Good morning and welcome to our shared home here in the auditorium of the New York Society for Ethical Culture.

Since this is Founder’s Day, and Dr. Felix Adler’s portrait is on display, I’m guessing that you all know him, right? How many of you know something about his good friend, Dr. John Lovejoy Elliott?

Some people who knew them said that Dr. Adler was the head of the Ethical Movement, because he was always thinking and writing about how we should live, and that Dr. Elliott was its heart, because he was a good neighbor and believed that was the best thing you could be.

Dr. Elliott was born in 1868 on a farm in Illinois and raised by his father Isaac, who had served in the Union Army during the Civil War, and his mother Elizabeth, whose childhood home was a station on the Underground Railroad, a safe place where slaves could fine food and shelter on their journey to freedom. His family was neither rich nor poor; their farm provided them with plenty to eat and enough to sell so they could buy books to read. He thought that everyone lived the way they did until one day a neighbor knocked on their kitchen door begging for food. She had several children, and couldn’t feed them. She was crying, and young John was frightened, so he hid in the hallway. He came out when he heard his mother comforting the woman, giving her food, and inviting her to come back.

Many years later Dr. Elliott said, “The Guild began in me then.” What he meant was the Hudson Guild, a settlement house he founded in 1895 that is still active in Chelsea today. Of course, before he could do that, he had to meet Dr. Adler, which he did in 1889 when he was a student at Cornell University and heard him talk about “a new profession, one that endeavors to teach people how to live.” That summer the student John attended the Summer School of Ethics in Plymouth, MA, where he met Jane Addams, founder of Hull House in Chicago, and soon he was on his way to Germany to study for his doctorate.

When John became Dr. Elliott and an Ethical Culture Leader, he moved into a rented room in Chelsea, one of the worst slums in the city at that time, and began his lifelong experiment with “neighborliness.” He started by renting a place for a gang of boys called the Hurley Burlies to hang out. They were a rough bunch who got into all kinds of trouble, and their parents didn’t know what to do with them. But Dr. Elliott saw the good in them and created conditions under which they could make their lives better. Soon there were clubs for girls, too, as well as their parents, who started the first neighborhood council in the country. Hudson Guild started the first all-day summer play school in the city and one of the first mental health clinics.

Some of those Hurly Burly boys kept getting into trouble and landed in prison, so Dr. Elliott wrote to them, visited them, and when they got out of prison, he found them jobs and places to live. As one of his friends said, “His heart ached most and he worked hardest for those boys and girls who had become lost in the mazes of life in our city and had become its victims. They, whom society found it convenient to disown, to punish and then forget, were his children.”

I’m telling you this story to let you know how Dr. John Lovejoy Elliott continues to inspire me and the members of the New York Society for Ethical Culture today. We honor his memory by supporting the Hudson Guild and continuing his work in prison reform, especially helping children who are arrested. Now that the secure facilities in upstate New York are being closed, and incarcerated children are returning home, there is much work for us to do to be good neighbors to their families and create environments in which they can learn and grow. We hope that you and your families will join us.

In 1942, Dr. Elliott caught pneumonia and had to be hospitalized. During his illness, flowers came to him from the First Lady of the White House and the cleaning woman of Hudson Guild. His last words were dictated to a nurse. He signed the page on which she wrote and asked her to give it to his friend Dr. David Beck. Here they are: “The only things I have found in life worth living for and working for and dying for are love and friendship.”

And now it is my great privilege to congratulate the Class of 2012. May you, too, always be good neighbors.

Welcome
I am a woman, a mother and wife, daughter and sister, niece and aunt. I am a friend, clergy and Ethical Humanist.

These are all aspects of one human being. We are a multi-dimensional and complex species,
embracing many roles and engaging in many relationships.

But there are those who would diminish us to labels to make us “less than,” to dehumanize and control us.

I hail from western New York,
home of Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass of Rochester and Elizabeth Cady Stanton of Seneca Falls, home of the first Women’s Rights Convention of 1848.

