WHEN: Monday, February 19, 2024, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. (Eastern Time)
WHERE: This is a virtual event via Zoom. You can login to the meeting starting at 6:15 pm
MEETING DESCRIPTION: Holly tells stories (and sings a few songs) from her 50+ years of bold social change, creativity, and activism. Holly Near is still one of the most consistent and well-informed voices for change. Her work is loving, challenging, funny, thought-provoking, and remains rooted in the global community. As an outspoken singer and ambassador for peace, Holly brings a unique integration of world consciousness and self-evaluation, always growing and sharing experience humbly and boldly.
As always, there will be plenty of time for a lively Q&A discussion. LEARN MORE ABOUT HOLLY AT THESE LINKS:Biography – Holly Near; https://www.facebook.com/hollynearfan;
and https://www.instagram.com/hollynearofficial/
Yoki was an obstreperous, peripatetic pococurante whose effulgent skulduggery was rivaled only by his baffo, pugnacious, froward buddy named Yap, whose babble could mesmerize the most seasoned blatherskite. Together they made a great flim-flam partnership. They enjoyed the swindle. One fine day, Yoki and Yap decided they would start their own religion, claiming to all who would listen that for only $29.95 you would be guaranteed a place in the glorious Heavenly Hideaway. But wait, there's more! For only six easy payments of $69 you'll receive a cushy seat at the big gilded aurous table very close to the Lord of Kings. They called their religion, “We're Right!” Their television commercials were so fast and furiously loud, they made Crazy Eddie and Earl Scheib look like they were Marlo Thomas asking for donations to help unfortunately ill children get well. To impress the naive and gullible, Yap would spitfire her huckster auctioneer tripe while Yoki would bend silver spoons with his supernatural powers or move a pencil across the table without touching it. They would pass the Fedora, take a collection of moolah, and scat to the next town before anyone got wise. In a town down the road was a young boy who marveled at how smooth Yoki and Yap were. He decided that he too could enchant, charm, and make a fast cool living if he claimed to have paranormal psychic powers and learned how to bend spoons and slide pencils. He's known to the world as Uri Geller. But as fate would have it, Uri, Yoki, and Yap encountered one of the most joyous debunkers ever, who, despite his renowned skepticism, had little trouble believing in himself. Randall James Hamilton Zwinge known to the world as James Randi, became famous for scientific debunking of false claims of supernatural psychic extrasensory perceptions. He considered himself an investigator of charlatans, frauds, and other pretentious wacky quacks. At a meeting where Randi was effortlessly yet impressively duplicating the performances of Uri Geller, who was now a professor at the University at Buffalo and in the audience, Uri shouted out that Randi James is a fraud! Randi, with the flim-flam quality of Yap, but with a heap of truthiness, retorted quickly, "Yes, indeed, I'm a trickster, I'm a cheat, I'm a charlatan, that's what I do for a living. Everything I've done here was by trickery." The professor shouted back: "That's not what I mean. You're a fraud because you're pretending to do these things through trickery, but you're actually using psychic powers and misleading us by not admitting it." And so, Uri's reputation as a spoon-bending, pencil-sliding psychic, was faltering right before his very eyes due to the skillful hands and clever but truthful mind of James Randi. Yoki and Yap scooted from town once again and were never heard from again. Uri's protest reminds me of a saying I learned in childhood, “I'm rubber, you're glue, whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you.” Which reminds me of President 45. Randi never claimed to have psychic powers. He enjoyed a long successful life as an entertaining prestidigitator who also wrote many books about magicians, conjuring, and the art of flim-flam. You might enjoy his 1980 book, Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions. Meanwhile, there's nothing up my sleeve when I relay that Yoki and Yap are a curiosity courtesy of my recently renewed poetic license.
Care to share your thoughts? I'm open for criticism, conjecture, comments, corrections, concerns, and well-wishes sent tokenhurley88@gmail.comMeanwhile, be well!
