Registration is now open for the next Annual Ethics Education Series course sponsored by the Semper Vi Foundation. The course will have interest to those involved in research and its administration in a diversity of interdisciplinary areas.
The course is entitled, “The Legacy of ‘The Lucky Few:’ Learning to Serve the Needy Many.” The course summary is found below. The course will honor the 40th anniversary of the rescue of 30,000 refugees by the USS Kirk at the Fall of Saigon in April 1975. The course will explore the importance of this anniversary for contemporary social justice and human rights issues in the US and across the globe.
The course will be held on Friday, September 11, 2015 from 12:30pm to 4:30pm at the Barbara Donnellan Auditorium of the Arlington County Library in Arlington, Virginia. The course is free and open to all who register. Seating is limited to the first 180 registrants. Registration is required.
Please note: Due to limited seating, only register if you are truly sure of attending.
At this time, the course directors are exploring the possibility of continuing education credit hours (CME/CNE/CEUs). More information will be forwarded if and when it becomes available.
The course agenda, faculty, and the registration link are found at:
Finally, special thanks to Ms. Vicky McCaffrey of the Arlington Library for her executive leadership in securing our new location. Our continuing thanks also to Mr. Zach Slocum of CrypticTruth, Inc, for his generous webmaster expertise.
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Summary:
On April 30, 1975, the USS Kirk launched a critically important mission of humanitarian assistance and wartime relief. The USS Kirk led, directed, and successfully secured the rescue of 30,000 refugees fleeing from Vietnam at the fall of Saigon. This story is one of the great historical moments of human caring that is always at the center of the mission of our United States Armed Forces. This amazing historical story is captured in the documentary, “The Lucky Few,” produced by Navy Medicine in 2010 under the genius of Mr. Jan Herman. Though this documentary was premiered in our annual ethics series in 2010, its impact is critically important today and always will be. The crew of the USS Kirk rescued those who were refugees fleeing from terror and looking for life, liberty, freedom, and happiness. But where might we find the refugees of our own time? How do we recognize them today and tomorrow? Do we realize that the “refugee experience” is not limited only to those who are escaping from wartime in remote areas of the world? Do we realize that the experience of being a refugee may be the internal quest within an individual looking for freedom from interior terrors of self-hatred, stigma, isolation, or the result of violence? How do we hear those who are suffering? And how are we being called to rescue these women, men, and children --- perhaps even in our own neighborhoods? This ethics course is dedicated to honoring the outstanding heroism of the USS Kirk’s crew and leaders. Just as deeply, the course will explore how their heroism is for us now a challenge to hear, see and raise up our arms to rescue those who suffer today, those whose cries pierce the nighttime and call to us to set them free.