April 15, 2012
Attended by: Ramona, Ken, Jim, Jean, Rosemary, Stuart, Terry, Bethanne, Tom, Bill. Facilitated by the Peace and Social Concerns Committee, which provided these notes.
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Please join us for Continue reading Saturday, 4/21/2012 – Annual Retreat on Radical Hospitality
From the minutes of the meeting for worship with a concern for business, 4/1/2012:
Ken read the Maryland Faith for Equality clergy support letter, which is at http://www.equalitymaryland.org/religiouspetition[defunct link]. The sense of the meeting was in favor of signing the petition. Linda will sign the online form as clerk of the meeting. Ken considers this a first step and asked Friends for additional ideas on how to support this concern. Bethanne will bring this concern to the P&SC committee for suggestions on how to support the bill. Possible actions were to consider hosting public discussion about the referendum and to publicize the MD Faith for Equality website[defunct].
The meeting was also in agreement about notifying the Quarterly meeting clerk that we have signed and that PFM invites other meetings to consider signing the petition. In addition, PFM will ask the Quarter to consider signing as a body.
Linguist Kathryn Ruud will speak at Patapsco Friends Meeting at Noon, 3/18/2012 on “Polarizing Talk” and how to stop it. This will follow Meeting for Worship at 10:30 am and simple lunch.
Polarizing talk employs linguistic strategies and structures that may not be obvious to the average listener. Kathryn Ruud has studied this phenomenon for over twenty years, including what she calls “the polarizing language of extremist propaganda, used by both the left and the right in 20th century Germany”. Seeing the similarities with today’s political rancor, she started the website, www.stoppolarizingtalk.org, and speaks to various groups to raise awareness of the issue and possible solutions. She is a contributing author of the book “At War with Words”, published in both New York and Berlin.
Patapsco Friends meet at Hebron House, 2331 Calvin Circle · Ellicott City, MD 21042. [Directions]