Tag: social justice

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Petition Gathering has started to repeal Ohio Senate Bill 1

Petitions to repeal Ohio Senate Bill 1 have start­ed to be dis­trib­uted. SB 1 as it is known that was quick­ly passed at the start of the year, over the objec­tion of many uni­ver­si­ties and protests by stu­dents, would cen­sor uni­ver­si­ty class­es and is anti-union. It is also known as the high­er edu­ca­tion destruc­tion act and many of the points in the law scratch con­ser­v­a­tive bias­es about col­leges such as the pow­er of unions, not teach­ing how great cap­i­tal­ism is, and hate towards diver­si­ty, equal­i­ty, and inclu­sion.

For a break down of what is in SB 1 check out this explain­er sheet from AAUP Ohio and Honesty for Ohio Education:

Substitute Ohio Senate Bill 1 — Bill Breakdown

Upcoming Signing events:

Our friends at Toledo Troublemakers is host­ing a peti­tion sign­ing event on May 14th from 5:30 to 7 :30 PM at Earnest Brew Works Westgate 3134 W. Central , Toledo.

Findlay Forward Together will be hold­ing a SB1 Repeal Petition Signing Drive-Thru Thursday May 15th from 5 to 7 PM at 111 3rd St in Findlay.

When we hear about oth­er sign­ing events we will share them on social media accounts.

The con­ser­v­a­tives will be very picky about sig­na­tures so here are some basic rules:

  1. You must be a reg­is­tered vot­er to sign
  2. Make sure you sign the peti­tion that match­es your coun­ty
  3. You are only allowed to sign a peti­tion once

“With the title and sum­ma­ry lan­guage approval, peti­tion­ers can now start gath­er­ing sig­na­tures. About 248,092 sig­na­tures are need­ed — 6% of the total vote cast for gov­er­nor dur­ing the last guber­na­to­r­i­al elec­tion. The sig­na­tures must be from at least 44 of Ohio’s 88 coun­ties. The sig­na­tures would like­ly be due at the end of June. ”

For more infor­ma­tion check out this web­site:

OH SB 1 Petition

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Donate to sponsor a conference about human trafficking

The International Human Trafficking & Social Justice Conference, which is put on by the University of Toledo, Human Trafficking and Social Justice Institute, recent­ly reached out to us to ask if we could spon­sor this years con­fer­ence that will be held vir­tu­al­ly in September. This is a great oppor­tu­ni­ty for SHoWLE to have our name out pub­licly in sup­port of an event that fits in with our val­ues.

They have spon­sor­ship lev­els with the low­est pack­age being $500 which would have our name and logo in the pro­gram and web­site and would pro­vide three one day tick­ets we could give out to donors.

Our goal is to raise $500 by June 30th for our spon­sor­ship. If you donate and want to attend we will have the tick­ets avail­able on a first come first serve basis. The largest spon­sor­ship pack­age is $5000 and each pack­age comes with more free tick­ets but our goal for now is $500.

We will donate any funds we raise to help with the con­fer­ence.

To donate for our spon­sor­ship fol­low the link below:

SHoWLE Sponsorship Campaign

Here is infor­ma­tion about the con­fer­ence from their web­site:

“Human traf­fick­ing is one of the most preva­lent and active crim­i­nal enter­pris­es affect­ing our local, nation­al, and inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty. Responses to com­bat traf­fick­ing include pre­ven­tion, pro­tec­tion, pros­e­cu­tion, and part­ner­ship. The International Human Trafficking & Social Justice Conference is proud to be the host of the old­est and largest aca­d­e­m­ic con­fer­ence on human traf­fick­ing in the world. As the world’s lead­ing aca­d­e­m­ic con­fer­ence on this top­ic, we serve as the hub through which prac­ti­tion­ers, pol­i­cy mak­ers, researchers, crim­i­nal jus­tice pro­fes­sion­als, busi­ness­es, health­care pro­fes­sion­als, social work­ers, and more become edu­cat­ed and equipped to pro­vide the best local and glob­al respons­es pos­si­ble. We remain com­mit­ted to edu­cat­ing the com­mu­ni­ty and we need your help!

