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Adapted from his book, Nonbeliever Nation: “Today’s culture wars are more heated than ever. Education, public policy, and the separation between church and state have become a battlefield, and many are frustrated with the success the Religious Right has had in shaping the national agenda, from putting the brakes on gay marriage in California to stripping textbooks in Texas of references to Thomas Jefferson. But today, a growing nonreligious minority, nearly 20 percent of Americans, are finally organizing and taking explicit political positions.”. In Nonbeliever Nation, Niose argues that America was never in fact a Christian nation and shows how the Religious Right successfully took control of the social and political narrative.”

This program will look at two portraits of North Korea today: first through the eyes of the best-selling fiction book The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson, and second through the eyes of the award-winning non-fiction book Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick. Reports from people who have grown up in North Korea and escaped depict an Orwellian society where tens of thousands of Koreans are imprisoned and routinely beaten, neighbor turns against neighbor, and people are imprisoned almost by whim. What can we really say is true based on first person accounts and recent newspaper reports? Leslie Ashmore will discuss these issues. Ms. Ashmore has read about North Korea, written a book review of  The Orphan Master’s Son, and spoken to Adam Johnson about his recent visit to this troubled and troubling nation.

 

Novella Coleman, Criminal Justice and Drug Policy Fellow, ACLU Foundation of Northern California will compare and contrast the drug policies of the Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties.

The slides for her excellent presentation are now available.