Times Endorses Hillary

The New Times, in a lengthy editorial On January 25th, endorsed Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee for the presidency. Though there were obligatory words of praise for Barack Obama, the Times echoed the common refrain that Hillary possesses wider and deeper experience. What was not unmentioned by the Times, though it does not comes as a great surprise, is Hillary's vast ties to corporate interests. Nor was much said about Obama's persona being able to present an America to a wider, diverse international community, in which the United States has lost much of its prestige under the Bush administration.

Are holiday decorations coming to area school district?

The Westwood Regional School District, which serves the Borough of Westwood and Township of Washington here in Bergen County, NJ, hosted a forum last week for the public to voice their opinions regarding reli­gion, including holiday decorations, in school. According to the Pascack Press, Superintendent Geoffrey Zoeller was moved to hold the session in response to "a number of emotional exchanges between the public and Board of Education at the board's Dec. 20 meeting". The article, reproduced below, states that no one at the forum objected to the idea of "dec­orating with secular holiday decorations".


Can someone please show me a "secular holiday decoration"?



The following is reprinted with permission of the Pascack Press

TOWNSHIP OF WASHINGTON

Parents call for secular decor, religion classes

BY LAURIE KAPLAN OF PASCACK PRESS

On Jan. 15, the superintendent of schools of the Westwood Regional School District, Geoffrey Zoeller, along with Dr. Matthew Murphy, director of elementary education, and a number of other administrators held a forum for the public to speak on issues regarding religion in school and the displaying of holiday decorations.

Zoeller said he decided to hold this forum as a result of a number of emotional exchanges between the public and Board of Education at the board's Dec. 20 meeting. The forum was held to gauge where the public stands in terms of education about religion in the classroom, holiday decorations and celebrations revolving around holidays and cultures.

"This is a very important and heartfelt issue," said Zoeller. "As Dr. Murphy has pointed out to me, wars have broken out from issues like this."

The superintendent further explained, "It is my intention to put together a policy regulation that's prescriptive. That we can hand to our professional educators in the classroom, not just the principals, and give them some very specific guidelines on how we're going to approach these issues in the future."

One resident who has two children in the district said he just wants the holidays to be festive and fun for the kids.

"A Christmas tree is a secular item," he said. "I've done a lot of research on this subject and from what I've read, a menorah can be secular too, so to have a Christmas tree and a menorah displayed in the lobby of a school, to me, is not a big deal, and whoever else wants to be displayed - the star of Ramadan, etc. What I would like to see are signs displayed that read `Merry Christmas.' `Happy Hanukkah,' `Happy Ramadan,' and then maybe a sign over all of them saying `Happy Holidays'...I mean, we went to the `holiday' concert but it was so sterile. There was nothing festive about it. People were playing nice music and they were doing a good job, but we want festive."

One child in the district said, with three others agreeing, "I think we're trying to oversimplify everything and taking the fun out of it. Eventually my fear is we're not allowed to permit shamrocks on St. Patrick's Day, or forget the hearts on Valentine's Day."

One Jewish woman who has two kids in the district was also in favor of holiday decorations of all kinds.

"I think the holidays should be recognized. We don't live in a vacuum. We go out and look at the Christmas lights every year. Kids love it and they love to see the festivity. It's not teaching religion. We're just saying the holidays are here."

Another mother said, "Our kids don't see black, they don't see white, they don't see red. I can't talk to my son about other religions because I don't really know about them, and if we are trying to teach our kids about diversity and peace on earth, then aren't we doing the exact opposite by not allowing the celebration of the holidays in school?"

A number of other parents spoke at the meeting, and not one objected to the idea of decorating with secular holiday decorations.

Thoughts expressed at the public forum will be put compiled with thoughts of the professional educators and submitted to the Board of Education's attorney, who will review the ideas and make sure they are compliant with federal law, New Jersey law, and case law. They will then be given to the Board of Education so a policy can be drafted.

Local speaker's letter is published

The New York Times has published a letter from Robert Gulack of Fair Lawn, NJ, in response to the article Big Brain Theory: Have Cosmologists Lost Theirs? The article appeared on January 15, 2008, and Bob's letter on January 22, 2008.

This is not Bob's first published letter to the NY Times editor. His commentary on the article Where Are Those Aliens? was published in 2003. Bob has given several Platform addresses at Bergen Ethical, including Free Will: The Last Great Lie (2004), How to Tell the Difference Between Right and Wrong (2005) and The Land of Now, Or: How Time Goes By (2005).

Bob has also been spotted at the occasional Socrates Cafe meeting at the Society's Teaneck Meeting House.

"Don't believe in God?" billboardInstallment 2

The ECS/Bergen Board gave me the okay to speak on behalf of The Society. So I emailed Freethought Action and the AHA.

