ethics news & views

Ethics Center Public Events Spring 2000

Citizenship in a Network Society

What does it mean to be a good citizen in the information age? How do technological innovations shape our concepts of community? David Batstone addresses these questions in his work on technology and ethics.

Campaign Finance Reform: mapping the moral terrain

• George W. Bush hits $60 million in campaign funds; Gore trails with $24 million.
• $500 million in "soft money"(1) contributions projected for the 1999-2000 election cycle (double the 1995-1996 cycle.)(2)
• $1.5 billion in total contributions given in 1998 (an off-election year).

If I Should Die Before I Wake

A woman accompanies her husband to the emergency room after calling 911. It is 11:30 p.m. when they arrive - over two hours have passed since she began noticing the frightening signs of a stroke in progress. She had found her husband unable to speak clearly, his face sagging slightly on the right side, and his right arm weakened. She will have to make decisions rapidly now. Has too much time passed or is he still a candidate for administration of TPA? And if he is, will this have the desired effect of dissipating the clot and allowing for return of functioning or will it lead to further bleeding? If the effects of the stroke are severe, how much medical intervention does she want? Should the patient be a "do not resuscitate" patient? Does she know what her husband would want under these circumstances?

Dr. King's Agenda for the New Millennium

We recognize Martin Luther King, Jr.'s seventy-first birthday this month. King was blessed with a brilliant mind and with the gift of some great teachers. He was grounded in the music and the preached theology of the black church traditions. As a graduate student at Crozer Theological Seminary and Boston University, and through a trip to India, he informed himself with the knowledge and disciplines of Mahatma Gandhi's methods of nonviolent protest for social justice. King frequently placed the American struggle for civil and human rights in the context of global awareness and concerns. In his mind and faith, the nonviolent fight for justice and full participation for all Americans could not be separated from the larger struggle on every continent toward liberation for "all God's people."

Review of Fleming book

Getting Ahead Without Losing Heart (Savannah, GA.: Frederic C. Beil Publishing, Inc., 1999) by Andrew T. Fleming with foreward by James W. Fowler

This book explores the career and lifestyle choices of seven high achievers, who chronicle in their own voices important educational and career choices. Readers meet, among others, a successfull Wall Street trader who dreams of becoming a doctor, a Dartmouth graduate who happily works as a hotel desk clerk, and a former automobile shop secretary who makes it into investment banking and must choose between the job she earned and the man she loves. These intimate and insightful accounts are woven together by the author's own journey on and off the fast track during the period of these interviews. Each story includes questions for reflection and discussion and an appendix of book and films for those who wish to explore life-work themes further.

Review of Sharon Welch, Sweet Dreams in America

Sweet Dreams in America: Making Ethics and Spirituality Work (New York: Routledge, 1999)

Oppositional language is often the backbone of social change. The moral vocabularies of certainty, demonizing the other, and self-righteousness are clear and powerful motivators. Battle cries of "us versus them," "justice versus injustice," and "good versus evil" mobilize protestors seeking "voice in the system."

Review of Turner book

A Journey Toward Servant Leadership (Macon, GA.: Smyth & Helwys Publishing, Inc., 2000), by William B. Turner with Delane Chappell

This is a personal narrative of the life and spiritual journey of William B. Turner, chairman of the Executive Committee of Synovus Financial Corp., a book that, in the words of Senator Sam Nunn, "illustrates in words...how to live a full, abundant life through full, abundant use of all of God's gifts in our daily challenges."

Boston Conference Focuses on Service Learning

How should secondary educational institutions define "service"? Can a university embrace community partnerships without losing institutional identity and student focus? These questions helped set the opening tone for "A Future of Service: A National Conference on Service-Learning in Religion," held 17-18 November in Boston. Conference organizers Joseph Favazza and Michael McClain, both faculty at Rhodes College, introduced the themes of the weekend gathering: definitions in service-learning; creating the engaged university; the dilemma of descriptive versus normative agendas; encountering the other; creating community partnerships; and creating service-learning syllabi.

The Ethics of Shaping a Life

What makes for a well-lived life? How does one go about making educational and career choices that enable one to lead such a life? And how can schools, parents, and other concerned adults help young people make more life-giving choices? Having thought about and struggled with these questions myself, I am delighted to add my voice to the ongoing conversations related to character formation and ethics at Emory and beyond.

"Best Place to Work" CEO shares perspective on values in business

In October 1999, E&SL brought James Blanchard, head of the Georgia-based Synovus Financial Corp., to speak at Emory on "Tending the Heart of a Business." Synovus placed at the top of Fortune's "100 Best Companies to Work for in America" this year.

E&SL Report

This fall's D. Abbott Turner Ethics and Servant Leadership program inaugurated an interdisciplinary undergraduate and graduate student leadership forum; shaped internship, social entrepreneurial, and dissertation fellowships; increased collaborations with Violence Studies and Theory Practice Learning; continued to develop relationships with Campus Compact and Rhodes College Service-Learning initiatives; and conducted a public forum to discuss corporate ethics with James Blanchard, CEO of Synovus Financial Corp.