​https://medium.com/humanist-voices/if-youth-knew-if-age-could-8-serendipity-luck-and-love-11d8c042b14c
 
It’s never too late to fall in love. For me love came late in life, started with serendipity, and flourished beyond my wildest expectations. You can find Mr. or Ms. Right in the most unexpected places at the most unexpected times. I even have a friend who, at 90, fell in love in an assisted living home. If you haven’t yet found a life partner, and may never, you can still have a happy life. There are many couples who are miserable together, but stay in unhappy marriages. If you find that special someone, I suggest you live together for a while until you feel certain about the relationship. Only then, consider marriage. Better to eventually split than to go through a messy divorce. I can certainly count my blessings, though no deity is involved. Love came to me in an unusual way, by running for governor of South Carolina in 1990.  I ran to challenge the provision in the state constitution that prohibited atheists from holding public office. During my campaign, I received my one and only invitation to speak at a church—the Unitarian Church in Charleston. After my talk, Sharon Fratepietro came up to me and offered to help in my campaign. 

​https://medium.com/humanist-voices/if-youth-knew-if-age-could-7-the-nature-of-nature-in-the-nature-of-time-e473c7848a48 
 
Your questions make me think of “September Song,” which begins, “Oh, it’s a long, long while from May to December, but the days grow short when you reach September.” The song is a metaphor for one year serving as a person’s life span from birth to death. (If you want to hear the song on YouTube, I recommend the Willie Nelson version.) Our perceptions of time do change as we age. When I was young a day seemed quite long, but now, at 77, when night comes I wonder why the day has seemed so short. I’m happy to still be here and I plan to make each of my remaining days meaningful. I feel that I have so much to do and so little time. I’m fortunate to have a life partner like Sharon, which brings me to more lyrics from the September Song, “Oh, the days dwindle down to a precious few. September, November. And these few precious days, I’ll spend with you. These precious days, I’ll spend with you.”
 

https://www.postandcourier.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letters-to-the-editor-readers-react-to-airport-ceo-selection/article_49033d7c-36d7-11ea-9d39-837915b0cf48.html
An article in the Jan. 26 Post and Courier reported the recent death of former California Rep. Fortney “Pete” Stark Jr. It described some of his many political accomplishments, including expanding public health care. What the article did not mention was that Stark did something unique and bold in the history of Congress. He was the first openly atheist member of Congress. In 2007, he acknowledged being an atheist in response to a questionnaire from the Secular Coalition for America, of which I was then president. 
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After that, he was publicly open about his atheism, was named Humanist of the Year in 2008 by the American Humanist Association, served on the advisory board of the Secular Coalition for America and continued to get reelected. There is now a Congressional Freethought Caucus, but we can only guess how many current members of Congress are afraid to tell the truth about their nonbelief. I’m hoping for a day when candidates’ religious beliefs matter no more than what kind of car they drive.
 
 

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https://medium.com/humanist-voices/if-youth-knew-if-age-could-6-age-is-numbers-youth-is-attitude-cd346c3c3f53
 
I’m 77 years old, and I retired in 2009 as Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at the College of Charleston. I dislike the word “retired,” which sounds like I used to be tired and now I’m tired again. I’m not really tired. What retired actually means is that I’m no longer making money for the work I do. Fortunately, I have enough money to satisfy all my needs through a reasonable pension, an investment retirement account (IRA), and Social Security, so I am able to sleep at night without worrying about paying bills. I’ve never been invested in consumerism or accumulating possessions. One of the best things about retirement for me is that I can stay busy doing things I love to do. It was easy for me to retire because my passion had turned from mathematics to secular causes. Even before retiring, it’s a good idea to volunteer your services to groups or organizations you feel are worth your time. Volunteerism is not just about helping others. It helps the volunteer, too. People are much happier in later life if they have given to others and not thought only about themselves. 

​https://medium.com/humanist-voices/if-youth-knew-if-age-could-5-we-aint-goin-nowhere-no-time-soon-supernaturalistic-traditions-dd6112861a33
You ask how young humanists can formulate their own communities. Some might want patterns of life of traditional religion without the excess cargo (theism), some are more interested in a community with a secular philosophy that has nothing to do with religion, and some might want a community that actively opposes the excesses of religion. I’ll try to address all these concerns, and begin by describing the two communities I was involved in starting. When I ran for Governor of South Carolina in 1990 to challenge the unconstitutional provision in our state constitution that prohibited atheists from holding public office, I got unsigned hate mail and anonymous phone calls. But I also received letters and calls of support and appreciation. Many had thought they were the only atheists in South Carolina, and most were closeted for fear of social and family disapproval. These isolated atheists needed a supportive community, so with my list of names I suggested meeting at the local library to see if there was interest in organizing a group. So in 1994 we formed a secular humanist group in Charleston, with a dozen founding members. Because a secular humanist group in the Bible Belt was so unusual at that time, we received considerable media attention. We would hear from people who disliked us and from people who wanted to join us. It was easily worth the trade-off.