Billions of Fibs and Other Fabulations
Fred W. Hill
This morning, I did 5 billion push-ups! Oh, does that seem unlikely? Ok, it was really only 4 billion, 398 million and 38 push-ups. Actually, I lost count after the first three billion. Or maybe it was only a few million. A few thousand? Would you believe four hundred? Three and a half? If I’d made such an extravagant claim to anyone over the age of 3 with any familiarity at all with what a push-up is, and at least a vague comprehension of what a billion of anything represents, the response would have been incredulous laughter. According to the site Infoplease.com, simply to count to one billion, at a rate of one number for every second, would take 31 years, 251 days, 7 hours, 46 minutes, and 40 seconds (Counting to a Billion (infoplease.com). I’ve lived nearly twice that time now, but while I may have wasted quite a bit of it on trivialities, I haven’t been doggedly engaged in one task the entire time, other than perhaps to keep breathing! A google query as to the greatest number of consecutive non-stop push-ups by an individual ever verified turned up the world record of “10,507 by Minoru Yoshida of Japan, which was achieved in October 1980, breaking the record of 7,650 by Henry C. Marshal (USA) from 1977” (Push Ups World Records (topendsports.com). Yes, you can find all sorts of trivial information on the web, some of which is actually true and verifiable. But you can also find a lot of hyperbole, exaggerations, distortions, misleading statements, fables masquerading as facts, and outright lies. The medium itself, however, is blameless, although it does magnify the spreading of lies. People have been fudging the truth since, well, very likely long before our ancestors evolved into Homo Sapiens, roughly 300,000 years ago. After all, one doesn’t need a computer or even the ability to write or speak to engage in willful deception. Even our distant cousins, baboons, have been known to engage in deceit to gain something or avoid punishment, as described in an article by Natalie Angier, A Highly Evolved Propensity for Deceit - The New York Times (nytimes.com), published 12/22/08: “A young baboon being chased by an enraged mother intent on punishment suddenly stopped in mid-pursuit, stood up and began scanning the horizon intently, an act that conveniently distracted the entire baboon troop into preparing for nonexistent intruders.” (Originally reported in The New Scientist). Where humans go far beyond any other known species is our capacity to amass massive profits and power from deception. No one will ever do a billion push-ups, but several have, through various means, including nefarious ones, accumulated fortunes of billions of dollars, and a few have attained power sufficient to impact the lives of billions of humans and other living creatures. All religions promoting belief in supernatural beings, whether of ancient or recent vintage, are based on lies – made-up tales that no one could prove or thoroughly disprove. Some people may be somewhat assuaged to believe that no matter how miserable this life may be, a better, eternal life of bliss awaits in another life after death in this one. Some may also revel in the thought that the people they despise, even if awash in every possible luxury and delightful sin in this life, will be horribly and infinitely punished in the afterlife. There is no factual basis to believe in either scenario, yet they remain vividly appealing to millions of people who en masse pay billions of dollars to high priests of deceit to keep telling them comforting lies. There are also politicians who find the best path to success is to tell lies that they’ve learned a great many voters enjoy hearing. I don’t subscribe to the popular notion that all politicians, not even all successful politicians, are absolute liars, but enough of them have been caught in unquestionable untruths in recent and remote history that they have tarred their entire profession. That has never stopped a great many voters from devotedly supporting the most outrageous liars who just happen to appeal to their biases. How much longer our own particular form of democracy in the United States can survive this propensity remains to be seen. Highly successful capitalists are hardly off the hook either, despite the protestations of staunch Objectivists and Libertarians. Mass profits were made from slavery, and many masters and their abettors insisted it was good for the slaves, good for free people, and good for the nation, very self-serving lies. Tobacco companies insisted that their product was entirely safe, and that smoking was entirely unrelated to lung cancer, emphysema and other diseases, even decades after scientific studies they themselves financed showed otherwise, and the reports kept secret until forcibly disclosed through multiple lawsuits. Many industrialists and ultra-conservatives also discount ever-mounting evidence of global climate change and environmental devastation brought about by human activity; and they strive mightily to undo or prevent enforcement of every regulation meant to protect endangered species and the natural environment and biosphere that sustain complex lifeforms, including ours, on this planet. No amount of scientifically validated evidence will suffice for those most entrenched in their mindset. Perhaps when the last ounce of fresh water has been contaminated; fresh air has to be purchased at exorbitant prices; the last forests have all been clearcut; life in the oceans is largely reduced to microorganisms that can consume plastics and thrive in significantly high levels of acidity; and the topsoil on which so much of our food is grown has been eroded to desert sands; perhaps then they might at last admit, well, maybe we could have done something to prevent the devastation. Or, maybe they’ll still insist it was all God’s will or natural events entirely beyond human control. Maintaining their dishonest dogma until the very end. Or maybe Vogons will destroy Earth to make way for an intergalactic highway and inadvertently permanently end all human debate. Some plutocrats seem to presume that their fortunes will enable them to build well-insulated fortresses, sufficiently stocked with necessities and adequately protected to ride out any catastrophes. Others might imagine they can finance their way to a nicer planet to reside on, although the chances of that appear infinitesimally remote, given that the universe as depicted in Star Trek films and TV shows remains more the province of entertaining fantasy than experienced reality. Despite their multi-billions and rockets, so far it seems Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos will have to share the fate of life on Earth with the rest of us. Possibly pushing up daisies some day. Or otherwise ultimately reduced to the estimated seven billion billion billion atoms that make up a typical human, including plutocrats (see Questions and Answers - How many atoms are in the human body? (jlab.org)). Far more than I want to contemplate counting, even if I had several lifetimes or eternity to do so. Meanwhile, I’ll keep pushing on, if not always pushing up, as long as my billions of atoms hang together and I can still enjoy the one lifetime I know for certain that I have.
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A Bill to Bring Chaplains into Public Schools
Merrill Shapiro, Trustee and Immediate Past President, National Board of Trustees, Americans United for Separation of Church and State
Once again our Florida State Legislature is hard at work sticking their noses where they really don’t belong! Consider Florida House Bill 931, offered by Representative Stan McClain of District 27, covering parts of Lake, Marion and Volusia Counties. McClain’s bill “Authorizes school districts & charter schools to adopt policy to allow volunteer school chaplains; requires district school boards & charter school governing boards to assign specified duties to such volunteer school chaplains; requires volunteer school chaplains to meet certain background screening requirements; requires each district school board & charter school to vote by specified date on adoption of school chaplain policy.” This bill and this concept is a thinly veiled attempt at getting the “camel’s nose into the tent,” to create schools that more and more resemble houses of worship. In the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 28, verse 15, Jesus tells his disciples: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” Yes, Florida House Bill 931 is a step towards fulfilling the call of Jesus. One must wonder if Representative McClain realizes it also facilitates chaplains who are Wiccans, who are leaders in the Church of Satan, who are officiants in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. It remains to be seen whether or not Freethought Chaplains are included. This is a bad bill and a worse idea that deserves to be trounced! If you need to, go to https://www.myfloridahouse.gov/findyourrepresentative where you’ll be asked for your address and then led to your Florida Representative. Pick up the phone and call her or him. Let them know how you feel!!
