MEETINGS
The February 12, 2019 meeting took place at the Torrington Country Club. We we indeed fortunate to have Akhil Amar, Professor of Law at Yale University, as speaker for the combined Winter Meeting of the Yale Club of NW CT and the Litchfield County University Club.
For the first time in our lifetime—and for one of the few times in modern history—all four major federal institutions of power were in play in the 2016 election. When the two national conventions met that year, Democrats had a real chance to win control of the House, Senate, Presidency, and Supreme Court. Instead, the Republicans swept the field and emerged in control of all four institutions, even though Donald Trump lost the (legally irrelevant) national popular presidential vote. Today, as a result of the 2018 midterm elections, divided government has returned; like every president since Lyndon Johnson except Jimmy Carter, the current president will have to confront a House of Representatives controlled by the opposing party.
In this talk, based in part on his latest book, The Constitution Today, Yale Law Professor Akhil Reed Amar discussed the constitutional significance of some of these developments and touched upon a wide range of modern cases and controversies—from gun control to gay rights, from the electoral college to presidential succession, from campaign finance to filibuster reform, from presidential impeachments to judicial nominations. Question were asked about America’s constitutional system—past, present, and future.
Past Meetings:
The members of the University Club of Litchfield County gathered for a dinner and speaker affair at the Litchfield Inn on January 31st at the joint winter meeting with the Yale Club of Northwestern Connecticut. A brisk winter evening brought out the amiable members to socialize, eat good food, and listen together to a fascinating presentation entitled Journey of the Universe, by Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim, Yale Professors in the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and the Divinity School.
(L to R) John Grim, Mary Evelyn Tucker and LCUC president , Jake Horne
The presentation was a brief summation of their work, research, and teaching, which offers a worldview blending ecology, science and religion together in the contemporary world. They have been presenting their work in schools, colleges and in public forums over the past decade. The members were fascinated and had a good many questions, expanding on the presentation.
The Winter meeting wasn’t a business meeting but President Jake Horne injected a brief note to the gathering that there LCUC will be using the upcoming year to reflect and develop an updated mission that reflects the realities faced by the Club and the evolving needs of students.
More to come, as Jake Horne and the Board look to members to participate in this reflection exercise.
The LCUC Summer meeting is a combined dinner and business meeting. No date has been set yet, though it may well be in June. The date of that meeting will be set in the next month or so.
Have a wonderful Spring, and looking forward to a lovely summer.
Journey of the Universe: An Evolutionary Cosmology
Journey of the Universe narrates a 14 billion year story of universe unfolding, from the origin moment to planetary life. This is one telling of an epic story intended to inspire both awe and action through fusing the sciences and the humanities. Such an evolutionary cosmology encourages rethinking how humans are part of a macro scale universe, even as it promotes local practices creating biodiverse cultures, economies, and politics on the micro scale.
The Journey film and book invite us to reflect on our role and responsibility to the flourishing of communities within evolutionary cosmology. How can the life of ecosystems and species be enhanced by humans, not irrevocably damaged? The Journey Conversations explore in what ways humans can contribute to the “great work” of building sustainable cities, resilient food systems, ecological economies, and alternative energies. As planetary citizens we are asking: How can our creativity be aligned with Earth’s creativity?
John Grim and Mary Evelyn Tucker
Tucker and Grim are the executive producers of the Emmy award winning film, Journey of the Universe. Tucker wrote the film script and book with Brian Swimme.
They are Co-Directors of the Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale, together organized a series of ten conferences on World Religions and Ecology at Harvard and edited the ten volume series from the conferences distributed by Harvard University Press.
We urge you to visit the website: Journeyoftheuniverse.org
Meetings History
In the early years of the Club, the dinner meetings were sumptuous black tie affairs, catered until 1923 by Delmonico’s of New York. Then, as now, there were two dinner meetings a year, usually in the summer and winter, held at clubs, banquet facilities or at one of the several preparatory schools located within the county. There is always a speaker or some entertainment. Speakers are usually persons in education, foreign affairs, history, government, the environment or another field of current interest.
The most recent Annual Meeting of the Litchfield County University Club was held on July 27, 2017 at the Litchfield Country Club. The evening began at 6:00pm with an open bar followed by dinner at 7:00. At about 8:00 the featured speaker, Emery Roth, gave an excellent presentation on the demise of the American brass industry. For four years he has been photographing the last functioning brass mill and the men at their work. At their apex of success, the Naugatuck Valley was full of old mill towns which brought skilled labor to the area and changed the landscape forever. Mr. Roth told an intriguing story of how it all came to be.