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Pr120425ChristianPaganDialog2.mp3

Joining prairie in sponsoring the second in a series of two christian pagan interfaith dialogue. Is madison interfaith dialogue group. And the greater madison interfaith association. George hanger. I want to buy speakers tonight. Is catholic. And has his service in the past is included teaching at holy cross cemetery in lacrosse. Wisconsin serving as director of the wrong kali center at the university of wisconsin with lacrosse and serving as a program director of holy wisdom monastery and their economical and interfaith ministry. 1987 george founded. The madison interfaith dialogue group and continues to serve as as coordinator. Is that involved in many interfaith endeavors. Including the parliament of world's religions. Winnefox is senior minister of circle sanctuary. A barneveld wisconsin. Bass pagan church. That has been serving nature religion practice tichenor's worldwide since 1974. She's been active in interphase endeavors. For many years including serving as president. Of greater madison interfaces. In a religious. Association. Speaking at conferences including the parliament of world's religion. And serving as a religious. Diversity accommodation advisor and hospitals prisons. University state and federal government agencies and other institutions. Hear it. talk to dishin to start our services. With a reading and a lighter on the chalice followed by a moment of silence. First night i selected reading from the dalai lama. I appreciate any organization. Or individual people who sincerely make an effort to promote harmony. Between humanity. And particularly harmony between the various religions. I consider it a very sacred work. And very important work. Last week our focus was convergence between christians and pagans. This week we're going to talk about. Interfaith collaboration. George can you please send reduce this topic for us tonight. Okay. Going from convergence to. Collaboration. I'd like to. Recall from last week. That way teasdale. That we are experiencing the dawn of a new consciousness. How many think of that word consciousness that it's not like they get up in the morning and if you change your mind in the afternoon her. The mind taking us along different paths. But consciousness is a much more basic much deeper reality. And.. It's that witch. We talked about last week is being. Penetrating into the innermost being. And when something takes place there it's pretty significant. Teresa's re-experiencing the dawn of a new consciousness. Which he calls the age of hinter spirituality. And that was what convergence was on. And it's almost a foregone conclusion. That one such a powerful coming together of different religious leaders in the world religions and that when that happens. It's almost a foregone conclusion. Did they desire to work together is the next step. And that's the stepford talkin about tonight and that's a. Collaboration. Southerner. The need to promote the common good of humanity. And there are many voices but one truth. Many wells. But one underground river feeding these wells. And there is one universe one planet. And so much to do about peace and justice and healing the world. So. I understand that one of the ways that the. Come to this collaboration is through the worlds. Parliament of the world's religions could you tell us more about that selena. In 1893 in chicago. A convergence. Of a variety of faith traditions. From what many people would call the east. And the west. Came together. To explore common ground. They were people from the hindu. Tradition. And there were people from. I'm christian traditions. At the parliament. Of the world's religions. And i do believe that judaism judaism was also represented. Back in 1893. Many people who are looking at this. Inter-religious. Movement that has really grown especially in recent decades. Trace the origins of that back to this. Copperas. Call the parliament of the world's religions. In 1993 a centennial conference was held. Some of the people that were descendants. From those that brought together that first. Conference. What part of the process of. Creating the second conference. What was different about the second conference. Many more world religions. Represented. Including nature religion. Not only indigenous. People. From. Different tribal groups in the americas. But people who have the indigenous. Nature religions of old europe. All were included. In. That week that we had together. We. Shared ideas we share discussion. We collaborated on. Visions. Of how we all could come together. And a little bit george we'll talk a bit about a document. The came. To be at this. Parliament called the global ethic. There were ceremonies there was socials. And. The convergence brought about some rich discussion. And alliances. To really looking at. World problems. And how people from different save could come together. And not only brainstorm solutions but find ways of working together. So in addition to the sharing of ideas friendship started. Forming back at that. Parliament of the world's religions. I think i'll pause a bit. To revisit a friendship that you have right here on this panel that came in 1993. Had i expect you were here last week but i think it would be good to just reminisce about how we not only converge but. George and i are living proof that collaboration. Can take that convergence to a new level. So where did we happen to connect. Well selena always waiting for the elevator at the palmer house going up to floor 22. And this woman next to me and reduce their self to me. And i said was selena been looking for you cuz people had told me you certainly have to include. Do the circle sanctuary in their group so. And i and i had heard about you too this was what was pretty amazing and there were literally hundreds of people waiting for the elevators so. Regardless of your philosophy your spirit tradition there is some common concepts of the divine working in mysterious ways what we had one of those close encounters of the divine mystery and the restless history and that i got invited to be part of the madison interfaith dialogue roof and have been. Attending over at holy wisdom monastery. Almost every month sometimes i'm out on speaking tours but being part of that community. And we also have collaborated on some other endeavors that we'll talk about later on. In our presentation. The parliament was so successful 1993. That position was made to hold another one. The next one was 1999 was in cape town south africa. And i was among those that died only attended. But also was one of the speakers there. At the first parliament of the 20th century. The presentation i did was actually part of an interfaith panel. In fact i was the only. Pagan speaker that was actually an interfaith panel the other ones were talking about different pagan traditions toys very honored to be one of. I'm the religious leaders. Chosen to be part of bad dialogue. In 99. I did variety of presentations but the one that comes to mind which is pertinent for tonight. Is my. Presentation on brees. Forget. Bridget. Celtic goddess. Christian saint. I had a great convergence and collaboration of nellie pagans. Catholic nun with people of other religions wanting to see about this christian pagan connection. And i talked about some of the common roots. Of the divine feminine in celtic. Cultures. And how in ireland as christianity became the dominant religion. Some of the old laura connected with the divine feminine connect with bridget by the way. Gibbs. The name to bride every time you're here of bride and groom think of bridget. Admit she was said to be the midwife of mary she was said to actually. I've been a living person. But in some of the lore the celts impart celtic had a great way of taking that lure. Facta non that was speaking at circle sanctuary at embark which is sacred to saint bridget and bridget. Show us a picture. Angel. Bridget. Flying through the air. The bee by mary. For the tivity. Which is one of my favorite bridget stories. So in 99 i had a chance to connect with a variety of people and we had. Indigenous people. From zulu. Tribe and some other african nations that joined us for that one. 99 was so successful we had another one barcelona. In 2004. And there also was a pagan christian. Special connections happening because there is a group associated with the parliament called the assembly of religious and spiritual leaders. And people selected from a variety of faith traditions in countries. To take part in an adjunct event. And this was held at montserrat. A place where. There is a black madonna. And i got to see my very first. Image of the black madonna in the christ child. And while i did not know the language of catalan i was able to hang out with the priest through hand gestures and. Some other languages this we were able to to dialogue about some commonalities. Yeah gnar honoring of the divine feminine and the celebrating of the seasons and yes they told me yes they celebrate st john's day which. Hagen's call. Summer solstice. 2009. Australia. Melbourne. While i was invited to speak. I wasn't able to go but people from circle sanctuary went there and spoke in my place. And the next parliament. Right now they're looking at. Belgium so stay tuned for that. Why the parliament. It was a way. To not only bring people together but to creatively collaborate in each parliament. Has come up with documents and action plans. That not only the religious leaders but all the people who have taken part. Have been encouraged to take back into their communities their faith communities through geographical. Places. To continue that work of a parliament. So. Could you share more. About international interfaith collaboration such as. The source book materials. Again i ask i want to pick up for a minute. Parliament. The show the madison connection with the parliament and how we. Contributed in a significant way. First of all. Has. It was mentioned before. The madison interfaith dialogue. Began on june 10th 1987. Date is embedded in my by. And. And. It came about because. At that time. Interfaith. Enthusiasm began to build. And the desire to do something about it. And so what i decided to do it. Saint benedict center is the program director was to gather some folks around i already knew. People like geisha soap at their park. Center. And i knew some of the rabbis and. And but that wasn't enough so i went to the yellow pages. And i invited every single over to scoop that i found her. And i think the only two that's it. When didn't responded the. 50 islamic center did not respond it took a while to break through. And under i invited the kids. Latter-day saints and they said they would come but they didn't. Gathered in that room we had 25 people all of different religions. And the first time i realized the diversity of religion in the madison area. It really felt like a world parliament of madison. Answer and everybody there was stunned in the same way it was just. Harmonica. And i had nothing. Much to say other than. I called you all together to find out what we can do here it's in pain has it center by way of interfaith programming. And there was a silence. Then someone spoke up and said. Well maybe where to put that question on the back burner. And maybe want to get to know one another first. And i thought that was a brilliant response because how can you do things because it would he don't know. People info. And so that became the program getting to know each other. And from that day. A 1987. To this day that's who we're still doing but in all kinds of fascinating and interesting ways. And i want to mention that. Pet does the next year's selena mention. Wednesday group in chicago decided to do something about. Celebrating the tannery of the first parliament. And there was a man down in cambridge wisconsin 20 miles from here. Former professor at the university in geography. And he also happened to belong to the vedanta society in chicago. It was the vedanta society that was. Planning this big event. Well when i heard that. We were just. You know of newborn interfaith group. Immediately called him up and invite him to our. Bob's goof proof. Till around 20 people. And he consented with a wonderful discussion and just about everybody there was eager to go to the parliament. And his name is daniel gomez ibanez. And. However little. Go has to speak about it again later. But i want to mention one other person that was very important. And that's all me baldwin some of you may know the name. I want meatballs on. Navajo tradition i knew her long before this interfaith dialogue. Choose to go to st. paul's catholic center. Because that was the closest thing she said to her own tradition. And she had no. She had no. Particular to work with. And so when she heard about the parliament. And especially because in the first parliament. There was no recognition of the native americans as it has a. Official for real religion. So homie was going to change all that but. She didn't have the money to do it. And so. This is where the first. Collaboration started. I suggested that we have an interfaith concert. And we did that and it was a beautiful event it was held in the missouri synod church. And that was exciting. So we didn't make much money it because we're too busy planning the event and didn't put anything at the public publicity. But other people picked up the quaker. Getting picked up and. And a couple others assoc. She began to have enough funds because she wanted to bring. Elders of the native american elders from all over the country. Do you remember how many programs she actually got together for those fabulous to see. Of elders from so many different traditions and they're not only worthy official. Program offerings. In the parliament book. And george actually brought one so i'm at when we're all done if you want take a look at the parliament booked on the on the table there but there were seven. Privately organized once within. The parliament community and i had the privilege in the honour to be at one of those private ones where the elders all sat council together and head invited. Some of us from. The indigenous traditions of old europe to join them. Which forest was trailblazing. And for them was too. And that's when we learned that the word pagan needed to have some discussion around it because not everyone understood that term to be a positive one that we were using it has been used as a term connected with genocide and oppression and. And we had a chance to dialogue about it. So in addition to what i would say was the great coming together and getting to know each other we also got to see where there were at is. And points of. Possibility. To problem-solve then. Educate with each other in. Really the 1993 parliament continues. To have ripples. Not only in terms of. The other parliaments that have come to be. But i really think one of the most powerful part exactly what you're talkin about is getting to know each other. Because from that knowing not only is there common ground. But there's common brainstorming. And standing in solidarity with each other. To work for peace environmental preservation and social justice. And i believe both the dalai lama and thomas you heard mentioned that. All ecumenical. Relationships have to be built on friendship. And i think that's the only way it works. Are you mentioned before the. The document from the. 18 of 19. 93 parliament. That was. The famous swiss theologian catholic theologian. From. University. Has written a book on global responsibility. And because that came out at that time he was chosen. To draft a document on the global ethic. And he did that and then it with a long process. Of circulating that's what different parts of the world and then discussing it very thoroughly at the parliament. He called it a global ethic. But since there were inches to it. Some disagreed with certain western attitudes. Did they renamed it toward a global ethic. And so on that that's on the table. And there's another one next to it called testing the global healthy which i think came out of that stuff sleeping. Pride 99. But it hit hits. Outlines of variety of areas in which collaboration would be necessary. If we're to continue. We actually have quite a few books before us. I brought an inner religious hymnal. The circle of song a. A book. That i got it a recent. Journey to speak at a campus central michigan university of world religions book. That does include nature religion nature spirituality in addition to the abrahamic faiths and what somebody would call the eastern traditions another. Play tradition from. Different parts of the world that might be called indigenous. And i'm very happy to see that as. Publishing happens not only in print but online. That there. Is increasingly. An inclusion of a wide spectrum of world religions. And. By having a bad present. Then that builds awareness. By having that awareness then there's more convergence and with more convergence there's more friendship. And with more friendship there's more action. Do it all kind of flows together. You mentioned before about 10. Activities. Parliament. I want to point out three books on the table one is by. Marcus braybrook. He's a very prominent interfaith personality from oxford and penguin. And that he also i also brought a book of his. In all good faith. Because very interested interfaith prayer and in that book he discusses the. The issues connected with that in terms of how do you pray together. What do you use language and all those things. But this. This particular book is called. At the pilgrimage of hope. 100 years of global interfaith dialogue. And. It's. There's so many interesting stories in their vodka. Collaboration and convergence. And then at your back door. Wayne teasdale there's a book on the table called. The community of religions. Voices and images of the parliament that the world. Religion. And i think that's a follow-up from the first parliament. And so is it just feels in with lot of. Articles by people down there the significance of it and so forth. And. Finally the third book going to mention. Is just booked all day. The source book of world's religions. And that again what you could say. The man that put this together was connected with the north american enter. Faith network. Show. Bad first leah's. And i met him at an interfaith conference and. He wanted to bring together writings and material. That not only was informative. But reflective of different traditions he actually asked me. To contribute some writings to this book. And i think one of the great things about sourcebooks and encyclopedias and online resources such as pluralism. org which is out of the pluralism project. I'm doctor dianna act. Out of harvard university the divinity school. These are all opportunities. 2. See. The larger spectrum. Of how religion manifest in humankind that only the past but. Present and trends for the future. And i just think it's wonderful to be in times square information can be more readily exchanged. So i've been some other. Things that you might want to look at is out of canada. There is a project the end ontario consultants on religious tolerance. And what they are. Seeking to do with have that information available not only for canada but for the world on the web about different religions. And to try to dispel misconceptions in. Also document. Ways to work together to uphold religious freedom for raw. So i think that's also another important resource that we can look at. Hyatt another part section of the book is. Resources resource guides to religious and interfaith organizations. And penny asked me to comment on other things other than. The fireman. No. What's in that book time. Marcus great brook. The hundred years thing. He contains here in about five pages. Do it tomorrow last a listing of some of these i like to share. Some of that with you. And. Make some comment he says this is an incomplete list. And i imagined and this was written some of the 99 parliament. It's when i met him and when he started pulling the materials together. He is seps died but there was efforts to updated. Well let me just mention a few of them. Some of the title it tells with pretty much what they do. There's one called the fellowship of reconciliation i think that's more well-known among christians than among pagans. But that it was established it during and after world war 1 in order to promote peacemaking. And nonviolence. And. It's the oldest and largest interfaith peace organization in the united states and the world. And they seek. The company. Those of whatever faith or no faith. Who wish to confront human and. Differences with nonviolent. Compassionate and reconciling love. So that's the fellows hadn't left dunham number that for years. And. The global dialogue institute. Dr. leonard swindler. From temple university. Has been deeply involved in and the interfaith enterprise. He founded the journal for ecumenical studies. Which it really is. Very scholarly independent variable. Influential. And it mentions here that later he. Brought about the global dialogue institute. And what that is dedicated to his the global pursuit of. Greater ethical and spiritual awakening in the concert shaping groups such as business law politic science religion education communications. And the arts. For creative action through deep dialog. Know if you'll recall matthew fox. That mention eve dialogue that that's what comes from the deepest part. And leonard swidler has been. If you know the name. The. International association for religious freedom. Formed in 1900 and inspired by the 1893 parliament. Is the oldest worldwide community of religious organizations. It says concerns are interreligious and intercultural interracial. And it and finishing. They're spread out over 83 that 83 member groups in 27 countries and speaking more than 20 languages they give us a sense of. How does steph percolates once it gets started. And the i remember when the international council of christians and jews. Came about in 1975. And. I'm not sure of this but i think that may have been. One of the. Initiative that brought edgewood college and. And temple beth-el together their neighbors and so they began to work together. And i remember they had during the summer time. Week-long. Meetings where they brought in the top scholars from the country. And so. Heather. My two great interfaith friends at edgewood words. Sister joanne wagner dead. Sister marie stevens who is. Affectionately known as stevie and since they've both guide things have tapered off a little bit between that relationship but they did establish. A chair for the jewish studies at edgewood. And that's still continue her since i. Thank. And then again marcus braybrook. What is that. Involved in the endor tab international interfaith center. Which game on in westminster college. And their goal was to include providing a place for study and research development educational materials. And on and on and so forth. So let me just mention how i want to get back to daniel gomez ibanez because. One day 1993. Parliament handed. For his reason he had a feeling that. Although they mentioned doing this every 5 years. He just didn't feel that was going to happen. So he. Has severed his connection with the parliament. The council. And because he had contacted so many people worldwide and he was responsible for recruiting them for the. For the. Parliament. He on his own initiated the international council. Elsewhere. Peace at the end anyway if he's off. And. And. And for many years has he kept this thing going events mention that. That he said. We don't have the money he says but we just go ahead and plan events and then the money. But at a certain point i think after doing this for years he finally. Had to. Parked on that. i don't know where that is right now my understanding is it's in kind of a hiatus at this point so while it's not actively putting on events. Having some of the people that have been part of that are still in touch. But what was nice about that his sin since he was in madison. And they had some of their. Their meetings of the council members. Presumably they would meet in madison or we have that pleasure. Beating all these. Spiritual pilgrims from all over the world. And then. Selena already mentioned the pluralism project of diana x. And diane actors then and madison several times. He had an event one-time a weekend event i think at first unitarian. And i was privileged babel go with it cuz that was really. Unitarian. Thank you. United religions initiative. There's a little booklet on the table there that speaks about that. And the. How they got started. I think the temple of understanding. Which was. Formed in 1960. Has held a series of summit. Conferences in several parts of the world. With many politicians scientists un delegates and religious leaders. And the reason i mention this is because the first spiritual conference took place in calcutta. And thomas merton was one of the. Keynote speakers at that conference. And i'm going to end tonight with with that ending of that conference. But that's the. I think they're still doing that and there's a fascinating story behind that. That long. Coming apart of that. And there's a world conference on religion and peace. I'm done. The world council of churches the world congress of faiths. Contact the world council of churches is primarily. Christian christians. Organization for promoting dialogue among. At first just. Protestant. The catholics were quite into the act at that point but about 12 years later after the world council of churches was founded that the second vatican council happen. Prior to that. Catholics were forbidden to go to the. The world concert. Churches meetings or have anything to do with them. But after that was greatly encouraged. And so there's. World council of churches national council of churches. Can we have a state council church in wisconsin. And i served on one of their commissions were number of years. And was partly responsible for getting them interested in the interfaith dimension. It wasn't hard to convince them but. Ghetto is all during the 80s i think that all these things begin to surface. And i guess some such a brought up world council of churches many people don't know but there is video archives at victoria university in canada. The world council of churches going where they had not gone before they sponsored in the international interfaith dialogue conference. For women. Had the margo adler. Add myself to wake and priestesses also involved and got a spirituality and ego spirituality were among those invited to this international interfaith conference women from around the world from a variety of different religious traditions. All converged. Victoria university. Add. There was. The excitement of blazing a new trail. It wasn't a totally all women's conference though. They sent a man from switzerland they had quarters to. Help with the process and probably keep an eye on us we had a great time and there were people that a video to the various sessions. I'm and i spoke margo spoke number the women spoke. There was an opportunity to. I can't expand our understandings of difference. With divine forms. In one of the things that we had an opportunity to collaborate on the bus. Divine is one in devine is many because some of the islamic women. Have not encountered polytheist before embargo and i. About opportunity to do some dialogue but by the end of the conference we. Had deeper understanding and. It was just a wonderful wonderful conference ed. Dog chicago have the human unity that was 1988. Human unity conference in. I'm chicago and 1983's been a number of these. Trailblazing conferences but probably the one. Project that's an interview latest project that is now 21st century and is continuing to grow and spread something called the charter. Compassion. A number of people. Have signed on to the charter came out of ted karen armstrong and her work. In fact the interfaith group that george and i are part of every month that holy wisdom monastery is looking at armstrong's work on compassion. So you're right a lot of this trailblazing activity. Happen inflate. 20th century but in a religious activity on it international front continuing to grow and expand and. I'm increasing numbers of people are getting involved one of the conference's that george and i. Collaborated on was held at edgewood. And it was in preparation for the parliament of the world's religions in australia and 2009. And we have quite diversity there as well with the program was to. Give people interested in and this kind of. Inter-religious activity. Just give them a feeling forever to parliament really was so we actually staged what we caused a mini parliament. For all the support we got from edgewood and it was. I'm just just really wonderful. Are there any. Things going on at circle sanctuary in on the local and regional levels. But you want to share. Yeah circle sanctuary which is the center. Bad i helped birth back in 1974 has been involved in. Interfaith activity from the very beginning. And i talked a little bit about. Natalie by involvement but circle sanctuary. I meant our other members and ministers have been involved in the parliaments and some of these other activities from national and international level. What some of the things that we do locally and regionally. Include. Taking part in some spontaneous in a religious activities there been some conferences there re-list there's a madison interfaith. Discussion list on the internet. There been a variety of one-time. Only type conferences the greater madison in a religious association emerged out of the wisconsin. Council of churches faith in order commission if i remember correctly and huston smith came into the greater madison area and he's a world religion scholar and we were involved with that. And one of the things that we encourage. Other people to do not just people from nature religions but people of many religions. Is to support. Activities that do bring people together. And back like tonight. Kisses i look around those of you gathered here i know i'm coming from two different places and different traditions. We have been active in the annual interfaith awareness week. Which happens the week. Human rights day when the universal declaration of human rights the un was signed. December 10th that's the week with december 10th. Sometimes madison interfaith dialogue group. Has the dialogue sessions in connection with that week. And we are among the religious communities in the greater madison area that have held open houses and we've attended some of us have gone and attended the open houses put on i other faith communities. There's just a whole rich variety of in religious activities happening in the greater madison area on a very local level for years we've been doing a charity food drive. And this it has brought. People from many different paths together to our winter solstice celebrations. We've had unitarian universalist said members from the quaker faith and protestant christians and catholics and buddhists and dallas and hindus and other branches of islam and native americans take part in our annual. Winter solstice pageants held at first unitarian society and that's one of the events that we hold. As a multicultural interreligious. Celebration of the holiday season. And it kind of depends on what the other faith traditions have for holidays but we always have christmas and you'll or winter solstice of woven into the mix it sometime sonic has in the mix said sometimes the festival of lights with the hindu on-path are also there. The food that we gather not only from that event but other events that we have including our open house for interfaith awareness week goes to a food pantry at the local lutheran church. Which is. Jointly. Supported by the various churches through three christian churches in the barneveld. Village area itself and where the outlier we're out in the country and we come with our donation every year. And those are just a few of the things that circle sanctuary itself has been involved with. And i want to just celebrate. Madison wisconsin as a place where there's been this in a religious. Collaboration not only convergence pixel aberration for years back in the 1970s on worth1000 circle magic show. And. A half-hour every week i would bring people of different traditions together. And when. The dalai lama came to america for the very first time. Deer park buddhist came on my show and. We all have the gore working with the show got invited. 2. What was simba saint benedict's center and now it's fully wisdom monastery. 4. Ed in a religious gathering that had a buddhist ritual. In fact. George and i just recently discovered we were both at that event was organized tonight. I remember when he came. The chapel has all the accused since he's had a go on that we built the throne from him. And. Nobody could enter the chapel until. He would do it first except for the handicapped people. And they came in and then he came in and addressed each person. Personally. And then the rest of the people came in and i remember. Him saying that. What what buddhism is all about his. Compassion. Passion. Still sticks with me during that sarah during that. First gathering at a tea and. Attean rice ceremony. Which. I experienced that in the same way i experience the catholic eucharist. It was just that sense of. Dignity underground river and we were sitting on the floor if i remember. Lots of buddhist and then people from different faith traditions some of the leaders from the different groups and some other people were we are all gathered and it was quite. A wonderful experience for me. And then he has come back. I'd say frequently simpson. I've met the dalai lama think at least three times. I like to mention a cup of others. Especially the madison urban ministry. Which was a electromatic. Active group. After suing activist causes. And and trying to get. Christians together. The all the christian. At churches. I am to check pfeiffer was in charge of it. Kind of. Said you know maybe we should try to make this more interfaith. And every. So we had a we invited. One of the monks from deer park. Buddhist center. And somebody from. First unitarian. And this was the initiation of interfaith that had mom. Did the monk introduce himself and then the woman i think you. Know who she is. Said i am a witch. And i swear that the rooftop attracted the cave den time 2 or 3 months with damage control. I talked to selena. But it's a loaded words of people who are considering pagans embrace that as a word that means wisdom builder and bring her and rather than the one after dorothy and her little dog which is what most people when they heard. Proudly claim that word and reclaim it but. The word witch in the word pagan. Have some baggage because both those terms have been used in connection with demonizing nature religion practitioners. And have not only been applied to people. We have nothing to do with nature religion. I'm at the way of. Discounting them persecuting them. But native americans i have some issues with those words because those words were also used. As native american traditional ways practices were being surprised so it's complicated and since that time. I don't know what for you george and since hearing some stories about that. Let's put it this way i've been part of a process nationally and internationally of doing some training. For pagan leaders. On language. Inter-religious diplomacy and really well within our communities and that would be seen as an empowering word. Can. Do the opposite. When you're in a place that does not have people with a context. Abby's words being used. In a reclaimed way or in a positive way. Yes wizard of oz will be forever with us but now we have harry potter so there are some people. Music potter material is sermons christian sermon said that why do i know this because we both got interviewed when the potter books were coming out because it was some people having massive burning. But you're right they were what we might say. As we've converge some opportunities to problem sob. But not all the things that happened. Have been. Harmonious and that the very first parliament of the world's religions. Seeing the five different pagan national organizations. That were among the sponsoring group. Coming in everybody had five members that could be in the opening procession. They saw our color in our diversity along with all the other world religions. And for the most part this was seen as wonderful we thought it was great a buddy else thought it was great but the greek orthodox. Did not appreciate our inclusion. We don't know if it was the colorful. I'm diverse dress or fit with lady olivia robertson from ireland the fellowship of isis who did the opening invocation and called on the goddess in nature spirits all i can tell you is by the end of the plenary. They had stomped out. Not to return. Yes and of course there's brouhaha you got all this positive things people are being harmonious or dialoguing or connecting. But of course what gets the headlines it's when there's dissonance. But probably what upstage that. Was when they were secession. In which problems in india. Muslims. And christians and hindus. And some issues around that convergence. Lead to some heated words. And the anger in the suffering of the religious. Persecution that was happening. You know religion religion violence in whatever and i was there during that session and you could feel. The harmony just totally dissipate. If people beat some of the speakers were angry. And you could tell the tension in the air. And i was one of several hundred people. That started. Doing an intervention the native american elders in drummers that were there started a piece drumming. I know somebody who danced and. Many of us. I had been involved in in a religious work. For the civil rights movement. And we sang we shall overcome. Locking our arms as we have done in the 1960s so with native american drumming with we shall overcome with people opening their hearts and letting love come forth. We didn't have to call the police epic opera. And that that things evolved in moved and it really was while it was a sad moment it also was a powerful moment because no one. Really did the intervention it spontaneously rose up. From bat goodwill that had been building for a couple days. And i'll forever remember. That. Left. The anger. More the peacemaking. Because really you can talk about making world peace. But how do we really make it happen. It's so much difference. That's. The ongoing social psychology experiment of the parliament of the world. United self. We haven't let any of those people talk. That you wait till i get to you with the microphone. No takers. Perhaps when. I don't know how to say. Perhaps. When. You have an interface thing. Instead of someone saying. A prayer. That is. One type of prayer. That some of the religions consider that. I don't like it idolatry against their religion. That. It's better not to. Name. A god or. You know. Or a particular thing because it's one thing getting to know people on a person-to-person level. Bought. I can understand where the. The greek orthodox left because they felt that that. A prayer to some goddess is different than their god. And. That would be against their religion so one has to be very very. Careful. Also. The symbols of religion. All all over. I'm not talkin about malls or anything like that cuz that's has to do with business. You know what i mean in the capital. Or in a courtroom. That. That would offend people because that means that this one religion is the most important. 1in forgot yours you know. So i think one has to be very very careful. Because i can understand your phone. . i think. When it comes to the public square. How it's played out in court. And in society. Is. All. Or nothing. That if you're going to put. Anyone religious symbol. On a public building or in a public park. You have to permit other religious symbols. To be included. Add. Bear is this is cutting-edge. Dialogue about this and you are right because there are some people that say it would be best. To keep our public square devoid of sectarian symbols. In the state capitol. Every year for interfaith awareness week. All the religions in the greater madison area and across the state. Have an opportunity. To have an informational display about their path. It is set within the context of. Interreligious understanding and peace-building. So i think within the context of that. People have found it to be really helpful. To see that religious diversity in one place even though it is a public building and the atheist and secular humanist. Also have a sign that is there and that number of different. Christian traditions have signs circle sanctuary has our winter solstice display every year talkin about its multicultural pieces and what you're talking about prayers. That also has been what i would call a dilemma and creating in a religious. Services. How do you include in converge. But not create a discomfort. And here again i think that. Before people even. Decide to come to an event. To let people know what's going to be happening in the event. So that people who really do not want to be in the presence. A prayer that might be. You know using some other sacred name would be able to make that choice before coming. We had thought. At the parliament in 93 that it was really. Clear to all taking part. That the surface itself with going to have different divine names called and different religious leaders. In theory. I think people were thinking this is fine but the other thing i heard because i got interviewed by a bunch of press and i was. Dialoguing with some of the people that put on a 93 parliament about how to deal with his diplomatic. Disaster essentially. Of the buddha's not using. God. Was also brought up but i think by far it was the pagans that. Call the leaving and i think that. It's important to consider what you're mentioning. And. Before people take part in an activity. To let people know what the context is and what the purpose is and then let people make their choices as to whether to show up or not i don't know what you. You know. Big george cuz we've had to do in a religious services together and we've had those discussions. How do we. We've together prayers and music and. All this diversity in a way. That isn't. Religion light. Like there's no substance. But at the same time it's not religious music. That it's all mixed together. But what. Some of the things like bothers me like the ten commandments in a courtroom. Or that enormous. At the capitol and then they let people have a little table for there you know. Duke christmas tree. Is much bigger than everything else i don't mind it at the mall or on the street or anything else cuz she expect that put in it governmental building. I think it's wrong i have a question. Where does the idea of. Which i know it's in the bible but i had heard that to mistranslation. In-n-out. The negative. You know that whole thing come from. But which word has been translated a lot of different ways in the bible with the king james version that part of the bible in exodus. Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live it's really a mistranslation i believe the word is off i got this from a religious scholar religious scholar and it's poison her it has no. I really think that. Words. Can take on all sorts of meetings and can get toxified and within the larger nature religion community there continues to be debate about whether to try to reclaim the word. Or to just let it go. Bright and there are some people though that feel it's important to reclaim the word as away as a symbol. Something that can be beautiful and why and seeing it as the root word of why but you know that's all kind of conversation about it and i do think i actually in this book that george brought one of the things that i have in here is the guide to nature. Spirituality terms. Until maybe after our question-and-answer to take a look and see how i chose. To put in a definition for that word as well as wiccan and pagan and somatic and. Earth spirituality and nature spirituality and some of the other terms. The pagan religion. Yeah it's if there's debate is either comes from the root that means wisdom. Yeah whitten the anglo-saxons before they became christian or pagan and the counselors. Were these wise ones some people really link it with witten. And others say it comes from like wicker innotab into shape. And some people such as myself. Say let's look at both of these possibilities and how is that word being used now. And i even wider variety but many wiccans are trying to reclaim the word and other people say. Not working i just want to be able to be in peace and what's more important than a label is how i live my life. Communing with nature and being an expression of love and i think if more people understood that nature religion practitioners are really coming from a very similar space. Then more understanding. Last attempt. To extinguish us or suppressants. And our second or third year of existence in the madison interfaith dialogue. We gave each member of the group and opportunity on a sunday afternoon. 2. Do their their religious ceremony. It was in the chapel at saint benedict's center. Some chose to do it sunday and but it was a. I thought it was. A wonderful opportunity to see how people worship. And then on another occasion we had an interfaith service. And daniel gomez ibanez was very helpful. To us and putting it together. But what we basically did everybody brought a symbol of their religion. Put it on the altar and the procession. And then each religious group. I had a part to play during the. So that they. We're clearly separate. But they were they were representative of that particular groups. Prayer practice. And i didn't get any flack after that. Is too you know. Because it was agreed upon by. By our group that's the way we do it. But there are some difficulties him pudding. For the reasons you mentioned. They're putting a. In one service a variety of different. Rituals. I win. One of those. I went to one of those groups someone else got the invitation but he gave me his and i think i was the only clergyperson only person that wasn't clergy. There and i thought it was just beautiful. And i didn't find it offensive at all. But i could understand where. A group that. You know. Feels that that's against their religion i can understand where they would walk out one has to be very very careful it's a very touching thing interface nobody. 4. Being one of the participants in the interfaith thanksgiving celebration. Bad. Natalie i helped organize george has been part of that that greater madison in a religious association is put on madison interfaith dialogues put on a number of other. Partners of different congregations and centers have come together that's an example of an in a religious service where we had invited people from the greater madison community and i'm glad that. You were there. To bring forth the jewish tradition and we were really clear with everybody taking part in the programme who else is going to be on the program we structured in such a way we have a common theme of thanksgiving. We were not trying to. Of course anybody into any particular liturgy instead we actually had the discussion of weirdo hold it decided to hold it in the fellowship hall not in the sanctuary. And we decided. To have it be a celebration so that those people who have some religious traditions that have some prohibition about taking part in a liturgy or a religious service per se. Could stay within those boundaries and be part of a celebration and we also made it really clear that people would participate or not as they felt comfortable. During any part of it and i think that's part of the reason. It was successful and had it for a number of years and hopefully we're going to revive it again this fall and get more participation i do think it's important for. People of different religions and beliefs and openly define ways to come together and whether you call it meditate together prayer to get pray together have a moment of silence. I do think there's some real value. Of having that quiet. And that connection that bad really deep beyond words. Peace whether it's a memorial service or it is. Concert like we're talking about where is celebration. Do i see any other question. Hi thanks for talkin. Come to us on this i appreciate you guys's time. I was wondering if you could both could reflect. When you see. The dialogue between different peoples. And you see the harmony like you discussed in the main part of that i think it's the 99, conference you were part of her wherever the the greeks stormed off when you have. So much good stuff going on it's very positive all the positive stuff going on makes it up but what gets the headlines. When the greeks. Storm affect all the headlines got all the interviews for that. What do you see with your both of yours experience. What do you see as showing a better and more lasting change. When you have all the harmony together and you have all these wonderful good experiences or when you have a pointed. Disagreement. Is there a difference where you see lasting change when there's more harmony or do you see lasting change when there's a pointed difference or or disagreement and hardship. Or they the same and is there no. I'm just curious about cuz you guys have been doing this a long time. So where do you see the change that's lasting is it when there's conflict. Or when there's harmony. I'd like to hear your thoughts on that. I'm sorry i. Have some hearing trucking. I really i really like the way you both described. Duck the way that. Your experiences. Have both harmony. When people are discussing. Their differences in faith and trying to come together. But also their times which are extremely difficult and maybe people storm out of the room maybe a group actually leaves a conference. Like example of the greek orthodox. But there were other. Discussion stupid it's a really strong conflict. So which one which one. Which one of those examples. Can you look at and reflect on. And give you a better sense of change. Is it when there is harmony she have a great conference everybody's happy yay. Or when there's a conflict. Maybe just one part of the discussion is a conflict-free crackheads maybe somebody leaves hurt feelings maybe somebody's angry. I want to hear you're both of yours experience. I'm when you have a conflict. We had the harmonious discussion. Reflective that for a second just say which one shows you lasting change. Better. Maybe it's neither. But i want to hear from you guys. What you think. With that incident with madison urban ministry and they use the word which. Tore the place apart i don't even know if they had meeting it. Went on much beyond that term. But. Then the conflict then. Overtime has a tendency to resolve itself. the madison urban ministry at this point has no problem with interfaith. Source of things. Did the conflicts parts always cause some kind of anxiety anger upset. But that's part of life and i think somehow you have to. You have to deal with that. An inch. You'll try to mend the fences or to proper explanation. But. When i have a dialog group. I always tell them that. Everybody. Is allowed to say whatever they want to say as long as it comes from their heart and their sincere and honest. And that more important is that the rest of us have to listen to that. And that we have to listen respectfully. Which means you listened without judgment or without condemnation. Which says that mean you can't disagree. But if you disagree you have to do it in a pain away that's acceptable. So that's the principle of getting along. And if those rules aren't followed then you're going to it's more of a debate. And it's a debate you're always out to get somebody. You're here with there's a winner and a loser. Indian dialogue there are no winners or losers here just off your gift put it on the table. And people can agree or disagree. Does making a difference. As long as he's on. Italy. Resort to fisticuffs. Well and i think. My response is that both aspects. Can help build community and awareness. But it depends on the depth. Of an. How. The connection. Evolves. You can have people making nice for an hour. Go forth with a pleasant feeling that. May linger for a little bit. But as george is talking about. What i would call. Deep listening. Antique shearing. When souls touch souls. And it's done in a loving way. Create connections that have a lasting effect. They continue to ripple for. When there's been a conflict. How that conflict is handled. When does it occur. How much funding has happened before the conflict occurs. And what. Happens as a result of the conflict. You gave an example of something that just. Did a scattering. It took a lot of time to repair. Within the parliament. There. Were those dissonances. They stood as lessons in people's minds. But not just the dissonance but. It away at polarized people. Woke up people. Tooth my diaz and then. Was an opportunity to really look deep within the south what's ego. What spirit. How do i respond from my own faith tradition. To the situation. Glorious and blissful. Or conflictual. And it away both the blissful in the conflict schuil needing a solution. Our opportunities to go deep within our own traditions. The other thing i'll say is that the parliaments. We have been ticketed. In the 93 parliament. The lyndon larouche people were out calling everybody at the parliament haggens. Because we're involved in trying to solve environmental issues in the whole idea that all these people have faith we're coming together and there was environmental scientists that were talking about diminishing resources. On the earth how humankind was the population was getting out of control the amount of food and water not only for humans but the rest of the environment. You know he had charts and graphs and that type of thing. Well the whole idea of this environmental dimension. Was demonized n and even ice in a bad way and they threw the painted word in there in a bad way to x + 93 parliament where they were. Opportunities to. Draw from the deep good that still small voice within the holy spirit the god got us unify the dow whatever you might want to call your connection with the divine. To really consider situations. I had a booth the circle thing for at a booth in the exhibit area at the 93 parliament. One of the first people to come up to the booth. What's a southern baptist minister official. Who was there in an official capacity wanting to find out what this pagan witch wiccan druid heathen business was about and he came with armor on with some curiosity. Kind of investigation but we got to dialogue and when i let him know i was raised by the southern baptists and had some common. Language into quote bible and. All of a sudden it was like when he made that human-to-human connection and that's when he let me know like spying. Well my comment whenever i was asked because media was there whatever he said well you know this is a convergence of many viewpoints and paz and even the people that are protesting it away or joining. Are convergence. And we need to just look at ways of being able to build bridges of love and understanding and peace. Even with. People that may not be agreeing with what we're doing. Let me just briefly add to that hin. Madison interfaith dialogue. We had a buddhist number. Who tended to upset everybody in the group by the way he tried to tell you what you believe and kind of has all the answers and one day at alief early and he called back to me to find out what the rest of the meeting was like a nice as well and i have to tell you they were on talking about you. I think it would be better if i dropped out of the group. Isis no alvin if we can handle you. Do it work.. What we're out of time or belief i'm sure the georgian selena would be glad to stay after and talk to anybody individually. And i think what we both thought we would do if it's not okay. Final comments on how you plan to undo the tower of babel. The george has something he'd like to read and i'm going to conclude with a little blessing. This was the summit conference in calcutta. And this was the final prayer given by thomas merton. And he said i will ask you to stand and all join hands in a little while. But first. We realize that we are going to have to create a new language of prayer. And this new language of prayer has to come out of something which transcends all our traditions. And comes out of the immediacy of love. We have to part now. Aware of the love that unites us. The love that unites us in spite of real differences real emotional friction. The things that are on the surface are nothing. What is deep is the real. We are creatures of love. Therefore let us join hands as we did before. And i will try to say something that comes out of the depths of our hearts. I asked you to concentrate on the love that is in you. That is in all of us. I have no idea what i'm going to say. I'm going to be silent a minute and then i will say something. And this is what he said. Oh god we are one with you. We have you have bettas one with you. You have taught us that if we are open to one another you dwell in us. Chartist reserved this openness and to fight for it with all our hearts. Compass to realize that there can be no understanding where there is mutual rejection. Oh god and accepting one another wholeheartedly fully completely. We accept you. And we thank you and we adore you and we love you with our old being. Because our being is in your being. And. And our spirit is rooted in your spirit. Phyllis done with love. And let us be bound together with love as we go our diverse ways. United in this one spirit. Which makes you present in the world. And which makes you witness to the ultimate reality. That is well. Love this overcome. Love is victorious. Love within us. Love around us. Lava baba. La paloma's. Loved before us. Love behind us. Love with that ass. Love around us. May the love. From. Both of our faith traditions and all of yours. Continue. To guide us. Give us opportunities to connect with each other. And to generate. And amplify. More love on our planet. Blessed be. All men. Ashay. Ajo. Namaste. So mote it be. You do i do you're going to read a quote and i have done i bought will you know when we talked i said. For being our moderator yay.

uuprairie_org

Pr160515RonFrye-ed.mp3

Good morning. Play works hard to be a welcoming congregation. And we welcome you this morning. Your new. We'd like you to know that prairie is a. Leyland congregation. Most of our programs are provided by members of the community or members of the congregation. We also have a half-time minister sandra angle. So and urbanski will read our opening words. Are opening words. Are by dr. wayne dyer. The fact that you were willing to say i do not understand and it is fine. Is the greatest understanding you could exhibit. Bassett hug family will be reading doing the chalice lighting's. And so we gather. From the ebb and flow of our lives. Thirsty for connection to ourselves. Thirsty. For connection to others. Thirsty. For connection to the larger life. As we like this chalice may all who gather here be filled. Filled with joy and hope. Filled with compassion and love. Here. May we be filled. So that we may pour ourselves out into the world. Ron fry is one of our newer members. But we've known ryan for quite awhile because he environment for us we're dating for a long time and. Join together in marriage. Enron. Would you like to tell us what you mean by the term acceptance. Captain to the favorite nevermind throughout my life i continue to see that it is something that you really good when i achieve it. When i can give it and it's also something that's really important when i can't do those things so of a john prine tune. From his album other side of town and it's about a guy who's. Got some acceptance issues why can't you come on out and despise me so i can pack my bags and baby i'd be gone so we wear. So that's one part of acceptance that i want to talk about but. Before i get into that i want to. For me that whole feeling of being accepted. Comes with a very. Visceral feeling of relaxation and how good it feels when i kind of go. Could you guys give me an a. So now again i'll be saying all through this and you can join me if you catch it. But anyhow. Oh. You were good enough to mention that barbara and i had our wedding here and i'll talk about that in just a little bit but i wanted to mention the process i went through coming into this organization and really. Like the first time that barbara brought me around the service was held over the arboretum and galen smith was taking people around and teaching us about the trees and the stuff that was there. I have come up through i was raised in the methodist church and belong to that for very long time and i was so used to if you go out to the arboretum you voted with canoe pouting whatever it is you would have stood under the shagbark tree in the shade instead of blessing. And we didn't do that. So i was asking barbara you know you got going on a sandbar right now what what happened. And know that you go on a canoe trip you have a great time like. Don't do that. And i actually found that to be quite. Beyond that i also found a great deal of acceptance here as i attended the first service with barbara and i was astonished at how many people came up to introduce themselves to me shook my hand chatted me up a little bit. And i see you doing that to all kinds of people to listen to the yeah i know i think you like barbara and stuff. It really was a nice thing at the methodist church i had been attending they were having such trouble welcoming visitors that they actually had a training session on shaking hands. We'll talk about the baptist in a minute i kind of enjoyed being a methodist because i found a lot of safety in the idea that nobody knows what they believe. Not real clear what they believe. And actually the few things where they write down what they believe they're pretty confused about and they're pretty conflicted about it. Eddie general conference that they have their annual general conference that is going on right now it started last week it continues into next week. I have some friends that are. Reporting out from that. And they're talking about how once again. The methodists are having a little bit of difficulty with. Not knowing what they believe. So i found safety there. But i think there's a lot of stress and a lot of angst and a lot of awful stuff going on it's a double-edged sword. Being a lot clearer about what you believe i believe i think that's different from acceptance. But anyhow. They really are confused about gay people. And i can remember in that methodist church that i belong to. Back in the 90s. We brought a small town nearby. We brought together the minister and the beloved old the longtime member of the church and. Doctor. Get in the town and they had a discussion instead of a usual sermon about whether or not that church could become an affirming congregation just a discussion no decision was made people on both sides left. They drop their membership just what we talked about. Just it was so awful that we talked about it. Very. Difficult issue for that particular church and it continues to be an issue. For the methodist church overall back then i looked up the overall method of policy and it was basically the same confusing stuff whole we love all people that we hate that sin. And they've changed that they're much more inclusive now. But they still don't allow gay clergy and they still. Half of. Gay marriage. And. So that stuff is. Part of what being fought out right now. I want of my former pastor that i stay in touch with on facebook posted that it's winner-take-all right now people are telling folks to get out that is abusive it is threatening and. Seems to me like really far distance from accepting. So. Very uncomfortable and i get it that people have strong feelings on either side of. All kinds of issues. Let me give you an example of a policy they have right now. That still continues to confusion and you don't even have to know what they're talkin about you just use your logic as i read through this. This is the kind of stuff that makes makes them crazy i think the general council on finance and administration shall be responsible for ensuring that no board agency committee by bus. Chuggington united methodist wants to any gay carpet or group. Or otherwise use such funds to promote the acceptance of homosexuality or violate the expressed commitment of the united methodist church. The council shall have the right to stop such expenditures it shall not limit the church's ministry in response to the hiv epidemic. They still don't know. Paraguay flag. They've just been fighting that for a very long time stumbling over acceptance. So this is the only time i'll use a different word than i. Ohio. Study speech communication when i went off to college. And one of the first things they are not one of the first things one of the powerful things i learned there came from us pretty well-known psychologist carl rogers there's a hold psychotherapy psychotherapy. And he says. It just sounded me then and it's still astounds me now that he would say it is the one that is v major barrier. He says the major barrier to mutual interpersonal communication is our very natural tendency. Judge. To evaluate to approve or disapprove the statement of. Other person or other. The major barrier to communication. Powerful stuff. At that time that i was going to school and learning this taking classes in communicating i volunteered at a crisis center in stillwater oklahoma. To that experience i talked about those and people through the suicidal. Remember friends saying to me don't they have family or their own friends that they can talk to. Am i answer was not without that evaluation because it's not there you get a lot of you can't think like that. That's bad you can't touch wrong you can't do that. And what i discovered was some of the power of that acceptance thing going on. Talk anonymously confidentially with someone over the phone line. And they were often amazed and have that feeling. When they would hear out of my mouth the sounding board rogerian responses of. Well let me see now you said you had. 6 important people in your life. i in the last nine months there with the car crash there was the diseases and there was the suicide. No wonder you feel so bad and that's when i said. At once you get there then you can move on to deal with other stuff. What they taught us at the time and i still believe is got someone who's drowning. This is not time to teach them to swim. That can come later and they can figure out who they are they can get their own swim lessons. But the. Along with that acceptance thing. Dr. si hayakawa who's. Senator from hawaii. I've commented on rodger stuff saying that you take a risk. And you need to have some courage to do. That kind of accepting listening because if you're willing to enter someone else's private world see the way life appears to them. Without any attempt to make evaluative judgments you run the risk of being change yourself. I never felt like killing myself. That that change didn't come my way. But i do know that churches steer people away from the ungodly because they're afraid it's going to rub off. I think they're making a poor choice i also know. That if you do like research on a topic for my for my students that i have do a persuasive speech. Sometimes they come to class with this real strong feeling about the topic they want to have. It might be something like they just walking across that big parking lot at the track center for madison college where he. And. It can be really cold and lotto winning last night or come across there till their way. But once you go and get involved in there and sort out your argument in your reasoning to go whitney director. And he found out it was going to cost of. $5000000 possibly built before he left with his 2-year participate. Is argue with your starting to go out the window and their sister end up giving and ride bike. So it's true you can those are those changes to do kind of happen. I really enjoyed looking this stuff up when i was putting together this presentation. And one of the things i want to take you back to it feel this is stuff i was getting the 1970s i'm pretty sure rogers wrote this in the 60s included about republicans. So he was like seeing the future. Suppose i say was some feeling this is a quote from rodger. I think the republicans are behaving in ways that show a lot of good sound since these days. What is the response that arises in your mind as you listen. The overwhelming likelihood is that it will be evaluative. You will find yourself agreeing or disagreeing or making some judgment about me thinking. He must be a conservative. He seemed solid in his thinking. What an idiot. That was what i had. So. Acceptance has been helping me in politics. Donald trump irritates me. I think he irritates other people there's some people that like him but. What i figured out to do is that i need to move to acceptance i'm tired of giving him my aunt. My irritation stirring up my day. Getting up on my soapbox that's what i think so i've moved to accept him he has every right. To have. To run for office to save what he says and i've kind of let go of that. He's done getting a lot of my attention i do intend this to be an informed voter and i do intend to vote but i'm like. So. And rodger says is there any real way of solving the problem of the communication barrier and his answer is real communication occurs and this evaluated. Tendency is avoided when we listen with understanding. Not like the guy in the song she's always. Tell him what he's done wrong when i was much younger i used to really press my point of view. I want. Had two older brothers so i needed to be the awful mail. And if politics would come up i would discuss that and. Try and convince people to agree with me. And i don't know that i taught complice very. I think a lot. A lot more was said than done matter fact. Others oklahoma expression judy i don't know if you know this one but it's. I bet yeah today i know it. So today i tried to make a decision is this somebody i could actually persuade this with somebody at you noah need to exchange some information with. Annual comes out of teaching how to be persuasive and selecting target audience. If you have people that really strongly agree on the topic is going to be hard to change them. Either that you know how people are really love trumpets going to be hard to change them people that really dislike trump is going to be hard to change them you got to find the folks in the middle. Doesn't seem to be too many of those. So i don't spend a lot of time there but the acceptance thing is help me feel better. In those situations and it also will apply in other parts of your life. Barbara and i have a good friend who is. Involved in. Digital dating trying to find somebody online looking looking for a spouse eventually. And she. Tortures herself with the acceptance in in those situations she'll spend a lot of time corresponding with somebody that trail of information they share photographs whatever it might be in the finally get together and meet and she doesn't get that follow-up date and then she is like. Very painful to her. Barbara and i had a whole different experience with that digital dating today which was she posted a picture on the internet that i found to be funny and so i called her up and we met. And we basically had been doing that. Online thing long enough that you just arrived really what hot again. And i tend to think of but unlike our friend who has so much pain. And still feels good. With my family. This is where the baptist come in oklahoma i have family down there and in arkansas and most of them are southern baptist. We went down there about 50 months ago to my oldest brother's 35th wedding anniversary. And it's a part of that whole trip we attended the 6,000. And it's the tiny that coincided with when the supreme court was making their decision on gay marriage. Country figured out enough about being nice that she got $5 out of her purse and put it into one of the few envelopes and was going to put it in the plate when it came around but if we got into the service they spent about 20 minutes on the horrors of what the supreme court was about to decide. About how awful it would be to. To allow it to happen. And so then they wrap that up with several minutes a very demonstrative public praying it was almost like we should be pulling our hair out and gnashing our teeth. So barbara tucker pfeiffer. Now we realized. That there are those split between. People that would come here and people that would be baptist. And basically we get along together by just accepting that we are different we don't have those discussions very often you go down for easter and you don't it. We don't need to point out who believes whatever or any of that sort of stuff it is avoid all kinds of. Every county. So it's just. It can be an awkward situation but i think we're very fortunate that that doesn't come along you mentioned our wedding here and we had my brother who has been a deacon in the baptist church. And we had his wife's a prayers. And i think she was really frightened to be in a unitarian church and it was a big thing for her to be able to. And i'm not sure if they knew that andy that married this was just a retired judge for this in some kind of administrative but we didn't want to explain that. Not taking the position works out. So the same time except and stuff working. Comes to play and i think it's helpful in work situation to be start frothing at the mouth about somebody's proposal about a new way of doing things. But if you can indicate you understand what they're talkin about and then show your objections i think you're in a much better spot. So it's for me it's just as all-purpose skill to use all the time and it's accepted. I've waited in and out of really messy situation and come back out without too much of it on me if i'm able to just stay as a sounding board reflecting not evaluating not judging not imposing my ego related values on what's going on but just. Grant just understanding those people. So i do. Risk that i might be changed. Cuz i did end up getting married today. Recently bar park. Help me get back into the chorus with the madison symphony. And the. First part of this month enjoy do singing several performances of carmina burana carl orff piece which is really dramatic and forceful and sometimes militaristic. And total funds to do and it'll be about 10 years since i've done with that group and one of the things that we did with carmina burana so i thought okay maybe i can do this but what i quickly discovered is. That's a real skill that had faded for me and i really needed to revive reading music and and so on is one thing to read to him. It is a challenge don't you go and you expect to make mistakes you go and do you start with your individual parts you could coaching sometimes you break up okay the faces will practice the sopranos and they will all do that separately then you come back together. You work more on the hard part so it's often out of sequence out-of-order what you're practicing and it's not until the final week when you're having dress rehearsals and getting ready getting together the professional soloist come to town and then you finally get that thing and sequins and hear all the stuff. And you get to sing at the top of your lungs in this. But it is so cool but the real thing is it is so powerful. And that for me is a kind of learning curve. To learn how to be accepting and that to me is the power i feel. At the wind that accept another can occur with other phone. Fortunately it on always get it with. Baptist in my family don't always get it in other places. But i know i became a better musician i become a better person when it's when it's feels good. Enso. Are there questions. I think that's one of my challenges and it's almost a catch-22 which is. Tolerance of the intolerable. And first of all i go through a little challenge of trying to figure out. How much of this is me how much do i need to grow and how much of this is. Elsewhere if donald trump was easy that wasn't the choice so you got something. Thank you ron. Barb chatterton will retard closing words. From robert mueller russia world needs most is openness open hearts open doors. Open eyes open mind. Open ears. Open soul. Please greet your neighbor.

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Pr210926RobinProud-ed.mp3

Frances ellen watkins harper was best known as a poet. She was the most famous black poet in america before paul laurence dunbar. And today we don't know any for poetry but this was probably the most famous called bury me not in a land of slaves. Make me a grave wherever you will in a lowly plane. Or a lofty hill. Making a homeless grave but not in a land where men are slaves. I could not rest. It's around my grave i heard the steps of a trembling slave. Is shadow above my silent true would make it a place of fearful gloom. I could not rest if i heard the tread. Coppell gang go to the shambles led and the mother shriek a wild despair rise like a curse. On the trembling are. I could not sleep. If i saw the last drinking her blood at each fearful gash. And i saw her babes torn from her breast. Like traveling do. From their parents nest. I shutter and start. I heard the bay of bloodhounds seizing their human prey. And i heard the captive plead in vain as they found a fresh is calling chain. If i saw young girls from their mothers arms bartered and sold for their useful charms. When i would flash with a mournful flame my jeff failed cheap grow red with shame. I would sleep with your friends where bloated might can rob no man of his dearest right. My rest shall be calm. In any grave where none can call his brother a slave. I ask no monument proud and high to arrest the gaze of the passers-by. All that my yearning spirit craves. Is bury me not in a land of slaves. If there's anybody who has heard of. Frances harper before seeing something about this presentation to raise your hands. Well i never had either so. Alice. British exploration director. I knew a little bit about her. My presentation today on francis harper relates to our second principle justice equity and compassionate human relations. I have been reading about and talking about women in uu history for. Almost 30 years now. And i had a whole range some very early figures like abigail adams or. Margaret fuller was in the early 1800s. I talked in 2020 about. A woman who. Was at the actual signing of the 19th amendment. There were women who. Were upper-class lower class from different parts of the country the one thing they all had in common was that they were all white. Now this was not surprising because unitarian-universalist at the time like today or overwhelmingly white congregation. But i was. So surprised to find out that one of our most influential forebears was hiding in plain sight and i didn't even recognize her the first two times she came to my attention. I'm going to show some slides for part of my presentation. 2020 i did a presentation at sauk city about how suffragist report rated popular novels and stories. In the fifty years before the vote. And. I have gotten more ideas from browsing the frugal muse i found this audiobook. Feminist activism in american fiction 1870 and 1920 romancing the obtrusive book that's done print. It's someone academic but i found it interesting and got to talk out of it. There was one non-white writer in here and that was frances harper i never heard about her but i read that she was very popular. Famous as a poet assistant speaker against slavery and for women's rights. And then this year. I did a different talk. There we go. For sauk city about. The history of black women in the fight for the boat this is a wonderful new book how black women broke barriers 12-volt and insisted on equality for all or the short. Title is vanguard by dr. martha s jones. Frances harper was covered at lynx here for her political and social activism. It was only right before i gave the talk based on this book that i glanced through the uu world magazine and i saw the name of frances ellen watkins harper listed with other unitarian heroes of civil rights i think it might have been in the children's section. What. I've never heard her mention inuyasha street including the miniyar recrystallize. Her picture wasn't feature in the poster of famous you use. That was on our church wall by the water fountain. I used to look at that friday is i'm sure i would have noticed her. But when i read about her in the two books i just mentioned i made what might be a racist assumption. I assume she must have been active in a baptist or. African methodist episcopal ame church. Most black women do their strengthen their leadership training from the black church. Except it was brilliant. A bunch of black men gathering after the civil war would have been an invitation for vigilante. But a bunch of black ladies dressed up and meeting at church. Was perfectly okay however they were using us to build their power. Will a just start out in the ame church but she's switch to unitarian as an adult. Because the unitarians reflected her views on social issues. And apparently on religious issues as well. When susan b anthony broker history of women's suffrage. She wrote the history of the white woman's boob. Frances harper didn't write a memoir or autobiography. She didn't leave a lot of journals she spoke very little about her personal life. There's no full in fa trophy of harper i was very excited to find that there was a book that came out. At the end of last year. It's apparently a series on black lives. As it turned out there was only there's one extended chapter on her life and the rest are reviews of her. Novels and other writings which is also interesting but there's definitely room for someone's riding extended biography of her life. And i was also interested this. This summer my daughter sent me for my birthday this charming book. Why she wrote a graphic history of the lives inspiration and influence behind the fans of classic women writers. And what it has is. A page about the writers a jane austen and then it's got a. Sort of comic strip or graphic novel. Depiction of a part point in their life where. They. Decided to become a writer and why. As i was looking through it i thought this is so great i wish there was something for frances harper and lo and behold she was in there. So i think she's being we discovered another thing is if any of you watch the netflix series the chair about academia which i found very entertaining. There's a young black woman up-and-coming and they mentioned at 1.00 didn't you write that paper or. About francis. Ellen watkins harper. So maybe she's being rediscovered. Well when i started looking myself i did find several uu speakers online giving sermons on francis harper. Including one. The first unitarian church in philadelphia where harper was a regular attendee. And she's actually buried. In that. Graveyard. Generally women's ministries talked about her they listed her accomplishments but they rarely got into the challenges she was up against. She was forced. To deal with what we today call intersectionality. Being disadvantaged both by race and my gender. Harper was much more than a writer. She traveled around the country and spoke it all sorts of venues up to four times a day. Remember this was an age of trains and horse-drawn vehicles. And as a black woman she regularly suffered indignities. Reinforced her dedication to the struggle for equality. Frances ellen watkins was born 1825 in baltimore and here's a picture of what baltimore might've looks like proximally that time. There's a little research into her that we don't know the names of her parents. Now there was a reason for this. They both died when francis was three and she went to live with her uncle william in henrietta watch. It's turned out to be a. Good thing this family valued education. They were apparently quite nurturing to francis and a cursor to read from their extensive library. Uncle william was a well-known abolitionist and public speaker. William lloyd garrison and other activists visited the home frequently. It's from someone by earlier talks i explain that women who got a so-called boys education such as margaret fuller. Disproved the idea that women were inferior in the same way frances watkins harper's education showed that there was no barrier to black academic achievement as long as they had the resources. Although francis home with rich education money was lacking. She went to work as a teenager as a servant or a white family. Fortunately this family also had a library and encourage frances to use it during her break time. Later she became the first woman hired as a faculty member at union seminary which was to become wilberforce university in ohio. A traditionally black college. Although in spider for education the subject she was hired to teach with sewing. In maryland frances would have known as society that juxtaposed free and enslaved black people. White abolitionists. And white people who use slave labor. The passage of the fugitive slave law needs 50 enhance the risk that francis and other free people could be kidnapped. And sold into the south and of course it's the basis of the true story 12 years a slave. Through the evolution of struggles in her family francis became familiar not only with national leaders but with women essay. She read the liberator a journal published by. William lloyd garrison and the north star. Published by frederick douglass. These newspapers and others were looking for works from black riders. So after writing for some of these papers francis published a book of poetry forest leaves in 1845. And poems on miscellaneous subjects in 1854. The second book was reprinted 5 times. And sold over 10,000 copies. For contrast. What whitman's leaves of grass sold fewer than 100 copies when it was first published. You could tell her verse was very approachable. Something that people could memorize which was very desirable at the time. Also addressed. Important subjects. Any chance christie francis published the first short story by african american woman with two offers. By the late 1850s francis was a popular speaker who was able to support herself by sales of her books. It was very rare white or black women. She was extremely active with harriet tubman and the underground railroad. And donated much of her money there. 1852 francis left her position at union seminary. I moved to pennsylvania where she live with william and letitia still key members of the local abolitionist movement. So interesting that you can find a picture today in william still but not of his wife patricia. It may seem quite normal to westin harbour became a public speaker but there was still fierce opposition to women speaking in public. I'm serious topics. Black women. The audiences of course were overwhelmingly white. According to reports from the time francis was a charismatic and engaging speaker and could speak well off-the-cuff. Our success was always dedicated to the movement not to advancement for herself. After the publication of 12 years a slave in 1853. Advocated for the free labor boycott. The idea was that northerners would refuse to buy goods made by slave labor. Not everyone approved of her speaking for of the boycott. Spin the book i mentioned vanguard dr. martha s jones des. Appearing on an anti-slavery stage was not easy. Harper generated controversy. Audience members debated whether she with all her talent and refinement really was a woman equal to her white counterparts. Harper was parodied by southern and anti-abolitionist journalist. One dumpster a mulatto girl. Instead she argues that the shortest and quickest way of placing the colored race in the position to live without labor is for the white folks to abandon the use of sugar and cotton and other products of slave labor like all those poor people would be unemployed. Succeed. Like other black women francis suffered daily indignities on street cars trains and on the roads and this was in the north. Secure is an example of the horse-drawn streetcars of the time. 1858. Harper road. The other day the conductor came to me and wanted me to go out on the platform. Now it's not brave and noble it is she should right outside. As a matter of course i did not. So this was a good hundred years before rosa parks. I did not move but kept the same sheet. When i was about to leave he refused my money. And i threw it down on the car floor and got out. After i had wasn't as far as i wish. Impedance. She also wrote about being accosted. How are the roads. On the carlisle road i was interrupted and insulted several times. Two men came after me in one day. Add a meeting in coolspring ohio a newspaper reported. An attempt was made to break up by rowdy violence one of miss watson's meetings. In this case the offenders were arrested and and harper soon. And martha jones death. Rather than sanctuaries courtroom is permitted the insult to her dignity to continue. The court required harper to repeat her lecture for the jury. Determine the character of the meeting. Harper goodwin the case. And the right to speak. But as we know such a judgment had little effect on rowdy's throughout the territory. It's hard to imagine a stressful effects. Of these almost daily. Macroaggression saint francis parker. And yet she. In 1850s francis spoke regularly in maine new york massachusetts. Pennsylvania ohio as far west as kansas. Nebraska. She also toured canada. Our continuing to write. Francis was highly affected by the story of margaret garner. An escapee from slavery. Killed her own daughter rather than allow her to be returned to slavery. This happen in ohio. Expenses decried the fact that no organization or church in that states that forward to protect that mother and child. In the lead up to the civil war. Frances with both the public and a private supporter of john brown. And his mission to lita slam slave rebellion. Picture from john brown's raid. After brown's arrest. Francis corresponding with brown's wife and offered money and help. It 1860. At the advanced age for that arrows 35. Francis watkins marriage denton harper. He was a widower with three children. And they soon added the daughter. They were able to purchase a firearm in ohio with the proceeds poetry. Crystal training as a servant was useful in running the household. But she also continued to public speaking. She wrote a detailed objection to president lincoln's plan to send freed slaves to canada africa. Another destination. That was an early idea. But after just four years of marriage and tim die. And we do have a picture of his grave. However he left many guess. As a woman francis was unable to get any kind of loan against the property or her projected income. Everything that she owned. Everything from the home most of which have been paid for by her was repossessed. Except for one hand mirror. Do most biographical articles just state that after husband died. But they gave no hint of this tragedy. Based on inequality of property and financial rights. And this case i'll be in a white woman. Probably would not have helped your either. What this experience intensify her drive for full rights for women. Soon after the civil war ended francis began to traveling spouse. She lectured and taught in multiple states oven there to audiences of black women. Sometimes she stayed with former slaves. Some issues that we rarely hear about in studying the. i have not spoken of this but there were many refugees with no holes. People who are no longer enslaved of course did not get the property they had promised. Also the problem of reunifying families was in mets. Many mothers and children have been separated when the children were infants or toddlers. How are they even going to recognize each other. Their names could have been changed multiple times by plantation owners. And they could have been resold. Other parts of the south. At the same time frances we change her passion for women's rights. Ups mcknight states. It 1866. Frances harper give a speech at the 11th national women's rights convention new york. This speech represented her coming into national prominence. For the post-war activist push for women's rights. Occupy her for the major part of the next few decades. And this is where she. Gabe babe. Beach. Talking about how we are all bound up together. Race along with women's suffrage of course remain a central concern for her vision. It is at speed she said i do not believe that giving the woman the ballot is immediately going to cure all the ills of life. I cannot believe that white women aren't you dropped the sticks hails from the sky. I think that like men they may be divided into three classes. The good the bad and the indifferent. You wait women speak here of rights. I speak it wrong. Let me go tomorrow morning and take my seat in one of your street cars. And the conductor will put up your shannon stop the car rather than let me ride. One day i took my seat in the car and the conductor came to me and told me to pick another seat. I just screamed murder. The man said if i was black. I knew that if he was white he was not behaving himself. Harper pointed out that when these incidents happen white women never once stepped forward to abject. Orchard supporter black woman. And this was in northern cities such as philadelphia and new york. Not this convention harper was the only black woman speak. On the platform with susan b anthony. Elizabeth cady stanton. Lucretia mott. But the leadership respected her enough to employ her to the finance committee. Which raised funds for the cause of suffrage and here's the. Your picture again. Three years later harper published a poetry book moses story of the nile. Throughout her career she referred to the story of moses as an analogy to the freeing of americans slaves and we see that in numbers spiritual as well. Same here 1869 her first novel mini sacrifice was published as a serial. In a magazine called christian recorder. Who's brooks express in yearning for the demand for racial and gender equality. These years of constant traveling. Speaking took a toll on francis health. It 1871. At the age of 46. She settled in philadelphia. What does assistant superintendent the ymca on a house for herself and her daughter. I continue to write. I'm going to go off up there. To tell you a little bit more. Here's an excerpt from the uu biography site about her religious engagement and how she got involved with unitarians. Although busy as a writer and active in public life. Harper continue to engage personally and social concerns at the local level. She work for the number of churches in the black community in north philadelphia near her home. Interesting because when i lived in philadelphia in the 1960s. North philadelphia west blackbeard today. She worked at feeding the poor preventing juvenile delinquency and teaching sunday school at the mother bethel ame church. Both unitarians and ame church have claimed harper as a member. She was reluctant to choose between the two. Ame was a church she has been raised. It was family and home to her. And she always remembered where she came from. And what her people have been through. Reasons for joining the unitarian church may have been partly political. Although she had had for professional contacts in both black and white communities. Ever since her first book of poems was toppers. Many doors remain close to her. Society where color lines were clearly drawn the unitarian church provided a rare opportunity for the races to meet. Unitarian she knew could help to advance the cause she supported. It places you could never go. And i do you use site also says the harper's christology was unitarian. Christ was not a distant god to her but a role model for the kind of exhausted exist. All human beings could attain. Not the same time as her writing a community work. Harper was involved from the 1870s into the 1900s. In. Association for the advancement of women women's christian temperance union the universal peace. American woman suffrage association international council of women the national council of women and the women's congress. All of these organizations were almost exclusively run by white women. And consisted of white widow. She was offered the only black leader. When the chance arose she was also a leader in her own community. She was a founding member of the national association of colored women. Which was to become a large influential association of women's club. She worked alongside ida b wells against lynching. While living in philadelphia harper published several more books of poems and three novels. The most famous and the only one generally known at all. Is iola leroy with harper wrote when she was 67 years old. Because of a famous poet novel so well and received positive reviews. This book is one of the rare contemporary records of the lives of enslaved people toward the end of the civil war and just ask. I'll just tell you a little bit about it. The novel starts with a black man returning from chow. Others asked him if the butter was fresh today. This was a cold. Or whether the yankees were winning. From the beginning the black characters are shown as intelligent and resourceful. We also learn how black laundress who passed information to the union army by the way she hung out the laundry. Early in the book the yankees do take over the planet. And many of the black man choose to join black regimen. Fighting on the union side. This may be the only account of that experience from black point of view. Of course frances harper wasn't there. But soon after the war she spent years in the cell talking to those people. Who had been there. Telestory then ships the teenage iola leroy. She grew up in the south in a white household. She's blonde and blue-eyed she and her brother are sent north better education. Are boarding school lydia differs with the northern abolitionists girls. The chapter titled schoolgirl notion fiesta. Slavery can't be wrong for my father is a slaveholder in. My mother is as good to our services she could be. I want their freedom. Slavery is not wrong if you treat them well. But iola's family contains a terrible secret. Her mother had some black blood. But the parents never told iola order brother robert about it. When ios father dies the relative who inherits claims that the marriage of violas parents was invalid because it was mixed race. Worse. Iola robert and their mother are now sent into slavery. Iola finds this out only after she has traveled back to the spouse. Too late to see her dying father. She warns robert not to come back and he becomes a union officer. Meanwhile i will admit. I used to say that slavery was right. I didn't know what i was talking about. Interesting really don't care more about the fact that her father despite marrying a woman he knew as mixed race kept slaves. Frances harper interesting lee skips over the actual time of viola slavery. We see her next as a nurse. Open the union troops. After they have freezer area. Harper only makes reference to the time in this way i was stole from state-to-state as an article of merchandise. Outrageous heaped on me which might well crimson that sheet of honest womanhood with shame. I have heard men talk glibly of the degradation of the negro. But there is a vast difference between a basement of condition. And degradation of character. I was a beast. But the men who trampled on me where the degraded. Elsewhere she talks about women who were accused of cheating the race stating that it is the men who are doing the engine. Harper's appointment to today. After the war iola becomes a teacher for black children which is what frances harper oxygen. For a while. She writes about how a white man comes to the school. And says. Just say to talk to them on the achievements of the white race such as. Building steamboats and carrying on businesses. Finally asked how they did it. They've got money chorus to children. How did they get it. They took it from us and the youngsters. Iola smile that the gentleman was nonplussed. But he could not deny that one of the powers of knowledge. Is the power of the strong to oppress the weak. Now you can imagine the same conversation taking place today or perhaps you heard that as when conservative tv and radio figures announced that america was built by white people. A white doctor doctor gresham admires loyola. And even when he learns of her ancestry he wants to marry her assuring her she can pass as white in the north. Chittick farms. Feeling loyal to her people. And also questioning how her suitor will feel if they have a dark-skinned child. Against great odds loyola and robert find their mother. So there's a lot in this book about the issue our families getting reunited and how important that was to the black community. When they move north. All is not sweetness and light. They can get jobs and rent homes based on their appearance but as soon as the employer or landlord learns of their heritage they're refused entry or thrown out. Iola is such a feminist that she declares every woman ought to know how to earn her own living. She takes a job as a saleswoman in a white company. Hesi would want a co-worker asked what church she attends. Iola admits where she goes and that she goes there to be with her colon people. Harper died on february 22nd 1911 9 years before women gain the right to vote. Funeral service was held at the unitarian church in philadelphia. Although extremely popular writer and during her lifetime harper was not explained by literary critics. Charlie after harper style was dismissed as sentimental. Her message held in suspicion by some blackmail critics because. Or mixed-race protagonist were not sufficiently black. There's been a fair amount of discussion about whether harper made her heroin fair and blond out of colorism. I think it was for two reasons. When was to make it easier for white reader sympathize with iola. Another mystery show how ridiculously arbitrary any notion of race really is. At mcknight's he's larger causes that work in the fall off of respect for her per. He says the need to minimize the importance of black women in the major women's rights organization led to the removal or marginalization of the contributions of frances harper. Frances harper did not fit the model of the pathetic black person. In need of succor and charity from white benefactor. You're not going to sleep with sheep. Her work was too radical. Too invasive of social norms. First success b-line all the stereotypes of black inferiority that were being strengthened in the jim crow era. During the 20th century her reputation wayne further and the best of her poetry language unread. Harper's gravestones delaware in wisconsin bike racks. In recent decades however black women and feminists in general have resurrected harper's legacy. In 1992 african american unitarian universalist honored her. Commemorated the 100th anniversary of iola leroy by installing a new headstone. An excavation the old headstone wasn't cover. Forgotten but still enduring. Carnival symbol for us. Harper's call for full human development. Black and white male and female also indoors. As urgent and vital during these decades. Following the civil rights movement and women's liberation. As it was during reconstruction and it's aftermath. So we do have a little time for some comments or questions. Yes. This was. Common for there to be this traveling speakers on all kinds of subjects and that was entertainment people did not have other entertainment options are also things like chautauqua. I meant just to mention that when you're talked about literary society for all of these women there was basically no higher education many of them did not even have access to high school education is officially. They were largely self-taught they would read an. Discuss and form their own groups. An early college that admitted women with overland but then there are very few. Opportunities like that. I know that we do have quite a few essays because she wrote him. In both kinds of papers and also that eat something because someone like frederick douglass was famous. That's on his things were were preserved. In her yahoo. A poetry and essays were. Available to others and she was she was famous at the time as a poet that helps. Keep wondering who else there is out there because since she was discovered out of the. Out of nowhere by me i'm excited by all of us. That they're there must be much more but you're right there's such a wealth it's just a lost because that wasn't considered. Of any interest. Even even things that people wanted to keep. Newspapers would be in just in one place and they're bs fire or you're all kinds of things were just right things were not kept in any kind of archival manor. It's a real really interesting now. Challenge. Harriet tubman was of course known for offering. Weather underground. Railroad and so on he was famous and other. In other circles that might. Surely there are white sentimental authors. Harriet beecher stowe's uncle tom's cabin. Harry beecher stowe was a white woman. Yes those were an instantly. I'm sure she was also dismissed the sentimental by. Literary critics and so on but the yeti social aspect. Influence was so great right lincoln said all i wanted to meet the woman who started the civil war. Where. Although. Frances harper. Did have good sales wasn't anywhere near in this and this level. I'm so going to do with the time this was be romantic. the victorian.. People like charles dickens are also just missed a sentimental when it came into the once you get into the twentieth century there were world war i said. All that stuff is is old dowlen and we tend after speckles where things are rediscovered. There's been. There have been a number of things like that. You're talking about. Darnell person who was in the 20th century but was pretty much forgotten delfield rediscovered by more modern writer so we can keep having. The cycles of it. These things were coming from her her life and although of course she was not a slave g. Had a lot of contact with people who had lived in. Had lived at in the. And then her yes her poetry is a bit simplistic you might say inform but so was others of that time like whittier longfellow or someone this was the. Standard form of poetry. Except for somebody more experimental equipment. And it was it was very well-known for first. Poems were more about nature rather than being as. Socially conscious but other about nature and religion she does have a lot of. A lot of references to. True religion francis it mentions moses story but many other things that was the. That was the popular culture in a sense everybody knew the bible. And that's what you could refer to two. Get people's attention in. Give them a story to latch onto. Even blonde blonde to get attention from the media. And then i had a co-worker said it's too complicated to follow. Political issues aside but she knew every detail about scandals like this and about and also about who is winning on survivor and depends where you want to put your attention. The catholic conference did you want to do something before. I'm pretty sure you can find that online. i think it's a solid public domain and i think if you were to just search that. I don't know if the fiscally called bury me not if you look up frances ellen watkins harper that's your most famous one of her most famous things. But i can also send it on prairie view. And i did find you can purchase through. Kindle or probably other services complete works on. Frances harper because. It's on public domain. Or you can you can find it on your computer if you want to sit on the computer and read. Stop. I think iola leroy i got out from the public library because that's one that's been. That's been. Actually be printed. I do have so i do i will have a follow-up by preparing for sauk city 4th october a follow-up on additional. Other novels and poems by by her i feel like we've had multiple presentations on someone like emerson or thoreau we could have an additional presentation on her.. Alright well i guess we can. But then we are we ready to wrap up then with her. Closing words. So this is from iola leroy. Never will i recognize any religion which despises the least of our brethren. Well thanks thanks you robbing for pinch-hitting this wasn't the original plan service either.

uuprairie_org

Pr120617ParkProud-ed.mp3

A great ways to begin our service today at prairie. And i before we started just wanted to have a special welcome to all the fathers out and our audience today happy father's day and thank you for coming to share part of your day at 4 today. Welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society i am christina clock i'm a member here. Serious buyers to be both an open-hearted and open-minded congregation. We welcome people of every ethnic and religious background. Weather whatever your color sexual orientation gender or family structure. We welcome you no matter what your age or your abilities or your abilities. We're in the service we will invite visitors guests and returning friends to introduce yourself so that we might get to know you better. On sunday mornings we provide a wide variety of services. We are they are presented by a prairie member a member of the wider community or by our minister we are currently recruiting for a minister. Today bob and dan will be presenting the program and i'll look forward to introducing them right before the probe their presentation. I woke my pleasure today to introduce two of our own prairie numbers i have to say this is one of the reasons that i am a member at prairie to hear presentations like this and too. Enjoy the stories of our own members and what they're doing in the community. Bob park has been a member of prairie for 38 years. Past chair of prairie social action committee. And is a retired wisconsin department of natural resources air pollution engineer. Oh damn proud has been a member of prairie for 10 years. And serves on the hospitality and membership committee. And it's a retired technical writer in the computer field and we do have a one small program change. Add anna's going to accompany the last him. Guitar dan. So we'll look forward to that. So dan and bob are going to speak today on a topic called putting your face. In action. So welcome. I'd like to start by saying that. I put my faith in people. And people according to my experience with people. Collectively and individually. I put my faith in reason and the scientific method but not in religious teachings. I would not describe myself as a follower of a new you or any other faith. But my mom connection with perry. Established a significant extent from finding others who share my social concerns here. I think you use can be justly proud of their historical engagement in. Social concerns. Of the day and. That the young people in our congregation. Can learn from the example we set today. I'm going to talk. Briefly about civil rights act my activities and civil rights peace. Environmental protection and. Media reform and hopefully some of you have already seen the summary that i posted on webpage i won't repeat. All that. And doing my part if you've got questions as i go long please feel free to to ask him. My civil rights activities began. In the 1960s. This is an era of segregation in the deep south. And. As i. Rope. My father i. Join the. Marsh on the last day of the march on montgomery which martin luther king has led. This was. Did you use were involved in that. Stromedy summer leon and. You may know that james reid. Was killed on the first day ended on the first day of the march from selma. And he died two days later he was the person who the other. The james reid, congregation is named after. He was one of three uu ministers that were attacked in in selma. And one of them was suck. Or loughmiller contacted. Student campus groups such as the january 12th at the university of wisconsin. To encourage people to come and join in the last day of the march on montgomery. A lot of people came down from all around the country including a disproportionate. Representation of you use. So i was involved in that and i. Two of us went down as representatives of the channing break probably work. Put up. Yeah. Homes of the members of the birmingham unitarian universalist congregation we went to. Nonviolent training at that church. How to protect yourself if you were knocked down that's what i think. And. Let me go on to that was that was in that 60. Micah 55 then the following summer i went down to mississippi as a volunteer for the mississippi freedom democratic party. And ended up getting arrested three days after i arrived. Has product demonstrations ever going we're just starting. The. Voting rights they were marches on the on the capitol in jackson. And. The jackson police had a policy of. And for the rest of us. Demonstrators more than 1,000 people who ended up getting arrested over series. A week or so. And i was in the first group so i was incarcerated for 10 days with. 474. I mentioned that. The police. Had their numbers on their name tags take over so they couldn't be identified. That showed up again as recently as he occupy wall street. In new york where. Please had covered over their numbers until someone. I'm probably about to it. Commanding officer that this wasn't legal and got them to take the. The reveal their number so they could be identified. Fortunately we live in madison where we don't have that kind of problem with the police but. In mississippi in the 1960s there was certainly. A different. Kind of. Police force that we are up against. One example. Doing our our 10 days we weren't. Incarcerated that the. The exhibition halls on a state fairgrounds too many people to put in jail. Are the only ones who went to the jail with white women the black men and. Black women with another exhibition hall. We were fed. Two different kinds of canned vegetables in it and a piece of bread was a typical meal. When. Reporters were finally allowed in. To interview s suddenly we got a piece of meat the family took a bunch of meats. Lunch so bad and boozy. Camille grammer net reporters were there to see. An example of. Police attitude that they were black trustees who were in charge of preparing our meals and one day. White officer grabbed the arm of the black christian. Made him dump a bunch of salt. Dinner is she was repairing making it. Inedible for the most of us for that meal. Although one person erica. Even though he didn't even he had several portions of the very salty. When i was booked for this arrest of a trustee year was looking at things in everybody's pockets i had a key case. Which had a fingernail. Little blade on one side. Cutting out i could have gotten in trouble if he identified that as a nice and confiscated it. But. He let it go and that little blade served us well in. Making things like chess pieces that lie. Made out of paper cups, we were entertaining ourselves. In the. Exhibition hall where we were or kept. I was i was there for 10 days and that that tie everybody was dale doubt someone at the national level came up with the money to bail everybody out. And. The rest actually never went to trial. Vesey the we didn't have to go to trial eventually the rules under which the laundry which we arrested was declared unconstitutional because it was being using an unconstitutional way and add. At that point. It became easier to get a parade permit in jackson mississippi then it wasn't madison. While i was there i visited the unitarian universalist church in jackson and. Was invited to dinner at the apartment of the extension minister donald thompson. That they were small congregation i didn't really have enough income to support their own minister but the uua supported. The. Minister that they had at that time because they were such a crew to location. And then. Don don thompson was there from 6265 and he worked on. Inviting black members of the congregation and making it. Reportedly the first integrated congregation in mississippi. And if i didn't. Noted after i return to madison two weeks after returning i learned that he had been shot in the parking lot of the apartment where you live. Multiple small ones to my shot gun blast. He recovered and. Was willing to stay on in jackson. Until threats against members of the congregation started coming in and this is a time of. Activity of the ku klux klan. And he did it he did decide to to leave at the. Later that year in any went to boston where he. Working a lot roxbury district. Later in 67 i went down to. Teacher semester at tougaloo college at historically black college in the jackson area. You're not too blue and. Actually it's in the neighboring county of jackson. And. Mississippi license plate from that. Time mississippi and madison on the bottom is madison county where the glue is located you were required to get a mississippi license if you were working in the state and even though i was the only one semester i have the. To get a license in more than $100 to register your vehicle is a major fundraising thing for the. One of the things i remember from the. Teaching at tougaloo was the. Basketball team at the school. Heading. Got an invitation to play a flight basketball team innocent never happened before. Anna down. The. Black. Players were nervous about. Engaging in game against whites. So to give them some experience. The mostly white faculty at the school. Wanted to have a game with them. So if the white men and black students play this basketball game and i was pretty. But even for the first half. Until william. Laxatives. More activator. But the situation and handily defeated the faculty. The biggest. Well i'll be a. Peace activities i mentioned the. Peacemakers orientation. Program in non-violence. In 1970 in north carolina and the peacemakers group is probably sure of this this newsletter. And is this center. Became the friendship center camp that's now in wisconsin and it was founded by mineral smith and his wife isabel. Do quakers and has a story about. Monroe's death in 1972. She was. Concerned about threats to the firebombing the place. And he tried to get fire insurance and nobody would ensure that the place even tried with. Boy does london unable to use. So they added up. Closing the facility there and then moving to wisconsin. And it's a defensive center. Near dodgeville in wisconsin that has sometimes been used by our re-program for our. Summer street. The biggest piece activity i was involved with. Associated with very wealthy conference building a peaceful tomorrow and interfaith conference. That virginity is just prior to the invasion of iraq. And that i have been involved with starting of the madison area peace coalition. And. Two of us awake around and eyewear. Leading the discussion on. Having some sort of peace conference i was very concerned that. There seemed to be no moral compass as the bush administration was heading towards war with the rock in. Lack of. Vocal opposition on the part of religious groups i felt there was a real need for. Some kind of organized religious opposition so we organize his conference and ended up being held at the. Blessed sacrament church in madison involved. Write a list of speakers with it. Tammy baldwin and giving me the concluding remarks became the first congregation to vote to be a sponsor of that. Congregation on the quaker meeting became a second congregation at mia level 10 more religious groups in the madison area sponsoring that conference. Environment protection. I didn't mention what i posted that i've been active on the green on the green committee and. You can see the green square on going back there now then i'll leave the came out certified. Green sanctuary congregation and. Did the green page on our perry website. Where you can hear interviews with four of our members about their environmental practices. Finally media reform as many of you know i'm involved with the. Hello power radio station. Broadcasting from my garage instead of a default location. Thalia shampoo had volunteered her house has a better location. Offerup to set up a tower but we didn't get around to that before she died. If any of you did not see the article in this magazine about. Already station. Back. Late last year. that's here for you too. Look at. I should probably stop here and give an example.. I wasn't sure what to say so. I just wrote something up last night and i guess i feel more comfortable just reading it so. Yesterday i was taking a walk in the morning when i passed a large chalkboard sign on a porch. Of a house in the main street of baileys harbor in door county where robin and i spent a few days with some friends. The sign quoted rabindranath. Tiger. A famous bengali rider from a century ago. And the the quotation said. I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold service was joy. And. I walk down the sidewalk and i thought. I want to read that again so i went back and i read it again i slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold service was joy. And i. Say i thought this describes the life that i aspire to. I grew up in a family that went to church and early on i accepted the golden rule is a lifelong value and commitment. Yeah my parents somebody that rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you and for much of my life i have. Gone from cause to cause always in service of others. I found some pads to be more fulfilling or meaningful for me then other pads. After sometime. And for sometime i turn to look to see who i am that i could be most. Joyful in my service. It is very helpful for me to have discovered in recent years. The distinctions of landmark education. And education that enabled me to be clear about who i am or put another way. Who i have created myself to be. And to accept myself and live my life with power and joy. I would. Dearly love to be a handy electrician or a plumber or a whiz at business or finance. But i'm really in my element as a musician. Also i am passionate about community and so i say that imma stand for the health and well-being of communities. And for the contribution of music in those communities. This is entirely compatible with several of the uu principles having to do with the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Justice equity and compassion and relationships. Acceptance of one another the goal of community beyond boundaries. And respect for the interdependent web of all existence. Musicians need an audience. Because we need to engage people and share music. It's really about sharing our humanity through the special medium of music. These values of commitments of service through music and community have led me to continue to sing and play musical instruments especially the guitar. In many settings information causes. A part of my story is that i was a vietnam war era veteran drafted and trained as a medic. Spared from combat but sent away to live in army barracks in germany at the age of 22. To be sure there were fun times. Two to be had there in germany. But i was there against my will and if you've been in the military has a drafty or drafted for anything against your will may be. Teenagers can relate to this and their family life when they're told what to do whether they like it or not. There's a lot of room for resentment and boredom and humiliation and anger. And you just have to suck it up that is suppress your feelings or you suffer the consequences. Years later. I read about veterans returning from the far far off war in the middle east. Are returning to a complacent and disinterested society back home. And i was taken back to my own time when my friends didn't care to hear about what i had to go through. If you haven't done military service is hard to appreciate what it's like. And veterans who went through combat. Often have pressing needs that don't get mad or even get recognized. I just read that the ap reported that this year. More active-duty us troops have committed suicide and were killed in action. In afghanistan about one suicide today. I really wanted to be of service in some way to these veterans and their families. The music that i wrote in the barracks and now i'm in germany still seemed appropriate to the present situation. And i dusted off the song a couple years ago and put together some friends and musicians. And. Notably among them to leadership role and judy wacker. And i produced the cd to raise some music for the vets. And then i found the perfect organization to support. Guitars for vets. In the cause of restoring the feelings of joy and purpose that can be lost after suffering trauma as it states on the organization's website. And i also became a guitars for vets instructor and i'm now give guitar lessons to vets at the vet center on willy street. A couple times a week. The vets have been very appreciative for the lessons and when they stick with the program for ten lessons they. I receive a guitar to keep. So i play and teach guitar. And sing it for ariana guitars for vets. Icing in the choral arts society pharrell and the madison manor core in the cambrian singers. Atwells festivals and at the occasional protest or workshop or party. Wherever music is called for. I also have played for my second and third grade class at crestwood elementary school in madison where i tutor. Kids give me a kik because of their energy and openness to the wonder. Of life. I'm constantly aware of their place in the world is our future leaders and decision-makers. They are the inheritance inheritors of the world we leave them. And the fasteners of the world they in turn will leave for the next generation. So i've committed myself to crestwood the school in my neighborhood for the last 2 years. I spent parts of two mornings a week. Listening to them read to me. And reading to them and sharing myself. Hear it. i've taught re classes and we'll teach her again in the future. It is. I really important part of our community and i want to salute rebecca and my wife robin and susan. In all the teachers who dedicate themselves to the lives of the kids in our midst. I also serve on the hospitality membership committee. And the program committee to committees. Hey give me a great deal of pleasure and are important in sustaining our congregation. So just sunrise. I'm committed to the communities in my life. My fended family my welsh american network of friends. To the prairie community to veterans. Do i landmark friends. Answer my lifelong college friends. And so on and so on. The life of service is a joy. If it is an authentic expression of who we are. As a veteran that you unitarian universalist of musician and as someone who cares about kids. As long as i can serve and be outward-looking i will be happy. Damn can i ask you a question about singing as i recall you and mary mullen and someone else were formed a trio that performed at was at the earth charter size. Pause woodward that they are charter summit in or was that. Is it was application. That was one of the. What did you call your group. Peacemonger eastmont. I remember the demonstrations. I lived at the fence campus center on campus for a while and that was one of the buildings where. Tear gas was fired by police into the basement of the building. To get after demonstrators were trying to escape from the cemetery gassing. There are a lot of people involved. On campus in a demonstrations. I was. Involved in some of the demonstration planning and i and one of the quotes i had was. How. The faculty had voted against the war in vietnam by overwhelming majority and it had even voted to suspend classes for a week. To accommodate the student activism in the teachings and that's everything. Before coming to madison avenue to start drafted work in 1961 i came from a. A methodist background but. Had reservations about. I'm about that background in. Got involved with it unitarian student involved with it. Wesley foundation group methods who at first the first year i was in. In madison. But then i got involved with the. Johnny marie-claude ended up as president of the channing marie club in. I remember how disappointed my father was. Endearing that i had to. What he called the. Decided to follow the sun. Shallow humanist unitarianism instead of god prayerfully searching my way to a relationship with christ. But he always taught us to think for ourselves and he never. Criticize my choice after that again. Well that's the organization they have fundraising activity. Yeah they have a special relationship i can't remember the name of the company. That makes the guitars but they're all made you know in the midwest by minor guitar maker. Oh i think part of the situation in the sixties was that it was such an obvious injustice that we had segregation. Laws against integration segregated lunch counters. Laws against interracial marriage. All that's what i think and it really caught the attention of the young people on campuses and the. Some people went. To the deep south and devoted a major part of their lives working. How far social civil rights in the in the south. Of course every probably generation. Goes beyond college and another generation comes along. And i'm sure they have been something. Changes in attitudes. As issues changed as well. One of the issues that came up after. Civil rights was a big issue was a warranty or not. And. Even in a deep south there was susan's concerned about that and the students at tougaloo college. Were among those who were concerned and. We're prepared to go into jackson and join a demonstration. Against the war in vietnam in 1967. Until the ku klux klan threaten violence and they had to. Cancel their plans. I know on this campus. After the the bombing of sterling hall. Kill the researcher in the basement. It really killed the a-team or moving for some time. Because. People couldn't support. That. It had gone to that point but there were always those who were frustrated at the lack of progress in opposing the war in vietnam end. Wanted to move towards more and more radical. Steps. Thinking about to be more effective but the opposite was true when we got to. Doing somebody i accidentally as it was but. Mauritius came along later. Can i respond just briefly to. What bob said that you point out the need for media reform we've had a consolidation of media into corporate control and less and less local control and things like low-power radio stations and and the internet and website and salon can provide. A path back towards more. Locally controlled media that more relevant. I'd also like to add that. Back in the 60s and 70s there was a lot more. The musical scene was more integrated. I guess. Is the way i think of it unless fragmented soul that there were fewer. There were fewer you'll like record labels and and. You know. People who became who people who became popular were heard by more more people. And a lot and some of the record companies like electra. I actually had it all wanted to showcase protest singers we just watch the video. Phil ochs the other day. So you heard you know protest songs. All the airways from time to time. And and and big names would turn up at some of these events you know peter paul and mary saying blowin in the wind at the. 1968. 463 civil rights. Protest in washington. On the question of how to get involved my responses first. You can join the social action committee molly plunkett is going to be carrying that. And dad so so i can committee has a social action calendar events on its website. With coming events in the madison area they're all kinds of things you can get involved with by going to the meetings and. I learning about the goose that are putting them on and. Here's a folder full of past announcements of social action events in the madison area that. You can look at later. And i would just say that in this world. It's very easy to get involved i may just get on the internet and do a search and you know find out what organizations are active in your area and contact them i mean. As far as schools go there. You know they have volunteer coordinator so you just called the school and they'll put you in touch with the person so there's really no it's very easy just the hard thing i think is. Is choosing which one you wanted put your timing. Bob did mention it but bob is the coordinator of the humanists union that meets here at prairie and is comprised of many. people but also people from the wider community and. Although it's not really action-oriented it's more talk oriented it helps get your mind straight about certain topics that might be relevant to social volunteering so i want thank god for that. And then i had the pleasure of taking guitar lessons from dan. I'm in. Not only are you a great guitar player but you have something that i'll never had that's patience. So thank you both very much for great compensation.. How are closing words today or by best casebolt. As we leave this place take with you a sense of joy from the gifts we've been honored with. A sense of appreciation. For the work of others we benefit from. A sense of commitment. To the strengthening of our church. A sense of love from those who support us in this community. A sense of awe for what we can accomplish. When we work together in our face. Thank you for coming on this wonderful father's day morning. Please extend the hand of friendship to those around you and stay and join us for some coffee and conversation.

uuprairie_org

Pr140504Ingham-ed.mp3

Good morning and welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society as always if you are fairly new to the congregation to come back more than one time because our services are different on different sunday mornings they are done either by myself sandy and of course everyone is welcome. These men are the opening words spirit of life and renewal we have wintered enough mourned enough oppressed ourselves enough our souls are too long cold and very our dreams all but forgotten our hopes on her we are waiting to rise from the dead in this the season of steady rebirth we awaken to the power so abundant so holy that returns each year through earth and sky we will find our hearts again and our good spirits we will love and believe and give and wonder and feel again the eternal powers the flow of life move ever onward through our through one faithful spring and and another and now we hope another maybe be forever grateful. Now i would like to invite the haven't read and and liam to do our fighting for every time we make a mistake and we decide to start again we light this chalice for every time we are lonely and we let someone be our friend we'd like this chalice for every time we are disappointed and we choose to hope we like this are jealous. He said the closing words are rather intriguing i think forgive us that often we forgive ourselves so easily and other so hardly forgive us that we expect perfection from those to whom we show none forgive us for repelling people by the way we set a good example for give us the folly of trying to improve a friend forbid that we should use our little idea of goodness as a spear tulum those who are different forbid that we should feel superior to others when we are only more shielded and may we encourage the secret struggle of every person go in peace.

uuprairie_org

Pr110814FrankSiegle-ed.mp3

Good morning and welcome to prairie universe unitarian universalist society. Time daddy proud member of the program committee. Stop. spires to be bolts and open-hearted and open-minded congregation. We welcome people of every ethnic and religious background. Whatever your color. Your sexual orientation gender or family structure. We welcome you no matter what your age or your abilities around abilities. On sunday mornings. We provide a wide variety of services they're presented either by a prairie member a member of the wider community. Or buy a yet undetermined ministry that we will have later on in the year. And today frank siegel will be presenting. A presentation on. Celtic spirituality. Okay so now we'll have opening words by frank siegel. Jose. Quotation in your. Program. Bleach into this reflection. What are the losses among all the games from the ascendancy of science and materialism has been the degeneration of respect for an understanding of myth. America's come to be synonymous with lies and deceit and phoniness dismiss something by saying all that's just a myth. And correcting updated or inaccurate beliefs we call the myths. Mets are what are not true. Only facts are true. We are often no longer appreciate. That's some truth can only be approached through metaphor. And symbol. This degeneration of myth by the advance of science may well be rooted in the arrogance. Iavarone monotheistic traditions. Which abrogated all truth only to themselves. Tablets sold some of the seeds of western imperialism. Have encouraged genocide against the heathen savages. Quickly. Should try to do. In the deepest part of ourselves. Testifying the truth and meaning. Within humanity sacred texts. And traditions. Dorothy will like the chalice while frank and i read some poetry. I thought you was going to go first. Century 16. Arcadia on saint claude a song grown by steve void on. Loyola denver. Parkview there my vibe eric. Chucky i know i quit bonnie ibar. Play kinda just cydaea sis. Cu augusta. Pastor chloe r u.. A level lewanai lawyer floyd. Halfway to hillcroft how did hoy. Tenncare glow you automatically android. Call feisty ylni of 9. Port conneaut mod maduranga. Whole time for oregon forecast. Hokulia moth wing removing mirror. Progesterone. Head and weber. irn. How do you can resolve his dubai. Trimas moving previa reverse my. Yesterday i heard the cock thrush with loving song and pure and limpet tone and diction fine and clear suspiciously endowed from underneath the birch trees came his voice what sweeter composition could there be that his diminutive quizlet. 4 martin street lessons he reads in our midst. Feathers are his chasuble. Power off across these lines has heard his voice from martha come out the thicket and his clear loud shout. Is the hillsides profit. Logins powerful author. Bright poet of passion in the wooded glen. H clear accent on the valley's brawl he sings impelled by dire the varsity each happy song and poetry start. H stables music. Every tune each gentle melody to please a girl debating over loves priorities. He is a preacher. Can you read selections sweet pure and undimmed is his inspiration. His is the faultless poet of ovid's tractor song. A chart of primates of the great order of may. I know him from his perch with trysting-place he leads all woodlands birds and song a joyful chorus from the lovely glade of all the olds and measures that belong to love he is a mary bergin sings and hazel trees in the fairforest a winged it angel the expert birds-of-paradise who love him. Could revolving memories store with orchestrate recite all the songs he sang. Children of all ages suck up to the front for a story. This is a story. From the land of cornwall. Cornwall is a tiny little piece of land at the various southwest park. Have great of britain. Here is a map. Showing cornwall. Cardwell was here this is england. Silver hair. This is the tale of even. There was a man and woman. Living in the perishable and lovin in the place which is called house. And work became scarce. So the man said to his wife i'm going to go look for work. And you can stay here until the garden. So he took left and travelled a long way and it last came the house with a farmer. And ask for work. Well rock work can you do. Said the farmer. I can do all kinds of lurk. Set even. Let me read a palm tree pieces of gold for the year's wages. When the end-of-the-year came as master showed him this the three pieces of gold. She even hears your wage. But if you're giving me back. I'll give you a piece of advice instead. Give me my wage. So the farmer alex plan my advice. Pallet me then. Setting. Never leave the old road for the sake of a new one. After that they agreed for another year. At the old wages are not the end of the end of it even took instead. A piece of advice. And this was at. Never lodge where an old man is married to a young woman. The same thing happened at the end of the third year when the piece of advice was. Honesty is the best policy. But even would not stay any longer but wanted to go back to his wife 3 years. Don't call today said his master if my wife begs tomorrow and she shall make thee a cake to take home cuz i good woman. Haven't even was about to leave. Here so this master here is a cake for thee to take home to my wife and wendy and most happy together then break the cake but not sooner. So it took pliva vitamin travel towards home. At last he came to paul terrell. And there are about three merchants from. And they were coming home from exeter fair across the border. The whole even said they come with us glad we are to see you. Where have you been so long. Hi ben and service said even and now i'm going home to my wife. Will come with us your bright be right welcome. Selectrucks of new road. Even kept the old one. And robbers fell upon the merchants before they have gone far from even as they were going by fields and houses in the middle they began to cry. Are even shoveled out thieves 2. I went to roberts heard even shout they ran away. An emergent sweat by the new road. I'd even buy the old one so they better get it barked at you. Omg vinsetta merchants we are all we are so thankful to you. If you don't break up but for you we would have been robbed. Come walk with us at our cost. When they came to the place where they were too long ago to stay even said. I'ma see the host. The hoes they cried what do you want with the hose here is the hostess. And she's young and pretty. If you want to see the host. You'll find him in the kitchen. Sowet into the kitchen. Jesse the host. Have you found him a week old. Cooking on the stove. Oh oh. Thought even. All night launch here. I'll go next door. Not yet said that merchants. Supper with us and then you'll be welcome. Dallas happened that the hostess had plotted with a certain monk. Can marker chew. Converter the old man. In his bed that night while the rest were asleep. Have a great agreed to lay it on the merchants. So why even was in bed next door there was a hole in the pie and about house at a saw light through it. So i got up and look. At heard the monk speaking. Hi had better cover this hole. What people in the next house. Macy what we're doing. So he stood with his back against it phone to the hostess killed the old man. F***. Sleep well even. Came out with his knife. And putting it through the hole. He cut around piece of the monk's robe. Federal next morning a hostess trays to cry that her husband was murdered and there was neither. 9 north child in the house but by merchants. How to declare they gotta be thrown into jail. So they were taken care of the prison till at last even came to the. All even i cried bad luck sticks to his host was killed last night in jail. Tell the judges. Said even to summon the real murderer. Who knows i replied to committed the crime. Who committed the crime. The are cannot prove who committed the crime. Put me in jail in your stead. So it's totally new and brought out the piece of cloth from the monk's robe. At without the merchants were free and the hostess and the monk will put in jail. And they all came together out-of-market you and they said to come as far as the wood of the heat for stones of watching. Emmett paris apartment. Then there are two roads separated in northern merchants what wished him to go with him he would not go with him but went straight to him home to his wife. What is worth saw him she said here's a person that i found. It has no name. But should have belongs to the great lord younger i was just thinking what to do when you came. The even thought of the third piece of advice. Penny set. Let us go and give it to the great lord. Suleiman castle. But when the great lord was not in it. They gave it took the purse to the servant that mind at the castle. Are they wet home. I love quiet for awhile. The great lord stopped at their house for a drink of water at evens why i said doing. What are you talkin about. Set the alarm. Shortest person i left at the castle. Come with me and we'll see into the batter. Set alarm. Let up to the castle in there they pointed out the man whom they give him a purse. Etihad to give it up. That was fired. At-at set away from the castle. That the lord was so pleased with even that he made. Put him the servant in the place of the guy who stole the purse. Honesty is the best policy. Quotes that even as he skipped about in his new fancy quarters. How happy i am. That he thought of his master's. Cake. But he was eat it when he was happiest. At what he broke it. Lowenbrau. Hip inside was his wages for the three years. Camping with it. Recuperating a lot of celtic music today from the difference there 64 debatably seven celtic nations and this one is from the isle of man. Ghetto. Well as you might have five guess. Frank azar. A good friend of mine an old friend of mine. Frank siegel graduated from college with degrees in history and theater. And. In the past few decades has pursued his interest in all things celtic. Especially in music and spirituality. Hey served in leadership roles and. Minnesota with stdavids wall society and the st-pierre ins cornish society. And on the celtic festival weekend planning committee and currently he's the president of the greatest greater kansas city corner society. He was a founding member of the seward cafe collective. Young minneapolis where he work for 27 years. Hey was vice-president of seward redesign neighborhood community development program. Frank is an elder of the neo-pagan nest our lady of lakes. Church of all worlds. Remember. Of the methodist church. Yeah in manhattan kansas where he lives with his wife mary. He and i have sung and played welsh and pan celtic music for over 10 years together. In the falklands cuz oreos cantiague and woad. And we both sing with the north american lost choir. He's walking frank siegel. We're going to be doing some singing and reciting. And when we get to the point of the litany. I'd like this side. Tubi. Group one. And this side group two. And. The tune for both the navajo prayer. And. St. patrick's breastplate. As morning has broken. Which i'm sure most of us know. If you're uncomfortable. Singing. Christian words. That's fine. I sometimes wonder how different our religious history might have been. But the christian church had not been drafted onto the roman empire. If a celtic form of catholic christianity which arose in the. And the isles. Has imperial rome. Lobster. That had greater influence. That it was able to achieve becoming before becoming subservient fully parole. The first. Candle. Father and solace back. Aaron fargo. Harlem made unfrosted and spirit. Customer customer number solid show erin austin burke played you. Sunrail. Bernard hollis. Cream. Once upon a time. Long long ago. At the beginning of tales. When people and the divine we're still on speaking terms. There was a mountain paradise. Have a great tree of life. But connected the earth with a heavens at the pole star. Got star seemingly fixed in the night sky was the apex of a constellation some saw as an elk. That's awesome as a bear. Have the number of stars wear 7. Atlantic on mystical significance. People wandered away for whatever reasons they had in the mountain receded into the mist and the way to it was lost. Some people wandered further to the east following the hunt and steering by the pool star crossing the ice age land bridge to avast new land. And i say move so. Found it to be. Rich and beautiful. I imagine they gave thanks to the great bear in the sky. For its guidance. These people noted the independent interdependence and beauty of existence. As a navajos. Taylor chan. Set a time set to. Morning has broken. Beautyby beauty. Other people did not move very far from that mythical from that mountain and tree. Leaving them to the north of their own tradition. Turnberry different wandering people bumped up against them around lake baikal and they all-time mountains of western siberia. And these were the indo-aryans. And then return south india and mesopotamia. Taking and refining the tales as they moved and came into contact with other people's. The mountain was christened marabou by these indo-aryans. And later a branch at this pic this people basilion. Carry the traditions with her native twin deities apollo artemis and apollo to the longlac long-lost cousins the greeks. 4 of 2000 bce the sumerians compared notes with these indo-aryan wonders and found connections with their own beliefs and we're influenced by the wonder is tails. As semites conquered sumer. Statistician saturday into their culture hammer further refined and one of the lore carriers. Might have been he who became abraham. Potatoes and traditions weave a web across cultures and languages of each use of them in its own way. But always finding in the night sky the polestar. Domestic number in la grange fair. And then their hearts the tree of life. Heather devine mountain. Have a sense of lost past and roots. Play yearning to return. Then and the alps and dad your valet there were a people. That the greeks called keltoi. They were indo-europeans. Numbers of people coming from those snapback nomadic tribes which spoke a common language or dialect of a common language. Many scholars locate and southern russia. A 4000 bc. Celtic identity access to 1000 bce maybe earlier. As her influence grew beyond their cradle they came in contact with the east with their syrian. Cousins. Helena-west for the original known indo-european inhabitants of europe. And of course romans and greeks. The people the greeks and romans described were probably only an aristocratic minority warrior and intellectual class. The people who adopted and influenced celtic speech. And culture were probably predominantly non indo-europeans. Especially in the british isles. That their height celtic language and cultures covered an area rival ring rivaling the empires of alexander and rome. The romans called them gali. Far can the greeks call a tie. As well as scouts. They hold sway from the british isles 20 most the rock of gibraltar from the low countries to central italy across southern germany and the eastern europe and the balkans. Have you been into asia minor. The apostle paul wrote an epistle to celts. Asia minor whose province on some map still embarrass the name galatia. At his city still exist ankara. There is galicia in poland and galicia in spain. The sense of who they were at their deepest core can be found in their art. I thought broken line from the artifacts at all stop in australia of 800 years bc. From brilliant ornamental metal work to the magnificent book of kells. To the complex intricacy of cantata. Play ancient poetic forms of whales. To the squirrel of pipes in the squirrel of haarp and the vocal embroidery of the champs knows acapella song of the gale. At what is the character of these art forms. The open-ended curve. It's fluid. Free. And individually imaginative and expressive. It's as if the celts had created in all aspects of our kind of jazz. The open-ended curve has infinite possibilities. Coexistence of the concrete and the imagined the aliveness and vitality and energy and even the most inanimate object. From assyrians. They took to riding horses. And wearing trousers. They also adopted the city and called it the head as the seat of the soul. So they collected the heads of their vanquish. Sometimes even made them into drinking topless. From the tape from the old tale of the tree in the mountain and the great fair they may have. Brought back from the. From the salience. Bear in celtic esparto. Fish later becomes arthur. From the more ancient peoples to their west they may have ameliorated the indo-european patriarchalism with a respect and acceptance status for women. Not to be equal until the 20th century. They introduced iron into western europe. For the first issue horses develop the iron plowshare built the first roads taught the greeks and romans about soap. Add invented the reaper which was lost. For centuries until it was developed by another celt cyrus mccormick. They made their fortunes from mining. Metalcraft. Penetrate as well as agriculture and husbandry and. Looting pillaging and cattle rustling. They are at optimistic. Alexander the great cast the celtic delegation if they did not have something they fear. Figuring that it was probably an object of fear i'm in everybody. alexander. The report was that. They fear nothing or no man. Only possibly the sky falling on their heads. Alexander concluded that the celts were insufferable brackets. Will ferrell. Death was about a passage between worlds. The spirited material worlds were contiguous and omnipresent. More so at some times of the year than others so there was nothing to be afraid of if you want to know the ideas and science-fiction here leave look no further than. Time travel no problem. Parallel universes. Questing and adventure don't definitely. Avalon the underground world at the she. The isles of the blest the land under the waves the land of you. All we're just a step. Or a rowboat the way. .. Provide everything. Rocks wells. Animals trees spring stars sun moon the earth herself that good drift from one to another as if connected by some spiritual wormhole. The first two celtic poets we know of. Bofrot similar shamanic. Like chance. But you have as a litany. I know why there is an echo in a halo. For a candidate to become a full-fledged roo it male or female. A droid was a walking encyclopedia. How can studying by memory of all knowledge science laure law history song and ritual with the people. Language was as much a living thing as any other. Rifle dynamics. To write it down was innocence to kill it. As a result there are few examples of celtic language before the rise of the six present celtic languages of the celtic fringe. Brief inscriptions mostly on stone. Generally patronymic sore dedications to various gods and goddesses. Invocations and purses. Helical a calendar which gives us evidence of their time reckoning. Which was extremely accurate. There were two there were elements of two religious traditions that were considered to be a potential threat. For the roman empire. Druidism and judaism. Both four sources of sedition and rebellion and both were suppressed. Caesar destroy the sacred groves of gaul and band the druids they had to go underground. The later roman general did likewise to the grove and college. Isle of anglesey in britain and slaughtered the druids and their families. Later. There would be a third face. Which talk to the crucified man who was also god. The crime that raided crucifixion in the empire. Was sedition and rebellion. The second candle. Poonam can i order carolina. Photography course on ice arrested. I'm the pillow review. A boyfriend cheese man real life snails. Other binding. Until christianity became the religion of the roman state. It was many many religious alternatives in the empire. Sometimes persecuted and a scapegoat. Sometimes tolerated. But not within itself. You can't help in reading paul's epistle to the galatians feeling the seeds of the later conflict between the celtic christian style of the british isles and rome. For the assistance of the irish. To remain catholic of the face of english protestantism or the other counts of the isles becoming. David lee non-conformist. One can almost hear paul tell him to stop being easily swayed and stubborn celts and tow the party line his. It said that if you have any three counts together you have five opinions. Areas in the world ever christianized in the early going once it was legitimist. There were no martyrs in the aisles. That same desert christianity was just for the next road in the celtic quest. But who absorbed whom. When christians converted celtic pagans. A triune god was easily accepted and understood. After all there was in celtic tradition the triple goddess. Sometimes called rigacci on britton. And the continent. Who is bridget. And modern anglo-irish. And. Was canonized. Mary the mother of god made perfect celtic sense. Gods and goddesses became saints or heroes. Are the remaining druids put aside the triskelion the badge of their office. For the celtic cross. And many became monks. Play move back and forth st patrick was a british belt. The patron saint of cornish my nursing parent came from ireland. Brabus known as kieran of sire. Their inspiration was not only local culture into which they were born. But also the desert fathers of the middle east. Especially egypt. Who went off singly into the wilderness to live the ascetic life. In the aisles people were attracted to these solitary. 10 communities grew up around them. True the celtic culture the seekers of god could be male or female. Both sometimes living in community together. Both equally officiating at the mass. Saint of wales who may have been irish. Gave birth to saint david. Here was created a special form of catholic christianity except lafai by the words of st patrick's breastplate. An inclusive christianity existence. Spirit and christ interview interweaved in both eminence. Entrance entrance. I'm going to sing first in gaelic. Join in english. Chris chris rock. Kris kristofferson. Crystal ball. Crystal remote. Christian motors. Christy mahasu. Crystal mccreary. Christian christian. Kristallnacht. It's charlie. Christ in minesweeper. Consider this cross. Typically made from one hunk of stone. It may well remind one of the native american medicine wheel. For amendola. The cross is the hub and spokes of the great wheel which may also represent the sun. Packages can be said. To represent the great tree of life. And the cross is off and embossed with a celtic braid of interconnectedness. For all existence. Spirit and matter is connected and holy. Is it solely christian or is it adopted by christians. Depends on your point of view. The oldest. Stone crosses in the aisles like this. Far from the christian era. Bruner was. At stone stone rather like it. Dave from thousands of years earlier. One could say that the druids survived and changed. Yep remain the same. Shape-shifted in good celtic fashion and the celts maintain their identity and gave the new faith their own special weed. Archer gillick on top of the his girl granddaughter. Whoever is nearest the church. That's not nearest the altar. Scots-irish. Folic acid. There's the church. Farthest from heaven. That's welsh out about due process. Riches and honors. Baked apples of sites. Got beretta. Thomas cahill in his book how the irish saved civilization. Shows how ireland was the seat. And the dispersal of learning. In the so-called dark ages as irish monks the peregrine or pilgrims carry the faith and learning and knowledge. Across europe from iceland to russia. This was in the period prior to the first schism that divided the church into roman catholic and orthodox. The celtic style had more in common with the eastern greek and middle eastern sensibility than with the conventional roman expression as exemplified by the conic aspects of the book of kells. As well itself as it approached the material world. It is book wisdom of the celtic saints at edwards who teaches at the college of saint catherine in st paul minnesota right. In many ways this celtic spirituality is the foundation of anglican episcopalian and methodist spirituality and because of its love of the desert fathers and mothers. With its focus on nature and the entire spiritual realm and its respect for ancestors visions and dreams it finds residents with native american spirituality 2. The spirituality of the christian celts has great ecumenical value. It also has special appeal for many of us today who are concerned about the ecologically survival of the planet. Gravity. But the reformation protecting its most strict and stayed forms attempted with varying success. To expunge. Pocket saw as pagan celtic catholic idolatry and superstition. Scottish parliamentary act of 1850 1581 complain. The dregs of a dollar tree yet three main parts of the round by using a pilgrimage to some chapels wells classes and such other monuments of a dollar tree that's also sometimes name that patrons. How this sacrilege. Was. Can be read in the carmina get talica. A monumental work. Set truck decades to complete. Containing prayers invitations and other religious observances clean from the common folk of the highlands. John wesley. The founder of the methodist. Tried his best. Along with his estranged friend george whitefield to stamp out the rowdy or forms of callousness and wales and cornwall. Could they succeed where the crown have had trouble doing it. The church did take route. But took on its own celtic stamp. In the case of whales are they merged with a capo. Circuit riders and sunday schools in the tradition as i got mangani. That unleashing of fool. Enthusiasm enjoy. Congregational hymn singing. Put the cornish and the welsh will sing a hymn. Anywhere. That make any difference. Search okay. Of course. Rugby matches absolutely. In this tale mythical and historical. Rihanna's fans have intertwined the warp and woof of the plaid. The wave of sound in season. Placencia place in clan. The love of nature and ones pit of ground. The christ within as well as the christ beyond. The purifying energy of fire. The life-giving life taking life-sustaining and healing water. The adventure of life and death. The ancestors who are with us wherever we wonder on whatever questions hours. The sense of longing for what is fading or loss. Twitching welsh is he right. And of course i've been talkin about the christianaires. Ronaldo. Where can celebrate the celtic holiday. The theater. The troop of warriors who were led by finn mccool. For the bathing music one day. One of them said that the sweetest sound with the clash of spear on shield. Another said it was the swell of the sea on the shore another said it was the. I have a well and thoroughly loved maiden. They turn to send. He thought for a moment. Alan said. The sweetest sound. Is the music of what happens. The third candle. Kendall this little light on the earth played. I dedicated to the service of the spirit. Tigard and cherish this light is a living symbol. How does an act of faith. Heather reality of the powers of light. Weave bar. Come to the end of the service that we're out of time now so. Frankly i think you'll be happy to stay afterwards and any other questions. Piece of the running way to you. Superiors of a floor. A something to you. The peace of the shining stars to you. And a piece of the stone of peace to you. Christ. The word incarnate. Peace.

uuprairie_org

Pr090412SelenaFox-ed.mp3

Are opening words today will be read by. We join together. Find this easter morning in the spirit of community. May our time together renewal. Inspire us and strengthen our connections with each other and the sacred that is within. At around. Artella sliding words today will also be read by miss lina fox. And after i let the chalice we will have a minute of silent meditation. We light the flame. To celebrate new life. We like the flame. To celebrate renewal. We like the flame to celebrate. The greening of the land. We light the flame to celebrate springtime. We light the flame. To celebrate. To celebrate easter. Now it's time for an interactive story. And i would invite any kids who are either young or think they're young or are or folks who are young at heart. To step up front and have a seat on the carpet. Okay well then i'm going to invite everyone to summon up the youth within your own d as i do this story. Now there's sound effects when we get to the end of the story. So. 5 wondering who will be a squirrel. Tradera. Okay. We got sparrow. Cheap. Okay mouse. Doesn't look like we have a lot of mice here. Rabbit rabbit rabbit. Baby frog. Repeat all right this is. Interspecies. Not just creatures we've got the grass. Okay the pond. Where the frogs go into. Flip flop. Okay now we got papers all i see i got some takers. Oh god, are we ready to be spring peepers they are very loud out at circle sanctuary. It's more fun if i get a chorus right up here so you coming up here. Right here okay so we got papers what papers do who knows bring peepers. Bbbbbbbbbb. And what does a nighthawk do. 3. 3. And daffodils here if you don't want to make any sound tvs a fidel. God your head nod your head okay now we're going to go through sound effects we'll see who's going to be the squirrels okay ready. Okay got some squirrels barrows. A mouse goes. Frogs go. Baby frogs go. And what does the grass do. How about the pond. Flip-flop flip-flops and the peepers. And the nighthawk. And then we got the silent but active daffodils. Okay now we're going to try the chorus all at once you ready. Alright do your sound. Do you move my f****** here we go. This group is great this is great well it part of easter and spring time is the summing-up theater youth. Well here. In silence. I invite you to hear this story. It's an interactive story written for an easter service how you you thirsty johnson it's called spring surprise. And i got this from a unitarian universalist minister in training who's also connected with circle sanctuary for many years. I'm from denver colorado. Yes. Yes you're right from colorado so i give thanks to cindy simpson for the inspiration of this story. Bring surprise. It wasn't a particularly hard winter that year but it was long and dreary and colorless. No wonder then. That win the first winds of march blue warmer up across the land and the land begin to green the wild creatures on four feet and on the wing took notice. The first creature small brown mouse. Sat back on toronto's and smell the warm air. She knew what this meant the green time was coming and the first ball shoot. Of grass. Which tasted so very good would begin to show themselves. Sign the small brown mouse. Pendergrass to nibble on and to line my nest for my babies. The small ground mouse. Was not the only creature glad to smell spring in the air. The fuzzy tailed squirrel. Scamper to and fro up and down the trees. He paused a moment to watch a sparrow. And her mate work on their nest. This is sparrow. Wanted to line the nest with soft lamp and grass in a particular way mr. mr. sparrow. Was getting tired of her bossing and soon he flew off and head behind a. Daffodil. Which was nodding in the breeze. Fuzzy tailed squirrel. Shook his tail and scampered off. He remembered the spot where he had hidden a particularly juicy horse chestnut. He hoped that the little brown mouse. Had not found it. Hi overhead nighthawk. Surveyed the land his favorite tree was still there and his neighbor fuzzy tailed squirrel. Was there too. He passed his winters far to the south but he was always glad to return to his home. The trees are all fuzzy and green with baby leaves. And the flowering trees were bright with colored paddle. And over there where the capitals. Waving and nodding to him. The warm spring sun shone down upon the land upon the grass. That glowed with green bigger upon the little brown mouse. As she put finishing touches on her next. And upon the daffodils. 2. The sun gave warm to the wings of the nighthawk. As he soared upon the wind and beamed upon the sparrow family. Jefe work. A bit more cooperatively this time on their nest. The song the gleaned as a fuzzy tail squirrel. As he scampered about even committed upon the pond. Flip flops. Bar below down in the deep quiet of the pond. Where the water never quite froze even in the deep midwinter. The warmth of the sun began to heat the water until suddenly the frog. Red ribbon. Popped out of their winter mud nest. Tadpoles began to swim. Baby frog sounds. Give us unworn parent and they dreamed of jumping high into the air to see the grass at the edge of their world. The peepers. Join the chorus at the pond. Added music to the colors of spring and they're in the musical colorful world where the grass. With green and the daffodils. No i didn't the breeze where the tadpoles. Dreamed and swam in the warm waters of the pond. Ed where the fuzzy tail squirrels. Stanford mba trees and has the nighthawk. Settled in history while the sun shone on. The down the little brown mouse. Had her babies the sparrow. Laid four eggs and why did ben the promise of spring became the fulfillment of it. With this great chorus already. Happy spring happy easter and happy birthday a bit early. I didn't know you had it in you. So i get the pleasure of reintroducing reverend selena fox. Who is the senior minister of the circle sanctuary. A real church near barneveld wisconsin. Which serves nature religion practitioners worldwide. And i was hearing how many people participate. She's president of the greater madison interfaith religious or in a religious association. Which brings people of different faith traditions together for interfaith dialogue. And collaboration. She has been teaching and researching celebrating the seasons for more than 40 years. So trevor fox. It's wonderful to be back at prairie it's been many years is there anybody here that was part of prairie when i was here with a huge circle. But i'd like to do today is. Cher. Easter. Custom symbols lore. Traditions and celebrations. Across time. Across cultures and yes. Across faith traditions and philosophies. Today. Billions. Acumen. All around the world are celebrating easter. Now many of those who are celebrating easter. Would use. The term christian. 2. Describe themselves. All but easter has gotten decidedly multicultural international multi-religious multi-ethnic and multi-religious ter. As a religious holiday. Summer celebrating it as a folk holiday and some are celebrating it as both. Can i give a show of hands who here has celebrated easter since you were very young. Is yohan. Okay. Well you know does not everybody raise their hands because. Right here in our circle we have people about variety of different philosophies and religions and backgrounds and i recognize some people from interfaith endeavors i've been part of a taran circle sanctuary community and it's great to be here. So in sharing about easter. We're not only going to look at some of its roots. Within christianity but we're going to actually take and interreligious and a multicultural journey. Why does easter move around. And how do we figure out. When easter is. It's the first sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. Occurring between march 22nd and april 25th. So what we have woven into easter as a celebration. We have the christian celebration of jesus. And his life and resurrection we have. Jewish passover. Because. The crucifixion and the resurrection were connected with. The passover time in old jerusalem when jesus left. But we have to go back in time and space. The pagan cultures. Which also celebrated. Resurrection rebirth renewal new life. Joy. And other. Very decidedly easter themes. In. A variety of different ways so we have taken jewish and christian all woven in. To easter is a holiday. Do some people celebrate easter on just one day easter sunday. But if you go across. Different cultures and countries and faith traditions you know some people actually start. Celebrating. Easter. Weeks before. Has anyone ever gone to mardi gras or carnival. I see something hands. Wellington in pagan rome. That time was called the lupercalia and was a time of preparing for coming spring and people would get kind of wild then i'll be out in the street with lots of interesting things which i suppose have gotten recycled in american college and university culture is spring. After the so there is palm sunday the blessing of palms and i'm glad to say one of the easter customs. That's been around for a 2000 news coverage about green fair trade palms being used by tristan's i'm happy to hear that. Then during easter week we have ash wednesday and in some christian traditions. A bitter bass just put. I'm on the forehead during the ass wednesday service. Maudie thursday. Time of the last supper. Is celebrated by a number of people. This year. Passover number of jewish friends. Was celebrated by some of my friends not only on wednesday night but also on thursday night in fact one of my friends is with some hasidic jews that celebrated all eight nights. Good friday. The crucifixion. A lot of folk customs connected with that including. Planting potatoes on good friday. The idea of going into the earth. Descent into what some say the underworld agriculturally people took it as a good time to go plant potatoes. Haven't tried that one out yet. Ben we have holy saturday. And amongst mexican. Mayan people. And in parts of europe including catalonia which is. Which is where barcelona is in spain. There would be great. Celebration on saturday plays and dances people dressing up in all sorts of animal costumes and would basically be partying all night on saturday night. Until the fiesta de gloria easter. And that culture and tradition. What happened on sunday morning. So then there's easter sunday easter sunday there is sunrise and then there is the whole easter day. An. Some continued celebrations on easter monday and even easter tuesday so there is holy week plus. Well let's take a few moments and look at the name easter. Why do we call it easter. Now. There's somebody by the name of the venerable bead. Anor st. bede's the venerable. And according to him easter was named for the pagan anglo-saxon goddess of springtime. Y'all some scholars got a bit bent out of shape by him pointing that out and said german for spring well if you know anything you know the springtime or pretty much. Synonymous. So easter gets its name for both run. Hofstra. And if you've ever heard of. Express in estrogen that comes from there to ostara is what contemporary pagans call the holiday and we actually start our easter celebrations. Apple traditional time in old pagan europe which was the spring equinox. Which one's the new year for many peoples. Across europe that william pagan times but even into christian times in fact in france. It did not even. Ship for being the new it new year until 1563. So easter ostara spring equinox and yes passover is in the mix there are all inner woven and you can't really call easter a strictly christian holiday it's mayberry name is pagan. The water the themes of easter i mentioned some of them before. Renewal. Making new again. Resurrection rebirth. New beginnings. Getting a new lease on life. Springtime. Return of vegetation invisible ways especially in northern climes that was important like here in wisconsin we at circle sanctuary. We have our spring equinox festival that we call the welcome spring festival cuz sometimes we have snow so we are definitely a welcoming spring even if it may not be fully environmentally with us. This is also a time of joy and celebration. Music. Sharing getting together with others. Prosperity and fertility. So these pains connected with easter actually have their roots in pre-christian time. I'm going to bring a few props with me. What's this business. With bunnies. Baskets. Eggs. So what does this have to do with the execution. By the romans. About jewish. Prophet. Spiritual leader. Where did the bunnies come from. How about those eggs. What's the basket this is ostara is doing before there was the crucifixion for those of you see that is history or see it as allegory i'll leave that up to you. There was the basket. The great goddess from whom all things, guess it's kind of like a woman in a way. Eggs. Painted eggs colored eggs plain eggs eggs found eggs created. And what about the easter bunny what is this easter bunny business well. Easter rabbit. Easter hair easter bunny. This was a form of the great goddess. Postura and some lore and other lures this was her partner yes interspecies coupling don't know if that's legal or not.. So there was a mention of cross hot cross buns the very fact there was. Energy isn't making them is an ancient. Not only christian. But pre-christian tradition for celebrating this time of year in fact the buns were created. As part of spring celebrations and it's christianity came over we need to put a cross on them but if you notice those crosses are equal armed which represents. The solstices and equinoxes it's a sun wheel. That's where hot cross buns come from. Who here has ever been to an easter sunrise service. Anybody see the sun this morning. I celebrated easter this morning i did my first personal meditation then i called my family who are fundamentalist southern baptist. And that are in arlington virginia i have a sister just got out of breast cancer surgery and so they're all at home this morning. In caring for her and i did my easter sunday greeting to my christian family and i told him yes the sun is rising and it's really a wonderful day and i do think it's kind of a metaphor within my own family system that my sister literally is getting new life as the cancer has been removed from her body not only with the chemo but with the surgery and with all the good prayers she and i as we talked talked about resurrection of her getting. New life and moving ahead. What happens at sunrise services why are they. Services held at sunrise. Ostara and some say it's a greek goddess. Abdon in spring also was celebrated in some parts of europe. This was her sacred time now there's lauren old england all the sudden said when it rises on easter morn to bounce around 3 x representing. Jesus. Resurrecting but before they were celebrating for sun rising as a metaphor for jesus christ coming back to life. They were celebrating the sunrising representing. The greening of the earth the return of spring. In fact would say patrick. What's in ireland. He went up to the sacred mound. On easter. Sunday and kindled a grand fire. Basically combining pagan. Waze. Have old ireland with christianity. In fact. I'm in old germany to people with kindle bonfires at springtime. And as christianity came over old germany. The priests just couldn't get the people from kindling these bonfire so what did they do. Decided to take him over so the bonfires for them built in churchyards and on easter saturday night there'd be a great blessing of the bonfires and then they get blazing on easter day now where did that come from irish monks who came to germany brought these pagan customs. Remember saint patrick well came back over to europe and then what we have now is the kindling of candles the kindling of fires the watching of the sun all being part of easter liturgy in a number of different forms of christianity. There's also something called shouting. Poseidon. Amongst african american. In georgia and some other parts of the south. So on easter morn. Watching the sun and shouting it up. Who here wore something new today. Haha easter custom number 2. Why we were something new. It. An old tradition that a spring comes on you literally make new. You you dress a new clothes the easter bonnet. I'll get a new bonnet for easter as i grew up. We get our new easter outfits that are little patent-leather shoes that are little baskets in our gloves and little bit weak. Trip off the church and. Little did i know then. There's actually we're doing a pagan custom. The fact that it was all kind of one big. Realm for me i didn't actually realize that there were big differences between some pagan ways some christian ways. Flowers. Eggs. Easter lamb. Other symbols. The lamb has been connected as a symbol of jesus. And that has. Ben wyatt actually. How to connection with this holiday and why you get some lamb images. And actually that used to blast. The lambs in church services back in the 7th century. But where did roasted lamb from come from 9th century there was part of the pope's dinner for easter. So people have been doing roasting lamb ever since now if you're vegan or vegetarian recognize that this is a diverse. Exploration of customs and i'm not encouraging everybody to embrace them all. So who here has done anything with eggs. Now we've got a cool egg tree. Painted eggs folk art. Blown out eggs painted. Well that whole business with eggs simple of new life. People would hunt for eggs. Looking for signs of new life in the spring people what exchange eggs. People had egg games. In fact when my mother. I was young she went to the white house lawn on easter monday and rolled eggs. And the egg rolls at the white house lawn ave happened pretty much every year. Since at least 1862 but it was dolley madison in night in 1812 that actually started the custom of having egg business on easter at the white house. And i'll just wrap up by saying a few more things about ways of connecting with easter. 1 custom is what's called easter snacks. Sometimes called easter drenching. This is where easter monday and easter tuesday come in. Some parts of germany austria slavic countries. Men using birch branches. Lightly beat i hope women on easter monday and then on easter tuesday the women get their turn and go thrash the man with these birch branches what is that about. Pussywillows are sprouting francis and these are called rob's of life and you go around and you beat each other to make you fertile and cigarettes and protect you for the coming year. I haven't done this custom it's a psychotherapist in counselors wells administer i'm just really not into beating people. But chad i wrote a number of years ago which i invite you all to sing with me is real short. New life bring forth new life spring forth new life spring forth and every time. Rising me so you want to join me. New life spring forth new life spring forth new life springs rising me to life spring forth new life spring forth new life spring forth rison me new life spring forth new life. Are closing words today will be read by reverend selena fox. They the renewing powers of springtime and easter be with us. And with anna's day we carry into our lives and into the world. Peace. Hope. Joy. Add love. For each other. Epic greater circle of nature. Which we are all part. So be it. Blessed be havin a hoe.