One yet dreamy winter day during a conversation between David Schwam-Baird and Ken Hurley, these two squabble quibblers decided to pick the bone of contention and share their chit chat with The Freethinker. Titled: Chit and Chat Talk Back. Separate essays, similar thread. We hope you'll enjoy reading both, and know we kindly invite your corrections, comments, and queries. Today, we respond to the question, "Why is peace so difficult?"
The Mysterious Location of Peace
David Schwam-Baird
Virtue is more to be feared than vice, because its excesses are not subject to the regulation of conscience. - Adam Smith
Insanity in individuals is something rare — but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs, it is the rule. - Friedrich Nietzsche
You know what the fellow said – in Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace – and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.- Harry Lime (Orson Welles) in The Third Man
… if you stick a Babel fish in your ear you can instantly understand anything said to you in any form of language…. The poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation. - From, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
What is it with people? Yes, yes, we are animals after all. Ah, yes, we are primates, too, the cousins of primates who are not always of the sweetest and most pacific of dispositions. (Except for those bonobos. What’s their secret? Why can’t we be more like the bonobos?) Egads, but we have all those churning primal urges, rages, jealousies, territorialities, greedies (is that a word? Should be.). They bubble up, simmer, percolate, even in the best of us. But we’re supposed to be the Rational Animal. We have this marvelous thing called “Civilization,” don’t we? This is supposed to encourage cooperation and creativity. It’s meant to bring us together, to make us more reasonable. Okay… so why isn’t it working? Of course, all of the Great Civilizations, if we think about it, were conquering civilizations. They became “great” not because they had writing and literature and art and music and architecture. They became great because they beat up everybody else in the neighborhood, took their stuff, and then sat back and created all the other pretty stuff. What were the songs about? “Hail our glorious King, who defeated the mighty enemy!” What was the architecture about? A monument to the military victory, and then a temple to our mighty god of war (who is sooooo much better then their schleppy god of war - you just wanna laugh out loud!), and then statues and murals of the great king and his generals. After we’ve won the great military victory, we can write poems about how lovely peace is. Because, after all, why is there peace now? Because we are in charge and get to define what counts as peace. It might be easy to blame the greed, the egotism, the hubris of the mighty and powerful, who declare the wars, and send off the armies to fight, and order the enemy’s cities to be bombed and their fields torched. But it is all too easy to fall back onto the complaints of the peaceniks, who lament that the old men who make the wars send the young off to fight them. Sometimes that’s true, and sometimes it’s not. Alexander and Genghis Khan led their troops, and there were not a few other political leaders who started out as military leaders. Sometimes the leaders are true believers in The Great Cause, and sometimes they are evil cynics who manipulate The Great Cause for their own ends. Sometimes the cause is just, and sometimes the cause is not just – but the cause must always, always be cloaked in the Garment of Virtue, Honor, Righteousness. Because even the most craven political leader has to be able not just to appeal to, but also to arouse fervor in the average person. Sometimes one has to fight. Sometimes one is actually called upon to defend oneself, one’s family, one’s people. No doubt about it. And sometimes, one is faced with implacable evil. But even when we could all agree that the cause is just, something just happens inside of us – we, who are, for most of our lives, normal, cooperative, decent people. And suddenly, too many of us come to believe, too quickly, too easily, that the enemy (whoever they may be) are all bloodthirsty, lying, unprincipled savages who eat babies for breakfast. Horrible things happen in the world. And often, those horrible things will lead desperate people to do horrible things. The things done by one group to another so often lead to some response, creating a chain of insults, injuries, and violence. We observe that happening between groups who are far removed from us, geographically or otherwise, and we can be somewhat understanding. We might offer some rational possible solutions or support some ambassador or international organization in trying to mediate the tensions. But, whoa, let it happen to us, or a group near to our hearts, and rationality, introspection, measured understanding dissolve. Only our victims matter; only our injuries matter; any misdemeanors that people from our side may (or may not?) have committed in the past are exceptions, not to be scrutinized too closely. But everybody on the other side is absolutely and totally complicit in the outrage, and guilty of every crime! – don’t even try to explain why they sank so low. And we demand absolute justice for our side. (The fiends – they think they have the right to absolute justice, over on the other side.) When there are horrible conflicts between peoples who are outraged by the treatment they have received, by the injuries and deaths they have suffered, and the injustice that persists, that is where reason loses its hold. But when there have been great injustices (sometimes the most horrific of crimes are those of one side; but as often they have been, over time, inflicted on each other by both sides), and some resolution is found which seriously reduces the tensions, makes a return to a bearable, even normal life possible for all involved, no “total justice” has been arrived at. To reach a state where people can once again function more or less normally, each side has to compromise, has to deal with people they swore they would never deal with, and this would not be possible if one or the other side were to achieve the “total justice” they called for at the height of the crisis. The successful resolution of conflict rarely looks like the resolution expected or demanded by the participants or the observers while the conflict was in full force. Northern Ireland is not a pacific paradise. There are still tensions between the Catholic and Protestant communities. But Northern Ireland is far, far better off now than it was during the Troubles of the 70s and 80s. Protestants swore that they could never, under any circumstances, deal with the IRA. Catholics swore they could never deal with the treacherous Unionists. And nowadays they deal with each other daily (though not totally without acrimony) in Stormont, the Northern Irish Assembly. The mystery is how, or even whether, most of us can resist the stirring calls for saving the national honor, for demanding total justice for our side, or resist the total demonization of the other side. The mystery is how we can resist the ferocious desire to humiliate a defeated enemy, rather than to deal reasonably and pragmatically with them. (Think of the idiotic way in which France and Britain insisted on treating Germany after World War I, which most analysts believe led directly to the rise of Hitlerism. Compare this to the way the US helped to rebuild and rehabilitate Germany, Italy, and Japan after World War II, which turned them into allies.) At the same time, we do have to be able to discern when it is necessary to fight, when we are facing the threat of true evil, and when there really are no other alternatives than war. The good outcome sometimes happens. It really, truly can happen … sometimes. But why, oh, why, can’t we find it within ourselves to calm our most primal and ferocious tendencies? It is a mystery, and it is the most basic ethical challenge before us.