There’s a huge sculpture in a park down the street from where Anthony and Douglass lived called “Tea Time.” It shows them sitting together companionably. A stack of books shares the table with the tea set. I imagine them talking about equal rights. The motto of Douglass’s newspaper, The North Star, was “Right is of no Sex – Truth is of no Color.”

Ethical Culture and Faith
In Ethical Culture, we say “Believe or disbelief as you wish, but put ethics first.” Your behavior, the way you treat others, is of primary concern, and misogyny is unethical.

Several of the “first-wave feminists” were Quakers, a faith tradition that believes in the responsibility of every member – woman and man – to speak out for, and act on behalf of, social justice.

Faith narratives are beautiful. These stories connect believers to a shared history.
They should help us to see ourselves in others and inspire us to good deeds.
They should not be used as an excuse to engage in unethical behavior.

To treat any human being as “less than” is unethical. It is abhorrent. And yet we tolerate this behavior, under the guise of “religious,” not only in our intimate relationships, but also on the public national political stage.

Sadly, there are those today whose beliefs would grant full protection under the law to the unborn, but woe-betide the infant that leaves the womb a female. Then you are relegated to second-class status. And these people have the money to lobby for their beliefs.

It must stop!

Equal Protection
When we were young, my brothers would watch “The Three Stooges” on Saturday mornings. I disliked the show for two reasons: They hit each other, and they had a “Women Haters Club.” I hated the stooges, but at least they were honest, if fictional. Today we have real stooges with power who hate women – and it’s no joke. What they have in store for us women is dangerous, and it’s real – not imaginary.

Shame on our country for preaching democracy and freedom around the world, but denying equal protection under the law to over half of its population!

Suffrage was only the beginning, Sisters. The 14th amendment did not include us when it was ratified in 1868, and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has made it painfully clear that it does not apply to us today. Corporations – yes, women – no.

And shame on our sisters of privilege and complicity who do not join us in fighting this injustice!

Conclusion
I have a son and a daughter. I love them both fiercely. They are equally precious to me.
But we live in a country – we are citizens of a country – that does not treat them equally.
That is wrong. That is unethical.
So we must use the vote that we do have to change the laws.
We need an Equal Rights Amendment NOW!
To hell with paternalistic, condescending “fair” treatment under special circumstances determined by a court.
We demand equal protection and rights as human beings, as citizens in our own home.
If we are not equal, we are not free.

Civil rights leader Ella Baker said, “We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes.” Say it with me now: “We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes.”

“We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes!”

On Wednesdays during the academic year, I take the #1 train up to 116th Street and go to my office in Earl Hall on the Columbia University campus. Since August 2010, I have served the Ethical Humanism Chaplaincy there as religious life adviser, and last year was chosen by my colleagues to co-chair Columbia’s United Campus Ministries. What a vibrant community it is! I have participated on discussion panels, taught classes, and collaborated on interfaith programs; dished up ice cream and handed out chaplaincy bracelets at freshman orientations; and, of course, met with individual students.

Especially dear to me is the Columbia Humanist Society which started taking shape in November 2011. Fear not, members of the NY Society! Though young people may not rise early on Sunday mornings to join us for platform services, they do gather late at night to discuss humanism, and travel to other neighborhoods on weekends to perform community service.

Undergraduates Frangell Brasora Fortuna and Michael Taylor Winsor learned about me from a graduate teaching assistant in a religion class and visited my office last fall to strategize forming a club that would appeal to “like-minded” colleagues. I introduced them to my children, who grew up in the Brooklyn Society, and over the winter holidays, they socialized with young people from several societies in the metro NYC area. By January 2012, Fran and Michael were on Facebook and Twitter proclaiming: “Columbia Humanist Society (CHS) is a Columbia University student organization serving humanists, freethinkers, and anyone else who wishes to learn about Humanism and secularism.” However, even in the age of internet social networking, paper fliers plastered on bulletin boards all over campus are still needed, so it took a few weeks to pull together students to draft a constitution, prepare a budget, and elect officers.