The 22nd Annual International Human Trafficking & Social Justice Conference will be host­ed vir­tu­al­ly on September 17–19, 2025 and will high­light a vari­ety of skilled pre­sen­ters at the fore­front of both human traf­fick­ing and social jus­tice issues. This year’s con­fer­ence will fea­ture over 100 pre­sen­ta­tions and thou­sands of atten­dees tun­ing in from all cor­ners of the world. Attendees will learn how to iden­ti­fy risk fac­tors, improve respons­es for vic­tims, and learn how we can col­lec­tive­ly move for­ward with an agen­da for change.”

https://www.traffickingconference.com

Humanist Speak Up: Letters to the Editor

Writing effective letters to the editor

May 10 @ 10:00 am — 12:00 pm

Writing effective letters to the editor

Writing let­ters to the edi­tor can still have rel­e­vance in todays world. Doug Berger shares his insight and tips in writ­ing effec­tive let­ters to the edi­tor and press releas­es

This was part of the work­shop Doug gave for the AHA back in January

We will be in Community Room A

Free

Sanger Library Branch

3030 Central Ave
Toledo, OH 43606 United States + Google Map

Here is the link to the live stream. We will be start­ing at 10 am:

All You Wanted To Know About Released Time Religious Instruction In Ohio

April 19 @ 10:00 am — 12:00 pm

Starting in April 2025, all Ohio public-school dis­tricts are required to have a pol­i­cy allow­ing chil­dren to be removed dur­ing the school day to attend a bible class off-campus. SHoWLE President Douglas Berger will give an updat­ed pre­sen­ta­tion on this Christian Nationalist dream and why it is “legal” and what you can do to mit­i­gate the dis­rup­tion to your public-schools.

We will be in Community Room A

Here is the link for our live stream. If you are a mem­ber and logged into this web­site you have access to the Zoom link as well.

YouTube Live Stream — click on link and select the LIVE tab.

Starting in April 2025, all Ohio public-school dis­tricts are required to have a pol­i­cy allow­ing chil­dren to be removed dur­ing the school day to attend a bible class off-campus. SHoWLE President Douglas Berger will give an updat­ed pre­sen­ta­tion on this Christian Nationalist dream and why it is “legal” and what you can do to mit­i­gate the dis­rup­tion to your public-schools …

Zoom link is restrict­ed to mem­bers only. If you are a mem­ber then login and then view this page again.

Free

Sanger Library Branch

3030 Central Ave
Toledo, OH 43606 United States + Google Map

Volunteer at the Seagate Food Bank

image showing Secular Week of Action logo with date for our visit to the seagate food bank

April 30 @ 6:00 pm — 8:00 pm

Join us for the Secular Week of Action as we help the Seagate Foodbank. We need to have 10 vol­un­teers. We will be prob­a­bly pack­ing food box­es. RSVP on this event page to vol­un­teer.

This is the event we had to can­cel in February due to a snow storm.

Scenes from the event in 2024
Free

Sanger Library Branch

3030 Central Ave
Toledo, OH 43606 United States + Google Map
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Resources to help support Democracy

People protesting in support of science

SHoWLE recent­ly cre­at­ed a new resource page that has links to tools and sources to help us sup­port democ­ra­cy.

These links include links to liked mind­ed groups and news sources that actu­al­ly cov­er the real news and not the cor­po­rate white-washed ver­sion we see most often.

The title of the new page is Supporting Democracy and can be found under our Resources menu on the web­site.

Also includ­ed is links to new videos cre­at­ed by President Doug Berger that helps the view­er set­up and use the My Ohio Legislature and GovTrack.us leg­is­la­tion track­ing web­sites.

If you have any sug­ges­tions or cor­rec­tions for this new resource please let us know.

