The Cowtown Humanist
A chapter of the American Humanist
Association and The Alliance of Secular Humanist Societies.
http://www.freeyellow.com/members6/aha-fw/
http://www.webalias.com/humanism
March 2002 Volume 3, No.
12
This
month's meeting
Yep, we are
making a late and abrupt switch in our monthly meeting schedule. But we're
doing it for a very good reason: So we can take advantage of a visit from a
special guest.
DJ
Grothe is the
Field Director for the national Council for Secular Humanism, and he will be
making a swing through Texas later this month. As part of his tour, he is
wanting to meet and speak to as many Humanist groups as possible -- and we are
quite happy to oblige him.
DJ will be here to meet with our group and give us an overview on what is going
on with our groups he has met around the country. He also will have a
presentation to share with us. All in all, it promises to be a very cool and
interesting meeting. The only problem is, we don't know when it will be held --
yet.
I have
already contacted DJ's office, and expect to hear from him on Monday. As soon
as I can talk with him, we will coordinate a date when he will be available in
Fort Worth. And once I know, you'll know, too. Sorry to leave everyone dangling
like this, but we think it's worth the trouble, and we hope you agree.
So that's
the deal: The March meeting has been postponed, with the new date and time TBA.
For further updates, stay tuned to this station.
Last
month
Humanist
member Russell Elleven spoke about the life and turtles -- er, times -- of
Charles Darwin. It was a great presentation, and to thank Russell, the group
may even give him a watch. Of course, it will have to be a Fossil watch
. . .
It's
in the Bag
Back in
February, we made another clean sweep of our Adopt-a-Street, Granbury
Road. The weather was good, the work went fast, and afterward, we enjoyed
a spankin' good breakfast at the local IHOP, complements of our
organization budget. Thanks to all who came out to help!
ACL-You??
Don't
forget about the cool forum coming up this week. It's sponsored by the TWU Law
School and the ACLU, and the title is, "How the Anti-Terrorist Laws Will
Affect Our Civil Rights." The forum will be held 9:00- 11:30
a.m. Saturday, March 16, at the McFadden Science Lecture Theatre at
the TWU main campus.
Panelists
include Will Harrell of the Texas ACLU; Lynn Rambo, TWU Law Professor, Don
Jackson of the Fort Worth ACLU, and Dr. Ahmad A. Sbaiti, Arab-American
Anti-Discrimination Committee. We Humansits of Fort Worth are one of the
event's co-sponsors.
We may need
some help working this event. If you are available to help the event
organizers, contact Reed Bilz, 817-292-7974. Hope to see you there!
Hell
of A Good Time
As if
anyone could have forgotten, The Atheist Alliance International
convention will be held this month, too -- right here in the
Metroplex! The event will be March 29-31, at D/FW Airport. They
have an excellent lineup of speakers and entertainment.
A couple of
our members are committed (or maybe, "should be committed") to
attending the Saturday night (March 30) event, which includes a dinner and
satirical musical performance. The cost is $40, but there is a good possibility
we may be able to subsidize your expense with some of our bountiful organization
funds. If you are interested in attending, you can contact me, or just respond
on the Group e-mail. For detailed information, check out the Metroplex Atheists
website, http://www.metroplexatheists.org
Is
this our last meeting?
Don't laugh
-- it's not completely out of the question. As most of you already know, this
month we will hold elections for the new officers. But we haven't exactly been
overrun with people anxious to announce their candidacy; in fact, at this
point, we've heard from only ONE person who may be interested. So our
membership faces a situation vaguely similar to the one faced by the dinosaurs:
Do something, or face the possibility of extinction.
First,
let's look at the current status. The Treasurer/Secretary, Bruce, has held the
office (actually TWO offices) for two years. A previous officer, Russell,
founded the organization, and then served as Chair for two years as well.
Clearly, these guys have done their tours of duty.
The Vice
Chairman, Mike, has already put in a full year helping with our activities and
representing us at other meetings, and he has made it clear he does not have
time to serve as Chairman. And Your Untruly has put in a very busy year
too, trying to do newsletters and schedule speakers while logging 60-hour
work weeks; it's gotten so bad lately that I've had to start using a Mapsco to
find my way home. In short, we're just about maxxed out.
Anyway, if
you would like to see our group continue and perhaps even grow, we need to hear
from you. The positions open are: Chairman, Vice Chairman, Treasure, Secretary
and Wide Receiver. (Ooops, scratch that last one.) Elections will be held at
the same meeting where we hear from Mr. Grothe . . . We hope you will want to
attend and vote. And we especially hope someone will want to SERVE.
Just
for fun
Three men
died and were at the pearly gates waiting to see St. Peter. The first man had
been a pediatric surgeon who had helped many kids; the second guy was a
counselor who also had helped many people. Of course, St. Peter gave both of
them instant entry.
Then the third man stepped
forward; he had been the manager of an HMO. He started to brag about all the
good things he had done, but St. Peter cut him off.
"You can come in, too,"
St. Peter said, "But you can only stay three days. After that, you can go
to Hell."
Keep your
calendars handy,
Jeff
How
to reach us
Jeff
Rodriguez, Chairman
817-732-4235
Mike Haney,
Vice Chairman
mhaneyinfw@charter.net
Bruce
Berggren, Treasurer