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.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Friday, September 21, 2007
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!
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!
Friday, September 14, 2007
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 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.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
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!
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!
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
What all schoolchildren learn
I was going to write about the anniversary today. But the UU Blogosphere is littered with them. And yet another post about where I was and how I felt and what I did and all the work that needs to be done is...well...redundant.
So I will let my favorite poet say what I feel in my heart. Because, the story remains the same. Whether it be six years or sixty-eight.
People are tired of war.
September 1, 1939
by W. H. Auden
I sit in one of the dives
On Fifty-second Street
Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire
Of a low dishonest decade:
Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth,
Obsessing our private lives;
The unmentionable odour of death
Offends the September night.
Accurate scholarship can
Unearth the whole offence
From Luther until now
That has driven a culture mad,
Find what occurred at Linz,
What huge imago made
A psychopathic god:
I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return.
Exiled Thucydides knew
All that a speech can say
About Democracy,
And what dictators do,
The elderly rubbish they talk
To an apathetic grave;
Analysed all in his book,
The enlightenment driven away,
The habit-forming pain,
Mismanagement and grief:
We must suffer them all again.
Into this neutral air
Where blind skyscrapers use
Their full height to proclaim
The strength of Collective Man,
Each language pours its vain
Competitive excuse:
But who can live for long
In an euphoric dream;
Out of the mirror they stare,
Imperialism's face
And the international wrong.
Faces along the bar
Cling to their average day:
The lights must never go out,
The music must always play,
All the conventions conspire
To make this fort assume
The furniture of home;
Lest we should see where we are,
Lost in a haunted wood,
Children afraid of the night
Who have never been happy or good.
The windiest militant trash
Important Persons shout
Is not so crude as our wish:
What mad Nijinsky wrote
About Diaghilev
Is true of the normal heart;
For the error bred in the bone
Of each woman and each man
Craves what it cannot have,
Not universal love
But to be loved alone.
From the conservative dark
Into the ethical life
The dense commuters come,
Repeating their morning vow;
"I will be true to the wife,
I'll concentrate more on my work,"
And helpless governors wake
To resume their compulsory game:
Who can release them now,
Who can reach the deaf,
Who can speak for the dumb?
All I have is a voice
To undo the folded lie,
The romantic lie in the brain
Of the sensual man-in-the-street
And the lie of Authority
Whose buildings grope the sky:
There is no such thing as the State
And no one exists alone;
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.
Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.
From Another Time by W. H. Auden, published by Random House. Copyright © 1940 W. H. Auden, renewed by The Estate of W. H. Auden. Used by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd.
So I will let my favorite poet say what I feel in my heart. Because, the story remains the same. Whether it be six years or sixty-eight.
People are tired of war.
September 1, 1939
by W. H. Auden
I sit in one of the dives
On Fifty-second Street
Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire
Of a low dishonest decade:
Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth,
Obsessing our private lives;
The unmentionable odour of death
Offends the September night.
Accurate scholarship can
Unearth the whole offence
From Luther until now
That has driven a culture mad,
Find what occurred at Linz,
What huge imago made
A psychopathic god:
I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return.
Exiled Thucydides knew
All that a speech can say
About Democracy,
And what dictators do,
The elderly rubbish they talk
To an apathetic grave;
Analysed all in his book,
The enlightenment driven away,
The habit-forming pain,
Mismanagement and grief:
We must suffer them all again.
Into this neutral air
Where blind skyscrapers use
Their full height to proclaim
The strength of Collective Man,
Each language pours its vain
Competitive excuse:
But who can live for long
In an euphoric dream;
Out of the mirror they stare,
Imperialism's face
And the international wrong.
Faces along the bar
Cling to their average day:
The lights must never go out,
The music must always play,
All the conventions conspire
To make this fort assume
The furniture of home;
Lest we should see where we are,
Lost in a haunted wood,
Children afraid of the night
Who have never been happy or good.
The windiest militant trash
Important Persons shout
Is not so crude as our wish:
What mad Nijinsky wrote
About Diaghilev
Is true of the normal heart;
For the error bred in the bone
Of each woman and each man
Craves what it cannot have,
Not universal love
But to be loved alone.
