I had the joy of spending some time with a new Ethical Leader-in-Training last week. James Croft was raised in London, and presently lives in the Boston area. We interviewed him while he visited the Ethical Society of Saint Louis on The Bill & Frantz Show.

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• ESWoW Community Call - Starting 2013 Together
• From The Leader - 50 Years since the March on Washington
• Around the Movement - Bart Worden, How Our Commitments Bring Ethics to Life
• Ethical Action - What are you doing for the MLK Day of Service?

ESWoW Community Call, Sunday, January 13, 2013
5pm Pacific, 6pm Mountain, 7pm Central, and 8pm Eastern
866-744-1260 access code 5766842#

Please join our community call to share your thoughts, plans, hopes, and dreams for the new year.  

Have you made resolutions for the new year?  

Are there things you want to accomplish?

What are your thoughts on working to make the world a better place this year?

I enjoyed reading Michael Moore's New Year's Resolutions.  They start with 1. Learn the names of the people two doors down from me and invite them over for dinner.  2.  Learn how to make dinner. And they end with 10. Keep walking, dude!  Here's the rest - 

I'd pretty much given up making resolutions, but I like the spirit of Michael Moore's and hope to have some to share with you on the 13th. And of course, this can be another year of living ethically.

And the website Why Evolution is True shared New Year's Illustrations as Illustrated by Cats made me smile; I expect you will too.

Please join us to share your thoughts and dreams with us on Sunday, January 13 and ask someone to join us.

From The Leader Read more »

August 28, 2013 is the fiftieth anniversary of the March on Washington.  The website of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) tells us:  The 1963 March on Washington attracted an estimated  250,000 people for a peaceful demonstration to promote Civil Rights and economic equality for African Americans. Participants walked down Constitution and Independence avenues, then — 100 years after the  Emancipation Proclamation was signed — gathered before the Lincoln Monument for speeches, songs, and prayer. Televised live to an audience of millions, the march provided dramatic moments, most memorably the Rev Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. Read more »

"The old light burns low; but, ere it sinks and fails, we kindle from it the crescent flame of a new light. And so, once more, we renew the sacred light of life from year to year, from generation to generation and from age to age."
– Percival Chubb, Leader, the Ethical Society of St. Louis (1912-1933) from the Winter Festival Candle-Lighting Ceremony

The Winter Solstice is on Dec.21 this year; we will hold our ESWoW Winter Solstice Celebration on Dec. 23.  The call will be at 5pm Pacific, 6pm Mountain, 7pm Central, 8pm Eastern. The number to join the call is 866-740-1260, access code 5766842#.

If you use Facebook, RSVP to the event.

In preparation for the winter solstice celebration we will share; I invite you to consider if there is poetry or some other reading you would like to share with the group.

One advantage of doing this in our own homes is that we can each do some things, or not do some things that feel appropriate to us.  Some possibilities that come to mind - lighting a candle, or not, spreading some pine branches in your living space, or some other greenery, decorating in a way that feels appropriate to you.  

If you plan on participating, it would be helpful to me to know that in advance. I welcome your ideas on how we celebrate the solstice together.

I'm looking forward to welcoming the winter with you,
Susan

All of America was shocked by the shooting at Sandy Hill Elementary School in Newtown, CT on December 14, 2012. Many are profoundly saddened, others angry. No doubt members of Ethical Culture communities feel either or both emotions.

As we work through the pain, here is are some thoughts from the New York Society:

Leaders Anne Klaeysen and Joe Chuman reflect on the Connecticut Shooting

Also please consider participating:

ESWoW Community Call
Sunday, December 16, 2012
5pm PT, 6pm MT, 7pm CT, 8pm ET.
866-740-1260 access code 5766842#

Reflecting on the Killings in Connecticut
An opportunity for people to share thoughts and feelings in a community of support. The killings in Newtown, CT on Friday, Dec. 14 were horrific. How do we respond? What do we do? How do we make changes so that these repeated mass killings do not continue to occur? What factors in our society contribute to these shootings?

Please join on us on this call to share your responses and possible plans for action.

Yours in ethical friendship,
Susan Rose
Leader, ESWoW.org

Here is a video from the New York Society for Ethical Culture:

Tax and Social Justice: If They Are Related How Best Can We Act?
by Krishen Mehta
Sunday December 02, 2012

Opinions?

I don't think war or killing people is a good way to solve problems. Yet many people have been in the US military with the good intentions of serving their country. Even though I wish they had chosen other options, and that more good options were available to those who chose entering the military as a last resort, I strongly believe if someone has served in the military, they should be supported and helped to adjust to life outside the military. Those who are or have been in the military, particularly those who have been separated from their families in any way, and those who have been on active duty need and deserve a variety of support and the country who asked them to serve should provide that support as they have done for previous generations of veterans.

My dad was a bombardier in World War II. It had serious negative repercussions for his life. But he got good support from the Veterans Administration, with his medical care covered, and receiving a substantial stipend when he was no longer able to work due to what now would be called PTSD.

Having been in the military, having dropped bombs that he knew killed people, also brought my father to being a peace activist. The junior high school I attended in Brooklyn was named after Meyer Levin who was the first American bomber to drop a bomb during World War II. Meyer Levin died in the war when he was 25. The school literary magazine was named the Bombardier It was the 1969/70 school year, the height of the Viet Nam War and protests against it. My father went and spoke to the school principal, Milton Forest, using his experience to urge him to change the name of the magazine to something that didn't celebrate killing. The name of the magazine was not changed then, and I doubt it was ever changed, but I was very proud of my dad. Read more »

Happy Halloween!

I know it's a stretch, but here is a platform about monsters.

From the New York Society for Ethical Culture. Dr. Joseph Chuman, Leader of The Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County, presents "The Sleep of Reason Gives Rise to Monsters: America Divided", on Sunday June 24, 2012.

Not only is it spooky for the monsters, but it's relevant to the upcoming election.

On Labor Day, I attended the Bread and Roses Heritage Festival.  This year was the 100th anniversary of the great textile strike which set so much in motion - which made it possible for workers to organize, for citizens to organize, for women to organize. One of the groups performing was Besere Velt (Better World) who gave a show about the history of the strike. What struck me the most was their presentation of the beginning of the strike - especially how they were able to mobilize people without having a common language, and not having twitter.  Sadly, the video does not capture the people planted in the audience shouting out strike in a multiple of languages, almost reflecting the 20 or so languages spoken by mill workers in Lawrence, MA.

I also appreciated the understanding that all workers and their families were in this cause together, especially that women were also interested in the welfare of men. My favorite line from the Bread and Roses song is "The rising of the women means the rising of the race."  The lyrics to this song were originally written as a poem by James Oppenheim, who worked at Hudson Guild, started by Ethical Culture Leader John Lovejoy Elliott. Read more »