So now, in addition to Wednesdays, I often attend meetings with this wonderful group of students on Tuesday evenings and recently joined them in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park for a community clean-up. The accompanying photograph shows CHS students at a soup kitchen in Harlem.

In an article for the American Ethical Union online newsletter Dialogue, Fran recently wrote about CHS: “We celebrate our diversity because we understand that our differences are reflections of the world around us. We strive for a greater community that is not limited by categories or attributed standards, but is freed by our willingness to learn from one another and the acknowledgement that we are one, though being many.”

Other humanist chaplaincies are active on the campuses of Harvard University in Cambridge, MA; Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey; and American University in Washington, DC. The Center for Free Inquiry NYC has organized students at New York University and Bronx Community College; and the Secular Students Alliance has chapters on college and high school campuses all across the country. Children who grew up in Ethical Societies and attend college or are in their 20’s are members of Future Ethical Societies (FES) and hold annual conferences over Memorial Day weekend. This year they are gathering at the Ethical Humanist Society of the Triangle in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Take heart: The next generation of humanists is already here.

“On February 26, our son Trayvon Martin was shot and killed as he walked to a family member’s home from a convenience store where he had just bought some candy. He was only 17 years-old.”

Thus begins the online plea from parents in Sanford, Florida to sign a petition to have Norman Wolfinger, Florida’s 18th District State’s Attorney, investigate this incident and arrest the perpetrator, George Zimmerman, a crime watch volunteer who called 911 and then, contrary to the dispatcher’s directions, pursued – and shot – Trayvon.

I listened to the 911 tapes posted online. They culminate with a faint voice crying and pleading for help. A gunshot is heard, and then silence. Trayvon’s parents are sure that the voice belonged to their son. Several witnesses who heard the encounter agree with them. It is a heartbreaking sound. Minutes earlier Trayvon had called a friend on his cell phone to tell her that a man was following him as he walked home. She heard him ask, “Why are you following me?” and a distant voice ask, “What are you doing around here?”

For weeks the Police Department in Sanford said that under the so-called “Stand Your Ground” law, one of 21 such laws around the country pushed heavily by the National Rifle Association, it had no call to bring charges. This controversial law, opposed vigorously by law enforcement, gives the benefit of the doubt to a person who claims self-defense, regardless of where the killing takes place: in one’s home, on a street, in a car or in a bar. In Florida, people who feel they are in imminent danger need not retreat, even if it would seem reasonable to do so; they have the right to “stand their ground” and protect themselves.

“Trayvon was our hero. At the age 9, Trayvon pulled his father from a burning kitchen, saving his life. He loved sports and horseback riding. At only 17 he had a bright future ahead of him with dreams of attending college and becoming an aviation mechanic. Now that’s all gone.”

This is a story that changed quickly after Trayvon’s parents posted their petition on Change.org. As many as 50,000 people signed every hour. By March 18, the United States Justice Department announced that its civil rights division and the FBI would investigate the killing. These investigations will run parallel with one announced on March 19 by the state attorney in Florida’s Seminole County. On March 21, the Sanford City Commission voted that they had no confidence in the city’s police chief. In Miami and New York City on March 22, demonstrators chanted “I Am Trayvon Martin” in Million Hoodie rallies. Why “hoodie”? Because that’s what Trayvon, an African-American youth, wore that made him look so suspicious.

Here in New York City, the legal vehicle for racial profiling is the Police Department’s “stop, question and frisk” policy. Black and Hispanic people generally represent more than 85 percent of those stopped by the police, though their combined populations make up around half of citywide residency. About 10 percent of the stops led to arrests or summonses and 1 percent to the recovery of a weapon, according to the Center for Constitutional Rights which has examined police data and challenged the policy in court.

Early in February, an 18-year old was killed by a police officer in the Bronx. Ramarley Graham, like Trayvon, was returning home from a convenience store. When he failed to stop, the officer pursued him into his home and shot him in the bathroom.

We must not allow our children of color to be chased and killed. They have every right to walk the streets and enter their homes freely and safely. It is our responsibility to protect them and speak up for them. Raise your voices in protest against the racism that continues to plague law enforcement and ignorant people.

