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A Personal Report on the 4-8 June 2008 AHA/IHEU Conference
By Arthur Jackson, (6/13/08) arthur@arthurmjackson.com

Below is my effort to capture some of the things that caught my attention. Obviously no single person can see and hear it all, but for me this was the most exciting AHA Conference that I have ever attended, and part of that was the movement of AHA from talking about humanism to doing humanism.

Lou Appignani issued a matching grant in the amount of one million dollars for contributions made in 2007 and 2008 above 2006 contributions. He presented AHA with a $250,000 check at the membership meeting to match funds contributed in 2007. This leaves $750,000 available for the rest of 2008. So if you want to see AHA grow and increase programs now is the time to make your contributions to get the most bang for your buck.

One of the most exciting events to me was the film, “Fields of Fuel,” a documentary for which AHA is a partner and fiscal sponsor. It is directed by AHA member Josh Tickell.
Hilton, Paul Gilbert, and I discussed with the film promoters the possibility of bringing the film to Silicon Valley and use special showings of it to raise funds to support getting the film finished in the form where it can be shown commercially. We’ll be in touch with our contact people to see how best to pull this off. I hope you will support this effort as it has the potential to focus attention on bio-diesel and help build this user friendly fuel into a significant force in reducing our dependence on Middle-Eastern oil, and developing sustainable fuel. I was skeptical about this approach before seeing the film. Now I am a convert!

Being a joint conference of American Humanist Association (AHA) and International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) as well as Secular Student Alliance (SSA) and International Humanist & Ethical Youth Organization (IHEYO) there was a great diversity that no one person could fully attend and assimilate. So this report is probably as much about me as about the conference. A little cameo experience that was personally very enjoyable and demonstrates the nature of personal experience was a couple of interactions I had with John Lombard of Beijing, China. He went to China some 15 years ago as a Christian missionary. After three years he became an atheist and later a Humanist. He is working to develop humanism in China and has established a working relationship with Chinese governmental officials.

He has his own business teaching Chinese families how to use sign language with their infants to improve communication between parents and child from 6 to 18 months of age when they can use this method of conversation prior to adequate spoken language development. I suggested that he write an article for The Humanist about this since it is not only interesting but has great importance in child development everywhere.

The talk by Judge John E. Jones III who provided the fantastic ruling in the Dover, PA “intelligent design” ruling that “intelligent design” is religion, not science and cannot, therefore, be taught in public schools was excellent and demonstrated AHA’s movement from talking about humanism and doing humanism.

It was encouraging to meet Mathew La Clair a senior at Kearny High School in Kearny, NJ who exposed a proselytizing teacher at this school.

Bob Bhaerman, AHA’s consultant from the Kochhar Humanist Education Center who visited Humanist Community on 29 March 2008, presented and discussed ongoing efforts to develop plans to provide educational experiences for humanists of all ages from pre-school to mature adults. This is certainly an exciting development that moves AHA and Humanism in general into a whole new domain.

The Appignani Humanist Legal Center had a workshop let by Bob Ritter, legal coordinator for the Center, which is an important part of AHA’s developing activism which I, unfortunately, was not able to attend due to attending a different activity at the same time.

Eleanor Smeal winner of the Humanist Heroine Award gave a rousing talk. As founder and president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, publisher of MS Magazine, and former president of NOW she had critical experiences to share.

Jamie Raskin, State Senator from Maryland presented a model of a humanist in politics. He is a strong voice for separation of church and state and other progressive positions. In addition he is a rousing speaker.

Humanist of the Year, Pete Stark, Congressperson from the San Francisco Bay area and current Chair of the Health Committee of the Ways and Means Committee provided a distinguished presence. He discussed his life as a series of accidents. And, he did it well!

