Blue Boat of Youth and Young Adult MinistriesReflections in Shade of the US-Mexico Border Wall
“What do you do when you come head to head with the very evil you are working against?” Jack Spector-Bishop reports from the Unitarian Universalist College of Social Justice (UUCSJ) Activate Southwest Border program– Ed. “The ants crawl under it, the birds fly around it, the sky connects over it.” This is what I wrote in my journal while I sat in the shade of the US-Mexico border wall, near Douglas, Arizona. The wall loomed behind me, constructed of massive, two story high rusty metal beams and stretching as far as I could see. Poles with floodlights and cameras were everywhere, along with trenches, barbed wire, and fences. All of it seemed so arbitrary. It…
Whiteness and Apocalypse
By guest blogger Amelia Diehl . -ed I am so grateful to have been able to attend the Unitarian Universalist College of Social Justice‘s Grounded and Resilient Organizer’s Workshop Climate Justice Training in Chicago, IL and feel connected again to a community and to a movement. I think I might have learned more about myself and climate change in that weekend at the GROW training than my few years or so of calling myself an environmentalist, and in ways I could never have predicted. The space created for group reflection allowed me to learn a lot about what it means for me to be involved in the movement, and also to forget about myself at times. Earlier this summer,…
Spiritual Practices For White Discomfort
So, lots of folks in the progressive world I inhabit on social media had a lot of opinions about the event that happened on August 8th in Seattle when the white leftie politician Bernie Sanders went to speak to a crowd about social security and medicare and was interrupted by two black women raising awareness about the Black Lives Matter movement the day before the first anniversary of Mike Brown’s death. And sure, as a white progressive who is pretty into Bernie Sanders’ political stances and who staunchly supports the Black Lives Matter movement, I have opinions too. The opinion I wish to share here and now, however, is not about political analysis, history or strategy and…
We Show Up for Justice in Different Ways
August 9th, 2015 marks the first anniversary of Mike Brown’s extra-judicial killing in Ferguson, MO. All across the country Unitarian Universalists are showing up to commemorate this event that pushed a racial justice movement into the national spotlight, to mourn the loss of black lives and to demand a world in which black lives matter everywhere in every system at all times. Some UUs have gathered to be in Ferguson on this anniversary, invited by interfaith organizers. Others marched in their home communities, such as in Denver, CO. Still others use the power of social media, the pulpit, or interpersonal conversations as a way of showing up. Allie Carville, a UU young adult from Florida reflects on…
Learn How the Black Lives Matter AIW Came to Be
Read the inside story from Youth Caucus 2015 Co-Business Manager Isabelle McCurdy on how the Youth Caucus sponsored Action of Immediate Witness, “Support Black Lives Matter” came to be. When Kara Marler, my Sr. Business Manager co-chair, and I started planning our programming for this year, we had relatively normal ideas of how things would go: we would attend General Sessions, be able to explain any GA Business to Youth Caucus, and we would plan a workshop. When the idea of writing an AIW was brought forward, we were both unsure. It’s safe to say leaders can often be the most unsure, that fear and concern is part of what makes you inherently driven to not…
Hanging On By Their Faith
UU young adult activist suspends their body to slow arctic oil drilling “This is a personal issue for me because of my faith; I’m actually a Unitarian Universalist seminarian,” begins Elizabeth Mount explaining why they’re willing to dangle from a bridge for an uncertain length of time above the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon. Elizabeth is part of a group of Greenpeace activists using their bodies to stop an ice-breaking ship called the Fennica from leaving for the Arctic to assist with Shell Oil’s drilling operations there. “I want Shell to know that human lives are more important than profits,” this UU young adult states in their video on the issue. The activists hope to send a strong…
Youth Lead Support for Black Lives Matter
Action of Immediate Witness is Immediately Acted Upon Leading up to General Assembly 2015, Unitarian Universalists across the nation were asking the question “How will General Assembly respond to BlackLivesMatter?” The answer was already in the works. Isabelle and Kara, the Business Managers of the General Assembly Youth Caucus, spent the two months leading up to General Assembly building coalitions and consulting with members of Diverse Revolutionary UU Multicultural Ministries (DRUUMM) and Allies for Racial Equity (ARE) to draft the Action of Immediate Witness. On June 25, during their business meeting, the General Assembly Youth Caucus unanimously voted to sponsor and support the “Support the Black Lives Matter Movement” Action of Immediate Witness (AIW). They also…
Rebuild the Churches. Black Lives Matter. Go USA.
This week: black churches burned, our the General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association passed an Action of Immediate Witness in support of the Black Lives Matter movement calling for “police reform and prison abolition, which seeks to replace the current prison system with a system that is more just and equitable.” And I wore the flag of the United States of America. As I look out over July 4th, I feel the same discomfort and complexity I’ve always felt about belonging to the red white and blue – this nation where I was born and gives me the privilege of that USA passport; this country that opened its arms to my father when he immigrated…
Want to Make Some Justice This Summer?
Here is a Chance to Do It! A message from Garner Takahashi Morris of the UU Justice Ministry of California: Hi Friends, The Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry of California‘s Walking the Walk Leadership Retreat is Saturday, August 8 to Wednesday, August 12, 2015 at beautiful Camp DeBenneville Pines in Southern California. YOU CAN ATTEND FOR FREE! We are looking for several people who are interested in facilitating justice-centered programming for children and youth over the course of the week. Your room and board will be covered; this is not a paid position. GOT A GOOD IDEA FOR PROGRAMMING? WE WANT TO HEAR IT! We are also looking for resources for justice-centered programming for kids…
The Symptom is Not the Problem
It is Overtime to Shift the Paradigm An acquaintance of mine named Molli King is a teacher and yesterday she posted an essay she wrote for an education blog about a school in New York City called Success Academy that had recently been profiled in the New York Times. In her essay she told a story, one that I remember her sharing in person when she still worked at Success Academy, and this story has been rattling around in my brain today. The story is found in her blogpost and I will also recount it here in Ms. King’s words: But of all of the awful stories from my time at Success, none will top the…
Recent Comments