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Pr110102KwanzaaAsAnEverydayOccasion-MileleChikasaAnana-ed.mp3

Death this time with starter service with opening words read by bill parmenter. A prominent figure in the southern african liberation movement. Who said it is better to die for an idea that will live than to live for an idea that will die. Well we are so happy that our speaker is here our speaker is inanna. She first came to madison in 1968 as a uw faculty wife and she didn't think she was going to like it very well but she integrated herself into our society here she's been before that she wasn't an activist and the roxbury section of boston working with the n-double-acp and 4 alternate schools for black children that were barred from public schools. In madison she demonstrated for department of afro-american studies at the uw. And she's been publisher is now publisher i believe still mojo mojo magazine and is one of madison's most visible civil rights activist. She's been madison's affirmative action officer she's been the interim director of madison equal opportunities commission. And was the first african-american to serve on wisconsin school board. She has a lot of first-person. You should be grateful to her for those things. Last year she received madison's doctor martin luther king humanitarian award that was january 2009 she wasn't here to receive it because she was at the obama inauguration celebrating so with no further ado. Thank you very much i guess you can call me an ecumenical person i grew up epsom. Jehovah's witness and then my area don't like i became a quaker and i just returned from this morning from the mount zion baptist church service so i can appreciate. What you doing in this the way in which you worship. The other thing i heard you talking about the family and you know how these are just a wonderful time to spend with family and because everything felt as we can this year it just kind of seemed to fit in place didn't it you know we had longer weekends we slept with the grandchildren and just let them stay up a little longer. I am. Put in boston and boston was a very harsh place believe it or not the city of freedom for black people back in the 50s in the sixties and there was a woman named louise day hicks who was very adamant about maintaining in syria. School's not just segregation but in theory of schools for black people in there remember that the school called me one day and told me that my kathy. Who is now 50 family years old tell me the kathy was retarded and that i could just sign the paper right here the doctors already certified it and that everything would be all right and in my soul civil disobedience the paper. That kathy went on to stanford university and kathy is now the mother of six children one is a graduate berkeley in electrical engineering and computer science and works for. Because yahoo. And the other one is. I'm majoring in organic chemistry. And the third one is majoring in physics so that's what comes out of retardation. I'm just battles all of our life and go through some struggles we'd rather not have them but my pastor always says that you can't have a testimony without a test. I truly believe that that. You are strengthened. By the very by those. Crucial moments in those moments when you want to say why me why do i have this burden. Why am i. Do i have this disease. Why was i put here in madison you know. Can create a testimony out of bed and in indy division i will be always eternally grateful to dr. molina covering who established kwanzaa. Yes the papers with the seven principles are moving around the seven principles of kwanzaa. And i am in the publisher of umoja magazine and every december i thinking is kwanzaa that we always have. Something about clowns and how to celebrate it and so forth. I started the emoji magazine. Kwanzaa is a swahili word that. Means. A. A celebration of the harvest. Bringing in from. From our laborers during the year. It's fine for that the swahili version has won a. That. African american version has two a's because factor caringa was talking to a group of children one day. And he had each one to represent the kwanzaa alphabet. Elliot seven children but there was only six letters. An african american traditions and came up with this holiday. Which is not a religious holiday but it is about time of celebration and what it does is to affirm values that all of us can incompass and embody. On an everyday basis it's just amazing how these principles are. And peter asked me to relate them to the principles of the unitarian society and it is amazing out there so similar different words but you know it's almost the exact ideas the. A duplication of value. Emoji means unity. To strive for and maintain unity in the family community nation and race. And these principles are so important because. Everything around times it's based on that they're just two main components of client the one is learning reciting and using the principles. And the other one is the lighting of the. Kwanzaa candles. It's sitting there right in my house i'd had it ready for about a week to bring but then i just walked out this morning and didn't bring it but it is a candelabra much like the jewish candelabrum it has 7 instead of 9 and it has red black and green candles and everyday. One candle is lit until at the end of the week there seven candles on christmas is very impressive with young children and they like to do clients with the everything is probably about 30 and probably about i would say 10 additional books for children from kindergarten on. 12 and the other thing is that. Kwanzaa is. Over 50 years old now so there's quite a bit of kwanzaa stuff on the internet i noticed. And getting so bad. They have kwanzaa activities and kwanzaa days and so forth. What people do is celebrated in one or two ways they celebrated either as an individual or family gathering for a bit community gathering. So for the individual family what you would do is. Set up your kwanzaa table. And you'd have seven items on that table kwanzaa seven days they're seven names and their seven principles. And so on the table you would have the clara the candelabra. It's called. The candelabras, clara and you have 27 candles. And you have. A fruit. A basket of fruit. To represent the harvest you have. Of some kind of colorful mat on the table. You have a libation cup which is used to pay tribute to those who have come before us and made the crown. And. You have two other things. One is called the zawadi small gifts. Kwanzaa tries not to be commercial. 5. And so. Do i did to encourage children or family members. To do something personal for one another like you know make your favorite food or. Get you a flower that you like or something of that sort the last one is very important. Corn ears of corn drag corner laid on the table and each ear represents. A child in the family since you have six children me happy fierce of corn if you have no children you can have as many as she wants you to represent. The community of children around you your nieces and nephews. Or the children in the community. This ceremony is done everyday. Fb scandal is lighted. Then one of the principals is discussed. So starting with u umoja and ending with imani. And the kids are encouraged to say what that principle means to them or how they demonstrated in their life. If you have a community gathering. What will happen is that you have this slightly more formal program with maybe some dancing. And i'm seeing and that kind of stuff. But always a lighting of the kwanzaa candles which is very beautiful. And a discussion of what those principles mean and the libation is very important. In the. Community gathered. Because. People call out the names. The ones they lost. And that makes it very special. So the lighting of the candles them. The libation. And finally the food. Have a big. Big. Buffet of food at the community gathering. So that's how kwanzaa. Celebrate it. About 15 to 20 million people throughout the united states celebrate kwanzaa is here. It's a growing tradition lots of schools. Are beginning to celebrate kwanzaa and talk about kwanzaa simply because of the values that kwanzaa represents that means you look at these values in. Who would not embrace them the second one is called coochie kakatiya. I'll help you pronounce at kuji chaka aaliyah aaliyah and. And i often think that the people who. Ark. Continuing demonstrate against war and this country. Demonstrate. Exemplified cookie calculator. Because it's very hard. 2. Be against war and not also be seen as. Not patriotic. And. So this emoji is. Magazine rack decided that. I give you a relief from war and crime in. Lots of other sensational stuff i only do positive stories in. Emoji. And one of them for january is about will williams who lives in before and he was part of the documentary that just 1 a.m.. Emmy awards the good soldier. And history is very interesting because he went into. The vietnam war very very gun-ho very militant. A felcher. As matter fact when his first tour of duty was over. missed it because he was so mad at the anti-vietnam demonstrator. So you know he was pretty angry to the end of sign up again. Yes and yes and now the third phase of his life is he is anti-war and particularly strong against. Having a military presence in our high school. Been getting. Kids to sign up for the military almost under duress so. He is a shining example of. Kujichagulia. Ujima means collective work and responsibility. To build and maintain our community together and to make our sisters and our brothers problems our problem fan. To solve them together you've been on the road. The journey of justice long enough. The journey of having every. Human being treated with dignity that you very well understand that as i was driving along east washington this morning. There were three or four people huddled. Outside the building. In the cold. And gave me a chance to stop complaining that my car was just warming up. And so when we think about organizations like doctors without borders and. The salvation army. And. What they have to do to maintain. That work. And. It. I like the idea of the red cattle but you know. There's enough profits made in this community and in every community. Did the corporations could write them a check for whatever they're doing their ultimate goal is to. Not have homelessness. As an institution. In our nation. It just goes against the grain of the american life and the abundance that we have. And i see that we're institutionalizing homelessness homeless clinics homeless shelter phone is school-age children this and that. Master ultimate goal. But why this experience unfortunately. Still exist. It is up to us i think. That we. Give those institutions and organizations enough money to do an adequate job. Of a providing shelter. Ujamaa means cooperative economics. That's perhaps one that doesn't come up so often. The building maintain our own shop stores and other businesses enter private from them. So you see he had sort of a worldwide division here. A lot of people up in arms because we've lost so many manufacturing facilities in this country. And that. We have. Allowed corporations. Just to take over our neighborhoods in our cities. I remember when milwaukee. Was. Cloud city of neighborhoods. Because in the neighborhood you had to factory for the parents walk the work you had the schools for the children off to work and you had the grocery store where they bought their groceries right and you had the church. And that was that defined their neighborhood right. You no longer have that. And i think that's why efforts like. Bad thing by loco have come up. Because we need to understand that i depend on you and you depend on me for our existence and that if we can buy food from a farmer who farms in lodi or mcfarland we are helping that person to maintain dignity give them. Income. And we know where food comes from just about of. Done with shopping at the grocery store was because i don't understand where the food comes from did you just read about the hamburger where goes to ammonia and my guy hamburger and i just thought they just took. The leftover meat and ground it up packaged it but it's not quite like that so i think things like. The. Buy local farmer's markets. Are good and we not only had the central farmers market but we have farmers market in every. Almost every neighborhood nap either about 14 or 15 there's one in south madison there's one of the northside i live on the north side. And the csa is right i think those are going to improve but there is a way for us to. Take care of one another and two. Use the materials of physical environment we're working in i am one of the articles that i'm writing on beside will williams in the january issue is on architects. And i asked. I interviewed six architect magazine is targeted towards black people i was trying to get away from. Having black people appear only as athletes or as criminals in the news so i do the in-between. How important is. Charlie dore green green energy in your work and. The architect who grew up in africa setsuno this is not a new concept. Better. Present where they live and that's why houses look different in africa or australia than they do. In wisconsin. Easy because all over the world people build houses out of. Whatever is available for them. And and they and they building in terms of. Efficiencies in. You know the wind and the energy and it's positioned right but they know what they were doing but sometime never. When america group we got away from that idea right and so i was kind of impressed with his answer me and me's purpose. To make our collective location the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness i do think the american idea it's a great concept i'm very proud to be an american. When i went overseas for the first time in my adult life. I was shocked. Other people knew how to do things besides america. That there are alternative ways of living. Of expressing your style of working. Of working with time for example. You know this 925 is strictly a western ideas like i don't think anybody else she does like that you know what i'm saying. So i learned a lot by going overseas so i went back five times cuz. It just made me. Enlarged as a person. So. How is relating that tanea is to. The traditional greatness america is a great country. I think we sometimes stray away from those ideal. But we started out as a country. To work together. To be one nation. It was in the constitution and. It hasn't changed the preamble hasn't changed the constitution has been changed and that gives you a sense of how our american ideal is universal and sturdy and will last across generations and i think kwanzaa will last across the ocean and when you have your principles of the unitarian principles are written. To trans in. Generations are good for your children and they're they're good for the grandparents for us grandparents hatchet-face. Needs creativity to do always as much as we can in the way we can in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it. I love the word inherited. We didn't create anything here. It was our legacy. And chrissy. Works right into the. Environmental. New environment formation that we. We have. Be more efficient. And living more simply. But this word reminds us that we are we didn't create anything we need to just to stain it. In the best way we can. Imani means faith. I believe with all my heart. And our people. In our parents. Are teachers. Our leaders. And the righteousness and. Victory of our struggle you can't get. Much better than that to have that self-confidence and we are doing the right thing that we are good people. That we can. Live together in a peaceful way and it is our obligation. To try to live in a harmonious wet. With others and to respect other people. Taking off a long time. To get the. Lie about our ideals to live out that deals with the constitution of kwanzaa the unitarian principles of kwanzaa principles but they're all worth working for and imani says that we must have the face. That we will get there but we are going to stay on journey we're going to stay on task until. Our principal. The only thing that matters in life. Cuz it doesn't matter what you look like free doesn't matter how much money you have in the bank. But it does matter what principle should have died. Thank you are closing words will be given to us by rick wrecking. A movement exposes people to all different kinds of people which creates an environment in which local people are expected to take ownership over what they are doing and to grow as leaders.

uuprairie_org

Pr020922Darling-ed.mp3

I understand that you like to have some discussion right in the middle of the service so much as what questions we can raise workout. I think there's a whole lot of factors that go into that there's a greater and greater monopolization of media i mean i think there's like five or six giant corporations that run almost all the media right now you know where people going to get the information they need i think we do have a i think there is my personal belief let yourself feel doomed. And to me it's a matter of whether you are raised for. Well i think we need both we have to act both politically that's what i mean we have to go out there and have an effect in the world but we also have to be doing this stuff using i'm using violent language it's really important to try to apply as well as.. I don't have closing words from jean these are words if daniel berrigan launching from psalm 126 when the spirit struck us free we could scarcely believe it for very joy we were free we were wrapped in a dream of freedom our mouths were filled with laughter our tongues with pure joy the oppressors were awestruck what marvel's the lord works for them like a torrent in flood our people streamed out.

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Pr210829LessonsYettoLearnMattAspin-ed.mp3

Our presentation today is lessons yet to learn by reverend matt aspen. I'll let you to introduce get to know me i think it's important that i share with you a bit about my current beliefs i'm going to share a few stories today about my bicycle and use those stories as a series of metaphors help explain my current thoughts about the unitarian universalist. As far as this is for me to believe i've had this bike for almost 30 years to this point my life i've had the good fortune to be able body. Condition that i know is temporary. And i try to remember to give thanks for every day. Overslept a bike as a child. And once i was starting to make enough money to live on i saved up my pennies and spend a good bit of time looking for just the right mountain bike for me. Finally found a frame that fit like a just-right. My purchases my early twenties. Mountain biking align very well with my needs in my life at that time over time being a mountain biker became a part of my identity. The more time i spend relationship with my bike. The more began to just feel like an extension of who i was. Unitarian universalism is sometimes referred to as a chosen face. Many individuals find the space later in life. Afternoon intentional search for a place where they can find comfort in meaning. Many who find this face say i can't believe i finally found my people. Being a part of this community just seems to fit. Do for me my bike like this face. I think that i chose for me it just seemed to fit. Go back to my bike. Wiccan healing practice. Practice on my bike a lot over the first few years we were together. I could ride over big logs up and down almost any hill. I could fly down there with zigzag mountain trails at exhilarating speed. I don't have the words for back then. But in hindsight in the woods. Retain my spiritual practice who's the consistency of riding over time which helped me develop the skills i would need to face greater challenges overtime. Just as a faith community like this one requires commitment over time. Help strengthen the hearts and minds of the folks to call this place their spiritual home. This place is taking me all over the country. I have pictures of adventures with this bike on both coasts and now here in the midwest. We have history together. Just like the memories that so many of you. Gathered here over the years and relationship with others overtime in this community. It is the good times and the bad times we've shared together. Appreciated meaning for me and relationship with his bicycle. I must admit. I stepped away from this relationship with my bike when i moved to seattle it's really hilly there. My life kept busy. But i just didn't ride nearly as much as i used to. I miss my time with my bike. But other things seem more important truth be told i didn't give out nearly as much time for my bike. The duck game app is i lived when i lived on the west coast. What happens sometimes with faith to. People get busy. End up devoting more and more of their time to other endeavors. Then when i moved here. I found a spot near my new pole. With wonderful nicely rolling trails across reclaimed prairieland. I'm happy to say that irene gates with my relationship with my bike and it's been wonderful. Communing with nature with my bike has once again become a grounding spiritual practice. After this i am truly grateful. My life feels better having recommitted to my relationship with my bike. My daughter. A memory i get to the two points i really want to make today. You were here last week. Talk about reality of some challenges that were facing in the world today. Why i think it's communities like this one but have the potential to strengthen us to whether those challenges. Another day. It's going down a hill that i hadn't been on before. When i realized pretty quickly that the trail i was on but the little beyond what i was now capable of handling. It is too steep to just stop. That was just feathering a break to try to gingelly navigate down this slippery washed out running sexual trail and it was coming down to ridgeline so either side was kind of like a big ball i was pretty fearful because falling like that at my age is probably not a smart thing to do best then i don't know where i heard a voice in my head that said loudly and clearly and immediately realized. I found myself fearful i was tense and tentative trying to rationalize my way to life down that hill. What i needed was inner guidance in space. And both of those things showed up when i needed them because of all the work i had done and all the work i put into this relationship to this bike earlier in life. It was a wisdom that i would have thought was completely forgotten if it hadn't emerged so loudly for my subconscious at the exact moment i needed it i just the work that is done in this community together it has the potential to offer solace and guidance during times of crisis if we are consistent with them during our, days i can say this from personal experience maybe someday i'll tell you the story of what came with a whisper that saved me on a really hard day as having. Even if it was a newer shinier whatever no thank you this is my bike i just like your community i like it just the way it is. I hope bike shirley does require some ongoing maintenance of keep the tires inflated. If i don't keep the chain lube it sometimes doesn't like to change gears when it needs to. Little maintenance is always a good idea rain system. There are parts of any church system that require ongoing maintenance. And i think that's one of the shared responsibilities pipiol need to contribute to. If this community is going to keep running smoothly and be there for us when we need it. So what i've seen you got some amazingly dedicated church mechanics here. That is definitely one of your strengths. I told the search committee that i would spend the first year just observing just noticing how things feel on the ride that were taken together. Holding what i'm really hoping to do if anything is act as a mirror. Play the look at what this community says about itself. Olympos question for you to consider if what i reflect back to you doesn't seem to line up with what you say about yourself. One final little bit about my thirty-year-old bike. It's not exactly the same like i originally bought. Several years after i bought it i dropped off a 5-foot clip intentionally. I winded. But the wealth at the bottom of the bottom bracket snapped when i landed. I'm so mad. Couldn't believe my bike had let me down. I knew that the warranty long since expired. I didn't have the money to replace it. After a long walk back to my car. I was almost ready to be done with this bike. Never the last about my cracked bicycle back to the bike store. The shop owner said he'd see what he could do. My surprise delight the manufacturer determined that the weld that let-go wasn't up to their stated specifications. And they gave me a brand new frame no questions asked. Manufacturer made a commitment to stand behind its product. And it was willing to consider that they may have actually contributed to the problem in some way. They were willing to be curious about their role in the breakdown. Because of that simple action. I ended up being able to continue deepening my relationship with this bicycle. Send out the new frame was even stronger than the original. So how about my story of flying down that hill ended differently. That company hadn't stood by its commitment to me. I can very easily imagine that being at the end of my biking that being ended my biking career for the next two decades. I can imagine myself moving here remembering that i like to bike buying a new bike finding myself back in the situation on that trail that i described. And not having that jephthah's experience or trusting myself that i needed to navigate that section trail because i would have missed out on those years of practice. How you been able to continue on because my bike had been broken but repaired because of it kept promise. How does that relate to this community. Describe unitarian-universalism as a fee for covenant not creed. We don't tell you what to believe. Instead we make promises to each other about how we intend to work together. To make the world a better place for both ourselves and for others. Covenants of faith such as ours requires a lot of work all different backgrounds to draw strength from and contribute to the ideals of sheard community sounds great on paper. You have folks from all different backgrounds and ideas coming together. Disagreements are inevitably going to arrive. Here's my first offering as that mirror one thing i've already seen like i saw it in your history that iran i've seen it in several stories i've already heard. Are many different examples miss community when disagreements arise. Strategies employed which i like to call i'm taking my toys and going home. Instead of creating a safe space for disagreement. I'm staying in farmer station until some semblance of agreement can be reached ivan said noticed a tendency in some instances supposed to just pull back. Welds break sometimes but there does not seem to be a consistent guarantee that folks will stand behind the agreements that i think this place drive-through uphold sometimes people just leave altogether. Sometimes folks just agree to disagree but also completely eliminate all contact with the person a group that was the catalyst for the rip these strategies can reduce discomfort in the short-term but neither of them allows the ties of community be strengthened over time they leave you the individual. Or part of the community weekend. Like an imperfection in the weld. He's weak points don't show up on sunny days when you're all riding together down a smooth hill to show up when you encounter a big bump on the trail but when you find yourself lacking the skill you need to navigate a complex stretch because you've been cut off from the ability to keep practicing being in relationship overtime perhaps you've seen this dynamic i wonder how this aligns with the intention you have in your bond of union from the first sentence we the members of prayer. But we need one another. And that our futures are inescapably bound together and then later food-stamp all on our quest for integrity of life getting audit others expense is the prairie stretches out until it becomes one with the sky but its reach out to touch and be one with the natural world and with each other let us be one with one another. I want to be a part of a community that is committed to doing the hard work that it takes to stay in relationship when the going gets tough i believe that more and more people in this world need to have access to the type of community that models what it takes to work through disagreements in safeway's that ensure all parties are treated with dignity and respect and the conversation continued forward until resolution is bad. Naruto one person walks away. Put into all sides of a discussion. Feel like their points have been respectfully heard. Getaway forward emerges that everyone can at least agree to get behind. Even if it isn't exactly everything everyone wanted the conversation when they walked in. I know that the society. Has deep roots in the humanist movement. So i've been variously reading or reading all that i can to make sure my messages remained aligned with what i sent so far is a strong but not complete set of viewpoints in this world so is andy recent peter candice wrote in a recent clerk religious humanists religious humanism the good life lived in community humanity can only be realized in the context of the community of other human beings. Early humanist ideas place flourishing as the highest human flourishing is the highest ideal. What remains central and aligns with the reality of human striving. Recent candice also know that humanism is beginning to recognize that i'm over a cyst on the individual versus the community ends up severely limiting the individual's potential. Begin my talk today saying that my intention was to share story about my bike as a metaphor about my set of beliefs i can't imagine navigating the ups and downs with my new prairie trails without my old bike and my vision of a unitarian universalist faith community is one in which each of its members can't imagine navigating the ups and downs of life without the frame and practice provided and allowed by this community not planning to change anyone here all i've done today is point out something that i'm wondering about and i'll just keep doing that and continuing to invite you to think about what i've shared. Hey we'd continue to enjoy many more beautiful rides together. One of the biking respond to that one of the charges of the committee on ministry which is which were trying to put together that crew to evaluate my ministry evaluation is how well i am supporting the mission of this of this community and one of the things i quickly realized. But i'm really trying to make sure that i understand what is the collective vision of this place that the ties you altogether what is what is what what what do you all agree upon is the reason that we talked about and he said we want to grow this place. Well to be able to know who to attract and who's who's going to want to contribute to this place anthony clear about what this place is about right so i think part of the part of the important work is to just deposit it and then go to the people that for whom this this place is important and send in try to see if we can find what those real commonalities are and i think there's a lot of work.

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Pr130127Ingham-ed.mp3

We gather this hour as people of faith with joys and sorrows gifts and needs we like this beacon of hope sign of our quest for truth and meaning in celebration of the life we share together. Take courage friends the way it's often hard the path is never clear and the stakes are very high take courage for deep down there is another truth you're not alone so.

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Pr200823RobinProud-ed.mp3

Growler are excited to have robin to. Speak again for us. Sedation she will present helen hamilton gardener freethinker and suffragist. It's odd they prefer the term suffragists rather than suffragettes. Presentations related to our third principal. Acceptance of one another. Spiritual growth. In our congregation. Robin has been my wife for long time. We both went to carleton college where we met. And she's been a union for over 40 years and regularly speaks to you you groups. And on topics from history psychology. And literature. So please greet robin. Thank you. I will. Give a little introduction and then i'll have some slides to show tour the middle part and then. Be back on. Scandal was in all the newspapers. 1876 in sandusky ohio. Estate commissioner school a married man. Was having an affair with a young and pretty principal of the teacher training school. Alice chenoweth. Commissioner charles smart was supposed to be inspecting the school but. He always seemed to arrive on friday afternoon after school was closed and leave by monday morning. When the newest got out. Ellis was removed with the excuse of budget issues. While charles was allowed to resign. Dallas 23 years old. Didn't spend the rest of her life hiding in shame. She moved away. Change her name to helen hamilton gardener. And spent the rest of her life. Working for women's legal and social rights. And helen who. I had never heard of her in spite of reading number of books from the sarah and i have not yet found anyone else who has. Helen hamilton gardener was born as alice chenoweth at 1853 in virginia. What's the channels for a family of property. Her father alfred a minister decided he could no longer be a party to the institution of slavery so when alice was one-year-old 1854. Alfred freitas slaves and moved his family to washington d.c.. And later to indiana. Alfred the father died when i was eleven and that same year during the civil war. Three or four brothers were seriously wounded. And two of her grandparents died. It was very little wealth last. Various family members moved to missouri and kansas to run farm. Alice had no desire to farm or to get married. 19 she moved alone to cincinnati to train as a teacher. One of the very few careers open to women. When she began teaching in sandusky alice was so outstanding that by age 23 she had been appointed principal of the teaching academy. This is when the shocking affair derailed her career and she reinvented herself as helen hamilton gardener. At some point charles smartphone with her he had been allowed to resign quietly from his job. The couple lived in detroit. And later new york. We're charles prichard a mediocre career insurance. Most biographical article say that they married. I believe that wikipedia says this but the first full biography. All this remarkable woman has just come out this year. It's free thinker sex suffrage in the extraordinary life of helen hamilton garner. Dr. kimberly hamblin states that there is no proof of a marriage. And there's even a question of whether charles ever divorce to the original wife. Helen is she now calls herself and charles lived as a married couple for decades so everyone assumed that they were married. For early experience led helen to champion it into the double standard. Man even expect. Wild oats. And they were forgiven for many indiscretions. Course that would never happen now right. Women on the other hand were taught that they must be absolutely pure. Cricket reputations of the bible baptist view. Religion was also used to support the police that man with the master of the household. This one happened to be a free thinker in the mold of robert ingersoll. A famous speaker labeled the great agnostic. And here's something that robert ingersoll had to say about men and women. He had a. Speech called the liberty of man woman and child. He proclaimed his belief in the equality of women and the importance of egalitarian marriage. He decried stingy husband. Grumpy husband. And husbands who acted as if they were the boss of their wives. Ingersoll also venture to suggest that. Husband. Pernicious ideas about marriage. From an old book that taught that women were an afterthought of creation. Taken from a man's rib to be his helper. As long as women regards the bible at the charter of her rights ingersoll thunder. She will be the slave of man. Route to ingersoll attended his lectures and became his protege. She would actually call ingersoll and soprano and was a very successful speech. By 1884 when she was 31 she was speaking in new york under the name helen hamilton gardener. Hamilton and garner word maiden names of to her grandmother's and the former claim to be descended from alexander hamilton. We don't know why she chose helen but it means bright one or shining light in greek as well as being a name of a famous beautiful woman. Chris remarks on this petite ladylike figure proclaiming very radical ideas. Biographer kimberly hamelin rice. The novelty of gardeners lecture tour made national news. But most reviews focused on her looks. Explosion of her remarks. Chicago tribune for example provided extensive coverage of her hair. Before concluding. It is unnecessary to give us synopsis of her lecture. That will never happen today either right. Among her lecture titles were men women and gods and historical facts and theological fiction. Well there were other freethought speakers she declared she spoke up specifically for the women. Quote about that from the biography. Church teachings that women were people with absolute rights of persons including the right to control their own bodies. Crushing a woman self-respect and destroying her sense of personal responsibility. As to her own acts in the matter of chastity. From bible verses and sunday sermons a woman learned that she must have board made her own sense of right in her own. The dictates of someone else. Anyone else of the opposite sex. She said the bible. How did women speaking with stories about blessed virgin's and the evils of women who craves knowledge. Is an outspoken agnostic. Gardner rejected the creep of christianity into american public life. In the 1880s there was a surgeon legislation proposing sunday closing laws bibles in schools and declarations that america was a christian nation. And now it was creeping into the women's rights movement. She actually opposed temperance as an infringement on individual liberty. She thought that people could make their own choices in that. Regard. These sentiments separated helen from a lot of the suffrage movement which was about a christian and what stress the ladylike nature of its participants. And i'll read something from. What you want about chris because some of us have been asked this question is you use or free thinkers. We're sometimes asked. What do you propose to give in place of a comforting space. People so happy. You take away all this blessing and you given no other in its place. What is your creed. It has never seemed to me that a queen was a staff of life. I should not object however 21 that should read something like this. I believe in honesty. I believe that the church has no right to teach what it does not know. I believe that a clean life and a tender heart are worth more to this world. All the face and all the gods of time. I believe that this world needs all our best efforts in earnest endeavors 24 hours a day. I believe it if our laborers were needed in another world we should be in another world. So long as we are in this one i believe in making the best and the most of the materials we have on hand. I believe that love for our fellow man is infinitely nobler better and more necessary than love for god. I believe that men women and children need our best thoughts are kendra's consideration and ernest sympathy. I believe that god can get on just as well without any of these. If he wants anything he can get it without our assistance. Is people with limitations. Not gods without limitations who need and should have our aid. I believe that it is better to build one happy home here. Did you invest in a thousand churches. What's the deal with the hereafter. That would be very. Regis for many people to stay today in the public. Actually in new york helen joined the liberal club where according to the new york sun no topic is forbidden them to talk is very free. Composted weekly speakers and debates they celebrating the solstice and the birthday of thomas paine. Humanism. Billy penn.. Been define but this really seems to be. What her viewers. Helen try to enroll in classes at columbia university but women were only allowed in a few specialized courses. Is a free thinker believed in using science to address world problems. But she found the science was being turned against women. Multiple books and essays by so-called scientists of the time claimed that women couldn't possibly equal men because. Their brains were physically smaller. Also insisted that too much study would render women infertile. You may remember that the astronomer ian mitchell had to fight the same ridiculous plan. Will hamilton hamilton gardner address these issues directly demanding scientific proof. She even started initiative for prominent women such as elizabeth cady stanton. To include in their will that their brains could be preserved and measured after death. She also developed a famous lecture call sex in brain. Helen wrote to very successful novels dealing with issues of the devil stand. Amanda woman's place in society. At the age of 40 she delivered multiple major speeches at the chicago world's fair and here's a picture of her around that time. And her speeches were so successful that she had them printed under the title facts and fiction's of life. She became co-editor of the magazine the arena or journal devoted to social causes. And at this time one of her ardent concerns was raising the age of consent for girls who could be married off very young. Don't arrange for charles who was failing in his insurance career to become business manager of the magazine. But within a year this magazine the arena fail. Not only that but her husband charles smart and another manager were arrested for fraud relating to stay low stuck in the magazine. Alright. Helen's husband and a manager were arrested for fraud relating to stock from the magazine they were acquitted but it was a blow to helen personally and professionally. My minister charles began to suffer from dementia he passed away in 1901. By the next year helen had remarried. Colonel sheldon day was someone she had met in conjunction with a very different book she had written. Shipping a book about the civil war based on stories of her own family. When they got married helen was near 50 and day was over 60 but they did not retire to rocking chairs. Instead they went on a world tour. They visited california hawaii. Japan where they stayed nearly a year. Philippines malaysia-china salon. If she is on a camel. Auntie europe. Where helen met buffalo bill at the wild west show and. Chief iron tail. She was comparing head sizes. And there's one more picture from her trip. Here she is with another fighting woman the statue of joan of arc in paris. Helen and her husband ended up being away three and a half years. They then settled in washington d.c. because colonel de wanted a warmer climate than new york. It turned out to be perfect for the next leg of helen's life journey. Do her new husband and from her previous work helen had many contacts in. She threw herself into work for women's suffrage. Now it's time to were several factions in the movement. If you watch the recent. Pbs special on the boat. You saw this conflict. Carrie chapman catt wisconsin with the leader of. Barbie man existing. Group. Installation work through channels. But a younger contingent led by alice paul was inspired by the taxes of british women such as going on hunger strikes are chaining themselves to offense. And they actually were some of the first people to have demonstrations outside the white house holding up signs day after day. Here to alice paul with helen. Belong to that more traditional group she felt that aggressive action would make more enemies. For a long time there were two groups the national american woman suffrage association. Nawsa which was the established group under carrie chapman catt. And the national women's party which was alice paul's new organization. And biographer hamlin. Said something about the two women. For the first few months of 1913 gardner had been energized by working alongside paul a young firebrand not unlike herself 30 years earlier. Long before the nawsa leaders figured out that paul post a threat to the organization and its reputation. Gardner cool relations and began to separate herself from fall. Overtime gardner positioned herself as the season dc antidote to paul's militant partisan upstart. Call may well have been the smartest woman in america is garner was characterized her. She. Gardner stated that. She was the one who had lobbying skills life experiences contacting personal charms. All which would be needed to secure the amendment. This is not unique to this movement right just about every movement has it split in. Questions of how aggressive to be. How demanding how much to work within existing channels. Dinner was. Accomplishment. That will appreciate your was that she helped organize a reception for pro suffrage politicians at the vamos senator robert and his wife. From wisconsin of course. Course the tricky part was that all the people who were to vote for women's suffrage were men. Then there was a split between those who favored a state-by-state plan versus a federal plan. Everyone knew that the southern states. Extending the franchise in any way. That was because it would draw attention to the fact that after reconstruction. They had established various means to keep black men from voting. Any black women to the boulders horrified. Some of them even mention that black women would be up. Harder force to dominate. Or it would look bad if they were seen wrapping up black women. Batman. Unfortunately some activists including susan b anthony use this split to drive the cost of women's suffrage. She said something about how it could be that black denim will she called sambo. We have the vote and white women wouldn't. He also said the same thing about immigrants. It's what some people use just text it wouldn't it be good to get white women enfranchised so they could support white men. How long does it support of a national approach which. In a way it went around just southern issue. If it's an update from the rest of the group. I would take care of it. They needed congress and the president to support them. Letters and personal diplomacy. Helen became a regular at the white house and visitor to president wilson. And. Your shoes with carrie chapman catt. After a white house meeting. How long is the shorter one there. When you answer to world war 1 women lobby that they needed equal status in order to support the country in its time of need and in fact that woman suffrage association organized a special committee including gardner. Women's war work with the government. After a lot of lobbying and negotiating which of course you can read further about. In many books. Congress passed the 19th amendment in june 1919 and now i've this picture showing the vice president signing because this is when the senate. Pasta. And helen is on the right. She had actually supply the gold pan used for the signing. Most of the stuff i just had not live to see this event. The following year was devoted to getting 36 of the 48 states to ratify with wisconsin being the first famously. And tennessee dramatically the last. Before the battle in tennessee there's a wonderful book called the woman's hour by elaine weiss. Don't be questioning that wilson plays a woman on the peace commission negotiating the end of world war 1. Wilson assisted other nations when next temp stat. However. You did decide to name a woman head of the civil service commission. This was a post once held by teddy roosevelt. He offered it to helen hamilton garner. This was the highest position a woman had detained in us history so far. 67 years old. But she threw herself into her new job and loved it. And i've got a little one. Story from that stole something of her attitude. What you watching the white house one day during president harding's administration. His secretary said. Went to the mat for you yesterday mrs gardner a man undertook to tell me that you are nearly 70. But i said that if you're a day older than i am. And i'm 54. If you were jailed and i am i hate my hat. Reply. Then prepare for a diet of stealth. So she served for five years she resigned just months before she heard us and honored yes she stipulated. Enterbrain be donated for the project yourself and started and it resides at cornell university today. September hamilton garner spent as much time and energy on women's issues as anyone in the movement. She was present at the signing of the 19th amendment. She holds the highest government position for a woman in history time. And if you ask almost anyone about her including me before i read this book. The response would be. Telugu. So we now have some time for. Questions or. Thinker that article i sent out new york times mostly feature. Women of color of various backgrounds. Z. Cvs best 12-volt wikipedia you probably can get it from the pbs websites was just showing in july. Be well to was a black woman or many black. When is organizations fighting for the vote even though they knew they'd be the last to actually achieve it. She was told to market literally at the back of the big suffrage parade which she refused to do in the 1970s lesbians to be prominent because that would play into the stereotype. And transgender wasn't even. Possible to to consider so. Yeah there have always. Been some of these. Decisions made at. Later on we. Question. Women like susan b anthony felt they had been betrayed. That's there. They assume that this. Suffrage would be extended to all of that time. And i want the whole concern that that some people felt well black men were in the most danger of their lives if they. Not able to vote and something that has come up recently. Is that innocence. Some vestige of the three-fifths compromise still exists that for many years. Tarantula breeding rights act and now we're newly again. That the areas of the south and get representation based on the number of people living there but if lots of black people can be discouraged from voting or stop from voting in any way the remaining white people have proportionally more power. So we still living with many of these legacies. Well thank you robin. Thank you.

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Pr851117panel-ed.mp3

Barrier may be visiting today i like to introduce myself and my phone up my clothes a minister at watkins and i'm sharing a lay ministry with marty draftkings. Not working i'd like to sit there are many many reasons why people do not work we obviously are not able to and and have no intention of touching that all this morning so we're sticking to people of involuntary unemployment. No one else can feel what i feel there's no one else you feel the disappointment and having lost a job because you did a good job and there's no one else healed frustration from not being able to duplicate the job i lost you can have some empathy for other people who've been there but to really get inside it's a lonely business and you can send from what was read here that this particular person. First time. It was when i had decided to stay in a foreign country and couldn't find work because i was on citizen and sony that was in my omega i didn't have to go there in the first place right without employment and but the one i would really like to describe to you in madison about 10 years ago. Experience a job overload along with taking care of a child by myself and had put on a broadway musicals in the public schools which meant a lot of nine night work. Not unless our name atc so i really entered unemployment with no reserves whatsoever. I'm blocking the time. i don't know at this point how long i was coming floyd i can't remember how long it was it was probably maybe three months i don't know but. Which is relatively little compared to folks who have look for jobs for a long. of time. But i also had another family member dependent on me and at that time i had. $90 coming in from renting and property i had $100. Coming in. Basically i'm doing housework. And 150 dollar rent payment so that kind of gives you some idea of what the scene was like that the scene is real scary and i'll get into that later i knew an administrator in state social services help me find an lte job carl martin. And so i got an lte job probably wasn't minimum wage there were no benefits. I had two colors degrees. The job required someone who was conscientious. Madrid is it still. Marty kay. My brain is always been that i work for the state fair number of yours but my brain is always been to serve not be at what was be called hard money and was then soft money federal grants. Picture of many of us in the state system. I still am. I work for the university of wisconsin-extension for 6 years. . i work in this regard to county jail so development of training programs and development programs for jail officers in jail administrators. And development of policy and procedures for jail so they really like. And. You know shirley would want to be able to feel secure about. So that one federal grant after another and most of which i wrote myself and kneel for the grant applications and. Bentley so i was. 4. 18 months between. 82 +. 84 anybody for i was you're not working for the state was without a formal job but continue to do the things that i have done that as a consulting basis. Which is nice and i enjoyed it a lot. But of course there's not the steady income is not the benefits and all those nice things that we have work. For the government. Come to enjoy. So that was that was a scary thing for me but in terms of. Are pure needless to say there wasn't a steady income coming in although i was making money. As a consultant doing the same things that i had been doing. Training at particularly working with county jails to develop policy and procedure. Manuals in. Actually i enjoyed being on my own. Much more than i enjoyed working for the government cuz i don't like doing that i don't like working for anybody else in particular. Bureaucracies emerges find that distasteful. And i prefer not to do it i like them i like the money that they gave me and i like the benefits of to give me those kind of thing but that's about all i like about it. Frankly i really like being controlled and if i had my choice i would you know if there was lucrative enough on a steady basis i'd. No i do that without a moment's hesitation. Show from the perspective of self-esteem and until the only thing you ain't really had was simply lack of money i was making money from consulting as well as. A couple of other things photography. That i was doing and selling the lifeline gym which is a little piece of exercise equipment that i sell. So is having an income but it wasn't a steady income yours sporadic. Sometimes good sometimes not so good. Am i okay site. A big desire that i had was to stay in my field cuz i cared about it a lot and i really want to. Working regard to jails because they care about it and i want to feel like i can make some difference. So i basically giving myself. A couple of years to see if i could begin it make it as a consultant. In that same field and it felt at the end of that if it was clear that. I wasn't going to be able to make it financially to have to go on to something else. Go ahead and xiety about that because i really really sincerely wanted to stay and what i was doing i really like them. Fortunately. After about 18 months i did get a job with another agency of the the state. But again that doesn't have a lot of longevity it doesn't have a lot of securities wisconsin council of criminal justice which is a state agency was totally almost totally federally funded. And you know how that thing goes and sometimes the federal funds are. Large and sometimes they're small and when they're small it's a small estate agency in the state bureaucracy is only about 24 employees. Hey google like that. Begone. And all twenty-four of us could be gone including myself so you don't still have that kind of insecurity about. About that. But you know the job itself to serve the same kind of thing that i had been doing i feel very fortunate. To to be in that position. Okay well. I think i did. And living longer working and working strengthen. Good morning. I had a good many different john. Many of them were due to the fact that i want. Adult made up my mind which direction are we going which was. Working in radical political party. And in union. When you do that you don't make much money but you can you can move it used to. I think the. Turning point to make it very short with. Danielle ready and up the other day. Good morning thank you for we came because i forgot to me. King jobs in one year. Xm rather difficult. You wind up not have any money and anger frustration. Only changed. Can you wait in the unemployment line. Call me. Different types of jets. Traumatic period of unemployment than anything another one. Go to you and your word which is quite appropriate. Independency after used to block out things that were not too happy with cuz they all ran in together. And text me the last number years that that time when. And suites mall of georgia no money coming in. A lot of it was financially. Well of course. Well i guess they. The first time i was unemployed was when i got divorced because i have been a housewife. Did that time. And then the next time was after struggling for a year it was first real taste of to make a go of being a real estate sales when i made about $75. I've got done my own driving and i spent weekends and working at the agency answering the phone. So i'll be fired from that job was that was really hard. I also lost a commission because i had listed a house and it didn't sell before that. Termination.. And that was really tough. I've been fired a lot of times and i think that makes up being unemployed. So what can i say it was it was. In a way it's kind of relief to be unemployed i didn't have to confront on awful people are bosses. Usually bosses. I think the the milo point was the time i took up. A job though. For $2 an hour at a gift shopping. That. Really. That's all i want to say. For the work situation now wasn't needed at the time i went into the workforce i can get a job all of this country with my bachelor's degree i was trained as music teacher and there was a shortage of that time. Other people and no one trained me to climb. Ladders no one trained me to go to the right cocktail parties and i still don't know how so i mean. I wear several hats in the job i have it a lot of that has to do with the human relations and with students and stress. And students dealing with natural stress. Students dealing with a with the undesirable academic records. Right things through my office that i think utilizes my experience in public school. Is is helpful. If any kind of a job that has to do with. People. Now that's it's my butt. What's the question exactly does deerfield fair. I'm wondering if it has shirley truitt english majors. I am. Evan, quite often in our group. I think we look at things so much different than. Mini joey stadium. Run-of-the-mill people. Island in continuing education my job had nothing to do with $50,000 near that kind of stuff. Dinosaur removed from a hatchable. Even though i did have any graduate degree in all that and graduate working. All i can sing. One thing i did want to ask you cuz i should make the point. When you have many many john's. And you're fired. For your political opinion. And your phone. Counseling. One job connect. By fbi and you're fired because not because of the work you do but because of your political opinion. I don't think most people are aware of this type of thing. Do you wind up with no resume and they don't like an arrhythmia what does that. What you do is talk about everything you possibly can in order to get a job otherwise you can't get a job. Emily finally. No doubt about it and probably harder in many ways if i'm the family. Infection one way. Until yourself. The movie finally get up here. And employer falsify everything how you going to get a job. Famous you're going to union organizer etc s. You're not going to get it. And one of those. Jokes and blacklisted the assistant director. What's the spanish words at. And somewhere another one. How to talk to jim. He. Got an idea what it was all about. Are egyptian one little thing. Nothing about $50,000 job education survival. Any comments on well i i can't stay there while i'm doing now has much to do with. What my training was i am one of these rare creatures in prairie i don't have an undergraduate degree except from matc. And real estate and i did learn a lot about business and that which i have brought with me into the business i'm in inches. Sewing. And so i know how to keep books and keep things straight. So his reaction to that he didn't bother with the girls because that he can deal with that question and this is certainly something that's this prevalent in our society has reduced what do you do. It helped what kind of reaction might you have to that if you have not to have a job. None of your damn business. Is there any kind of. Does that trigger and kind of feeling defensive. Currently between jobs. Is a good one and then you quickly change the subject to something else. I sometimes have problems with people i've engaged in them. Conversation who. Let's say we get involved in some kind of high-powered subject and i feel as if i'm holding my own ground until they find out what i do or what i have done in the past and then. Oh and if i don't happen to be. Although i may be intellectual. if i am not a professional peer. I was at a convention one time where i. And this action. Teaching music but i was teaching music in the public school. Who was the. College marketing people looking for jobs and i was engaged in conversation. We're doing really having great time talking about. Rather obscure subject in music i just have no lot about. Until i found out that i was a public school teacher. Literally drop this conversation and walked away. But the example that happen as the clerical work for quite a while and i still as someone asked me. What i do i am civil service i'm on the clerical staff at the university i never. Mission i'm sorry to say this great respect for. I don't tell anyone i'm a clerical worker. And i'm defined by civil service is a clerical worker because of the. Treatment i have received in the past really shabby treatment i have received my just don't want to have to deal with it and conversation. That's why i never liked that question very much what do you do because it's it's a very it's very shallow kind of thing because most a lot of people not everybody who asked that question. I try to pin you down and put her identity on you by what it is that you do to make a living. Which is really very small part of an infant individual's identity there's other things involved in that question but. I feel like you say you do i'm a clerical worker will that put you in one. No perspective of person where i am a college professor. I am a doctor or a lawyer and you let me look at you and totally different or is it have to do with you there's nothing to do with you as an individual so it's kind of a silly question. It's not easy but i think some of the trick is to not let people put you in that the. In a bag by by allowing them to decide how they're going to feel about you by what it is that you do for to make money. Rachel's dying. Wonder woman ideas sewing and alterations do you have anything that i would become a. Have to let you know. Although i was only unemployed for. Maybe however many months as was i have experienced a long. of being underemployed and for a while without benefits in really severe financial stress and several things that i experienced one question. And attending paid events. Where i had to pay money to go someplace and being a musician. It was nice to symphony i was sometimes painful to hear people. Coming is still pay but i still am having to deal with this cuz i don't have a high-paying job people coming in and saying well did you hear such and such as the civic center. Well. You know i still don't have 12 bucks to go to the civic center allow the time and. But at least if i really wanted to plan ahead and save up for it i could do that now there's certainly been long periods in my life or that was out of the question fortunately i can entertain myself fairly well so i mean i'm not really. It certainly affected networking and four possibilities and career advancement i can't go to. Answer lee couldn't go to the parties for you to meet people that might be able to introduce you to someone who could introduce you to someone who could introduce you to someone who might have a job. I didn't have a clothes to wear to such those party. There was at 1 time a in a knot in my first. of unemployment where i worked in a business where. I. For the same dress for. About 6 weeks straight. And. I. Suppose i should have been glad i had address. I. Stopped dating. I am. Really had no emotional energy to deal with. If he's uncomfortable situations. And it was taking all of my energy. To keep me employed to keep my. Sun. Bedclothes and reasonably happy and entertained. And i just picked up i had to totally support surround myself with supportive people that weren't going to add any more attention to my life. And i also i think was just too stressed. To contribute much to relationship. And he was. I have no money for entertaining other people this is really painful people would invite me over and if you're invited over for. Steak. And all you have in the refrigerator is maybe reisman little bit of veggies. Which. Some people are quite happy with but none the less than. The. Paying back. Idea which was is very strong in me not wanting to be obligated to someone else and my friends i think that would not have bothered them it would have bothered me and it still does. It was at the time and this i wanted to bring up so he's really important the time of my prairie. And one of the reasons i attended prairie a i like it i like the services but also it was probably the only real liberal it was clearly the only liberal. Religious organization in town if it didn't have. A huge budget. Just support. At that time that no building to support. And i felt although i was still subsidized by people in prairie i still felt that i could somewhat. Hold my own. I was very glad for you got a building i'm still glad i love it. But i also if i had. Now it right now i run the same circumstances that i were them. And having the strong will i have to want to hold my own. I don't know why that would mean in terms of prairie membership with regarding the financial obligation which is minimal i think compared to a lot of churches. How how how how has unemployment affected you now are you still living under that. I would think any residual. Avenger. And people. Your society be unemployed. They're no good logical reason for it. In england in the wealthiest country in the world to exist. Empathy for those who are poor and left position. And empathy for people who are. And then. Getting myself example it's only been in the last. Finley. Years that we've got none of those damn situation. Shirley lunch. And shirley unfortunate in the simpson when they got me started saturday that's all i do that. Work it out like. Is arguments and so on. And plus. The package buddy had to go to work too. Hampden no money coming in at home. 20 bucks from my dad if she's rather embarrassing getting when they don't like what you're doing entire family. A feeling of anxiety. Never leave me. I would tend to agree with that that there's a fear that you go through when you're unemployed that even though you did a good job you never our security never have the sense. But that's constantly. To anything that i perceived as a threat to my job. Mx. Cause me i can't overreact to some things aren't worth it. I probably perceived differently. Fremont. Actually was there. The afraid to take risks that might help me advance. I. At one time passed up a chance for scholarships going for phd because i didn't want to take risks either with my welfare and my son's welfare and i didn't want my mother to who is 81 living by herself to think that all well here goes our daughter again at a time. I think it's giving me a. Deep appreciation for work and a deep appreciation for supporting friends. But that underline fears all weekend. I feel the same things too i guess the one lesson that it's brought to me is just a tenuousness. Of a lot of things in life including work and ability to work an associate with a lot of other things you know healthy relationships and so on and so forth. No guarantees of anything but give me the flip side of the coin about is that you should be grateful for what you do have. Where's long as you have it i feel grateful. All that one where the other i've been able to. Stay involved in an area that i really care about a lot. Occupation but i also realize that there's no guarantees they'll always be able to. Because if they just may not pan out and i'll be able to make a living at it and would there have no there for happy 12 something else which one feel happy about. I wish i would work as hard as i quit to avoid. But there it is you know i just think that. Life is tenuous. And that's certainly less than that.. Unemployment teaches us. Just one thing i think that's where we're anger comes in a country realization that people should not have to fear that way. .. And that's where the anger comes in. Sometimes losing your job to be for some people it's very unfair or unjust situation i thought i read something the other day that someone who said that they have been more anguish and more heartache associate big do two people feeling that they should get justice since then for any other reason but i think a lot of us to feel that number i have a situation. Youngest female we've been one of the discussion ahold of a ministry here about working which is a difference between a job and an occupation. To some degree. Situation. Many different jobs. Occupational of your life. You know it is to say something that you care about him that you're working towards. And lots of people with high paying jobs going to have that. So. There's something to be said for the same way. From from carolyn and then we're going to have to. Position where i can at least hold my own and i having not been in that position currently in prairie prairie because of pride. I think it's worth it. Discussion. Okay what i want to do now is lighter camp we have matches around in our country who are unemployed and who are facing some of the problems that i hope we thought about and talked about a little bit just even though he's only brush the surface today so for all of the unemployed the candle. Then i would like if i had a second candle i would like that one for the people in our community and prairie. Who have faced unemployment in the past. And he faced unemployment now or perhaps may face it in the future. I hope for all of these people that the new year will bring jobs that will be their new year's present.

uuprairie_org

Pr210919healingspacesRevMattAspin-ed.mp3

And then we have. Aspen is going to. Talk about healing spaces. When i wrote this piece i supposed to be thinking about that i would be in the room with you when it was shared. But alas. That was not meant to be this week. I will do it this way and all will be well. During my interview process for this position i met several into individuals that have been members of prairie uu society for over 40 years. One of these people said to me. It is very unlikely that you will ever say something that i already haven't heard before. And since i've arrived here. Admit many other folks for whom the first time i met them. Was the very first time. Did ever been to uu service. So as you might imagine. Knowing that this is my audience makes deciding what to focus on a very challenging proposition. That even going back through looking through all your archives though. I'm quite sure that i'm not the first person that has ever come before you and use the metaphor of a prairie. How to make a point from the stage. That's okay. Anything worth saying is worth repeating. For some here all this would be brand new. Prairie works its magic. Two constant renewal. What are the things that attracted me to this community what's your metaphor about the prairie. Now. I moved here from the pacific northwest. The nature there is majestic. Powering snow-capped mountains to buy byron season intense desert lands. When i came here. My partner told me that was constant holds the same amount of natural beauty. You just have to look a bit more closely defined it. Is a pension before. What are the places i have found that beauty isn't some of the restore prairieland short bike ride away from my home. I might never have found it if i hadn't been shown the way. And i might easily have missed its miraculous beauty. If i hadn't gone. Which is not unlike this community. You are using the miss that first. Oh what miracles you find if you happen upon it. And you begin to take the time to get to know it. Healthy prairie. The very special thing indeed. Actual healthy. a self-sustaining ecosystem. Call tamiya mind-boggling array of diverse life-forms. All of which perform their own special function. With syrup both themselves. And always some other set of life around it. And all of which are dependent on the rest. Turn around survival. You may have heard me say it some point that i'm a religious naturalist. Essentially a humanist. That uses all the tools of humanism understand the world. It also seeks the descent of themselves. And remain fully grounded in our place within the order of things. Why do things i remember when reading robin wall kimmerer braiding sweetgrass. Book the study group is reading this month. What's the reminder of the native native wisdom. Plants and other animals. I've been around a lot longer than we have. Which means that we are the younger offspring of these lines. And would do well to remember to honor our elders. With a great deal more respect than they often remember to afford them. Is that centering of human perspectives. I just led to the degradation of so much natural prairieland. It is not surprising that is we are beginning to have an awakening to the havoc that we have cost in our ecosystems. That one of the strategies humans are deploying. Is an attempt to reclaim lost prairie lanes. There are so many potential stories to draw from. About the miracles to be found within a healthy prairie. And i suspect i will explore many of them during my time with you. The main feature i want to talk today about today's list oil. Source of it all. Add small spit of reclaimed prairieland where i go to refresh my soul. When someone sat completely decimated swap industrial wasteland. Soiled and plowed and cemented over to make way for human growth and expansion. The specific expansive reclaimed prairie. I'm grateful for the visionary leaders at the urban ecology center. The nonprofit has been instrumental in the development of partnerships gathering resources. And providing the education needed to advocate for acclaim that these sacred lands. My soul is fed a small dose of hope each time i see them leading a group of young people on an educational tour through the space. Opening the next generations to the lessons of balance that can really only be understood through the lens of a healthy interconnected ecosystem. I've come to believe. But the same drives that led to the destruction of the prairies. Have led to the breakdowns in our larger society as well. This community. Here. Made up of each of you. Fiesta me to embody the life-giving spirit of a prairie in human form. This is the reason i'm still committed to your future expansion and continue to help. Scripts are trying to restore the prairie. They're sometimes having to help the process along because the foundations upon which natural prairies use. To rise have been so degraded. Such is the case with human communities. The ground upon. Which are formally. Communal world that net that nurtured our humanities for millennia. It's been so decker gated. Too many of us have forgotten the primacy of community as a vital ingredient in our capacities to survive and thrive in this world. Capitalism is getting so good at delivering what is needed for those that have the capacity to truth purchase both necessities and conference. We may have come to the false subconscious beliefs. But we can get by on our own. The elders here in this community. Seem to remember part of what has been lost. The efforts of those that were part of this prairie community but have since passed. Have contributed to the creation of a healthy communal soil. Just like in a real prairie. It is the life that came before. The forms the foundation for each successive generation of life to come after. The other ingredients. Ian history. Which i think is vitally needed for the creation of healthy soil and human system like this. Covenant. Covenant is central to the unitarian universalist faith. Because it holds the promises we make to each other. Society actually created a wonderful coming back in 2007 covington right relations. I sensed that there was likely some catalyst that made you recognize this might be an important thing to do. To get you through whatever turmoil you were facing at the time. And in true prairie you society fashion. The pierce you came together and crafted a well-thought-out document. Besotted define how you intend to be in relation with each other. Which i also sends did some good for a time. And help you either remain healthy. Or move back to hell. It's likely that many of the intentions you set out in that covenant of right relationship you crafted. Help to strengthen the soil of your community. Continue forward and healthy balance for the next many seasons. By the time i arrived here though. That document any ideas to contain its 4 to begun to receive and institutional memory place. I think one of my jobs is minister. Just remind you of things that you already know. Gourmet i forgot. One of those things that i want to remind us about the centrality of covenants in the fabric of this fate tradition. Covenants of the promises we made to each other on sunny days when all is well. Covenants become soil in which our prairie is planted. Which ends up holding the promises of rebirth. When the traumas of fire. Barn especially harsh winter. Or pandemic. Pair to push our prairie to the brink. Generation that built this particular prairie is developed some good soil. I know from your history the challenges that you've already overcome. Together. Your efforts have provided a roadmap for those of us that are coming up behind you. Many parts of our worlds are on fire today. There are so many seekers looking for the refuge provided by a prairie like this from. Whether they know it yet or not. One of the things you asked for my help with over the coming years is helping you to grow. To expand this. b beyond its current balance. A reintroduction of your covenant right relations to your bored at our last meeting. The first step in that direction. You'll be hearing more of that for me as i make my way around to different committees. This coven if you wrote all those years ago needs to be a living document visit streaming available to all of us as life-giving soil. If you haven't seen this covenant yet. Or haven't seen in awhile. I'd invite you to look it up on the website and review it it's there. It's a beautiful reminder the types of promises we need to make to each other. And renew on a regular basis. We are to remain a truly healthy ecosystem. The other thing that i helped you prairie contains. The wide diversity of different life-forms. All serving exactly the function that they have been born to do. All contributing to the health of the system by nothing more than their very existence. Worms compost soil. Fertile landing spot for the seeds that are deposited by the byrds. Convert the sun and water into plants that provide food. Grow flowers. Price shelter for bugs. Bees which help pollinate spread. All which help to feed larger animals. All of which eventually pass on replenish the soil for the next generation. The interest of time. This isn't necessarily simplistic metaphor to describe the components of a human system like the one we are all a part of your prairie. Then intentional communities such as this. Designed to create a space of safety and rejuvenation for all who find us. There is a need and a place for all the gifts that are available within this community. There's another spot right think we humans have an opportunity to remember some of the lessons from the natural world. Prairie ecosystem only works because each element within the prairie does what it is uniquely designed to do. And in doing so. Events up sharing its gifts with the whole. Flower would never say. I don't think i'm quite pretty enough. I think i'll choose not to unfold to ensure the bees choose not to judge me harshly. Imagine. All the flowers decided to withhold their gifts. The entire system would collapse. Suppose the earthworm's decided they were too tired to keep borrowing. Beef decided it was too much trouble to keep flying from flower to flower. These possibilities sound preposterous. Because none of these entities are burdened with the gift. A free-will. How often do we humans hide arceus. Or make choices to use them only for our own benefit. For the benefit of our own family. Don't forget to share them with the wider hole. When i say the larger society in which we exist. Integrated arsenal oil. This is what i mean. Existing society this paved over all the natural connections used to have to rely on to survive. And replaced our natural prairie connections with separated commoditized solutions. That we are told will keep us safe. Source of our thriving. Secret to our continued survival. Can be found with an intentional communities such as this one. So many people in this community seem to understand this. So many people have contributed so much of themselves to this prairie over the years. You helped to instill the wisdom of the pierian to generations of young people. Gone forth into the world sharing and spreading seeds of what is needed for healthy human flourishing. History what you have built here. And how you did it. It's a story that i think needs to be shared widely and often. And that is part of what i hope you help you do. Thought you were doing this work. The world continues to change around you. In general. Seems like you've done a pretty good job honoring the changes and continuing to adapt your ways of being in response. This process of continual adaptation to environmental changes also crucial for the survival and expansion of healthy prairie lands. It's been a group of folks here that i mentioned just a bit ago. It has been reviewing the report from the uaua called widening the circle of concern. Whose purpose is to inform congregations of the changes in the wider environment that we need to continually adapt to. If we are to remain healthy and bible. I'm grateful for the work that this group has done over the past year to review this material. And i'm eager to support the recommendations that we may come to the board in the coming weeks. It's my belief. That the ideas of this group. That this group will be forwarding. All of the needed soil amendments required to ensure this prairie raymond's healthy vibrance and expanding for many years to come. I'm so glad i found this place. I'm so glad you folks are continuing to find refuge in this place. This pandemic surges on. As more and more elements seek to divide and weaken us. Communities like fairy that have the potential to help us weather the storm. I reminder to you today. Is that your gifts are needed now more than ever. I'm not talking about your financial gifts. Rather unique gifts that you can contribute. If you are new here. Aren't quite sure yet where to contribute. Or even if you have anything to contribute. I invite you in the conversation. Either with me. Or someone else you've been here that has been a part of this community for a while. Spurious healthiest when we're all connected and all sharing our gifts. In a world filled with so many problems. I intend to remind is constantly of our possibilities. If your eyesight was failing. You can still tell your story. If you're hearing is failing. Could still make art. I visited remember last week his memory is almost gone. She still has a super positive outlook. In a big smile to share. That smile and positivity was enough to fuel me through just about any challenge at midas base this week. And there is immense value. When will you be able to meet in person. Or temporary separated again by pentatonix. Flowers in the prairie never hide their petals. The bees have never stopped helping to spread the flowers pollen. All of you are needed. All of you are valued. And all of you choose to contribute all you choose to contribute becomes a part of the ever unfolding story. Of this refuge. We call home. What's the beat. Happy sol. Thank you all. Thank you reverend matt aspen. River mats. I just want to close up here and an echo what. What rachel said. This was this was a challenging decision that. We all could our heads together around and and i know it was last minute and and we had really valued coming back together in person person and seeing each other and being a little like look into each other's eyes and. An experience each other's presence but. I think it's i think it is wise that. The leadership of this of this community is is is trying to just listen to the sides react to the science and and make decisions as to how we gather when when we when we do. How we do and i just thought you just want to. Express that i'm grateful for the shared leadership of of all the folks man rachel and everybody else that. Comes together and then makes the decisions that the work keep us all up together and safe.

uuprairie_org

Pr211024uutheunRevMattAspin-ed.mp3

Today's presentation is you you the un and you. Iran's matt aspen. Which relates to the sixth principle. The goal of the world community. With peace liberty and justice for all. Good morning everyone. I am the reverend matt aspen. Preferred pronouns are he him and his. Good as always. To be with you this day. As i appear in front of you today. On this day that is designated as un sunday. I'm about to explore question. Did i really don't yet have a great answer to. The reason i don't have any answer. Is that this is a big. Harry. Vexing. Deep human problem. The people have been trying to solve for centuries. Put little evidence of complete or lasting success. Wakemed steps. Progress. The end of the day i don't think anyone can say we've completely solved for again. Which is what makes it interesting question to me. And based on the history of the people i've met the makeup this community. I'm guessing maybe some of you are interested in wrestling with this question to. Question i'm wrangling is this. Is it possible. Create a system. That rebalance is the power between people or groups in a way that truly benefits all equally. Program committee suggested that i might consider having today's program be focused on you and sunday. Benson street. I know a bit about the un. Mostly from snippets i've heard of the news over the years. But one of the many endeavors the undertaker around the world. I thought perhaps my research into how this body came to be. What it is learned over the years. And how it currently operates. My provide fodder for this question that i've been wrestling with in one form or another for so long. United nations is an international organization. Founded in 1945. In the wake of a horrific world war. Second such war that it happened to this many decades. Currently made up of 193 member states. The un and its work are guided by the purposes and principles contained in its founding charter. Their website describes the uns. One place where the world's nations can gather together. Discuss common problems. Find shared solutions. Pretty easy to hold up the successes of this institution. Mother of shirley been many deadly conflict over the decade since the un was formed. It seems likely that it's aspirations. Collective intentions. An ongoing dialogue. I've helped the disparate countries of this world come together to find compromises in ways that have helped its members. Find better ways forward. It supposed to war. I know they have certainly helped to save many lives through their humanitarian relief. As i prepared for today's talk though. The one thing i want to make sure. What's that i also reviewed the criticisms of the un. Biggest thing that jumped out at me. But the fact that five the five most powerful nations. That make up this body. Currently have veto power. Any initiative that the collective puts forward. And there it was. The mechanism that ensures the powerful. No matter how high-minded their ideas maybe. Are currently insured as maintaining their power. The generation that came of age in the 60s. Challenged us to imagine a world free from war. Society built on peace and love. Then maybe the free-love went a little too far. We kind of lost our way on the path to their highest visions. Steps have been taken in the direction of many of the dreams imagined those heady days. Equal rights for women. Civil rights for all. Gladiator we judge folks by the content of their character first and foremost beyond anything else. But somewhere along the line. The power structures that this generation was rebelling against. Re-establish themselves. As history tells us over and over tends to happen without constant vigilance. Equal rights became freedom to do whatever one wanted without consideration of consequences to the larger hole. And we find ourselves today a far cry from the highest imaginings of that generation. Idealism. Possesses the same risks as any other ism. My partner's son aiden is working on a project for school right now but don't choosing. He's going to compare and contrast an event from history. And it's modern-day counterpart. He chose to compare the boston tea party in the start of the american revolution. What the black lives matter movement. Currently filming a scene where you overlays the boston massacre with the standoff in ferguson missouri. Chilling reminder of this tendency i'm describing. The scene splits. From the powerful redcoats spying on their own citizens that we're demanding nothing more than equal representation. To the scene of those same colonial descendants. Tristan military-style baddeck battlegear. With guns drawn against black and brown citizens of the idealistic country that they created. That were demanding nothing more than the same damn thing. Problems we keep creating always come back to power. Who has it. How it is maintained. And how is wilton. I know. But there are some in this community. Better concerned about the risks. Conceding the rowlett minister too much power. I couldn't agree more. I implore you not to quit many power i don't want it i don't need it. I'm not here for the power. I'm here. The possibility. I have power in my roles in corporate america. And i could easily raikou go right back to it if you decide to send me on the way at the end of this year. Positional power. Enough title in money to be able to position myself rain tables. The granted me power over decisions that were made in my organization in my commute. I don't want that. Porting power within the current system today. Feels like rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic. Community leaders emerging in the world today are screaming a cry to the powerbrokers and saying it is the concentration of power. What is leaving us off the cliff. Jesse this is just as it has always been. And always will be. Until we can find a better way forward. Ruu churches. Communities just like this one. Have long been the testing and training grounds for a democracy. Retract folks that are inspired by our principles. In division. That world that it's sharon's to these ideals hopes to make possible. But it's becoming clear that even in our faith tradition. Founded as a news on democracy and human worth. Remain shackled by the same human quest for power as any other. Cuz we are who we are. We remain committed to consistently going back to the drawing board. To see if we can envision something even better. I'm currently engaged with a group of about 20 ministers. Fantastic examining some of the current power structure within the ua and within our congregational polity system. Considering what's working. And what could be better. And drafting recommendations for systemic change that could be implemented to make our association more equitable. Stronger. And better position to respond to the new challenges we are facing today. I began to bring to this group many of the lessons that this community has already begun to teach me. One of those is be vigilant about who is granted power. The question i keep asking. Which i borrowed from peter blocks book community. 2 questions. Ar. What is the story we keep telling ourselves. About the problems we can so easily articulate. Men too much harder question. What is our contribution. To the very thing that we are complaining about. These are the questions i will be challenging you to consider as we continue to move forward together. What are the problems that still exist in the ways this community operates. The keeps us from creating the better world we all imagined might be possible. There's some truth. The way we are currently structured. Those with access to the most money still have much if not all of the power in this system. It's pledge drive season. And you are all currently being made to make a financial pledge to support the future of this institution. The collective over the past year has said. You think we want and need a minister to help support this community. Miss talking to rosemary dorney the other day. One of them. Longstanding members at this. Articulated to me quite elegantly how this community became so successful as a layla identity years. But then. She also noted how times have changed. There was less capacity for an institution like this. To continue as it did. Relying only on the contributions of volunteers. So maybe that's true. Maybe you do need a minister support over this next portion of your of your journey. What's the current reality. Is that this decision is ultimately in the hands of those with access to the financial resources needed to fund this position. And i'm forced to wonder if it is that reality. That is the debate we need to be have it. One or two major donors could withhold their contributions. And the recent will the collective can be overturned. This is the type of discussion that is both challenging. And worth having. Can i implore you to have it. Is the type of question i am doing everything i do to ensure his safe for all to have within this to me. What is our contribution. To the very thing. That we are complaints. Osaka do another community i'm another member of the community the other day. And it said it was holding up your cousin. The way to create a structure so that those with less power can feel safe and starting their voices into the conversation without risk of being blown over. This person said. There will always be some people would probably not feel safe speaking their minds even with that structure in place. So. While this may or may not be true. Someone's perspective. For now i'm just going to lift up that person's voice for your consideration. Their voice has now been added to the conversation. Because that is the essence of the problem we're ultimately trying to stall for today. In this ongoing experiment called unitarian-universalism. How do we make sure that everyone's concerns are hurting community. Not just those with the most power. Is a review the un structure. I was really attracted to the role of secretary general. Their website says. Equal parts diplomat and advocate. Civil servants and ceo. Secretary-general is a symbol of the united nations ideas. And a spokesperson for the interest of the world's people. In particular. Poor and vulnerable a month. I'm doing my job well. I think this sums up the role that i should be taking. Community suchness. Wider world. The citizens of luxembourg. Fiji. Ghana. All impacted by the collective divisions made decisions made by the powers in this world. And all should have an equal voice. As long as they don't. All of the things that the powerful do. They have the potential to negatively impact the members of these smaller countries. Or less powerful countries. Have no way of being redirected. Attended the monthly gathering of uu residence at the capitol lakes senior living community this past week. Engagement of vigorous conversation about the role of trust in our collective institutions in our society. And how that trust seems to have significantly eroded in the past decade. It was one of the most honest conversations i've enjoyed in quite some time. Surrounded by folks with far more life experience than i. Wondering how things seem to have gotten so wrong in the world under their watch. Wondering if anything could be done to turn the tide. As we walked out. Express my appreciation for being invited to witness such a profound display of the ideals of reading of freedom and gathering and debate. That our country was founded upon. A new acquaintance. For one of the other local you churches said. Well. We can talk a lot. We're too old at this point to do anything about the challenges we wrestle with. Immediately kind of disbelief with my own. I said. Do you think i'm too old tappan impact. Because your conversation planted both the seeds of new ideas. Inspiration to remember that those ideas are worth continuing to struggle for. What if i take the seeds of your ideas. From your converse that your conversation planted in my mind. And the energy and passion with which you shared them. My pasties on to young person in our community. And that young person goes on to contribute to a collaboration that finally finds the solution to all the challenges you were discussing. Don't ever discount your efforts. We humans never know what impact our little ripples. Eventually have an eclectic pond. I miss you and sunday. But it's look wide-eyed. About the possibilities and the problem. Embedded in the system. That has been created to help facilitate our collective salvation. This community is just like this one. But i continue to believe will be the source of any new idea. I can have the power to ensure this collective salvation. Former ua president peter morales. In the video created for the 50th anniversary unitarian-universalism involvement in united states. Said. Relatively small denomination like ours seize the opportunity. To make our voices heard in what most of us think of as the last best hope. You're living together. Tolerance. Protecting our planet. Maintaining peace and security for all people. In recent years among other things. The us efforts have helped to successfully amplify the voices. Lgbtq citizens of the world in the decision-making processes of the united states. Conversations we are having in communities like this one. Do have the potential to be amplified in the larger world. As i held up in one of my earlier talk. Adrienne maree brown reminds us of the realities of fractals in nature. In nature. The large. Is made up of nothing more than the small. Replicated at scale. Our task is unitarian universalists is today the same as it has always been. To continually learn from our mistakes. And to consider new ways forward. They can lead to better outcomes for all. Based on what we have gleaned upon the way. I'm not here for power. I'm here for the possibility. And i'm willing to bet. But you are too. Blessed be. Mad pizza. We now have time for discussion. I think that's one of those things that. I know i personally take as an article of faith if we. If we continue to gather together and wrestle with these things and create spaces that that allow. Different generations to come together and sit. To pass down into you know teach the next generation how to think for themselves and how to think critically and. Etc i think that that can't read anything but she. I was over visiting they let me know that in the past there have been members of prairie that have been really connected to the unic that there is. Been a few there's a few services that have been recorded and are available on the website in the past beating about the un. I can say that there is. On the us website there is a whole section devoted to how congregations and individuals that are interested. Can get connected to the you so you use presents after um. And how we can get those messages through so. Millie i talk all the time i think you and i should lead that charge let's see i think you could you might think a great un ambassador for us. Let's talk about that.

uuprairie_org

Pr110206AmitMangar-ed.mp3

Welcome good morning everybody welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society i mary mullen remember the program committee pray aspires to be both an open-hearted and an open-minded congregation we welcome people of every ethnic and religious background whatever your color orientation or your family structure we welcome you no matter what your age no matter what your abilities or your inability and then later in the service will have a chance for any visitors are guests of returning friends who haven't been here for a while to introduce yourselves so that we might get to know you better on sundays we provide a large variety of services there either presented by a prairie member a member of the wider community which we hope to have today or by our minister jane estenson. Well it's time for the story in our favorite story reader grows smith welby of reading the story of creation kids and adults that want to sit on the story and i'm going to ask you when we come to this new we're going to make the ohm sound and everybody can do it with us when the time comes and when we're done i'm going to raise my my hand so you can stop from the deck a humming sound began to tremble. Even some of them are he's general secretary of the association of indians indians in america the madison chapter 2 years in a row he's a board member of the american hindu association for the past five years and he's been vice president since for a year he's also an organizing member of the interfaith awareness week celebrations representing the hindu community of greater the greater madison interface association and he's also an active volunteer with the madison chapter of the art of living foundation it's a global organization promoting stress-free living which we could all use. V. Alana coronavirus. Unitarian universalism. Way of life. But don't know what hinduism and go into. The wood. Wondering what's going on with you. Call jack underwood home. What is. Can anybody answer that question for us to you. But it's the primordial sound which just resides in all of us. The docks me breaks down into. Refillable sweetie if you're pretty close your eyes and try to. Which relates already sense the whole. Pronunciation more closely you realize that. It's really. This is a 502 sound of creation. Everything else is up stories. Superman batman these days. But in reality. Old is undefined exorcist town that does is between you and me. Atrophy. David magician golden edition is for us to be able to silence a mine. To the extent that we can't actually hear the phone which is only present always. We are nothing but. Composition of. Other than the material existence. Is nothing but. Wood. What is a sound. The brit. Sounds like vibration. These three elements out of our existence. We might just be the greatest. Have you ever ate ice.. The problem is society in general the word these diseases we get so hung up on what is externally available to us. We think this is at. What you don't realize is that this town the light within. Panda by breaching. The constant humming inside of a switching between full.. Foley sounds around 2. Suppressant. So all. If he just focused on new edition. It's a houston coming to mine. You realize that there is a sound. Before. There's no volume there's no stretch that you can turn off the volume. That. Is the old knob. Homestyle. Do my dishes. Aducto. We are all. Corrected because. Different. That we already have nice shirt and not everything else. Kiwi all these different layers which are. Stewart lee only because. It came from the dust be made from the dust it go back to the dust. What means will always remain is at home sound. The vibration of the divine existing within us all the time. I'd like. There's a light within us which fee. It's hard to see. It comes to a lot of yogic practices. And. That's why i am also the divine said that. Act up. We regard lord krishna as one of the incarnation of the divine. As close to you as you can get. But. Portable studio motivational is anyways because we are talking of which is nothing but you saying drop her off. Vishnu. Malaysia. And the 303 functions of the storm the tallest person. In the universe. To create. To protect. Elektra destroy. I saw the creature again. This happens all the time. Anyway google. Active microscopic level to huge cock. You look at it look at. Hear the black hole galaxy dance. Alright. Want me to do it. Under microscope. Digicel. There's nothing didn't listen to see aspect then something breaks up with a stand. We are all living creatures including plants have this persistent nature of things. Because of which some people can realize. Some people cannot let me see some things are getting out of this thing. Have the ability to realize. The weather in creative. Intestinal sunday. Concept of respecting all living creatures apocalypse. That is all percival. Hindu philosophy. I'm using in the philosophy. Mediaworks. Anytime you see any. Taking lives. Be small bead bag. Because. We are all connected with the same thing because. Eventually. The operative. Just a light and vibration. Off of that weed because of our own limited. Region bar. Sense of perception. Creating. Different. Manifestations of understand trying to understand in order to wrap our brains around what. The divine energy is. Because it just did elizabeth. We have started creating. Footlocker body works. Did you call by different names. Indifference. Fall. Baltimore out of the circumstances of the local society. So i think. We can do that but i think our old stage was much more than we are. Good morning because we're what day they were born on virtual situations society do living in. They came up with these beautiful cultures and different. Rituals. Per se. Which actually suited the environment of that area. I've been the religion or whatever the concept concept of what that. Sagewood propounding. Founded and grew out of the world. But the followers got hung up. Ridiculous he created for that area. You see what i mean it's like. Fall. Australia recognize this fact and. Us-2. Headsets to bring our focus. Because mine is like a monkey. Good thing i'm a tatum really. Anything at all. But i mean everything i mean everything as cause-effect phone pleasant. My mind is thinking. It is not. Settling down. So. Once you settle down this mind weekend. Really realize what. That is only person i like that's all is within us. Michigan state unit of clothes size. And believe me. Very bright. It's more than a thousand suns. I've had a glimpse of it.. The whole experience. But it does just magnificent. No light on planet earth created. And the vibration i'm not liking it realized that vibration. Seen the divine. Within you. Aha moment that changes. Ocg lebron. All of us. If you just take the time. And focus on. Energies. Starting with the mind. It's very critical to focus on my trust. Because everything else. Formation.. The woman from the bike just thinking or something. I need you here. Google why is that. Alarm going off every now and then. My refrigerator. Supposed. Taking you away from the edition. Pakistan like imitation. Which connects. That is also included. The plants and the animals. The nature of their existence from ever even realizing it. Because by some divine grace they got a mind a good thing. We are unique. the animals because we have a mind that can think. At the same time this mine itself is our biggest enemy. In terms of racial group and daughter edition. William norton meditation. Video queen about. To really feel what. We all have the same things he had to say enjoys the same happiness sorrows. Put. Everything. The emotions emotions. Mcafee. Set the challenge to mankind. Lord krishna to. Then he was exploding. Marco's pizza. Booze. Quieting the mind and relation. Realized husband. No matter which way you want to take it there are so many different reasons. Islam. Judaism traditions which transcend any of these. Embrace. All all the different. Addition. I'd call it a 09. Eagle falls. Norwich party. Eventually his challenges. 2. For us to take a picture. His word is the. Kiki challenge. It's up to you too. Betatakin. Because i doing you thinking mind. Which category challenges if you can pick up challenges of. I can make this building i can. Mommy make something here or do something dead. Realizing which is already did. So what he did after i'm gone. Because he was entitled in the mortal form. So he knew at some point he has to go back. His existence as bushnell. And which is just auto. Creation also to. Because we do not. Best describing. What's he has left about other people they'll be billions of people coming to hurt. Is it true. Populations of exploding mother earth is crumbling. Alberto's building deli only. A few millions. Who. Even start looking for me. Like if you and i. But he's chosen to. Who are the glue at church or temple or something. All those millions lv only a few thousand. Hooligan factory close today. Very true the girls that we see the church leaders and the priests received their 2020. An oscar. A notable thousand. Will be just. Counting on fingers full actually reach me. Let me do that that is so true. Madonna. Get the time. Christ. Prophet muhammad. Mahalo. These are people who. For the holyfield we can just call him often do that too much. We don't need the secondhand accounts of people who actually be there. That's because they became one. With the divine himself. 30 stockton avenue. Goat edition.. Free stuff. To me it seems like somebody perfectly. Even today. But because. Song to all of us. He make a distracted. My different things. Technology. Pick-a-part. Donnelly from it. Open location. Open up the sound. That's the thing that's what i was. Is this an external way of expressing the sound exploded within. Thanks so much for coming everyone please extend a hand of friendship to those around you and then join us for coffee and conversation the coffees in the hall.

uuprairie_org

Pr120219PatWatkins-ed.mp3

Good morning and welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society i mary mullen a member of the program committee prairie aspires to be an open-minded and then the open-hearted congregation and we welcome people of every ethnic and religious background whatever your color your sexual orientation or your family structure any we also welcome you no matter what your age do your abilities or inabilities a little later and we'll invite visitors guests. Our opening words will be provided by orange-flavored what greater thing is there for human souls than to feel that they are joined for life to be with each other in silent unspeakable memories george eliot. But i'd like to introduce pat those of us who come to prairie often know quite a bit about patrick but we might not know everything i know that she grew up here i didn't know that she had attended seton hall university then she taught english i'm an old english teacher myself upon losing her husband kimia in 1959 she and her seven-year-old daughter leslie move to frankfurt germany which was headquartered in madison and to which she transferred in 1969 when usaf i closed she attended graduate school then worked as an assistant director of admissions at uw-madison. I live with pat for about a month when i was trying to get back into my house then we had a good time we come back from all her events and we would just sit and visit. I have to warn you that the first two. The first two photos are and have not been coming out very well on the last couple of presentations i've done. And it really needs to be darker than i think it is now 4. This to show up so i apologize for that. I guess it would help if i turn this on and what you see up there now is a map of the northwest territory which is where the story takes place in in various spots in michigan and ohio we've always always been conditioned to dwell on the differences between ethnic religious and racial groups and other segments of the population but i hope that this presentation will show some of the similarities among people and realize that this although this is the story of a black family january 29th 1837 she came to michigan at the age of 17 for husband reverend joseph mclaren died a number of years ago she leaves two children misses aurora goings of saginaw and george willard mclaren of chicago. In the early 1800s gallipolis switch relay on the ohio river but was a french village inhabited primarily by french fur traders and its historical fact that many of the voyage airs and fur trappers cohabited with women or married indian women. Or not because after his death. The records indicate that he she was again living in michigan this time in flint we don't i don't have the date of his death so i'm not sure when he died this is the oldest boboiboy it's not just those two pictures that aren't well this was the oldest of rosetta and joseph three children samantha born in 1858 this photo was taken in 1874 around the time of her marriage at the age of 16 to a man by the name of albert and read they had three children and samantha died at the age of 19 i found no record of what happened to her children but after her death her husband albert reed moved westward and was not heard from anymore there second child was born in 1865 and this photo was taken between days. On the far left is with her first cousin florence the daughter of rosetta's sister elizabeth johnson florence later moved to chicago and we don't know what happened to her and aurora was to become my great grandmother in 1881 at the age of 16 she married a man by the name of james mays and moved with him from saginaw michigan where the family has been living to sheboygan wisconsin he was a seaman who worked on one of the great lakes ship sailing we think from sheboygan sorry. Singing while you work was one of the traditions on the lakes there was no time for singing however when the cold frontal storms broke over the lakes or a squall struck at the chalk canvas with a devastating fury the shipping losses on the great lakes have always been stupendous. The weather is full of vagaries the storms are fearsome tremendous and there is no room on the narrow lakes for a ship in distress to run before them as they can upon the ocean in the two decades between 1878. An 1898. 5999 vessels were wrecked on these lakes 1093 of them were total losses of both ships and cargo and an appalling number of men my great-grandfather james may's aurora's husband was one of those feynman who lost their lives in one of the great lakes shipping disasters and he drowned in lake michigan at the age of 28 aurora then once again packed her belongings and with her infant daughter jessica's old ines who have been born in sheboygan made another voyage and came home to saginaw when she arrived. And in 1904 they had their only child who was to be my mother. Doris irene clark this is my mother at four months of age and 1904 note the elaborate victorian furniture the day and what appear to be slightly asian or indian features any rate we are going to stop for a minute and before we take a look at my maternal grandfather's side of the family i'm we have we have a piece of music on here. The tiny village of mecosta lies in west central michigan in the heart of the cutover stump country. Herschel cross a historically minded member of a pioneer negro clan proved most helpful. Guiding me to his older kinfolk and other octogenarians in the area. Setting the minis. Then sitting back to savor the gossipy folk history which they poured forth. Uncle amos cross responded to my questions immediately. The patriarch of a fruitful tribe borden remastered 1870 the year after his folks move nordstrom ohio uncle amos spoke proudly of his slave father grew up in loudoun county virginia and planted a noble tribe in this michigan stump country taking down a 61 year old photograph uncle amos showed me a picture of himself as a young man surrounded by his parents and 17 brothers and sisters of them all only he still lived. Straight and tall halo chieftain deep-voiced with aged uncle amos trumbull jeanie lie about runaway slaves and the white women who had followed them north when 77 year-old george norman swarthy and mustachioed sat on a hay bundle in the middle of a field his uncle had homesteaded and told us his grandfather had wedded a white woman from virginia with hair as red as fire herschel slapped his thigh and whistled in amazement so that's where all those red-headed normans come from a bizarre genealogy unfolded from one after another old settler has we poked into their past the light-skinned spoke of german and scottish and polish ancestors the dark of slave and indian forebears european and african free and bond white and black had mingled dramatically in these families for you can imagine my surprise when i first read that passage in a book entitled american negro folk tales by richard with professor who escaped from slavery norman let lett pictured with two of her four children grace and cena this slide is made from an old tintype and dates for about 1880. This is a picture of another of the norman girls julia norman miller and she is holding her son russell you know i wonder if this was and is dated 1873 and then you have a picture of this is another picture of the same girl julia norman miller but taken at a later date 1888 here you have ellen norman who's the third of the six girls she's the mother of one of the few norman cousins whom i knew personally her daughter jessie live just a block from my grandmother's house in grand rapids michigan and those of you who were on that grand rapids trip remember because she had a job in the local downtown woolworths as a dishwasher but she was passing for white but here's a photo of angeline. By the way we will get the slides from her and. Scan them and make her webpage. Since i can't see this. There's an july okay sorry again angela who was or my great-grandmother as an as she was called married in 1880 she married william ellwood clark in renville ohio and this is william 83. Not very visible but it also it's a tintype to me and it has a bed bench somehow or other and cracked in the middle this is date this picture was taken about 1887 when my grandfather was best 3 to 4 years old and his sister jenny clark when william clark returned to ohio from his and when howard was old enough he followed his father into the mines however these mines were not especially ritchen or but whether it was because the mines were almost worked out or whether they were other reasons william soon left the mines and leaving his family behind moved to michigan to the area around saginaw where he found work in a lumbermill which was big business in michigan people aboard the lake ships with sometimes have to stand by for hours while huge rafts that fill the rivers were broken up and corralled into the booms at the sawmill that lined both shores at saginaw and bay city. And at night these mills sent the sharp damp odor of freshly cut timber over the towns and the northwest winds blew it over the harbours and out into the lakes you could always tell when you are passing bay city even at night the deck of the ship was enveloped by the sweet resinous smell of the millions of feet of pine boards sade stacked and ready to go to chicago to build houses for the very people who were sailing by in saginaw and bay city 112 sawmills line the river and there were ninety-eight millionaire lumber barons in residence 50 times a day the bridge over the saginaw lifted and lowered to let through the fleets of lake freighters carrying the white pine lumber to the lake port cities and down the erie canal and to albany also left renville ohio but instead of working in a sawmill the timberwolves and the crash of falling trees when they got their pay perhaps $20 or $30 per month they rushed around jessica mclaren maze this is howard at. I don't want this picture this is not the way i remember my father he wasn't a dandy looking like that and so i have it hanging over the fireplace. Anyhow they were married in 1903. And in 1904 they had their only child doris irene. Whom you see here at the age of 3 in 1907 when they were living while they were living in saginaw every spring and fall my grandmother and howard's howard's wife jessica would travel around the midwest as a personal maid to sofi tukker who was an entertainer and singer of the day and that's my mother was to a great extent raised in an extended family situation by her own grandmother aurora mclaren a's and her great-grandmother rosetta mclaren and here you have a photo of those four generations of women the lower left is my mother and 19 and she was thirteen or so and to the right of my on the right hand side stretch is my great-grandmother aurora and all the way in the back is rosetta mclaren whose obituary we read at the very beginning she was eighty-three years old at that time and she died with it that was the year in which she died. Today there are clarkson norman's all over the states of ohio michigan new jersey california and other places of some of us have disappeared over a century ago and we're never heard of again someone with their bare skins blue eyes blonde and red hair have probably crossed the color line into the white race these people were little people no books have been written about them they accomplished no great feat in earlier days they were not even acknowledged in the census report and simply subsumed under the names of the families they worked for or who owned them but like other simple and little people they contributed their share to the world we inhabit even though that's fair is barely acknowledged in our history book and they prevailed they were good people who had courage and pride and character and i'm very proud to be a part of them. Our closing words will be read by heidi. Call it a clan call it a network. Call it a tribe call it a family. Whatever you call it. Whoever you are. You need one and howard.

uuprairie_org

Pr130407MorrisWaxler-ed.mp3

Today morris wax will be presented as a program on our inner errape. Evolution of human empathy. And i look forward to it. Today the opening words will be spoken by morris. The only words or poem written. 1899 who was the former prime minister in canada frank scott it's called villanelle for our time. From bitter searching of the heart quickened with passion and with pain we rise to play a greater part. This is the faith from which we start. Man shall know commonwealth again. From bitter searching of the heart we love the easy and the smart. But now with cuter hand and brain. Replies to play a greater part. The lesser loyalties depart. And neither race nor creed remain. From bitter searching of the heart. Not steering by the venal chart that trick the mass for private gain. We rise to play a greater part. Reshaping narrow law and art. Whose symbols are the bands flame from bitter searching of the heart. We rise to play a greater part. And for people who believe it's an order of service this is just abused you today after all the children please come up and or sarita story for you. Oh hi guys and gals. Do anybody know where wash it has anybody know about washington dc. That's a good thing to know ya. Well i grew up there 76 years ago can you believe that amazing. And. I grew up in a house that was a real house probably don't have any clue what that is but anyhow. In an ultra an alley behind all of this is actually relevant to what i'm going to say but that's alright. Doing an expectant temple rainiest. And you have a great smile with good teeth nice lined up there. Well i lived in a house and then my father had a shop on the first couple of floors. And then in the basement was really neat it was all. Unfinished. Y'all kind of junk down there one of these things about in that basement with a a big a little stove and i used to go down there to be my by myself and put things in the fire and watch them pages of magazines turn but there are also. And these are not the other rats in washington too but they're most that they're mostly two-legged or four-legged rat's butt. Really dark and long. And soda. Ugly. Anyhow i really like the ranch and there was ever kind of need. So i would sit and watch them and they had a little late there was a little area which i should have called their room i never told my parents just cuz. Freaked out about it. I'm down there playing with the rest when i should be doing something useful. One day one of these rats. I have one lease rats i called joe. My favorite rat. A little sleeker a little. Nitrile looking than the others given if your rat you could appreciate that. A whole magically appeared in the wall of joe's room. And he was curious if you are you probably know of curious george with this was curious joe. He helped his head through this. Hole-in-one in. And hold disappeared. But then he heard this. Squeaking sound sweet sweet sweet sweet. He looked all around you couldn't figure out what was going on but he looked up. And. To his great surprise you saw this other breath he called him jim hanging and. Harness and struggling and squealing in and sojo walked around the room wondering looking up on her wedding in the world is going on here. And finally came across this little paddle on the ground eddie stepped on it just hoping something would happen. And jim came. Lower down. Anyone over just chatting with jim. why do you think he was so excited about seeing. Jim getting lower to the ground what do you think. He cared about joey even though he didn't know joe. And you can imagine that happening i'm sure you've met strangers. Kids that you don't know and you you. They were having hurt their knee or something and fell down at you. You were concerned about that right i see you are. Oh i'm sorry that happened to you. So that's what i'm talkin about today how you can have empathy how you can feel somebody else. Smiley person's pain. When when they're hurt and help them. So enjoy whatever you're doing afterwards i have no clue but it's probably something. Right. Or you going to sit here listen to the entire but now i've got to get up. Thank you i think we're all worn out. Worrying about why there's always war on this earth and age in the vietnam where were the first. War of the cutting of acreage involved was on national television every night. We had different takes on the issue we had desmond morris. Who wrote the naked ape and spend it all on the chimpanzee progressive chimp in all of us. Another red we had. The naked john lennon and yoko ono in bed singing all we have to do is give peace a chance since then we've had a lot more sophistication and trying to figure out exactly what is the plumbing what is the internal scaffolding in that 3 lb of pulsating jelly recall our brain to figure out why. We do these terrible things from time to time at the same time we have these wonderful things that come from the human soul and it's always been. And so this week we have maurice waxler. Italki and then we have a real power couple in madison and two weeks we have his wife carolyn both. Brain exercise university retired and dump. And i think. It's not julia's no coincidence that one month after we announce this series. The president announces a brain mapping in new sharon washington. In door county where he's he and his wife carla shares times. He has a phd in psychology brain and behavior and an enduring interest in evolution and religion and today is reflections are based in part. On the singing neanderthals. And our inner ape the been almost. Pleasure p. I've never been here before this wonderful. In classical times hebrew hebrew of greek and. Hebrew culture women slaves in animals. Remind up in descending order of inferiority under the dominant male. Consistent with this debasing ethic. Later europeans considered africans to be savage savages apes. For hundreds of years. Your puzzle wash. With human blood from wars. Crusades homicides genocides. Torture and infanticide. Hobbes explained. Life is short and brutish. Christianity fostered beliefs of man's dominion over all of other animals. We are made of special stuff that these do not possess. So what's up. Use them abuse. Nevermind they don't feel or think. The philosopher herbert spencer coined the phrase. Survival of the fittest after charles darwin demonstrated evolution of species by natural selection. Survival of the fittest became the rallying cry. For unrestrained capitalists to rationalize the grim life of ordinary people. Ever leave themselves of any responsibility for human pain and suffering. How convenient. Later evolutionary theorists interpreted fitness in terms of reproductive. In the selfish gene. Richard dawkins typecast all living things as selfish. Arising out of this form of fitness where one's survival. Is that the expense of others. He misleads us. The story is much more nuanced and complex. The evolution of mammals. Primates and humans is also survival of the kindest. Here is the tale not told by dawkins. It brings us back to the keen observations of charles darwin that speak also. Tell the multifaceted nature of all. Creatures. In the descent of man he said. The difference in mind between man and the higher animals. Great as it is is certainly one of degree and not of kind. The senses and intuitions the various emotions and faculties that man claims. Maybe found and then incipient. Or even sometimes it a well-developed condition. And the lower animals. Empathy is one of these emotions. Darwin went on to say besides love and sympathy animals exhibit other qualities connected with the social instincts. Which in us would be called moral. The stories of rats joe and jim is true. Harvard took place in the laboratory not in my basement. Other experiments have shown that monkeys refuse to eat. If an unfamiliar monkey is giving electric shock at feeding time. In addition to experiments there many observations. Of empathy and other creatures. We hear about them in the news. A chimpanzee who saves an injured bird. Shields a young boy it's falling into a cage. Sometimes these rescues are costly as was the case for an adult chimpanzee who drown trying to save an infant. Chimp fell into the. Moat. Chimpanzees cannot swim. Deeply afraid of water. Empathy is an emotional response to another's distress. It consists of tender feelings on behalf of the other. It is often accompanied by efforts. Do understand the others plight. It is also a motive force for action. Intended to reduce the other suffering or relieve the others. Hardship. For example providing comfort help. Rescue and protection. Empathy is at the core. Of several unitarian universalist principles. Including respect. For the interdependent web of all existence. Of which we are apart. Embassy is a major force in evolution. Leaving humans humans into the web of life. We are social because our ancestral animals. To work. Gregarious. Birds monkeys apes and prehistoric hominids. Have become our social brands. They're in our heads. Chirping hooting dancing and see with the joy of caring for others. Emotional experiences reside in particular. Brainpop. Triggering emotional. Expression when stimulated. This neural circuitry contains evolutionary history. American social behavior. Some emotions are fixed. And limited to specific needs related to survival and reproduction. However apathy care cast a wider net. It needs the needs of the flesh. Or anyone particularly. Moreover it extends beyond the self. To include the needs of others. Birds and mammals both survive. Strive and survive in society. They form social bonds and show concern for others. Newborn kitten and strangers. Care for offspring has profound influence. Applications for group survival. For example maternal separation causes rat pups. To have disturbed sleep. Did you grow slower than pups raised by their mothers. Maternal separation of infant monkeys. Stresses that. Ever lisa's hormones that lead to compromised relationships later in life. Scientific observations show that infant monkeys reared in total isolation. Remain unresponsive to the facial expressions. I'll be motion by other monkey's. In harlow's groundbreaking. Studies baby monkeys preferred the comfort of a surrogate mother made of terricloth rather than one made of wire. Tender maternal feelings. Turn on pandora. My lips got stuck. Maternal paternal feelings. As less essential to empathy. Empathy evolved form of paul maclean. * a family way of life. In mammals who. Nurture and protect their young. Ravens care for unfamiliar ravens. Rats will share holly preferred foods. Chocolate. Even with unfamiliar rats. Monkeys will refrain from retrieving food even starving themselves but it causes another monkey. To receive a shot. Monkeys. Sometimes treat handicap monkeys. With more tolerance than they treat not handicapped. Evidence abounds for empathy within most mammals. And sometimes is seen across species as well. Over the course. Of evolution. Apes and prehistoric hominids. Encountered landscape changes. Challenging. Existence of their small groups. Cooperation was essential. Kindness kept the tribes alive. Weaving earlier fibers of empathy into a fabric of new brain. The neocortex. According to francois. We are descendants of two species of chimpanzees. 1 patriarch. And one female dominant. The latter called bonobos make-love-not-war. And really you have to see a video to believe this. Whereas the former. That's a form of greeting high whereas the former former are more aggressive. However both the show concern for species members. Touch each other tenderly exhibit pain and sorrow for one another. Cheer underdogs as an interesting thing primate cheering underdogs anyhow. Controller repair relationships. Mediate conflict and share food. Both chimpanzees and bonobos are our inner apes. Species of the earliest prehistoric hamid it's cared for one another in order to survive on the savannah. They split from apes. 6 million years ago. They ran on all fours but sometimes stood upright and walk the forest edge. Their numbers were small. Zeke puny. Compared to prey. And retreated to the trees for safety. As savannah's spread they spent more time up right as it daptiv to the terrain. They remain partially up freight for about 3 million years. With brains only slightly larger than those of apes. They evolved a larger brain through skull smaller jaw muscles and became faster a foot. Hips and pelvis is evolve to accommodate an upright posture. With babies born more dependent on mother and tribe than apes. They were small groups of 15 to 30 individuals who depended on each other to survive. They survived on the open savannah by cooperation. Communication and stare. They vocalize to signal each other and to provide care and comfort. At a distance. The scavenge large dead animals. To obtain enough protein for their growing branch. They made nets to trap. Small game and stone tools. Cut meat from carcass. They built fires. And hearts. Protection comfort and cooking. They were already. Highly intimate groups survivor of the kindest. When their population crashed. About two and a half million years ago. About 2 million years ago the human population rebounded. Increasing exponentially and migrated out of africa. They became fully upright. Brain size doubled. A tool used became sophisticated. The ink the increase in brain capacity relative to body size may have allowed us to show more complex forms of empathy. But the fundamental quality of feeling concerned for others is part of our primate moral instinct. The feeling just not change. Steven methven and the singing the advertised analyze the evolution of language. Walking and running upright required rhythmic. Coordination of muscle book give me the capability to express. Emotion. And that. Local grooming and signaling developed into a holistic. Kg full-bodied miming and musical language. A chant like language of commands. Threats. Greetings and request for care and comfort. Probably sounding more like music than speech. It is perhaps no coincidence that musical language and empathy. Cher, neural pathways. As seen in brain imaging studies in humans. Early human tribes. Was socially intimate community. Small with shared experiences. And knowledge of the environment. Their infants and toddlers is very close care since the parents were hairless. And if it's could no longer cling to the mother. Mother's made slings. To carry infants. Fully moved frequently. Food sharing enhance. Social bonding. Early humans showed empathic care for the disabled. For example neanderthals. 45000 years ago. Cared for 50 year old person with multiple injuries. For many years. Neolithic humans cared for the disabled. Example of teenage boy with dwarfism. An extremely short arms. A fifteen-year-old boy with spina bifida. And a teenager who became paralyzed. From the waist down ten years earlier. They also cared for the dead. The first undisputed evidence of intentional burial was. 130 thousand years ago. The oldest known ritual burial is of a mother and child. Stayed with red ochre. About 100,000 years. And more elaborate ritual burials began about 40,000 years ago. The human neocortex drew and culture emerged. Music language art. Our ancestors expression of empathy and they build us to care for each other. Rich and exciting ways. Now we can introspect. Alleviate. Introspect and meditate on. Feelings evoked by a friend or lover. Our brains contain the history of empathy ingrained in us by countless social. Is a menses in birds mammals. A prehistoric hominids. Animals survive in society. So do we. The care for strangers. Show the way. Rnr hr kind. Empathy is integral. Two human nature. Keep weaving it. Make a see the warp and weft of our lives. As the dalai lama says. Compare. Compassion is a radicalism. A bar x. Or as i would say. We're rose to play a greater park. With kind of brain intact. Reshaping tribal smarts. Deserve the human heart. Quicken's with passion and facts. This is the face. From which we start. But i breathe. When breathe nor creed no more remain to stokar left lesser loyalties. North steer the shady strain a trick the mass for private gain. Show me if come full circle. Eric final quote from darwin as a man advances in civilization as smaller tribes. Are united it's a larger communities individuals need to extend social instinct. And sympathies to all members of the same nation. The personally unknown to them. This point being. 143. There's only an artificial barrier that prevents these sympathies. I'm being shown. To all others of all nations and races. Empathy is arcore. Show affection for one another. Take another's perspective. And act. 211a alleviate another's distress. Great housing for the homeless. Give hope to the helpless. Provide healthcare for all in need. Including mental health care. Instead of imprisoning thousands of men and women. Treatment for addiction. And mental health problems. Treat and train them. Help make them productive members of society. So we all benefit. We have the nerves to do it. Blessed be our interaction. Overs a question embedded in your and your comments and it's a very important question. For all my comments about the. Empathy there's been an awful lot of violence in the world and the question is how. Do we come from this wonderful bubble that is. Love not war to being. Ditto. A lot of violence of war i was so complicated question and i think they have me back but i'm still working on reading some brother difficult material figure out where might that begin but i think one of the beginnings. We mostly most of our existence has been in small very small tribal groups. And while. Chimpanzees as well as other primates when there are these small groups. They do raid nearby tribes of. Same species. They don't organize in the warlock fashion but my guess is. Once there was an explosion of population ever mention this exponential increase in population with that came surplus of. Foodstuffs and. People lived in communities that no longer knew everybody. So became more complex more differentiated and there are other things in our brains other than all this while things are great kind of things your mother. So they start to. Develop. A much more complex. Differentiated culture. And i think part of that process. People started. Question the resources and and. Things get really complicated after we grow up. So i don't have a real answer to that not that i know anybody does but i'm reading some book sets. Suggest some some possibilities. The burns are complicated place. And. Did i mean roughly in the nurses really rough there. We have a reptilian brain that takes care of our primary. Functions of breathing and doing for nothing. And we have a. Emilien brand of primate brain that is. Desoto limbic system that deals with a lot of emotional. Bob stuff and that includes a lot more than just empathy includes. Fear and anger in all of them. All of the things that we do as a emotional beings. And then we have the deal cortex we have the. Leave the thinking brain in the. Perceptual kind of physical on but these are very these. Three pieces are. Interlocked and and will you talk about a brain map i mean it's. It's really complicated so. I'm sure there are differences between conservatives and liberals having a lot unfortunately till rush limbaugh on. Can't believe we have the same brian but. But the be more specific than that i don't really can't answer but i think that it's a lot of thinking about. It is a funny way i've been studying a lot of buddhist. Traditional. Another wonderful day retired. And you know we are really complicated beings and i think that we need to be very introspective about our own around. Suffering in the suffering of others and it's it's it's tricky but so that's why keeping the dialogue is really important all above her. Roll underwater. Part of our heads. Struggling to deal with it. Well that's a good question. Well i only know it by reading about the. Essentially what. What they. What the archaeologists have done is they dig. You know and i find places where there are no tolls or whatever they date the site by various technical means and they they look at the burial goods to see what is it if there are any burial goods there they look to see if there was some decoration put on the on the body. Everywhere the. Child chop harley was a child it was that died. And the child had flowers. Buried with it so for a long time people. Anthropologist said that this was a burial site in the first this was 100,000 a long time ago. But it turns out that rodents are other pieces carry those flowers in there but it took up a very meticulous examination of the site to figure that out. And they're only a handful of those sites. So. It's what has to be a little careful about that kind of evidence i recently discovered that i have this book on my shield. Lucia language. To my horror ghetto lucy the. She wasn't a she they don't know what it was a woman or a man i have no idea. And i will bleed from the longtime of that this was a woman's skeleton they have no clue. Actually and i was sort of stomach divide that so i'm learning all the time and these things are you don't have to be. There is a lot of there's a lot going on and what we think of as simple organisms. But there are many examples of of. Extending the boundaries and i think we actually know a lot about. Doing out and carolyn would be the person to ask a lot of those questions when she comes and gives her talk. And. But i think they did yesterday the center for healthy minds at richie davidson. Works at lemonade. they understand him carolyn works in that group as well they understand a lot now about how to expand that circle and you know it. And in each of us can do that there are simple things we can do their complicated things we can do. There's a way of actually doing that people are doing it. And. And we do it we would care for strangers i mean i see that all the time. I bet it really it does happen quite a bit. So i agree with you but i think it's. It's not as narrow as. It's it's now it's an hour and some people and and another's i think they're temperamental issues it's gets complicated. So i'll leave at the carroll to give you a fully fleshed-out answer. But i won't tell her so she'll be surprised. Without having my p**** words before bed by morris and it's especially beautiful ones for rumi. Babe palm called say i am you. Rumi who lived from 1207. 73. I'm dust particles in sunlight. I'm the round son. To the bits of dust i say stay. To the sun keep moving. I am morning mist and the breathing of evening. I am wind in the top of a grove. And surf on the cliff. Masked rider helmsman and keel i am also the coral reef they found her on i'm a tree with a trained parrot and its branches. Silence thought invoice. The musical are coming through a flute a spark of a stone. If flickering in metal. Both casual and the moth crazy around it rose and the nightingale lost in the fragrance. I am all orders of being. Circling galaxy evolutionary intelligence the lift and the falling away what is and what is it. You who know me. You the one and all. Say who i am. Say i am you. So now breecher neighbor come have coffee and cake with us.

uuprairie_org

Pr150816ScottPrinster-ed.mp3

Thank you john and amber good morning. And welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society. If this is one of your first times here or your first time here there will be a chance later on to introduce yourself. We are don't require it don't worry but just look at you and make you uncomfortable. Prairie unitarian universalist society prides itself on being a welcoming congregation. We welcome you no matter where you are on the religious spiritual journey. No matter what's your ethnicity no matter your color of your skin no matter your. Your gender identification your family structure. We welcome you. Our services are different every sunday so if this is one of your first time i'm back and try that again. Services are sometimes led bite me sandy ingham the minister here at prairie. Often by outside speakers such as today's speaker more about. That in a moment. And sometimes by people from within the congregation. I have a brief announcement some of you. May notice if you're on facebook enough. I have put up two very old-fashioned ways to communicate to newspaper clippings on the bullet. In the bath. Which were printed this week in the milwaukee journal-sentinel about what's happening with banners that unitarian universalist congregation are putting up that say black. Lives matter. They're being off and lawns and. Was a lot of publicity for unitarian-universalist this past week in wisconsin and i always say all publicity is. Good. All publicity matters. It's my my great great pleasure to introduce a dear friend of mine. The reverence.. Ferret. Prankster who is this morning speaker. Scott and i were at starr king school for the ministry together so we seem to be kind of following each other. Around but he's losing me now because he's finishing his dissertation. At the university of wisconsin-madison. The dissertation is on the historical relationship between religion and science in the united states. God have served congregations in michigan and wisconsin. And i love this english for 2 years. At the unitarian cemetery cemetery. In transylvania. Before he went to starr king school for the ministry his background was in physics. Where and he worked as a nasa contractor for the space program. He is a man of many talents. And i. Invite you to welcome him as he begins the. Good morning you all get extra points and unitarian heaven for showing up on such a hot day. The coffee will be fair trade and ice. I promise. Let's begin with these words. We are gathered not to petition the universe to magically change our circumstances. Not to single us out for special blessings. But to see our lives with new eyes. To tell a different story about our lives meaning. May the spirit of clarity and gratitude pervade this community of seekers that we recognize and cultivate. Our abundant life. The sufi poet rumi rhodes. Secretly we spoke. That wise one and me. I said tell me the secrets of the world. He said. Let silence tell you the secrets of the. May the peace and comfort of silence. Strengthen all our lives. Are reading this morning is from that great popularizer of science stephen jay gould. In his introduction to carl zimmer is book. Evolution the triumph of an idea. Cooled right. No scientific revolution can match darwin's discovery in degree of upset. To our previous comforts and certainties. In the only conceivable challenge copernicus and galileo moved our cosmic location from the center of the universe to a small and peripheral body orbiting a central sun. But this cosmic reorganization only fractured our concept of real estate. Darwinian evolution on the other and deeper and. Revolutionized our view of our own meaning. And essence insofar as science can address such questions at all. Who are we. How did we get here. How are we related to other creatures and in what manner. Evolution substituted a naturalistic explanation of cold comfort. For our former conviction that a benevolent deity fashion does directly in his own image. To have dominion. Over the entire earth. And all other. I'm generally of level-headed sort of person i like to thank and i think that i'm able to roll with the changes most of the time. But i have to acknowledge that i find certain transitions especially tough to weather. A few weeks ago my roommates announce that our landlord was not renewing our lease and that i'd have to find a new place to live by the end of july. Even i was taking care of the business of finding a new apartment and applying for a lease i was gradually realizing how poorly rested and short-tempered i was becoming. Being a graduate student i've had to move five times in the last nine years as my roommates graduated or married. And i've come to realize that i'd rather stay in an unappealing situation. Then be uprooted one more time. Humans are creatures of habit. But we also changed jobs mary or divorced have children lose people we love. And experience our own aging and illness. Sometimes changes are forced upon us by our environment. And sometimes they are rise from within us. Inspiring excitement and uncertainty at new beginnings and perhaps anxiety and sadness at what we're leaving behind. This morning i invite you to join me in exploring just how intellectually and spiritually significant it is that we are part of an ever-changing world. And how important it is that we make our peace with the reality of this change. To appreciate just how fundamental and idea it is that the world is undergoing constant change we need to understand how differently early humanity saw their world. One of the courses i teach at the university of wisconsin is the history of ancient and medieval science. Where we learned that the reality of a changing world was one of the first challenges that ancient greek thinkers had to face. When the philosopher heraclitus said you can never step in the same river twice. It was acknowledging the difficulty of understanding a world that never stays the same. The greeks created a thought problem. Known as the ship of theseus to wrestle with this question. If theseus replaces the old sales on his ship is it still the same ship. What about if he replaces the deck. You get the point we how do we say that we know something when it is always in the process of becoming something else. I like to joke that we should have the toyota camry of scott prinster thought problem. Because at this point surely it is a new car with how many new parts i've had to put into it in any case the greeks feared that their new philosophy might be useless. If it couldn't produce solid knowledge. This may seem like a silly paradox to consider especially in light of the number of genuinely urgent concerns clamoring for attention. But i can't emphasize enough how powerfully this question has shaped western culture. And we are still wrestling with its repercussions today. The ancient greeks responded to this intellectual challenge by describing the universe as composed of two worlds. One the world of material objects in which everything changes and decays and the world of. Unchanging eternal ideas on forms. Although most of us don't think much about greek philosophy on a daily basis this to world perspective becomes especially influential as a cornerstone of the christian church. This is how western culture inherited the idea that humans are composed of. A physical on a physical changing body. And an eternal unchanging soul or mind. This is also how we inherited the concept of a transcendent unchanging god out there. Beyond this flawed decaying world. For many centuries western civilization. Has. Western civilization has been built around this idea of a perfect divine being watching over all of creation because we wanted so much to be able to identify at least some part of the universe that did not confuse us by constantly changing. Furthermore because the church taught that the universe was an expression of god's own rationality. It's not surprising that christians view the arrangement of all things as all so perfect and unchanging. It was common to describe creation as a hierarchy. Call the great chain of being. Classifying all creatures. In order of their complexity. At the top god than angels demons humans. Other animals in order of complexity than plants and finally inanimate minerals. The consequence of this great chain of being was that although each individual is constantly changing. Living growing reproducing and dying. Each type of organism remains the same and continues to occupy the same place on that ladder. That is all do cats grow change and die they only give birth to other cats and not to say daisy's or ostriches. Again this arrangement was an important part of believing that we could really only understand our world if some essential parts of it remained unchanged. It was when naturalist to notice that the similarities between different kinds of organisms made them think about the possibility of evolution. Erasmus darwin the infamous grandfather of the famous charles darwin. Notice that so many different mammals seem to spend their entire lives doing all the same things. Moving consuming competing reproducing and dying. Which could be explained. If they had all our risen from the same source from some ancient ancestor. This challenge to the traditional view of perfect. Unchanged in creation what's controversial enough that erasmus darwin's work was placed on the catholic church's list of banned books. Not long after the french naturalist jean-baptiste lamarck speculated that animals could develop new characteristics to help them survive and then pass these adaptations onto their offspring. The popular example we often use in the classroom is of giraffes stretching their necks to reach better leaves higher in the trees. Gradually developing slightly longer next and giving birth birth to offspring. With this same slight advantage. Of course it's charles darwin who promoted his version of evolution with such success and controversy. Darwin's insight was the organisms naturally very. And that the more advantageous variations are passed along more successfully. Then the lesser qualities. For example not everyone in my family is of the same height. And if we could imagine that height somehow offered an advantage in producing more offspring. Then we could imagine future generations. Very gradually. Reflecting this advantage. Of course since darwin's painstaking research was conducted before we understood genetics he didn't know how these characteristics were being passed on. Only that they were. Over enormous spans of time the first very simple life-forms that first populated the earth diversified and complexify into an entire planet of organisms very different from those most ancient ancestors. Anti evolutionists have objected fearfully that this approach and these conclusions would undermine the religious activities of wonder and reverence and would destroy the very moral foundations of our civilization. However i want to return to my original observation. Of how sensitive we are to the changes in our lives. And how this sensitivity inspires us not only to adapt biologically. But also to respond in ways that we might describe as spiritual. Or religious. For example in response to a number of anti-evolution policies. Pass by a school board in grantsburg wisconsin a decade ago. A campaign called the clergy letter project was established. By biologists michael zimmerman and united church of christ minister john mcfadden. In addition to collecting signatures from clergy and leaders of various faith in support of evolutionary teachings. The group also sponsors an annual evolution weekend each february. To encourage dialogue and new forms of collaboration between religion and science. Although we're accustomed to hearing in the popular media that religion and science are naturally incompatible at are necessarily at war. There are plenty of opportunities to see how religious concerns are influenced positively by the evolutionary world. Our own movement has a long history of trying to make religious sense of the evidence for evolution. One of the ways in which our religious forebears distinguish themselves from other traditions. Was by a knowledge in which parts of our beliefs. Have changed over time. And which truths remained perma. Unlike almost any other movement in the 19th century. Unitarians acknowledged that religious knowledge could change over time to. Anything need not feel threatened every time a new discovery was made. This in fact is the topic of the first two chapters of my dissertation so it's on my mind a lot everyday. Later leaders took this conversation even further stating that not only could evolution be tolerated by raelynn. But that i could actually strengthen our religious question. Minneapolis universalist minister marion shutter delivered a series of twelve lectures in 19. Called applied evolution. In which he explored the overlap between science and the kind of religion that would be able to meet the needs of the modern world. Audiences of more than 1,000 people. He explain the three ways that religion has actually benefited. From the contributions of science. First that religion can learn from the sciences to emphasize facts rather than wishful thinking. And adopt methods that produce factual conclusions. S. Religion can expect that its conclusions will not violate our common sense. And third religion can learn to stop defending doctrines simply because they're traditional. Relying instead on factual evidence as its trustworthy benchmark. Shutter concluded his lectures by reassuring his audiences we have not lost god. We have only lost an old idea of god's way of doing things. The god of evolution is inside of nature and not outside of. A secrets of embrace the idea of science being part of our spiritual toolkit. We have the opportunity to push our questioning even further. One of the stories i love to tell about the consequence of our questioning. Is about the fisherman who pulled his catch from the sea everyday using a net with. 3 inch mesh. And concluding that the ocean contained no fish smaller than 3 in the lenses we look through partly determine what we are able to see. And it's here that i want to pause and acknowledge how this conversation is not just an intellectual exercise. But touches on the most pressing concerns of our lives. The grief and rage of. Ferguson and baltimore and our own madison remind us that we have not stopped being afraid of change. And that we still have some difficult truths to face about american society. I marched in ferguson with other you use last sunday and was reminded so vividly how we are clinging to old beliefs about ourselves and our nation. That no longer match the reality around us if in fact they ever did. If religion is not going to fade into irrelevance it needs to be able to provide meaningful insight into a world that changes. Rather than falling back on the same platitudes written twenty centuries ago. Some modern philosophers have concluded that evolution is such a fundamental principle and how the world operates that it's time for us to rethink even our most basic religious assumptions. The philosopher charles hartshorne for example introduced a system of thought called process theology. In which the very foundation of all reality. Whether we call it god. Natural law the ground of all being is not some unchanging exception outside the flow of time but also evolved alongside the events of history. Hartshorne argued that conventional christian theology depended too much on ancient greek philosophy. And so on the desire to find something permanent beyond our ever-changing world. This early mistake left the church with several fundamental misunderstanding. That continue to haunt christianity even today. The errors that hartshorn identifies include. One that god must be perfect. And therefore unchanging. Unchangeable. To that god is omnipotent. Meaning that everything that happens was meant to happen. 3 that god is omniscient. Therefore never gaining new knowledge and that whatever freedom of decision we humans have cannot impact god's experience. For that god's goodness does not involve sympathy. Some have compared this to the sun's way of doing good by supporting life on earth but not being changed by us. In my mind a very strange description to call goodness. And lastly. That some individuals have gained such a clear and trustworthy revelation about religion that we cannot ever question. Or update their clay. I recognize that god language is not meaningful to all of us. But i like how hard she learns observations help us to see how easily our desire for permanent can move us to cling to ideas that are not ultimately useful. And in fact are often destructive. Evolutionary thought threatens to uproot these ancient errors and demands that religion be compatible with what we've learned from our everyday experience of the world. What a difference it would make if religion were not held captive by dogma. That denies the reality of our lives. What difference if it could help us respond to a world that refuses to sit still for us. Has carl zimmer wrote in our reading this morning no scientific discovery has upset the comforts and certainties from our past as thoroughly as darwin's. No other intellectual revolution has so thoroughly revealed the weakness at the heart of how religion has traditionally function. Even though it might be human nature to want to ignore that the world around us and within us is constantly evolving. We have so much to gain. By embracing the science and spirituality that acknowledges change as a basic truth as basic as the laws of nature. And because the best services in my opinion are the ones that draw upon the facts of your lives and your experiences. I want to leave you with these questions to ponder further. How do your thinking and acting. Acknowledge the shifting demands of a changing world. What gets in the way. Of you embracing change. What makes it possible. For you to embrace change. How can this community be a place that responds to the world as it actually is. And not how we might wish it was. Again the truths of evolution remind us that life is a story that is constantly being written. And i invite you to join me. In making it a story that is true. May it be. Invite you to join us now and if i'm of dialog. Yes extinction was a central sticking point for people in embracing evolutionary thought. In the early 1800s. Books were being written that were popularly published and distributed scandalous books that. Claims that humans to may have been the product of evolution just like everything else. But the sticking point was this we didn't. Have. Good enough evidence that creatures were going extinct and so there was no sign that there was ever a need for new creatures for new varieties to emerge. We have as humans an amazing ability. To hide our eyes from things that we don't want to see one example is when we would find fossilized sharks teeth. Many many years before darwin. We simply rationalize that those were very interesting form of crystals. That just happened to be exactly the same shape as living sharks. But the discovery of large mammals like mastodons. For example. We're undeniable because how could you miss a mastodon if they were still walking among us right small animals again you could kind of justify and sweep those under the rug but something the size of a truck you couldn't really deny that we were not seeing those. And so the discovery of. Extinct species. And archaeological evidence of very ancient human civilizations when napoleon invaded egypt. He commandeered he liberated as america. Form of language. Many many pieces of archaeological evidence that humanity was much much older than the 6000 years we. From interpreting. So yet extinction was a major. Step forward for us. And. There was no good answer to. I mean the only obvious. Response people tried to make was well god put those fossils. And yes you respond as i do like no no. I want to agree with you totally on the movie creation it is it's not a rigorous history of darwin's life it's a it's a sensationalized history and so it's fictionalized but it's so well done. It's all as you said paul bettany and jennifer connelly excellent actors. You really get a sense of darwin's. Emotional struggles. With whether he should put this message out into the scientific world. And actually show up clip. Of it to my students when i teach. The middle course in our survey which is newton einstein. Because it shows it shows darwin and his wife fighting over these conflicting worldviews. Is. Factually based worldview versus her for the faith-based view. And this is you know this is sort of the foundation that we're struggling with that. If your worldview is essentially. Based on faith statements then no factual argument is probably going to sway you. What i find. Is that. People who believe in evolution or people who believe in divine creation. Typically have not looked closely at the at the evidence in either party. Most ordinary people don't. Spend a lot of time and energy. Reading evolutionary text because. What people tend to do is evolutionist tend to believe evolution because people they trust believe evolution and. Creation ostensibly. The biblical creation because people they trust believe. And so what we are doing in madison in fact there is a community astonishing community called biologos. Evangelical christians who are pro evolution. Who are trying to spread evolutionary fought through the evengelical movements which is an amazing task. They believe that evolution is god's gift. That god created the universe that is so. Embedded with. Complexity and possibility that it's simply unfurls and. Flowers to become everything that we have around us and for them that's a source of wonder and gratitude and reverence. And i am not an evangelical but i want to hear that i'm like. Yeah i wouldn't word it exactly like that but i recognize that sense of. I've just aw. And gratitude when i'm in nature and i recognize just the. Astonishing diversity and complexity and interrelated. But to try to argue them down using. The arguments of the opposing camp typically does not succeed it's very it's very frustrating. Abridge those two worlds. This is one of the challenges of trying to. Disseminate science popularly is that typically people will not believe something unless they can see it happening right before their eyes. And even then maybe not. But this was one of the problems that darwin face that science before darwin had been essentially. You you proved your point by collecting enormous list of facts and just look for the patterns that emerged from it. Darwin made a systematic use of what we call a hypothesis or theory. To say i believe that it's actually natural selection that's causing evolution the evolution leprosy. Rather than a divine creation of species with a magic wand. And. American culture in particular really absorbed that earlier view of evidence. And so there are still people who say that evolution is non-scientific it is an unscientific theory because you can't just sit down and watch it happen before your eyes. Such a very simplistic understanding of nature obviously. And what hour is pointing out is even beyond. The the long-term genetic changes that evolution addresses. There are processes that are constantly in play within the human body we often call them epigenetic. So their chemicals that are flowing through our bodies that are also inherited by our offspring. And there are processes out in the earth. Out in nature that are not contained within any one thing where you can look at it under a microscope. What are nevertheless he said. Responsible for regulating. And maintaining. A nature that we can survive it so it is one of the most critical and urgent things phasic. That is such a rich and wonderful question i'll try not to go on at length about it but i need to confess that something i get very excited about and my students hear a lot about it because they think i'll plato's view of the world that's cute he's just silly what what does that matter to us and sexuality in general labor. So there's a class distinction that has arisen out of that same distinction it's enormous in western culture how profoundly shaped we are by this one single idea. Because the church really really promoted in. Now i don't know if aristotle is aristotelian thought would be. A big improvement because where you see that the catholic church is a product of. The scholastic's which was aristotelian thought in the late middle ages. I don't know that that's. The in some ways i can think of that being better and in some ways maybe not so much. What we could look to as an example of a culture. That is not. Shapes. Bye. Platonism. Is jewish culture. So the jewish emphasis on education on responsible sexuality and reproduction on how they raise their kids so if you have any jewish friends. Notice how sometimes their lives are at odds. With the forces of christian society. Those are the friction point. And i personally admire jewish culture very highly for many of those exact reasons because they haven't been shaped in the way that christian culture has by plato spot and that to world. Sorry if i'm going on too long cuz i just again i told you we get me excited about this cuz i love to talk about this and i will be happy to talk more over coffee as well. I leave you with these words from the reverend barbara pesce now-retired out in lacrosse. Because of those who came before. We are. In spite of their failings we believe. Because of and in spite of the horizons of their vision. Wii to dream. Let us go remembering to praise. To live in the moment. To love mightily. Survival to the mystery. Can i invite you to join and greet your neighbors. Another.

uuprairie_org

Pr100822Carpenter-ed.mp3

Opening words come from richard fineman you can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world but when you're finished you'll know absolutely nothing whatsoever about the bird so let's look at the bird and see what it's doing that is what counts now. New microphone and it seems to work well frank. First the prologue because i write more concisely than i speak i have written my presentation today and that includes this prologue. On the same day that it was suggested to me that i relate my presentation to sumrall of the uu seven principles my wife margaret. Had mentioned to me that someone that works for her is not courageous. My response was that i thought that he is too ambitious to be courageous it reminded me of a situation when i was director of research for the chicago public schools and i was told that if i insisted on reporting the some programs costing about 7 million dollars a year did not result in improved test scores that i would never be made assistant superintendent of research. The prediction was correct and i and i eventually decided to become a school principal. As i said at the time. Why be the head of a department of research and evaluation that did not do research and evaluation every once in awhile we may have our believe we may have our belief in principles tested. At the conclusion of my presentation there should be time for comments and questions. If elucidation is needed along the way please feel free to ask. Dometic. And then comes. The self-serving introduction that nick very. After we read. Free title of the presentation is testing and teacher accountability or should test scores be used to determine teacher accountability that one time i was the principal of a kindergarten through fifth-grade inner-city school in chicago chicago schools were big we had 30 students in each room and there were five rooms of each grade level of the approximately 150 students who completed kindergarten each year we would identify 15 or 20 who needed extra help during the coming year to get ready for first grade. Career this class was taught by rachel shapiro. Who i came to think was a jewish saint observing her teaching the required so much saintly patience made me squirm if you had simply tested raised class at the end of the year with a standardized tests and base to pay on one of the students it achieved the second grade level you would have it turned this ain't into a martyr. In what follows i would like to review some of the problems and possibilities of educational testing in belgian offering some observations and opinions and in some cases illustrate. With some personal experience. When i started evaluating educational programs and practices in 1970 standardized or norm-referenced test were widely infrequently exclusively used these tests were created by publishers who would give each grade level test to a representative national sample to test usually consisted of four part multiple choice items most beautiful miliar with he's been a typical of beginning first graders the score 1.5 was the typical score of those who had completed the first half first grade and so on through 9th grade and above in high school by 1970 academics have begun to accept students typically only gained 7 instead of 10 months per year and it wants the socioeconomic status of students. At this point the general public and probably most educators resisted these explanations the standardized test metric was very convenient and offered a way to objectively and fairly evaluate a teacher's performance. When i was a middle school principal i was able to use it. If one takes the students recent previous test score and divided by the number of years that the student had his has attended school that will determine the average number of months the student gain per year. During his or her career. If a teacher can enable the student to exceed this average game that is commendable as an example if a class has an average historical gain of seven months per year and teach her a letter cheeves a 9-month game that is commendable even though the class did not gain a year in a year. On the other hand if the historical gain is 1.2 years and teacher be achieved a one-year gains i would submit the teacher ray has done a better job. The teacher b. Even though teachers be teacher b's class getting the month more unfortunately the standardized or norm-referenced test had some problems. Some of which i would like to mention the sample the first the sample testing to establish norms was neither consistent nor extensive enough. When i first went to work in the chicago schools the annual testing was conducted by pupil services instead of by a research and evaluation department i was the beginning of 11 committee was set up to select the primary test they chose the metropolitan and another committee was set up to select the fourth through eighth grade tests and they chose the iowa test of basic skills. I warned the superintendent that we should select one test for all grades and that the aisle was ayilo was quotes harder than the metropolitan. He chose to honor the committee selections and for years the chicago newspapers reported the inadequacies of the chicago 4th grade teachers. Also test publishers extrapolated beyond their samples of 5th grade test wasn't most given to 4th 5th and 6th graders but scores were extrapolated far behind these three grade levels if a ninth-grade matt score on a fifth grade test meant anything at festus was the publishers guess about how i'm ninth-grader would score on the 5th grade test it certainly did not mean that the test taker had mastered algebra. Since there are four choices for each item by chance the student would get 25% of the items correct. This would probably yield a sixth grade score even though the student could only read it's the fourth grade level in order to get an accurate measurement. You would need to test students at quotes reading level rather than at grade level for interested in my staff and i had done some reading level testing and knew something about the results but by this time the superintendent hired one of my northwestern university professors for the job for which i had been recruited to professor reassured the superintendent that if we tested at reading level the scores would go up. When testing it really can level the citywide show that eighth-graders were actually reading at a-level two years below their previously reported level it was one of the finals nails in the coffin of the superintendent who was soon gone i decided to become a school principal but in subsequent years it was sometimes hard to tell whether reported citywide reading improvement was real or ruth agrees ulta fudging the rules to determine reading level. Another observation cheating on the standardized test with sometimes prevalence those subsequent precautions improve the practices the easiest way to was to simply erase students wrong answers and darken in the correct circle it one time my sub district superintendent set me to send me to visit two of my fellow principals at their schools to learn how to be a better principal each of my friends tried to teach me how to cheat on the test i became convinced the one principle and i were the only ones in the 25 school subdistrict that actively work to ensure that there was no cheating on the test when i suggested to the sub district superintendent a relatively easy way to check up on each school he was not interested i don't think he cheated but he was not particularly interested in having his sub district have even lower test scores in the 1970s. This was criterion-referenced testing. Rather than achievement tests being norm-referenced. A set of criteria were to be established to determine whether students had mastered agreed-upon objectives these criteria or usually established by a group of appointed experts. The determination of the objectives and criteria did become a way to establish curriculum also in the 1990s the adoption of the wisconsin knowledge and concepts exam resulted in increased instructional attention to solving word problems in math and improve writing skills and language arts parenthesis some teachers find word problems difficult and correcting and grading students essays is more difficult than assigning a page in a grammar workbook. The test results are usually given in firms of the percentage of students who have mastered the criteria at each grade level whereas with a norm-referenced test by definition half of the students were above average and half below-average with a criterion-referenced test theoretically all students can master the criterium leading to something that has the appearance of the lake wobegon all students above-average phenomenon particularly with the no child left behind act requirement that eats school achieve this phenomena indonesia in the near future there has been considerable incentive to make tests as easy as possible presently the main basis for comparison between states is a program conducted by. With the current test this is not possible although efforts are being made to make the evaluation of teachers more fair by taking into account some cold variable such as those related to social class i would think there would be difficulties finding acceptance for this. Is it possible to establish test with the kind of metric i just mentioned perhaps there are currently actions being taken to establish a national curriculum in the teaching of mathematics and not as far along in the teaching of language arts these could result in the kinds of tests that combine the best features of both the norm-referenced or criterion-referenced test. In what follows i would like to address the idea of testing and teacher accountability but without this protection of the tests i seriously about that this can be done fairly. I would like to mention some pertinent events some impertinent observations and opinions i've numbered them in order to separate them as i speak number one the whole notion of teacher accountability schools suburban type schools have the luxury of engaging in good teaching because incidentally most of their students will do pretty well on the tests to without good classroom management skills teachers will not accomplish much many parochial schools get away with paying their teachers about half as much as public school teachers because the parochial school teacher helps to minimize problems or with good classroom management 5% of the teachers time is spent on discipline without good classroom management 95% of the teacher time can be spent on incentive most teachers didn't start teaching to get rich anyway by facilitating the research shows that.

