Indian Student Association cordially invites you to join us for Festival of Colors – Holi…! All Indians celebrate this festival over the world with bonfires on the eve of the festival and on the day of the festival everyone plays with water and herbal colors. Celebrate this day with us with laughter and to signify victory of good over evil.Event: Festival of Colors – HoliDate: Saturday, March 31, 2012 @ 12:00 PM – 3:00 PMPlace: Gorilla Lake*Refreshment will be served and no entry fees
Category Archives: Philosophy/Religion
Extra Credit Opportunity: Sister Helen Prejean
The Pittsburg State University Performing Arts and Lecture Series concludes its 2011-12 season on Friday, March 30, with a free lecture by Sister Helen Prejean, the author of “Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States.” Sister Prejean will speak at 7 p.m. in Pittsburg’s Memorial Auditorium.
Sister Helen PrejeanSister Prejean, a Catholic nun from Louisiana, became the spiritual adviser to convicted killer Patrick Sonnier and witnessed his execution. In 1993, she wrote of that life-changing experience in a Pulitzer-Prize nominated book, “Dead Man Walking.” The book, which topped the New York Times list for 31 weeks, was adapted by director and producer Tim Robbins for an Oscar-nominated film in 1996 featuring Susan Sarandon as Sister Prejean and Sean Penn as the death-row inmate.
A Nobel Prize-nominated activist and advocate, Sister Prejean has witnessed multiple executions and describes herself as “an ordinary person who got involved in extraordinary events.” As the founder of Survive, a victim’s advocacy group in New Orleans, she continues to counsel not only inmates on death row, but the families of murder victims, as well.
In conjunction with Sister Prejean’s Pittsburg appearance, the PSU Theatre will present the stage version of “Dead Man Walking” April 26-29 in the PSU Studio Theatre.
Admission to the lecture on March 30 is free, but tickets are required. Tickets may be obtained at the PSU Ticket Office in the Overman Student Center (620-235-4796) or at the door the evening of the lecture, based on availability. All seating is general admission.
For information, please contact Campus Activities at 620-235-4795.
Ibn Khaldun on History
“It should be known that history, in matter of fact, is information about human social organization, which itself is identical with world civilization. It deals with such conditions affecting the nature of civilization as, for instance, savagery and sociability, group feelings, and the different ways by which one group of human beings achieves superiority over another. It deals with royal authority and … with the different kinds of gainful occupations and ways of making a living, with the sciences and crafts that human beings pursue as part of their activities and efforts, and with all the other institutions that originate in civilization through its very nature.” — Ibn Khaldun of Tunis (d. 1406) The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History, (trans. Franz Rosenthal, Routledge 1958) v. 1, p. 71, cited in Civilization (11e), 217.
Extra Credit Opportunity: Philosophy Lecture on Ethics of Organ Procurement
The PSU Philosophical Society would like to welcome all PSU students, faculty, staff and member of the community to our first talk of the 2011-2012 PSU Philosophical Society Annual Speaker Series. Our first talk of this academic year is by Dr. Mark Price (Columbia College). Dr. Price an Associate Professor of Philosophy and chair of the Humanities Department. He specializes in bioethics. His talk here at PSU is entitled, “Mandatory Cadaver Organ Procurement”. It will be held on Monday, September 19, 2011 in Russ Hall 409 at 6:00 pm.“Mandatory Cadaver Organ Procurement”The scarcity of viable organs for life-saving transplants remains a matter of serious concern. The United States and most other western countries rely upon an “opt in” policy whereby individuals must indicate that they are donors. Even then, family members of the potential donor are carefully asked whether they would like to have their loved one’s organs harvested for donation. Commonly, the answer is “no” and that veto is respected even though the deceased had previously indicated her desire to be a donor.Policy changes of various sorts have been suggested in the recent dialogue from presumed consent with “opt out” opportunities to commodification to mandatory procurement. Obviously, mandatory procurement would result in the largest gain in available organs. At the same time, because it involves a limitation on posthumous autonomy, it is morally problematic.