[act-ma] Cambridge Forum Announces Winter 2015 Program Schedules

[director at cambridgeforum.org]

Cambridge Forum
Program Schedule
Wednesdays at 7:00 pm.   **(unless otherwise noted)
First Parish in Cambridge
3 Church Street
Harvard Square
Cambridge, MA 02138

Winter-Spring 2015

The Health of American Democracy

Cambridge Forum explores the role of government in promoting what the
Constitution calls the “general welfare.”  What role does the idea
of  the common good and community benefit have in a healthy democracy? 
What is the place of individual liberty?  What is the appropriate balance
between power and responsibility?  Speakers examine some of the most
critical threats to a healthy democracy, from social and economic
inequality to outright disenfranchisement, in contemporary America and
discuss the ways that citizens can work together effectively to create the
society they want.

January 21   Duel Over Dinner: President Washington’s Clash with
Governor John Hancock Over State Sovereignty

Historian TIMOTHY BREEN explores one of the first disagreements over the
power relationship between federal and state governments.   In 1789
George Washington returned to Massachusetts for the first time since 1776,
as part of his tour of all the states that had adopted the Constitution and
elected him President of the United States. Most places welcomed Washington
with pomp and ceremony, including Boston which organized a grand parade.
Yet Washington found himself at odds with his old colleague John Hancock,
oft-elected governor of Massachusetts. Who was the higher authority, the
governor of a state or the chief executive of this new federal union? What
did the arrangement those two statesmen worked out mean for the conflicts
over states' rights that persist till today?

/Co-sponsored by the National Park Service, Longfellow Gouse-Washington’s
Headquarters National Historic Site and the Friends of the Longfellow
House-Washington’s Headquarters with support from the Massachusetts
Society of the Cincinnati./

Books: /The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped
American Independence/ (Oxford University Press, 2004) and
 / American Insurgents, American Patriots: The Revolution of the People/
(Hill & Wang, 2010)

January 28  The Health of Democracy: The Role of the Media

A free press and public access to information and a broad range of ideas
and opinions were considered so essential for a healthy democratic republic
that the Founders included protection for freedom of the press in the First
Amendment to the Constitution.  ALEX JONES, director of Harvard’s
Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, and CHARLES
SENNOTT, founder of Global Post and The GroundTruth Project, assess how
today’s press–print and electronic–is carrying out its mission. 
Where do current threats to a free press come from?  How can citizens
inform themselves in today’s media environment?

T/his program is funded in part by a grant from MassHumanities./

**Friday, January 30 @ 7:30 Pete Seeger Sing Out Tribute

Cambridge Forum celebrates Pete Seeger and the power of music with this
tribute Sing Out concert.  Join host SCOTT ALARIK and an all-star group of
artists, including Sol y Canto founders ROSI AND BRIAN AMADOR, CATIE
CURTIS, bluesman GUY DAVIS, MAGPIE, THE LONELY HEARTSTRING BAND, ELLEN
KUSHNER, ALASTAIR MOOCK, ROBBIE O'CONNELL, and FRED SMALL for an evening of
song and stories paying tribute to the legendary Pete Seeger.

This is a ticketed program.  All proceeds benefit Cambridge Forum.
In Advance:  $20 (general admission); $18 (Cambridge Forum members); At
the Door:  $25.
Order tickets at www.cambridgeforum.org

February 11  The Health of Democracy: Social Immobility and Civic
Participation

Economist RANDY ALBELDA examines the rise in U.S. social immobility and the
role that contemporary  labor conditions have played in limiting
Americans’ expectations to do better than their parents’ generation. 
Union organizer JOEY MOKOS responds by discussing the ways that the modern
union movement is responding to changes in our worklife.  What role does
social mobility play in a healthy democracy?  Is faith in
progress--personal and  societal--a necessary condition for civic
engagement? 

/This program is funded in part by a grant from MassHumanities/.
-- 
Cambridge Forum
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Cambridge, MA 02138
617-495-2727
www.cambridgeforum.org