Category: Utah Humanist

Pride Center

If you think the Utah Pride Center has only an annual festival, and maybe an activity or two, Hillary McDaniel, Community Events Manager for the Utah Pride Center can dissuade you of your limited notions. She spoke to us for about an hour talking rapidly and still didn’t cover all the activities based in the beautiful new Center. The doors opened in June 2018 with a mission to empower and celebrate Utah’s diverse LGBTQ+ community by providing a safe and welcoming space for education, partnerships, services and events which advance the collective health, wellness, and success of all involved.

Their website at utahpridecenter.org describes opening as the Utah Stonewall Center in 1992 to provide a safe space for LGBTQ+ people to come together amid the conservative Utah cultural climate. Within two years, the Center attracted many volunteers and raised enough money to hire a part time staff person.

In 1997, they moved to two buildings. By 2006, they had settled on their current name, Utah Pride Center, to be inclusive of all people who are concerned with and/or are impacted by LGBTQ+ issues, including parents and children. By 2018, they had the wherewithal to build a Center of their own. The list of programs starts with Youth and Family. Of special note is the close association the Center has with the Volunteers of America Homeless Youth Center. The Humanists of Utah also feel close to the Homeless Youth Center, as we have been donating and providing services to them for many years.

Other programs have services for different age groups, i.e. for children 2-10, 10-14, 14-20, as well as parents and caregivers. Kids aged 2-10 are invited to a playgroup that meets weekly on Saturday. Whether one has two moms, a single gay dad, a transgender kid, or a questioning older sibling, all are welcome to the gathering called “Families Like Ours”.

My favorite events are the dances which provide a safe space for youth to experience an alternative to traditional school dances where they may feel isolated or judged for simply expressing themselves. Queer Prom is in April. Qpid’s Ball and Homecoming are held in the Fall. Masqueerade is held in December. Kicking off the Pride Festival, is an outdoor dance party on the Pride Festival Grounds. Parents and Caregivers have their own lounge in the new Pride Center Building which is open especially during the dances. In September, a GSA and Educator’s Conference was held. But services are not limited to the young ones. SAGE, Services and Advocacy for Gay, (lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer+) Elders, provides socialization opportunities, support for emotional, mental and physical needs with ongoing Social Events and Support Groups. Names like: Stitch and Bitch Knitting Club, Tuesday Trotters, Lunch and Learn, Sage Book club, Game Night, Bi-Hive (40+), Good Grief, Phone-a-Friend, and 1 to 5 Club represent the joyous and lighthearted approach to issues of real import and seriousness that the Pride Center attaches to caring for it’s community. The Utah Queer Historical Society is even more academic and serious with a mission to objectively compile, organize and safeguard the history of the LGBTQ+ community of Utah and to share this history within the LGBTQ+ community and beyond to the general public.

For the general public, there are cultural competency training sessions offered to businesses and community groups including educators, case workers, health care professionals, mental health professionals and youth service providers. The training covers basic language, current research, and best practices related to the LGBTQ+ community. There is exposure to the daily experiences of LGBTQ+ people including micro-aggressions, intersectionality, and multiple marginalized statuses. And finally, training in Q.P.R. for Suicide Prevention. Question a person about suicide. Persuade the person to get help. Refer the person to the appropriate resource.

In keeping with our Humanist desire to all do better (with a nod to Jim Jeffries), Hillary McDaniel has offered us a brilliant path. Thank you, Hillary.

—Lauren Florence, MD  

Climate Change

Hello freethinkers, I want to reboot my efforts to get our chapter involved in the realm of climate change. We can start by discussing the various ways to get involved from a global aspect through national, state, city, neighborhood, and even our homes. Another way for us, as a chapter, to get involved, is to help educate the public about climate change. At the January meeting I will be giving a presentation about studying climate in general and climate change specifically. I also want this meeting to be partly a discussion, so bring your opinions, suggestions, and information.

As I am starting to prepare for this presentation, I realize that I need an upgrade of my physical geography knowledge. So, I traveled up to the University of Utah bookstore and purchased the latest textbook for the Geography department’s Climatology class. It contains a wealth of information, presented in a way to facilitate learning about the subject. In fact, I plan to refer to Chapter 9 “Natural Causes of Climate Change,” as the foundation of my presentation.

I will begin by talking about my geography studies of the alpine and periglacial areas of the Uintah Mountain range, and my studies of the paleoclimate of the Lake Bonneville time frame. I will also spend a few minutes talking about how to get involved on the ground to make difference. Then I hope we can finish the evening with an informative discussion of climate change specifically and the environment in general.