From “ A Litany For Children Slain By Violence” (Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference , 2012):
“A sound is heard in every city. Communities are weeping for their children. Children like Emmett Till and Trayvon Martin who go out to get candy, never again to return to the sweetness of home life.
“Let us rise up and interrupt these rushing waters of violence that leave children wounded and paralyzed. Let us rise up and demand abolishment of laws that are rooted in militarism, fueled by capitalism and justified by racism.”

When my daughter was born, I “time-traveled” back to all the consciousness-raising sessions on my college campus, Equal Rights Amendment rallies in Washington, DC, “Take Back the Night” walks in Manhattan, and Planned Parenthood house meetings in Brooklyn. There were myriad marches, petitions, and conferences. I hoped that my daughter would grow up in a world that recognized her equality with her brother, that they could meet life’s challenges with the same opportunities, and, for the most part, my hopes have been realized. Both children earned college degrees; it was the economic downturn, not her gender, that prolonged my daughter’s search for work. But I still worry more about my daughter’s safety than my son’s because I know that her gender makes her more vulnerable. We still haven’t taken back the night for women, and our rights continue to be threatened, especially during this presidential campaign.

Women’s rights are not guaranteed throughout our nation. Because there is no ERA, individual states can pass laws that restrict our freedom. The 14th amendment, ratified in 1868, states in section 1: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” It was understood to grant equal protection and suffrage to former slaves – African-American men, and – with the word “male” in section 2 – to explicitly exclude women.

Nonetheless, Susan B. Anthony registered to vote in Rochester, NY, and cast her vote in the presidential election of 1872, for which she was arrested and convicted. She refused to pay bail, but a judge released her anyway when another judge set a new bail, and the first one paid it. The United States v. Susan B. Anthony, which she lost, is a milestone case of how the Constitution does not apply to women.

Here’s another milestone case: In 1886, the Supreme Court ruled, in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company, that corporations are “persons” under the 14th amendment. It still has not recognized women, not completely. It took the 19th amendment, ratified in 1920, to give women the right to vote, but suffrage was the only right we gained. Corporations enjoy more protections from state laws due to “personhood” than women do. It makes a difference where a woman calls home. And, should a Republican be elected president, her freedom would be threatened throughout the nation, not only in terms of reproductive choice, but also basic health care. Last month’s battle between Planned Parenthood and Susan G. Komen won’t be the last time that conservative politicians practice misogyny.

And what if a woman decides to start a family? As Dina Bakst, a lawyer and founder/president of A Better Balance: The Work and Family Legal Center, recently wrote, “Few people realize that getting pregnant can mean losing your job. Imagine a woman who, seven months into her pregnancy, is fired from her position as a cashier because she needed a few extra bathroom breaks. Or imagine another pregnant employee who was fired from her retail job after giving her supervisors a doctor’s note requesting she be allowed to refrain from heavy lifting and climbing ladders during the month and a half before her maternity leave.” And yet that’s just what is happening here in New York State and other states because there is a gap between discrimination laws and disability laws.

This gap could easily be filled by the Equal Rights Amendment or a Supreme Court that would apply the “personhood” of the 14th amendment to women. We comprise the majority of humankind, yet minority rules apply to us. Every hard fought step towards equality is never completely won; we must be vigilant and safeguard it.

On a blustery day in January, I stood in City Hall Park with interfaith colleagues to mark the two-year anniversary of the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission with protests and a call for an amendment that would reverse the court’s century-long application of the 14th Amendment to corporations, making them “persons” for due process and equal protection. In a 5-to-4 vote in January 2010, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations also have First Amendment rights and that the government cannot impose restrictions on their political speech, clearing the way for corporations and other special interest groups to spend unlimited amounts of money on elections. 

As snow and sleet pummeled us, and Parks Department plows encircled us, we sang and chanted, holding up signs that read: “Corporations Are Not People,” “Money Is Not Free Speech,” and “This is what a real person looks like.”

