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These are hard times. Millions of Americans are unemployed or underemployed, and more than one in five children live in households that struggle to provide enough food. Worldwide, nearly one billion people are hungry, and a child dies every six seconds of hunger related causes. Yet when people of conscience stand together, and when we persuade our leaders to prioritize these issues, progress can be achieved. This year, U.S. Congress is intensely focused on cutting spending, and vital U.S. safety net programs are on the chopping block, as is life-saving foreign assistance. Let's speak up together to protect our most vulnerable neighbors here and abroad. lt;brgt;lt;brgt;Zach Schmidt is regional organizer for the Central Midwest office of Bread for the World, which covers Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana and Missouri. As an organizer with Bread for the past 3.5 years, he is privileged to identify, recruit and equip volunteer leaders in the work to end hunger. Zach studied Bible and theology at Bethel University (St. Paul, MN) and Fuller Theological Seminary (Pasadena, CA). He loves his roles as husband and father of four children, and in his very limited spare time enjoys reading and being outdoors.

Humanism is a worldview that generally promotes a positive view of human sexuality and sensuality, and that celebrates pleasure and artistic expression. Pornography comes in an endless variety of forms, and there are certainly ethical issues of concern in the porn industry. Yet human beings seem to want to read and look at pornographic material, and now thanks to the Internet more and more people are creating as well as consuming porn. So this platform will look more at the everyday experience many of us have with erotic material, and suggest that a more open and honest public conversation about why we like smut would help in building a healthier society.

Politics, it is often said, is war by other means. And most of those other means will never appear in a civics textbook, or be taught in a political science class. Dr. Smith will describe the way that some of these other means are employed during election campaigns and during the policy process, with special focus on the role of money and how it might be overcome. He will discuss the impact of these other means both on the body politic and, more personally, on those who aspire to public office. lt;brgt;lt;brgt; Jeff Smith is a professor in the public policy graduate program at The New School in New York City. He has also taught at Washington University, where he received the Dean's Award for Teaching Excellence, and at Dartmouth College. He researches election campaigns, race in urban politics, and the legislative process. His writing has appeared in Slate, Inc., National Journal, and New York magazines, and he has been profiled by Harper's, the New Republic, and NPR. Jeff served in the Missouri Senate from 2006-2009. After working in St. Louis Public Schools and cofounding a group of urban charter schools, Jeff became a leading voice in the Senate on education issues. In 2004, Jeff ran for Dick Gephardt's former congressional seat, losing narrowly to Rep. Russ Carnahan. His grass-roots campaign was chronicled in the film Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?, which was short-listed for an Academy Award. He spent 2010 in federal prison on charges stemming from a campaign finance violation during that race. Jeff graduated with honors in Black Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill and earned an M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from Washington University.

Ethical Humanism, as a form of liberal religion, does not have a sacred text and reads other traditions' sacred texts in the light of history, literary criticism, science, and individual experience and conscience. But what about the Constitution of the United States? Should that document, too, be treated as just another human-created text with good and bad ideas, or would such a liberal attitude toward the Constitution undermine the foundations of our democracy? How are differences between views on Constitutional issues attributable to different attitudes toward the Constitution as a secular Sacred Text? Or do attitudes toward the Constitution change to justify political desires?

Decades before the 1960s, social reformers began planting the seeds for the Modern Civil Rights era. During the period spanning World Wars I and II, St. Louis, Missouri, was home to a dynamic group of African American social welfare reformers. The city's history and culture were shaped both by those who would construct it as a southern city and by the heirs of New England abolitionism. Allying with white liberals to promote the era's new emphasis on "the common good," black reformers confronted racial segregation and its consequences of inequality and, in doing so, helped to determine the gradual change in public policy that led to a more inclusive social order. lt;brgt;lt;brgt;Dr. Priscilla A. Dowden-White is Associate Professor of History at UM-St. Louis where she currently serves as Undergraduate Advisor and teaches a variety of courses on African American history, United States history since 1865, and the history of St. Louis. Dr. Dowden-White has been a featured scholar in several historical documentaries, among them are: "Sing It, Tell It," a documentary exploring the African-American musical heritage of Missouri, created by Public Interest Films of Berkeley, California; “Decades,” a series on the history of St. Louis since the 1904 World’s Fair; "Made in the U.S.A.: East St. Louis," and "The Jewish American Experience." Her scholarly interests include social welfare and civic activism among African Americans during the interwar period of WWI and WWII. Dr. Dowden-White is the author of the recently published book titled, Groping toward Democracy: African American Social Welfare Reform in St. Louis, 1910-1949 (University of Missouri Press, 2011). She is currently editing and annotating the unpublished memoir of Urban League Executive Secretary, John T. Clark, and has recently begun the research for a biography on the life of the late civil rights attorney and former National NAACP Chairperson, Margaret Bush Wilson.