Next month I plan to continue these Soapbox submissions with what might be considered as a “factoid” of sorts about one of the subjects of the previously mentioned Chapter 9 called “Variance in Solar Irradiance.”

Until then, I hope to see you at our annual Solstice Dinner for what I have always called a time for good food and good conversation.

—Bob Lane

  Remembering Rolf Kay

What do the following people have in common: Robert Redford, Leonard Bernstein, Mikhail Gorbachev, Colin Powell, Al Gore, Lech Walesa, Danny Kaye, Sid Caesar, Doc Severinsen, Pete Fountain, Mike Leavitt, Norm Bangerter, Scott Matheson, Rocky Anderson, DeeDee Corradini, Ted Wilson, Jon Huntsman, Jim Sorensen, Leontyne Price, Luciano Pavarotti, Glade Peterson, Shamir Perez, Chase Peterson, Bernie Machen, Dionne Warwick, Nancy Workman, Earl Holding, Robert Goulet, Joey Silverstein, Ray Charles, Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, Dinah Shore, Mel Torme, Victor Borge, Elizabeth Dole, Ansel Adams, Elizabeth Smart, Alan Greenspan, Dorothy Hamill, Bob Bennett, Orrin Hatch, Roberta Peters, Olene Walker, Maurice Abravanel, Karl Malone, John Stockton, Larry Miller, Steve Young, Lavell Edwards, Ron McBride, Gordon Hinckley, Ezra Taft Benson, Dallin Oaks, Earl Wunderli, Florien Wineriter, Rabbi Benny Zipell, Yo Yo Ma, Jay Leno, Carol Channing, and Heather Dorrell? They have all been photographed by Rolf Kay.

Not only photographed but “there were always stories to tell after I photographed these people,” Rolf says. He rarely asks his subjects for autographs; the photos are enough. He did want an autograph of Gorbachev, however, but “didn’t have any paper with me for him to write on. All I had was a twenty-dollar bill, which I gave to his wife so she could hand it to Gorbachev to sign.” Then he realized he had no pen, but Raisa “got the message and started reaching in some men’s coat pockets until she found a pen and then handed them both to her husband. He pointed to the signature of the Treasurer of the United States and said something to his interpreter.” The interpreter turned to Rolf and said, “Mr. Gorbachev said that this bill has already been autographed.” They all smiled, and Rolf got the autograph.

Such stories are vintage Rolf. He tells another one of photographing Walesa shortly after Yeltsin had fainted in public and fallen. “Every time I photographed Walesa with a woman, he would look at her and raise himself on tip toes if she was taller than he.” One time he forgot to look at a much taller woman, so Rolf “got his attention and stood on my tip toes to give him the message. Someone bumped me from the back and I lost my balance. Walesa laughed, pointed at me and shouted, ‘YELTSIN.’”

Rolf and Victor Borge together were bound to create a classic. “Before I photographed him, I had dinner with him at his hotel,” Rolf relates. “I asked him where he was living now and he said, ‘Upstairs.’” After I photographed him I told him to come back soon and he replied, ‘I haven’t left yet.’”

Rolf’s interest in photography goes back to his high school days in New York, where he had his own photo-finishing lab. It remains his passion even though he couldn’t make it his life’s work until he retired from American Optical in 1983.

He was born in Badsachsa in the middle of Germany, a town that he hasn’t seen since he moved with his family to New York City in 1929 at age seven. His father and older brother preceded his mother and five other children (Rolf was the fourth child) to New York, where they lived for over ten years before moving to Utah in 1940.

He was the first in his family to graduate from high school and he worked as a messenger for American Optical before enlisting in the army in 1942. He was the only one in Officers Candidate School who hadn’t gone to college, and of the eighty in the class, one-half of them washed out. After OCS, he went to India, whereas a first lieutenant he served as executive officer in heavy automotive maintenance that maintained both the Ledo and Burma roads. He was honorably discharged in 1945.

After the army, American Optical called him back and he worked first as a lens grinder, then successively as a sales representative, branch manager, and finally major market manager. When the company closed all its branches, Rolf had had 42 years of service and returned to his first love, photography. He has three children, all in Salt Lake Valley, and eight grandchildren and five great grandchildren, scattered all over. He has been a director of Humanists of Utah virtually since its founding in 1991. He is also on the board of The Gandhi Alliance for Peace.

