HUMANIST AWARD FOR OLIVER STONE

THE American Humanist Association will present Oliver Stone with the Humanist Arts Award at its annual conference in March 29-31. Oliver Stone is a major film producer and the director of the currently successful film Nixon. One of his earlier successes was the film about Kennedy, ]FK. Awards will also be given to biologist, Richard Dawkins, and feminist activist Annette Van Howe.

The conference will have the theme 'Liberty and Community' and also consider 'Winning Through Grass-roots activism'. There will be practical instruction on how humanists can effectively respond in their communities to the religious right.

AUSTRALIAN AWARD

The 1996 Australian Humanist of the year will be The Honourable Bill Hayden AC. The presentation will be made at the Annual Convention Dinner on 30 March 1996 in Brisbane.

Bill Hayden's award is given in recognition of his fairness and decency throughout his career, his caring for human values and rights as Minister of Social Security, his understanding of development issues as Minister of Foreign Affairs; above all as a most appreciated and approachable Governor-general with the courage to speak his mind, making clear his humanist attitude to euthanasia, the right to die with dignity, the rights of adoption of same-sex partners, and Aboriginal reconciliation.

THE FREETHINKER, George Starkes, last year attended a mass march led by Louis Farrakhan. He disagreed with some of the provocative anti-White, anti-Semitic remarks of Farrakhan. But he recognised the need for action on behalf of Black people:

Today Black people are in desperate social and economic conditions, and are seeking desperate solutions

to their problems. They have seen their social and political conditions regress. The church has been a

dismal failure and so has the Christian religion.

He wrote in his report in A A H Examiner, the journal of African Americans for Humanism (Vol 5, No 4, Winter 1995-1996):

Religion is not the solution, it is the problem. The clergy in America are not leading us

• they are misleading us. The blind cannot lead the blind. The solution to the problems

confronting Black people as well as other races throughout the world will not be found

in theological superstition. Rather, the solutions are to be found in reason, logical and

scientific analysis and free inquiry. Black people will never become free until they

become mentally free.

THE Secular Organisation for Sobriety, started in the US and sponsored by CODESH, is developing rapidly in Britain. After an initial meeting in Spring 1995, there are now 5 groups.

SOS offers people with alcohol or other drug dependency a way of developing sobriety without using organisations which invoke help from a higher power, such as AA. SOS was started by Jim Christopher in 1985 in the US, where there are now nearly 2,000 grass-roots groups. The SOS recovery programme has helped tens of thousands of people achieve and maintain sobriety.

Jim Christopher says, 'It's great to see that the SOS approach is proving so successful in Britain.'

Philadelphia Boy Scouts have been accused of violating the Pennsylvania Human Relations Public Accommodation Act for excluding atheists from participating as participating as Scouts or as adult volunteer leaders. Margaret Downey, leader of the Philadelphia-based Anti-Discrimination Support network filed a discrimination complaint in 1992 on her own behalf and that of her son.

The Downey case marks the first time a state regulatory body has affirmed that Scouting policy to exclude atheists constitutes discrimination. Following a 'conciliation meeting' representatives of the Scouting movement indicated that they would contest the decision in the courts..

CODESH is organising a secular humanist children's summer camp in Kentucky, 11-17, 1996. The camp will provide an opportunity for fun, exploration, and companionship with a focus on humanist ethics and values and a natural explanation of the world around us.

Camp Quest will be a traditional camp experience, where children will enjoy swimming, hiking, horseback riding, campfires, story telling, camp songs, talent night, cook outs and country crafts. Further information from Camp Quest, c/o Vern Uchtman, 6404 Pheasant Run, Loveland, OH 45140.

INTERNATIONAL is a penfriend/contact, commercial club for gay and bisexual men. It has members in over 95 countries and islands. Further details can be obtained by writing with a self-addressed envelope to receive free airmail information to International, P.O. Box 874Z Pretoria, 0001, South Africa.

THE humanist orientation promotes a spiritual liberation that finds hope for the future rooted in the universal human reality. It is what we mean in Ethical Culture by maintaining that truly discovering our worth as a person makes it possible tn help evoke the moral strength in others. Thereby, we create, as Adler puts it, 'a spiritual manifold'. That means that we are both part and partner of something that transcends our own time and efforts.

It is exactly what Longfellow meant in his poem. 'Of Social Life', when he wrote that each of us 'departing, can leave behind footprints on the sands of time.' Each generation stands on the shoulders of earlier ones. And each generation can leave the imprint of courage and vision by its loyal and generous labour.

Matthew les Spetter, Leader, Ethical Culture Society, New York {Newsletter, March 1996)