[BES Friends] Fall kicks off tomorrow with Movable Treats and John Nugent

[Stephen Meskin]

Also Poetry Group at 9:30 am

*Moveable Feast* delivers meals to AIDS and cancer patients and their 
families. BES' "Moveable Treats" programs provides individually packaged 
single portions of desserts that are included in these meals.  Bring 
your desserts with you to the meeting, and place them on the table in 
the corner of our meeting room. Use sandwich bags or snack bags to wrap 
your desserts in serving size portions, and label them to indicate 
generally what they are. Mark your desserts if they contain nuts or 
peanuts. Avoid desserts that have heavy icings or that contain alcohol.

Sep 7 *"The Ethical Life and Politics: An Introduction"*
    By John Nugent, BES Member & CEO of Planned Parenthood of Maryland

    In an introduction to a series of platforms, John will discuss the
    long relationship between ethics and politics going back to
    Aristotle. He will then review the dominant philosophy driving the
    ethics and politics of the current national administration through a
    review of the research and work of Frank Luntz and his book "Words
    That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear" and a
    review of the political ideas of Leo Strauss.

    Speaker bio:
    John Nugent was the CEO of a Hospice program prior to joining
    Planned Parenthood in 1997. He holds an MA in ethics from San
    Francisco Theological Seminary and a BA in philosophy and has been
    an adjunct college philosophy instructor. He was co-chair of the
    Planned Parenthood Federation of America Bioethics task force and
    served on the National Hospice Organization's ethics committee. John
    is active in the Board of the Washington Area Secular Humanists, the
    Board of Baltimore Westside Market Center Merchants Association, and
    served on the Board of the Baltimore Shakespeare Festival. He is a
    graduate of the Leadership Baltimore and Leadership Maryland
    programs and is currently part of the Weinberg Fellows program. John
    is a certified Humanist Celebrant/Officiant through the American
    Humanist Association.

Sep 14: *"Access to Health Care: A Basic Human Right Not Available to 
Tens of Millions" *
    By Dr. Peter Beilenson, Howard County Health Officer

    Although recognized as a basic human right in the Universal
    Declaration of Human Rights by 50 countries in 1948, the United
    States, virtually alone among the developed countries of the world,
    has tens of millions of its citizens uninsured. The consequences of
    this disturbing gap are manifold: from worse health status and
    significant financial difficulties for individuals who don't have
    health coverage, to vast fiscal effects on a variety of payers. It's
    time that the U.S. joins the rest of the developed world in
    seriously addressing the issue of health care reform. Dr. Beilenson
    will talk about the prospects for national reform with the new
    Administration and give examples of the few state and local programs
    that are being touted as models for fixing the American system of
    health care.

    Speaker bio:
    Peter L. Beilenson, M.D., M.P.H. currently serves as Health Officer
    of Howard County Maryland. He has 13 years of experience in public
    health leadership having served as the Baltimore City Health
    Commissioner under the administrations of Mayors Kurt Schmoke and
    Martin J. O'Malley. Dr. Beilenson received his undergraduate degree
    from Harvard College, MD from Emory University School of Medicine,
    and MPH from the Johns Hopkins. During his tenure in Baltimore City,
    Dr. Beilenson expanded and improved drug treatment programs,
    immunization compliance, lead poisoning prevention initiatives, and
    juvenile violence prevention. He founded the Maryland Citizens'
    Health Initiative which leading the drive for universal health
    coverage in Maryland.

Sep 21: *"Getting Around Sustainably" *
    By Len Pons, BES Member & Transportation Analyst at Public Citizen

    As part of the Society's exploration of sustainability, Lena will
    discuss sustainable transportation, with a focus on personal
    transportation. She will look at modes of transportation, as well as
    infrastructure and land use planning and will try to put local
    transportation into a federal context. Energy and climate policy are
    intimately interconnected, and transportation is the most
    challenging sector of energy policy.

    Speaker bio:
    Lena Pons graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2005
    with a BS in chemistry. She has been at Public Citizen for two
    years, working with the National Highway Traffic Safety
    Administration to influence transportation safety and energy laws.
    In 2006, she collaborated in litigation on the 2006 fuel economy
    standards for pickup trucks and SUVs. In 2007, she worked with a
    coalition of environmental and consumer groups lobbying for the
    Energy Independence and Security Act, which mandated the first new
    fuel economy standards in 22 years. She testified in regulatory
    hearings before NHTSA and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety
    Administration and she currently sits on three progressive
    transportation working groups, addressing the three parts of the
    transportation energy problem -- efficiency, fuels and
    transportation demand.

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