If you’ve talked to Rolf, and you probably have, you’ve also been told a joke. He loves humor, which he combines with his wisdom acquired over eighty years. He calls himself a god-fearing agnostic and passes along this adage for everyone to live by: “Remember that no matter how thin you slice baloney; you can always break a window with a brick.” Rolf died January 4, 2013

—Earl Wunderli  

Previously published January 2004    

Our Judicial System

Part of being a humanist is being a good citizen. Being a good citizen requires attention to our community and staying aware of how the systems we live with affect the people around us.

On October 10, we spent time at our monthly meeting examining our judicial system. An energetic and thoughtful judge, Richard Mazrick of the Third District gave us time and attention to keep us up to date on our local judicial system. The title of his remarks to us was, “Understanding our Legal System through Ethics and Compassion.” Judges are known to set the tone in their own courts. I already appreciate this judge for the offered lens of ethics and compassion, through which we could view our legal system.

The United States is well-known for having one of the most sophisticated judicial systems in the world. Our system is also flexible and far reaching as it operates in a country with as much diversity as we have here.

One of the keys to this success is a balanced and well-organized hierarchy. Federal courts control issues of federal law. The highest federal court is the Supreme Court. Just below this are the regional courts of appeals. Next down are the 94 district courts. Each of these courts has at least two judges who may appoint magistrates to help with their case load.

State courts are separate and different in order to control the different systems of laws in each state.

The basic elements of the U.S. judicial system are, in part, inherited from English common law and depend on an adversarial system of justice. In an adversarial system, litigants present their cases before a neutral party through their lawyers who present written and oral testimony as evidence. These arguments allow the judge or jury to determine the truth about the conflict.

Many rules exist regarding how evidence and testimony are presented, trial procedure, courtroom behavior and etiquette. These rules are designed to promote fairness and allow each side an opportunity to adequately present its case.

Many court rulings become precedent, i.e. a principle, law or interpretation of a law established by a court ruling. Precedent is generally respected by other courts when dealing with a case or situation similar to a past precedent. This policy is known as “stare decisis” or “let the decision stand.” Precedent is sometimes overturned or disregarded by a court, but the policy generally provides continuity in courts’ interpretations of the law.

State courts are the courts most Americans will contact during their lives.  In Utah, civil cases are appealed directly to the state Supreme Court, which then has the power to refer the case instead to an intermediate appellate court, rather than being appealed first to an intermediate appellate court and then to a state supreme court.

While we hope not to have to know anything about our judiciary system personally, it behooves us to understand how it works and be able to wend our way through the system just in case, for either ourselves or others. Many thanks to Judge Richard Mazrick for the time he spent with us, making us more educated about our judicial system and thus, better citizens.

—Lauren Florence, MD

Carl Sagan Day

November 9

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known”

(In his book, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space, Sagan directs the reader’s attention to the first photo ever from deep space of the Earth – a pale blue dot in the vast black void of space.)

Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar”, every “supreme leader”, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”

Interviewer: Didn’t he want to believe?
Ann Druyan: He didn’t want to believe; he wanted to know.
—November PIQUE
Secular Humanists Society of New York

Harriet

The recent movie ‘Harriet, about Harriet Tubman, is a wonderful production. It has tension, strong storytelling, action heroes, and hope – injections against the days of now.

One of the things that has stuck with me is this idea of ‘bold humanity’. When Harriet must take off running, she is met with a ‘system’ that is already in place. I think about the amount of creative planning and communication that had to take place to form all of that under a ruling system that put you at so much risk for doing so. And the human drive to do right things despite huge risks.

Harriet threw herself almost impulsively into danger time and again, driven to free others from slavery. Often the Underground Society wanted to proceed with more caution when danger was very high, but Harriet was compelled to follow her own vision (literally at times). It also struck me how both courses are needed to move something like this – the careful planning and efforts to move things at high levels, as well as the very, very brave throw your physically into making it happen. It takes my breath away with a need to be bolder myself.

The movie was wonderful. So moving and lasting. Highly recommended!

I want to form my own committee to “Get Harriet on the $20 bill!”. These are the heroes we need. I also need to go out and find 2 or 3 good biographies/profiles on her life right now.

—Lisa Miller

Theodicy?
The Idiocy!

An airplane faltered, then fell from the sky;
Eighty-nine died. A collective sigh,
“It’s God’s will.”
A terrible flood, but all were saved
by rescuers strong, fearless and brave.
“It’s God’s will.”
A child was starved, beaten, then died.
They buried her deep, and adults cried,
“It’s God’s will.”
A little one found-he wasn’t quite dead.
The people thanked heaven, and then of course said,
“It’s God’s will.”
Millions can suffer in earth’s darkest holes,
Yet millions keep saying that god’s in control.
The greatest good or the greatest ill,
“Why don’t you know? It’s all god’s will.”
“God’s will” is the phrase they mindlessly use,
So no matter what happens, god can’t lose!
Absurd contradictions their intellects kill.
We humanists work with a human will.
Sifted through reason, the finest of screens,
This is what god-talk really means:
All of us born to a world cold and stark;
Most remain “children crying in the dark.”

