Climate and Equity: Dodging Despair by Acting Locally
Amy Sinden Professor of Law, Temple University Climate and equity are inextricably linked. The climate crisis is both driving and driven by increasing disparities of wealth, income, power, and privilege and threatens to drive similar inequities across generations. The global scale of these twin crises can overwhelm us. But a focus on the local aspects [...]
Ethically Sourced Cartoons
Signe Wilkinson Political cartoonist Wilkinson will share the highs and the this-is-a-new-low-in-journalism-how-dare-you-publish-it!s of her nearly 40-year career chronicling local and national politics for the Philadelphia Daily News and The Philadelphia Inquirer. In 2021, she illustrated the book Free Speech and Why You Should Give a Damn, written by Penn’s Jonathan Zimmerman. Wilkinson will display her [...]
Creative Social Change
Hugh Taft-Morales Leader, Philadelphia Ethical Society In two nonconsecutive terms as mayor of Bogota, Columbia, starting in 1995, Antanas Mockus used non-traditional cultural and creative methods to induce positive social change. From hiring mimes to improve crosswalk safety to melting down guns to make baby spoons, Mockus motivated and unified his constituents. Today, when the [...]
Introduction to Ethical Humanism
Be part of a small-group conversation about our Ethical Society community, history, and philosophy. This informal Zoom gathering with Hugh Taft-Morales is open to everyone. Join online HERE at the scheduled time.
Sense in the City: Equity, Public Schools, and Democracy
A winter Wednesday Zoom discussion series with the Center City Residents Association How can citizens nurture constructive dialogue that respects everyone and helps make our society more equitable and inclusive? How can we live more meaningful, engaged, and responsible lives? Join Hugh Taft-Morales, Leader of the Philadelphia Ethical Society, for a series of guided conversations about [...]
Civil Unrest in Black Arts Movement Literature
Casarae Abdul-Ghani Assistant Professor of English, Temple University Abdul-Ghani will explore the legacy of 1960s civil unrest as captured by the contemporaneous Black Arts Movement (BAM) in drama, fiction, and poetry. BAM forged new conversations about the union of art, activism, and social justice; it also centralized the African American perspective in narrative. In the [...]
Sentientism, Activism, and Personal Growth
In this American Ethical Union Salon, Hugh Taft-Morales, Amy Halpern-Laff, and Jamie Woodhouse will explore the opportunities and challenges of “sentientism,”a worldview that demands moral consideration of all creatures experiencing feelings and sensations. Based on evidence, reason, and compassion, sentientism extends secular humanism to the treatment of other animals. Sentientists endeavor to minimize suffering and [...]
Reconstruction and Saving Democracy
Hugh Taft-Morales Leader, Philadelphia Ethical Society After the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln hoped to bind the nation’s wounds. “Let ’em up easy,” he told the Union Army, trying to discourage retribution. But following the President’s assassination, the federal government, in alliance with formerly enslaved people, radically reconstructed the South, enfranchising and electing Black Americans. Then [...]
Book Discussion: Killing Rage by bell hooks
PA, United StatesHugh Taft-Morales hosts two discussions of the book that galvanized a generation of activists. In the first meeting we’ll cover the introduction and the sections Beyond Black Rage: Ending Racism; Revolutionary Feminism: An Anti-Racist Agenda; and Overcoming White Supremacy: A Comment. The second meeting will focus on Beyond Black Only: Bonding Beyond Race; Keeping a [...]
Sense in the City: Homelessness and Humanity
A winter Wednesday Zoom discussion series with the Center City Residents Association How can citizens nurture constructive dialogue that respects everyone and helps make our society more equitable and inclusive? How can we live more meaningful, engaged, and responsible lives? Join Hugh Taft-Morales, Leader of the Philadelphia Ethical Society, for a series of guided conversations about [...]