How We Live our Lives

In my new role as chair of the Ethical Action Committee for the Ethical Society of Austin, I had to give a report for this month's semi-annual membership meeting.  The last such meeting was only the second or third ESOA meeting that I had attended, and I learned a lot about the society.  I really wanted my report to be just as informative and meaningful so that anyone who might be in the same situation I was last year (interested but cautious) would get some reassurance from my report.  Plus I was excited to have bunches of stuff to report.

You can go to the ESOA website to see how I break down Ethical Action into categories, so I won't repeat that here.  I did want to think a little bit more about the section on Living as ethical action in that report.  I threw in some stuff that I thought maybe folks might not have really thought about:  co-location with Workers Defense Project (we rent meeting space from them), the weekly discussions of ethical dilemmas in our lives, and the big question of how we live our lives.

I counted the latter as ethical action because we all, more or less, subscribe, more or less, to the Eight Commitments of Ethical Culture.  By doing so we make ethics central to our lives and actions and we actively seek to improve ourselves, our communities, our world.  Sometimes that is as small an "action" as treating someone we interact with so that we bring out their best.  Each time we choose to act ethically, we have performed an ethical action.  A simple concept, but I felt it was worth mentioning lest we think of Ethical Action as something that can only be done at the organizational level.  Very often it's just personal.

This point has been brought home to me today.  As I've been catching up on some news and generally procrastinating on some actual work that needs to be done (a serious talent of mine--wish someone would pay me to procrastinate--I am really good at it), I ran across an article about the boycott of Target being undertaken by a half a million people.

Hey!  I boycott Target.  Have been since 2010.  The CEO donated Target money to support an anti-gay gubernatorial candidate (in Minnesota).  I have gay family members.  I have married gay family members.  I was really angry to see that kind of money being used to promote inequality.  So I quit shopping at Target. As I recall,  Target later repudiated this fellow's action and distanced the company from the whole thing.  But I was pissed. So I never went back to Target.  It wasn't as hard as giving up Hobby Lobby anyway (yes, I boycott them, too).

Now it seems others have jumped on my bandwagon (not that I ever mentioned it to many people).  When I followed the headline, I discovered that I should have paid more attention.  The people boycotting Target are all upset because the company has adopted a policy that allows people to pee in the restroom that fits their gender identity.  Target is standing up to the wave of hate and discrimination that seems to be sweeping across our country in this electoral season of madness with a nationwide policy that says that transgender people can at least feel safe from that kind of stress while dealing with a basic human function.

Well, I guess my boycott is over.  All is forgiven, Target.  Well, not forgiven. That was a dumb "business decision" way back in 2010.  Still, I need to stop looking at that red target sign as a symbol of discrimination and now read it as a symbol of inclusion and rationality and, well, courage.  My perspective has changed, and my actions will now follow.

We make choices.  How we treat people is an ethical choice.  How we spend our money is another one.  It's also personal.  I didn't shop at Target for personal--and ethical--reasons.  I do shop at Walmart--for personal and ethical reasons.  Not everyone would agree with my decision to shop at Walmart, but I am content in the knowledge that a beloved family member has a stable job in a supportive (yes!) environment that matches her skills and abilities.  It's important to me to be able to "support" this family member in a positive way just as it was important for me to be able to "support" my gay cousin and his husband by not spending money with a company that I perceived as contributing to a hostile environment for their lives.

Now I need to learn the lesson about not holding a grudge.

And go shopping.

Shop for the basket and other updates

Just a few updates for the changes that are slowly occurring with ESOA and life in general:

• I made a more or less big deal about "shopping for the basket" to provide donations for the Capital Area Food Bank.  Our old basket was getting pretty broken down.  Finally, duct tape just wouldn't do the job.  Thanks to our decisive president, Rebecca Fisher, we now have a new basket.  This one is green (various shades of which will now be our official color for ESOA stuff) and folds up nicely for storage. John Thiess, our treasurer, is also the dedicated volunteer who takes our donations to the Food Bank and keeps a tally of our donations.  The good news, from my perspective, is that we now have a more or less permanent place for the basket--under the Ethical Action display table.  You no longer have to look around and wonder where the yellow basket is, nor do you have to climb over chairs and people to get to it.  When you walk in the door now, you may be looking for coffee, but the basket will be right in front of you.  With a sign even.  Subtle, huh?

• And speaking of the Ethical Action display table, we have one.  We are making every effort to park the thing right in your way and even entice you with sweet treats to grab your coffee and come over and hang out.  
• This is where you can make your donations to the Capital Area Food Bank--canned goods and ink cartridges in the basket, money in the Feed Me canister.  Test your skills at putting a whole meal in the canister without spilling it!
• While you're there you can sign up for a shift at the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless.  This is a once-a-month opportunity to help make a difference by serving dinner at the shelter.
• The EA table is the place to find updated lists of opportunities for issue education and cultural events that seem likely to appeal to ethical humanists.  (Thanks to John Thiess for his weekly activity list.)  
• Advocacy training and briefing materials will also be placed on the table.  This is where you can look for more information about the issues that we are talking about and resources on how to address them. There will usually be something different there for you to look at each week, so come on by!

• In other Ethical Action news, we are updating our page on the ESOA website.  As ethical humanists we act through giving, serving, advocating, and living.  While I try to explore some of these actions on this blog, at ESOA we are really doing the stuff I'm thinking about.  How cool is that? Very.  Check out the Ethical Action page to see what we have done, what we have planned, and--soon--more of those resources on issues and actions to take.  

