Free Burma!

Today, international bloggers are uniting their message- Free Burma.

Support the non-violent protesters, Aung Sun Suu Kyi and their efforts to promote *true* democracy in Burma.

"Doh ayei! Doh ayei!"--Slogan of Burmese protesters in 1988 translated to "Its Our Task! Its Our Task!"

Petition for Peace

Last week we launched our most ambitious action campaign - aiming to gather 25,000 signatures for peace. As the signatures mounted, and I began to read the comments left behind, I crafted and sent the emails below to those who had signed. I was quite moved by the comments folks left.

September 25, 2007

Dear Friends,

Over the course of the past week you have giving me hope, made me cheer, and brought tears to my eyes. Of the 2,750 people who have signed the UU Petition for Peace, like you, many have left comments that tap the roots that feed my soul.

Sonja Johnston, the Minister of Music at the Minnesota Valley UU Fellowship for 31 years, wrote, “Every Tuesday afternoon, I, and several other members of our fellowship, hold a peace vigil at a busy street in Bloomington. The response from those driving by is 75% positive. We must end this illegal, immoral, unnecessary war NOW.”

How many of you have stood vigil?

Kelly Hardin Derwood, from the River Road UU Congregation in Bethesda, Maryland, wrote, “As a fifteen-year-old Unitarian Universalist, I am proud to represent UU youth as I sign this petition.”

How many of your children have had to witness this war?

LeAnne Notabartolo, from the UU Congregation of Las Vegas, wrote, “As a military wife whose husband has NOT been deployed (thankfully), I say, ‘bring our Troops home NOW’.”

How many of you worry when your loved ones come home late?

While the news from Capital Hill and the White House has been less than inspiring, your actions have given me hope. I know we will continue to write letters, write op-eds, stand vigil, and vote. And I believe that we will end this war.

As I see the numbers of signatures rising each day and I read your encouragement, your prayers, your pain, and your hope, I am left with the simple comment shared by Jan Taddeo, a ministerial student at Meadville Lombard, “Amen”.

September 28, 2007

Dear Friends,

Of the 4,500 who have joined you in signing the UU Petition for Peace, there are some who know this war in a way that tears down the distance between our home soil and the battlefield; between us and them; between the headlines and the heartbeat.

Karl von der Heyde of the Skylands Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in New Jersey writes, “I am a veteran of the President's war. It is a disaster. Some things are worth fighting and dying for. The pride, hubris, cultural ignorance, cowardly invasion of a country with no ties to 9/11, and a nearly totally fraudulent 'Global War on Terror' of the current President of the United States are not among the things worth fighting and dying for.”

Veterans of war are in our congregations, singing the children off to class.

Carol and Al Lloyd, members of the First Unitarian Church of Cincinnati, wrote, “We have a very personal reason for wanting to stop the war - our son is scheduled to go [to Iraq] in late January/early February. It’s terrifying.”

Parents of soldiers are in our congregations, whispering prayers by our sides.

And a man from Texas left this message after signing the petition, “I am looking to join the UUA when I return from Iraq but I support your cause and the many people like you. Thank you so much.”

There are empty seats in our congregations, hopefully they will be filled.

On October 10th, Rev. Sinkford will be carrying this petition, and all of your comments, to the powerful decision-makers in Washington DC. To reach our goal of gathering 25,000 signatures, our most ambitious advocacy goal ever, we need signatures from every congregation in the United States.

Please download the petition here and bring it to your congregation this Sunday.

October is Gender Violnce Awareness Month

October is Domestic and Sexual Violence Awareness Month in the United States. Survivors of gender violence are encouraged to wear purple ribbons and allies are encouraged to wear green. And in recognition of survivors as allies and allies as survivors, one may wear a green ribbon intertwined with purple.

While in my undergrad career at Earlham College, I was an advocate for survivors of sexual assault. I was trained to be an active listener for survivors and give them the safe space necessary for healing. I sat with folks of all genders and cried with them, breathed with them, and healed with them. Hearing how people could have such brutal disregard for the emotional and physical safety for people was haunting. This was the most worthwhile and wonderful experience of my college career. And I still hold their pain for them.

In recognition of Domestic and Sexual Violence Awareness Month, I would like to share a few statistics from the Rape Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN). These statistics are usually conservative numbers as they have been found from the 2005 National Crime Victimization Survey conducted by the US Department of Justice. Many scholars of the field believe the numbers are usually much higher then published due to the overwhelmingly low reporting of survivors.

• Every two and a half minutes, somewhere in America, someone is sexually assaulted.
• One in six American women are victims of sexual assault, and one in 33 men.
• Approximately 60% of all cases of gender violence are not reported.
• 98% of all survivors know their attacker.
• 95% of all sexual assaults involve drugs or alcohol.


If you or some one you know needs help, please call for help. It is never too late. Call the National Sexual Assault Hotline 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). It is free, confidential and always open.

Find a safe place. Go to a family or friend’s house. If you are unable to, please find a local shelter here.

And if you are an ally for a survivor, please find someone to share your feelings in a safe, confidential setting. 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) is open for allies and supporters of survivors. “Good Listeners need Good Listeners”.

We Shall Overcome!