Meet The Troublemakers

Promo image for our March meeting with Toledo Troublemakers

March 8 @ 10:00 am — 12:00 pm

A rel­a­tive­ly new grass­roots advo­ca­cy group is called Toledo Troublemakers and is affil­i­at­ed with Red, Wine, and Blue. The Toledo Troublemakers are a group of like-minded indi­vid­u­als in NW Ohio and SE Michigan who want to work togeth­er to sup­port one anoth­er and strength­en our com­mu­ni­ty by tak­ing pos­i­tive action on local, state, and nation­al issues.

Promo image for our March meeting with Toledo Troublemakers

The local group is co-ordinated by SHoWLE mem­ber Heather Spies and she will be our guest speak­er. Bring your ques­tions and con­cerns about our cur­rent polit­i­cal sit­u­a­tion.

To join the Toledo Troublemakers please vis­it:
https://redwineblue.controlshift.app/groups/toledo-troublemakers

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/toledotroublemakers/
Email: toledotroublemakers@gmail.com

About Heather:

Heather is a full time Registered Veterinary Technician. She is a Certified Compassion Fatigue Professional and an AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Board) Wellbeing Educator and plays a sig­nif­i­cant role in bring­ing well­be­ing ini­tia­tives into the vet­eri­nary hos­pi­tal she works at and to the com­mu­ni­ty. She has become more involved
in polit­i­cal activism over the past few years.

We will be in Community Room B

We will try to livestream on our YouTube chan­nel. Check back here for the details and the link

Unless oth­er­wise not­ed, our meet­ings and events are free and open to the pub­lic. In-person, in-door meet­ings and events we STRONGLY rec­om­mend atten­dees wear masks. Speakers can wear them if they choose while speak­ing. Click more infor­ma­tion about our In-person Meeting Policy. SHoWLE has a No Weapons pol­i­cy

Here is the link for our live stream. If you are a mem­ber and logged into this web­site you have access to the Zoom link as well.

YouTube Live Stream — click on link and select the LIVE tab.

Member Only Zoom Link

A rel­a­tive­ly new grass­roots advo­ca­cy group is called Toledo Troublemakers and is affil­i­at­ed with Red, Wine, and Blue. The Toledo Troublemakers are a group of like-minded indi­vid­u­als in NW Ohio and SE Michigan who want to work togeth­er to sup­port one anoth­er and strength­en our com­mu­ni­ty by tak­ing pos­i­tive action on local, state, and nation­al issues …

Zoom link is restrict­ed to mem­bers only. If you are a mem­ber then login and then view this page again.

Free

Sanger Library Branch

3030 Central Ave
Toledo, OH 43606 United States + Google Map
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Resolution In Support Of The LGBTQ+ Community And Opposing Bigotry

The SHoWLE Board of Directors adopt­ed the fol­low­ing state­ment in sup­port of the LGBTQ+ com­mu­ni­ty and to oppose big­otry. This state­ment can be found in our Policies and Resolution page of the web­site.

The Board of the Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie vot­ed on January 21, 2025, to “sign on” to a state­ment issued by a major­i­ty of the sec­u­lar, Humanist, and freethought groups in the coun­try affirm­ing our com­mit­ment to sup­port and pro­tect the rights of the LGBTQ+ com­mu­ni­ty in this coun­try.

In a state­ment titled “Statement from American Atheist, Humanist, Freethought, and Secular Groups Affirming Commitment to Protecting LGBTQ+ Rights” 16 nation­al sec­u­lar groups affirmed:

“We will not per­mit reli­gious extrem­ists to foment a moral pan­ic, encour­age harass­ment or vio­lence, and enact dan­ger­ous poli­cies that seek to force LGBTQ+ Americans generally—and trans Americans in particular—out of pub­lic life and out of exis­tence. Nor will we sit silent­ly or ignore when the talk­ing points, mis­in­for­ma­tion, and out­right fab­ri­ca­tions of anti-LGBTQ+ extrem­ists are laun­dered and giv­en a veneer of legit­i­ma­cy or accept­abil­i­ty by those who hold them­selves out as voic­es of rea­son or sci­ence.”

The SHoWLE Board agrees 100% with the state­ment and we intend that our group will con­tin­ue to be a wel­com­ing place for all peo­ple no mat­ter who you are or who you love. Our Humanist val­ues demand it.

