Presentation by Roy Speckhardt and Maggie Ardiente of the American Humanist Association (AHA). Speckhardt is executive director of the AHA where he actively promotes the humanist perspective on progressive political issues. Ardiente is director of development and communications at AHA and is editor of the AHA's weekly e-zine Humanist Network News.
This is a presentation by Jeff Seward. Seward is Associate Professor and Department Chair
Department of Politics and Government at Pacific University.
When humanistic atheists hear the word ‘conservative’ within contemporary political discourse, they have learned to respond with a shudder or perhaps even an expletive. “Conservatism” in modern America has all too often come to be identified with anti-scientific obscurantism, religious dogmatism, and special interest pleading on behalf of rich white males. The ideological task most humanists set for themselves is mainly a matter of where on the anti-conservative left side of the political spectrum they should decide to place themselves. Are they communists, anarchists, libertarian socialists, European-style social democrats, New Deal liberals, feminists, aging hippies, or what? Aside from a lively collection of libertarians who think of themselves as humanists, not much in contemporary conservatism appeals to most humanists (and are libertarians even really conservatives anyway?). However, there is much in the long and substantial conservative tradition that may have much to offer a thoughtful modern or even post-modern humanism. Without embracing the anti-humanist tendencies of much contemporary American conservatism, Prof. Seward attempts to articulate pieces of the conservative tradition and viewpoint that humanists might be able to incorporate into their political viewpoints without endangering their political souls.
Portland State University Professor Catherine Howells teaches a class on Portland's water. She says: "The minute I mention to my students that much of the bottled water in this area comes from the Wilsonville treatment center that gets its water from the Willamette River, they never bring bottled water back into my class." Both industry and environmental sources say bottled water uses millions of plastic bottles a year and that most go unrecycled. And while a gallon of tap water costs about .0225 cents a gallon, bottled water purchased in single-serve containers can add up to $8 a gallon.
Presentation by Paula Lucas, founder of The Americans Overseas Domestic Violence Crisis Center. The Crisis Center works with abused Americans and their children in foreign countries to provide domestic violence and child abuse advocacy, resources and tools so that they can navigate the complicated jurisdictional, legal and social international landscapes, to be able to live their lives free of abuse both in the foreign country and back in the United States. This is achieved by way of an international toll free crisis line accessible from 175 countries, serving a population estimated at over five million American civilians overseas.