Embedded Files
Families, Neighborhoods and a Prayer
by Reverend Susan Frederick-Gray
UU Congregation of Phoenix
(Part of an Interfaith Service SOWA at the Border dividing the people of Nogales. October 8, 2016.)
Today as our world grows more connected – in moments we can literally connect with people all over the earth – nations across the world and right here in these United States are building bigger and stronger fences and walls.
These walls are tools of exploitation – tools to protect the profits of international corporations profiting from the exploitation of workers, the militarization of communities on both sides of the border, and the exploitation of the planet’s precious resources. These borders are here to separate us – The People, The Land – to prevent our collective organizing, our collective resistance, our collective protection of the land, of the children, of the family, of the worker, of one another.
But, one day these walls will be no more. Now they act as prison bars separating families, isolating wealth and poverty, breaking down community, marring the beauty of this land. But they are temporary. One day these walls will be no more.
Spirit of Life, Holy God, Mother Earth, you who are known by so many names, give us courage to keep resisting these walls, to keep resisting the militarization of this continent, the militarization of our lands and bodies. Give us not to fear or despair, but to love and courage that we may keep reaching out and resisting the borders in our own minds and hearts.
The stories of inhumanity, violence, and death in this desert are heartbreaking. Let our hearts be broken, for our hearts break because of love. Let them never become hardened. As they break open, may we all grow deeper levels of strength and compassion and fullness that keep us committed to peace, to justice, to dignity for all humankind, for all creation. May we all learn to see the world as Love sees it, a view that sees not borders or nations – that sees only creation in all its beauty.
The Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray is running for President of the Unitarian Universalist Association in 2017. After leading the UU response to Arizona's anti-immigrant laws in 2010, she became lead organizer for the Arizona Immigration Ministry and a key organizer of the 2012 Justice General Assembly in Phoenix. More information about Rev. Susan and the other candidates running for president can be found in the fall issue of UU World.
Update from
Standing Rock
(Dakota Access Pipeline)
by Rev. Karen Van Fossan
(Bismarck-Mandan UU Congregation)
Dear Friends, I'm writing to you, as I head south in a carpool from Bismarck, North Dakota toward Standing Rock. We are driving to Sacred Ground Camp, where we've been told police are again arresting water protectors. Indigenous leaders with allies have peacefully reclaimed 1851 treaty land that is in the would-be path of the Dakota Access Pipeline. As we speak, militarized police from 5 states have descended on the new camp.
We need you and we need you now. People of faith and conscience are being called to take immediate action and come to Standing Rock in solidarity. Unarmed water protectors have been met with militarized responses at every step.
There is an opportunity for us to show up and affirm this prayerful movement. A movement calling for direct action to center Indigenous communities' autonomy, history and spirituality. A movement working to ensure our collective future.
Next week (10/31-11/5), there is a call for clergy from across the country to join us at Standing Rock. Buses are being organized by MUUSIA to bring people - both clergy and others - to show up. Unitarian Universalists from at least 15 states have joined us in recent months.
Please join us. If you are not able to participate now, there will likely be many opportunities to support this movement, and to travel to Standing Rock in the coming months as the Protectors prepare to settle in for the winter. We have begun collaborating with MUUSJA along with regional and national UU social justice networks to develop a national response from Unitarian Universalists around the country. We have also creating a petition in response to a call for action by Kandi Mossett of the Indigenous Environmental Network, shared during a Teach In hosted at our congregation. Please sign and share here.
Please stay tuned on our congregational Facebook page for latest updates as our work evolves.
Update from the Convergence At the Border
(Editor's Note: There is a very clear connection between the reasons people leave their neighborhoods and farms in Mexico and Central America and the insults to the human condition brought about by international trade agreements and U.S. support for tyrants and their cronies who amassed power and wealth since the mid 1950s. The tyrants may have died off or retired but the cronies live on by influencing governments through fear and the sales of drugs and weapons. Judges, teachers, students, journalists, labor organizers, and even religious leaders have been tortured and killed because of their efforts to improve living conditions in Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and other countries to our south. Those who have fled their homeland arrive at our southern border and face another life-and-death struggle. And that's what the recent workshops, rallies, direct actions, quilt display, and an interfaith service were about last month. Even though over a thousand people attended events in Nogales, Tucson and at the Eloy Detention center, the Convergence received very little press coverage. So here's an introduction to the week's events from the School of the Americas Watch and a link to their website for a full report:
At the heart of the 2016 School of the Americas Watch Encuentro is increasing awareness of the militarization of the US-Mexico border and Latin America, as well as the criminalization of migrants, asylum seekers, refugees and people of color.
We moved our annual convergence this Fall from the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia to the militarized US/Mexico border. The Convergence at the Border took place from October 7-10, 2016 in Nogales, Arizona/ Sonora, at the Eloy Detention Center and in Tucson, Arizona. The change of the location goes along with the broadening of the issue and our expanded fight against US militarization at home and abroad.
Visit SOAW.org/border for photos, videos and more about this powerful encuentro, and read our report back:
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(There are some issues that divide us and some that bring us together. For example, affordable housing, adequate health care and food, a decent education, clean air to breathe, and safe water to drink are issues that bring many people together. This poem was "inspired" by forces that tear us apart.)
Citizens Divided
by Craig Rock
how do you write a poem
about living:
in the “richest” country
in the world
many burying their futures
in daily funerals
of dreams and ideals,
instead stuffing dollars
in mattresses
or off-shore accounts.
in the most “organized” country
in the world
power centered
black, not so black, white, not so white,
progressive, liberal, conservative
radical, not so radical, not interested,
straight, gay, mixed
young, not so young, old, not so old,
God, no god, many gods
citizens divided.
in the “freest” country
in the world
if you can afford it
concealed or disguised
in mansions, mini-mansions,
gated and guarded
five-star restaurants
great hospitals
grand universities
if you can afford
it
if not
one will be appointed
your choice of chains
high rents or endless mortgages
on homes or on student loans
slums or prisons
and don't even mention
iPhones with invisible leashes,
video games that keep
eyes, fingers, and minds
twitching
into the middle of the night
awake or asleep, no matter
bumper to bumper traffic
on our streets, sidewalks
and commercial TV.
in our long waiting lines
with too many
too quick
to shoot
in so many different
directions
and its all “free.”
citizens divided.
how do you write
a poem
about that?
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