SHoWLE Board of Directors Elect Officers for 2018–2019

The Board of Directors held their first meet­ing on October 16th and the first thing on the agen­da was elect­ing offi­cers for the year.

President: Doug Berger
Vice President: Shawn Meagley
Secretary: Margarette Webster
Treasurer: Larry Brach

Minutes of the meet­ing and oth­er news will be shared soon.

Humanists Ask Lucas County To Get Something In Return For Rec Center

Earlier this week it was report­ed in the news that the Lucas County Board of Commissioners and the City of Maumee were talk­ing about the coun­ty giv­ing the Lucas County Recreation Center to Maumee. If a sale or trans­fer takes place, the Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie thinks the coun­ty should get some­thing in return­like afford­able hous­ing.

President Douglas Berger sent a note to the Commissioners and copy to the Mayor of Maumee urge the coun­ty to add some con­di­tions to any sale or trans­fer.

Here is the full text of the note:

I am writ­ing to you on behalf of the mem­bers of the Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie (SHoWLE) con­cern­ing the plan to give the city of Maumee the Lucas County Recreation Center prop­er­ty at 2901 Key Street.

We are con­cerned that the coun­ty is con­sid­er­ing giv­ing away this valu­able piece of prop­er­ty so that the city of Maumee can sell it to the high­est bid­der for high end homes and con­dos.

We believe this is unfair to the cit­i­zens of Lucas coun­ty. Large sums of coun­ty tax dol­lars were spent and have been spent on the struc­tures and oth­er ameni­ties on the prop­er­ty.

We do agree that if the coun­ty does­n’t have the funds to con­tin­ue the upkeep then the Commissioners should con­sid­er dis­pos­ing of the prop­er­ty, but we feel that Lucas coun­ty cit­i­zens should get some­thing in return.

SHoWLE has some sug­ges­tions on any dis­pos­al of the prop­er­ty:

1. Any sale or trans­fer should include a require­ment that there be some afford­able hous­ing in the devel­op­ment mix. The coun­ty needs afford­able hous­ing and the Commissioners should do what they can to cre­ate more afford­able hous­ing.

2. Any dis­pos­al should be done at the mar­ket rate. Why should the city of Maumee make a prof­it off the coun­ty giv­ing the land away? If they build hous­es on the land the city will gain tax dol­lars.

3. It would be bet­ter for the cit­i­zens of Lucas coun­ty that the coun­ty sells the land direct­ly to a developer(s) at mar­ket rates, so the peo­ple of the coun­ty get back some of the mon­ey invest­ed in the prop­er­ty over the years.

4. The coun­ty could con­sid­er putting the new jail on the Rec Center prop­er­ty.

SHoWLE hopes the coun­ty will take our ideas and con­cerns into con­sid­er­a­tion espe­cial­ly about includ­ing afford­able hous­ing in any sale or trans­fer.

 

We Achieved GuideStar Bronze Level

Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie (SHoWLE) was recent­ly rec­og­nized for our trans­paren­cy with a 2018 Bronze Seal on our GuideStar Nonprofit Profile!

GuideStar is the world’s largest source of infor­ma­tion on non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tions. More than 8 mil­lion vis­i­tors per year and a net­work of 200+ part­ners use GuideStar data to grow sup­port for non­prof­its.

In order to get the 2018 Bronze Seal, SHoWLE shared impor­tant infor­ma­tion with the pub­lic using our pro­file on www.guidestar.org. Now our com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers and poten­tial donors can find out more about our mis­sion and pro­grams.

Check out our GuideStar Nonprofit Profile and tell us what you think:

Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie GuideStar Profile

Our Pride Booth Introduced The Group To Many New People

Our booth at Toledo Pride festival

SHoWLE had our first infor­ma­tion­al booth at the Toledo Pride Festival on August 18th. Doug, Shawn, Margarette, and Larry had over 50 peo­ple show inter­est in the group.

