We feel so much frustration at the elections.  We feel it with every TV, cel phone, text message, website, and radio reminder that pours through our lives 24/7.  We feel the impact on the most vulnerable in our communities, whose voices may be silenced or worse with decision-makers who value exclusion, demonization, and inequity.

Despite what we may feel as New Americans or Old Americans, this is no longer a land of individualism.  We have evolved beyond the theologies, philosophies, land-use planning, public policy, liberal attitudes and beliefs that held great influence in the past.  We are one.   We commit ourselves to working as one, to build the circles of resilience, of resistance, of restoration of the human family.

We may not be able to touch the lives of those suffering across the world, but we can touch the lives of those on our block who face increasing hostility from racial stereotypes, class warfare, and the socio-economic manipulation of the most vulnerable.  We will not let the media-political-entertainment machine continue to only be fueled by the pain of others, masked in the broken ideology that the best way for humanity to survive is by living alone and caring only about ourselves.

Mainstream liberalism cannot sit back any longer and observe and analyze.  We must be on the front lines.  A path is before us all, to begin again with vision, attitude and goals for progress.  We start with ourselves, preparing ourselves to be in authentic relationships with our families, communities and the human family by both unlearning our petty prejudices, and learning new skills and knowledge to be engaged in community building.  We are careful rethink practices that have divided us along race, class, generation and more within the progressive community.  We nurture the fire within to step out of our comfort zone to give a little more to give in ways that strengthen our voice, ways that bring us into direct contact with the uncertain, struggling, marginalized and surviving participants of our great nation.  Crafting together a new way forward.

Where we talk across generation
Where we popularize our class consciousness
Where white folks bring an attitude of nonviolent listening with folks of color
Where we reject demonizing and minimizing the identities we bring
Where we put our minds, bodies and souls to work in direct contact with other human beings, where there are no strangers, only friends we’ve never met*

And we say yes to being in relationship, to doing God’s work of connecting one by one, and believing that the tasks of community organizing, of reaching out in person, on the phone, in group, are a political and spiritual practice of building wholeness.

*with thanks to Sisters of the Road

My community ministry has me deep in relationship with low-income, communities of color, specifically through transit and economic justice work with OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon, and with the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon.  In both circles, I meet the occasional UU, usually folks of color who have had some experience in a UU congregations or with Liberal Religous Youth.  I think I’ve met over 15 folks of color right here in Portland, OR who identify to some extent with our faith, a great number for a potluck!

Still, there is a deep dissonance from my previous ministry with the UUA’s Young Adult and Campus Ministry, People of Color (DRUUMM and otherwise), and various congregational efforts I was engaged in.  Those experiences were powerful, and I am glad for the opportunity to serve the UU communities.  I imagined myself staying deeply involved professionally with the UU, however my aspirations diverged, and today I feel as far from the mainstream of UUism as I did when I was an undergraduate at the University of Oregon.  What is strange, is both of these times in my life where my distance was greatest, are also some of the most meaningful.

My time after YRUU (youth ministry) leadership, which was intense from high school through early college, was a place where I explored and lived at the intersection of my identity, the suffering of the world, and grew in my ability to serve.  Now in my time after C*UUYAN and the UUA, I’ve come full circle and am immersed in communities on the margin of our mainstream society, and by some logical extension the margin of Unitarian Universalism.

Through all this, I have a deep appreciation for the training and mentorship I received through lay and ordained leadership.  For the most part I worked with amazing high functioning colleagues, was compensated generously, and was able to work with an amazing diversity of grassroots UU’s for a decade.  Now, I’m happily connected with the “big church” in Portland, which I’ve been around since I was a child growing up at the wonderful hippie fellowship in the rural suburbs.

Being back in Portland now 3 years, life is great and grounded.  Emerging also from that period of time with lots of really little kids, hard to believe that our 3 total 18 years in age already!