This is an auspicious time for people’s movements. Here at home, we saw the massive mobilization of people from all over the United States to march in protest of the inequalities in the overtly racist system of “justice” in Jena, Louisiana. This has brought the attention of the American people to the corrupt underpinnings of the judicial system. And with the 50th anniversary of the Little Rock Nine, we realize we have so much further to go.

Halfway across the planet, in the Southeast Asian country of Myanmar (Burma), we see the non-violent demonstrations of thousands led by Buddhist Monks and Noble Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

From the BBC:
“Five columns of monks, one reportedly stretching for more than 1km (0.6 miles), entered the city centre to cheers and applause from thousands of bystanders. Civilians who joined in pinned small pieces of monks' robes on to their clothing, some of them weeping, and turnout estimates range from 50,000 to 100,000.”

And now, the Myanamese military government is warning the protesters that they are now able to “take action” against the movement leaders—an ominous statement. The representatives have encouraged members of the military to put down their weapons and join the marches (an echoing of the 1999 Serbian military participating in non-violent anti-Milosevic protests).

And, less than an hour ago, thousands of General Motors workers walked out of the Bowling Green, KY factory on strike. Demanding increased job security and compensation, United Autoworkers have called a general strike.

The amount of faith and dedication in order to participate in a people’s movement is immense. Whether it is standing up to a Junta or an Oligarchy, to put your life and livelihood on the line for the sake of the community is one of the most difficult things one can do. We look to the dedication of those who come before us, just as the Little Rock Nine did, to give us the courage to continue in the struggle.

Our Biggest Action Ever!

On October 10th, The Rev. Bill Sinkford--President of the Unitarian Universalist Association--will be walking the halls of congress with the Rev. John Thomas--President of the United Church of Christ--to lobby for peace in our time.

And they want to take you with them!

The UUA and the UCC are gathering signatures from their members to show to members of Congress.

The high, but reachable, goal the UUA has set for itself is 25,000 signatures. That is 10% of the entire UUA.

If you want to add your name to list of people who want Congress to end this war, please sign our petition.

It will only take a minute to know that you are among the thousands of faithful people who want to see an end to this war in Iraq. Let's show Congress what liberal, religious people can do together!

Baghdad 2007=Belfast 1987

Last night, President Bush announced that he would follow the recommendations of Gen. David Patraeus and would allow a reduction of troops by more than thirty thousand. There is a lot of renewed energy in the office after this. Our celebration is hard earned. However, we know we still know there is a lot of hard work to do.

The thing that sticks out to me most is Bush’s claim that we need to stay in Iraq in order to end sectarian violence. In my experience, that is only setting us up for failure. Reconciliation cannot be completed at the end of a gun. It involves faith and trust. This is something I learned from my time in Northern Ireland.

While the issues in Iraq today differ from the issues of Northern Ireland in the 70’s and 80’s, not by much. The questions of self determinacy, leadership and equal rights under the law all remain the same. And Bush’s tactics of treating a sectarian civil war as an international conflict rather than a national security issue eerily resemble the Thatcher era of the 1980’s. When Thatcher was Prime Minister of the UK, she increased troop levels in the province and imprisoned massive amounts of paramilitary leaders on both sides. What we witnessed was increased violence and resentment. A look at sectarian killings and apathy toward the British and Irish governments were at an all-time high.

It was not until the success of the Labor Party in the early 1990’s and the withdrawal of British troops in Ulster that we saw the decrease of sectarian killings. Ultimately, it took the ending of a military occupation in order to have the Irish Republican Army and the Ulster Volunteer Force to permanently disarm, ten years after the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement of 1997. This has allowed home rule to return to Northern Ireland and a recommitment of its citizens to participate in voluntary reconciliation.

During my time in Northern Ireland, I worked with a NGO that focused on reconciliation among young people. I heard heart wrenching stories from folks who lived through the “Troubles” of the 1980’s. Stories in which their homes were raided in the middle of the night by British Troops and Police. Stories in which instead of fighting back, the parents would ask the troops if they would like a cup of tea or water. Stories of faith that those who were rummaging through their personal belongings were good people.

As long as the Iraqi—and in this case, actual Iraqis—people are fighting over who is in power, this is not our fight. This is a political issue, not a military one. We have a responsibility to aid the Iraqis find their self determinance. We must give the support to rebuild their infrastructure. We must find a way for us to love one another. But we cannot do it at the end of a M16 rifle. We must admit to ourselves that Jeffersonian Democracy is not a proper fit for the people of Iraq. And we must give them the room to find it for themselves.

The Return of the OPPP

To the UU Peaceniks, my apologies for not keeping up with the “old style” posts. A series of Monday-less weeks and a discussion of what the Washington Office Blog will look like in the not-to-distant future has made it difficult to continue with the UU peacemaking blog posts.

They will return on Monday. Or will they?

I would like some feedback. Is the intro to Peace Theory interesting at all? Is it helpful? It seems the hits for those posts are very low. This makes me think that I am the only one enjoying the One Page Peace Posts. Fine if they are. I’ll stop. I can do more social commentary and storytelling.

But, if people are finding the posts helpful for their own discernment of peace in the UUA, then let me know. I’ll be happy to keep it up.

To quote Igor from “Young Frankenstein”: Suit yourself! I’m easy!