- - -
PEACE
Ken Hurley
Peace is not something you wish for; it's something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away. – John Lennon (10/9/1940 – 12/8/1980)
When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace. – Jimi Hendrix (11/27/1942 – 9/18/1970)
If only The Rapture were a reality, then the rest of us humans might have a better chance at external peace, after the Christian Nationalists have been joyfully sucked off the planet. Then I remember that wars and other external conflicts are not all religious. Anyone remember the first, second, or third Punic War? What a mess. There are wars of independence, border wars, proxy wars, civil wars, invasions, jihads, cold wars, hot wars, lukewarm wars — of which each can be said, “War is not healthy for children and other living things.” A slogan coined by Another Mother for Peace, Lorraine Schneider, in opposition to the Vietnam war. The word ‘peace’ is derived from the Latin word ‘pax,’ which means a pact, or an agreement to end war or any dispute or conflict between people, nations, or other antagonistic groups of humans. Generally, peace is classified into two types: internal peace and external peace. ‘Inner peace’ is peace of the mind and body. It is a state of calm, serenity, and tranquility that arises when one is not suffering or in mental crisis such as worry, anxiety, greedy desires, hatred, ill-will, delusion, or other troubling human aspects of life. Internal peace is peace within oneself. When one lives a life filled with inner peace, one is less likely to support wars and other external conflicts. According to Lao Tzu‘s famous saying: If there is to be peace in the world, there must be peace in the nations. If there is to be peace in the nations, there must be peace in the cities. If there is to be peace in the cities, there must be peace between neighbors. If there is to be peace between neighbors, there must be peace in the home. If there is to be peace in the home, there must be peace in the heart.
Peace is a state of tranquility, calm, repose, quietness, harmony, friendship, amity, concord, friendly relationships, public order, pacification, spiritual content, reconciliation, serenity, security, social justice, and bliss. Did I miss something? Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, also known as Tenzin Gyatso; aka, Lhamo Thondup; known to the Tibetan people as Gyalwa Rinpoche; and you know him as the incumbent Dalai Lama, said, “Peace, in the sense of the absence of war is of little value . . . peace can only last where human rights are respected, where people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free.” “True peace is not merely the absence of tension: It is the presence of justice.” said Rev. Martin Luher King, Jr. According to Albert Einstein‘s view, “Peace is not merely the absence of war but the presence of justice, of law, of order – in short, of government.” Justice is the concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, laws, fairness, or equity. Justice concerns itself with the proper ordering of things and people within a society. In America, justice is a process, not necessarily a result. When justice fails it can lead to civil disobedience, civil unrest, and civil war. In the words of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. “Without justice, there can be no peace.” Peace is a lofty goal or hope that most people claim they wish to achieve personally and expect to be created in society and throughout the world. The history of humans is a history of searching for ways to achieve lasting peace. Peace has been talked about, thought about, taught, studied, and even scoffed at. A culture of peace is one where the definition of security will have changed from just national security to include human security, human rights, justice, and general welfare of people everywhere. We do not teach peace well. Yet we have plenty of military schools that teach how to wage war. We do have The Peace Corps, which seeks to promote world peace and friendship by helping interested countries in meeting their need for trained productive people. The Peace Corps promotes a better understanding of Americans on the part of the people served and promotes a better understanding of other people on the part of Americans. A true cultural and educational interchange. The Peace Corps principles seek intercultural competence, diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, which lend well to its name. There are plenty of other organizations that work toward peace, including the World Peace Council and the United Nations. Religions, such as most Christian denominations, offer a confusing, rocky path toward peace. The Prince of Peace said, “Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three.” Luke 12:51. And, in Matthew 10:34, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to earth.” And, “He who is not with me is against me.” (Luke 11:23). Sounds like President 45, whom the Christian Nationalists love and desperately need to agree with because they imagine a VIP ticket to Club Afterlife. It's not even their own imagination. They were told at some point in their life there is an afterlife. They choose to believe it, despite all evidence to the contrary. When I'm asked, “Is there life after death?” I answer, “Yes. Just not yours.” To understand the complexities of seeking peace within the context of religious beliefs, one need only to look at the history of the Crusades, or all the trouble in the “Holy Land,” or the subversive Christians in American government, to see how religious fanaticism is used to justify discord, unpleasant outcomes, and violent conquests. However, there are the Quakers who have often led the way toward many peace efforts. They have helped establish some of the earliest peace conciliations and conflict transformation programs. Quakers reject elaborate religious ceremonies, do not have official clergy, and believe in equality for men and women. They reject violence and embrace active pacifism. Why is peace so difficult? It is the humans. It's always the humans. We are the source of conflict, wars, internal strife, and injustice. All of which arise from our innate and powerful instinct to survive and then, hopefully, thrive. The pursuit of peace is thwarted by our fundamental need for self-preservation, often cloaked within self-righteous religion. Too many humans get grumpy or worse when