ORGANIZATIONS
 

         ACT UP      Following Fernando Vargas's death, I became one of the early members of this inspiring activist group
                             when it met at Peter Cooper Union

         Agnostics, Atheists, and Secular Humanists who are Infected/Affected with AIDS/HIV Illness
Following the death of Fernando Vargas, I founded this support group that at one time had 25 members,
including Michael Callen.  His group, The Flirtations, sang at the 1994 memorial we helped arrange at the
New York Society for Ethical Culture.  For Luke Stanton in 1993, the Stonewall Chorale sang and activist
Andy Humm attended at a memorial that was followed by good wine and food.  For Andrew DeMasi,
who actually had been Jesuit-trained and was listed in the White Pages as Rev. DeMasi, we demonstrated
at Trinity Lower East Side Lutheran parish, 602 East 9th St., because he had been relieved as
church organist upon their learning he had AIDS.  Meetings allowed an opportunity for everyone to share stories
about their physicians, their hospitals, their medications.  Andrew, before his death, performed a harpsichord
concert for our group and friends at another church. Luke invited some of us to meet with him the night
he planned to take certain pills in order to cease his pain, and we held hands with his companion, his sister,
and his mother, only to be telephoned by him in the morning that he was still alive, that the pills had simply
put him to sleep.  The following day he was able to carry out his wishes to be relieved of so much pain.
Unable to obtain funds or a grant for an atheist group, I as the only HIV- allowed the association to stop functioning.
Few members in 1995 were alive to continue attending. Michael Callen's positive activism lives on in the
Callen-Lorde Community Health Center, 356 West 18th Street, New York City

        ALBANIAN RATIONALISTS -  In their country, Albanian rationalists fear for their lives.  Their major
                   reference book is Who's Who in Hell and they are desperate to be able to have Internet facilities.

        Bentley School - the progressive school in Manhattan where I taught before going to Connecticut was
                    an ideal place in which to start my career

        Bertrand Russell Society - I have been a director for decades and at the 2003 conference at Lake Forest,
                     I write a skit performed by Tim Madigan (as Berty) and me on the piano (as Ludwig Wittgenstein) -
                     Ludwig found that Lord Russell could not tap 3 beats with one hand at the same time as tapping
                    4 beats with the other. We performed for three-quarters of an hour, mostly with my original
                    arrangements as well as two of my own compositions. Here is a list of the worldwide BRS groups.

        Brights - Believers in Reason Intelligence Goodness Harmony Thinking Science - in 2003 Dennis Middlebrooks and
                    Warren Allen Smith became interested in the group started in Sacramento, CA, by Paul Geisert and Mynga Futrell.

        chelCpress - From this new press, you can purchase autographed books by Warren Allen Smith at a discount,
                    using PayPal or writing a check.

        Ethical Culture

                   My involvement with the Ethical Culturists
                   My research that has been overlooked by the Ethical Culturists
                   Who is the internationally known ethicist that I have outed as being unethical?
                   The New York Society, of which I am a member

                 I have been a signer of the following manifestos:

                  Humanist Manifesto II
                  Humanist Manifesto III
        Humanist Manifesto 2000

        Freethinkers New York - the Manhattan activist group, FANNY, that keeps me into mischief

        Gay & Lesbian Humanist - the organization in England for whose journal I  have written for 10 years

        Greater New York City Chapter of the Bertrand Russell Society
                   (GNYCCBRS - pronounced gunny-CC-burs)
                   Envious of the one activist Russell Society chapter in Rochester, NY, the following were rounded up to form
                   the 2nd Bertrand Russell Society chapter.  The chapter's only officers, all presidents, are
                           
                            Rosalind Carey
                            David Goldman
                            John Lenz
                            Dennis Middlebrooks
                            John Ongley
                            Maithili Schmidt-Raghavan
                            Warren Allen Smith
                            Eric Walther
                            Thom Weidlich
                            Ruili Ye

                   Honorary Members (who live in the boondocks and are ineligible for membership):
                           
                            Alan Bock
                            Kevin Brody
                            David Henehen
                            Timothy Madigan
                            Taslima Nasrin
                            Peter Stone
                            Ibn Warraq
                            David White

                   Deceased:  Paul Edwards (December 2004)

                   Projects:

                              Timothy Madigan and Warren Allen Smith, who had been encouraging as well as helping
                                         Paul Edwards finish his final book, God and the Philosophers, searched for and
                                         discovered in February 2005 his final draft in his Manhattan apartment at the Apthorpe.
                              Placement of a plaque on the front of the 23rd Street Hotel Chelsea, noting that 2001
                                    by Sir Arthur C. Clarke had been written there
                              Proposed placement of Sidney Hook's name on the Celebrity Walk at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens
                              Assisted Taslima Nasrin in obtaining year's research fellowship at Harvard University
                              Arranged brunches for numerous visiting non-theists: John Lenz (NJ); Taslima Nasrin
                                    (woman without a country),  Frank Stone (PA); Peter Stone (CA); Ibn Warraq
                                     (pseudonymous author of Why I Am Not A Muslim whose country is withheld)
                               Arranged for the founding of the first chapter in the West Indies: 
                                         Bertrand Russell Society of Dominica
                                               Members: Dr. Basil Fadipe, surgeon
                                                                Dr. Lennox Honychurch, anthropologist
                                                                Ian Rolle, student
                                                                Precious Atika, high school teacher
                                                           
        Hume Society - I like this group and contributed to putting a statue of Hume up in Scotland

        International Humanist and Ethical Union - A life member, I particularly admire their publications and worldwide projects

        Jane Street Authors - I helped arrange a group of 23 published authors who live on my block,
                called by The Times the block with the most published authors per block in the city

        Mensa Investment Club - Mensa's oldest SIG, which I headed since its founding, then oversaw its cessation

       Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers

        Nepal's Humanist Association (HUMAN) - I have met the group's president, Dr. Gopi Upreti,
                    upon several occasions, once in Mexico,  once at the U.N. In September 2004. Recently, twelve innocent
                    Nepalese were murdered by a group calling itself the Army of Ansar al-Sunna, an Islamic terrorist group in Iraq. 
                    Read Dr. Upreti's comments.

                 On 7 February 2005, Dr. Upreti sent the following:

I presume you all know the recent political development in Nepal. The king has dismissed the
civilian government and has taken over. All fundamental rights have been suspended and
emergency declared. Political and student leaders have been arrested. it appears that king has taken
this step with the consent of American government though American government has shown concern
over the king's move. The whole country was devoid of all means of communication (telephone,
 email, internet, cellular phone) and the government has allowed internet today but we do not know
 how many days it will last. Situation is seemingly normal but undercurrent is very tense, and precarious.
We do not know at present how the situation will develop but the king has put the institution of
constitutional monarchy at a great risk.  We feel very isolated. With best wishes and personal regards
 
Gopi Upreti
HUMAN  

       Stonewall 1969


        Thomas Paine Foundation - Margaret Downey's vibrant group actively publicizes Paine, throwing birthday parties
                    at the site (Marie's Crisis, a Greenwich Village bar), where he died

        Voltaire Society - I was in on the founding of this inspiring and activist organization, started mainly by Yalies

        Draft