The Obama Administration's signature legislative achievement, the Affordable Care Act, has sparked political controversy at every stage of its consideration. Now the Supreme Court is preparing to decide whether or not the Act violates the U.S. Constitution. In particular, legal challengers argue that the Act’s "individual mandate" – its requirement that all U.S. citizens purchase health care coverage from private insurance companies – encroaches on the powers that the Constitution reserves to the states. The challenge has divided the federal courts. This talk will introduce the key constitutional concepts that frame the debate, evaluate their application to the health care controversy, and suggest how the Supreme Court may ultimately resolve the challenge. lt;brgt;lt;brgt; Greg Magarian is Professor of Law at Washington University in St. Louis. He teaches and writes about constitutional law, with special emphasis on the First Amendment rights relating to freedom of expression, law and religion, and the law of politics. He has published widely and made numerous scholarly presentations in the United States and abroad. Professor Magarian received his B.A. from Yale and his J.D., as well as a master's degree in public policy, from the University of Michigan, where he was editor-in-chief of the Michigan Law Review. He served as a judicial clerk for Judge Louis Oberdorfer of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and for Justice John Paul Stevens of the U.S. Supreme Court.

The theme of this year's pledge campaign is Growing Together. Hear Kate's thoughts on giving and growing, both personally and as a community. At this platform Kate will also be introducing a couple exciting new ethical action projects, both short and long term, underlining the great things we can accomplish together.

By exempting the Border States from the terms of the Emancipation Proclamation, President Lincoln continued to extend to them some of the autonomy they had enjoyed during the first years of the war. Civil governments continued to function in Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, and in the new state of West Virginia, but Lincoln also authorized the imposition of martial law in these states. Lincoln rejected repeated pleas to resolve the tensions in the Border States, either by placing them entirely under federal military control or by deferring to the authority of their civil governments. Lincoln's middle course helped to insure that the Civil War in the Border States earned its name. Conflict in these states raged at the most intimate levels of civil society.lt;brgt;lt;brgt;Louis Gerteis joined the History faculty of the University of Missouri-St. Louis where he has held the rank of Professor since 1987. His academic specialty is Nineteenth Century American History with a particular interest in the Civil War and Reconstruction. He is the author of numerous books and articles, including "From Contraband to Freedman: Federal Policy toward Southern Blacks, 1861-1865" (1973); "Morality and Utility in American Antislavery Re-form" (1987); and "Civil War St. Louis" (2001). His forth-coming work, "The Civil War in Missouri: A Military History" will be published by the University of Missouri Press in the spring of 2012.

With the age of Enlightenment, came reason, spreading across Europe, reaching Germany. With the Napoleonic wars had come oppression, famine, chaos; and when the military campaigns ended, Germans were faced with an even more horrific struggle – for freedom. The Universities were filled with young men engulfed in that battle, where they learned Latin by daylight, yet studied democracy secretly by lamplight. A dream emerged, born of the oppression, fueled by repression, for a place where all Germans could raise families, educate their children, and live a life free from fear. When rationalism arrived in the far western states of North America, those ideals took shape in talks in crude cabins and traveled the countryside on broadsheets and books – and freethought was born on the Missouri frontier. lt;brgt;lt;brgt; Dorris Keeven-Franke writes and lectures on the history of 19th Century German emi-grants to Missouri. A re-search consultant, she works with museums, television and film producers on projects both here and in Germany. As Director of the Missouri German Consortium, she collaborates with the Sommer-Republik on Utopia, a multi-visual exhibit, book and DVD explaining the role of the Giessen Emigration Society in Missouri's history. As archivist for the St. Charles County Historical Society, she assists hundreds of researchers dis-cover their own history.

Welcome back and/or begin your new year at the Ethical Society. Leader Kate Lovelady begins 2012 with well-needed but also well-founded positivity, exploring the unique mission of Ethical Humanism and highlighting reasons to be hopeful for our nation's and humanity's future.