things don't go their way. Inner peace is tranquility of the mind and body and is often at odds with external peace, which is the harmony of societies and nations. At the heart of this disparity lies the innate human instinct of survival, a primal force that has shaped the course of history and continues to influence our actions and decisions. Ever get angry at someone who disturbs the peace? Ever shoosh a talker in a movie theater? Not easy nor pleasant to keep the peace. The quest for external peace needs to begin with inner peace. Yet, external peace is hampered by the destructive impact of wars, driven by human aggression, desire for retaliation, a need for control, dominance, greed, and resources; spurred by political ideologies, religiosity, economic interests, deep-rooted historical grievances, and a want of perceived security. Inner peace is constantly challenged. Ever have to politely deal with aggressive drivers, losing your parking spot, open-mouth loud chewers, interrupters, humblebragging, loud talkers, mumblers, long-winded non-stop talkers, gunfire in your neighborhood, intimidating or otherwise irritating people? To name a few nuisances that make booze so popular. Suppose your loved one was kidnapped or killed during the never-ending middle east crisis? This would likely shatter all hope for inner peace and replace it with inner turmoil. The peacemakers tend to have a great capacity to absorb the ill-will of others and gently redirect the vitriol hurled at them inwardly. Even the best peacemakers have their limit, when their capacity to absorb becomes saturated. Yet, there are those who will give up their life to save another. Social injustices and systemic inequalities are forces that sow discord and unrest within humans who seek harmony and peaceful coexistence. Amidst these challenges there exists a glimmer of hope that the path towards peace is worth walking. Hope is found in the courage of individuals who dare to confront their inner demons, in the resilience of communities that rise above adversity, and in the vision of leaders who champion the cause of reconciliation and understanding. The harmonious coexistence of individuals, societies, and nations, is a pursuit that continues to evade humanity; despite its universal desirability, peace remains elusive and difficult to attain unless we learn to transcend our instincts. Ever wonder what peace smells like? Take a whiff. Do you smell peace? If not, find a newborn or lavender, vanilla, cinnamon, peppermint, ambrette, ylang-ylang, ginger, or your loved one. Inhale. Slowly. Relax. Shalom. Salaam. Peace.
Please direct any peaceful or other comments to editor@fcfs.org.
Now, Our Correspondent in Thailand ...
Wisdom and Weed
Steven Lance Stoll
Ihave just completed my first full year of retirement and I can tell you I do not enjoy it. My grandfather thoroughly enjoyed his retirement, as he had hobbies like gardening, fishing, and furniture making which he engaged in as a career in his “golden” years. My only real hobby is tennis and while I play every day, I did that when I was working as well, and it doesn’t replace a working life. In fact, the enjoyment that I used to get from tennis as a relaxation and escape from my work, now has become work itself and lacks the pure enjoyment it used to provide. Without work, I now live everyday cognizant of the knowledge that every day could be my last!
My retirement was not by choice. I live in a country that supposedly honors age and the aged, but I can tell you that Thailand, just like the U.S., is a highly ageist society. Older people in both places are expected to move aside not when they are no longer competent and useful, but based on an arbitrary number…age. I can tell you that that number does not affect everyone in a similar manner. I benefitted in Thailand for five years, being able to work beyond 60, when Thai citizens have to retire, but even I reached the limit! For myself, I have never been in as good physical condition, and my mind for teaching the social sciences in particular has never been more open, curious, and hungry for new information. With older age, one acquires knowledge and experience and the ability to analyze one’s life and human history. The quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment is the quality of being wise. It is common to hear people say: "listen to his words of wisdom." With reference to the field of education and other technical fields, where experience and wisdom are vital, it seems that arbitrary ageism should be rejected. We retire pilots at the time of their greatest experiential and judgmental value, when it would be better to move their seat in the cockpit, not remove them completely. "Sully" Sullenberger III’s greatest heroic act came at 63 years of age as an example of what experience and wisdom gives to an airline pilot! This being said, don’t misinterpret my feelings. I’m quite aware of the need for youth, creativity, and optimism to be infused in all areas of society, particularly in government. There is much data on creativity in music, mathematics, and science indicating the impact of youth in these areas. I very much want to infuse the First Coast Freethought Society with some young blood to regenerate our organization and bring it increased enthusiasm and reach. There are many examples throughout history, however, of older people, even elderly people, who have also made significant contributions well after their youthful days. Einstein wrote: "Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it." While most scientific or technological breakthroughs typically come from people in their late 30s, a number of scientists and those in other occupations make pioneering contributions before reaching 30 or in their 60s and beyond. Darwin published his revolutionary work on evolution at the age of 50, which in his time was quite an elderly age. Peter Roget developed his thesaurus at the age of 61. Laura Ingalls Wilder published her first book at 64. Benjamin Franklin signed the Declaration of Independence at 70. Daniel Defoe wrote Robinson Crusoe, his first novel and perhaps the first-ever modern novel, at 60. Nelson Mandela became president of South Africa at the age of 76. Colonel Harland Sanders struggled as a businessman and restaurateur until he thought of selling franchises for his fried chicken brand KFC when he was 62. Julia Child wrote the book and started the PBS show, The French Chef, at the age of 51. Gandhi was 61 when he led India in a non-violent revolution freeing the nation from British rule. Ray Kroc created McDonalds at 52. Physicist Sir William Crookes invented the first instruments to study radioactivity when he was 68. Grandma Moses began to paint at 76 and became world renowned. James Parkinson identified Parkinson’s disease at 62, and at 63 Polish countess Rosa Branicka helped to develop surgical techniques for breast cancer by operating – on herself. Defining one’s life purely based on one’s numerical age is quite limiting and undervalues the accomplishments and achievements demonstrated across a human lifetime. "Wise men talk because they have something to say; Fools, because they have to say something." – Plato
"Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens." – Jimi Hendrix
I find this to be a great definition and perspective on the task of developing and exhibiting wisdom in life: “Wisdom is the ability of the mind to scrutinize knowledge. Wisdom is what scholars, thinkers, and philosophers possess. When an individual can question and examine aspects of himself and his world, and in turn develop answers, then he is exhibiting wisdom. Wisdom is far more intuitive and exclusive than knowledge. Wisdom encompasses cognitive components, such as knowledge and experience, reflective components, or the ability to examine situations and oneself, and pro-social components, meaning benevolence and compassion. Wisdom is also connected to abilities such as perspective-taking, open-mindedness, and intellectual humility.” So, wisdom is the application of knowledge and the insight and discernment that comes from perspective. “Knowledge is knowing what to say. Wisdom is knowing when to say it.” (Anonymous quotation) I have met young people who had wisdom; some refer to these unique young people as having an “old soul,” but for most of us, wisdom comes from life experiences and the successes and failures one experiences over time. This is why we tend to attribute creativity to the young and wisdom to the old. The soundness or success, if you will, of taking a certain action or decision with regard to the application of wisdom is exhibited in good judgment and achieved results.
My mom: "Don't sweat the small stuff."
Almost two years ago, Thailand’s medical cabinet-level executive person decided to make cannabis products legal in the Kingdom. This did not simply apply to those using cannabis products for medical reasons but made it available to all including those of us who enjoy using weed for relaxation and enjoyment. While this status is currently under evaluation by the new government, there are over 6,000 marijuana retail shops and farmers all over the country growing many strains of cannabis. As someone who had gone 44 years between smoking Marijuana as a young adult (the final use when I had hepatitis, as a medication to allow me to eat without vomiting) and smoking it as an old adult, I can testify that my affection for the plant had never waned and the quality of the plant has improved exponentially. The weed we smoked in the 1970’s would not even be marketed today. We smoked stalks, seeds, and leaves, very rarely experiencing a flower from the plant. With legal weed, the plants are bred and cultivated to produce the highest levels of THC, the active ingredient that provides its effect, and retailers sell only the flowers, which are the most potent part of the plant. When I was 24, it took two or more joints (marijuana cigarettes) to achieve the appropriate effect; modern weed is so potent (25 to 29% THC) that two or three long tokes (inhalations of the burning plant) provide an effect greater than ever achieved in the 70’s! So, why is this relevant to my discussion about age and wisdom? There are many effects from marijuana that most are familiar with. It intensifies one’s senses so that food tastes more delicious, music sounds better, and comedy is hilarious. But, it also encourages deep introspection and honest assessment of one’s prior actions and history. I find that the weed allows me to honestly assess my own life in ways that often can be quite disturbing. But, at the same time, weed can help to cut through defenses constructed to protect one’s own ego. I’ve had experiences where I was so hard on myself that I had to defend myself and acknowledge that I am just a human being. In other words, accept that past behaviors and decisions were flawed but not evil. As one enters the so-called “twilight years,” one can either dwell on past mistakes and regrets until they paralyze and halt any future progress, or one can confront the realities and learn from them. In this way, I’ve found weed to provide a bit of perspective, so that my life experiences can produce wisdom to benefit me for the rest of my life, or to be passed on to others. Weed doesn’t give you wisdom, but it might give your mind a relaxed opportunity to find wisdom and the perspective to understand your past actions and their consequences. Sam Harris always talks about free will and the facts of pre-ordination. Certainly the choices and decisions that we all make are guided by our cultural and social upbringing, our DNA, our personalities, and our experiences; but it seems to me that in the end we must take responsibility for our own situation, and understand that the choices and decisions, the good and the bad results in our lives, are not the fault or responsibility of others, but with a few exceptions like racism, wars, and natural disasters, they are the result of our own propensities and actions. The realization of this is for me in some ways a definition of wisdom; but the application of this information in our interpersonal relations and our own future decision making is the acknowledgement and the benefit of wisdom for our futures and those of the ones we may touch. Society should understand the benefits of knowledge and experiential wisdom for current and future generations. Ageism is a practice that denies society the benefits of the wisdom of the older, just as denying young people their input would starve society of the creative and optimistic influences of the young.
Legislation affects our daily lives, whether the legislation is local, state, or nationally originated. We believe it is important to understand which legislation is upcoming so our voices can be heard, whether it is yay or nay.
