As I write this the AHA Conference will be starting shortly. It looks like a fabulous lineup with very relevant topics. I have a virtual registration and hope to see and share a good bit of it when we get together. The last session of the day is: The World Is on Fire. What the Hell Do We Do About It? Hey, how about we put the fire out.
1st session - AHA Humanist of the Year - Jelani Cobb is speaking about a belligerent virulent Christian nationalism, crisis of democracy. crisis of empathy. His Q&A session was even better than his speech.
He is Dean of Columbia School of Journalism, staff writer for the New Yorker, Pulitzer Prize finalist, and Peabody-winning filmmaker. Excellent choice for this top prize by AHA.
I was also listening to the Faith and Freedom yesterday 5/26 on CSPAN. This was supremely ugly stuff and people such as ourselves were the clear enemy. Boy, the passion and dedication that they put into their ugliness is off the charts.
I am also pushing forward on home renovation. Meeting in person will be nice.
Let us not to forget to have fun. Our community is here to both acknowledge the chaos and somehow remain sane in spite of insanity. We can connect and share our thought on how to remain positive.
This meeting will be closed in that only vetted secular members will be allowed to join in our discussions. That has worked perfectly so, please see directions below for new members who wish to attend.
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Our meetings have become a target for organized zoom bombing. Our major topic of discussion has been Christian nationalism and its hideous impacts across America. They have good reason to try to force us to stop our meetings. This requires us to work to preclude militant religious extremists from wrecking our meetings.
We will not post the zoom link for our meeting. The zoom link information will be delivered by email or direct personal messaging to trusted attendees only. I am now comfortable that this procedure works well enough so that a zoom waiting room will not be required.
I have a Google Voice phone number, (202) 643-4366. I do not answer calls to that number. But it does an excellent job of transcribing messages. People can use this number to verbally describe items requested in a possible email below.
I use the email: don1wharton (at) outlook (dot) com for social media, including Meetup. Please email the following:
Name:
Zoom ID if different than name:
your email to receive zoom info:
Specify that you are RSVPing for this meeting only if you
do not want to receive future zoom invites.
--People can UNSUBSCRIBE by replying to a future zoom invite with UNSUB in the subject line.
If you are a first time attendee, please share prior secular activities or cite your prior secular meetup attendance (making sure it is visible for us to confirm it) or arrange for a brief phone or zoom interview at a time of your convenience. This should insure enjoyable meetings.
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