Why did we members of Occupy Faith, one of many Occupy Wall Street (OWS) working groups, care so much to expose ourselves to the elements? Justice John Paul Stevens, in his dissent, expressed it best:

“Corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires. Corporations help structure and facilitate the activities of human beings, to be sure, and their ‘personhood’ often serves as a useful legal fiction. But they are not themselves members of ‘We the People’ by whom and for whom our Constitution was established.”

He was concerned that the majority decision’s approach to the First Amendment would “promote corporate power at the cost of the individual and collective self-expression the Amendment was meant to serve,” crippling “the ability of ordinary citizens, Congress, and the States to adopt even limited measures to protect against corporate domination of the electoral process.”

President Obama’s statement read: “The Supreme Court has given a green light to a new stampede of special interest money in our politics. It is a major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americans.”

Last month the New York City Council joined localities across the country in passing a resolution opposing the Supreme Court’s decision and supporting an amendment to the Constitution to provide that corporations are not entitled to the entirety of protections or rights of natural persons, specifically so that the expenditure of corporate money to influence the electoral process is no longer a form of constitutionally protected speech.

We are now witnessing the influence of so-called “super PACs” (political action committees) that can raise unlimited sums of money to mount direct attacks on candidates and advance the outcome of a political issue. In the spirit of an Occupy Wall Street “teach-in,” political satirist Stephen Colbert registered a super PAC called “Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow” with the Federal Election Commission and is demonstrating how it operates, to the delight of his viewers and the consternation of his detractors.

I have also joined Occupy Voices, a new OWS working group that is reviving protests songs of past struggles and composing new ones. How inspiring it was to lift our voices in song! Here are lyrics, sung to the strains of Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus” that we introduced last month:

Corporations! Corporations!
We’re so happy, we so sunny ’cause we’ve got money.
Corporations! Corporations!
We got our share and we don’t care if it’s not fair.
For the Supreme Court of our great nation
Made us people, made us human, made us persons.
Corporations!
Now we can buy the votes when we need them.
We get our say, we get our way, ’cause we can pay.
Corporations!
The power in the world is become
Connected with the banks and those who fill
The corporate ranks.
And we shall reign forever and ever!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Tax loopholes, political goals, screw those in need,
Bank bailouts and rules to flout,
Top one percent, we’re heaven sent.
And we shall reign forever and ever!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

New Year’s resolutions: We all make them in earnest – and break them in shame. It’s a tradition that we can’t seem to shake. Weight loss and exercise are often involved, a consequence of indulgence and sloth over the winter holidays. Driven by perfectionism and humbled by fallibility, we soldier on for a few months until spring releases us from the bonds of resolution into the arms of sunshine and blossoms – and some residual guilt.

I wonder: If we could break this cycle of setting unrealistic goals and disappointing ourselves, would we experience ourselves differently? Would we then treat others differently? I learned a mantra from a Children’s Sunday Assembly teacher at the Brooklyn Society years ago: “When I’m kind to myself, it’s easier to be kind to somebody else. When I’m mean to myself, it’s easier to be mean to somebody else.” She sang it softly, with slow hand gestures, and invited the children in her class to add their own words. Silly, angry, loving.

“The mind,” said my friend Hindu monk Pandit when he joined us last month for a session of “Ethical Mindfulness and Inner Peace,” “can be our best friend or our worst enemy. We are quick to judge others, and even quicker to judge ourselves. When we nourish our minds with meditation, we can let go of the past and the future, and bring awareness to the present.” It starts with breathing, filling our bodies with air and releasing it, appreciating the gift of life – unbidden and unearned, ever precious.

This New Year’s Day, I have decided to reflect upon the past, not in terms of goals met or unmet, but in a more expansive, inclusive and loving way. When was I really present to myself and others? What did I experience and learn? How did I influence other people in my life? For resolutions to be ethical and lasting, they must be intentional and life-enhancing. At their best, they address the needs of our mind, body, spirit and relationships; in other words, our whole selves intricately connected to other lives and the world we temporarily inhabit.

