Five When You Drive (and Then Some)

    Drive Friendly!    

Ethical Actions come in all sizes.  Some we do together.  Some we do separately but still working toward a common purpose.  Here are some Ethical Actions that we can perform as individuals to have a positive effect on our community and ourselves within or around our personal vehicles.

• Yield.  The "Yield" sign is a tool for road safety and courtesy.  When a road sign indicates that you are driving in an area where traffic is merging, give way to incoming cars.  Traffic flow will be enhanced, and tempers will stay cool.
• Yield.  Big rigs are bigger than you think.  Cutting in front on one is neither funny nor safe.  Give them room on the road, and get out of their way.  
• Lessons from my father continue to echo in my brain when driving on the highway with 18-wheel trucks.  I often take the extra step of slowing down when I see that a trucker is trying to change lanes.  I know that he is on a schedule, has a beast of a machine to keep under control, and is way bigger than I am.  By slowing down, I can give him the extra room to make his lane change.  It really doesn't seem to make that much difference in my own arrival time, but the quick flash of his signal lights lets me know that I've helped in a small way to make the trucker's drive safer and easier.
• Drive Friendly.  That's a motto that shows up on Texas highway signs ('cuz Texas is the Friendly State!), but it's a good principle for Ethical drivers.  Yes, we want to get from Point A to Point B as quickly and efficiently as possible, but it's not a race.  Nor is it a war, although there are times when the highway does indeed seem like a war zone with cars blinking their lights to get us to move out of their way, others speeding from one lane to another.  
• Begin your drive mindfully, with the intention to keep it calm and courteous.  One calm and courteous driver may not seem like it will make much difference.  Actually, it may not make the drive better for anyone except you.  The Ethical Action is in not making the drive worse for anyone else.  
• Lay off the horn.  
• Use your signals.  
• Stay within the speed limit.  

Reflections on Indigenous Peoples' Day

Muriel Tillinghast @ BSEC

I recently visited (October 8) the Sunday meeting of the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture. The speaker was a dear friend, Muriel Tillinghast, whose topic was the Indigenous Peoples' Day holiday. We talk about Native Americans little enough in Ethical Culture, though some of Societies do ritually include a land acknowledgement in their meeting programs, that I felt a need to attend the BSEC meeting as much to support Muriel as to hear what she had to say on the topic.

What Muriel had to say was quite powerful.  She talked about history (real history, not the mythology that we were taught in school), language, population (and population decimation through disease, violence, and the genocidal destruction of a primary resource for survival), the very real contributions of Native Americans to this nation.  Muriel also emphasized the existence--and neglect (or worse)--of indigenous people throughout the world.

In the discussion that followed, BSEC members talked about what they had done in the past--and could do in the future--to support Native Americans and learn more about reparations.  One suggestion related to supporting higher education by donating to the American Indian College Fund.  It happens that I agree with that strategy; it's an easy, arm-chair Ethical Action and is one way to work toward achieving the recommendations of UN Sustainable Development Goal #4:  Quality Education.  SDG 4 targets 4.3 and 4.5 are also served by this action.

Several members left the in-person BSEC meeting as soon as it ended to go to a local PowWow.  The Sacred Springs PowWow was held here in my city this weekend.  I didn't attend, but my family did (and came back with multiple tee shirts).  These events are ways to experience elements of the culture of indigenous peoples and learn a little bit about beliefs and crafting practices.  The entrance fees and the purchase of products and foods can contribute to the community.  I was pleased to see that multiple powwows are held around Texas at various times of the year.  Check in with this site to see when and where powwows will be held near you.  (And don't forget to follow the local protocol for visitors.)  I think my family will want to go to more of these events because, yet again, here is an opportunity to show and teach my great-granddaughter about the present as well as the past of our diverse nation.  

There are other ways to be supportive of the indigenous peoples' of our country.  It would, however, be more respectful of those communities to reach out to the various organizations that represent Native Americans in your area to see how you can connect with the programs that they offer and be supportive.  What do they need allies to do?  Would they be interested in speaking to your Society?  Are there issues on which you can jointly participate in advocacy?  Can you begin calling out (and calling in) those in your community who speak ill or falsely about history and living people?  Get started with a simple search:  "Native American community near me."  It's way past time to make up for Columbus!

The Banality of Crazy

My dear friend, Lamar Hankins, regularly sends me news articles that he thinks might interest me, and he recently hit the nail on the head.  He sent me an article by Paul Furhi in the Washington Post:  "Trump’s violent rhetoric is getting muted coverage by the news media."  The point of the article is that, for various reasons, the increasing violence of former President Trump's public speech is receiving decreasing coverage, surprise, or outrage.  His speech is becoming banal--the banality of crazy, as Furhi reports that Brian Klaas (University College London) labels it.  

The article resonates with me at a time when I am trying to work out ways to get the rich legacy of Ethical Culture out of dusty boxes and obscure websites into places where ordinary members of the Movement have easy access and--just as importantly--have awareness of the writings and lectures that have shaped our Movement over time.  One such piece of our legacy I have never heard anyone cite, but I find it quite relevant to our present situation--and the degree to which incitement to violence has become not merely banal but increasingly normalized.

The speech to which I refer is a platform delivered by Algernon D. Black to the New York Society for Ethical Culture on October 1, 1944, entitled "The Meaning of Hitler's Defeat."  As you no doubt realize, Hitler had not yet been defeated at the time Black gave this platform.  He--and his audience--expected Hitler's defeat in a foreseeable future.  Black, however, gave his attention to the notion that simply defeating one man--or even his armies--or even his country--would not be enough.  The ideology being propagated by Hitler and his allies and his armies--fascism--would, even after Hitler's defeat, still have an insidious presence throughout the world and even on American soil.  

