This webinar will assist you in uploading an existing advance care document, so your health care wishes are easily accessible to loved ones and health care providers in the event you cannot express your wishes during a serious illness or emergency.
 

"Great Decisions” is America’s largest discussion program on world affairs. The program highlights eight critical foreign policy challenges facing Americans each year. In groups across the country, participants discuss and debate each issue and complete a national opinion ballot to communicate their views to Congress and the White House. Each session will focus on one topic from the book, which must be read beforehand to ensure robust class participation.  Meeting dates are: February 18, March 4, 18, April 1, 15, 29, May 13, 27.  Registration includes use of a copy of the Great Decisions Briefing Book.  Contactless pickup from Oasis will need to be arranged. (Group participants will be from Washington Metro and Syracuse Oasis centers.)

(Note: Please join the meeting at 3 pm if you would like some assistance using the features of Zoom.  Otherwise, join us at 3:15 pm for the start of our discussion.) ‘Mockingbird’ won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1961. ‘Mockingbird’ came in first in PBS’ Great American Read in 2018.  What do you think in 2021?  Please read (or re-read) the book so you can participate in our structured, facilitated, Zoom discussion.  Author: (Nelle) Harper Lee, 1960.  Limit:  20

(Note: Please join the meeting at 3 pm if you would like some assistance using the features of Zoom.  Otherwise, join us at 3:15 pm for the start of our discussion.) Award-winner Tana French combines the genres of police procedural mysteries and psychological thrillers.  Her latest, causing quite the buzz, is a stand-alone novel adding in elements of a homage to –  of all things – the American Old Western.  Please read the book so you can participate in our structured, facilitated, Zoom discussion.  Author:  Tana French, 2020 .  Limit:  20

You will be emailed a link so that you can watch the documentary film "Holy Silence" before this class.  During the class, you will hear from the film's Emmy-nominated director Steven Pressman and have an opportunity to ask him your questions. The documentary film "Holy Silence" takes a fresh look at a topic that has sparked controversy for decades. During the years leading up to World War II, what was the Vatican's reaction to the rise of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany? And after the war began, how did the pope respond to the horrors of the Holocaust? "Holy Silence" focuses on American officials — from a humble New England priest to the president of the United States — who were working behind the scenes to influence the Vatican's actions during that dark period in modern history.

(This class has been rescheduled to January 22, 2021.) Jazz history is filled with a number of very well-known clarinetists. All of whom happen to be white. But there are indeed, some remarkable black clarinetists who are certainly due for wider recognition. Chief among them are the two virtuosi featured by Duke Ellington over his 50 year career -- Barney Bigard and Jimmy Hamilton. They are largely unknown today, partly due to their skin color and partly due to the fact that their public personas were eclipsed by that of their much more famous bandleader.

The nine people who made and make up the court presently, are human, and often bring human attributes, good or bad, to the court. We'll learn the four ways justices view the Constitution while making their decisions. We'll also learn about the worst decisions made, the ones that affect everyone, and finally the one that most likely had a large effect on the 2020 election.

What does civility mean in an era of increasing political polarization?  Does an emphasis on political discourse help or hinder the pursuit of progress and social justice?  In this class, Professor Olufemi Taiwo will discuss the role that civility has historically played in the pursuit of social justice and what it means for our nation now and in the future if civility is ignored.

A musical standard is a song that remains popular well after its original performance and setting, whether on the radio, on stage or in movies. Countless jazz and popular singers have interpreted standards from the Great American Songbook, like Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and Tony Bennett, as well as contemporary performers. Julie Kurzava will spend a morning considering different ways noted performers have made a song their own.