We need more com­pas­sion and under­stand­ing and much less irra­tional hys­te­ria. We need laws and poli­cies based on data and actu­al real­i­ty and not bias­es, reli­gious indoc­tri­na­tion, or tabloid anec­dotes.

SHoWLE also will not tol­er­ate big­otry from our state leg­is­la­ture, gen­er­al com­mu­ni­ty, or our mem­ber­ship. We will call out that big­otry when need­ed. We will not sup­port or work with any group that sup­ports big­otry of any kind espe­cial­ly toward the LGBTQ+ com­mu­ni­ty.

Some peo­ple have said that recent attacks on the Trans com­mu­ni­ty have been only about dis­cussing sci­ence and biol­o­gy and that by not allow­ing that dis­cus­sion we are cen­sor­ing sci­ence. We reject that argu­ment.

Free speech argu­ments should nev­er be used to jus­ti­fy hurt­ing peo­ple and whether a group should have basic dig­ni­ty, and worth should nev­er be debat­ed.

No one should live in fear for sim­ply exist­ing.

Adopted January 2025

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SHoWLE To Move Away From Facebook

Facebook logo

Starting on February 1st, 2025, SHoWLE will reduce our use of Facebook. We will put in a sta­t­ic post point­ing vis­i­tors to our web­site but we will not update our pub­lic page, boost any posts, or cre­ate any new events.

We don’t make this deci­sion eas­i­ly but the change in polit­i­cal views of the CEO and oth­er actions tak­en by Meta, the own­er of Facebook, make our con­tin­ued use of the plat­form prob­lem­at­ic. If you are not aware of these issues check out the links at the end of this post for some details. In gen­er­al:

  • Donated $1 mil­lion to Trump’s inau­gur­al fund, while Zuckerberg dined with Trump at Mar-A-Lago
  • Ended its fact-checking pro­gram to cater to the right-wing
  • Relaxed its rules on hate speech to allow hate­ful rhetoric against LGBTQ peo­ple, includ­ing as part of “reli­gious dis­course”
  • Deleted Facebook Messenger themes that used the col­ors of the trans­gen­der and bina­ry flags
  • Ended its DEI work and elim­i­nat­ed its chief diver­si­ty offi­cer posi­tion
  • Called for com­pa­nies to dis­play more “mas­cu­line ener­gy” (Zuckerberg) despite the over­whelm­ing dom­i­nance of men in the tech indus­try.

The fact-checking mod­er­a­tion was put into place a decade ago because Facebook was used to facil­i­tate eth­nic cleans­ing in a cou­ple of coun­tries. Not to men­tion now there will be more irra­tional posts about the harm of vac­cines and oth­er pro­mo­tion of woo.

We will keep our pri­vate group page for now but we intend to pro­mote a more open com­mu­ni­ty forum in the future off Facebook.

We rec­om­mend that our mem­bers also move away from Facebook but that deci­sion should be left up to each indi­vid­ual. In the links below is an arti­cle from EFF.org that shows how to block use of your data for prof­it mak­ing by Meta.

If you have any ques­tions about this new pol­i­cy, feel free to reach out to Doug or oth­er Board mem­bers.

For further information:

Meta ends its DEI pro­grams as Zuckerberg blasts Biden on Joe Rogan

Mark Zuckerberg Preps for More Ethnic Cleansing

Mad at Meta? Don’t Let Them Collect and Monetize Your Personal Data

You can also find us on Bluesky as Toledo Humanist Community

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Help Us Sponsor A Family This Year

One of our com­mu­ni­ty out­reach­es we’ve done, real­ly since SHoWLE was found­ed, is spon­sor­ing a fam­i­ly through the Lucas County Children’s Services. They match us with a fam­i­ly and we donate gifts to help make their hol­i­day sea­son a mer­ry one. Now through December 8th we are col­lect­ing gifts. Check out the details below.

Thank you to all the donors for anoth­er excel­lent gift dri­ve. Here is the result of our work:

We intend to par­tic­i­pate in 2025.