Just as it does today.  Black's concern is mirrored as some might seek the political defeat of Donald Trump and still miss the insidious presence of his beliefs that violence is an acceptable way to win, that othering is a desirable political strategy, that money is the primary good in society, and so on down the line to the whole package of fascistic actions, strategies, and outcomes that is part of Donald Trump's plan for the nation.  

Black's conclusion:

There are people in our country who have never voted. They are Americans but they have never bothered. It is too much trouble. They say they are individualists. They never want to join anything. They see no responsibility to give strength to anything. “I live my life, I let other people live. I do my job, make my money, have my pleasure, have my family, that's all.” I say that if America gets Fascism, we of all the countries, who have had freedom longer, who have education and political controls, who have had the chance through all these years to see what Fascism does,--if we fail, we shall deserve everything we get. And if it happens, may history write us down for what we are,--selfish and materialistic, a people without any vision, a people who fight, but do not know why.

Here then is the spiritual challenge of Hitler's defeat. Here, when the war is over, the real war will begin!

And so, let us not be fooled when the military defeat of Hitler comes. Let us make certain that it is the spiritual defeat of Hitler. Victory can only be won on the level of a new understanding and a new citizenship. It requires the reconstruction of democratic faith and the reconstruction of relationships between people, here in America and if we do not have this new life here in America, we shall never be able to help create it in Germany or anywhere else.

The "crazy" that Furhi refers to seems more likely to diminish rather than call out the very real danger posed by Trump's rhetoric--and that of those who support him.  Moreover, the "crazy" is not new. If this is not the moment when America becomes wholly Fascist in its orientation, if this tide of "crazy" recedes, if Trump is defeated, Algernon D. Black's warning of the dangers of the failure to defeat the "spirit of Fascism" will still continue to be relevant.  We grow as Ethicals by putting our values into action through our deeds.  We can only grow as Americans--living up to the ideals of democracy and freedom upon which this nation was founded--by putting our values into action through practicing the principles of democracy daily.  To me, it seems that Al Black is all but shouting that Fascism will only be defeated by Democracy, and it's time for Democracy to step up.  I concur.

A Whole Different Country

Ethical Culture School

I wouldn't call it a "whole new world," but New York City is definitely a different country from what I experience each day in Central Texas.  The weather.  The streets.  The people.  This trip has surprised me, challenged me, and inspired me.  My central purpose in coming was to work on a research project related to Ethical Culture, so that meant going to the New York Society for Ethical Culture--the Meeting House.  

On my first day, I walked from my hotel via 64th Street toward Central Park.  I was immediately delighted to see a fruit and vegetable vendor right on the corner.  I bought two pears, thinking that would be a healthy boost to my snack stash.  I was also checking out all the shops at street level, to see what services might be there in case of need.  Almost immediately I came to the Ethical Culture Fieldston School just as students were arriving.  Teens meeting and greeting on the steps.  Little ones shepherded in by a parent.  An actual school bus dropping off a couple of dozen or so younglings.  What a delightful sight.  I took a moment to think about the school's history and origins in Ethical Culture, to think about what a fine education these children would be receiving, and was quite cheered.  Unlike the battle zone that Texas schools have become, I thought how these children would be allowed to question, to explore, to wonder in ways Texas children will not--sitting in classrooms marked with "In God We Trust," the ten commandments, and all sorts of religious indoctrination.

It took but a few minutes to find the entrance to NYSEC and roll myself up the ramp to the door.  A nice lady named Jody let me in and took me up to the 5th floor where the NYSEC administrative offices were.  I was early, but I had a comfortable place to sit and lots of things to look at.  The artwork on the walls.  Brochures.  Posters promoting NYSEC events.  There was plenty to take in.  Then Donna Pang arrived, and the day took off.  Donna is retired from the administrative offices of the American Ethical Union (which are located on the fourth floor).  Her interest in the Ethical Culture archives inspired her to come meet with me to talk about the archives.  But first a tour of the building!

Donna took me to see the places where the archives are stored--some well organized and very high cabinets, some jumbles of boxes mixed in with other random junk.  Clearly preservation is as high a priority as access (my own goal).  We also visited the Elliott Library and Adler Study.  In the latter, I think we struck gold--a complete set of The Standard--which I hope to be able to look at more closely before I head back to Texas.  

Adler Hall -- At the Door

Our final stop on the tour was the Meeting Hall--now called Adler Hall.  I struggled to climb the steps to enter this space that I had seen only in photos and videos.  There were a few people in the Hall, eating their lunch and talking quietly.  Donna and I sat on the edge of the platform and tried to take it all in before one of these renting the space informed us that they would soon resume their preparations for another event and would we please leave soon?  A disappointment.  I did not get my chance to "stand where Felix Adler stood," but I was close enough.  While the space seemed smaller than I had imagined, it was every bit as inspiring as I knew it would be.  Bound in its own time, of course.  Art deco mixed with classical inspiration and a narrow vision of "how shall we meet," but an inspiration nonetheless.

As I sat on the edge of the stage, my eyes prickled with tears.  I was at the heart of the Movement (metaphorically speaking, of course).  I was grateful to be able to experience this moment of connection.  I felt a sense of the past, a thread of connection to the present, with both continuity and change, but with a bedrock faith in the inherent worth of each individual person.  I'd like to return to that space--to sit and think a while on where we are today, where we need to go, but I think that would just be an indulgence at this point.  It is the people, not the places nor the things, that make us a Movement.  It is with the people--in conversation, dialogue, discussion, the search for consensus--that we will find a way through the current jumble that is facing us with our national organization.  I look forward to just such dialogue.