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CONTENT FOR ISSUE

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  Humanist Association of Toronto / Webmaster
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  HP 215: Power and its Abuses I / Gary Bauslaugh

  CONTENTS
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  In the News... The Second Coming / Gary Bauslaugh

  Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
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  Humanist Association of Canada / Webmaster

  Humanist Canada is a national not-for-profit charitable organization promoting the separation of religion from public policy and fostering the development of reason, compassion and critical thinking for all Canadians through secular education and community support.
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  HP 216: Abuse of Power II / Webmaster

  CONTENTS
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  Humanists, Atheists, & Agnostics of Manitoba / Webmaster

  Today’s HAAM (Humanists, Atheists, & Agnostics of Manitoba) is just the latest of several Humanist organizations in Manitoba going back to the 1920s, with the Winnipeg Rationalist Society, and later, Marshall J. Gauvin’s Winnipeg Humanist Society. The current organization began around 1992 and was originally known as the Humanist Association...
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  BC Humanist Association / Webmaster

  The British Columbia Humanist Association has been providing a community and voice for Humanists, atheists, agnostics, and the non-religious of Metro Vancouver and British Columbia since 1982. We support the growth of Humanist communities across BC, provide Humanist ceremonies, and campaign for progressive and secular values.
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  Mouvement laïque québécois / Webmaster

  Le MLQ est un regroupement fondé en 1981, indépendant de toute affiliation à un parti, ouvert aux citoyennes et citoyens de toute croyance ou confession, qui partagent le même objectif fondamental, celui de la laïcisation complète de l’État et des institutions publiques du Québec. Ultimement, le MLQ veut contribuer à...
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  Inside Front Cover: Humanist Canada calls for release of Nigerian Humanist President / Madeline Weld

  …Mubarak Bala…was arrested by Nigerian police on April 28, 2020, following a complaint he had insulted the prophet Mohammad in a social media post. Bala, a former Muslim, has been arrested without formal charges. Bala’s lawyer has not been allowed access to his client.
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  Humanist Association of Ottawa / Webmaster
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  Editorial: Black Lives Madness / Madeline Weld

  Mobs toppling statues, attacking police, looting and burning buildings, terrorizing citizens in their homes and violently occupying a section of Seattle all suggest something more significant than the “mostly peaceful protests” reported by the mainstream media.
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  In the News... The Burden of Office / Gary Bauslaugh

  The orderly functioning of society seems to require that certain powers are ceded to some individuals, on the implicit if not explicit understanding that those given such powers are meant to use them for the common good. This obligation is felt strongly by some, more mildly by others, and not...
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  EDITORIAL: The Abuse of Power (2) / Gary Bauslaugh

  The common saying that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely has never struck me as quite right. Certainly we see the corrupt employment of power, perhaps never so dramatically and clearly, and drearily, than with Donald Trump, but his power did not make him what he is...
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  Original Artwork / Carol Matthews

  It is easy to see that American democracy often makes mistakes in the choice of men to whom it entrusts power, but it is not so easy to say why the state prospers in their hands. ~Alexis de Tocqueville, from Democracy in America
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  EDITORIAL: A Fragile Tapestry / Gary Bauslaugh

  Constitutions represent the aspirations of a nation, delineating the basic legal principles that ought to guide it. But what happens when a political leader chooses to ignore this estimable idea and do whatever he wants to do?
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  The Poster Boy of White Privilege / Llloyd Hawkeye Robertson

  My friend is the poster boy for white privilege. I know this because his likeness was placed on a large billboard in the city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, with the phrase: “I have to acknowledge my own privilege and racist attitudes.”
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  Poetry Section / Various Sources

  Sea Lions During the American Election, Jay Ruzesky / Baffled in Ashdod, Blind in Gaza, Steven Heighton / Henry VIII, Timothy Brownlow / Wellness, delani valin / The River Speaks, Judy Rowe Michaels
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  The Cubist Othello / Maurice Yacowar

  A noted film critic writes about one of Shakespeare’s best known abusers of power. The play, Yacowar argues, is based upon the collision of multiple perspectives, as was the Cubist art movement hundreds of years later.
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  COVID-19 in Perspective / Tony Cassils

  The following statement is offered as a short preface: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” But the author has researched the statistics diligently and uses them in good faith.
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  Power makes the world go round / James E. Alcock

  “O, it is excellent to have a giant's strength, but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant.” ― William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure
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  Why Western Elites Can’t Keep Ignoring Africa’s Overpopulation Problem / Bradley Betters

  In America today, talking about the problems of overpopulation is pretty much like placing oneself in the middle of two armies fighting. From the Left, you’re attacked as a Malthusian or, of course, a fascist. From the establishment Right, you’re accused of supporting Chinese totalitarianism or...
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  Power, Love and Listening: an Observation of Shakespeare’s Drama / Gwyneth Evans

  The urge to gain or hold onto power over other people is a prominent motive for the characters in Shakespeare’s plays, as it is in many – if not most – aspects of human life. Shakespeare’s kings, tyrants, military and ecclesiastical leaders, and also his parents, siblings, and even his...
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  Do Dogs Have Souls? / Mike Matthews

  Originally printed in HP #150: Mike Matthews takes a light-hearted look at an issue that seems to vex some non-humanists. The subject is raised again by one of our letter writers.
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  Left Populism: A review of an organized mobbing / Llloyd Hawkeye Robertson

  I stopped watching Don Cherry’s “Coaches’ Corner” more than two decades ago. If I was watching a hockey game and his program came on, I would turn the television off. Mute was not good enough. I did not even want to see his image on my screen.
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  Does Donald Trump Read Shakespeare? / Gwyneth Evans & Gary Bauslaugh

  Donald Trump did not invent abuse of power. Four hundred years ago, the greatest of all writers recognized that the ways power is applied in human relationships is central to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The theme, explored from various perspectives, appears in all of his plays.