• Also, too, very big news (big for me anyway--learning new skills here).  We now have an Ethical Action Calendar.  This may change to become a calendar with all ESOA events on it, but, for now, this is where you can look for service events, advocacy events, and the educational and cultural events that may inspire you as an ethical humanist.  Does anyone know how to sync this with my smart phone?  clueless

• Finally (well, probably), we have managed to complete our transition to waste free potlucks.  Some months ago, we decided to try to eliminate disposable eating and serving ware from our monthly potluck dinners.  We started with the napkins--moving from paper to cloth.  Then we accumulated some donated flatware.  Dishes we had to haul in from home each month, but we've just had a generous donation of those as well (thanks, John).  We seem to be set to enjoy our monthly dining and fellowship from now on knowing that, with a little extra effort, we have reduced consumption of products destined for the landfill or even the recycling bin. A little elbow grease, some soap and water, and, of course, some composting.  

• Finally (really this time), Trish Taylor has moved but she hasn't forgotten us.  Trish continues to serve ESOA as its webmaster--and now she's blogging about her move and this new chapter of her life.  Join her at Tea Pad Tales.  Lovely walks, lovely photography, lovely spirit.

This makes me a happy human.  :)  What should we do next?

Ethical Lobbying

My late mother always did have a difficult time figuring out what I was doing with my life.  Once, driving home from picking me up at the airport as I returned from years of study, she asked:  "Now what is it you got your degree in?" "Anthropology, mama."  Well, it was a discipline alien to her experience, and I really wasn't all that shocked that, after I had spent 14 months in East Africa, sending her all of my films and slides and weekly (yes) letters, she still hadn't figured it all out.  Mama was a sweet soul whose world could be a bit narrow.

Many years later, when I was talking about something that I was working on at the Texas capitol, mama again asked the key question:  "Now, what is it that you do at the capitol?"  "I lobby, mama."  "Carolyn Ann, you don't mean it?!!"

Now any southern child knows that when their mama says <first name> <middle name>, especially with audible italics, the Vigoro® has hit the Mixmaster®. Mama's shocked reaction said it all.  "Lobbying" is a bad word, a bad thing to do.  No wonder when the corrupting influence of money in the halls of our government is so blatantly evidenced by those who lobby.  And no wonder when all the lobbyists one hears about are demonized as, well, the bad guys.

How, then, can I use the phrase "ethical lobbying"?  Is that not an oxymoron?

Well, no.  There are some ethics in lobbying, standards which good lobbyists might want to uphold.  Most likely do.  There are also those who lobby in the public interest.  These lobbyists--and the people (not corporations) that they represent--are interested in social change, public policies that have a positive effect on how we live.  At Ethical Society of Austin, we are thinking about doing a little lobbying in conjunction with Reason Rally 2016.  Can this even be a good thing? I'd say it is if we think of it in terms of "ethical lobbying"--just another form of ethical action, if you will.

One could talk about our constitutional rights to free speech, to petition our government for "redress of grievances."  One could talk about the eight commitments that ethical humanists make, which point toward building a more humane society, acting on our shared responsibility to create it.  We do not, however, need to appeal to various "authorities" to know what ethical lobbying is, because it is simply a natural human response to hurt and suffering and unfairness and ignorance and dysfunction and all the other ills we encounter--whether they are man-made or the products of the natural world.  If a lightbulb burns out, we replace it.  If a dress pattern doesn't quite fit, we modify it.  If a child falls, we pick her up.  If an animal is hungry, we feed it.  If a house is on fire, we call the fire department. Ethical lobbying is simply another way, another tool, if you will, to address the problems--great and small--that we face in our community.  It is another way to seek justice, to demonstrate compassion and caring, to discover truth.  While technically, lobbying is advocacy that focuses on specific legislation and is addressed to specific decision makers, ethical lobbying would take the values and principles of ethical culture into the public arena to promote the common weal, to take one more step toward creating a world that is more humane, just and fair.

"Yes, mama, I do lobby.  To help sick people get medicine."  "Well, okay, then."

Get your poet on

Oh frabjous day, etc.!  April is National Poetry Month.  This is the twentieth year of the celebration sponsored by the American Academy of Poets.  The Academy has lists of scheduled celebrations (for us, the nearest ones listed are in San Antonio) and 30 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month.  One of them is "Teach This Poem," a resource for teachers.  Another is to attend a poetry reading at some local venue.  How fortunate we are to have one of those very occasions coming up at Recycled Reads.  Indeed, RR holds original poetry readings with an open mic on the first Sunday of every month.

In honor of National Poetry Month--and as a result of my ongoing search for humanist literature--I want to share a poem with you.  This is from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass (which you can download for free from Project Gutenberg), from Book XX, "By the Roadside."

O Me! O Life!

O me!  O life!  of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities     fill'd with the foolish,
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more   foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects   mean, of the struggle ever renew'd,
Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the   rest me intertwined,
Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,
That you are here--that life exists and identity,
The question, O me!  so sad, recurring--what good amid these, O me, O life?

Answer.
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.

It took me a while to untangle this.  Free verse doesn't automatically translate to transparency of meaning.  Sometimes we have to dig for it.  This poem, in my thinking, is wonderfully expressive of our never-ending struggle to find meaning in our comparatively small and short lives in a random universe.  I like the answer.  Do you read it that way?  I see myself in some of these lines, these images.  You may see it differently, but I'd like to hear that difference.

More generally, have you found a secret hoard of humanist/ethical poetry?  Care to share?  Who speaks to our values, our purpose?