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Pr121111Ingham-ed.mp3

Are opening words this morning will be breakfast. Have to remark on that one announcement little bee is one of the most intense books i've ever read. Welcome to a day of hope and promise. To a place of peace and comfort to a journey toward truth and justice into a community of love and courage that will help us along the way. The reading that i would like to share with you this morning is a poem written by stuart neri poet marie howe h o w e standing next to my old friend i sense that his soldiers have retreated and mine are resting their guns on their shoulders talking quietly i'm hungry one says cheeseburger says another of organic green grapes kingdoms and so many gods arguing among themselves and i'm the god god god. Exhausted and want more money how can i disarm when my enemy seems so intent sometimes using a poem for a reading can be a challenge because of course a good poem needs to be read several times before we can begin to understand its complexities and layers of meaning. I cannot say with any certainty what marie howe wants us to take from her poem. But to me the poem speaks of how difficult it is. For us humans. As individuals and as members of a community how difficult it is for us to get past all of our fears and distractions and bickering and assumptions and habits and get to the heart of what it means to be human i will get back to the poem in a few minutes but first some reflections on war. When will the politicians understand that we are grownups that it is way past time to use campaigns as an opportunity to talk seriously about the things that really matter when will those running for office realize that we can take it. It being an adult conversation about the issues. When will they figure out that most of us want to tackle the big issues but we don't know where to begin 5 days after the 2012 presidential election has finally ended what has changed. Did you hear any lengthy complicated conversations dialogues even arguments about war. During the endless months before election day did any candidate say anything worthwhile. Or relevant about how we might work. Towards ending war as a means of solving problem. So you can mention it in the congregational response house add freshly because in our country we commemorate veterans day at the same time we hold our big important elections. As an editorial on october 29th in the arizona republic newspaper put it. It is perhaps fitting that we celebrate election day and veterans day. So close together how better to honor our veterans and buy seriously discussing the problem of war in late october i was hiking in zion national park a somewhat remote area several days went by without my having access to much news so normally i am both a newspaper and political junkie so it was before so much more blood and so much more treasure would have been wasted. Mcgovern gave courage to people who didn't have the courage to speak up he gave them courage to finally stand up he stood there and took all of that beating because of his included i want to know where the george mcgovern of today's world are. In 1972 i worked on the mcgovern campaign i shook his hand my job in a small town in northwest pennsylvania was to go door-to-door in a predominantly republican ward. I did that with my vents seven-year-old son in tow. We were invited into people's homes and have long conversations with folks. Watergate was just breaking. That ward went for mcgovern by a fairly large margin forever convincing me of the importance of giving people as much reliable unbiased information as possible we b everywhere our favorite destination was big rock. And talk about politics for 9th graders 9th 10th and on we talk about politics current events what was going on in the world have really good teachers to problems we honestly believe that if we work hard enough we could and war. More than that i am still convinced that we have to end war on the planet if we humans are going to survive i participated in many. Anti-vietnam war demonstrations i went to the may day protest in may of 1971. Marching in the streets might not be the most productive path to peace and ending war so i believe there are still times when marching in the streets can be a useful tool probably more effective means of ending war in the early 1980s i lived in the san francisco bay area. To allow us all to get into our cars and drive to lake tahoe. Or some such isolated spot in the sierra nevadas. This announcement. In the bay area was greeted with much distain and was the subject of many wonderful jokes clearly president reagan had never left the bay area on a friday afternoon to go skiing at tahoe move fast enough. The time frames of reagan administration estimated. Two and war on the plant its two basic premises. War is obsolete. And we are all interconnected you can see why special because of that second promised it would appeal to a lot of unitarian universalist and we did have a pretty large chapter here in madison. In the 80s in into the early nice i can't overemphasize the importance of this group. Don't have enough time this morning to go into much detail about it i will say that we work closely with scientists and philosophers and psychologists from what was then the soviet union. I have the honor of traveling with one of these scientists around wisconsin on a book promotion tour i can't remember what i ate for breakfast yesterday but i remember his name bladimir aghayev. Beyond war was responsible for the first and far as i know the only book ever published jointly between the united states and the soviet union title of the book is breakthrough i think it's still available i hope so. People who were. Well even some military people who who made the case that we couldn't continue to wage war on the planet never forget taking vladimir to a big grocery store in the wausau area and he had never seen anything like the selection in the produce in the sight of him biting into a big mac. It was captured on camera showing green bay we were able to get several has to come and celebrate his being in this country with us and they did many dances and i will never forget one of them going down and taking his hand and bringing him up to. My dad remembers stepping on the dead bodies and that the water was red with blood to the surprise of of my me and myself and my brother and sister my dad went to see saving private ryan he said the first three to five minutes of that movie are completely accurate. He started telling me about a phone call he had made earlier in the day one that he apparently made every year on this particular february date he always talked to the nephew of one of his army buddies on this day the army body and my dad had gotten separated from their unit somewhere in germany in february of 1945 they were lost cold hungry they hadn't eaten for three days. They were no doubt scared and confused as they try to make their way across rivers and through woods and find their unit they stepped on a mine my dad lost his leg his friend simply disappeared blown to bits in front of my father he had never told this story to anyone in the family not to my mother or my brother or sister had no. In may and june of 2004 and went with dad to england and then to france for the 60th anniversary of d-day in england we went to stonehenge. And they would eat their lunch some days at stonehenge and sit down and lean up against. Rows and rows rows of white crosses there on that hillside overlooking the beach some of you've probably been there you've seen pictures of it and there i was saying a prayer for peace interface prayer. And i know that some people make lots of money when wars are fought and yet and yet i know that we humans can do better i know that we have to continue to oppose war put all those arguments. I want to read every time i see a list of the names and ages of the latest casualties from the afghanistan war that's what we're young from yesterday 29. Ryan pijane 22in bratty kornovich. 27 i also know that working to end war is exhausting that it is easy to burn out that it seems like an impossible task. Not too long ago when we were talking about our current lives my first ex-husband made some grandchildren. Have to get start on the 2016 campaign i know i am still convinced that we can and more on this planet and that we have to do this in june and phoenix at our annual general assembly i picked up a book by unitarian universalist minister stephen ship we need to have some perspective on our work and our place in life and we need to keep ourselves open to moments of grace and inspiration when they come our way i smile because. Three-game perspective is itself a spiritual practice. One that involves our awareness of the vast scope of nature and the far reaches of human history from this wider view we realize that change is inevitable. We have to remember that we are not alone although it often seems as if we are studs terkel said something close to this i wake up in the morning and read the papers and say the human species is not going to make it then he continued i run into people who are making a difference we need to seek out stories that remind us that we are not alone stories such as one gauri's and her planting of the trees and somehow have to work through our fear of standing up and saying what we were trained to say and beyond war. We are one we are all connected beings on planet earth. As albert einstein said after the successful development of nuclear weapons everything has changed except our way of thinking. It is difficult to change our way of thinking when we are fearful we might have to change our actions as well. Somewhere in colorado on my drive from arizona to wisconsin last week i put a bumper sticker on my car. The sticker says. Grace happens sticker for a long time i just didn't want to put myself out there by displaying it on the back of my car having that sticker there might mean that i have to be a kinder driver. One who doesn't say nasty words. Or do something with a certain finger when encountering on offensive driver of which there sometime seem to be so many. Back to the poem that i read earlier. At the very end of at marie house right. I can hardly hear myself over there muttering. If that means she is distracted from doing the work of the world. How can i discipline my army she right they're exhausted and want more money trouble maintaining a balance in her life when my enemy seems so intent i think she is afraid of being the first one to step out of old patterns. Distraction and fear prevent us from getting down to the hard business of talking about war and how we can end it. So does failing to maintain a balance between our inner peace and the piece that we want to see in the wider world but there is grace. As well and there are people planting trees and writing books such as be the change there are so many people who came before us whose legacy depends on what we do people such as george mcgovern. And of course all those other people for veterans we owe them not only this brief remembrance. On november 11th every year but also our continued commitment to peace. Thank you sandy. For all the veterans. May the spirit of truth and love rule our hearts. And mines. And guide us. Into those ways that will create love. Just. And peace. On earth. Going piecing invite somebody to apply.

uuprairie_org

Pr130512panel-ed.mp3

Good morning. Welcome to prairie unitarian universalist. Society. I am the reverend sandra ingham better known as sandy. You are welcome here. No matter what your. Belize. Your ethnic or religious background. Your sexual orientation everyone is welcome. We do or do to try to come more than one time if this is your first time here or one of your first times here because our services can be different every week. They are done either by someone in our congregation which will be the case this morning or the services are sometimes done by outside people outside our society and sometimes i do the surface. This is owed to catherine written by tarragon converse for her mother kathy converse to her when there is no light left at the end of the day for tired soft hands reach out to touch my heart as no one else can her words to the fire within. Well that is a very special day what's the day mother's day sure for today story i'd like to tell you three short memories of my mom and me when i was a little girl and the force first story comes from when i was about four years olds anyone for here maybe not. And it's in wisconsin is about 90 miles that way. And it's in a very hilly part of wisconsin hills. So when i was when i was four we had a fire at our house and my family including myself and my parents and my little sister was just a baby and i were all at church when it happened fortunately. And therefore main things i remember about the fire. The first was that our cat was found swimming in the basement after the fire because you know they put a lot of water in there and it all went into the basement and the second was i had to spend the night at an old lady's house and she made me eat soda crackers in. Milk for breakfast and i never heard of that and it was too salty and the third thing was at my parents were really happy that we were all at church and not in the house when it caught fire and the fourth thing was that we had to move boys. We had to move to another house while our house was being fixed and that house was up the hill from our house. And there was a straight there and then the yard was below that and cut it was on what was called back street. And we had a big cloudburst once when we were living in that house in the water came pouring off the hills and off the street and down into our yard and it brought a lot of sand with it too cuz it was sandy there and it was the waters about 4 in deep in the yard. And i never saw her barefoot. Because she put me to bed before she. Undressing went to bed and then in the morning she got dressed before she came to see me so i don't ever remember seeing her barefoot but on this day when it rained like that in there was water so deep in the yard she took off her shoes and stockings and she had me take off my shoes and socks. And she took me by the hand and we went out waiting in the water and this is really exciting to me. One of the best memories of my childhood it seemed like a miracle that my mother had feet just like mine and everything and it was also a miracle that she would take me out to wade just like she was a friend of mine and the sun would shine in on my bed in the daytime in the morning so my mother would come into my bedroom and she's sit on the bed with me and she's sing a song to me about the sunshine that goes like this see if i can sing it. And she would play at good and loud and we kids would march around in a circle in the living room we would stomp we might say and we always begged her to play that song so we could enjoy stomping around in a circle to the music and by the way we were not allowed to dance in my family so this is as close as we came today. Okay well let's see if we can get aaron bosch book farm as a reggie butler eileen nettleton mary current maybe rick wrecking all up here at the jungle to start well happy mother's day to you all as you can see we have a many voiced service plans for you today and there's still some more voices who are out there as we all know our mothers had their gifts and they also had their warts. I must have done something naughty been yelled at and sent to bed maybe i went angrily and yelled at her you don't love me i don't clearly remember the prelude but i do remember that a little later she came in and sat on my bed hug me to her hard and said no matter how angry i get don't think that i don't love you. So mary-frances going to talk about professions of mothers and more i like to think of the procession of mothers my grandmother's and the one great-grandmother i can vaguely remember in the forward march of our own daughters grandchildren and the increasing profusion of great. The way to relax you want to be called mommy. I remember when the 60s came and she would say to me you think your generation just. But she was a. Did the word jewish mother was coined i think for my mom fierce fierce fierce orlove. Unbelievable and my cousin. Who was they who had started life as a atheist too wound up with her husband ray is it about jesus freaks. And we were having dinner and karen was trying to convince my mother to become religious. I should get more to give a gift she knew my mother was not going to be. Is the great determination and my father was not had no interest in that after 1 party where she had hooked up a real. Repast to blow everyone away my father was doing the dishes and he was just thinking he was washing they silverware with the comment and my mother freaked out. And run over to her and sit down the chair next right on lakeshore and put his head on her head shoulder and it meant just a million dollars to her. Although there came a time very soon thereafter that a memory went so badly that she no longer remembered shed or me just talked to her about the times in her life there were good and if some of the memories that i remembered her talking about you always used to love the beatles song the end. The real song with love you give is equal to the love you yet. And even though she have been in near coma for about a week before she came alive and said no. The love you take is equal to the love you mate which went back looking she was exactly like after she died and the building where she lived. So long ago so that's why i say i think we don't really know our parents until it comes time for them to pass from our lives and i can't sing like mary. I've got a postscript on his mother with imperial service the same woman who said she was always so beautifully dressed that she come out of her unyted meritor in the morning and she's see sylvie beautifully dressed and groomed and she decide she look too shabby chic. As we go from this place. Let us remember our mothers. All we learned from them may it be so going peace take time to greet your neighbors.

uuprairie_org

Pr120304SaidehJamshidi-ed.mp3

Good morning. Welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society my name is christina clock and i'm a member here at prairie uu. Serious buyers to be both an open-hearted and an open-minded congregation. We welcome people of every ethnic and religious background whatever your color sexual orientation gender or family structure. We welcome you no matter what your age or your abilities or your inability. Later in the service we will invite visitors guests and returning friends introduce yourself. So that we might get to know you better. On sunday mornings we provide a variety of services. They are presented either by a prairie member. The number of the wider community. Or by our minister who we are currently recruiting for a master so don't have one right now. Today syed jamshidi will be presenting a service on rumi very much look forward to that. Are chalice lighting this morning will be done by rebecca rhys you and their children. Come. ,. Whoever you are. Wanderer. Worshiper. Laura fleming. He doesn't matter. Alice is not a caravan of despair. ,. Even if you have broken your vow. Stapleton times. Come. Getagun come come. He said it would stop blooming. I now have the honor to introduce our speaker for today. Syed jamshidi with a foreign correspondent with a focus on the middle east region. Cdot has worked in different news organizations and iran in the united states. Currently she works for free speech radio news. And covers the middle east media for european journalism center. She is also a follower of romans path as a novice oofy. Please join me in welcoming that you.. Thank you thank you so much there okay it was an excellent introduction thank you so much pain i really enjoyed it. And thank you thank you so much for having me here. So i really thought hard about how to start and how to introduce this treatment great right now. That has touched the heart of so many people including so many ports in the united states on all around the world. Edward nicholson. Who spent about 40 years of his life. To translate masna be in in english and also it was interviewing lullaby and she was telling me that. And andrew has touched so many hearts and minds and i thought so in order to just put things into context and give you what it's important for me in my life to just give you a quick example and the story about my own life so basically. I when i started belt. I was 17 years old and no wonder i absolutely hated some i hated anything related to islam i hate it i hate it i hate it i hate it anything related to the islamic teachings whatsoever. I'm to understand that it's because 22222 put into the context of this kind of thing that i had. I was a child. R&r evolution broke 1979 i still remember those big guys with open mouth screaming and shouting in the main square. And saying nonsense to me was i all this people i was just a little kid just showed me so angry. And then it's far as war war between iran and iraq. Again i was about 29. 89 years old and a society that i grew up with extremely intense. n. And the government to me was at a actual david doing good babe ruth imposing all of their interpretation of what islam is and what islam should be unreal on people and people in general especially on women. Absolutely so so angry about that. So in return and in my own and sense of rebelled against all of these things i decided to absolutely hate islam. So i was about again 17 years old when my dad came over and told me that you know what whatever they do this is their interpretation. About islam it's not the religion i mean beautiful and the regency is so something something so many things to offer you should not mix their interpretation of islam with what day you know trying to say and do and i said no no. I read anything i read a history literature a german literature french history whatever and my dad had about. A library of more than 4,000 books usual you could only imagine that how many books i have a business and i grew up with this. Picture of imogen my mind always that's my dad came over and get on the weekends with a box of books. And books were available to us and it was mean i just enjoyed. To to to spend my time with great minds and great people. But still i hated song. My dad said confident and very best friend once came to me i love this manner to me he was one of the most. Absolute. Beautiful human being that i have ever encountered. So he came to me. Why don't you just try to scam to this book. Boss baby. I said. It's going to be about more levi it's going to be about. No no way you cannot make me to read it anything about discount. Try. You know. Just for the sake of me hear you say that you liked me just for the sake of me you know. Message okay. Says i really respected this man i decide okay. Do it i mean exactly like that. Okay i've been to read this book. So it's about the first date. Business name checker yakima canutt. I've enjoyed all you hardcore yet mcconnell. Cousin houston tomorrow beaupre.. I've nephi ramadan ali.. Cynical. How big william shattered a dish.. Podcasty kuduro monat as a slavish. Balls juliet roozegari bass clef. How to test c as in diamond. As that on that monday just destroying that it's was that. Atticus estranhos turtleman. There's lots of translations i decided to go with the. Jovi magetta did that i really respect this man. So. It goes like this. Now listen to this reed flute deployments. About the heartache being part from mint. Since from the reed birthday uprooted me. My songs express each human agony. Abreast with separation split into. Is what i see. To share this pain with you. Been kept from their true origin all yours. For union on the day they can return. Amongst the crowd alone i mourn my face. Good and bad i've learned. To integrate. You're so powerful i mean i'm i'm not exaggerating cuz extremely powerful to me and then i decided i mean there is. I mean say if they are saying these things it has to be something about this morning about this boyfriend about his portrait that i need to learn more. And then since i wasn't very avid reader i started reading and started to go into the sufism and into rumi. And here it goes i learned it that drew me was basically. Born in a very affluent family as penny mentioned his father about jen and. So it's stardust from tajikistan included afghanistan pakistan pakistan india and went all the way through the part of turkey so we're talking about a huge territory. But where they lived victory professional and it was a very specific dispute between the father and horizon shells this whole time so. To travel and i apologize i could have had a bitter mad. i just don't got this from the book i'm. I have but this area is touched and. They travel through this area is tyrann now iran and then they travel all the way to mecca. Did father tt play permits in mecca. And then it was in this area and then they travel towards the north to go to the konikoni was the capital of the surgery. But the longer this way when we was then about 18 years old that she decided to marry a very beautiful young woman in his caravan and the reproduction. So i just was saying that if you're amazing encounter 42 rules of love by alicia fox says there that is a fictional encounter over the rumi and shams and all this. I think happened in this area but there is a saying that a lord involved the person who mapped and planned champs murder. But anyway at but on the other hand very special son for 4 roommates. Sue. They. They got theirs they got there because their father was a great scholar he taught islamic law and islamic literature and and he was the great scholar of the time he was hired by the big school the main school there are to be as the main teacher. At the age of 85 he died on the chair the office was assumed for the sun's they did oldest and all this and see what he was about 25 years old at the time so he. And devoted himself to the sufi of the time who who was born hornady play the very great roof in his life. And it wasn't someone so he was a great scholar he became a great teacher and just imagine people all around the region and almost all around the area of islamic work aiming over to his lesson and to his classes to learn about islam to learn about to learn about islamic law. He was great. Great great. I'm on the other side it was this whirling dervish who was has such a. Urgi had he had such a. He was famous for being very very forward and assume the very great power in terms of influencing people and attracting people switch. And his name was chance of tyrese his from the town that i am from tyrese in inerrant so my parents turkish so and and some account i say october 29th. So i don't have the picture about the the area or the school but just imagine such a beautiful school and it was dormitory all around and just imagine very vibrant environment when they are students they are teachers they are think about court courthouse they are talking. He enters. This space. Big space imagine about 200 students and they are just listening to this great scholar. The interns on the goes to the room it directly to the room and he says what's your name. What do you mean i am gelatin more levi and he says i know who you are what are these he said these are my books images of my knowledge. I'm booked a very expensive commodity and it's not it's not like it was just one or two copies and people didn't have an answer so much to so much books. And and shampoo. I paid for this knowledge. And dad higgins, show me an imagine he does all of this in front of all of this 200 people and you can imagine this urge and this power that power character that no one could ever move to do anything. Andrew me gets very mad he picks the boots and this is only imagine this is the only copy i have. On a chance against his ability to this knowledge. Into the water. And he picks the book looks at their book. There's no staying there is no the book. Hasn't been touched ever. It is dry. And that that was that. Sony sent after chance chance comes to habitude his court was a big court was it very big house. Comes to his court and his friend about to listen to years. I didn't do this two years we do not know what happened. But keep hold the pose the disciples you're extremely angry. That this man this you know and whirling dervish has taken away our teacher the great scholar who is this man we have to get rid of him. So if they make the whole town extremely impossible to live for him. Then this happened so on he was a virgin dervish and he wasn't supposed to even to stay and he was just traveling and he had phoned of this great man. From him all around this is mommy crying. So he decided to date. It's husband. That's when he left. Rumi. When. He was absolutely mad mad in terms of not mad crazy it was super who might need my husband who decides patrick. Absolutely. Disturbed. In pain agony. He was very sex. And it was a recording report of his behavior where he sometimes went out with in his pajamas. Did the lantern looking house-to-house for champs. Unimaginable imagine versions kids doing this or huntington is doing, and. I entered the room and he says that it's. His father who is doing reciting all this. Beautiful lying specialization sequoia sequoia jamaican.. And then he gets very of something happening here. And it and he asked so what one of the other disciple to come over and they start writing. Start driving and the first book of master v. Comes into life. And after that ocean's this is 18 was not he was out-of-this-world and he was just so so upset. So i saw the time that goes after a chance to try to find shansky find chansey bring champs 522 from damascus to o'neill version stays there for about another 14 months but again there is a report that forever no one permanently and there is a record again that none of it's all speculation but it says that he was he was murdered by. Fire chanson second son. This was my snuggie and then he did teavana cab you just imagine i mean i just i only have this. Is he you just you just just the very thick book of mass navi and very thick book about 165 lines of poetry. Beautiful absolutely beautiful. So after i did all of this research i started thinking okay why this man we have so many voice you have so many funds wisely why is he is became such an important figure. And i didn't tell you if and in high school i was just always so. Frustrated by this idea that they have to read arabic. You know i have to read quran in arabic so i was always wishing to you know to at least have some text that can explain god in a very beautiful profile and way in persian. I'm not that i would compare out of the conversion is like compared french and english you know they are so much so much alive but still they're two different language. Today i started. If this happened this is this is why this man is very very important first of all. Percival he shook the foundation of islam. How. He said that teaching you need to you need to do a few things including if you are a good mother you have to do program it. Go to mecca. And pay your respects to speak to god. And you have to pray 5 times a day and you have to fast. For one thing i said that you do not need to go to mecca to find god. If you it's huge amy prophet muhammad said whoever is my husband has to go to mecca. Get me what this man says he can find god inside you and your heart. Imeca is here. So one important thing. The other important thing is that you need to speak to god directly. Okay so. Islamic practice and i just explained of this very very very quickly so you pray five times a day and before you pray there is a reach all you do is like you do a ovulation it's bazoo and you're entering to the world of god. You know how you should not break this world wars with any any kind of bad behavior whatever you eat basically clean yourself and then you go and you talk to god directly. It's god okay now i'm talking and you are listening to me right. It's sad i mean your talk and god listening to you it's like that. So an end this it is this practice romy said that you should do that practice but you know in islamic religion has been put so much emphasis on this kind of practices. But julie said that you can still reach the high possibility of your being without even practicing any of those. You have to only constantly being conversation with good god. It is also very very crucial. I said was okay so there is different stages in your life basically you have to you have to work. Very hard and you have to fight against those. Evils. In order to reach the best of you can so 15 gets you you reach the best of you can read meu perfect yourself. It's not how i want to be jesus christ or i want to be prophet muhammad you can be there i mean there is no there is no limitation if you said you were. But the thing is. Each time you need to just be better. Just just just just work on it. And remember it is a very scary and very difficult path you take you know because the path is a niche time you met food. I just like mine too mean. Did the best example i can think of is smoking. If you do if your smoker each time you try to quit and you you you go back and you smoke again. But the bedroom is says diversity. Prayer that you just read. Come come whoever you are come he said bazar bazar. Algebra molko with paris t bazaar there's room there is room just come back just make your effort what matters is the effort. On what matters is that you just fight and keep fighting. But you need you need someone to take you along because it's a very difficult time.. On thursday. because the person has gone through this visit ages. And has reached a point and can't help you. Getting.. So distant desert did very important teaching. But here's the thing. Cheetos. All of this. Authority tells you that stories. I think it's like bible you know. So this is a story on this is the way that we need to look at the story and this is the lessons from the storage right. But i think for the persian speaking people. He tells this story in such a profound. Unbeautiful way. He looks at this story in such a way that it's you know. I think that's why it's nick. It made him rumi. It's because. One of the line is filled the lines that they were just reading his says okay so. There is a seat. He says okay what is this tea what do you see in this city. English sikhe i see an apple i see an orange. I see speed that has never grow up and talks about this seat forever. Android kind of connection to see and god that it's beyond beyond this world. And that's why i think it's very interesting and i think it's. And it's long did that but because and i just draw this conclusions i i think my dad is right and islam has all this unity change whatever it offers but it's the practice of us. Has made you know this kind of idea that okay so conservatism or terrorism or whatever isn't is it has made this. A sewell. So. Then. And it's been just through the process of very particular people. I'm not the word itself has. Really so you know i think you had in crusader. Did you. Christianity to do anything. And it was a very interesting click in my mind that i said okay so yes it is that and this is roommate if i need to do anything i need to just. Understand what is it there. For me to learn and to perfect myself. Towards a feather. Understanding of life. Thank you very much. We do have time for a couple questions. Nothing is easier than translating other poets other persian poets. And you can still understand that you can still enjoy the aesthetic. But there's a tempting meaning very important. And but even by translation who can understand the beauty the beauty of the idea is very good.. Coleman barks nicholson spend many years 40 years to translate romy and. Columbia university teacher and also its color. Coleman barks in glenolden meet at one of the party that please take threw me out of the nicholsons prison. But he has done a very good job of he just too out. My snuggie is 6 books. So i think he's also very good but if you just want to enjoy roomie, and boxes. Admire president. But if you want to study with me. What thank you very much and i think that don soon enough people had other questions or comments there be a little gathering is that true so you do for just a few minutes after the service. Spell. Thank you very much. Our clothing words will be provided by paulo. Be like melting snow wash yourself. Love yourself. Thank you for coming today please extend the hand of friendship to those around you and join us for some coffee and conversation.

uuprairie_org

Pr211114AnkurDesai-ed.mp3

Today's presentation. Is what can you do about climate change by anker.. It relates to our seventh principle respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which way which we are apart. I'm criticized is a professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at the uw-madison. Studies how ecosystems respond to climate variability. And how the climate responds to ecological patterns and processes. Taken away uncle. Alright. Thanks for inviting me to come talk and have a little discussion about climate climate change and now it's always topic. It's on your mind and sometimes a topic you don't really want to hear about the talking about chism's things that sometimes it makes you feel. But i hope that maybe leave you a little bit of a message kind of hope and and how we might be able to actually come together as community. To address how we solve and how we handle. The ways of the world is changing as a result of our actions and how we might be able to. Undo. The worst of those. So yes mentioning call me encore. Your decisions and watch the carbon and water exchange between them so i always like looking into such a beautiful view. Blessing of the bounty of the natural resources we have in this part of the country. So. Start by just thinking about you certainly heard a lot of things about climate change in course what can you do about this as where we're going to end and i'm not going to tell you to go change a lightbulb. Certainly it's been quite a summer right we had a record-setting heat wave in seattle with temperatures breaking is 100 fahrenheit. What do you saw things about the other fires in mediterranean island's that much evacuation. Perhaps you heard about the extreme flooding events in germany. As well as the ones from hurricane irma and new york and new jersey catastrophic disasters. Maybe you remember last winter when places in the south and gulf coast state suffered from extreme cold event. That led to significant power outages not particularly heard. Poorer communities in and communities the color i in particular on that were often left without resources and infrastructure repairs for many many weeks. I'm in closer to home we've seen of course events of extreme precipitation and rain and flooding so here's a picture from duluth from the year-ago of high water levels affecting bridges in the area. And any cds images. I just wonder what's going on in this sense of change and and. I don't want to leave you with that feeling and so hopefully i'll kind of try to give you a little bit better perspective of how we understand because one of the questions you might want to ask his wow this is climate change. A lot of times people just want to ask will they climate change has caused these events and it's so like he knows that it yeah this is what the world were going to live in. One point i want to make is that that's really not the right question the real question we want to ask you. How much does a changing climate influence. The likelihood of magnitude or probability but something's going to happen and of course more relevant to all of us here can we do something to reduce that like we are this not so much. That we can live in a world that has no hurricanes that has no floods that has no social injustice that leads to disaster hurting some communities more than others. We have ways that steps of social and economic question about how we live and how we work together. But we can try to understand the physical science behind climate to be able to make and reduce some of those farms which is a fundamental kind of moral. And an ethical precept that we should have his people's. So some of the stuff i'll talk about today is really the work of many climate scientists around the world and in particular. Time piece of climate scientists i like to work with these or these students and postdocs and and staff. Inr eco meteorology lab that studies ecosystems and climate they come from all over the world but many parts of the us as well as other countries in this image from india from china from indonesia. Addition to german germany in addition to alaska and you are canned minnesota not to mention wisconsin and so. This is a pre pandemic picture back in the day when it was easier to gather like this but when i ask my people look like. And you're really smart people. Mouses. What i like you know it sounds like a fancy thing lot of mass that is really nothing more than the average. Right and so. Often there's a quote that often incorrectly attributed to mark twain but actually goes to andrew john. In climate changes both naturally over long time. thousands of years and by humans over shorter time trees like centuries both of those things. I like his clothes from marshall shepherd marshall's a good colleague of mine is a former presidents the american urological society and a great speaker. He likes this i like this quote it is climate is your personality weather is your boo. It kind of sets the stage for what happened surrounded. So we can actually look at that in data i'm a very imma dated eat that's kind of what draws me a lot to science and. Just fantasy climatology office the graybar steer the high and low temperatures everyday in madison for the last. 10 months of 2021. And the. What do you know you can certainly see you might remember that real calls last snap we had in february. You might remember that we kind of had an early and warm spring in april and that summer was kind of. It was warm and there wasn't too much variation it didn't really feel like they're super hot days or super cold days you can kind of see that in this. That's the weather patterns during our today this is from yesterday. But what's really interesting me or not the gray bars but the red and the blue blue already 30-year average of that high and low temperature. And there's some things in there what you can see if courses a seasonal pattern. There's some fluctuations you know who can see where we're going and when people say when you look at the weather forecast or something or do you want. Below normal or above normal day what they really mean is that the high and lows either above or below these red. That is climate. The question we want to ask is as this changes or if this changes. What happens it whether that's occurring underneath cuz the weather is basically occurring mostly within the bounds kind of moving up and around those. And that's really what climate change is right and then sometimes it's a hard message to get into the old kind of changing 1°. Well the one degree is a change in the blue and the red moving up by 1. And that's been pushing for kind of your loading to dice of all of these do weather patterns that come through you still have cold winters you still have. I so nice summer but you just made something for like me something less likely. And we can look at things like the average of climate across time for places like all the southern wisconsin you take the same type of data and you just bought it out from say 19. I don't see a lot of big changes in this i see some really warm ears like the 1930s and really cold snaps like in the 1970s. Or maybe we'll take it out and let gas say all of north america let's do the same thing. Well now that starts to look a little interesting here to blues or below-average years and the reds are about that for cheers. You can also see some real cool time periods in the 1960s and 70s to the rapidly rising rates during that time it was kind of. And then you see this really interesting things that happen after 1980 or so i teach students who are now generally born around 2001-2002. Nothing like to tell them that they have actually never lived. Enable o average year of climate. North america. We still might say okay well what is this this mean is that really mean finest changing maybe these are just patterns. Do we can kind of do the same analysis for every spot on the globe and again the same colors loser below the average climate the 1950 to 1980 in red square above you can kind of look at the hopefully animations not too choppy for you remote. Zoom world but. See there's some interesting patterns 25 years it goes from warm to red to blue and tropical to suspect that's called a psycho we caught on ninho. You see sometimes when it's warm in the eastern united states is cool in the western united states is a very common pattern in our country. Every once in a while there's a real big cold outbreaks in siberia. And there's some stuff happening maybe there's a lot more variability over the land masses and there are over the ocean. But then something kind of. Turn down to 70.. You still see some blues now and then. 2013 14000 really cold winter for the midwest. But i was actually pretty unique to the midwest rite in northeast united states. When we get into recent years. And the blues and it disappeared except for a couple of really interesting spots with the atlantic ocean. That's really kind of cyclic climate change or something happened to anyone spot in the world. We start looking at the whole world in your things like the dust bowl disappear.. And you released me from about 1970 mid-1970s onward which is when some of the first biggest essence of a changing climate. Started to really get britt brazen concern is 1968 that president johnson. Based on working the 1950s by scientists who were building on the theoretical work that was on the 1890s far before. Anybody has including some early sign to the pioneers like eunice but. I'm the woman who was also famous for being the first signer of the seneca falls declaration. I am kind of did the early pioneering work on how co2 change the atmosphere and it wasn't until recently that we started. And various other stories and some of the articles that came afterwards at 10. Gain greater prominence due to gender discrimination at that time. But it's a really important story of the way that the science has really been trying to understand us for a long. of time. 2020 is an average year you can see that virtually every spot in the world is above average. Cooling waters here and kind of thinking that water and changing the dynamics ocean circulation. I like this chart for the new york times it kind of looks that well what does that mean for weather and sounded the same way so this is kind of weather average weather in every location in the us and kind of in a distribution right histogram. Calcium really hot and some days that are really cold for 1950 to 1980. And what that looks like today this is actual weather station observations. Is basically that yeah we still have really cold days now and then just happened less awesome and we now have three-to-one ratio of record highs to record lows in the united states. I in the most recent period of analysis in this particular. So that's kind of the way it looks. And this is not new sciences i mentioned i love this newspaper article from 1912 and a new zealand newspaper. Tons of coal a year and this is bernie 97. This is a remarkably scientifically accurate very short newspaper article it with one exception which was the last sentence is wrong. The effect may be considerable in a few centuries the ids year that the understanding of the acceleration of the economy are people of the way we are going to use fossil fuels and play century was completely. Unexpected to most people it's early but at the same time the understanding that that were change climate was very well understood at a very long time ago does not new signs. Is that your sister. Pictures of some guy on the top there and john tindall have other pioneering 19th century scientists. I love this damage from a bloomberg magazine we're now we used computer models to ask questions or what could change climate. We can ask what we're sorbets it does change a little bit the strength of the sun that does volcanoes. And if you look at all of those because the natural factors and we asked what how much temperature today explained we can run a computer model or recalled everything else constant but those as well. Do a really good job on those two lines don't really add up. We can also ask about human factors like land use change ram clearing pollution. And the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide methane. Together those human factors. I have spoke warm and cool climate the greenhouse gas effect we dominate. That's what you do a better job capturing that trend that we saw on the white line but it's really when he put all these together. Both the natural and human factors that you really start to see a story of how well we can explain everything. And that's good that's job security for me but we have a really good news no better hypothesis that exist that explain why climate is changing in this is my 99.9. That's true today as it was in the past so we can also look a tree rings and coors and records from thousands of years past. And one of the things that's remarkable just how stable climate which is shown here in the bottom graph stable carbon dioxide concentration. This is the period when release uman civilization and agriculture and societies. Came to be. Humans are adapted to. Exploration and colonization from europe and north america. I as well as things like that little ice age that led to significant crop damage and and societal collapse has many of the great. Dynasty country that occurred around that time. Elsewhere. So we look at this at wisconsin it's a little bit more. Many ways what happens here is more about what's happening north of us. The ice melts. Amazon many ways that's interesting and also very difficult. Thing to figure out how climate change is affecting us locally as much getting less cold as it's getting warmer. But it comes with. You know and with all sorts of other question so here's the ice record number of days of ice on lake mendota one of the most longest monitored icetrekkers in the world. When you can see very clearly this loss of about typically 100 110 days of ice to something more like 90 days of us. That has implications for ecosystems in africa. Earlier spring that's basically occurring with the warmer winter is also well-documented things like migration and in vegetation no leopold bradley. Leopold's. Mother grandmother. I kept very accurate records at their shack in baraboo of all of these things that's one of our best records of kind of how local plants are changing and local migrations in the offset into two is affecting things like pollination. If you have a warmer climate you also get a more active hydrological cycle so it rains more and more. And that's very true except being winter in wisconsin are getting more snow and more rain. And in the summer getting more extreme rain but only the southern half in the northern half of the state is actually getting drier and so this is also really complicated. Certainly i think many of us here are very. Cognizant and aware of the summer increasing summer extreme range that works lead to some of the worst flooding events between recently in southern wisconsin both in urban areas as well as in. Rural areas in southwest wisconsin. Here's the average number of 3 in a greater range in madison from the 1950s onward and it's just kind of really pops out when you look at that somebody who's failed my basement several times in the past decade. The question is where are we and where we headed what could we do. Right so. Here we are in the animation that people have shared. Bierstadt climate now sean is colors and our global change and we kind of have a point where we have to make some decisions right where we can either. Potentially increase it because we have a world that's developing a world that we are trying to reduce poverty and a worldatwork is urbanizing and has higher demand for things like me eating another and many of those are. Good right we want to reduce poverty we want people to be healthier and live longer we want. I ever going to have the same kind of quality of life that smokes in the developed world can have. But right now that requires basically increasing are you supposed to do that is going to lead to a climate that brings us back so climate we haven't seen on earth. Or make some decisions about how we smartly grow the world and we take seriously these commitments to reduce emissions and use alternatives and promote energy sources and promote emissions reduction. And we're still going to have some climate-warming that's that's kind of a base into the system we have to accept that a little bit that's just part of our. And i'm moving past his sense of there's nothing we can do about it. And say we're going to have to help the world little bit but this is going to be a lot easier and most of what we know from the sciences when you get a buzz like around 2 degrees warming. That's when you really start to see more negative effects than call any positive potential positive benefits. This is what's going on right now so and the so-called conference of parties 26 conference just wrapped up this is the part of the un framework on. Climate change convention. That us 190 other countries are signatories to since 1990 dr30 summit and. . basically sets the protocols in place for countries to determine how much they're going to reduce their emissions the very complex political process because we have to ask this question. Who does most definitions which is primarily. Developed richer countries that have done this since the start of the industrial revolution are not faced the worst impacts. Along the coast in small island nations are merely to global spouse. And really trying to recognize that there has to be some sort of equity or justice that played into any discussion of how we reduce climate change. We owe it to the world to say we benefited from the way fossil fuels change the world in many ways. And also suffered in other ways. And we want the rest of world to thrive and we have to commit to making at thrive without making it worse for everyone and causing trillions of dollars of damages on that. Is our cheaper to move on this pathway on the bottom and it is the one on the top of course there's many pathways in between as well as someone's below. Ideas that are a little bit far more require far more. Intervention but are possible. I'm happy to talk about those in discussion as well. When you look at wisconsin we know that going on one pathway versus the other has a really large impact on our future temperatures. Weather we have five degrees fahrenheit warming of climate which maybe doubles our frequency of a 90-degree days in madison and tustin 4:30 sub-zero days madison. Or something that maybe even triple the quadruples that. Do you know if the decisions we're making in the next few decades are going to have a large impact on the type of planning we have to do in communities. To be able to address the changes that might occur. The free sample my study works on ecosystems quite a bit. And we work a lot in northern wisconsin and michigan which has some of the most expensive united states. These forests are highly productive. And they are a major source of revenue in terms of timber production that supports many industries including paper and pulp. And so one of those things that folks have looked at this is an actual document climate-change field guides as far as changes were yes we are relying heavily on winter season logging around here. I drank seasons increasing by 14 to 49 days for those two are very broad range. Even a wetter forest completed dryer for us cuz it turns out that under higher co2. Plants become more efficient in how they used to use water. And they're going to open her some autumn warner actually going to dry out the soil faster if they're really kind of counterintuitive finding. Without frozen grounded become tired a lot invasive species tend to an average do better or grow faster. I'm in deer in particular are likely to benefit from this man has lot of implications for a structure and composition. As well as deer helps write a very overpopulated deer population is one is more likely to face disease more likely to have other issues as well. Of course this season. plenty of politics. So what can we do about climate change. So probably the community looks at this from. Adaptation is things we can do to reduce the harm of the climate change is going to happen and mitigation are ways we can just reduce the pace of climate change. By reducing emissions. Reason we have to do that is siri i like this gratz little tricky. The total amount of emissions from 1870. Just a total amount. We know that there's probably at least another couple thousand more times the co2 from oil buried underground look at all the coal in the world they're certainly something closer to 7.. And if you think of the natural gas reserves have been recently discovered that kind of the far-right. If we stabilize emissions now we still warm climate a little bit. If we wait 30 years we are going to push past that special 2° warming even if we stabilize the mission we can afford it better. And the cost of doing this is duck is not linear right it becomes exponentially larger to wait thirty years because these types of effects that occur. Are far more expensive. And negative emissions are some happy to talk about in the discussion which involves taking co2 out of the year. Directly removing it and buried underground. I need route technologies that are being looked at right now. Our kind of our best hope but a lot of those require significant research and development as well as understanding side effects and negative effects of doing some of these. And so that's why i had a patient both economic account. People whose island nations are being flooded by sea level rise for refugee status under un guidelines for refugees. Right now that's an open question. Right right. As well as technological stand so rich countries in particular can build fire seawalls can do other things. We're we're seeing some very dramatic effects occurring right or cokes or something is billinger homes higher. Because the ties that come in the floods that come in when the tide is high or hurricanes are coming in or just at much higher cuz it was slightly higher sea-level that's already affecting those communities today. The mitigations challenge story is also complicated and that sounds lovely but when you think about things that are required weather.. Making it more expensive to pollute. Whether it's requiring and causing fines and other regulatory action verb agreement. Whether that's through education and policies that change how we use fossil fuels. Answer for example just medugno improving gender equality around the world in a household size menstruas education levels. Or technological changes like that we talked about. So here we are this is the also feeling mission from 1990 onward from this lovely global carbon project you can see here's the covid bump lock down to 7%. A little bit to where we are. You can see there was an acceleration in the 2010 it kind of there was the 2007 financial crisis was really cool. And then you have this kind of move a slowdown in growth what's going on this really are we actually like maybe we're actually doing something. The thing is you have to look at it by country so if i take us in grass i split it off by china the us european union. You can see the european union has been kind of slowly declining some of that is. Unresponsive and agreeing to reduce their emissions and building more efficient cities and transit the part of it. Has been by outsourcing their manufacturing that's really what you see in this year. China's exports increased dramatically after 2000 as well as a country the billion people that is rapidly urbanizing and developing. And relying on the fact that they have a 200 years of coal buried underground. But then they slow down. Brands of the story what's happening around the world is this much about a story that's happening in one in certain parts of the world versus the other. Mean on the us are missions of trying to stabilize part of that is a large-scale shift from cold and natural gas to decree rounds. And discovery of large grass fields. That comes at a cost for sure to the environment but natural gas does admit about half as much co2 per energy generated as coal. Legacy here countries like india are slowly creeping officer population roseanne urbanized develops. But he might say okay well then this is really just a story china sky to reduce emissions that's it but if you start looking at it per person this is where it really becomes about what you need to do. The story becomes necessary united states uses the average person us uses about three to four to 15 times more energy and emissions than the average person in the world. And that's really interesting even china here is kind of closer to europe right there are ways that the united states has to be the leader. In emissions reductions that even though that made great strides they have more ways to go. But there's a lot happening there is kind of. I'm a lot of excitement occurring with dane county. In wisconsin retirement does at 2 gigawatts of clans. All of south australia's powers come from solar. You're 16 mini league players you can debate the pros and cons of nuclear energy but it is a. Potential and for many people have argued you have to include nuclear energy mix if you actually want to get away from fossil fuels. And we have things going on between the us and china and discussions about emissions reductions are happening so there are green leaves out there in a lot of what you can do about climate is about thinking about where you stand on these types of questions and how you support and promote or. Besides cuz he's all come with cost for sure these i'll come with environmental questions that you have to consider things like transmission lines and effect on landscapes. As well as global agreements and how that influences geopolitics and taxes. My own work is also shown that there's a lot of really interesting things we could do just by small changes in how we manage forest we can actually increase our sequestration a carbon and trees while still managing them. Or timber in production or something like 10% of our fossil fuel emissions. It was it was not a big deal. But every single one of these things makes a small dent and it's really putting them all together that you really start to get a story of how we're going to fix climate change. The thing is you might say all-weather so many people who don't care about climate change. And the story is dust that's that's actually misinformation or really disinformation some cases active disinformation. The majority of americans are either concerned or at least somewhat curious about what climate most people are behind the people who are outright dismiss. No surprise. Your neighbors care about climate change. The real problem is you can ask me wisconsin 80% of wisconsinites the portland noble energy. I researched 3/4 support regulating co2 70% support coal plant limitations on intermissions and and renewable energy. Amanda. The problem is on the bottom side. We tend to believe our neighbors and our friends around us don't have the same value so that they're very politically divided on this that's really not the case. What is the cases that most of us don't talk to each other about global warming answer my simple solution. what are you doing about climate change is exactly what you're doing right now which is talking to me and talking to others. About hey what's changing around you what do you care about how do we still take care of the things we carrabelle. And think about that stack that. Death culture of care union that is something i think is very much within the wheelhouse of faith communities in particular right and defacing needs of all served in many cases leaders also in trying to deal with and very similar. There are people who are talking a lot about people who are currently students or younger. I said usually the number one or two issue of people who are currently in college and certainly is greta thunberg a well-known climate activist. But there's quite a bit of discussion going on in supporting what's going on in talking to you how what's happening on the ground. In the same way that these movements led to changes in things like removing lead from gasoline and fixing the hole in the ozone hole to the gazing out of cfcs and aerosols and fire extinguishers and air conditioning. In the same way that air pollution produced by an actually conservative republican proposal cause captain trade that allowed for free market solutions to reduce acid rain damage from fire plant power plants. Humpty sings all existence and done before but they really require that discussion to be happening. I think that even if you don't care about climate change. There's lots of things you might end of fire that kind of comes with that. There may be other issues around the world that we all have a reason to want to try to. Reduce the harms of terrorism of water scarcity repression or public health or food insecurity or wealth inequality. And the point i like to make about this is that reducing climate change farms makes all of these things a lot of things that we have an obligation book ethically and morally to address not just. Easier to solve. And i think that's the message i want to take with you right that it's just. There whatever you care about there's a way that the world we live in and they deduct common air that we breathe at least learned very closely with covid-19. Is all of ours to share and take care of. And ends as a faith community write that message which is very common in many face and beliefs in the stewardship of the earth. Things that i thinking about the role that humans have on honda and how much were dependent on nature. To ride. Is very very common in every single phase tradition and every single boo book that's out there and i think that's something that you know is a discussion to happen anyways. So i know it's been a few minutes overtime so i should probably go by love this mural that was on state street last year after their racial justice protest. Love is greater than a right it's very easy to be. Afraid and 2ds. Nothing there's nothing we can do right and really there is something you can do which is to not be afraid but took needless love. And that's a message that i want to share with everyone around here today so it's not just thank you and thank you for spending some time. Thank you very much uncle. That was fascinating and we do have time for. For some discussion. There's a lot of student interest in this question and working with undergraduates. 3 fortune privilege to work best. I'm very engaged by students university wisconsin and madison in my experience has been that many of them are just very curious. And you're also very concerned and so right now i'm teaching at austin teaching undergraduate global change. And and we focus on trying to understand how scientists communicate around. The real questions are about the social economic political. Challenges that go around to addressing those which do have. Multiple perspectives that you have different political traditions and thoughts about how you handle environmental harm. Those things for example we didn't assignment where they had to. Look at the infrastructure bill and the budget bill is currently being talked about on the white house and then the congress and to focus on some of the climate. Provisions in those bills and to represent the organization regardless of how they. Enter write letters to both senators johnson baldwin using different rhetorical styles for those based on their ways that they think about and that there were ways they could write effective letters to both. Senators on different sides of the aisle system about the same issue and and so i think people want to talk about it. It's kind of shying away from say the complicated politics that go with addressing climate change for sure and the students. It is their top concern. There's going to be some way that what's happening around you in the world of the climate is going to influence your career or at least the way you live. In the next 60 days. 7 years. Smile again just real quick. So what would being brought up here is the green curb is russia right and. You can see russia had a very dramatic increase in fossil fuels and part of that is that they have a lot of. And then we had the collapse of the soviet union in 1990. But you're still very heavily dependent don't coil coal and natural gas from really expensive for heating. And and so they haven't had as much ability to say reduce emissions in the same weight as other countries. That is a big challenge even in the us where country states like wisconsin minnesota dependent on coal and natural gas for heating. I have much higher emissions on average per capita in a state like california know some of that is california has. You know more stringent regulations but they also have a much more easier to manage climate in terms of heating and cooling. I think every act like that matters even if it sometimes feels symbolic because it makes a statement from your community that these are values you care about. What do you feel about having a very large wind farm or solar farm in your community right you can kind of way those priorities against every other things that challenges. Certainly has been fossil-fuel emissions compared to say sunday other environmental issues of the past is that. Fossil fuels are kind of in everything. Right and so whether that's embedded in the food system and transportation and heating and cooling in electricity. Until it's really really difficult untangler to say that anyone. Action that you do would dramatically reduce emissions and and so i tend to shy away as much as i often like to meet my students. Do you have an impact. We certainly know that in terms of individual mindfulness about things like where your food is coming from we know for example beef vs chicken versus vegetables has a very like an order of magnitude difference among. I don't like to get into talking about food because it's also tied closely to culture and and and who you are and family and practice but there is something to be said about being mindful about what. There's a lot to be said for. I'm just thinking about how to make communities more equitable. Awesome fruits many things like us some of equity seem like a public transit that improves access to communities that can't get to places that improves climate to improve. You know we also know that right challenges things like wealth inequality and others also addressing those environment too many of these things. Are often in communities that have the least to do with some of these challenges and write. And then then advocating for that perspectives. Any one individual action right is it's there isn't one that i've got the kid over the others i certainly have no eyes i shows. To try to not drive as much to think since i can't buy that shows the cell climate scientists sign just before the conference's we have moved away from doing some of that relying more personal technology. Making those little dance even though seems like aviation is only 2% of global emissions. Has. Has some summit training is certainly about setting your balance clear. Thank you. Willow. I thinking about those small. All things that we can do to contribute. More conversational. I think talking and come together and how you vote tonight and i think a lot of the questions that you would run upcoming local community so i could even things like how you build infrastructure. Important conversations that have to occur with individuals and communities right nothing at the global level is going to address that. Thank you so much you're welcome i'm happy to follow up with anyone over email anytime down the road so you know where to find me. Thank you very much.

uuprairie_org

Pr090412SolKelley-Jones-ed.mp3

I'm so glad to see all of you especially in such a beautiful day in here it's really an honor to be here is always found my. Myhome really among unitarian universalist. Congregations and communities and review of our struggle for justice. Struggles for changing our world. I'm talking ticket. I'm kind of from that experience that expensive being marked outside. Facing discrimination facing prejudice. Face painting. In many ways. I also felt how powerful it was. Share personal story. It was actually so my family rotten once people actually saw me. We weren't quite as scary and and are our stories in our voices in our faces. What it meant to be. But also with that and be marked outside i was always drawn to all different struggles for justice. And kind of had to go through this steven have me to live life honestly and openly but also the. The struggle for racial justice in our community the struggles freakonomics justice always involved in. Many different issues ecojustice. And that kind of came of age. In those movements. Premier always been drawn. Two issues in our world that we don't see. So why don't we see for example and these issues why don't we see palestinian people why don't we hear about mexican migrant. I'm wearing these stories that are on our news why are their masks and invisibility. About these about these things i came to it when i was in high school 9th grade my freshman year in high school. And so obviously huge time writing huge huge silencing. I mean is i'm sure all of you remember and it's still happening the silencing of dissent silencing of debate silencing of conversation. Rising rising islamophobia rising fear of arabs rising fear of muslim rising to the rhetoric of an other over here that we can't see. That will need to make some other to go to work right. But over here. I always really wanted to be doing art. Rooting for me was in doing activism actually had given up these places that i came alive even spiritually that i spell invigorated and excited about. That is active in the community. That was a place that it started for a lesbian gay bisexual and transgender youth usin lesbian gay bisexual transgender families and allies to come together and through our stories and throw voices try to create theater. They came right out of that try to create original work experience but also. Could be social justice right could not only working educating people. But even the process and power ourselves in a lot of ways in the put in leadership. In leadership roles. And seeing social change not just as kind of a picket in the street or organizing but also as the process was pretty hard so i wanted to keep bringing these different areas together. Interested in these border areas. I'm supporter age between identity. Border areas on the us mexico border border areas and israel-palestine. For me and progressive going up and forgot her medicine but like we can talk about all kinds of issues with the issues that always people seem to have fear around talking about. Literally. Israel-palestine. And sometimes the silent everything but not. Not that. We don't go there that will divide us that will split us. And of course when i hear that as a person am i. What person has the privilege of being college and being alive and huge being at this time in our history. Part of my follow-up my responsibility to see. I'm to see what my government was doing to see what are you know our tax dollars are funding isn't actually something on another side of the world this is something. Right here that we're supporting that not only the processes of. Racializing someone is making someone other than happen all the time even inside ourselves. But. Literally. These are a tank. This is our money building walls. The last year at this time i spent he's an opportunity of spending. The background of what drew means deficiency. Amazing opportunity of spending on the entire semester so three months. The westbank. In. Occupied. And my work starting my working college has been working with theater theater and social justice and anti-oppression work. Brothel house theater is being used by different kind of social movements different organization. As resistance itself. The resistance to occupation. I'm resistance to races on resistance to violence resistance to canopy kannamma compression. As a movement for sharing boy. A movement for cultural expression. A movement. Also for healing an inversion from trauma. And so. The workout is doing in the west bank has working in palestinian refugee camps. Drought in butter no i wish i had some visuals here for you today but if you think of where is the west bank and gaza. Occupied territories. And i worked out the westbank. In. Three different mainly three different. Three different cities in one of them for example of 28,000 people living in 1/4 of a square kilometer of space. Do you think this is like intense intense high density population. I'm people who are experiencing every night incursions. From the armies that means tanks come in i mean bombs going off everyday people whose. Had lost their fathers and brothers have been arrested their son is killed i mean. People living with constant pain was working both of young people. Organization. Palestinian organizations already in the westbank. We're working on. Theater as an intervention kind of the state of human emergency. How you work with theater and unburdening from violence. How you work with theater and trauma. Cloudkid. A lot of adults as well and collaborating with both israeli and palestinian and international. Activists and human rights workers from different communities. As well. Trying to be something i'm not only to witness what's going on. Because again we don't see right. And you always cure. I think one side of the story all the time that we kind of eat every morning for breakfast when we are mainstream media and mainstream news. I'm supportive part of my work and think was seeing and witnessing. I'm trying to work was giving. Pretty little bit. Kind of cycle of trauma and cycle of suffering. For people and then review and then talk about my expectations versus reality stand. And did probably the craziest. Most unhealthy thing i could possibly do that i think was the best thing i asked. It's a human rights organization on the us mexico border in tucson. Arizona. And what's happening in longview right now we know what this immigration crisis we hear about all the time. A as a wall is being constructed. Ride along the us-mexico border. Right into the desert. And so what's happening is people are crossing these places where it. Hard to even survive in crossing zone arizona why wasn't this is where the most before coming through. And when we talked about militarization the border it's not just the actual physical border like huge literal walls going up right lights and cameras and border patrol agents and thrones. What's happening in the community so this means that any person whose latino any person of color on any person even to believe in their generations and generations the first nation to an indigenous native american nation. And the mexican side of the border. And the wall actually goes right through their land and so even to cross. Back-and-forth helicopters watch than one woman name was are philia and she talks about. But she couldn't even. You know she says this is my lifetime from this land ancestors are buried. And outside and. To my work there was working ever too loud with a human rights clinic. The people that came in. That in the crossing didn't know where their brother was. I got separated there be pregnant women who didn't seek medical attention because they did have their. A lot a lot of worker abuse cases all the time and we know that's right so people that are undocumented for their rights in the same way and get exploited in the workplace haven't gotten paid from. Everyday ways. I'm the founder of assistance but also how people's bodies are marked with violence and i'll talk more about palestine in the moment but. Time for me. Set intensity of soc. Coming from a place where my bike coming from the west bank right away when my body is as an american citizen as a white person as an able-bodied person in all these ways have been marked as worthy. It's something that wasn't just father and then going against the us-mexican border again as a white person as a citizen i'm being stopped at checkpoint. Two places where people are police. Our people are seen as other this the language knows her about palestinians terrorists. Don't see. I'm in this language and illegal. Mangos kind of works together. Under 30 ft concrete barrier. This and then we see that there are actually 10 companies. Are building both of these walls and it's literally the money is the same in both places. Antica kind of people in the everyday right it's people on the us-mexico border group trying to feed their families trying to get basic services that are just. And what's been trying to. He knows get to their olive trees and their grove and no harvesting for their families. So. I'm in and out of that. Workout of that. The thing that struck me so mad. When people's stories and then going back to my old. My own childhood in my personal story. But how much. You know we can read a book right and we can read about the you know the wall is being built in this kind of this mini you know this much money goes into it or these policies are these laws created it or deny you know 1967 48 this is what happened. To really hear people stories and probably see the reality. And i think we talked about sometimes if extraordinary violence has of war which are so important to talk about. I'm the one of my princess was tennessee's everyday by alexis i mean people like us. In everyday life. I think we're all extraordinary too by the way.. Is there everyday stories the stories of raising kids baking bread you know of finding little ways to resist to finding ways to remain human. To me what's so powerful and so incredulous working. I felt like. For me as a person is an outsider and anyways to be. Have the privilege of people sharing their stories with me. I love people inviting me and giving me tea giving me a coffee and pocket. Letting me into some destroys of horror. Prophet stories of triumphs of their grandkids for example. How can i then not. Create space for these stories when he's our voices we really can't hear there's this one young boy sexually illini using the play and he said. One of my classes and. He said how could. I can beg you can plead we could pray we could do whatever it doesn't matter. He says one must have ears to hear. Exactly this people i mean everyday and ones in the westbank i don't think we see. Among migrants from latin america either. Fat people everyday organizing. I'm everyday people you know protesting people finding different ways to replant finding ways to stand in solidarity. Finding ways to. Create something. Not share. And making space for those. Me as a maybe an artist as an activist. Necessary and essential. Makespace. Then reality versus is one thing i thought was a really good question. That was supposed to turn it over tell if you pneumonia. What was the reality like on the ground. Versus what i had anticipated. I think. For me even in my in my academic studies this pissed-off intellectually. I knew what was happening i knew this wall was being built. I knew kind of history i knew you know the history zionism. To almost. Not have it so complicated. Complicated. I wish i was a really interesting thing to me because it felt it was so much worse. Was so much worse. Did i could even imagine. I'll give you a giving example it was. People constantly waiting. In checkpoint. It's about the size of. Madison. 250,000. My thyroid medicine i don't know something else about that size. Lovely place. And marketplaces just really really quite beautiful but all of them to see there's actually 17 different checkpoints. And men between the ages of 15 and 35 are absolutely not allowed to leave the city at all. And people you have to apply for permits and wait for permit and they might get there might not. Constantly is a thing constantly incursions constantly dissidia seen his kind of hotbed of resistance. Yeah there may have been at one point armed resistance but there's also let me know you don't sweep us until she needs aren't allowed to have guns. I'm so pissed. It's kind of interesting thing of who you see actually turn down hood soldier. And you see university since like this friend that had astra. Actually a musician. And he kept trying to get to the university classes nearby. And as he try to get to the university classes he couldn't. He wasn't at sam's not making a new this way to get over the hills to get there. English commentary. And he got shot in his leg. And what horrible horrible. Do something about it. As he waits in the checkpoint line they wouldn't let him through. To get to the ambulance. At the hospital and so he ended up his like it's permanently. Permanently damage and does not even able to make it. To his bosses. His kind of this this idea if you think about palestinian people. I'm actually the the ethnic group in our world that had the highest rate of phds. If you think of that challenging all are bias in myth. But it's so many people are so educated an education. People say there is no out feels really hopeless. So i guess so the reality felt so much worse and so much more crushing. Imagine i think we just saw i don't know if any of you saw but i felt like something that broke through in our mainstream media that was really big and how was everything happening in gaza and kind of the big bombs going off in the carnage of really really horrifying suffering. And for me what was so interesting is this everyday violence. Happening in the westbank. That is almost slowly deactivating. A people. Answered everything from settlers. Throwing stones and children on their way to school. 2. A hospital being the place that is destroyed. I'm two people actually not even his access to their well water because israel owns although has accessed all the water and has to buy it back. Research. I'm actually looking. If you have any questions at any but i'm trying to i'm bad at staying with time if you've any questions any point you can also. Japan. Please really do. Super me 120. Complicated morality from evans hot. In working with non-violence work and working with unburdening from trauma. Because transform violence right. I'm sick of doing in a place of conflict resolution working on interrupting something. I think i came in with this mindset was young people that i was going to i mean really but i came in and i was going to. Somehow be able to work with young people to imagine beyond. This reality.. The things for me that i got. Just pretend. In some way. That we weren't in a bullet-riddled classroom. But there was an encouraging going onto the streets weren't literally and fire outside. Would have been a denial. Also these young people's reality and what they needed almost. Was to obsessively in someone's perform the violence they saw in their everyday lives. I wrote this one piece. Back home and i was a funeral. At a wedding you know without ever having to leave this. To my classroom. Today and the children candino pantomime the bullets exact point of entry. Better than the birthday song. No this is this is what they eat everyday for breakfast it's kids who swallowing knives but still in that. An in showing up to class and being eager to work with it i think that is still hopeful that make sense. There's this one day that was really painful for me that was one of my last classes in it. Pacific city. Either they were there and showing up. Urinary problems. Another reality. And children. Came in and showed up.. Hydrochloride to cancel class at night. They needed to leave and i was one young boy remember perfectly headed necklace. That had five little pictures on it. I remember thinking i didn't even have to ask that i knew. All these young. That kind of intensity that kind of what you live with that goes start right there. I went to pretend that they're not right there. That makes sense would have been. Not fair i think to the young people but also not honoring. Of weather at the same time to not allow opportunities for them to lie to. I'm international even for a moment you know that there's the ocean there so many of the families in the camps are on from coastal village. Vagina. 16 years ago. so the creation the state of israel i'm so many families i mean silence of the thousands and thousands of people were displaced. I'm in a lot of pain where from. There are cultural areas and places except that were fishing villages sucks on the walls of these concrete camps. You see pictures. Everywhere of boats. And i almost think of them as wielding memory. You know these cement walls. She's really fascinating. This is reality versus. You know this is scary there you should have some fear which i think is really important to have to be conscious of where you are and my parents. But as i walk through this camp was the first time i'd ever really felt fear and i thought. American right i am complicit in this this is literally my money that is making this happen on these are my m16 like this is. All me i'm blind red and white i'm in the space i can speak very little arabic and hear what am i doing. And this one's like a pleading me farther and farther to cancel all my all my prejudice that i probably ingested somewhere and put away you know somewhere else. That felt like i work through this all coming up. I like my butt around. Bring it with fatback alleyway. And he's pulling something out. And in his hand. He pulled his hand. He pulls out and he holds up to me. And if a kitten. Little baby kitten. I fear this lifelike look at this beauty. My friends again and again. Israel-palestine. But this idea of. Absolutely. Want you to see. We want you to hear we want shirley stories we can't get them out anywhere else. Please carry this please talk to people. You know. This is our lives. Just want experience that was. Really interesting to me too i think. We always carry this occupation just like was in the united states and gets hard and not country. The separate saddam hussein for example from the iraqi people. The same about israelis that the palestinians would have a lot of. I think well-deserved anger and occupation how can this be happening and i think it was really incredible to me and actually think really challenge me in my own thinking and how i even make people as enemy and his other. It's their government. It's not the people we know like our government corrupt your government all government. It's not the people. Assistant again on the us-mexico border. There's this one woman the story about that she's a nanny. And she takes care of. I'm coming kids in in phoenix. And she says i take care of her kids while she's at work she's a criminal lawyer while she's at work making money prosecuting my kids. They were all part of his kind of sister. You know i'm just another woman of palestinian doctor. Or she's studying to be a doctor. And there's actually a story of a woman and she talks about. Interconnected. She says you know i will remove the bullets that you put in the back of my brother. I was just with you i really have no job. Without me you have no job. She's like him so bad when you run out of bullets. You know i will be all stitched up. And then what will we do. Looking at each other. Reality there's always a two-state solution make sense. You know peace is possible. Parts. Underground. How. Sustainable. The occupation is that make sense right now. Under obama actually on the us mexico border talking about increase their balance. Increased militarization in a new thing right now where they're actually taking along the rio grande. Killing all the shrubs insane insane stuff in my mind it's not actually looking at. God. How. To not see that one state for example in israel-palestine is actually fun. I bet it there aren't two states. Really. But the wall and it's making and cutting land and taking water. But even talk about astronomy. And even talk about two viable state for people living in. The doctor payson. And talking about you different israeli activists. I think please. Please stop funding this. And you know this isn't making us safer isn't making our lives any better i'm just incredible and incredible. Vibrant movements have been so silent united states. Good friends actually at school. What if he's. One of my friends is a refuse neck and israeli refused mix with people that refused to know that military service is required. I mean he talks about. That you always were we don't want to criticize israel chris that keeps up you need to we need to be critiquing us policy. You need to be critiquing. And he served for two years in solitary confinement. I'm in the army and his thing was the how can these are his neighbor's how can he. You know how his foot. So with that i want to turn it over to a few moments. Questions at any. Any questions. You may have thought. Involved in activism in a broader sense but in. Also looking at. I don't know exactly. I hope. What time is it. The phd tony got a gun if the palestinians have. Population live outside of. On the west bank and gaza. If that makes sense and it's a population of people that actually i think if you think of different different groups in different ethnic groups that's a really good question. But there's a sense of education as really being a form of resistance. That makes sense. Also they have a really educated population we're capable of resisting more so one of the things i saw of class background and study. Interestingly enough was always going out and looking presentable to and being respectful to people so i think i think when you're. My sense would be in my interpretation of this. Being knowing that you're made other by the world in your knots mean. Vacations through learning about your situation. Through. There's also many many colleges and universities in the westbank. And in gaza university which is a really famous university is in ramallah. There's on the jog university there's the american university. Apollo taxi number of universities and that was one of the thing that's really talked to me about what happened recently. Is there was four or five universities really i mean. Great universities apparently i really can get universities that they were the first places. That were actually blown up. Warehousing. Schools as well. Another. the people that have been living in the westbank for forever. I had images painted from the palestinian people were. Spider communities and if you look at edwards siedah don't know if you know edward syed orientalism really famous in these ways when he's palestinian and threw up and just come and then in egypt. When his family was exiled. When he talks about how that was always such a. I don't know if this is true for the arab countries outside the united states. That's a really good question. High school class a couple weeks ago and the kids are studying about. How can you be hopeful. How can i. When i had the privilege of movement when i had the privilege to also leave. I'm not hold some hope. I don't know if it's exactly hope. But it was a sense of a child with a kitten. Right or young people i worked with who wore clown noses. And i played with their families it was the old it was often times old men and old women would sit around and tell stories and still halton of those memories that they would not like be erased. That makes sense or has people that still made food people that mean waiting at checkpoint tell stories you don't make jokes and keep life going. There's incredible sensors there's one actually monologue in the another plug for the show. Just a job to the headscarf. Look at that. Just looked you have done because nothing on us. She said she all that our hands don't do. I was just kind of talking about all the ways people are resisting all the way she talks about being like a bird it's a new nuvaring. For the always passes always men's always continued. I'm such a meanie the thing that was profoundly hopeful is people even in the most impossible situations. Remaining human. I'm in keeping humanity and not and refusing to make people refusing to make anyone other. Synonyms for keeping dignity in that way and i saw it it's really horrible. Operation streamline his way of his arrested. I'm crossing the border but are actually shackled together both in legs and hands and interviews big lines. And then they prosecuted together and kind of held in these like. Pens really in open are you in hot sun. And it was the way in which people. Still ridiculous i'd and refuse has. Do you mean to me i think that is profoundly. Kind of amazing human capacities in the middle of some of the worst thing is i think us human being. What was the name of the group in tucson. Mama. It's color is in english it's the human rights coalition. Okay wonderful. And no more deaths just just to say they do incredible i made two people in the desert or costing him in providing humanitarian aid water. I like your enthusiasm. I think of. One thing it's been discouraging getting obama elected was so hopeful and such a change. And then there's so much farther. To go and looking at his policies about a lot of mystery to me. As people. I have the power of you touch access. I think i could feel so small but seeing how much more access. I have. How come you not to this play i have some flyers that you should take. If you're, too and there's a talkback. Session afterwards. Friday saturday. Tonight at 8 and sunday at 2 p.m.. It's between those places. Williamson and ingersoll. If that little tiny black box theater. Say it into on sunday. But. But what difference between that is. Artist something these conversations or something but is also talking to people the thing that was biggest me is breaking the silence sphere talking about these things. A challenging job this kind of thing you know. Talking to my grandmother in a challenging challenging the belief that what is behind that and what is that fear from and where do we get that from. You don't even talkin about actually. I'm what does it mean to be building a wall. Can opening up. That makes sense refusing to be silent. Think about this injustice isn't all these different places in our world is making someone other. Of racializing someone is out there giving someone's body is not worthy that's not rarities to location that happens everywhere we see it in afghanistan. Lucy it even you don't our neighborhood.

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Pr111009RachelLong-ed.mp3

Well good morning everyone i'm rachel long and i'm a member here at prairie and also the chair of long-range planning and i'll be providing today prairie aspires to be an open-hearted and an open-minded congregation we welcome people of every ethnic and religious background whatever your color sexual orientation gender or family structure we welcome you no matter what your age your abilities or your inabilities later in the service we will invite visitors and guests to introduce yourself so that we might get to know you better on sunday mornings we provide a wide variety of services they are presented either by a prayer remember a member of the wider community or we are also recruiting for a new master will be presenting to us to was he or she arrives today i will get the opportunity of presenting to you and hopefully hopefully you will get. Are opening words. I will be down at the responsive reading. They're on your order of service. We need one another. When we mourn and would be comforted. 3dtuning.com. We need one another when we are in despair. In temptation. I need to be recalled to our best selves again. We need one another in the hour of success. When we look for someone to share out trial. We need one another when we come to die. I would have gentlehands people prepare for the journey. Brad and others are in need of us. Arkhalis will be late this morning by the lewis family. At times our own light goes out and has rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to thank his deep gratitude to those who have lightened lighted the flame within us. So for those of you who don't know me i'm rachel long i am a general psychiatrist i've been practicing for about 20 years. Play just over i did my training in in medicine and university of nebraska at omaha and i did my training in psychiatry at albert einstein in philadelphia i practice for a year after i graduated from my residency. I was actually the founder of a long-term structured residence for geriatric patients that would be basically a state hospital unit that was out in. Separated from a hospital. And i was also be assistant training director there for just one year before i came to monroe wisconsin where i now practice general psychiatry i've done a lot of administrative things to i'm a big fix-it type like so many unitarian universalist so if i see a problem i want to get in there and of course mental health and mental illness is as passion of mine how could it not be this is what i do with most of my time and i agreed to do this lay ministry on mental health and mental illness of the series. And i want to talk about the connection between our understanding of mental illness and illness and mental health and how that relates to our spiritual and religious quest. First i want to talk about oh i guess i should say i also have a reader. And i'll be calling you up you might as well have a seat there's going to be a little block of time when can will help me by taking the role of author and asylum dr okay especially in the united states. And i will open a conversation about what our concepts of mental illness say about who we are as a society and as individuals our sense of self and what kind of control we have over how we lead our lives and i know i'll need a glass of water you could get me one i need to start by describing what kind of depression but all of these conditions can sometimes be mild and manageable thanks and other conditions that we usually think of as mild can be disruptive or even disabling some examples of these are. You've probably heard of most or all of these disorders and know something about them because taken together their common how common is difficult answer because it depends on how broadly we define them which i'm going to talk about in a little bit. According to the national alliance for the mentally ill and the national institute of mental health in any given year one quarter of adults have some kind of mental disorder and about 6% suffer from severe mental illness. What is it that makes people feel an act so differently from what is considered normal what makes some people so miserable and so uncomfortable when their life situations don't seem to warrant that level of distress you've certainly heard many words used to describe the people i treated my practice and the behaviors associated with them they want you to think for a moment about the feelings and beliefs that are contained in these words. He's crazy. She should be in a looney gun. That's completely insane that's nuts. That's sick. He's just neurotic he's demented she's such a worrywart what is wrong with you fear condemnation revulsion rejection not like us unacceptable misguided immoral but think about how mainstream and accepted mental illness has become i could go on about all the tv shows and movies. Oh don't be so paranoid i just about had a panic attack i got pretty obsessive-compulsive about it i have a split personality about him sorry senior moment i could really use a shrink today serious mental illness continues to be frightening in large part because of the experience of milder symptoms being so common it's too easy to imagine losing control and becoming more like those people we talked about us being different or other we exclude them from our culture makes them seem more different than they really are because it's too scary to be reminded it could be us if we look at the history of or suffering emotional or psychic pain one of my favorite out out damn spot we dread the idea that we could lose control of our own choices and it's someone else could take control of our destiny worse yet maybe we could be forced to change who we are how do we reassure ourselves that couldn't happen to us where one way is to blame the victim if we assert that those with mental illness are responsible for and that meant to them that's a different meaning than how we typically focus on emotional and spiritual experience rather than still retained their spiritual worth their inner light and some ability to reason the treatment involves exercise work recreation and the expectation of behavior consistent with social norms many asylum doctors were looking at social influences and psychological reactions as contributors to illness. I cannot ask you to step up microphone kennel need it for the next couple days maybe here come up in 1885 a mariah brigham the superintendent of the new york lunatic asylum wrote the book observations on the influence of religion upon health and physical welfare of mankind in which he stated. If a number of people be kept for a long time in a state of great terror in mental anxiety. No matter whether from a vivid description of hell and fears of dropping into it immediately or from any other cause. The brain and the nervous system are likely to be injured and conditions deteriorated i won't go into some of the horrific ways in which patients were treated in these institutions other than to say no one could be staying in these conditions let alone recover from a mental illness. There were always physicians trying to find effective treatments they believed for many centuries than an imbalance of the four humors blood slam yellow bile and black bile cause mental illness and influence personality. Balance was about to be restored by bleeding or purging the bowel. They did autopsies looking for brain abnormalities most physicians assumed a close connection between mental and physical afflictions and attitude that is again prominent in medicine and psychiatry today so we are thankfully not bleeding or purging our patients these days and the super-ego and how we can be unaware of our own conflicts because we keep these thoughts in what he called the unconscious mind. Some of his followers focused on how modifying external influences in childhood especially child-rearing practices could help prevent this wellness therapy based on these concepts has helped many people especially those with anxiety disorders but for many especially those with more severe illnesses. Psychoanalysis and related psychotherapy provided no significant benefit. Been in the 50s we had a true breakthrough medications were developed that were often highly effective for schizophrenia and manic depression almost as the price that time had no real treatment. But before we talk about what happened to psychiatry when medications hit the scene. I want to explore this other important aspect of mental illness which is the issue of social control what is considered illness has always been influenced by general mores and beliefs in a society at any given time or said another more ominous way. Labeling certain behaviors as signs of mental illness has always been a way for those in power to compel conformity to social norms. Ideas about race ethnicity gender and sexual orientation influence diagnosis and treatment of those with mental illness. I will have can't help me describe just a few particularly egregious example i won't discuss the abuse of psychiatry for political purposes except to say to people all over the world have been and continue to be labeled mentally ill and institutionalized solely because they impose their political leaders here i'm addressing somewhat more subtle problems with those in power defining what is an illness throughout the nineteenth century asylum doctors claimed that political freedom caused insanity among primitive peoples it followed through slavery for black americans while superintendent of the eastern lunatic asylum of virginia. The proportionate number of slaves. Who became deranged. Is less than that of free colored persons and less than that of whites. For many of the causes of death in the other classes of our inhabitants they are somewhat exempt. For example they are moved from much of the mental excitement to which the free population of the union's necessarily exposed in the daily routine of life. Not to mention a liability of the ladder to the influence of the agitating novelties religion. Intensity of political discussion and other elements of the excessive mental action which is the result of our republican form of government again. Mystique commissioned him to prepare a report in 1851 in which he stated. 50 negro is a slave by nature. And can never be happy industrious moral or religious. Can any other condition than that. He was intended to fill hillyer to blacks including an obsessive desire for freedom madness lol. Irish patients were characterized as particularly depraved and defensive and were segregated to avoid distressing the better class of patients this is from an 1858 report of the superintendent of the massachusetts state lunatic hospital where the word race here refers to the irish race versus otherwise. It would be well to would not be well to racism and in the same wards from the other what was considered. Which he indicated would be inherited by what few children they could produce baltimore physician william howard warned in an article entitled effeminate men and masculine women in 1900. The female possessed of masculine ideas of independence the urgent masculine woman would sit in the public highway. Proclaiming her sole right to decide questions of war and religion. The female who prefers the laboratory to the nursery is a bad form of degeneracy the progeny of such human misfits. Prominent psychiatrist in the late 1800s were also publishing books and articles on a link between creativity and degeneracy. This provided the scientific basis for nazi ideas of degeneracy brousseau in his 6418 64 book man of genius which is very important book and very influential. Asserted that all creative individual suffered from a type of degenerative epileptic like psychosis in 1892 a follower of his max nordahl road. Degenerates are not always criminals prostitutes anarchists and pronounce lunatics. They are often bought there's an artist the tendencies of the passions of art and literature. And dementia. At the same time neurologist were publishing data on what they called neurasthenia a collection of physical and mental symptoms they believed were due to the stress of high demands of society on brain workers such as businessmen they believe one is born with a certain amount of nervous energy that can be exhausted by the demands of living in an upwardly-mobile society they believed it was a disease of upper-class men whose brains were superior to working-class men into women when they sounded numbers of patients with their see symptoms. Were distributed among the classes and jen genders more equally than they had expected they changed the theory to include different forms of the disease including higher or cerebral neurasthenia in the upperclassmen versus spinal or lower neurasthenia in the working classes and a different version of neurasthenia affecting women that was generated from women's reproductive organs. Three justifications were given for declaring her insane first she insisted on wearing male attire she called herself a huntress i was number two and she supposedly threatened violence to herself and others. So there was never any evidence of violent or threatening behavior. Jordan autobiography actually which is why she's she became famous. Psychiatrist disagreed for years about whether homosexuality was a disease or normal variation in 1935 freud famously wrote a letter indicating that homosexuality was in his word nothing to be ashamed of and certainly not an illness but the american psychiatric association's not officially remove it from the diagnostic manual disease. Special 1973 and some psychotherapist continue to practice so-called reparative therapy to reverse homosexuality maybe heard about this in the news michele bachmann's husband do for a living. I give these example to illustrate one of the biggest difficulties in the field of psychiatry and psychology the definition of normal or healthy awful is some of these examples seem decisions coded were likely acting in good faith trying to be scientists observing and drawing conclusions from what they saw in retrospect it is obvious how their observations were colored by the lenses through which they saw how can the observer transcend their own time and place to find some more objective truth. Our training a psychiatrist encourages us to monitor and evaluate our own responses. In an attempt to mitigate this problem but it is not possible to eliminate one's biases in a field where what we do all day is work with people whose stories and understanding of their own lies are just as subjective. Not just in psychiatry but in all of medicine we are aware how many treatments over the years have been ineffective or harmful we know it can't be true that just as soon as our generation begin practicing all the theories were accurate and treatments safe and effective one of the major innovations. To try to assure we are not repeating these mistakes from the past. It's called evidence-based medicine. It's a process of depending on scientific research to determine which treatments are the best options available and treating patients accordingly this approach has been embraced by those who pay for healthcare both health insurers and government and those in medicine. Unfortunately there many problems with using this approach in practice which i will describe the first let me bring you up to the present regarding the practice of psychiatry. I left off around 1860 when psychoanalytic psychotherapy was still in his heyday but effective medications were just hitting the scene. In the last 50 years we have seen a tremendous transformation in our practice psychiatrist have increasingly become physicians who diagnose and treat certain types of brain diseases and you psychotherapy to assist patients in coping with those diseases. When patients have problems that are treatable with psychotherapy without medications they usually see a psychotherapist usually a psychologist or social worker. Since many conditions respond better to the combination of psychotherapy and medications psychiatrist often work in partnership with these psychotherapist while we provide the medical part of the treatment. It's hard to overestimate how much patients have benefited overall from the revolution in understanding biological treatment of mental illness. We still struggle with medications to have potentially serious risks. But the benefits have been enormous. Most people with formerly disabling illnesses consigned treatments that gets them functioning and feeling pretty well. There now few psychiatric hospitals and relatively few people needing long-term residential care the exceptions are patients with severe mental retardation and dimensions like alzheimer's the we are making strides in these areas as well especially in terms of prevention. Psychotherapy 2 has benefited greatly from the focus on evidence and measuring outcomes. We have new forms of therapy such as cognitive therapy and interpersonal therapy that are easier to learn and take much less time to administer. Some cognitive and behavioral techniques are adaptable to independent study and there are numerous health health and educational books for patients that can be very helpful even without guidance of a professional these vast improvements in effectiveness of treatments have made a career in psychiatry much for more fulfilling and enjoyable it is wonderful to see so many patients who are suffering get well. So what's the problem. What's comeback the phrase evidence-based medicine. Where do we get our evidence. Who are the people doing the research that we depend on to determine the best treatment for a patient. Most evidence is generated by pharmaceutical companies whose goal is profit if a drug is promising but it can't be patented it doesn't get studied once medicines come off-patent and go generic. Research on them comes to a screeching halt. What gets studied is what might lead to a profitable treatment so we don't get much research clarifying mechanisms of specific illnesses or what the boundaries are among various illnesses except as it relates to medication. We don't see much research comparing psychotherapy to medications or of the combination of therapy and medicine. Psychotherapy research is harder to conduct and obviously harder to patent. The best medical research is the double-blind placebo-controlled study where neither the researchers nor the patient know if they are getting the medicine or the sugar pill and the researchers are looking for evidence that people are responding better to the medication than the placebo or sugar pill at 11 considered statistically significant. What is a small percentage of patients respond very well but most don't statistically the medicine will look like a failure and research.. And there are medicines that work great for a lot of people but make a few people feel awful. Those medicines generally make it to market all of this research is expensive and it takes the prospect of a big profit for companies to study a medication that means medicine for rare diseases or that work for a smaller subset of people don't get study. And what about the placebo response the improvements some people get just from believing they may be on a medicine and participating in the study no one really stands to profit by figuring out how to maximize the placebo response so that doesn't get much study either. In the us there remains a large unregulated market of so-called nutritional supplement and it is definitely a wild west of. Untested treatments and extravagant claims of cures. Not much evidence but plenty of marketing. And research by the drug companies is selectively published so we get distorted information of medicines effectiveness and rest. Who pays for all this treatment insurance companies are more interested in low-cost treatments than ineffectiveness and with people regularly changing insurance they are much interested in prevention. And with newer treatments both therapy and medicines helping people with milder problems. Even people who don't have a diagnosable mental illness may benefit from treatment. As a society should we be paying for marital counseling improvement of coping skills. Coaching for better success on the job. Should we be treating mild problems with attention and concentration with medication. What about medicines to make someone more outgoing. Or change the personality another way where is the line which brings us right back to questions about what is normal and how much responsibility we take for caring for those who aren't normal and house hollering we are a people who have emotions are behaviors different than the norm who may not want treatment. I hope we have to say as we get access to better and better treatments to treat miler and milder symptoms these questions become increasingly pressing. I hope we have the opportunity to explore some of these questions in more detail in my the rest of my lay ministry there questions that our society is going to be grappling with for a long time. Thank you. Let me let me address that because i actually do make that diagnosis regularly and tell patients on very big in tucson straight up about all these things i've shared with you i shared some of them with my patient. Rather than not make the diagnosis i'm really working to tell patients this isn't what you think it is because we're making this diagnosis at a much earlier stage than we used to and some people can stay at that stage four years the reason we're making the diagnosis is number one we actually have some treatments that can help mitigate the symptoms so it's important for us to know cuz we can help keep you steady s it helps for planning we need to kind of know okay this is ahead in your future but it could be 10 or 15 years ahead. But i'll just make a make one of their comment before we close which is that you know people with major mental illness what do you think you do or not so hopefully the future in maile ministry we have at least a couple sessions to go i've lots of ideas and not nearly enough time so let me know and i'll taylor accordingly. Closing words are in your order of service when despair for the world grows in me and i wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives maybe i go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water and the great heron feeds i come onto the piece of the puzzle wild thing who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief i come into the presence of stillwater and i feel above me the day blinds stars waiting with their life. 4 time i rest in the grace of the world and i'm free wendell berry please do greet your neighbor and join us for coffee conversation and spaghetti thank you.

uuprairie_org

Pr160221FaithCholvin-ed.mp3

But i have many hats to wear today society i'm very mullen member of the program committee we welcome all of you no matter what your family structure. What's your sexual orientation with your religious background is. What's your abilities are your inability czar we welcome you. Cheer today. We have a different program today sometimes our minister sandy is our speaker but she's not today sometimes we have someone from outside our congregation. That's also not true today today we have someone from our congregation of face pulls and will be leading us later on and i'll introduce her later. Opening words. If you've come here merely to help us you are wasting our time, because your liberation is bound to help is round up with hours then let us work together since angela's 8. The chalice lighting will be read by two young people. I think they know who they are. Our mouths were filled with laughter our tongues with pure joy. The oppressors were austra. What marvel's the lord works for them.. Wax bars. Gulags ghettos cages cuffs a nightmare scattered slaves sewing in tears a lightning bolt loose stuff. We tried the wrong for a half drunk with joy staggering. The golden sheaves in our arms. I'd like to introduce our speaker for today and she's not only a speaker because many of you will probably be speaking as well. Buttaface siobhan is i speaker she's been attending pray for about a year-and-a-half. And i've come to know her as a woman of passion and excellent writer and also an eloquent speaker. And she's brought both her daughter and her granddaughter to prairie. In the months i've known faith she's joined prairies program committee. She's also joined the dunn's marsh neighborhood association as a council member. And she also attends the meadowood memoir writers group along with rick wrecking in me so she's getting quite integrated humidity here. Maybe more important thing to know about her is that for most of her life she's been a community organizer and also an urban planner. And in the past she's also formed an interracial women support group maybe she's from several of these i just know for sure one. Confirm one of them in our neighborhood as well which is a neighborhood where prairie is. She's got to be leading us in what she calls a dialog better than a presentation or a reflection. And dialogue means of course that will be invited to share our thoughts to pretend that pertain to the subject in hand. And the title of the services are second principle and overcoming racism. Places like that. Yes sir professor this morning i i thought a dialogue would be the best way to approach. Gothika. Of confronting racism. With the fact drop of our second principle. In promoting justice equality and compassion. Because i think that bringing to light our own experiences. And. With the black community. Would be the best way of. Bring it home and understanding. For me i think two aspects. Of this traffic or most relevant i think first of all. We have to concern are psychological barriers. 2. Changing things to. Changing white supremacy and racism. Are resistant to change your inner psychological provinces that. And also our own. Here and guilt. Resentment. Which freeway. Biarritz. Literal active understanding. Anna lack of engagement was the black community. A lack of knowledge because. Is the physical separation which exists i mean. In madison all you have to do is look around to see we're still very segregated. I guess. I'd like to begin by asking you just imagine. For your for your own self. What it would be like. Where's a community. Without. Bracelet clasps. Prejudice what what that would look like for you. I mean by that i mean. If you gave up. Your own. Racial and class privilege with the advantages that entail. With that property ownership. Could maybe or vehicle. Vehicle ownership. Extensive travel around the world. Many of you. Had financial security. Excellent healthcare good food all the time. Nice closing. Time to pursue. And minded pursue hobby center. Interest. Great education. That most of us have had. For ourselves in for children. If we had no. Racial. Prejudice in in this world. Would we be able to keep those good things are. Or would there be some sacrifice involved. Over and everybody. Some of those. Are olives. And if there were no. White supremacy how much how much is a listings how many of those things would you be willing to give up in the name of equality. Because if we're talking about overcoming racism. You have to confront with the consequences of that would actually be. Otherwise it's just an empty. Empty slot phrase. You're my order mouthing. So you have to think about what would that were look like and what would i be willing to do or to give. So i guess why you think about that. As you know and maybe it would be a world where everybody. I don't know i don't have the answers. But i think it's something we have to think about. I'm so happy think about that i'll tell you. A little bit about myself. Why think i have. The passion i do and maybe some of the background to talk about this a little bit. I was born in beloit. Am i. My father was labor organizer. Mistborn 1899 actually. So. He organized in the 20s and 30s. What's a really dangerous. And he was a very very committed person himself. And because his office was in the basement of our home. I grew up needing people. In the laborers union and seeing how it works kind of. And be inspired by. Some of the work he did. And. Being imbued with his sense of commitment and passion. But unfortunately died when i was ten years old so i just kind of left left a little rudderless. And so. I was laptop. I remember my first. First images i can remember seeing on the television set or some of the first images. Read the civil rights movement and of people being sprayed by fire hoses and i know you will remember. And we're part of some of that i mean i know i'm talking to a lot of movement. Part of the reason that i feel. Brave enough to talk about. This. With you is because i know i have an audience of people whose hearts are all in really the right place. I feel that from you i feel that. You have a lot of love in your heart. And i so i know you remember what it was like back in the late 50s and early 60s. For a black people and i know that many of you were committed in. Had a pardon in marches and having to change laws and. Teaching. All different kinds of things but anyway for me at men. I went to oakland i thought i thought. I was 15 i left home i ran away from home to join the black panthers. And although that didn't work out well. From me. Actually i. Hitman 47 years of kind of hard times for me. As a street fair. First time and i had to overcome some heroin addiction.. But anyway i got back to school and i i. I went to beloit college. Graduated from there and i went to the w. And. Became an urban planner. And. I wrote a grant for a program. it went back to beloit because i i knew that there were a lot of people. Some women that i had known. Earlier in my life that. Really didn't get out of the neighborhood there was there was a neighborhood employee. Mymerrill neighborhood it was call. That really didn't get out of there much and i really wanted to help. And i was going to volunteer for the visitor program. They said why don't you try for a great and i didn't i got i don't think they. Red green. Define. Because it was written from a marxist. Anda. If the i am sure if they understood what i was wanted to do. But i came in there on my white horse you know i thought i was. Save. You know i thought i was going to save. People in. Yeah i was really. Devastation in disappointing to find out that they didn't want saving at least not by me. It works out in the end after a few years we came to know and trust each other. At first i was totally rejected i mean. They were like you know what are you doing here and why do you want to help us and are you going to write a book about us do you have some ulterior motive what is it what could you possibly. And they had no. They were totally mistrustful and they said if. You're here for the right reasons. Anyway a black woman should have this. And and then the white people's heart is trying to get help from to get jobs for the women were saying things like. You shouldn't be here what are you doing here helping these people. And it was just it was. With. It was a learning situation for me let's put it that way. And i learned a lot of humility. Cuz i thought i was. Che guevara and i turned out to be yeah. I don't know. Some bumbling fool. But i did it for about 10 years. And i know i learned a lot more than i gave. It's. It was incredible experience from me. But i'm i never. I never went into another situation thinking that i was going to save or help anybody. I mean i believe from then on. That. My liberation had to be. I needed to want. Liberation as much as i wanted it for other people that had it before me as much as for anyone else. Or it was never going to work. So. From then i just other. Horoscopes i did one. At somerset circle when they in the 80s in the bad old days when crack came out. And that was. That was talk women of wisdom and that. That was. Excuse me. Women without really bad substance abuse issues and since i had a substance issue two. That works really well. And. And then i did another i don't know if any of you've heard of project respect. That's for women who've been in the life of prostitution. In madison. And i was involved in that for about 20 years helping to organize with that so that's kind of right now i'm working with yahara house. Both as a member and as a volunteer and you'll hear more about that next. Some people from your house are coming next week. And one of the things i'm trying to do there is. There's really not a lot of diversity bear. And. We're trying to get more involved with people from the jail and from the neighborhood. As with most mental health organizations in dane county. They're mostly focused on white people but infamy. That's me. I tell you that about myself. Because. And more than i. I would share normally. But it's because i want you to. Know why this is so important to me. And i. I want you to feel comfortable sharing your story. Cuz i want to hear them. And i want. I want us to share with each other. Stories about. Working the community and. Bon. Being with people. And i want us to talk about. Where we were then. Where we are now and what we can do to advance the cause of. Overcoming. Racism in in ark. What we can do now what we think we can do now. And. We can take it anywhere you want to and then you're so you leave me a few minutes at the end so i can i got some pointers i think. Alright well i'll finish up i'm sorry this is running late but i'm kind of glad. I'm really glad people were so engaged. And i'm glad i like to finish up by saying i got a few ideas. About. How we can concretely take some steps. Summer big things since with summer little. I think that if we're serious about wanting to change. Ourselves in our community. Please start thinking about these things. Buying property or our homes in in integrated neighborhood. Recording black owned businesses. Promoting integration wherever we are in our businesses and our. Club. Wherever whatever we belong to. I can't test your courses in black history. Is. Essential. I think and if you ordered a curse. At the university. If you're over 62 is free. If you belong to a neighborhood association that's a good thing especially. Promote integration there. If you work for a political campaign for a black candidate that's a really good thing. If you go to art galleries. Or if you go to work i think if you socialize with. Are people of color on a social level not where your ministering to people are getting two people. Ariane love or friendship 121. Go to clubs go to art galleries go to plays. Meet as friends in a coffee shop. And promote that there's a website that's called black city info.com. That you can check out. And there is a book club. I called the social justice book club that meets the second and fourth fridays is a month. Right now they're discussing to me she codes book. Between the worlds. One thing that i am really excited about i want to tell you about. Is todd i don't know if you've ever heard of the nehemiah organization. But there's a group called justified anger and it's runs like dr. alex g he's the pastor of. Fountain of life church. And he's got a series of classes going on is closed dominance. It's every tuesday night from 7 to 9. And it's. Appliance in how to be a white ally to the black community. The important thing about it is that. It's 150 why people who are being taught by. Guided by a. Say buy some really saturday black sheep. And it's wonderful. I mean the class started with history and then we get into small groups and discuss it's just great and i'm sure they're going to have it again. You posted about that and he even said last week that they're going to have some panel discussions as an adjunct that outside people could come. And then i want to finish try saying. If you do attend groups re-written situations. Or you're working together with black and liking social action groups and stuff. I got some chips but i think. Neural you may know these but i'm just going to reiterate them. Just cause for contributing to the conversation. Just listen now we're at you listen. It's always better to come off as patronizing. Waxing mementos enough what should you buy a state wants to be. Like i know and i'm neighborhood. We have to neighborhood councils. Because they're such. Animosity they don't want to be. Even involved with the whiteside the neighborhood because they're so suspicious of our motives. Which was i build bridges and we've got to be willing to listen. A lot more. I'm here. With other white people who make. Comments that are dubious. Immediately. When you're in a situation like. Choose yourself from having strong emotions like. Let's say you're in a situation where racism is being described. In a powerful way. Jump over a remote. Because they feel like. Or is describing what i've been reading. They don't want to have to. Care of you i have the focus put on you again. It's like this about them. You know. And finally. Have support group of white people with whom you could invent some of this stuff so that you can be. Taking some of the stuff that may not be appropriate. Right now. And. Just keep trying. Your overtures initially maybe spurned they may not be wanted at certain times and certain point. So what. It's it may be difficult. Uncomfortable to overcoming from front racism but it's not as hard as it is to live in. So keep trying and and will encourage and support each other in it. It's worth it it really is. So did your neighbor and stay for soup sunday.

uuprairie_org

Pr160529Ingham-ed.mp3

Good morning. Welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society. I am. Sandy ingham you are consulting minister. Prairie aspires to be both an open-hearted. And an open-minded congregation. We welcomed you no matter your ethnic or religious background no matter where you are on this journey. Love you call it a spiritual journey that journey of life. We welcome you whatever your color sexual orientation ethnic and religious background gender family structure. Your age your abilities or your inability. Later on in the service will have it. You will be invited to. Tell sue you are if you're visiting orphus it's one of your first time. As always i encourage you to come to more than one serviced because our services are all different sometimes i do them sometimes someone. From within the congregation. sometimes an outside speaker. What do i service. The opening words. Titled a great need. Written by someone called has he's. Somewhere around 1325 to 1389. Out. Have a great need. We are all holding hands. And climbing. Not loving. Is a letting go. Listen. This train around here. Is far too. Dangerous. For that. We like our flaming chalice. To illuminate the world we seek. In the search for truth. Maybe just. In the search for justice. Maybe loving. And in loving. May we find. P. Misreading. It's from finding beauty in a broken world. By terry tempest williams. Pay here. The sound of a truck. Coming toward their town. The slamming of doors. The voices. The pressure of feet. Walking toward them. From inside. Their burrows. They see the well-worn sole of a boot. Now. The pointed-toe. Of the boot. Kicking out the entrance to their burrow. Blue levi's bending down. Gloved hands. Flicking a lighter. The flame. The heat. Then the hands. Shopping something burning inside. The entrance. Something is burning they back up further down there tunnel smoke now curling inside the darkness as the boot. Is kicking dirt inside closing their burrow covering their burrow. Camping the entrance shot. They are scurrying down down down around they cannot see what they smell is fear. Because if we surprised are burning their lungs are tightening they cannot breathe. They tried to run turn nowhere to turn every one of them trying to escape. To flee. But all exits and entrances of their burrows have been kicked. Close. The toxic smoke. Is chasing him like a snake. An invisible snake hurting them toward an agonizing death. A suffocation strangulation every organ and spasm until they collapse. Onto each other's bodies noses covered in blankets of familiar for families young and old slowly. Cruelly gassed. To death. The truck drives away. The american flag flapping in the wind the red-white-and-blue banner of the american west that says the right of private private property. The rights of private property take. Precedence. Over the life of prairie dogs. Who are standing in the way. Of development. In this case. Development of. Of course. In cedar city utah. Very near where i. When i was at zion national park. Couple weeks ago. Prairie dogs. I know how to create and maintain. Civil society. In this reading. Humans. Destroying the community of prairie dogs. We're acting out of an uncivil. Society. You could ask. Who cares. About prairie dogs. You could ask that. But not caring. Is a mistake. I will return to that in a few minutes. Memorial day. Always brings up memories of my father. He was a wwii veteran. He landed in normandy on d-day. Battle through the hedgerows and the attacks by the german soldiers. To get to the town of sand low. If you go to normandy today and want to go to sanlo. It will take you about 45 minutes by car. It took the allied troops about 45 days. To go there in june and july 1944. My dad was shot in the arm of the allied troops made their laborious way south of salem. That wound was not life-threatening but required. He's going back to england for treatment and to heal and penicillin was not easily obtainable. My father lost the leg. In the battle of the bulge. That one was considerably more traumatic and required a long. Long recovery. Thought you might say never recover. I did the eulogy. At his memorial service. In 2008. In it i talked about what it was like. 4. This batra. 50 and 60 years later. Watch how the world changed in the decades after. The war ended. My dad and other wwii veterans would often express strong opinions. About the state of the world in general. The united states in particular and as you might expect they were dismayed. B some changes puzzled by others and heartened by some. The band that i knew personally and night then i went to france with my dad three times. For d-day and anniversaries. We got to know some of them but someone's i knew personally in from anticos thought that they had made. A huge contribution to keeping the world safe for democracy. They are and were proud of this rightfully so i think. Democracy for them man. Building and sustaining a civil society. They made a promise to. Covenant. With. This country. To preserve our freedom. Now i doubt that they gave me. Fought to the ideals they were fighting for when they were in the midst of the paddles and they were so young then. But as they aged and matured. Okay morse want to fly civil society. Matter. What i don't doubt is their commitment to civil society. They did not give up their lives their arms or legs they did not witness their bodies being blown up in front of them as my dad did. So that we could have what we now have. An uncivil. I should just say that when i use the word covenant. Witches from french and middle english word covina. It just simply means what you probably are thinking i hope you agree. We think of it. Often as being solemn formal binding agreement but it's a promise. Entering into agreements. Country. Ipledge. Lifelong staunch republican that my father was. I am as certain as i can be that he would not tolerate what is happening. In this election year. He would not understand it. But then who.. It would be inconceivable to him. And the other veterans i knew that compromise. Is a dirty word. He would be appalled that members of our united states. Converse. An institution that he fought and came close to dying for. But those representatives and senators have given up. Working with the people on the other side. Of the aisle. What did our veterans fight for. For the rights of the individual. Or four strong community. Or both. To achieve a truly civil society. Won't we have to find a balance between rugged individualism. And communal living. Communal being in society. Individualism vs. Communalism one night when i first typed in communalism course. Computer told me that wasn't a word. This word. Dictionary. When i use it i'm i mean that in the best sense of the word i mean group solidarity. The balance out that rugged individualism that this country is. Fonta flora that way. And unitarian universalists are probably more guilty. Anybody else. So i'm not using communalism meaning. As a dictionary put it loyalty to a socio-political grouping based on religious or ethnic. Affiliation. Closely connected to this whole individual versus community conundrum is. This society's insistence. On defining life in terms of winning or losing. There always has to be a winner and of course if there's a winner then. You're is a loser. I also should say. That having this discussion about what constitutes a civil society is something that i believe can't happen unless people are reasonably well fed. Have adequate housing and ideally employment. Unless a solute societies is conversation wouldn't be happening. Foremost we are very privileged people. For most of us our first experience of. Building of civil society happens in our family. A origin and if you are a first born child. You may have struggled with civility. In much the same way our protagonist elmore green did in the story for all ages. You had your territory staked out. You have the undivided attention of your parents or caregivers and then this other being enters your world and completely upsets it. You had to discover. Sometimes painfully what living in community means. How many of you have ever lived in a dormitory. Well i just lived in 12 weeks ago. Not something i really want to return to but the least expensive and easiest way for me to stay at the bottom of grand canyon for a wii is in the dorm and of course. But the clientele in the dorm changes almost nightly at it's very unusual to be able to be down there for. In fact supposedly can't do that. I am not sure it's entirely possible to maintain a civil society in this setting. There's always at least one person who does not seem to grasp the concept of sharing. I'm taking turns of being aware of other beings. I'm not talking about teenagers here. People my age. Not tonight. A covenant would have been useful life of weeks ago. What are the chapters in karen armstrong's book 12 steps to a compassionate life. Is titled. How should we speak to one another. It is also the eighth step in her 12-step program. I find myself returning to this intriguing compact book. Again and again since its publication in 2010. And you know i've mentioned it before. Karen armstrong live also talked about before is one of the leading theologians of our time she's a closet unitarian universalist. She has admitted that. Threw up roman catholic and was an unfair awhile. I've also mentioned the website associated with the book the website is charter for compassion. org. Which i hope you will take time to visit if you haven't already. And i continued also to hope that we as prairie unitarian universalist society will consider signing. That charger. Fort apache. How should we speak to one another. Well not the way we have been. Over the past several years. Another caveat. There has been instability in this country since its founding of course. Political brawls name-calling. I don't think it's it's been as bad as it is now but it might help us remember that we have a history of incivility. In 1800. An election year. A newspaper from that time said that murder robbery rape adultery and incest. Will be openly. Hot. And practiced. The air will be wrapped with the cries of the distress the soil will be soaked with blood and the nation black with prime. If. Thomas jefferson won the presidency. Portugal. And this from the 1828 campaign. Andrew jackson general war hero. Was accused of being a cannibal. A pamphlet that was being out passed around at that time said the bloodthirsty jackson. Begin again to show his cannibal propensities. If i don't know what this was based on. Youtube course one. Maybe we haven't come too far. Armstrong gives us two words to guide us in our conversations with others. Dialogue. And. Compassion. To which i would add the word. Havana. And she's talking about real dialogue. She reminds us that for socrates and plato a dialogue was a spiritual exercise. Designed to produce a profound. Psychological. Change. In the participant. The purpose was that each person should understand the depth of his we would now add or her. Each person. Should understand the depth of his or her. Ignorance. There was no way then that anybody could win. That wasn't even part of a concept for. Socrates. Plato said that dialogue. Is communal. Meditation. Hard work he said it requires a great expense of time and trouble and that's that's a quote supposedly from play-doh. Well if dialog required a great expensive. Time and trouble in his day. How much more difficult is it. In our day. In addition plato has adamant that dialogue be. I love this phrase conducted any. Kindly. Compassionate. Manor. Again supposedly. Quote. It was crucial that questions and answers be exchanged in good faith and without malice. Veneers my favorite instruction. From plato. On what to do when engaged in dialogue. Each person must make. A place for the other. In his or her mind. And allowing them to unsettle his or her own convictions. Of course and 12 rolls of listener and speaker are reversed the same instructions apply. Each person must make. A place for the other. And his or her mom. Socrates. Play-doh the buddha jesus all belief. That why we have the truth that we need to build a civil society have these truths within ourselves. It is compassionate dialogue. That will help us in the process of self-discovery. To draw out these truths once upon a time the buddha. Help the tribe of people known as the elements. They were overwhelmed by. A new urban civilization bearing down on their tribe new people coming into their community new ways of doing things. Maybe they fell a little like portal more green.. Trying to adjust to a new way of being. When his little brother up here. The catwoman tribe had invited several religious teachers to visit them. I try to help them sort through this. I have some a job. But ashley told the bhutto and i eventually got around to inviting him to talk to them. These so-called teachers only made them more confused. Because each teacher. Wilson pant only on winning that is. And having. His philosophy or doctrine or belief adopted by the columnist. Each teacher put down denigrated. The other teachers and their beliefs. What is the buddha told at islands. But you already know the answers to this dilemma you know how to live. In changing times answers are within you. The buddhist path. Was to draw the solution out by asking such questions as is agreed good or bad what happens to a person consumed by greed or by hate. Karen armstrong has done considerable work in the area of interfaith dialogue and cooperation especially since 9/11. She believed. The weekend understand. Terrorists not condone or excuse. What they do. But we can understand the reasons for their actions. Chicken smith's example of how do understand that which is alien. Or incomprehensible to us. She describes how jewish scholars living in the time. about 30 years before. The birth of jesus and not to bout 45 years after so roughly during this time. jesus. How many scholars who were trained in greek philosophy approached the torah which even tizam. Those many years ago. They didn't dismiss the text because they were or seem to be barbaric. Rather they were able to interpret them in a way that fit. With a van current time. Why didn't they just give up on the ancient texts. Because the jewish scholars. Made w armstrong calls a charitable assumption. And that charitable assumption. Was that those ancient hebrew text ever strange they seem to the jews trying to interpret them hundreds of years later. The scholars made the charitable assumption. That the authors of the text or human beings. Just like them. With human needs and wants desires and frustrations joyce and concerns. To understand others whether those who live long long ago or those who are. Our contemporaries but seemed. Complete mysteries to us. We have to make. That charitable assumption. And we have to try to understand where people are coming from. Thor were coming from in this example and there's one more important element of dialogue. We have to meet people where they are. Not where they want what where we want them to be. Or where we wish they were. Donald davidson it was a professor of philosophy at the university of california-berkeley said. Making sense of the utterances and behaviors of others. Even their most aberrant behavior. Requires us to find a great deal of truth and reason in them. Charity is forced on us whether we like it or not. If we want to understand others. Davidson. Close. We must tell them right. In most matters. Count them right. In most matters imagine trying to apply that kind of charity to a dialogue with an aspiring terrorists. Yeah that is what armstrong and many others would have us do and they make excellent arguments. For responding to injustice without hatred. And contempt. Bondy often asked. People engaged in social justice work. To think about whether they were fighting to change things. Or to punish. He can learn to be firm in our convictions. Without falling into self-righteousness. Or the same kind of intolerance that we are arguing against. We can learn to express our deeply held beliefs without letting our ego get better and i mean bigger bigger better bigger and bigger. If only politicians. Thinking of you.. If you were raised in the christian tradition. You know that. A good dialogue a true dialogue has to be based on love you might remember. Paul's one of his letters to the corinthians about love is not proud lava is egoless ideally. Love does not hurt others love is not rude. That word love. Is often translated as. Charity. There's another way to define covenant. Unitarian universalist and methodist minister rebecca parker says. That at its simplest, that means to come. Together. More precisely it means to come. Together by making a promise. To love and care for one another. Unitarian universalist parker says often speak of covenant. As a verbal statement of promise. Between individuals. Who exercising their freedom of choice. Bring. Community. Into being. Balance. Individuals. Bring. Community. N2b. I hope that's what we. Attempt to do here i think we succeed. What's the time. This brings me back to what i was saying at the beginning. Of my remarks about that balance between rugged individualism and community or communalism. Achieve a truly civil society think we have to find that balance. I do believe we are very out of balance in this country. We have to get beyond rugged individualism not only for the sake of humanity but also for the sake of the rest of creation. Have to figure out how to get. Closer to following the ideals on. I can't blow this. Pronunciation. The ideas of the. How did nissani. Aka. The iroquois. Fahad assani. People i grew up in. Iroquois. Panasonic. Territory. They tried this part will be familiar ac. Too many of. They try to live in a way that would ensure not only their children's future. Bought. The futures of 7. Generations. From their own. I'm waiting i'm waiting to hear some dialogue about this concept. In the opera central campaign. Once we can accept that. Community is as important. If not more so. Spend individualism. And the next step is to include all creatures. And all of mother earth. In our civil society. The prairie dogs. Matter. A few pages after the reading that i used curlier from terry tempest williams. Is a page that is only two words. Chores on it's in the form of a question. Which is. Pues. Society. Who's. Society. Who cares about the prairie dogs. And civil society terry tempest williams does. In 2003 a few weeks before we invaded iraq she wrote this. In an opinion piece in the new york times. Quite simply the story of the prairie dog. Is the story of the range of our. Compassion. If we can extend our idea of community. To include the lowliest of creatures calling the untouchables. Then we will indeed be. Closer. To a path of peace. Intolerance. If we cannot accommodate the other. She puts and calls. The shadow we will see on our own home ground. Will be the forecast. Of our own species extended winter of the soul. So she wrote that in 2003. When was 9-11. 1005. 1. Heather extended winter of the foals. In some ways perhaps over here. Who cares about the untouchables these species who cannot speak for themselves jane goodall does. She said only if we understand can we care. Only if we care can we help. Only if we help. She'll baby saved. And to that i would ask will we be safe. Who cares about creating a civil society here in armstrong. Tirelessly or so it seems especially if you've ever try to keep up with her writing. And her publication. Tirelessly worked for interfaith understanding. Do dialog. And compassion. Who cares. About creating a civil society within and throughout our political system well. The national institute for civil discourse. Stars. Ever heard of it. The national institute for civil discourse visit its website. The fascinating organization formed in may of 2011 in response to the shooting in january of that year in tucson arizona. Congresswoman gabrielle giffords and several others. People killed 13 wounded. Mcid is a non-partisan organization. That works to promote healthy and civil. Political debate. Does that not just do your heart. Healthy and civil political debate wow. Icon. Mcid believe that people can have very different values. And political preferences. Bucking still discuss these differences in a civil manner. Here are. The ni cds current research bowls. 1 what is the nature and what are the causes and consequences of incivility. What are the leverage points for doing something about political dysfunction. 3. What are the things that can be done. 2 chainz. The current political dysfunction. Carol lukensmeyer who is executive director of the national institute for civil. Recently wrote a column titled reviving civility he writes it is easy to understand why some americans aren't using their words. I love the analogy 2. You know little kids. Use your words. Sure. They think they aren't being heard. The solution is not to hunker down talking only to those who agree with us. And then she says incivility. Stems. From. Fear. Oven idea. Ava person. That they might. Actually have. Allpoint. Examples of how to move towards a truly civil society are all around us. The national institute for civil discourse. The restorative justice programs. Journalists. Like paul krugman of the new york times who consistently. Assistant league. Calls us out us americans. For our lack of policy for how we treat the youngest members of our society. In mid-may krugman wrote america is unique. Among advanced. Countries. And it's utter indifference to the lives of its youngest citizens. In other words we neglectful lives. Of our children who can't speak for themselves. Like the prairie dogs. I'm not comparing our children. Except for the inability to speak for them self. Taking care of the most vulnerable among us who can i do with his policy. Yeah we do argue about this because we are currently living in an uncivil society. We were living in a civil society what are used to work the milwaukee journal sentinel editor david haynes here. In a confident. Confident america. But she doesn't think we have it's another confident america. We have a basic. Faith in one another. We questioned each other's ideas. Vigorously. Hot. Don't question. Each other. Motives. Despite all the reasons to be pessimistic. And gloomy about what is happening. In our culture and our society right now there are just as many reasons if not more. To be optimist. And to continue. To work towards civility. Remember the question stephen hawking asked. What makes humans unique. And he answered his own question this way. Transcending limits. We limit ourselves with pate war jealousy fear any number of things. All of which lead to uncivil society. But we are always capable. Of transcending the. Limits. Dialog compassion, no. Good foundation. For building a civil. I think that. I mean obviously i get interested in excited about this kind of thing. In an allegiance this act. I hope. The next seems to be the next step for. Awesome as you use it maybe for liberals. Internalist figure out how to for small where we going to find the people to dialogue with you. go to the next protest but it but we need. The protest it wouldn't be our protest. Yeah yeah. Because we need to maybe we just maybe we can even do some role-playing. Here in this city no. Among ourselves a little bit of what faith did that sunday with the black lives matter only got wasn't the title of it but. I'm just talkin to people happened to differently but what about talking. The people who think differently. How do we do that. That's the next frontier for unitarian universalist. But you didn't you just trigger 2 memories of my one was on mpr years and years ago they had a debate between. Write 2. A life and raikou. Choice. Two women. And it was it was. Fascinating i think it was one of those. I'm driving the car and i had to pull over to really listen. Because they found the point was to try to find common ground the common ground i remember was. Life. That life is sacred and they did get to that point. Did they at least and then it general assembly two years ago. Healthiest an atheist. I'll both on our board of are you a board of trustees that this was thrown into the middle of a business meeting party cuz we have to go to business meeting 21 many people there as possible and they talked about. Trying to find common ground. They're on that. Religious faith scale. And they did find common ground and then there are discussions going on among palestinians and israelis. So does happen feeling better. B i take i6s. True of most leaves. That thar must people who are. Hunter store or somewhere else on the spectrum we don't want to be forcing. Forsyth let us 2. Never ever say anything. About who we are. Okay. Go in peace and with a promise to yourself to practice compassion and civility in our dialogues with each other for the rest of the day and all through the week and the kids are outside. The wonderful sound.

