Social Justice News and Events
Georgetown Law Review Article about Terry W!
UUs of Mt. Airy Member Terry W let Bruce PJ know that an article just came out in the Georgetwon Law Review by Mark Bookman, that is largely about Terry's case! The article is called "Can Public Defenders Become Fair Judges and Other Stupid Questions", and was written in response to questioning by Judiciary Committee Senators Cruz and Hawley raising questions related to approving Judge Kenji Brown Jackson to the US Supreme Court and Arianna Freeman to the 3rd Circuit Court. Terry was specifically mentioned in these hearings, and Mark gives the facts of Terry's cases that were terribly distorted by the Senators' comments and questions. HERE is the link to the article:. Terry would be very appreciative if members of his church community would take the time to read this article, to have a deeper understanding of the injustices of his treatment by our criminal "justice" system!Justice Council
 In May and June we discussed Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by Adrienne Maree Brown, who was a featured speaker at the UUA General Assembly (GA) this summer. The Ware Lecturer (featured speaker) was by Ibram X. Kendi, whose book How to Be an Antiracist we read a couple of years ago, and whose Institute of Antiracism Research we supported with our Change for Change in March. A number of us watched it together. In July and August we read the first 2/3 of The 1619 Project, and plan for a final discussion of the last third on Tuesday, September 27, starting at 7:30. We are considering books about indigenous people, or the UUA Common Read, Mistakes & Miracles (lessons learned about congregations’ work with antiracism), as possibilities for our next book.
We plan to plug into UU the Vote and POWER voter registration and engagement campaigns as we prepare for the General election in November. These midterm elections will be critical for the direction our country will be heading for years to come. There will be nonpartisan phonebanking in conjunction with the other UU churches in Philly, POWER, UU the Vote, and UU Justice PA, with the other UU churches in Philly, POWER, UU the Vote, and |
UU Justice PA, from 6:30-8:30pm on Tuesday, October 11, and Thursday, October 20. Keep an eye out to the weekly newsletter for details of how you can get involved.
In the area of Reparations, we are planning to form a UUs of Mt. Airy Reparations Working Group who will research our congregation’s history with respect to racial justice. During the October 8 TPUC meeting that we are hosting, there will be two presentations by the head Archivist at Meadville Lombard UU Seminary – a general look at the archives, and a workshop on doing research like we want to do. Watch the newsletter for details. Bruce talked about with Lucy Duncan, a leader of the Greene Street Friends Reparations project and a co-leader (with Naomi Leaphart Washington) of the Mayor’s Office of Faith-Based and Interfaith Affairs. She mentioned that their program is doing a pilot training related to Reparations of the Truth-Telling Project, that could be a model for the rest of the country. It is happening October 24-28, 9am-5pm, and Lucy would love for us to be part of it. Unfortunately Bruce’s teaching overlaps with that schedule, but if we can get 2-3 people from the congregation, we could participate. Contact Bruce if you are interested!. |
8th Principle Team Update
The 8th Principle that we adopted in 2017 is: “Journeying toward spiritual wholeness by building a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions”. Our congregation was the first in the country to adopt it, but at this moment, over 150 have now adopted it (out of about 1000), and that number was only about 30 a year ago!Our 8th Principle Team is Bruce PJ, Portia H, Cathy M, Anam OE, Fern C, and Wayne B (with Rev. McKinley ex-officio). In February, we organized and facilitated Dinners for 8th gatherings (on Zoom only, unfortunately, although one came close to being in person…) with a focus on the idea of Covenant, talking about times when we have felt especially connected with our Restoration/UUs of Mt. Airy community, and also about times when we have felt less connected. As before, these were deep and meaningful conversations, and we look forward to doing more Dinners for 8th in the not-too-distant future.
Now that our Covenant work is coming to a conclusion, we are gearing up for following up on our Widening the Circle conversations from January to June of last year. As preparation, our Team is reading Journeys of Race, Color, & Culture by Rick Huntley, Rianna Moore, and Carol Pierce, to give a framework for our process in this work. We expect this work to start this summer, and continue through much of next year. Some of the areas we plan to examine are Governance/Decision-Making (moving to more inclusive modes of decision-making, such as possibly Modified Consensus), Radical Hospitality, and Leadership Development (incorporating the work of the Nominating Committee). Look in the weekly newsletter for dates and times of specific gatherings as they get scheduled, and participate!
Living the 8th Principle: Trevor Noah on George Floyd,
Amy Cooper, and The Uprising
This 18-minute video is a brilliant analysis of racism, white privilege, and the social contract, using George Floyd, Amy Cooper (who called the police on Black birdwatcher Christian Cooper - no relation to her), and the property destruction that came after them. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4amCfVbA_c
Following, are several links important to our congregation's Social Justice program:
- Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC):
http://www.uusc.org/ - American Friends Service Committee (AFSC):
http://www.afsc.org/ - SOA Watch/Northeast:
http://www.soawne.org