secular humanist social action

I received this story the organization called The Brights:

What Just ONE Person Can Do!

You would probably be stunned to know how much change you alone can effect with a simple respectful message directed to the appropriate recipients. Here is an example of an action taken just this month.

One Bright, following the recent funeral of her 42-year old secular science-teacher daughter, was able to deal with personal distress about the discordant religious message delivered at the event by expressing her concerns where it might actually help prevent a similar situation for others. She suggested to the National Funeral Home Directors Association that an article in the newsletter from NFHD or an educational presentation at a conference could help funeral directors understand the importance of “knowing the deceased” and offering appropriate messages at a service. She directed their attention to the population of “citizens with fine values who base their beliefs on facts and science, not supernatural stories” in such a genial manner that her letter received a tremendously supportive response, with an actual commitment from the senior vice president of the Association:

“Thank you for sending us your story. It’s very compelling. I’ve shared it with our continuing education and publications staff, and I assure you that we are committed to trying to prevent similar situations in the future. Our Editor would like to include your story in a future edition of our trade journal…”

One key idea of the Brights movement is that our appropriate civic actions will likely be more advantageous than massive groaning amongst ourselves about the many problems. One person (perhaps you?) might do a lot for social change. No anger. No lashing out. Just following up on a hurtful circumstance in a considered and considerate way.

Respectful action in the civic sphere - do it whenever you can.