Please have a peek at the ADVOCACY OVERVIEW page on our website. This page is maintained by David Schwam-Baird, and others, who keeps us apprised of current and pending legislation relevant to the First Coast Freethought Society. Click here to learn more: https://fcfs.org/advocacy-overview/
Further Reading for Freethinkers
Our readers may also want to check out current or past issues of the following magazines, which may be found online or in retail outlets such as Barnes & Noble and Books-a-Million. These are just some of the sources for news and opinion available to the freethought/skeptic/atheist community:
First Coast Freethought Society, Inc.
P.O. Box 550591, Jacksonville, FL 32255-0591 http://fcfs.org Phone # (904) 274-3125
Statement of Purpose
The First Coast Freethought Society, Inc. is a charitable, educational, nonprofit, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization dedicated to supporting nonreligious persons in the Northeast Florida area and promoting a nontheistic approach to everyday life.
Membership
If you share our world view and would like to be a part of the FCFS, we encourage you to join and be part of the reason we are able to continue our public outreach, We are all volunteers!
You can join by mail: Send your application and check, payable to the FCFS, to PO Box 550591, Jacksonville, FL 32255-0591.
Activities
For information on all of our activities, please join the First Coast Freethought Society Meetup Group. https://www.meetup.com/FirstCoastFreethoughtSociety/ You don't need to be a member to attend these activities! Please let us know if you have a suggestion for a speaker program or other event. Let's make it happen!
FCFS Board Members
President - Ken Hurley
Vice President - Jeanette Emerson
Secretary - Madeline Sims
Treasurer - Stephen Peek
At-Large - Fred Hill
At-Large - David Schwam-Baird
At-Large - Dian Sheer
Past President - Mark Renwick
FCFS members are invited to attend our quarterly board meetings. The meetings for 2024 are: January 7, April 7, July 7, and October 6 from 1:00 pm until 3:00 pm. All meetings are held on Zoom. If interested in attending, please contact firstco@fcfs.org.
Committee Chairs
Newsletter - Fred Hill
Program - Jeannette Emerson & Lance Stoll
Advocacy - David Schwam-Baird
Membership - Dian Sheer
FCFS volunteer staff may be reached via e-mail at info@fcfs.org.
For meeting details and to RSVP to the First Coast Freethought Book & Movie Discussion Group, please join our Meetup Group: http://www.meetup.com/humanistbookgroup/
First Coast Freethought Book & Movie Discussion Group
Sunday, March 10, we will discuss the book Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear.
Maisie Dobbs, Psychologist and Investigator, began her working life at the age of thirteen as a servant in a Belgravia mansion, only to be discovered reading in the library by her employer, Lady Rowan Compton. Fearing dismissal, Maisie is shocked when she discovers that her thirst for education is to be supported by Lady Rowan and a family friend, Dr. Maurice Blanche. But The Great War intervenes in Maisie’s plans, and soon after commencement of her studies at Girton College, Cambridge, Maisie enlists for nursing service overseas.
Years later, in 1929, having apprenticed to the renowned Maurice Blanche, a man revered for his work with Scotland Yard, Maisie sets up her own business. Her first assignment, a seemingly tedious inquiry involving a case of suspected infidelity, takes her not only on the trail of a killer, but back to the war she had tried so hard to forget. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/462033.Maisie_Dobbs
Also, on Tuesday, February 13th the 1957 movie, Plan 9 from Outer Space will be discussed. Directed by Ed Wood and considered by many to be the greatest worst movie of all time.
Jeanette Emerson and Lance Stoll, Program Co-chairs
Our meeting next month is Monday, March 20, 2024 at 6:30 pm when we will host Dr. Adam Rosenblat, Biology Professor at UNF, who will offer a presentation regarding the on-going climate crisis, A lively Q&A is guaranteed or your money back! (It’s free.)
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Upcoming Freethought Events
Monday, February 19 - FCFS online, virtual meeting on Zoom
Monday, March 20 - FCFS online, virtual meeting on Zoom
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consciousness and self-evaluation, always growing and sharing experience humbly and boldly.
To impress the naive and gullible, Yap would spitfire her huckster auctioneer tripe while Yoki would bend silver spoons with his supernatural powers or move a pencil across the table without touching it. They would pass the Fedora, take a collection of moolah, and scat to the next town before anyone got wise. 
scientific debunking of false claims of supernatural psychic extrasensory perceptions. He considered himself an investigator of charlatans, frauds, and other pretentious wacky quacks. 
Yoki and Yap scooted from town once again and were never heard from again. 
count to one billion, at a rate of one number for every second, would take 31 years, 251 days, 7 hours, 46 minutes, and 40 seconds (
of ancient or recent vintage, are based on lies – made-up tales that no one could prove or thoroughly disprove. Some people may be somewhat assuaged to believe that no matter how miserable this life may be, a better, eternal life of bliss awaits in another life after death in this one. Some may also revel in the thought that the people they despise, even if awash in every possible luxury and delightful sin in this life, will be horribly and infinitely punished in the afterlife. There is no factual basis to believe in either scenario, yet they remain vividly appealing to millions of people who en masse pay billions of dollars to high priests of deceit to keep telling them comforting lies.
