EthicalStL.org

Lincoln did a great thing, but slavery was too entrenched in the South to go away easily. In fact, it did not go away. It became institutionalized in a variety of forms. This is not intended as a metaphor or an analogy or a symbolic way of speaking. The book "Slavery By Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II," by Douglas A. Blackmon, tells all in its title. This book won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction and will serve as the basis for the presentation. There are massive facts that are not told in standard histories of the U.S. When the facts come to light, however, many events in recent history begin to make much more sense.

So many charities and not-for-profits seek our money for projects in Africa. Celebrities capture the headlines with high-profile adoptions and child-assistance efforts. How do we decide if and what to support? Ed Schmidt calls on his experience with an educational organization working to contribute in East Africa to look at some of the issues surrounding efforts in the developing world. lt;brgt;lt;brgt;Ed taught for two years in Kenya under a USAID-sponsored program in the 1960s. For the past 10 years, Ed and his former colleagues have come back together to once again impact education in East Africa, this time through financial and other assistance. Since 2003, members have visited over 60 schools, and about 20 schools have received help from the group. Ed has made four recent trips that have focused on visiting schools and evaluating their needs. lt;brgt;lt;brgt;To discuss our podcasts please visit lt;a href="http://www.live.ethicalstl.org/platforms" target="_blank"gt;http://www.live.ethicalstl.org/platformslt;/agt; on our community site

For this year's "historical humanism" platform, we'll look at a lesser-known work of the influential philosopher Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness. In this work, Russell gives his views on the Good Life and how philosophy can help us achieve it. Come find out how his advice can help us lead both happier and more ethical lives today.

This Sunday is the first day of summer; it's also come to be celebrated as Fathers' Day. Please join us as we honor fatherhood, its joys and challenges, and the special father-figures in our lives. Members Patrick Crowley, Paul Goodfellow, and Steve Harris will share their thoughts as fathers and the products of long lines of fathers. lt;brgt;lt;brgt; Patrick Crowley lives in University City with his wife Laura and daughters Sophia and Alice. He is an associate professor at Washington University, where he explores the design of new and useful computer and network systems. Patrick and Laura joined the Society in 2005. lt;brgt;lt;brgt; Paul Goodfellow is the Professor of genetics, surgery, and of obstetrics and gynecology at Washington University in St. Louis. Originally from Canada, Paul and his wife, artist Carol Stewart, joined the Society in 2000. They have two sons, Jonathan and Jamie, and reside in Clayton. lt;brgt;lt;brgt; Steve Harris joined the St. Louis Ethical Society in 1988, together with his wife Pat, who died in 1996. All three of their children attended the Sunday School and later the youth group. It was a very positive experience for them. Ben now lives in Los Angeles, Susan lives in Milwaukee and Liz lives in University City and is a member here. Since 2006, Steve has served on the board of trustees as treasurer. He is employed by Thomson Reuters and designs some of their financial services used by money managers.

Nonviolent Communication (NVC) is both a spiritual practice that helps us see our common humanity and a concrete set of skills that help us to live more peacefully. These skills apply to thought, language, and a commitment to a certain use of power. Also known as "Compassionate Communication," or "Conscious Communication," NVC involves honest expression, listening with empathy, and developing a more compassionate inner relationship. lt;brgt;lt;brgt; Rhonda Mills, a Certified Trainer with the Global Center for Nonviolent Communication (lt;a href="http://www.cnvc.org" target="_blank"gt;www.cnvc.orglt;/agt;), leads public workshops, trainings, and classes in St. Louis and around the country. She has been facilitating transformational work for individuals and groups since 2001. Her training is in Nonviolent Compassionate Communication (NVC), Para Yoga, and Conscious Living and Loving. lt;brgt;lt;brgt; A mother of two, Rhonda is passionate about family, community, holistic personal transformation, and sharing what she has learned to make the world a better place for us all. Her personal vision statement epitomizes her passion and commitment to NVC. "All people are connected with the life that flows through them, have support for wholeness and living in harmony with needs, and experience aliveness, fulfillment, inner freedom, and thriving relationships."

This Memorial Day weekend we will again come together as a community to acknowledge loss, grief, and change. Share your memories, readings, music, or other tributes to a loved one or other important individual who has passed away.

This morning I'm going to be talking about the Bible, which I don't often do in a platform address, but I thought Easter would be a good excuse to read what people often call the ethical heart of the Christian Bible, a section in the Gospel of Matthew known as the Sermon on the Mount. As an Ethical Humanist, I'm interested in the Bible as a human creation that can tell us about the values of a group of people at a certain period in history and perhaps inspire ethical values today.

Our planet is now home to 6.8 billion people, three times the number here when I was born in the mid-1930s. We all want to consume more and more, but Earth is not large and productive enough to support our desires on an on-going basis. How can we manage our assets ethically in a world where one of five people is starving and many of us cannot express our abilities in any meaningful way? lt;brgt;lt;brgt;Born in China, Peter Raven was a professor at Stanford University before moving to St. Louis in 1971 to head the lt;a href="http://www.mobot.org" target="_blank"gt;Missouri Botanical Gardenlt;/agt;. Under his direction, it has become the leading tropical plant research facility in the world, its staff racing to catalog species doomed to extinction. A preeminent scientist and professor at Washington University, Peter Raven is a world-renowned champion of the environment, lecturing around the globe and writing dozens of books and articles.

There were two clear losers on election night - the Republican Party and the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered) Community. The Republicans lost several gubernatorial elections, seats in the Senate and the House, and the White House. The LGBT Community witnessed the passage of four state propositions denying civil rights to same-sex couples. How each group responded to its losses is a testament to the best and worst in us and the many ways we get back on our feet when the ground beneath us seems to have given way. lt;brgt;lt;brgt;Krista Taves is the minister of lt;a href="http://www.emersonuuchapel.org/" target="_blank"gt;Emerson Unitarian Universalist Chapellt;/agt; in Ellisville, Missouri, as well as the Board President of lt;a href="http://www.faithaloud.org/" target="_blank"gt;Faith Aloudlt;/agt;: The Religious and Ethical Voice for Reproductive Justice.

In this installment of the wildly popular - or at least tongue-in-cheekily-named—series, Lives of the Ethical Saints, we'll explore the writing of poet Walt Whitman. He has been called the father of modernism because of his pioneering use of free verse, and his poetry is often used in humanist contexts because of his sensual reveling in life, his empathic longings for deeper connections among humanity, and his attempts to grapple with the meaning of mortality.