uuprairie_org

Pr140810Gates-ed.mp3

Good morning i'm nevin a smith a member of the congregation here prairie aspires to be an open-hearted and open-minded congregation we welcome people of every ethnic and religious background whatever your color sexual orientation gender or family structure we welcome you no matter what your age or abilities or inabilities on sunday mornings we provide a wide variety of services they are presented either by a prairie member a member of the wider community or by our minister sandra ingham today gary gates is going to be presenting about his experiences at the general assembly. I'm going to make a slight change in them as our paradigm shift. We need to admit that we don't know the answers. We also need to admit. We don't know the right questions. Right now we have. Gary gates is going to present on the uua general assembly. And i'll let him take it away. And we'll have time for discussion after the presentation. Can everyone hear me. I am having told that i speak too softly and nobody can hear me so loud mouth but. I asked for this to wish we could hear man that's told me i was a diva. I am. I came to prairie at a time and i felt a real need for love and support and i found it in abundance. I was also. Seven principles. Exploding tree that love and support. To give him a service to prairie and its members. Being offered the position of president. My first thought was i don't have an adequate background and either unitarian-universalism or prairie. And i decided. Accept the nomination anyway. Because of my love for prairie and its members. To help compensate for my lack of experience i decided to attend.. Regional. Assembly at wausau. General assembly national general assembly of dog. Providence rhode island. I want to learn but leaders and other unitarian universalist congregation. Initial unitarian universalist staff. Could teach me about the challenges ahead for the me. 4 / 84 you tearing university generally. The assembly itself was an overwhelming. Range of choices big breakouts exercise shoes. I didn't send all of them. There's also an overpowering music and emotional appeals are higher ideals. The basic food of somebody was love reaches out. That if we are true to live by our principles we cannot keep him to herself you must interact with and participate in the world at large. Lakeview the speeches that dead here. And it would be impossibly late the strong emotions i felt i was there. Instead i'm going to try to tell you the overall message i took away from the assembly. My presentation is going to be relatively short. Because i want to provide maximum opportunity for sure what your field future holds. The prairie and how you feel we should prepare for it. I should note that the message i received was undoubtedly shaped by my intent going in. Country in those sections that dealt with the future of unitarian universalism and what time the agency needed to do just drive. Message i received was it we must be rated change the holding on to the past with a sure way to become irrelevant. The basic structure of churches. What's developed in the time with the renewal wheel automobiles. No telephone no internet. Before thousands of other technological changes that would taken for granted today. Meat church just one more alternative in a very busy life. In the words of. Peter morelli's the present of the uua. We are witnessing is nothing less than a spiritual mass migration of tens of millions of people away for religious institutions. Jurassic ruby you anyways program and strategy officer noted that survey show. Only 20% of young adults think the church is important. Uberpeople adult to say that. Religion they had wheel religion has doubled in the last 10 years. Oh but the basic purpose purpose of a title. The warm support and friendship i received. When i came to prairie. Are necessary for everyone's individual. Personal. Connection with other people. A chicken produce a special. is it one whole place to fulfil that need. But this is not enough. Virginia streaming relevant they must have a broader purpose. They must be a way to connect with the. Inherent human need. To sugar more significant purpose they just. Every more material wealth and personal comfort. Give me success when the future we must be right as an organization to take the risk. And to experience discomfort. If it's only cause greater than ourselves. The message i received from unitarian universalist general assembly was. That we are not universal turning universe's does rory theist. We are not unitarian universalist because agnostics. We're not interns universes because we're theist. We're not going to turn into versus cuz they're gay or straight. Or because you're black or white. Liberal or conservative. Adenosine why we are not answering universalist is important because there was a constant and constant tension. In her face. Because we accept. Albanese. And there's. It's my attitude my concept aren't being stripped. But the other guys getting the better of the deal. Make mention that we are having the unitarian the sunday assembly starting to be here in september. Which of these. Brandon ingram atheist because. They wander place of their own. We. Except all. And that christmas special tension didn't. Whatever you believe you're welcome here. Wilmington university because we believe me. Because we believe in justice equity and compassionate human relations. Because you believed me accepting so one another and encouraging spiritual growth. We believe the free response was search for truth and meaning you believe in right of conscience and use the democratic process. Debating community. And we believe in respect the intricate web of all existence of which we are apart. These beliefs are why we are unitarian universalist. And if we truly believe these principles we must use our church to carry this principles to the wider community around us. Give me. Do this. If we are successful in. Being an integral part of the wider community around us we probably will thrive and grow. The prime membership will probably increase. Membership growth is not a measure is not success itself it is maybe a byproduct of test. Success is have we. Really communicated our principles. And he acted on them with the boat later community. . many members were very active in pursuing. Environmental racial justice. Academic quality multiple other issues. But these are individual actions. What does prius self stand for. Where does premier league. I. How do you spell the g on a bond of union printer the front driver's handbook and at the bottom of the. With order of service today. At everyday. That as approved stretches out. Until it becomes one for the sky let us reach out to touch. And be one with the natural world and with one another. I believe the friend who we are in the wider world. Is the one thing we have not yet achieved. It recommends relevant and shane and challenging world. The beginning the search for meaning the first thing we'll need to do is to review our bond of union and come no good relationship without this many years ago. Give me sure they're still reflective of who we are. Then we will need to do the really hard work of looking at our interest and abilities in order to decide what we will strive to be. To adopt a mission statement. Which. My research showed that there was a statement about. 13 years ago that was put in the file that said we needed a mission statement. It should be noted that the. Do december indian immigration gun grounds. And support for the quakers underground railway for ugandan lg naches is the top supposed to actually issues. You didn't hear this from this year this year. An escalating in inequality. As the top issue for study. Reader person not required to make our choice windows. Issues. Might want to consider some of those. Where do we specialize where do we try to make an impact. Oh. We really desire streets and weaknesses. Interest. One of the principles that was a spouse was to concentrate on your own strength. What you already have. I try to expand that to the world. Edison proves you have deliberately kept this visit short because i want to hear what from you what you feel. needs to do to remain relevant. I. In some ways feel like perhaps by title was was. Not quite right because i haven't told you anything about 12 general some other than the message i got. And i would like to throw it open this point to see if anyone has any feelings about. Woodbury is where should we go how do we do it in. Mary has microphones if someone wants to speak. The question is how did we i decide to join you and. Would i. And how do we decide to check you out. That was just a little over two years ago. And i found in the phonebook but i was looking for unitarian church and phone book. And i told this story before but i'm probably not all of you hurting so i pulled it several times. I looked i knew about first unitarian i've been to first unitarian 35-40 years ago. Working session. I didn't like the size. So there wasn't really looking for church timeline. Then wife was looking for church and she was looking for conservative christian church. First unitarian ain't like me. Ignorant. And i was thinking you need so i pick up the phone book and i said well as james reid. Covid-19 we can organize and decide which one i prefer. And i came here first. So i didn't go to jail. Wendy's. Penguin is a member of st. mark's lutheran at the time and i was going there with her but i had to send in a longer fit my needs. Did you get away from your self. That's why i came here. Can't follow me. I wouldn't know that i parked. With barbed heart about. But i couldn't stay today. Did she has indicated she. It's broken. part of it she thought that when she became present there was. A lot of attention within this conversation that we need and needed it back together. And if you feel this has been done pretty well. I guess. Give her a lot of credit for that. But impervious to. But that we do need at this point we have we are pretty. Wilkinson congregation. They're soft attention. Gyros. But we're pretty well supportive each other. And it's time to say. How do we go from here where we go from here. I thought i would note the opening words. We don't right know the right questions and i if we. Gold buying a focus for the church not just individual church. For all of us discussing. Interact and talk weird we want the church to eat. What do you want the church to be known for. You know there are either look at the international unitarian universalist we were very active. Individual. We're weird we want on people. You. We did have a paper. On sunday about the sunday assembly which has been infinity renting space from us. I was interviewed by the reporter. But then the reporter went to michael schuler at the first unitarian and courted him steps. I. Yes that's all right but. Brian said he's squeezing a unitarian talkin about. What we want to be known for how do we want to be out in the community and i don't know how to do. I'm hoping that we will be able to figure that out. I would note that i has president. First heard about. Well i heard further about going to come until it became present i was about 3 weeks ago. Negotiations for the rent space been going on for some time before that. And last sunday. The humans this union hosted the sunday assembly people talk about what they were going to do. And then we had a picnic afterwards so i decided i would go to both and there for about 45 hours last sunday. And i talked a lot to the person the woman who is organizing the sunday assembly and i guess i don't want to put words in her mouth. But. I can say that she said she didn't know much about unitarian-universalism and i have the definition of depression that she had you didn't ever been working his butt. If i may offer a few things that came from the journal sonia that. Peter morales the present head of the. What is the saddle again. President. Said that he didn't return universal studios in his forties. He grew up in boston where there's urine universalism headquarter. But i never heard about it. He. Leaves his beliefs have not changed. Various places. And finally at 8 in the mid-40s he was talking to a methodist minister who said you belonged. They do surveys and i don't know exactly how they conclude this but they. The numbers by a little off but that like their 274,000 unitarian universalist united states. If you remember co. But according to surveys there 970 some thousand. So either they just don't believe in churches or are they having fun. I may had one of the things you say was they said they did a survey of how often you during university to go to church with them. Answer was once in every 23 years. I didn't know you were at the assembly. 27-piece lantern universalism bookmark on the table because i went out to get some more and there weren't any and i asked him to order them.

uuprairie_org

Pr121202ProudMalke-ed.mp3

Good morning and welcome to prairie universalist. Unitarian society my name is peter anderson. I am a member of the program committee of your presiding today prairie aspires to be an open-hearted and open-minded congregation we welcome people of every ethnic and religious background whatever your color sexual orientation gender or family structure we welcome you no matter what your age or your abilities or inabilities later in the service will invite ourselves if you choose so that we might get to know you better on sunday mornings we provide a wide variety of services. They remember a member of the wider community or by our minister sandringham. And today will be having a chili cusser. Today our presentation will be a chaka and our old robin crowd. Deleting off the traffic to your presentation. But i'm going to say something a little bit about the history such as it is of this event and then rebecca has some more to say as well when i look this up on google it was amazing it's the only thing in the entire world. But just like christmas the exact origins of this holiday are already lost to history in her own words marshall said i don't remember where the initial conversation started i have been talking with auu friend from seattle about winter holidays and the fact there should be a uu holiday and we may have discussed the same thing in the young adults group at church that would be the unitarian church of vancouver. Marshall said she picked today for talica arbitrarily i didn't want to date too close to christmas and 7 days worked out well with our seven principles if you noticed some similarities to other december holidays such as that i see jelica as an evolutionary celebration it seems a fun and lighthearted way to fight the commercialization of our culture introduce family ritual into home and deepen you use understanding of our principles all at the same time part of the reason. Tucson's actually one that we're going to hear i think a bit later evan austin a member of uu church of ventura california wrote the talica song using the tune of the hanukkah song sung by comedian and actor adam sandler and that song. Give some of the famous jewish people that you could celebrate if you're celebrating hanukkah and ours has some famous you use its on youtube. Austin said i just like the idea of chadwick as a fresh new thing could there be a copyright issue with emulating sandler song he said it's just for guitar chords repeated over and over is also written a more serious song includes these lyrics we light our chalice for our dignity the inherent worth of the people we see we light our chalice for justice and peace freedom for all and all for all equity and. So the picture of congregation has been observing talica. There was a talk about adding meaning to the holiday season and brief readings about each principal congressman's were invited to take some action each day in the week to fit with the principal we hope to set the tone for the week. And one family said that they they let us chat with with their children and they talked about they shared joys and sorrows and the kids do a picture each day about that principal she said the children who are homeschooled would bring up the principles during the day as well as a parent i was overjoyed to have something that meant so much to us as a family and a fellowship in topeka. Encourage families to reflect an act on the principals at home telecom those three things for us she said it helps us find yet another way to support and encourage families to buy non-commercial ways to celebrate the holiday season it helps us teach some basics of the face two are fairly young congregants and it gives us a really fun sounding program. Don't make this into another holiday application she said if people don't have to do hard things for it they can send a card to someone stand up for someone on the playground things like that. We try so hard to fit are you you believe that the other holidays i thought it might be nice to have one organized around our own values she's promoted tell if it's a family to something to do at home it makes for a great dinner conversations to talk about how someone lifted up one of our principals at work or school she herself will focus on the principle of the day making effort to talk with someone i would usually not have a real conversation with and engaging with two social justice initiative all this is the person who first came up with the idea. Our children last year learned a lot about it when i did the doctor seuss a service and they had a lot of discussion about which principle belong with which book and this year they're actually doing a curriculum that has to do with these with his principles i one of the complaints was at the principles are just kind of dry and philosophical and i think rebecca will address address that as two they are if we if we let them be on i just like to say something about traditions for families and children as somebody who grew up without my parents were or. And we had some decorations that had belonged to my mother's family and i still have a few i haven't broken yet and my mother would play christmas carols on the piano watch christmas specials on tv so there was a little and we kids got some presents mike i don't think my parents ever give each other a present for any occasion that just wasn't something that they did. The closing words are by jeff liebman our chalice is a vessel for contain the energy of spirit and commitment to our principles that energy can heal the wounds of our mixed emotions. So that we may live the life of love and love the life we live thank you so much for coming please extend your hand of friendship to those around you. And join us for conversation and coffee in the vestibule thank you again.

uuprairie_org

Pr110227Wireman-ed.mp3

Good morning welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society my name is christina clock i'm a member of prairie and also i'm starving on curry's board this year. fires to be both an open-hearted and an open-minded congregation we welcome people of every ethnic and religious background whatever your color sexual orientation or family structure. We welcome you no matter what your age or your abilities or your inability. Later in the service we will invite visitors guests and returning friends to introduce yourselves so that we might get to know you better. On sunday mornings we provide a wide variety of services. They are presented either by a prairie member or remember the wider community or by our minister reverend jane aspen 7 today we are thrilled to have peggy wireman she will be presenting our service this morning. My great pleasure to introduce our speaker for this morning peggy wireman is a wisconsin-based author and well-known for a social commentary on government family and the working class. Summer for well-known works include alice and bushel and a unique analysis of the bush administration and the 2004 presidential election. And connecting the dots government. Community and family which discusses shifting attitudes about family business and governmental relationship in today's america and she does have some copies of that particular book out in the lobby for purchase today if you would like to do that. Like many of us peggy has been passionately involved in local events over the past few years. Our past few weeks and we are excited to experience her perspectives at prairie today. Please join me in welcoming peggy guayama thank you very very much now what i would like you to do is to close your eyes now think of an elephant. An elephant now and if anybody can hear me at any point please raise your hand think of an elephant okay now open your eyes. Okay. Now close your eyes. Don't think of an elephant now open your eyes. Close your eyes. Think of an animal. How many of you saw a donkey. How many of you saw an elephant that's okay so the purpose of today is to look at becoming better at framing and because so we can become better informed citizens and when you can reframe statements when you're talking to your friends and relatives in political action or writing letters to the editor or discussing issues an email you can change the national discussion to something more sensible about the real facts. Then i'm going to talk about wages not the middle-income wages were debating right now but the even lower wages but please bear with me because this is relevant for example is relevant in all the discussions about the cut for medicaid. Which is actually the private health insurance for a lot of private sectors workers okay and finally i'm going to discuss the frames that are being used in the current controversy at have perhaps some ideas on how they much mac counter. So when you listen today listen to three questions. How are you going to reframe your ideas about american workers. How are you going to use the idea of reframing to examine every political statement. How will you hold your representatives accountable for moving past the frames to the reality of the pictures of people's everyday lives. The best example of reframing i know is the death tax. People don't like to think about that. They don't like to think of and they don't like taxes so you can find the two and you've got a really great frame. It's regardless of whether or not that money. As ever but anybody's ever pay taxes on that money. Whether or not it was all inherited from the other they're there their own parents or whatever it's irrelevant death is bad taxes are bad death taxes. Estate taxes are bad. Another frame death panels when my mother lay dying in the hospital the alarm bells. Ran off and people rushed in. I was not allowed to go in. I finally sending a message with said don't you dare put anything in her throat without talkin to be. And finally somebody came out very sheepishly said when we can't do anything because she's on a blue code it was crucial that i my sister and the doctors all knew what her wishes were. What was the death panels how many do a been in a situation. Most of you will at some point or another the question is the death panels what it really was is it would pay doctors. To have the conference for the time it took. To gently have the conversation with elderly people about what they wanted for their end-of-life care and to prepare the living will and other documents that they would need so they wouldn't necessarily have painful treatments that they didn't want. That weren't going to keep them alive for more than a couple of days and avoid problems with their family and arguments within and take the burden of that off of their family and a boy family squabbles that's what it was all about. But what it came out with. Was. Killing grandmother so how could you refrain this. Patient control over care when dying. Let grandmother decide anybody have any suggestions. But that's the job. Party. Okay so that's that's good but that's sweet that's the job of reframing and having been playing with this for it's not easy okay. You say it titleist and your collapsed medicare and medicaid. Another separate programs with totally different problems. Medicare is not broke. Will not be broke for another 30 years and even at that point it would pay 70% of the benefits. So did totally separate kind of a problem and only half the money. Goes into pay for people who retired. The other half goes into widows orphans and the disabled. And none of the reform or none of the discussion about reforming it has discussed if you privatize it. What do we do with that half of the expense. There's no discussion about that at all because that's not the way it's been framed. Okay i heard statement on tv about the average worker making $50,000 a year note the use of average very tricky average include ceo salaries. Great what it doesn't say is this includes families with two workers and those receiving money from stock definitely dividends that they inherited from their grandmother's should we call this instead of saying average family income of 50,000 should we say. The two earned income of 50,000. Plus the other stuff so let's get back to that 30,000 medium this is less than the $35,200 needed to support a family of three at what is known as the self-sufficiency standard. The self-sufficiency standard would enable a family to have enough flatley for food. Healthcare red childcare and a car. But the car could be used only. For go to work. And one shopping trip a week. No sunday drives and country. No visits to friends or even relatives. The self-sufficiency budget includes no money for savings. Education for entertainment. There is no funny fort mill outside of the home. Do big macs. The amount of the self-sufficiency standard is about twice that of the official poverty level. Now the money for the standards for badgercare. Which the governor is considering cutting is 135 percent of. Poverty. Which is $15,000 for one and $25,000 for a family of 3 which means it's $15,000 less than what that family would need to have this very modest standard of living. Okay so. That's part of what. Up for grabs in this. Debate so who makes this. The income that i'm talking about women carry your child at the daycare center. The age bathing your mother in the hospital. Your offices security car. The man stalking your groceries at the grocery store. They do not make. A modest standard of living. In fact 50% of the jobs that were projected by the bureau of labor statistics to grow between 2008 and 2018 latest numbers available fall into 33 categories and the media not the average but the median wage of 23. Of the 33 would not support a 3-person family at the self-sufficiency level. So how could we frame such facts. Could we start calling the minimum wage the poverty wage. What are we talkin about a single talking about a single person wage. People who try talking about a living wage or family-supporting jobs. And if you guys have any other suggestions on this. Play blink. Okay that is another frame starting at the bottom cuz frank is coming. They're not just one word that can be whole kind of concepts. Starting at the bottom and working your way up. How many of you seen the walmart at. Recently been showing somebody who worked at walmart and started at the lower level and is now a manager and is really thinks this is just wonderful the ads are brilliant. They tap into this frame that in america anybody can work their way up. Basic fox in fact. In retail slob sales there is only one supervisor job for every 20 spots so the chances of working your way up are not actually all that group all that great. About five years ago i was involved in an effort to keep walmart out of monona and i learned a lot about their pay the environment the treatment of workers including women. I'm so sad. Or maybe i was wrong maybe they've changed. That's a really effective job frank walmart ads also imply that sales clerks are young people taking their first time jobs who probably are only supporting themselves most insidious. And i think we've been hearing a lot of this in the last few days are lazy and unambitious if they are poor it's their own fault. So why should we use our tax money to help. This frame ignores the fact that if all the workers making less than a self-sufficiency wage this is not even talkin about people who work at the square right now. Tomorrow. The country would shut down there would be no stores no childcare centers no. No hospitals. Before we stop i would like you to close your eyes and look at the workers you know. Close your eyes. Serve you food. See them serving you food. Cuban greeting you at the store at the office. Picture their age. Feel either young old middle. Feel what it would be like to work in one of those jobs with little hope. Forever advancement. Just doing this research i now kip moore. In airports i always thank the cleaning let women in the ladies room. You would be amazed at the response that i get. Because it really is. it really is nice when you're tired and hassle traveling to walk into the ladies room at the airport and find it clean and pleasant it really is and i think they get it. And when i go to the capital i thank the officers who were they. So another frame i want to talk about very briefly as the whole question is fair and balanced on my way back from the capital last night i heard on cnn stand chase say that there were thousands of people both before both for and against the bill at this capital and then they quoted broadcast last night. So i spent about five million spent about 10 minutes trying to figure out how to get hold of them and eventually on the internet i finally said something it said news tips. And i actually called them and i actually got to real life person. And explains that this was totally inaccurate reporting. And you know he kind of said yeah i got it hopefully will pass it on or not but if everybody in this room calls that tipline at this afternoon and complained. The message would definitely get through the sanchez should take a better job he's actually in atlanta i think cuz i tried to find him so but this is really important the state journal. The other day and terms with the way they had the picture they had on their front page about a week ago so this is something that doesn't take too long to do particularly if you got a computer expert in your family that can find the right place to call and it's very useful. Walker crane to the it how do you fix water frame the issue. Okay anti-government. Anti madison anti eggheads anti-intellectual probably also those students who revelled in the 60s. Also got fat and all the ones that irresponsible student so i'm going to try a couple of frames out for you and you guys are going to think of some more. Wisconsin values its schools libraries and parks and honors the workers who have made them great. Good bad speed in wisconsin system of collective bargaining has helped with make wisconsin a great place to live with workers and local governments working together to negotiate peaceful solutions to problems and disagreements. That's why the organization's new school administrators county and local governments do not want to lose collective bargaining. Arguing against the frame with fast which is what people like me do won't get you anywhere. That will perhaps be more useful okay another one churches nonprofits and unions provide a means for people to join together to effectively express their views to big corporations and government. Only unit unions allow ordinary people to sit at the table with big corporations and organizations as equals to work 16 hours straight putting your catheter in and out and finally how do we define how do we define collective bargaining. Which seems to be part of the problem and what does collective action mean. Corporate owners can't move the green bay packers to another state. Only because the packers are collectively owned by simpsons that's the power of collective action other small cities lost their teams because the owners could and did. Sell them on the private market to other cities before taking questions i would like you to turn to your neighbor and answer one of the questions that we began with how are you going to reframe your ideas. How are you going to use the reframing to examine every political statement can you come up with what i'll do is i'll give you about a minute each the person with the shortest it turned you write the person who has the shortest hair go first and after a minute after minute i'll tell you i'll tell you how it is i'll tell you to switch okay start. Have time for questions. Actually i'd like to make a comment the minimum wage for waitresses is is 2 to 35 an hour the rest is tips. Thank you one you guys are wonderful i wish that i had been able to write down some of these three frames to if anybody is good at twitter would you please see me afterwards and also get some of these twitter's out and 3 i have out there in addition to the book which has a lot of useful data and analysis and i do have a yellow sheet to sign up emails from me to take just a blog and several bits of hands out about the book but also. Quotations and facts which you may find useful to think about and share with people if you look at something i got out there and you know another good way to reframe it or somebody take a yellow sheet and write down all your great reframes that you gave me please share them with me. Thank you. I wish we had another hour but we don't do thank you so much.

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Pr131020RobinProud-ed.mp3

Well good morning i am damn proud i'm the provider today member of the membership committee and helping with the program committee today. A prairie aspires to be an open-hearted and open-minded congregation. And we welcome people have every sexual orientation. Gender family structure ethnic background no matter who you are what your ages are your abilities or inability so welcome tool you all. On sunday mornings we provide a wide variety of services and occasionally we have our minister sandra ingham speak and she will be speaking soon i'm not sure how soon but soon november 3rd. Alright then all we'll have opening words all feel as if they were of the same family sharing the same rights the same capabilities and the same responsibilities while my hand can hold a pen i will use it to this end and while my brain can earn a dollar i will devote it to this end. And now we're going to have the story for all ages led by robin proud. Well it's my. My privilege and delight to introduce our not our speaker for today who happens to be my wife robin crowd i've known her for a long time and has been a. A speaker on several occasions at prairie she's spoken about margaret fuller. Elizabeth gaskell the peabody sisters. Which are elizabeth murray and sophia. Louisa may alcott and harriet martineau and all of these have the unitarian universalist. Connections. And. Robin is not a historian but she is an avid reader and women's rights advocate and she's interested in history obviously so we're delighted to have her up here and it's i must say it's a delight to live with someone who who is illiterate and i has a great sense of humor so. I hope you enjoy her. Thanks last week i got to go with the youth to second baptist church which was terrific but one thing that was great about it was even when the minister that they had musicians there even when the minister was speaking they had the organist and a drummer would sometimes heard of underline something so i thought i should ask for that when i'm speaking. Or we may be heard of a little bit because. How many people here had heard of this woman or knew about anything she wrote besides baby over the river and through the woods i know anna lundin knows about her and sandy is a ringer she knows a few things about unitarian history. This is about the sticks chocolate i've done i'm no longer surprised to find that there were women in 18th and 19th century. Who are making great accomplishments in literature the arts and social justice. And yet we know very little about them but this one totally blew me away. So in a preface. Of this authoritative biography which actually is very interesting if anyone wants to borrow it. There's a little summary for half a century lydia maria child who lived from 1802 to 1880 and here's a pictures of her younger and older for half a century she was a household name in america the famous anti-slavery agitator william lloyd garrison hailed her as the first woman in the republic. Senator charles sumner credited her with his firing his career as an advocate of racial equality and he saw her advice on reconstruction policy elizabeth cady stanton sighted child. Encyclopedic history of the condition of women as an invaluable resource for feminists. The transcendentalist theologian theodore parker pronounced her monumental work progress of religious ideas the book of the age and written by a woman. A newspaperman ranks were popular weekly column of the 1840s letters from new york. Almost at the head of journalism in america. Edgar allan poe preacher novel writing and her book called appeal in favor of that class of americans called africans was widely acknowledged as the most comprehensive anti-slavery book ever published in america. In addition she wrote more novel she wrote manuals on housekeeping motherhood caring for the sick reflections on aging. And over several years a large part of the contents of the first magazine for children in america her correspondence with john brown after his failed attempt and then with the governor of virginia about the harpers ferry incident was widely reprinted and yet she is practically unknown if anything should remember for a children's poem. As i look at the lives of women that i brought you i started there were some commonalities. And then when i look closer i saw that they also matched up with the ancient elements of the hero's journey describe notably by joseph campbell. Even if you don't recognize that name. You're all familiar with the arc of the hero scene in fairy tales and myths all around the world including modern fairy tales like star wars the wizard of oz at harry potter so let's look at lydia maria child's life through that lens. And he had to enlist the persuasion of his local pastor and local physician to convince his father that he should be allowed to go to prepare tori school and to the local college which happen to be harvard even though lydia was six years younger than literature and she rent everything you brought home. In a letter she wrote at age 15 to converse wasn't college she reviewed milton's paradise lost she said she admired the style but don't you think that milton asserts the superiority of his own sex in rather too lordly a manner. Lydia was 12 and as the youngest she was the only one left at the house when her mother became very ill in an essay she recounted how she came home one day was in a bad mood because she had done something wrong on her working lost her usual place at the head of the class. When her mother asks her to go downstairs and bring her a glass of water lydia asked pettishly why she did not call the domestic to do it that is why not ask the maid her mother gave her a look of mild reproach and ask again will not my daughter bring a glass of water for her poor sick mother lydia did it but instead of smiling and kissing her as i was want to do i set the glass down very quick and left the room she did not return to say goodnight but later in bed she was struck with remorse she went back to ask forgiveness and found it was too late. Well the first task of the hero is to leave home and in 1815 maria went to live with a married sister in maine it turned out that this game for a more varied social circle that she had enjoyed in medford massachusetts even though her parents home was near boston the stratified society didn't afford her the opportunity is that she would later learn in maine maria meth penobscot indians not only in brief encounters but actually visiting their encampments and getting to know them from this she fashion at the age of 22 this was a period when washington irving and james fenimore cooper. There's a lot more in this novel about religion patriarchy and sexuality that is striking for its time and the use of its author for instance there's a character who seems to embody child ideas and says that institutionalized religion and the bible are too narrow and harsh she prefers nature and she says in creation one maybe two there fill it is god's library the first bible he ever wrote and the biographer says here in embryo a dozen-odd years before emerson proclaimed is a transcendentalist gospel that is that we see the works of the divine in nature. Working and worrying and realizing that he was incapable of change in 1843 she took on the momentous step of legally separating her finances from david now here's the tricky part she was a woman the law at the time stated that she could keep her property from her husband only by transferring it to another male custodian she named their friend ellis loring.

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Pr080113Proud-ed.mp3

I get the joy of introducing our own robin proud who most of you know know pretty well by now from her for various performances behind every great man the peabody sisters and i'll let you go ahead and introduce. Good morning. I thought i'd introduce her cast of characters a bit first so i have up here the first him was chosen not so much to evoke spring although we might want to do that but because the words were written by ralph waldo emerson. In the center here we do have the three peabody sisters elizabeth mary and sophia and now they were. Mainly before the engine photography although this was taken later in life it may not see. The best likeness of elizabeth but it's the only one i could find now it seemed to me that she look like she was separated at birth from andy summers. So if we ever need to cast that part years old i think it's was taken later in her life when she was very active in the kindergarten movement. Really was known as the beauty of the family i don't know that this picture does her justice either sophia rose when actually has a portrait here painted by a famous painter of the time. Then we have some of the other figures bronson alcott who you probably know. If unitarian into his job and louisa may alcott. Horse man who married mary and i think that we could cast galen for this one. William ellery channing. Very famous unitarian minister. A theodore parker also a unitarian minister. Nathaniel hawthorne i'm sure many of you read the scarlet letter in high school. With great enjoyment. He and sophia were married. We do have emerson down here and margaret fuller who were part of the circle as well and hear these are small but you can look at these they did not have wedding photographers at the time but apparently something they did was to make silhouettes of the couple so this is a silhouette of nathaniel hawthorne and sophia peabody on their wedding day and this is mary peabody and horace mann on their wedding day. I'm entitled my talk behind every great man after the classic saying with that beginning and it's been filled in different ways behind every great man is a great woman or a woman pushing and shoving. And supposedly hubert humphrey said. Behind every great man is a surprise mother-in-law. But it was literally true for many of the major figures of nineteenth-century new england in philosophy politics religion and literature. They worked up and polish their ideas in conjunction with the women in their lives although we rarely hear about the women. Ralph waldo emerson a champion of self-reliance. Had not only his devoted and domestic wife lydian. But numerous acolytes who gathered at his home. In descriptions that i've read. Emerson resembles to me a radical professor surrounded by his adoring graduate students. And of these the most assiduous were women margaret fuller and elizabeth peabody. But emerson wasn't the only one to benefit. The peabody sisters elizabeth mary and sophia. Served as teachers translators scribes discussion partners. Promoters and publishers. For a glorious pantheon of writers and artists. Public figures. For example sofia illustrated stories by nathaniel hawthorne. The sisters introduced him into the transcendentalist circle and finally sophia married him. Mary mary horace mann and with her sisters. Inspired him to devote his life to the improvement of public education. For which he is still famous. He did not have a particular interest in education until he met the peabody sisters. Elizabeth wasn't intimate of all these famous folks up here. She never married and she's best known today. For her successful effort to establish public kindergartens in the united states. The sisters all agreed that the highest mission in a woman's life was to help and support great men. In spite of their unquestioning intelligence. Industry and inspiration. These women in keeping with the culture of their time never aspire to promote or advance themselves. I heard a different with margaret fuller who was quite willing to be famous in her own right. Most of the information that i'm going to share with you today comes from an excellent book the peabody sisters. Three women who you who ignited. American romanticism. This was written by megan marshall in 2005 and was a pulitzer prize finalist is fascinating has lot of detail on their lives and their circle some photographs and illustrations and a lot of exercise. From their diaries and journals. Miss marshall spent almost 20 years discovering and reading hundreds of original documents on the sisters and all the people in our lives. She undertook to read everything that they had written everything written about them and many of the books that they would have read as well. Because. They interacted with so many famous people. A good amount of their correspondence has been preserved. In fact sometimes it's possible to see the same event or conversation we counted by various people. The contrast between the more official documents and their personal letters and journals. It's fascinating. It reminded me of a tv reality show. Where the participant gets a chance to approach the camera and reveal her innermost feelings about what has just transpired. For example inviting to the gentleman they admire the sisters were always formal and circuitous we would think very. Vague. But then in their private moments in their letters and journals they sometimes reveal their real passions fears and jealousy. I think there's a temptation for us to consider that people who lived in technologically simpler times. Lives that were less emotionally complicated. But of course. Human beings are the same at all eras. Elizabeth was the 12 first befriend both man and hawthorne. To the point that other people thought there was an understanding between them. But then after each man fix his interest on one of her younger sisters elizabeth. Denied that s*** ever had a romantic interest in them. When i'm going to give you today is just a brief introduction to the sister's lies and especially elizabeth. And focus on some of the great men that they knew. For further details i do highly recommend this book. Which not only has a great wealth of detail but also explode some of the myths that had grown up around them. Si research several nineteenth-century women i found it after their death. Their friends and families tended to downplay the radical and powerful aspects of their characters making them seem more domestic and less threatening to the status quo. To understand the sisters we need to have at least an acquaintance with her mother eliza palmer peabody. She was a formidable figure in her own right. A child of the american revolution. Whose father frightened her mother by coming home and war paint and feathers from the boston tea party. Elijah came from an educated and socially established family. When she married nathaniel peabody the son of an illiterate farmer raised in the backwoods. She doomed yourself to a life of financial hardship. Her teaching was often what supported the family and later the work of her daughters. It's at the peabody family reminded me of an episode of the simpsons. It's true the simpsons has a reference to everything. In this episode lisa is afraid to grow up because she fears she will turn into adults like her father. Then she finds out that although all the simpson men are ineffective immature losers. The simpson women are uniformly smart capable and successful. This was a peabody family to a t. The three daughters who had no access to formal higher education. Taught themselves or arranged for tutors in languages. Philosophy theology music and art. Elizabeth read at least nine languages. And translated numerous works for publication. Sophia was an accomplished artist and sculptor. For most of their lives the sister supported their family by their teaching writing and small-business effort. On the other hand our father practice medicine and dentistry which at that time did not require university degrees and we're not necessarily held in very high esteem. He was never able to establish a successful practice. He and his sons also failed at several business account. The sisters script to send one of their younger brothers wellington to harvard where of course they could never be admitted. It turned out he spent his time there drinking and gambling and was forced to withdraw. The family sent him off on a whaling ship to learn discipline but he jumped ship in south america and return penniless. Another brother nat not only dependent on his sister's to help him through business failures and expenses of an early marriage and family. But then he actively derided the education of women and refused it to his own daughters. So this was the milieu in which these sisters accomplish their amazing. Endeavors. In the period of 1800 to 1840 the family moved a number of times around the area of salem concord in boston. Mainly driven by possible economic opportunities. As young as 16 elizabeth was already a teacher helping to support her family. The family was always unitarian although the sisters. Sympathize with the efforts of emerson and channing. To personalize and open up the traditional unitarian church. In fact it seems that elizabeth introduced to those great men some of the concepts which made them famous. Somebody talked about a several of those men at the introduction to the lives of the. First one is william ellery channing elizabeth first heard him speak when she was 7 years old. She wrote that she was thrilled as never before to see him communing with god face to face when he was reciting a prayer. His attitude reminded her of her childhood vision of a being ignorant god which parents and teachers had tried to replace with a stern calvinist figure. And elizabeth never felt comfortable with that. At the age of 13 elizabeth first had a conversation with channing who found her charming and intelligent. And marshall rights. If it was a potato outline her past several years reading. Channing would have been even more astonished. All on her own and by the age of 13 she had followed a good portion of the course of study. He recommended for his graduate students in divinity at harvard. In 1825 when elizabeth was 21. She finally had the opportunity to attend weekly service at channing's federal street church boston. And to become an intimate of the channing family. She would often visit on saturday afternoons. To discuss the british romantic poets channing introduced her to was wordsworth and coleridge when she admired. And they also talked about the radical concept that these poets had of god as an idea originating in man. At this time elizabeth wrote her own translation she called it a free paraphrase of the gospel of. I'm john. She interpreted though the word was made flesh to mean that truth speaking with a divine gift to man. Empowering each individual to search for meaning in life. Channing applauded what he called these original thought. Although he was not ready himself to take on such a radical position. And already at this time elizabeth use the word she got from coleridge transcendental. Describe her philosophy. Transcendentalism. During the same time elizabeth was holding saturday morning discussion classes for young ladies. She would share these topics with reverend channing at the saturday midday dinner. Only years later in reading over her diary of the time did she see that quote. In every instance. The subject of composition i chose for my class on saturday. Prove to be the subject of dr. channing sermon the next day. Even at that later date she never claimed that she had any influence on channing only that perhaps she had been a participant in his own self education. It was elizabeth sewerage channing to publish some of his sermons. He claimed he didn't have the time or strength to do all the copying his health was always uncertain. But it wasn't volunteered to do the work. In fact she was so good at it she was able to copy those quickly and accurately while he was reading to her from completely different philosophical works. Elizabeth eventually copied more than 50 of channing sermon. And if they were incomplete she was often able to supply from memory sections that were left out. This woman's were among the first examples of so-called literary sermons that is they were closer to personal essays then the tradition of biblical homilies that was more common at the time. Elizabeth had learned from her mother who was a lifelong teacher i believe in child-centered education. Deliver with kindness. Encouragement. Leading the children to develop their own understanding. This was in direct contest contrast to the traditional methods of the time which relied on rote memorization and liberal use of the stick. Therefore elizabeth was very intrigued by the similar educational theories of a neighbor and acquaintances of their family bronson alcott. She calling a number of families in boston in order to enroll students for his new school. And she then provided the instruction in latin arithmetic and geography which were some areas where alcott was weak. I guess she was very satisfied with promoting a great man rather than setting up her own school. Alcatraz elizabeth as the most magnificent philosophic imagination of any person he ever knew. They open the temple school named for its setting in the masonic temple facing boston common. In 1834. Elizabeth kunal boarded with the alcott. Began to record bronson's dialogues as he called them with his students for publication. Showing them to another acquaintance emerson who read them he said with greatest pleasure. He published his book record of a school in 1835. Once again she played the role of recorder for a man which allowed her to promote the book without making herself the center of a 10. Elizabeth was so close to bronson and his wife abby. That when their third daughter was born that year. The younger sister of anna and louisa may alcott who would one day be famous as a bath. In little women. Was actually named elizabeth peabody alcott. Unfortunately several incidents interrupted this mutual admiration society. Elizabeth found that she did not always agree with alcott's practice. Such as tempting as break rules and then punishing him with isolation. Then there was a new volume conversations with children on the gospel. Over which alcott wanted more control. And in which he insisted on including his lessons on human sexuality. Although they seem to us very innocent and vague. At the time this was totally scandalous. Elizabeth try to persuade him not to distract from his important overall message by shocking the community. But he claimed that would not be honest. And at the same time there was a disturbing personal incident. Mrs. alcott went into elizabeth's room in red letters. Elizabeth's sister mary. The letters alluded to horace mann who was another acquaintance and at the time was an object of affection on the part of both sisters. From what they read. From what mrs. alcott read. She accused elizabeth of criticizing. The alcotts to her friends. It seems like something that would have happened to us during college years your roommate came in and read a letter and someone was saying something about what they told her boyfriend at something. Well they were still quite young. Elizabeth left the next day she left the alcott's home and the school and was replaced by margaret fuller and abby alcott. Crosstown for one-year-old daughter's middle name transforming her to elizabeth sewall alcott. Interesting lee elizabeth continue to publicly defend alcott educational theories and accomplishments. A few years earlier as part of her education elizabeth head engaged to learn latin. And through an acquaintance. She had hired his cousin to be her tutor that shooter was a nineteen-year-old ralph waldo emerson. At that time both future transcendentalist were bit intimidated and their conversation never strayed from the translations elizabeth with undertaking. It was through alcott that elizabeth re-entered emerson circle several years later. In fact after leaving the temple school she went for an extended stay to the home of waldo as his friends called him. And his wife lydia and their infant son and she made several extended visits of. Sometimes months at a time. This was a time when emerson had already resigned from boston second church in order to pursue a career as an independent writer and spa. In the summer of 1837. Emerson gave the phi beta kappa oration at harvard commencement. In this talk call the american scholar emerson said to the assembled elites. I embraced the common. And he prays man instincts over his education this wasn't what the elites of harbor spector to here. An 1838 emerson delivered it even more shocking. Speech the divinity school address. Cancel created a religion too large to be confined to christianity. Unity drawing discussions he had had with various instruments including elizabeth. And from german writers elizabeth had introduced him to. Although elizabeth herself never went so far as to drop christ from christianity. She saw him as a great human model. Brothers to follow. But once again elizabeth was a promoter and defender of man she wrote several articles in 1839 defending emerson although no one would publish them. It was the inspiration of emerson as a center of lively discussions that let elizabeth to a new business. She decided to open a bookstore and circulating library. Specializing in books and journals from europe that had inspired transcendentalism. This bookshop would also provide space for the transit.. Meet. And for margaret fuller to hold her series of conversations for women. Based on earlier meetings elizabeth herself at hell years before. It was a new venture for a woman to run this kind of business. River channing had to reassure her that there was quote nothing in the business inconsistent with your sex. The idea of selling imported books was also a new one and the audience was of course small. At the same time elizabeth was publishing a variety of books herself as well as the transcendentalist magazine the dial. The second sister mary. Actually spend more years of it as a teacher than elizabeth did. She was often overshadowed by her talkative and brilliant sister. Both women were captivated by the romantic figure of the widowed horace mann who share their boarding house in 1832. There was an intense although barely admitted rivalry for a number of years. During which man seemed perfectly content to have both women as confidants. Especially as he continued to feel sorrow at the loss of his young wife. However he finally settled his preference on mary. Throughout a long courtship engagement and marriage mary works with man on his career in politics and education. And in the foundation of antioch college. Many of horace mann principles of education reforms such as eliminating flogging and wrote learning where the very idea was at mary and elizabeth had learned from their mother eliza. And practice. Success for years. Mary also what a book entitled christianity and the kitchen which was a forerunner of the boston cooking school theories that later became famous. The sisters were often defined as having their particular roles and they even defined themselves that way elizabeth was a learning one or the leader. Mary was the beauty of the family and sophia was the artist. Sophia was also the invalid. For much of her. Adult gears. She suffered from migraines and other. Some of these could have been caused by medical practices of the day. For instance as an. Sophia was not docile. And her parents assumed this was a result of teething. Therefore they do stir as was the custom wood calomel. Which contains high quantities of mercury. I could have severely affected her nervous system. However it was also true that sofia symptoms flared up whenever she felt too many demands were being put upon her or when things were not going her way. In the 19th century people didn't speak of depression or anxiety disorders. But many families had invalids who is illness has forced to household to revolve around them. Interesting lee one sophia had married hawthorne and left the family home health improved markedly. Elizabeth was actually the sister who befriended nathaniel hawthorne first. The two families have been neighbors early in their lives. And elizabeth had communicated to hawthorne how much she liked his stories. Hawthorne visited elizabeth for about 6 months while sophia the invalid remained upstairs in her bedroom. According to marshall there was an understanding between elizabeth and nathaniel. But when sophia enter the picture things change. And elizabeth abruptly announced her decision to move away to live with her brother in another town. Elizabeth never change their opinion of hawthorn's genius. Publishing several of his works including one illustrated by sophia. True sisters. Hawthorne became so much a part of the transcendentalist community. Then you plan to start married life with sophia as members of the cooperative brookfarm being started by george ripley. There were several experiments at this time in communal living. Alki had had another one. Elizabeth was a big promoter of this and head written. Very praiseworthy articles in the dial. The convent had noble goals of allowing members to cultivate the inner worst and depth. In the individual soul and to love and assist each other as jesus would have wished. In reality hawthorne found himself shoveling manure. And developing blisters from raking hay which interfered with his writing. And you can imagine there were a number of. People who don't they were very knowledgeable large egos all trying to live together. And it's not know very much about farming. The hawthorne did not stay with their community and sophia did not move their the communal life may have been especially hard on hawthorne since he had grown up almost as much of a recluse has sophia had a very bizarre family life which may have influenced some of his writings. Instead of living in brook farm. The hawthorns became neighbors of emerson. Emerson had never really favor the communist idea he wrote those of us who do not believe in communities believe in neighborhood. He encouraged his friends and acquaintances to move nearby. Wichita hawthorn's gin. At this time elizabeth deprived of the company of man and hawthorne turn to a new intellectual companion a man six years younger than she reverend theodore parker. He was one of the greatest supporters of her bookshop. And he admired. For sympathy her intelligence and her speech. Unlike any he readily told her that she was a great influence for him and said i shall get several sermons as i have often done before now. Out of elizabeth suggestions. Ashley had done with channing al-qaeda and emerson elizabeth became a staunch defender of parker. At the time of the controversy. Over his sermon at 1841. Discourse of the transition and permanent in christianity. Now i think that ralph must be channeling. Theodore parker because next week he's speaking on the transcendental permanent. Parker shock even the unitarian minister by asserting that belief in the literal truth of christ's miracles was irrelevant to christian faith. Elizabeth wrote a long article in support of this sermon saying. If the unitarians text had known what it was about. If it had not forgotten entirely the ideas in which originated. It would have embraced mister parker as its last hope. And supported him and his statements. Again no one would print this article for a whole week. What does a head twice seen the men she admired usurped by her sisters and within a few years. Both mary and sophia were to enter happy marriages and have three children a piece. Sophia and nathaniel were married for 22 years. And she the invalid survived him for another seven years. Dying at age 61. Mary live to be 80 years old carrying on horace mann's work. When he died 18 years into their marriage he was considerably older. Perhaps elizabeth was too powerful to be the womanly consort that most nineteenth-century men desired. For example emerson really enjoy the company of people like margaret fuller elizabeth peabody married and more domestic type. And i did not realize that before i noticed she had this unusual name of lydian what actually was lydia but emerson thought that was too ordinary so he changed it. There was an interesting discussion that took place between elizabeth and margaret fuller about the issue of marriage. Marshall's book. Elizabeth had taken notes on what if our goodfellers conversations these worthy. Discussion groups. In which the participants grappled with the question of. Why women fail to produce works of art. Genius. What's it be caused at the. of life when men give themselves to such pursuits most women became mothers. Then one of the women who didn't marry. Why weren't they more productive. The two most accomplished single women present peabody and fuller. Start over the question. Elizabeth offer the opinion that single women too often spent the rest of their lives in mourning over lost opportunities to marry. Society spoke so uniformly of women as more respectable for being married. But it was long before she entirely disappeared. So that sounds as if elizabeth. Still hoped or regretted. Fuller snapback that there came a time however when everyone must give up. Reminder solar had had the experience of having several men. Express interest in her and as things develop today. Got frightened. Rushed off and married someone else. The irony is always at margaret who had given up found herself married and a mother and a whirlwind love affair and italy why elizabeth remain single all her 90 years. It was through her ability to read german that elizabeth had learned of the theories of educator friedrich froebel. Trouble. Emphasize developing children innate curiosity and teaching with kindness and creativity as elizabeth have been doing for years. And of course it was from germany that the idea of kindergarten originated. Elizabeth was particularly interested in establishing kindergartens in impoverished neighborhood. She raised funds. Traveled and lectured widely. And she even started program to train the new kindergarten teachers. Marianne horse. Supported her and mary contributed to her journal the kindergarten messenger. The sisters had always been in favor of abolition and women's rights. And later joined reform groups for women's suffrage and native american rights. Sometimes their altruism was taken advantage of for instance. Mary and elizabeth raise money for a native american woman who called herself princess sarah winnemucca. Supposedly to build schools for her people. But at the end of six years it was little to show for the effort and the princess was not able to account for the fun. Do the sisters always maintained their unitarian belief in the essential goodness of human being. And the perfectibility of society. It's coming up i'm reminded of the saying. Ginger rogers did everything that fred astaire did but backwards and in high heels. There was some of that going on here to the peabody sisters without money position or university degrees. Held their own way that even set the direction. Some of the most influential men of their day. Now we do have time i'm certainly not an expert on these and it's just an introduction but i'd be happy to.

uuprairie_org

Pr140209TracyHames-ed.mp3

Good morning welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society i never knew smith i was originally slated to do this i got sick i thought i was going to die so i begged off but i didn't die so here i am. every ethnic and religious background. Whatever your color sexual orientation or family structure we welcome you no matter what your age or your abilities or inabilities. On sunday mornings we provide a wide variety of services they are presented either by a prairie member a member of the wider community or by a minister reverend sandra ingram. Hey eileen nettleton will read our opening words. Whether we and our politicians know it or not. Nature is party to all our deals and decisions. And she has more votes. A longer memory and a sterner sense of justice than we do window barry are going to do this morning's chalice lighting. This comes from south africa. Where they have mountains and they have ocean so you might want to close your eyes and imagine that you're there. As we gather in the shadow of our mountain. The ocean laps around our feet. We reach deep for the silence within. Feel the rhythm of the ancient drum we light our flame it looks this high are rainbow seems a light. Diver says we are together as one our flame will shine afar and guide our journeys light. Our speaker today is tracy hammes. Tracy was raised in arden hills minnesota. He developed a love and appreciation for nature and the environment at a young age. Through many years hunting fishing and camping. Tracy obtained a ba from macalester college in 1984. An ms in natural resources from the university of wisconsin-stevens point in 1990. In 1989 he moved west to work for the yakima indian nation where he stayed for 22 years. At yakima he built one of the largest wetland protection and restoration projects in the pacific northwest. This project combined the knowledge and traditions of the yakima people with science-based techniques to produce a cultural approach to restoration. Midwestern earhart tracy moved back to wisconsin in 2011. To take the position of executive director with the wisconsin wetlands association wwe's of statewide nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection restoration and enjoyment of wisconsin's wetlands. Tracy and staff has spent much time assessing the wetlands and the proposed mine project area in the bad river watershed of the penokee hills. Well thank you so much for inviting me to come out here in and talk about us in the passions of in my world you and inn express the joy i have in in wetlands in in the people i care about veterans tracy hammes association and we're going to talk a little bit about. Briefly about my background give context of what. Give you an idea of of my feelings and how how would this work really. What it means to me next line. As a as she said that i've been out in aired west for the last 22 years on the active indian reservation which is in south central washington state city of seattle is right here cascade mountains this is the reservation 1.6 million acre reservation and i was involved in working for the tribe. I was employed by the explanation twilight resource management program one of the largest tribal resource programs in the nation so this was just a while a folksy can't see it unfortunately their cloud but this is a big old volcano. It was interesting because here i am a midwestern boy waterfowl biologist by training and i took a job working for a a large tribe that didn't care much about duxot. Helping the tribe reconnect with the waterfall resources was a big part i wasn't crazy.. An approach that we we took was. Not so much what can i do in my position to to make things better for ducks or or other's resources but really what can we do for the yakima people so the whole life consists of the work we're doing restoring habitat bringing back some of these wetlands with all about the people. Incredible here's a people that have been on this landscape since the ice age or or before even and tighten very closely with the landons people hear some tribal members harvesting tool which is a heart symbol rush and make maps out of this and. Some of the real exciting things because what's happened on the arid west is these water should have been turned upside down with irrigation development of irrigation irrigated agriculture and allow these wetlands have been gone for over 100 years. We start restoring some of these areas this is that same formerly egg egg field. Plant start coming up that has been gone from the reservation for over 100 years and it was so exciting studying this plant what they call wapato which we call arrowhead. Here's a virginia she was 84 years old the last time she didn't walk till she was 12 so this is this is the stuff that really gets me excited now i work iloveducks i love wetlands but bring it together and working with the people in helping restore people's culture against an answer that is is what i'm all about. So when wisconsin wetlands association and we talked about our mission protection respiration and enjoyment of wetlands enjoyment is an important one it brings the human part of it in and that was really important when i came back to take this job was that wasn't just. Something that work there were dealing you blindly or or. Facebook ali restoring wetlands there was a human component to that's what i'm really interested in i mean i love these wetlands or my passion. I live to be out in these things though so we're science-based nonpartisan membership organization next. Okay why we what are we doing up in the penokee hills. So. Little over a year ago the tribal members from the leaders from the void commission asked me to come up and give a presentation that was just before you know when the first mining bill had not had failed but the second money will an ultimately passed with write-up looming on the horizon. And in our discussions came to the mine and they asked me if it was done some wetlands get involved in this promise to the tribal leaders at that time that we would and by the way of course working for a try for 22 years when i came back here with really important for me to reach out to the tribe so i'm really enjoy jupp. Getting to know the 11th tribes in wisconsin so made a promise we could right let's get up there going to be a part of this not knowing what i was getting into. So here's where it is in case you a lot of people have heard about the mine but where is it it's way up almost to ashland in the pinocchio ills which is a ridge in the bad river watershed next slide. Here's a map of the water the bad river watershed iron iron body is right here this is the bad river reservation right here ashland is right here. And this area is the coggin dad reverse lose which we'll talk about the minute and this is where the actual mindsight is located between the top of the battery watershed the water flows. Through this ridge in a couple occasions to go south first and then heads north south and then heads north ultimately ends up in what we call the coggin dad rivers lose. The largest freshwater estuary on lake superior. I'm one of those people that i can't sit in an office in madison and deal with an issue i can't get it i have to experience i have to be out on the landscape ft ft incredibly familiar with what i'm talking about if imma speak about a resource. So that's three hundred miles away. We headed for the hills this spring next. And god put our boots on and decide we're going to we're going to work on this we got to know what's up there. Next. So we put our plans together and look use the maps of what we knew about where the project would be located where were they going to big dig the pit where were they going to put all the way struck and i did include this in the car cuz that's. Too much detail for a short presentation and got on the landscape. And reports were wetlands we were looking at the wetland resource is just above the upper watershed and i will tell you when we got up there when it when i made the promise to work on this issue and then we went up there the first time i was. What are we getting into. And i did not expect to find what we found up there. A lot of the watersheds in that part of the state have been heavily degraded by clear-cutting over 100 years ago a lot of them hasn't recovered. This is one of them this is a watershed in a watershed area that is unbelievably intact i never expected to see the quality of the habitat and how well this place is functioning. Flabbergasted. We'll talk a little bit show some pictures of what's up there okay next. You've got an uncrewed incredibly abundant butlins landscape in the upper watershed in the bad river it's at about 1900 ft elevation there's a high amount of precipitation in snow pack in there and the wetland at the landscape is involved with a lot of weapons to handle that quantity of water that lands on them on the ground this is deidra federal wetlands these are incredibly bandhan up there they catch a lot of the snow melt in the rainfall in and hold it up and in process that water. They're usually drive by the end of the summer but surprisingly a lot of the wetlands up there's that we call a femoral or actually went all all summer long and into the fall so. I was really surprised at the amount of water. In that area. A lot of really needs a forest swamp. Black ass and cedar swamps with this. Beautiful carpet of sphagnum moss the green and there is all sphagnum moss just you walk through that assist squishies really need. I didn't show it but there's some unbelievably large cedar trees in here in places that have been relatively untouched for quite a long time beautiful beautiful forest. Spoofbox abundance bruce boggs in these areas accepting a lot of the runoff in lot of groundwater in the area very complicated groundwater interactions in a place like this but nobody understands yet. Okay. And what metal is oh my gosh gorgeous went manos hundreds of acres just one hears about a 200 acre meadow that every time i went out there different plants weren't flower. Like i said these hills gift between 60 to 200 inches of snow a year and a lot of precipitation 1900 ft elevation up there in the watershed drops down to 600 feet and lake superior. So. Lot of snow lands on this on this ground here and healthy forests in the wetlands then take that snow and allowed to slowly really slowly melt didn't have shaded areas you would have much quicker snow melt in the spring than you do now this picture was taken actually may 24th. This is really right on the toy of the hill ground zero just about and i told him the wet the abundant wetlands and take that snow melts the trees slow down the males wetlands capture the snow melt next. And then they allow the slowing the flow they allow that's that snow melt in the runoff to be captured by the wetlands gets soaked into the ground and really charges the shallow groundwater areas and that water then slowly works its way down towards the creeks and rivers downstream in the watershed incredibly important. When were talking about the creek and river health in this area. The rule is. If you put cold water into the ground. Cold water comes out of the ground later okay so in the spring you get snow melt cold water soaking into the ground in these wetland that migrates through the ground and comes out later in the summer in some of these trout streams keeping that water cool really important concept. And this is what it looks like this is tyler forks river. Which is a tributary to with bad river witch. Is this is this is one of the highest quality of tributaries in the batter of a watershed. Bonded trout cool clear waters and this is going to be. Potentially one of the most affected waterways of the area people look at this moment that looks like brown water. Text yvette color shows that this is a healthier that they're healthy water watershed satanic acid from the bogs. Help not just regulate the the cool of the water but they also regulate the hydra ground if we didn't have these wetlands capturing the water all that snow melt would run off in the spring would go down into the into the lake you use up all your water by the summer places like this would be much dryer. For the summer baseflow in a place like this cool clear water is dependent upon the wetlands in the upper watershed. Wetlands also reduce flooding they capture the water like we said it's pretty easy to understand next. Incredibly diverse plant animal life we pass situation up here the other watershed the bad river is one of the most intact watersheds i'm not kidding that i've seen more in the country i didn't like i said didn't expect it. Unbelievably diverse and what surprised me the most was. The level of. Naturalistic mostly native plant communities in these wet would you see very few invasive species out there you'll see if he's into are grass plants. And few other things. they're not getting ahold of not able to come in and the reason is because the hydrology and landscape in this area is intact and it's functioning correctly in the native plant communities are able to out-compete. Any invasive invasive re canary grass or other plants that are trying to move into the area and all those plants are up in that part of the states not that they're not there it's that these wetlands are in such good condition they keep the bad stuff out and. Not too many places around the state to find out those types of conditions. No that's a frog in a little. That was. Another one in the big joyful surprise i had getting out on this landscape. How this year as well as discovering the lack of invasiveness. Palm wetlands enhanced route have a death is another this was my daily weekly favorite wetland at the time this is a big wet meadow with bogus creek running through the middle so i was walking out in this ahead my hip boots on is about 2 ft of water where the grass is r&s out you know this is actually the were the open water that's the channel of the creek that long-standing the creek and get a nice picture of that. So i took one step out went right up over my waist absolutely classically formed classically formed wetland floodplain creek channel that the midday betterness deepen in enero are providing really good cool clear water for trout. If this if this type of situation without the pacific northwest people be coming from miles around to see what greek me salmon habitat we have in place like this self. Masseria. The one on the left has an intact upper watershed healthy wetlands the one on the right does not that's the difference that's the difference that he's upper watershed weapon systems make. In your rivers like that so taking topsoil yes what happens when you take your water off all at once and you don't stored in your wetland comes down it's all about gravity and energy that water comes down all at once the channels up there don't have the capacity to take that quantity of water and they they dig out all that erosion then headed downstream and dumps into the for the bottom of the watershed. I've spent my career working these types of situations i know what it's like surprising thing was the amount of imported beavers are up in these watersheds unbelievable amount of beaver activity here. This is a 10-foot tall beaver dam couple of our staff at karen o'brien and kyle megira out there behind that hill behind them is a beaver dam ancient beaver dam it's holding a wetland. Beavers have come in and created wetland conditions in the in the move around with the landscapers beaver dam's 2in tall all the way up to 10 ft tall in that area and they're capturing that slow flow stopping it allowing the settlements that are in the runoff to collect and helping keep that water cool and clean all the way down the hill next. Jumping down to the bottom where does this water all end up so as we said this water goes north and it ends up ultimately into lake superior at the bottom end of it there's there's the largest estuary on lake superior public hagen bad river. Water flows downhill everything that comes from the mine site has to go through this incredibly large complex wetland wetland area next. This is on the bedroom for reservation it has abundant wild rice resources this is ultra lifeblood of the bad river people right now this is. Not only is the wild rice here but there's. There's a there's fish spawning in sturgeon in this area that piping plovers and all kinds of things in this unbelievably. Complicated estuary situation here. Next it is been declared a wetland of international importance we help them put together the application for that is only 30 in the united states. With that kind of designation and we had the honor of presenting it to him in the inside is mike wiggins chairman of the bad ever tried we were able to prevent them the designation award. All the water comes down to it and where were this is really being threatened and that's what we're looking at is if you increase if you mess up the water in a watershed and it comes down into this wetland remember this is war flattens out into lake superior all the sediments going to drop out at this location this place and going to start filling up and and they're already having some impact with lower lake superior levels in this estuary there's other plans movie into the wild rice bed right now because the drop in the water levels so you put sedimentation on top of that. This is mel who runs the camp and she's been just wonderful a teaching people about to go to waze. They're doing their building birch bark canoe is there that you can learn about on the right is a is a cattail matt we showed you earlier the too late harvest the bulrush harvest by the tribal members that's what they look like they make maps. The tiger time all together and this one happens to be made out of cat tail but that are used for a lot of structural things with indian people. So you could see that. Next. I'm getting to know the local people some of the people involved in this i mean it's it's so fun to go into these areas these are people that this is their homeland being threatened and they're getting out in and working together to help address this issue and it's been so nice working with these peoples. Friends for life bringing people up from other parts of the state into the end of the area's been wonderful getting people out to see this next. Getting other wetland landowners up in these hills there's once again that's over the slope right there and it's a big wetland sister standing in and getting them excited about this resources next. And family members this is my nephew and getting him out and teaching him about this area as well and so rewarding so it's all about the resource it's about two people has fought all the all these things combined and that's what's been. Really. Giving me hope about about this whole situation we really feel that this mine is never going to come in for a lot of different reasons and one of them is the actual high quality of the resource up there in the devastation of removing these upper watershed wetlands how that will have implications all the way down the line so. We're happy and we're optimistic but it's going to be many years of work ahead of us this isn't going to go away overnight. So next. What can you do to spread the word educate yourself. Support those that are doing there's a lot of folks working on this issue were covering the wetlands in hydrology that's if it's other people working on the group and sulfur and everything else. That's not get involved okay. Except thank you very much i'll be around after work if people have questions or want to talk more out this week. Any questions. Now it's interesting that's that's one of many issues now that arising out of this i mean it's that's one reason we're optimistic. Is that there's. Everywhere you look at at an angle of what's going on up here what's being proposed. There are there are. Roadblocks to the development of this mine in the grunerite to one of them they knew that there was a potential of this rock up there and they. Very early on right now they found a few instances where there where the rocks are actually there. More study needs to be done about how much it. Is out there so they're definitely has to be more stern but it's an incredibly important. Concern what happens when it gets into the air etc etc. I think. There are federal laws that. Yeah we can use to address the air quality issues right now the state. A lot of our angles know because of the new mining law. Unfortunately a lot of the state's ability to regulate some of the activities up here has been. You've been hampered a little bit so. We're looking a lot of the work we're doing is emphasizing the federal regulatory processes and the tribal tree rights. Ultimately this whole thing may end up is a tribal lawsuit. Making sure that we are laying the groundwork. For those activities so you're going to find. We're going to find a lot of holes especially in the state regulatory end of it. Butter. We're going on that assumption that that's going to be the case. So one thing i didn't do an in my in my longer presentation right i give this presentation around the state. And i talked a little bit more specifically about what's being proposed. Nn what they're talking about is a four-and-a-half my long pit at the bottom mile wide. Can i get has to be a big pit because of the iron formation is at a 60° angle it's not flat. We have to dig this huge pit to get out this. Goofy you fold in the in the. The iron. And so that means a lot of rock a lot of waste rock and a lot of tailings because it's low-grade taconite so there's two things as the waste rock in the tailings. Right now it's so early on in this company has been so. Bagon what they're proposing they've got a site where they're going to dig up this hole and get the iron out not going to dump all this waste rock. Mostly in the area that we've been studying that's actually from our perspective from a wetland standpoint the biggest impact isn't digging the whole it's where they're putting all the rock that they're taken out of the hole. And we've estimated that it's. It's over a thousand acre. Land area. And when you calculating up my rock that's going to come out of that whole it'll be about a 600 ft tall pylori. So. All the wetlands that you saw on these pictures will be under 666 hundred feet of rock. So then our angle is okay. Removing that. Amount of rock how is that going to affect how the water works through the rest of the watershed. So. That's a whole nother talking into tribal tree rights resources lived here for hundreds of years and. They have resources that are fundamental to their livelihood to their life to their culture and the wild races is is it a wetland resources. And. What. This is stuff i've been working with my whole career when you're when you're dealing with projects like this that may have tribal implications. It's really important to. Document how the tribe is using these resources why it's important to their culture to wild rice that's really easy. And then being able to scientifically connect the dots between what they're proposing here and how is that going to affect the tree reserved resources. That the tribe has now. In a treaty with the federal government. And then getting the federal government to honour that treaty treaties are the highest law of the land and when you make that connection you have a strong treaty and you can point if you do this then this will happen incredibly powerful in a court of law so i'm hoping that plays out here as well jordan we're very carefully now is a science-based organization then working with the tribe to make sure we can. If it comes to a court of law we can say if you do this. Here's why this is going to happen. And cross the t's and dot the eyes. So that's the big unknown that's the end another reason why were fairly optimistic on this issue if this was really high grade stuff. And it was a real profitable operation i'd be a lot more nervous than i am right now. This is as far as everybody can tell this is an economically marginal deal. So a lot of people out of geologist or saying we don't even know why there. Bothering with this it's been so many years no one's. Look at this because of that. There's a lot of theories now on. What's really going on. So and i don't want to get into that i'm asking f*** i have i have my theories and everybody else does and some of them make more sense than others but we're scratching our heads on what are they doing here. Well in the end and that's something that is so important to discuss amongst yourselves i'm not going to get into that the philosophy of resource use and that's something you all have to look at its fundamental to what we're doing do we want mine do we want iron in our society we want to use iron if so we got to get it from somewhere. Now we pulled a lot of it out we can recycle a lot of it now so we all these these are such fundamental. We've got to make sure that this is not a nimby situation. That. Then i think we can make this point that. If there are appropriate places for a mine. Whether you agree there or not. This certainly isn't one of them. And that's a big part of our. It doesn't help us to be coming out saying we're against mines altogether we have to be. Bring the science in and say if you think you want to. Put them on here let's do the science and see if it's a good idea or not. And pretty early on it's coming out that it's probably pretty bad idea. This. This situation is coming at a perfect time the environmental protection agency. Has just released a draft report about how. Wetlands connect. To the flow of watersheds and influence all watershed. Work how the water works do a watershed. 350 page. Scientific document is still in draft form they haven't officially approved it. But when you read that thing it's a textbook of how this kind of stuff and hundreds of studies. Are connected and how the effects of losing your upper watersheds have implications down the line so yeah incredible sign. Watershed science behind the concepts that we're talkin about here. And lot of good examples of that in a lot of good examples of where it's been lost in the implication. I've spent my career restoring lower watershed. Wetlands and floodplain systems. In situations a lot like this mountain kind of baste. Precipitation. Much bigger systems in this of course but. The things we had to do to try and bring back the wetlands because of what went on those upper watersheds you know it was impossible to restore some of these things. So yeah what you do in one place effects. Other other portions of the watershed pretty significantly so you know i. I left the state for 22 years and came back and i've spent the last two years really getting myself reacquainted reacquainted with wisconsin. Every weekend my wife knows she's back there i'm out driving around somewhere not just to penokee hills getting getting re-familiarize with the wetlands out here and have been to horicon again. And you'll couple of things. We lost over we've lost about half of the historic wetlands in the state of wisconsin in last 150 years and a lot of it's been in the in the central and southern part of the state. A lot of a dude agricultural development. I'm in a lot of the wetlands that are left. Are in. Pretty degraded state right now. My first came out here driving around looking at the resources at first it was really disheartening. I got really depressed thinking my gosh if we got a challenger this is really there's a lot of. A lot of pain things in the state from a wetland standpoint then i start meeting the people start looking at what's going on who's involved in this is all over the state there are groups and is organizations now. Getting to know the resources working to protect and restore the quality of the wetland resources in their areas and work on the good example of that there's a lot of folks. Working together to keep that place healthy. I'm by the way that's another one of the internationally-recognised wetlands in wisconsin is three of them. Horicon the kick against lose and the upper mississippi river wetlands. So. People are starting to recognize the resources and the importance of this. What we're trying to do now is really. We're working with private individuals and local governments to get them to understand the importance of wetlands. For other reasons. Well because of the flooding because it's cleaning your water and in using getting people to think about a watershed perspective and how wetlands. Play a part in not just the ecological health but the economic health. And everything else about about your region so that's. I've turned around from being depressed being really excited about the possibilities now in wisconsin. And the other penalties is one that. We got heavily involved in but it's taking a lot of our time but we're involved throughout the rest of the state as well. The tragic thing about situations like this is it really tears communities apart. And in the problem is people take positions that are not informed by facts. So big part of what we're trying to do. Is. Is lay the facts down and say you know i don't care if you're four against the mine will maybe i care but. Understand the implications. Okay you might then maybe this is acceptable to you that we destroy this watershed and the sloughs and all these resources. But don't be promine. Without understanding the implications of what this will do. And now that's a big part of our messaging. I think a lot of people when they see this then they'll understand what maybe there are other ways. To use these lands. I'll be around afterwards to talk more and there is some materials on the back table as well. That you can pick up if you'd like him.. Now we can talk some more but it's it's going to be around for a long time so you know thank you guys for getting interested in this at such an early stage. Panda. We'll see where takes us. Thank you tracy that was really excellent. Lynn wilkie will retard closing words. From wendell berry from the long-legged house. We have lived our lives by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. We have been wrong. We must change our lives so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption. That what is good for the world will be good for us. And that requires that we make the effort to know the world and learn what is good for it. We extinguish this plane but not the light of truth. The warmth of community or the fire of commitment these we carry in our hearts until we are together again and thank you for coming please extend the hand of friendship to those around you and then join us for coffee and conversation.

uuprairie_org

Pr160320RobinProud-ed.mp3

Welcome. Morning. Thank you all for being here today like to welcome all of you and especially any visitors we have our guests. This is prayer unitarian universalist society my name is dan prod i'm a member of the congregation here. Prairie aspires to be both an open-minded and open. Heartattack rogation and we welcome people of all backgrounds religious ethnic. Gender and a different family structures. So you're all welcome. On sunday mornings we provide a wide variety of services. Sometimes these are done by prairie member which is the case today. Sometimes fire by our minister. Sandy ingham. And. Today our presentation will be by robin proud. Are you going to read the opening works robbins robbery the opening work. From a christmas carol this is actually what. The ghost of marley tell scrooge. The common welfare was my business. Charity mercy forbearance and benevolence were. My business. I know you will. I have looked like i was fighting with her. Donna murdoch. A child journeys far from home. Careful. And bray. Guided by this child. May we seek to understand the causes. A fly. Like the comfort of a candle. Let us welcome this child. Into our home. With warm. Nourishment and love. Would we not want the same for our own child. Lost and alone in a strange land. Recent photo. In tracy. My favorite speaker is speaking today happens to be my wife. Robin has a spoken the number of times before. This sunday on various lives of uu. Females. That many of which are not known or well-known to. The general public today is an exception. Going to hear about charles dickens and. I assume how is life and writings. Pertain to the seven principles the uu principles. Which are. A written offer on these posters around the. Walter salt. Robin is. A speaker for many years and some of you may know that she's so i can toastmasters. And i think that's so. Where she has honed her skull. And. She's as delightful a person to live with that she has who makes peaches so enjoy her spot and we'll have some time for. 4 questions after work. Thank you. First i have to tell you that was not actually the end of the story. The very last thing after this. Dua for marriage is. It only remains to grandmama around marina to make an end of the fishbone so she took it from the hand of the princess alicia and instantly flew down the throat of the dress a little snapping pug dog next door and talk to him. Animal shelter and i thought they might not care for that ending so i saved that for you and it's a bit. Emblematic that dickens did have a darker side that sort of fitting. This dog supposedly had it coming. Alright. So i'm departing from my series on you you women. I several years ago it's about five years ago that i joined a group on goodreads which is an online site for book lovers that reads a lot of classics and they came up with the idea to read all the works of dickens in the order who wrote them and someone in the way they came out which was in cereal form. And the excitement around there was really very similar to popular tv shows are people waiting for the star next star wars movie. So doing this we have people from around the world in this group including some. I want me tired english professor in england would post pictures of things that were in the books and people have never read dickens before so it's been great experience. In 2012 was the 200th anniversary of dickens birth and i had asked the program committee whether we could get someone from the university who was an expert on dickens to speak in that didn't happen but now that we've read all these books except the final one which we're about to start. Which was unfinished. And have read the biography i decided i was enough of an expert program. Now what you use generally claim dickens because he at least some involvement with unitarian church in part of his life he wasn't a big churchgoer. But his concern about social issues definitely match the unitarians of his time. And so i want to give a brief overview of dickens life and work and then some examples of how dickens novel support the seven principles which we are focusing on this year. So we can start here and his picture of pages have been written about chickens so this is ivy very brief. Charles dickens was born february 7th 1812 and we have a picture of his parents then. John and elizabeth. John is famous for being the model of mr. micawber who you'll see next. Someone who is always in debt and everhope. Hopeful and i think you could see this picture that it made sense a wc fields played him in a movie. His here to famous saying one was something will turn up and apparently charles dickens father. Would say that an annual income twenty pounds and it will expenditure 19019 and 6 results happiness annual income twenty pounds result misery. Because of changes in their fathers employment the family moved frequently and i think there's a picture of the birthplace. And then the next one was dickens fondest memories were time they spent in rural kent. Where was happy in school he and his father often walked by a large house on the top of the hill. And charles said he would like to live there someday. But really the next with something very different. Because soon after they moved to london to john was arrested for and taken to the marshalsea prison now this seems like an odd feature of the nineteenth century that if you couldn't pay you were put in prison where you had no way to make money. But as we have learned that it's not at all out of fashion exactly what's happening to people in ferguson who couldn't pay traffic tickets and today's new york times. It talks about how there's one prosecute no one public defender for entire parish of louisiana. And so if. Poor people don't have a lawyer they're probably going to end up being in jail where they cannot. Pay any fines. So his the family went to live there but charles was 12. He was a sensitive and bookish boy he loves to read. But it was sent he was sent out first to pawn any items of value which he found very. Did embarrassing. Upsetting. And then he was put to work in a black ink factory. Black english shoe polish but actually was something that was used to clean the. Fireplaces. Toys job was to put labels on these bottles. He felt strongly that the work in the company were beneath him he had had to give up his schooling. He was very lonely he was living in a rented room by himself he could only see his parents on sundays. A top it all off his parents seem to think this was a great opportunity for him to get into the business world. Fortunately for the family a relative died and the small inheritance that came to them was enough. Jeffrey johnson prison. Charles's mother however son no reason for him not to continue in his job. He later wrote. I never afterwards forgot. I never shall forget i never can forget that my mother was warm for my being sent back. But is she wanted him to keep working in the factory. His father prevail in sending charles to school although the school turned out to be an indifferent one as are most of those portrayed in dickens. Dickens mother is caricatured and several female characters. Most notably mrs. nickleby who can never finish one spot or anecdote before veering off into another. When charles was 15 and old enough to be a clerk in a law office. He told himself shorthand which he described in david copperfield in a humorous way how difficult that was. He became a reporter. So working in a law office in in the courts he was able to observe all sorts of people and episodes in the daily life of london. He went to the theater as often as possible. Around this time he also fell in love with maria beadnell a c a realm. We are here for this was a picture of more romantic picture of the. Marshalsea prison as his figures in the book little dorrit become quite. Gothic. And this was the blacking factory. And. Here is maria who was dickens first love. She was probably the model for dora in david copperfield. Apparently she lost interest in him before he did in her. An editor named george hogarth around this time invited dickens to submit sketches of london life renew newspaper dickens not only took the job but became engaged to george's daughter catherine and she should be in here next to be married. In 1836 charles start his career. Sophia and catherine married and they would eventually have ten children. Alex. Go ahead here here is sketches by bows which was his first. Published work. Sketches of london life. And. Then the first installment of the pickwick papers which. A these actually posthumous papers of the pickwick club. Oh i'm sorry i'm wandering way. So different at this time working on an ambitious historical novel which would become barnaby rudge which is probably his least read or notebook. But it was the populist and popular sam weller. Who made. Dickens an overnight success. Sam was beloved for his cheeky cockney persona his great loyalty and his unique maxim such as. Everyone to his own taste the old woman said when she kissed her how. So i didn't quite get this when i read the book about sam but what i watch the bbc series which i believe you can find on youtube and definitely in the library. The young fellow and he's just or dynamic. Whenever he's on the screen you just can't even look at anything else and this is the way he grabbed people. Who read about his. His character he was supposed to be just one of many characters the pickwick papers tells the story of. The pickwick club the scooper for men traveling around england and going to different. Places in observing different things. And similar was just supposed to show up in 1. Instance but because he was so popular he was brought back and became a servant of mr. pickwick. And this picture also shows that there was. Immediately lots of commercialism just like today they're all kinds of plates in. Mugs and. Paraphernalia with the likenesses one difference that was that dickens receive no money from any of this. Dickens juggled installments of the comic pickwick with his next book which was the more dramatic oliver twist which we should have somewhere here. Like all his work it appeared in cereal form. Now dickens was well launched as a profitable author and moved his new family to a bigger house which we. After. But tragedy struck catherine's younger sister married. Apple dip with them died suddenly one night. Everyone was sad but dickens was overwhelmed. It could be his romanticizing of this innocent girl that led dickens to fill his novels with sweet naive young women. And it did seem to have what i would say the woody allen problem he didn't seem to like very young women. Charles was saved from his depression by a new friend he made a man named john forrester who we have a. Limit later picture of. What were the years forester was the only person in whom charles confided about his early life and his true feelings. Enforcer became dickens best friend his literary agent. First biographer and the liberation part was also a big thing because it was hard for writers to have any if you have copyright at the time. A lot of difference works were immediately pirated again that's a problem we have in modern times as well. Oliver twist and expose the evils of the workhouse so that's where oliver says could i have some more. And the next book nicholas nickleby took on the yorkshire schools. And these were institutions where unwanted an inconvenient boys were sent to be abused and forgotten. Will next dickens plan to edit a magazine called master humphries clock and he would be only one of many contributors but it didn't catch on so he ended up turning his story into the old curiosity shop. You should have there. Fortunately forget cuz this was one of his best-selling works so it's really a favorite today. Due to its episodic structure and exaggerated sentimentality. But american audiences who got these. Books later each episode lineup at the pier to ask about the latest installment did little nell die that's a bit like downton abbey you get that after the english it already had this story right. Four people waiting for the last harry potter book. I neither had oscar wilde once said. One would have to have a heart of stone to read the death of little nell without dissolving into tears. Of laughter. What's the weather. The next book barnaby rudge. A historical novel has a mentally handicapped hero do we have him there with his crow crow it was not a comfortable success. But you can set his sights on a new audience. America. In 1842 he and catherine toured parts of the united states and canada. He was put off by the crudeness and boasting of the americans. And your adoration of him as a celebrity. And he made no headway in fighting against piracy other books that was a big issue. Dickens took his revenge by mercilessly satirizing america in his next book martin chuzzlewit. The next year dickens place too short book back at home the christmas carol. It had some high aims of drawing attention to the plight of the poor. But dick is also hoped it would be paranoid finances however. The decision to publish it in a deluxe edition. The special binding and colored plates. Wiped out his profits. Now one thing that always strikes me about this holiday classic is how secular it is. There's really only one indirect reference to jesus when tiny tim says it is good for people in church to see him. Remember the one who made the blind see and the lame walk. The main thrust is. Humanist is all about what we can give to our fellow human beings. The book became a favorite in ensuing months and years and was almost immediately adapted into a play and as we don't mini. Play and film versions. Dickinson road additional christmas stories in 16 years that they always do and pretty well but none of them reach the. 11 nature of this one. Dickinson his family traveled the continent to the continent spending extended time italy and switzerland. It was here he going to reading for friends and seeing how much he and they both enjoyed it. He came up with the idea of doing public readings. On one of my online book groups. Someone was talking about audiobooks which i love. And his prison sentence just wrong to reclass attempt classics. An audio for instance dickens. And i responded first of all of em all the authors. Dickens was someone who. Headed account serialized often people would have one copy and they would read it aloud to the family everyone didn't have their own copy it was not on. Amazon order a kindle. And. Dickens himself. Love to do these readings of dramatic parts of his books. I'm struck what i've read some of these books about how cinematic they are there was no movies movies but there was theater and because his was a great theatre-goer in fact might have become an actor if his career and got a little bit differently. He had a very scenic imagination. I just returned to london with his writing career well-established. Dickens did something that was not well known at the time he founded a charity hall for young woman who had already been or were in danger of becoming prostitute. Now the house was run by a woman. And. Dickens. Did not put his name on it but he did have some input and something she requested were to have a minimum of preaching. The ladies should be allowed to wear colorful dresses. Edit they should be allowed to read like reading material not just sermons. Also that they should be taught reading and writing and household skills. After which they were encouraged to marry and to emigrate. Linda. Apparently it was his friend forster's idea for dickens to write his largely autobiographical novel david copperfield. In the first person to start googling these things and i was looking for pictures of course david copperfield is the name of a. Magician but uriah heep was a figure in here is also the name of a rock band and so is little darryl by the way i did not know that. So this was the first book that dickens wrote in the first person and he took naturally to it. A blended smoothly the voice of an older narrator and the perspective of a small child. Having just one point of view makes the story very direct and suspenseful and it was partly autobiographical. David has to. Going to work in a factory. And. Make his way in life and then later becomes a law clerk at a writer. It was not dickens bestseller at the time but he always said it was his favorite and it did go on to be his most famous book around the world. Play 1050 dickens founded a periodical to be called household words which had a number of contributors including elizabeth gaskell who was a unitarian woman first to be a successful author under her own name she wrote north and south wives and daughters and cranford some of what you seen on bbc. At first i was very enthusiastic about. Elizabeth gaskell. But as they work together she resented some of his demands for deadlines and so on and he wrote to. Divorce over one of his correspondence. Mrs gaskell if she work if i were mr. g how i would beat her. Yes he wrote next to short and simple novel hard times. In order to boost circulation of the magazine and it's the same as the plight of the workmen. Which is actually what gasket balsa-wood about in mary barton in north and south butt. To me it seems that this particular book is very melodramatic and symbolic doesn't really come to life as well as some of his others. But as simple as hard times was the next novel bleak house is a complex. With a wealth of characters. Probably the first detective in a novel. Elements of horror. And some very modern experimentation with forms of writing. It's also an extended satire and criticism of the law courts and the british class structure. Although charles and catherine were producing children almost every year their marriage was becoming more and more strained. Answer this is where the different sides of dickens come out that. At one of his daughters wrote the people thought we must be someone who goes about with holly all the time. Marion. And it was not always like that. What dickens got a chance to meet once more his first love maria beto he eagerly visited but he found she was now middle-aged overweight and foolish so he gave a similar experience to. Where is arthur comes back and is excited to meet again with his this young woman whose knock-knock so young and. And very foolish. This book wasn't linked on the marshall. Marshalsea prison and on all the types of prisons that humans create for ourselves. It's about money making it losing its spending it and how it changes people. For himself money had allowed chickens to make one dream come true in 1856. He bought the very house on gad's hill in kent that he and his father had admired so many years before. This was a wonderful family home but the family was far from idyllic. Dickens wrote to his friend forester catherine and i are not made for each other and there is no help for it. And. Really during this time he began to blame his wife to say terrible things about her which were probably not true. Dickinson always loved the theater and now we became acquainted with the turn-in family a mother and two daughters were all actresses and. Dickens was 45 and ellen was call nellie was only 18. He became besotted with her. And although he needed to keep the infatuation from the public because he was a famous family figure. It was all too evident to his wife and growing children. Dickens begin to attack his wife catherine directly and complaining to his friends and acquaintances in blaming her for all his unhappiness. No one knows exactly how the relationship went between charles and nelly it seems that he worshiped her platonically for a time and then they became lovers. At one point she was living in france and he was visiting regularly. There is a theory that she had a baby who died. It does seem that once he gave his heart to ellen ternan dickens was faithful to her for the rest of his life. Dickens left his wife and lived with several of his daughters. Get always gotten along better with his daughters that his son. He resented the easy life his sons had in comparison with how he had grown up. And he didn't like their lack of appreciation or initiative. And indeed most of them never succeeded in life. Despite intermittent fieldhouse dickens was constantly active writing speaking going on in society roman london in the countryside. He was known to walk for hours at night in london. Which provided the intimate knowledge of the city he brought too many of his novels. Stephen return to america what you found in his opinion much-improved. Cleveland apology in the next episode of martin chuzzlewit. Hero tale of two cities great expectations and our mutual friend and we have some. The pictures there. He also wrote a number of travel. Although he had a stroke in 1869 he continued working. It was in the midst of the unfinished edwin drood when he collapsed. And there was a controversy about whether he was at home with his daughters. Or whether he was with nelly at the time it was brought home. Indifference daflon fellow road. Difference was so full of life that it did not seem possible he could die. I never knew an author's jeff to cause of general morning. It is no exaggeration to say that the whole country is stricken with grief. And that wasn't america. In england he was buried in westminster abbey we have. Black i think. Oh okay that's fine i'm not have not been. Signaling tussaud. Turn on the window a little bit about chickens life and work let's turn to the seven principles. The first principle in the inherent worth and dignity of every person will this was the heart of dickens message. In a christmas carol scrooge dismisses the poor. Let them die and decrease the surplus population. He surprised to see all the love and happiness experienced by bob cratchit and his family. Animaker salary. Dickens first serious novel oliver twist. Opens with oliver being born in the workhouse to a young woman who probably dies. Dickon says. Wrapped in the blanket which had hitherto form his only covering. He might have been the child of a nobleman or a beggar. But now that he was enveloped in the old clothing of the workhouse. He was bad and ticketed. And fell into his place at once. In spite of his uncaring upbringing and later falling in with a gang of child thieves oliver remains good smart and kind-hearted. It turns out that his dead mother was from an upper-class family. So in this early time of his life dickens reflects the romantic notion that blood will tell. In spite of surrounding. What else has matured install more of the world. He became much fiercer in his defense of the small and weak. And it's like house we have joe do we have that tara. The crossing sweeper. No i didn't quite understood that until i saw the bbc series of this crossing sweeper i thought of someone who's sleeping duck. But that was not it this were the london streets when they were horses everywhere. There was mud and all kinds of filth. And the idea was that this. Child would go in front of the ladies and gentlemen pushing. With a broom for my curling pushing this worst of it out of the way so that they would not get so much filth on there she would or the ladies dresses and then maybe they would get a penny or some small coin for doing that. And so he's a child who seems to have no family and no home. And while he is never cruel he has no opportunity to become kind or smart in the way oliver twist did. His understanding of the world is limited and just trust god and here he is with a figure who i believe is a minister. It shows that was something that. Dickens often pointed out. And he has learned how society shaped people it wouldn't matter who jealous parents were growing up as she did. This is how he would become and when he dies a feeling this would do to his unhealthy living conditions. Dickens write. Dead my lords and gentlemen. Dead men and women born with heavenly compassion in your hearts and dying dust around us everyday. Whiskey kind of a contrast to someone like little nail who had a poetic and beautiful death. The second principle justice equal equity and compassionate human relations will overlap i always think with the first principle we saw jenkins invoke compassion in the death of joe. What difference does a to let us get to know someone we wouldn't ordinarily know. So we can feel empathy and compassion. So he we have some pictures here in the abuse mike in nicholas nickleby. And then there's a little female servant ironically named the marchioness in the old curiosity shop. She's calls her the very small survey we never do find out her name. And then the character. One of the gentlemen. Ironically calls her the marchioness. And barnaby rudge was definitely as i can mentally handicapped figure. As far as justice is concerned. In a second principle. Dickens having worked in the law courts clearly saw the difference between law & justice. In the pickwick papers a trial for breach of contract becomes a farce. In bleak house there's a case so complex about inheritance. But it drags on for generations and ends up spending all the inheritance that was originally a dispute. And a little dorrit the injustice of debtors prison is fully expressed. Dickens said the one great principle of the english law is to make business for itself. The third principle is acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregation. In this category i'll say a little bit about dickens view of religion. Miami accepted the church as a civic institution. But as the other institutions he mocked his hypocrisy. Several books feature ministers who time is spent aggrandizing themselves or living off others. For instance the minister manages to show up just in time for a meal or a drink. In bleak house there's a woman who devotes her life writing letters and soliciting contributions for projects. Port african tribe while their own children are neglected. And at this point i mentioned a controversy about chickens and religion whether his depiction of the season megan and oliver twist his anti-semitic. He was surprised to be accused of this by jewish acquaintances. And apparently he tone down some of the references in later editions. And then he made a point of adding a good juice we should have a picture of fagin there and then the next one is. Raya who is the good jew who appears in our mutual friend. But it's still a gentleman question about anti-semitism at the time. The fourth principle. A free and responsible search for truth and meaning and here. We would talk about education dickensvale union station. He loves to read as a boy and his favorite authors fielding and smollett who were. Humorous writers influence his burly work. One of the worst parts of his time in the blacking factory was he had to leave school. He depicts many examples of bad schooling we should have here. Do the boys fall which i didn't realize how to pronounce that when i first read that book i thought it was supposed to do with the boys in the sense of jip the boys or cheat the boys. Do the boys call in nicholas nickleby. This establishment where boys are imprisoned underfed and mistreated was based on real school that collected money to keep unwanted children out of the way. The mistress quitters who runs most of the parents help the children don't even come home for vacations. There is a range of establishments for the karen teaching of children depicted in various works. Paul dombey and debbie and son is a sickly child who boards with a woman. And she's based on one who hosted charles dickens during his working time. David copperfield attend a couple of schools of varying quality. And then we should have pick up in great expectations. He goes to a dame school where an old lady generally nods off and the learning he gets his from a girl about his own age and then he tries to teach. His. Brother-in-law the blacksmith how to. Read and write. And it's significant that in his project to rehabilitate prostitutes unlike other reformers dickens didn't just train the girls to be mazor laundress has he insisted they be taught reading and writing. The fifth principle is the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process. Well it took a little bit of intestacy about politics and government. What are the episodes of the pickwick papers. Find. The traveling group in the town of eating swell. Where in the election is being held between the bucs and the blues. The situation may sound very familiar everything is made of party question. If a bus proposed to skylight the marketplace the blues got up at public meetings and denounce the proceeding. If the blue is proposed the erection of an additional pump in the highest tree the bucs rose as one man and stood aghast at this enormity. The division carries over into their media which of the time are opposing newspapers. In bleak house dickens reduces the cabinet to the ridiculous. The present government to be overthrown. The limited choice of the crown would lie between lord noodle and doodle. Supposing it to be impossible for the duke of food. What are you to do with noodle. Six principal the goal of world community with peace liberty and justice for all. In the story called the battle of life given starts. Once upon a time. It matters little when. Uninstall word england. It matters little where. A fierce battle was fought. It was fought upon a long summer day when the waving grass was green. Daniel wildflower formed by the almighty hand to be a perfume goblet for the do. Don't get enameled cup still high with blood that day and shrinking dropped. He goes on to describe however many years nature renew is the field with a fertilizer of the men and horses very there until it becomes a peaceful orchard. And no one thinks of the thousands who died. 2a dickens books describe the issue and mob violence in tale of two cities. Dickens shows the eldridge of the class system with an aristocrat who doesn't even falter when his carriage knocks down a poor person. But he also depicts the insatiable fury of the mob. In barnaby rudge also is based on historical uprising. In that book different shows how many participants were led onto riot by malicious or self-aggrandizing showman nothing like that would happen today right the seventh principle. I think this shows up in dickens as admiration of nature. Although jenkins love london he also loved the english countryside. And was delighted to move to the house at gad's hill. And several of his books he just opposes the moral and physical harm of the city with the wholesomeness of rural life. And there was some truth to this and that those pea-soup fog we're not picturesque but toxic. Probably similar to what we see in china today. A disease in the city spread like wildfire. In a twist the family can rescue him from steve's take some to their country house where he recovered in the better air. A bleak house the heroine try to take that crossing sleeper joe to nurse him. She takes him out of the city but he feels out of place and he's concerned himself to others so he runs away back to london the only home he knows. I know we should have a picture of the old curiosity shop a little nell and her grandfather. Having lost their whole what is a wander through england. Live 1.8 come to an industrial city. It's cold windy and rainy with people hurrying by and no one even seemed a little girl in the old man she thought. Why are they ever come to this noisy town when they were peaceful country places. They were but an atom here in a mountain heap of misery. If we were in the country now we should find some good old tree stretching out his green arm does if he loved us. And nodding and ruffling as if you would have us fall asleep thinking of him while he watched. The sympathy of nature also appears in the many times that dickens pairs are dark and stormy night with sinister doing it happens with the death of steerforth it's c. In david copperfield and the revelation of pepsi benefactor in great expectations who receives a mysterious visitor at night in a storm. Now that's officially called the pathetic fallacy the idea that. Nature respond to our feelings and it's a hallmark of romantic writing but i think that in a way it's a form of recognising the interdependent web. And maybe at this point i'll throw in something that also have to do a dickens writing the only read it today we're just struck by the number of coincidences everyone from down to be related to each other. Turn up at the oddest times but this was not a floor this was part of the design. The way that the book was intended to be written was to start with disparate characters and events and bring them together more like a modern mystery story. So this was a very brief introduction. The dickinson is writing. And if you are planning to read or we read you can keep these principles in mind. So i just like to to ask them how many people here. Have read. At least one book by charles dickens. Probably channel two cities or benefit how many of red how many hybrids tree or more books by charles dickens. Quite a few. And even if you haven't you haven't may have seen the the number of. Movies and tv shows i forgot to mention on the david copperfield a picture there with bob hoskins as mr. micawber into they might know who played david copperfield and the daniel radcliffe. On that shelf. Those are the best for someone who has never read dickens would be to read one of the one of those great expectations and. David copperfield are both first-person books and therefore a bit simpler our mutual friend is very good and not as well-known that's tickets at the height of his powers where he has all these elements of. Humor and gothic horror and suspense. Mingle together very well. When i get home and i wouldn't recommend barnaby rudge particularly ah4r formulaic overall. And as far as biographies there are some very long by verse of dickens but there's a fairly recent one by a woman named claire tomalin. That is very readable and. That she also wrote. She also wrote a book specifically about the relationship between ellie and charles which was made into a movie not long ago that came and went very quickly. Some of the preoccupations that unitarians had at the time with. Poverty. Alcoholism. Healthcare a lot of issues that we started homelessness and so on. He also in the papers papers which is very humorous. Mister pickwick. Through a humorous scene the landlady thinks that my certificate suppose marriage to her and when that isn't the case he sues him and because he doesn't want to pay he says no i'm going to prison and that it has his debtors prison scene which is rather dark in the middle of the pickwick papers. Thank you very much. And. The closest word for visor something that rosemary mentioned that. Decades could be very grim the adjectives dickensian usually refers to something like the blacking factory and then. Dark alleys of london but dickens always had humor in his books and he always gave a happy ending too many dutches characters. And he said there are dark shadows on the earth. But it's lights are stronger in the contrast. So please join us we will be having a soup sunday if it's your first time you are our guest and. Greet your neighbors.

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Pr160717Ingham-ed.mp3

Good morning. Never ceases to amaze me that there can be nobody sitting out there. And then we sort of philadelphia. Welcome. Welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society if this is one of your first times we will give you a chance to introduce yourself a little bit later on in the service. Perry aspires to be a welcoming congregation we welcome you no matter your ethnicity. Your sexual orientation your gender your abilities or. Not so many abilities in some areas. Your haircolor whatever wherever you are on the road. 2. Well i was going to say on the religious journey but. Wherever you are on life's journey we welcome you. If this is one of your first times here we encourage you to come more than once because our services are very different sometimes i do the services i am sandy ingham prairies minister. Sometimes someone from within the congregation will do the service and often we have people from outside. Congregation. The opening words. R b howard thurman. One of my heroes. In the quietness of this place. Surrounded by the all-pervading presence of the holy. My heart whispers. Cheap. Fresh before me. The moments of my high. Resolve. That in good times or in tempest. I may not forget that to which my life is committed. Keep fresh before me. The moments. Of my high resolve. Two-face the world's coldness. A chalice of warm. Two-face the world's terrors. A chalice of courage. Two-face the world's turmoil. A chalice of peace. May its flow fill our spirits our hearts. And our lives. App to short readings. About epix. The first one is by vancleave morris is not familiar with this person. He writes at the very core of the human being operates the power of. Choice. And it is this power of choice. That sets us off as persons. It is this power of choice. That must decide not only what is true. But what criteria should be used. To determine truth. And what standards shall be used in deciding between competing criteria. And what judgments shall be employed. In deciding on the standards. Odd infinitum. Human choice is the ultimate court of judgment. Both in morals and impractical judgment. It rules between competing choices of moral actions. But it also rules. On what moralities shall be pursued in making judgments. And what matter. Morality. She'll be used in deciding. Which. Morality is best. Odd infinitum. Ultimately. When all the shams of reason and capitalizes these forwards reason nature science god. When all the sham of those four things have been stripped away. They are stand you and i. Our choosing cell. Naked. Before a cosmos of alternative. Trying. To plot our way through it. And that's to give substance. An essence. To the idea of. Humanity. The capital. Bertrand russell. In his 1935 essay. The harm that good men do. Bertrand russell rights. A hundred years ago there lived a philosopher named. Jeremy bentham. Who was universally recognized to be a very wicked man. I remember to this day the first time that i came across his name when i was a boy. It was in a statement of the reverend sydney smith to the effect. That bentham. Fought. People. Ought to make soup. Of their dead grandmother. This practice appeared to me. As undesirable. From a culinary. As well as a moral point of view. And i therefore concede a bad opinion of bethlehem. Long afterwards. Wright's russell i discovered that the statement was one of those reckless lies. In which respectable people are want to indulge in the interests of virtue. I also discovered what was really the serious charge against him bentham. It was no less than this. Becky. Define a. Good a good man as a man. Who does good. Well i love you. May know this if you if you read your prairiefire which of course you all do right getting tan. But over the past two months we have been offering. Byot classes. Or perhaps more accurately discussions. Here at prairie. Byot stands for. Building your own theology. And it's a series of adult religious education programs in which. Participants are encouraged. To write their own cradle. Their belief system. Based on what they believe about. The big questions of life. Or what universalist unitarian minister. And creator of the byod. Series. Richard gilbert refers to as. The great conversation. You know those questions. What is the meaning of life. What is that. Why do we die. Why do bad things happen to good people and vice versa. What is evil is there evil. The questions that you if you were fortunate. Enough to have gone to college and stayed in a dorm or a house with others those questions that you stayed up all night talking about. Which by the way still happens at general assembly. Well maybe not all night work boulder. Or perhaps if you've been lucky enough to have friends in your life with whom you can talk about. A big question. Before that in 9th grade my best friend. Karen. And i would. Bicycle out to. Big rock which was called big rock. Along the allegheny river in northwest pennsylvania in the town where we lived and we would talk and talk and talk about how we were going to solve the problem of the world. You're going to end war. Can understand why adults stupid i just couldn't. We're still working on it. And parent has become a jehovah's witness. I suspect that i may leave you with more questions than answers this morning but that's okay. In the july issue of prairiefire or monthly newsletter i wrote that i borrowed the title of this morning's reflections from. Richard gilbert. Who is responsible for that byot curriculum. Gilbert intern came across the phrase good-for-nothing. Inna diggy cartoon he claims. In which ziggy says. I always heard. If you were real good all your life. You'd be rewarded. So far i've been good for nothing. Having grown up in the christian tradition specifically as a presbyterian. I was steeped in the concept of predestination. When i went to college i began to question that doctrine. Actually i began to question that doctrine when i was 10 11 12 years old that wonderful egg so i would confirm kids at that age. Why we want to grab them in. Hicham. Predestination just didn't take with me. And someone that by the time i got in the college. Had a semester to i chose to simply ignore. The concept of predestination. Elsa anna doll. And many years after leaving the presbyterian tradition i had several conversations with presbyterian ministers when attending my church of origin. During visits to my parents in the small town in pennsylvania where i was born and raised and tended that church almost their entire lives. If god has already decided. Who is going to heaven. And who will go to that other place. Why bother to be good. I have never received a satisfactory answer to this question. Coming out of such a strong calvinist background i find this question more intriguing and meaningful than the reverse. If you and you can be. Refer to unitarian universalist and general. If you don't believe in god. For some higher authority. Then why bother to be good. In the section of the byot series about ethics. Reverend gilbert asks us to think about that. And to consider what it is that underpins our ethics. And our moral. If we don't believe that we humans answer to a higher authority. What exactly does it mean to be ethical. To have morals the dictionary definition of ethical. It's what you would expect it to be other related to ethics. Of course. The word essay. And it was originally singular. It's now almost always use. In the plural. Epic is defined as one that discipline dealing with what is good and bad and. With moral duty and obligation and to a set of moral. Or values. Morale is defined as one relating to principles of right and wrong in behavior to expressing or reaching a conception of right behavior. The words epic sound. Morality morals. Are used interchangeable. Interchangeably. So it seems to me that.. Epic epic. Standard that's the umbrella. Under which we put our morals where we store our our morals but i will probably just be using them interchangeably. So umbrella would be the broad principle in the morals would be the procedures. Dog how cleverly i work. Those two word policies and procedures in. Very important words and your board is working very hard. Policies and procedures. Gilbert says that ethics. Add is simplest. Is the way we treat people. He goes on to talk about a moral compass and i'll see more about that in a few minutes. Gilbert wonders. How many of us would agree with z's worth from walter harrington in what gilbert cause a cynical essay. Has truth gone out of style. This was published in 1988 i think it's still relevant. In the washington post. Harrington rights expediency. Whatever cells is the final. Test. This is what modern people have sadly concluded. Greed. Is the universal motor. Sincerity is opposed. Honesty is for chumps. Altruism is. Selfishness with an erotic twist. Immorality is for kids and saints and. Fools. And a quote is it cynical or simply realistic. Whether you believe this or not you might agree that western civilization is becoming more and more secular. Despite all the religious fanaticism on. Either in. Now we don't even ask. On the right side. Or perhaps because of religious fanaticism aren't trying to put a judgement here on weather. It's good or bad. Becoming more secular. But then there's certain questions that i do wonder about as nations and societies become more secular doesn't necessarily follow. That values ethics morals. Get lost. By the way son. As fewer and fewer people go to church or have a face community however you wanted to find it. Does it follow that more and more people are only out for themselves. That money in the acquisition of things become more and more important does it follow. That the importance of money and material possessions in greece. As the number of people attending mainstream. Churches decreases and the number of people attending so-called mainstream churches. Lutheran methodist presbyterian some baptist. Is decreasing we're not we unitarian universalist are not usually lumped in. They are as mainstream we're at the cuz worth it. Other man. And every time to grow. As time to get worse. Remember that november. If. I don't know if this is what is happening but. Define also mean that fewer and fewer people are good for nothing. If you turned in the very beginning pages in the hymnal page roman numeral 10 although it's not marked the page. That i often refer to when i'm talking about or seven principles it's right before the first. Pager to before the first 10th if you go to that page you will see that after the seventh principle. There is this statement. The living tradition we share draws from many sources. And the third source listed is. Wisdom from the world religions. Which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life. Ethics dealing with what is good and bad simply put. How we treat people. Who determines what is good and bad. Who determines what is right behavior can human nature be changed are you born with a set of ethics. And a moral compass and from what is 40 do your ethics. Do you think of yourself as an ethical person. Immoral person. Do you do the right thing because it is the right thing to do would you do the right thing if no one was watching. Some of you may sometimes receive emails i think i get some this from my son. At the bottom it says dance as if no one was watching and daddy adam and then i think it's his act as if no one is watching. Do you have to have a witness for your good behavior can you describe your ethics. Clearly and concisely what grounds them how do your ethical and moral beliefs play out in your everyday life and have your ethics changed. Over-the-year would you die. For your ethical beliefs. Would you give them up if you were tortured. Gilbert talks about this moral compass that has eight points and put the label on each. Point and then says that these can help us. Make ethical decisions. His eight points are authority motivation responsibility situation. Intention relationships values. A character just one of them right now. And that would be relationships. In gilbert's words. The traditional western view of ethics. Dresses. Obedience. 2 rules. Or at here it's too. Principles. Some consider this view too narrow and think that the real focus of morality is the bonding quality of relationships. And that in general. Man view morality. In terms of rights. And women hewitt. In terms of. Relationship. Manor view morality in terms of rights and women see it. In terms of relationship. I described this as being in right relationship i talk to you before about being right relationship i'm never sure if i'm explaining it clearly. Clearly enough anyway. An extreme example of. Not being right relationship would be the relationship between a nazi ss soldier and a prisoner in a concentration camp. There's a wonder. Not wonderful intriguing story about. Being in a concentration camp being called into the room very nice hospital room nice compared to the rest of the camp. In the prisoner is dying some of you may know this story it's from wiesn falls book sunflower which is. Appreciating to read. And the young man the nazi soldiers dying. He wants a jew. Forgiveness. So yeah season 4. More about that some other son. A more ordinary example of not being in right relationship would be having a family member who won't. Who doesn't talk to you. For whatever reason or reasons. I know this personally and i also know that some of you are. Or have experienced this. It is way more common than you could probably imagine. Which doesn't make it any less sad. Or even tragic. There's a wonderful jewish parable from the middle ages that speaks to this. Concept of being in right relationship and some of you will be familiar with the story. Arab i spoke with god. About heaven. Inhale. I will show you how sad.. And they went into a room which had a large pot of stew. In the middle. The smell was delicious. Buy around the pots that people who were famished. I'm desperate. All. We're holding spoons with very long handles. Which reach to the pot. Because the handles of the spoons were longer than their arms. Who's impossible to get the stew. Back into their mouths. Now i will show you heaven. Thought that. And they went into an identical room it was a similar pot of stew and the people have identical smooth. But. They were well-nourished. It's simple god said. You see they have learn to feed. One another. To be in right relationship with another requires. Compassionate connection. Philosopher arthur schopenhauer talked about. I need help mentally. Miit leid. Mcclyde. Now. The way gilbert defines it is. Suffering with. But if you want to go into more detail later. A concept that seems to me to go deeper. Then that phrase we hear so often about walking a mile in the other person. Shoot. Light. Define chipmunk. Better. Minister define. This is this kind of suffering with compassion is what lucia kb hall says. Forms the foundation of ethics. Hall road an article in the humanist magazine in the 90s i believe. Stfx cannot. Be drawn from religious authority. Or from reason. What is biologically biologically. Bass. And apathy. This ability to feel as another person feels to be able to put yourself in their emotional situation. Even two wimps involuntarily when someone bangs their funny bone. This. Is the link. That binds the human race together. That makes us care. About how we act. Toward others. I've said this before in the past. Months. More than once over the past several months i have read about studies that confirm what hall is writing in this. Sa from. The 90s early 90s. That we humans have an ingrained. Natural sense of empathy. For other beings well at least other human being. It is biologically bapes. And has been evolving at least that's where the studies seem to be. Heaven. It has been evolving within us maybe forever. To help make us ever more compassionate. Do women tend to see ethics and morals in terms of relationships. Wellman view them. In war in terms of rights and principles and we can talk about that for a very long time. Do your ethics and morals sustain you in x. Of need. Do you rely on an outside source. For that sustaining or you find that sustaining from within. I sometimes turn to the universal is part of our tradition to find. Stories of our ancestors. To sustain me. And one such story some of you will know it's about hosea ballou. He was a nineteenth-century universalist preacher. Very well known in his time. He reports because he was a universalist with a capital you was preaching about universal salvation and one day he was riding the circuit. On his horse. In new hampshire. That afternoon and they were arguing theology as they traveled what you might expect and at one point the baptist looked over and said brother baloo. If i were universalist capital. And feared not the fires of hell. I could hit you over the head steal your horse and saddle and ride away and i'd still go to heaven. Hosea ballou looked over at him and said. If you were universalist. The idea would never occur to you. They help. The forebears the stories the things that they. Believed. Philosopher and feminist carol gilligan. Some of you might know that name. She wrote the book in a different light i mean in a different voice. She was a research associate for lawrence kohlberg's that name ring any bells any philosophers out there i was kind of hoping that would be here today so many philosophers. He wrote holberg not match the philosophy of moral development. Does a research associate for coburg but she was also one of his harshest critics. Kohlberg's the one who came up with the heinz dilemma. Do any of you know the heinz dilemma. You will i think when i. Play what it is. Where. Batman puns. Didn't have enough money to buy drugs. Necessary medication for his wife. Who is dying. And so he. Broke into the drugstore and stole. The drops. Was africa was just wrong. Kohlberg used these studies. Asking this. Question putting people in this. He study. And. Concluded that. Well doesn't really matter what he concluded. Carol gilligan. This was a faulty study because goldberg only talk to and interviewed. Man. And gilligan said. His findings fan more flawed and she used a couple of. Stories from the bible to illustrate the difference between. How many women make ethical. Choices in both of these are from the old testament. There's the one where. God tells abraham to kill us only son. A understood this story. I mean i understand the story but. Abraham say hey. Preparing to kill isaac is fared. The other story gilligan uses is the one where the two women go to king solomon. Both claiming that the baby they have with them is theirs and finally king solomon said. Fine we'll just cut the baby in half. And of course the real other than that it's okay she can take it. Angela can do it her own heinz dilemma study she asked a boy and a girl they were. 11 or 12 years old. About. Feeling the drug to keep your loved one alive the boys said that heinz should indeed feel the drug. But he did have a good point the boy. When gilligan asked him why the life of heinz's wife who actually never has a name like we could give her a name. Was more important than the money the druggist would not receive if the drug was stolen the course in the original heinz dilemma the druggist is charging way way way more than it cost him to made for bikes. Well okay. Hit the boy said you could get more money but you couldn't get another wife. Then the girl said. Well the girl didn't even consider property. Orloff. She was only concerned with what would happen to hines and his wife if pine-sol drugs. What would happen if he got caught what would happen if when the wife needed. What medicine what would happen if i was in jail what would happen to this marriage. Wasn't there another way to figure out how to pay for the drugs. Is heinz's dilemma. About right. Or is it about responsibility. Fathers. Richard gilbert says morality begins when concern for self gives way to concern for others. There's a whole nother part to this so i think we're going to do part two but not today. Which has to do with a lot of things. I should first say that there was more to my upbringing in the presbyterian church. Them that predestination part. There was a strong connection with jesus. Jesus as compassionate. Connector. As a human being who understood that. Passionate connections are what will save humanity. At our ethics have to ultimately be about relationship. Not about rights and princess. The part that i'm not going to get into today is about reverence and which is a word that is not to be confused. With. Religion. I think even. Evenly atheist and humanist. Can have respect for the word reverence. Wordreference actually. To be in right relationship you have to be aware of the worlds course in aware of your place in it. And i think it's good to remember the. First day out. Do-si-dos. How often do i say fee order. Dostoevsky. In the providence herriman cove. He said. Not all are guilty. But all are. Response. Which i think is a really good quote to remember and then this quote from the unitarian universalist partner. Church. Council they've been sending me information about this trip to pennsylvania because they are going to be the ones who. What is a noun. I mean. And take us away to the mountains and everything. Disclose that i used a few weeks ago. The most radical thing. And they capitalize the word riding. The most radical thing we can do is to introduce people. To one another. A peanuts comic strip illustrates one way of being in relationship. But wrong relationship. Lucy rants i think it is possible to be too nice. By golly nobody's going to walk all over me. No sir if anybody's going to do any walking it's going to be me there's only one way to survive these days you have to walk over them before they walk over you. Says lions to charlie brown. It must be nice to have a philosophy that will sustain you in times of need. Stillwater the giant panda. Taught. The children or showed better yet shown the children. A way to move out of wrong relationship and into right relationship. There is another book by john muse. One that i have often used. The three question some of you may remember my using the school and it's based on a full story short story and in this book. New fafsa questions that tolstoy did. Number one is all about ethics when is the best time to do things. Number two who is the most important one and number three what is the right thing to do. And the answer. There's only one important time. That's now. The most important one is always the one you are with. And the most important thing is to do good. For the one who is standing at your side. The challenge of course always always the challenge. Is to enlarge who is. The number of people standing. At your side this could be a metaphor. To enlarge it beyond this room and beyond unitarian universalism. Not all are guilty but all are responsible that quote has helped me somewhat grapple with some of the tragedy that. Talked about. Pacific tragedies of the last. Few weeks. Orlando st paul dallas you know them. Play next sunday i will be in transylvania hotbed. Of ethical and moral dilemma in the 1500s. I will be there being introduced to unitarian romanians. And i wish that all of you for going with me i will certainly be with me in spirit and you'll probably hear a bit about the trash. Going pee street your neighbor do all those things try to keep next week straight in your mom next sunday.

uuprairie_org

Pr200809GA-ed.mp3

Now it is time for a presentation. Which is entitled not for the weak of heart. Virtual general assembly 2020. Why are you attending. 6 prairie members attended. Praise delegate for the business portion of the assembly were renee discard nancy schraufnagel. The other attendees were marin mary mullen. Maurice daddario. And patty stockdale. The six of us planned this service together. With the goal of giving you a sense of the meeting and to share a little of the inspiration we drew from it. All the elements of our service are drawn from our experiences at general assembly. Each of us is going to prevent on some aspect of our learning. Starting with nancy who section is entitled. We have problems. Are you you a response. Nancy. In spring of 2017. A hiring decision was made by the reverend scott taylor. Supervisor of five regional leads of congregational staff. For the southern regional lead position. A white man was hired and christina rivera a black one was overlooked. This action should a contrast between our principles of. Affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of all people and. Acknowledge to the interdependent web of existence to the uuh practices. The commission on institutional change in the april 2018 report. Noted many long-standing issues and concerns. Including. White privilege. Power structure. And white supremacy within the unitarian universalist association. This occurred after decades of talk and no action. In hiring. Power and privilege. We're based on race. There were lack of shared goals and becoming a transformative multicultural association. A lack of common understanding of systemic racism sexism heterosexism ableism and other impressions. Uua responses. The president. Resigned. And the association. Found three co-president and tuco moderators. It was more participatory shared leadership. And more represent representation of people of color. And other. Genders. The association funded black lives. Unitarian universalism of $5000000. Project. And they also found a youth and young adult ministry. They changed bylaw amendments. Gender-neutral protons inclusive murrin. Interpretations of gender. Religious educators round lake. So is delegates at the general assembly. Rusty was placed on the board. And they said. If we get this right. Will never go back to normal. I found over the last 34 years. That the unitarian universalist association. Response. To change. Gave me great hope each year and it still does. The organization underwent changes in leadership. Culture. And mentor and. Lead. Others in the association and hopefully like me into hope. The theme of the 2020 general assembly. Rooted inspired. Ready. Rooted is grounded in unitarian universalist principles and theology. And. The firm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of all people. And acknowledge the interdependent web of existence. Inspired we are inspired by many actions to the universal universalist unitarian church has taken over the history. Its tenure. And inspired is who we yearn to become. Ready. The pandemic gives us a contrast or comparison. Who was ready for the pandemic. Came forward and coke the best they could. We are dealing with a time with great urgency of needs. The time is now. In 2018-present susan frederick gray talked about nurturing hope against the rhetoric of fear. This is no time for a casual face. Thank you nancy. I will present on institutional change and individualism. 2017 the unitarian universalist association which i will refer to as. Created the commission on institutional change which spent three years and thousands of hours. Evaluating systemic racism within unitarian-universalism. And creating a report that it called widening the circle of concern. This report not only described problems but also detailed recommendations for addressing these problems. The report was presented at general assembly this year but. The whole conference was in many ways an outgrowth of the anti-oppression work of our unitarian universalist association. Any workshops on how to address a prescient multiple forms. Including the entrenched class structure. Systemic racism. History of colonialism with dispossession and annihilation of indigenous peoples. And marginalization of women lgbtq and other gender-nonconforming people. The workshops repeatedly emphasized. How these oppressions operate within our congregation. And within our individual unexamined biases. 2. Make us less effective. In our work for justice in the world. Recommendations are not just for the uua they are for us. The report from the commission on institutional change. Recognizes that there are many factors working against success. And some of the biggest obstacles are going to be pretty difficult. 4 prairie. Jerusalem. It is not in charge of congregation. We you use have a proud history of congregational polity. Deming former congregationalist roots and puritan times. In which every local church congregation is independence. Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastic lease auburn. Ora thomas. This means that our association cannot make us take honest work. Society is a congregation that has particularly prized. Freedom from outside authority and i would say inside authority as well. Yet that leaves us free to leave or biases unchecked. Are various privileges unexamined. And our self-image as a welcoming congregation anshe. We can feel good about ourselves without actually doing the work. Congregational polity. Covenant with one another. And make congregational decisions through the winds of our values. Unitarian universalism we elevate freedom of thought to a core principle of free and responsible search for truth and meaning. However we use often interpret this principle to mean that we are all free as individuals to think and act however we want. Prairie folks have a lot of opinions and for the most part we like it that way. However we need to acknowledge that our particular culture of acceptance. Constrains us from challenging each other to become our best selves. Equipped to deal in a healthy way with the inevitable conflict that would come. From struggle to br bass. We don't hold each other accountable to strive to achieve the principles we proclaim. But to be most affected in the world. We need to educate ourselves and each other about the history and current symptoms systems of oppression. How our actions or inactions perpetuate the system. In order to work towards equity and inclusion we need to become more truly welcoming. To grow into the diverse and loving community we aspire to be. At this general assembly i learned that our leaders at the ua are well ahead of us. Moving towards truly living our principles prairie needs to catch up. I will end this section with a quote from the report. Our deliberations to date have convinced us of this. What is at stake is nothing less than the future of our faith. Next morris is going to present. The way on the way of gratitude. Or ask you thank you. I think that's an excellent follow-up. Early concept of acting collectively. Sad rachel describe. There will be a video falling by briefing introduction. So throughout this 59th general assembly several workshops and sessions said. People run the risk of relying too much on a rugged individualism. Andreessen beyond reason. Our culture rewards and prizes individualism and self-reliance. But some contend that this actually keeps us apart from each other and decreases empathy. Self-reliance can work against the sense of gratitude. And educates against developing a new spirituality. Based on gratitude. This is why i chose. To use rev.dr galen gingrich's workshop. As an example of the general assembly. He is senior minister of new york's all souls unitarian universalist congregation. Is book. The way of gratitude a new spirituality for today. Expensive gratitude and provides tools for us. Such as first light meditation. He continues his thread as he speaks to us in the following video which was used with his confirmation. We hear his church's choir midway in the video. Please clear your minds and hearts. We are defined not by how we are independent of the people in the world around us. But how we are connected to them. Disclaim. Happens if you true. She was built from the ground-up to champion individualism. And modern technology has increasingly narrowed our modes of communication and entertainment until we are each an audience of one. Once in awhile. Something breaks through our culture of narcissism to remind us yet again. Everything. Is made up. Relationship. I become the air i breathe the water i drink and the food i eat. I become the longings that motivate me the problems that beset me in the possibilities that lure me on. I become good friends i treasure the people i love. The way of life i pursue. The way of gratitude. Is my effort to develop a spiritual practice and a way of life. Adeline's our priorities and our patterns of life. The way things. Really are. Building strength. True ritual. That's what it is krista responded. In response. It's a ritual. You do the same thing. Over and over again. It's how you get strong. She's right. It's how you get strong and it's how you stay strong. A ritual takes what is most important and puts it at the center of our lives so that we won't forget it or neglected. This holds true whether you're talking about physical strength emotional strength or spiritual strength. You build ring. True ritual. Spiritual practice is so-called. It's a practice something we do repeatedly. In my book i advocated daily practice but i called the first light meditation. Practice not only builds strength. It also helps us to nurture a spirit of optimism. Optimism happens to be the subtitle of voltaire's 1958 novel candide. Which recounts the adventures misfortunes of young kennedy. Who was in town at the start with everything necessary for a happy and successful life. But suffers the opposite every conceivable misfortune tragedy in form of abuse. At the very end of the story. Volterra suggest how one can as he put it in his most famous phrase crush the horror. He says simply. We need to work our fields. Residents often translated. Make our garden grow. According to voltaire. Saving the world is like growing a crop. We need to work our fields. We don't need to work other people's fields or fields in different or better locations. But our field. And we don't need to ponder our fields or explain how we today are or how poor the soil is or compare them with the best possible fields or the worst. The root meaning of the word optimism. Is power. The power to do the work. That is ours to do. Summarize what i described as the way of gratitude. I would say three things. Everything in the universe is made up of relationships. Pay attention. To the relationships that. Make you up. That make me up. Spirituality is about open. Openness to. Our own minds and hearts. Openness to other people. Openness. To the natural world. We tend to live our lives narrowly we get focused on routines. And spirituality is about. Breaking through those. Engender. Opening us up. To the truth. About the world. Around us. Terrible. About the world. I needs changing. And what's wonderful about the world. I need stayfree. And. As it applies to the things that. Me changing. I would say is that. Gratitude is the ability to look at problems and see. Possibilities. Because. It's an engagement with what is really true and what is truly real. And. It sees clearly. What needs to be changed. What must be changed. Thank you morris. And thank you to doctor galen good gris. I just wanted to make a quick comment. Many of you may have noticed. Little boxes with initials showing up at the bottom of his of your screen. Throughout general assembly. We had people chatting during workshop sometimes coming up with amazing comments sometimes seeing the chat was annoying sometimes it was very enriching so it was interesting to have. Player always going on in the various workshops if you just got a tiny hint of by seeing those little boxes pop up. So next renee is going to be presenting on indigenous social justice. One of the featured speakers at the general assembly was roxanne dunbar-ortiz. She spoke about her buck and indigenous people's history of the united states i am not going to try and summarize a 300-page book in 5 minutes because that's impossible. Metra couple things it was the uua common read or 2019 to 2020 so basically this past year. And we're hoping that it will be a future. Prairie study group. Do you know that we've started a new study group. Tripping off me to have a discussion. Another featured speaker was either too it was debbie reese and gene mendoza and they actually adapted. Roxanne. So it's called an indigenous people's history of the united states. For young people meds for middle school in teens. What time does sofia's pause lecture which i have never heard of that name before. But if your size was. Revolution if you knew religious education so. Speakers were talking about how their bugs. They were hoping would be used in schools. The promote. No deeper discussions and look at. The history not from typical textbook standpoint. And again i'm not going to summarize their 1-hour 45-minute lecture or their buck. But in order of service. We have a resources kind of late for the at the bottom. I winked it's called reflecting critically on teaching about native people. Debbie reese and gene mendoza created that it has tons of. Rate links and information is organized by the 7-year principles. If you're interested in more i highly encourage you to go ahead and check. Another thing i wanted to mention was the land acknowledgement that we did at the beginning of today's service. So i had ever actually. And one thing is that. This is something we need to look more into because if we just put a landing on spent at the beginning of each service without any kind of underlying social justice. Actions that it just becomes a superficial kind of thing which they talked about a general assembly so that's something again i'd like to see prairie kind.of.dog cheaper into. Discuss more in the future. Couple of the highlights. Text renee. And now i invite mary to present on anti-racist conversations. Well mary mullen here with just a few minutes to talk to you about a very stimulating workshop that i attended the ga. It was called having anti-racist conversations and inviting to action. And it was delivered by a. Chris-craft. Try to show you what he looks like. Is it your you. Is from kentucky. And it gives workshops all over the country. And he has a book also. That we could use in our study group that starting up the first book where reading is white trash. I think our first meeting is in september but his is called towards the other america. And a great lakes pants upon what he talked about ga. I brought a little bit of lettuce 180 pages. Well today. I plan to talk to you just expand on 3-point from the workshop. One thing that he pointed out it now isn't really an excellent time to have these conversations anti-racist conversations. S. Lisa just concentrating your conversations on the passive. The passive anti-racist that would be somebody like me. The movable middle. Maybe open to listening to talking about anti-racism and he also said am to make the races less effective. Inferred to use your emotions to get energy into keep on track. The ideal time or what makes this the ideal time to have an anti-racist conversation. After watching george floyd's death on tv and the demonstrations all over the united states and in fact the world. A lot of white people are questioning what what can what can i do. These days in just a week consciousness can change just in 7 days where as it might have taken seven years without all these events that have just happened. One attendee call this a liquefied moment. White person suddenly becomes open to taking just a baby step ahead. To promote racial justice. So the first job is to recognize this liquefied moment in your friends or relatives. The praise that person that's newly become aware and then to give them recognition for what they recognized. And then the next job is to help them figure out where they can go from here. Maybe it's giving money maybe it's putting out a black lives matter sign. Maybe it's maybe even more important to attend to talk about this or a demonstration or maybe provide. Demonstrators. And then once a person starts to take action. The experiences teach them further about how to be anti-racist in your kind of off the hook then. The second thing. I'd like to talk about is how to concentrate on the passive anti-racist in the movable middle. Chris pointed out that our tendency might be to start engaging the worst races on facebook that's what i've done. Or among friends but that would be wasting your energy. Are you gave an example of his own grandfather who had it at the dinner table when they have lots of people over maybe 20 people at the tables are cousins and everybody else. He would monopolize the table with anti-racist or anti-feminist remarks. And chris came to realize that his best goal with his grandfather was to make his grandfather's racist. Opinions less effective. Rather than try to convince his grandfather to change his stripes cuz i was never going to happen. All the cousins and everybody else in the table and ask them to talk. And. That was really effective your grandfather wasn't talking anymore and all these people that had other experiences another opinions were. Another word for the person who will keep people from acting. Those people might be those who want to argue forever about the term white supremacy or. They would suggest maybe that's all life matter would be a better sign to put out the black lives matter. Or they might just want to spend a lot of time arguing about what is this the right time to do this. He also said will pick a person to talk to about their attitude somebody who cares about you because they'll be more likely to listen to you. And then i search akon fresnos workshop was about the value of emotion as an end and engine for energy. And for keeping on track. When people were asked to share their experiences during this workshop chris would keep asking how does that make you feel and he would just keep repeating how did that make you feel. It's really hard for me to get many unitarians to talk about how they feel they want to talk about what they're going to do instead. One man shared his black friend said that whenever his children left the house he worried that they wouldn't come back. Chris kept after that man who shared until he finally got him to name his feeling he said. Well i was heartbroken. When i heard this. And another woman talked about how she been dating a black man and he was out in her driveway fixing her car and she went into the house to look for something i took a little longer than she thought it would. And when she came out she found her neighbor pointing a gun. This black man who is helping her fix her car and the neighbor thought he was stealing her car course cuz he was black. And finally chris something how did you feel how did you feel she finally. Admitted she felt horrified at this. Thoughts emotions like these and thinking of these incidents that made you have feel something. I'm recalling this that can keep you energized and focused. Mary. Next patty is going to be presenting. A minister's journey. Patty. Thank you. So i went out to number workshops than one of them was a presented by reverend doctor piama ramen. And we have a photo of her. Thank you so much nicer looking than i am. As she. I really enjoyed listening to her she was. She was presenting about her books you wrote an anthology or gathered and then pieology called summoning arshi shiro's. The presence of black women and unitarianism. Universalism and unitarian universalism. And. But she had a very interesting journey of herself and her the title of her workshop is called climbing up the rough side of the mountain. And so i didn't really refer to the title of her workshop but i looked it up at the lyrics and listen to the tune. And that's a spiritual ham and about. Trying to keep your face and. And stay spiritual. And basically really that was her life she grew up. Anabaptist family. And her father was a minister. And she's learned christianity pretty strongly. And then when she finished high school went to college she started questioning that. She said that. Young life she didn't learn critical thinking so she was like. Trying to bring critical thinking in her life and she went into a stage of her life called god is dead. And. So she became like a marxist-leninist after she graduated from college and travel to cuba and worked in camps building homes just for a few months. And. When she came back then she entered her. You know another question in spades and then she became a practicing muslim. And it was very attracted to. Islam because of its principal and upright tenants of self-determination. And word was bond black friday and many other ones. But then she became to feel somewhat challenged by it. She says in general that cristiana. Christianity gave me my religious foundation including jesus and sacraments such as prayer. Worship and giving. Islam gave me the discipline of setting of praying five times a day piety and sisterhood. When the islam prohibitions as women and mother became too restrictive. No longer allow me to express fully who i was and i moved on and she also felt like orchids at the time were experiencing peer-pressure that she didn't want them to feel alienated. Intuit. Experience another level of bias. So she kind of janitor non-denominational stage. Enter enter life and and then she started going to quaker meetings and then she saw signs posted about. Unitarian universalism she's living in atlanta georgia. And so she started attending uu churches and she found one that she. Really liked the furman hammer ellington uu church. So she went to her first. Ga. In 1993 and she just loved it. And she said that. She was at she she came to unitarian universalism because of a number of reasons than one of them. I was that there was a community that was willing to disagree so at this particular ga. The theme of it was. 250th anniversary of thomas thomas jefferson's birth. And the theme of a i want to listen the ua's. Thomas jefferson district cell. They were having an event that was called come dressed as. You know somebody from that. so she was appalled because. That would mean that she would come dressed as a slave. You know in shackles and rags you know and people started to protest. Athens ga and. He said. She took that as a positive because. As she said she was drawn to union unitarian universalism as a willingness to disagree. So she was able to. Feel that that was a good place for her she wanted to be able to disagree. And then another so they're also she said that while she was there she was missing the banners and kind of taking them in. And a famous. Black minister. His name is mark morrison breed. You also wrote a book called black pioneers in white unitarian-universalism. Came and spoke to her and she was she said she didn't know each other. And she was inspired by his his encouragement so like pursue. Uuism and from there she decided that she would go into the ministry. And. So. She thought the unitarian universalism allowed her to. I bring in a number of different ideologies and religions into her thinking so you know judaism christianity islam. And from there she's been able to change and develop in. And grow her religion. Do i thought you was. Wonderful person but she did write this wonderful book. If i said if it's an anthology of summoning are shiro's. Other presence of black women and unitarian universalism and unitarian universalism. And she said she was. Just you know she didn't see any real information about. Women. Clergy black women clergy and as i said she was familiar with. Mark. Morrison read book black pioneers and white unitarianism photos about the blacksmith clergy so she wanted to rape. About a women. And so that's how it's going to be out at the end of this year or the beginning of next year and it's a book of essays. And might behoove us to read. The block or some of the essays especially on our pursuit of looking for a minister. And i i do have a lot of quotes from different parts of that book but i will go into a house that's fine but. I certainly was inspired by her workshop. In summary. We who attended the general assembly this year came away inspired and motivated to work for change. And to do that work here. A prairie. With you. That work will involve listening. Learning. Reflection discussion. And taking action within and outside of our community. Are you interested in growing our congregation and wisdom welcome and love. What ideas do you have about how to build the beloved community. Curry has taken some steps down this path. With an increased focus on anti-racist and anti-oppression work in our choice of presenters at sunday services. You should see some of that coming up. We are starting a study group on understanding the intersecting oppressions. A class race gender and colonialism. We will meet twice monthly starting next month. Please talk with each other and let your board members know how you believe we can best engagements work together. Ours is no caravan of despair. It's an opportunity for creativity. Progress. Toward our vision of what unitarian-universalism candy.

