WINTER 2025 – JANUARY 6th – MARCH 3rd
Dunwoody United Methodist Church
No class January 20th (MLK Day)
10:00 – 11:00 CRIMINAL JUSTICE IN TROUBLING TIMES — Bob Wynn will conduct a class focusing on the U.S. Criminal Justice System. i.e., the history, evolution and implementation of criminal law in the courts. Topics such as capital punishment, sentencing, bail reform as well as events from today’s headlines will be discussed. We will also cross-reference data from the legal systems of other countries and discuss the possible reasons behind the differences. Come join us for an entertaining, insightful, enlightening, and hopefully very active discussion.
10:00 – 11:00 HATE HAS NO PLACE — Karen Colbert and Rabbi Scott Colbert will examine the history, manifestation, prevalence and consequence of anti-Semitism, the oldest hatred in the world and how it impacts our society. Utilizing cinema and discussion, we will learn terms, expressions and misconceptions that will help you recognize anti-Semitism so that you can become part of the global effort to fight it and eliminate it from our community. The class will also use this new understanding to recognize and fight other kinds of hate (LGBYQ, racism and Islamophobia) among others.
10:00 – 3:00 OPEN MAH JONGG – Bring your own Mah Jongg card and come play. There is no instructor for this weekly session.
10:00 – 12:00 OPEN CANASTA – Bring your score sheet and come play. There is no instructor for this weekly session.
11:30 – 12:30 HOAXES, IMPOSTERS, FORGERIES, FAKES AND OTHER WAYS “THEY” TRY TO FOOL “US!” — Betsy Jones asks – Do you know how to detect a “fake”, or an “imposter?” From time immemorial people have had the tendency to dupe and be duped. Some of the incidents were meticulously planned in hopes of striking it rich. A few were accidental consequences of otherwise harmless actions while others were perpetrated to be either funny or malicious, and still others were done to prove a point. We will examine a number of the more famous such incidents in history to see how they were pulled off and their consequences.
11:30 – 12:30 JANE AUSTIN ON SCREEN — MICHELE FRIEDMAN will lead a discussion of whether Jane Austen’s work was the start of the “chic lit” or had the depth of understanding of questions of moral behavior and social norms and her explorations of epistemology to be some of the most insightful in the literary canon for men and women. Come decide for yourself and enjoy her caustic wit along the way as we view her works s portrayed in the movies.
