For the first Zoom Meeting of 2022 we will have a "Bring Your Own Topic" meeting. Suggestions: pandemic fatigue; NY resolutions; hopes for the coming year; local, regional or national news; what makes you happy....
An eminent constitutional scholar reveals how our approach to rights is dividing America and shows how we can build a better system of justice. You have the right to remain silent—and the right to free speech. The right to worship, and to doubt. The right to be free from discrimination, and to hate. The right to life, and the right to own a gun. Rights are a sacred part of American identity. Yet they also are the source of some of our greatest divisions. We believe that holding a right means getting a judge to let us do whatever the right protects. And judges, for their part, seem unable to imagine two rights coexisting—reducing the law to winners and losers. The resulting system of legal absolutism distorts our law, debases our politics, and exacerbates our differences rather than helping to bridge them. As renowned legal scholar Jamal Greene argues, we need a different approach—and in How Rights Went Wrong, he proposes one that the Founders would have approved. They preferred to leave rights to legislatures and juries, not judges, he explains. Only because of the Founders’ original sin of racial discrimination—and subsequent missteps by the Supreme Court—did courts gain such outsized power over Americans’ rights. In this paradigm-shifting account, Greene forces readers to rethink the relationship between constitutional law and political dysfunction and shows how we can recover America’s original vision of rights, while updating them to confront the challenges of the twenty-first century. 336 pages.
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Former member Marty Carcieri, retired Political Science Professor at San Francisco State University, will present his take on John Rawls' view of justice. This month the focus will be on Gender Discrimination.
Reflections Sunday Meeting
January 23 Sunday 4-6 pm
Subject to be announced. Check the Calendar on rationalists.org for updates.
2022 Business Meeting
February 6, 2022 10:30 am, Zoom
This is a reminder that the annual business meeting will be held on February 6, 2022 at 10:30 AM via Zoom. If you are interested in being a part of the board and helping to set the direction of RET, please volunteer by contacting secretary@rationalists.org by January 5, 2022.
Rationalists of East Tennessee Secular Scholarship
A committee of five members continues to meet to further the
Rationalists of East Tennessee Secular Scholarship.
College scholarship(s) will be granted to further the purposes of the RET.
To foster an environment suitable to free speech and exchange of ideas.
To promote free inquiry into the nature of the universe and of human societies.
To encourage critical thinking on all aspects of human life.
To emphasize the importance of the scientific method.
To explore ethical and intellectual alternatives to supernatural beliefs.
To model humanistic ethics through service to the greater community.
To provide a fellowship for people who share these purposes.
The committee's goal is to support student(s) by the fall of 2022.
We are looking for experienced secular scholarship organizations to be advised and/or with whom to partner.
A special gift by lifetime RET member, Bill Behr, allows us to expand beyond partnering with the Secular Student Alliance. RET has made small grants to the Secular Student Alliance. This special gift enables more and larger grants.
If you have insight about scholarship programs which you think might help us please contact (Forrest) Lee Erickson at forresterickson@comcast.net.
