The Ecological Wisdom of Indigenous Peoples

The Ecological Wisdom of Indigenous Peoples

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 The Original Nations of Great Turtle Island (typically called “the Americas”) have contributed much to the world, but are seldom publicly recognized by major educational institutions as having done so. Nor are they often recognized as models of ecological sustainability. Yet reverence and passion for thousands of years the earth and its web of life was the primary focus and way of life of all Original Nations and Peoples in North, Central, and South America, and this was a direct result of their values and worldviews.

Western thinkers tend to take the position that solutions to the ecological crisis will only be found by Western science in the future. With few exceptions they do not view the past as being instructive and certainly do not consider the traditional cultures of Original Peoples as holding meaningful answers for the world community. For Western European peoples, the knowledge systems of Original Nations and Peoples have been viewed as mere superstitious nonsense. 

We’re Engaged! ...with the community

We’re Engaged! ...with the community

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How some visual and verbal initiatives helped us “come out with pride” as UUs in the larger world.

Eva Brinson has been a member of my church for decades. It took me years to work up the courage to talk to her. A war-time immigrant with a rich German accent, 93 years old, 4'10" and less than 93 pounds – you’d be intimidated, too! I mean, she’s been everywhere, seen, done and lived through everything; she doesn’t bother with small talk, and she doesn’t take any crap. I love that about her.

Fast with Arturo and Rosa

Fast with Arturo and Rosa

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From June 16-18, 2015, community members will take part in a fast in Washington, D.C.; Denver; and cities across the U.S. to demand immigration policies that respect the human dignity of us all. It’s time to let the leaders of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) know that we want families to stay together! Please join the Metro Denver Sanctuary Coalition, in partnership with the American Friends Service Committee, Church World Service, Standing on the Side of Love, and others in this nationwide fast, "Fast with Arturo and Rosa: Hold ICE Accountable." The fast will call attention for the need to stop deportations- with particular recognition for the people currently in Sanctuary- including Arturo Hernandez Garcia, who has been in sanctuary at the First Unitarian Society of Denver for over six months. 

Arturo says: “I do this for my daughters and their lives here. Deporting me, separating me from my family, a father, a husband, a small business owner who has lived in this country for 16 years does not make sense. Please join us in this fast to hold immigration officials accountable and demand they implement discretion policies that can keep my family together and so many others.”

Support Voting Rights: Join Me in North Carolina on July 13

Support Voting Rights: Join Me in North Carolina on July 13

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The disappointing 2013 Supreme Court decision in Shelby v. Holder overturned key provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that was passed in the aftermath of the historic Selma-to-Montgomery march. Following that 2013 ruling, voter suppression laws have proliferated across 22 states with more in the works. We must not stand by while the right to vote is taken away.

On July 13 a federal court in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, will hear arguments in N.C. NAACP v. McCrory, a case challenging that state’s recently enacted voter suppression laws. Outside the courthouse on that day, the Rev. Dr. William Barber, II, leader of the North Carolina NAACP’s Forward Together Moral Monday Movement, will lead a march and rally. Rev. Barber has invited me to share this stage with him, and I accepted without hesitation. I feel strongly that we Unitarian Universalists are called to stand with Rev. Barber in support of the right to vote.

Pride Then and Now

Pride Then and Now

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Two years ago today, I was scheduled for an afternoon flight from Boston to my home in Richmond, VA. I had been at UUA headquarters for meetings all week, and I was anxious to get home. I regretted that I hadn’t scheduled a late Friday evening flight after I finished my work. But now there was nothing I could do but wait.

While I waited, I pulled out the Boston Phoenix newspaper, to see what was happening around town.  Much to my delight, I discovered it was Boston Pride weekend. I could go to the Pride parade on Saturday morning and still make my flight. I love photographing parades. I love all the colors and smiles, the marching bands, and the glad-handing politicians. As a lesbian, I especially love Pride parades. 

UUs Take Action at Moral Monday CT #BlackLivesMatter Rally

UUs Take Action at Moral Monday CT #BlackLivesMatter Rally

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Two Unitarian Universalist ministers were among 17 people arrested Monday evening at a Moral Monday CT #BlackLivesMatter rally in downtown Hartford, Connecticut. Taking its cue from North Carolina’s Moral Monday movement, Moral Monday CT was founded in January, 2015 as a means to shed light not only on police brutality of Black communities across the nation, but also on pervasive racial disparities in employment, housing, incarceration rates, and education. Moral Monday CT leaders have a long-range plan to conduct nonviolent civil disobedience in cities across Connecticut with the goal of shifting public consciousness to support positive changes in the law.

A Theology of Liberation to Inspire White Anti-Racist Organizing

A Theology of Liberation to Inspire White Anti-Racist Organizing

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Shortly after addressing a packed room of over 400 mostly white, faith activists from around the country at the Unitarian Universalist Selma 50th Anniversary Commemoration Conference in Alabama, Opal Tometi, one of the cofounders of Black Lives Matter and someone I worked alongside fighting the "Show Me Your Papers" anti-immigrant legislation in Arizona, gave me a quick look and said, "We need to build up the anti-racist work with white people, to meet the enormous needs in these times," in between conversations she had with a dozen people waiting to talk with her.

It wasn't a new message, as I've been in conversations with hundreds of organizers of color over the past two decades who have said something similar. The difference this time was that we are living in Black Liberation movement on the move times and racist structural violence is in the headlines and national debate in a way I've never experienced, as a 41-year-old Gen Xer who came of racial consciousness with the Rodney King uprising in Los Angeles in 1992.

A Call to NC: Defend Our Voting Rights July 13

A Call to NC: Defend Our Voting Rights July 13

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Fifty years after Selma the fight for equal voting rights is still going on, and this summer a major battle is heating up in North Carolina. On July 13 the Federal Court in Winston-Salem, NC, will begin to hear the lawsuit that the North Carolina NAACP brought against Governor Pat McCrory (NC-NAACP v McCrory) to challenge the voter suppression law in North Carolina. This law is the first and worst since the US Supreme Court’s Shelby v. Holder decision, which gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The outcome will impact voting rights across the nation, and UUA President Rev. Peter Morales has accepted the invitation of NC-NAACP President Rev. William Barber to come to Winston-Salem for a Mass Moral Monday March for Voting Rights and Justice at 5pm on July 13.
We hope to build on the Moral Monday movement that has helped mobilize a broad coalition in our state, and also to begin to make real the faithful pledge that Unitarian Universalists made at the 50th anniversary events in Selma this year. We stand on the shoulders of giants like Jimmie Lee Jackson, Unitarian Universalists James Reeb and Viola Liuzzo, and countless justice warriors who have gone this way before us. We stand on the side of love, and on the side of justice. 

Cleveland UU's Stay Focused on Systemic Change in Criminal Justice

Cleveland UU's Stay Focused on Systemic Change in Criminal Justice

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Although Cleveland Ohio has been one of the cities suffering some of the worst instances of police violence against unarmed African Americans, it has been a city in the shadows of the national spotlight highlighting activism around “Black Lives Matter”. That changed this week, and it changed in a way that Cleveland UU’s were proud to be part of. Alongside our interfaith community based coalition partners, Greater Cleveland Congregations (GCC), we were on the streets of Cleveland on May 26 to embody our four year call for criminal justice reform, a call that was reflected back and embodied in turn moments after our march concluded, with the announcement of a Consent Decree on police department reform between the US Department of Justice and the City of Cleveland.

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