We still need boycott GA and PASS THE RESOLUTION to move GA out of Arizona in 2012.  We are not ready spiritually, religiously, and from a values perspective – organizationally, to achieve this transformation in 2012 years.  Consider:

• The general apathy and suspicion of racial justice concerns, and powerful pushback against immigrant and refugee rights education and social justice
• Lack of any coordinated UUA immigrant rights and racial justice programming that is accountable to communities of color within our congregations and the larger racial justice movement.  We have many individuals with relationships and personal influence, but this does not provide long-term sustainable leadership.  Disappointingly even local congregations in Arizona are disconnected and disengaged.
• Little UUA-wide accountability with immigrant communities, UU laity and clergy engaged with communities of color, immigrants and refugees.  There is no communication or relationship building with any of the ministers and lay folks I know who are deeply involved with these issues, and I’ve made and received several calls.  We appear to lack vision and structure to hold this dialogue effectively.
• There is no clearinghouse, no contact person, no issue tracking, and no leadership development plan as far as I can tell from a brief look at district and UUA materials.  Already in Oregon we are facing two copycat measures in local counties, and there is no communication or information sharing structure developing.  We need to develop a strategy and coordination to manage UU engagement on this issue if we are going to really “transform” ourselves at GA.

As a faith tradition, we share a lot of values in common with the movement to boycott Arizona.  Yet the evidence is clear that we are not ready to meet the call to have a “transformed” GA.  We do the immigrant rights movement a disservice by pretending to be so, and bringing what will ultimately be a GA with status quo activities and crossing the boycott.  We also disrespect the voices of people of color, immigrants and refugees within our congregations, who have made their position clear, it is our moral and political call to respect the boyott, and our own safety and wholeness are at stake.

I urge GA delegates to support the GA Boycott Resolution in Minneapolis AND

1) Support the move to biennial or triennial GA
2) Call on the UUA to dedicate staff resources to coordinate research, local networks, and anti-racism education
3) Commit to social witness and civic engagement now, in conjunction with local congregations and national affiliate organizations such as DRUUMM, LUUNA, ARE, Asian Pacific Islander Caucus of DRUUMM, and youth and young adult UU movements.

Lots of discussions are being generated by UUA President Peter Morales issuing a call for GA continue to be held in Phoenix in 2012.  Check out this discussion thread by Rev. Michael Tino.

May 2010

With other people of faith and concerned citizens across the country, we are disappointed and deeply troubled by the passage of recent anti-immigrant legislation in the state of Arizona.  We fear that this legislation will ultimately result in marginalization of immigrants, both documented and undocumented.   Harassment of Latinos/Latinas/Hispanics and people of color perceived as immigrants because of their race or ethnicity will be an inevitable consequence of any attempts at enforcement.   Our nation has made significant progress toward racial equity in the last fifty years.  This new law is a shameful step backwards, once again inscribing racism in the legal system and thereby in the institutions required to comply with the legal system.

Immediately upon passage of the new Arizona law, the Rev. Peter Morales, president of our Unitarian Universalist Association, issued a statement in which he wrote: We cannot stand by while those charged to protect us instead subject us to racial profiling, unwarranted searches, and unjust arrests. We must not let fear and ignorance cause our neighbors to be treated as lesser beings. We must not allow this law to violate our national constitution or America’s moral conscience.”  We are grateful for the leadership of Rev. Morales and for the leadership of our Unitarian Universalist Association Board of Trustees who quickly convened a special meeting to consider whether we should rescind our commitment to hold our 2012 General Assembly in Phoenix.  After listening to many voices and considering a spectrum of protest strategies, the board voted to present a business resolution before the delegates to our annual General Assembly this June in Minneapolis, MN asking us to participate in a widespread economic boycott of Arizona.  We encourage you to read the full text of the board’s resolution which can be found at http://www.uua.org/aboutus/governance/boardtrustees/index.shtml.

We know that some in our association are advocating alternative protest strategies, but our philosophy of accountability calls us to carefully consider requests for allied participation from Diverse & Revolutionary Unitarian Universalist Multicultural Ministries (DRUUMM) and from the Latino/a Unitarian Universalist Networking Association (LUUNA).  In doing so, we have discovered that DRUUMM and LUUNA leaders have aligned themselves with the leadership of several prominent national civil and immigrants rights organizations.  With hope and faith that a strong, united voice of protest will help overturn this law, and in solidarity with LUUNA and with DRUUMM, we affirm our support of an economic boycott of Arizona and encourage delegates to our General Assembly to vote in favor of the business resolution presented by our board of trustees.