From the conservative dark
Into the ethical life
The dense commuters come,
Repeating their morning vow;
"I will be true to the wife,
I'll concentrate more on my work,"
And helpless governors wake
To resume their compulsory game:
Who can release them now,
Who can reach the deaf,
Who can speak for the dumb?
All I have is a voice
To undo the folded lie,
The romantic lie in the brain
Of the sensual man-in-the-street
And the lie of Authority
Whose buildings grope the sky:
There is no such thing as the State
And no one exists alone;
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.
Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.
From Another Time by W. H. Auden, published by Random House. Copyright © 1940 W. H. Auden, renewed by The Estate of W. H. Auden. Used by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd.
Friday, September 7, 2007
Interfaith Fast Day for Peace
I would just like to take a moment to announce that tomorrow marks the the one month point until the Interfaith Fast Day for Peace.
I would like to personally invite you to join thousands of faithful activists all over the United States who will be putting their bodies and wills to the test in the name of peace and justice.
Keep posted for more information as it comes.
You can also find more information at http://interfaithfast.org
And check out our frappr map at http://www.frappr.com/?a=constellation_map&mapid=137440072690
I would like to personally invite you to join thousands of faithful activists all over the United States who will be putting their bodies and wills to the test in the name of peace and justice.
Keep posted for more information as it comes.
You can also find more information at http://interfaithfast.org
And check out our frappr map at http://www.frappr.com/?a=constellation_map&mapid=137440072690
Monday, August 27, 2007
You're doing a heck of a job, Brownie!
Two Years ago this week, Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. After watching it grow in the Bahamas and head west, I had a feeling this one would be different. It became a category 3 by the time it passed Florida. And it had grown to the size of entire Gulf of Mexico, becoming a category 5—the largest and strongest rating of a hurricane. Katrina slammed into Biloxi, Bridgeport, and New Orleans with 175 mph winds and massive storm surges. As trees, power lines and buildings were torn from their foundations, it was evident that a lot of damage was done. But reports got worse.
Reports came out that many in urban areas could not be evacuated on time. Thousands of people were forced to wait out the storm. But as the storm passed, we found the worst was not yet over. The shear force of the storm surges had caused the New Orleans Levees to crumble, flooding many low level areas including the notoriously under franchised 9th ward. Many scrambled for shelter. Thousands were put up in emergency housing in the Super Dome. Gas lines burst, causing the polluted waters of the Mississippi River to erupt into flames. People hit the flooded streets looking for whatever supplies they could find.
All the while, President Bush and his key advisers continued their vacation in Crawford, Texas. The National Guard began to react and FEMA moved in. Emergency rations were air dropped. Bodies began to surface in the waters. People, stranded on flooded houses were rescued by helicopters. Reports that National Guard Members were being shot at were given, then denied, then confirmed, then denied. No body knew what was going on. Then reports came out that public buses had been in storage during the evacuation procedures. Literally hundreds of thousands of citizens could have been rescued before the event if the appropriate actions could have been made.
The conditions in the Super Dome had been reduced to squalor only seen in war torn third world nations. Panic in the streets of New Orleans. Rescue crews had to fight fires in filthy, polluted water. Survivors were collecting the dead—over 1700 in all. It took President Bush and his advisers a week to finally get to the Gulf Coast—first to console Sen. Trent Lott on the loss of his historic plantation house, and then to the deadly waters of New Orleans.
Less then a month later, just as the waters began to drop, the unthinkable happened. Another category 5 hurricane--Rita—followed the almost exact route as Katrina, once again slamming into the gulf coast. I will never forget the sight of the entire 9th ward, once again flooded by the waters of the Mississippi. Original evacuees who had returned were forced to evacuate. Those living in the Super Dome and other emergency facilities were forced to ride the storm again.
I have been to the Gulf Coast since then. As have thousands of others. Many are working with little to no experience on how to rebuild a city. Millions of volunteer hours have been put into the reconstruction of the area. But it is slow and awkward. In Biloxi-Bridgeport, the storm ravaged coast line is still a ghost town, except for a bustling downtown of casinos. Casinos and no infrastructure. Trees still slant at an awkward 45 degree angle. Empty concrete slabs lie dormant with neon signs missing logos but still recognizable. That one was a Waffle House. That one was a Taco Bell. That one, a Texaco.