–Adrienne Morris

Tess is a Happy Humanist, and a retired Advanced Placement English teacher with a flair for writing and stimulating her students to THINK.

THEODICY: The defense of god’s goodness and omnipotence in view of the existence

LIFE CAN BE WONDERFUL

It must have been twenty years ago when my daughter Sarah and I were talking one evening and she said “Dad, when I look up at the mountains or the night sky I feel so small. Insignificant. Like nothing.” She was only about 12 years old at the time, and her angst wasn’t surprising. Many of us have such feelings when we face the immensity of space and the stars, the vast face of a mountain, or the rolling expanse of the sea. If we compare our physical size against such immensity we are indeed seemingly insignificant, less than ants staring down an elephant. But that feeling of smallness is the product of only one, very limited point of view, and given what we now know about ourselves and our place in the cosmos it is not very relevant.

Even two decades ago, I had enough insight to reply to Sarah, “You are the most complex system in nature.” I then attempted to convey that as part of the web of life on Earth, and a very beautiful member of one of the most complex species in that network, she was far more intriguing, rare, and wonderful than any star or mountain. The stars are just big globs of gas collapsing and fusing under their own weight; mountains mere piles of stone pushed up by tectonic forces. They are indeed magnificent and awesome, but lacking a nervous system they are unable to think, play the violin as Sarah does, invent, write, speculate, measure, create music, poetry or mathematics. The stars cannot look at each other and wonder or, large as they are, even feel insignificant or grand. What would it be like to be a star or a mountain? Not much different than being a stone or being dead. No awareness or thoughts, no emotions, no sensations.

We humans can observe, reason about what we see, and explain our insights to each other. And that ability to see, measure, reason, and communicate reveals ever more about us and this universe with each passing year, reveals more and more about how marvelous we are, how rare and improbable, and how wonderful. The intricate, interwoven patterns of life on Earth are the facets of a jewel in the cosmos. And only the human pattern, the most complex of these aggregates of atoms, these systems of chemically communicating cells, can puzzle out the rules, laws, and history that made us and the universe what we are. No star can do that; no mountain can attempt to decipher the riddle of its own existence.

What is the point of all this? Ross Douthat, a conservative columnist for the New York Times, in his memorial to Christopher Hitchens wrote that “rigorous atheism casts a wasting shadow over every human hope and endeavor” (NY Times December 17, 2011). This remark has stuck in my craw these last 12 months and is very far from the truth, betraying an almost laughable ignorance. It is typical of the remarks made by the conservative religious community about secular humanism and atheism. Such remarks are made with no data to back them up, just flat statements of dogma without justification.

Indeed, it is very easy to make the opposite case, as Hitchens did in his book God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, that religion casts a wasting pall over existence. It isn’t atheists who denigrate all humanity as miserable sinners, terrorizing children with threats of eternal hellfire and endless torment. And it isn’t atheists who claim that this life is only a painful proving ground for the next, warning that lest we spend our lives groveling in preparation for meeting a vengeful and capricious maker he may visit us with tsunamis and massacres of children. If those aren’t part of an enervating cloud darkening existence, I don’t know what is.

A view of existence based on evidence and reason rather than divine magic demonstrates that we are marvelous and precious creatures in our own right, far more astonishing and rare than anything depicted in creation myths or fantasies given in any antiquated text. The story of us is far more fascinating than any ancient fable. The evidence, after all, shows no trace of an all powerful creator, but tells a 14-billion-year-long tale of chaotic explosions, collapsing stars, expanding space, warping space-time, black holes and cosmic jets, serendipitously spawning a tiny island of order that eventually produced us, unique in all this universe. The atheist sees that life is rare and precious, something to be cherished and celebrated, not wasted ranting in hatred against our fellows over doctrinal differences or sexual orientation, or groveling before an imaginary deity.

To understand how rare and precious we are, we need only understand what the evidence demonstrates, that we came about through biological evolution from simpler forms of life. That evolution is driven through random mutation and non-random selection by the environment when the mutations occur. That randomness provides a set of choices for survival, and that randomness makes us unique in this cosmos. If evolution is happening on other worlds, the random mutations ensure that non-random selection has a completely different set of survival choices on each world. Life on no two worlds will be alike, and the complex creatures that might result on each planet will be quite different. The species of Earth are therefore unique. We are the only humans in this cosmos, and we may be the only highly intelligent species in it. We are certainly almost infinitely rare.