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Pr200308BrookeNorsted-ed.mp3

Today's presentation stories in stone by brooke norstead. That's brooke. Broccoli rabe. In the foothills of the chugach mountains and akron anchorage alaska alaska. She's walked on glaciers. Excavated dinosaurs. Uncovered ancient amphibian footprints. Examined lake sediments and explored the backcountry of arches national park. Brooke is currently the assistant director for the uw geology museum. And while she doesn't live in the mountains anymore. She loves teaching people about wisconsin's surprising geological past. This presentation relates to our seventh principle. Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we're parked. We will have time for a brief discussion afterwards. So thank you so much for having me. What's your group today i really appreciate being invited and how many people have been to the geology museum before. But you should always come back and those of you who haven't been to the museum where on the uw campus for close to union south. Free. The hardest part of visiting the museum is parking. I apologize for that. But i. Kim's baby talk about stories and stones because geologist. This is how we think about rock whether or not it's like on a fig. Scale of like looking at landforms and where they are. Versus even looking down at a lake individual mineral crystal. We use all of that information. Help us understand the earth butter and the history of the earth and so also being the daughter of a librarian i tend to think in terms of stories and books and so. That's why i like and i feel as social creatures we like hearing stories too so that's how i come to this. Topic and why i presented in this way. Just. So here's the geology museum if you like dinosaurs we've got those and we also have rocks that glow in the dark. So. This is one of my favorite author or authors and artists his name is rachel i have soft spot cuz he's also from alaska. But here he does he's really fun. Illustrations and i love this because this really speaks to i like to think of this as a stack of books. I am so this is the timeline. Basically the last well yeah here you take you all the way back to 4.6 billion years ago when the earth formed. But really he's kind of starting the timeline he's blown up the last. 500 million. And so what i want to do is i want to shift this a little bit cuz this is usually how. 2016 geologic time this is what they show you and they're really focusing on the last. So i'm going to a little bit of foundation here before we get into wisconsin geology. Cuz i want you to imagine that my height is the is the history of the earth. And so where my feet touch the ground is when the earth formed 4.56 billion years ago. I'm on the top of my head is today. I told use that to kind of hang. Wisconsin stories off of. Little context this part that you usually get to hear a lot about cuz it's really when we get the library fossils. Sierra back to about 450 million years ago. That's your face. So this is about 450 million years ago. And that always takes the question like what's going on. Little bit. I also want to give you this. Sense of we use the words millions and billions are all big right. Just one letter different. So i want you to think of millions and i want you to imagine that you could count. Number every second. If you did that and you didn't stop to eat. You didn't sleep, take you about 12 and a half days. So to count to a billion. During the same method counting 1 second one number every second. 22 / 33 years. Very different. And so that's how you know four and a half billion where are earth forms. That's a long time ago when we think about dinosaurs that's like here. Your nose your eyebrows. Even though it's easy to think dinosaurs were so long ago. And. I whenever i do this with kids and adults. You know i walk us through this people always put them at your table i don't know dinosaurs that was a long time ago. Must be about here. Dinosaurs went extinct at your eyebrows on this timeline. So what i love about this if you don't have to remember numbers. You can just kind of keep things in perspective as to how old are you thinking. So we're going to talk about three chapters. Wisconsin's history. Because. When you go around the world you know a geologist would love it. Go to one spot. And from bottom to top. You forget the whole record. Write the review rocks representing. All of the time back to four and a half billion years but that's not how it works. I'm so. It makes more interesting that you have to go to different places to piece together the story. Even hearing wisconsin. The three parts i'm going to tell you about our really different time.. I just like the chapters in between been torn out. They've been eroded away. So are we all love dinosaurs we don't find dinosaur fossils here and wisconsin cuz those rocks are gone. Has been eroded away. So the first question a geologist or a paleontologist ass when they want to study something. Where do i have to go to find those rocks for those fossils. And so they have to think about like where is. Where is an outcrop we're at the surface of the earth are there rocks of the right age for me to go look at. If i'm interested. So when we go look for dinosaurs part of the museum. We go to wyoming. We drive about two days away. At the wyoming south dakota montana utah those are places in north america that you can find them sore but not hearing with them. We have another.. So this is also a favorite author of mine and so is this just. Build into this concept of reading. Really what geologists do. The rocks are records of events that took place at the time they formed. Are books they have a different vocabulary a different alphabet that you learn how to read them. And that's why people go to school study geology you're learning how to read those wrong whether it's beat you become a geochemist and you're looking at things on. Smallest failure putting individual mineral crystals into a fancy machine to figure out how old they are or what they can tell us about. The oxygen content of the atmosphere. 4 billion years ago. It could be that. I'm going to be studying the himalayas and how they formed. So all of those are different alphabets effectively that we learn as geologist. Alright so our first stop when were thinking about wisconsin. This is one of my favorite maps of wisconsin. And it's a landform map and so here you can see. Broader things you can see on her state so down here of course this is the driftless area. We all left the drive-thru. You can see up in northern wisconsin. A little bumpy you can see some of the hills up there. There's some flat areas. Cara. We're going to start. Jaundice heart and so that. Factors around your navel this is about 1.75. Billion years ago. In what is now wisconsin. But this is a time when. The earth looks really different than it does today. The surface is dynamic it's always moving. Said crust of the earth is cracked and broken and is always shifting. Enter while here in wisconsin we don't have her quakes. Sleeping like alaska or california that's where you share about earthquake happening. That's because that's where some of these cracks in the earth's crust are. Now we used to have that sort of thing happening here. In the middle part of what is now north america. If we had to this area this is actually there's actually a tiny little town here called redgranite wisconsin. And i got that mean because what they dig up out of the ground there. Is. Stay consistent. Is redgranite so this is actually a quarry. In redgranite wisconsin. If you could walk up and touch that rock. So not so you can see him here. This is a polish side right. But this is kind of a rough. Rob basa redgranite. Now when a geologist sees granite. What they see is a volcano. Ac not just a volcano but that belly of a volcano. Because this is. In fact. Tri-colored what colors. Black gray. And white. I'm so if we could kind of paul the minerals out of that some minerals are like. I like to think of this as a cookie. I need the ingredients. So. Here we can see these are big version. Of the crystals that are in there. So this is called feldspar. This is called mica. And this is quartz. Yeah it looks like a diamond. I would call you in mexico. Ingredients of rocks. What we need. Is tiberi these deep. Inside the earth inside of a magnet chamber. Iso. I can do that if you get them inside the magma chamber they wouldn't melt. So hot. And then. And so if you did that if you if you burped up and. Blue some of this stuff out of the belly of the volcano it would cool really quickly. Are you just get this kind of light. You wouldn't be able to see. The three different colors in there unless you cut it and you looked at it under a microscope and that's what geologist. But here we can actually see all those crystals in there and what that means is that it cooled slowly. I called inside of the volcano. It's like if you were cooking. Baking cookies. And you turned off your oven. It was slowly. Right and she went back the next day it still wouldn't be. 375°. Same with volcanoes for c can't go up in like push a button and turn the volcano off. But over time they stopped erupting. And we finna go extinct. And then. All about hot melted. Material inside the belly of the volcano will slowly cool off it'll take. Thousand. Hundreds of thousands of years to cool. But as it does that. Every all those minerals have more time. And get big. And so that's why we can see him. They had that time they cooled inside of a volcano. And so any any rock that has done that minerals that cool inside of volcano we use the word granite. Whenever you you see. The word granite that's what it means to a geologist. It might not mean that to somebody who makes countertops pictures of all kinds of things that are in their countertops that are called granite. And i'm not actually granite. But for a geologist that's what that means. Is it basically these three ingredients that have cooled inside of magma chamber. You can go to the capitol building and you can see there's big columns made of red granite. Until this all comes. From the central part of our state. And. We can see the granite now at the surface but this used to be the belly of a volcano. Used to be buried. Mile underground. So not only is the volcano god. That looks like a mountain. That has washed away. But all the rock above that has washed away. And now we just have. What used to be buried deep. So whenever we see granite. That's what a geologist thinks they're like. There were volcanoes here but it was a long time ago. And then you can think of. This is when we can we can bait this rock. Figure out how old when it crystallized when it cools. And that gives us that date of a 1.75 billion years. So you can see that's a long time ago we had a lot of time to have that. The volcano and all that rock. I rode away. And now we have. So that's one of our chapters. Pretty deep in here. It looks like. Yeah. Got a couple other so this is a picture of them coring it out. Super sketchy looks very dangerous. There's another one so. There's a lot of buildings in wisconsin that you can see that have red granite as a building material and them not just the capitol building granite is a great building materials very strong. Apologies up really nicely. Figured a bunch of bricks. Wright building stones cutting granite blocks montello wisconsin. So just to. Can i get back to how this how this happen so here we're kind of looking through a slice of the earth. Right this is the crust just as soon as i think it is like a candy coating on the outside. But compared to how big are earth is it's very thin. And so it's just a nice spots where. There's cracks at the cross stand what's happening in these spots is where you have. He's cracked and one piece of crust is getting shoved underneath. And when it does that kind of gets recycled and you get some melting that happens and that melting is what feeds volcanoes. Because that's what. That melted rock is not coming from the coors not coming from the very. Inside this is all happening in that that skin of yours on the outside. Now talk to her second spot. Resuming forward in time that kind of time machine we're hopping up. Inez. You can really go anywhere around here and you're going to be having the same story i decided to come. Jump over to the lake michigan shoreline. But really all of this down here. The rocks that you can go outside and find them the ground there's a great spot behind the target on. Look for fossils. Everybody. But this is the lake michigan shoreline until the beige. Kind of rocks that you find around here. Those were laid down that was that used to be mud at the bottom of an ocean. Until we like to think right now it's march people are thinking about spring break. Going to the beach. At this time about 450 million years ago we would have been the ideal spring break location. Nice warm you wouldn't take your snorkel because. There wasn't much life on land at that point so you want to go out in the ocean. That's where. All the action happening. This is this is a model but you can see some of the creatures. That lives at that time. So these are relatives of modern squid and octopus. They all look a little weird don't they. Yeah it's basically an octopus shoved into a shell or what we find is the shell at these creatures. I have. So this is just a chunk. And what we find around here typically. We don't find the shells of themselves what we find is like all the mud that got squished into the shell and then the shell disappeared we have this plug of mudd it's left behind. So this is part of one of these creatures. This one probably would have been about. 4 ft long, phone. Would have gotten over 12 ft long so really big. Maybe it was a baby. All kinds of other sea creatures in here these are called crinoids. Daylilies. There are all kinds of like seashells down on the bottom here there's corals. And so what we find now are just. Spasso hashes. Were you just get a whole bunch of. Critters they're all kind of collected together. I'll have all these over here so after the service. A curious thing is that you can. Stand at. Tyler rocks like on highway 18 heading out to mount horeb. You can see these piles of breath of life. Interface rocks like this. And you could stay on there and you could see this is rock rock rock rock rock and then you'll find this like layer of fossils and then it's blank against like rock rock rock rock rock. And so how that's interpreted is that. There were these. At this time. About 450 million years ago north america was down. On its side and wisconsin was actually close to the equator. Great spring break location. So at that time you'll be tropical storms that would roll through and so. All of the the wind with the storm would kick up all that water and mud. And then all the heavy stuff settles out. So all those fossils with settle out first all the shells. The mud selling on top of it. And so this concentration is a. By product. The tropical destination. This is what we can find now to hear you can just see it's a whole bunch of different things. This is like. That squid fossil that i have down here. Either snail shells. The coral. Official color brachiopod. So there's a bunch and they're all just kind of in that layer because of these storms that would go through and kick up all the shells. Alright the last chapter. We're going to jump up into my hair. So that's the ice age. Answer your notice again like i said dinosaurs vernos to eyebrows right. So we basically an art interstate we have rocks that are from here. I know we really don't have much we don't have anything in our safe from in here. And so it's really the ice age. That we start to see. High deposits again. The last chapter in our stories today. We. Along some examples of those but. Really a lot of evidence is the landforms that we see. Anto. When you drive from madison to milwaukee. You. Cross through and over a lot of these like gentle rolling hills. Noah's ark all drumlins. And if you could fly over them and says drive through them. You would see that they're all from the sky they're these teardrop shapes. And so they have kind of like they're fat bottom part. To the south and then they've got this like trail to the north. And between madison milwaukee. Is there's one other place in the world that has such a good drumlin field do people fly wisconsin from around the world to study these drumlins. There's a poland at the other spot. So we go back up. So all of this area down here is full of these drumlins. And that even if you go sledding at elver. So the drumlins are are formed underneath these glaciers. And then at elver. That's a spot where when the ice so during ice age north america. Much of north america was covered by a sheet of ice. I'm so here in wisconsin. How much of our state was covered by ice. Here in madison if you could walked up onto the. Sheet of ice you could have walked to the north pole. Without getting off of ice. A big big blanket of ice that covered north america. And it ended part of the edge of it was here in. And so that's what you're even seeing when you see the edge of the driftless here. That's basically where the ice ended. And so if you could zoom out to all of north america you can trace the edge of this ice sheet all the way across kind of north the northern part of the united. Wisconsin. It made a. An end moraine at the end so all that ice sits there. And ice is always flowing forward. Always plastically deforming and flowing forward. And it's easy to think of it as like a bulldozer it's just like pushing all the sediment front of it but it's not. It's a dump truck. Picking up sediment. Securing it with it and then when the ice melted drops. So. If you could get a giant vacuum cleaner. And you could just suck up all of the deposits that the ice dropped when it melted. You could take that you can just vacuum up. Call long hair. Suddenly the rest of our state would look like that. Until it's not that it like knocked down. All of them texture it filled it up with deposits. I saw those glaciers they flowed. Down through our state. Enemies face stalled out here. Right and so in madison if you go to elver park that's that hill you slide down is one of these places where the ice sat there for a while. I got was always flowing forward so it's always bringing new. Soil and rocks to the edge and its melting there so it's basically just staying in one place the conveyor belt that staying in one spot. Dumping all of that stuff off the front. Auntie end up with big mouth. Kentucky farm for sunflower days. That also was a marine. So those are spot for that i scan a stalled out for. I'm looking at those landforms here in southern wisconsin. Security you have that's like a funky shaped drumlin. The ice age trail is a trail that you can hike that follows as well as it can. Where the farthest extent of that ice. I'm sure you can see. During the last ice age this is where. Dice. Stalled out the right in madison this is. Best buy. Where is stopped. No. The other thing that happens. And this is a bigger story but i'm going to tell you the short version of it. Is this ice also plugs up rivers. And so. Wisconsin river of course flows through the central part of our state. And it typically used to go right through word devil's lake. Is. Now. Used to go through the baraboo hills but then when this ice came through it plugged up. All about water from the wisconsin river. And it damned it up. Need a giant lake. Cheer. Glacial lake wisconsin. So that whole area to drive to minneapolis. You're driving through this area you see this like big rock towers but it's pretty flat. Got used to be the bottom of gold. All his water got piled up here sometimes it got piled up so. Ar. It's so big. That the water would actually go out to black. But. But then the ice moves it melts. And you get this flood. And so the dells. That's the spot where all of that water. Rushed through and in the matter of probably dave maybe a couple of weeks. Carved out the dells. So that is this kind of epically epic proportion flood. And this happened all across north america. In minnesota glacial lake agassiz. And the minnesota river. Today it's the river but the valley is in the feud. Valley was carved. Montana and washington state. It was another 12 all along the front of the legs. Defend flooded out. And i took. Basically until people could fly over these areas fielder recognize these patterns. You tell these stories of all of these glacial lakes. Flooding. So. This is a terminal moraine so this is like an elder. So again that's the spot where you know it seems flat and then you just get this big hill so that's where all that. Ice deposited sediments. Up north you get these lakes called kettle lakes that used to be just big chunks of ice that fell off the front of the glacier and just sat there in milton. Eatable a future lake. Modell's. So these are all landforms that we see in the interpreters geologist. So. Summary. For resources if you want to become a better rock reader. Great books the roadside geology wisconsin is a great one that was written by an emeritus professor at the department. And then there's a lot of places to explore. I will be here afterwards to answer questions and i have a lot of stuff and then they sold from the ice age. I'm happy to entertain questions if now then appropriate time. But it's a replica of. The mastodon. So that mastodon it's in our museum. Was discovered in the late 1890s by kids. In southwestern wisconsin. Do a lot of times have land and explore and then they bring something in there like this thing. So. It was after big storms in the 1890s that. Bonds were exposed so this is equivalent to like a seibon. Go left thigh bone is the ball joint so that's why you can dance right if you've got this ball joint and this one's a copy the real one we took. Off display so we could take some of the bone out of it to figure out how old it was. I know we need some copies before we put it back. So this one is you can even see kind of made out of a phone. So this is a mastodon bone mastodons a mammoth we're cousins mammoths are more popular and like in ice age the movie and whatnot but they're both like hairy elephant relatives during the ice age. So i have replica teeth and then one reel to a. So these are this is a truth of a mastodon. I know robert write the tooth fairy. This is the chewing surface right here and then this is the route. So that's the part is it smiled at you you would see. This is a mammoth tooth. 12 samantha lane at 40 from their mouths so kind of one in each area and this is basically what an elephant tooth looks like to enter this is the chewing surface and i'm mrs. buried down here and so. Masterminds a mammoth they lived at the same time these are enormous animals that have to eat a lot of food. And so they really different food both plant eaters but this would mascots lived in the forest and ate twigs and tree branch and then computer decided to eat grass. Are we had balls in our state but matt mammoth bones have been found in our station. An are mastodon in the museum doesn't show any signs of being. Well. The bones don't reveal. Any butchering. Or being hunted. However. There was years after the initial discovery of some of those bones somebody came forward who claimed that there was a narrow had that he gave to the museum. That was found with the mastodon bones and so why the phones themselves don't reflect being hunted. Now there's the story of a arrowhead. There are other there is mammoth bones in our state that show signs of butchering so you can steve had a cut marks on the bone where neil is harvested off of them cuz it's the big animal and it would certainly feed people a long time so humans were in our state the same time as he's green. I don't have any concerns about our planet. And it's survival it's rcc's. And i think that's shared among the lot of. Geologist you know like that. Our planet has made it through all kinds of trials and tribulations the reason we have a moon is because a mars-sized object hit our earth about four and a half billion years ago and knocked off the moon. And so. More and more evidence indicates that we've had life on our planet. For certainly three and a half billion years. What is microbial life so i don't worry about our planet or even life on our planet. But we're not doing a great job looking out for. Humans sustainably living on our planet. In my opinion. Absolutely so geologist the word geology means the study of earth. But there are totally a geologist to study. The moon and mars any of the terrestrial planet absolutely. And it's in fact i remember being surprised but like you know what one of the major. Questions they had when we went to the moon. What's the geology of understanding the rock. I talked to a number of people who have different opinions about the age of the earth. Evolution. So. 15 years when i started off i used to be really worried about groups of a calm and. Might have. They would push me on that right and what made me nervous is i felt like i. Have one shot to make one good argument. Change their mind. And i've learned that that's not true. That. Nobody changes their mind. With one persuasive argument. Released some of that burden off of me to like. Have the perfect argument. And instead i think of myself as likes heart of a pearl necklace. Where. The only way that somebody i think changes their mind about something that's so core right because you know that person has those opinions for a a hole. Bunch of reasons. Probably reaching back to their childhood. And so. What i think of is i can just be a kind person who can answer questions and try to the best of my ability. I like. Connect with them. And then i will be if they ever do kind of shift how they think i will be one piece of that story how they got there. But i'm not going to be. The person that they're going to leave and go like you know what that's right really if somebody changed their mind that quickly about something so coors and themselves. I don't know some different persuasive argument shifting another way so. That's how i do it now and that's how i explain it to my tour guides who also sometimes can be a little. Worried about that. And i honestly keep that as part of my duty as likely he works with ew. Cuz there's this you know there are people who live in other parts of the state who have opinions about madison and general the uw-madison in particular. And i'm if i can just be somebody who is kind and interacts with them and help them. Then that's a win in my book. I forgot how but i have particular if you want to talk later to about other ways to talk and answer certain questions i can chat with you about that but philosophically that's how i take it now. I'm a person in their life. Thank you bro.

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Pr200920-DavidCanon_voting-ed.mp3

Today's presentation is voting during the pandemic by david cannon. It relates to the our fifth principle the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregation. And in society at large. David cannon is a professor of political science at the university of wisconsin-madison. He received his phd from the university of minnesota and previously taught at duke university. His teaching and research interests are in american political institutions especially congress and elections. Is more specific research interests include racial representation. Partisan realignment. Political careers and election administration. He is author of race redistricting and representation. The dysfunctional congress with ken meyer. Actors athletes and astronauts political amateurs in the us congress. American politics today with william bianco. And several edited books and various articles and book chapters. He currently serves as editor. The election. Journal. And so here is david cannon. Go to be with you thanks for inviting me this morning. So i share my screen cuz i have some slides especially some maps and another things that are are good to have and then a badger talks wanted me to. Also share that little. Introductory slide here but i wanted to include the the prairie. Uu logo there to please. Shout out to you all okay so just starting with the. It's really basic point that probably for this audience i don't need to convince you why voting matters. But sometimes it is instructive i think to just. Be reminded how close presidential elections even can be. In florida in 2000 bush versus gore election. That just one vote per precinct in florida would have tipped the outcome of that election. It would have gone to the polls and then changed either bonneville four-door or or switch to vote but made a difference in that election in 2016 with with trump and clinton just just under 78,000 boats and three state-michigan pennsylvania wisconsin and there was flipped that would have changed the outcome of the 2016 election again just unbelievably close we're talkin. Well over 100 million votes cast. The other way that voting matters to. Is one that sometimes you can lose sight of but i've this is one way remind my students of this all the time. Because politicians do pay attention to people who vote. And there's a lot of research showing. That's your one reason that say social security and medicare are or such. Well-regarded and protected policies in this country is because older people vote and their info security medicare are obviously really important to older people whereas. Policies are more important to younger people like say having. College tuition debts paid for and making college tuition-free for four more people do that doesn't get as much traction because younger people. And you can see there's a straight linear relationship between age and voting the older you are the more you vote and it's just until he gets like about 80 and then. A little bit but it's something that does have an impact on on policy is. As well. And then finally just the really fundamental point that democracy depends on holding polish. Accountable and if we don't vote we're not able to hold our leaders accountable. No just visually to illustrate this point and this is a pretty sore powerful indicator of how important voting is. Here's an electoral college map that you normally don't see no usually you'll see the electoral college map and red and blue america the states that trump carried in the states. They couldn't carry the 2016 a different take on the electoral college map. Showing the states also including the percentage of people who did not vote. And all of the head of hands dates you're so most of the country. There are more people who didn't vote than voted for either clinton or trump. And so the the people who didn't vote carried 471 electoral vote. Hillary clinton carries 51 colorado minnesota maine new hampshire massachusetts delaware maryland. Clinton actually got more votes in the people who didn't vote or trump. And then wisconsin eyewear the only two states in the country that trump actually got more votes than people. That's a very against. Powerful visual reminder of how important it is to to vote. And i think anna 2020 turnout is certainly any higher than it was in 2016 but still there going to be. Maybe 40% of the people aren't going to vote and so that's another. Important reminder there. No this is also is something that comes as a surprise to some some people is dead is actually no affirmative right to vote in the united states constitution. On the 15th. 19th and 26th amendments to prevent discrimination based on race gender and age respectively. For 18-20 year-olds getting the right to vote with 26th amendment. But also in this is against something it goes back to the original document. Is it there's no right to vote for president. In the constitutional sr state legislature gives it to us. There were some states early on where the state legislature decided their electoral votes are wasn't a popular vote. And pretty quickly every state did use the popular vote to determine the electoral votes in their state that's not written in the constitution state legislatures decide how they're like rowboats are or alligator. Mark pocan is for last couple years are representatives. From. 2nd district has wanted to amend the constitution to change this to actually make an affirmative right to vote in the constitution i think that. Would be a good change. No there are laws that have been passed especially and most significant. Play the 1965 voting rights act. They're provided an equal opportunity to vote for racial minorities banned literacy tests and other restrictions that i can vote. And for the first time provided for federal marshals to enforce the law. Especially in the south where there had been massive disenfranchisement based on on race. And so there have been some affirmative steps you're taken to try to protect the right to to vote especially based on race. And there have been other laws passed like help america vote act back after the 2000 election. It did give some financial assistance. The states to modernize their voting practices in the machinery. But we're still woefully underfunded and terms of that kind of assistance. State. And helping modernize our election. Ministration. And also this is another thing that has made your voting. So much more difficult in recent years. Is what rick cousin probably one of the top election experts in the country on the election ministration his written here the book couple years ago called the voting wars. Or he points out that over the last decade or so and especially the last couple election cycles. It's become a partisan battle and it didn't used to be. This way that used to be that the both parties worked equally hard to make it easier for. What about but in recent years we've had polarized on the partisan line. Where in. States that are dominated by republican state legislatures and governors we've seen more things like voter id laws and and making early voting more difficult and i'll give him more comprehensive listen a minute. But that's the kind of thing that hasn't is talking about with the voting wars. And according to the brennan center for justice there been almost 100 bill designed to diminish voter access in the last year in 31 state legislature. Now many of those haven't gone through but some of them have. Especially in the wake of the shelby county vs holder decision several years ago that we can part of the voting rights act section 4. That i had been in place for many years that allowed for the preclearance of discriminatory laws before they went into effect. And that was struck down by the. Important easier to do things. Like voter id laws and other restrictions on voting. So what are some other examples of those tools of voter suppression. What has made it more difficult to vote in some states and recently. All the brother id laws are a big one in here in wisconsin we have one of the strictest voter id laws in in. A limits on early voting with seen a big increase over the previous a couple election cycle on more early voting so some states are cutting that back. A judge has a voter registration list where they end this is something that you're all states do this on a regular basis because when people move people die you have to clean up your voter rolls and so sometimes the. Do reporting on a voter purge is forgets that fundamental coin. But this is something you should not be done close to an election. Causes for the confusion because they're often people removed from the rawls who removed accidentally and actually were legitimate registered voters still the same address. And the problem is that some states texas georgia or some of the biggest offenders here use the process of exact matching where if the record that is on the voter registration files doesn't exactly match the. The new information on the voter on bill be struck from the voter roll. And then there's this process of voter caging where they'll send a postcard out of to the registered voter if they don't mail it back they'll remove you from the rawls and that's again it's been something that some states of use. District thing which we saw here in wisconsin the last redistricting cycle then it's really not quite the same in terms of like preventing someone from from voting because it's obviously. Whatever district you live in doesn't affect your ability to vote but it could reduce the motivation to vote if you've been moved to a district that has been your packed with so many democrats for example your you know that all your local politicians often are running unopposed. And again there's good research showing that in competitive races. Voters are more likely to turn out then in elections in which there's no opposition from the other party. And so partner just drinking limit voter turnout in in that way. Felon disenfranchisement than one that's getting a lot of attention in florida 2018 they passed the constitutional amendment florida to allow felons with serve their time to be able to vote but then there was a new law passed by the state legislature. They said if they didn't pay their court costs and other fine. Then they still couldn't vote and. The problem is the record-keeping is so bad that often the. The felons don't know whether or not they owe money and there's no like central database that even indicates that so up to about 900,000 people still probably won't be able to register about this should have been able to after that concert from then was passed. I'm closing a polling places in urban areas which leads to longer wait times for in boating we've seen in recent elections yell wait times up to 45 hours long in order to be able to vote. And those who attend any more concentrated in urban areas rather than rural areas. And then overly broad purchase a non-citizen. Border wall. Obviously are not non-citizens are not allowed to vote in federal elections and do some states. I've made a real effort to. How to purge the non-citizen but often again this leads to. Actual voters being removed from the rawls and lead to disenfranchisement that way. And then unequal scrutiny given to mail ballots on before 10 i was a little early and some of us were talking about how this works in in different states. And i gave the example of like in georgia some some clerks will if if you don't include your middle initial soap i would sign my name on my absentee ballot david can instead of david t cannon and my physical records at david t cannon there's some clerks would throw that out one of my colleagues can mayer it does a lot of expert witness work and he's election cases. And he mentioned a case of he came across again in georgia. Where that you were on the. That's about your supposed to give the date of your your fur. And they meant it to just be the month and day and not the year and it's someone put their the year down as well and they threw it out what is just completely ridiculous. And so that kind of disenfranchisement is. Yeah really doesn't doesn't make sense but it but it happened. And most recently the post office all of the. Changes being made to the post office informed. Removing sorting machines actually taking post boxes away his slow down the the mail precisely the time when millions of ballots will be coming in for early voting and so that's another potential problem that could make it harder to vote by mail in this election. And this shows a long-term tran from cincinnati to the purple line shows the decline in the percentage of people voting on election. Csgo and it was young 90% range all the way through 1998. It's just been a steady decline down to about 60% in last two elections. With a. Assemble an increase. Then in both mail-in ballots would have gone from about. Eight or nine percent up to about 22% in the last election and then early in-person voting has gone from pretty much nonexistent to 15% of the electorate voting in person. Before election day probably saw those pictures from. Virginia on friday they started their in-person early voting in the headline 24 hours long and many places in virginia to get to vote early. Getting a lot of attention over the last couple of months really offensive spring when the first elections are being held during the pandemic. The huge increase in mail ballots in in 2020. And president trump is if politicize this by. Calling into question the validity of mail mailed and balanced even if he himself has voted by mail recently. So what's the concern here what what actually is going on up there. Important to recognize the differences in the kinds of. First there are eight states that have limited absentee voting so you actually have to. Have some reason they have to show that you are actually be out of the state on that date or you have to show that you are unable physically to be able to go to the polls and so they had to be some actual reason for voting absentee. Only eight states have that 34 states have. The no excuse absentee voting like wisconsin. Where are you can just request the ballot you get it you can vote absentee. And then they're fine states that have universal mail for for all elections and have had for quite some time like oregon. And then there's three more states plus dc that are doing universal male just for 2020 because of the covid pandemic. No president trump has generally focused his concern on the universal voting by mail but he also has been critical of efforts to mail ballot request forms all voters. Saying that this could lead to to voter fraud. But there's really no evidence for fraud by mail-in voting compared to other methods of voting or indeed in general there's very limited evidence for any voter fraud there was a. Analysis done by mit. Of a database that the conservative heritage foundation has had on election fraud. For a 20-year. they're only 140 three cases of mail ballot fraud. This is out of your over 250 million votes of the examen. And so this is just a tiny tiny tiny fraction of the overall vote. Are there was a study done here by our wisconsin election commission of the 2018 election and they found only four cases of a fraud out of the 2.7 million votes counted in wisconsin. And so oregon that again they've been doing the mail-in only voting since 2000. Has confirmed only two cases of fraud out of 50 million mail-in votes over that 20-year.. And so it really is just a a non-issue to think of. Fraud is being a problem not to use the mail in about it just doesn't exist. There have been a few examples was called ballot harvesting are there was a north carolina republican candidate who they actually avoided an election because it was a very close race. And there was evidence that they did this ballot harvesting where they would go around getting absentee ballots from people and fraudulently fill them out. Another case of new jersey recently where that happened on the democratic side. But the thing is with that type of larger scale ephrata prod is pretty easy to detect and and so the the individual voter engage the mail fraud is is just a miniscule proportion. And the relatively few cases of bigger. Examples of a ballot harvesting are also both pretty rare but also are easier to detect and then and then stop. Having said that while fraud is really not a concern. That there is a bigger concern about the challenges voting by mail. Nationally over 20% of ballots aren't returned now we don't know like many of those people probably change their mind and then go vote in person that we don't have the exact breakdown on on that. But returned. The mail ballots are rejected a higher rate than in person. This is likely to be even more true in 2020 because a lot of the people are voting by mail for the first time like you're in wisconsin we know from the april election and the august primary we had a huge increase in mail-in voting and missing addresses of the witnesses. The biggest reason. That's. That the ballots were excluded in in wisconsin. Signature match isn't as much of a concern here in terms of voters having their ballots excluded but in some states that end up being pretty. Significant. And then in the earlier primaries end of august primary in the april election. 1 big problems with the clerk's offices were just overwhelmed with the demand and they couldn't get the balance out of. A lot of people were not able to vote cuz they requested their bail if they three weeks before the election and it didn't show up in time for them to vote and so that. Was compounded. And then august primary by the undermining of the post office. But i think we've turned the corner at least on the. The clerk's daniel keep up the demand that the word has gotten out to people about making sure you quest your ballot early don't wait until the week before the elections that's not going to work. And so if you are going to go by mail make sure you get that request in now and it looks like the clerk's office or being able to keep up a little better than they had. And here's the data from the wisconsin election commission on the april election showing 2% of of ballots that were returned and not returned. Do of the. 1.3 million absentee ballots that were mailed out will / 1.1 rex returns about 89%. There were. Two-tenths of 1% that were. We're late until they weren't counted. Because i came in late. Again because of the. The man. Another 20,000 ballots were rejected so but almost 1.6% of the balusters rejected again most of those for the missing signature of the witness. Are the missing address of the wind. Is the most common. Error if you are voting by mail make sure you do it properly. Want to make sure your vote is. Okay so right now it just conclude now with just a few. Observations while i think is likely to happen. Especially in the wake of the death of ruth bader ginsburg. Which now is putting supreme court at the center of the presidential race again. As if it was a pretty prominent role in 2016 as well. I'm so. My thought is if republicans do try to push through a nomination for the vacancy coming just 46 days before the election. You're after they denied obama annamma nation when scalia died which was 269 days before the election. I think this would galvanize democratic voters in a way that would. Make it even more likely that trump loses and the democrats win the senate. And now the other hand if they leave the seat open. Until after the election and then both sides of the galvanized. Y'all republicans want to make sure they have a shot of another supreme court nominee so that it'll help turnout trump space and democrats will want to know try to replace ginsburg with. Abiding appointee on so i think given the mitch mcconnell is a pretty savvy politician. My senses what they're probably going to do especially given the susan collins and lisa murkowski have already come out saying that you think the next president should make this pic not the current president. Two republican senators that you are. Wilbert more moderate than. The many made that statement already so i think probably going to happen is i'll have the. Pick made and the confirmation hearings but they're not have a vote until after the election and it'll be interesting to the sea. Yo how that that plays out. Here's that the data actually says from fivethirtyeight head. Story on this yesterday showing all of the the different nominees. All the different. Supreme court justices who died in a presidential election year. And there is never. Been a nominee in history of our country. Who has been confirmed. Less than a hundred forty-four days so justice fuse in 1916. I was not made confirmed 144 days before the election that they can see can. I didn't see the other four cases other five cases that were. In that category none of them had to confirm justice before that time. And even in three of the four other cases there was no nominee they waited until after the elections even nominates. Is this what you truly unprecedented in our history. If they were to push ahead. Even with a nomination we've never had a nomination again that's just been less than 160 days before an election. And so that would be breaking his precedent in terms of. Of a having a decision made on a justice so close to election. I'll conclude with something that i don't want to make people. Stay up at night worried about the sings anymore than you already are but this is one that keeps me up at night so i thought i actually would share this because it. It is a little scary. I'm so this shows the electoral college map of kind of where things stand today. With poles if i had to pick. Exactly what can happen. Based on the polling i think i would also put in wisconsin to michigan for biden and so i think biden would win if the election were held today. Those are definitely states that are still in playing in up for grabs and you have pennsylvania north carolina florida and the main one congressional district main cuz maine and nebraska are the two states that actually split their congressional district. So i'm the problem with this map. Look at and if trump wins those for toss-up the winds pennsylvania north carolina florida and that one left for golden mane look what happened. You get a 269 2269 pie. You have a tied electoral college. And this is never happened to have an exact eye. But you that happens just get thrown into the house representative. And each state gets one vote in this was the craziest things but like for college that. A lot of people don't realize because we haven't had happened since 1800. And that is 2 or 18. 44 i guess is last time it happened. And so. Each state has one vote meaning like north of south dakota little north and south dakota wyoming states with like yuck 600,000 people will get the same say in electing our president as california and florida and texas and new york to the big state. So it would come down to. Likely a razor-thin margin but it looks like he'll probably win with 26 of the 50 states that were to happen it would be like really really close. So anyways again that's. Pretty unlikely you'll get to that that time but it's not that unlikely electoral college map i mean it's no that's. Pretty much how things stand today with again i would say michigan and wisconsin. Starlight pennsylvania where are also. I think it also put in the. Minecraft wisconsin michigan already invited if i misspoke before this in this outcome they already are leaning in that direction this is so not that far from what could be actually. Likely to happen. Let me stop sharing the slides and take your questions and. And open things up for discussion. So thank you so very much i appreciated your broad perspective. And your focus on wisconsin. Very helpful. Start turn out even in high turnout years tends to be lower than most other. Parliamentary western. We are about 10 to 15 points below you at least 10 usually 10 to 15 points below turn out and in most other western democracies. And so i think they're by two main reasons for this. One is our two party system compared to the multi-party system juicy and most other western democracies. That when you have a formal representation with multi-party system. You allow for a much broader diversity. Part of the perspectives 2. To be on the ballot. And so if you're a green party supporter in this country. A really have no chance and in having your candidate win ever if you're a libertarian party supporter in this. You have no chance of having your candidate wins ever. And so if you're basically in the position then if you're on the other more. Stream. Of having to either throw your vote away by voting for third-party candidate which election like this yellow stakes are really high to do that or to vote for one of the two major party candidates really probably don't care for that much. In a multi-party system yo you can have representation in the national legislature did you get as few as 5% of the vote. And so is in most countries that that gives you a very low threshold and be able. Dissipate in national politics. Incentive to vote for that reason that's one reason. The other is we have a lot of elections. Way more than most other country. Think about the number of times that y'all wisconsin voters have voted in the last. I do like your 10 years we we averaged at least your two elections per year if not more. And if you go back like the walker recalls and the other week we have elections you have the april. It just in general of the april elections april primaries. Do the fall primaries in fall alexa. Even-numbered years up for election. Yo in every even-numbered year. And that's way more than other countries have so i think there's there's something of like bloated fatigue that sets in as well and we do see higher turnout president elections of force than in the midterm election. But i think of you the second explanation. Why turnout is. Is lower. And then the other institutional reasons like you mentioned. Australia that. I haven't met ettore boating. And there are other things in our country like the voter id laws that that make it harder to vote as as well that the factory. It's a personal contact is is definitely been shown to the have your more of an impact than than anything else. And and so like a knock on the door that the sharing on facebook getting your your friends too. The boat and so is his personal contact a definitely has the biggest effect. And there also is some some work that's been informed by the behavioral economist of the last year to look at. Like a changing motivations your four different kinds of economic behavior based on what other people are doing. They're also some evidence that. You're showing. People your voting record compared to other people's voting record. If you just as much as maybe other people in your community or boating. That also can serve as a motivation to get people to vote ma. And i bet i just received the mailing. Yesterday. Bet was i can't remember the organization but it. Did exactly that it showed my voting history for the last like. Five election cycles and it gave was the average your voter turnout was in i think it's in dane county. About item missing election in. Okay but if yours came out like you only vote a third of the time and everyone else in your communities voting like 80% of the time that's another thing that. What is the personal contact. Is the most. Yes a hard one to to be able to pin down because the only way you can. Do that you can't actually. Do that for our country because you'd have to like run experiment or you'd have a. 1 election with holiday in the next like she wouldn't and clearly they're not going to be willing to experiment that weighs only way you can try to suss it out is by comparative analysis we comparing our country to other countries that do have election holidays the problem is down there so many other variables to of of different election laws a multi-party system. There's no clear answer to. Said that specific question of like whataburger holiday help because you're absolutely right you could cut both ways i mean could help like some people maybe. But not enough people and so i think other things. Like. Yo. Things we know that were. Are things like election day registration. That is a huge when we have that here in wisconsin there about 10 states now that do. That's one of the biggest things that really helps is to be able to register to vote on election day at the polls. One thing we do know about people is that they are procrastinators and they forget stuff and so like you live in the state that that has a 30-day window of the register 30 days before election for lot of states to simply our luck is like october 10th rolls around. Too bad you can't register at that point. And there lies they said that him really restrictive laws like that. So having election day registration that alone boost turnout by like 8 to 10%. It's a huge. Huge thing i'm much bigger. Been a national holiday. So one thing i would advocate your any for any state that you wants to boost voter turnout that's the single best thing that could be done is. Is having election day registration. That's one reason wisconsin is always in the top two or three in the in the country and turn out. Lloyd minnesota. Wisconsin and manor like one two and three and turn out we're always right up there towards the top. And legendary distribution is one reason that that. That's the case i think. Okay well thank you so very much david cannon appreciate your. You're sharing your insights and your research. In terms of specifically this election was the very latest update in terms of the. Questions on the supreme court which. All of a sudden have made things very interesting i mean is if they weren't already. Yeah for sure. Thank you so very much. Alright was good to be with you.

uuprairie_org

Pr120226HKatz-ed.mp3

Good morning welcome. unitarian universalist society ahead of the program committee. prayers and unfortunately due to notice i'll be handing off to buy park later this one of our resident 2 minutes and the regular contributor to the program committee even though he's mad. International so clean out that all you can do regular contributors as well just get my email address for family structure. Windham service will be inviting visitors guests and returning friends as well to introduce yourself and. Sunday mornings we provide a wide variety of services they're presented either by a prairie member remember the wider community as we have today. Panda at some point we'll maybe have a ministering and at that point will presumably have programs from the minister. I take our chance will be presenting that his program inside of humanism today. Stories always. Southern rock. No pictures we believe this is called a humanist we believe the master plan for the betterment of man is designed by us alone or we use what we have shown we don't need a deity. By our actions we alone make our names for every on. We are not here to rehearse our place in the universe. From the moment of our birth. We belong to planet her. All the trees and mountains fall all the creatures great and small of the severt whirlyball heated evolutions call. All the wonders of our world into human fans are horrible. Diane school to know how to heal and how to grow. Let's design a better land all together. And demand freedom and equality inborn worth and dignity every woman every man has the power and we can make a tattered world like this ring was raptor been listless let us all join hands and stand in a circle large and grammy as together we divide our own birthday paradise and this poem is what humanism means to me. Humanism means to me i've got the opportunity to realize that i am free to take responsibility to me it doesn't seem so odd that many people pray to god whenever they are feeling lowe's just the way they have to go but when i do not know the way i do not feel we need to pray i use my brain to figure out what the problem is all about i'm grateful that i had eyes to see the beauty of this time i'm glad i have my ears to hear the voices of my friend so dear but best of all my brains the one that figures out what must be done to help me run a better race to make the world a better place and the story that i like to tell you is a story that i heard from a wonderful woman who lived in south africa and she won the nobel peace prize her name was wondering that far and she tells a story. And all the animals did around the elephant's the tigers lions they all stood around and watched the forests burned and then they notice the through hummingbird flying overhead and dropping a drop of water on the fire hummingbird with back and forth and back and forth on the animals looked at with the hummingbird. You're ready for a presentation speaker today is powerchat how it is he president of the human society and is on the board of directors of the american humanist association also on the board of humans charities. Is an active with the american civil liberties union aclu illinois volunteer and he has served for three years as an officer of the illinois national organization for women it's also served as a board member of americans united united and humanists of west suburban chicago. 23 + gallon blood donor. Who are members of the american humanist association just out of curiosity. Are humanists but didn't know what the term meant and when you start to describe what humanism is to them what the philosophy the epic is tickle. I'd say twelve or thirteen years old i started to realize that. I believe this religion because that's what i was raised with all my. Friends were raised in a religion netflix. Why they thought it was crap. What's stunning world religions why do people believe what they believe. And. I thought you don't hinduism buddhism and catholicism most of the christian sects american indian believes you know cuz i could find and. Why would they decided that the supernatural ristic aspects of all religions just left me cold. I just didn't really have any interest in them. And a friend of mine after we actually weird ihop start ratalu chapter in the county i live in illinois goes well you know you might be interested in humanism and i did what most people do i said what's that. I want to read something just for people who aren't aware of it this is this is the main. Paragraph is to what the philosophy is. Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life that without supernaturalism and that's an important part. Affirms our ability and responsibility to lead at the glide personal fulfillment. That aspire to the greater good of humanity. Now. Back to my original point. I was a member of the aha probably a good 15-20 years before i started getting involved with. The. Way i got involved was to a program is called into the human society which is an adjunct of the aha moment with one of those i'll get around to it one of these days situation. American humanist association in general. Was actually founded by a group of people who are were unitarians but not all who were affiliated with the university of chicago. They are formed a humanist. Freethought poop attack in 1941. They incorporated the american humanist association in 1941 and it started out of course in chicago and the has had it in. Chicago w angela seattle a new york and currently has headquarters in washington dc. The ideas of the humanist manifesto now up to number three is what we promote what we're trying to do is. Get. Yes obviously humanistic idea and viewpoint into. Everyday wife. Point is it's not so much that we're trying to do away with some buddies right to have a theistic. But we we just want to see a more secular society set up where everybody's right to believe or not believe where they want to. Disrespected. Right now is that it has you probably seen the news i mean i saw an article today friend of mine in english sent it to me the guardian newspaper in london actually is calling rick santorum the he wants to be the messiah and she. Jerry with me when the people who are supposed to be running to preserve things like the first amendment are trying to hop religion each other. And basically that's was coming down to. Now. Can i psych myself a lot here in point. For humanism is this. Wow most not all but i'll say most humanists are atheist. And a lot of people with equates to medicine with atheism but i don't see it that way. The example i using it kind of ticks off some of my fellow board members is that. An axe murderer. All that means is you are atheist if you don't have a. Humid at you don't have a belief in the dea. Doesn't mean you're a good person a humanist however has the ethics and the the philosophy that's embodied in the humanist manifesto. We do tend to be good people we do tend to lend ourselves to that greater good of humanity. And you get a lot of people who. Are also have that data may not be necessary human sympathy has more harm than good but but a atheist may not and i know there are people who are. Definition. The american humanist association of right now it has a various sub organizations that they are involved with. I am currently it's about service on the president of the human society. The humane society actually started out as a separate organization was founded actually before the aj's founded in 1939 by a bunch of quaid-e-azam california. They like the idea of the humanist movement which was game popular in the us. And a corporated actually it has and we still hold this as a religious organization in the state of california because one of the things they wanted to do was be able to offer to the community a non-theist. Way of doing weddings. Welbeck then neither were adjudged / justice of the peace or minister. So basically they were gaming the system they decided to incorporate as a religious organization for a very non-religious. Perfect. We still hold that designation today out in state of california and it's caused some. Problems with with other secular organizations who will say what we'd like your help with your religious. And fighting. Only on paper you know, still have a. Designation in in them otherwise there's ways around that from different state. What happened to me it's like i said i it was like 10 years i was one of these i'll get around to it one of these days cuz i like the idea of becoming a celebrant. Is my title. And. I just never got to one day i sat down and got the the people i needed for my references together sending the application i got certified as a celebrant. And then i made the mistake of becoming active on a worcester for other celebrants opening my mouth. Cat opening my mouth. Denny's. Okay bye. Can you make me president. Because i got voted in. Only one of the. Football organizations i like to know what some of the other interest groups and organizations that we have in the ajr. One of the things the groups we have just went through there if their main. it's the darwin day foundation and this monday. You didn't come on it's fun or party. Nothing else who is promoting the idea of having darwin day as a federal holiday. And it's introduced every session but you don't hear about it but. Darwin day idea alive. We have the feminist caucus which is there to promote. Women's issues within the aha. We have the humans charity football match humans charities it is one of my pet projects was before i just got on the aha board what we do with that is we. Are trying to put a humanist imprint on works that are done for. Groups on the community we have chapters that will will work at the food banks will help do trash pickup on the highways we were. Very active couple years ago when did with the haitian earthquake week wanted money and then found a organization on the ground on the island at the dominican republic. I bought food supplies for us they actually stenciled the happy humanist label which is female. With the hr uses. On this applies to my truck them into an area that was hard hit but the media wasn't picking up on because it was more rule than the main city. So we did a lot of work in helping rebuild that area and get needed supplies to the people. We donated money to the shopping. Airports in japan. Don't grab we're not we're not big enough to have our own carburetor people to go out and do these things ourselves what we will do is like with the tsunami we collected the money and a lot of it went either to a doctors without borders or the red cross we try to make sure that we're using organizations that have a secular. Point of view when it comes to their works so obviously you know christian organization oriented organization. Probably wouldn't be one of our first choices for giving things. But we will do what we can to help because obviously if we. Do help other people that's. Arguelles. Contributing to the greater good of humanity. And what's basic we all can't go out and grab shovels and help you know clear out the grief after an earthquake but we can at least help the people who can be on the ground. So that's what i focus with the with the humanist charities. We have a organization called humanist institute. Humanist institute which is out of minneapolis then also me to new york actually will give people certification and degrees in a in a human studies program. It's a two to three-year program. Both do online study and then meet a couple times a year minneapolis or new york and. A discussion and further training. We just got made a. Affiliation with a couch and i'm blacking out on its name on the east coast where the certification can actually lead into a masters of human studies. So we will now have the degree to program in in humanism and this is one of the first in the country that will lead from a certification program into a human degree. We have to coach our humanist education center. What we're doing with that programmers were actually developing a k through 12 educational program that can be either taught in a school typesetting like no procol schools might do or at on an individual basis with people can actually. Teach their children everything they need to know but from a humanist point of view obviously more secular. Evolutions going to be a good word in that kind of program but. It is something that has been lacking when people think of private education the discussion seems to go towards a parochial or a fundamentalist. Package type of education. One of my biggest complaint besides i was trained to be a high school speech teacher never ended up with a job without telling bob that the sad story on this part but what bothers me are the people who are homeschooling their children because they're they. Don't have enough. Christian values in the public education. System. And all they're doing is they're buying a package on the shelf from a bookstore and they. Suppose we say this is going to give them enough back on. The children. That bothers me what i would want to do is say that if you're going to teach your children at home you should have the same compass competency test that every public school teacher has to pass motor. To educate children. Not going to go anywhere but i really think that that should be something that that we should push his act to go to homeschool your children show you have credentials to do skype. I know an illinois all they have to do is register the fact that they're homeschooling him so that the district knows through there. High school graduation they still have to take in some districts has the graduation test but i'm not sure if that's pulled true in all states. Is there a follow the same time i have some friends who are ethical society has to be. Bowie was founded and it remains charter through which organization. And. There and their focus is a little different if they're there. They don't focus so much on the idea of humanism as they are up and i may be a little off on that if anybody here is a little more familiar with withyou please jump in but the focus has slightly different me. Yeah right in line with what american humanist association want to do. Polynesian if you would honor our freedom from religion foundation which is located here in madison. A couple of the other things that we do with the. Aha if we have the lgbtq humans council which is of course so looking into trying to make sure that the concerns of the lgbtq community are properly address. And something that we have fairly new is the reason cinema. Word a sponsoring films and documentaries. That have a humanist bet today. They have a bar. Programs have been we helped underwrite the production of the golden compass. I am.. Feel like i was able to have lunch that's right next to philip pullman. One of our captains as some of these things. We have worked with the. Progressive themed movies movie the ledge. The documentary the gods wasn't there to advise you that the god who wasn't there very interesting documentary of how. Christ cannot have existed at the time the bible says he produces two because all the rest of the character there either. 70 years before his supposed birth for about 70 to 100 years after. And he dropped the timeline down so this is rather interesting film. The documentary environmental mother living for 7 billion. Pdf program a darwin's darkest hour. No and nobles program becoming human. That was really good if you haven't had a chance to. Stop. Aha board is also currently involved with the several different. Programs that we're working on directly and we're also in a lot of different. A coalition. Right now we are in the process of helping put together the reason rally which is happening next month anybody here. I'll probably about seven or eight different groups the group's aha cfi and center for inquiry house of secular humanism. Secular student alliance i know i get it out sooner or later a secular coalition for america it is basically going to be a rally in hindi c4. Rational thought. How much is rat poison cost. Yeah ffrf is one of the sponsoring organizations also if i remember correctly. We try to promote three free thought in everything we do we have a lot of people who are involved with a lot of different. Well we have a lamborghini legal center. What we are trying to do is make sure that in the legal process dad humanism is properly. Representative got a couple cases of been going on recently. Isleton california to camp pendleton pendleton. The one of the veterans groups are wreck today i think like a 50-foot cross. Right on camp pendleton right on every mg we were involved with that you could take the. Crosstown nightcore system. We needed the land over to this group it's no longer public property is now it was it was all machinations just to be able to keep across there we managed to have them we're involved with having them take the cross off of a government base. We were involved with a i was several cases are going on right now. Coalition of reason which is a. Organization that sets up coalition's throughout the country there been several locations where we where they have i should say that we were involved with the cor group. In chicago but. Trying to put ads on buses if you know who i don't believe in god you're not alone me of seeing some of these billboards type of things. And several cities have. Try to put roadblocks up in front of the nucor groups. I'm putting up seattle washington to a free thought type of thing they were saying like what you can do this but you're going to have to put power go out and buy a 3 million-dollar insurance policy because we're afraid our buses vandalized. Little rock to the somebody who was a on the transportation board who it turns out with the fundamentalist minister i believe said. We don't want anything like this on our bus at all block and then anyway you can. We took him to court and in all instances of corti said that freedom of speech is more important than somebody's. Religion add that it's for sampling seattle if they're going to. Demand that we do a 3 million-dollar insurance policy. South if they are putting the the. Bus add-on. Yes actually actually but well the press because. Printed booklet for the billboard is actually more i think. Freedom of speech and how they look at that billboards. And it's it's not goodbye. We were involved in the case of kentucky anybody aware of this one it was a woman who was working for a church organization. In kentucky and. She became pregnant as an unmarried. Woman and they fired her because the baptist proof that you was working west of this isn't within our. We help represent her with the eeoc and the eeoc did fine for her. Other cases where they said that the church has the right to discriminate. But i know those are things that we're going to have continued fighting with. Baba never talked about this one just yesterday what what is her name i can't remember the name bo. Cranston. The banner. The prayer banner difficult in the woman with the. Passport be taken down to refuse we actually. Health represent her. The courts just recently found that it did violate picture tuesday separation and the school board decided instead of fighting something that they knew they'd end up losing and be very costly they took it down. This poor girl has been so ostracized by her community that there were people from around here for example with sent her congratulatory flowers. Floors in coron town refuse to deliver that because how dare we do any support for that atheist. I was one of maybe. 459 christensen the whole high school. And come christmastime and it was the mandatory christmas convocation and i said my high school my homework teacher i said you know it's really not my holiday i'm going to be in the library she said fine. Assistant principal walks by he does a double take he comes in there and he demands that i get my rear end into the convocation and i said no. Slipknot my a junior. Fashion line. We were also involved right now with with a case that's very interesting and various locations. We're trying a case ashley in massachusetts where. We're trying to see whether or not we can get the words under god removed from the pledge of allegiance done in public schools. Now i personally when i pledge allegiance happened to stay silent for those two words that's my choice. Has mentioned i could have held public office i still attend one of our township means i wouldn't used to be township clerk. For my my area. And there's one gentleman who's currently. And we were going to show how different we were from those godless comments. Ever said. Used to ji work mia was just never there. I barely speak good english and american leather well-endowed. But yeah so you know. We're trying to make sure that the rights of. Noxious are as recognized as the theist the underground basically. If you're not then you're you're forced to say that you know that pretty much. Means that you're saying something that's against your own voice or novel it says it has your own philosophy disposed at 1. I lost the last election that i was invited a couple points in one of the people who replaced me. Very very fundamentals jalen and standing next to me i still attend all the township meetings. And reduced by jeffrey know every every time we're very good we don't open with a prayer. United supervisor while he's religious person don't believe in the first two minutes so he does not do a human a non-sectarian prayer. When i did not say those two words. I could see out of the corner of my eye his head snapped around and stare at me like i was just doing something that was going to completely cause a group the open up and we're all just going to fall in and. We had a few discussions at since and basically it's i'm just letting him know i'm going back to the original they always have used the term original intent when they're talking about why they want to put me woojin back into public policy when it was never there in the first place but that's besides the point. I keep going back to the original. But you can't argue with that canyon because he wants to make sure that religions and everything. We have some interesting discussions on that. In south carolina. We're working with a secular student alliance on a couple schools in south carolina that are still working with release time. Everybody know what that is right come across that in the 40s and 50s actually. I i know somebody who was not involved with the case in illinois that went to supreme court released time is when the public schools release the kids to go to religious education and. Looks like with a case with a woman who was living in champaign-urbana area back in the forties. And the champaign school district. And woman name was vashti mccall. Her husband works at u of i understand illinois. Decided that they were atheist. She don't like the idea that her son had to either study hall or out in the hallway when they were doing either religious education in the sochi. And it made its way all the way up to the supreme court which decided that release time at least the way that the champaign schools were doing it. Was unconstitutional. And christy became one of most hated people in champaign. Almost as bad as reported on cranston but. Interesting her son who is named as one of the plaintiffs in the case later became the mayor of champlain. Actually. Some of the questions i think i did check with students association. That's an organization out of columbus that works to put. Secular chapters in colleges and and. It's kind of like the newman group is for catholics on couches campuses more trying to do an ssa i've been working with a couple of the colleges in chicago and eric sitting in and helping him where i can buy those jackets. I can't quest which is involved with the 45 camps throughout the country. Ymca or ywca camp as a kid. But you always have to do the services on sunday. Camp questions to do a camping experience but from a secular point of view. Secular coalition of up for america was actually a started off as a. What's an offshoot of the aha but we were primary and finding them and getting them started that's actually a lobbying organization that goes to. Capitol hill and pushing for a non-sectarian a secular. Upoint in wasp and chris one of our biggest supporters that is pete stark. According to represent a start the tribe of 20 or 30. Congressman and senators that he knows directly are. 90s dick but don't dare say anything because they are afraid they're not going to get reelected they come come out as nollywood. And. I'm sorry i can't see where. Killing somebody because of an activated is going to bring back the people who is dead. You know what i'd rather they be around that they could be started so maybe we could identify her early people who may have to send susan help them. Killing somebody because of an act they did and you may disagree with me on this and you have the right person i think it's barbaric. I think i've got friends that i haven't gotten to know what the british humanist association i believe they were involved with the. Making that movie similar theories. That was one movie about things we did like imagine an organization you can agree with half the time. Position so i'm not going to join i'd ask you to look at everything that they do and if you're really concerned about the one aspect get involved and and see what you can do about seriously. They understand respect it and i may be out for me just the constitution i mean. Was actually fairly religious but what he was saying was that. Origin of species is that everything. Comes from something else that was performed or different forms so that's where the idea of evolution one step 1 step 1 step count. Of course i've seen a lot of cartoon said that some of the people running for president and it's eevee evolution. So if if we have to take things to court. In order to be able to manage to get a more secular viewpoint which should have been there in the first place. Maintained it a lot i actually look at a lot of things we do the aclu do does know the rest. The rights of free thought and freedom of religion freedom of thought ben religion. What retreat we have to be proactive it'll gets its like the the idea of running in place with with the alice in wonderland have to run as hard as you can just stay in the same place. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. Man's reason and spirit have often solve the seemingly unsolvable. And we believe. They can do it again john f kennedy.

uuprairie_org

Pr091227Abts-ed.mp3

I have the joy of presenting our own nick app. I guess i'll let you introduce yourself a little bit and tell us what brought you to this topic i had your bio but i think i'd rather let you tell us since we all know you so please join me in welcoming nick app. Thank you for the welcome. Well i guess so you know me just some better than others i guess getting to this topic i graduated from law school in may of 2008 are working with northwestern mutual life insurance company at that point recently i made a change to strategic wealth management and i'm opening my own law practice and so, i have thank you. Knowledge from research and although i'm not really used to speaking in front of large group so hopefully yeah you're supposed to i guess you're supposed to imagineer yeah you're supposed to imagine your audience in your underwear i don't really feel comfortable with that but so. Socially responsible investing and i guess what does that mean as a congregation we it is seems like based on some of the discussions i've had and it was some of you individually and just general knowledge about the types of people that we have here social responsibility. Another areas of our life if it is a pretty important. For the aspect of our lives for most of us however typically. In our finances that's really the last place that we go so i think what we have to ask ourselves is first of all what does it mean to be socially responsible when it comes to our finances. What do we have to do what we have to change we have to change anything in order to be socially responsible and also if anybody ask questions at any point feel free to jump and i'm going to. Allowed time for discussion as well but. Yeah i'm pretty open about about how to do this stuff and then we also have to determine both individually as as family members business owners in as a congregation how important is it to be socially responsible. I maybe it's something that that's way down on the list or maybe it's something that it you know we just haven't been been active in doing because we haven't thought about it and then if we're going to be socially responsible what options are there. For us to be able to do that if we're going to make changes how do we do that so let's see if i can go to the next page here. I might need you don't want actually if you hand me my mouth there i have a and optical mouse with no cords so yeah well actually it's because the touchpad doesn't work on time. So let's go back. All right so what is socially responsible investing the definition that you're going to see it if you research it on your own is that. Cannot only attempt to maximize the financial returns that you get but also the positive social impact of the investments that you're making it is your money going to a good place now. What does that mean again defining socially responsible investing interesting to see becomes kind of the biggest the biggest issue that we have to the biggest hurdle that we have to overcome there a lot of ways environmental responsibility which is something that we have an active green committee it is something that i think that a lot of us care about here. But there are other areas as well social justice are there companies that were investing in treating their employees well are they treating their their consumers well are they having a positive impact on society are they doing charitable work and are they investing in their local communities and is that something that we can do. That we don't necessarily have to rely on the companies in which were investing. To to do that and then also historically it includes potentially avoiding companies that are involved in certain activities firearms manufacturer. Alcohol again there are there people of a sort of more fundamentalist religious bent at 10 to ask for they don't want to be involved in supporting companies that make you say the birth control pill or that involved an abortion there's really how you define it that. That determines what your definition of socially responsible investing itself a little bit of history and i'm going to stick with american history here the quakers were the first documented incidents in america of socially responsible investing that i could find they refused to be involved with businesses that's part of the slave trade. Which as you can see by the years is way ahead of its time by 100 or depending on your how you view history 200 years ahead of where everybody sort of. Comes down in that area self. Also they avoided other companies that were involved again in those sort of thoughts sinful activities and i guess i keep using alcohol i should stress that. It's not necessarily the opinion of the year. Person giving their presentations and encouraged his people of his church to be socially responsible investment. We're potentially harmful to one's health i'm sure a lot of you know little bit of history of the tanning industry mad hatter's and and that sort of thing so. Have religious organizations maybe especially our former religious organizations in my case catholicism as being a. The conservative but in some ways they really are ahead of the curve or have been historically. I know it's kind of weird thing to wrap your head around so more modern history the 60s kind of our where this disorder thing came to a head as a big social issue dow chemical a lot of you probably remember the outrage. Come and use the napalm and agent orange being something that has that really was a lot of backlash over that. And going on into the 70s awareness about apartheid nuclear power automobile emissions all things that people information started to be more more available. And people started to to really. Wonder you know it is this what we want our companies and in some cases our government to be doing and it may seem strange that i mentioned government but a lot of a lot of the protection that we rely on financially comes from the government as well. And then there's kind of a gap there as you can see. And you might notice a lot of that. the reagan years kind of a big gap there the a time of cost-benefit analysis in labor and a little bit less less emphasis on social responsibility and then in the 90s when the market was kind of going through the roof and. Nobody cared at least in america in britain it was starting to become in the 90s a bigger issue but not here until really around the turn of the. Millennium i guess it sounds like it was a long time ago when i say it that way but i guess it's been 10 years now. They're starting to be a lot more information available on the internet more i'm mutual fund companies doing doing research and making. Socially responsible investing available to people in this country just a recent example of socially responsible investing the divestment task force designed to. Divest assets from companies that are involved or or that are connected with the genocide in darfur it's a good example of a recent. Emphasis. On social responsibility that. kind of sort of similar to the anti-apartheid except it's very. Active mode of. Apraxia in the us government supported mutual fund companies supported it that companies that are typically associated with social responsibility so. Some objective standards to socially responsible investing. I'll leave it to you to determine whether you feel that there can be such a thing as objective standards when it comes to this sort of thank god there's a lot of a lot of math involved they try to determine whether the companies involved are actually able to maintain that profitability through the social responsible investing that they're doing with a lot of the idea here being that. Pictures of penis. If a company is damaging itself through socially responsible investing that it isn't very socially responsible because it's investing in such companies is going to cost people to me up to lose everything that they're that they have those companies go out of business. Again it's very recent and a something as just. Starting to gain some momentum. Another aspect of social responsibility of finances risk-management that when people think is socially responsible investing. People think of what do you do with money maybe that were saving for retirement or is saving long-term money ever putting in stocks bonds mutual funds but financial security really has a lot more. Then then just that those retirement savings and not risk management when they think of that that you think usually think of insurance. I didn't put the word insurance up there at first because it's i didn't want everybody to go running out of here as soon as i put the flight out. Most risks we either save for or avoid but there are those risks that those losses that are heist of severity but they don't happen very often and more importantly they're not predictable as to when they might happen. Hello if you know exactly when you're going to die that that might be helpful but frankly frankly i don't want to know. Especially this condition so much i hope you have the kids are breadwinner in a family if you're disabled and can't go to work. Usually even if you have some protection through work you're losing probably. Most people get maybe 60% of their their income and it's. That's pre-tax so i don't know any of us that can afford to take a 40. 40% pay cut. I am so these are these are some big concerns now. Excuse me i'm sorry i'm a little i have some somewhere but i don't know where. Thank you thank you. When you're answering yourself at the first thing you think about is what. What do we know about the insurance company that we are ensuring ourselves through there two types of insurance companies companies are owned by stockholders as. Which is just what it sounds like a mutual companies are owned by. The actual policy holders of the insurance company. Now. What that biscuit with that means is the owner the owners are who the profits go to about insurance companies are at the very least. Their goal is to stay in business and stay profitable companies are traded on the exchange. So they're concerned with their stock price. That means that the profits go back to stockholders generally. Before they go back to policyholders in the form of dividends mutual companies that go directly. To the to the policyowners now. I'm not up here to make specific recommendations to anybody individually or the finance committee unless i'm asked to do so in a different setting so. I'm not going to answer your questions about what i would recommend to my personal preference or anything like that but just ahead off the question i started with northwestern mutual the company that i'm with is. Associated with massachusetts mutual so you can draw your own conclusions from that account and investing in clean now there are not. Are there a lot of controls on a general accounts how insurance companies can invest those unfortunate environmental or social in nature are. Associated with how with what asset classes as in you know how much can you have indians in stocks and bonds and basically how risky can you be. And but. The environmental and social impact isn't considered as much because that really doesn't have to do with whether a company can pay claims there are insurance companies out there. Peppermill social responsibility involved with charities some are better at paying claims another some treat their policyowners better than others it is it's something that you have to do a lot of research on butt. It is really it's really down to us. Individually it is where that comes at now there's. It's really a difficult thing. It's really a difficult thing to determine whether your insurance company is meeting your criteria for social social responsibility environmental. But it is environmentalism. That's very difficult to find but if you were if your number one concern is is the company giving back is a company doing what it's supposed to be doing within its within its mandate the palace business is supposed to be run then you can probably find something now what i. What i would encourage people to keep in mind is that if you feel like you know there isn't a company that really works for you and you decide that you're not going to insure yourself as a result. There are risks in that too and you're also depending on the government and you're potentially putting a drain on not only a society but people that you care about i mean again let's take the major breadwinner of the family if you're concerned. If you're concerned about environmental responsibility and you don't get life insurance and. Yeah unfortunately if you feel. Kiss the bus as they sometimes saying my business not the clients generally but to you you you are at you know maybe you put the money that you had in that you might have used. To pay premiums into a socially responsible funds but your family is is left. Trying to figure things out and. And depending on the government depending on the charity of others which we always encourage the charity of others but to actually depend on somebody else give me as handouts we just have to be aware that we're making. And again not one that debt that i encouraged i'm so. Another aspect of social responsibility is is community investing i talked about that a little bit i want to highlight it because i think that it's an area that we can explore further as a congregation community investing is. Basically is the money going back to being used locally is it being used to. To help people in a directly directly serve charitable way again most of these community investing groups they they offer loans to maybe lower-income families families that are higher higher credit risk but part of what they do is his teaching people how they can at they can actually. Pay back the loans how they can. Basically they're there they do everything they can. To make it so that these community and investments are good investments something that you can rely on because ultimately. Sure going to invest your money if you want to at least get that money back and hopefully make a return on it whereas otherwise it's just otherwise it's charity you're just giving a charity so a little bit and. I sense in the last 10 or 15 years it's a b a fast-growing area awareness is really starting to pick up when it comes to socially responsible investing and there's more pressure on government and institutional investors insurance companies are an example of institutional investors half of a large number of people but there's more pressure on those to be more socially responsible. Got in that also a shareholder advocacy is something that's becoming more and more popular it's basically its shareholders if you own part of a company i mean that you're part owner you own stock a lot of a lot of times there's. See your most common stock the voting stock and people kind of forget that they actually have a voice. And that what they say. What they do what they say they feel can really matter to a corporation if a large enough. Number of people get together and and does some of these examples of shareholder advocacy like proxy voting and then also shareholder resolutions i designed to tell companies really what we feel in and again i'll get to that a little bit more. And what does the future look like well as it seems more likely that the negative aspects of socially responsible investing are going to decrease because a lot of what makes socially responsible investing unattractive is the perception that is not. Profitable or not as profitable as. Your typical investment investing that's not going to be concerned with this sort of thing but as there are more companies mutual fund companies out there that do disorder thing that that are actually involved in socially responsible investing their becomes more information it becomes less expensive to acquire this information. The internet has helped quite a bit i think we can all agree when it comes to finding information so people are more and more. Informed financial professionals become informed i can say from personal experience that i don't know i know a lot of financial professionals i don't know many that even is that have even the level of knowledge that i have about it or that have any desire to work in the field before some of the reasons that i just mentioned well that's something as well. And i think that we're going to be looking at better measures and better and more reliable standards as we go forward as well. So let's talk a little bit about the benefits morningstar i don't know how many of you are familiar with morningstar they do a lot of research something there company that insiders use quite a bit for money and to get their information on. Thousands upon thousands of companies and stocks mutual funds and they did a 15-year study. You know there are a lot of happened no 15-year. is the same as any other but we're not sacrificing so much and then the rest of the benefits are really personal. How much does it matter to you and if you don't have to feel guilty about where your money is going. that's that's something that we value there are some risks involved again there's the concerned about lower returns we eliminate a lot of profitable companies i know that exxonmobil for example is an extremely profitable company but isn't necessarily killed considered socially responsible. Define companies to do the screening process and it's harder to get help because again there are fewer financial professionals that are really. That have the knowledge or willingness to work in that area also there are other risks what made. How do you. Characterize socially-responsible mutual fund. I mean anybody can call himself socially-responsible there are more there more controls on this and there used to be but it's really kind of in industry thing you know it's a buzzword socially responsible investing so. Write it if it's extremely common and i just i'm not going into company but as an example when i was in law school i did a paper on on a large wisconsin company that was involved in that basically was kind of crossing ortiz and downing their eyes to become involved in the green to your program to the dnr and i'm not sure if your how many of you are familiar with that but. A green tear is not a program that especially at the time that was researching it. I kind of loose requirements for participation and. That's really one of the one of the issues now it if you're talking about. Being able to actually have government controls on this order thing to really. There really isn't any as far as anybody can call himself socially responsible and there really isn't any backlash that's going to happen legally to them it's all going to come from shareholder awareness and people actually catching that so. Again that's another definition that it is with the strategic sustainable investing is something that they're trying to there trying to have i guess standards and measures but sustainability is very broadly defined i mean the definition that i was able to find it's basically. Can the company continued to exist and not put itself at risk. Of going out of business and losing investors money in the process. That may not be the definition of sustainable that we're comfortable with either so it it's all it it's. Illustrates the difficulty of defining these these matters. That's kind of yeah that's that's kind of has been the universal concern that's where a lot of this recent history started again with things like chemical production in nuclear production so. That going forward there's probably there probably going to be more of those but again what you have to do is look at the only way to know for sure what a company is what a mutual fund for example is doing when it comes to social responsibility is to look at the prospectus look at the companies that are in there and look at what their mission is and are they following. It's a lot of work for somebody who doesn't do that for. I mention shareholder advocacy which is something that got the uua has really promoted you can't obviously you can't participate in shareholder advocacy if you're not a shareholder you're absolutely right about that so. Different for you if it is socially responsible to own part of these companies and to get involved you know maybe. We can't you know it feels like we can't change the world by just owning a little bit of stock but if you get enough people together and enough people that care about what companies are doing it can actually make a difference and snack the uua is involved in the let me. I'm going to fast for a little bit so i can see that that's the interface center on corporate responsibility and that's one of the big things that they do is example of an institutional investor and they have money that they have to invest just like any other institutional investor the website for the company for the. After the organization has a list of all the shareholder resolutions that they have done there are a lot of recently a lot of banks and a lot of the shareholder resolutions have to do with executive-pay which you know right all right all right. Yeah that that information is out there and that's another example of an institutional investor a lot of people fewer fewer than than in the past a lot of people are relying on intentions either through the state or through their their former company whatever it is. It is that enough for for us to say oh you know i'm just not going to take my pension anymore well if you know we have to we have to eat right. And i'm glad that you that you brought that up because that i think that goes to the point where going forward there's more and more information out there and i think that that people are becoming more concerned about this on this is against down this is just an opinion but i feel like our current political and social environment it lends itself well to some major increases in this area. I'm at risk of going a little bit long hair but i just want to talk a little bit about about the funds that we have now for those of you in the last parish meeting i always struggle with those piano. Update need to make decisions are all right now my understanding is that we're just we're keeping money in savings account cds and that sort of thing with thanks. Is a parish. We we need to if we are going to be committed to being. To being a green community if we're going to be committed to social justice i think that it's important that we examine what we're doing excuse me with with some of those with some of those funds now. Do uua does its own investment screening and there are the tools for congregations i pulled right off of website they kind of these are tools designed to help. Individual parishes in organizations. You don't determine whether they're being socially responsible and how they might make changes on that actually what we need to do going forward in order to become more socially responsible. Involved and who is concerned about what we're doing with our money. This is a discussion that the finance committee needs to have and we need to buy something that we need to be involved in because these decisions. I guess. Maybe i'm out of line here but i feel like if we're going to let you do all the values that we have. As a as a as a group. If we're not putting those into practice in every element of what we're doing then i think it's a little bit hypocritical that we need to examine. American money in cds or adjusting a bank is a good idea maybe we have a good institution that's doing that that did that isn't you know loans to people or. We're giving out loans to people i should be getting them being involved in the mortgage crisis a little bit but. But we need to do we need to know that we shouldn't just do the do it by by default there are some other options out there again money markets we can also actually invest money particularly money that's supposed to be long-term. That that we're not planning on using within the next next year too i know there is a chance that falls into that category but there we can actually if we determine what are socially responsible investing standards are there are mutual funds bond funds. There's always going to be more risk if you put money in the market than there is with with cds and money market accounts that's something that. Can't without a doubt we can also get involved in community investing the uua is a matching program now this doesn't mean that give us money what it means is we are committing not only our money but we're committing uua money. To community investing so these are the this what you need to do that match up to 10,000 each year for up to three years and it requires a minimum of $2,000 david database of institutions. Pay for those there other wisconsin options. But we don't necessarily have to go through the uua we don't have to do with the matching i think it's a good thing to do i think that it it shows our commitment but again if it's something that we have to make a decision on and i'm again i'm not going to give a formal recommendation on that. So. Really. They're they're up there options out there we just need to make sure that we're educated about it and i think i know i don't know if. If barb is here today. That's okay but i know that that barb has has been very she's been very magnanimous and really wanted me to put this on so that we could get some awareness about this again it is something that i think we need to explore further and it's part of being a green community you know that's important to us that at the very least. I think we're a lot better than just. Putting money out there not worried about it. So i guess. Well with with banks if if you select financial institution like such as a bank that said where your money is going to be insured there you can do that there isn't going to be that kind of insurance. Part of the risk that you take henna something to consider because we don't want you know we don't want to wash all of our money down the toilet in the name of socially responsible investing either because that you know that hurts everybody here so. I didn't i really didn't discuss the proxy voting in much detail but it has actually has us a service by which it does its own proxy voting and it has guidelines published guidelines for how they do that some of their case by case basis with regard to some issues but they have guidelines for you know if a company is doing this you know that again. Because it's not responsible and with respect to asset allocation and absolutely that's as you can see i mean if we have i believe that the long-term fund has some of the neighbor the $50,000 in it to put i would not make sense to put all that in the same place regardless of how we're doing it but i think that. With the community with the matching program here just as an example. If something is palatable and that you know maybe it makes sense for us to take a take a risk in investing with some of some of the money but again we just we have to make sure that it's there because. You know it's unless we're we're going to be a charity with respect that money the key thing is to make sure that we have it around so it's it's always a balance so i guess i'm kind of overtime.

uuprairie_org

Pr140330LindaKetchum-ed.mp3

Good morning everybody welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society i am molly plunkett prairie aspires to be both and open-hearted and open-minded congregation. We welcome people of every ethnic and religious background whatever your color sexual orientation gender or family structure. We welcome you no matter what your age or your abilities or inability. Later in the service will want to hear from anybody who is here for a first-time or returning. On sunday mornings we have a wide variety of. Services they are presented by prairie numbers. A member of the wider community such as we have today with linda ketchum from madison urban ministry or are minister sandra ingram. And as i said today we have linda ketchum. We have opening words today. They're going to be read for us by johnna. No person i think ever saw herd of buffalo. Of which a few were fast. And the great majority lean. No person ever saw a flock of birds. Of what two or three were swimming in greek and the others all skin and bone henry george. We are fortunate today to have a sir speaker linda ketchum who is the director of madison urban ministry put out and in their prisoner and family ministries she also work with a different addiction counseling in various capacities you work with organization for 10 years. She said to me she's been working in the area social services for 33 years at this point she has degrees undergraduate and graduate in the area of criminal justice i think i'm in just as linda's name and references to madison urban ministry frequently i was looking at a magazine our lives be cut which i picked up because of a building. And i particularly liked and i don't know if i chose it who or who did but the caption that was come up with for the program today which is madison urban ministries on the move i'm at this isn't it organization i think that has always been doing great work that is needed if anything even more vital now so i'm just going to let it to leave it to linda to tell you more about what they're doing and how we can all be involved. Good morning. Thanks for inviting me really appreciate it's nice to see someone unfamiliar faces barb tilly. A few people i know it's always nice. Ismaili mentioned we were created in 1971 and in part but we came from the old pilgrim. United pilgrim congregational church with us on the isthmus. you know where the wilmar neighborhood center is. Okay the walmart neighborhood center is the old pilgrim congregational church and in the 1960s and 1970s that congregation had been doing some community organizing and focusing on areas of. Racism access to education fair and affordable housing a number of issues that they really cared about and saw as as crucial to the people moving into the neighborhood and so they had started this work but the congregation itself was getting older and was unable to keep their doors open so when they decided to close. And dissolve they took they went to first congregational united church of christ and said if we give you our assets will you do something with it to further the work that we have started here. And so i like to give that little bit of the history so you understand on the move how we how we get here from there. So if they want the first congregational first congregational formed a committee called servants on errands. And that committee spent a couple of years discerning what the mission and purpose of such an organization such as social justice organizations should be and they came up with a few things one was an incubator because. The people at pilgrim had started to be an incubator they had open the church doors to the neighborhood association which was meeting there until first congregational said to the neighborhood association you take the building. You take the building and creative neighborhood center it's needed in that area and so that's how the wilmar neighborhood center was born. They took the remaining assets and decided that we should be continued that incubator work but also look at that social justice work we should study issues bring people convene people of face together. And talk about these issues and come up with some action plans so also under that incubator purpose all of the senior coalition's in the city of madison project home normally it's not it's now merged with sent to become centers for family but family enhancement. The organization that was the predecessor merged with chaz in 2004 to become porch light but have been the organization transitional housing to work to create the shelter the men's shelter at grace episcopal church for homeless single men. Those are some of the programs that were incubated and spun off and it's always been a goal to spend those things off. But in the 1990s we we started to look at all those issues we had focused on. Racism housing economic justice and we're all of a converged. For us was in the criminal justice system. And we started to think about how do we explain how do we address this so we created our justice issues task force cuz that's what we do we create task forces to study things. And ideally unlike sometimes the test forces that government entities form something actually happens. And so we. We created the task force and it's urgent we start to look at these issues juvenile justice we looked at mom was one of the groups out there protesting the creation of the supermax prison in boscobel. Looking at truth-in-sentencing which which we like to call kind of half-truths and sentencing since though it will final reforms were never put into place we we looked at how can we educate the community so we created this thing called a returning prisoner simulation and how many of you have ever been through a returning prisoner simulation with mom. And so you get your new identity for a few hours. And there are stations around the room and you try to maneuver those things and you try to see what some of those barriers are employment housing connecting with mental health treatment substance abuse treatment child care transfer. When they're newly released from prison plus reporting to your probation parole agent. So we put the simulations together and. An interesting thing happens to people who are formerly incarcerated saw our posters and thought what could they possibly could church people know about. What we're dealing with so they came to some of the simulation. And they told us actually you guys kind of understand and so we started to work with them and another group formed royce's beyond bars which was incubated under mom's until 2010 when they spawn off. Research look at that and we thought you know. There's so much. Related to this issue. And it's at the same time we're doing the simulations in 1998. Another group called through the wisconsin women's network the women in criminal justice task force was was working on. Creating a program to benefit children of incarcerated parents. Because those are the kids are really the collateral damage of our corrections system right there is not. There's no parent that serves their time alone the children always serve the sentence with their parents. So this other group called family can it called itself family connection so that's how i first became acquainted with mom i had just moved up here from working for the family connections program for lutheran social services done in illinois and we had an anonymous donor and she said create something to help kids and moms who are in prison and i'll give you $10,000. And so their board voted to do that and taking as we like to say in this esther says family connections came back home. So we're very happy with the program still runs we expanded it a little bit so we have family so family connections takes kids to visit their parent their moms and then reading connections. Text volunteers into the institutions to record parents reading books to their kids parents who don't get visits. So we created that program and then we started looking at another program called circles of support. That match groups of volunteers with people who were newly released. From prison to provide support when you go into the grocery store or like i know none of you gone to walmart so that's cool but it was a big box stores any other at the door. You know i'll do they do that because they want us to feel because they cuz they love us. As nice as it would maybe some of them do but actually there's research that says when you make contact with somebody make eye-to-eye contact with some of their less likely to steal from you because you've created a bond and so. It supports them and it helps motivate them to really want to continue to be successful and work 2 to re-engage in the community. As well as people serving as as. Resources for them. We also have our journey home program that is more of a case management program. But. There's nothing like a good story. I so i could go on and on and talk but i just wanted to share a few stories that i think help illustrate. What are services do and then kind of give you an idea why we're creating some why we're working on some of the new initiatives that we're working on. So eddie had spent most of his life in prison and as the years wore on he wasn't sure he could imagine himself ever being free. But he was free at age 60 after serving 18 years for a burglary. And when we met eddie. He was still in prison and he was a stranger to this community after 18 years away. Gastro circle of support. So he got those six volunteers who agreed to meet with him weekly. Providing support a resource a safe place to share. A new community. His circle met with him for over a year. They help them with jack with job and apartment leads they encouraged him when no one would hire him and that's a huge barrier. And we find i mentioned walmart. We have the most luck connecting people with jobs with whistle smaller locally owned employers they're much better corporate neighbors and citizens and so it was just encourage people to shop locally. He was. In the story i really like it. He was denied a job he when he was in prison he did 18 years. In the. Cafeteria at the prison in the kitchen cooking. Write the 18 years of experience with cooking job advertising university of wisconsin for fried cooking one of the dorm so he applied. He's clearly overqualified. But he was denied an interview and they told him it was because the nature of his offence burglary was substantially related to the nature of the job fry cook. And we were very intrigued so we said eddie you could have you could appeal this cuz this doesn't make any sense and so we said in a few appeal it i'll go with you or associate director everett mitchell at the time will go with you your circle as support will go with you and i'm going to call a friend of mine who named jerry hancock who happens to be a lawyer and also a minister and so i called jerry and i said would you bring your lawyer brain and wear your clergy collar. Enter jerry breed to come as well so we all went with eddie we weren't allowed to ask questions and he's sitting with the hr person. For this. For the uw. And she explains to him. But. All of the cafeteria equipment is paid for by student fees. Therefore it is student property. And so as a fry cook. He would have access to student property which means that his burglary conviction is substantially related to the nature of the job. So we leave and jerry said eddie. I can't imagine a judge in this county who's going to buy this i'll represent you pro bono. What do you say. And eddie said what about 90% of the men and women with whom we work said which was i don't want to become known as a troublemaker. I need a job. I'm not going to feel it. But i think of a contortions that woman went through. And you don't want to go out and lasher. She could be sitting here i don't know. But i think it's important to speak truth to power into say this was wrong but it's the right the day-to-day reality of the men and women we work with. The employers will go to such lengths to deny them employment. So eddie never got a job with the uw never but he did get a job at the church where his circle of support came from who hired him as their maintenance worker. An affluent congregation major renovate major renovation new equipment new buildings and for the remaining years of his life and he had the keys to that building and nothing ever went missing. And that's part of why i hope someday whoever denied him that job will be sitting in a room in here that story i mentioned and when i went to his memorial service. Close to 300 people eddie and his remaining years out of prison had found work obviously. He had found his own apartment for quaker housing was able to find housing. He met a woman through church became engaged her family. Children and grandchildren absolutely adored him he was a gifted musician he played for some of our fundraisers he composed music for church both his own and for the one where his circle of support was house at that memorial service was such a celebration. Of a life that. Somebody at the uw couldn't recognize as inherently having inherent worth and dignity so the end of eddy story was really. That we help to sister arrange his funeral and take his body back down to to illinois where he was from originally but she flew in from florida his big sister how many of you have older siblings sometimes they kind of have spots about how you should have lived your life i know mine does she. And so in the fellowship time john sat and i watched. Eddie sister and john talk and she was just as john was regaling her of stories of eddie's exploits in prison. It was just that final healing that needed to happen for that family. But eddie's experience. With the fry cook thing. Got us thinking. We got us thinking about all the doors that slam shut when it comes to employment. Recent you know what we need to create our own doors. We need we're just going to need to start our own. Program and so finally after six years of dreaming and september of last year we launched our just bakery vocational training and employment program. So just bakery is a 16-week program people learn life skills math tutoring servsafe certification which is a nationally-recognized food safety. Certification. They go into the feed kitchen which is the food enterprise economic enterprise development kitchen on the north side and they learn. Commercial. Baking. We have a line of products that are for sale right now we're selling them through our faith community so on sundays word various congregation selling baked goods the proceeds go back into the program our goal is that people come out with servsafe certification and its implication for training from the wisconsin bakers association. We've hired three of our program participants one is teaching our servsafe certification peace and two of them are with our on our staff now part-time as our production people so on friday saturdays and sundays they're working with us creating the baked foods that people are buying. I'm in there also getting commercial customer service experience on sunday. Who is eddie's experience. It really said we need to do something different. So my shameless plug for for volunteers. Circles of support and we also as a part of the just bakery program want to provide job coach. Coaching and mentoring as well for people while they're in there. So. Just made for you. We're here but eddie helped us get there and stories like eddie's. Will the children's programs you know one of the things that people forget is that in terms of the kids. How much they struggle and kiest and sarah are two kids that really watched grow up teeth entered the program the first they started the first year so that we started the connections program and. In 2012 their mom was. Keefer's for the timing and sarah was 7. So. Their mom was diagnosed with stage four terminal brain cancer in 2012. They happen to be matched with an incredible 2 incredible ventures a married couple and when their mom was diagnosed their mentors were there to help support mom to help support the kids the first time mom collapsed at home about midnight the kids were there they woke up there the commotion they didn't know who to call they call their mentors who called 911 and helped negotiate with relatives with relatives their mentors went routinely regularly to illinois to bring the kids up here to visit their mom because what happened sometimes. Nobody's asking at the time of sentencing where your kids going to go. Nobody was asking mom where your kids going to go but she knew she had the mentors there to help her. They were bringing the kids up here cuz i didn't have the money to the gas money to bring the kids up. So. The day that their mom died jackie brought them up that day so that keith and sarah got to spend the morning with her mom and were there when she died there back in illinois but they still have regular contact with their hunters who is far as they're concerned we'll have that relationship with the kids but part of the goal of that program case where that really plate came in to play but. So as important as those programs are in and watching the time right. That's charity. Village of william sloane coffin i think really described. Not intentionally obviously but i think describe the work of mom when he said charity yes always but never as a substitute for justice. So those are the programs at mom that focus on charity. But it's not the justice end of it. The justice end of it is the advocacy work that we do the justice part of it was. Putting a request in to the county department of administration to say you know there's something that doesn't make sense to us in terms of the county human services budget because every year for the last from 2002-2010. Dane county has cut the human services budget. And every year you tell us. But you're going to have to cut cuz there's not enough money but it never makes sense to us because you know what out of all of the millions of dollars in the dane county human services budget. About 30% of it is actually yours in my county. It's actually counting money. The rest of it is the money that all of the agencies that the county contracts with drawdown. Through state and federal programs. Never made sense to us so we put in a request to the department of administration because we couldn't see it and guess what. Every year for 10 years the county human services budget had a surplus. But at the end of the year before they close the books. They quietly pulled out. The equivalent amount. Text county tax money. Gpr dollars are property tax dollars. Balance it out 20. And then use that money. That they had said they were going to use for human services to plug holes and budget elsewhere so when the new county executive was elected. And we didn't make a lot of friends. When we pointed that out. But we went to the new county executive with a delegation of 25 clergy. And we said. The faith communities of dane county. Spend millions of dollars to support the safety net in our county. And we expect the county to be honest. And to do the same and be willing to spend the same kind of energy and resources. So we get we garnered a commitment from the new county executive at that time. Bestop not only stopped at practice. But to meet with us at least twice a year as a delegation of faith communities to talk about what we were seeing what the ministers and people who staff the church offices were seeing in terms of the basic need we administer to eviction prevention funds one through allied partners which i know this congregation is is very familiar with and one through first unitarian so each year i write about $20,000 worth of checks from $30 to $200 to help families in our community and their houses. Tony needs to hear that so i know when i when i write checks i routinely send a little note to the full county board and say i just wrote six checks today and here's here's the situations people found themselves in and i know they're probably really tired. hearing from me. But they need to hear that. Wework. We worked a lot on housing and homelessness and i'm going to wrap up so you have time to before molly just. Some of it some of the most recently in 2012 the county board asked us to convene an interim committee to look at and study possible alternative sites to occupy madison with occupy was down on on. East washington street. So we decided that was fine we would do that. But we are going to do it right which meant we are going to look at more than just how can we shuffle a bunch of people around from space to space because what are the real needs why are people having to live down there in the first place. So we convened a committee of. Faith community representatives clergy people who have been living in occupy. Shelter providers agency providers allies and. 11 elected official marshal rommel. And we put together a report that we presented to the county board in july of 2012 that had a host of recommendations including as we looked at the gaps. Storage facilities for people who are homeless. Access greater access to showers. Public restrooms downtown that are open 24/7. We looked at the need for greater single room occupancy housing because the vacancy rate for apartments in the city of madison is it above is below 2%. And because of changes to the tenant rights laws that the legislature has made its incredibly difficult for people to find housing we need more affordable housing we need more low-income housing and if you look at it this is one of those situations i went to a church when they was talking about this and someone from the city came up to me afterwards. Yeah we had but the city has a lot of development projects underway and among them are about 2,400 apartment units part of mixed-use. Projects going on. And not one of them is affordable housing. Not one of them 2400 new apartments. But art if dollar financed not one of them. So so those are the kinds of advocacy issues we work on but then we also engage with with some innovative projects including tiny houses. Occupy madison is his kind of read. Reinvigorated itself and it's working as a non-profit now. To build. Affordable housing of its own. 98 sqft. Tiny houses that are on trailers. The advocacy part of it we worked along with occupy madison with marshal rommel and some alders to revamp some of the zoning ordinance of the ordinances and dane county or the city madison shoes me that would allow the tiny homes to be on nonprofit including church property so that people could live there they have composting toilets they have solar panels to run some electricity for cellphone lighting and they also have outside vented propane heaters so the first. For the tiny houses are very cool project we are looking right now at purchasing a piece of land on east johnson street where we would be able to put 11 houses. So we're working through the city process on that. The other thing go that we identified in that that study that that wheatley report that we gave to the county was the need for a medical shelter for people who are homeless if you can imagine. And these are these are true stories. Having had a double mastectomy. You're in the hospital. 3 days. You're discharged your homeless and your discharge orders are to follow up with. Medical treatment and get rest. But one of the shelters open. Who's going to help you changing dressings who's going to help you with medication. I sat next to a hearing county health and human needs committee hearing last october was a gentleman who walked in. 2 days after having had a stroke. Who's homeless. He was discharged with his cane. And. His bag up front of his belongings. There is no home health. There was no follow-up care provided. What we have for medical shelter in dane county is $10,000 worth of vouchers for motels that the salvation army has. To provide for people and that may work really well when. You know you're sick. For a couple days with a stomach bug and you need someplace to land. It doesn't work real well when you're going through chemotherapy or you're recuperating from stroke so we created a medical respite taskforce and we are studying with study the issue and now we are looking at developing to medical shelter facilities are first priority and part of it is just because we've identified a site we need to do a lot of fundraising. But our goal is to within a year to open a family medical respite program 24/7 so that families with children who have if the parents or the children have medical needs the butt. Lesser being discharged from the hospital they have someplace to be. And some place and we were working with the hospital's all of whom have home health providers. And all of these individuals were homeless would be eligible for home health. If only they had them. If only they had an address. Until we're going to give him an address. And we know we will be overwhelmed and under capacity as soon as we open. But we have to move forward with it. So. What are some of the things that were working on. We need we always welcome people to join the respite task force. Molly was doing a little work at behind-the-scenes already for us. But that's that's where we are today we are on the move. We we've taken on just a couple of small projects for this year so open a bakery and open a shelter but we think it's doable. Minutes part of being. Heard about being being a faith-based organization we believe either argument one time. Responding to something on facebook that that someone wrote. About the cubs because i'm a cubs fan. Chastising me for. How could i have faith. Face is ripley. Faces really believing. But something can happen. For believing in someone. Despite. The evidence to the contrary. Right. And i had somebody wants told me that do unitarians they symbolized belong to unitarian church done illinois told me. Oh yeah unitarianism. And you know 33 years in human services experience came back to me and i said you know we believe in the inherent worth and dignity of every person requires sometimes especially when i'm working with elected officials. Evancredible lipa say so. We expanded in november we expanded our reading connections program to waupun prison which is a maximum. Institution for dads. Hereford well for men are dads we don't have the funding right now one of those things with our children's programs they are all they are entirely funded through private individual congregational donations and some small foundations so ever you foundation alliant energy downtown rotary so they're not huge programs but we receive no united way funding or government funding for a children's program so again it's. So it's something we are committed to doing but we expansion lennis is kind of. Small but we are very happy to be able to go to waupun now and so for the men they're they're at least able to do the reading connection portion of the story. Well the way the ordinance is now it would have to be. Part of the challenge with tiny houses is. Nowhere else in wisconsin is this being done and so there's nobody knows how to classify them. The state doesn't know how to classify them and the county and the city don't really know how to classify but the city is working with us to try to classify i'm so right now though the ordinance says it has to be the property for the tiny houses with tiny houses we have to be on the property of a non-profit which can include churches. And there have to be some other services available on that site so it might be just that the church is provides financial assistance for gas cards or it might be a meal side or food pantry so there's that's kind of where we are right now of mortgage payment so the goal is. There are there are some neighbors with concerns. There are some neighbors who are very supportive of the project but it is one of those weird things that because they're on trailers they're not really considered homes. They're really considered kind of campers. But and so right now part of why it's a challenge is if we park them on the street they're going to have to be moved. Every couple days just like a car would work a wood and that is going to take a toll on the house itself not to mention. So we really want a place where we can recreate the sense of community that people had to occupy and the rules and it for people who may not be familiar with the tiny houses than an occupied so you have to be a member of occupy you have to put in sweat equity hours to be able to be eligible for tiny home and that can be either working on a home or could be working in the office of the shop doing things depending on your own ability i know they probably wouldn't want me around power tools so i do some fundraising but. Because the state is saying well and it's not really a campground but maybe it's a campground but not really because you want them to be there permanently but yet they're movable so there's still some things to be worked out but the property right now the goal is this piece of land where sanchez. Well we have right now it's just the city and the county both have put money in their budgets for single room occupancy development and so that's kind of who's looking for the for the properties and i know people have gone back and forth on the royster clark property about whether that would be a good site right now we're still struggling with getting them getting the the county to cite a full-time day shelter so they have for people who are homeless can be from you know 7:30 a.m. till 5 p.m. when when they're still the regular overnight shelters are closed to be there and provide some services so. I just want to say since i have the pulpit that in my work we refer people to madison urban ministry through but because of child support all the time. People who have coming out of corrections we're saying i can't get a job and i sent you know then you do you know about madison urban ministry the court commissioner's know about it they refer people all the time so no end a good work they do. A closing words from jules feiffer i used to think i was poor then they told me i wasn't poor i was needy they told me it was self-defeating to think of myself as needy i was deprived. Then they told me underprivileged was overused. I was disadvantaged. I still don't have a dime but i have a great vocabulary please greet your neighbor neighbors.

uuprairie_org

Pr150222Ingham-ed.mp3

Good morning. Welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society. I commend you for coming out. Today on yet another cold one. As i always say every week and i know those of you who are here almost every week might get tired of hearing this. Some people that actually told me this. But there is no other way to say this he welcomed you no matter where you are on your spiritual journey no matter your ethnicity or gender preference. No matter where you are in your life we welcome you but we certainly try to on every sunday morning if this is your first time here or one of your first times here and you want to introduce yourself. There will be a place for that a little later on in the service i. Strongly encourage you to come back more than one time because our services are different of course every sunday. The opening words then are these are the words of former president of the u.s.a. william shoals come into this place of peace. And let its silence heal your spirit come into this place of memory. And lettuce history. Warm your soul. Come into this place of prophecy. Empower. And let its vision. Change your heart. These words are albert schweitzer's words. At times our own light goes out. And is rekindled by a spark. From another person. Each of us. Has cause to think with deep. Gratitude. Of those who have lighted. The flame. Within us. From henry david thoreau. Why should we live. In such a hurry. And waste of life. We are determined to be starved before we are hungry. I wished to live deliberately. To front only the essential facts of life. I wish to learn what life has to teach and not. When i come to die. Discover that i have not. Where. I do not wish to live what is not life. Living is so dear. Nor do i wish to practice resignation. Unless it is quite necessary. I wish to live deep. And suck out all the marrow of life. I want to cut a broad swath. To drive life into a corner and reduce it to its lowest terms. If it proves to be mean. Then to get the whole. And genuine. Meanness of it. And publish its meanness. To the world. Or. If it is sublime to know it by experience. And to be able to give. A true account.. Who were the transcendentalist. In what way were they traveling. Who was trouble. By their presence. In the mid-to-late 1800s. Who is anyone is troubled by them now. And we should be. What do they have to do with unitarian universalism. Why do we or should we care about them. These are some of the questions that i hope to begin to answer this morning. There will be at least one other morning in the near future. When i continue to talk about the transcendentalist because there is no way i can fit. Even partly i'm beginning. Into the time that we have this morning. First though you need to. No that aren't unitarian history. Has not been without its controversy. Which probably won't surprise you at all. Today i will be referring mostly to the unitarian side. Of our heritage. And not to the universal aside. The controversies within unitarianism. We're off in mirrored in universalism but in different ways. And two different degrees. So today i'm mainly talking about our unitarian. There have been three major controversies. Since the revolutionary war something. Some people think we are in the midst of a fourth one. Get to that. The first major controversy occurred in the late 1700s and early 1800s when the liberal. Christians. Left. The congregationalists tradition. The second controversy followed almost immediately. With the emergence of transcendentalism. And the third controversy. The one you should be most aware of in this congregation. It would not occur until the end of the nineteenth century and into the beginning of the twentieth century the humanist movement. Captured our attention. That fourth controversy some people say we're in the midst of it right now. And that it is a resurgence of sorts of christianity. Within unitarian universalism. I don't agree with that. But we don't have time to explore that this morning but i think it might make for an interesting. Sunday morning papi. Who were the transcendentalists. Who did they think they were. For one thing they were almost all unitarian. Especially at the beginning of the movement in the late 1820s and the early 1830s. Now of course the transcendentalist didn't just appear out of the blue they did not formulate some ideas overnight and then announce them suddenly the next day in the local paper. Like any group of people who advocate for a supposed new way of thinking. The transcendentalist arrived at certain ideas and conclusions about humanity. And human nature. After learning. About them from other people. And places. In this case the transcendentalist were strongly influenced by european philosopher. Installers. Most importantly by those europeans. Engaging in biblical criticism especially german philosophers. These german writers and others who were doing what became known as higher criticism of the bible. These thinkers wrestle with a dilemma of whether or not every word in the bible was the literal truth. Handed down. From god. Common sense indicated otherwise. How could all the words in that book. Be literally true. Now just an aside i was a history major as an undergraduate which many of you know. You cannot. Talk about. Pastimes. Using. Present day. Whatever. Ideas called your mind test. You have to try all those virtually impossible put yourself into that time.. And i don't think we grasp. By we i mean unitarian universalist. Probably most people today event who go to whatever church or faith tradition. Hey don't think we can really grasp. How. Important. First of all that you know whether the bible is literal or not how important that was to people. In in the christian tradition. Door how. For the transcendentalist answer the first controversy. Result for the people the liberal christians who left the congregationalists. Answer the human is controversy i don't think we can grasp. Things like. The arguments over the miracles. That price for jesus supposedly did. That was the foundation of christianity and just start to question those i mean for a lot of people they work they weren't for theodore parker or emerson that didn't mean a refuted christianity though. You have to keep that in mind you have to try to put yourself into the mindset of the time. we're talking about right now though. How could a biblical scholar ignore two major facts in this fits in with our age of 71 words and stories in the bible were not written down immediately. Juanita has happened and to those who did finally write the stories the poetry the mist. Down live in a completely different time from when. Event about which they were writing occurred that make sense. You would be amazed at how many people. I know that doesn't make any sense at all the bible is a literal word of god. Even when i was at 7 arie this was a big thing of this computer thing of debate. Okay. It's easy to get bogged down here. When trying to trace the ideas that were the seeds of transcendentalism. I know because i bought. Down. In trying to research the roots of transcendentalism. I needed the idiot's guide to german philosophy if not an idiot's guide to transcendentalism. On the advice of matt. Resident philosopher call you back for the moment. I decided that i did not have to read every word about the roots of transcendentalism thank you matt enable me to get some sleep. So i try to extract what is relevant to us. And what might even be interesting to us. Here in the 21st century. However there is one german philosopher who we probably should try to remember for the quiz were having in few weeks. Immanuel kant. I don't use that word a lot. The word transcendental came from hans idealism. Avis was eventually use with a capital i. In most of the sources that i used. In their book an introduction to the unitarian universalist traditions andrea greenwood. And mark harris. Talus. In his idealism. I try to stay awake. Or alternate heat. Taught. That heat this is a quote. Thought that humans understand the universe. Through. Transcendental forms. That are inherent. In. The mind. Don't be discouraged. I'll interpret in just a minute. I'll try to. Unitarian minister. In the 1800's frederick henry hedge. He probably won't be on the quiz. What's the first american to use the word. Transcendentalist. Imprint. And that was an 1833 but this will be on the quiz. Elizabeth palmer. Peabody. Used it in a letter that she wrote to someone. In 1826. I never got published separately. Elizabeth peabody has introduced you to her. On sundays when i couldn't be here unfortunately. What everywhere. During this.. She was born in 1804 and she died in 9th. 1894. She was so amazing but i want to say about her. Not today then. Before i finish looking at the philosophical and theological underpinnings of american transcendentalism i should say that it wouldn't hurt us to. Also remember this may or may not be on the quiz. The name fred frank frederick. Sheila walker. Friedrich. Spell with r i c h o. French. Spanish i can do german. Gila monster. Was a german theologian. Who believed that pantheism. What's a system. In which religion was nothing more than a sense of union of the individual with the universe. With nature. For reasons i don't fully understand the word pantheism still evokes fear. For some people. And was heated or parker. Parker. Very important transcendentalist. And i won't be able to do much with parker this morning but three weeks i will. Theodore parker gave a famous sermon that i've talked about before about. The transient and the permanent. In christianity in other words. What no what really didn't matter. And he concluded that none of the systems are doctrines matter. And that christ didn't really matter either. But the ideas of chases mattered when parker gave this sermon. He even almost worse than. All what i just said he quieted jesus with. The greek pagans. Then going to get sad. Back to schumacher. His statement about the union of the individual with nature. That should start to sound a little less abstract to you and con statement. And that might even get you to thinking about. Ralph. Waldo emerson. Definitely not my favorite transcendental. And now he's not on the quiz cuz you all know it right. But this next statement should definitely get you to emerson if you're not already there. Just a quote. In hinduism. In hinduism. Emerson found affirmation for the idea that there is a fundamental unity. To all human experience. Fundamental unity. To all human experience. She called. This is part of what he called the oversoul the idea that all humans know about this fundamental unity we share we all know this. You might not know that we know what that we all know it. That is we are capable. Of knowing it. We more accurately we are capable of interpreting it. We just know. Certain things humans know certain things no matter who you are. You know these things in your heart. Apart. Now this emerson i can live with. There are many reasons why don't like emerson. First of all his writing is. Ridiculous. Even for the 1800s he didn't have to use it. Flowery obscure words. He pretty once wrote an essay about trying to explain those luxury hit a lecture about transcendentalism. And it was supposed to clear up. All the missing things about transcendentalism in the mid-1800s. And. It's easy just messed things up even more it was not. Main reason i have a problem with emerson is that most of his ideas weren't. They were awesome margaret fuller. Are some of the other women. The time. Then of course i will keep coming back to emerson because he's he's the leader becomes. Becomes a spokesperson. Largely though because. Several other outstanding transcendental looks like theodore parker died very young. And somewhat suddenly. We won't get to what is truly meaningful sacred spiritual mysterious. Pick your word. But common to us all he won't get there. Through the senses. Touch smell sight hearing. To knowledge. To experience. Only get to the core. The essence. Of what it means to be human we can only get there through argot. Your intuition. And each and every one of us is capable of discovering this and once we know this we begin to realize the implications or some of them. If i know that i am full of love. Deep down in. And the fat love connect me to you. I knew you when you when you when you. Then you must also have. And i'm going to use the words sometimes you just don't like that live with it. Divine. Spar. Within you. All have a divine. Spark within us. Don't need intermediaries. We can study other. People who had that divine spark jesus. And thanks. I want to emulate them but. We are as divine as jesus now that's a radical thinking. And that is also heretical thinking in february 2015. I could not say this in from pulpit. You know intuitively. About the laws in which we are all health. Let's go back just for mitch what caught said about humans understanding the universe through transcend. Transcendental form that are inherent in the mind. I believe that all he was saying and what emerson expanded on though. In my humble opinion with too many words. But i think contin. Emerson were working through is this. We simply know some things. The essence of what it means to be a person is difficult to put into words. Which did not stop the transcendentalist from trying to put this. Seemingly vague philosophy this strange new way of thinking into words. But it wasn't. It wasn't all that thing moral that's strange. The transcendentalist were not necessarily saying anything new. And it's also important to remember that not all transcendental us were posed to the institution of the church. Most of them did not leave unitarianism or other congregation. In fact arrested. Elephant. Oref. Orestes brownson just as prominent of the transcendentalist is emerson. And you pregnant hurt him. He. Eventually became a catholic the capital c. Cyrus bartol another unitarian minister from this time. said that transcendentalism was nothing less than a new vessel. A better mayflower. For the truth. Escape. From her foes. This is nothing new this has happened over and over and over and over and over again in human history thinking about so-called new old ideas. In new ways. And perhaps to be more accurate we should call these. Not old ways but enduring truth. And ideas universal truth. That throughout history gets washed. Over and over. We could name so many places where this is happening now. The 21st century did anybody ever did any of you see. The news about venezuela on saturday. The mayor of caracas antonio and i'm okay i'm taking spanish. Letty's. The mayor. Caracas was arrested friday. Put in jail accused of participating in the united states back plot to overthrow the government. Daddy auto the government of president maduro. Well what did the mayor really do. He protested government policies that were inhumane. Age-old truth. Enduring ideas of universal peace and justice. Too often trampled on too often. Surprise. A new way of thinking does not automatically niegate older enduring truth. As frederick hedge road. Whoever would bill permanently must build. On the past. Taking meat out many decades. To bring. To be a part. Abba group to discover a group of people who think the same way that you do. About the really important things in life. And to work with that group or stiff sit around and discuss. Why. With them exhilarating. That's how the transcendentalist must have felt. Seitan. Ready to change the world. You ever been involved. Like-minded people like that. Surely those were active in the civil rights movement knew what this was like. I have felt this kind of excitement with my high school friend karen when we would sit on this. Raping brock alongside the allegheny river and figure out how to end war in the world. Figure out why the grown-ups have. Got in there but anyway. I felt it when i first discovered unitarian universalism. I found it when i worked for. Beyond war. Movements and i talked about so awesome. I sometimes feel this exhilaration when i attend monthly meetings of moses and participate in its work. To reduce the prison population wisconsin. These are exhilarating energizing moments. Hopefully you feel them here sometime. Even though not everyone in this room thanks a lot. Or nor in any of those organizations i just mentioned see that quote by james freeman clark at the top of your order of service. They called themselves they being the transcendentals of course. They called themselves the club of the like-minded. I suppose because no two satellite. I did think i like about. Really matters. Someone in that. arrests brownson said. No single term can describe them as nothing can be more unjust to them or more likely to mislead the public and to lump them all together. And predicates the same things of them all. They comprise an independency someone else's of opinion they unite to differ. Point is that knowing intuitively what needs to be done to mend our world knowing intuitively that we are one and that logs unites us is what matters the spider individual likes and dislikes. No matter then to quote william henry channing no two of us are of the same opinion. So much of this really applies to prayer think about that. If it seems as if i'm making contradictory statements. It's because i am. The transcendentalist were first of all individuals with strong opinions. Sounds familiar. But they also believe that something important united them called the greater good if you want to. They understood this in their gut. And the ways in which this tension. Between the individual and the society the larger. Greatergood played-out are fascinating we not time to get to that today but we are going to get to it. Every source i use for this morning's reflections began with some variation of this. The roots of the transcendentalist movement are complex. Confusing and or obscure. And then the resource would go on to say that either the transcendentalists themselves. To be confusing and obscure. When charles dickinson. Charles dickens. Visited this country the transcendentalist movement was well underway and he of course wanted to know what exactly did transcendentalism mean. He was given to understand this is also i think it's a stop of your order service. That whatever was unintelligible. Would be certainly transcendental. During the same. of time is scott thomas carlyle. The scottish writer and reformer. Visited george ripley a very well-known transcendentalist and you might remember george ripley because. Of the experimental community he established called brookfarm. Well here i'll tell you more about it then another sunday. Carl thomas carlyle.. Garages visit to brook farm this way. Ripley is a unitarian minister who has left the pulpit. To reform the world. By cultivating onions. Annie russell marble who lived at brookfarm for all five years of its existence i think. Sad that the transcendentalist for all their goodwill were a race. Who drove into the infinite. Sword into the. Illimitable. I never paid cash. Contemporary historian henry adams said that the transcendentalists were. Unavoidably. Funny. It first though the general public feared them. In his book american transcendentalism from which i have drawn a lot. Philip dora says that the transcendentalist did not help their own cause by the way that they express themselves. Dora has a way of expressing himself in a way that doesn't help to. Because he said the transcendentalist often express themselves in quote arcane and effective vocabulary i have no salt through this book about. Cora says that the transcendentalist message was more ridiculed than understood or appreciated in the beginning. I have to remember that by time you get to pass the civil war and that's towards. Horribly. Bad for tripping to listen to mention most everything else. By the time that you get to the end of the 80s and universals were. It wasn't radical it wasn't feared. It was absorbed this is what happened all the controversy. The major ones. The farm. The ridicule grew out of a fear of transcendentalism i've already said that. They were sometimes accused of infidelity. Any paganism. Pantheon. We're still afraid of that for some reason. Why were people afraid of them because much of transcendentalist van. And one of the main reasons that they came into existence was the religious reason. The reaction to calvinism. Apart from that intellectual from from its intellectual and literary roots in european philosophy transcendentalism was rooted in theology it was a push back. Rejection of. Well not completely jackson reaction to calvinism. Here's a root of transcendentalism fought with which i can strongly identify. This part of the history of transcendentalism. Makes the calvinist part of my soul sit up and take notice. I was raised a calvinist. Aka presbyterian. Meaning of i was raised to believe that we are all born as sinners. That certain people are part of the elect. The capital e. The chosen ones predestined to spend eternity in heaven or hell. That in general. You have to be careful about god. Because well-off and loving he. Could also be. Vengeful. What about age. 10 11 12 none of this made much sense to me. But i realize i spent a lot of years. Reacting to calvinism. Rejecting it. Somewhere along the way and can't remember exactly when. I was introduced to the transcendentalist it might have been a college english. Literature course i don't think it was in high school. I remember being enthralled with whitman. Singing on that open road. And throw out there on that pond. Doing what he wanted when he wanted. I need an emerson parts of his writings. They were out to transform the world though they didn't quite know what this man. Or how they would go about it what they did not like was that america was taking the direction that america was taking in the mid-1800s. Too much materialism. They thought. Too great a tendency to be an insular and isolated nation. This might sound familiar. Maybe it could be applicable to the united states today even. Well by now i think you must be getting some idea of the tensions. Within transcendentalism between do i improve work on improving myself or do i go out there and try to improve society try to command the broken world and we certainly know where emerson came down and down on the side of self-reliance although eventually. He moved out. The slavery issue got him. Out of just being self-absorbed. Someone called emerson this kind of self-absorption hyper-individualism. And someone else called ego-c ism. I agree totally i don't think emerson. I think he did a great service a disservice to this country. With his emphasis on self-reliance which led to rugged individualism and where is that montana. You might think that margaret fuller and throw also favorite improvement of the self over improvement of the wider world but not so much they started out that way fuller certainly moved out into the wider world. Henry david thoreau. Sri preferred walking to fitchburg. And staying in his cabin. But slavery. Moved him out into the the issue of slavery moved him out into the wider world. Felt burris as that throw was eminently practical don't have to wonder someone who spent the entire day walking fitchburg was eminently. Practical but avoided brook farm in fruitlands do you know fruit land with another communist of the time another experiment heartland was another one. And there's a lot of pressure on you if you were transcendentalist a well-known one then two. It's not the living these places. Give money. However the the transcendentalists were going to bring a bag of new way of thinking they were excited about. And they were very serious about it. And they were. So serious sometimes to the point of being. Full of themselves. Well i won't wrap this up with some words from louisa may alcott she wrote a letter. Anonymously. Call latest news from concord. Of course concord massachusetts was home with. Feel when she wrote this the home of emerson and her father bronson alcott and others. She right no gossip concerning this immortal town seems to be considered too trivial for the public. A new hotel is going to be built in concord she reported we're pilgrims to this modern method would be entertaining in the most hospitable and appropriate style. With. Walden water. Aesthetic tea. And wine that never grew in the belly of the grape. Accommodations would also be special beds would be made from throws pine boughs. And the sacred fire said from the emerson woodpile. Voxel proprietors of the hotel would provide telescopes to watch the sorings of the oversoul when visible. Most important. 2000 r2 catch a glimpse. Of the towns famous residents there would be a daily bulletin to tell you of the most favorable hours for beholding the various lions who still grown on thirds landscape. Emerson will walk at 4 a.m. p.m.. Alcott will converse from 8 a.m. till 11 p.m. channing may be seen with the naked eye at sunset. The new hermit. Lebron shoes meal at noon precisely. And the ladies of concord. Will not be exhibited on sundays. Song say we unitarian universalist gather to build community. Just this particular community and to improve ourselves. Some say we gather to improve the world. By strengthening our resolve to mend the broken this was through social justice action. There's so much. Brokenness of corson what a world war. Prisons in need so much reform the mistreatment of native americans to fear of immigrants terrorism the rights of women the abusive people. Anywhere. It affects all of us of course the misunderstanding of mental illness the clamour the emphasis on material things and making money the dismissal of music garten dance the distrust of the emotions disregard his feelings the technology vying for a constant attention the old versus the new ways of thinking. Did you think i was talking about february 2015 no. I'm talking about the mid-1800s. What a world. Full of opportunities those transcendentalist had. We have it too. When and if we acknowledge our oneness. Our unity when we recognize what each of us knows deep down within. Love. Unites us. We all have a divine spark. I think we need a new wave of transcendentalist. Got to the heart of it. Does it is fundamentally how you see how you view humans and and obviously the calvinist. Feed them as originally innately that sinful the transcendentalist. Also you brought up a point that i didn't have a chance to get to that. If someone. During the 1800s quotes in a quote from them but it makes sense that the with the transcendentalist came and switch. It's not from talking about moral with the word they use. Things. What is a human. I'm from kind of personal private to political. And i think that's still very much an issue today. What i mean everything's political really i believe that the culture culture wars sounds from transcendentals. The closing words are actually in the back of the hymnal. And they are emerson's words. This is ralph waldo. We have a great deal more kindness than his ever spoke. The whole human family. Is bathed with an element of love. Like a fine ether. How many persons we need. And houses. We scarcely speak to. Home yet we honor. And to honor us. How many we see in the street or sit with in church. Whom the silently. We warmly rejoice to be with. Read the language. Of these wandering eye beans. The heart. Nope. But your neighbor going pee. A coffee if you want to.

