[Hac-announce] Humanist film showing Friday March 1 at 6:30 pm

[David E Schafer]

Many of you who attended our monthly meeting yesterday (Monday, February 18) 
expressed an interest in watching and discussing the DVD "The United States 
of ALEC," a joint project of Bill Moyers and Common Cause, released November 
2012.  On the strength of that interest we have ordered the DVD and will 
show it at the next Humanist Cinema event, ten days from now at USNH.

Briefly, the film is "an unprecedented in-depth television report on the 
most influential corporate-funded political force most of us have never 
heard of, the American Legislative Exchange Council, a national consortium 
of state politicians and powerful corporations.  ALEC presents itself as a 
'nonpartisan public-private partnership,' but behind that mantra lies a vast 
network of corporate lobbying and political action aimed to increase 
corporate profits at public expense.  Using interviews, documents, and 
personal accounts, the episode explores ALEC's self-serving machine at work, 
acting in a way one Wisconsin politician describes as 'a corporate dating 
service for lonely legislators and corporate special interests.'  In state 
houses around the country, hundreds of pieces of boilerplate ALEC 
legislation are proposed or enacted that would, among other things, dilute 
collective bargaining rights, make it harder for some Americans to vote, and 
limit corporate liability for harm caused to consumers--each accomplished 
without the public ever knowing who's behind it."

The film will be shown on Friday, March 1, at 7:00 p.m. in the USNH Social 
Hall.  It will be preceded by an optional potluck dinner beginning promptly 
at 6:30, start promptly at 7:00, run for 57 minutes, and be followed by what 
we expect to be a vigorous discussion.  Please mark your calendars now!

For those of you who missed last Monday night's program about the great work 
of Common Cause, we will follow up with additional details about this film 
in a few days.  Check your email!

We hope to see you there.  Bring a friend and join us!

David Schafer