​https://medium.com/humanist-voices/if-youth-knew-if-age-could-4-bridges-are-the-rainbows-6579c00d96d7
All 20 national member organizations of the Secular Coalition for America try to attract young people to join their organizations. Two organizations in particular focus on this: The Secular Student Alliance (SSA) and Camp Quest. SSA is dedicated to atheist, humanist, and other nontheistic students. Its goal is to empower secular students to proudly express their identity, build welcoming communities, promote secular values, and set a course for lifelong activism. Over 300 student organizations belong to the SSA, with more than 1,600 programs in schools that impact over 28,000 students. Camp Quest provides an educational summer adventure that features science, natural wonders, and humanist values. A network of Camp Quest summer camps for children and teens encourages critical thinking, skepticism and fun. Aimed at campers from atheist, agnostic, and other secular families, Camp Quest is open to campers from all worldview backgrounds. 
 

​https://medium.com/humanist-voices/if-youth-knew-if-age-could-3-coming-of-age-in-an-ever-ever-irrational-world-31a33d9c749f
 
Technology is our present and future, and young people need to embrace it. Being tech-savvy in the workplace is becoming a necessity for job seekers. Schools need to educate students for this reality so they will be able to transition into the work world. Workers presently employed need to be able to master new technology, expect frequent updates and changes to software, and learn how to stay on top of those advances. For most of human history, technological improvements were achieved by chance, trial and error, or inspiration. The modern scientific enterprise matured in the Enlightenment and concerned itself primarily with fundamental questions of nature. Research and development directed toward immediate technical application arose with the Industrial Revolution and became  commonplace in the twentieth century. Science deals with theories, principals, and laws, while technology deals with products, processes, and designs. Science has helped us gain some knowledge of the universe and make accurate predictions on future outcomes. Technology, on the other hand, has helped to simplify our work by providing us with products that help get better results in less time.

​https://medium.com/humanist-voices/if-youth-knew-if-age-could-2-freethought-for-a-multipolar-world-b48183a9430a
 
You mentioned BRIC, which is an acronym for the developing nations of Brazil, Russia, India, and China—countries that many believe will become the dominant suppliers of manufactured goods, services, and raw materials by 2050. In 2010, South Africa joined the group, making it BRICS. They then became a political organization, embracing global capitalism and cooperation among its members, hoping to influence the United States on trade policies. So what, if anything, does BRICS have to do with freethought? Countries that influence the economies in other parts of the world also tend to influence cultures there, which may include religious beliefs. 
 

​It’s not easy to choose just one person to feature as a prime example of international vision and human values, when so many come to mind. I thought about choosing Abraham Lincoln, who was responsible for ending slavery in the United States. However, he did not always have humanistic views of black people. During the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858, Lincoln said, “I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters of the negroes, or jurors, or qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people.” He added that he viewed the white race as superior to the black race.Lincoln did not differ from most white males in the North and South at the time. Even though he was an abolitionist, and despite his many other good qualities, Abraham Lincoln was a white supremacist. 
 

​https://www.newsintervention.com/silverman-jacobsen-15/
 
You mention famous American freethought individuals, some of whom might be acerbic, sardonic, read by ordinary Americans, philosophers, popularizers of science, or debunkers of irrationalism. I think all such people are useful to a freethought movement because they often represent different constituencies. I’m a “big tent” atheist who welcomes all to come out of their atheist closets to help normalize freethought in America. I’ll describe my personal journey to atheism with four examples. As a youngster, I was influenced by the movie The Wizard of Oz, where the gatekeeper told Dorothy that nobody had ever seen the great Wizard. Dorothy replied, “Then how do you know he exists?” The curtain is later pulled back to reveal that the “Wizard” is an elderly man operating machinery and speaking into a microphone. So the Wizard didn’t exist, and Dorothy was on her own. That sounded to me a lot like what I was beginning to think of God. I was also influenced by the Bible. I “knew” as a trusting child that the Bible was God’s word. But after many of my biblical questions went unanswered, I became an example of what Isaac Asimov observed, “Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived.”