uuprairie_org

Pr120212PatrickFarabaugh-ed.mp3

Good morning and welcome a unitarian universalist society i mary mullen a member of the program committee all of us noah prairie aspires to be both an open-hearted and open-minded congregation and we welcome people of every ethnic and religious background whatever your color whatever your sexual orientation your gender or your family structure and we have welcomed you no matter what your age younger old your abilities or your abilities or a member of the wider community and that's true today today will be having patrick faribault presenting becoming an lgbt advocate. What mean words will be read by patty stockdale we are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness which has home. Please welcome donald like chalice. The best thing about coming out is it's totally liberating you feel like you've made this incredible discovery about yourself and you want to share it and be open and honest and not spend all your time warner in about how this person is going to react. Or should i be careful on this person or what will the neighbors say. And it's more. It's about getting past the question of what's wrong with me to the knowing there's nothing wrong but you were born this way. Your normal person and a beautiful person and you should be proud of who you are you deserve to live with dignity and show people your pride. I'd like to introduce our speaker patrick faribault who is going to be talking to us about becoming an lgbt advocates lgbtq by the way stands for lesbian gay bisexual or transgender haven't taste it was only one that didn't know that i'm on facebook and i kept seeing patrick on my friends list friends of friends you know who is this guy tap into lgbtq talent business and in 2009 he also work for in business magazine helping helping them to rebrand both our print magazine and ivy madison.com website under his leadership and living authentic glee so then in 2011 last year he also began hosting. Proof i can't tell you how many of these i've done and i can tell you it never gets easier getting up in front of strangers and i'm not getting up you're giving a business presentation i think i'm giving and getting upgraded my personal story which i think is the biggest change agent that you can have or provide for its like to be different or shoes. So that said i'll tell you a bit about me i grew up just outside gary indiana was born in the late 70s. And. You can imagine what it must have been like trying to figure out who you are especially if that who you are is gay in the in the 80s in gary indiana is not a very friendly place to try to discover and come into yourself. As a child i knew pretty young that something was really different and by child i mean. By 3rd grade. However old you are in third grade around that time. i started to notice. A real distinct separation between myself and the other kids. And that caused me to really retreat become very anteverted and shy and it really limited how i interacted with the other kids in my class because pierre was this thing that was making me insecure i couldn't have noticed i wasn't having the same self-esteem or confidence is the other. Kids because i had these doubts and i didn't have anybody to talk to about him. And by 6th or 7th grade so couple years later there was a mental hospital in our town that i used to probably once a month go crying to my mom and dad asking them to put me in. Because there were things that i thought were wrong with me that i couldn't talk to him about. And they never would do not unless i could actually tell them or give them a reason why and clearly i was not going to talk to tell them cuz again gary where there's a real big difference between gary indiana and here i think it in the economic engines of the city gary had the steel mills which were collapsing. Didn't have nearly the access to education and i think without those things you didn't really have a culture of coffee intolerance. Intolerance the stuff one you got to take a couple more steps before you get to something so any message that i was given by the people that i looked up to and considered my role models. Austin you didn't really make me feel like good about myself the best way to say it most of the things they did made me more scared of who i was becoming. And if you think of it all the struggles a child has you need somebody to talk to and when something that's discord if you are you can't talk to. Anybody about not your friends not your parents not england effects. Really isolating and really creates a pretty lonely life for a child. Around 16 i met somebody that. I found love with which are as much in love as he can be at 16 and i we were the same age. And all i can remember was for the first time i felt normal in my life. Which was a real revelation cuz i don't think other people don't grow up even having to think about those things. But you just are so. And that one on for a while but when we kind of got discovered as trying to create a relationship. This parents. Really i mean i don't know what nice way to say think they just lost his mother went borderline technion chaotic within a day or two they had his name changed and they had them on a flight to reparative therapy church in the south and then i remember hearing about this through the grapevine just people whispers in in school. And i going over to his house being pretty distraught myself trying to figure out what was going on and there's mother screaming at me through the window she wouldn't open the window. Officially lost your son because of me that she was going to win the town until my family and if you can imagine that now after dealing with all these things. As a child by yourself. Finding some sort of sanctuary or solace in. Having that pretty dramatically ripped from you and. Also at the same time that you're beginning to understand what love feels like. That's a lot to deal with as a kid and sadly i knew that my parents would react pretty much the same way it if they knew i went back and tried to hide it pretty hard for about a year i felt probably into the deepest depression of my life. As you would imagine and again this is pre the internet the internet didn't really start even become a consumer product until the mid-90s. So there weren't a lot of resources that i could find even though there were other people out there like me. So it was still a very isolating thing to be able to identify and figure out who you are if you are somewhere you know under the lgbtq rainbow. And i remember going into my mother taking me into like a 7-eleven style store in her hometown. Encina magazine rack and in this magazine rack there was a copy of entertainment weekly which at the time was a really thriving large magazine ian. On the same level that people magazine and i laughed now but it was barbra streisand on the cover of this and i didn't know who she was little that she was a gay icon but what i did remember was seeing was magazine that had this person on the cover. And this magazine was celebrating her for not being like everybody else. Which is something that i really felt wood. It would. If i was if i was different at all i ran the resting gary of being killed i knew people who had me killed i need people who admit carjacked i knew people who had been shot at just that's reality of gary. So you have a chance at a good life and gary if you can make yourself look like everybody else. If you look different at all. You're in trouble. So i saw this magazine that was celebrating people for being different and i knew if i had any hope of having the life that i would actually like the live. I needed to find a way to. Find mentors and role models and people that could teach me how to get to that place. And i made a plan and disappeared pretty much overnight myself and ran away to new york and convince them to hire me and they hired me when i was 18 or so while i was sleeping on the street in a cardboard box. On the steps of our latino church on the lower east side of manhattan for anybody that knows in this isn't mid-90s at this point. And. I got to pick okay so once i arrive in new york. Now my world has changed one of the things i like to explain to people is. You fill your life with all these people who influence and shape who you are. But. If something happens that causes you to press the reset button and you push all those people out of your world. You created room for a whole new. Family people that teach and shape you and i was at a pretty impressionable age still i'm still a teenager at this stage. And i feel like in some ways i won the lottery because the people who came into my life at that stage really played a pretty significant role in adelaide influence in my life. As i was getting over being homeless. I was discovered by the people that do the television show the real world if anyone's heard of this 15 years ago. And. Did the producers were salivating at the chance of a plot line around the gay home with you and you can imagine why there's a little bit of drama that comes with living that kind of life and i need to say also. If you want to know how disproportionately homelessness is in this country especially among you. So think of all the homeless youth in the country. 40% identify as being gay. So that is in the general population the gay population is less than 10% of the society i would say maybe somewhere on 5%. But 40% of the other homeless you identify as being gay. So and understandably so i live that life. While i was going through the real world. Stop and crazy but that is. Probably you all are familiar with the expression family of choice. Just i. Those people became my family of choice before i even knew what a family of choice was. So the cast members from the early seasons of the show. I saw how vulnerable i was and how. Producers are salivating at the chance to exploit. My vulnerability. And really rallied around and became my family and took on the responsibility of becoming those mentors and looks teachers and some of the girls in the london season became my mom's essentially one of the guys from the miami season became my business partner and became my best friend and mentor. And his best friend is steve wozniak who maybe you've heard of maybe you haven't for those who haven't he founded apple and because of all those people who made me feel like i was living in a shell of who i could be. It made room for all these people to come into my world and really create a give me the chance to drive. Now what i was struggling with still was reconciling being gay. And why i was struggling with this so much was around gender issues because at that time. The only people that you could see. If you're familiar with the expression cultural competence my cultural competence wasn't it a place where i could see the well-adjusted. Out gay person the only people that i knew how to see that were visible to me at that time with my very limited emotional maturity were the real extremes so if a man was really flamboyant. Eccentric. I probably knew he was gay if a woman was really masculine or butch i knew that she was probably a lesbian i didn't know how to see anything except those. Does bookends. And it scared me because i was always very masculine bike and walking around trying to find any sense of community in new york i would like it's really hard to live in manhattan and be under 21 other people. And it was how i knew to find those people so i would walk past these bars were things at night and i would see the the people. Intoxicated stumbling out. Using prelude sexual humor things and what that did it is it made me isolate even more. I struggled because i saw the people who. Were part of my community but that i couldn't relate with and it scared me because that wasn't necessarily what i wanted to be. So it made me withdraw quite a bit more. One of the things that i can say about the gay community and going through a process like this. Is you develop critical-thinking skills that are off the charts because you learned to question everything and form your own opinions there's very little that you just adopt and go with me on what you're told. You really at york or the search for who you are who the authentic you is. And you don't just adopt anything that people tell you. Somehow along these lines i ended up at an event. Someone named kevin jennings. Kevin jennings. When i'm he saw the same way a parent can look at their child and that parents until. What is bothering a child austin before the child has really worked it out and figured it out. He saw it was struggling with these gender issues that i i couldn't reconcile being a masculine man and being gay. And i he played on a gay hockey team in new york city. And thought that would be a great vehicle to pull me out socially. And least get me around other gay people and that's exactly what he did some really cool biographical information on kevin. And again this falls in line with that winning the lottery. Kevin founded an organization called glycerine. Glisten is the gay lesbian straight education network. And what they did is they went into all the states and set up these models for the high school gsa club. He founded the national body of that and left that position to go be the deputy secretary of education for president obama so again you know the winning the winning lottery ticket in that sense. The hockey team record me on transforms my life. They got me around other gay people it gave me time to come to terms with who i was on my own terms. I could tell people for the first time that i was playing hockey and then i was learning about. Yoga sport without. Having to come out and tell them that i was gay hockey player but it got me around other gay people. Which gave me the opportunity to just learn about my own culture more and see the diversity amount culture more. And i quite the rockstar hockey team besides kevin i'd send you a husband than my team in my rides to the game and conversation in the front seat. Talking like an old married couple and cindy would turn around after my opinion. And i couldn't recognize the language of the receipt i think a lot of people when you're faced with the level of stress that gay youth are gay people in general go under buckle and try to self-medicate through you know either tobacco or drugs or any of these other things to try to escape the the torment of the reality. Well that's what hockey became for me once i discovered i was on the ice for sometimes five nights a week. Aygestin it was my way of escaping reality and buying me time to process and learn and develop our i understood. Who i was in this world. That said. Being a runaway. One of the things that's really challenging is. You've learned at a young age that running away can solve a problem. And it's really hard to let go of that. The problem-solving solution so the way i like to explain it is if you think of the dandelion that you pick. And you blow it and it scatters everywhere. That was me once i've lost my roots i went wherever the wind did and every time things got too hard i ended a packing up and going somewhere else. Convincing myself that i was that it wasn't i wasn't leaving because of her problem i was leaving cuz i have this greater opportunity somewhere else. And when all was said and done i ended up living in seven states and a couple countries. So i really all over the world and scattered all over the us from the north east to the west coast to alaska to. Down a little bit and then internationally in canada and elizabeth tribe in west africa for a while. And one of the the major relationships in my life i fell for a russian and moved to siberia so. As this progresses in the mentors and role models that i have helped me find my voice which i think is critical to be able to eventually become an advocate. I got this covered by conde nast. Which is the homologue vanity fair gque the new yorker gourmet all these title. And i think the devil wears prada maybe you have maybe haven't but it was based on my boss in new york. Fell for the russian moved to siberia in the crossover. When i ran away when i arrived in new york. Once i finally felt like i had the safety of knowing that i was in charge of my own life and i couldn't have a rug ripped out from under me i came out to my family. And i came out to my mother. And she proceeded to bar me from talking to anybody else for about 10 years in the family. Which is fully what i expected. And that was really what did a lot of the house cleaning the created room for those other people how many. The very very fractured and fragmented conversations i would have with my family over the next 10 years there was so much off-limits that i couldn't talk about that i didn't feel like they would be knew anything about me. I saw they certainly knew i could have been a generic person that telemarketer calling me for for what they knew and that created a real separation it almost is like a child is adopted and then quite later finds his birth family when you find your birth family you have to discover what you have in common with him all over again. If you have anything in common with them. And that's the position that i was in. 10 years later i fall for this russian i go to russia and my mother has this realization at that point in time that what was causing her to lose her child. Was the fact that i didn't have any ties but keeping me here. And she had been a big proponent of me not having those ties. Hero she prevented me from being able to grow relationships with the people that i grew up around because she limited what they were allowed to know about me. Associa in this epiphany moment started telling everybody at the grocery store. And the problem was the tickets were already bought i already fallen for someone. Became a little bit too late. I go to russia if anyone knows anything about russia you think. Gay people have it hard here this isn't oasis compared to russia we're only until a few years ago that you were still they were still very actively imprisoning people were no no more sexual. The distress of the culture crush the relationship thankfully we ended it on good terms he still very close to me he's flown over to america to visit a few times and is not my family sentence. But. When i came back to new york i came back feeling very lost. Hey i didn't really psychotic back to new york from. Pressure. And one of the girls who had i'm the tv show the real world in london. Went to go work for morgan spurlock the man that did the movie supersize me. Who decided he was going to intervene and try to document reuniting me with my family. And that was enough of a catalyst to at least move back to the midwest and began trying to build the bridge. With them. Going back to the hockey league part and what i think was absolutely critical was it gave me an opportunity to celebrate who i am for the first time in my life. And when i came to wisconsin none of those tools were here. There was certainly leadership within the gay community and the opportunity for mentors and role models but there were no vehicles that could connect you to those people so you didn't have a way to connect your find them. And. I had a teacher at once say something is stuck with me and he said a luxury is only a luxury until you own it. And that's when it becomes a necessity and i had all these tools in the new york community that helps me develop who i am but coming here when they didn't exist i wasn't ready to go on without him. And obviously if they're not there than the burdens on your shoulders to create it. And that led to create an oculus eagan town. As what i call a huge trojan horse it like hockey was. Just that the actual horse itself the actual use of the group and what i think what would i see the purpose of a game was a socially constructed like pure mentoring big brothers big sisters program to keep connect people under the model of you know that there's this mentoring program. And it exploded because of that we had. Weather 120 skaters now which makes us the biggest hockey league in the city gay or straight and the leadership models that i saw a floating up from that or what led to the magazine cuz whether i like it or not and everybody likes hockey and give people the opportunity. Where people tell their own stories and i think for a community that had to bear so much shame. Which manifests is internalized homophobia. Most liberating and empowering thing you can do is hear somebody own their own words as they're finding the courage to be their own advocate and tell their own story. And that's what the magazines created an opportunity for a lot of his leaders to do. My next cover i am at goes to press my neck magazine goes to press in a couple days and it's mark pocan on the cover telling partially partial part of his political story but it's more his coming-out story and how where he found his voice was that he had survived a hate crime that had been the victim of getting pretty badly beaten up at one point. For being gay. End. The magazine's really the only vehicle out there that helps connect those dots and creates an opportunity to learn and grow and hear those stories. So. I want to wrap this up pretty soon but one of the things i like to say and what i think make what i've learned at least in my life that makes us who we are. Specifically if you look at mythology and i think the modern format mythology is comic books is so typically when you look at a superhero superhero they've gone through some super level of trauma or suffering. And oftentimes are you batman is it as example it's a piece of that trauma or suffering but ends up becoming what the super version internet is so batman fell down this hole was traumatized by leave that in turn he drew his superpower from i think part of for my story what i went through in the trauma that had surrounded my coming-out experience and when i was a teenager is what has made this my life work so i didn't i think that's the greatness and i think you need that for balance is a person so if you look at how much somebody may suffer that's probably to find their own balance pushes them to the other extreme that the other end i will say and then i'll be done i spent seven years searching for my first love away because without anyone to tell it's not your fault i fully believed it was my fault and found that he had brainwashed him into believing that he had a social responsibility to take on a wife and a family which he did as well and talking to me. Egyptian the magazine they put a little piece of my story and what is her birthday. One of the things that i think whenever you look at the struggles of an oppressed minority is they often need allies in the majority i one of the people that i read and study spendwise who is the white anti-racist and i think there is certainly a lot of work and a lot of carpeting that he come from that movement to show where the opportunity is for people to be no straight allies of the lgbt movement so you can kind of kill two birds with one stone by googling his name. When i left my made the decision to move back from the midwest larger cities i think you have asthma toxic elements are there gay male communities and typically those cities that are able to support an enclave neighborhood neighborhood often have a very large populations and i think people in those environments have the ability to fall under the radar that we needed a little too much by the point where i think you grow from accountability in adrena city large enough social level always escape accountability you don't necessarily always have the opportunity to grow and get pushed to grow so leaving new york i wanted to go to a city but although i knew certainly be painful moment would force accountability on me and within a radius of what i thought would be acceptable for driving through can heal my family that put madison and indianapolis there and ice v. Advanced interpreting payment she came from she doesn't come through which it which i think most people might be surprised by those she came from actually the athenian fairly disadvantage and keep her ground and keep the weeds for her teacher grounded she is still lives in a little walk up here on studio apartment if she was in while she was going through all of the struggle trying to make a name for yourself and part of being authentic guys talked about earlier there are certain things that i've held on to you or who i am i if i am at my horse it's still a kid in the wrong type of traffic so i'm very uncomfortable to thailand.

uuprairie_org

Pr140302WinnNelson-ed.mp3

Morning and welcome all of you to prairie unitarian universalist congregation and just want to let everybody know that we welcome everybody of every ethnic and religious background whatever your color your sexual orientation gender or family structure we welcome you no matter what your age or abilities or inabilities later in the service actually just in a couple minutes here will welcome folks who are first for home at your first visit. I'd like now to announcer introduce our speakers we're very happy to welcome erika nelson and tori win lauren story with two prairie today erica nelson is the project director for the wisconsin council on children and families race to equity project. Before she returned to dane county in 2011 to practice public interest law for 3 years at the center for family representation in new york city providing legal counsel and representation for low-income parents in abusing neglect cases in manhattan family court based on her new york child welfare issues and the role of parent representation for a wide variety of organizations in public and policy groups. Before she attended law school at rutgers university law school where she earned her juris doctorate nelson performed and choreographed as a professional modern dancer in new york city she also earned a ba in history from the university of wisconsin and lawrence tori win is a consultant for strategic partnerships and engagement for race to equity in madison before he accepted the consultancy with raced equity win service director of the martin luther king senior community resources collaborative partnership between the ebenezer baptist church casey family programs and the center for working families inc operation hope and catholic charities and with the goal of serving to improve economic stability of families living in atlanta's sweet auburn university as executive director of. When earned a ba in english from the university of california-berkeley doctorate from vanderbilt university law school and a master of divinity from princeton theological seminary. Good morning everyone opening words for today lomond copa copeland when he talks about privilege looking up and looking down or some strong words cuz when we think about privilege we always think about where we stand so as we go through our presentation looking left and right. And when i'm talking about our neighbors and madison. Not so bad. If you liked side-to-side this will help us. And improving the quality of life for all. So we can start so our overview today. Who we are. Our goals and purpose of the project. Some of our key findings. Some important takeaways for you all today. And some suggestions about the most important directions and goes we need to do. Moving forward. So who we are. So we are project of wccf which is. Statewide organization. We're funded by annie casey which is huge foundation located in baltimore maryland and so we are lucky enough to get. Funds for them to be able to put out the. Report. Also we're small multi-ethnic racial diversity merica nelson and myself. That's really good at madison anytime you have 50/50. And ann are also our staff is improving we brought in a couple more consultants so that's really good. In addition we're supposed supported by diverse. A volunteer team. And when i look in this room some you guys probably heard about our report. Route madison throughout dane county a lot of people have helped us come up with the. Report and today piwer continue to help us with feedback. And we're determined to add to the energy of folks who have come before us. We're not the first to talk about racial disparities in dane county. And we won't be the last. But we hope we will be the last. But there's a lot of other organizations ywca the urban league the school district have talked about racial disparities and number. And so we know that their shoulders that were standing on. And we just want to add to that energy. And find figure out some solutions. So the context. This is one thing about madison and dane cow. We all know this is a great place. Right. A lot of us move to madison a lot of us grew up in madison because it's just one of the best place. It is proven. In 1996 cnnmoney magazine. Voted madison the best place in america to live. In 2007. Cnnmoney magazine. Voted middleton. The best place. In american lives so that's just up the road. Alright. In 2010. Farmers insurance. Voted dane county the most secure place to live in america. Right safety is important. In 2011. Maybe this is our problem right now in 2011. Men's health magazine voted. Madison the most intellectual city in america right. So it's a lot of smart people madison phds masters. Bagged high school diplomas a lot of important intelligent people. Antenna 2012 usa today. Newspaper voted madison the best sports town in america. And so if you are a badgers fan that's something to be proud of right. But the reality is madison dane county. Have a lot of alkaline. Eric and i we live in different cities she lived in dc we both live in new york newark oakland atlanta all these other places and so when you talk about rankings always been ranked in the last. An education in in an economic development whatever it is is always last but here in dane county. It's important to be right now more. Dane county is also resource-rich and progressive-minded right epic is here oscar myers craft is here. The capital was here uw-madison edgewood you have all these resources you have human capital. It's a lot going on here and so it's it's it's. Is rich with opportunities. Despite these positive attributes. Dane county also has some of the highest racial disparities in the united states. Now that's a number most people. Really don't know. Right it's just like dane county madison is a great place we don't we don't know that the racial disparities exist. So we have the number to show you guys. So this is a quote from. A person we interviewed. Like most or many transplants from. Other us cities to madison my husband and i we were excited about raising our son in a college town that was known for inspiring intellectual activity. And progressive politics. It was shocking to learn about the racial disparities in education and criminal justice and madison. Especially as a mother of an african-american boy addressing this issue is absolutely critical. If i and other middle-class african-american families are going to invest our time energy and resources in madison. So. Property is not all about property. Class is also a. Right people always say wells fargo. Will middle-class african-americans are experiencing these racial disparities in effects. I told this mother it's clearing her her quote that she's. She's clear if it doesn't get better i moved. And there's other middle-class after. So. Purpose gold vision of the project the goal. Our goal is to collect analyze and track and disseminate this data. Rights over. The last two years we've been collecting. Information there's a lot of numbers we have over 60 indicate. Ian erica was sure some of those indicators. Every time we leave someone. Offers another ended. So i'm pretty sure someone is going to think of another indicator but. What we've done we measure twice and cut once cuz when you're dealing with numbers. Right. You have to be careful because people can interpret the numbers anyway they want. The purpose we want to use his data not as ends in themselves but as to inform guide inspire. The purpose of this project or presentation is not to be reactive and to play a painted black eye on dane county. But we want to be proactive there cities like seattle. Minneapolis portland who have experienced this very same thing these numbers. But they were proactive so in 5 and 10 years. We want to make sure that these numbers are reduced and we can say we have made a change. This past year we collect and analyze data again we measured twice. And cut once. We gathered community feedback on disparities number. So it's just not the two of us and three of us in a room coming up with these numbers. We actually work with a group of p. How to figure out like are these the right numbers are these the right indicators from. People in education juvenile justice people in employment folks in healthcare. We also gather advice from local and national expert. We know that the best practices and some of the ways to solve this is to. Look and see what's working here on the ground. As well as nash. We talked to people in dc but we were careful. To compare madison just to chicago philly. Chicago has all that. Billy has all the answers new york has all that. Madison is different. Madison is more like austin texas. More like portland right so we are careful of what cities to compare and then what we did. We finally put our report together. Spaceline report. And i don't know if you have gotten a copy of it. But we have to give it away probably close to. 2000 copies of this report. And our goal is to make sure everyone has this report. Not the folks just in this room right. Not just policymakers. But teachers students everyone in madison and the reporters about. Close to 100 pages. Our goal is to make sure that anyone can read it so 100 pages to pages whatever it is. The report is out. And the democrat demographic profiles dane county 2010 you will see 2010 numbers right. And we're going to update those numbers but the reality is is if it's 2010-2012 2008/2009. 6 the numbers of a number. Nothing has really changed. So the population in 2010 for african americans was close to 500,000. The african-american audacity. The african american population was. Close to. 31000 little above 31,000. African-american child population number just under nine thousand a 8.3% of the child population. African american children made up. About 20% of madisonpublicschools and 17% of public schools countywide. And then this is a big number since 2000 the african american population of dane county group by 50%. The reason we concentrate in a focus on african americans and whites is because the expertise in the room erica to myself that's our work we know the numbers little better. The s can pass. There's only two of us. If you have 60 indicators. That's a lot of work right. The third is the numbers for african-americans. Are pretty much clear cut. You know we start moving on. Southeast asians. Hispanic. It becomes a little more complicated but the good news is. We're working towards those numbers as well so our next report we will have numbers that reflect. Other population. And the lasting there's a history of african-americans here. When you go to the urban league are some churches or civic organizations. You can. They can discuss and tell you what they. The causes are or the history of madison. So that's. A background and erica will go more into detail with the numbers and then we can open it up for q&a. Good morning. So i have the job of hitting you with a lot of information and a lot of numbers. Quickly. So just bear with me cuz you can go back and. Talk about them at the end but really it's just to give you a snapshot of what is taking place here in the county in terms of racial disparities between african-americans and. So in a report we collected data on these six major categories basic demographics. I share with you economic well-being education. Child welfare juvenile justice and criminal. I'm going to give you a little touch of each of these spending more time and economic well-being and education. Because. Those are sort of. The starting point more causal root cause area so unemployment median household income poverty in child. In 2011 the unemployment rate for african-americans in dane county was estimated by the american community survey so that's based on the sense. The us census. At 25%. Compared to 4.8% for white. Dane county is 25% black unemployment rate was significantly and surprisingly higher than the national african american jobless rate of 18%. And this is especially relevant. Given the county's. Comparative low overall unemployment during the. of the great recession. Right so african-american population was disproportionately hit harder by the great recession. Then the white population. And then if you look at median household income again in 2011 the median household income of dane county african-american families was $20,000. Less than a third the median income enjoyed by white families. 63. This is a far lower. Then the national median income of all african-american households roosters 33 and is also lower than the statewide. Meetinghouse. Poverty so wouldn't be a surprise if you'd have high percentages of poverty if you have high unemployment and low median household income. So. The in 2011 the acs survey reported that 54% of all dane county african americans live below the poverty line compared to 8.7%. For whites. And that's another words african americans in dane county were five to six times more likely to be poor than a white person and i actually think that if you look at 8.7% for whites. That also includes food the number of individuals that are students from the university who would file their income as poor as well so the percentage of actual whites that are poor that aren't students. Could be lower. This rate for poverty is higher than that for the state. And. In the nation right we assumed we always make the assumption that milwaukee. County has a really high poverty rate for african-americans but dane county is actually more. If you look at child-poverty and you take the method of averaging the american community survey over the course of. 3 years is a child poverty estimate of greater than 56%. So. You're 11 times more likely to grow up in poverty if you're african-american then if you're white. And yet again this is higher than the statewide poverty average for african-americans and nat for african american children nationwide. So if you look at education i'm sure many of you are familiar with all the conversation around the opportunity gap is taking place both in the. Madison metropolitan school district and the nation to but so we looked at. I took a measure out to make it shorter but. Third graders graders not proficient in reading rate of suspension chronic absences and students not graduating on time. Do third graders not proficient in reading if this is the new threshold the bottom one beginning in 2012 third-grade reading proficiency was measured by the wkce. And under this standard 86%. Of african-american 3rd graders were not proficient in reading. Compared to 47% of white third graders. And what i say is that. From kindergarten to the third grade you learn to read. From third grade on. You read to learn that's how you begin to get your information. So if you're not. There and on part 3rd grade. You're struggling to catch up the rest of your academic career is one is considered. No invest practice is one of the. Best indicator of future academic. Success. And and therefore is really important for our other indica. Going for. Rate of suspensions or explosions for incidences unrelated to weapons or drugs this is another words. A collection of numbers that are subjective. Suspension. So ending in 2011 school suspensions of african-american students number 3198. Compared to 1130 suspensions of white. Students. Suspensions were 15 times more likely to involve an african-american student than a white student. And just. One of the things you like to talk about is there's there's a lot of talk around the school-to-prison pipeline. You know generally about talking about some of the. And social well-being. We're also talking about a larger. We're talkin about. So if you're not reading the third grade you may be disconnected from your school experience then therefore more likely to be suspended therefore less likely to be involved in school. And have a graduation rate for madison metropolitan school district for african americans. High school students. Is about. Half 50 about 53. Compared to 16% of whites to. I graduate on time that's 4 years. In other words blackson's more than three times less likely to graduate. Then a white class. And again this is worse than the statewide average. Rafting. Now. Child welfare juvenile justice an adult corrections icona refer to them as the defense systems cuz now you're involved in a social. System within involved with god. So. Children in foster care during the past year juvenile arrests. I think i took and then juveniles in the state correctional facility adult arrests. So we'll start with. Foster care on a typical day in 2011 there 124 dane county african american children in foster care compared to 50 whitesell. That means that african-american children are approximately 15 times more likely to be in foster care than white children ending. And black children make up 10% of the townies total child population and yet they constituted nearly 60% of those children that were in placement on any given day in 2011. Juvenile arrest in 2010 dane county black juvenal's assisi just 10 to 17 we're rested a red six times. That of white juveniles. This disparity numbers of 621 remain worse than that for juvenile arrest. State and in the nation. So if you look this is our graph to show how battered little arrest rate is is that. Juvenile arrests per 1,000 juvenile. So 468 9 / 1,000. We've made a lot of improvement but we still have a lot of work to do. So juvenile stenton seats correctional facilities this is after central you've been sent. Right so you're not just going to tension for a few days but you're going to correction. All black youth. With 25 x. More likely to be sent to the state secure facility than white youth. And they made up 10% of the county's adolescent population but constitute. Almost 80%. Of all local youth admitted to lincoln hills. An s. How looks like disproportionate to their representation in the population. Event again it should be no surprise that we have a high disparity in our adult prison placements for the county in 2012 dane county african-americans were admitted to prison facilities at a rate 15 times greater than that for white adults. And. The state of wisconsin has the highest african-american male incarceration rate in the entire nation. So you're kind of dane county is contributing to those two. So what is this. Snapshot data tell us well that. The distance between. The well-being of black and whites and dane county is wider than almost any other jurisdiction in the united states urban-rural north or south. And that. African americans fear worse sometimes far worse than african americans. Anywhere else in the nation. So not just comparing african americans. To whites but african-americans other african americans in the state and the nation in here they're faring far worse. What is the concept of the consequences of this dane county is a place where poverty and poor outcomes have an exceptionally strong correlation with reese income. Put another way disadvantage here has become highly reesha. The idea of separating class. From race. Is much more complicated here because of the degree to which disparities exist in every single one of the 40 + 60 + indicators we found. I think they're integrally related and connected. So the cost of having this racialization of disadvantaged were racing color or correlated. Is that. Well reese's them over traces. May not have caused these disparities the perpetuation of these disparities. Really has the potential in the risk. For our community to foster stereotypes profiling and differential expectations. Color. Well what are the contributors to these disparities will first we have to acknowledge when we're talkin you know beginning statement about privilege and the like that legacy of slavery two-and-a-half centuries of bondage 100 years of segregation. Jim crow. Are racism embedded in the attitudes economy politics. Institutional structures of our system is continuing to disadvantaged african-americans here in dane county as well as african american. Throughout the nation. But we also have local factors that we believe as a project inframark discussions with the community are contributing. To some of these disparities. When we have will returning a labor market mismatch. Where there's far too few routes to family-supporting jobs for less-educated less work network left technology experienced workers. Victorious at the beginning. We have the highest intellectual population you know per capita in the country which means that we have a huge number of people that have bachelor's degrees master's degrees and phds who want to stay in this community. And therefore in many cases their own throne was overqualified for the jobs that they're actually taking so what the hell happens is that you have. A group of people. That may not have the same level of networks may not have the same degree. Which their degreed right. And then therefore there's not a lot of entry into the workforce to family supporting. Living wage jobs. Right cuz they're being taken in some cases you have this urban meth that i talked about in madison that phds are driving cabs. It's actually true right it's nice a joke that's actually true. So that proposes a whole market where you don't have in other big cities like. You know new york city you don't have you do you have your high school to. And you have your drive. Well you do from around the world that are doctors but that's like a different that's a whole different issue that we're not dealing with today. Right exactly. So. Do a thing we think of contributing is neighborhood isolation so there's a significant. Fraction of the african american population that lives in scattered small socially isolated concentrations. In our community that lac. Family supporting institutions and networks. In other words are like these little enclaves that are surrounded by middle-class communities where they as a neighborhood don't have institutions like churches. Black owned businesses. Neighborhood schools. That's where thing that creates network increase job opportunities. And 3rd. The county is social services. An educational amused. Claimant. Youth development and employment and training institutions. Do not have the resources sometimes that organization. Support sometimes a confidence to address the needs. The low-income families of color in the community. What do we need to do. Keen to promote employment financial security and economic inclusion by having a targeted approach where we look to through employment training family service increasing quality child care. Creedmoor pathways to these family supporting. Careers. Need a support parents and strengthen families. Again strengthen and target our counties family support services and resources to help more fragile families. Fulfill their aspirations and there needs to be a. Parents that be employed and participate in the community. So if we have these neighborhood isolated communities we need to actually strengthen those. Neighborhoods are those small radius is. In which. People have increasing opportunities for leadership. Support services. There will be no. Think about planning so that the communities have education places of employment health access cultural recreation and sir civic. Participation. Opportunity. Anyways we all take for granted cuz we have. A lot of that here in dane county. But. Were you know. Those are more isolated the access or the sense of access to those is. Increase equity and educational achievement creep partnerships. Where were working towards school readiness. An intervening earlier and more effectively in the lives of our children so nowhere we have deficits. And work to address them before third grade. Reading. And before first grade that's the school readiness 20-25 right before kindergarten. So that they can graduate on time and go to fonda post-secondary training in school. Again strengthen effective practice for those that are working instead of the helping professions. We need to increase our racial and ethnic. Diversity in those who are employed within that system. As well as provide ideas techniques training resources tools coaching. That allowed them to be more effective in responding to the strength and. Are the challenges. These are the three principles that we think. We should have as a community to address these. Engage of the communities and families most affected. Spivey's disparities. Ar. Fabulous liberal progressive intellectualism has us always. Wanting to include all. Including of all sometimes this does not let us see. Did the some people are being left behind. Right. And so at some point we need to start a focus and target and spend some time saying what is this community need. That is not. Getting. I need to be a two-generation strategy one that supports parents and children we always emphasize used we always emphasize children but those children have parents and family members and folks around them that also needs support. So we have to think about it is we can spend all this time in the schools and all this money which i think is absolutely wonderful but if you go home to a stressful environment home. You go home to a stressful community or neighborhood all the work that's done during the day isn't doesn't have as much hold as it would otherwise. It needs to be comprehensive and collaborative not siloed we all need to work together education and the suspension situation also has to be part of how the police decide to either arrest or mitigate. Are kids that are lawyer loitering. Villa is connected again going back to the house to be targeted and lastly. What kind of. You know any point of in my opinion crisis. So we have to have a sense of urgency in addressing it but then at the same time recognize that we're not going to fix this. Or address it or find solutions in 6 months it's going to take us years and so has to have a long-term commitment. With eyes on this. Social justice. We have strengths and assets. In the community. Again going back to reach resource-rich and progressively minded. There's a lot of comparative wealth of the county. Division of its leaders the social values of its citizens there's an emerging. Group of african-american leaders that suggest that we have a high-capacity in this community for making difficult. Social and institutional change. And again the skill the problem is manageable. In other words if we focus our efforts on 1000-2000 folks that are heading up households you will change your child poverty numbers because those families will be more stable because they will be employed and because the edge will be approaching it comprehensive. Unless you know there's a moral and a social justice issue here i think. I know for me anyways and for many of us but there's also arguments to be made about. The economics. And unsustainability of diversity and not leaving groups of people. Behind mirroring rachel resource an opportunity gaps will help to level the playing field for all citizens. And we'll make madison and the surrounding areas are more supportive environment for high-achieving it by all our children and family. Including those of color. Unless our entire community is thriving the long-term social cultural and economic fate of accounting will be far less promising. We have to be ready for an increasingly globalized twenty-first-century the demographics are changing and what people are seeking. When they look for a community to move to and the start a business and to do a startup. Is different than it was people are looking for diversity and four places where they can thrive. So this is a quote from. Another mother for years ago i decided dane county was a place i want to raise my children because it is truly a great place to live. As a single mom i found a terrific job and it's been played pleased with the education my children have received. But i know that our experience isn't the experience of all families. Our community is poised to respond to these concerns because when the best things about living here is the p. The people truly care our neighbors want to make a difference our community is at a tipping point to becoming the community. He always thought it. So that's. The project and the information in the nutshell and so we are happy to take any questions or have any discussion so susan. Well i thought we don't want we don't have comprable numbers yet we're still working on trying to find you know that the ability and the capacity to do comprable numbers in a city like austin to be able to better answer that question i think my gut would say that this community has been on a little bit of a roller coaster in terms of them and when there were more blue-collar jobs available for. When i first moved to madison i was surprised to learn that there were no black morticians mortuary. Every city i live in in the south west you had a black mortician cuz there's history behind it. So a lot of times you have the black mortician he or she may go and buy real estate right and. It also go into other businesses. Hear the first black mortuary open about a month ago right one month ago so. In chicago milwaukee philadelphia phoenix one from and there's not a whole lot of black people we got a couple hundred thousand but not a whole lot of white people or black people in phoenix but we do we have neighborhoods and in those neighborhoods. Right you have small businesses owned by black individuals you also have schools and so we're not saying that madison needs certification but we're saying is some cities they have these neighborhoods were you can see this black middle class and there's social capital going back and forth. 1% only three beano so. And also for us every time we seen an african-american like at the university leave. Yeah i mean i think you're playing if there's no question that resources is a huge factor but our resources can go farther and some level i think even if we have lasted we're all working together so and the fact that we have less you know of a vacancy rate of like 2% for the entire city or the county you know we have to do them all simultaneously. Yeah we talked about the achievement gap opportunity out health health equity it's all connected and then the last point is resources we can put a million dollars a hundred million dollars two hundred million dollars right right. So money is one thing if we have only smart people we should be able to figure something out. So there to your first question to your first question one of the things about looking at other cities is like just taking basic elements like is the capital city does it have a university is it mid-sized like austin in some ways is out of the mid-sized city range around 500,000 but there other similarly-situated cities like lincoln nebraska demoin iowa ann arbor michigan who i think to some degree are facing a lot of the very very similar problem and i think one of the reason those we have some of the highest disparities as a county is. The numbers get stretched on both sides so white steer on average be compared them to whites across the nation do better whether that's health access employment education you take all these factors right and then asked americans are doing worse. Better or why or what's their city structure what's they're planning all that sort of stuff and asked you a question about. Foster care. You can legally you cannot remove a child from their home because they're poor okay that's what it says you can't take a kid out of the house because they're poor. But poverty manifest itself. In so many different ways that to assist system can. Look like neglect and that's where you remove children is based mostly not on physical abuse when most children remove based on the glock for the best medical neglect because there's been a medical condition that's going untreated for long. time. Probably related to accents probably related to insurance maybe related to level of comfort housing lead issues can have children removed from the home because they're so speedo in the hasn't been addressed. And while on the one hand you can't remove children just because they're four aspects around poverty have and i also think that when you're talking about kim networks where there's other family members available the community is small so generations and generations and second cousins and third cousins and all sorts of that sort of family network that many people happier cuz they're multi-generational. Have a broader scope of kid net worth. Anderson issue of cultural competency when it does come to social workers. Identifying strengths and the weaknesses of the family and so i think there's the resource and support tools. That would be my thing as to why there's a disproportionate level and that's. You know. Anna guess. You know i thought on that not fact. In terms of i think that there are communities where there is concentrations of african-american folks being county floyd racine kenosha milwaukee pretty low on that and i know and i think many are similar i imagine in other communities that are even smaller throughout. Also historically there's empirical evidence that the midwest the northern cities right there's less integration than down south integration you may have like in chicago. Sofia the first the second part chicago chicago. All of the folks come to madison and dane county. Greatschools. Opportunity at work. And safety. Right those are what i'm that's what i'm here for parents and so they left chicago for those reasons the isolated neighborhoods. You know greenbush area. Right i think it's richard richard harris he has tried to sue the state and he has a federal suit but his whole argument was neighborhood that was black out right so now. Every wednesday i volunteer my time and ally drive right. And it's only one or two blocks as you guys know cuz you can throw a rock over there and hit it right these kids on isolated. And in atlanta where i work at ebenezer middle class african-american but no one lived in the actual neighborhood so you can see folks coming in and out of the church and an opportunity to mentor so what is the solution is just looking at the way we we structure our neighborhoods right and how we zone our schools and when when it's time to build new development or apartments making sure that we keep in mind other folks work at epic bright. People want to live downtown not just a people can afford living in downtown so it's just looking at how you know we develop our city overtime because it was happening everyone has been pushed outside of the beltline. Brighten the fo'c'sle and transportation transportation as well. Hopefully if it's fully passes in the summer into city government legislative decisions or policy changes so if we're going to do a transportation we're going to investex million on a new bus route what is the harm or help or what is the impact on communities of color and you know hopefully as that gets more understood and more robust department has will be able to say or implemented with their staff to say you know what this way we put out this request for proposal rfp or this job description. Again time house yet.. Golden words will be read by penny island the first step in finding forgiveness is knowing. Knowing that forgiveness is necessary. If we can know our past and our present not just historic version if we can resist mi of our participation in the civic system of privilege. We could change then perhaps. But we could change then perhaps we can infect. Summoner courage. And help the universe bend towards justice. This is why bill sink bird the former president of the u.s.a..

uuprairie_org

Pr150809JohannaHatch-ed.mp3

Good morning to everybody and welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society i'm lynn curry and i am a member of prairie it comes up here every once in awhile to help guide things. aspires to be an open-hearted and an open-minded congregation we welcome people of every ethnic and religious background whatever your color sexual orientation gender or family structure we welcome you no matter what your age is or your abilities or inability. On sunday mornings we provide a wide variety of services we're happy today to welcome johanna hatch one of our members back up to present to us sometimes we also hear from members of the wider community or sandy income our consulting minister. Today of course we'll be hearing from. Johanna. Are opening words today or going to be shared by barb park thank you barb. I do not believe that just because you're opposed to abortion. That makes you pro-life. In fact i think in many cases. Your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born. But not a child fed. Not a child educated. Not a child house. And why would i think that you don't. Because you don't want any tax money to go there. That's not pro-life. That's pro-birth. We need. A much broader conversation. On what the morality. Pro-life. Yes. That's why sister simone campbell. From the nurse nuns on the bus. Now i welcome johanna up she's here there she is to talk with us about women and personhood stuff thank you john. So today i want to talk a bit about. The idea of women as persons or women as people. This is really a way that i kind of approach a lot of discussions about reproductive rights about feminism. And i know at our prayer retreat there was a wonderful session can about the history of abortion rights in the united states and i was kind of chatting with the folks there ii. I started kind of like going off on my rant about you know libo women are people in like that's really the problem is that we don't treat women like their people that's where this all comes from and somebody was like we should talk about this at prairie. And i think since i talked to you folks last i'm now officially an rn registered nurse so i'm kind of by the work that i'm doing right now. Put that with the first principle we have on the wall over there we believe in the inherent dignity and worth worth and dignity of every person. And for me i think that's really foundational for us as unitarian universalist. And i really seen you both like in our community. How the foundation of how we interact with each other and i think how we interact with the world at large so i was really my starting point and thinking about. Today's topic and like i said the question i'm going to focus on today is the question of our women persons. Are women personnel are women person's worthy of being treated with inherent worth and dignity legally and ethically and you know i know that this is a. A rhetorical question and i'm assuming i don't have to convince anybody here i hope this very basic idea that women are people. But you knows we look there's a few international cases i'm going to highlight a couple legal trends in the united states. That really make me need to pop that question. You know they are these trends in these laws that really are seeking to deny women their very basic rights to bodily autonomy and self-determination so this is a question that i'm going to invite you to reflect on as i'm speaking today. Start with dr basic definitions what is a person and this is not as simple a question as you would think as i learned recently doing a google search with that very question there's a lot of philosophical discussions there's a lot of different definitions in law and philosophy and religion and ethics. So. Kind of like the starting point that i'm going to be working from the definitions i'm going to be using. Is that we can say that a person is a human being. And we know that this concept of personhood varies across cultures across religions it causes huge debates legally and ethically. So then the best definition i could find kind of building on a starting with the human being. Is that a person is an entity that has the moral right to self-determination. And the right of women to that self-determination is really the center of everything i'm going to be talking about moving forward. The question. If we believe that every person has inherent worth and dignity what games are person that works in dignity. Our unitarian universalist tradition of firms that worth and dignity are inherent. It cannot be granted by an external authority nor can it be taken away. It is simply the condition of our humanity. People do not lose their rights to life or liberty nor do they lose their right tomorrow self-determination due to any transient state. So this is the case. Then when we assert that women are persons their dignity and worth in the worth of their lives and well-being cannot be dependent on whether or not they are pregnant. However we live in a culture that still systematically devalues women. And the unique ability of women to become pregnant is often used as a justification to deny women of their basic rights. And we talked about personhood in our current contacts a lot of the discussion in recent years has really been centered around. The idea of applying legal personhood to embryos and fetuses. There's a movement that has been growing in the united states for some time under the banner of an organization called personhood usa which is a national organization that seeks to enshrine fetal personhood into law. They both on their website that since 2008. Legislation supporting the legal definition of fetal personhood to include constitutional rights has been introduced in 35 states they did not mention how many states it passed in though i noticed that. Well leaders of this movement really try to deny and kind of distance themselves from the idea of a future where women are denied really basic rights to civil liberties as well as their own lives and well-being. If they experience pregnancy. We can really like. We have case studies essentially from other countries that have such laws in place and we can really see. Exactly what that future would be like for women in the united states if those kinds of laws were passed. Two-story the middle highlight today are from the countries of ireland in el salvador where abortion is criminalized and fetuses have the same legal rights and status as born people. So i'm going to present these case studies of sorts to try to highlight the reality that when women lose their legal personhood. And when fetal life even during fetal life is given equal or greater legal rights than women the women who barrett they're really really dire consequences. That. Competitively to that question again are women people in these cases. Time to the first story and i'm sure many of you but a big familiar with this happened in 2013. The case of savita halappanavar who is an indian woman living in ireland. Her case came to international fame very quickly after she died in a hospital in galloway in 2013. She was 17 weeks pregnant. And her body began to miscarry. And do you think that the beginning of the miscarriage savita developed a an infection that would ultimately lead to her death. When it was clear that the pregnancy was contributing to her rapid decline both she and her husband. Beg their care providers for an abortion to end the pregnancy. And the response that she received was that. Because of ireland strict abortion laws and there is still a fetal heartbeat present. Her doctors could do nothing to help her. Her husband later told news outlets that when a midwife actually told her that they can do anything because. This is ireland in ireland was a catholic country her response was well i'm not irish or catholic. And i think that's really really highlights the cruel fate that woman's face. You know. That simply by virtue of where you happen to be. You can lose your right to. Bodily autonomy you can lose your right to. Adequate healthcare life-saving treatment. You lose the right to really you know. Determine your values around your religion around your medical care all those things can be imposed upon you. And it's also now as a healthcare provider it's even more unconscionable to me. Did her healthcare providers really believe that she was a person of dignity and worth. Did the republic of ireland care at all about her moral self-determination was savita treated as a person in this case. Another. Case that has kind of come to notoriety in recent years. Is the case of and i apologize because i don't speak spanish so i'm going to call them to 17. About salvador. So 1998 after many many years of a brutal civil civil war in el salvador when the country finally came together they enacted some really really strict abortion laws some of the strictest laws in the world. With great support from the catholic church in the country. Thorlabs criminalize all abortions. Even when a woman's life is in danger or in cases of severe fetal abnormalities or sexual assault. Between 1999 and 2011 at least 129 women has been charged with what they call abortion-related crimes. 17 of these women were following a reported miscarriage when they presented at the hospital seeking help. Fearful that they were losing their pregnancies. Typical charge for a woman with abortion-related charge is aggravated homicide. Which. Carries a charge of 30 to 40 years in prison. Including those 17 women were seeking medical care. When they were fearful that they were losing a pregnancy. And according to amnesty international as of march of this year there at least five more women in el salvador facing these charges. And i think this case few cases of these women in el salvador really illustrate that when fetal personhood. Is legally feud. As the equivalent to the personhood of woman. Women bear the burden of losing. Their legal rights. And their legal personhood. Even went through no fault of their own they can't their bodies will not sustain fetal life. So it was just this spring and in february after many many years of advocacy including appeals for a presidential pardon only one of the 17 has been released from prison after serving nearly 10 years of her sentence for aggravated homicide. Her name is carmen what a lupe vasquez. She's not a free woman. The her story is particularly tragic because she was the victim of a sexual assault and became pregnant. And when she was fearful that she was losing her pregnancy she sought help at an emergency room. And instead of being treated adequately she was greeted by the police. And then sentenced to 4030 years in jail. And the other 16 women of this group remain behind bars in el salvador. I think it's really kind of tempting to think like this is a problem outside of. Yo our immediate lives here in the united states in 2015. But i know right before. I kind of sent penny you know my. Ideas for this talk. Wisconsin's legislature passed a bill banning abortions past 20 weeks of pregnancy actually it's the way the bill is worded is 20 weeks. Post conception. Which is not really way that anybody dates pregnancy so it's creating some legal confusion. And it was very very quickly signed into law by governor scott walker. Immediately prior to announcing his run for the republican nomination for president. And this law set to go into effect next february 1st february 2016. And it will punish any doctor that perform such a procedure i believe it's measurement includes $10,000 in fines and i'm not sure how much time in prison. And i think i mean. With an email abortion at 20 weeks of pregnancy and i really really hard to think about especially for those of us who our parents are women who have three pregnancies to term. But i do want to highlight the disease cases account for about 1% of all abortions that happened in wisconsin. And to give you a number that's less than 100 per year. And for people that you know how to carry the pregnancy to term i think you know that around 20 weeks is usually when you get the anatomy scan and you get to you know speed everything is in place and that's often when people get really devastating news. About things that are not developing properly. Or a pregnancy that is not going to be a meal a baby that's not going to live outside. The one for very long. And then also for women who are really facing grave grave health risks is after 20 weeks of pregnancy is when bc preeclampsia start to develop if it's going to develop and sometimes. You know it happens way before that penis can be viable. And i own. The only way to save someone with preeclampsia is to end of pregnancy when we're at the other. And so. Odell so what i think is really interesting with this case as well as when the governor signed the bill into law he actually had a disagreement with us while he didn't like that there actually is an exemption. For the life of the mother. Also a woman who is facing preeclampsia and you know 20 21 weeks of pregnancy hopefully could find a doctor who would be able to help her. But then in last week's republican presidential candidate about debate he was asked about his position that there should not be an exemption for the life of a pregnant woman. And he was asked you know is due are you two out too far outside the mainstream because 83% of americans believe that there should always be an exemption for a woman's life and a pregnancy. And his response was that he was very confident that he was not outside the mainstream. Is quote and i just like copy the quote in entirety. Cuz i thought it was really interesting i thought it was really illustrate up he said. I have always been pro-life i've got a position that's consistent with many americans out there and that i believe that that is an unborn child that's in need of protection out there. And i've said many times. That that unborn child can be protected and there are many alternatives that would protect the life of the mother. And i highlight this because i think it's really interesting that only at the end of his response. Did he even mention the person whose life was potentially endanger carrying pregnancy. And it's really as an afterthought. And so this woman as afterthought when we're talking about pregnancy or talking about laws around pregnancy. Is. Clear illustration. Of how the full personhood of women is really still questionable in the united states in 2015. And you know what kind of bring this topic up like i said i not that i'm disturbed by the impulse to protect a pregnancy. And i understand that really is we talk about later and later abortions ending pregnancies at later stages. A lot of people who would your personal identifiers pro-choice start to feel like like this is getting messy and questionable. But. I want to bring it back. 2. That. Just that electrician at the woman with the afterthought. That is kind of casual disregard for women's lives. Is. Is so easily tossed out there. When really i feel like this entire conversation has to be centered around women. Because there is a woman. Who we can look at her there isn't there should be no debate woman is a person. A woman. Life has value and dignity and worth. Until then i also kind of wanted to bring this to refocus another spot i want to have a brief word about her so most of the folks know that prior to becoming a nurse i work as a doula and childbirth educator. And. One other trend in the united states. Is that these laws that really are focused on privileging fetal life are case law that. You know chapter 50 rest of women or incarcerating women who are pregnant. Because their choices they make about their pregnancies are not acceptable to the state. Is. Is a huge impact of these laws. Not just on women who choose to end a pregnancy but on women who choose to give birth. There's an organization called the national advocates for pregnant women which is dedicated to ensuring the constitutional rights and well-being of women it was founded. They did a study recently and they found between 1973 which is when roe vs. wade became the law of the land allowing abortion in the united states. In 2005. There are over 400 cases in the united states. In which. Are they described it in which a woman's pregnancy was a necessary factor leading to attempted an actual deprivations of women's physical liberty. These cases include instances where women were forcibly removed from their homes. While in labor handcuffs. Taken to a hospital and forced to undergo a cesarean against their will. Unless you think that it only went to 2005 so hopefully it's not a problem anymore. In 2013 national advocates for pregnant women took on the case of a woman who also was refusing a cesarean and then received an email from her ob-gyn. Threatening her with a rat saying we will send the police to your home if you do not come in for your schedule surgery. And so i know that i can be really really tempting when we're talking about these questions of fetal personhood. Or questions of abortion to try to separate. Help the women who give birth. From the women who choose to end of pregnancy. But we know that the reality is that these are most often the same women at different points in their lives. The majority of women. Who have an abortion already have children. That they are thinking about when they make that decision. The ability to deprive one woman. Upper worth and dignity. Simply for being pregnant. Really threaten the well-being of all women regardless of the choices that they make around their pregnancies. Unlike i think i i kind of alluded to earlier the question for me really remains less about. Debating about fetal personhood. But really reshaping our conversation to elevate the personhood of women. If women's rights and bodily autonomy and medical decision-making. We're firmly enshrined in law and if women were actually viewed as capable moral agent. I believe that this debate there would be very little to be absolutely still be debate. Is there a folks i don't don't really. I really kind of against that who who don't believe that women have the moral capacity. To make decisions about their pregnancies. I believe that. Sorry about that i believe that a lot of these debates around fetal personhood are actually less about the rights of fetuses and then they are about our cultural beliefs about women. Our culture and our beliefs about motherhood. A lot of these you know we give. We saw this poster on oceans that good women don't have sex or they don't like sex or they certainly don't have it for any other reason than procreation. We believe that women good women are selfless. We believe that kind of culturally so i'll just leave it texas dad and punishment is deserved if you transgress that. And we also have a really strong belief about motherhood being like pain the pinnacle of womanhood in our culture and women who reject that or who don't believe that that's the best choice for them are seeing as somehow deficient or broken or even not really capable of making that decision for themselves i mean you know. Kind of in these circles of reproductive rights and bodily autonomy you often hear stories of women who. Desperately. Want. A tubal ligation so they never have to worry about getting pregnant and they doctors consistently reject them if they have no children all you're going to change your mind someday you're going to want a baby. So it's a double bind you know women can't. Make a decision to end a pregnancy without being judged women can't make a decision about the course of her pregnancy without being judged and women can't. Make a decision to actively prevent pregnancy when she knows that she does not want to be a mother. Without being told that she doesn't know what's best for herself and for her life. Johanna on the flip side you know if we really believe that women truly are persons of dignity and worth then abortion-rights matter. And i think we have to say that. Abortion-rights matter because women must be able to determine the course of their lives and health. We are endowed legally and ethically with the right to consent or decline any recommended medical treatment for any reason. We have the right to control what happens within the confines of our bodies and i know this is maybe a charge word for this group but this is my belief i believe this is fake. I believe that we need to stop apologizing. And practically demands legal recognition of our personhood when forces fries that seek to diminish it. And then closing i'm just going to longer quote but catholic holiday. Who i'm sure many of you are familiar with the wonderful feminist sas in. The new york times earlier this this week wrote a great piece called how to really defend planned parenthood with there's a lot of brouhaha going on around same parenthood's work. As there always is. And i lifted these couple sentences cuz i think it just perfectly summarizes exactly what i wanted to say today. And she's wrote to deflect immediate attack we fall in with messaging that unconsciously and codes the vision of the other side. Abortion opponents say women seek abortions in haste and confusion. Pro-choicers reply abortion is the most difficult agonizing decision woman ever make. Opponents say women have abortions because they have irresponsible sex. We say rape incest fatal foetal abnormalities life-risking pregnancies. These responses aren't false exactly. Some women are genuinely ambivalent some pregnancies are particularly dangerous. But they leave out the large majority of women seeking abortions who had sex willingly made a decision to end the pregnancy and face no special threatening medical condition. We need to say that women have sex. Have abortions are at peace with the decision and move on with their lives. We need to say that is their right and moreover it is good for everyone that they have this right. At the whole society benefits when motherhood is voluntary. When we gloss over these truth we unintentionally promote the very stigma were trying to combat. What you didn't agonize you forgot your pill you just didn't want to have a baby right now you should be ashamed of yourself. And i think that really. I mean like i said it perfectly in captured like captured what i wanted to say today. That we should really stop putting ourselves on the defensive and be practically talking about the value and the worth and dignity of women as people. I believe that is the way to really hopefully change this conversation and so i intentionally kept it shorter than usual because i know every other time i've spoken. If i could just respond cuz i'm kind of thinking with both of those two i think. And it wasn't just like you do for me from kind of. I think about these issues is. You know. When we think about women everything about pregnancy there is no other time in the human condition where a person is forced to sustain the life of another person against their well there's no other part of humanity where you are forced to use your body against your will to sustain the life of someone else. I mean even like if you want to say like. There are no weird we do not force women to breastfeed after they give birth. Because they have the right to decide you know this is not how i want to use my body to sustain the life of another person. And so. The condition of having a female body and being able to come pregnant become pregnant i think is really. Unique. And. You know there's that opportunities i think to say you know like. Limitations on self-determination and perhaps if there's that argument about fetal personhood. You know. If if you could like scott walker techno like there is a child out there somewhere you know if if we could sustain a pregnancy somewhere out there i think it also be different conversation. Adding a lot of women who'd be like. Belgium. Ticket. Yeah and i'm sure there's more to develop about that post is my initial kind of thoughts. Yeah i think that really good like you know this whole question of our women people do women have the right to determine whether or not they can become pregnant. And. They also like making it more difficult for women to access birth control claiming that corporations have more right to not allow women to access contraception then an individual woman has to make a medical choice. And i think that is. Kind of like this idea that you know where they are is a woman a person is a woman considered a person that can make that decision without the interference of a third party. Amanda just on the highway. Kasich and is talking about it. familiar with it the state of colorado did a pilot program where they offered free iuds to i think. Teenagers and young women under a certain level of the poverty line in southern unplanned pregnancy rate drop 40%. Access to contraception prevent abortion it's undeniable. Thank you so much. Noah will come up caitlin and karen dating for a closing words. Women do not have to sacrifice personhood if they are mothers. They do not have to sacrifice motherhood in order to be persons. Liberation was meant to expand women's opportunities not to limit them. The self-esteem that has been found a new pursuits can also be found in mother in. Do you have any idea what year it is did you fall down hit your head and think you woke up in the 1950s or the 1890s. Should we call for a doctor because i simply cannot believe that in the year 2015. The united states senate would be spending its time trying to defund women's healthcare centers. That was elizabeth warren in a senate debate on defunding planned parenthood.

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Pr130721Ingham-ed.mp3

Good morning welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society where you are welcome no matter what your. Theological bench for the color of your skin to love. You are welcome always encourage visitors and new folks to come back and see us more than once because every sunday can be a little different sometimes the services are done by people with inlay people within our congregation sometimes i do them the reverend sandra laam sandy is fine. The opening words are by william henry channing william ellery channing nephew william henry channing was born in 1810. To live content with small means to seek elegance rather than luxury and refinement rather than fashion to be worthy not respectable and wealthy not rich to study hard think quiet with talk gently act frankly to listen to stars and birds do babes and sages with open heart to bear all cheerfully do all bravely awake occasions hurry never to let the spiritual unbidden and unconscious grow up my symphony. Mary would you please lysacek may the flame hear let be to us a symbol of the torch that is passed from hand to hand and life to life of caring and concern and the pension for involvement with the men and women of our liberal face for many generations. The reading i would like to share with you this morning was written by the reverend david s blanchard when i was the minister in plattsburgh was the minister and and is to honor that song by singing it as a welcome when a child is born as a comfort when the child is ill climbing kilimanjaro i learned another in the chair and a therapist office for every major i heard in the silence of a retreat i heard another laughing with my girls for every note i heard in the wind on the beach at la move i gleaned more from spending time with a dying friend as her children saying her song back to her. If only when madison was president he broke his own rule about keeping religion and government separate by proclaiming during the war of 1812 a national day of prayer something he later regretted doing. Who do a little.

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Pr200105Bosch-ed.mp3

Good morning and welcome by name is robin proud my pronouns are she her hers. Prairie aspires to be an open-hearted and open-minded congregation. We welcome people of every ethnic and religious background whatever your sexual orientation family structure age abilities in abilities. On sunday morning we provide a wide variety of programs sometimes they are from outside speakers and sometimes as today from our own. Group. Our opening words will be read by margaret moses. Good morning. In ecclesiastes the author offers his thoughts on life death and what it all means. To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven. Warming to his theme he continues. There is a time to kill and a time to heal. A time to weep and a time to laugh. The full list has 28 different times and covers each biblical verses. It has become one of the most quoted and most popular passages in the old testament. In 1959 the famous words even became a surprise hit. When they were set to music by the folk musician pete seeger. In the song called turn turn turn. Covered by the byrds in 1965. The track rakitic number one on the us singles chart. The iron age lyrics are by far the oldest words ever to have become a chart-topping hit. That information comes from the reader's digest mark twain says this the bible has noble poetry and it. And some good morals and a wealth of obscenity and upwards of 1,000 lies. Italo's fighting will be read by morissette ocurrio. We light this chalice for our children and youth. Answer us celebrating. The flame of the flame of faith lit in each of us. Honoring the light each of us brings into the world. Rejoicing in the community we create together. Vibrant church cuz i today cuz there's no way i wanted to miss the program that was led by aaron it and i think maybe our needs no introduction that somewhere i read about organizations how there's a certain. Kind of person who. Is there knows what's going on with everyone and. Even if they're not saying what it is knows something about that in and aaron maybe the first person that a lot of you met here and maybe the reason you came back. I'm sure she'll tell us more about. For specific program and what led her to present that today so please welcome aaron bosch. So i thought i was probably going to have to truncate my presentation today because. We have a welcoming ceremony later for a new baby. But. No announcements no joyson concerned we may get a lot of time to talk here. So as you probably know i am one of the chairs of the membership committee. And this presentation germinated in. An introduction to prairie session which we do twice a year. And this past november. One of our newcomers. Brought his wife to the presentation. And she had never been to a prairie service. She has a lot of great questions. And one of them was she said. Tow and service are there any references to the bible. And i said. On a typical sunday morning no you will not hear any references to the bible unless someone decides to do. Anna tire service on the bible. I also as a follow-up to those introduction. Introduction to prairie session. I usually send. Out an email with some links to. Past programs. And. Specifically. The series of programs at an lundin did in 2008 called this i believe. And i was one of the first to present during that series. And i reread my contribution recently and in it. I mentioned. A couple of my favorite bible stories. So apparently this. Program was meant to be. Because those were two instances that made me suggested to the program committee. Most but not all of us come from a judeo-christian. Background. Probably know that i'm from a catholic background. There was some really positive and negative things about growing up catholic and today i'm going to talk about the positive. Related to the bible stories that i heard as i was growing up. But as they do in a court of law sometimes. Parties stipulate things or there's no argument about it i'm first going to stipulate. That there are some. Horribly repugnant things in the bible. That caused people to. Do some really abhorrent. Discrimination and hatred. So we'll just acknowledge that that's the case. And. Instead turn to the positive. Which there are some. And while hypocrisy is. Rampant. In the. Christian right. I do believe there is a. Much less odious christian left hand. Some of my castle. Relatives would fall into that category i believe. They are ardent democrats. And so i'm happy that they are voting for human rights etcetera. And you may have heard of the nuns on the bus. Obviously. Christian left. I don't know how they. Managed actually with the hierarchy of the catholic church but they do. So. That being stipulated. My plan today is to concentrate on the better parts of the bible. And. One last disclaimer. I certainly am not a biblical scholar. These are my just personal. Reflections on. What i heard growing up. In the catholic tradition. The. Gospels that are red on the sunday are in a three-year rotation. So that on like the fourth sunday of september. You will hear every third year the same gospel story. So in the 18 years of going to mass almost every sunday. I heard stories the same stories over and over. Most of them i forgotten. But there are a few that i. Have remembered and i think they're the ones. That made me think that made me stop and save. And so those are the ones that i'm going to share with you. Well one of them was. The good samaritan although there was this at too much. To discuss with that one but we can talk about that later if you want. The first one i will read. Is a parable that jesus told that is found in the gospel according to matthew. Chapter 10 verses 1216. For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them as an area for the day and sent them into his vineyard. About 9 in the morning he went out and saw other standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them you also going work in my vineyard and i will pay you whatever is right. So they went. He went out again about noon and about 3 in the afternoon and did the same thing. How about 5 in the afternoon he went out and found still other standing around. Ask them why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing. Because no one has hired us they answered. He said to them you also going work in my vineyard. When evening came the owner of the vineyard said it was forming. Call the workers and pay them their wages beginning with the last one tired and going onto the 1st. The workers who were hired about 5 in the afternoon came in each received. A denarius. So when those came who were hired first they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it they begin to grumble against the landowner. Those who are here. Hired last worked only one hour they said and you have made them equal to us will have. Or in the burden of the work. And the heat of the day. But he answered one of them. I'm not being unfair to you friend didn't you agree to work for a denarius. Take your pay in gold. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as i gave you. Don't i have the right to do what i want with my money. Or are you envious because i am generous. So the last will be first and the first will be last. So i listen to that story as a kid. And when you're a kid you have a very heightened awareness of fairness. If the teachers playing favorites you are incensed or if one of you or someone you know gets. Unfairly accused you are just so angry. So i listen to that story over and over. And i. When i was younger just thought it was completely unjust. I'm and i had a hard time swallowing it. But as i got a little older i came to. A little different understanding of it. And. Realize that perhaps. The early workers actually should not have been upset since they got exactly what they had expected. To receive. And the owner was just extra generous to the lakes comers. And i had some experiences in life. That put that understanding. Inter practice. For example. When i discovered a co-worker was making more money than i was. And i reflected on that. And i realized. I really felt that i was being paid fairly. And i was making more money than i ever thought i would. So i said to myself. Aaron. It's no skin off your teeth. It's carol. It's making a bit more. I was mostly annoyed that. Someone had let that information. Enter my ears because i didn't really need to know that and that was a mistake. And. So what you don't know can't hurt you would have been another aphorism. That could have applied to the situation. But when i was in the midst of that situation. I really did harkened back to this bible story i remembered it. And it helped me. To say okay. You can just. Let that be. So my thinking about this parable. Is. Somewhat simple personal has to do with human nature. There are also. Religious interpretations. And i even found one on the internet that is. More modern and somewhat political. So i will read you. The religious. Interpretation. Which is that. It has often been interpreted to mean that even those who are converted late in life. Or an equal rewards along with those converted early and this is really the main homily. On the sunday that this comes up. It's not. A lot of the other things that you said. I'm in alternative interpretation identifies the earlier early laborers as jews. Some of whom resent the latecomers. Gentiles. Being welcomed as equals into god's kingdom however this one philosopher rights. While interpreting and a pipeline this parable the question inevitably arises. Who are the 11th hour workers in our day. We want to name them such as deathbed convert. Or persons who are typically despised by those who are longtime veterans and more fervent in their religious commitment. But it's best not to narrow the field to quickly. At a deeper level we are all the 11th hour workers. To change the metaphoric we are all honored guests of god in the kingdom. It is not really necessary to decide who the eleventh hour workers are. The point of the parable. Both at the level of jesus and the level of matthew's gospel is that god saved by grace. Not by our worthiness. That applies to all of us. A more modern one was written in 2017 more modern interpretation for the huffington post. By matthew l skinner a professor of new testament at luther seminary in st paul. This parable draws all its force an illustrative potential from the dynamics of economic life. Homeland should we think the landowner counters what he's looking for workers late in the afternoon. What kind of people are the last to find jobs. Added to the rolls only when there's no more labor available. Nothing suggests that those characters in the parable are irresponsible or lazy. More likely they are unwanted. In jesus's time these will be the week. Infirm and disabled maybe the elderly to. And other targets of discrimination such as criminals or anyone with a bad reputation. A guy who is just that is inclined to show special generosity to the poor and outcast. No wonder the respectable people get anxious. But don't stop there if we're composing a list of people who have to wait all day long to get hired. In our current setting we need to expand it. Add the unemployed and underemployed to the list. Undocumented immigrants. Ulta belong in the list. For who hires them these days. The parables landowner might be at risk of prosecution in alabama. Depending on the outcome of a battle over that states new immigration law. It's a severe law allegedly spurred by the national unemployment prices. But one legitimately wonders how the laws rough justice squares with a bible that repeatedly commands hospitality and compassion towards refugees. Strangers and other aliens. The parable makes us pause to consider questions about what kinds of people are in need of. Whatever is right. Who needs benevolence the most. Call midas society that promises justice for all stopped vilifying shaming and neglecting the precise kinds of people. To whom god most desires to express unusual generosity. You don't have to read much of the bible before you notice that it is god's preference to show uncommon compassion. To those who don't have it so good. Who have been denied a dignified place in the system. We get that. What chase me about it especially in response to this parable. Isn't that i want extra doses of compassion for myself. Rather i wish that god's modus operandi. Didn't make me and countless others. Look so cheap in comparison. Through our own sad inability to allow benefits to go to the people who need them the most. That's a pretty good interpretation. It may be a bit of a stretch. But it's good and i think an example of something that. Would be a sermon to the. Christian left. And. There certainly is that that group and this is an example of that. Cake. Play italian your guys if we ran out of time. My next example is the story of martha and mary. It's not a parable really. It's a description of an encounter jesus had. In their home. According to luke chapter 10 verses 38 to 42. As jesus and his disciples were on their way he came to a village where a woman named martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called mary who sat at the lord's feet listening to what he said. But martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked lord don't you care that my sister has left me to do all the work. Tell her to help me. Martha martha the lord answered you are worried and upset about many things. But few things are needed. Or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better. And it will not be taken away from her. Story struck me because i thought jesus was being pretty unfair to me to martha. Again with the fairness issue. Because. I heard these first when i was a kid and that was really uppermost. However i didn't change my mind about this one. I am by nature. Ameri. I gravitate to the living room for interesting conversations game playing etc. But i have always recognized that we need marquez. My sister denise. Is mrsa. There were many many gatherings in her home. And she. Write it all the food etcetera so i had to. Remember to go in the kitchen. And help her. And this. Story from the bible actually help me to do that. And even though i'm telling my sister. Had to load the dishwasher herself. No one else can load her dishwasher she practically wash the dishes before she put them in there and they were in a certain spot but. She would let me help. In some manner. And these martha's really deserve our appreciation and and i just. Think jesus was not acknowledging that. Without knowing i was doing the service at prairie was kind of a service. Today my my daughter stopped by. To drop off a kid. With me for a week. We were just talking and she said. Should come from a gathering of her husband's family. South of chicago. And she said so i said how was it you that was okay. Should have told you i was in the kitchen helping i was being a martha. So apparently i impress that upon her but her growing-up years using. This story i don't remember i don't remember doing that but i did. Try to. Calicut some stories to augment their you you other good you used up they were learning. So. There are a couple of interpretations i found. Didn't make me change my mind exactly but. 4. The feminist one. From the. Women in the bible. net. They say. Mary sat and listened. This was the usual posture of a disciple of any teacher in the ancient world. What disciples were usually mail. So mary must have been quietly breaking the rule that reserve study for males not females. Her sister martha was not merely asking for help. She was demanding that married key to the traditional way of behaving. Jesus was ignoring the traditional role of women and encouraging married to think and learn. He upheld her right to listen. Think about ideas and 2 developer mind. She should not be limited to the task that society laid down for her but be allowed to access the access to ideas as jewish men were. Jesus had previously. Cuz we don't we don't remember this though encouraged the idea of service among his followers so he did not say that marquez roll-up service was unimportant. This would have got gone against all his other teaching. What he did say was that being a disciple and learning about the ideas he was explaining was even more important. Again i think this is a bit of a stretch but in a good way you know if you isolated. Because that's what we're remembering right now then it's different if you try to think. I can't necessarily. Corroborate that jesus was all about the martha's at other times but. Okay. Then here's one more excerpt from an essay by joel stuckey in unlocking the bible. Martha got a bum rap. We need both mary's and martha's. Balance. Say there's a death in your family. Mary will sit with you and put her arms around you while you weep. Now that didn't necessarily say that she was just sitting there listening but anyway. But you still have to eat. Martha's the one who brings you food and make sure someone waters the plants and walks the dog. Both of them are loving you. You need them both. I can easily spend an hour or more in devotions every morning. Sometimes i have to force myself to stop studying scripture so i can get other things done. That sounds very holy and spiritual doesn't it. But what if it makes me late for work. What if guests are coming my wife is left to do all the cleaning herself. What if i really needed to take the car to the shop and now there's no time. The issue isn't only whether jesus is a higher priority. Of course he is. But jesus would never want me to sit there reading all day while my house falls apart and my wife feels abandoned. Devotion can be an excuse for laziness. And allowing my life to become that imbalance. But not pleased the lord. And again i think both of those are. Interpretations coming from the christian left. They are definitely. Not you you interpretations they're not from yuyu sources there from christian sources. Catholic nuns. Who got a bus and they travel around the country and they are. Demonstrating for. Progressive causes. They are outside paul ryan's office and yelling at him i mean they really. Exactly what we all think the nuns on the bus thing and they just kind of compartmentalize at home abortion issue. Are they just say who cares about that. Let's not be talking about that. Because we're concerned about the poor the kids that are here already. And taking care of them and so we're not going to talk about that so how actually they get away with that. I don't know where their money comes from but i'm sure. That there is a lot of bishops that are not happy about the nuns on the bus. Things that we need to go back for. I just wanted to say that. Aaron i think we're going to need some sequels there many more stories you can bring us in obviously was of interest. Alright so quit your neighbors and join for coffee and conversation.

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Pr121125Ferber-ed.mp3

This morning we are pleased to have with us don ferber who will be giving a program on a talk on respecting wisconsin's environmental heritage. Dorothy crowsey well spider chalice lighting his fine and actually i've asked don to come up in and read it. Thank you. We stayed at a critical moment in earth's history. A time when humanity must choose its future. As the world becomes increasingly interdependent fragile. The future at once hold great peril and great promise. To move forward we must recognize that in the midst of a magnificent diversity of cultures. And life-forms we are one human family. In one earth community. With a common destiny. We must join together to bring forth a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature. Universal human rights economic justice. In a culture of peace. Towards this end it is imperative that we the peoples of earth. Declare our responsibility to one another. To the greater community wife into future generations. Thank you and that was the preamble for the earth charter. So christina was going to read this little introduction set 60-second spot addresses the current crisis we live in as an opportunity to assess and rethink about our lifestyle and values and then move forward to a shared vision of sustainability based on the values and principles of the earth charter. Now once the time for our program this morning and i would like to introduce them ferber done is an avid outdoors person with an appreciation for nature as a fan an advocate of aldo leopold and as a member of the community with nature and other people he believes that currently much of what we are doing is either unwise or unsustainable it doesn't bring us happiness and we need to take a different direction climate change. Thank you it's a pleasure to be here today appreciate being invited here to talk about this obviously it environmental issues run through the course of much of which you do here and are concerned about how much what we heard this morning and ended speak about. Having them here different so we also need two people to do the oversight do the studies to look over our lands because if we want them to take care of it a little bit of the spectrum of things. The economy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the environment i haven't heard many politicians. We need to return to something different i mean we've they've managed to frame the debate around business in the economy and certain precepts here that also that you know just helped the corporations out and. The production tax credits are actually at the general level that's something that's basically a subsidy for wind in general and it's not limited so that would be helpful across-the-board. Production tax credit is basically a payback guarantee on wind of the because the cost of wind power is the upfront installation and so actually it's competitive in terms of building new plan for building a coal power plant or whatever. It was great actually have to start with yourself and i so appreciate what you doing here when things we talked about the sierra club in telling your own story they have to start from within and you know i wish there were simpler. I really think it's if we've gotten to ourselves to stay overtime and i wish we could change things quickly but i think we have to really look at the basic underlying what's going on and you're returning just even going on the bus and you know. Both focus and energy which is statewide i know i don't know all the details i think he's sort of goes through utility a bit too intrusive how that works but basically it helps people to look at their own house and energy use and what you can do and provide support for that there's also a green master program that will provide. But for a lot of people it's also not knowing where to go or what steps you take what should i do so you have the resources you have the people that expertise and the connect you up to other people including contractors and so on that can do the work for you and so you know they can look at what you willing to do what your situation is insurance your house but most cost-effective. Madison has the medicine program throw the folks energy is released a wife soon as you can find some federal credits to or tax rebate. Selling more power for which we getting negative benefit in terms of healthcare costs in vernal damage that so. Consumption isn't just what you put in your mouth or maybe something you sit on rehab in your home you consume energy and thanks and gifts of other kinds of people. I just grew up where i got the travel especially in summers with my family and also my dad garden at home he grew up in new york city and so we ain't got to central illinois. So i developed an appreciation that doors go from guarding their butt from traveling otherwise i just. We get out nature and i really loved it it was a place of peace and respite and. I just appreciate the beauty that was there and. Even though sometimes nature can be noisy it's it's a very different sort than you get an urban area and i can appreciate so what's offered up his love for that. Let's wait staff get paid to be that get beaten up in part but. Thank you very much. i told don before we started that he would find a very receptive. Are closing words this morning will be read by dorothy crowsey letters b a time remembered for the awakening of a new reverence for life the firm resolve to achieve sustainability the quickening of the struggle for justice and peace and the joyful celebration of life i wanted to invite people to take this sheet home take a look at it now and again and keep good things in mind for the earth.

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Pr160117Ingham-ed.mp3

Good morning welcome to prairie unitarian universalist. Society. I am sandy ingham the. Consulting minister here and some mornings i do two service and some mornings. Someone from within our congregation does the service and some morning we have a speaker or presenter from outside of our congregation. If this is one of your first time here. Two thing three times. If i can remember them all. We encourage you to come more than once because our services are different every sunday. And we will have a place later on in the service which you'll see in your. Program here. For an introduction of guests and visitors week we try not to force you to do that if you'd like to do that that would be good. Prairie. Tries to be. Open-hearted open-minded we welcome you no matter what your color your ethnicity your sexual orientation or gender no matter where you are on the spiritual or religious journey we welcome you. During well concords and maybe of our socializing time we'll have a very very brief. Discussion not not even a discussion presentation. Of a four issues that our general assembly is going to consider which one to pick. In june so we'll have more about that later but i urge you to stay it's an informational meeting and we will try to keep it very very short. These then are the opening words. They were written by. George de benavidez. A universalist minister. They were written sometime in the mid-to-late 1770s. Our universalist faith is essentially the combined face of all christians. As no church is pure in all things. So none can be found. That does not contain some truth. Glorious truths are found in every church and religion under the sun. And this glorious chain of truth. We believe. Will someday unite all of them. Into one form of love. Please like the chalice. These words. Were written by universalist mary livermore. When she was 85 years old. And i would have been at the very end of the 1800s beginning of the. 1900. And she was a famous speaker during that this time. then i'll be talkin about the minute she right. False early conceptions darkened my childhood and youth. She's talking about her. I'm very calvinist very strict hellfire and damnation. Religious upbringing. This face in universalism during the years that i have believed it has grown up on me until it is the central thing in me. I do not engage in anything that is not as i see it the outcome of this face. Might later comprehension has given me a noble and abiding faith in human destiny i am happy that i may still lend a hand to the week. And struggling or strike a blow for the right against the wrong. The reading i would like to share with you this morning is called acquitted of universalism. And it's by a unitarian universalist minister robert walsh. In the newspaper there was a story about a seminary professor in kansas city. Who was put on trial by the southern baptist. Accused of being a universalist. No wonder they were suspicious. You had stated publicly his belief. That all people born into the world are children of god. And as if that were not enough. He also supported the ordination of women. Case closed. The professor denied the charges. I'm not a universalist he said. And he convinced them. After four hours of deliberation they voted 10:39 to let him keep his job. Now i confess to being a universalist rights walsh. In fact i am a unitarian universalist. But i wonder. If i were arrested and charged with being one. Would there be enough evidence to convict me. The kansas city story proves that having the right belief is not enough. The professor believe that all people are brothers and sisters. That every person has a piece of the divine spark. That women are the equals of men in the sight of god. That was not enough to bring in a guilty verdict. No. If they are going to pin unitarian-universalism on me. They will have to be able to show that i participated in and supported a unitarian universalist church. That is the only way to be sure. Belief no matter how noble. Must be embodied. In a living institution. Or they will have no convincing. Power. Today's service. It's made possible. Because of the lives of those universalist. Who have gone before us. Showing us a path. Away. To bring more light into the world. Why do we bother. To tell their stories. Well several reasons one. I told you in. November i told you a lot of stories. For dinner november. The only stories i told you then. Were. Stories about. Unitarians. I was talking and then in late november about that great cloud of witnesses that surrounds us and certainly martin luther king junior is one of those. Today it is the universal astern. Of course another reason is. I don't want to lose the knowledge. Of our universalist past. As john durrance road in the introduction to his book. A people's history. Universalist unitarians in america. Our contemporary struggles. To fulfill our promise as a religious movement. And to do a better job. Of influencing the culture. Around us. Toward justice. Need a better understanding of struggles. In the past. We have not always been realistic about our own powers. After all as philosopher george santayana. I'm not sure i say his name correctly. Conversation very often. But you i think most of you've heard of him his mother happened to bene. Boston unitarian. Rc wants put it in probably. All familiar with his quote. Those who cannot remember the past. Are condemned to repeat it. And then. Another reason to tell the stories of these. Universalist. Did you look at the quote at the top of your order of service. Martin luther king jr told us. By the way i. Spoke last year. For the entire time on this quote. It's a little-known quote of martin luther king. My friends. There are some things in our nation and in our world to which i'm proud to be maladjusted. And i call upon you to be maladjusted. And all people of good will to be maladjusted to these things until the good society is realized. What is especially good to remember what king had to teach up. On the weekend when we celebrate his birthday. Being maladjusted is something to be proud of. Knowing the stories about those from our tradition and heritage who are also maladjusted. Might just help us get out of bed in the morning and keep on keepin on. Universalist said lewis fisher then dean of rider divinity school in chicago are often asked to tell where they stand. The only true answer is that we do not stand at all. We move. So let's start with some information about ben veal. Who's responsible for. Today's opening words and who has been called the first preacher of universalism in america. It is 17:22. In northern. And two young men have been arrested and charged with preaching heresy. Heresy being any religious opinion not approved by the church. And or the steak. One penalty for this was death by hanging. And one of those two prisoners twenty-four-year-old george durant not our george. Find up on the scaffold saying a song and supposedly joyfully died. Because he preferred death to life without religious liberty. But the other prisoner our spiritual ancestor georgia been deal. Have been given a slightly different punishment. The habit. That beheading. Was apparently a privilege. During this time in france but only available to those who are of noble birth. But she was. I don't know hanging headache. Hanging. I don't know. He got on the scaffold. Maybe slightly urban legend. But i found the same story. How does hands tied together refused an offer of a blindfold now had his head on the block. Fat executioner right there with the ax man on horseback. With a message from king louie the 15th. It was a reprieve. H h george had connections in the royal. Event view was the youngest of nine children. His mother had twins four times in four years. When she had george and then she died. Fortunately for us. Jorge cervantes birth and then he survived his beheading. And he eventually made it to america. In 1741 after a few more imprisonments in france and then. Some safer preaching in holland and germany. In this country he became a physician. That we would continue to preach. And. He was a missionary of sorts i guess if we could use that work. It was intriguing to me that depends beetle spend a lot of time teaching and. Preaching in western pennsylvania which is where i grew up. More intriguing to me was the fact that the band view spent a lot of time. Practicing medicine and teaching. In various indian tribes. He became well-known as a physician and during the battle of germantown in the revolutionary war when he was 75. He helped the wounded from both the american and the british. We have to wonder. What made the benneville. So scary. At least. In england and france. Head down. Why were the powers-that-be both within the church and the crown. So afraid of this man. Who believed that we are all equal in the sight of god. I think we are still asking that question about our heroes. Why were people so afraid. A jesus why were people so afraid of martin luther king. We can do a whole service and more on this question. I think that what really makes these people. I'm talking about this morning and our other heroes really scary. Is it they were people of action. They put their beliefs into practice in their daily lives. Can't really be scarier frightening to anyone if we. Do a voice arf police. Anyone else let alone take them out into the real world and. Trying to help others try to make the world a fair. More just place. Universalism can be hard to define. You fought unitarian was a tough. We when you get into the realm of of universal love. Universal small you. And a universal church that would encompass all belize. There's an element. A strong element. Of mysticism. And there is an element of mysticism within universalism. And this. Often does include the concept that we're part of the earth. Hence our first him. Now i don't have time this morning to really get into this but. Just leave you with one enticing tidbit spiritualism. With a capital s. Enters the picture. When we're trying to understand. What the universal for doing in the early 1800s. But the important thing for this morning's to notice two parts of our universalist background. The importance of putting our beliefs into practice. Making the mean something in the real world and the second thing how the universal is were always. Always expanding. The definition of what it means to be human and who should be included. In that. Circle of humanity. You're always making the circle. Wyd. Another universe list of this era. The revolutionary war times. Someone you probably heard of benjamin rush. He wrote the first official statement of universal universalist beliefs which i did not know. But that was written by benjamin rush he if we know him because he signed the declaration. Panda. He. Was opposed to slavery. He was concerned for. Presence he was very much into prison reform people are all going to be way ahead of their time. He had a passion for peace. And he was involved in work. Poor. He was very concerned about an interested in mental illness which. Was unusual. Not mental illness because. Concern for. Then there's abner kneeland. I don't know if any of you ever heard of abner nealon. But he was all that we can call him a defrost. Pantheist. He was a champion of civil liberties he's a least a century ahead of his time he was born into a baptist family. Money if you know this i hope that the universalists in our country. And you can trace universalism back to. Wayback. Beginning of the modern era a back to jesus's time. But the universalists in this country many of them came out of the baptist traditional. Neyland was born into a baptist family became an itinerant baptist preacher when he was in his early twenties but then he discovered the writings of a manning of hammond winchester was also a former baptist we becoming universalist. Van halen. Hosea ballou mentioned famous universalist an. Baloo was his mentor. Well by the time he was in his mid-thirties nilan had lost two wives and was having a crisis. Particularly about the authority of the bible and even about the existence of the biblical thought about the 1800. How important this is was to many many people the authority of scripture and house to be interpreted. Well the problem was that. Out of the out of this despair that avenue nederland was was. Feeling and facing. He came out of that it came out of that and got a bid universalist congregation in philadelphia a third wife and he start working at a manic pace for religious and social change. He wants debated in public a presbyterian minister for 4 days. Which was melee and i didn't have computers and debates were a common form of entertainment but the subject of that debate. Weather universalist theology is biblically-based. I don't know how long any of us would have lasted not for four days. The problem wasn't challenging the authority of the bible at this time risk being called an infidel. You could debate the interpretation. If you're universals for you and caring but you could not. Debate. The inspiration of scripture. It was god. .. Anyone left philadelphia for congregation in new york city and. While there he invited a woman named. Fanny right. Fanny right was co-founder. An interracial. In nashoba tennessee. And when she spoke. All hell broke loose so to speak. Even though the universal supposedly didn't. This was 1825. Nederland was suspended from ministerial fellowship. He went to boston where he started the society free inquires. 2000 people came. To these lectures of his. He sometimes openly scoffed at the bible. And they held dances on wednesday evening he was in trouble. Eroded freed in which he proclaimed i am not an atheist. Capital a. But a pantheist. Capitol peak. That is instead of believing there is no god i believe that in the abstract all is. Thought. He was indicted for the crime of blasphemy. His real crime was probably that he challenged. The social hierarchy. Supported equal rights for women and equality of the races. He suggested that women keep their own names and bank accounts. He supported out loud and in public birth control. Divorce. An interracial marriage. Remember when he lived the time frame. He's doing this in the 1830s. The prosecutor at his first trial for blasphemy was the unitarian. So what's the job. So was the defense attorney. Leland was convicted he appealed there were two more trials each resulted in. Hung jury. After a fourth trial for the judge of the supreme judicial court was yet another unitarian kneeland was sentenced to 60 days in jail. For being a blasphemer. I don't want to neglect the women this would be a good time to mention lydia and moulton jenkins women women in those days and had four names. She was really the first. Woman to be ordained by an organized church. You thought it was olympia brown didn't you. No second one we don't hear much about our even know a lot about lydia jenkins we do know that she was pro minister with her husband. In. Clinton new york and the universalist church. So she was actually ordained by the ontario association. Of universal it's in 1858. A few years before olympia brown. A lot of speculation that. She kind of slipped in there it's being ordained. Partly because nobody paying attention to the ontario association is ontario new york. Of a universalist and partly because she was coming a string with her husband. So i think they kind of. And i'm not going to skip most of the rest of this. Time. But i do want to honor our universal. Heritage. But there are just so many fascinating universalist in this time. you may have heard of pt barnum. Who did not say there's a sucker born. Apparently he was way too nice. And two,. And much too much of a true universalist to a said that. You may also recognize the name horace greeley. Who did say. So. He pried heard it from somebody else. Go west young man go west. And grow up with the country. I suspect you might think that you never heard of the seven washburn brothers. But you mind if i don't want it. 7 washburn brothers lived in the 1800s. Almost all seven of them were in politics. From the middle of the 1800's on. The force. Brother in those seven brothers. His name was. Cadwallader. Washburn. Craft parents are running out of. Cadwallader represented wisconsin. Poetry terms in congress. Was a major general at vicksburg. And then he was governor of wisconsin. Washburn. Members first name. In his spare time he was a businessman who i'm on other things founded. The gold medal flour general mills. The youngest of those seven brothers william founded universalism in minneapolis. And he was supposed to congressman and us senator from our neighboring state. Frances dana barker gage. Help get one of the first women's rights bills passed and having to be in ohio. This woman. She lived from 1808 to 1884 she went to the sea islands of south carolina. I didn't know there was. In 1863 to train freed. Slaves. The things they don't teach you in high school. Or even in college. And while there she met someone named clara barton. The universalist did not have another member of the clergy arrested for blasphemy as. Abner. However. Herman bisbee. Was accused of heresy. In the 1870s something tried by the minnesota state convention of universal found guilty and then removed from the universalist ministry. Even though his congregation in st anthony minnesota supported him and his preaching his crime. He was one of the few universalist transcendentalist. He did return to ministry but this time with the unitarian. As i said i'm going to skip most of this a little distracted. Because of rosemary's,. Rose marie's comments. About not doing anything about martin luther king and so in the back of my mind. I've been debating this. I've been debating whether to say anything further at this moment. I can't speak for the entire program committee. But my recollection of. Converse on the program committee. Pregnancy by the weight of the fantastic. Depending on here. Penny eyler is chair is. Is probably paying her. She does so much. I. We talked about of course what we would do. And then. Leslie at the schedule is falling together in different ways and and has i had. Realize that i had said i would do a follow-up on the cloud of witnesses the people of influence us. And emphasize the universalist. We remember.. That february is black history month. Now we don't. Give. Much. Time to that in our congregations i don't think we concentrate on the weekend of martin luther king's birthday. That's good. But we decided that we would have our black service and i am extremely embarrassed to say this. And say it this way because it sounds coming into my head because think about this. We do want service up here for martin luther king i'm sorry rosemary but that doesn't cut it and people are so used to. Of course we're going to do something that weekend that we thought we'd upset it a bit. And do a service in february. The february 14th happens to be the date that we are doing a little more on black history. I don't know how to deal with that. And i'm just sorry that. Some of you may have come here today it's affecting something about martin luther king jr and i would never ever want to sleep martin luther king jr.. Or anybody. I did. Think about repeating service that i did last year. Did you notice where martin luther king. Send that quote that's at the top of your order service he said it at the ware lecture. Which is a big part of general assembly our unitarian universalist association general assembly. And very recently someone found in the archives a little book about. Other other things kingpin other clothes. Quinoa instead.. Except for that rather huge part about accepting jesus as your savior he was a unitarian. So we certainly had a spiritual connection to king i think they still do i hope. Anyway that's enough of all that. We have sunday to do we have. Something to talk about. The issues in the action. At this is a tough subject. This is hard. Mostly just want to cry the moment. Because this is hard. And mcdonald out of be. I ordered you to go to the workshop yeah more words more work at james reid in march. Or maybe this came out of the shooting of tony robinson. Not the particular subject matter. Beyond. The program who are your neighbors was already in place. Long before tony robinson wichita. But this came. Having a here came out of. When the youth answers. As i was putting this together i found i was going more in the direction of. Stories about universalist cuz i'd already done that with unitarian. Sorry i decided never enough time. Not to give any history but you're absolutely right that was. Because as i said many universalist came out of the baptist tradition where they couldn't believe that a loving god. Would ever condemn anyone. To everlasting hellfire and damnation hence we would all be safe and again it's cultural. This was we i don't think we can quite grasp. How much. How important that was to people in the 1700's and. So and they were eventually a victim of their own success. The universal is capital u. Because other people in other denomination starting that makes so much more sense. That we will all be saved because god is a loving god. And so within the baptist tradition and within the methodist and presbyterian cuz they start saying yes. With one caveat. They were talking about you would all be safe within that denomination. After reciting certain priest. So yes the point thank you. In a follow-up you know. Service. What happened to all those most most of those little churches but heaven forbid that they should tell anybody about it. State well texting thing we have now. Right. States make laws. That. Legalizing marijuana. Pic of sorts of fallout about the money you make from selling your marijuana you can't put it in federal bank because it's. It's a federal offense. So. What's what's a surprise me that he was. Tried. Even convicted. What's. Prince me was that he eventually did go to prison for 60 days and there weren't you know. So i don't know i'd have to look into. Let's go question. The closing words are actually found in the back of a hymnal number 704 you might want to look at those while i read a different slightly different. Version. This original version by john murray the one the back of the hymnal. Was written in. The late 1700s expanded version was written by a unitarian minister in 1950. So i'm into the highways and byways of america your new country. Give the people blanketed with a decaying and crumbling calvinism. Something of your nuvision. You may possess only a small light. Uncover it let it shine use it in order to bring more light and understanding to the hearts and minds of men. And women isn't in either version. 704 in the box been amended. Give them not hell. Butthole. Encourage. Do not push them deeper into their. Theological despair. But preach the kindness and everlasting love. Go in peace eat soup. Coffee fruit your neighbor.

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Pr140921Ingham-ed.mp3

Good morning. Welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society. No matter who you are no matter the color of your skin no matter your. Sexual preference no matter your sexual identity no matter where you are on this wonderful journey of life you are welcome here if this is one of your first times here we urge you to come back again because our services can be very different. Palm sunday mornings they are done by b&b consulting minister here at prairie. Some sundays are done by people within the congregation then occasionally we have outside. Speakers. Hello my name is holly telling her i'm the new director of religious education. i've met many of you i haven't met all of you yet but i'm looking forward to it. Today is my first soup sunday and i can tell that i'm going to enjoy it because i can smell that i'm going to enjoy it but i'm already actually looking forward to our next sunday which is sunday october 19th and the reason we are going to be participating in the 40th annual madison crop walk. If you've never heard of the crop walk before it's a. It's a fundraising effort to raise money to end hunger worldwide and also here in madison some of the money does stay here in madison the re-program his kind of decided to spearhead this event and we are setting a goal of $500. And the preschool class is here today to show you our thermometer. The students will have pledge forms and they may come in leave them in your face until we argue to help us out not only financially but also next sunday on the 19th to walk with us there is an option for a 1-mile walk and a 3-mile walk will have service and then soup. And then hopefully a lot of us will join the walk last year there were three families at walk-in weave. A bitter gold. So. You beautiful little faces would like to see you on sunday 19th at 19th and they would like you to sign our thermometer when you. Offerup ledge and. Thank you very much for supporting re thank you very much. The opening words then are these. Come let us worship together. Let us open our minds to the challenge of reason. Open our hearts to the healing of love. Open our lives to the calling of conscience. Open our souls to the comfort. Of joy. Astonished by the miracle of life. Grateful for the gift of companionship. Confident. In the power of living faith. We are here gathered. Come. Let us worship. Together. We gather this hour. As people of faith. With joys and sorrows gifts and needs. We'd like this beacon of hope. Sign of our quest for truth. And meaning. In celebration of the life. We share. Together. The reading that i would like to share with you this morning. Was written by unitarian you actually universalist unitarian minister. Richard gilbert. Title interesting. But is it worship. He writes. In a culture where experience is pre-packaged. Where images flipped across electronic screens. We're push-button learning and dial and experience are in vogue. Worship. Is a live event. There is no film to be wasted on the cutting room floor. No opportunity to rehearse and rehearse. Until it is just. Right. No computers to feedback information. There is only time. For singular human beings. Tumi. Intouch. And law. To share. Concern. Do celebrate the mystery of being. Being. Together. There can be no posturing. No pretending here. We bring our naked selves for encounter. With ourselves. And with the ultimate. We bring our loneliness. And our mutual ality. Our hurt. And our heroics. Our attempts at sagewood. And our failures that human hood. Hoping for some holy transformation that will make us. Whole again. That will send us from this place. With spirit soaring. To that holy realm of bliss. Foretold of old. Worship. Is living loving hurting healing. Questioning answering. Together. Worship. Is ally. Events. Worship. Concludes. Unitarian. Universalist unitarian. Minister richard gilbert because he was born and raised universalist. Worship is living loving hurting healing questioning answering. Together. Worship is a live event. For gilbert worship happens right now. In the present. The worship experience. Being live. Cannot be pre-packaged pre-screen rehearsed more dependent on a computer. Gilbert wrote this in the late 1980s. Before we were all tether to our electronic devices. Evan suppose not mean we shouldn't plan our services. Gilbert is speaking to the need for authenticity and integrity in warship. In other words authentic worship demands that there be nothing between us. And the raw facts of life. The true nature of life. The opposite i would suggest of what many religions have taught. Throughout history. Worship is a live event there is only time for singular human beings to meet and touching love to share concerns to celebrate the mystery of being. Well i would add. When experiencing a worship full momo. There's only time for singular human beings to experience the wonder. Of the world first. Han. Whether that experience be hiking into grand canyon. Or walking around the block near your home. Or having a meaningful rich conversation with another person or reading a poem that seems to be speaking to you. Directly. Gilbert maybe saying that worship can only happen in the company of others. My experience has been that there are many ways in which we as individuals. Experience. Worshipful moments. Worship requires paying. Giving our attention. Our whole attention. As much as possible. Do something that is worthy of our attention. Well what is worthy. Of our attention what does the word worship mean. To you. What comes to mind when you hear that word. Bowing your head. Bending your knees. Paying homage to a supernatural being. Think about all the things that people do worship i'm not talking about religious objects. Of worship but secular ones. What do people find worthy of their attention. Football. Chopping drugs alcohol. To name a few. We worship these. Funny. Questionable things don't we. In varying degrees that is if we're talking about those things to which we give a lot of our attention. Before i say more about worship i'll give you a quick review of what i said about language during the two services i did in august. And then after this morning i'm finished. At least for a while with my contemplation of words that are often difficult or problematic. For unitarian universalist to use. Haven't planned to have these reflections on language turn into a three-part series. But they did. Venice i said i wanted those other sunday this conversation about language will never be over. Paulding of course. In that first part in mid-august as many of you will recall i came to what might be considered a startling conclusion for a humanist minister to reach. Pat is. We are a religious organization. The foundation of any faith community and we are a faith community. Is. Religion. Of course i'm not using the words religion or religious. In the popular sense. I mean something much broader. When i use these words i am referring to a universal human desire. The human need for connection. And for wholeness. Wholeness. Illustrate i use the quote from unitarian universalist minister galen the ridge senior minister at the unitarian church of all souls in manhattan. I obviously am not the only uu minister who has come to these conclusions. Here is that quote. No matter how difficult our circumstances. Or how dire our situation. We need a way to pull everything together. And celebrate holness. We need to affirm what is true. Cherish what is beautiful. And embrace what is. Lovely. The necessity of religion emerges from this. Deep-seated. And long-standing human needs. For connection and wholeness. Uber rich also says. Religion is the process of taking everything. Everything we know into account. To create a life of meaning. Everything we know into account as we forge a life of meaning and purpose. Almost borders on mysticism. Just fine with me i like to tap into the inner mystic whenever i can. Note the absence of any god language here. There is no reference to a supernatural being in this definition of religion. We as unitarian universalist. Are in a unique position to do this to take everything we know. In two accounts to create. A life of meaning and purpose. Because. Always have tried to do this. In our attempt to make our religion our faith tradition. Current and relevant. To the times in which we live. After all ours is the living tradition. Counterintuitive as that may sound. Using these broader more conferencing definitions of the words religion and religious i reached another conclusion not so startling but one that i think unitarian-universalist too often overlooked. Our belief in the living traditions gives us or should give us an edge. In attracting other freethinkers. Who's long for community connection holness but who are searching for such a place that gives new meaning and definition to such words as. Religion. Face. We are not going to grow if we are reluctant to you so-called traditional language to explain who we are and what we are all about. In a world where 61% of americans. Believe. In the virgin birth. Compared to only 45% who believe in evolution. We have a lot to offer. To people who are searching. For a religious. Home. For a faith tradition that makes. Send. By defining words rationally. Reasonably. Broadly. No talking about words that we don't want to use. Can be risky in unitarian-universalist circles. In our struggle not to alienate anyone we often don't do a very good job of communicating. With those in our congregations whose religious or theological beliefs. Are different from our own. Becoming comfortable with so-called religious language is one way to do this. After all it's a quote at the top of your order service says. Why do. Go out on a limb. That's where the fruit is. The fruit in this case is the richness of language. The complexity of words that we too often avoid and ignore. In the second part of my reflections on language admit it august. I chose four words that i hope we can learn to use comfortably. By giving them broader more meaningful definition the four words are these reverence. Religion religious. Face. Are you students are universalist minister reverend kendall gibbons definition of reverence. She maintains and i agree that reverence is among other things. Our response to nature. Our reaction to stories of courageous people who fought for justice for beauty for an end to oppression. Stories that bring a lump to your throat. Whenever you get a lump in your throat or a whisper in your heart is given you are experiencing reverence. Which by the way. Must be experienced. To be authentic as opposed to have having someone tell you. What is rougher. Religion means to bind. As in forming a community. That's all. I wanted the best definitions that i have. Ever seen for the word. Religious. Thanks to the prophetic sisterhood from our history. Means. Possessing a fundamental reverence for life. Simple. I turn to rev the rich again for help with the word face. He maintains that. Space. Looks at what is. And imagine what might be. A leap of the moral imagination compelling us to build a bridge from what is path. To what is possible. And a dispensed faith is a commitment to live with the belief that life is a wondrous mystery. Love is divine that we are responsible for the well-being of those around us. Well for me was trying to be active in social justice issues all my life these are fighting words. Words that can sustain us in the difficult seemingly never-ending work of healing a broken world. So what about this word worship. Bratz we should approach it from a slightly different angle rather than considering whether or not we are comfortable using the word maybe we should consider whether or not worship is something we do when we gather on sundays ignoring or regardless of our feelings about the actual word. Worship here are two definitions of worship. That are compatible with my belief. The first one from webster's new collegiate dictionary. Worship as a noun. Extravagant respect. Or admiration for or devotion to. An object of esteem. And then this worship as a verb. To regard with great even extravagant respect honor or devotion. See. Revere. I believe that worship should be a quiet experience. I mean the outcome should leave us quieted. Calmer. More peaceful. Because there can be no noise deliberately noisy parts. In a good worship service. Worship at its best. Kenexa. Do everything to the others in the room to our unitarian universalist sisters and brothers all over the world to that interdependent web. Worship connects us not only to the silence. How's the world but also enables us to hear the still small voice within us. As well as. The cries the prayers the dreams the size of the world. I can understand why i said my sister. As we sat on a picnic table watching the moonrise the full moon. Over the cliffs at the bottom of grand canyon. I can understand why. She said. The ancient people worship. The moon. My sisterly. Agnostic. Family. I'm pretty sure that she would not fall on her knees. To worship much of anything. Did i knew exactly what she meant. Guys mind. It's the it's the. All the dreams all the deers all the size all the prayers. They are yours. Mine and theirs. Do you hear. Do you hear. We did. We did. We heard. All of the ancient pueblo and people. As we watch that moonrise. Over those cliffs. Exactly as those people's had done. Thousands. Of years. Beguile. Trying to define worship reminds me of what is often said about trying to define pornography. Pretty hard to define it but you know it. When you see it works.. Has to be a certain amount of all involved for true worship to occur. Kind of on wonder i am talking about here is the kind of on wonder you find in the very young. Worship for me involves a reaction that's a very young have to just about everything. Think of one two three year olds. Their whole life is one big worship service. Worship is an activity here on sunday morning should be both something that we want to do and that we want to do well. Given the fact that we struggle with the word worship i was somewhat surprised to find that learning how to plan a worship service is a major component of the training we do at our leadership school. And i found it more than a little amusing that one of my main duties when i was a staff member at one of those leadership schools for a couple of summers midwest leadership school was to give the keynote address. The opening speech which was supposed to be about worship. I was told that my presentation and worship was very important. And would set the tone for the entire week. May scoff at the word worship we may even resist the idea of a concept of worship occurring on sunday mornings in the unitarian universalist setting. If you're we are. Gathered here in the mystery of the hour. Gathered here in one strong body. In the very back of our hymnals on page 669 immediately following the metrical index of tunes. There is a section titled. Topical index of hymns. For some reason that i don't understand there is no topic with a heading worship yet if you were to turn to page 198. In the hymnal the big main hymnal you would find a section of him's labeled worship. According to the descriptive word at the bottom of the page. In fact hymns classified as worship can be found from pages 198 through 213 even though they can't be found. Perfect evidence clear proof of arkansas and attitude about the word worship. We worship in the here and now as a community of like-minded fellow travelers on the journey to find meaning in life. On the quest to understand what being human means come and go with me as we sang in the opening him as a body we come together to explore the mystery of life's the puzzles the quandaries the tensions. The polarities. And we do all this without a script. Without a dog mode without a creed. Without doctrines. And because of this thief our religious right accuses us of being a. False. Church. With false doctrine. Perhaps we should point out to them that they needn't worry about us spreading false doctrines because we don't have any doctrine. Nevertheless we strive to have joyful meaningful. Bonding sunday morning services we don't even need a church building. To do this. I'm not at another time i will tell you about the worship services at midwest leadership school and that is indeed what we call them worship services. Where the students are divided into six groups and asked to plan a service and random drawings determine which group goes which night you have only 24 hours to prepare well so you get the last troops. They were all amazing and they were all very different. Every. Service was. Successful. One of them. What the topic was unheard voices and we were all invited to speak for someone or something that is unable to speak for itself such as animals refugees abuse children. The second night was completely different. This service was held outside we sang i seek the spirit of a child we sang itsy bitsy spider was fine it was light-hearted it wasn't frivolous. And then there was a marian wright edelman reading some of you will be familiar with her and her defensive children. Work. The work they all work. Each one of them was truly worship service but not every single person in every single service felt they've been to worship service. Not everyone gets it on sunday mornings either. And. Maybe at a wedding or child dedication or immoral service. Everyone gets it and buy gets it i mean. Experiencing a sense of wonder or joy. Or sora. Being in the moment in the presence of each other tapping into the mystery of life. The goal of a successful worship service is to have as many people as possible get it. You can't exactly plan for this to happen there's a certain amount of spontaneity involved of magic if you will mcwraps mystery is a better word the moment of worship occurs when at least some of the following happens cares leave us. We feel a part of something larger than ourselves. We get a glimpse of the incredible interconnectedness. And interdependence of everything. We feel joy. We feel gratitude. We feel a sense of community. We experienced deep sadness. For the state of the world. We experience humility. We are calm. We are peaceful. Notice i mentioned humility. When i wrote the blurb for the september newsletter describing today's service i said never would have good unitarian universalist seriously kneel down in front of anything or anyone. Rereading that i thought. Where does humility enter. Into worship then or into a sunday morning service if we are reluctant to kneel down before any thing or anyone and i'm very reluctant. How do we express or even recognize humbleness. Are we willing to at least bow our heads. Before the mysteries and wonders of life. Worship is where the poet and the believer meet in us. And i don't mean the believer increase and dogmas i mean the believer in life. Life with all its contradictions. It's tragedies. It's on answered and perhaps unanswerable question i mean the believer in the journey. The believer who is sometimes filled with awe. Over the mist recent the lights of this world. I mean the believer who is sometimes filled with agony. And despair over the evil and sadness in the world. I need off. Members of free church. A true church a church that has remained true to freethinkers. Skeptic. Cenex humanists christians buddhist atheist diagnostics pagans wiccans and many many others for centuries. Our literature is whatever. We. Choose to make it. Our texted everywhere. How fortunate we are to be members of a free church. Our future work is cut out for us we have to learn how to use words like worship. 2 min. What that what we know they can meet in the very best sense we have to gather the courage to stand up for what we believe in. Shout it out. How did out there be proud of this tradition we have to be. Missionaries. Another forbidden word. We have to be proud to have to celebrate who we are and we have to cherish this freedom we have because. We live in a world that feels. Threatened. By this kind of freedom and would destroy it. You need to remember. We are heirs to a long strong defiant tradition. We come together to have meaningful services whether we define them as worship or not services that give us the strength we need to do this. By being part of this community we prepare ourselves to be open to the mystery and. All inspiring moments of life and to remember to give thanks to our heritage. So let us worship. Here on sunday mornings yes but out there in the everyday world as well. By our actions and our commitment to building a loving caring. Just. And free world. And i don't. Buy green actually. With a great deal of what you're saying. Man i i would just. Repeat but i am trying to broaden these definitions but you're not going to suddenly hear me. Talking about worship. We are using that word. And i my i hope i made the points that. If we are going to attract more people we might want to have a broader spectrum of line. To talk about words and how we use them. We need to follow through with that. But i think if we're going to be relevant in today's world we need to somehow have a response. Do people who are seeking. Which for me is say this is what we say. Faith is. And worship is. But to-be-continued and i think. Can't you already standing up. The closing words a poem by mary oliver titled mysteries yes truly we live with mysteries too marvelous to be understood. How grass can be nourishing in the mouths of the lambs. How rivers and stones are forever in allegiance with gravity while we ourselves dream of rising. How to hands touch and the bonds will never be broken how people come from the light. Or the scars of damage. To the comforts of a poem. Let me keep my distance. Always. From those who think they have the answers. Let me keep company always with those who say. Look. And laugh in astonishment. And bowser heads. Going pee street your neighbor eat soup.

uuprairie_org

Pr960225Farley-ed.mp3

Welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society tavares a member of the unitarian universalist association of independent society of independent congregation and society does things its own way we roll a ledge road. Providing religious education for youth k280 program committee organizes and presents are programs on sunday mornings for adults and. Prison prison. I just want to mention something on thursday night we had an all committee meeting here a. We did a spaghetti dinner and then hit some socializing then got on the committee business. And that you're going to be a fun time and indeed it was so for those in the next quarter we're going to try it again and we really got a lot of work done and had a great time to boot so. I welcome this morning. The challenge lighting jean farley will be done for today please play imagine market i had to ask bob what gliding men. Because this was new to me and really said then really presents something to. And so i'd like to. Dedicated the concept of the chalice lighting. Do this planet we all share. All of us of all races all religions all creed. Do this to manatee which we are parked into our. Community dark world communities our national community our family community and the communities that we live in and are activated. Hopefully we can pay attention to all of these because we are a part of a whole. And when any part is suffering we all suffer so that i'd like to dedicate it to. Helping. Each other helping others and helping. All and this planet was relive. Reported this morning to have the doctor dean farley with us. Will be presenting a talk health community. What we say and what we do. Dr. farley was the former head of the family practice medicine at the uw. Medical school hair. And i. Until very recently a candidate for the 2nd congressional district still he is welcome doctor carlos. And the topic i chose is one that i think is essential to our very existence. And why i titled it community what we say and what we do. Because. As i talked about community i'm going to be talkin we have to think in terms of our world community our national community. Do the american community. Are shared responsibilities for each other. And how do we as individuals. Families and other groups. Best fulfill these responsibilities when millions of people are concerned. You hear the rhetoric that we can do it ourselves. And what is ourselves if our self is singular we cannot do it that starts with sl. But it takes ourselves. And and mass. To help resolve some of the problems which others face. And which we ourselves face. The start because obviously i feel the government our government is a place where we can start. To make sure we assume our shared responsibility as member of a community to help. Improve our country in this world. Marian wright edelman it's because i think she's just so well we need to stop talkin about government as something divorced from us. Our government is our public home. This is the way in a democracy that we express community and national national values. When government cared and responded the problems. We had an enormously important impact. And that is weed when government cares which is us. We have a major impact. Yep and you listen to listen to the rhetoric today and let's get rid of government let's we get us ourselves so that we can have very little say in the united way as to how we respond as a people. I keep thinking what we listen to everyday. And i'm going to read you some things that everyone of us here or say at least once a day. But maybe don't hear it everyday but we almost are things there what messages that we just believe in like gospel. All men are created equal. They are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. Among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This secure these rights. Governments are instituted among men. Deriving their just powers from the consent of the government. It i mean of the government it is the government which can represent us as the people hello we can't do it. Nothing we here. How many places say the pledge to the flag canibu speaking spoke to quanah and optimist clubs this week. Are we started out with the pledge to the flag and i point it out. What do we say one nation. Indivisible. Not many not 50 different states but one nation indivisible we are one people. With liberty and justice for all. We have to give meaning to these things we say everyday. In america the beautiful who sang one of these things. 9 alabaster cities gleam undimmed by human tears do we really mean. Yep we staying thine alabaster cities green undimmed by human tears. And then we say crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea do we really mean it we have to mean it. Die will be done on earth as it is in heaven the lord's prayer i think obviously otherwise it'll be different. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us do we really mean it at the very dangerous statement we're going to bomb out of anybody who we disagree with what we say. And the government of the people by the people and for the people. Is this the government of the people by the people and for the people. When 63% of those eligible to vote last time. Did not vote. 130 / 7 per cent of those eligible to vote voted 19% of those eligible to vote. Put in the very right-wing conservative congress we have today is that a government of the people and by the people and for the people. I say it is not. Other messages we hear less often but we same as leave there then this you here in the jewish center you hear it in christian tradition love your neighbor as yourself. We have been so focusing on love yourself. We have to love our neighbor and the neighbor isn't just the person next door or the person like me. The person i have to love may be as different than i as anyone could be but we have to start to think what does this mean. And then one that we talked about but seldom here and which i think is the basis for our government. Is we the people of the united states. In order to form a more perfect union. Establish justice. Insure domestic tranquility. Provide for the common defense. Promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. Do hereby ordain and establish this constitution of the united states of america. If we recognize that that was how you interpret the constitution in the context of that. We would say the businesses government is different than we say it is today we said the business we got to balance the budget get off of people's back. Don't give me any regulations. Big business. Control. If we believe our constitution we have to pay attention to that preamble. And now going to give up more quotes and i'll get off by sporting stuff. Messages more often heard in the past less often heard today with many unthinking doubters. The test of our progress is not whether we add to the abundance of those who have much. Is whether we provide enough enough to those who have too little. That was in the 1930s of franklin delano roosevelt. A free society cannot help the many who are poor. It cannot save the few for a rich. That's in the 1960s. With john f kennedy. And the real enemy of genuine free antibiotic enterprise is monopoly capitalism. The group that is constantly absorbing small business. An industry making it impossible for the average person under free enterprise. The starting system to start a business or factory or dazn. Not william jnvu the founder of the capital times. Adidas things we have heard for years but has ignored. Because we are so focused. On ourselves. And john leonard in this morning. Sunday morning thank you. What did i tell you i told you what i said i'm going to miss this riding right now. If any of you heard and talking about movie. But his statement of introduction how were telling i fell senseless and self-absorption and ignoring our community. And so the way he put it was much tougher than i'm putting it. But we are killing ourselves and self-assured what's good for me should be good for the what's good for me. Just me. As i said the business of our government. Is department more perfect union. Establish justice. Insure domestic tranquility. Provide for the common defense. Promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our prosperity prosperity. Posterity. How do we as citizens of the government. Make the sound meaning. Because it cannot have me if we don't care what the issues are the puts people into office. And i think no matter what our religious beliefs no matter what ip. We all care intensely. About what happened. When someone goes off. And i think that we have to start thinking. Wait again at least a get the government off our backs and that's saying get us off our back. Since the government is us if we are responsible. What can we do as a group of people. And again using national home. What responsibilities do we have. Because the. Corporations in the private sector says. We are the only ones who can invest. But we then invest for the bottom line and short-term profit. But we the people have to invest in our future. And i think that we the people. To our government which is us. Should be investing in our human capital. We should be making sure that our jobs are everybody we can't do it alone we have to do it with us the people. Black diamond. And the private sector individuals groups corporations whatever. But the two together have to make sure everybody is employed and has the living wage. We cannot afford to continue to say look unemployment sundowners probably throwing up. We have to have strong public education we have no such thing as a poor school district. Because why should an american child or any child living in this country. Have to have a lesser education because the tax base of his or her community can't afford something better. So we have to say. The level of education of any citizen in this community. And not be dependent on the tax base of the community with that individual goes to school. It has to be the responsibility to all of us to make sure we invest in our human capital. And that our children. Well educated and prepared for the future. We also as we invest in our human capital we have to make sure everybody has healthcare. We cannot afford. They have some people with healthcare and some without. We cannot afford to have 50% of all bankruptcies personal bankruptcies have healthcare costs and involved in them and 30% because of health care cost. Cannot afford to have 43 million americans uninsured. We have 38 million on medicaid and we're trying to destroy medicaid. When cannot afford to make sure. We cannot afford to separate people out on the basis of hell. On the basis of age on the basis of employed or unemployed we have to make sure. Everybody's covered with the only affordable way. We have also invested in our community capital. Or infrastructure. What is this these are school building these are hospital please our libraries are. Transportation and hopefully fordable transportation for everyone. These are our environment we have to make sure there's this infrastructure in place that is investing that we the people can do. To our community. We have been testing our social capital to make sure that we haven't faced those things that allow individuals and families to grow and thrive family. A spanish positions monday and i never have the responsibility to tell you what your family is. We have the responsibility. Of working with you define those individuals. Those people who served as your family and gave you the support systems needed to be able to grow emotionally immature well. So we have to make sure we have in place. Those distance which helped allow individuals and families to grow. And we have to protect our environment. You can talk in about environment as our social environment our community environment which we have to have safe. We can talk about it as ecological environment of which this whole planet and we're all a part of. We have to consider both and we can do it. About how does this fit in to. Sunday morning message. I believe it relates to community. And we have not separate. Ar. Theological beliefs. Are social beliefs. Our sense of responsibility our commitment to each other from what we do as individual voting citizens week it is impossible to separate. We have to pay attention we can't be one issue. What is you can absolutely destroy anything cuz i can be. Against something. And someone votes for me cuz i'm against it are you before something someone votes for me cuz i'm for it i may be wrong with it so people have to start thinking. Dungeon prison. And. What other. Thing. I think another quote. Governments are. President do make mistakes. But the in mortal dante tells us the divine justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-hearted in different scales. Better the occasional fault of a government that lives in a spirit of charity. Then the consistent commissions of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference. That is supposed to franklin delano roosevelt in his second country nomination speech in 1936. The true today as ever was. Get this we all have to work hard to keep informed we have to pay attention we have to pay attention to essentially thinking enough of ourselves so we can think of others. We have to start and be involved in the community which i know most of you are. We have to help others getting involved we have to try to keep informed. We have to vote on the issues. Not on a single issue but on the issues. Which i brought and make sure that we get somebody who can best carry for. What we as a people should be in canby. And i think we have to obviously to do this before this included in what we vote for we have to consider. How do we share our physical or financial responsibility for this. I have to believe those of us. To benefit the most from this national community should pay the most for it. Are those who benefit delisha paly store that's what. Not too sensitive he finally graduated income tax. And i think we have to have campaign finance reform. So that. We the people by our candidates. Not rj are not general motors not nra not general electric not those who have millions of dollars. But we the people through our taxes do our government. Hey. To make sure our candidates can run. Independent of great money and great well we have a fantastic amount of work to do to do that. And in the seems like a political message that i don't know how to separate a social community message. From our responsibilities to our greater community as individuals and as citizens. We can't do it. The germans thought they could do it by ignoring and denying. Americans must not and cannot. If we are really believe all those things we say on a regular basis. Such as one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Things i've read we got to help other people understand what they're saying. As we work. With our own selves to make sure if we don't have beards meaning. Bank of america. But i am now i feel this needs discussion. Because each of us have different inside some conservative wondering about how we put this together. And you know we constantly learn from each other and i'm always impressed with trying to go to bed right now. When we put it all together it's what i learn from others. So. Discussion. But i think it's hard because people. We the people have refused to pay attention to the issues. As asthma my son says it's always easier to listen to about a person's sex life and guns because those more understandable than it is easier. Because it doesn't require thinking it just lets us know that sounds wonderful the same percentage. And i have to point out if i earn lifestyle sou 30,000 they won't cash it under that. But if i earn 30 million and all of its from interesting, not from working i won't be past either. People have to think. And. Well i won't say it because it's funny i was going to give it right back.. You saw the bumper sticker last time around. Republican. Our family. Not our nuclear family but i expanded family with our brothers and sisters in-laws and relatives and nieces and nephews. And they're lovely people and they care they karen countries they happen to vote in a way that negates their caring because they don't really look at the issues but they're good good people. And so i have to be careful i mean they know my politics and someone would vote for me some wooden but we have to be careful because we cannot demonize anybody that destroys everything we're doing. I can get very angry at what a group in the party is doing and then get very angry with the group in our party is doing. But i have to say individuals were fantastic. What i don't know is currently still some friends asked if i'd consider running democratic convention last stream. And i planning retired july 7th. I take it welding course at matc i'm going to bastrop. And we haven't farm. I plan appletree she trims and sprays and he says why do i keep playing music. Letting my friends are conservative removal anything else and do my politics i don't require. Friendship degree with me i you have friends busy baby. But i know my politics are suffering and so since i've always been outspoken. And you know people having sle-1. when all of a sudden doing the chance to speak out. I'd be heard but i think it's a long and i crashed through for a long time so obviously changes our whole threatening where we're going and i like. Besides it was the only responsible thing to do. So that part that he's my frustration. And even now easier here for me to be talkin. Indiegogo. Are service dogs in the party where i can speak on the issues. Best mustache beard you like it's time to hampton virginia. We've done a good job of strengthening our religious communities remain committed to extremely strong some of them very very strong and organized very strong politically. We got a good job of organizing our social communities and even our professional peers no. And we got a job of segregating our community and our family community. We lived in i roll down.. In fact that the firemen had their chicken barbecue / last year there was one of my welfare patients are the wealthiest woman in town who concerto chairs. You don't think that. In a segregated society we are socioeconomically so you can get excited. It's a little bit like in the south in the past when the whites were totally segregated from african-americans and the so that the authorities on the african-american for the whites and everyone's school with a big work with him with them on the equal basis. Now i think the ones who have parties on poverty. Are those it meant that tony socio-economically. life. And have not seen it. We are not authorities are poverty but together we have to work to make sure we stop having the greatest gap in the penny westernization between those of us very well off to those are asleep or we have to get closer together and as you know the poverty increased in this country we now have the greatest number of americans would probably raise percentage of americans. More poverty in this country than any other western nation. And we have poverty without guarantee book i mean without guarantees healthcare. If they have bobby would have guaranteed healthcare and they have less profit. So. We're doing the wrong thing then why i'm so strong and why money is what was running this terrible inequity. And. Amazing grace. Because it's fantastic and also savage inequalities doing the schools. I think so sure i don't know what you heard on npr. When we came out of fine gold office couple weeks ago and washington kathy shop is on her way in. She was doing the npr documentary on campaign finance and she was talking to people who had run or we're running. And she saw she said good but neither of the others going to get married. So she interviewed. And then what. Discussing campaign finance reform. And we also met with a professional fundraiser in washington. And we had already been told here that to be viable candidate you have to raise at least $100,000 they said i should have done it anyway. Hopefully i can do it by march and you have to expect to spend between 3 to $500,000. They haven't spent our raised 820,000 the second time you ran. Deere 790 when he ran against. Compaq. And right now he has 440 or something you can paint and it's told that it'll go up to whatever is needed to beat whoever the incoming it i mean competitor. And when is this money coming from you know i was supposed to be on the phone for 5 to 6 hours a day i was told this. I said you can't get out and get her issues airport. And vineville says much of his frustration if you heard that. He has to raise on the average $10,000 a week for all six years of his time in office. Paul simon quit because he had to raise how many of 13 13 million for him and that's how many thousands are in 10,000 week that something like 20,000 a week. Why because it cost to get tv it cost to get mailings. So i have more radio more tv and more press. A xanax. That i was as a. What does that dog and you got to get make sure whoever gets in the office is pushed on people and people who get in. Need to keep being pushed by us and they are pushed by those may disagree with us because we're not united. And my brother-in-law has to be very nice nice. Principal of a christian school very fundamental very much christian right terrific person. Is united and because every sunday before elections they have the list of everybody and where they stand on the hottest shoes that they agreed on. Panda. So we got to start thinking how do we together do it. But i guess what i see it's because. We have not been informed and not active i don't think you could probably work out that by you know i don't see any group with a hello but i think we as individuals have to make sure we have to. Forest people and our legislators to pay attention. I guess i see that fiscally sound. National socialism was in germany and just having visit holocaust museum ig farben was able to post the 27% profit. And the year they had the heaviest used to slave labor. And they kept very good figures they were topless david dealing with the marketplace not with social conscience and i believe that capitalism has built-in if it's self-destruction and i think we. Economic ideology unconstrained raw capitalism. 19th century social darwinism ideology which is unconstrained you don't do anything for the people. And those fail let me go to the depression now i think roosevelt happen to save catholic. Capitalism has a lock offer but it's. Uncontrolled it has its own self-destruction build in and i'll do it as if i heat other out and gets up to bigger and bigger corporations they talked about competition sitting by each other now seems less competition. Don't say that we have a social conscience that will say the circle things capitalism has to respond to a responsible way. I don't see where it is. Universal healthcare is not socialist far from universal. Universal employment and living wages is not socialism far from. Freedom to start a business and thrive is not socialism and right now if you want to start a small business and you can't afford to supply me healthcare. I can't i can't work for you and if you can't. And i can go for somebody who was to find me a living wage and healthcare. But if you display me healthcare i'm at work but you have to be much richer. And if i have been conditioned don't plan it cuz i'll talk to you more. So that the benefits for business and particularly small businesses have universal healthcare. Greater freedom insurance. I think that's the code word that used to be like communism it just miss everything with it and i think we have to be careful not to use it. I think you have to question me on what the issues are and no problem there but once we say socialism. And what will be dismissed healthcare will be dismissed as socialist if i doctors who work for insurance companies. I think because right now the mantra is we have to balance the budget. And we have been democrat. We have to make sure that we. Reduce the deficit. And balance the budget now. That was a nice mantras and ignores what is the human cost of it. And apricot wasn't killed himself when it's just on the budget is not on human condition. And i look at the realities of this this nausea. The government that was 1 trillion. When reagan came in doing his term and pushes it went up to 4 trillion. At least where they borrow and spend republicans on i'm here i'm talking parts and because we're top democrat and republican. Under every administration under the administration's we had a democratic president and democratic congress. We have a lower deficit. Every time. When we had a democratic president and one house of congress republican. We have little higher deficit smiley. When we had a republican president and a republican senate we had the highest deficit when we got finally down to a democratic president again. And two houses republican the deficits a little bit higher than it was when it's all democratic so people don't pay attention to. Constance's fantastic makes people not have to take it off. And we got to start thinking. What is the real meaning of this and it's gobbledygook it does not there to educates not there to get back. Is there a cover-up it is. The propaganda technique of any dictator. And we don't want a dictatorship in this country don't have to get it i'm not saying republicans are dictators and democrats are. So i don't have to pay then the democratic conservative republican trash service. Pay attention to where we going to the whole nation but they talk dollars rather than people. And we can do both we don't need to cut out early and come to tax credit for the floor we don't need to cut out americorps so people can afford to go to college is easily i went to college on the gi bill. Casa. I still get chills down my spine. i mean. When we went to that march in the days of civil rights and there was still a lot of violence of white against the demonstrating black. And. We were thinking of taking our oldest boilers. But we felt no we weren't sure it was going to be safe. I usually carry a pocket knife that has the screwdriver i made sure i didn't have that with you. We went. Greyhound buses. Optica new york. And we were riding and we selected midnight eyes just before i could literally young girl with her father's child. And we think that we got on the bus. We couldn't stop until it to heat. Breakfast we got south of the mason-dixon line after 8 and we're going to stop and eat breakfast and couldn't. Because at heart and his kids were on the bus with us and he's in african-american position a friend of ours. Flipping them things and everything. So we finally got the hot shop in washington dc that need be said to get it to you before. And when we got march. It was fantastic ever you want to play sniper safe. Peaceful. Caring people i mean. The thing i worry about is many of our kids haven't heard and i think every child should not receive the prize which is fantastic.. And always will be getting back on the bus. we have long way to go but we have come a long way. Rickety old yellow school bus from georgia. The next driving greyhound bus. Everybody is reading everybody else at least a fantastic day brotherhood if you ever want to sit. And as this young kid. Is liberty school bus to go back to georgia. Heatwave. Man. Have greater opportunities in this country than we have in florida. We cannot tell you guys i guess we could engage against such economic class. That's why i started out. A nation composer every race every nationality every religion. There's no such thing as anyone of us being a typical american football typical americans. We're all jewish americans are christian americans. Native american and i've had some good friends me when i was asking. Thought you were born there but her mother was. Her father came from china after the war so we have grandchildren who will know that one of their grandmother's was an architect you can. We have a we have within the family here african-american we have agent we have native american holly a jewish or christian. And i swear i think if you're truly before truly conservative. We have to say america as a national society as a nation has to succeed and all americans have to succeed. And when we have huge poverty gatos. At extreme wealth gables gatos both arm. That was not me the domestic tranquility. Empire job promotion message. And. Picture of general welfare. Bob lawrence said to make sure you already know march 24th from 2 to 4 p.m. that sunday. Here and the perry meetinghouse there's a coffee for paul's office so that's march 24th to 4 p.m. so i hope you can all come to the guy here.