It was a beau­ti­ful day with a large crowd vis­it­ing all the booths in Promenade Park in Downtown Toledo.

“Having a booth takes a lot of time and effort to pull off,” SHoWLE President Doug Berger explained. “For our first time, we did a great job. I have a lot ideas on how to improve our booth for the future.”

If you be inter­est­ed in help­ing staff our booth at oth­er events let Doug or Shawn know.

First Humanist Nooner A Success

Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie(SHoWLE) plans to have many activ­i­ties that don’t fit into the clas­sic gen­er­al meet­ing for­mat. Doug Berger, SHoWLE President, start­ed off the non-meeting pro­gram­ing by host­ing a lunch get togeth­er at a local restau­rant.

The first Humanist Nooner, as it is called, took place at the Panera Bread in Maumee. Even though only four peo­ple showed up, Doug con­sid­ers it a suc­cess.

“Even if one per­son shows up I would mark it as a win,” Doug said. “You can’t start some­thing from scratch and expect a hun­dred peo­ple to show up. I knew that when start­ing up SHoWLE itself.”

Those that attend­ed were hap­py with the good ser­vice and the con­ver­sa­tion includ­ed pol­i­tics, reli­gion, and why Sylvania Township hates TARTA.

Doug will host these lunch­es each month on the 3rd Wednesday. He is open to sug­ges­tions for the next loca­tion to check out.

If you want to host your own event, use our con­tact form to send a mes­sage to Doug. The more events there are the bet­ter for the group.

SHoWLE Will Not Take St. Anthony Land Bank Pledge

screenshot of Toledo officials and Rep. Marcy Kaptur at a press conference demanding the Diocese of Toledo save St. Anthony church

*For Immediate Release*

Toledo, Ohio, June 22, 2018 — The Lucas County Land Bank, a coun­ty agency, vot­ed to accept the dona­tion of St. Anthony Church from the Diocese of Toledo con­tin­gent on an engi­neer­ing inspec­tion and a call for writ­ten pledges to help in rede­vel­op­ing the build­ing. At this time the Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie (SHoWLE) has decid­ed NOT to make a pledge.

“Although the church and state issues we were con­cerned about seem to be abat­ed. We are still trou­bled with the city and coun­ty tak­ing on this project with­out any con­crete plans,” said SHoWLE President Doug Berger.

We do feel that the Padua Center and the neigh­bor­hood should not only have a seat at the table but should be tak­ing the lead in any plans for the build­ing. We did­n’t feel it was appro­pri­ate telling them how to reuse the build­ing.

Berger added that SHoWLE will be mon­i­tor­ing the issue and should it look like out­siders are min­i­miz­ing or ignor­ing neigh­bor­hood input then it is pre­pared to sup­port the neigh­bor­hood.

Whatever is done with the build­ing has to ben­e­fit the whole neigh­bor­hood and not just the out­siders who ‘saved’ it,” Berger said.

Media Contacts

Douglas Berger — President
567–302-0209

Shawn Meagley — co-founder
419–266-7945

 

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We Are Now Offically A Chapter Of The American Humanist Association!!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie is now an offi­cial chap­ter of the American Humanist Association

(Toledo, Ohio, June 7, 2018) — The Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie (SHoWLE) had their chap­ter appli­ca­tion approved by the American Humanist Association.

Founded in 1941 and head­quar­tered in Washington, D.C., the American Humanist Association (AHA) works to pro­tect the rights of human­ists, athe­ists, and oth­er non­the­is­tic Americans. The AHA advances the eth­i­cal and life-affirming world­view of human­ism, which—without beliefs in any gods or oth­er super­nat­ur­al forces—encourages indi­vid­u­als to live informed and mean­ing­ful lives that aspire to the greater good of human­i­ty.