UU Allies for Racial Equity (ARE) Steering Committee

Rev. Wendy von Zirpolo, President

Rev. Michael Tino, Vice-President

Ken Wagner, Treasurer/Stewardship Coordinator

Sharon Blevins, Membership Chair

Rev. Bill Gardiner, Education Team Co-Chair

Rev. Melissa Carvill-Ziemer, Education Team Co-Chair

Rev. James Hobart, Connections Team Co-Chair

Great to see DRUUMM member and soon-to-be Rev…Jacqueline Duhart will be student liaison to MFC.  Great to see the MFC has so many POC on their review board, really amazing given where the MFC was when I first started paying attention back in 1997.  Lastly, it was a little sad to read about a candidate “losing it”, and that this was reported so widely to the Board.  Well and now I’m posting it on my blog.  Hmm…

Business Resolution Phoenix GA by the UUA Board of Trustees

“Whereas the state of Arizona has recently enacted a law—SB 1070—that runs counter to our first principle, affirming the worth and dignity of every person,

Whereas the Association stands in solidarity with allies using a widespread economic boycott of Arizona as leverage for Love against this hateful legislation;

Be it resolved: we will not meet in a state of fear.

Accordingly, the Assembly hereby:

• Directs the UUA General Assembly Planning Committee to recommend to the Board of Trustees an alternate location for General Assembly 2012 at a location outside the state of Arizona;
• Pledges to generate from Member Congregations the amount sufficient to cancel arrangements in Phoenix for GA 2012;
• Pledges further to generate an equal or greater amount to fund ongoing efforts to Stand on the Side of Love in Arizona.
• Pledges to renew and redouble our efforts to become a multicultural, anti racist Association; to live as a people standing faithfully in opposition to systemic racism in our congregations, local communities, and in our own lives.

A/PIC (Asian/Pacific Islander Caucus), a caucus of DRUUMM (Diverse and Revolutionary Unitarian Universalist Multicultural Ministries) supports the stance to boycott Arizona and move our UUA General Assembly 2012.   These are not easy decisions and we have had many discussions within our steering committee, membership, and general
lists on this topic.  The elements that most influenced our decision included:
1)      Supporting LUUNA and their wish that the UUA boycott Arizona;
2)      Affirming the position of our parent organization, DRUUMM, in favor of the boycott;
3)      Concern from and for People of Color who do not feel safe traveling in Arizona while this law is active;
4)      Standing in solidarity with immigrant advocacy organizations in Arizona who have called for boycott.

We will continue the discussion and invite everyone to participate in this discussion in three ways:
1)      Add your comments to the DRUUMM conversation site
2)      Send an email to general@apiuu.org
3)      For more private consideration, send an email to steering@apiuu.org

The A/PIC steering committee will continue to monitor these channels as well as participate in the discussion during our GA in Minneapolis.

In faith,

A/PIC Steering Committee

June 1, 2010

DRUUMM (Diverse and Revolutionary Unitarian Universalist Multicultural Ministries) join with other Unitarian Universalists concerned with justice to condemn the new racial profiling laws in Arizona and we urge Unitarian Universalists who identify as people of color/Latina/o/Hispanic to express their outrage individually and collectively at these laws which allow law enforcement to target people based on race.  We particularly note the statement by  LUUNA (Latina/o Unitarian Universalist  Networking Association), which states about this law that “its very vagueness will provide a means for law enforcement agencies to harass individuals on the basis of appearance alone.”

Because some of our members have indicated their concern that they would not be safe travelling to and within Arizona as long as such racial profiling laws exist, we also support the proposed boycott of Arizona and support relocating or cancelling the General Assembly scheduled to be held there.  To hold a General Assembly without the total spectrum of our members is exclusionary.  We also urge our General Assembly delegates this year to explore other options that could keep us in dialogue with the people of Arizona.

We remind our Unitarian Universalist family that such actions do have impact.  In the late 1980s, when Arizona refused to honor the Martin Luther King holiday, Unitarian Universalists cancelled the General Assembly scheduled to be held there.  After the state changed their position, General Assembly was once again held in that state.  We believe that, even in hard economic times, Unitarian Universalists must be willing to demand that their money be guided by their principles.

We as people who affirm the worth and dignity of all people must continue to fight against racism and ethnic discrimination in all forms.  A law that singles people out by race and ethnicity is by its nature racist.  We condemn this law and urge people of faith throughout our country to let their voices be heard.

The Steering Committee of

DRUUMM (Diverse and Revolutionary Unitarian Universalist Multicultural Ministries)