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Ethical Action News

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Free Your Voice wins Elliott-Black Award

09 Apr 2017
Emily
Ethical ActionNews

freeyourvoice
We are proud to announce our 2017 Elliott-Black Award winner is Free Your Voice nominated by the Baltimore Ethical Society.

Free Your Voice is a Baltimore youth group that fights for environmental justice. It was started by, and is composed of, students at Ben Franklin High School (a Baltimore City public school). The group has formed as a committee of United Workers, a local nonprofit dedicated to fighting environmentally unsound development that is particularly detrimental to low income residents. The students began by trying to understand the needs of their community. This blossomed into a campaign to oppose a proposed South Baltimore trash incinerator as a danger to the health of their and other low income neighborhoods. The group’s efforts and demonstrations helped defeat what would have been the nation’s largest incinerator less than a mile away from a high school. Some were arrested during a 2015 protest held at the Maryland Department of the Environment. The group has continued to participate in environmental issues, such as learning how to create a local development team including people in the neighborhood to gain control of a brownfield site to insure environmentally sensible development. This and other projects (e.g. an outdoor “Development Without Displacement Art Show” and an initiative involving university anthropology students exploring their neighborhood and documenting problems such as food deserts and air pollution) have led to the students developing relationships with other institutions in the city and even a new high school course.

In keeping with the theme for the 2017 Assembly, “Communities Confronting Systemic Racism,” Free Your Voice has rallied their community to protect the health of residents and demonstrate the systemic nature of racism in Baltimore. The Curtis Bay neighborhood most at risk from the incinerator is already one of the most polluted areas in the country. Specifically, Free Your Voice has highlighted how environmental injustice impacts marginalized communities and inspired residents to engage in political action that betters their lives. They illustrate “Deed Before Creed” in that they have been all about taking action, sometimes at personal risk. They have sought to dedicate their time to projects that serve the greater good of humanity. In this particular campaign their rallying cry was “Clean Air is a Human Right.” One of the founders of the group (currently working with it as a facilitator) is Destiny Watford who was one of 6 winners (and the only North American winner) of the prestigious 2016 Goldman Environmental Prize.

Follow Free Your Voice on Facebook and Twitter, also read more here:

  • United Workers website
  • Washington Post article describing the recognition for the group’s success

 

Click here to see video of 2017 award ceremony

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American Ethical Union
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The American Ethical Union calls for nontheist participation in National Inaugural Interfaith Service.On Thursday January 21st, the Washington National Cathedral will host a virtual presidential inaugural interfaith service to mark the inauguration of Joe Biden as president. While presented as an opportunity to bring the whole nation together, and while part of the “America United” inaugural activities, one large community will not be represented at all: atheists, agnostics, humanists, and the nonreligious. Millions of Americans today make meaning and express their personal and civic values without reference to a god or traditional religious beliefs. These Americans deserve a voice, and should be included in formal interfaith programming like the Inaugural Service. Read our full statement here: aeu.org/resource/aeu-calls-for-nontheist-participation-in-national-inaugural-interfaith-service/ ... See MoreSee Less

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American Ethical Union
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Today, as the nation continues to recover from an attempted white supremacist insurrection at our capitol, we are reflecting upon this quote from the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. #MLK #MLKDay #MLK2021 #king #martinlutherkingjr #today #EthicalCulture #ethics #2021 ... See MoreSee Less

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American Ethical Union
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AEU Statement Regarding the Events of January 6thYesterday, we watched in shock and horror as a violent mob attacked the US Capitol, forcing their way inside and occupying areas of the building for hours in an attempt to disrupt the certification of electoral votes submitted by the states. By the end of the day, 4 people were dead, 52 members of the seditious mob were arrested, and 14 police officers were injured. It took the assistance of many additional federal law enforcement personnel and the National Guard to remove the attackers from the Capitol and clear the way for the Joint Congress to resume its work.Fortunately, the Joint Congress was resolute and refused to let the interruption derail our democracy, working through the night to certify the electoral vote counts for all of the states. However, this episode was an attack on democracy itself, instigated by a sitting president whose actions have severely undermined respect for and trust in the very system that put him in office. Mr. Trump has shown only contempt for the democratic process and is a danger to our country. People who are in a position to remove Mr. Trump from office ought to proceed in haste as this president has repeatedly shown readiness to incite violence and mayhem, and also continues to demonstrate an obsession with the electoral results to the seeming exclusion of other national concerns. Our democratic system of government must be protected from his influence.As Ethical Humanists, we are called upon to repudiate the anti-democratic tendencies that have gained an unwelcome foothold in public life. Our country will need us to elicit the best from one another and ourselves in the months and years to come.#Jan6 #ethicalhumanism ow.ly/uxes50D2Gzn ... See MoreSee Less

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American Ethical Union
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Share your voice! The AEU is seeking volunteers to contribute to our World Human Rights Day Project. Learn more here: ow.ly/YGDC50CYYPL ... See MoreSee Less

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The American Ethical Union calls for nontheist par The American Ethical Union calls for nontheist participation in National Inaugural Interfaith Service.

On Thursday January 21st, the Washington National Cathedral will host a virtual presidential inaugural interfaith service to mark the inauguration of Joe Biden as president. While presented as an opportunity to bring the whole nation together, and while part of the “America United” inaugural activities, one large community will not be represented at all: atheists, agnostics, humanists, and the nonreligious. 

Millions of Americans today make meaning and express their personal and civic values without reference to a god or traditional religious beliefs. These Americans deserve a voice, and should be included in formal interfaith programming like the Inaugural Service.
Today, as the nation continues to recover from an Today, as the nation continues to recover from an attempted white supremacist insurrection at our capitol, we are reflecting upon this quote from the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. 

#MLK #MLKDay #MLK2021 #King #MartinLutherKingJr #Today #EthicalCulture #Ethics #2021
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