“This is a major foun­da­tion­al stone we need­ed for SHoWLE to have a chance at a strong start and become a sus­tain­able long term active group in north­west Ohio and south­east Michigan,” SHoWLE President Doug Berger said. “The AHA does a great job sup­port­ing their local chap­ters and it will be a great asset for Humanists in Toledo.”

Media Contacts

Douglas Berger — President
567–302-0209

Shawn Meagley — co-founder
419–266-7945

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Humanists Ask Toledo Officials Not To Insert Themselves In Saving St. Anthony

screenshot of Toledo officials and Rep. Marcy Kaptur at a press conference demanding the Diocese of Toledo save St. Anthony church

The Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie (SHoWLE) urge Toledo city offi­cials and US Rep. Marcy Kaptur not to insert them­selves in the effort to save St. Anthony Catholic Church on Nebraska Avenue.

Seeing Rep. Kaptur and cur­rent and past Toledo elect­ed offi­cials stand­ing at a podi­um with the city of Toledo seal, demand­ing the Diocese of Toledo not tear down St. Anthony is trou­bling,” Doug Berger, President of SHoWLE said.

The sep­a­ra­tion of church and state not only pro­tects the gov­ern­ment from reli­gious intru­sion but also pro­tects reli­gion from some intru­sion by the gov­ern­ment.

“It sets a bad prece­dent, espe­cial­ly as orga­nized reli­gion con­tin­ues to lose mem­bers,” Berger said. “The City of Toledo can’t save all the old church­es in the city and when it choos­es not to then that is going to be a no win sit­u­a­tion.”

The Diocese of Toledo, in a state­ment, won­dered where the calls to save the build­ing were for the past 13 years after it closed and as the build­ing con­tin­ued to dete­ri­o­rate.

“The gov­ern­ment offi­cials demand­ing the build­ing not be torn down will stick the Diocese with the repair bills should they pre­vail. The only way for tax dol­lars to be spent on a ren­o­va­tion and/or reuse would require the prop­er­ty be sold to a non-religious enti­ty at a fair mar­ket price,” Berger said.

The mis­lead­ing state­ment by a com­mu­ni­ty mem­ber that demo­li­tion would be a health and safe­ty issue is also a prob­lem.

“If the build­ing were kept, it would still need any asbestos and lead paint removed and it would have to meet mod­ern build­ing stan­dards. I don’t think the Diocese hired a fly by night demo­li­tion com­pa­ny who would­n’t take the required pre­cau­tions in tear­ing down such an old build­ing.”

The build­ing is his­tor­i­cal and sig­nif­i­cant to many peo­ple in the com­mu­ni­ty but there has­n’t been any spe­cif­ic plans from the peo­ple want­i­ng to keep it.

SHoWLE believes that Rep. Kaptur and the city of Toledo should­n’t pick sides in the issue and they should stay neu­tral as called for in the 1st amend­ment.

Related sto­ry:

Kaptur, Kapszukiewicz call on dio­cese to halt St. Anthony demo­li­tion

Secular Humanists Make The Newspaper

screenshot Front of the Religion section Toledo Blade 06/02/2018

The Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie had a nice write up in the reli­gion sec­tion of the Toledo Blade. The print ver­sion took up near­ly half a page and was above the fold. We could nev­er afford adver­tis­ing that good.

To ques­tion whether morals and val­ues can exist apart from the­ol­o­gy cuts to the heart of sec­u­lar human­ism. While athe­ism sim­ply denotes that an indi­vid­ual does not believe in God, sec­u­lar human­ism “kind of takes that a step fur­ther,” Ms. Meagley said; it answers the “now what” ques­tion that, for some, fol­lows when a per­son comes to terms with a dis­be­lief in God.

Secular humanism’s affir­ma­tion of an eth­i­cal life sug­gests par­al­lels between the ways that a con­sci­en­tious reli­gious adher­ent and a con­sci­en­tious human­ist would live. But a human­ist, sig­nif­i­cant­ly, would do so with­out tying these views and val­ues to the­ism or the super­nat­ur­al.

Good Without God