As for New Orleans, I have no doubt that it is the most visible and tangible recognition of race and class difference in the United States. The down town infrastructure has been completely on the mend. The lightly hit French Quarter—predominantly white and upper class-- is back to 100%. But the predominantly poor Upper and Lower Ninth Wards are still abandoned. Homes have been stripped to the studs. And volunteers work daily to tend empty plots of land. High grasses are prime spots for snakes, parasites and disease carrying vermin. Workers often don’t last more than a couple of weeks due to burnout and exhaustion. And the poisonous mold spores left over after the floods cause chronic coughing and fatigue. Homes still have the tell-tale graffiti left by the National Guard Search and Rescue crews. This house had poisonous water in it and was never searched. This one had an abandoned dog in it. This one had two bodies in it. This one burned down.
Two years later and recovery is still slow. People have been forced out of their homes and communities and have been scattered across the country. A Diaspora of Gulf Coast natives and a government slow to act.
In other news, did you see that Alberto Gonzales resigned on Friday? And it isn’t even my birthday.
Reports came out that many in urban areas could not be evacuated on time. Thousands of people were forced to wait out the storm. But as the storm passed, we found the worst was not yet over. The shear force of the storm surges had caused the New Orleans Levees to crumble, flooding many low level areas including the notoriously under franchised 9th ward. Many scrambled for shelter. Thousands were put up in emergency housing in the Super Dome. Gas lines burst, causing the polluted waters of the Mississippi River to erupt into flames. People hit the flooded streets looking for whatever supplies they could find.
All the while, President Bush and his key advisers continued their vacation in Crawford, Texas. The National Guard began to react and FEMA moved in. Emergency rations were air dropped. Bodies began to surface in the waters. People, stranded on flooded houses were rescued by helicopters. Reports that National Guard Members were being shot at were given, then denied, then confirmed, then denied. No body knew what was going on. Then reports came out that public buses had been in storage during the evacuation procedures. Literally hundreds of thousands of citizens could have been rescued before the event if the appropriate actions could have been made.
The conditions in the Super Dome had been reduced to squalor only seen in war torn third world nations. Panic in the streets of New Orleans. Rescue crews had to fight fires in filthy, polluted water. Survivors were collecting the dead—over 1700 in all. It took President Bush and his advisers a week to finally get to the Gulf Coast—first to console Sen. Trent Lott on the loss of his historic plantation house, and then to the deadly waters of New Orleans.
Less then a month later, just as the waters began to drop, the unthinkable happened. Another category 5 hurricane--Rita—followed the almost exact route as Katrina, once again slamming into the gulf coast. I will never forget the sight of the entire 9th ward, once again flooded by the waters of the Mississippi. Original evacuees who had returned were forced to evacuate. Those living in the Super Dome and other emergency facilities were forced to ride the storm again.
I have been to the Gulf Coast since then. As have thousands of others. Many are working with little to no experience on how to rebuild a city. Millions of volunteer hours have been put into the reconstruction of the area. But it is slow and awkward. In Biloxi-Bridgeport, the storm ravaged coast line is still a ghost town, except for a bustling downtown of casinos. Casinos and no infrastructure. Trees still slant at an awkward 45 degree angle. Empty concrete slabs lie dormant with neon signs missing logos but still recognizable. That one was a Waffle House. That one was a Taco Bell. That one, a Texaco.
As for New Orleans, I have no doubt that it is the most visible and tangible recognition of race and class difference in the United States. The down town infrastructure has been completely on the mend. The lightly hit French Quarter—predominantly white and upper class-- is back to 100%. But the predominantly poor Upper and Lower Ninth Wards are still abandoned. Homes have been stripped to the studs. And volunteers work daily to tend empty plots of land. High grasses are prime spots for snakes, parasites and disease carrying vermin. Workers often don’t last more than a couple of weeks due to burnout and exhaustion. And the poisonous mold spores left over after the floods cause chronic coughing and fatigue. Homes still have the tell-tale graffiti left by the National Guard Search and Rescue crews. This house had poisonous water in it and was never searched. This one had an abandoned dog in it. This one had two bodies in it. This one burned down.
Two years later and recovery is still slow. People have been forced out of their homes and communities and have been scattered across the country. A Diaspora of Gulf Coast natives and a government slow to act.
In other news, did you see that Alberto Gonzales resigned on Friday? And it isn’t even my birthday.
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