The issue at hand.

ALTHOUGH I DON'T think I've ever heard a swan sing, that's what I'm doing with this issue of the Humanist. It represents the completion of a twelve-year editorship that began with the November/December 1994 issue. Years earlier I'd been guest editor of the January/February 1987 issue under Lloyd Morain and, during the surrounding years, had also been a regular columnist, occasional contributor, occasional copyeditor, and the business manager.

But now I'm moving on to new duties in the American Humanist Association. As the organization's new director of communications, I will focus my energies on getting Humanist ideas into the mainstream media and elsewhere. Thus, rather than directing my efforts toward serving an expanding Humanist readership. I'll shift my emphasis to bringing Humanist ideas to a wider public. But this won't preclude my still preaching to the choir now and again: I'll be writing off and on for the Humanist and speaking frequently to Humanist groups.

Succeeding me as editor will be Jennifer Bardi, who has worked closely with me and other staff on this issue of the magazine and will introduce herself to you in the next. But, as I look ahead, I think you should prepare yourself for some fresh developments that have only been hinted at up to now.

Which brings me to the contents of this issue of the Humanist. At the AHA's 65th Annual Conference, held this past May in Tampa, Florida, a stellar lineup of awardees and speakers addressed a Humanist audience from all over the United States. Two of the honorees appear in this issue, with more to follow. Humanist Business Leader Louis J. Appignani offers a sobering wakeup call as to where the United States is headed after the hard right turn fostered by the administration of George W Bush, and how the rest of the world has become a different place as well. Humanist of the Year Steven Pinker, operating from a firm evolutionary perspective, leads us away from some popular, but erroneous, explanations for the ubiquitous presence and persistence of religious belief. In answering the oft asked Humanist question: "We know religion is irrational, so why is it so widespread?" Pinker points us in an unexpected direction.

From a personal perspective, former Bible college student and minister's wife Charlene Cross tells how Isaac Newton's third law of motion produced in her a sudden and unexpected liberation from Christian fundamentalism. And Doug Muder shows that an overabundance of Humanist caring and altruistic devotion, in an absence of self-knowledge, can lead to needless unhappiness.

Applying the personal to the political, journalist James A. Mitchell provides an intimate view of the realities experienced by child soldiers in Sri Lanka's civil war. And Sociologist Anita Micossi takes us behind the headlines to glimpse the daily sacrifices and triumphs of the Cuban people--bearing witness to their unsung political involvement in democratic local government.

Such articles as these sum up the sort of variety I've sought to provide during my tenure as your editor--taking you from the international to the national, the political to the personal, the philosophical to the artistic, the serious to the humorous. I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have.