Hilton will discuss AHA’s acquisition from IHEU of the Appignani Humanist Center for Bioethics which Humanist Community now has the chance to play an important role in promoting. Biotechnology, nanotechnology, reproductive health technology, organ transplantation and the entire gamut of ever-advancing medical sciences have not only afforded novel ways for solving old problems but have also unveiled new areas of controversy. From face-transplants to IQ-enhancing genome manipulations, society faces a plethora of choices but, unfortunately, little accompanying guidance on how to approach them. The Center hopes to help provide informed guidance.

The Annual Meeting of The Humanist Society — the part of AHA that certifies Humanist Celebrants to do wedding and other humanist life celebrations — seems to be poised for a new burst of forward motion. For me one of the most important signs of this is a recognition by attendees that we’ve been too inactive for too long and they voiced a desire to change this. Humanist Celebrant, Martha Knox (executive director of the Humanist Association of Philadelphia) stepped up to the plate and offered to work on the Humanist Society webpage and help bring it up to current standards, Howard Katz passed out a hard copy of the new Humanist Celebrants Handbook, and several Celebrants expressed enthusiasm for Humanist Society and their desire to see it grow in size and value.

IHEU demonstrated its growth and efforts to provide Humanist alternatives in the world, but in India and Africa especially.

Hilton and I attended the Student Secular Alliance Annual Conference and listened to the report of fantastic growth in the past year from some 74 student groups to some 136 groups. Some of the key students involved in this were there and engaged in discussions and plans for continuing this kind of growth.

I attended a meeting to explore setting up a Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Transgender group within AHA and offered to help work on this.

Carolyn Porco, planetary scientist and leader of the imaging science team for the Cassini space mission to Saturn and director of the Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations (CICLOPS) was honored with the Isaac Asimov Science Award. She first rose to prominence during the 1980s as a planetary scientist on the Voyager Imaging Team. She was among the first to study Voyager’s results on the rings of Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, and made germinal contributions to the understanding of interactions between planetary rings and the moons. And she recounted key matters in this effort as part of her acceptance speech.

Phillip Pullman, best-selling author of the book, “The Golden Compass,” that became a major motion picture from New Line Cinema was appointed International Humanist Awardee. Pullman has published nearly twenty books since 1982 and has won numerous awards, including the Whitbread Book of the Year Award, the Carnegie Medal, the Guardian Children’s Book Award, and the Eleanor Farjeon Award for Children’s Literature. His books express his humanism and he is a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association and an honorary associate of the National Secular Society.

Humanist Charities of AHA continues to grow and develop. A presentation on Humanist action for Haiti and the Dominican Republic currently underway was provided by Sebastian Valez, leader of this effort, who works with the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard. This project offers non-religious solutions to human rights violations involving sharecropping, indentured labor, and virtual slavery along the Dominican Republic-Haiti border. Over the past several years humanists have worked to rehabilitate a school building, build a community library, and improve the health of women and infants. And they have learned to cooperate with the religious for a greater good.

Presented by Arthur Jackson, 6/13/08
arthur@arthurmjackson.com

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Unlike others, U.S. defends freedom to offend in speech.

Read American Exception

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“What If You Had to Ask 260 Million People for Permission to Marry the One You Love?” Pamela Brown, Marriage Equality USA’s Policy Director, will discuss the current political landscape on the issue of marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples, including the recent California Supreme Court decision and possible November ballot initiative to add discrimination into our state Constitution. In addition, she will discuss why the Council for Secular Humanism supports the freedom to marry by highlighting issues raised in their amicus (”friends of the court”) brief filed before the California Supreme Court. Come see a couple of short, poignant and humorous videos on the subject, share your views, and find out what you can do locally to make a difference.

Next week Karen Duncan, Ph.D. will discuss “Getting the Health Care You Want”

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Jeb Bush And His Cronies Have Provoked A Church-State Showdown In Florida With National Ramifications

President Bush Urges Repeal Of State Constitutional Provisions Barring Aid To Religious Schools

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Christiane Cook, Ph.D., J.D., an active member of both ACLU and our HC, will present some serious flaws of the American Justice System — coerced confessions, erroneous indictments, and extravagantly harsh sentences — and suggest ways in which Americans can put pressure on legislators to make the American justice system more civilized and more humane without endangering the security of the people.