Sure, our individual lives are limited and sometimes brief, but that brevity doesn’t make them any less wonderful or marvelous. Certainly, many of us suffer horribly in our short lives, but that doesn’t diminish or make them less precious. Knowledge of the ephemeral nature of life, our mutual suffering and predicament, our astonishing origin, and the potential in each and every human brain must cultivate compassion and a positive humanism.

This year (2012) we celebrated my granddaughter’s first birthday with my daughter and her husband. At the party I marveled as I watched them, tall, beautiful, intelligent, and compassionate holding their own perfect little girl. My complete lack of religious belief cast no shadow over the love and awe that I felt at that moment. On the contrary, that lack of belief gave me a clear understanding of how lucky I am and how wonderful life can be.

—Steve Hanka
Reprinted from our January 2013 newsletter

SOAPBOX

I missed Jared Anderson’s presentation of Humanism 101 last month. Fortunately, we now record speaker presentations and make them available via our website, so I watched it. Jared did a great job and expressed some ideas that I had not thought of. First, he talked about a Geek Culture where organized religions are inherently humanistic because they were created by and for humans. Yes, they get a little confused sometimes about what is and is not important but basically organized religions are about humanism! One of the first things I thought about was watching the 1988 PBS six-episode series, The Power of Myth, where Bill Moyers interviewed the renowned mythologist Joseph Campbell. One of the main takeaways from this series is that every known culture, past and present, has a Creation Myth and that these myths have many common features. I’m not sure if the “original” myth is known. It is, however, understood that they all grew from a basic framework. There is almost always a Deity (creator), and the stories often involve a tree with special fruit and a serpent. The Creation Myth in the Bible is actually more than one story; in Genesis I God creates humans “in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” In the earliest known cultures this God was a woman.

You’ve seen the Fertility Goddesses, round statues of a pregnant woman. Female’s had the power to create children and were worshiped as Gods. The phrasing in Genesis I identifies humans as women, or men, or hermaphrodites and findings from dwellings of these ancients show evidence of these beliefs. But in Genesis II, which is much younger version of creation story than Genesis I, “man” is created individually. Then God planted a garden and created all the beasts, the birds, etc. Finally, God got around to creating “woman.” According to Joseph Campbell this myth arises from stories when historical humans replaced “hunter/gatherer” tribal organization with farming Communities. The new organizational structure led to men replacing women in important community leadership roles.

Jason also discussed humanism’s goal to, “Maximize Well Being.” An old and oft-used subject in humanist discussions is to describe humanism in less than 30 seconds Also called an elevator response. I have been fiddling with this for 20 years or so. Our website banner reads, “Joyful Living, Rational Thinking, Responsible Behavior.” I think clarifying edits to something like, “Live Joyfully by practicing Rational Thinking and Behaving Responsibly” is in order. Still a little awkward but I think it is moving in the right direction. Any Word Smiths out there want to take a crack at design? What about Maximize Well Being? Please email your thoughts to me with the subject of Soapbox and maybe we can get a discussion going.

—Wayne Wilson

The Power of Myth series is available on both Amazon Prime (charge for each episode) and on Netflix.

YouTube Channel

Our new YouTube Channel streamed now has 17 subscribers who watched videos for 18.3 hours. Have you checked it out yet?

Donation Received

The Florien Wineriter Trust donated $1000.00 to our chapter . Thanks to Flo’s family for following up on his wishes.

 

Rawlins B. Young
1938 ~ 2019

Rawlins B. Young of Salt Lake City has left the third planet from the sun on August 19, 2019, after 81 years of anthropological study. He succumbed to complications of scleroderma. While on this planet he served proudly on the Sugarhouse Community Council for several decades and was active in the Democratic Party. He was a lifelong member of the First Unitarian Church of Salt Lake City and affiliated with the Humanists of Utah.

Rawlins was a son of Luretta Wagner and Rawlins B. Young Sr. He was a brother of Joan Babcock, Diana Haman, and Patricia Miller, who are now on their next tachyon journey. Still remaining on this planet is his brother John A. Young of Salt Lake City. He is also survived by many nieces, great nieces, nephews, and great nephews.

