Session 1 Water Park Inferno
The suspected dust explosion at the Formosa Fun Coast (八仙海岸) water park in New Taipei City’s Bali District (八里) on Saturday evening, that injured nearly 500 people, mostly in their teens and 20s, has left many parents distraught and heartbroken.
Horrifying amateur video footage showed crowds of young revelers, some dressed in swimwear, dancing in front of a stage and cheering as clouds of green and yellow powder covered them, only for their joy to turn to terror when the powder suddenly erupted into flames, engulfing them in an inferno as they ran screaming for their lives.
Witnesses described the scene at the water park as “hell” when the fireball ripped through the crowd.
“Everyone was screaming and there was blood everywhere. The waterway [used for inflatable boat rides] was filled with blood because everyone was dipping themselves in it,” as they attempted to soothe their burns, said a young man who witnessed the tragedy.
“I saw lots of people whose skin was gone,” another witness said.
“It started on the left side of the stage. At the beginning, I thought it was part of the special effects, but then I realized there was something wrong when people started screaming and running,” a male witness said.
Ambulances struggled to reach the scene and victims were carried away on rubber rings and inflatable dinghies as friends desperately tried to get them help.
Bystanders poured bottles of water on the scorched skin of the injured and trails of bloody footprints could be seen leading away from the stage.
Questions
1.Before this 八仙 Water Park Inferno happened, were you aware that dust can cause explosion? Some people said this is a common sense. Do you agree?
2.Who do you think should be held the most accountability for this dust explosion tragedy? Event Organizer? Water Park Owner? Government?
3.What lesson do you learn from this tragedy?
Session 2 Same Sex Marriage
Washington (CNN) In a historic 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down same-sex marriage bans across the country.
Justice Anthony Kennedy voted to affirm that same-sex marriage is a right along with the other four liberal justices and read the Court's opinion.
Here are some highlights from the Court's opinion:
1."No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than they once were."
2."The nature of marriage is that, through its enduring bond, two persons together can find other freedoms, such as expression, intimacy, and spirituality. This is true for all persons, whatever their sexual orientation."
3."It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization's oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right”
4."The right of same-sex couples to marry that is part of the liberty promised by the Fourteenth Amendment is derived, too, from that Amendment's guarantee of the equal protection of the laws."
5."A third basis for protecting the right to marry is that it safeguards children and families and thus draws meaning from related rights of childrearing, procreation, and education."
6."As all parties agree, many same-sex couples provide loving and nurturing homes to their children, whether biological or adopted. And hundreds of thousands of children are presently being raised by such couples."
7."Without the recognition, stability, and predictability marriage offers, their children suffer the stigma of knowing their families are somehow lesser. They also suffer the significant material costs of being raised by unmarried parents, relegated through no fault of their own to a more difficult and uncertain family life. The marriage laws at issue here thus harm and humiliate the children of same-sex couples."
8. "This does not mean that the right to marry is less meaningful for those who do not or cannot have children. Precedent protects the right of a married couple not to procreate, so the right to marry cannot be conditioned on the capacity or commitment to procreate."
Each of the four conservative justices wrote their own dissent but Justice Antonin Scalia's is the most blistering.
1."The Supreme Court of the United States has descended from the disciplined legal reasoning of John Marshall and Joseph Story to the mystical aphorisms of the fortune cookie."
2."I write separately to call attention to this Court's threat to American democracy."
3."The substance of today's decree is not of immense personal importance to me ... It is of overwhelming importance, however, who it is that rules me. Today's decree says that my Ruler, and the Ruler of 320 million Americans coast-to-coast, is a majority of the nine lawyers on the Supreme Court."
4."Until the courts put a stop to it, public debate over same-sex marriage displayed American democracy at its best. The five Justices who compose today's majority are entirely comfortable concluding that every State violated the Constitution for all of the 135 years between the Fourteenth Amendment's ratification and Massachusetts' permitting of same-sex marriages in 2003.”
5."Who ever thought that intimacy and spirituality [whatever that means] were freedoms? And if intimacy is, one would think Freedom of Intimacy is abridged rather than expanded by marriage. Ask the nearest hippie. Expression, sure enough, is a freedom, but anyone in a long-lasting marriage will attest that that happy state constricts, rather than expands, what one can prudently say."
We will have a debate.
Debate Question: Should Taiwan legalize same sex marriage?
( I guess most of our members support same sex marriage, so 徵求當反對方的參與者!!!)
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Agenda:
6:45 ~ 7:00pm Greetings & Free Talk / Ordering Beverage or Meal / Getting Newcomer’s Information
7:00 ~ 7:10pm Opening Remarks / Newcomer’s Self-introduction / Grouping
(Session I)
7:10 ~ 7:50pm Discussion Session (40 mins)
7:50 ~ 8:10pm Summarization (20 mins)
8:10 ~ 8:25pm Regrouping / Instruction Giving / Taking a 10 Minutes Break (Intermission)
(Session II)
8:25 ~ 9:05pm Discussion Session (40 mins)
9:05 ~ 9:25pm Summarization (20 mins)
9:25 ~ 9:30pm Concluding Remarks / Announcements ********************************************************************************************************************************************
聚會日期：列於該貼文主題內
聚會時間：當天請準時於 6:45 pm 到達 ~ 約 9:30 pm 左右結束
星期二聚會地點：丹堤濟南店
地址、電話：台北市濟南路三段25號 (02) 2740-2350
捷運站：板南線 忠孝新生站 3 號出口
走法：出忠孝新生站 3 號出口後，沿著巷子(忠孝東路三段10巷)走約 2 分鐘，到了濟南路口，左轉走約 2 分鐘即可看到。
最低消費： 80 元
注意事項：
1. 文章是否需要列印請自行斟酌，但與會者請務必自行列印 Questions for discussion。
2. 與會者請先閱讀過文章，並仔細想過所有的問題，謝謝合作！
給新朋友的話：
1. 請事先準備 2~3 分鐘的英語自我介紹；會議結束前可能會請你發表 1~2 分鐘的感想。
2. 請事先閱讀文章以及主持人所提的討論問題，並事先寫下自己所欲發表意見的英文。
3. 全程以英語進行，參加者應具備中等英語會話能力，對任一討論問題，能夠以 5 到 10 句英文表達個人見解。
4. 在正式加入之前，可以先來觀摩三次，觀摩者亦須參與討論。正式加入需繳交終身會費 NT$1,000。
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