uuprairie_org

Pr120325OriolMirosa-ed.mp3

Good morning welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society i'm mary mullen. Pray aspires to be both an open-hearted and an open-minded congregation we welcome people of every ethnic and religious background whatever your color your sexual orientation your family structure. Rajender we welcome no matter what your age is what your abilities are or what's your inability czar. Later in the service will invite visitors guests and returning friends who haven't been here for a while. To introduce themselves so that we might get to know you better. On sunday mornings we provide a wide variety of services through the presented. Fire prairie member remember the wider community and we get when we get a minister again we'll have a minister doing some presenting as well. Today we have a person from the wider community or you'll narosa who will be talking to us about. The global politics of water. But i'd like to introduce our speaker this morning our speaker is ori omarosa he's a sociologist from catalonia spain that is whose work focuses on global governance of water heals the master philosophy and development studies from the university of sussex in the uk. And he's currently a phd candidate in the sociology department at the university of wisconsin. Madison. Orioles in the process of completing a phd dissertation titled the global water regime waters transformation from right to commodity in south africa and bolivia. He will be joining the faculty of the department of sociology at the university of wisconsin-milwaukee in august this august. So welcome. Thank you very much for your invitation it's a pleasure to be here to be able to share a little bit of the work that i've been doing the last few years. Cuz my dog says i work on whatever issues of the global level but i'm going to start my presentation by talking a little bit about the challenges that we're facing in terms of water around the world nowadays so we can go to the first light. I want to start getting you a little bit of a sense of our availability of water so we miss first column shows all the earth has water for all the water that we have on the earth. We see the 97% of it almost all of that is salt water that is in the oceans only 3% of all the water that's in the yard is freshwater that we can use. Office 3% would take that small function and we put it here in another column. Almost three-quarters of the arctic waters of doors are trapped in ice caps and glaciers that's where the freshwater is. And almost 30% or a little bit over to 30% he's trapped underwater its groundwater. Only the small portion didn't see the brown one up there it's a surface water that we find your legs songs and rivers. So the thing is that of all the water that we haven't only a small amount of it that it's available it's in the water cycle it we're seeing in the in the story like a little while ago that it took the water that we can use. I'm so thank you. What is the water that is available for us. These are even more complicated because this water it's not available equally everywhere and all the time there's a lot of variability in her water is distributed geographically and temporally so there's some parts of the world like in the amazon where there's a lot of precipitation and there's a lot of water all over the year they spent 20 years straight with zero precipitation so we find a lot of variability. Not only a geographical or some parts of the world where there's a lot of rain a few months of the year but then other parts of the year is completely dry so for human beings when we have to have access to water for our survival we need to adapt to those kinds of processes and try to make sure that we can garner that water for our needs. What do we use water for while we say we're whatever there is people that's where people where we will need water but as we can see in this grout hear about it which is a breakdown of freshwater used most of the water that we use 70% of the eu's excuse for irrigation. About 22% of the white liquid is used for industry industrial needs and only 8% of the water that we use in the world for personal use for the message using our houses in places where we might not have a lot of population if we have a lot of agriculture we might have a lot of meat for water in those kinds of places and the question is how do we manage to march the needs of water that we have in some places to the availability that nature has given us in there. The area of each countries is proportional to in the upper 13 availability of water that we have. I mean the lower ones without how much consumption how much we use water and we can see some of the divergence is here where there is a lot of water in south america in the amazon area it comparatively they use much less water for there's much more than what they need in that part of the world. So how do we get this water how do we manage to bring water to the people. Can we go to the next life. The first thing that we can try to do is capture the surface water is water division in legs and river and as we see we do things like this this is the hoover dam on the colorado river so i can we find lake mead which is an artificial lake that was created by the by the dance and this is one way in which we can try for instance if we play. These are pistachio trees in the arizona desert so one thing that we do for instant use arrogate the desert place where nobody nothing would grow and we are actually growing pistachio trees in the desert. Another thing that we do with this water for instance if we click again is. Series like this is for the suburbs of phoenix which is one of the growing large growing cities in the united states it's another city in the desert and we are actually taking water from the colorado river and other rivers in the southwest. To be able to expand those cities in places where there's no water available at all. I'm so when we're doing this we could say well there's a lot of water in the rivers that we saw in the lake mead and in the hoover dam so if we have enough water that's perfectly fine but let's see what happens to the colorado river downstream so we go to the next flight would happen to the rivers run dry. These are the fishing grounds of some indian tribes in the lower side of the colorado river in a to consider completely desiccated and actually that is a picture of the delta of the colorado river which is completely dry because the colorado river doesn't reach the sea anymore. We use all the water throughout the it's it's course in other things we send it to los angeles and some parts of the city with sandy to phoenix and we send it to other parts of the arizona to irrigate some of those plantations at the point is that. We are at some point in some parts of the world using more water than we have and that's ringing. Huge problems for us to b-side. How we going to get this kind of water well another source of water if we click again is groundwater to the surface with the weather that is underneath the earth. But we can dig wells and try to pump out of the earth in this map here when you see the red dots are places about how much water we are pumping out from the soil. Turning the dark is red it when we're pumping out about one meter of water each year. And a point about their just had the groundwater is not renewable at the pace of the rivers wherever the water that flows to the river after a week usually like 200 but in the groundwater it takes hundreds sometimes thousands of years to replenish the earth. Once we take it out it's going to take thousands of years for nature to replenish them so yes we're going as you can see particularly in the wealthiest countries in the world in the united states in western europe and in the most populated like india and china we are taking a lot of water from the under the ground which is one way in which we are managing to fulfil this demand for this is water that eventually we're going to run out of. And that brings us another huge problem like another example that i have if you can see here in the middle of the united states busiest if we click. Did the ogallala or the high plains aquifer that is probably the biggest one in the world goes from south dakota to texas and all of it is a big. Bag of underground water. And as you see all of these yellow orange and reddish spots are when they're comparing how much water there was underground between 1980 and 1995 is when their substantial like several feet of water less in all of this place is under water for and the register the darkest red is places where there's no water anymore. So we are actually desiccating this is groundwater and the water table is going or going down and down partner down so we are actually losing a lot of the other water that we're using now nowadays sweetwater that it's not going to be there at some point in the future. Another problem that we have with water if we. Damage. So here is a map in which would receive the proportion for different parts of the world of how much of the wastewater the water that we have used for industrial processes for him since he's treated or non-treated so when its treated is the darkest. For answering brown here and the cream color is wennington treated in the north atlantic and in western europe in the northern europe we see the tweet tweet most of the water but in other parts of the world most of the water like we use isn't realities brought back to nature polluted. So why do we see if we click is. For instance this is a river in china there's no filter here this is the color of the water in the river. Coming out of factories that are upstream. And this is actually in beijing in the city in the capital of china. So there are times when there is water there but that water cannot be used at all because we have polluted it and we have actually not tooted in a way that people can use it in any productive way. So all of these are problems that we are facing nowadays with water. We have our needs more water and therefore the amount of water that is available in the earth. Like the process of climate change are changing the availability of water so we have build our cities and our agricultural enterprises in places where we could have access to water but where water will be will change with climate change. So these would we see here it's like which climate change is not that there's going to be less water everywhere. The bluest areas are places where there's going to be more water in the future under some of the assumptions of where we're going with climate change what at the darker the greener ones are places where there's going to be less water if the projections of climate change. come true. Kissin in the glacier so here we have the south cascade glacier in washington state in the united states in 1959. This is the tongue of the of the glacier that reaches display and in 2003 look how far back the tongue has gone how much less surface of of water there is in there. This is a big problem because in areas in mountainous areas in many parts of the world they rely on the water from glaciers that drips from the glaciers as their source of water as these glaciers are going down there having a lot of plans to have a constant stream of water throughout the year one of the places where it is happening the most is what i've done part of my research in bolivia. We're between 20 and 30% of the glaciers in the andes are gone. And our city that we're counting on that was gracious for getting water throughout most of the year when doesn't rain and now they don't have that anymore. So if you want to play i want to reach the issue of the distinction between the physical and economic scarce if you're talking about so far is about how much water we have. Compared to the amount of population or the nice that we have which is what we would call the physical scar city. And that's what the lighter blue areas are those are places where already now we don't have enough water the southwest of the united states part of northern africa and central asia and the middle east. But another problem that we have is what we call economic scarce if we just mostly the kind of worried that i'm working. Which is what we finance darkest blue areas particularly as we can see a lot of it in africa. Which is places where there might be enough water for everybody. But because of social institutional economic problems people don't have access to water. Cigars places in the congo appointment with there's a lot of water has a lot of precipitation but people don't have access to clean sources of water and they can use for the elderly. And that brings all of the issues of poverty when we know nowadays that 3,000 children are dying every year out of diarrhea and other diseases that come from water which is in a bad state mostly in africa and it's because of this that there's not enough water there because if they do not have the means to be able to clean the water and bring it to the people so that people don't have to use polluted water maybe. So they having their villages. So that's that to vacation so let me summarize a little bit these water challenges what we have seen in many parts of the world we are using and polluting water faster than nature can replenish replenish or clean it. Another thing that we have seen is that there is increasing water use we are getting more and more water used to over the years and the climate change are taking us dangerously close to water crisis in many parts of the water crisis is when we already cannot have enough water for the nice and we have to start. I'm putting some measures in there for people to come see him last. And finally this last issue that i have been talking about the issue of institutional and financial problems that prevent access to safe water in places where there is availability. So how do we organize ourselves to deal with all of these issues. Have the international community the united nations try to do something about it. I went to start with little to talk about this with a little bit of background if you can click. With what we call the hydraulic paradigm paradigm is the way in which we have managed water historical since the nineteenth century when series started growing and people realize how important water was. For help for people's health. We started having this kind of way of managing the supply. City of supply management mean. The quickest take the needs of water for granted we tell you how much water will we need. I let do whatever we can to provide that much water. And that's when we build a and reservoirs and dig water under under rear to bring water out and taking the demand for granted no attempt at all to see what we should finish seamless water maybe we should use less water in these places that was nothing of what we did and that's why i receive all of the ward. Boodahlok reclamation leaving the west of the united states to make all of these pharaonic they say kind of war except. Damson large dam but will allow us to bring all this water to that part of the other country. Which meant that because we know that water is necessary for a people eat usually government that take on this task of making sure that water is available. For the population. And why do governments do that. In large parties because of these review of subsidized water consumption. If water is necessary for people you want to make it available in a way that it's pretty cheap. Now if you're going to sell cheap water to people you can have make a profit out of it. Because you don't charge it the full cost of it cost to provide water to people so the private sector will not be able to make any money and therefore it's the government to make sure that everyone has access to water he's providing it in a very cheap. That happens both. In cities where people have access to water in a very cheap way but also for instance for agriculture irrigators in the west of the united states pay very little money for the amount of water that they get. Compared to how expensive it is to build all of those dams and come out to bring the water to where they are. The way in which we manage water in the 20th century and realized that was not going through to the door now the international community. The global international community like the united nations started paying attention to these issues having to do with water only in the second half of the 20th century. And they were so we can move on to the next one thank you and we can kind of worries about the environment car safety and pollution we start realizing that we need to start talking to each other and make sure that we understand that this is going to be an issue and the other development economics. But this doesn't really coalesce into anything practical that we were doing until 1977 when we have the first united nations conference on water. Canada conference they realize what we need to do much more to be able to make sure that everyone has access to water when it to provide many more resources particularly to developing countries to the poor ones so the 1980s were declared international drinking water supply and sanitation.. And the area was let's put as many resources as we have smacked money as we can to make sure that everyone will have access to water that we will have all of these infrastructure in place. Knowing the 1980s very quickly they realized but even if we were advancing the progress was going very very slow if we were not managing actually to bring water to the people in the way that we should so that everyone would have access to it. And they realized the focus should not be so mad and just building new things building infrastructure building a dams or pies etcetera etcetera but the problem was a problem of management of how we manage the resort. And they realize that the way that we were doing it before in which people assume that water was almost free. Amanda people just can use it and wasted or the day can have these infrastructure and they don't know how to operate it and how to fix it so things don't work very well. And there were all of these ideas and we need to change the way in which we see water. We should manage water in a different way from what we have done in this hydraulic paradigm that was going on throughout the entire twentieth century sector as well.. Now doing all this time. International community doesn't do much there's no other conferences there's no global water organization to make sure that we have a new way of doing things. When do we start finding a noose having a noose and internationally that water should be looking differently if we can click here that happens in 1990 to 92 and of which this summer that's going to be another conference in rio that 20-plus. Language we celebrated 20 years from from that time borrow mental thomas soda only water. Establishing a completely different way of looking at what a radical change from what we had before. Being this is the way that they say water has any economic value in always competing uses. And should be recognized as an economy go to value with property people need to pay for the amount that it cost to provide water otherwise we are wasting. Now in dublin they said that this has to happen but this has to happen as long as it is a basic right of a human being. So the notion of water does an economic growth of having to value water properly. He's not seen in any way. As incompatible with 80 of water as a right that people have to have access to water those things are seen as completely compatible. So they're in the way that they are putting dishes we are only changing the way that we're managing water he's not so radical all we want to do is to ensure that everyone has access to water we should manage it deficient. Remix a lot of times we were wasting a lot of water particularly in agriculture. Now the international community after this point was not organized in order to bring any of these ideas and make sure that everyone was going to follow them in different countries. Which is when we look at other. Issues are other areas in the world like we straight we have global trade organization the world trade organization. I'm with tommy energy we have international atomic agency didn't have one organization that couldn't gather all of these resources from all over the world. So what happens if you can play acoustic in the early 1990s it was not from governments it was not from the united nations became from water experts. Who decided that we had to have a new global organization to deal with water issues. The problem was it because this didn't come from government or the united nations. People started disagreeing with each other gave us to have this one here the world water council be the one global organization but people didn't agree with things and unload a different organizations to deal with water at the local level came out. To the point that people say that didn't solve anything having so many organizations how are we going to reach any agreement. Sell my claim if we go to the next slide. Is it system that even if it's not formalized or well-structured you're actually really works in a way. And that's why i call it the global water regime. Anita system in which all of the different organizations in the world that deal with water of all times from international financial institutions like the world band national agencies for developmentally usaid has an international ngo or transnational corporations that sell water services like suez. All of these become members of these second-tier global water organizations all of those organizations that i was talking about before. And these organizations intern what day do it today. Organize what i call global water initiative. World meetings like the world water photo which is a conference that happens every three years in which everyone who work in water in the world world what was there for experts emissions who write reports on important things about the water sector so what happens is that this system provides all of that kind of knowledge and policies and ideas that one organization would do but it's kind of strange system in which it's not want everything organized. The key point i'm trying to make sure either this is a little too complicated but wouldn't. Citizens what is the outcome of the outcome of the international community this is our consensus is the way that water should be managed. But what i'm claiming is that some of these organizations have more power than others to be able to influence these types of global water initiative see what happens there. So it's usually transnational corporations and international financial institutions that have a lot of say because they can put a lot of resources into organizing these kinds of activities into how we should manage water. So what is the consequence of old is. The consequences of there's two types of policies that became. Predominant in this system of international governance of water. In the 1990s one with the privatization of water provision the idea that the government cannot do it right so we need shouldn't bring the private sector to provide water that was one thing that happened all over the world. The other which has to be paired with the first one to hear your full cost recovery that is instead of water being subsidized people have to pay for the full cost of the water that they're using for the full cast of the provision of the water. Another set that makes a lot of sense for instance for agriculture when people are wasting water because it's so cheap. The problem do he said when we're going to some of those places where people were this economic scarcity where people do not have the resources to be able to access water. The consequences that water becomes so expensive that people particularly the poorest and the most vulnerable populations don't have access to water. Core water. Becomes like 25% of their income that's how much they have to spend just to pay for water which is something that they cannot. Thoughts without. And this leads to we have several examples in developing working with this multinational. Corporation state actually abuse because they have so much power compared to the government in those developing countries and they starting posing prepaid water meter so unless you pay water before hand you don't have access to water. Because they are afraid of those four people are not going to pay or they just disconnect water for people who are not paying so you find. Large families in south africa who after have the month they cannot pay for water anymore so they have to spend half of the month without nex. So what we find is that in these countries where these things are happening people are rebelling against. so the first example that we financed the water war that took place in cochabamba in early 2000s. And this was a very well-known because it's the first time in which the population one basically they managed to reverse the privatization deal and to bring back water to the public sector into subsidized provision of water separates. So this spurt spearheaded this new movement a global social movement that deals with water issues. And tries to say that this view of water of water is any konami good. Leg was presented as compatible with water as a ride. When applied in practice through these kinds of policies doesn't really work. What you're saying is when you try to provide water does an economic good in this way. People particularly the most vulnerable people don't have access to water. This is just my last flight and i will conclude here that we have is that we refine our confrontation. We have what i call this global water between all of these institutions that provide is knowledge about water than economic growth that they say this is the right way to provide water. But against did you have the social movement who are protesting and saying the water doesn't economy good and water as a real human right are incompatible. The profit. First. People will not have access to water and that the first thing the priority should be a human right that's what people should have access to water first and then we can deal with other issues about how we manage it. And so there's a discussion here that still we don't know where we're going and how it's going to end up. Now is this system working are we getting better well the millennium development goal for the water the one that said that. We should we use the proportion of people around the world without access to clean water by half by 2015 has already been achieved. So we are doing some progress in this tent. But critics say the dishes because we are targeting the people who are easier to provide water to actually the poorest people are the ones who because it's so hard and so expensive to bring water to them to the countryside for him since we are leaving them aside. So why focusing on these kinds of. Of goals of target we are actually hurting the human right to water of the poorest people. The same happens with sanitation which is much more expensive to bring two people and it's kind of like that the forgotten sibling about this process people might have access to water with a communal hand pipe. But there's no sanitation there so that's the real problem is people have peace.. And finally i just wanted to go back a little bit to the issue of how can we deal with this idea of water scars. Can we actually reduce our consumption to the way that it's going to be manageable. Particularly in these places where we don't have that much water. We don't seem to be on the course of doing that for instance in the southwest of the united states. Where water needs keep increasing and water availability is becoming. Scarcer so we don't know what's going to happen with that there's any sources of seawater and taking the salt out of it. Which is also being very much being done in some parts in the middle east and he also in california but that will work for coastal areas but not for other parts of the. Of the world. There will be controversy over baby of large dam should we continue building this gigantic damn that are displacing lot of people or should we find other ways of going about our lives that we will not need that much water. A bit of a fight here about whether we should try to reduce our consumption or try just find new sources of clean water from other place. I want to finish with this question our water wars inevitable a lot of peace process that i was talking about that started in the 1990s was because of vice president of the world bank. Made a statement saying the word the world of the 21st century will be over water. And there's a big concern the dean side job he resorts. As we've come in and work this morning more scarcity of water will this lead to appointing which countries will have to start going to war to each other in another 260 or enough water for them. And there's different views about that some people say we're already going towards that and some of the conflicts in the middle east. Hot water like the palestinian-israeli conflict water is underlined. constant that sounds like very much. Some people argue that the concept of virtual water can help us which is the idea that. You might not have water by but by importing products that have a lot of water in it than they need a lot of water to be produced is one way in which you can deal with having less water for yourself. If you don't have a lot of water you should buy your vegetables from some other county where there's more water. Adult that has laws about implications geopolitical etc etc and any complicated issue. Stillwater complex in the world. It's funny because some of the examples that seem to be the most progressive and that the wealth of work the most are some of those that are most attacked by the social movement. Show in south africa they have what they call a free basic water location. Everyone particularly poor people have an amount of water that they can access every year for every month for free. Which seems like a very progressive policy that we don't find another part of the world. But that has been very much attached because they say that he's being implemented with his idea of water as an economic during mine. So the point is that yes they have access to that amount of water. But after that they have to pay a lot of water if there's this connections if they don't pay after that and what happened is that sometimes the poorest families are the families with more people. So they need more water so they can go a little bit but you're on there a location they are an able to do it. So there's some policies are trying to deal with his issues but they predict continues to be that as long as there's this idea that we have to recover all the money. And make some profit out of it. But we'll still going to have some of these problems. But yes the chinese are very worried about why are they have several of their largest rivers done with the sea anymore they have such huge population growth and they're having huge problems and they are some of the people who are doing. The most to try to change the way in which they do things in the center of. Lowering demand now they have this idea of water secure supplies to their trying to change the way in which they build their cities and they build their economy so that they are actually not using so much water. But these are all still very new kind of development. they are trying to play with. Because it's only in the last 10 years that they have realized it's not only with water but with the environment in general. With the economy grow that they're having to having many problems with that. Send linkedin. since china is a little separate from the rest of the world they don't participate so much and all of these issues and they're trying to go through their own route with their own ideas. Is there a dictatorship and they don't have to. Nobody by any international rules if they don't want to. I'm so it's going to be interesting to see how they managed has issues in the in the next few years it's still very unclear. Most of the water that we use in the world is from industry and agriculture. So we can try to cut out of her consumption as much as we wanted individual citizen. But that's going to make only a small dance when they go to. Large cities in developing countries and they tell the poor people that they should pay all the amount of money so they will not waste their water. When we are subsidizing mining industry and agricultural industry to use a lot of water just because we want to have some economic growth. So the priorities here seem to be a little off. I'm but you're absolutely right but the one of the things about that is that we have. Got our water consumption a lot like the peak water consumption in the united states. Happened in the 1980s. Seems van by volume for each person we have been reducing more and more amount of water that we're using so we are making some strides toward that they were still very far away. There's a very powerful interests. The jazz but they depend on the water that they're getting now and they don't want to get with less and they are very powerful lobbying. And making sure that they don't have to change the way they do things animals. I mean this is not very different from any other political issues in the concrete on until there is a real crisis we don't really change anything because there's a lot of interest in there so it is unclear to what extent we can do anything about those issues about the population growth. I didn't really talk about it but i hadn't want to slide.. In the last 100 years. Our water consumption per capita per person has increased more than twice. The growth of the population. So it's not just the population growth is it a problem but it's about how much more water we need per person because of the way that china and india are developing and their industry and agriculture need much more water so that's that that's a hard one to. Then uncle now all of our production decisions have not taken water into account usually asked. At the scars resources maybe would drive us to produce something out if we want to produce watermelon reproduce watermelon whatever it is that people want we are driven by demand. And we will have to start thinking differently. But maybe there are something that we want to consume that are so water-intensive that we should not be able to consume. And as water becomes more and more scares that might become much more of an issue. Okay thanks so much thank you so much. The closing words are. Thousands have lived without love. Not one without water. Wh auden thank you for coming and please extend a hand of friendship to your neighbor and then stay after work for super sunday.

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Pr141026Gervasi-ed.mp3

Thank you members of a prairie choir and good morning and welcome to a unitarian universalist society my name is melinda gustafson gervasi whatever your color sexual orientation or family structure. We welcome you no matter what your age or your abilities or inabilities later in the service we will invite visitors gas and returning friends to introduce ourselves so that we might get to know you better and for coffee afterwards on sunday morning we provide a wide variety of services they are presented by either a prairie member a member of the community. Reverend sandy ingram today i remember will be presenting. At this time i would like to invite member rosemarie lester to help with the reading for a chalice. Well in honor of the international spirit of the united nations that we're going to you're going to hear something very unusual and thanks to google. I mean defense and as saledress. Dependent independent. Everybody here. Comfortable k talks buddha scene part unless no stress sjca. Yikes exmouth precio del pensamiento. Iain wbrc todd the pinons. That box is delano strophy libertad and in english this is we like this chalice. In remembrance of a forebear michael servetus. Who died in the month of october. More than 460 years ago defending his right to think and to leave independently. He said. I wish that everybody was freely allowed to speak in our churches. Until we recognize in the free expression of thought and the diversity of opinions. Which is the basis of all liberal faith. I have to go off-script a little bit here because it tells me that i should now introduce speaker but i am the speaker for those of you my husband and children i have been coming here i was trying to think about it i think it's been off again on again since april may of 2011 and we have young children that are six and four and so because of illnesses. So i look for resources. And there are plenty of books on amazon of the library if you have the money of bill gates or mark zuckerberg and you want to create a family foundation. And there are plenty of books if you declare yourself middle class when you want to donate $25 a month or take a volunteer vacation. But they're really didn't seem to be anything to meet my clients needs about what do you want to do with an end-of-life gift if you declare yourself middle class. So i decided i'd write one and going through the writing process towards the end i found this quote by toni morrison if there's a book you really want to read but it hasn't been written yet then you must write it that really helped me get through the through pee cuz i will never ever write another book with footnotes. Picked up through a few more things into this i'm in normal presentation we are approaching national november 15th. Who are a philanthropist but they don't really fit that definition that we tennessee. at the overture nullified it's not welcome but there is more depth and breadth to that word then i think a lot of the press and media get it then go ahead. You using philanthropy i through this in for us so we tie this into principles number one. The inherent worth and dignity of everyone. Anyone can leave a legacy. Even a person who's on medical assistance and if you're receiving medical assistance in your single means you don't have more than $2,000 of assets to your name but you can be. There's a goal of world community with keith liberty and justice for all is even talking about. You use are a very dedicated and passionate group of people who show up weekly at justice social justice events and there's no reason for your presence to stop when your earthly time comes to an end. An interdependent web of existence for all of her. then just acknowledging that we are all that's not just a mark zuckerberg than the oprah winfrey's of this world who can be a philanthropist. Haitian. Philanthropy define. I'm not going to be a little bit from the book. Because that word any think of. Gated estates in attorneys with massive trust documents in the faces of oprah and mark zuckerberg that's the freighter facebook for the last year. It is horrible contact predating democracy capitalism organized religion in as old as humanity itself. Philanthropy exist because things often go wrong and things can always be better. Define philanthropy is a noun meaning generous help her benevolence 417 man. Apathy is further defined as an effort or inclination to increase the well-being of humankind by charitable a donation primarily range from participating in a park clean-up day. Purchasing raffle tickets for a local nonprofit contest. Making an annual gift your college alumni foundation or onanian a place of worship in your will i wrote that before they asked me to speak nothing about these actions requires excessive amount of money only requires a desire to improve your world net worth. And so with the bookkeeping the next slide my goal was heard of twofold one is to educate the average everyday person you can make a difference. I'm the other is to challenge nonprofit development staff. The people who do fundraising for nonprofits about who they consider to be a philanthropist. A lot of times i see them kind of cording the exact same group of people in town and i think they're overlooking the people who might give their time. Every week and not recognize that 11 give their time they're very devoted and passionate about an organization cuz time is often our most precious commodity. I'm and i'm just hear from you. One story this is the only story that i actually found via google everything else was word-of-mouth. I mean that's because stories like this just don't get a lot of attention. I know from being an attorney and seen the documents written and executed that gives like this do happen. But they're not picked up very much by the media and gail sheffield case she had some very vocal and. Strong advocates friends who wanted her story sheridan that's how i was able to find it. So i will read part of her story than the book. Gail sheffield sportaid handwritten will left her entire estate to two organizations where she had been highly involved during her life. Following her death after a short illness those requests are still making a huge difference in the world of feral cats. In her will miss sheffield left her home to the flathead spay and neuter task force. A one-of-a-kind organization in montana. According to the organization's director me needles. The organization sold the home and received $290,000. An amount equivalent to 3 years of revenue. As a result of the bequest the burden of fundraising has been lesson but quest ensures the financial stability of the organization for years to come. Moreover according to his beatles the rainy day fund that was created from aquest allows volunteers to focus on grueling work of capturing treating and releasing feral cats. Gives a gift of her home amplified efforts in the field allowing her true mission of the organization spy. In her honor the building that houses flathead spay and neuter task force has been renamed the gail sheffield memorial clinic. Girls will also left request to another nonprofit of a similar mission. Her will left $100,000 to the feral cat consortium of madisonville louisiana a dollar amount that represents about three years of its annual operating expenses. A portion of the request is being used to trap and release feral cats in new orleans area continuing gales own efforts as volunteer in the field she's gone there herself to do work. An all-volunteer organization its director wendy kitri emphasized that the gift was far more than an infusion of cash. Quote it was a concrete gigantic thank you for thankless work on a seemingly endless problem and float her gift not only gave the organization operating dollars but empowered volunteers to be more aggressive in project ideas. It allows volunteers to work harder because the limitation of no funding was no longer a boundary. I do think that was probably the most powerful quote that i came across in my research organization in her retirement account to another so again. Asian about where to direct back yet. That's fine. The benefits of philanthropy. Immediately about taxes taxes taxes but most middle-class folks aren't going to really benefit that much, taxation standpoint because one. We're not going to make those gift during our lifetime. The reason is we don't know how much money we're going to need and the average cost of a nursing home a semi-private room in a nursing home in wisconsin is $85,000 a year. Some people say i can't i can't give it now so i'm not going to get an income tax break if i get it now i don't know how much i'm going to need. And then if they wait until their time comes the federal estate tax. Does not kick in unless you have more than this year 5.3 $4000000 so going to be one of the benefits i think driving a lot of this. One is that it's a gift that simply keeps on giving and i'll share another story from this in the book in a few minutes about the chronon family and it's a perfect example about how the very small amount of money or relatively small money that he's created a gift that will keep on getting. Expressing gratitude feels good. In my research i looked about happiness and one of the ways that you can feel happier is to express what you're grateful for. When i have clients come in this is not a pleasant processing and asking them about what happens if they die and if they die and this and that but when people start thinking about what organization or cause his uplifted them. Help them through a difficult period of time it can make them feel better. I'm about themselves and the process and just knowing that yeah he's somebody had my back there i want to i want to get that. It's just an example for the next generation by turning grief into something positive and i always talk about how i have no foreign six-year-old and its appearance of young children we know we have examples on them. And it simply makes the world a better place if we all get i find this to be a very powerful number between 1998 and 2052 a total of 41 trillion dollars that's trillion with a t. Is going to flow from the baby boomers for the next generation. And so again i ask what time world what our world look like if 5% of that went to worthy causes 10%. You don't have to leave an entire state to make a difference. Schnauzer with you about the chronon family and i will throw an exponent at least kate is the daughter. In the story that's how i came about this they are also peyton is a new you. Here in town. Edith 54 professor robert f cronin was diagnosed with alzheimer's disease. He died in 2001 at the age of 61. He left behind a wife and two adult children and a legacy of being a remarkable professor of rhetoric mass communication. Drama in photography. He truly cared about the young people he helped educate at loras college in dubuque iowa. His teaching went beyond the classroom students were invited home for dinner they were encouraged tackle internships and explore the possibilities of their degree. In lieu of flowers the family received numerous donations upon his death and decided to create an endowment and dr cronus name at loras college rookie has hot for 23 years. The donations combined with gifts from his widow rosemary and other relatives established the robert f pronin communication arts scholarship. All it took was $15,000 for the coronavirus and me of dubuque iowa to become philanthropist. Awarded once-a-year the $500 scholarship is intended to make a difference in a student's life whether it's paying for a rent bill making a car repair traveling to an interview or purchasing books for a semester. What journalists write a front-page story about the cronin. Probably not for the coronavirus motivations actions and results clearly put them in a camp of philanthropist i skipped. How to turn it into something positive. I also have a master's in public administration and so after law school i spent five years doing evaluations and so i had to put that to some news here in the book and i think it's important because. The non-profit world is not absent a fraud. And so it's very very important to make sure that you're getting to the organization you think you're giving to and that you're giving someone that you think is worthy of your dollars. Some of my clients will come in thing i want to do something but i don't know what there where do i go there so much out there. And so they have to start by figuring out what organization to even consider organization. I always encourage them to consider first where they currently donating their time and money. And again i will really emphasize time we only get 24 hours in a day. No matter if you're bill gates or me you get 24 hours where are you putting that time that's a strong indications what you value and then also where are you making median annual contribution a monthly contribution. Again what was a source of assistance during your lifetime i always think of my husband's grandmother when i talk about this she has lived a very long life she passed away about. Two years ago at age 93 should grown-ups here in the madison area and him and quite for the young child and had benefited from the empty stocking club. We often see that almost what time of the year now and is an adult when she was more comfortable she gave back every year that organization does it help bring a little joy her life as though she wanted to get back there so if you're looking for. Where is the financial support needed the most. Even if you have an organization there are multiple funds within an organization. Is there a specific area that you wants the mean devoted to you really love the music at a certain organization when we did a music fun. Or religious education or outreach those types of things or is there a new effort within an organization that you would want to help spur there's another strain the book that i won't share but there was a woman who left 1/2 of her retirement account to an organization here. She was the impetus to get that going and again it's just a powerful thing about if he picked the right place they needed a capital campaign. You need to evaluate your candidates my son more time in the book about how to do that a few resources are charitynavigator.org the irs. Very important there about two years ago the irs required nonprofits every single one of them to submit a form every year to maintain or 501c track. 501 c 3 status. Some organizations didn't have an up-to-date address with the irs. They never got the form and they have had their status revoked you may not know it specially if you are giving a gift and you are thinking you want to have that as a tax deduction in some way make sure that the irs is going to agree with you because whatever they decide will trouble. Look at that guidestar and charity watcher other ones and the better business bureau actually just hear it. What's the weather as well they haven't give watch for the better business bureau does it swell because the whole ebola outbreak has spurred fraudulent efforts to help garner support so whether you're giving for the first time. Next. If you're looking at an organization and its talking about its cost for administration. Do not automatically scratch something off your list if the admin costs are super hot. Let me see a lot of organizations especially your smaller organizations are almost entirely volunteer-run so all of their expenses will likely be admit. So you need to make sure you're really drilling into that and things like that are more when i talk about but don't have time for today. You can't get a lawyer in front of you without talking about accuracy accuracy accuracy we're annoying in that way for a reason and learn some horror stories in this is something i came across my research out of ohio a man had named several organizations in his. And no organization existed with the name alzheimer's research center so what's a judge to do. Would it be way because three different organizations that forms at. Two organization theater at been involved with during his life and the other just had all those words in its title. So when i work with clients i want the complete legal name. Do you know the complete legal name. People here have heard of ward radio wrt yeah you think that's her name. No it's not it's backwards radio ink and i know that because i had people who named them in for me not to commit malpractice i have to look it up and i look it up every time because organization change their name. The gilda's club the local branch several years ago floated the idea of changing its name because i felt it not enough people knew who killed him ragnar was. They got a lot of flak and so they pull back from that but it's an estate planning attorney i thought oh my goodness think of the wheels out there that'll say gilda's club. And they don't have the phrase or its legal successor organization. Hey organization. I put that in all of my documents. But i can't tell you how many documents i see that don't have it. We're doing things on your own things about the fact that they might change their name. And i always prefer to make sure you get the ein number is a tax number that the irs einstein organization. What chapter do you mean. Trust me nonprofits will fight over that. And they do. Yes i'm reading from the book on this one but i always basically so you know if you want your wishes to happen if you think of something you have to make it legal. I know a lot of people would rather do that another day but you have to make it legal. Things i like to do when i talk to nonprofit it's flippin how many times do you listen or see advertisements that they remember us in your will or trust. I thought you do you just ask someone to spend the. Where's your couple hundred dollars. When they are smaller. Easier way. The world. Very sad story about 19 years old. Stabbed by her denver. In lieu of flowers donations put a 150,000 times the family use that to set up a family fun and foundation in the mets and to combat violence and domestic violence. Beneficiary of a retirement account if your tax efficient are some of them are my husband tj sufficient so close everything. If your bank or brokerage accounts you can put a tod or pod on them a transfer on death or panda again it's a beneficiary form go to your bank or credit union you fill it out some people might have a travel fun they let it build up they take a trip. And i drink a lot of walking taco sorry if i blew through that too fast. What are the things i recommend visiting and in person. Who what where when obviously that's not. Possible for for some organizations but if it's not then maybe want to look for someplace that is. Everyday is closing words and it has convinced me that almost everyone regardless of income available time age and skills. Can do something useful for others and in the process. Strengthen the fabric of our shared humanity. President bill clinton on the introduction to his book giving. But not the time i'm thank you for coming and being here today please extend a hand of friendship to those around you and then join us for coffee and conversation in the main entryway thank you.

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Pr120708Merritt-ed.mp3

Good morning and welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society i am a peter anderson. A member of the program committee. Prairie aspires. To be both open-minded and open-hearted congregation we welcome people. Whatever yesterday can religious background. Whatever your color sexual orientation gender. Or family structure. We welcome you no matter what your age are your abilities or inability. And later in the service will invite visitors guests and many other flvs. Fod friend of dennis's. Ourselves so we might get to know you better on sunday morning to provide a wide variety of services. Either by a. member or a member of the wider community. Or eminently administer to be. Play we presenting aaaj talk by dennis merritt. On the dairy farmers guide to the universe and i think i'm being patient is for the fact that you can get in magic for breaking the weather on us. Please welcome kathy and randy converse to do chalice lighting this morning end. The opening words. Excuse me. Ever bigger machines entailing ever bigger concentrations of economic power and exerting ever greater violence against the environment do not represent progress. They are denial of wisdom. Wisdom demands a new orientation of science and technology. For the organic the gentle and non-violence the elegance and the beauty. Ef schumacher. Dennis merritt is a. This is all enjoying concern to joyce i'm having some of those luxurious and blush to say is dennis. Concerta something is rita's bio. Is a is a provider's tongue-twisters nightmare. Dennis grew up in a small dairy farm south of door county. He got his phd from berkeley and instant insect pathology which is the use of naturally occurring instant insect. Pathogens to control insects. Is also a graduate of the young institute of zurich switzerland. Anderson private practice of the jungian psychology psychoanalysis. At the interval psychology center on monroe street. Surely to be published by m2. Of the dairy farmers guide to the universe young terms and ecopsychology please welcome dennis. Well thank you for inviting me to speak here today. I'm actually a member of first unitarian in milwaukee and in my twenty-five years when we lived in madison i was a member of first unitarian here. In madison. Stand. It was interesting when i got to milwaukee reverend kennedy asked me if ever had the. Introductory course that they teach their on unitarian universalism. And i hadn't and i was really glad. That i did because i must confess after 25 years going to first unitarian near and madison died i couldn't quite figure out what do unitarians were about so it's kind of like everything is flipped upside down but. I want thing i will say being from kewaunee county that's the county just a little door county most people don't seem to know where it is. I realize that i really wasn't unitarian at heart because when. You light this chalice. That is symbolic of ian pushes being burned at the stake. Audien. Fort 14. 1417 that's a hundred years before martin luther. Pendas 95 treatises on the door. So he was a 1st check. To take their wycliff's reformation into the church. In practice it. So this isn't honor. And my mother's side is check. And she wanted county has more checks. Percentage-wise in any county in the country. Not more people because we have more power than people but. A lot of people of czech descent. This is the first time that i've delivered a sunday morning i noticed don't know what you call it cerminara. Whatever in the unitarian society. I am 15 years the first time i did it. Was on the symbolic and psychological and spiritual dimensions of the weather. And seasons here in the upper midwest. And i called a sermon the seasons of the soul. There's an old chinese saying. May you live in interesting times. And i always thought about a year ago that that was a positive statement. And then i heard that it's a really a curse. So. We certainly are living. In interesting times. I think that we are at a unique. Moment in the 4 million plus year history of this planet. It's certainly a unique moment for our species and for many other species on the planet. If you look at where we are with regard to peak oil we're probably past people. So we have to go to the extremes and we get results like bp in the gulf of mexico. And those canadian tar sands that we're getting the oil from. That's estimated to ruin be ruining an area the size of the state of texas or not texas of florida. Then we have fracking going on going to be going on when more parts of the country. And they're using unknown. Compounds many of them suspected of being carcinogens. And it's unregulated thanks to chaney's pressure found the environmental organization. Our human population has probably exceeded. Carrying capacity of our biosphere. In the financial world we had a collapse of the financial industry that just about brought down the economic systems. For the whole world. And thanks to lobbying no significant changes have been made in the financial industry. And to deal with all this we have a very polarized society. Thunderdome politics as is called. And we have the perfect example here in wisconsin need i mention our governor's name. The biggest element of course is climate change. Many experts say that we have but ten years to turn things around. After which we will probably. Exceed. They say turning point and all bets are off after that. 30 years ago the environmental modeling with these huge computers. Predicted that. Climate change whitaker. And what would happen would be. Freak and the unique situations. So like extreme temperatures. Extreme drought. Extreme amounts of rainfall. And extremely high winds. We're just beginning to see that we've sown the seeds for this this is just. The shot across the bow if you will. And it is estimated that because of our species. We're going to take down 30 to 50%. Of the species on this planet. And what's most disgusting. Is that the royal society of science in england. Sent two letters to exxonmobil. Reprimanding them. For supporting an organization that is deliberately trying to confuse people about climate change. To make them think that there are scientists that doubt whether climate change is real. This is the same organization that philip morris that hired back in 91 or 92. To convince people or make people doubt that second-hand smoking cause cancer. The legacy of the royal society sent two letters to them. So where are we now i think we are similar to a situation described in hunger games. I have a blog on that hunger games from a union political and environmental perspective. And i can tell you the blog site after while. So what we need. I think is some bold new thinking. It's an exciting time. We need some radical new approaches. We are going to take down 30 to 50% of the species this is just the beginning of climate change. We are preferably just rearranging the chairs on the deck of the titanic. So let's build a new ship to sail on that's what i say. And that's what i'm going to try to talk about today. So as the introduction of the introductions that i grew up on. A dairy farm in wisconsin and that's where i stylish my connection to the land. I got off the berkeley in the fall of 1967 to work on my doctorate in insect the biology. And as a result of being in berkeley in the late sixties i eventually discovered carl jung. I was 18 for the draft three times during the vietnam war era. The third time was the end of 1968 that was the year of the tet offensive. And that's when i realized that politics was not a game. The human lives and many other things were at stake and that's when i begin to get. Politically very involved. So. I went to train at the youngest to zurich. And way of combining my ecological side with my union side. Has been to write on what i call union ecopsychology. For these past i wouldn't tell you how many years. Also i produce these two volumes so far of a dairy farmers guide to the universe young hermes and ecopsychology. And i was going to bring your copy of. My book up here. Has a picture of the dairy farm that i grew up on the cover. It's coming it's coming all right. So what is ecopsychology. Ecopsychology is a study of how are. Attitudes values and perceptions ask and you shall receive thank you very much. This is the farm every farmer has an aerial view of their farm so this is mine. Thank god my parents are sold it to a young family that wanted to continue the family farm. Our neighbors have a 5,000 cows and they were highlighted before the super bowl they wanted a farmer from wisconsin. But the people that bought this farm. Are into organic farming. And they're going to be producing organic milk pretty soon. So that's ecopsychology and it has elements of deep ecology. Which says that we can connect far more deeply with the land than we currently are doing. And if we're connected with the land were naturally going to want to protect it. It also says that we have to look much more deeply at the environmental problem try to find some of the root elements. So here's where union psychology comes in. I am a jungian analyst so what i will present today. Full ba union perspective as i interpreted their many different ways you can look at these problems but today like i said you will hear a jungian perspective. And one of the things that i. Looks like about you on. Is this very interesting analysis of the dominant religion of a culture. If you want to see what is that the base of a culture in and what then becomes the source of the values of the attitude you look at the dominant religion. So young was the son of a. Swiss reformed minister. And from a long line of ministers his wife as well. And spent his entire life. Thinking about christianity and what it needed. And he focused on the story of joe. Job has written about 200 bc very interesting story just to refresh your memory. Here is lucifer the light giver. Up there in heaven. And he tells yahweh that servant of yours joel. Is really so devoted to you because he's got a nice wife he's got all these kids got all these big her all these london fields that's why he likes you. And so yahweh. Allows lucifer to do whatever you want to do with joel short of killing them well that's indeed what happened. Ben zobrist. So he demands an audience with y'all way. And it gets it. And he's basically looking for an advocate of god. Against.. And yahweh has no answer to joel by mean if you have weight is omniscient and knows everything he should have known that joe. Was a faithful servant. So sad. That joe had seen the dark side of god. As a human being. We are the conscious part of creation. And god has another side to him. Namely the devil. That is god's unconscious darkside. So god is always trying to blame humans for the problem but it's really his unconscious darkside that's how you unfriended. So young said christianity is not a monotheism it's a dualistic religion on the earth the devil is a equal power to god. So can our culture we have a split. God image if you will. So because. Because yahweh. Had had done a moral and justice. To job as a representative of the human species. Then y'all way had to inkarnate to atone. And jesus said. You're so young and felt abandoned by god. That's when god realized what job felt like and what human beings feel like. But your said this was insufficient. That yahweh had tried to incarnate in a pure. Human being. What you mean message for modern men and women is that god wants to incarnate in a sinful human being. We if you think of. Of this world. This universe as being a manifest side of god if you will. Then humans are the conscious part of the universal where the conscious part. Call god in a way. So what happened then. I don't know how many of you read the book of revelation. But it's an amazing piece of writing at the end of the new testament. And it's like a psychotic nightmare. Here's jesus dripping in blood. After destroying anybody that has opposed them or said something against christianity or something. And half of the planet is destroyed sword-like vietnam when the westmoreland said we have to destroy it to save it. So the four horsemen of the apocalypse are riding drought disease famine the seven seals are open all this raf is is poured out upon the earth and its creatures. I mean what is this anyway. So young thought that the. Christian era was the age of pisces. Those wise men that came from the east there were astrologers. They were following a star. So christ was born at the beginning of the 2000s astrological age. Of pisces. And pisces has is two fish swimming in opposite directions. Stores at the first thousand years. Humans were built up in a positive side of god was emphasized. The second thousand years basically it's been downhill ever since. Yohan died in 1961. So he saw the dark side of the christian era as coming out as communism. Nazism a destruction of the environment. And the atomic bomb. There was a positive element. In the book of revelation. And this is perfectly. Presented of all places in university of wisconsin-madison memorial library. Is you going to the library main interest on the left is a huge mosaic. Call the library. But it's a perfect depiction of this image. Are somewhere between all this destruction. A woman from heaven. And she had a son on her chest. A crown of stars standing on a crescent-shaped moon. Then. She has a newborn male baby. And she's confronted by a seven-headed dragon. So y'all wager ozzy and some backup into heaven. Text the woman off into the wilderness. And that's the end of that story. You said that was a very pagan answer. Into this christian story. The sun the moon the stars that was a very pagan element. And you'll said that that. Represented a new consciousness that christianity was not ready for at that time. Ian thought that there had to be a paradigm shift in the west. And that's what i think we are facing now. The environment is forcing us to change our paradigm and in relationship to each other. And in relationship to the environment. And it was young who coined the terms new age. An age of aquarius to describe that paradigm shift. And he said that that info. In that vision that you see at the memorial library. Is symbolic of the consciousness this new consciousness that's going to be born at the beginning of the new age the age of aquarius. Many people think that began in 1968. And when was that song of that play hair popular. Alright the dawning of the age of aquarius. Now what you doing also recognize. Was that the alchemist just wasn't that the alchemists were some of the most intelligent men and women in europe. Isaac newton wrote more about alchemy than he did about physics. And they were working with chemicals and stuff before there was chemistry. So they were looking at all the stuff in there retorts and vessels and all the changing colors and everything. And they were having visions and dreams about it. So young said that the alchemists were projecting the post-christian unconscious. Enter their vessels and retorts. What christianity had left out namely the body. The feminine. Sexuality. Animals and the earth. The alchemists were trying to reinstall andre spirit. The alchemist felt that jesus had saved. The human psyche. And there were trying to bring the spirit back into the macrocosm into the universe. So alchemy became young's main symbolic system. All for his cyclamatic approach and for working with dreams. So. Question is then how do we bring about. This new age and that's what i'm going to focus on rest of my time. Start with a quote from young he said. The human psyche must be studied. We are the origin of all coming evil. And this relates to a saying by jesus. I see jesus as being a very good psychoanalyst. And here's a typical cycling mixtape. He said why are you so concerned about the sliver of wood in your brother's eye. When you don't see that two-by-four would i'm paraphrasing. In your own eyes. So another words this is psychological premise are darkseid's our own shadow size people that work in ba7 salon. We can't see that on ourselves. We projected out into the environment and then we are hostile the people out there to lie the source of racism sexism homophobia etc. So if you think of the fact then that 31% of the believers. Across all denominations believe in a personal relationship. With a judgmental god. You're talking about god on your side. In a universe of good and evil. And i think it's this type of belief. That feeds this impasse that we have in our society in ann arbor lytical system. It's either my way or the highway if you're convinced that you have the absolute truth. How can you run a democracy. If somebody thinks differently than you do because god is on your side. Another issue is what i call faith-based reality. So there is 49% of republicans 39% of the democrats. Believe in six-day creation. This isn't the 21st century. The monkey scopes trial were back in 1920. So if people have a sense of reality like this and god's on their side. And a good and evil world. This is what we contend with i always get very nervous when the republicans have an open primary in iowa. My god. This is this is the 21st century. So what did you say about this. And this is a challenge to academics and intellectuals. You're said that until we can have a sense of the numinous. Dinner educational system. 10th and accepted by the intellectuals. We're not going to have a holistic education. So the psychological rule of thumb is that what is denigrated. Cannot honored turns against us. And i think that that we abandon the field. 2. Please megachurches if you will. And. All of these preachers that have little sense of the bible. And basically are coming from their own. Family of origin. Ideas about what is right and wrong and therefore gets turned into good and evil. Jesus said when you were children you learned as children. As an adult you should learn as an adult. He also thought that spiritual out jesus.. That spirituality was the most important dimension of the human experience. So it depends then we're obviously all capable. Of having spiritual experiences it's not hard wire to something that has to be foster you have to have a an environment including an educational environment that fosters the idea supports the idea of spirituality. And its related to jung's archetype of the self. That every person has within them a centering and a centering element produces you dreams if you will. Ennis waters of ultimate importance to other cultural level the self is jesus. Buddha lakota sioux college work on toca. Allah etc. No. What's really important here. Is that the phenomenology of the self. Is that the people that have experienced it. Think that this is the ultimate truth. It's always been this way and it always will be that way and it's an overwhelming emotional experience. The problem is that there are many different takes on the cell depending on the person the point in history the culture etc. So. If you understand the phenomenology is the same. Then one way we can deal with these. Spiritual differences is punished and how i can say i've got the best dog in the world. And you can say i've got the best dog in the world and we're both right. It's different takes different strokes for different folks are they saying about in the 60s. Another way of dealing with the issues here is to have an ecological concept of the human psyche i think that's very important. And your arms idea was. I'll dreams if you think of a dream that you're in and several other people. Were you in the dream is closest to your dream eagle. But who are all those other people. You don't call it the little people within. And. It is important for us to be able to relate to all those other elements that far and are not part of ourselves. Because. How we relate to our kinner figures. To our own unconscious. Sets the tone is the same way they relate to people out here and to the environment. So environmental work ultimately has to start with an ecological sense of our own psyche. My image for that. Is the chinese video grammar picture word for the sage. Which if you look at the elements for the picture word it's the ear listening to the inner king. That's what this age means the chinese it's a receptive position and ear. Listening to the inner king. There's obviously something in our psyches that is bigger than our eagle constructs. And that in extreme if you will. Is the divine or god. That interchange represents.. The other main thing that we have to look at. Are our systems. You can have good people doing bad things because of the system's they're caught into. And the readings that were given before play right into this. Your mom said that the present day monsters are not dragons and witches. They are big big machines. And big organizations. Like big military and big business. The example. He gave was imagine what the little merchants felt like. When he was gobbled up by the standard oil trust. So that is our modern monster to me the titanic primarily is. Corporate personhood. And until we can change corporate personhood. And the recent supreme court decision i think all environmental activity and everything we have. Is not going to work. Because it's all rigged. And we have to somehow get united and change what corporate power is all about. Because with citizens united there's no way we can compete with the oil companies that are going to make a profit this year but 136 billion dollars. Ian also emphasized the importance of consciousness. That we had to become as conscious as possible. That includes not only our own unconscious but also in this day and age of our niche in the environment. Like aldo leopold said we have to realize as a human species where we fit in with the environment. And that means i think by definition for humans to be part of the environment. We have to be symbolically. Mythically emotionally and creatively related to nature. Young's a challenge was to unite. Are cultured side with the 2 million year-old man within. And carl sagan before he died. Said that unless we can establish the sense of the sacred about the environment the ball games over. So that means that we have to bring together religion and science to do this. So our species has to get his act together. We need new economic economic concepts. The latest theory is that. The reason some nations fail and other nations succeed. Is primarily because. I'll be in that nation's ability to prevent the accumulation of wealth. We're talkin about the 1% here. That is the latest economically re. Israelis had the idea of a jubilee every 49 years it would rediscover your disturbia things. So if we are in a christian society. How are we honoring jesus saying i was hungry. And did you feed me. I was without shelter. Did you give me a place to stay. And so on. Instead. Christianity seems to have devolved into issues about abortion. And gay rights and that's her to stop words clear the message of jesus was loved and that statement about was i hungry and so on. The last element then is the feminine. Young said that in this new age there would be resurgence of archetypal feminine energy. Archetypal feminine energy is about process. It's about relationship. It's about community. Quite the contrast up our games epitomized by the packers winning the superbowl. So. To summarize. 2. Prevent. The book of revelations from becoming literally true. We have to realize that god wants to incarnate in a normal. Simple human being and that we are co-creators with god. Are we must become as conscious as possible of are intrapsychic dynamics. And understand the evolution of our. Are symbolic systems and our religious systems have to honor the numinous and our educational systems owner shadow. Develop spiritually. Developed eco-cycle ecological concepts of the human psyche. Change our systems like corporate personhood. Working individuation. Becoming all weekend because the army said that's the contrast to consumerism. Integrator cultured side with the 2 million year-old man within. And. Become truly christian. In loving others feeding the hungry etc. Cultivating the archetypal feminine. And limit our population. So to me the one charter that summarizes this is the earth strider. It was done by the united nations please google it if you're not familiar with it. It's about how to live sustainably. And to develop social political and economic justice. That's about as much as i can say in 25 minutes so i hope i've thrown out a left for some good discussion i understand this is a disgusting. Deals with it. And it's one of the problems i have with your own. He i think he was paranoid about communism. And. And that's what i write about in volume 2 is just came out. In fact it's not officially out. I look at the lacuna young said every psychology's is subjective confession. And i think that you only had a severe attachment issue problem. And i think that's why he could not really relate to the essence of christianity of god is love. You cannot relate to jesus. Just god was this incredible awesome sole control bad actually. Energy that created the universe. And because of that for example. Did the union student zurich. When they tried the entrance institute group therapy in 1970s von franz do you mean union. Threatened to withdraw from the institute. Because young didn't believe in group therapy. So. But i think the beauty of the system is this idea of archetypes that every god represents some and goddess represents an archetypal energies. So you can find the lacunae in your psyche. And then find out what archetype you he was missing mainly the archetype of the nurturing mother. Unplug it right back into the system. That's what we're up against i mean. Where is society where 70% of the of the economics depend on consumerism. So if all we have. Everyday all the time. Telling us how we can be happy if we buy this or that i mean what are we expected then we have corporations in incorporation speed of people this is a titanic. As far as i can see. The other blog is union union eco psychology.com. That's where i i give you have some links to the tar sands staying in. Citizens united is that the seeds that we. Are sewing at an accelerating rate. With regard to climate change. Is going to make it extremely difficult. For our species to to survive the commander in the amount of massive migrations of people's we're going to have when florida floods halfway when downtown new york city is flooded etcetera etcetera. And the extremes now just writing off from milwaukee today all the fields are turning brown i mean. This is this is what we're heading toward and we're not doing anything about it. Essentially nothing about it. That to me is another example of corporate power. One of the reasons i went to berkeley is because they had the largest department of biological control in america they had 100. 100 graduate students. It. department no longer exist. And one of the reasons is the head of that department. Thought he was saw himself as being in a one-man war against shell chemical. And the central valley in california. They grow a lot of cotton and they can put whatever they want to on cotton. So vandenbosch did a careful study. All of the cotton plant with regard to pesticides. And realize that if you didn't spray for the lightest bug which doesn't like cotton then you won't kill all the natural the natural enemies off of pests that then became past because their natural enemies otherwise control them. And he had the fight. To get a law through the california's legislator to say that the farm advisors were not representatives of the chemical companies. And it's that type of thing and lo and behold. Somehow or another the entomology department disappeared in berkeley in the mid-70s. The insects. However. Most species on the planet are insects and everytime we lose some more of the rainforest. Higher than entomologist i'm up here speaking behalf of the insects of the world. Ariens that represents about a quarter of a billion years of evolution. The. The flowering plants evolve together with the insects to pollinate them. That's holding sex.. You got it in the early 1960s what happened was up until world war there were all these many different studies of how to manage insect populations. With the advent of ddt. And then modified german nerve gas is called organophosphate. Entomology got reduced to spray encounter. In what was frightening to me. Is when i went from anthem ology to being a jungian analyst is that the same model we have in the medical world without psychopharmacological model is that humans are just a big chemical factory. And if you got a psychological problem is because of some chemical imbalance and we happen to have a rather expensive pill that will take care of it. So. Given the pressures on healthcare it's either you are disturbed enough to see a psychiatrist and get psychotropic meds. Because you're about to commit suicide or you're not suicidal so you don't retreat them. So i didn't happen to bring some copies of my book along and i'll be at the little table in the. Hallway after while. Huh. Good question. Union psychology. Almost by definition it is always kind of on the french were in a very hermetic. Position because we're always on i'm kind of the growing angelato artists and creative people and people interested in their dreams and so on. It is there are there many powerful union ways of working. And if one can get the dream work going it's probably been the most efficient if you want to think of it in those terms. So a lot of people. I'll pay out-of-pocket but there are. Definite ways and i actually have an article on my website. Business card here. Talkin talkin about. Short brief union psychotherapy. And there are things with the i-ching for example chinese book of wisdom one can use sandplay therapy etcetera. It doesn't fit into 5 sessions. Therapy is the. If you're with an hmo. I am your provider with an hmo and madison you have to average five sessions per person. Otherwise you have problems with the powers-that-be. Closing words to be by alameda ocean. Metaphor is important. Because to deal with. Understand and even ameliorate. The fix we are now in over global global change. Requires us to know the true nature of the earth. And imagine it. As the largest living thing. In the solar system. Thank you. Thank you all for coming clean the watertown contingent please extend the hand of friendship to those around you. And then join us for coffee. End conversation thank you very much.

uuprairie_org

Pr020623Zakem-ed.mp3

Just let all beings be happy weak or strong of high middle or low estate smaller grape visible or invisible near or far away alive or still to be born may they all be entirely happy. Let nobody lie to anybody or despise any single being anywhere. Met nobody wish harm to any single creature. Out of anger or hatred. Let us cherish all creatures as a mother her only child. We are loving thoughts fill the whole world. Above below across without limit. A boundless goodwill towards the whole world unrestricted free of hatred and enmity. Well i'm very pleased to introduce our speaker today david beckham has given us some notes here to help remember all the things he's been involved in around the world and let me recap those he's been in the peace corps four times in somalia swaziland belize and guatemala from 1974 to 1978 he was the director of an international school and iran he's most recently understand been in laos teaching preschool for 6 years and i'll be going back there to teach for at least another two more years. And he has also taught to preschool in monterrey mexico and going back sometime for those of you who've been very day of his programs for us. Iwan's on africa islam sufiya's sufism. Indian cultures winter solstice program and also spoke about zorro zoroastrianism. I was 3 years i just was kind of where i was. Summer off and do my own thing. Definition. Asia on the latest understandings of the brain and learning. And so i'm putting the practice some schools are talking about it but they're not that's the hardest thing to do. But really putting in the practice. So it's been an exciting time. And get some perspective. Yeah i could is buddhism itself there's a lot of things about buddhism but i don't know if this went into the prairiefire or not but i was going to be late. This is a view of one of the main used to be the main it's a kind of a new street that's been on the bill since i've been there the street used to be very narrow and all these teakwood trees you see alongside their about where the red motorcycle is where the road used to end and it was built on top of the old city wall. And there was a big future when i was first there that they wanted to widen this road and knock out one of those rows of trees which they did but the road was very dangerous it was not meant for vehicle traffic and so this was a big improvement when i was first there but it was built right on top of the old city wall. No problem with the old city wallace. When the water would flood that was one thing but the major floods were water being trapped behind the city wall and flooding the village from behind is so they put in all this irrigation stuff now so this is a part of the the modernization that goes along you lose some of your old and your tradition but. Pablo but it isn't very busy. And as you can see people riding motorcycles on the sidewalk or whatever. There's a saying in laos. And thailand both that if you've been here too long when you. Step off the curb on a one-way street. And you look six different ways. Cuz they're coming from all directions. This is taught lawana this is the the the number one temple in the whole country this is a symbol of their their culture and their country. And they used to have. On their money i bought some of the money here. Theater symbol used to be long and over the top of it a hammer-and-sickle cuz they were socialists. They taking the hammer and sickle off now. And when people ask me about socialism in the government it's really in name almost a name only and some of the old peoria craddock cronyism this there you do not feel you're in a heavy oppressive socialist country it's just not there. And labor day which is there as you know most of you may 1st and the rest of the world. And but you don't you don't feel socialism you feel more. Of buddhism. And one other thing animism which i'll talk quite a bit about today to. Buddhism is a main driving force for animism is also there this is kind of a. Typical shot of looking. At some of the rice fields and the many. Other kinds of crops that they do grow in some of the areas. In 33 different travel groups ones this way up in the mountains one looks kind of the middle-lands. In the jungles and things and the other ones are the way down in the lowlands which is where i am in venteon. At the lowlands along the river. And this is kind of in the moderate rains you can see the mountains off in the background there. Is this kind of in the mountainous area where a lot of what we know here the hmong people came here. Something like 150,000 people move from laos after the war. And came to the united states or canada or europe. There's still a lot there still there are still people in refugee camps. In laos and thailand. So it sits the war is over and they settled some the resistance movements were taking place there. And i just saw this last year that left the united states has finally recognized the role of the hmong in the war and put a statue up in washington. Because they suffered under this. Dramatically. Against some of the views of some of the traditional areas what it looks like with the mountains always in the background. It's quite a scene at countries are 30 rivers in laos. So they have a lot of it's like of many cultures there depending on rainfall but the people who live by the river it's a very fish oriented culture. This is the plain of jars. This is where the war was fought in laos. The unknown war the hidden war that they would push one group of jars during the dry season the us and the hmong people would reclaim the plain of jars that's justice long flat area. From ancient times. But they're only speculating now what they were used for they don't really know some are taller than i am somewhere small and they think they'd probably were burial things of some sort. They're not sure. They're still working on a lot of speculation where they came from me then where are they how they got them there. So it's a surreal open in the area yet for investigation but this is the infamous plain of jars. That's also under speculation some say well this is local. Stone. In some cases there are three distinct areas but. From what i've seen it looks like local stone but. Extraterrestrial. But the. Video of the buddhist buddhism is the state religion or national religion there is a very interesting book by a man whose ask around on lauv listen hong kong. It's called. Buddhist nation marxist state. And the conflict that they had on working some of these things out there but every morning around my house the monks come by my house. The people go out and give them what they call sticky rice they put rice mosey rice in a basket and. Food then later at 11 to go down to the temple and usually they'll bring in. Amigo for the monks anyway but this is early in the morning around together they have to get up at 4. And start meditating and then do some chanting. But this is very traditional there. This is luang prabang is a capital the old capital of. Allow us in this is a famous buddha from that area and putting the hands up here means do not be afraid. And this is the famous buddha from the 14 bong there to buddha's are there very popular this one. Do not be afraid and another one where the buddha puts his hands down which means we need rain so rain is very important there. So. This is the old traditional. Dress. Other people now is a turn-of-the-century. And pretty much it's the same this is ward city dress. And not the tribal. So this is pretty much of what people a lot wear today when the revolution took place 1975. They forbade the women to wear these skirts now the women wore skirts and then a polyester top or something but this is all silk. But when the revolution took place. The government said no more loud traditional skirts. They had to wear khaki skirts. Military. And that wasn't working a lot of stuff wasn't working out and now they wear silk skirts again no more no more. Little bit about buddhism this is up in the capital of the old capital city this is a famous temple and when you go in many of us. Probably think of buddhism as looking for enlightenment. Or in the in the mahayana buddhism looking for enlightenment or reincarnation in lao buddhism. What the problem is when you die you most likely go to one of the eight layers of hell. It's a very tumi traditionally christian type of. Focus on i'm worried about going to hell. Esso. People when they give the offerings in the morning that's supposed to be you're just giving offerings by quite my reading was be good be kind to the world but these people down inside are worried about going to help. In this temple the walls are covered with all of the torments of hell that's all that's inside of hell. And there's some of my pretty. Pretty lurid. But they are really pretty. That is their concern. There's more i mean in society like to feel there's more but they didn't know who the dalai lama was. About the higher levels of foreigners there weren't any people there. Because of the government clean out so we have a new breed coming and maybe this will come back but right now it's a very he'll focus kind of thing and worrying about your own safety in your own security. Best buddhism knows another thing. The tribal people. The tribal people practice animism most of tribal people are not buddhist. The hmong looks black tie that all these people are not buddhist they are animus. Animism really is the underlying thing even with the people i know. It isn't buddhism buddhism their concern is about staying out the hell. Animism is concerned about the natural environment the natural world and so the tribal people. Are animus. We are not buddhist these are some of that the black-tie people. The black-tie people the tie group came down on china you can see kind of the chinese looking things that they have on ornamentations and taste two groups of people came down on the china one came down laos way and thailand and the other one went down vietnam and cambodia and they speak different languages they're so far apart. The vietnamese are the cambodians along the coast are the different origins altogether from way long time ago. So these people are up in the north of the what they called the golden triangle. But they are animus. Animism is a belief in the natural spirits. When when you walk but there's a group of your car when you walk into their village there's a big arts wave of bamboo and things and you'll have these little statues look like polynesian statues there and you've got to enter that way those statues are a sense of the the spirits that they envision how they look i'll show you some other things. What the spirits look like. Music enter the tribal people. Orca carrying. What is some places it came across there had these people carry of the yolks. One of the bags that have over here is from this group you'll see a lot of the coins and things on it. But. Fortner 43 tribes of people in laos. This is called the owl people larry malik and his wife will come her name is yao. These are the yao people. And they were this big red muff. It looks hot and it is hot cuz you'll see some of them but that's what they wear and we we have a bunch of them come down to our school. Everyday extra but the red the red and the hat and that is everyday. And it looks hot and it is hot. Yeah these came down also in that same same drove almost all of the tribal people have migrated down from china. These are down in the south of. Lost which is a little bit more connected to cambodian that they have a whole different kind of style these are there. At the pool you couldn't you couldn't get there except if it's the one by helicopter. And now the roads are getting open to this area. So these are some of their styles the men. This is a village up in the north there's a infamous place called the golden triangle where all the opium is. In the. China burma and laos i haven't been to china yet but i've seen it from across the border. And this village. In the market in the morning from 6 to 8 in the morning all the tribal people come in. It walked quite a bit during the cool of the morning to get there and they do all their trading 8 to go home. But it's really amazing place in the morning. Not so much well it's kind of all over the place. It's there a different ones but this this one is kind of. More remote delaware i am there are some areas that that they do. It's easier to get across the thailand. Talking about the natural spiritual event this is a game they play here. Little retina. Ball. That is supposed to be in the old days it's kind of like they did in mexico it's the good versus the evil it's during the when the change of the seasons and to bring rain and everything so it always be one group of people go out and play the other group of people. A good versus evil thing no one wins it's just. We hope that beside the supposed to be the good side wins. Now it says they do this every year national day and some other things that's always the government versus the people's party these kinds of things. So it's it's it's not as popular. As you know from the world cup stuff soccer or football is very popular. In basketball is now becoming very popular in laos i'm i'm one of the known people. Michael jordan and people like that are. More well-known that even george bush. This is another real good thing. Is working around the mekong river i don't have any shots of the mekong but the mekong is a very strong presence there and there are certain seasons during the year when they go and put flowers on the float down the mekong to ask blessings from the river there's another time of the boat races and this is when the rainy season's over and the rivers very high which it is here they go out and race on the river and these go back to some old traditions. Dealing with the river trying to conquer it being one with the river and everything so it's. Again animism. These are the big holidays. There aren't any big buddhist holidays inn in lost except the one where they go to toddler wombat temple i showed you first. Everything else is animus they're all celebrating the rainy season the river the moon the moon is the determining factor and what they do. And still there. The animals things are big. What they do during the. Even the buddhist holidays they go out and build these stupid. This is about 2 feet high. You'll build it us and it's supposedly every grain of sand. Supposed to be. Rarely goes to heaven. And so every time you build a stupa all these all your work is going into something good and you put all these little banners on and incense and and little of your family and things you put on there as a kind of. They're helping you do this. So you know we're helping you out here your figures up here some good stuff here. This is right on our temple i every every every neighborhood it's a neighborhood association in laos has is built around the temple so my temple is a center of my neighborhood. And my temple is really grown since i've been there a lot of new buildings and things. But right on the temple grounds. These people are offering. Water and fruit and incense to this tree. Right on the temple grounds. So this to the temple for their days they will also come and offer to this tree. So that's how strong animism is. This tree and the spirits of the earth are really right together with the rest of it. So this is right on the temple ground. Whatever whatever has inauspicious look to it is also connected with good luck winning the lottery. I was at a ceremony of ceremonies very popular called abbasi this man in the dark blue shirt on the left ear had been in the temple he was a novice when i met him and all the novices are in the temples want to learn english and i got to know him very well as a friend i told him i'm not going to be your teacher i'm not going to be your benefactor but i will be your friend and i got to know him very well he left the temple. And you tie all these strings on you see people run the buses around the airplanes all these strings on they're getting their spirit together so when you go traveling your spirit isn't going to wander off somewhere and have problems so at the end of our school year. You can bring in the mumps. Or you can just have the village elder come in and do the opening think we just have the village elder come in because the monks are a separate thing it's just extra to bring in the monks they have nothing to do with this really it's an animist ceremony so there i am and i told katie at the beginning. The most things i do in laos it's very hot you can see i look like i'm my shirt is dressed and it was so cooking there that. I got beer i don't drink a lot of beer before that night i was just laughing it down.. So this is another of the animist kind of ceremonies. In each almost every yard. In-laws. Anti-land they'll be a spirit house. This is in the yard that's a new one that's under way they'll put fruit in here that put incense here and it's for the spirits of your yard. And it's very important that the spirits of a yard are appeased. And so everyone will have these. Again this is part of the animal saying it's hard to really put everything in a real define sense but all these practices to see start adding up and it has abs there after i was there for a while said. This is not a buddhist nation it is the driving force. Of what they do. These are the the two red-faced people are grandpa and grandma the founders original progenitors of the buddhist nation. So these are celebrating a dragon dog there. And so these are celebrated as the two of the beginning people of the buddhist nation. Y'all together yeah we go separate again. But if it's national it's like. Pre buddhism. This is when the famous temples in inventione. Many of the temples were not kept off during the. Government for awhile there when they were not recognizing their traditions anymore and so now they're getting refurbished. World heritage sites so they are getting more attention. No it's it's it's like stone but it's just the way it looks. A lot of things again. And they started using more of the. Concrete and things now everything's been on concrete. This is the national museum. I just to show you how things have changed. This used to be the national revolution museum. Two years ago they changed it back to its the national museum. The revolution is really over if they they just don't have that in there anymore. So they wanted to be more open more accepting so people will feel free to come there. The businesses will come there and things like that so they're trying to move away from it. When i was first there. Their friends after the soviet union left. Their friends were. Vietnam and north korea. Vietnam is pretty much opening up and north korea is. Probably going to open up so. Connect with the world so china's a big partner with there with them now. The soviet union. In 1990 at a school like ours they had 1200 in their school. Soviets. Now they have the russian school they have 35 children. And. Diminishing fast. Cuz the soviet present the russian presence they cannot afford to be. In these places. We have one russian child every year we tend to have one russian child in our school and they're paying some extra money to come to our school the great thing is we had this connection with the russian people we play volleyball with them we play basketball with them we have great bbq meals and. And vodka slings with them and everything like that so it's a great group of people but they are really big. Because it's a fact. It's it's over for the soviet union but the russian president is still there but the revolution is there a name only. This is. Cultural palace. It was donated by the chinese. Somebody might know in almost every country around the world where china can have any influence. The way they get in is to build a culture palace or aaa hall or somewhere where you can hold meetings and things we didn't have that most. This place is fantastic. It's only two years old now but china will go in and build you a stadium or something. And this is now we know china is favorable who lost because they put a lot of money on them. Bigger than the best hotel in town. But it's got laulau styling to it and everything was some for some people now are going modern this postmodern era well they've kept some of the things. The chinese are very good at this so this is a real welcome. To the country. This is main street main intersection downtown renton. Not really during busy time but relative. You don't have a lot of traffic there. I have a mountain bike that i ride everywhere i can go from where i live on the edge of town to downtown in 15 minutes. On any given day traffic or no traffic very very. Very easy to get around. This is also common way of transport which is called it took took. Little motorcycles of enlarge the backs and things on it. Is it sound the best thing. Oh no pollution. There's there's nothing ever good afternoon burn leaves and things and a lot of poly plastic bags. But we don't have any industry or anything at this point is causing pollution. Hey so good not that i mean they're there so few. In the river and it's it's really opens it up so close out this is the road in front of our school. If they worked they were like the worst potholes you can imagine. But they were so bad that they were worse than dirt. But this is in front of our school looking towards my house right straight up this road is the temple the redroof right up the road is a temple. And i'm just past the temple where i live. But we're right on a dirt road. This is kind of our schools anymore. But you can see our football field. Just finishing we need some more rain. But this is our school and there's another pictures little bit better off. Penthouses school a lot of natural. Coverage we have to re-do the roof on this grass roof every couple years so we have a walkway almost everywhere you go outside the field just covered because the sun is so hot all the time. I went to buildings like this and i have a little building myself for the preschool. Then we picked up some neighborhood houses because we needed to expand and so we picked up some houses that were using to so we're kind of really involved in the neighborhood. I live in in the neighborhood right by the school this this is phil house here is just down two doors from the school traditional kind of loud style but not with a lot of money put into it just with the bamboo rattan kinds of coverings but where i live you can have a house. This from the minister of something-or-other minister of culture. We're all there together. And i have very very poor people living right right next to my house. But this is a real community you don't feel. The kind of isolation that i painted it with all different kinds of things has become a neighborhood landmark. They don't have house numbers or anything or street names. So now i've i'm done but my neighbors are combined it would talk to me and it was really good to get to know the neighbors that way. There is no mail delivery unless fedex. But everything is postbox otherwise. So a lot of people do not get mail. Yeah that's the grandma and grandpa. And then i was winnie the pooh mickey mouse butterfly i do have a buddhist mundala i got toddler wonka temple. Lotus flowers and things on the other side but i just got this one so i've got a mixture of everything. Winnie-the-pooh is big around the world and so i i put those on and in heather killer free willy killer whale. A dinosaur interesting. And i had the dinosaur by some lotus flowers in some water and a turtle. Evolutionism. French speakers in vietnam. Lingua franca is english. This is another interesting thing up in the temples and around up in the north. We had we had a big war and now this isn't a temple this is a belly ring on special ceremonies this is a nose cone. From one of the bought the drop the bombs in a drop in the bombies would open up these are everywhere almost every temple has one of these in it. And you go up into the north and you'll see people feeding their pigs they have troughs made out of these shells from these bombs they have fences made out of. So that it's the right picture. So anyway that's a fake a present from the ice age of america. Yo us government whatever texas arsenal or whoever made it still still. Do all these things. This is the final sunset over the mekong. There's a big industry in venti and the capital to go for sunset over the mekong so that's kind of a big part of the. So this is sunset over the mekong. No i i i was thinking about doing that not.. A length of time that actually i've sent. Ruth caban email but i don't if it's just a simple little house. What's umbrella top. And and i have my own stuff at home i can't go somewhere and use someone else's things. Sweden was at the university here for a while. For five years. Before i. 87-88 8287 i was never into the computer things i was still using my old electric typewriter in things. When i went to laos i still have my electric typewriter. And if you needed to use the computer you had to dial into a telephone line from thailand. It was quite expensive. Going to start opening up. And we start getting computers in school. 4 years ago september 19th i got my computer. And i went crazy. And now i have the digital camera a good or very good high-quality on which one the pictures over there. Bruma is probably one of the few places in the world right now that doesn't allow direct internet connection yet china's opened up there fighting this right now. It was interesting i kind of think of. And just simple kind of things and i just felt this is kind of again my feelings about prairie just good people but we have something we believe in we work together if this could be the next major religions in the world.

uuprairie_org

Pr201011_AnotherWay-MadelineArnold-ed.mp3

Some of you may have actually read. Her buck wire all the black children sitting together in the cafeteria. And she talks about racism with this moving walkway metaphor and actually just read a quote from her because it's been really helpful for me and thinking about passive versus active. Anti-racism. So she says. I sometimes visualize ongoing cycle racism as a moving walkway at the airport. Active racist behavior is equivalent to walking fast on the conveyor belt. Passive racist behavior is equivalent to standing still on the walkway. No overt effort is being made but the conveyor belt moves the bystanders along to the same direction as those who are actively walking. Unless they're walking actively in the opposite direction at a speed faster than the conveyor belt. Unless they're actively anti-racist. You'll find themselves. along with others. So i'll be coming back to this metaphor throughout my talk and i want to think a little bit about. How has my journey and always been passive and what are the things that could have happened to make it a little bit more active longway. And hopefully in the discussion we can think a little bit together about. Your your journey does individuals with raise and maybe prairies journey of the community. So of course i had to put in a picture of me at. the kid so this is. Yeah with the prairie community about the horizons maybe around 2000 or something like that. And i can't tell you exactly what i was thinking at the time. Maybe you know appreciating the wonderful music maybe. Thinking about the turf that i'm sitting on butt. I can't tell you i probably wasn't thinking about race and i probably wasn't thinking about racism. So why is that. Why was i able to go through most of my childhood without thinking about race very much. I'm in the way i want to think about this is thinking about my race landscape so but by that i mean. What's the. Racial surroundings on who are the people around me and also what are the messages receiving about race. So i'll my community and my surroundings i had a predominantly white family definitely my nuclear family was white. I lived in monroe wisconsin which is a. Like 30 miles south of madison also prominently white. All my friends were right and my church as we know with also predominantly white. So what was school like also in school a lot of my education was from white sources. So that means my teachers were white but also. I can't tell you who wrote the textbooks that i can't tell you that i did learn a lot of black history i didn't learn history from an indigenous perspective. So a lot of things i was learning from a white one. In school. And what about the media is consuming i would say it was pretty anti-black so by that i mean they're a lot of santa box stereotypes that i was consuming. You know associating. Black people with. Interspecific like with drugs for example or with danger i think those kind of messages i was receiving a lot through the media and didn't have a lot of positive stereotypes of black people. And then so these are all kind of. Implicit messages i was receiving or what am i surrounded but i also want to think about the explicit messages i was getting about race. And i would say a lot of them were put in this colorblind category so things like you know color doesn't matter it doesn't matter. Or think about races in the past. And i definitely didn't learn anything about whiteness or what it meant to be white. I want to pause for a minute and just ask you to think and reflect about how do you feel right now in this moment as i'm talking to you about my racial landscape growing up. I mean i'd encourage you if you can to think about what it feels like in your body. So is there any tenseness anywhere. Are you sweating you feel disengage tired. Just take 30 seconds to reflect and then. Type in the chat. Thanks everyone for. Contributing and you can keep. Putting things in the chat as we go along. So people are saying you on easy i'm feeling tight and feeling tired sad. I want to know what true some people are really intellectualizing it so you know talking about the. Implications of it but like what does it really feel like in your body and i think it's important i'm it has been important for me. To come back to that as i'm thinking about race because a lot of times. It ends up being really in my head and not in my body or in my emotional side. So thanks everybody for sharing. So i want to take a little bit more into some of the explicit messages that i received about race and i kind of alluded to them but i want to. Start of digging to what was really going on there. So i'm one thing i've been thinking about is all the messages i received about equality. Between people of different racial backgrounds but without much contact so. Like everyone's equal no matter their color. I heard many times growing up both in prairie and insert of the general education. Martin luther king junior's i have a dream speech. I'm worried talks about. Dreaming about a day when his children will be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. And here at prairie. We were talking a lot about the inherent worth and dignity of every person and i still believe in that and that's really important to me. But i think when we talk about these things on the subtle message can also be don't talk about race or don't talk about racial differences because we're trying to promote the idea that everyone is equal so we should kind of put race to the side. And it's confusing given the racial landscape that i talked about before. Receiving all this stereotypical anti-black media and also living in a white neighborhood i'm segregated so i know that you know if everything was it ever was people shouldn't you know. Aaron d living together why am i receiving all these stereotypical messages. So it's really missing is how do we make sense of the contradiction that we're saying everyone equal but when i look around me i see that people are not living in equal circumstances. And so. You know hint is ongoing structural racism right but without that contacts it can be confusing. And if you're saying everyone's equal but you don't see that. What message does that send. Another message i received was that racism is in the past. So again in prairie and also in my education i. When people talked about race they really focus on the civil rights movement. And examples of overt racism. They don't think there is much information on ongoing and current racism. Or current resistance movements to racism and so. What's missing from. This is racism happening now in the current moment and what are people doing about it right now. Because obviously the history of. I'm racial justice and racial justice movements is really key but i can't be the only thing that were talking. So sometimes i heard the message that. You know we shouldn't talk about race then when we did talk about race it seem like it was in the past. I'm sometimes we talked about it in the present but when that was the case off and i think. Racism was discussed as a personal issue that people of color. Are dealing with. So maybe we discuss prejudice. But it was always in the context of how is it affecting this person of color on the individual level. I do give an example. I'm probably in high school i did a project with prairie re. Where we interview people's coloring the congregation. I wouldn't ask this exact question but it kind of boiled down to how do you feel when people stereotype you right and now there was an important question we need to know that we need to think about it. But the message was that racism something one person goes to another person. And that you should not stereotype people was actually the message. But i think it was missing there was. What are the three types of a house let's dig into that looks figure it out how do i actively counter the stereotypes that i have how can we come in as a community. And actively practice how to counter them. Moana people gotten the pasta counter them so kind of like really getting into it beyond. You shouldn't stereotype. Also it was missing was. A higher understanding of how racism shaped institution has its shape society. So we're just thinking about racism at something someone does to someone else. You're missing all these other components of how it works. And i would say the other thing that was missing from this was. How does it affect me as a white person so how am i benefiting from these structures. In our society that are oppressing certain groups. And basically an understanding white privilege. Also how has white supremacy actually negatively impacted me to how is that harmed me as a white person. So just the kind of some of these messages. I was getting this message about equality without the context and that. The implicit message there is that. Race doesn't matter. We shouldn't be talking about race or thinking about race. I also received this message that racism is in the past we're going to focus on how people fought racism. In the civil rights movement. I'm not implicit messages that racism isn't relevant now in the current moment and you don't need anything about it right now as operating in the world. And then the message that racism. There's something that people colored. On an individual level. Random isn't relevant to me. It's not important. I think about in the current moment. So getting back to this. This metaphor of the moving walkway. Basically at this point i would say these messages. Are kind of keeping me to standing on the walkway. Knocking about race.. Trying to figure out what's going on but just possibly i'm moving on the walkway. So. Inex continue on to college i went to carleton college in northfield minnesota which is a liberal arts college and it was predominantly white. So how did my journey with race continue there. Thursday i was able to learn a lot about the impacts of racism during my college experience some of it was formal style. Person that took a course on an african american literature and film as able to learn a lot about common racist rope and part of the history of segregation in the us. Which i didn't learn in high school. I'll also have some informal discussions me or just hang out with friends white and non-white and talking about race. I think in that context they learned a lot more about. Structural interpersonal racism in we would talk alot about it. And so. This discussion denise formal learning opportunities are really counter-narratives to some of the implicit messages i've received as a kid. Because i was running race does matter it's really relevant and it's impacting people now. So there are a lot of. Positive experiences in my race journey during college but i would say overall. Reason racism we're not prioritize during my college education so. Examples of s. Coursework on race is not required for graduation and i think you know that still the case now. Discussion of race in science courses never really happened. I think i'm only now starting to realize how important that is cuz often it's sort of relegated to. Literature to history classes but. Race really permeates i am so you may know about the tuskegee experiments there's many other things that have happened along the way in science that have been extremely racist and so we need to incorporate those things into any learning to do about science. Also thinking back all of the classes that i took that the dispensaries. We're taught by people of color. So thinking about what is that. How does that inform the implicit messages i received. I think it does sort of prop them up right so. If you're not required to talk about race. To be considered an educated person you know telling you race doesn't matter. They telling you that racism is not relevant now. And. If i'm not seeing any samples of. White people who are committed to talking about race. Then that's kind of implicitly telling me racism is not relevant to me if only. It's the only people that are talking about other people is calling. So certain conclusion i was able to leave college without. Much knowledge about race or racism. And without having done a lot of self-reflection on my own race and my own role in racism. So getting back to the moving walkway at this point maybe i'm. Start of slightly aware that something's moving me. you know i'm seeing some people coming by me and the other direction but i don't really know what's going on i don't know where we're going and i'm not sure how this walkway works. So i want to take a moment to stop again at 4. Y'all to reflect a little bit what did you learn about race in high school or in college education and who are the people that taught you so. We're the only people of color were you only talk with inserted like an ethnic studies department. So take another moment to reflect and type in the chat. Thanks everyone for. Sharing your story and you can continue to type things out i just want to highlight. Something peggy said. History was there a white european lines in racing diversity voorhees add-ons. So 3/4 than anything else like multicultural literature month i've also definitely been my experience that it's kind of. A special thing that you talk about in a certain situation. People saying at the story of absence yeah. And i think that's kind of disturbing as me because this is an intergenerational service right and we're all saying no is kind of the same. Throughout the years we've all kind of had a similar experience.. Incoming change my twitches and really upsetting. Yeah so thanks. Thanks for sharing some people that have the chance to learn from people of color. But i would. Imagine a lot of people have a similar experience as me but not a lot of white professors were talking about race. So. Continuing on to my. The next step in my journey and we should d.c. to take a position in the lab and i would say. The white liberal conversations i'll just call it white liberal on a shorthand. That king that happened in college kind of continued so some of that was good some of it was bad. Good or not we're still discussing racism we're still trying to figure out how it works. So do my circles were predominantly white both in my science in my lab and also my social circle. But we did have our discussions about gentrification this was something that was actively happening in d.c. while he lives there. And also help disparities on especially in science is comes up a lot. So you're talking about these things. But i would say that i'm despite those conversations i still would say i was possibly being carried along on the moving walkway. I want to unpack that and figure out why is it that despite talking about it. I'm trying to think about it. Trying to learn more about it how was i still being possibly carried along. So anyway. Liberal discussion. I think they were often missing. A piece about internal racism so we showcased on. External manifestations of racism right things like okay but how is the structure working this institution is being racist. Things like you know this was i was there when donald trump was. I'm campaigning some things like you know what is the racist thing he just said. I didn't really look inward and figure out how am i racist. How am i still holding lot of stereotypes and actively contributing to the system. We also didn't make any commitment to action. So we talked a lot but we didn't say collectively hey we're going to do something. And there weren't a lot of people of color as part of the conversations. And i would say we generally kept things very intellectual so. There wasn't a lot of. Emotional. Component of the conversation not a lot of spiritual component of the conversation. So how did those things impact. The implicit messages that i talked about at the beginning. I would say in some ways they confirm them so. The fact that we as a group of predominantly white people. Felt like me sort of had the full. Perspective orchid like talk. In a way about race without considering. What are the perspectives were missing because there aren't a lot of people of color here and how does that you know blind us to potential pitfalls of our conversation. So that way we are kind of. Saying that race doesn't matter right because of the group of white people we can talk about this. I'm in an educated way and kind of come to all the conclusions that matter right. We also kind of confirmed that racism isn't relevant now because. If it was important now in the current moment and ongoing. We probably would have made some sort of commitment. To do something about it in the moment. And also by externalizing it and not thinking about it on a more emotional. Level. That confirms that we were thinking that racism is not really rubs relevant to us. So. Despite talking about it. The way that we are talking about it. Best passive. Caring along with the the white supremacist on walkway i guess i'll say. So i want to think a little bit about a turning point for me which is when race really became more relevant. I'm for me. And that was when i moved here to uc berkeley and i saw a number of instances of racial discrimination in grad school. And just became more aware of racial discrimination in general. So i'll tell you one story about a time when. I thought racial discrimination happening and my own privilege and how it played into that situation so. My first day of grad school in 2017. I was applying for a national science foundation fellowship. Which is. Basically money you get from the government to fund your research. And so. I asked the professor is in the class i was taking. If i could get an extension on the homework assignment that was due basically the same time as the fellowship was due. And i also said that my fellowship and said hey could you give me some comments if you have time some advice on my fellowship. And they said sure you can have the extension here's some comments that were super helpful. And so that was great and i talked to one of my friends who's puerto rican in the same year as me and she was also appliances fellowship. And i said oh my professor just emailed me this morning gave me this extension you should ask for an extension to. She sent an email asking for extension same day same fellowship same class and they denied her. And they said no you can't have an extension. And didn't give her any feedback on the fellowship. So as me tried to make sense of this the only answer we could come up with was that hey this is racial discrimination. And that was really frustrating for me really scary. And just put it in the context of this is my own privileged that work here i'm getting. This advantage both in terms of having more time to work on it and getting the feedback from knowledgeable professors. Stop my. My classmate didn't and i have this fellowship i'm currently using it to find my research and she isn't. So this is kind of a wake-up call to me and it's not the only one as i've talked to a lot of. Friends and her directly from professor like racist statements about my friends. Really. For lack of a better word i just woke up. So these stories showed me a whole world that i wasn't experiencing as a white person so just even by being friends with people of color. Hearing a lot about. Is whole other side of what it's like to navigate grad school or the scientific world in general as a person of color that there's nobody would know about as a white person cuz i would just kind of state above it not knowing all these things were going on. I'd rather people. So these stories were directly really revealing my privilege. Also making me angry because these people are my friends and i don't want them to be treated so unfairly. So i really need braces and feel more relevant to me. So now on this walkway i'm kind of noticing where we're going and i'm like i don't want to be part of this i don't want to go that way. So how do you move beyond that realization that this is a problem to. Figuring out your own internalized racism and making a commitment to do something about it. And two things are really important for me and again this is just my journey so this isn't what what will be important for everyone. But i went to two intensive workshops that really helped. Move my thinking and move my like emotional awareness along in terms of my relationship to to race. So one of them was a three-day workshop with robin diangelo. Who said he is waiting. And what it means to be white and how people respond to. Race. As white people. And then i also went recently this summer to a 7-day special development. From academics for black survival and wellness led by dr. dylan moseley in perris valley met who are. Counseling psychologist in academics. And. These workshops really gave me. Space and time and community. That was targeted towards self-reflection. I'm so lots of thinking about. How i'm responding what are the patterns that come out for me again and again when i talk about race. And how can we as a community. Fight those together. So. This really helped me better understand my own racism. And also make a commitment to black liberation. I mean what i mean by that is. Physically. Fighting for a day where all black people can. You know be at their fullest. Move about their lives without any oppression. I really was able to commit to that by taking the time and space to. To learn more and learn from these people who are experts in the field. Of course. There are a lot of stumbled along the way it's not a linear path at all. And i was want to highlight one example of issues that i've had along the way which is. A lot of times my initial responses to my friends stories were actually pretty racist so when people would tell me about determination that experience. My first reaction was and still is sometimes surprised and that really just comes from being naive. So like i was saying before the white person i don't have. These experiences of racial discrimination so. I was like wait did that really happen like is that really how the system works i don't know so. A lot of times i can be surprised. But the surprise and disbelief actually perpetuates racism right because. Your kind of silencing that person you're saying what happened your invalidating their experience. And then by not believing them you're not. Fighting to change those things. One thing that's really helped me in combating this instinct. To be surprised and not believe people. Is actually my work in sexual violence and sexual harassment prevention. For those of you that may be familiar with. Thought field. It's really important when someone reveal see that they've been harmed that you respond. In a certain way so you want to listen. You want to believe them you don't want to blame the victim for what they've experienced and when asked what they need an offer support. I'm trying to apply that framework from serve another set of. Racial and social justice movements. And apply that to how i think about racism. I went someone tells me that they've been harmed. I want to support them i want to listen and believe them. And so i know we're coming up on time but just want to. Play a little bit more about how i've gotten support as i've learned more about race and racism. I think again community is super important in this journey at least for me it's been very important in supporting my growth. So i'm part of this grad student group called inclusive ncb which is my department and we focus on increasing equity especially for people. You're normally underrepresented based on their race or ethnicity. So this group of people is community has been really great for me to push me to grow and holding me accountable so if i caused harm. Talking about it will work through it and i'll be committed to doing better because of this community that i'm in. I'm in it also just makes me excited to do racial justice work when i'm with a group of other people that are really excited about it. Also part of an accountability group of five white scientists that are working for racial justice. So we have weekly meetings where we. Are trying to read a lot of things learn all the things that we didn't learn in high school and college. Just practice talking about races it's really hard for white people. And each other accountable that we said that we were committing to action and making sure that we follow up on that. How contrary start to walk in the other direction what would that look like. Of course that's something that's going to take a lot of thinking and a lot of. Dedication. But. Here is how i like to think about my path. And maybe i can. I can help the horse as a scientist i have to put a graph somewhere in here so. But think about. Time on. The x-axis and. Start of song nebulous measure of anti-racist effectiveness on the y so maybe the number of things you're doing the quality of the. And serious efforts are doing so ideally you're going to have this great when your trajectory i'm just getting better and better more and more effective over time. Realistically you might think okay well that's you're not always going to be doing great maybe you'll have some slow time some. Times when things go well maybe it looks like this. Am i experienced my my journey has looked a little more like this. So. Sometimes it seems like you're going backwards sometimes you're not being effective at all you're causing harm. Your cycling back to things that you thought you figured out before and here i am again doing the same thing. So it's it's pretty. A convoluted journey there's a lot of different ways of learning a lot of times when. It's not very clear-cut. But it's important that you know you continue this work because silence also. Perpetuates racism. So. Prairie will have to figure out how many tribune eventually want to figure out what your path is. I'm to become more auntie basis until really commit to. Bring people from oppression. Here's just one example some of you may have heard. A few weeks ago on their protest after inn in louisville kentucky after. The news came out about going to taylor's taylor is not being charged for her murder. And in lewisville. Unitarian universalist church. Took in the protesters because it was past curfew. We provided food they provided. Water they gave them safe haven so that they can stay somewhere after curfew after they were protesting. Stars really moved by this and i think it's one example of what. Churches in what you use specifically can do in current moment. To help people that are fighting for racial justice. But there will obviously be internal work that prey has to do there's going to be a lot of different thing that individuals and prayer can do. So i just want to leave you with a few. I'm fox about what it's like to church. Wanted to be like to chart your journey so. I would say it's important to start with where you are now so try to do some kind of self-assessment. What is our history with race and racism what are all the resources that we have. And then thinking about what comes next. How you be sure that whatever work you do. It's entering the needs of black or other marginalized people and how he be accountable to them. And then how do you maintain urgency. And this is important because we know. .. Black people are dying and. Every every moment we don't do anything is really important. So one thing i'll say about my experience is that then why i kind of asked you to think about how you feel in your body is that often. I think about race i disconnect from my emotions. And my bodily reactions and so one thing that has helped me is music that can help me. Humanize the black experience and recommit to auntie racism and black liberation. So many people can tell me if i if we don't have time but i do have a short video. From shade diamond to the trans activist. And and singer songwriter and just want to. Give me the chance to hear from someone who has inspired me and see if if you feel the same as okay if you don't. But. Just finding ways to stay committed and stay inspired as you go and you continue your journey with race. So yeah i'd like to take any questions comments and discussion. I guess before that i just wanted to make have a few acknowledgements just to the people that help me think a lot about this. Yasso. I guess. Just some some friends from grad school lots of organizers for the different workshops that i've attended in the. Current accountability group that i'm part of. Thank you so much. I think one of the things that. I meant by that is that we really need to know that history. So when we're studying science. I'm realizing that you know some of the discovery some of the things that were that were. We are being taught in that were using our science our kind of had this racist. History, that they were really developed. In order to separate people so like genetics genomics has been used. 2. Try to separate people by race which that's basically been debunked that. No racial group racial groups are not different genetically. And it's completely a social constructs but we don't talk about that in science and how important it is in our science communication. To make sure that we're getting a point across. But you're right i think there are places to talk about racing science so like i said he stressed. And how the environment impacts on behavior. And so there's racial trauma that people of certain races have because of the social system. That on their place in the factory biology right so there are biological differences but it's not inherent it's because of the racism that people are experiencing more you know differences in nutrition differences in health outcomes because doctors don't listen to. Do black people and they don't believe that they're in pain for example. So. Now there's a lot of ways that races important in science but. Definitely making sure to debunk a lot of the old and still ongoing myths about race and science to thank you. And i think this is something that. Comes up a lot thinking about races that there's a lot of white guilt. So when we. When we think about you know all the things that white people have done and all the things that we're not doing. Darken even get in the way of making progress because it is again about you. So yeah i feel that i struggle with that too. And it's something that i think a lot of people struggle with. But we need to find a way to move past it because it's important. Thanks everybody for listening and i look forward to our conversation.

uuprairie_org

Pr110731DaveJohnson-ed.mp3

Good morning welcome welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society on my name is christina and i'm a member here at prairie prairie aspires to be both an open-hearted and open-minded congregation we welcome people of every ethnic and religious background whatever your color sexual orientation gender or family structure we welcome you no matter what your age or your abilities or your inabilities later in the service we will invite visitors gas and so we might get to know you better. Please welcome warren hammerstrom and linda colletti for the lighting of our chalice well i understand the public sphere i am concerned given the important role of nuclear power i encourage patients until more information is gathered for a full review so we can learn the lessons fight global warming learned to fight global warming without using nuclear power. It is now time for our presentation and i would like to introduce dave johnson dave johnson is a longtime for remember he spent a career in nuclear power plants starting out as a reactor operator in california and finishing up as the lead startup engineer on 1002 megawatt plant in taiwan today's program will attempt to clarify the events occurring at the fukushima plant in japan they will describe some of his experiences in nuclear power and will share his thoughts on the future there will be ample time for questions but just a reminder the program is not intended as a debate about nuclear power. On march 11th 2011 at 2:46 p.m. in japanese standard time in earthquake magnitude of 9 on the richter scale which is the main island of japan. Right on the coast of that thing was there. Tokyo electric power's daiichi is number one in japanese plant in fukushima and there were six reactors there and at that moment that whole thing was dead there was no recovery with all over my nobody knew that but about an hour later but tsunami came and it came over. What are you doing now i got to get that water out of there and you can't dump it in the ocean so that's about where they are and it's very difficult to find out what happened there even for me. That i shouldn't because it's very pretty there three things there's a car that's where the fuel is there's a reactor vessel that's the pressure vessel at 6 in of steel all the way around which is a larger outside. That in three reactors the cars of melted and a melted through. The six inches of steel. And they're laying now. Down. I'm concrete in the bottom here. I think there's a very good chance that you're not laying there i think there's a very good chance i just kept going. And now you coming to the china syndrome if these things these things are melting through the earth what what's going to happen you know i keep going enjoy. Fukushima situation. What what percentage of the overall nuclear thing these plants represent out. Now they're going through really agonizing reappraisal is on what to do on these things is there some way they can make. Firewalls to help prevent a tsunami is there any point in wasting on waiting on his i think they just are going through some agonies here and they don't know what to do. I don't think they can get in there anyway because to go in there you have to go through airlocks and the airlock you have to open one door you can do any of the clothes that and it open the other door and i would imagine those things are sprung to where there's no way and there's only two ways in that's the one i'm familiar with and i think you even if the radiation i don't think of robots socks. It's it's difficult to know that i don't know you see people desire that you see people all dressed up in this. Outfit and they get on this bus and they all right in there and then ate there. And get things from their homes and i did something after realizing that plant didn't cause that disaster that disaster was caused by a natural phenomenon. Twenty-five 30000 people were killed while killed by the tsunami and earthquake not by the plant now. And it would sink to the bottom. But i don't know that that's way beyond my. Besides earthquakes i have no idea. Let me let me tell you who you're talkin to. A one-time one of these science guys told me he said the difference between you and me he said that my knowledge of nuclear power is computational and yours is merely conversational. Motocross boiling water reactor which is on the mississippi river i worked at point beach was on the on lake michigan so i can also work at humble humble. Get in line at these plants and it's called. They they said that i say this that that earthquake was supposedly 8000 times stronger than the one that hit christchurch new zealand. What would they do if they don't have any cold don't have any oil they don't have any gas. I also worked in taiwan. Same situation and. You're gonna have to do something the japanese. Alright i work with him a lot and i spent many hours and was talked last week and they're an amazing people into some ways japan. Really if they get on the right track they really got something going for him because they will follow with a l say. And they will do when they will make sacrifices when you go on the wrong path you have wwii. They would at night. They would put those air conditioners up to work just just freezing. To where they were going to all night and you come to work in the morning. to be wearing them apart over the hood and then during the day with gradually warm up. And people to start shedding sweaters and everything and by the time you left in the evening you were in your shirtsleeves. But people did this when things got a little worse they shut off all the down elevators rest of theirs so and then people were willing to do this was just the fact that you were japanese at this is a japanese thing and you should do it didn't take any laws. Do you have something else present i think maybe should do that so that we can have questions after that. Yeah the situation with germany and france has interesting germany has said by the year 2025 i think they're going to phase out of switzerland. France has just. Allocated 43 billion dollars to build more nuclear reactors. Can i think france may be right that the germans are not going to be able to do that. And when the time comes they're going to have to import power going to have to in for parking france and it's going to be fossil-fueled and it's going to be here because that's the only option. Obviously there are people in germany who think that they can me. He's goals but i think that's what the french are doing. Well cuz of the numbers because of the numbers here last week it was just hot. An earthquake with four feet over snapback. And it would be no harm to the public and pacific gas and electric couldn't do that they cover the whole up donated two things apart and it was it so. Amazing how these countries. Did it over and over and over again and i don't know if anybody ever. It's amazing to me that they had the arrogance and power. The things. Guided came along as i started reading the early part of new qatar airways. Something to plowshares weapons to plowshares. Where was we were going to take the bad things from before the nuclear blasts and make power out of them and it was a time when there airplane. And i knew a guy that worked on that and he said they took it out in the idaho desert and they dropped a reactor out of the airplane and it didn't hurt it any. But they said the problem was that they had needed so much shielding so much shielding so heavy. We're so great that they can only fly twice. Over the ocean it would never come over land and then come here and helicopters would come up service it and come back down and this would work fine because if they were so long that you could put on the other end and you didn't have to have an issue with it. What radiation are there supposed to be the definitive results back and if you didn't think they were being with you. You can keep half. So that later on if it ever came up you could do it and it was one time during the sixties when they. And they said well we could make it so you can hatch. And you can see if you had. I'll talk about the japanese, i work for. Still belong to westinghouse even though the japanese are running it and so we had to stay on the. I'm in the plan in order to hold the bag. And this is breaking bad job you sit there all night the japanese are very clannish to watch. And it said it or 300 i thought mr ishikawa was going to ask you something but he didn't. That these tumors that develop from radiation takes like 30 years. So there was an article written. Along with this. But all this does is boil water. Is it worth it. To make a product like plutonium which is probably monday most deadly things known to man and doesn't exist in nature to boil water. Ridiculous. And there's a lot of water. That's what that's all about and you just kind of wonder if we gone off the track someplace and just where we could get back on the track i don't know so. Pgnd dyed designs that plant they put the jobs up for bids and get the people to bid they gave us a bunch of tests and out of that group they selected the people do up there in it i was one of them but we were strictly park. There's an awful lot of their turbines and generators and pumps and compressors in the nuclear part is really not that. Pick-a-part. But we we went through this training program. Union we hired union did it come up and look it's all over and he said yes. So i went through i don't know how many training programs. And with westwind setup in united states. Anybody to add any sort of reactivity to a reactor you must be a licensed reactor operator and that means you have to go through this all and take the test. And the only way that a licensed reactor operator can add the activity is if he's ordered to do so by a senior reactor operator which is what i eventually. Became and i thought this was pretty because you couldn't just bought an order something. One of the main things that i never saw people that did reckless thing they never saw people who downplayed the risk-taking. What wants to shut down and you have to keep it up with any other way around not trying to control the thing so it goes off the roof it's designed so that you. If things go wrong it goes down in as far as i know. Mama's reactors in fukushima the rods all we done they all shut down electrical. Others other question that comes up now on these reactors were there the older ones were there upgrading them and where they are renewing their license there like for 40 years now they'll go ahead and help relicensing for another twenty years of controversial butt. Deactivate whether you can whether you can ever do that that's it that's a question i can't answer that the scientific question but some of the trouble with this. Enriches all that uranium and then i'm going to tell you what it cost to do that so if you just do that and i think the french are doing it and maybe there's other countries that are doing it as well. Our closing words will be read by jaylon smith. One shouldn't minimize the dangers faced by the workers. But even something as catastrophic as the disaster in japan. Mike turned out to be a lot less catastrophic. In terms of damage and loss of life then we fear right now. And you have to weigh that against the help. Environmental impact. And assorted other costs of the fossil fuels we rely on everyday. And if. Like most people. You think climate change is happening. Imposes a massive trap. You have to ask. What options we have and this is from. Joshua freed. Who is director. Clean energy program. Third way with that organization. Thank you for coming to prayer today. Please extend the hand of friendship to those around you and please join us from support some coffee and conversation.

uuprairie_org

Pr150802Hinmon-ed.mp3

Good morning and welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society i am an urbanski i'm a long-time member here. Prairie aspires to be both an open-hearted and open-minded congregation. We welcome people of every ethnic and religious background. We welcome you no matter what your age or your abilities or inabilities whatever your color your sexual orientation or gender identity or your family structure. Later in the service we will invite visitors guests and returning friends. Introduce yourselves we might get to know you better. On sunday mornings we provide a wide variety of services. Are there presented either by a perry member. Or by member of the wider madison community or by our minister reverend sandy ingham. Today dean henman will be presenting choices. So our opening words will be presented by mechie butler. The purpose of human life is to serve. And to show compassion. And the will to help others. Albert schweitzer. Please welcome faith colvin and her granddaughter isabella to light our chalice. We like this chalice as a symbol of our face by this white may our vision be. Bias worms mayer fellowship eden prairie. And by it's plain they are yearning for peace justice and the life of the spirit week. Britain kindles. Fell this morning our speaker is dean henman. And dean described himself as as. A teacher and author and about 30 other things so he's going to talk to us about choices. So welcome d. Could you see you. But i'm glad you're here. Now i'm glad i'm here at my age i'm glad i'm anywhere. It's all the trouble i've created by not standing behind the podium i want to tell you why. 2 years ago i was traveling around giving talk sunday. The power of positive thinking. And i was giving this talk to a bunch of bank people. And write down in the front out of standing behind a huge podium. Write down and fries. I heard a woman say to her i think her husband. He's really good and you know he can make himself invisible. I decided that i would not stand behind a podium. I want to tell you a story about something that happened to me. Find a few years ago. I was living in the high desert in new mexico. 37 miles south of santa fe. Way back in the boonies. Play back in the boonies. They're all off the grid without nobody could see at one another's houses we didn't 40 acre lots. And. I was. I bought a. Hello mobile home for $3,000 have dragged out there that is going to develop the property. The problem was i didn't have any money. I've been so ever rightly in the morning you know most writers are poured that was me. But i was writing in the morning. And working on the property in the afternoon. And i decided i needed to take a break i want to travel down the mexico. And for. Hoverboard. And. I had for transportation was an old. Small. Toyota pickup. So i figured if i've get a shell topper. Put the engineer in throwing a piece of foam. I was ready to go. There was a used one for sale in santa fe. So i had just enough money scraped off and i went into santa fe 32 mi. I got the top or not tied it on with a rope to take at home. And i got home and. Fine with it but the next morning i got up and i got word that i had to go back into town for something. So i drove all through the juniper. In my. Truck. And i got this horrible rocky road it would lead to the highway. In the darn chopper squid off. So. I knew i was in a neighborhood. Caring people i figured. I could just drag her off into the ditch by my driveway go on about my business. But what i got back. The topic was gone. And i was surprised. So i made. Assigned there was a general store called madrid. About 3 mi. From where i live. And that the intersection of terrible road and. The highway was another intersection. So i made two signs that said basically. I know that you. See the world as one large support system not a dog-eat-dog world. So please bring back. My topper. I put the sign in the two places that i mention. Then i got up the next morning i check. Hi chopper was back. It made me feel real good. I got to thinking about that incident a little while back. And i thought. Maybe it's true. It's sometime in life consciously or unconsciously make a choice. Weather the world all seven billion of us are they support system. Or. Take the choice. There's a dog-eat-dog world and it's a struggle. And i thought about that i realized. I could do i want her to be the former i wanted to see the world. Is one big support caring system. By the way what i'm talkin about here today. I know. I've seen you in action. That you are a caring support system here. But i wanted to. Be sure that i was getting better at because that was one reason for. Being on this planet more mindful of caring about others in my own self. And so i develop something that i carry in my pocket. When i get to be too much into myself. I can reach in my pocket. And i feel like i said okay hold on here. It's about all of us. It's not just about you. And so. But i'm going to ask peter to do now. I don't listen to some help. It's to get one of those two each of you along with a car. And it's yours to keep and either way if you want to take extra ones for children grandchildren or something please do but be sure to take a card. And a little round glass tile. And then when you get it i'll explain it to you. Remember. That's about a hundred of them so you can feel free to take more than one. Thank you peter. So if you look at the car. You turn the side towards the. Saying of the earth for a says spaceship earth and that's what we are. Our planet with all the human being inside. Hopefully we can hold hands like that little animated figure shows. If you turn over at the top i never get mine went out so i can. Read it the way it is. Cycle gear. We are living on a spaceship progress and all seven billion by the crew. The more we care about one another the more healthy will be the planet the more peaceful and joyful will be there true. In other words. When we can become way. Symbolic way to. Change. Me to wish to take your tile if everybody will take a hold of it now. Florida. Take a look at the flat side. So you see the me. Got everybody got that. So you're working at the rounded side. And what does it say. So this is a symbolic way of changing me. Chewy. Want to give you another little story. That. You may consider true or not. At my age. Whatever it is about. The world. Somebody somewhere decided that i needed a better have a preview of hell. So i know i'm what i might be getting into and a preview of heaven. And so this guy took me down to hell he opens the door to hell. Walk-in. And here was this huge banquet table. People sitting around a table. And. Scrumptious food was actually being brought in on trays. This is how eating utensils. 46 ft long. No i'm not that i realized why they were so dumb. All that food. How can you eat with a six-foot-four. So the guy took me. The next door this is heaven i walked in. It was the same thing. Big banquet table. People. Just about to be served and approve is coming in at 2:00 so scrumptious. Those people didn't work smiling and he was happy. And i said with the guide. Why are these people looking happy they said we're all the people who come here believe the world is one big support system and they feed each other. Didn't get it. Anyway. That's. A pretty well gas if there is a heaven or hell. The science center. Guys and gals have come up the realize to all the research. Set reminder we see something really nice being done by somebody that it actually. Has an effect on our body and our mine. And example that might make me as simple as you're in a store and you see it. Tara and the children. Are teenagers our order together and they're laughing and having a good time and. You can see a lot of appreciation of one another in love or to be something really big like a friend of mine. In albuquerque. Who. What. Was far along with alzheimer's. But she had always loved to go out and eat. So every morning he took her out to eat. And he had to feed her. She didn't even know who he was. Controller. Utensils to eat but she could enjoy food so he had to feed her falling down on her dress. And jim harper the man. Told me about well i met him and his wife she's passed away now. Probably about half the time they were going to go pay the bill. Somebody already paid for them. Somebody in the restaurant has seen them at there's worms are hard. And. Pay the bill. So what and what they determine is by sia. Is it like you. See somebody doing something nice. It motivates you. Toronto be loving and caring it just. Schizencephaly. If so do i could poem. Smiling maybe some of you know this paul. Smiles are infectious. You catchin like the flu. Summon smile renee today. When somebody saw my grand and when he smiled at me i realized i passed my smile on him. I thought about that smile and i realize it's worth a single smile like mine. Can travel around here so we can see her smile began. Don't leave it undetected. Let's start an epidemic quick and get the whole world infected. Now i'd like to know what you think about this i know that this is a big part of your life is that pretty intimidating to ask. It's my belief that we're gaining that's a we is danny when we look at some of the things that occurred when we were young. I live in beloit. Just as i was going through high school. We had a wonderful swimming pools most beautiful swimming pool. And look at what happened following the civil war and how long ago that was and how long it's taken taking for us to help see people of different colors on power predominant white is equal to us. So there are big signs with game. That's a good question. And and i think if we. Think about. The fact that. The wiz infectious and it feels. Hacker rock better than. Dummy. That weird. I could have something to your comment too because i was wrong. Watching youtube. And up a producer had. Worked out this situation retired and actor we get out of here a streetcar bus. Actor hired to get on and start giggling so he sat down. Mia. I think what we need is to get away from the popular media. Trying some bad news. If you go to goodnewsnetwork.org you can get your daily dose of good news i mean there is way more good news going on in the world and where is it that way more. Have you checked your car insurance policy. Yeah my dream guy talked we had a couple weeks ago is a perfect example of cooperating. Thank you very much just been such a joy to be with you. Thanks very much dean for sharing that with us in de. For generating a lot of really interesting discussion. Our closing words will be read by nevin smith. As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands one for helping yourself. The other for helping others. Audrey hepburn. And we are finished now and thank you for coming please extend the hand of friendship to those around you and please stay for coffee and conversation. And maybe a little tree. Leftover from you. Alright.