Graveside service will be conducted by Humanist Celebrant Jared Anderson at the Salt Lake City Cemetery, N Street & Forth Avenue, Salt Lake City, Utah at 1:00 PM on September 6, 2019. A Celebration of Life service will be held at the First Unitarian Church of Salt Lake City, 569 South 1300 East, Salt Lake City, Utah on November 10, 2019, at 4:00 PM conducted by Rev. Tom Goldsmith. In lieu of flowers send donations to the First Unitarian Church of Salt Lake and Humanists of Utah.

What is Humanism?

Humanism 101 is the topic of our upcoming September meeting. The question of just what humanism is has been discussed in our chapter since we formed in 1992. Here is one of the first published “answers.”

Flo Wineriter Speaks Out On Humanism

The following article was published in the Daily Herald of Provo, Utah on Sunday, November 22, 1992.

Humanism’s basic message is that man alone is responsible for the world and its dreams, and moral values derive their source from human experience,” said Florien J. Wineriter, President of the Utah Chapter of the American Humanist Association.

Wineriter spoke at a recent Unitarian meeting where he discussed humanism and its message. The former radio journalist said humanism is a quest for life’s values, and a belief that we can solve our own problems without having to ask for supernatural guidance. He has observed that religion attempts to teach moral values through fear of punishment, whereas humanism teaches moral values through caring.

Wineriter’s own journey into humanism was triggered by the events of World War II. As a religious young man, he felt a concern about the ethics of killing another human being on the other side of the world who might believe in the same religion as he. After studying the many religious wars of the past, Wineriter concluded, “If beliefs in God create so much bloodshed, even among those who share the same religion, then I want and need a basic belief that holds more hope for the future of the human race, and for peaceful resolutions of conflicts.”

The Humanist Counselor believes we must have freedom of choice and experience a wide range of full liberties. “There is no area of thought that we are unwilling to explore, to challenge, to question, or to doubt,” as our philosophy tells us.

Humanists want to maintain a separation of church and state. “Our founders were fearful of religious domination because of past experiences when countries mingled faith and government.” Wineriter believes that churches should continue to have the freedom to lobby and take positions on issues, however the fault lies when individual lawmakers make decisions based on the belief that church should be the final authority because their leaders are spokespersons for God. “The authoritarian mentality is not conducive to democratic governments. This nation is politically and economically secular, and we must not equate religious affiliation with patriotism. Our Constitution provides that there shall be no religious test of any kind,” says Wineriter.

Prayer in public meetings should not be allowed because, in rural Utah especially, it becomes an extension of theocracy. “Prayer in civic meetings continues the mood of yesterday’s priesthood meeting,” as Wineriter put it. He believes humanists should take an active role in their communities by helping others recognize the difference between secular authority and religious authority.

Many religions are threatened by humanistic thoughts, says Wineriter. Garth Brooks’ recent song “We Shall Be Free” is presently being censored by radio stations in Tennessee because of its apparent secular message. The following lyrics appear to be the most controversial.

• “When we’re free to love anyone we choose,
• When this world’s big enough for all different views,
• When all can worship from our own kind of pew,
• Then we shall be free.”

Brooks has summed up humanism in just a few simple words, and it has upset the traditional religious ideas of country music.

Being a humanist does not lead to immoral behavior, as some people believe. “Humanism teaches us to be responsible, caring people and to continually search for the highest human ideals” he emphasized.

—Flo Wineriter

Published in February 1993 Newsletter

Interfaith Prayer Meeting – HoU Represented

I was sitting facing the International Peace Gardens, listening to Imam Yasir talk about the history of Islam in Utah. I had been asked to present at this Interfaith Prayer Meeting as a prison chaplain, but it also gave me an opportunity to introduce myself and speak as a humanist. This meeting was sponsored by Roots of Peace, an organization that removes landmines from war-torn countries and then establishes agriculture, going from “mines to vines.” For example, in Vietnam those who have been injured by explosions now harvest black pepper, the land producing life instead of death.

I used the invitation to speak about prison chaplaincy to speak about humanity. I made the point that those who are incarcerated are not fundamentally different than we are…they just have had different opportunities and challenges. In general, we are as good and successful as we are incentivized and empowered to be. I tell the volunteers I train that prison requires the same life skills as on the outside…just with catastrophic consequences. I dream of a world where we all have the guidance, support, and resources we need to thrive. Taking seriously all the problems the prison industrial complex causes, it still remains true that we invest in inmates to a strikingly high level. The irony has sobered me that the care for inmates is governed by the constitution, while care for staff is governed by capitalism. Staff spend hours with each inmate during their intake interview. They ask about their background, their relationships, their education, their struggles. A care plan is designed to help with each of these factors. Years of programs and opportunities are provided so that inmates can become better versions of themselves.

