May 2021
Contents
National Day of Reason
On Thursday, May 6, 2021, please join the Freethought Society, Recovering From Religion, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the Secular Student Alliance and the Secular Coalition for America as we celebrate The National Day of Reason by hosting a Zoom entertainment extravaganza entitled “Mayday for Humanity.” The event will begin at 4:00 PM PST/6:00 PM MST/7:00 PM EST.
Comedians Leighann Lord and Ian Harris will co-host this 3-hour event. They will usher in an array of comedians, poets, and musical performers. All funds donated during the event will benefit homeless shelters and food banks selected by the co-sponsors. Beneficiary organizations operate in a nondiscriminatory and secular manner.
This entertaining and enlightening program will interweave messages from co-sponsors, celebrity supporters, and people who are conducting grassroots community service projects during the 2021 Secular Week of Action (April 30-May 9).
An online auction will also take place with items donated by renowned-sculptor Zenos Frudakis, award-winning science writer Ann Druyan, illusionist Curt Anderson, the Humanists Society of Santa Barbara and many others.
Infrastructure Plan
How the proposed Infrastructure Plan offered by President Biden could roll out. Many say that infrastructure is only what can be driven on, others argue it should be expanded to broadband, national, and state parks. Some say it should extend much further into caring for our population in terms of the health and wellbeing of the populace. Predictably the most limiting common argument against these improvements is the associated costs and the discussion of where to obtain the necessary funding to follow through on all these projects.
Mark Twain said, “It isn’t what sum you get, it’s how much you can buy with it, that’s the important thing.” (A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court) In other words we should expect to get what we pay for. Let us imagine what life might be like if the full range of President Biden’s entire plan were implemented. The roads, bridges, broadband, energy production is primarily from renewable sources, and the proposed human support factors are all in place. A young woman and her partner decide to bring a child into the world. The mother will receive appropriate medical care throughout her pregnancy and delivery. This will include maternity and paternity care for both parents for 6-12 months post-partum and then available quality childcare at work. The child will begin formal pre-schooling early in life that will be followed by subsidized K-12 education and then schooling directed to either an academic or skilled trade training depending on the aptitudes and desires of each person. Finally, our subject will become an informed, productive, voting, and tax paying citizen who will help other new people follow the same scenarios.
Yes, this will be expensive, very expensive. But as Twain notes, the important thing here is what we get for our investment. I am not an economist but am certain that major changes will need to be made to existing tax codes. This will have to include actually taxing everyone, including the very rich who reportedly pay a much smaller percentage of their earnings than people like you and me pay. It will also require that everyone who works full time will get a living wage; a home, food, television, and broadband connectivity and have something left for vacations and leisure activities.
There is good evidence that this government model works in a significant number of countries around the world. Their citizens realize that investments in themselves pay dividends to make everyone’s lives better. It almost sounds like the words of Abraham Lincoln who described our country as being, “Of the People, By the People, and For the People.”
It seems to me like we might be at a rare stage of our history where virtually everything can be made better for almost everyone. I am entering the later stages of my life and would be very glad to see the torch of humanity passed to a better world than we have now for future generations.
—Wayne Wilson
President’s Message
Happy Spring Humanists!
With the weather getting nicer and our communities becoming safer, it is a perfect time to talk about things that many of us enjoy and feel hopeful about. With Summer just around the corner, many are making plans that have been anxiously awaited and heavily anticipated. We are excitedly planning events for the near future, hopefully, as we grow closer to herd immunity. More of our fellow humans are becoming vaccinated and more of us wanting to be outdoors will make this a safe option coming off of the stress of the past year.
This month we will be celebrating our mothers and Memorial Day. We hope you and your families enjoy each other, safely and are able to feel love and hope for the future. It is a season of hope and a season of community.
Kindest regards, and have a blessed day.
—Melanie White-Curtis
President, Humanists of Utah
Gender Unity and Humanism
Follow this link to original publication in November 1993
A Joyful Humanism
Follow this link to original publication in July 1993
Do Things For Your Own Enjoyment
When I was 15, I spent a month working on an archeological dig. I was taking to one of the archeologists one day during our lunch break and he asked those kinds of “getting to know you” questions you ask young people: Do you play sports? What’s your favorite subject? And I told him, no I don’t play any sports. I do theater, I’m in choir, I play the violin and piano, I used to take art classes.
And he said WOW. That’s amazing! And I said, “Oh no, but I’m not any good at ANY of them.” And he said something then that I will never forget and which absolutely blew my mind because no one had ever said anything like it to me before: “I don’t think being good at things is the point of doing them. I think you’ve got all these wonderful experiences with different skills, and that all teaches you things and makes you an interesting person, no matter how well you do them.”
And that honestly changed my life. Because I went from a failure, someone who hadn’t been talented enough at anything to excel, to someone who did things because I enjoyed them. I had been raised in such an achievement-oriented environment, so inundated with the Myth of Talent, that I thought it was only worth doing things if you could “Win” at them.”
—Kurt Vonnegut
Webmaster / Editor / Publisher