Highly successful capitalists are hardly off the hook either, despite the protestations of staunch Objectivists and Libertarians. Mass profits were made from slavery, and many masters and their abettors insisted it was good for the slaves, good for free people, and good for the nation, very self-serving lies. Tobacco companies insisted that their product was entirely safe, and that smoking was entirely unrelated to lung cancer, emphysema and other diseases, even decades after scientific studies they themselves financed showed otherwise, and the reports kept secret until forcibly disclosed through multiple lawsuits. 
reduced to microorganisms that can consume plastics and thrive in significantly high levels of acidity; and the topsoil on which so much of our food is grown has been eroded to desert sands; perhaps then they might at last admit, well, maybe we could have done something to prevent the devastation. Or, maybe they’ll still insist it was all God’s will or natural events entirely beyond human control. Maintaining their dishonest dogma until the very end. Or maybe Vogons will destroy Earth to make way for an intergalactic highway and inadvertently permanently end all human debate.
catastrophes. Others might imagine they can finance their way to a nicer planet to reside on, although the chances of that appear infinitesimally remote, given that the universe as depicted in Star Trek films and TV shows remains more the province of entertaining fantasy than experienced reality. Despite their multi-billions and rockets, so far it seems Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos will have to share the fate of life on Earth with the rest of us. Possibly pushing up daisies some day. Or otherwise ultimately reduced to the estimated seven billion billion billion atoms that make up a typical human, including plutocrats (see
This bill and this concept is a thinly veiled attempt at getting the “camel’s nose into the tent,” to create schools that more and more resemble houses of worship.
Of course, all of the Great Civilizations, if we think about it, were conquering civilizations. They became “great” not because they had writing and literature and art and music and architecture. They became great because they beat up everybody else in the neighborhood, took their stuff, and then sat back and created all the other pretty stuff. What were the songs about? “Hail our glorious King, who defeated the mighty enemy!” What was the architecture about? A monument to the military victory, and then a temple to our mighty god of war (who is sooooo much better then their schleppy god of war - you just wanna laugh out loud!), and then statues and murals of the great king and his generals. After we’ve won the great military victory, we can write poems about how lovely peace is. Because, after all, why is there peace now? Because we are in charge and get to define what counts as peace.
lament that the old men who make the wars send the young off to fight them. Sometimes that’s true, and sometimes it’s not. Alexander and Genghis Khan led their troops, and there were not a few other political leaders who started out as military leaders. Sometimes the leaders are true believers in The Great Cause, and sometimes they are evil cynics who manipulate The Great Cause for their own ends. Sometimes the cause is just, and sometimes the cause is not just – but the cause must always, always be cloaked in the Garment of Virtue, Honor, Righteousness. Because even the most craven political leader has to be able not just to appeal to, but also to arouse fervor in the average person.
Horrible things happen in the world. And often, those horrible things will lead desperate people to do horrible things. The things done by one group to another so often lead to some response, creating a chain of insults, injuries, and violence. We observe that happening between groups who are far removed from us, geographically or otherwise, and we can be somewhat understanding. We might offer some rational possible solutions or support some ambassador or international organization in trying to mediate the tensions. But, whoa, let it happen to us, or a group near to our hearts, and rationality, introspection, measured understanding dissolve. Only 
ed directly to the rise of Hitlerism. Compare this to the way the US helped to rebuild and rehabilitate Germany, Italy, and Japan after World War II, which turned them into allies.) At the same time, we do have to be able to discern when it is necessary to fight, when we are facing the threat of true evil, and when there really are no other alternatives than war. 
There are wars of independence, border wars, proxy wars, civil wars, invasions, jihads, cold wars, hot wars, lukewarm wars — of which each can be said, “War is not healthy for children and other living things.” A slogan coined by Another Mother for Peace, Lorraine Schneider, in opposition to the Vietnam war.
We do not teach peace well. Yet we have plenty of military schools that teach how to wage war. We do have The Peace Corps, which seeks to promote world peace and friendship by helping interested countries in meeting their need for trained productive people. The Peace Corps promotes a better understanding of Americans on the part of the people served and promotes a better understanding of other people on the part of Americans. A true cultural and educational interchange. The Peace Corps principles seek intercultural competence, diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, which lend well to its name.
From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three.” Luke 12:51. And, in Matthew 10:34, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to earth.” And, “He who is not with me is against me.” (Luke 11:23). Sounds like President 45, whom the Christian Nationalists love and desperately need to agree with because they imagine a VIP ticket to Club Afterlife. It's not even their own imagination. They were told at some point in their life there is an afterlife. They choose to believe it, despite all evidence to the contrary. When I'm asked, “Is there life after death?” I answer, “Yes. Just not yours.”
However, there are the Quakers who have often led the way toward many peace efforts. They have helped establish some of the earliest peace conciliations and conflict transformation programs. Quakers reject elaborate religious ceremonies, do not have official clergy, and believe in equality for men and women. They reject violence and embrace active pacifism. 
Not easy nor pleasant to keep the peace. 
r, began her working life at the age of thirteen as a servant in a Belgravia mansion, only to be discovered reading in the library by her employer, Lady Rowan Compton. Fearing dismissal, Maisie is shocked when she discovers that her thirst for education is to be supported by Lady Rowan and a family friend, Dr. Maurice Blanche. But The Great War intervenes in Maisie’s plans, and soon after commencement of her studies at Girton College, Cambridge, Maisie enlists for nursing service overseas.
uesday, February 13th the 1957 movie, Plan 9 from Outer Space will be discussed. Directed by Ed Wood and considered by many to be the greatest worst movie of all time. 