I clearly stated that many, if not most, inmates are in prison because we have failed them. What would the world be if we invested in every human, not when they fall through the cracks, but when they are children? What if we gathered close each child when they are five, ten, fifteen, every year if needed? What if we asked them about their background, goals, struggles and victories? I submit that prisons would become unnecessary.

Having presented on prison chaplaincy, I walked from location to location and heard prayers offered by different religious leaders. This is one of my dreams…to increase awareness and respect for Humanism by moving through religious and other spaces as an open Humanist. I am grateful to have the chance to participate as a humanist on the Salt Lake Interfaith Roundtable.

—Jared Anderson

Humanist Celebrant

HoU YouTube Channel

Humanists of Utah now has it’s very own YouTube channel!

We will be posting all of our future speaker’s presentations (not counting technical difficulties or the speaker’s privacy choice). We currently have Volunteers of America of Utah CEO Kathy Bray’s talk on the VOA’s Utah Homeless Youth Shelter. More to follow!

Where to find it?

There is a link on the HoU web page under Media->Videos (thanks Lisa Miller!) or search YouTube for the “Humanists of Utah” channel.

Don’t forget to subscribe; this will make it easier to find in the future!

—Brian Trick

Helping Rebuild Lives

Kathy Bray, CEO of Volunteers of  America, Utah was the featured speaker out July general meeting. Volunteers of America, Utah (VOA) provides a bridge to self-reliance and health for vulnerable individuals and populations who struggle with homelessness, addiction and mental illness in our Wasatch Front communities. Volunteers of America is a national, nonprofit organization with 122 years of history. The Utah affiliate has operated human service programs for more than 30 years and annually manages more than $11 million in revenue, utilizes more than 3,000 volunteers and serves close to 8,000 clients in multiple programs. These programs include a Detoxification Center, Domestic Violence Counseling, Homeless Outreach, Case Management, Young Men’s and Women’s Transition Homes and our new Youth Resource Center which offers 30 beds for emergency overnight shelter. Upcoming programs include the Geraldine E. King Women’s Resource Center, a state-of-the-art facility which will provide resources and emergency shelter to 200 women each night which will open to the public in Summer of 2019. Volunteers of America, Utah’s is also excited to announce it’s first residential program called The Denver Street Apartments, which is scheduled to open Fall of 2019. These apartments will provide supportive housing for severely mentally ill individuals of Volunteers of America, Utah’s Assertive Community Treatment program. Individuals who are interested in learning more or getting involved with Volunteers of America, Utah can do so by visiting www.voaut.org

—Sarah Cavalcanti Marketing & Communication Director, VOA  

Here is a link to VOA describing their organization:

---

Dehumanization

~Book Review~

It doesn’t take much time in front of the television, YouTube, online news

sites or even in public before the stark realities of us-versus-them politics and judgements come to the forefront. We currently live in a state of unrecognizable vitriol and tension as lack of equilibrium in environmental, economic and other ecologies widen the gap between not only haves and have-nots but between races, genders, health and numerous other categorizations. This has often turned to violence and confrontation and unfortunately resulted in murder on occasions. If you’re like me, you may have wondered: how it is that the human mind, while capable of such illustrious and awe-inspiring accomplishments throughout its history, can turn its back on its own species and lower itself to destroy, denigrate and debase others along the way? What is it that makes some of us monsters instead of saviors to our fellow humans? I have just finished reading Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others by Dr. David Livingstone Smith with that very question in mind. This is a book I recommend with the highest intensity and encourage all who read this article to pursue in reading. The author traces the roles, psychologies, cognitive processes, and outcomes of historical and current situations wherein dehumanization was used effectively to devastating results. Some of these cognitive processes are subconscious while others are emotional reactions to fear. Dr. Smith issues warnings to us today that this can easily happen again if we do not understand the processes, triggers and propagandic manipulation involved in lowering others of our species to less than human and fight them with understanding. Dehumanization is the act of removing the humanness from another. It involves lowering “others” to a reduced place of importance on the Great Chain of Being (a medieval philosophy that placed humans second below God, above animals and flora) that justifies them not being treated as equals. The others must become subhuman —less than us—or we find ourselves constrained by social contracts and mores that prohibit murder, slavery and other harmful actions. The attacking people see themselves as true and pure humans, untainted by foreign blood, culture or religions, so it is by relegating “others” to the status of subhuman that we overcome these social and ethical concerns about killing and hurting others. The thinking goes that if the others aren’t really human but rather lower-level counterfeits who deserve neither the empathy and tolerance reserved for others of our kind nor justice when they oppose our ways, then we aren’t killing humans after all and therefore a moral conundrum about our actions is needless. The systemized cruelty of spreading death and pain to slaves, captives, immigrants, war opponents and despised others comes from a collective acceptance and embracing of the corroded status of their humanity. To accomplish this, there are many proven methodologies that have—and are—being utilized as dog whistles for sowing hate, division, and violence towards others. Typically, government or military propaganda against an opponent will label the others as monsters or strange beings due to their culture and appearance as a way of frightening people. Media may fall in line with authority to promote division by referring to the others as vermin, insects or diseases, and often their writing utilizes phrases or words that are pegged to these categories. Look for them in the headlines and you will be surprised at how others are described. This is happening in front of our eyes right now with regard to racism with undocumented immigrants and their families, from ICE raids to police brutality to immigrant children staying (and dying) in cages, rooted on by a bigoted authoritarian who has scared many constituents into hatred against innocent folks and fellow Americans. As humanists, the greatest weapon we have against the present demagoguery an d populist nationalism that is adopting dehumanization and fear is the understanding of dehumanization and where it comes from. By recognizing it and calling it out for what it is, we can help others stop and realize what is happening. By highlighting and resisting the sue of derogatory terms, labels, treatment and classification of our fellow humans, we can attempt to break much of the cycle that has led to the denigration of many people and a life of pain, ruin, and servitude. If you see dehumanization occurring, call it out! Talk to others about the subtlety of this cancerous attitude and be an example to all around you of tolerance, respect, peace and understanding! We can make a difference daily at a ground level, one by one, by using our awareness of the dehumanization process to mitigate its spread and bring hope to others. Whatever you do, take action for good—it is the humanist way.

–Jeff Curtis
President HoU

---

Soap Box

Greetings Freethinkers, I hope your summer is going well. It’s amazing to me that it’s August already, and for me, that means getting to work on some outside projects I have started. But there is plenty of hot weather left before skiers can start getting excited. Speaking of hot weather, I want to comment on a Salt Lake Tribune article from Friday, July 5, 2019 titled, “Best way to fight climate change? A trillion trees.” The article cites some Swiss scientists who say, “there is enough space for new trees to cover 3.5 million square miles.” The article also quotes these scientists as stating that this is the cheapest and most effective climate change solution. The trees would help by taking in carbon dioxide, which the study says may be as much as 830 billion tons removed. The article also shows a park in Milan, Italy with the caption stating that the city plans to plant 3 million trees by 2030. This got me to wondering if there are volunteer groups that plant trees. I haven’t looked into it yet, but I bet there are and I think the Arbor Day Foundation might be a good place to start. This could be a way to get involved in being advocates for fighting human caused climate change. It’s something to think about. I can see myself planting trees. —Switching Gears— This month I wanted to add a personal note. It’s a cat story. I’ve told it a number of times because it’s hilarious (at least to me it is). Recently we lost our 16-year-old black cat. To help me deal with the loss, I’ve made myself think of the ways he enriched our lives rather than dwelling on his illness and death. The cat story is about how he gave me one of the best laughs of my life. Several years ago, Amy and I lived at a four plex with Larry our black cat. The apartments had a covered walkway in front with a few steps up to ground level on each end, with some lawn close to the front steps. The Jehovah’s Witnesses came around a lot in that neighborhood and one of our neighbors in the four plex started having some weekly sessions with “witnesses” on the lawn near the steps. During one of these sessions I happened to step out onto the walkway wearing my black Heretic-in good company t-shirt. At the same time Larry came walking up with a medium sized robin in his mouth. As Larry approached the stairs up to the lawn, I asked him what he had in his mouth and as I touched him he let go and this pissed off robin went flying and screeching out of his mouth towards this session with scriptures in their hands. The bird brushed the side of one of the Witnesses head causing him to drop his scriptures and scattering the other session goers. They looked at me and Larry as if we had just attacked them. I couldn’t hold it in and started to laugh and laugh and laugh. When later I related this to Amy we laughed and laughed. We thanked Larry profusely for the gift. Now that he is gone, we thank him again for scaring the shit out of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. See you at the Barbecue.

—Bob Lane  

---

The Four Horsemen

~Book Review~

The Four Horsemen, The Conversation That Sparked an Atheist Revolution. It is a transcription of a conversation among Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett in 2007. It is an enjoyable read. I found it at the County Library.  

—Leona Blackbird  

---