“Gung Ho! Mayor embraces new management philosophy in City Hall (Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier)” plus 2 more

Gung Ho! Mayor embraces new management philosophy in City Hall (Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier)
Liz Smith: Philosophy 101 From an Octogenarian! (wowOwow)
ENT: Humanism - It's not a religion, but a moral philosophy (The Sudbury Star)

Gung Ho! Mayor embraces new management philosophy in City Hall (Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier)

Posted: 07 Mar 2010 02:47 PM PST

WATERLOO - Buck Clark is gung-ho about improving customer service for city taxpayers.

Just months into his first term as Waterloo mayor, he's working to implement a management philosophy designed to boost morale and improve productivity in City Hall.

"My goal is to increase our customer service, to make customer service a part of our mantra," Clark said. " But I believe you can't deliver good customer services to our residents if you aren't happy in your workplace."

Soon after taking his oath of office, Clark presented his department heads and City Council members with copies of the book "Gung Ho!" by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Brown, which details how to improve company morale based on principles acknowledging good work and emphasizing the importance of everyone's job.

"I'm copying an awful lot of this from the Mudd (Group) philosophy," said Clark, referring to the Cedar Falls advertising firm where he worked as an account executive for about two years.

Gary Kroeger, a current Mudd executive, made a presentation to city leaders last month about how the company embraces the ideals, including using the term "gung-ho" instead of "good job" throughout the workplace.

"When somebody does something good in our organization, I send out a gung-ho," said Kroeger, acknowledging it may seem a little strange at first.

"I'm sure some of you rolled your eyes and said, 'What is this tree-hugging crap?'" he told council members and department heads. "But this can work for us in government."

Read more of this article in Sunday's Courier.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Liz Smith: Philosophy 101 From an Octogenarian! (wowOwow)

Posted: 08 Mar 2010 02:22 AM PST

"Be ye not unevenly yoked together!" says the Bible. This was one of my darling mother's favorite axioms. I suppose she had good reason to be saying it; she herself was "unevenly yoked" with my adorable crazy father.

They had met when she peeped under the window shade of her older brother's house in the little town of Ennis, TX. She was trying to see "the new young man next door" and she saw him – feisty, almost scrawny with abounding energy. He had come to Ennis to trade in cotton futures.

So when she saw him jump on a motorcycle and throttle away down the street, her beautiful, Mississippi-belle, genteel self was a goner. They were soon dancing at local outings but were mocked as "Mutt and Jeff" because she was the taller. But as she took pride in her father, the doctor, and her college education and the refined manners of her own mother, the school teacher – what in the world did she want with the young 5'7" "roughneck" that was my father?

He had grown up in the plains of West Texas in a family of eight brawling brothers and sisters who were hotheaded and continued that way. (Their family reunions were always marked by someone throwing a punch or having to be "separated.") And he, the little roughneck, had to quit school at grade four, gone to work at age eight, delivering Western Union telegrams on horseback, and ended up educating himself. (He could do long division in his head.)

So, my friends, opposites attract and although she finally climbed on the back of his motorcycle and let the hairpins fall from her long, flowing hair as they roared through the streets of Ennis, she did not really embrace his ardent, energetic take on life. She was just being compliant until the wedding when she never got on the motorcycle again and he had to sell it.

She wanted to worry about what the neighbors thought. He didn't give a damn, disliked most of the neighbors and often gave vent to his opinion that "most men aren't worth a damn; it's the women that count."

He craved experiencing "culture" – trying out new foods – forcing his children to high adventures for which they were unprepared – gambled away fortune after fortune, and thought religions were "crap."

She craved everything bourgeois that he despised. She adored the preachers of her churches. She cared what the neighbors thought to the ultimate degree. She hated adventure, sports and thought gambling was a sin. She wanted houses with mortgages and good insurance policies. In short, she was a cowardly realist, refined, repressed and middle class. He was a wild adventurer who thought he had nothing to lose so he rolled the dice.

He was for high living, trying odd things out and taking chances. He bought a polo pony once though he didn't really play polo. He was a sucker for anyone else's hard-luck tale. Money squirted through his hands. He liked sports and drama and never stopped telling of the one time he'd been to an opera in New Orleans where the great Galli-Curci sang. (She felt such theatrics were just substitutes for true religion.)

She wanted to rouse him out of bed to go to church each Sunday, mostly because of how it looked to go without him. He steadfastly refused. He wanted to go in the kitchen to experiment in making candy, which his children adored. She wanted never to go near the kitchen if she once got it spic and span. He took chances. She never did.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

ENT: Humanism - It's not a religion, but a moral philosophy (The Sudbury Star)

Posted: 07 Mar 2010 08:20 AM PST

Posted By LARA BRADLEY

Updated 1 day ago

They want to be good, but not out of fear of hell or the promise of heaven.

"Why do I want to be good? It feels good," said Humanist Eddo Nardi. "So I'm at peace with myself. When I'm at peace with myself, I'm at peace with the world. Especially my spouse and my loved ones."

