Monday, September 24, 2018

9:30 – 10:30 MONDAY INTEREST GROUPS Please see the Bulletin page 20

BOOK DISCUSSION Heritage Room The Girl Who Wrote in Silk by Kelli Estes Discussion Leader: Sheila Lind
Estes combines history, mystery, tragedy, and
romance in her historical fiction novel. In a house on Orcas Island, the stories and secrets of two young women, a 19th-century Chinese-American and a recent college graduate, 130 years apart, unfold and force Inara Erickson to make an impossible choice.

GREAT DECISIONS Presidents’ Hall Topic: Russia
Leaders: Barbara Taft and Joyce Prudden
Under Putin, Russia is projecting an autocratic model of governance and working to destabilize democracies as evidenced with its proxy wars with the United States, Georgia, Ukraine, and Syria and interference in the United States presidential election. How should the United States respond?

HANDWORK/CRAFTS Dining Room Activity: Beading
Leader: Ann Vanvick
Make a one-of-a-kind beaded name tag or glasses holder for yourself ($5), or make one to be sold to raise funds for our branch.

KNOW YOUR DEVICE Minneapolis Room
Facilitator: Alice Heth
This users group will answer each other’s questions about smart phones,
iPads, and general technology mysteries.

10:45 – 11:45 PUBLIC POLICY
Speaker: Lonni Skrentner, Retired Advanced Placement History and Government Teacher, Past President, Edina League of Women Voters

Challenges to Voting Rights in the United States

The challenges to voting rights in the United States in 2018 are myriad. This presentation will touch on gerrymandering, the electoral college and the two party system, voter suppression, celebrity politics, polarization, and election hacking. You may wonder what some of these topics have to do with voting rights–there are links.

11:45 – Noon ANNOUNCEMENTS
12:00 – 1:15 LUNCHEON

1:15 – 2:15 EQUITY EQUALITY, AND JUSTICE

Speaker: Jefferson Morley, Author and Investigative Reporter

The CIA, James Angleton, and the “Deep State”

Is the “deep state” a conspiracy theory? Does talk of a “deep state” evoke new realities of American power that presidents exploit for their own benefit? Morley, a Washington-based journalist, answers these questions with nuance, historical perspective, and compelling storytelling drawn from his investigative reporting and books on the CIA.