Roy Speckhardt of the AHA, and Jan Meshon and Joseph Stewart of FTA were very receptive to the idea of referring and linking to us. Roy's comment was that they would be happy to mention us to reporters who contact them. Joseph, who runs the FTA blog, put a link to this blog and to the Society's webpage on the FTA blog (click the link and search for "ethical culture" to see it).

That's good. Hopefully some folks with humanistic leanings will see the billboard, surf to the FTA website, click through to us from FTA blog and walk through our door.

"Don't Believe in God? You are not alone."Bergen County billboard

Page 1 of today's Bergen Record trumpets God's Skeptics Get Comfort from Above and features the roadside billboard seen to the left. It's located on the NJ Turnpike in Ridgefield, about five miles away from the Ethical Culture Meeting House. Cool!

The Ethical Culture Society is a nontheistic organization (ref. AEU article, Wikipedia) and as such we do not explicitly espouse atheism or the denial of the existence of God or gods. I've always told friends who asked that our brand of nontheism means that we simply do not address the issue of god and that some of our members are, in fact, God-believers. If asked further, I say that we base our thinking and action on moral and ethical values that stem from humanity itself, as well as the natural world around us (an interesting reference in today's NY Times: The Moral Instinct by Steven Pinker).

Despite the self-applied nontheistic label, however, the fact is that the majority of our membership is atheistic or agnostic, or lean strongly in that direction. As a result, the freethoughtaction.org billboard on the NJ Turnpike in Ridgefield will appeal strongly to most of our membership. By the same token, many Turnpike drivers who view the billboard favorably would be sympathetic to Ethical Culture.

That is, if only they knew about it. If only those unsuspecting, God-questioning drivers knew that a humanistic society is a mere five miles from the billboard. How do we make the connection? One way is for the Ethical Culture Society to reach out to FTA and let them know we're here. That way, supportive inquiries coming to them as a result of the billboard can, in appropriate cases, be directed to us.

For example, say someone sends a supportive message to FTA that the billboard resonates with them but they need to keep going to church because they want their children in a Sunday school. Do they know that The Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County has a humanistic Sunday school? Maybe ... maybe not. If FTA is willing to refer such emails to us, a few of them might contact us and voila ... connection.

So I'm on a mission. I've volunteered to contact the FTA on behalf of The Society and discuss the matter to see if they can help those Turnpike drivers make a connection with Ethical Culture. Check back in this space to see how it goes. And in the meantime, honk for free thought.

(Click for Google map of billboard location.)

Humanist Network News (HNN) podcasts

Tons of humanist content are showing up on the web. Lately I've been listening to the award winning Humanist Network News (HNN). This collection's directory is as helpful as the podcasts themselves are informative. It's simple to browse two+ years of shows on a single screen (actually, two screens). Each entry contains a brief synopsis and photo, as well as links to both text details about the show and a full text transcript, and can be listened to online or downloaded as an .MP3 file for playing on a portable device.

The shows are diverse and include interviews with movement luminaries (Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, Hitchens) and other notables (Salmon Rushdie, Alan Dershowitz, Rabbi Sherwin Wine, E.O. Wilson, U.S. Representative Pete Stark). The hosts, Duncan Crary and Jes Constantine (see picture) , attend and report on conferences (Atheist Alliance International, International Humanist and Ethical Youth Organization (IHEYO), New Humanism) and other events. Some shows are cerebral, others report on arts, leisure and recreation, including, Rational Rap, Camp Quest for humanist youth and much more. The show's theme song, I Ain't Afraid by Holly Near, quickly grows on you.

The show is self described thus: "The Humanist Network News (HNN) Audio Podcast is a monthly one-hour talk show created by the Institute for Humanist Studies. Every episode of the HNN Audio Podcast explores a different area of humanist thought, from politics to pop culture."

Check it out and take it with you on the road.

Dr. Joseph Chuman interviewed by The Record

John Chadwick of the The Record interviewed (click here) Dr. Joseph Chuman, Leader of ECS/Bergen. Full text of the article appeared on the print edition of January 10, 2008.

The print version includes a photo of Dr. Chuman, which doesn't seem to be included with the online version. Too bad ... Joe is seen with his friend Yorick (I think).

Late members noted in The Record

The Bergen Record article Their lives made ours a little richer (Jan 1, 2008; see pages 2 & 3) acknowledged two ECS/Bergen members who passed away during 2007. I never knew Ed Ubell and if I met Suzanne Platoff I couldn't attest to it.

I did know some other members who passed away during 2007 who I will miss: Steve Jacobs, Marvin Mausner, Zack Finkelberg and Norman Righthand. Who am I forgetting?