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What a transformation! Remember the classroom around the tree with children sitting on the ground? Through the Ghana Assistance project, chairs and tables have been purchased for the Larabanga Kids Development Project School, located in the village of Larabanga in northern Ghana.

The L.K.D.P. is a small project run by the youth of Larabanga. As a self-help community project it aims at improving the quality of life in the village and the country as a whole, while protecting and interpreting the cultural, historic and religious significance of the community and its surrounding areas. The L.K.D.P. has established a Learning Centre for children, who live on the streets without any access to education. Many children in Larabanga spend their lives on the streets, waiting for tourists to beg for money and other items. The school gives them something else to do with their time, and more importantly the school gives them education they need to improve their lives.  The Humanist Community is proud to be able to help with this important work.

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Access Northern Ghana is a registered non governmental organization based in the northern region of Ghana.

Tamale is the third largest city in Ghana. In several communities in Tamale adults and children have very little knowledge of computers. ACNOG has identified one such community and has obtained space for a computer school there. The nearest computer school is far away from this community, and difficult for its residents to reach. The Humanist Community has been asked to help set up this computer school with internet access, to educate both the youth and the adults about computers. There is much interest among the youth in learning computer skills. In July, 2007, when the Bishops visited there, it was a topic of conversation. Some talked of the recent competition in the job market and how others obtained jobs because they had computer skills.

ACNOG will be teaching students of this computer school the basics of computers, including typing, word, excel, PowerPoint, internet search and communications skills. Many people in the community have email addresses of friends and family abroad, but cannot communicate, since they can’t use the computer. Some computers for this project have been acquired from the Netherlands, but it was realized on arrival that most of the system units were very old and could not work with the recent software. They didn’t even have places for CD ROMS, etc. After careful assessment and negotiation, it has been determined that the 10 computers could be made usable for a cost of 2,230 Ghana Cedis, or $2206.36 US dollars (conversion as of May 21, 2008).

ACNOG cannot cover this expense. In every other respect, they are ready and eager to start operating this school to help advance basic computer skills in the community. All details have been worked out including how ongoing expenses such as electricity and the teacher will be covered, as well as the schedule of classes.

This computer school will be a long-term project. It is hoped that it can expand to other communities in northern Ghana. Students at the end of their study will have a working knowledge of computers and the internet. The school will also bring the community together in planning other future programs. Children will spend most of their after school time at this computer school, so that they will not get into trouble.

The costs listed above were current as of May 21, 2008. The prices are remarkably low, even in Ghana, and we are not certain how long they will hold. The translation from the Ghana Cedi to US Dollars changes daily. When we raised money for the Larabanga school furniture, the dollar was worth less than the Cedi. On May 21, it was worth more.

Donations for this project can be made by sending a check payable to The Humanist Community, Box 20069, Palo Alto, CA 94306. It should be clearly indicated that this donation is for the Ghana Assistance Project. Donations are tax deductable if you itemize.

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Many shortcomings of the current system of electing the President stem from the rule that awards all of a state’s electoral votes to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in that particular state. Thus, voters in two thirds of the states are in effect disenfranchised in presidential elections because candidates concentrate their attention on a small handful of “battleground” states. It also permits a candidate to win the Presidency without winning the most popular votes nationwide. Under the National Popular Vote bill, all of a state’s electoral votes will be awarded to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The bill would take effect only when enacted, in identical form, by several states which together possess a majority of the electoral votes (270 of 538) — enough to elect a President. Dr. John R. Koza, a consulting professor at Stanford University and the originator of the National Popular Vote bill, will discuss these topics

The Humanist Community Forum will meet at 11am at Mitchell Park Community Center. The Mitchell Park Community Center is located at 3800 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto, Just north of Charleston Road

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