FREETHINKERS NEW YORK
Freethinking-Activist-Nonbelieving New Yorkers (Fanny)
31 Jane Street (Box 10-D), New York, NY 10014
(212) 366-6481 wasm@nyc.rr.com
http://humanists.net/wasm/fanny.htm

 

Founder-Directors (1998)

Dennis Middlebrooks, Warren Allen Smith

Chairpersons

Victor Acevedo, Janet Asimov, Robert Delford Brown, Dana DiTullio, Dennis Middlebrooks, Darren Schmidt, Warren Allen Smith, Eric Walther, Irving Yablon

Other Chairpersons

Sir Arthur C. Clarke (formerly a Chelsea Hotel resident; now a Sri Lankan; author of 2001 and 3001)

Paul Edwards (editor, The Encyclopedia of Philosophy ; author Reincarnation and, with Arthur Papp, A Modern Introduction to Philosophy)

Albert Ellis , clinical psychologist and sexologist who is against MUSTurbation ('You must do this or that!") and absolutism

Mick Lambe , Mick Lambe, founder of PARIAH - People Against Racism In Aboriginal Homelands - Northern Territory - Australia

Taslima Nasrin , Bangladeshi gynecologist-poet (currently hiding in Bangladesh because of a fatwa on her head); author of Shame and Enfance, au féminin (Paris)

Kurt Vonnegut Jr ., novelist; author of Slaughterhouse Five, Hocus Pocus, Cat's Cradle

 

Deceased:

Sci-fi author Isaac Asimov; painter Paul Cadmus ; M*A*S*H originator and one of "the Hollywood Ten" Ring Lardner Jr .; business education professor Herbert Tonne ; sculptor of "The Humanist" Anita Weschler

Membership is open to those who have completed an individual activist project and been approved by the founder-directors

Dues: None

Purpose: FANNY acts as liaison to humanistic groups that cater to the interests of fellow agnostics, atheists, secularists, humanists, philosophic naturalists, and freethinkers

June 2002 - letter to the Editor of the New York Daily News (published 25 June 2002)

ROOT CAUSE
Brooklyn: So Voicer Paul Buttari blames "godless  men" for the attack on the World Trade Center. I bet he also blames "godless" men for the Crusades, the Inquisition and the violence in Northern Ireland Ireland the Middle East. Religion has been the most divisive force in history, and it is high time that humanity outgrew it.  Dennis Middlebrooks


                - letter to the Editor of The New York Times:

    Soon after God ordered his devout servants to destroy the world Trade Center, freethinkers in the area asked the Mayor’s Office for permission to hold a memorial at Ground Zero inasmuch as, at a conservative minimum, 10% of those who lost their lives were surely atheists, agnostics, secular humanists, secular Jews, Ethical Culturists, naturalists, or other types of non-believers.  Our request was denied, and the closest to the site that our group from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York was able to get was Fraunces Tavern, where we had our own memorial service.

    Are we alone in wondering why monotheists—Muslims, Jews, Christians—are allowed by the city to have an important say in the future of the area when they are the problem, not the solution? Freethinkers who are firemen, policemen, and ordinary citizens from around the country are asking for and are deserving of an answer.

Dennis Middlebrooks
Warren Allen Smith
Freethinkers NY


January 2002  

      Lingeman, Richard, Sinclair Lewis, Rebel From Main Street (NY: Random House, 659 pp., $35)                   

    [Lewis's] contemplative and sober mood carried to the point that he was culvitating hobbies, though not the ones the Riggs doctors suggested (chemistry, horticulture). In 1942, he would take up chess, which he had played as a boy, and become a fanatic about it; he also bought a Capehart phonograph and began amassing a classical-record collection. But his search for peace of mind avoided the traditional consolations of religion--at least organized religion. When a writer and editor named Warren Allen Smith sent him a questionnaire asking him to choose from several definitions of humanism the one most congenial to him, Lewis selected "naturalistic (scientific) humanism."  To an earlier query about his religion, he contended that people raised without religious belief seemed as happy and as ethical as those who did have a faith.  

Sep-Oct-Nov-Dec 2001

        -- Dennis Middlebrooks, taking some time out from getting published in The Daily News, The New York Post, and elsewhere, hosted with Philadelphia's Margaret Downey a 14 Sep 2001 memorial at Fraunces Tavern for the estimated 300 to 600 freethinkers who died in the Twin Towers disaster. Attending were members of the Tom Paine Foundation, the Brooklyn and New York City Ethical Societies, the Corliss Lamont chapter of the American Humanist Association, the Long Island Free Inquiry Chapter, the Staten Island Atheists, the New YorkCity Atheists, the Fourth Universalist Society, the Campus Freethought Association in Pennsylvania, and the
Philadelphia Freethought Association.         

        -- Warren Allen Smith, who with Middlebrooks tried unsuccessfully to get permission from Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's office to enter Ground Zero, complained widely to officials. The Villager published a story, ATHEISTS BARRED FROM GROUND ZERO, telling how the Mayor's office never responded to the requests of the agnostics, atheists, humanists, secularists, and non-monotheists, adding, "Though they couldn't get into ground zero, after a group dinner at Fraunces Tavern, the widow of philosopher Corliss Lamont, Beth Lamont , who lives in Battery Park City, led them behind the scenes to talk with workers and observe the destruction from a spot near ground zero, ending up at Fox Hounds on South End Ave. According to an e-mail press release, Freethinkers are "concerned that monotheists throughout the world, Jews, Christians, Muslims, are killing each other and are making Earth unsafe for human beings by fighting over which of their gods is the true one."

October 2001

-- Warren Allen Smith was roasted 27 Oct 1921 on his 80th birthday by the Coalition for the Community of Reason at a formal Who's Who in Hell dinner in Washington, DC. Key organizers were Margaret Downey (Thomas Paine Foundation), Tony Hileman (American Humanist Association), and Prof. Herb Silverman (Math Department, U of South Carolina). Dennis Middlebrooks attended, one of the presenters was ex-Ambassador to Nepal Carleton Coon Jr. (son of the eminent anthropologist), and e-mailed birthday greetings were read from Mrs. Isaac Asimov in New York City, Sir Arthur C. Clarke in Sri Lanka, and numerous others.

August 2001

--Middlebrooks and Smith entertained Margaret Downey at Tavern on the Green in New York City's Central Park. She has arranged for a Philadelphia picnic at which Smith's Who's Who in Hell will be featured (Middlebrooks donated one copy of the $125 book to be raffled) and a 27 Oct 2001 80th birthday party for Smith in Washington, D.C.

-- Mick Lambe has been invited to become an honorary member of FANNY, and he has accepted. He heads PARIAH (People Against Racism in Aboriginal Homelands) in Australia's Northern Territory. After a long struggle, this valiant Irishman who left London for Australia has just e-mailed us:

Warren

In a totally unexpected result the CLP government lost power here after 26 years of government. No-one predicted this outcome. All that pundits can agree on is that racism (and the NT's perceived reputation as a redneck bastion) was the major factor.

We're still in shock.

We are still exposing racism and corruption here in the courts. Grassroots exposure is necessary to ensure an understanding of why modern Australian society is still vulnerable to nineteenth century philosophies on race.

Cheers,

 

Mick Lambe

PARIAH - People Against Racism In Aboriginal Homelands

http://www.country-liberal-party.com/

Northern Territory - Australia

 

 

 

 

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