As is her custom, President Nancy promptly started our meeting with the ringing of the bell at 12:30, introducing Jim Crane to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Chris Bradford followed from his outpost in Kansas City, reminding us that to understand an issue fully you must be able to argue both sides. Chris quoted John Stuart Mill’s essay on Liberty (first published in 1859):
“He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion... Nor is it enough that he should hear the opinions of adversaries from his own teachers, presented as they state them, and accompanied by what they offer as refutations. He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them...he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.”
Our song-meister, Ed Gauld, then led us in an old favorite, You are my Sunshine. (How old, you ask? The song was first performed by Oliver Hood at a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in 1933.)
Attending our meeting were our Assistant Governor, Michael Lushing, and two special guests - Benjamin Fisher (sponsored by Roozbeh) and Roxanne Denis (sponsored by Mark).