Perhaps the most significant fact of our lives is our mortality. Some people live in denial of that fact; others seek comfort in the hope of eternal life other death; still others choose their own time to die. It can inspire hedonism and altruism. It can also offer us an opportunity to create meaning in our lives and to resolve to conduct ourselves ethically.

We may well resolve to lose weight and exercise more. Why? Is the goal to conform to an idealized image of physical beauty? Is it to live more healthfully? Will we make friends at the local Y? We may also wish to learn another language, take dance lessons, or join the Peace Corps. Understanding our intention is critical to making resolutions we can successfully fulfill. It starts with listening, being attentive to our own needs and accessible to those whom we love.

And what is it that we need? To feel needed, to believe that what we do with our lives matters, and to engage in relationships that make other people’s lives better. We can resolve to do just that every day – not just on special occasions – by being present and aware, by connecting to the best in ourselves and seeking the best in others. It takes practice and support. That’s where community comes in. Intentional ethical community offers myriad opportunities to experience ourselves as people of worth choosing to attribute worth to others.

This year resolve to participate more in programs offered by the New York Society. Learn about the issues that challenge our mutual welfare and environment; stand up for democratic values that are threatened by the privileged; and find a home in a community dedicated to ethical ideals.

New Year’s resolutions: We all make them in earnest – and break them in shame. It’s a tradition that we can’t seem to shake. Weight loss and exercise are often involved, a consequence of indulgence and sloth over the winter holidays. Driven by perfectionism and humbled by fallibility, we soldier on for a few months until spring releases us from the bonds of resolution into the arms of sunshine and blossoms – and some residual guilt.

I wonder: If we could break this cycle of setting unrealistic goals and disappointing ourselves, would we experience ourselves differently? Would we then treat others differently? I learned a mantra from a Children’s Sunday Assembly teacher at the Brooklyn Society years ago: “When I’m kind to myself, it’s easier to be kind to somebody else. When I’m mean to myself, it’s easier to be mean to somebody else.” She sang it softly, with slow hand gestures, and invited the children in her class to add their own words. Silly, angry, loving.

“The mind,” said my friend Hindu monk Pandit when he joined us last month for a session of “Ethical Mindfulness and Inner Peace,” “can be our best friend or our worst enemy. We are quick to judge others, and even quicker to judge ourselves. When we nourish our minds with meditation, we can let go of the past and the future, and bring awareness to the present.” It starts with breathing, filling our bodies with air and releasing it, appreciating the gift of life – unbidden and unearned, ever precious.

This New Year’s Day, I have decided to reflect upon the past, not in terms of goals met or unmet, but in a more expansive, inclusive and loving way. When was I really present to myself and others? What did I experience and learn? How did I influence other people in my life? For resolutions to be ethical and lasting, they must be intentional and life-enhancing. At their best, they address the needs of our mind, body, spirit and relationships; in other words, our whole selves intricately connected to other lives and the world we temporarily inhabit.

Perhaps the most significant fact of our lives is our mortality. Some people live in denial of that fact; others seek comfort in the hope of eternal life other death; still others choose their own time to die. It can inspire hedonism and altruism. It can also offer us an opportunity to create meaning in our lives and to resolve to conduct ourselves ethically.

We may well resolve to lose weight and exercise more. Why? Is the goal to conform to an idealized image of physical beauty? Is it to live more healthfully? Will we make friends at the local Y? We may also wish to learn another language, take dance lessons, or join the Peace Corps. Understanding our intention is critical to making resolutions we can successfully fulfill. It starts with listening, being attentive to our own needs and accessible to those whom we love.

And what is it that we need? To feel needed, to believe that what we do with our lives matters, and to engage in relationships that make other people’s lives better. We can resolve to do just that every day – not just on special occasions – by being present and aware, by connecting to the best in ourselves and seeking the best in others. It takes practice and support. That’s where community comes in. Intentional ethical community offers myriad opportunities to experience ourselves as people of worth choosing to attribute worth to others.

This year resolve to participate more in programs offered by the New York Society. Learn about the issues that challenge our mutual welfare and environment; stand up for democratic values that are threatened by the privileged; and find a home in a community dedicated to ethical ideals.