Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome, I would like to thank you for coming out and joining us tonight. I would like to also thank the New York Society For Ethical Culture for allowing us the use of their social hall.

My name is Bahram Maskanian. I am a concerned citizen and a self-appointed democracy activist. Tonight, May the 11, 2005, is going to mark a new beginning in the history of political activism, the formation of - Ethics In Action Community -.

As you all know, if we were to just summarize the problems we, the people, are facing, and must live with everyday, it would probably take days or maybe even weeks. Therefore let us not waste our precious time discussing what we already know very well, such as;

The US warmongering Imperialism, triumph of religious parliamentary dictatorship in America, widespread monumental corruption at all levels, global warming, environmental degradation, 9/11, and the events of 9/11 which were known well in advance by the authorities, and yet, not stopped, war profiteering, nuclear weapon proliferation, slave-labor, human trafficking, the looming energy crisis, colossal national debt, globalization, out-sourcing, lack of preventive universal public healthcare system, terrible public education, the growth of prison industrial complex, and the list could go on and on.

As you also know it is humanly impossible to deal with these problems without having a well-organized, skilful and united community. A united community that can focus on what we can do to fix these problems, collectively, together.

The good news is, that unlike what we are led to believe, the power of decision making and forcing social change lies with us, the people, not the government, or business officials.

We all know the following phrase, well - We, The People -. It is not we the Government, or we the Nation-Less Corporations, or we the Greedy Criminal Pension Robbing Executives and CEOs. It is we the people.

As you all know, there are so many different grass-root groups working very hard, struggling in the defense of human rights and in the pursuit of democracy, unaware of each other’s efforts, existence and the enormous amount of power we, the people, possess collectively, together.

We can easily change that, by reaching out to unify the existing groups and organizing our-selves under one umbrella. Only as a united grass-root democracy movement, we can empower our-selves to force and influence change to solve our many problems, one at the time.

I firmly believe democracies, which are truly founded by the people for the people shall not parish as so long as the soul and the energy of the public are the driving force behind it. True and stable democracy can only be achieved through a united, calm, disciplined, non-violent, gradual and respectful mass popular civil disobedience. That is what I would like to promote and encourage.

United We Stand, Divided We Fall. The first crucial step towards achieving human rights and democracy is unity. To achieve this goal we need to inform, unite, energize and organize our-selves into a massive empowered grass-root democracy movement, a force, not to be reckoned with.

We must come together, and stay together united, to form a grass-root political action community, independent and free from any religion, political party and ideology.

The guiding spirit of - Ethics In Action Community - is a combination of Ethical Standards And Political Spirituality. The driving force of - Ethics In Action Community - is all of us, the people.

We use politics every day in our affairs in order to function as members of our societies at large. Politics is a spiritual force connecting people and communities together. We must discover Political Spirituality and celebrate it. Political Spirituality is the necessary positive energy for the growth and development of good and constructive politics. Political Spirituality is the only means of uniting people and peacefully solving our social, political and economic problems. Political Spirituality is the one and only way to establish and maintain democracy and human rights. There are those amongst us who claim not to be political. I find that statement to be a confession of laziness and as dumb as saying I am not into oxygen, I prefer carbon dioxide.

We, the people, must remind ourselves from time to time, that without Political Spirituality, which means; constant, and relentless public persistence, public participation and determination, there will never be any true change to bring about genuine human rights and democracy!

We are the public, and if we wish to govern our-selves democratically and desire safe livable unpolluted environment, freedom, human rights and equality, we must begin building now, and when we have achieved our goals, we must guard them vigilantly.

Within a couple of weeks we are going to come together again to discuss what problem we are going to tackle first. Please prepare your suggestions and supporting arguments between now and the next meeting.

At our next meeting, all of us, the - Ethics In Action Community -, will review the submitted suggestions in order to vote and choose, which problem we are going to concentrate and focus our energy and time on, to solve.

After democratically choosing the first problem to resolve, we will focus our attention, time and energy on finding solution to that particular problem only. Once we have achieved our desired goal, we repeat the process and select the next problem to solve.

For example, come next meeting, if the majority of us agree that the events of 9/11, which are catalyst for many problems we are forced to live with today, require a more in depth and true investigation, we shall vote on the proposal and if it passes, we as an united community will focus and concentrate our efforts into achieving only that goal.

And finally, I would like to suggest that our ultimate goal should be to become a full-time, well-organized, well-disciplined and self-coordinated independent - Ethics In Action Community -. A community that can run it-self democratically, make decisions collectively and function well, without a leader.

As a community we need to consolidate our know-how, expertise, time and resources as much as we possibly can to begin assembling our - Ethics In Action Community -. From which we are going to form variety of different committees of skillful individuals who would lend their time and expertise to solve the mixture of issues and problems on our path.

Please remember to complete the one page information form you received when you entered this hall. This is a crucial form that will help build our united community. Please drop off the completed forms in the box marked - Ethics In Action - right here by the podium.

Again, thank you all, for coming, lets get united and organized.

If you have any questions or comments, please raise your hand and wait until you are recognized to speak. Please bear in mind that your questions or comments should not be more than a minute or two long, due to our time constraints. But we will do as many as time permits until nine (9) o’clock.

In the meantime, again, please don’t forget to fill out the form. Thank you.

- - Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are people who want crops without ploughing the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both. But it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and it never will. - - Said - Frederick Douglass