In the year ahead we will have the opportunity to engage with ethical questions that are specific to our coursework, and also issues that are part of our broader Carnegie Global Oregon Learning Community (C-GOLC) initiative.  An early example of the type of thing we will do outside of official class content  will be our reading and subsequent discussion of the book The Death of Innocents by Sister Helen Prejean.  Our group will meet with Sister Helen in the third week of the fall term to explore what it means to live an ethical life and make choices that are grounded in principle rather than convenience or opportunity.  Reading The Death of Innocents will not be easy—it is a book about the death penalty, and draws upon Sister Helen’s experience counseling two men who she is convinced were innocent of the crimes that resulted in their execution.  The book goes into the legal specifics of the cases in question, but it is about much more than the particular men that she describes and  their fate.   She is indicting the justice system, to be sure, but calls upon society as a whole to react to a set of problems that she argues undercut the ethical stance of our government (and to some extent organized religion) and challenge the moral character of our community much more broadly than that.  Thus we will be grappling with the ramifications of an element of crime and punishment in the United States, and we will also be dealing with the question of human rights in a national and international context, and what it means to us.  Sister Helen has been coming to the University of Oregon for the past couple of years as a visiting Presidential Scholar and will join us again this year and next, and this is a wonderful opportunity for us to engage a figure renowned for her strength, her faith, and her willingness to fight for the rights of others.  She is also a lively and provocative person, so bring your best game to our discussion, because she’s likely to challenge you, tease you, and make you THINK about some critical things—and she has a wicked sense of humor too.  A Cajun with a cause, we’ve got a fighting nun in the house!

And a recent article from the New York Times that ties together the death penalty, 9-11, Texas, and compassion – an interesting read! http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/19/us/19questions.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=the%20hated%20and%20the%20hater%20both%20touched%20by%20crime&st=cse