marketplace. There are new rules to protect consumers, a new way to shop for insurance, and financial discounts to help many people afford their health insurance. Missouri also has a chance to expand health insurance even further for low-income Missourians. Ms Bersdale will speak about what the changes mean for individuals, families, and small businesses.lt;brgt;lt;brgt;Jen Bersdale is the Executive Director of lt;a href="http://missourihealthcareforall.org" target="_blank"gt;Missouri Health Care for Alllt;/agt;, Missouri's statewide, nonpartisan, grassroots movement for quality, affordable health care for all Missourians. She began this role in 2013 after six years as a Board member. Missouri Health Care for All engages in grassroots organizing with faith communities, community groups, and individuals. Ms. Bersdale has given educational presentations that have helped thousands of Missourians better understand the new health care laws. She has more than ten years of experience in the nonprofit sector and is currently pursuing a Master's in Nonprofit Management through Regis University.

We are beginning to enter the Thanksgiving and holiday season, the perfect time to examine the power of gratitude for personal happiness as well as for creating a more ethical world. It is also the perfect time to extend our mission as a Welcoming Home for Humanists farther than ever before—all the way to Africa, to support international humanism and growing efforts to provide human rights and science-based education to some of the neediest and most motivated students in the world.

Genderqueer people are gaining increased visibility within a society that doesn't legally recognize our existence, but we are still a minority within a minority. This talk will explore the social, economic, and health aspects of living outside the gender binary in the USA. I will also share from my own "coming of gender" story, as we begin a broader dialog: What can the humanist community do to create a society where people of all genders flourish? lt;brgt;lt;brgt;Andy Semler is an active member of the LGBT Center of St Louis, the Metro Trans Umbrella Group, and the greater online community of non-binary trans and genderqueer folk everywhere.

My two platforms in October will look at the related topics of gentleness and violence. Popular culture denigrates gentleness as "weakness" and violence as "strength" and teaches us that the right and righteous response to evil is to kick its ass. But does this view match our understanding and our values as Ethical Humanists? And if not, what can we do to promote an alternate view within our own minds and families as well as in the wider culture?