EthicalStL.org

This Platform will build on our Fall Gathering theme of practicing peace as well as honor the International Day of Peace (September 21), which was established by the United Nations in 1981. Everyone says they want Peace— in fact, they’re willing to fight for it! In what situations does this contradiction make sense, if any? What does Ethical Humanism have to say about peace as a value and an ideal? Most important, how do we as Ethical Humanists live this value in our daily lives so that we can work to promote peace in our communities and all over the world?

This platform looks at what Ethical Humanism has in common with secular humanism, and how it differs as a form of religious humanism.

In his treatise on the commodification of medicine, the renowned bioethicist, Edmund Pelligrino, M.D. quoted Socrates, who asked his students, "But tell me, your physician, is he a moneymaker, an earner of fees, or a healer of the sick?" The student understood that physicians are healers first. While championing his health care reform package, President Obama was often heard to say, "We need to let doctors be doctors." If the "ideal" were the "everyday," perhaps this would work. But what motivates physicians? What affects the decisions they make in caring for patients? lt;brgt;lt;brgt;Dr. Nancy Holekamp is an office-based, super-specialist retina surgeon. Dr. Nick Holekamp is a hospital-based generalist pediatrician who cares for medically-complex children and their families. Despite being at opposite ends of the healthcare continuum, they share an understanding that physician behavior, like human behavior in general, happens on a spectrum from "doing the right thing" to greed-inspired self-interest. By sharing some of their personal experience, they hope to highlight the physician's role in the healthcare industry.

The word to be discussed today has a very strict usage in science. To understand its misuse, we have to explore how science works at a very basic level. We will do that, with applications to everyday problems, and show how a fact-based (as opposed to faith-based) belief system helps us focus our decisions. We will then explore some of the ways this scientific word is misused in the media and in our decision-making. lt;brgt;lt;brgt; Dennis Owsley holds a Ph.D. in organic chemistry and is a retired Monsanto Senior Science Fellow and college teacher. His other career is in radio. He has broadcast a weekly jazz show (currently running as "Jazz Unlimited" on Sundays from 9 p.m. 'til midnight) for St. Louis Public Radio (KWMU—90.7 FM) since April 1983, for which he has won numerous accolades. He has combined his love of both photography and jazz to become a prominent photographer of jazz musicians, and his photos have been exhibited and published in galleries, history books, music textbooks, on websites and several CD covers.

Beyond dispute, the Internet has changed the way most of us live our lives. Access to the sum total of human knowledge from our living room couch has impacted the way we work, the way we play, and the way we interact with other people on a global scale. Of course, we pay a heavy price for this level of access. Our parents had certain expectations of privacy, but what about our children and grandchildren who are growing up in this world of global access? lt;brgt;lt;brgt; In this talk, Denny Boynton, Technology Evangelist for Microsoft, will look at these issues and shed some light on these changing expectations of privacy in the Information Age.

Words to Live By: Reflections on the Writing Life From a 40-Year Veteran is a memoir of a remarkable career that began with little more than a vague dream—to write—and proved that with a bit of talent and a lot of determination one can achieve any goal, no matter how improbable. Bobbi intended the title to describe the way she has earned her living for more than half her life, but when one of her editors read it, the editor felt the title intimated at life lessons learned along the way. This morning's platform is about those lessons. lt;brgt;lt;brgt; Currently a working ghostwriter, editor, and writing coach, Bobbi Linkemer has been a magazine editor, corporate communicator, executive speech writer, and marketing manager, working with audio, video and various print media. She has authored 16 books. Her passion is helping other writers at all levels convey their messages through fine words. She teaches courses in "Writing, Publishing, and Promoting a Nonfiction Book" at St. Louis Community College.

In times of adversity the faithful turn their thoughts and hope to God. Where do agnostics or atheists go, what can they do, when they need answers and reason seems insufficient?

To continue our month of platform addresses related to faith, Beth Damsgaard-Rodriguez, Executive Director of lt;a href="http://interfaithstl.org/" target="_blank"gt;Interfaith Partnership/Faith Beyond Wallslt;/agt;, of which the Ethical Society of St. Louis is a member, will speak about the work of her organization to bring together people of all faiths to improve St. Louis and to increase peace and understanding. lt;brgt;lt;brgt; Beth Damsgaard-Rodriguez is a St. Louis, Missouri native. She earned her Bachelor Degree in Human Services from University of Tennessee. Her work has involved her in various non-profit organizations including the role of house parent for a residential treatment center and a youth minister for a Presbyterian Church. Beth also served for three years in the Peace Corps in Costa Rica.

Faces of humanism: Robert Ingersoll and Felix Adler

In 2006, a deranged man named Charles Carl Roberts went into an Amish school in Nickel Mines, Lancaster County, and shot and killed five girls before committing suicide. The Amish community decided to respond not with anger or calls for vengeance but with radical forgiveness for the shooter and his family. lt;brgt;lt;brgt; Jim Mahanes was inspired to create a series of thirty paintings portraying the Amish people and their community after visiting with Amish youth and viewing a documentary film about this incident, "The Power of Forgiveness," produced by Martin Doblmeier of Journey Films. lt;brgt;lt;brgt; In this Platform, Mahanes will share his paintings and his fascination with the process of forgiveness among the Amish children who had been traumatized by the loss of their schoolmates. How do the developmental emotions of grief and anger coincide with the cultural expectations to forgive? lt;brgt;lt;brgt; Since 1975, watercolorist Jim Mahanes has painted the American land-scape with both realism and imaginative interpretation. A self-taught artist, Mahanes has advanced degrees in the behavioral sciences and practices family therapy in Louisville, Kentucky. He has been a faculty member of the University of Kentucky for more than 23 years. His art is the primary focus in his life now, however. According to the artist, "There is a close parallel between painting and therapy. The perceptual skills demanded of a clinician enhance the creative approach to painting and vice versa." lt;brgt;lt;brgt; You can visit lt;a href="http://www.Mahanes-art.com" target="_blank"gt;www.Mahanes-art.comlt;/agt; to see his Amish images.