There is no higher power or deity or element of worship involved in being a practising Humanist. They don't believe in angels, holy ghosts, zombies or even fate -- nothing supernatural. It's not a religion (although it's often brought up in the context of religion) but rather a moral philosophy that attaches importance to human dignity, concerns and capabilities, particularly rationality.

Joan Pella, Sheila McKillop, and Nardi all made different journeys before arriving at Humanism. The three are settled in Pella's living room, facing Lake Nepahwin, with two dogs, one of them Pomeranian belonging to Nardi, and a cat joining the group. They all appear to be highly empathic people; kindness just rolls off of them.

"I have a fulfilled life without a God up there or a devil down here," explained Nardi.

"And a self-determined life," said McKillop.

"Also you can make your own fate by developing yourself," added Pella.

"Using reason, ethics and philosophy," McKillop said.

But they're not Vulcans either -- the completely logical, but emotionless aliens with pointy ears made popular by Spock onStar Trek.

"We realize that Humanists are creatures of emotions and can be irrational, but we try to use the scientific method and if we can ... and compassion," Pella said. "That's our motto: reason with compassion."

While being a Humanist isn't about bashing religion, many members do at times, vent about religions they practised as children or young adults, and what led to them rejecting them. For many, these early experiences stamped into them feelings of guilt, fear and shame. Feelings they want to let go of.

Nardi remembers being in a Catholic church, looking at the priest and thinking "something is very wrong here." Later, the priest was brought up on charges for molesting children. The restrictive nature of religion classes also bothered Nardi, as a youth. You weren't allowed to come up with your own answers to questions, he said.

"The question was there. So was the answer. I wasn't taught to think," Nardi said.

Humanism, with its many philosophers and internal debates, appealed to his intellectual curiosity and questing nature.

It did for the others, as well. As we talk, books are mentioned and favourite thinkers from David Suzuki to David Hume, lined up.

For Pella, who loves to sing and currently sings in the choir, it was waking up to the battle filled imagery in the United Church hymns that made her question. Bible classes were likened to "sword drills." That didn't feel right, either.

She remembers a priest visiting her house before her children started school. The Pellas had decided to send them to public school. He told her they would end up going to hell.

They figure their kids are "just as good or bad," as any other.

As for McKillop, she tried various religions before finding a fit with Humanism.

In a society split between religious denominations, sometimes it can feel lonely being a non-believer.

"You're made to feel like an outcast," said Pella.

"Many people think Christianity has a monopoly on morality, humanity and good works," said McKillop. "But the principles of humanism in of itself are equivalent or even surpasses that morality towards people. Treating people with respect and embracing their individuality and diversity."

Atheist doesn't necessarily mean amoral, she said. And you can be an atheist, but not a humanist, added Pella. Atheist simply means you don't believe in a higher power, while Humanism moves from the point encompassing a larger philosophy.

"To be a formal Humanist, we sort of agree on a set of ethics and principles," said Pella. "It pretty well bloomed in early Greece. People who didn't believe in the Greek Gods, but believed in the equality of human beings. Then it sort of got lost during the rise of the Roman empire. During the Enlightenment, starting with the French idea of democracy and Scottish philosophers, (it resurfaced)."

The thousands who belong to the Humanist Association of Canada are probably not truly reflective of the true scope of those who espouse its philosophy. Humanists tend not to be joiners, Pella said.

"It's like herding cats," she said.

Sometimes the Sudbury group, which started about five years ago, will meet at a formal place like the library or just gather socially at a pub. Attendance can vary from a handful to dozens. Their talks are often open to the public.

"Sometimes at the social meetings we get to talk to people who feel alone," said Pella. "Sort of shunned ... They feel that no one thinks like them and that they're outcast. So it's a good venue to reassure people who may not want to join, that they aren't bad people and that they have morality."

What issues do Humanists talk about and lobby for? Well, the right to choose for women is central to many. Its proponent, Henry Morgentaller, was the Humanists' first president in Canada. It's not surprising Humanists would like to see public money only fund public education, rather than go towards the separate school system. Many are for gay rights and also are strong environmentalists.

This past week, many of the Sudbury association took part in a silent vigil, called a "circle of concern," held at Tom Davies Square, urging both parties to resolve the strike.

They also conduct secular marriages, a right the government gave those trained in the ceremony in 1996, and even secular funerals.

So what happens when a Humanist dies, if there is no heaven or hell?

A person's energy goes back to the Earth, said McKillop.

"We become part of the stars," said Nardi.

It's often scary for people to articulate at first their beliefs or lack of belief when it comes to God. To say aloud, "I don't believe in God," even if that what's in your heart.

Then again, they joke, so far none have been struck down by a bolt of lighting.

lbradley@thesudburystar.com

- - -

Want to hang outwith Humanists?

* Next meeting:March 18, 7 p.m.;

* Where:Main branch of the Greater Sudbury Public Library, 75 Mackenzie St;

* For more info:Call Joan at 523-2410 or Eddo Nardi at 566-0532.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Philosophy

Monday, March 8, 2010