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<p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size: 12pt;">AN
IMPORTANT CORRECTION TO A NEWSLETTER DATE<br>
End of Season Picnic, Monday May 26 at noon in Parkville. Contact BES
by phone or email for directions.</span></p>
<hr size="2" width="100%"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">OTHER COMING
EVENTS<br>
May
11 Platform: “Messages of Difference” by Alan Klein, Trainer/Consultant<o:p></o:p></span><span
style="font-size: 12pt;"><br>
As the South Pacific song goes, "You've got to be
taught..." In our youth we are bombarded with messages from many
sources,
some intentional, some subliminal. We will explore the messages that we
received about people who are like us and people who are unlike us, as
well as
their impact on our lives today.<o:p></o:p></span><b><span
style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="EN"><br>
Alan Klein</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
is a trainer, consultant, coach, facilitator, administrator and
teacher. He
specializes in the areas of leadership development, valuing diversity,
team
building and communication. Alan also provides organizations and other
groups
with support and facilitation in the use of large group methodologies.
Throughout this work, he emphasizes self-awareness as a vehicle for
enhanced
competency and effectiveness in interpersonal situations. He was
elected to
membership in the NTL Institute for Applied Behavioral Science in 1997
and
currently serves on its Board of Directors<o:p></o:p><br>
</span>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">May 18 Poetry Group
9:30 am, Newcomers' Meeting 12:30 pm<br>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">May 18 Platform:
“2008: Common Ground:
The Earth as Humanist Icon" by Hugh Taft-Morales, Ethical Culture
Leader-in-Training<o:p></o:p><span style="color: black;"><br>
Reflecting on the first photograph of the earth taken from
beyond the moon, Archibald MacLeish wrote in the New York Times that it
was an
image with whose help "man may discover what he really is". It
reveals a truth that we ignore at our own peril: "To see the earth as
we
now see it, small and blue and beautiful in that eternal silence where
it
floats, is to see ourselves as riders on the earth together, brothers
on that
bright loveliness in the unending night--brothers who see now they are
truly
brothers."<o:p></o:p></span><br>
This image, generated by rational science yet emotionally
and aesthetically inspiring, offers common ground to people of diverse
philosophical perspectives. Not only does it remind all human brothers
and
sisters of our interconnectedness, it reflects a profound philosophical
link
between beauty and fragility. The image of the earth reflects the
existential
limitations central to human existence, and should continue to serve as
a
humanist icon - an enduring, sacred, symbol worthy of spiritual
devotion.<o:p></o:p><b style=""><br>
Hugh Taft-Morales</b>
taught philosophy and history at the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Edmund</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Burke</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceName w:st="on">School</st1:PlaceName></st1:place>
in Washington, D. C., for 19 years. He left teaching in the summer of
2006 to
train for leadership in Ethical Culture and is in a three-year
leadership
certification program with the Humanist Institute. Hugh served on the
Board of
the Washington Ethical Society from 2002-2006, and for the last year
was
president of the Board. He served for two three-year terms on the
American
Philosophical Association Committee for Pre-College Instruction. He
wrote a
booklet entitled "So You Want to Teach Pre-Collegiate Philosophy?"
published by the APA. In 1986 he earned a Masters in Philosophy from <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType> of <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Kent</st1:PlaceName>
at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Canterbury</st1:City>, <st1:country-region
w:st="on">England</st1:country-region></st1:place>. He graduated Cum
Laude
from <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Yale</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> in
1979. He lives in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Takoma Park</st1:place></st1:City>
with his
wife, Maureen, and has three children – Sean (20), Maya (14), and
Justin (12).</span></p>
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