New Mexico Humanists gave Roy Speckhardt and Maggie Ardiente of the American Humanist Association a warm welcome at our January 2012 Speaker Meeting. AHA Executive Director Roy Speckhardt actively promotes the humanist perspective on progressive political issues. He's appeared on CNN Headline News, Fox News, numerous national radio shows, and has spoken to dozens of local humanist groups across the country. He also serves as a board member of the Humanist Institute and the United Coalition of Reason and as an advisory board member of the Secular Student Alliance. Maggie Ardiente, AHA's Director of Development and Communications is editor of the their weekly e-zine Humanist Network News. A graduate of James Madison University, she served as Vice President of the JMU Freethinkers, a student group for atheists, agnostics and humanists, and is a former board member of the Secular Student Alliance and a board member of The Humanist Institute. On January 28, 2012, at our first speaker meeting of the new year, Maggie provided a brief update on AHA's national programs and activities. This was followed by Roy's talk, "2020 Humanism: Achieving a Vision that Matches Our Aspirations" in which he explored how we can learn from the successes of other movements, and how we best serve our humanist demographic by learning from history and working toward greater unity, community and identity. A surprise viewing of our Humanist Lives Demo Video followed the coffee break, and then a lively Q&A with our guests.
On January 17, 2011 HSNM member Attila Chanyi gave a talk and slide presentation to the Friendly Philosophers of Albuquerque about his youth in Hungary: "Religion, Repression and Revolution". The "cell phone revolution" in Tunisia had recently taken place, and would be followed only a few weeks later by revolution in Egypt. In light of these remarkable events, which carry the echoes of the student revolution Attila helped to lead in Hungary in 1956, I am posting a short edited excerpt from Attila's talk plus an interview I conducted with him on February 12. I hope this effort will evolve into a series of well-produced HSNM member profiles and oral histories*. As time permits, I will post supplemental links and some images here, but for now you will have to do your own web-surfing, or simply close your eyes and imagine: It is the fall of 1956. The great city of Budapest, Hungary has been ravaged by war and the purges of the Nazis and then the Soviets. The people, especially the youth, have had enough of outside rule. They are ready to govern themselves. [ZG, 2/16/11]
Listen to an excerpt from Attila Chanyi's talk, Religion, Repression and Revolution in Hungary.
Listen to Zelda Gatuskin's follow-up interview with Attila Chanyi.
* Humanist Lives is up and running! We have now done a video interview with Attila and hope to have more of his remarkable story available soon. To participate or donate to this project, Contact HSNM.