Humanist Thought of the Week

Time Flys

Wow! It’s October already. Time really does fly by sometimes. There doesn’t ever seem to be enough time in the day to get everything that needs to be done done.

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No More

Last week, the state of GA killed a man most people believe to be innocent. It has become abundantly clear that our death penalty system doesn’t work. It hasn’t for a long time. We made it legal to kill innocent people about 18 years ago courtesy of Herrera v. Collins. Regardless, we aren’t going to be able to stop the insanity that is the death penalty until we agree that not only is it not ok to kill innocent people. It’s not ok to kill the guilty either. And yes, this does require us to extend our compassion to people who have committed heinous crimes. Until we are willing to be compassionate with everyone, including murderers, our bloodlust will continue to kill the innocent along with the guilty. I don’t know about you, but my heart simply can’t take much more of this brutality. I support the National Coalition to Abolition the Death Penalty - I hope you will too. http://www.ncadp.org/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herrera_v._Collins

Humanist Crisis Relief

There is a crisis in the Horn of Africa right now. People and children are dying of starvation as a result of the worst drought in 60 years. Unfortunately, the governments of the world are not stepping up to help feed people. If these people are going to receive food aid, it will be because people like you donated to a charity that is helping to feed the people of Somalia. We Humanists believe we have a moral obligation to act whenever we can reduce the suffering of others. After all, what kind of people would we be if we could reduce suffering and refused to? Because we can, we must. I am asking you to donate to Foundation Beyond Belief’s Humanist Crisis Response. http://foundationbeyondbelief.org/crisis They are collecting money from Humanists around the world to give to the International Rescue Committee, which will use those funds to feed people in the famine zone. Please be the best most ethical person you can be and do your part to make the world a little bit better for someone else. Thank you. Go to http://foundationbeyondbelief.org/crisis and donate today.   IRC Drought Response: Treating Malnourished Children from International Rescue Committee on Vimeo.

Forgiveness

I asked my mom what I should talk about in relation to the Sept 11th memorial. She said forgiveness. That’s a pretty hard concept to connect to Sept 11th. I understand the need to forgive. Forgiving allows us to let go of the anger that is so often associated with grief. The problem is, I’m just not feeling it. I can work up a feeling close to sympathy because of how badly those individuals were manipulated by their faith and their faith leaders. But I don’t think I’m ready to forgive them yet. Maybe next year.

Thank the Unions

Labor Day was yesterday. Did you thank a union member? I ask because recently there has been a LOT of anti-union rhetoric being thrown around. People seem to forget what led to the unions was: 16 hour work days and the fact that people used to be owned by their employers. Sure, you got paid, but you had to give all your money back to pay for your company provided housing and food. To win the right to not be owned by your employer, people joined unions. And yes, some of them died to gain basic rights for workers. We enjoy Labor Day each year because the US government felt guilty for ordering US Marshalls to shoot and kill workers during the Pullman strike. So the next time you hear someone going on a rant about how horrid unions are, consider how horrid life was for most Americans before they formed the unions.