uuprairie_org

Pr150830KaleemCaire-ed.mp3

Good morning. Welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society. We are a welcoming congregation. We strive to welcome you no matter where you are on this journey the religious spiritual face journey no matter your age your ethnicity the color of your skin your gender identification. Your physical abilities or non ability switch limitations your family structure no matter where you are in the journey we welcome you. This is one of your first times here i always urge you to come back more than once because our services are very different each sunday. Sometimes they are led by me prairie. Minister. Sometimes they are led by people within the congregation and sometimes they are led by people outside the congregation. Donna you're doing the opening words i believe these words are from martin luther king's letter from birmingham it's a very very long letter and it was and the letter was written. I think it was april 17th 1963. I must make two honest confession. Edwards published in the newspaper. As a response to some argument arguments that we're going on. In the newspaper that time. In birmingham. I must make two honest confession to you. My christian and jewish brothers. First i must confess. That over the past few years i have been gravely disappointed. With the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion. That the negroes great stumbling block. In his stride toward freedom. It's not the white citizens consular. Or the klu klux klan. But the white moderate. Who is more devoted to order that you just. Who prefers a negative peace. Which is the absence of tension. To a positive piece. Which is the presence of just. Who constantly says i agree with you on the bold missy. But i cannot agree with your methods of direct action. Current little stephanie believes he can set the timetable. For another man's freedom. Who lives in a mythical concept. What time. And who constantly advises the negro to wait for. Quote a more convenient seizure. Travel understanding from people of goodwill. Is more frustrating. Then absolute misunderstanding. From people of illness. Lukewarm acceptance. Is much more bewildering. Outright rejection. With humility. Encourage. Born of our history. We are called as unitarian universalist. To build the beloved community capital b capital c. We're all souls are welcome as blessings. And the human family live whole and reconciled. With this vision. In our hearts and minds. We like this chalice. Clean care is here and he's the founder and ceo of one city early learning centers. A preschool. Designed to ensure children are reading ready by kindergarten. I'm at their parents have the knowledge tools and ability to provide for them and to lead strong families and i would also like to say that you're nationally-recognized. Social entrepreneur and a leader and community and organizational transformation and we've been talking a lot about organizational transform. In the last few weeks so. I believe you and your wife partner have five children and you live in madison so. Getaway and we are. Well thank you you all. Luckily i just have this right here. So. I like these max2 they don't they like that battery doesn't die takes a long time but anyways i'll thanks for having me here and have me and talk a little bit about the justified anger initiative want to talk a little bit broader than that to cuz it's a little bit more. About that initiative and what impacts. Today. Just this morning i was reading is i was getting ready to leave the house this morning. All the newspaper online and it was another. Post about the police stops and right right but right above it was a story a good story about the new leadership and the school district. And i just thought that was interesting that they were right of 11 was above the other. But as i read it my cousin is brandy grace and she's one of the leaders in young gifted and black. And i just see no i just shook my head even though having the title. About blacks top 10 time arrested 10 times more than anyone else and i just shook my head because i said man i have been reading those same articles. For years you know and it's just like it makes you feel when you see that that there's nothing happening like there's no progress at all. And it sometimes it is sometimes it makes you feel like you're even taking steps back. Cuz i read through the article i look and read the comments. By the police chief in my brandy there was a 2. They're always kind of juxtaposed to each other and i rather the chief's comments in. I read brandy's and i said man still you know i'm going to call my cousin like. I know you haven't read the history like i have but you sound like betty find a hammons 20-30 years ago and you know just the same thing and so with the justified anger initiative you are illuminated why is even more important. Then we're doing this. But it's also spells out how challenging this really is and it's going to be. I got involved with initiatives while i was still at the urban league as their ceo. Alex g has been a close personal friend of mine for years and grew up my spend a lot of my time with my grandmother's house across the street from his. House on sale in the southern part of a fisher street i lived at the northern and southern in the pictures 3. He does the northern inn. Down the block. He was preaching at 11 12 years old so my grandmother after we leave home if we go to church at church services little earlier. We come home. She then plow the lawn chair and sit on the front steps. Make a listen to him preach as a little kid. And i was sitting here on your little. That's the last thing you want to do is be in church for 45 hours right but that's how long i've known him and when i got back home. Everytime i was stopped through cuz my wife and i are members of his church in the nineties when we lived here. Are we laughing 2001 to dc so everytime i was stopped through he would always be one of the people i will go see. And as i. Am i left madison. We're all sort of discouraged i felt like there was a glass ceiling here like there was not a lot of opportunity for us here just wasn't a place where we can manifest change. And then i left and i came back every time i would come back. I would feel his shoulder sink a little bit more. Get on our conversation. And he had this great idea about building his church and he was really enthusiastic about that and then as i came back i started to see that fat his his. Feeling a belief that could happen starting to dwindle. To the point where he was literally being pursued by. Churches in new york city and seattle to come out there and. Preach there and he was seriously considering it. And i told him when i got back here after spending a few months going around listening. I said you know. I said pastor i said the one per the one group we got to organize is us. And i said i'm not the person that can do that alone i can inspire us i said but you know the number one place that we've always been organized is to our church. This church is still a very central park. Of the black community is becoming less so as our children get older and they're not in church as much as some of us were and we were little. But for those of us who are older and still have some influence. It's been a huge part of our upbringing. And it is the one place where we can come to the table on. Laura baldor iron boundaries in our walls that we put up between each other and actually make something happen. So i told him how important it was for him to get engaged. And it took him a little while cuz he travels a lot. But when he put out there justified anger document the article. Apollo family started with paul family end of them. Capital times asking he and i and michael johnson. Dallas exchange and email that that august. And he asked us if we would all right something and i told him no i'm not writing i'm done talking i said you guys can write something i said i have anything else to say was about the ku klux klan and they were doing this. Article recognizing the 64 civil rights act in. He wanted to show this timeline and there was this big march of the klu klux klan downtown and were talking about should we put that on the cover or not. And i was just like look as history man put it on there mike and jen out-and-out to their own view and next thing you know i get this car from pastor and he said you know paul's asked me. Try something i met with him. And i told him i want to be real clean. And i said look man if you're going to write something i said you got to go in on it i sent you that means for us that means you just got to tell the whole truth you got to put it out there. And he did. And lexington hit people in a different way than the work we were doing at 3rd and l all the conversation sensors more personal. But after we did that we got ourselves together and started organising what we realize was that. You know we're not we're even more fractures within the black community then we thought. We knew there were always two black communities but now there are three. There was always that group of folks who came to the university. From all around the country. And they were much like other folks that will come to university they may have an interest in the city or they may not. And if they have any interest in the city it's more function of the research work that they might do the neighborhood area that they might live in it was no long-term commitment my many of them. A less than they stayed here but even when they stay they didn't have that cultural historical connection so often they formed their lives and someone separate to ours and we would only meet insurance. But then the third rule of natty murderers. Was the group that william julius wilson describes a truly disadvantaged. In his book he's a former university of chicago research journal at harvard. But he talks about how there's a different cuz i color underclass. Of african americans who have been so deprived. Of the type of things that we in america will consider just a normal part of life and what we should have. Decent schools to send their kids to. Children in places like chicago if you ever went to some of those schools. Before we started to make a few more investments in them. There was just dropping off factories you go there it's like there's no education going on in here was a joke for this tablet joke for the kids. It wasn't like we were serious about these children. They talked about how their prepare pretty much to go home right now so they can always go get a job and industry but as industry cave in those communities that wasn't there that expose the fatal flaws of education and so we started to see more of that emerge in our community through the eighties into the 90s where people were moving here to seek a better way of life for their children trying to become that part of american society that they've always wanted to be that we always want to be in we are right now only to be met by a city that after a while started to reject them because i was just too many folks coming here. Too many but we did the same thing those of us to do some african americans who lived here. The weather we were poor not we had a different mindset. And so we rejected and responding to those folks negatively to so you wouldn't see a lot of them in our churches. You wouldn't see a lot of them in our social networks. They didn't so now you have the black and really called allie class but y'all apart of now where we have education we have resources we have connections we have influence. Iphone calls and get returned things like that and then i can get invited to do things like this and then you have the next group what you're here they're working there they might be involved they might not. But they're not doing that bad words before they still don't know that they're pouring or s not a mindset so then you have a large number of people which make up the majority of our community african-american community now. That have probably always. Been disconnected from prosperity. And that is who we're trying to help so imagine trying to call. People of color even who have resources to the table. To try to get them to advocate for young people who land in adults who are nothing like themselves. That's the challenge has been met with. Now there's a book called the warmth of other suns. What is s u n s. By isabel wilkerson you should read that because there is some. The explanation and they are about the type of experiences black from the south have when they came to the north and how they were even treated by black people in chicago and that time same experience so we can we tackle this issue with justified anger. We realize we have so many challenges you guys we got to close ranks we got to figure out how we're going to come at this. Hey so that's when we said we're going to do this as a african-american only first focused initiative. And it wasn't because we just felt like white people always want to decide things for us no madison there is a tendency. The white people in madison to do that but we think they most of them do it out of the goodness of their heart. They just sometimes don't realize that we also have an opinion. But that wasn't the driving motivating factor was this divided among us and it was tough in the beginning we lost some leaders from the table we had these meetings and first. We had. You know distinction disagreement people having to walk out in the hallway at the church the tone down and talk through stuff and it was serious. And yeah we worked our way through it though and i tell you without glue without doing any church we will never been successful we had to try to do that applied to urban league the other than no higher calling and so we ended up with a good we think is a good framework. The focus is in five areas education being the first area. What you think is really really important is the still the foundation. For success in this country is even more important now than it had been in the past. Imagic at work play of work working employment we call it broadly economic development but that's jobs and availability of employment and jobs in the same place. And ability beyond pandora's as well create your own job. And so we put that on the table as well knowing that madison still has a closed environment for us in many ways and terms of work. You know they can be african-american with a great education here and it can be very difficult for you to find work. Some of it is madison small-town mindset still about who you know. And if you're not in those circles your chances of getting opportunities or slim. It's also people have adopted this view that unless we. Sir black people do we really need to hire you. You know so we have all these community relations jobs he's parent coordinator job just like if there's a job for serving black people then you got a job. Is not hiring for the vice president of finance. In the percentage of african-american males in their formative years 2825 229 running are incarcerated on probation or some form of corrections in. Pam oliver at the university. Has told us that we routinely lock up about 47% of that population is on paper or in jail. Which is huge almost half of them and the other half are largely under-educated. I'm drop those are those are school dropouts or the ones you didn't do very well in school laugh hard time finding those type of jobs here in madison so they still have issues. So we looked at at incarceration how do we both prevent them from going to jail but doing the first couple of things but also when they get out how do we help them truly reintegrate into this community before therrien was family wellness. And we really wanted to look at that. Because that's important mail so much of what goes on is not just about medical health it's about how those are those other things impact your well-being. And so we really brought those things together and. It's been it's been quite the experience to get people. 2. To agree. In this community than we should focus in any of these areas. Kabaneri of education one of the things we're looking at doing. Is eliminating a. For the midvale lincoln. Less concerned about franklin randall. But the midvale lincoln tara because it disadvantages poor families in south madison. I took the bus quite frequently as a kid so when i came back i like madison's i like past tense madison public transportation so i jumped the bus. From was when i was living in our creek area out there near mcfarland friend of mine lived off of siggelkow road my best friend and his family before they moved to georgia i lived with him for my first 18 months into my family arrived. Cuz imma catch the bus to urban league see if i can. Do public transportation religious drive all the time took me an hour and 45 minutes to get there and i could drive there and 13 minutes just by hitting the beltline. It sounds like manuel beltline and hip hurts 3 or something like that and so this whole new transfer system is a mess i think but if its disadvantages family's is there busing kids from that area who go to school over there they go to school all the way at the roll and six different school so say how did it get there in time. For the kids but all the kids are on the bus for a long time but then the parents will be too and a mitten in the southside it sitting out an hour and 5 hour and 10 minute bus ride if you were one of the first kids on the bus. Cuz right where it has to go to pick up buses to get to school and you know how much you talk about kids being sleep and us kids not having to go to school so early and so these children have to get up earlier. Navigate to the bus earlier and he's our kindergarten to two-year-olds. So they're being dropped off at the bus stop by the parents but man when those kids get home. Arvada center for one city is right off fisher street. And at the corner of fisher and then and their street brand street a beer street down there. They that's what they would let him all all these little five-year-olds get off in just scatter. By themselves. There might be one or two parents who could be there to pick his up if you're talkin like 20-30 kids getting off the bus and then running home by themselves. Kids on saturday 5th grade are going to lincoln and then bus back. To midvale area and i'll midvale families have a little bit easier time. Making arrangements or get on getting people to pick up their kids or being home and their children ride from home. So you know they're being disadvantaged in those ways within to get from there to. Midvale from south madison midvale 2 hour and 30 minutes on the bus. Have to go to the south transfer point catch it down to regent street catch it out to the west transfer point get over the west transfer point and go back to midvale. And she's crazy so we said let's get rid of the pair with the one the other one is about creating a pipeline of opportunities from preschool all the way through higher education for our children in this community and really revamping public education around the needs of the children that we serve now not the ones that we served before. Now we have kids who they need a lot of education they need a lot of experiences. a lot of exposure because their parents cannot provide that for them they don't have the means to do so even if they knew how. And so are schools going to we don't technical education in the schools anymore we have all these technical jobs we can get a job in coding you can come a colder and you can make a t680 90 grand a year if you're really good. But outside schools are teaching kids how to do that stuff. If you want to be. Beyond industry for the construction boom right now. And they're talking about how they don't have young people who work in these job so they're getting people from all over the state to come in and do all this work. But we're not training these children to do those kinds of jobs in madison. And so you know what we're doing is we're still giving him a 13-year liberal arts education. We teaching about all the classics that in their world don't matter we get them out there and then we can go to college. I need a job i need to make some money and they need to be able to see that in their future so we said let's wire the schools around that another big one we are calling for the elimination of sea cat. And when i brought it up with some friends if you know what that is wisconsin court access portal. But you can go online and look up anybody's record and i think it's ridiculous you know the public has the ability to do background checks right on their own and everything's on there even if you were acquitted intern there but just the fact that somebody could find you or accused of something is you is ridiculous you know so we wanted to be a system that someone either has to pay the access and it will pay significant amount if you want to do a background check since those are all the rage now and pay you no 60 or $60 of every time you go and check this thing it will deter people from using it. As a vehicle to just look up anybody that they want. I'm or eliminated was who think we'll be a little bit more challenging to do i have one lady tell me a friend of mine she literally was acting negatively cuz she uses it to look up people she might date. She was out i thought she was joking with me she was seriously arguing with me about this and how her friends how it it's sitting here listening to her like that. Deceiving you have a record and if you have anything on their credit bad credit or anyting people use that as a means to not hire you and i can tell you when i was at the urban league. I still work with companies behind the scenes. I did somewhere with edgewood an issue that they recently have very quietly to try to help them resolve an issue they had with a student. And they did i think they. That that went fairly well but i've done a lot of this for companies in madison. Inicios italian behind-the-scenes when you're when you don't put them out there. Lawyers that think they found out that they do use these things to unfairly screen employees before they even decide whether or not they're going to totally review their application. They look at zip codes and look at where these peoples in come from they look at their last name their surnames all these things making judgments. So we have to eliminate those things so i did encourage you all to go online. And look at the justified anger report there's a lot in there for me to cover with you right now but we're trying to eliminate structural variance things like that. Hey trying to replace them with split structural opportunities. That we actually think will benefit every child so that was another thing that we focused on was when we come out with this and it's city like madison and in the times that were in stupid like madison. Too much change that people can't be a part of. Is not going to happen. That's those my experience with madison prep i was like charter schools i came from the dc area i was helping developed ourselves it was an acceptable practice by democrats. It was just what you did. I can hear. And was totally matt with i was the arch enemy i was a republican i was conservative and right-wing and all this other stuff i wasn't prepared for that part of it but i see you don't we know then too much is going to change it impacts the culture badly here but then the other thing was wearing a society in the time now we need to. We need to find ways to also impact positively a white kids and. Latino children we got to be the type of people. Everyone everyone that be for us. And so we thought about that we put these things out there how would these things impact those families to and it take you back to the parent we looked at it and said for political and economic reasons. White people with money leave this city. And they are. Young people with kids are going to verona and some prayer in. And waunakee and even filed clothing that now edgerton all these places if that continues to happen what happens in urban communities with resource allocation in schools. Webb city who still has largely funding our schools off of property taxes. If they take that money and they leave. And the need of the children goes out. We're closing in on 60% and 60% non-white children in these schools and they're severely poor. And they have to do more with these children. And you have fewer resources what happens. Total system distraction. What's happening all over the country. So we can't afford to let that happen here in because we can't get in the brains of people. And change their thinking about where they live and who they send their kids to school with. We said for economic reasons we have to eliminate the pair because the we lose all these families out of this community. Arcades. from economically side of it. So we looked at that too. And unless someone can fix that we have to stay the course on our strategy. So you all we need as many people to be involved in this is possible there's a whole lot of people that showed up to the kickoff i don't know some of you are i'm sure i know dorothy was and you were probably there and alliant energy center but. We're at a point right now we're heading into that next phase of really catalyzing two groups. Those entities entities and organizations and madison and a really going to be the ones that helped us do this work those are the ywca's the folks that actually. Do services at the school district as that group of people and we have someone who really does his work nationally to get involved with helping us bring those groups together and in the second group will be individuals like yourselves in organizations like this we're going to ask you all to jump on board with us in an area where you feel you can make the greatest difference. But identify what area can you do feel like you could attach to an unjustified anger strategy. And then what could you are one or two things be that you do around that because we feel like if we give people small goals. To focus on. And a lot of groups and people start focusing on that then we start really changing the culture in the community here. And so you'll be a little patient with us on that we're still probably two or three months away from moving people through that cuz now we got this next big group of people to organize but we are making good progress on it. And i'll stop with saying that this time. This whole issue of police stops and arrest. That we're now talking about today and. But the mayor and we're doing with homeless people. Downtown moving stones and bricks and things like that. You always say one thing. We talked about wine equality and equity and opportunity we act totally different on the other side. We got to start acting in the way that we talk. Part of being engaged and empowering people is giving up some power and control yourself. It's people in this community don't want to do that they don't want to give up the ability to make the decision. They don't want to be in and give up the ability to actually decide where the money goes. And allows some other people the opportunity to make that decision. Then we'll wind up with situations where my madison prep charter school was going to go in the old mount olive church which is now going to be a police precinct on the westside. The rest things that were talking about my school and telling you i know most of my kids wouldn't be going to jail. And we would have most of those kids would be end up going down that road because those are the families we were declined and done that designed to serve but now we got a police precinct there that can get easier access to west madison. Police them arrest them responded police calls whatever it isn't locked them out so we keep investing in things that will not make the difference but talking about making a difference on one side we got to bring those two things together. Alone time together does work. And it's also time who do you spend that with i didn't tell you one thing that that's that we struggle with african-american just called called elite class right. Whereas to be in a lot of different places in there so few number of us eighty percent of black people in dane county and fall below the federal poverty level so i know you'll see that in terms of home ownership rings 80% rent you know 20% on homes until those of us that have the word otherwise have the time and the means to participate you'll find us in 14 different things and all struggling with figuring out how do we participate in tomorrow so what we'd have to do is do that but find a way to connect with that other 80% and i think the people are open to that it would be a little new for some of them to have folks greentown and get involved but i think trying to get involved. Just because a few things quickly one is encouraged your friends or people you know to hire us. You know i mean that's and i mean ask the question if you walk into places. Today we are the ones always doing it why are there not many black people here to ask that question about it when we ask and sometimes they don't think as much. You know we're talkin about i like what jim was talking about with. These these these marginal increases in student performance. But school you guys did we got to call reconfigure this thing or it's not going to work for our kids now and we have to be open to that. Who created the formula for discussion around. Things like that around creating change real change so that people become more susceptible to it. Phyllis fearful of it that would be really important in the third thing housing in this community is crazy things that people can do to get away from and my wife and i we rent a house we just now got ready to run another house there was a one guy who said we are never 720creditscore. In order to be able to qualify for his house now he had that that was blanket so for anybody but it was his way of saying. I'm going to get somebody who's got some serious lulu serious great credit or i'm not going to get certain people into my place and we found all these different ways people are deciding who can be in their house. I don't like there's no common way. The people springing you it's like everybody has a different thing remind me of the old restrictive covenants where they can write into their deeds and things that they couldn't rent or sell the black people or jews or italian besides were doing that all over again so challenging that system is important to. I never thought i would say this but in the last year since leaving urban league has been easier to look at the world 2 in madison from the outside but i think that we have a great chance to solve this problem here and to ask me that two years ago i wouldn't have told you that i was in the middle of it i was in the heat of the battle you know but the amount of the activity that is taking place in this community right now around these issues is significant and i also think we've got to find a way i've got to find a way to talk about that more frequently spot more what it is because. I didn't used to see black people on construction jobs in the city anywhere when they build with downtown wisconsin institute for discovery union south i just keep going on and on and on i would go in there you know i always been told to put a hard hat on and i would ask you know where life and these guys in this community or they. But with your braces work with us at the urban league and big staff and some others you go on the jobs now rarely do you see a job where there is not at least one right so there are some very simple they are and some of these jobs are 678 i mean it's insignificant credit union. You saw one or two until now you see a lot more and so we're seeing some progress and some of these arians the superintendent is trying to do will change her teachers are struggling to implement real change a real changes would happen then i haven't written much about it cuz when you're trying to change that's when you don't try to kill people cuz it's hard enough to try to make something new work so i'm just sitting watching happy that people are trying to do something very different but they're still more than we got to do. Alabi john jack daniels the number of people equipment school in south madison. But it wasn't because it would be closer to the neighborhood it said it was stealing you can almond development it would bring large numbers of young people and adults were going to spend money up and down park street and help us to develop that area and the more resources and things that people start to see being put into the community it creates more job opportunities for people down the road imagine we get starbucks. Opportunities from banks to actually take out some lawsuit because we proved the houses that we have one of them looking at a areas in that area that's never going to build in your equity so we always have a struggle trying to get any money out of the local thanks so for those reasons as why i was advocating for jane then look of you can bring that many people to south madison and down downtown somebody's going to buy that lot and build something significant. You're welcome. Thank you. It's it's overwhelming that that helped a little. Her company lol. Closing words. None of us wants the racial divide we have today. None of us. But how do we move forward. How do we build the world we dream house. The problem is not cognitive. We can't think. Our way to the beloved community. Workshops and trainings won't get us there. We build a new world through action. We build relationships. We build alliances. We must open ourselves to experience the other. For once we truly experienced one another and death. And over time the other. It's no longer other. They become we. We have to cross the borders of race. Culture. Class. Building the beloved community takes time. It takes commitment. It is soul. And together. Together. We can do it. Peter morales president unitarian universalist association. Go in peace that your neighbor and thank you again for being with us.

uuprairie_org

Pr120311Hinmon-ed.mp3

Welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society on nick apps on the head of the program committee here at prairie and do we welcome you on this what i'm just going to call the first day of spring no matter what the date no matter the obvious april snowstorm. Perry's first being open-hearted and open-minded congregation we welcome people of every ethnic and religious background whatever your color your sexual orientation. For your gender. You're a juror goodies or inability as we welcome you here today. Later in the service will invite visitors guests and returning plans to introduce yourselves so that we might get to know you a little bit better. On sunday mornings before i provide a wide variety of services here at prairie they're presented either by a hurry number a member of the wider community or eventually if we have a minister again. Here she will be presenting on a regular basis. I'm today. Gene hackman will be presenting his service our oneness and compassion a quantum physics view. Play something a little bit different for all of you today. At this time. I'd like to introduce our presenter today. Dean hindman began teaching 59 years ago in a small rural town in minnesota that he went on from there to teach math physics and electronics and community colleges in california and established the first electronic technician program at citrus community college spent the last years of his teaching career at the university of minnesota. Published a novel and a number of nonfiction books and most recently has been working in the performing arts which hopefully it's something that he'll tell us more about if he has time today if so because he didn't provide any details. Franconnect. 59 years ago when i started. Afraid so i don't like that. About what the. Quantum physics researchers are telling us covid-19. When you stop to think about 1 year. It is is one it's a nice little platitude. That. Kind of pissed off he has burn lines and. Difference in our lives. Or is it. Hard does it mean we're connected spiritually. And when i think of that i am raising some questions i'm not even sure what spirit is. I think i know what being spiritual is. Couldn't connect especially this doesn't get me something definite psoriasis. I guess it mean we're connected physically. I don't seem to make much sense because you just work around. To all city separate. So except for a few of you lovebirds. Buy frozen kale and and some of the other is there that they might be a little more connected. Alright we're going to start exploring these questions. Bye. Italian store. 66 amanda renee mclean baxter. Okay that's. Alright. Cash now. 4 people woke up back here. Barclays baxter was working in a laboratory. He was also the second world war he made his name as a. Lie detector rexburg menu still was working in that field he had a lab. And he often would work into the night. After that his colleagues are gone home and this was the case this night. Have you got into the wee hours and maybe he was taking a little break and you decided here to water his rock hill plant. And he's very curious guy as soon as he approached the plant. He started to wonder. How long would it take sam lyster to get from the roots up to the top of the stems. Leaves. And i her i know i can find that out. Because a lie detector has sensors. Which detect moisture. And so he reasoned that if he taps the sensors. To the top of the plant. Does that say might be a reading when the water went up through its went up to standard got up to the top. So he he attached it. And then he watered the plant. He waited. After a while he had a little reaction another polygraph. But. Not anything that would tell him it was moisture he has so much experience was there so he he knew. How the polygraph would react to different. Occurrences. And you got to wondering what would make that plant reaction would it. He's so he's dipped allesandro a cup of coffee. Nothing. And then he saw it. I think bro i'll do a match highlight a match you hold it under a lid. Chester to sade the polygraph went crazy. In almost went off. The paper that it was right i got it was just very very erratic. And boy that was he was stunned. The only thing he could think about all this it's a plant somehow read his mind. Song the next days and next week's months actually years. He and his colleagues kept doing. Research. Impact not just in his lap that was replicated. In many labs cross. The country across the world actually. And many interesting things are corrected it's pretty fascinating story. In fact if you are online you can see that in fact. You go to youtube and put in the name please baxter dad's back. S t e r. Cleve crave. And i know once i just recently that washing 8-minute video that shows him. Talking about he still alive by the way still working rob. Good example of when you have purpose in your life university curious that you. Probably going to stick around awhile.. Try to answer some questions. Well. Everyday is pruitt went on it happens at one of the lab workers. I poured some polywater that was left over from making coffee down the drain. And they had kept two sensors on the plan. Yeah it really react. When that water hit the drain it really reacted. This is a very different okay currents what's going on here. So. They reasoned. What is in a drain pipe. Living organisms. Bacteria. In other. Microscopic organisms. Somehow they reasoned that the. The bacteria has the other microbes in the drain pipe had sent out a distress signal. Play try to find living things. Weren't for a certain event that were dying everyday anyway and they took some brine shrimp and they found the same thing that plant would react when the brian show brian shrimp or threatened. Coherent not only have a plan apparently reading mind of a human being but also getting a distress signal from another organism. Let's go one step further now and take a look first of all. That you may have already have it roll over in your mind. How could. Appliance. Read your mind what's going on what's what's being transfer what's the communication wise housing house of being done. Well it took ten years before they got the answer but they did. Actually before that back in the 1920s einstein. Who by the way is person who wrote the message during the chalice writing. About our oneness. Einstein in the twenties. Determined that if you could take a lightweight and you could stop him an instant of time. It would be made up for party. If you could stop. Answer the time that the particles in quantum physics. It doesn't follow you taurean lies you probably at all and it's all kinds of weird things that happen based on what we're used to in our experience. And so. Anyhow the. Amanda the name of. German scientist by the name of fritz. Allen. Pop. In the seventies. Einstein's idea that was only a siri that einstein had worked out mathematically i've never been shown for pop worked it out and showed it physically. He actually developed the gadget, photomultiplier and he could see it you could count these particles. And he names and protons. And he continued his studies with photon who's well as many other side as soon they found that these photons are traveling at the speed of light. 186000 mi and every second that 7 1/2 times around the earth in one second that light travels. They found that the protons for traveling. Throughout the universe. And. Very wonderful thing about them two photons also are doing a tremendous exchange of energy. And information. And there's some. Quantum physics principles, entangle mutton 0.0 that we don't need to go into accepted phyllis to. Entanglement memes if they stay connected wherever they are when to come together they go apart and forever cognizant one another. In the zero-point field has to do with the release of energy. And so what seems to be happening is it we have the same thing happening with these photons and some other subatomic particles actually thought. Thinking machines for thinking machines. Because it has become call this fast. Space is becoming fact by some people. A universal mind. Let's move on just a little bit further to give another load development hair. You've all heard of the size of she posed a great question. And you have all heard of her i'm sure. Peggy lee. What's the question she posed. Very good. Is that all there is. Is that all there is to know why you ask that question and you think about it. If the answer is yes that's all there is. You get covid mt fuji. Is this all there is. Is this all there is. And of course she didn't. Pretty answered as i recall i just listened to her again recently but she started singing that in the 1940s. If the answer is no that isn't so then what is other stuff. We're getting into that now. And so what we have here is a vast space. And these photons are falling throughout to universe. And let's give you an idea that size of that space. Take a. A nucleus of an atom. I want adam already is very small. The nucleus is. Instantly small. Please take a nucleus of an atom and brought up to the size of a grain of rice. A picture that greater rice in the middle of the football field on the 50-yard line did way across the width of the field. At football field would be the size of the whole atom. The nucleus. If the nucleus of an atom is blown up to the size of a grain of rice. The whole adam. Would be the size of a football field. And the only thing that's in that adam besides the nucleus person. Electrons spinning around the outside. So there's a heck of a lot of empty space there. And that's true of you. And everybody. You are hundreds and thousands of times more space. Then you are material substance. So when somebody calls somebody in empty head there right. We could raise a graco by the way that's true the chair you're sitting on. You might want her why you aren't falling through the floor this two of the floor. And actually i will mention that because people always wonder if we're mostly space wife. These electrons spinning around the outside of the atom are negative. And your bottom and is. Adams electronics been around. And it was like charges repel. And so you're not sitting on the chair. You're sitting. 100 million of a centimeter above the chair. 1800. So that's pretty darn close. Okay well it ain't right. This big space. Think of this universe and we're going to call it the universal field. It's a field because of all the action of subatomic particles fully through it. And the exchange of energy in the exchange of. Information. How each of us. And everything and each creature. Is a bucket of that whole ocean that holds. University audi. And. We have according to the pop. Photons that come into our dna. And so our bodies. We don't stop at on skin. Price we don't stop at our skin. There is that fields of ourselves it's mixing with the big field you're a bucket of your mixing with a big ocean constantly. And so are we one. A very important part of us is. This universal feel is not in our consciousness. Perform reality which we experience with our five senses. We are so conditioned to intercourse that we believe that's all there is. Is peggy lee. Pet her question that isn't all there is. The universal field is very important. And this is a very difficult idea for people to get through mines around because. Our form reloaded wipes out our. Awareness of anything else we don't have no awareness of the unified field. Uso. We are if we are one what does that mean. It means that you. All 7 billion people of the world. Your consul in mixing with them. Wish i was very important intelligence. Hard hard to accept. Well think about the doctors and what. The back when they discovered bacteria and i took today off. The scientists are saying they should start washing their hands. They laughed at that idea didn't they. New ideas are hard to get your minds around and they eventually caught on. Imagine that they wasn't important to wash. Before they went from a patient to patient from surgery to surgery. Okay you are everybody. Kevin hart idea let's put it let's make it more personal. Picture of that. Farmer in uganda africa. Hurting her 5003 goats. You are her. She is you. Do we have a reason to be compassionate. Are we all one. Free vr. Physically material. Intelligence. Brothers. Somewhere in between being a physical and spiritual. Because he's photons are real things they're not. Imaginary spirits. So compassion is a wonderful thing. Compassion is. Make sure want to. Give. To hold. To care for. And you could walk among friends and strangers alike and. Feeling agro. And chris you folks know about that here because you're very much about that. That certainly isn't new. The thing cover. Filling yourself with compassion think of telling syllabus compassion oneness and compassion. And then think of. What it would do for the peace. In our families. In our communities. And in our world. If all of us. Had an undying compassion. For all 7 billion people in the world. And the creatures. And the planet itself. So we take good care of it. Are we having fun yet. Is there standing on the side of love or what. We can help karen armstrong along with her compassion because. Just to say to people be compassionate. Now are you giving we can give her a reason. This is. The best reason. Being compassionate i'm curious to hear what you. Why would you want to say about this. So let's open it up for. Your comments questions what have you. Proposing words to consider today come from william james we are like islands in the sea. Separate on the surface but connected in the deep. Please enjoy the weather today in the extra hour of sunlight will have for the next few months i feel free to speak with demore afterward and greet your neighbor stay for coffee and companionship. I have a great week everybody.

uuprairie_org

Pr130519Ingham-ed.mp3

Now it's time for a very brief review of something kind of. The choir folks wanted to have wanted to sing their song. Before you went down your classes so i hope that you enjoyed their singing and maybe someday you'll be in the choir. You might know this book. I know rebecca does. Unitarian universalism is a really long name is the title of this book and this isn't like one of our regular stories this is kind of a story about us. Or maybe it's a review of what you've been doing downstairs all year and i'm not going to go through the entire book. But this was written for people who have questions about who we are and what we do here. Delete this page says. Who are we with the really really long name. Why is our name so long. Well it's combining two different names. Unitarian and universalist. Cuz they were two different religions but they had a lot of things in common and they join together in anybody know the date. Very good 1961 and. Our principles. You know about the principles you older ones. Have heard of the principles i think younger ones probably have to but they kind of sum up what we believe in. In this book they're written a little bit differently does anybody know what our first principle is. Very first one something remember something about. Each person. Yes exactly each person it's important huh. There you go. Toughest memorized that's our second one be kind and all you do. We're free to learn together. Enter coronavirus turtle. Yes yes i paid him. I bet you sad cuz i have the mic and you dancing with your buddy her to search for what is true all people need a voice we got two more to go. If i had a far i'd embarrass you and i put it right there the last two or build a fair and peaceful world and we care for our lifeboat i think that the author of this book jennifer dance did a really good job of. Turning these in our principles into kid-friendly language. So we believe that all people are important no matter. Most anything huh. And none of us is exactly a lie even identical twins aren't exactly alike. And we're pretty big on we think differences are really important differences are what make our world interesting and fun and a good place to be. And we believe in not just talkin about what's right. But we believe in actions so sometimes we have bake sales and re does or or wagon off ever done at car wash here cuz we don't have any place to have a car wash but just last sunday you were doing something special. To help in the world. And i spend a little money on it remember. Yep powdered sugar was an important element of the bake sale i had it everywhere. And the only other thing i did i had powdered sugar everywhere. I went home and found more powdered sugar. The only other thing i want to say from this book is. The question is what is our religious symbol. The flaming chalice. Yeah i know you were. And you know how it happened i know you do but let me just summarize quickly. During world war ii a lot of people. We're being put in prison over in europe and a lot of. And the thing is they're being put in prison even though they hadn't done anything wrong. And sometimes they were put in prisons because of what they believed in. It's a unitarian universalist who were put in prisons. And members of a group of us called the unitarian service committee then. Have somebody to design something. That when people thought they know that that group that we were helping people get away from the bad people and get out of prison and it was the flaming chalice so today we like that talis to remind us of how important it is to have freedom and not be put in prison for things that you didn't do. And we also light it to remind ourselves that each one of us has. A flame inside of us. Bernie bernie actual play alike how about that each one of us has a license. So go downstairs now and learn more about your inner light. We also come from a long line of martyrs real martyrs. From what calvin had hoped. Because many of the radical religious leaders of that time were so appalled at the brutality of. Servetus death. A frenchman named sebastian castellio said. To calvin that we cannot be sure if a person is a heretic or not. And regardless this punishment was too severe. Has daleo declared to kill a man is not to protect a doctrine but it is to kill a man. Some of you may have heard of john wycliffe. I'm skipping now to great britain in the 1300s. Wycliffe translated the bible into the vernacular into the native language. He got in a lot of trouble with this. For this he became more and more disillusioned about the catholic church and he made some very unitarian sounding statements. About authority thought the pope should be done away with. And individualism and freedom of conscience and the use of reason issues that we still grapple with. Wycliffe translation of the bible led to a new religious movement called awards. That in turn led to them being labeled heretics because of their anti trinitarian beliefs. And all of this led to the heresy acts in 1401 in england the first pieces of civil legislation regarding religious belief. They declare that wyclef. Theology of unitary unitarianism punishable by burning at the stake the first victim of the heresy ass was a man named william sauntry he was burned at the stake for his quote heretical religious belief. John wycliffe was also condemned as a heretic and order to be burned at the stake but it was already dead. But they dug him up in may 14-15. And. Fixing them of course as a side and burned his body and burned his books with him and threw his ashes into a river because he was unwelcome in the churchyard even in death which brings us to czechoslovakia and three pieces of unitarian universalist history 3 threads connecting those to us first of all was a man and possibly heard of him named ian. Huf we claim him as one of our unitarian ancestors i doubt that he described himself as a unit.. Remember that was a pejorative name for us given to us by our enemies. Oh that was unitarian. Goose juice who was a respected member of the faculty of the university of prague in the early 1400s that he read wycliffe vernacular bible who was also a preacher and he was influenced by wyclef. He also gave up his parishioners bread actual bread during communion which only the priests were supposed to receive and worse he let them drink out of the windup. He was condemned for heresy in 1415 and burned at the stake. The next thread from czechoslovakia or fast-forwarding to norbert capac who has a connection to this congregation as many of you know who his grandson lee haskell who was a member here before wwii capac as i mentioned a few weeks ago. Was the minister of the largest unitarian congregation in the world. The world. It was in prague czechoslovakia would preach to 100,000 people. On a sunday morning. Norbert capek was condemned for heresy and in a modern-day version of being burned at the stake was killed and bach kind of concentration camp the third strand. Abysstale occurred in 1939. When the unitarian service committee which became the uusc some of your familiar with that asked a check artist named hans deutsch to design a symbol for the committee that would represent their work which at that time was almost entirely devoted to helping people who were fleeing from the nazis george designed a simple flaming chalice which our association eventually adopted as our official symbol if we. The flaming chalice is a symbol of freedom and hope and healing but it is also mad to represent the divine spark within each of us. Talk to divinefire the divine spark within each. We light it every week to remind us of these things to honor those who came before us the chalice lighting is a ritual but within these walls is a space where we make a place for ritual because we are at church. We are a faith tradition and that is what we do promote and protect. Free thinking and freedom of religious thought within a safe caring and compassionate environment. Rituals. Help us to do this and remind us. Of how important it is to do this. Another ritual of ours is singing. And i invite you now to join me in singing him number 33 we haven't done this before i don't think it's a newham to me paying close attention to the very special words about grace and love and hope even though that word is unspoken then. Portofino's in there i don't know i didn't. We do what we do singing lighting the chalice telling the stories for all ages even taking an offering. Because we believe in doing everything we can to sustain this living traditions. Of which we are apart. Take a moment to consider those words. Living tradition. An oxymoron. Our beliefs. Our tradition our rich rich complex history is full of paradoxes and inconsistencies and tension in their book an introduction to the unitarian universalist traditions andrea greenwood and mark harris say a christian vision of unity is embedded in the face that's our unitarian universalist face. And the purpose. Of the ethical religion our religion. The ethical religion. Promoted. Is the creation of one beloved community. Generally we can agree on those two things yet radical religious individualism invites diverse practices from myriad traditions we aren't ethical not a cradle religion and our challenge is to hold the paradoxical elements in creative tension in a sustaining complex and rich manor to let the contradictions augment our face rather than divided with rigid. Politicized definitions do you feel that tension in here sometime that's a good thing. That struggle. To hold our paradoxical elements in creative tension hard work it's complex and demanding and it explains why we have a hard time to find who we are. Have a difficult time trying to keep all of who and what we are in balance. It is why we do what we do on sunday mornings this paradox this living tradition demands that we do all that we can to sustain our beliefs to carry-on astounding heritage. I figured that you knew more about american. Unitarianism an american universalism then you might know about the european part so i realized it probably wouldn't be time to go into much american unitarian universalist history. But there are more sundays i hope in our lives. I hear something that i didn't know and i would be interested in a barb and i don't see rick rapping hoping universalist new this. They were usually not allowed to work with other religious groups because those groups regarded the universalist as. Infidels are ticks. The press often referred to universalist as criminals. Because of their belief that there is no hell public places were closed to universalist meetings. And universalist testimony. Was not allowed in courtrooms. I don't know that i will possibly pique your curiosity another sunday to hear about. The three major controversies in our unit on the unitarian side of our heritage i will just briefly say that the first one and was happened in the late 70s early 80s. With thinking that would have to be an intermediary between us and gone however you want to define that and that you might be able to find. A relationship with the divine through nature. I like to think i would have been a transcendentalist and i probably am a transcendentalist that controversy just sort of went away because we absorbed it as unitarian universalist. There's a fourth controversy going on or that this third controversy is still ongoing and that is the humanist movement. It was controversial and it still is. There are some very disturbing things in the new book about our history about humanism doing us a disservice that humanism could have led to. A liberation theology but it did not it led to a radical. Individualism that has not served us well. I'd suggest we don't make any comments on that today because i need to do more research i didn't understand all i was reading. I think i can say that we are primarily icumen is congregation. We're can i say that okay quick survey how many of you would describe yourself as humanist. Prettiest. All right.. Buddhist you can be more than one thing by the way. Atheist. Solon. Wow. Can i be a buddhist humanist atheist. That's what i am today. What's 120 people who might. Or even have a background. Jewish. But i know some of you have certain the backgrounds and judaism. Christian. Good for you. No time actually ran out of time to ask me to define christian for me if i were unitarian universalist christian i would be a believer in jesus the person. And i would believe and i do believe this that if we all lived the way jesus lived. Imagine that and yeah we'll still be killed for a lot of that if we acted that way i don't i don't have any opinion on life after death because we all have our own ideas. And i'm not this a little hard time speaking to one of our visitors who. But speaking to all of you i don't really care what happened after jesus's death because i'm concerned about how he lived his life. A night so i'm not going to do the post easter christ we do what we do because we are proud of our uniqueness. We are proud of our religious heritage we are proud of our spiritual freedom and we do what we do because we come from a long line of martyrs and brave people who are willing to give up everything. Everything. In their search. For truth. And meaning. And dare i say it so that we could warship uniquely as we struggle with what it means to be human as we wrestle with the choices we have to continually make to be free thinkers as we try to define what beloved community means and how to build a just and compassionate world who is going through an intense time in her ministry keep up the good work. Siri plaid know if it is good work but it is necessary. That is why we do what we do so that we can continue to have the choice to be free thinkers. We are herrick. Closing words are those of theodore parker one of our ministers and the 80s who had a gun under his lectern because the anti abolitionists were always active. B h a religion which like sunshine goes everywhere it's temple allspace it shrine goodheart it's creed all truth it's ritual works of love it's profession of faith. Divine living you should greet your neighbors bought we also need to move things in for our meal and please please stay for the parish meeting we have a very important vote go in peace.

uuprairie_org

Pr160828RobinProud-ed.mp3

Good morning welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society my name is rick racking i'm a member of the society and also part of the program committee and the provider this morning. That we welcome you to prairie prairie spires to be an open-hearted and open-minded place. We welcome people. Of every ethnic and religious background. Whatever your color sexual orientation gender or family structure we welcome you no matter what your age or abilities or inability. On sunday morning we provide a wide variety of the services this morning the small congregation is going to be blessed with a really special. Presentation by a robin proud our own member. With that i'll turn it over to robin brown for open word. For the beauty of the earth. The spinning blue green ball yes. Gaia mother of everything. We walk gently across your back. To come together again in this place. To remember how we can live. Remember we are. To create. How we will be. Gaia our home. The lap in which we live. Welcome.. Now it's time for our main presentation today prayer he's been fortunate for the last. 15 or 20 years to have robin proud as a member of our society and cheese. Brought to us many enjoyable sunday mornings usually presenting in another face or another character but today she's going to bring us some of her own observations about science fiction so i turn it over to robin proud. Seems like i've been here that long we actually came in 2002 but has 14 years so. But before that we belong to a group about this size with very similar temperament in the twin cities and that was since 1979 so. When most people think about science fiction they generally think of it as something lightweight entertaining. Enjoyed by young men living in their parents basements but when i thought of people at prairie it's mostly women i thought of an urbanski nevin a smith who i'm sorry is not here and i don't haslett apparently another fan and some of the rest of you. And it's hard science fiction is all about asking what if. Therefore it gives us access to some of the biggest questions that humans have been asking since the beginning of time. Such as where do we come from where are we going. What is the best way to live or what does it mean to be human. As you using our free and responsible search for truth and meaning which is a fourth principle. These are the same questions we often ask in a couple of years ago when teaching sunday school. The group i had wasn't about 5th to 7th grade the curriculum was called riddle and mystery. Any tweak was focused on one of those big questions. This affinity between science fiction and uuism might explain why a number of famous writers in this genre considered themselves unitarian. Or hummus. Put today i'll just talk a little bit about some big questions in science fiction and a couple of famous authors. So2 cabbie hats to start with. I'm not an expert on science-fiction some of you are probably more so and i will hope to hear from you after my remarks. But some of you know i read a lot. So i read some science fiction. And the second thing is that i'll be considering science-fiction today but not its cousin fantasy. They're often lumped together in bookstores and list. One definition i found was that straight literary fiction is shows things that could happen. Fantasy shows things that can't happen such as magical dragons. Science fiction shows things that haven't happened yet. Such as travel to another planet or cyborg. However. While dragons are the province of fantasy if an author projects that dragons are created by scientific breeding or if they're type of complex robot. Now we're in the realm of science fiction. Although writers in arizona the bible in ancient greece and rome and other civilizations always had stories about monsters and gods. What we generally think of a science-fiction arose at the time when science itself became a popular concept. An early writer who didn't know she was a pioneer was mary shelley. Who famously pain frankenstein when she was 21. It was a wet summer. And her companions percy shelley and lord byron decided everyone should write a ghost story. For entertainment. Actually read frankenstein you'll know that it's far from the popular vision of the movies. Employed. The new scientific idea of galvanism which was electric current. To bring the monster to life. And the monster far from being cruel and destructive. It's really an abandoned child trying to make his way in the world. The interesting thing about that is that mary shelley's mother mary wollstonecraft who is on our list of famous you use so i may talk about someday. She was a very forward-thinking feminist. She died within a month after her daughter mary was born. So like frankenstein's monster that daughter was given life and then left alone in the world and she wrote a story about that it's not necessarily coincidence. But there are two big questions at this novel addresses one is what is it to be human. And it's technology a force for good or evil. That is just because we can do a thing. Should we do it. What we're seeing that a lot these days with a lot of issues about. Adapting gm door. Are there was an article recently about growing organs in pigs or other. Animals for transplant humans. These are the same questions that we are still asking. But you writers of the nineteenth century who created the genre as it's really known today where jules verne and hg wells. Many of their ideas became reality. Submarines. Warfare in the air was described by welded then. He lived long enough to see it used deadly practice. In world war 1 & 2. The time machine a book that made wells famous. Addresses partly the question where are we going as a human race by looking into the future. And after that time that you may remember from the movies where there are two races he actually does go to the very end. Of the solar system when the sun winks out. So this question of where are we going was on his mind. The question of where do we come from. Was it more interest to fiction writers before so much became known about the big bang and. Our origins. But it hasn't stopped generations of writers from famously submitting to editors over and over stories like this so don't submit this if you want to write a science fiction story in the story most of humanity's wiped out by war plague or other disaster. At the end of two remaining figures turn to each other to introduce themselves and their names are adam and eve. Early science fiction around 1900 was often very positive. It describes societies where machines and biological advancements gay people freedom inequality. But after world war one and continuing after world war ii. Visions of the future tended to be dystopias. Two classics. For the twentieth century are 1984 by george orwell. Which is a vision of a completely totalitarian state. And brave new world by aldous huxley where entertainment and drugs keep people distracted. While those in power accomplish their ends. So you might want to discuss which of these we are most supposed to. And of course both of these kinds of societies do exist today in some places. Utopias in dystopias address the question of what is the best way to live. And that relates to several of our principals. The second principle is about justice equity and compassion. The fifth principle is about the right of conscious and the democratic process. And the six principles about the goal of world peace to all of those are addressed when we start to create how society could be. There are many more famous dystopias than utopias. This is partly because utopias are rather boring. If everyone is happy and equal. There's no conflict or drama. Also one person's utopia maybe another person's nightmare. Anytime conformity is required. Or sacrifice of a person to a group. Some people will find that intolerable. It is a reasonable question whether our utopia can exist without his dark side. Here's an example from the children's book the giver. There's a well-ordered society where people never have to feel pain or sorrow. It turns out they also don't feel joy. Beer or other emotions and they don't even see colors. And they keep their society going by secretly eliminating the old and the infirm. A famous story on this subject is called the ones who walk away from omelas i'm not sure if it's how you pronounce that last word. By ursula le guin. She describes a town on festival day bright colors music and happy people. But then she shows us a rock rule. Where one child is kept barely alive in misery and filth. Somehow this child must be treated in this way. In order for the rest of the society to maintain its happy existence. As a young people of the town grow up they are taking to see this child and learn its importance. Often they're horrified but soon they justify the status quo by various rationalization. They managed to forget. That their happiness depends on someone's misery. Yet there are always a few young people or older who choose to leave. Not knowing what else is out there and to walk away from omelas. This story is as much philosophy of science fiction. It was written in 1973. And you could say to describe the world that has always existed where some benefit from the suffering of others that was slavery or colonialism. In 2016 we have cheap clothing and electronics because many people including children working miserable conditions. Chip reduce them. And then they were exposed to toxins while scavenging in garbage dumps. To earn a minimal living. So can we walk away from modern society. Science fiction is sometimes an early indicator of social concerns. For instance. Let's look at environmentalism are seventh principle about the interconnected web of which we are apart. In the 1950s and 60s the scary elements of science fiction stories tended to be aliens. Monsters. War robots run-amok. But starting in the 1970s. There were many novels and stories depicting wastelands. Resulting from human activity. The earth is overpopulated or underpopulated or the earth is too hot. Too cold. Too polluted. To sustain life. Terms like the greenhouse effect and global warming. Were using fiction before they were widely incorporated. Into the general vocabulary. Even to non-fiction silent spring by rachel carson. The one book that had the most influence on the environmental movement. It begins with a fictional evocation of a future earth. Where no birds sing. This powerful image captured in the title grab the attention of society. Another area of social concern where science fiction led wasn't questioning gender-role. Up until the 1970s this was a mangina. Some women wrote in the field under men's name such as andre norton and james tiptree jr who were both actually women. Butterball the genres this is why werewolves could be questioned. A pioneer is coming a science-fiction with ursula le guin. Her book the left hand of darkness depicts a race that has both male and female characteristics. Assuming an appropriate role at the time of mating. Mark piercy wrote a book called he she in it. That describes a future where much of the world is in crowded cities controlled by industry. Are there barely staving off the chaos that exists outside. But there's also a communal society run by women that is egalitarian and peaceful. Another broken egg is a door into ocean by jones fun to ski. That is about a female society that lives in harmony with its watery surroundings. When a male-dominated group a text. These people are so dedicated to their peaceful principles that they allow their children to die rather than fight back. I didn't. Margaret atwood in the handmaid's tale describes the opposite a world where religious fundamentalist have removed women's rights. At that time when she wrote it 1985 she. Said that everything she depicted it actually existed somewhere in the world. What all of these science fiction novels have a lot to say about gender society politics and religion. The great thing about this. Genre is that you can have anything. As your way to organize society. This was a very. Brian themes of science fiction. And that was mostly in england and united states well in recent years writers in asia africa and latin america are adding their voices to this genre. So what's look at just a few practitioners of. Of this genre. Some of the most famous science-fiction writers were you use notably isaac asimov whose story i read and ray bradbury. Sm north was a prolific writer in many fields there something about how he wrote something in every category of the dewey decimal system. But he was mostly famous for his classic space and robot stories. Ironically he was afraid of flying. It would travel by car or train. Andre bradbury also wrote widely among his works are the martian chronicles. In fahrenheit 451. In the short story of sound of thunder with some of you may remember us having dramatized here a few years ago with our young people aware stepping on a butterfly in the past changes history. Nope interesting that time travel is classified as science fiction rather than fantasy so someone must think it could be invented. Today i'll just talk about to you use who made their name in a field that was once science fiction itself television. Rod serling like many of the sci-fi pioneers was from a jewish family. As a child you put on plays. It was a great talker. And i am identify this one supposedly on a 2-hour family car trip. The rest of the family remains pilot to see how long it would take rodger notice. He never did notice the other silent but talk non-stop through the whole trip. In high school he was a debater and editor of the school newspaper. When he graduated in 1943 he immediately joined the army and train as a paratrooper. In the pacific he belong to squad that lost half their men and he witnessed friends being killed right next to him. The randomness of death duck with him along with nightmares he said i turned to writing to get it off my check. He wanted to broadcasting ridgeway as an actor and writer for radio. And then hero tv dramas back in the time when they were live dramas when if he wrote that you some of you may be old enough to remember what that one award was requiem for a heavyweight. But political subjects were off-limits according to the network and the sponsors. However when he got his own show the twilight zone which was supposedly about fantastical places in situations he often included topics that were actually commentaries on american society. Such as racism. While some episodes of the twilight zone were standard horror fair like evil children who can control a town or the hitchhiker who turns out to be someone who died years ago. Others have strong messages. Show me the number of the episode. And here are two famous examples. The monsters are due on maple street. In a small town people see a strange light and then odd things start happening such as power going on and off. Someone says that aliens have landed in our hiding among them. People start to suspect each other. Eventually a panic mob rampages through town smashing buildings and shooting each other. At the end we talked to the aliens on a hill above town. Were they comment on how easy it was to stir up humans. What subway train their power on and off a few times. Taking over earth will be a snap at the earthlings. Do it for them. In 1960 this was not long after the mccarthy era. And the obsolete man was written by sterling and starring burgess meredith now this is not my favorite twilight zone of all time with burgess meredith which is the one where he's alive never has time to read the bank fall for his break meanwhile the various left with all the books. But then he breaks his glass. However this is a different one with that beard is starting a lot of famous actors were in some of these early ones robert redford francis william shatner. Obsolete man meredith again plays a book lover. So surely himself introduced the episode as he often did he said this is a future that might be. An extension of what has been in the old world using new technology for the destruction of freedom. The setting is a start empty room with powering doors. In high-def a chancellor declares that his character mr. wordsworth. Is obsolete. The state has banned all bucks so there is no need for a librarian. So he will be eliminated. It is also bad religion. Not interested sterling definitely was a humanist but here he made. His heroic spokesman for religion or at least four freedom of belief. The librarian faces his death while reading the bible. And at the end the chancellor himself is declared obsolete by the next chancellor. Rod sterling's final statement is right from the uu first principle he comes back on himself and says. Any state that fails to recognize the worth and dignity and rights of man is obsolete. The other tv writer mention today is gene roddenberry creator of star trek. He grew up reading science fiction and become a pilot. Like sterling he served in world war ii. And later he was working with the los angeles police department. Tv show that ended up switching to writing. He won an award for an episode of have gun will travel and western. She was asked to write a series called riverboat set in 1860s mississippi. But he refused to write it with no black characters as he was requested to do. One of those ideas for a serious with about a multi-ethnic cruise on an airship. But the networks weren't ready for that. However when the study was moved to the future and outer space the cast could include black asian russian and even a non-human. Character mr. spock. Other writers worked on scripts still riding during which often involved. The ratings were not very good but those were fans were enthusiastic. Initiating letter-writing campaigns to renew the series. After the third season the show was pushed to 10 p.m. friday night to make room for a show called laugh-in. Answer me no star trek reruns were constant hit in syndication and anyone associated with the show was welcome at fan conventions. Run gary also worked on some of the upcoming. Movie sets. Run barry was raised a southern baptist but as an adult he rejected religion and called himself a humanist he said. How can i take seriously. A guy image that requires that i prostrate myself every 7 days and praise it. That sounds to me like a very insecure personality. He felt that crimpers religions would be extinct in the future. And he kept him out of his sci-fi world. Airport to use the sci-fi universe to make points about current culture for instance. Are messages of tolerance and inclusion starting with a diverse cast. Supposedly the actress nichelle nichols who played lieutenant uhura. Founder of ridiculous and wanted to quit. But martin luther king specifically urged her to stay at the beacon of hope for black viewers we're here she was a professional woman. In this drama. The episode let that be your last battlefield pictures of planet where some people are black on the right side and white on the left and others are the opposite. Each group insists that his race is the preferred one and that the others are too inferior to be worse than go shading with. Mister spock recommends the apply logic like vulcans do but these adversaries prefer to destroy their planet. Doctor star trek fans among you you'll probably have many other examples to share either from the original series or one of the several spin-offs. Now this point you still may be thinking outer space and creepy morality tales just aren't my thing so i'd like to close with a reminder of a book that almost everyone knows. This book was published first as a story in a science-fiction magazine and then it was extended into a novel. And that book is flowers for algernon. This is the story of charlie who has a low iq and gets a chance to have an operation that will somehow increases intelligence. That's really the only science fiction in the book. Part of the genius of the story is that it consists of diaries and writings by charlie. He starts out with very childish sentences full of misspelling. After his surgery he rapidly become smarter and finally a genius. As a result he figures out before anyone else that the procedure isn't permanent. That he will relax to his original state and suffer an early death. So his writings after that point. Reflected diminishing of his intelligence. Anonymous essentially kind nature. The other striking characteristic of this book is the question we asked earlier is technology a force for good. As charlie gets smarter he realizes that his co-workers in the bakery. We thought of his friends. We're making fun of him. And once he is as martyrs as or smarter than them they resent him and he has to leave the job. Being smarter does not make it happier. Just in the last few months there was a real-life parallel to this story. John elder robison is a man who has written about growing up with asperger's his book is called look me in the eyes and you may know that. One thing he lacks was awareness of the emotions of others. He got a chance to undergo brain stimulation in the part of the brain that perceives emotions. When he did this it worked. He was overwhelmed by how much emotion is out there that he never perceived. Andy was surprised by how negative much of it was. He had assumed that normal people were happy and at peace. Now he saw how much fear worry and anger others carried and in fact he ended up. Getting divorced because now we saw his wife's depression and could no longer. Live with that. And just like charlie he realized that some of his friends have been mocking him. Without his realization. So is he better off than before. So questions like these take us from the realm of science-fiction to the realm of psychology and philosophy. I hope these few examples will stimulate discussion around the intersection of. Science fiction in uu principles and i'd love to hear from you about books. Tv shows or movies that you feel address these been questions. I thought it was charming dead as far as to have punch cards. Because that was a 1951 that was already pre-advanced and it's green. Although. Later on if you think about it not opposed to the use of technology in school at. But it was just a intriguing how to see how people in the past thought the future would be right. We never got a flying cars yet. Thank you robin. They're closing words. What we call our beginning. It's often the end. A jamaican in is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from. We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring. Will be to arrive where we started. And know the place. For the first time. T.s. eliot. Join us for coffee and treats.

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I actually have closing words from a scientist i don't believe in god god's.

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Welcome to prairie society. I'm by brushline i'm not your cousin or your vice president for programming share their books this weekend so we'll have to make do it before empty. Okay now i'm a speaker this is second in ecology series they might she was benjamin save the earth and human condition. Don't make it to the table more. Intractability the sources of the problem or about what has to be done in order to to solve an order to save the earth from him and put it but he does seem optimistic. That that can be done and eventually the probably come so obviously so many people that will. Call flexible and do what we need to do to get xavier. I thought this is a. A good book for me it was very informative very philosophical i talked to my brother who's been working in environmental things in forestry. And. Environmental consulting since the 1970s he said that he didn't find anything new in their butt. I think one thing that's especially. It is written by a politician and in particular its politics news. Is very prominent andrew. Under certain circumstances. Might become president. Eldora doesn't propose that. Good earth could be saved by everyone to come in altruistic enough to. To be self-sacrificing but he's realized that it would be necessary to provide appropriate rewards and sanctions to to get people to behave appropriately and he has a lot of very specific ideas about how this might be sean. The book has three parts the first part is balance at risk and in that party talks about the the problems and their sources and then the next five the search for balance. He goes further. More deeply into the sources of the problems. And. Finally in the last part which is called striking. A balance. He proposed specific. Solutions. I'll just go very quickly over the first part of the book because i think that most of you probably all of you are quite aware of the magnitude of the problems we have in including the earth overpopulating a people. And. Contributing cord. Global climatic changes. That could be catastrophic not so much into sneaking the earth slightly warmer but changing climate patterns. We all know if the hurricanes we've been saying this year are resolved. Global warming or if it's dustin or coincidence. But it could be the best due to global warming just as the changes that. Lead to. Good flooding lazy to occur your floods every three years or so. Might be related to the global warming. Some of the problems that he mentions in the first part is pluto population that being probably the most important as was said by a seeker we had last spring at in charlotte with event there is a speaker food food rest. That subject specifically. The stimulation of greenhouse gases contribute to global warming for loss of the ozone layer dirty dirty water shortage of water pollution of the soil. Loss of ability to absorb water. Classic verse in crop plants because we've been. Focusing on joseph cube varieties of plants and the possibility of catastrophe if those few plants are attacked by by. In oregon or other conditions that could eliminate that particular variety. Lots of diversity in. A natural species. I was realizing that this play lost in whole species. Waste of becoming more abundant more toxic and less. Subject to break down physical or or biological breakdown ever before. Put in the proper place. So he comments that we've chosen to state. Dilemma. That being the problem that. Malpensa predicted that the population would increase geometrically while the ability to provide more food would increase dramatically eventually there wouldn't be enough food shows the escapists. Funny thing is so dangerous bargains with the future. He's referring to the agricultural revolution that has made it possible to produce more and more food on the same amount of land but at the same time we're impoverishing the soil. And then what soil there is is working on the river. So where is iowa used to have 62 topsoil it's down to it i think. Around foot in many places now we're gradually losing the ability to continue to do the same kind of agricultural magic in the future. In the second section of the book. Search for balance. I'm going to skip ahead to the last chapter of that section. The covers called environmentalism of the spirit. And he has several different themes within that chapter one of the team's is the loss of spirit in society. As a result of things that i could have been happening. Because about. Also talked about. Christianity and the relationship. To the environment and distinguishes between fundamental christianity music term. Between christianity as it began. And christianity is a developing organized christian churches over the last several hundreds of years and the. Opposing attitudes for the environment. And some of the sources. Philosophical sources. Of our attitude assertive. Being withdrawn and and separated from our environment. In western europe in the us and where where some of those attitudes came from. So back to the first part of environmentalism of the spirit and talks about. He said. Wanker. Appropriate technology environmentally appropriate technology news. What's the meaning of a deer god choose an appropriate technology. He says whether we believe that our dominion arise from god or camaron ambition there's little doubt that the way we currently relate to our environment is wildly inappropriate. I'll be. According him a lot sometimes i failed to mention that the quote but the thoughts and expressing our al gore sites for now. He said an error to change about our purposes in life. Attestation of powerful air forces that have created this crisis and who we are and he talks about the loss of hope to the realization that we can just ourselves and our environment. About. Pervasive feeling of exhaustion just when we have the most need for creativity to deal with these problems. She says when we hit woven into our basic nature. Return to lucifer changing them. I'll have to wait change change human nature so instead we. Probably too late for the ability to continue to adapt adapting in the future that's why i was just come so numerous on this planet. He says we've become seduced by industrial civilization promise to make our lives comfortable that we. 11 synthetic 14 of modern life. Cosumnes nflock world of our own making. We don't need to stop for heater called we don't need to even. So we forgot on food. We can heal the sick fly to the air light up the darkness and be entertaining our own living room by clowns. Orchestra. Whatever we choose. And future. The song the dog mixes and dogs are crack and racing and make a self. Pickles comic. He talks about the distraction by then. Pervasive technology and all the things that are demanding our attention and comments on the fact that our attention is even at commodities b2b. But install. Wait express is an advertiser strip-mining politicians covenant and pollsters measure it. Are toddlers recycle the sense of wonder recall his children. How to use the power technology without a doubt into it so completely that we ourselves become like machines. Walter for the lubbock light hungry for the thrill of direct experience. He says it's the first of distracting or gradually destroying an entry ecology of human experience. Then as i said he talked about judeo-christian western european attitudes for the environment and he says that the dominions that's referred to in the bible that human suit. Take dominion over the earth. Recruitment is. Like saying that this is. This isn't your charge you responsible for it. Music lively. He says that in the same. Sambucol charges into care for it. Is it worth it. And if they told her they should all just to keep it. Hey quotes. Brenda cartwright austin to the presbyterian minister in appalachia is saying that the only defense the mountains have. Is the people are living there. For people who care about. Their home still got together. And he. So that makes a comment that the so-called. Let me sanam in and not in my backyard is it's been so divided is a powerful and. Good for us for protecting the environment. And that. The alot of lot of distraction has been prevented or ameliorated. Orly striker attention because of that that attitude. That people don't want their backyards. Artist rides. And he also says that. He has hope that more people will realize that what things are done anywhere in the world to affect their own backyards. Carbon dioxide is released into the air. The whole global environment. Including all about yards. He also reminds us that noah was commanded to preserve biodiversity. He comments that the worst environmental tragedies have happened in countries where people were deprived of their right of dominion over their own little little piece of the world. In the communist countries were people didn't condone their lander or we're only only tenants.. He. Recobs terrible environmental tragedies places in town i think we spoke to mica in romania. Where is victorville coming over just black because everything that touched is is covered with carbon. Which what's up on the smokestacks and. Accounting i think it's in poland. Where the children are sent into the mines periodically to get away from the air outside air and another 10 in former soviet union. Country. Where. Even horses are only kept their 42 years because they can't can't take it any longer and where the people that are giving bonuses if they're willing to work there for 10 years they refer to it as very okay. Then let me says the organized christianity has not been environmentalist. Environmentalist needed to. What ideas that came not during the early days of christianity early centuries of christianity but after about 300 bc. 22. The influences of a play-doh that were spread throughout the. Throughout western europe at the time. Highway of the romans. He said that. The greek ability to manipulate the world through logic was very influential and greek philosophy as well as great technology and other other aspects of greek culture were spread. It was very influential on the romans and spread throughout what was the known world of the romans at the time. Andres heading back on on christian christian country christian cultures. He says it makes the strongest nation between the velocities of plato and aristotle. Play dead knowledge comes from from the mind and from some spot where is aristotle. Had an opposing view that. Information comes from interaction with the environment. And. Those suggested very different approach to the world but unfortunately aristotle's. Philosophy would love to western europe support. Many hundreds of years it was preserved in. Arabic speaking countries. And eventually some arabic some of aristotle's. Writings were translated from arabic into languages western europe and begin to influence western thought once again. He also refers to the influence of rene descartes in the early 1600s who at age 23 had a vision of a mechanistic world filled with. With objects rotating around and the. I did that. You must admit accolade those objects and predict their behavior and cause them to do. To obey their will. And. Alexis francis bacon who also in the early 1600s. Considered. Not only consider humans separate from nature but also scientist separate from religion. Was influential in. Wait when you take a big heart you think of things is having very specific structure certain very adamant is at right angles to each other and. According to score he was influential in the ideas of some of the dichotomy that we had in mind supposed to use during thought where you have a continuing and hth. Cartoons the other. The dichotomy between. Facts and knowledge. Mind and body thinking and feeling between power and wisdom. And provided a lot of western society including christian.. For hundreds of years. The christian churches are becoming more environmentalist lately and that's that's. Part of what. He can make a comment but you keep cc is a new. Consensus guy developing worldwide on several on some issues that he sees as being very important to dealing with these environmental problems. His opinion is that. Democracy. Is is very important than in dealing with these problems that empowerment is true to impoverished able to influence what happens. That a free market economy. It's very important as well and he. He explains what how is he thinks that. The market can be. Can you change the food i got a girl somebody changed to. Discourage the use of environmentally destructive technology and to encourage. Environmentally constructive or b98. And. Finally the. Blaze the thursday emerging consensus or an emerging attitude. More and more feeling that we are actually are citizens of the world. You can see this happening in europe where they where the european community. The council. More more. Politically and economically united. And probably probably. Spiritually as well. And. I think that's another would help communication we have the transportation is available that would be come to me feel more and more citizens of the world is not just of our own. Song neighborhood. Finally in the last. Heard the book striking the balance. He tells about some some heroes of the environment. Including two commanders as a mansion. He mentions that during the siege of leningrad during. Intuitive score work to the. Ic collection that was started. Large leaf i. And they there was a group of scientist there. I think 30 or so scientists that preserves at that collection companion planting. And at the risk of their own lives they were they were considered to be trailers by the by the russian. Government. But they continue to seek lexington they some of them died. In the midst of all these seeds that they could have consumed two to prevent starvation there was a man with the right specialist it died of starvation surrounded by sacks of rice but those are important. Etsy stock. So they can fish cruiser that collection he mentions kikkoman desiree said he mentions a lady named susan probably mispronouncing my thigh. Canyon. Who is it. Organize tree planting she organized women who at times you wrote this book has planted over a million trees. And they were. I don't know how she raised the funds but they were rewarded not for planting but for planet for planning and sustaining most recently reported being able to be self-sufficient. Image of several other heroes of the environment but i'll go on in the last. Chapter of the book dl920 cause a global marshall plan. And he makes this analogy because. For two reasons. he says that the marshall plan was organized in the response to a threat. The perceived threat. Communism. And the intent to. Keep western europe from becoming communist and. Organizing. A lot of fundamental activities to try to help the european countries that have been devastated by wwii to recover from that devastation by. Removing bottlenecks 22 progress. And it is required lot of preparation. Original evelyn. Isn't this sort of thing sorted. Commitment and organizations required on a global level to deal with environmental threat. He thinks of the protection of the environment has become the overriding principle governing. All policy decisions. Similar to the importance that was given to defeating communism for example of story dictator suit had little or nothing in common with us other than opposition account, didn't they might have disagreed with every other principle that we consider to be important. He said the marshall plan at that time and that amount of cooperativity was was considered. Take me on thinkable and that that it was every bit as improbable as a united global response to the environmental crisis. Things today. They won't be more difficult than. Then the marshall plan. the marshall plan for the european recovery plan. Actually called. Because of the greater diversity in the world as a whole. Greater diversity of problems and and countries. And greater number of people that will have to cooperate in it. But he's a secret actually can be done. He said what's required now is a plan that combines large-scale long-term carefully targeted financial aid to developing nations. Massive efforts to design and then transfer to poor nations a new technologies needed for sustained economic progress. A worldwide program to stabilize world population. And binding commitments by the industrial nations to accelerate their own transition to an environmentally responsible pattern of light. She's talking about a strategic plan food. To bring about fundamental change rather than a lot of lot of specific individual plans. He said the new global economy has to be inclusive. Can't leave out countries such as. Many african latin american countries that are currently. Left largely out of the world economy. I'll skip over this because we're going to run low on time. Proposal specific strategic goals. And i'm guessing that he's letting them in order of his. Proceed importance. 1. Stabilizing world population s is creating and developing environmentally appropriate technologies number 3 is. Comprehensive in ubiquitous adoption of economic rules that take environmental impact into account and actually the change the rules of the economic game as i said to to encourage. Environmentally friendly activity to discourage they harmful what. New-generation treaties and agreements internationally and a plan for educating the world citizens about the global environment and he has specific ideas of how to accomplish each of these things. And suggested all these tests to be accomplished within a context. Of what he calls integrating goal. That includes. Establishing the conditions needed to. Test sample societies and he says that these include social justice. Putting equitable land ownership. The commitment to human rights. Adequate nutrition healthcare in shelter. High literacy rate. Political freedom. Participation and accountability. Asthma. 150 pages of milk bud. Regarding stabilizing the world population maybe i can just summarize that very briefly because it was said we did have a whole program on that it's fairly well-to-do to relate to stabilization of population in an in a country or region in a smaller area and those do not necessarily. Very well correlated with with average income. Going everything's going to be good. very unequally distributed and not affect most people want it all but in addition it's more correlated. With education and primarily with education women. With flowing immortality people tend to produce your children if they. There's a high probability that i will survive. And also with with access to a wide variety of birth control methods in and. Culturally appropriate birth control methods for that population. So he is augusta. A variety of initiatives in those areas areas and getting those priority. Coronated. Over. Economic development. Some of these things have been address but they've always been lower priority than than economic advancement that sometimes. Is not. It's not the same anyway because of the cultural. Cultural obstacles. The second security guard has to do with the rapid creation development of environmentally appropriate technologies and he. Suggest. Text structures. 2. Posters of what he called a strategic environment. Environment initiative analogous to the strategic defense initiative that was supposed to ronald reagan and. And. Partially implemented here supposed this on a worldwide scale. He proposes research and development funding for new technologies and prospective band on the old ones. Government purchasing programs. New products that may not yet be be popular in the marketplace. But our. Competitive an environmentally sound. The prost electronics would be inherent replacements for technologies that are being phased phase-out because legal mandate. Establishment of the networking training centers around the world train what he refers to as planets and technicians. Having these. Research centers and implementation development centers in around the world will encourage the acceptance of these technologies around the world as well. And preventive laws that protect inventors rights because people are people have a greater tendency the purpose of patent law in this country is 22 encourages sharing the inventions that you can if you could have protected from if you don't mind making it public or not. One example. Invisible route that one would be using charge to get high mileage supposed to charge that. You'd love it would be one relative example to him environmental-friendly response back to him technology doesn't necessarily mean high technology for example. One example would be organic farming as close to farming that that kills the kills a living things in the soil and depletes the soil. At that kind of thing and he's thinking about a lot of agriculture initially. Teaching people with already known about how to how to farm in a way that enriches the the soil rather than impoverishing. Those are some examples. Especially good time to stop and have discussion anyway food. I guess i'll summarize by. Saying. Repeating what i said at the beginning that. That probably is not proposing any ideas or or expressing any philosophies that are you need. And as f*** but it made an important. Epic this book is the fact that it's that these ideas are put forth by wild politician one who's in a position to to be influential. An economic sanction. Such as that one. What kind of thing he makes that's related to this. Particular issue is. Encouragement and thankfully he comments that we tax work. And we subsidize the depletion of environment. And he proposes doing less of the former and taxing the depletion of the environment and lowering the tax on work. For example from picking up garbage you suggest that we should have. Charging by the pound for picking up garbage resident property taxes which doesn't really encourage anyone to be produced by the garbage. Similarly with co2 emission he suggests that we reduce reduce. Income tax and raise the tax on having tax on co2 emissions which is similar to spartacus vaporous but it but it's a waste and then he also suggests. Okay, and i can remember what he called a fun but he suggested establishing a fund from co2 emissions what she sees as the major pollution problem because of the contribution to global warming. The anna taking those the income from from those taxes and using that to fund more appropriate technology. Research and development of new technologies. Alaska miles between specific question about the cruise for the republican party he mentions the general political problem. That. And pro in this world as well in seeking short-term rewards for example rewarding people and bases of quarterly profits as opposed to as a long long range wasn't offering his lack of what they're doing and the tenancy in the political world. To prepare for the next election or the next poland try to optimize results on that kind of a scale rather than playing. Predator support that he's getting further behind the policies i don't know. I get a scar from 20/20 vision and they ask you to write the president or your senators or whatever and this month card is all on the environment and one of those things again. procreation still figures if you don't win a natural resources and public programs. And they. There was an agreement biodiversity that was already to go through in the. Forget the windows nyc. but. Play james baker at mountain. sure. But the person was already to agree to it and thought he had to. The support and then that was that was computer. The other thing i hate comments on this related to this issue is that it's at there's a lot of resistance. Into heaven government getting this involved in issues related economic issues in order to. To save the environment. And. That ironically the same people that are opposed to having government interfere with the economy distort to the free market economy for these reasons are very much into 2. Then we'll use it. You like your new house you wish you look this way here i spoke with you yesterday so i'll give you a message from people opposing abortion. All at all or anything close to it but what he did say was that the catholic church has done a lot to. To encourage education and lower lowering infant mortality rate in another countries in programs that have other groups working in the very same program distributing birth control devices so they although they are unwilling officially to to condone the use of birth control they are taking other measures that have been known to have the result of. I don't know if it's accurate or not ellsworth claims that the great rate of population growth is the same in rich countries that are catholic or not and the same in poor countries that are catholic or not in heaven despite what the church says about about birth control that it does not influence the growth rate. Proposes that just cuz we have had controls and exports that have. They're a military threat that we have the controls on xbox that have an environmental threat as well but i don't know who currently what's. What's happening in that regard.

uuprairie_org

Pr100912HaydockAbts-ed.mp3

Good morning and welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society my name is barber park and i'm the current president prairie aspires to be an open harder than an open-minded congregation we welcome people of every ethnic and religious background whatever your color sexual orientation for family structure we welcome you no matter your age and your abilities or inability troy the end of the service today will invite visitors guests and returning friends to introduce yourself so we can get to know you better and sunday morning we've formally as as our minister on october 9th nickel heater opening words and in government from colombia and the jd from university wisconsin law school values highly america's historic separation of church and state and so we welcome them. The program consists of three pieces. And we're only going to be presenting two of those pieces. The first piece consists of a concern than making ishare. With respect to the perception of the relationship between law and morality. After we both concluded that witness spend a little time illustrating some ways in which our american legal system operates. Bomb baby in ways that are seen strange. Now logically okay lawn morality then what would be next morality. As it happens neither nick nor i is a moral philosopher and this is a unitarian universalist society so the responsibility for determining what morality is and what is appropriate rest on your side of the podium okay so what we are here to do is raise our concern. I'll give you some illustrations that are consonant with that. And then i'll leave to you. Answering some of the questions that we're going to raise. Let me begin. I want to put this in context. A great deal of american history gets rewritten these days. There's a best-selling book that just came out in paperback. With this thesis. That late 20th century american liberal politics. Has its roots in early 20th century european fascism. Yes this is the best seller don't shoot the messenger i'm just telling you. American economic history has been rewritten their lot of people who will tell you when all the furnace. That the policies and activities of the new deal did nothing underscore nothing. The end the great depression. Where is there are. Acceptable verifiable reliable statistics that disproves the data search. American religious history gets rewritten there's some people who would have you believe. That wall of the. Founders in all of the framers. Were basically pat robertson style evangelical baptist with the exception of. But not necessarily the exception of thomas jefferson. People are saying. This rewrite has extended to american law. What is the origin. Over american law. For our legal system. Derives from the english legal system stressed english not british. Legal system. There's no such thing as scotland is trespass. As long as you don't. Break anything while you're walking across your your neighbor's property. Differences. We inherited that system because knew there were 13 colonies that became the original 13 states and they kept the legal system that had existed here. 105 british rule. English. Where did england get its legal system. Well it kind of grew up over the 1500s and 1600s there were a variety of different courts and tribunals. And gradually over time they began to merge together. And by the mid-1700s. Instructure it was very similar to what we're familiar with today. We will have a complete merger of like a criminal courts in the civil courts. But basically a lot of different approaches to problem-solving to enforcing laws. Were brought together. Now. If you ask some people however the origin of american law is la bible. Why would anybody think that why would somebody believe that. Here's my thesis and nick and i talked about this kind of agree on it. If this were a gathering. Of muslims. What we have been taught. From allah. Comes al-quran. From the quran and hadith unrelated sources we derive. The walk. If we were a gathering of. Orthodox jews. What would we have been taught. From a denali. Call me tora. I'm from the torah. And the talmud related sources we derive. Okay. Well what if instead we were gathering of people. Mitcher partisans and catholics in england in the year 1701. Would have a kid his name. Jinx. 7th of that name to be king of scotland and at the same time. The second of that name. To be king of england. S o s. Now. He had unlawful. Watching things that modest. His model with which other high school friend of mine gloves and usually decide all the time for no particular reason. Adele rex allred jail x. From god comes the king from the king comes the law. She parallels what we talkin about before. Mail. It happens. Set in september of 1701 on the 16th. Mom jeans.. And he was replaced initially. Blythe couple of borrowed monarchs from holland william and mary and they were followed by an. And from those three to this day there is an unbroken line fall. Protestant monarchs james was the last catholic monarch. In great britain. Now it's the mid-1700s we got the colonies. Do a little valius. When we frame. The framers framed the constitution when the founders founded the country. Did they take this. From on high to some intermediate stage to the law. Approach. Nick and i don't see that we did. Could we have sure if you think about it somebody living in the 70 5760 1770s. Wouldn't have personal knowledge of your 1701 but that would be recent history. The parents. Teachers. This is within living memory. At that point. So there's this. View. Volvo. History. That's been altered somewhat. Now. Should that be of concern to us. What cures a quote that nick will read to us. From someone who has a different view than making i share because every law springs from a system of values and beliefs every law is an instance of legislating morality further because a nation's laws always exercised a pedagogical or teaching influence lot inescapably exerts a character and actions of a nation's citizens whether for good or ill those who seek to separate morality from there for our in pursuit of both the impossible and the destructive the question before us is never whether or not to legislate morality but which moral system to be made legally binding. This is from a preface. Written to an article about the first amendment. By a fellow who are teachers. Theology and culture at hillsdale college in michigan. His academic background while using biblical studies and theology. Knockoff. And in case you think this is taking too much out of context this subtitle of the article for which the preface is. The falsity futility and folly. Of separating morality from wall. Let me underscore two phrases in the last sentence that nick read for us. One likes moral system. This is constantly with the notion that morality exists in discrete internally. Consistent systems. And we there's several of them and we should select. Need angelical christian model. And make it. His words. Legally binding. When you. Why not. Okay. Should that be of concern will nick and i are concerned from the different academic an observer of america. And his thoughts. About. What kind of a system would be in which. A given moral systems. Legally binding. Absolutism rules the minds of a great number of people in the world today. Most dangerously so in the incipient american theocracy. Kaiser professor of science. Boxford. That's from page 324 of the god delusion by richard dawkins. America is incipient theocracy. Well we have this thought okay. It'll be coming from on high. At any point in western blot. Has somebody said we shouldn't kill people. There are things in the marley things are the walk and sometimes lawn the reality or at loggerheads. Anybody ever thought that. Quote from the third academic. At first there seems to be no distinction between law and morality but it is not long before thoughtful people recognize the difference between what it actually legal or legally right according to the political authorities and what should be legal sometimes this is expressed as representing the political authorities command representing her brothers and asked the audience would assume was morally right. Okay three things about this quote. It's from a fellow named to jen edward garrett who is a. Professor of philosophy and religion a western kentucky university phd from minnesota. Unitarian universalist. He says okay warmer ality can be at loggerheads. This is dramatically illustrated by a play i love it and antigone. It was first staged. In 442 bc. Now. We're going to segway into. Focusing on wall before moments. If you go to a dictionary. Tri-c merriam-webster's knights collegiate and you look up morality and morals. The definition is made in terms of conduct. End behavior. If you look at the definition of law and this is what the chinese fella civilian. Part of the definition is that law is a means of regressing law. Yeah i don't think that's the best. Overview of of the log into that as well get the dictionary full credit. For describing lawn morality and very different terms. I wouldn't have turned up to me sounds like what you're supposed to do now and in the future. And if you're regressing long's when did they occur. The past. So if these are different enterprises they operate differently. How differently. This is where we start. Focusing on wall. Sears. An illustration of a point would come back to. Modern america a crime is committed somebody commits a crime. Gets caught. Gets charged. Destroy. Amides ample is convicted. Search is rehearsing at this point what is the status. All of the wall. Done deal. Okay. What we have achieved is something for resolution. And some legal the widest refrigerators repose the matter is put to rest. Go back over here when the crime was committed. It could have been blah blah so human limb or human alike. Did this process. Answer the moral question. Did the person going through that process. And paying his or her debt to society. Change. The loss of life. Blossom lamb. For how. Tomorrow system might deal with that event. What took place was the law. What's morality. Let's get adam for criminal law. And look at a will contest. Right now he trusts and estates. And the following i believe is an actual case but it certainly. Illustrates how. Fall the law treats. The last will and testament okay. Father. Is very wealthy and very. Rich farm very valuable pawn. In his own name. And he wants to leave the farm. Implements. Crops cattle to mother. And then everything else will be kids. He goes to an attorney attorney drafts will. Father what's it over yet on spine. They go through what's called the wilson signing ceremony and the will is valid it was properly witnessed everything about it is just fun. In a among. I'll trust and estates attorneys. No one.. Stop breathing heart stops brain isn't working there is state matures so sadly for him father's estate and the kids. The will is supposed to read. Buy leave to mother. Why. Farm, implements,. Crops, and cattle and to the children all the rest remainder of mine. Estate. Here's what. That written in the will. Featuring meek mill. I leave to mother. White farm. Implements. ,. Bob crop and the cattle and all the rest remainder of my estate to the children. Do we know what fathers intent was. For what happens when that will. Gets before a judge. Well in our system of law. If you got a valid will we got a belly will and it can be interpreted literally. We interpreted literally. And so the kids wind up with the form. At mom wants open cattle crops informant from us. Okay now i asked you. Is that fair is that just. Is that morrow. It is the law. Why. Think about it. You're really want to have a jury trial every time somebody dies. The reason for something for judicial economy. We wanted minimize the amount of time expense and effort associated with. What bringing matters to repose. Casey parallel between what we did in criminal law and what we're talkin about here. Another example. Fitness windshield a little more dramatic. Thought it was pork log in every tort case i ever read even if it didn't use the word unbeknownst. The cat is always some hapless person this is an actual case. Oregon in the mid-1950s. A woman is driving her car along the highway. And she goes under an overpass. Ready for it. Unbeknownst to her. On the overpass. Is a gasoline tanker truck. Deal with gasoline. Spinning out of control. Any short order. An event occurs in which. The gasoline truck oneself on top of the car. Explosion occurs flame a curse. Yes. First aid pictures. Map. Sediment. When this matter reaches the core. Marissa family suing. The oil companies damages loss of life. What. You suppose. The first question that the judge is most concerned with. Will be. The judge. Wants to settle the question. And bear in mind the answer to this question cannot be no. Nobody can possibly know it. In fact. Did she die as a result. Albion squash. What is result of the fire. Why would that be. Here's one. If somebody's got a tanker truck. And transports longer highways and through our neighborhoods. Well water. What standard do we hold them till. Negligence. We want you to make sure the truck is probably proper repair properly license the driver properly trained properly licensed sober driving the speed limit. And if you're doing all those things you may not be liable for damages pathetic rates an accident. But what if the substance that you're transporting. Through the highways and feed the streets. Is really really scary. Nuclear waste. Chlorine gas. Something that could explode and burn like. Oh i don't know gasoline. The legal standard your dad held to. For something for strict liability. What we care about is who's truck and whose gasoline is it. Once we know that. You're liable. But now we worry about. For how much ram what weighs. What does the judge decide. How did she die. She died as a result of the fire. Why. It shortens the trial. We don't have two weeks. Are people talking about how good the truck was maintained and what a nice driver was and have their safety record and stuff like that this is really dangerous stuff we use a different legal standard with respect to it. Okay. And we can start the trial at the point whose truck was it okay you guys who is stuff you know who's. Ultra hazardous material is called was in the truck. End of worrying about that stuff now how liable what's the dollar value to be done. As a result. Is that beer. Is that just. Is that. It is the law. Like a moral question you can. Address it. We got one more example. And for this purpose we need a little. Suspension of disbelief. I'll tell you what. The. Federal government has passed wall. And it says that if you import import certain citrus fruits. You've got to pay duty. And it doesn't mention anything about oranges but it says if it's lemons you pay ten cents of a standard container. Fall. Fordham plaza. And if it's tangerines that's $0.20. Now you know it but you guys are the prairie of you import company and you suspend disbelief you have to believe. That tangelos. Party 50/50 hybrid between lemons and tangerines. So you guys had started up and you're selling tangelos so like you're going out of style and you've covered your startup costs. And you have paid nothing. Well the irs gets hold of this. The irs. Grabs us attorney. Money here. So he ran if we'll address to court on the subject of. We care about this if it's 10 if it's $0.10. We're just raking in the money hand-over-fist it was $0.10 past break even and we're doing nice meeting everybody gets hundreds of thousands of dollars a year but we can't. $0.20. Insolvency bankruptcy you're out of business okay. Us attorney. May please the court our federal government our democratically elected representatives have in their infinite wisdom made an affirmative choice to tax certain citrus fruits with the qualities of tangerines and laments about tangerines and a quality about lemons worthy of taxation otherwise we've put ourselves in danger of going down a slippery slope might may attempt. Where you at alike i'm your attorney makes no reference to oranges and the question of whether oranges should be taxed as not to dispute here where it's agreed the law does not apply to oranges oranges are not named in the statue neither are tangelos. What does morality and also a formal affidavit appear the words further at the end say it not which means fear that's what we wanted to say okay we have time for of questioning talkback. You know i have heard a recently i can't remember who said but the idea is that we should or a long should be just as applicable ineffective in those rare and unusual cases as it is in kind of the expected cases. I'm mad 54 way and one of the nastiest people we know pack. In her car. Dane county taxpayers you want to have a jury trial. The bullet tries to do that but it's not always possible. What i thought was the interest in phrase that you use this how can we determine what year was right for everyone we can go the route of michael baughman who is the professor hillsdale college. Alternatively we can live with ambiguity. And we can have a system that tolerates arranged. A possibility. And you can do any of that. Stop as long as it doesn't. Violate the laws the laws interpreted by the courts. It's not easy it's not that doesn't feel warm and cuddly in your case at the point that for whatever reason whatever reason you can't proceed any further. And we pay the price. Ultimately hopefully she. Propose with respectable law. Not that there is if you think of it is two circles that overlap there there is overlap there's some things that people in general would say you know is do it is morally right and it is enforced by the law that that's true but there are vast areas of operate with other concerns saving time and money and everything and avoiding ongoing disputes you know hatfields vs mccoys. Join us for coffee.

uuprairie_org

Pr110313Esbensen-ed.mp3

Thank you to the beatles for that lovely prelude good morning and welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society i'm karen deaton and i'm a member here at prairie prairie aspires to be both an open-hearted and an open-minded congregation. We welcome people of every ethnic and religious background. Whatever your color whatever your sexual orientation or gender or your family structure we welcome you no matter what your age or your abilities or your inability. On sunday morning we provide a wide variety of services they are presented either by a prairie member a member of the wider community or as this morning by our minister. We're not going to have a reading these are words written by bob dylan's girlfriend from the 60s. Suze rotolo from her memoir a freewheelin time a memoir of greenest greenwich village in the 60s. There are so many talents in those days who hung their work on gallery walls who got on stage to sing to perform. Portugal liver stand-up commentary that was part. And way ahead of the times. We were full of truth than enthusiasms resentments and of course poetry pros.and song. The words of president kennedy's inaugural speech where the words we took to heart. Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country. Today what's in it for me is the question most often asked. The sixties were an era that spoke a language of inquiry and curiosity and rebelliousness. Against the stifling of repressive political and social culture of the decade that preceded it. History is accumulated one-day-at-a-time. And there were many of us who moved it along. I'm proud to have been in the mix. I'm glad i took the subway and got off at the right stop. When president kennedy was shot. I sat on the floor of our living room and cried along with the rest of my family. Have you watched the repeated black-and-white seen of him waving and smiling his limousine next to his pretty dark-haired wife. And then suddenly falling into her lap. It was 1963. And i was six years old. It was my first brush with death. My second brush was a few days later when again right before my eyes lee harvey oswald was killed and jack ruby was the named killer. I grew up. With killing death. War assassinations. Cuba and khrushchev. Fallout shelters and air raid drills and words from the prior war still hanging in the air. And a helen keller and anne frank. We're also there so courageous and bright. Just children like i was. Would i ever do anything meaningful of my life to be remembered i thought. Walt disney presents every sunday night with tinkerbell so sweetly touching her 12 the sky above the castle turret and flubber. Fortunate chitty bang bang. For hayley mills trapped in some cave while the sea waters crashed and rose 232 threaten certain death. Well on the opposite channel the lawrence welk show in his bubbles were an option we never chose. Who played kick the can with all the neighbor kids at night. Well i parents sat in front porches and played cards. And we ducked under our desk that's cool during the day. Recover. From the russian communist. For part of the cold war that was always looming at the edges of our world. Ragged and crying women and children walking the long and sandy roads in vietnam wall are tired and faded and dusty soldiers walked alongside them. Helping them onto planes where they would be safe. We're being carried themselves onto those planes by their comrades. Because they no longer had legs to walk with. We ate dinner. And watch this plate every evening. And the huntley-brinkley report. With chet and david. Told us about the world. And walter cronkite. And at every news new news cast with. And that's the way it is. And that's the way it was. I grew up in a world that was built like a kaleidoscope. You look through a small clear lens at the simple pure world that was around you like a protective coating a world that encompass baseball games and paper routes and apple pie. Donna reed and dennis the menace. Father knows best in my three sons. Enter the other side of the kaleidoscope the world you were shown was broken up into shards and angles of colors and shapes they were unrecognizable to your daily world. The civil rights movement. And the death of martin luther king jr and so two of his dream. A few months later the assassination of young bobby kennedy we all love because he was jfk's brother. And although my brothers and i played cops and robbers or cowboys and indians with all the guns and fake deaths those games required. Real death we're always around us. Not the least of which the vietnam war. But its body bags and flag-draped caskets and 21-gun salute. The pledge of allegiance starting each day off and interrupted by the sound of sonic booms. Edith state ending with nancy drew mysteries or daniel boone or gulliver's travels. My childhood was built around fantasy and imagination. Mixed with real life gas. And death. And death. And then i turned 11. And we move to florida. Where i had the opportunity to be one of a handful of white students in an all-black school. Having grown up with the civil rights movement actually over by the time i was conscious of it. He was still a movement that i that i was supported by. And that affected me greatly. My being jewish in the small town of duluth. I was acutely aware of prejudice. And was committed resolved to standing up for injustice has and wrongs wherever they might occur. But that was being brave in the midst of relative ease. Now in florida i had the chance to not only support the rights of blacks but to see what it was like to be a minority. For if i was ever going to be part of the cause and causes with a backdrop of my existence. Then i felt i could only do that authentically by being right in the midst of the truth. I read cry the beloved country. About the apartheid in south africa. I read every book i could find about the underground railroad system during the civil war knowing full well that i would have been an abolitionist if i had lived during that time. And i read black like me. A true story of a white journalist who stands his skin black in order to be able to pass as black while traveling through the deep south and right about the difficulties the blacks faced in that least those parts of the united states. I wanted to be a journalist. And write about things that mattered. When i was 12. I followed the political life of a black woman named shirley chisholm who later ran for president. I went to a rally for her ones here in madison. 48 soul food. And i got to sit next to her and talk about the future. And she told me to become a politician. At least an ambassador. I go into the peace corps and work with the needs of those who lived in the most trouble countries and i vowed that i would do that. And still the vietnam war raged on and i turned 13. And my skirts got shorter and my hair grew down my back. And the smell of pot. And the sound of the seat are filled the air. The first step for mankind took place on the moon while we were watching rowan & martin's laugh-in and the smothers brothers were acting goofy. And bell-bottoms and nehru collars long skirts and long hair and peace signs and protests and sit-ins and woodstock and young people young people young people everywhere. The men on the news where old. Our teachers were old our parents were old everyone was old but us and i wasn't even really one of the us because i was still so young but i was really influenced by the awesomeness of those youth by their antidisestablishmentarianism by the counterculture by the beatles white album and lucy in the sky with diamonds which we all knew stood for lsd and tripping and psychedelic music and just being free to be you and me. And still the war raged on. And the youth continue to be the voice of the nation the power the strength the no-nonsense attitude of calling an end to the needless war and to call up the hypocrisy of the people their parents ages who had said no more after world war never again. And then vietnam came and again was the name of the game for a war no one knew why we were there and our brothers and our cousins and our sons and are all two young boys in the neighborhood were being drafted sent to die for a cause no one wanted to be a part of. Emanation didn't end the war but turned its back on the soldiers that very war destroyed. And those young men came back to abuse and to shunning and to a land that turn them out into the street. When i was 14 i got a po wmia bracelet with the name of first lieutenant. Eric j schubert. And the date of 5:13 1970 engraved upon it. I wore that bracelet until i was 48 years old. When one day i did an internet search on eric jay hubert and found out that he been promoted to captain sometime in the intervening years but that he was still missing in action. And 51370 he was 25 years old. The day i found that news the bracelet on my wrist. Split into. I still have it in a drawer in my house. Make love not war. Was the slogan of the 60s. Peace signs and flower power signs and women's live in pete seeger and bob dylan and peter paul and mary and joan baez and the mamas & the papas and those young people around me those university students who seem so old to me we're solid and grounded insurance feisty they didn't just sing they sang out. They didn't just complain they demonstrated they didn't just wring their hands and wonder what was happening to our country they protested and they fought and they took to the streets and they took over greenwich village and they treated a segment of the culture that wasn't just their own. It was ours. It wasn't a subculture as they called it. But it was the real world that i grew up in. And was so greatly influenced by. Those young people of that they were at least ten years older than i was. They were the movers and shakers of that era. They told me they told us all. How to sync and how to behave what to believe in and what's react against. They showed us a world where the women were strong and the men were good-looking and the children were above average and i was one of those children and i would one day be one of those strong women. Those young people of the sixties by example left a huge footprint for me to try to fit myself into. And try i did for i believed in everything the world those young people had to show me. That they had created for me. And so here we are today. A nation as rice with aunts and betrayal as ever the days of the 60s were. That brave new world those young people fought for was the world i was sure i would inherit. And my children and my children's children for seven generations hence. For so surely wear those steed stone and so surely were those crops tendon. And harvested. So what happened. How did we get here. From there. Where did we take a wrong turn. Where did it all begin. This downward slippery slope of cutting back and cutting off and cutting out. The security nuts for the people of this great nation. Why do we turn a blind eye or a dead or turned a deaf ear or stand mute and become muddled and befuddled and in the end become downtrodden and hopeless that the way with paid clear. For atrocities to occur. Who are we to blame. Where can we turn to for help. Only to ourselves. And that is a great place to start. As hopeless as b's time scene. We have the pasta draw from coupled with the wisdom of the current youth. We have those young people of the 60s right here in our midst today. Gray-haired perhaps but that is of no consequence. Their hearts of the same their feistiness is no less their souls or not weekend but wiser. The result of renewed by there help for the youth of today for the life they wish for today and for all the days to come. For the times they are a-changin. And it has once more begun. Thank you. I have some closing words and then we have a closing song. The fuzzy words are entitled fearful joy. Is beyond the to be glad we is it beyond a to be glad that the gladness of this rhythm to be tossed and lost and broken in the world of this fearful joy. All things rush on they stop not they look not behind no power can hold them back they rush on. Keeping step with that restless rapid music seasons come dancing and pass away. Colors tunes and perfumes pouring endless cascades in the abounding joy that scatters and gives up and dies every moment. We are now in the midst of fearfulness let us turn it into fearful joy.

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Pr091018Evison-ed.mp3

My name is robin perrin good morning welcome and thank you for coming this morning to prairie unitarian universalist society. I'm the chair of the long range planning committee and we're putting on the service this morning. So i'd like to take a few moments this morning then to introduce our speaker and get a little bit of background about our service this morning and then what were considering here as i mentioned my name is robin paradigm current share the long range planning committee i do want to thank all of you for being here today as we continue our year-long expert exploration of our vision is a congregation and different types of ministerial relationships and how the two intersect. So in order to share a common understanding about different types of ministerial relationships it's helpful to understand what we're talking about every religious organization has different terms that they use to refer to different relationships between a congregation and a ministerial or other religious leader within unitarian-universalism the three terms will focus on our contract interim and settled minister. A contract ministerial relationship occurs when a congregation often specifically the board of a congregation hires a professional minister for a set. of time. The contract. Government frontier. The contract between the board and the minister spells out specific aspects of the relationship such as the priorities with which sister is to concern her or himself the type in the amount of labor to be performed the duration of the contract and other other types of parameter sew-in short the contract is a for-hire situation and the minister is charged the focus on a list of specific tasks and our current contract minister is reverend ralph tyson ski. A subtle minister on the other hand is cold or engaged by an entire congregation not just the board but the entire congregation for an indefinite length of time settle ministers are said to be in relationship with a congregation as a whole again not just the boards and the relationship is more open-ended and both duration and an intellectual self-determination than is the case with contact ministry and interim minister is exactly as it sounds it's a minister who is serving with a congregation who has that has decided to make the transition from a contract ministry relationship to a settled minister and minister relationship but has not yet completed. So in order to further explain his concept number of analogies have been drawn from different different areas for instance if you draw an analogy to the from the world real estate contract minister has been compared to a lease or the federal minister has been compared to be more akin to that of a homeowner with us with a equity interest in the long-term future future of a property. There have been other analogies comparing a contract minister to sort of an engagement or the federal minister would be becoming married i think another helpful analogy especially the university town like madison for those who are familiar with university governance and structure. Comes from the world of academia we're settled minister may be thought to be akin to that of the relationship of a tenured professor who's expected to use all of their training experience and creativity and concert with the resources available at the university to further education and research goals some of those goals they of course they'll determine as to what the specifics of the goals are as long as they are within the general agency aegis of the university. The contract minister on the other hand might be compared to an adjunct professor someone who's hired to teach a particular class perhaps perhaps for just one semester at a time and may or may not have much determination about exactly how to teach that class or what to teach. If you'll indulge one more consideration of terminology before i introduce another person i'd like to make note of the dictionary definition of minister but not as a noun and said as a verb. The random house dictionary specifies minister as into minister verb has and freeways number 12 to perform the functions of a religious minister. Number two is to give service care or aid to attend as 21 soreness essa teas for example to minister to the needs of the hungry. And number three to contribute as to comfort or happiness. So in this manner i think it's worth noting as the saying goes that actions that is the verb to minister speaks louder than words perhaps nouns with regard to the first definition to perform the functions of religious minister unitarian universalism is a unique broad diverse rich and deep traditions it's so broad and fact that i think we could spend a lot of time discussing whether unitarian universalism is a religion that ethical tradition or something else entirely but what is perhaps less controversial are the second and third definitions i just read which would be to paraphrase that ministries professional calling it's motivated by a deep desire to provide service care or aid and to contribute to a congregation and to society in a meaningful way. Unitarian universalist minister has spent years studying our craft and both academic and real-world settings and probably tell us more about this certainly a major if not the major unitarian universalist seminary is meadville lombard theological school if you look at some of the course offerings on their website that students are engaged in their some of the titles might be what you might expect such as a course on religious humanism of course on world religions of course on unitarian universalist history some of them might not be exactly what you would expect course entitled problems and public ethics one entitled walking the talk communicating across cultural differences and the very pragmatically named seat for dreams fundraising and a new age. I think it's helpful to understand how ministers undergo training and what they focus on because it gives some insight into the professional background of ministers but only at a minimum because if you might expect the diversity of ministerial perfect perspectives within unitarian-universalism is at least as broad as that of the unitarian universalist lady of the whole so with that background i'd like to introduce reverend ian addison universe in is the congregational services director for the central midwest district of the unitarian universalist association he writes in his biography that his passions on the professional side at the moment include how congregations can respond strategically to financial stress and also the smart use of technology in congregation. His personal passions include gardening woodworking and cooking he previously served as director of research at the album institute which is an independent nonprofit center of learning and leadership development with a focus on congregations located in herndon virginia while he was there he also consulted with congregations and coordinated albums work on evaluation as well as a congregational resource guide team before coming to the alvin institute in evanston served as dean and interim president at meadville lombard theological school and prior to that he was minister of the uu congregation at niagara falls new york. He's earned both a phd at the university of chicago divinity school and a doctor of ministry from meadville lombard theological school so although he is not amanda stand on formalities i wonder the proper way to introduce him as doctor doctor reverend and we are very pleased to have him here today from chicago please. I don't know whether it's right to call what i have for you this morning at thurman's but i have the suspicion with this crowd that is okay if i don't use that work what i want to do this morning is open up my experience of ministry in a way that i hope it's helpful to you and what i mean by that is helpful in any decisions that you might want to make but also helpful to you as a community so that the discussions you go through in making these decisions beefing you both as individuals and as a community for me and my family i can say that i have had an incredible experience of ministry and ministers at their best moment and at their moment these best moments that experience as being for me luminous even like she changing i can recall my first minister vincent silliman who was in the first generation of few minutes ministers he came from wisconsin and he changed and shaped by a decision to live according to a principal and for him that principle was which was down by the railroad tracks and on to become minister and a number of congregations and he also edited and number of our hymn book or i think and. But she didn't want me to intervene on her behalf she said no i'll phone him and she phoned this guy and she found him so full of conviction that he never could have meant to do something like that that he came on his day off and brought her. A new refrigerator sit open for me holding windows on how it was possible to live but i don't this morning want to sell ministry to you as a commodity and actually i'm not very qualified to do that in the first place in my job i spend the largest proportion of my time dealing with ministers and ministry that it's decidedly not took us moment hope so i have a decidedly research approach to things and i know that there is nothing that can be made for what works what people from some authority that if you do act. This will work out. Well it doesn't work that way. Alright i can tell you where the researcher that there is a very solid correlation. Between income and education. But i can tell you from my own life with to doctorate but it doesn't always work out that way. Finally. Congregation in committee which was exactly about the same kinds of things has the relative relationship and authority and initiative that you're working on now on the subject of minister and it's not chance that the two probably leading congregations of this area don't have in their names the word church fox valley uu fellowship and first unitarian society they are working the same issues of identity so the hopeful thing is if you make one decision or another it won't settle these questions. But i suppose that's also the depressing part and i can tell you that this question of assertive for fear of using one of those words the spiritual traditions of this area the country art of deep in the bone i mean my own relatives came from philadelphia and they pushed away from certain types and so they were very much at home in the world that is here of granges and cooperatives and so on and that's not going to go away so whatever decisions you make it will still leave those questions although one of those things that's hard about close to a family of other words that can be worrying and so you really it's right that you have to work out your feelings about the sort of about that whole universe of them and i realized that for me to come and get back this far from actually telling you what to do might be disappointing and just commenting on the end requires not letting me in in certain way and i turn this your situation this way that in a way the question of what kind of relationship how close and how permanent is a question of how far you're going to let someone in and not so much to the organisational matters but your lives you know are you ready to let someone call you it's one thing to let somebody for that text but are you ready as a group to allow that person to be the one to sort of role is to call you to the center of your being or to call you to open up different possibility because and enlarged in some measure of course it depends upon their skills and wonderful know what they can accomplish willingness or readiness to let them in and i hope that is you think about what kind of ministry that you want or need that you think also about what kind you're ready for in this scent and see if you're ready there are amazing ministers and you know i will be very interested in working with you and seeing what you do or decide i don't have it all and interest in you making one decision rather than the other.

uuprairie_org

Pr140720Ingham-ed.mp3

Good morning there's a trick to it then i took me a long time to learn but fan but i think you have to start just a little ways it may be all psychological but having the overhead fans on makes me think i'm cool for me. Society. A place where you are welcome no matter. Where you are on your religious journey no matter your islamic status in life no matter your gender sexual preference you are welcome here at least we strive to make you feel welcome if this is one of your first times here and there will be a time later on in the service. We do ask that if one of your first times you consider coming here more than once because our service is very from sunday to sunday sometimes i do the service i a consulting minister sandy ingham sometimes people from within the congregation do the service and sometimes people outside of our group do the service i have an announcement next week the 27th we will have our traditional annual combined service with the free congregation of sauk county occasionally i slip and call it box city and they remind me gently. I would like to possibly have a rough estimate of how many are going alright so far i know there's about 10 of us how many of you think you might be going oh that's fantastic that's great thank you. And they will provide all the tableware and everything for those of you who can't do or or just don't want to make that trip although i do urge you to go there will be something happening here. I don't have any more announcements it must be july we're taking time to breathe when are the opening words. Written by mary oliver in her poem titled three things to remember as long as you're dancing. You can break the rules. Sometimes breaking the rules is just extending the rules. Sometimes there are no rules. Damn would you like the challenge. We light this chalice. To illuminate the dance we do together. Let the light shine on our dance. I let our dance be one of hope. And dreams are freedom for all freedom from fear. Freedom from oppression freedom from stereotypes. Freedom from. Precipices and a function. Baby a virtual chalice but you're getting the idea. Okay. Yeah i see this is one of those things that i think magically happen. Somebody put oil in there. Somebody puts the wake him. Let it be a dance we do. A dance lift finally by our flaming tappan. The reading that i would like to share with you this morning is fine the reverend jane zip up. Unitarian universalist minister in new england her mother happens to live in madison. This is titled when feet. She writes. I read copies of old church minutes in our kitchen. If i put my mind to it i can stand there and get through an entire annual report. While waiting for whatever it is to boil. My observation valspar is this. We look on the sunny side. Give me entire history of our church according to these reports. We have never had a murky dilemma. Been a little short of cash. Or even. Stumbled upon an intriguing situation. Except twice. In 1935 the report mentioned. Our organ music. Which was lovely. Despite the fact. Betsy organist. Had lost more than one finger. During his day-to-day activities as a local electrician. Whoa. Except i have a finger that doesn't work too well and i'm filled with admiration for an organist who can play a few finger short. But i'm not easily fooled. Somebody must have been concerned for the man. If not for the music. No problems appear as such though. Until 1980. Wendy. Q. Stabilization committee appeared. Seems to puce. Tipping over chords. I had frankly always wondered this would be your typical new england church. Penis look like. A kept tipping over backwards. ksez i had. Frankly always wondered why the congregation. Seems so alert sunday after sunday i was on the verge of thinking it has something to do with the ministers preaching capacities. But it's all clear now. They were sitting in a pew. Dog kind of comfy. Sleepy too. Their heads tilted back. Mouse opened they drifted off and poops on over. Flailing in the breeze. When did be nice to imagine that missed nose and do stabilization have been our greatest challenges. I feel sure though that we've been door tougher times mercifully left unrecorded. One has to conclude that when the sun stopped shining the organs stirred our singing none the less. And most fee. State firmly. On the ground. But. That's what. Dane's me. I overheard. The owner of the cabins where i was staying outside of voyageurs national park in northern minnesota. Say to someone on the phone. Her remark caught my attention. She didn't say. But that's what keeps me going. She said. That's what. Sustains me. I knew her well enough. To ask her what that was all about. It was about how she managed to keep going. Through the long northern minnesota winters. By getting away. But next winter as she was making the plans. Her husband said he did not want to go anywhere. Bus triggering her. Almost panic. Reaction. As she wondered. How could she possibly carry on. Without the annual getting away. Solution. Go away. Go anyway go alone if need be. Sustained and sustainability. Ar. Strong words. They go to the very heart. Of how we live and why we do what we do. They are directly related to that often quoted woody allen saying. Don't have it ever correctly i'm not sure how he originally set up at something like this 80% of the secret of life is showing up. Can't show up. Until you get out of bed. And you can't get out of bed if nothing sustained you. There can be many reasons not to get out of that. Especially in the winter. How do we do it. Even in the dark dreary times. What. Sustains us enough to compel us to. Show up. Sustain to give support to. To cause to continue to cause to continue. To keep. Especially. Without interruption. Diminution or flagging. To support the weight of the hold up. What supports the weight of my life. What sustains you. And is it true or false. Sustainability. Is it real. Palazzo reale. What do i mean by that. The need for sustainability in our lives. Is universal. A deep human longing for connection. Tumi a self-described humanist. This yearning is a spiritual longing. I dare use the word. A sacred desire for meaning. I believe this is true for all of us. Whether we would describe ourselves as humanists or atheists orpheus or agnostics or jewish or christian or muslim hindu. Buddhist pagan mystic. Pansy. I lost. Everything. Over the last. 526 years. Or. So it seemed to me. Sounds as if all was lost. My job. My remaining parent. Of my dearest. Closest. Friends. Fart. Of them not. Here. Anymore. My sustainers. My support. System. Losses that i. Expected in what's truly. To eventually encounter as the years went by. But never did i think that i would lose all of them. In such a short.. Of time. Okay that's the version of my life that plays in my head when i'm having a bad day. Or it's the middle of an unending ridiculously cold winter or i'm feeling especially sorry for myself for any number of reasons. Core me. I'm going to eat some worms. It's used to say or at least organize a pity party. Well it is true. That i have lost. All. Over the past few years. Saying that i have lost everything is way too dramatic. Not to mention unfair to those who really have. I have struggled to figure out. Perhaps rediscover. What. Sustains me. In this struggle i have learned what mary oliver put in words as long as you're dancing you can break the rules. Sometimes breaking the rules is dust expending the rules and sometimes there are no rules. I have learned the difference or maybe i'm beginning to be more aware of the difference between what truly sustains me for the long haul. I want only does so temporarily. Because sometimes the wrong things. Sustain us. Wrong in the sense that they are not. Well they are not sustainable. In and of themselves over the long haul. But it's not strong enough. To help us. The really tough. X. Pictures of these things have little or no staying power in the bigger picture. List of examples is long. Alcohol. Drugs. Food. Too much of that i realize we need some. Some relationship. The toxic ones. Some books and movies and plays and music and performance. Sports. I love sports. I'm being active does sustain me. Right now. In my life run abel. Unable to be this active. How sustaining would sports be to me then. Have to be discerning. About what we choose to sustain us. And i think that there is an analogy here with our response to global warming. We think that we are helping to heal the planet. By not driving so much or by using different light balls or even by remembering to take our own bags to the grocery store. It's not that we aren't. Helping the environment. By these actions. It is just. That what really has to happen for us to change. Is our whole way of thinking. About energy. We have to demand that you manatee figure out a way not to use fossil fuels and thank you for the work you're doing. You and everyone else in here. We need to have an uprising we need to go out on the streets in protest we could solve this problem. Humor and laughter sustain me. Truly sustained me the way my sister turned me into a baseball field. Complete with pictures. The image of. Lanling as parishioners step over church pews. Good comedy found in movies and plays. My son and i go to american players theater every summer we could doing this almost. Since the beginning of apt this season we purposely chose only comedy. We suspect this has something to do with the long winter we had just survived. Tuesday we're going to see something we've seen before. The importance of being earnest expect to laugh and tell her. To be sustained in this life i need to laugh a lot. After all. Life is absurd. Laughter allows us to recognize. That part of the puzzle known as the so-called human condition. While refusing. To be bowling. By that condition. I know too that i need to hear more stories about other people and what sustains them. Operative word being stories. Telling our story. Is the common denominator. Here this morning. Crucial to sustainability nominated for any. Congregation any. Good organization. The dance that we do together on this journey is all about our stories. When i was at starr king school for the ministry i took a semester-long class. On storytelling. Through the graduate theological union we were able to make use of there were nine different. Full fare of all different denominations and pay tradition. I had completely forgotten about this class. Until i started thinking about what sustains me i don't remember much of anything about the content of the class. It was christian-based. Possibly even lutheran. Maybe that's why i haven't retained content. I took that class when i still thought that it was intellectually clever and hip. Of me to reject all of christianity to ignore it. But i do retain from the class is a belief in the importance of story county. Storytelling isn't just something we do for and with kids. When dunwell telling a story is not a light and fluffy event. It is the essence of what makes us human it is the means by which we can begin to understand the other capitulo. We are biased. It is the vehicle storytelling is the vehicle that if we are wise enough to do so we hop on it to get through the hard. Knights. And the dark times. Here's a very short story about one of my sustainers. Nature. She's a true for me anyway. Sustainer. This is titled the titles as long as the story i think. The fox and i mean at midnight. Not very many nights ago i was awakened by. Australian strange noise. That sounded a bit like a dog barking. And so i went to the window and i look down and them i live on the second floor down there was. A very big. Box and i. Made eye contact. I know we did. I'm fox felt better i say. The eye contact because fox. Was. Sad or upset about something. I also lived near. Quarry park. Across the street so fox made there. Perhaps fox in lost. How it's made or. Or some children. Here is mary oliver's poem. Which is a story of course. About her encounter with fox titled goodbye fox. He was lying under a tree. Licking up the shade. Hello again fox i said. Hello to you too said slots. Looking up and not bounding away. You're not running away. I said. Well. I've heard of your conversation about us news travels even among foxes as you might know or not know. What conversation do you mean. Some lady said to you the hunt is good for the fox. And you said. Which box. Yes i remember shiba soft so you're okay in my book. Your book that wasn't mine but that's the difference between us. Yeah i agree. You fuss. Over life. With your clever words. Mulling is chewing on its meaning while we just live it. Oh. Could anyone figure it out. To a finality. So why spend so much time trying ufa's. We live. Any stored. Slowly for he was old now. Animals away. We fought. Animals have mastered the art of living. Of being. We fought some more. Animals live. Live. Our buddhist friends remind us to be. Here. Now. People sustained me to a certain extent. You have to be careful though. With this kind of sustainability because people are as capable of unsustainable you as they are of sustaining you. Hasn't had someone with that rug of sustainability right out from under them true betrayal wise. Abandonment. What's that old song. You always hurt the one you love one you shouldn't hurt at all. But certainly each and everyone of you sustains me especially as a collective entity. Knowing prairie exist. Knowing there is a congregation of freethinkers right up the road and sauk county knowing that the unitarian universalist association is alive and well. Relatively and that's so many unitarian universalist managed to come together for our annual general assembly all of this sustains me. I am sustained not necessarily by individual people though which i used to think i was before i lost so many people in my life. What sustained me when they went away. What's the memories are still there and memories. And be useful tools to have in our sustainability toolbox. The couple's other contacts. One is through their stories especially the stories of those who have gone before us. And persevere to all sorts of obstacles and managed to fight against depression ignorance ugliness and have sometimes been killed. For this perseverance. Have so many martyrs from our unitarian-universalist histories. Norbert capek whose strength read countless unnamed women in the 1400s and 1500s. And so many many others from other faith traditions and some from not any particular faith tradition. Leonard pitts how many of you know that mean leonard pitts. A columnist one of my favorite existing columnist are still writing i should say it's a columnist for the miami herald recently wrote a column about john cygan sailor. You probably won't know that name i did not know that me. Megan taylor died a couple of weeks ago he was robert kennedy's emissary to the south during the freedom rides. He was an outspoken reporter and an editor for the tennessean newspaper in nashville his hometown he was outspoken about racial inequality when this was a dangerous thing for a white man. To do. And he was beating up more than once for this. Espn sport. He s holler. Somehow was able to make himself. See what people around him could not. Obvious growing-up years. Privileged white in segregated south. We were blind to the reality of racism and afraid i guess. Of change as pitt says spigen sailors legacy is one of hope. Because his life shows us. That we have a choice to take off the blinders and see reality and then do something about injustice ugliness oppression global warming. Stories about those who did what was right when most everyone else was going along with the crowd. Sustain me. Honey if you know joan didion story. The year of magical thinking. I did see. At apt last week. I won't spoil anything because she said this is right up front right beginning. She loses both. Well i'm a spoil by say that has a daughter in intensive care and she and her husband go home from visiting the daughter and they're having dinner husband also well-known person john. She said something to him and looking at him there at the dinner table and he doesn't respond she thinks he's something and she looks over and he. Space within his plate falling off the chair. He was dead. How do people. Survive things like this. What. Sustains them how did they get beyond this. Perhaps it has something to do with the amazing generosity of people. Consider this story from another leonard pitts call entitled the immense power of people. Do you know about the pc naf. That would be the peace corps nigeria alumni foundation about this big. It exists for only one purpose. To provide scholarships for nigerian girls. Pitts road about this foundation and sent a small contribution to it thinking maybe a few of his readers would do the same. As he puts it i was wrong it wasn't a few of you it was a whole bunch of you. And as of mid-june $35,000 had been raised overwhelming this tiny groups treasure but the president assures us if that's okay they are quite fine with this kind of overwhelmingness. They're hoping to be able to use some of this money. For the kidnapped girls should anymore of them be released or getaway. I remind you again of the title of that column the immense power of people and i'm going to put in my august newsletter call him where you might send some money to send much we all sent ten bucks. I get kate a lot of nigerian girls. We need one another. We need one another. When we are in trouble. And afraid. When i am frightened will you reassure me. When i'm uncertain will you hold my hand. Will you be strong for me sing to me quietly will you share some of your stories. With me. And then i guess i have to say one more thing. About what. What sustains me a text it's so obvious that you think i have to hit myself upside the head and say duh and remember i say this as a humanist. Religion sustains me. Well it must. It must be a primary source of sustainability in my life because i keep coming back to it don't die. And at this point i was going to define religion for you. As found in my webster's third international dictionary but i was not happy. With most of the definition. I had to go to 3b to get to this one the body of institutionalized expressions of sacred beliefs observances and social practices found within a given cultural context. Maybe the atheist could live with that one is close to good definition as possible for me. A cause principal system of tennis. Held with ardor. Devotion conscientiousness and faith a value held to be abs. Green imports. As in an old older dictionaries no i didn't do this online. Give up little example. Evalion how to be of supreme importance as in this phrase by making democracy our religion and by practicing it well. And preaching it's doctor. I think i can live with that. Interesting lee that if you look up. Religion. I mean religious as opposed to religion. You don't get into god until several definitions down. The first one is relating to that which is acknowledged as ultimate reality. Definition. Relating to that which has acknowledged. As ultimate reality. Or of ultimate importance which reminds me of someone named james luther adams and will do a whole service. What you said to his very complicated man. Or maybe faith is a better word as in faith traditions sustained me and i don't want to go into language anymore right now but i am going to be exploring language in a few weeks. When i lost my ministerial position in green bay during the great recession. And was packing up my apartment in preparation for leaving green bay i wondered if i would ever be a minister again. I was wondering this because there were so many decisions to be made about what books. And papers to keep. And yet here i am. The wisdom found in the world's religions or faith traditions. Sustains me. Because all of those traditions plus the beliefs of atheist. And agnostics and humanists make up the dance. That we do together all of these traditions all of the searching for what it means to be human on this planet all of this wisdom is a valuable resource. In my quest to answer that persistent nagging question. When everything is lost. Then what. Then what. Do we do. When everything is lost it seems. Or seems to be i listened for the story. From both within and outside of the world's faith tradition so i can make connections again with this. World. Being sustained by the wisdom of the world means being stubborn enough to get back up again and again and again and again after being knocked down it means acceptance. And being called to be here now is i said the buddhist keep urging us to do this. But i'm doing all of this sometimes i will be buddhist. Sometimes i will be an atheist. Sometimes an agnostic sometimes especially when working for peace my own and the world i will strive to be a follower of jesus. Do not of christ. Sometimes i will be jewish or hindu perhaps even muslim eventually when i know more about islam i will be pagan i will be a buddhist a native american and a mystic and i will always be a heretic. I remember it means to choose to be a dissenter and i will always be. A free thinker. Let it be a dance. We do. May i have this dance with you. Tell me your story. And i will tell you mine. I have decided. Wright's mary oliver. The poem of the same name. I have decided to find myself a home. In the mountains somewhere high up. Where one learns to live peacefully. In the cold. And the silence it's sad. That in such a place certain revelations may be discovered. That what the spirit reaches for maybe eventually felt. It's not exactly understood. Slowly no doubt i'm not talking about a vacation. Of course. At the same time. I mean to say. Exactly. Where i am. Are you following me. And of course i have to close with this from mary oliver. I go down to the shore in the morning. And depending on the our the waves are rolling in or moving out. And i say. I am miserable. What shall. What should i do and the sea says. And it's lovely voice. Excuse me i have work to do. So future neighbor and go do your work.

uuprairie_org

Pr110918GA-ed.mp3

A good morning welcome to prayer unitarian universalist society i'm barbara park the current president. Prairie aspires to be an open-hearted and an open-minded congregation. We welcome people of every ethnic and religious background whatever your color your sexual orientation gender or family structure. No matter your age abilities are in abilities later in the service we're going to invite visitors guests of returning friends to introduce yourselves so that we might get to know you better if you're comfortable in doing that. On sunday mornings we provide a wide variety of services. They are presented either by prairie members a member of the wider community or we're not recruiting of a minister but we don't have one yet but when we do the minister also. Presents and this morning we're going to have a panel of members who attended the general assembly meeting in charlotte north carolina and for those of you who are unfamiliar general assembly is the national gathering of unitarian universalist at which happens once a year and is. Quite as a large. Gathering. So we're looking forward to doing that. Now mary franz is going to read our opening words and these are by patrick murphy and who is a member of our church in woodstock illinois. We gather as leaders we gather as leaders as servants we gather as ears as voices we gather as memory as hope we gather as faithful as skeptics we gather as objects as we gather as wisdom as folly. We gather is action as reflection. We gather as many. S1. As we are we shall be as we serve so shall we read. Ben and anne urbanski are going to light a chalice. The chalice lighting words are also by patrick murfin. We believe. The many streams. Join to make a river. That the way to wisdom lies in an open ear and heart. The goodness may be pursued for the sake of goodness. And not from fear of punishment. The knowing. And not knowing are part of the same. And ambiguity is permissible. That we're going to have a presentation talking about the general assembly and we have a panel who's going to come up here of what we experience and and we called the program. Poem i have pointed out there's a lot of ways of looking at important issues and and that certainly comes out at general assembly okay. And that was just in the first 48 hours today is the country's most liberal collection of congregation with no creed but a long history of social activism is meeting this weekend in the bible belt better-known for a christian church i'm nearly every corner the 4,000-plus you use as they often. Christina and i took a tour of the city and during that time or very brief to her we were just on the bus and drove through various parts it's a city that's both very modern and sophisticated show some sign of economic there was a huge. And we went through some very nice residential areas and the cemeteries go back so many years or so well captain. Now. Isaiah guide told us how the city was named it was named after queen charlotte sophia and she was the wife of britain's king george the third rule from 1760 to 1820 so he was. The king charles. During the king george king george during the american revolution. Charlotte was born in germany. And. His many. Many of the ancestors of the people in north carolina were also born in germany so they. The inhabitants of north carolina had a affection for this queen who is quite exceptional in her own way patron of the arts and very wonderful person when the city adopted the name. Charlotte in 1762. Is this was because of the high regard for the queen that many of charlotte citizens felt now they're saying it was just a move to gain favor with the king may have been a combination of both. Okay thanks for a little bit of history here i think i've never been there before and i really know nothing about him knew nothing about it on what it's like to be in a plenary that encompasses probably about 4,000 people. Overlong nitpicking so you can see where the agree to disagree comes from already in the plenary issues to be voted on for brought brought up by the commission on social witness. Statement of conscience. Congregational study action issues and actions of immediate witness so you can imagine to deal with these major organization. With thousands of people so all you can do is hang in there and vote on hoping you fully understand what you're voting for or against. The issue was just a minute a draft for the social for the. Statement of conscience on ethical eating and environmental issues now this is something we fall into that small groups have talked about a lot and i think we're all familiar with seven pages to vote anyeli line-by-line. The thoughtful statements on issues most of us advice as long agreed with have long agreed with especially if you have seen michael moore's film food inc. Michael schuler was in support of the draft very vocal and wonderful articulate talk but then. A voice that disagree. Convincingly and impassion a small-business owner on food stamps there are people like that who raised the issue of ethical eating and poverty. 40% of american children malnourished. How ethical is that so he focused on those very important thing and i ultimately voted even though i love everything michael shula dead but in this case i voted with the con man albeit a bit hesitantly. What's really going on in our uu world is reflected in the workshop all 316 of them at this meeting 360 mortar and a quick overview of titles and brief announcement reveals a definite a definite move or turned towards experiences hands-on work in the present. Looking to possibilities of the future. The future like the millennium christina doctor galen gingrich not related. You were there to write 1985. His presentation was important and it gave me a lot to think about and what follows is a on. My best attempt to come downstairs to our presentation in 25 minutes so the words are his the church of the new millennium the first presentation failure. While the second was entitled a scenario for success 50 years ago on may 15th 1961 the american unitarian association and the universalist church of america merge to form the unitarian universalist association. Nearly a century in the making this union of kindred theological spirits symbolize the expansive promise of a free face. So how is it going. Not so well. There are about as many you use in our nation today. As there were in 1961. Considering that the u.s. population has increased by more than 50% and that amount of time simple math tells us that our numbers have fallen sharply and in the last two years i believe they've been published numbers that the sharpness is increasing. Who cares why does this matter. Paul tillich called 1950s america the age of anxiety. If anything that anxiety and absence of meaning or just as prevalent today. If not more so than in the 1950s. When people ask how to live a life of meaning and purpose. They're asking a religious question. And it's one that unitarian universalist all of you. Are uniquely equipped answer. Consider these lyrics from green day. Define aside,. He use quite a number of videos modern music that really inspired me. And green day i don't have anyone heard of greenback yet yep yep yep fabulous group these are lyrics from the boulevard of broken dreams one of their most famous fun i walk a lonely road the only one that i have ever known. Don't know where it goes but it's only me i walk alone. I want this empty street on the boulevard of broken dreams. When the city sleeps. And i'm the only one and i walk alone. My shadows the only one that walks beside me my shallow hearts the only thing that's beating. Sometimes i wish someone out there will find me. Till then i walk alone. I'd like to share this quote directly from doctor gingrich's talk. What keeps me awake at night is wondering whether unitarian-universalist can develop a unified sense of our religious smitham. Camp build strong institutions to pursue it. There are many practitioners of religions who use face not to enlighten but to enslave. They're turning back the clock on the basic tenets of civilization itself such as reason knowledge personal liberty and human dignity. As unitarian universalist we have the capacity to transform how people understand and experience religion in the modern world. Once freed from belief in the magical religion can actually become meaningful. I believe our mission in life should we choose to accept it is the save the world from their retrograde zeal and reclaim religion for people who live in the modern world. And quote in other words. We will fail if we are spiritual but not religious. When people say they are spiritual but not religious. They usually mean they tend to embrace certain kinds of personal experience. But reject religious dogma and religious institutions. They do this for a good reason. Does religious dogma and institutions. Stand in the way of a spiritual experience often times. But liberal tradition insist that religion is not a set of beliefs but rather a way of life. Religion is sacred spaces where we find refuge. Religion is music to gladden our spirits. Stories to restore our courage. And daily rituals. To renew resolved. Religion happens within a community. If we never become religious our spirituality may nourish us as individuals. But if i'm likely to nurse those around us. If we are spiritual but not religious. Our way of life will fade into oblivion. Religious communities need to develop a unique identity and distinctive way of life. What is our unique identity and distinctive way of life as a unitarian universalist. The challenge of unitarian universalist as a denomination is our tendency to think and act as though we are each a religion unto ourselves in order to meet our mission in life which i'll repeat from above save the world from retrograde zeal and belief in the magical to reclaim religion for people who seek purpose in a modern world. We have you use need to have more in common. Both as individuals within a congregation. And of congregations with any denomination. Can we forge a commitment. To become more than we are today. Christina you really did a very difficult task to call the most important take snow at this point i haven't heard her talk before because. Awesome. Buu of the uu fellowship with that. Retainer the flavor of the southern culture southern culture way so this was a very spirited our emulating a bible built uu service complete with foot-stomping guitar music and singers that i'll let it all hang out and energetic preaching and interludes called testimonials. Well the day the announcement appeared in the paper. She got a phone call from someone with a. Thick southern accent which exist on their asking in an accusatory manner. Do you believe in homosexuality. And she answered believe in it i've seen it. You wrote a very good overview of what you well i went to a number of. Ava. Meetings besides what i have here but these were the four the standout for me the first was the where lecture given by karen armstrong she spoke about the need for compassion in our world and made an excellent case. For how more compassion among all peoples of all nations would make the world a much better place for all of us. She cited examples throughout history of how compassion could change events. All religions have within their scriptures a version of the golden rule do unto others as you would have them do unto you. She cited examples from various religions to prove this case. Ms armstrong has recently become the recipient of a $100,000 grant. From a private nonprofit to help further her work on compassion worldwide and she has assembled a group of religious leaders of many faiths were working with her to further the goal. The second lecture. Was one given by imam faisal abdul-rauf. The imam told us about cordoba a place in spain were muslims christians and jews live peacefully together in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Imam rolf is the inspiration behind the proposed interface center near ground zero in new york city. Which has to be called cordoba house. He also spoke about the spreading movement toward freedom that is occurring throughout the muslim world. He addressed the importance of supporting institutions that promote democracy. As it states in the forward to his book what's right with islam. We need to cultivate a more just and balanced view of islam. He said we need a coalition of moderate. To dispel what some in the media and extremist say about islam at the ga the imam and his wife daisy we're presented with the eleanor roosevelt award given by the uusc. The third item was a dinner i attended sponsored by the unitarian universalist for justice in the middle east. Are the uu game this organization has a yearly sermon contest. The dinner speaker was the current contest winner. Her name is han on watson and she's with all souls church in new york city. Her sermon was titled waking up to shatter the silence. It addressed the issue why are you you congregations reluctant to discuss the israeli-palestinian conflict and how can they overcome this resistance to help our faith community contribute more meaningfully to the cause of peace and justice for israelis and palestinians. She is a palestinian-american who is born in jerusalem. The fourth item was a film presented by the uu game entitled buderus. The film was made in palestine and was filmed by an israeli filmmaker from just vision. And you'll hear more about that from rosemarie now i just brought with me in case anyone wants to see it this is a flyer about just vision. And i also bought this book by karen armstrong 12 steps to compassion and this one written by. The imam what's right with islam so if any of you want to take a look at it after you're welcome to do so. Thanks i also attended this dinner and then came you dressed we both watched this movie budros which i continuously bought and now i promise and motivate you to action and interesting lee just now we know in the news that palestine wants to get into the un and our president as well by the way i'm going to. Which i think is terrible no sponsored by you you jamee the unitarian universalist for justice in the middle east that have those flyer here founded in 2003 it is led by a team of palestinian-israeli north and south american journalist. Filmmakers conflict resolution facilitators and human rights advocates so you know how heavy adults of progressive it once to generate greater awareness and support for palestinians and israelis working for non-violent solution to the conflict this it's a documentary film it's in the form of a documentary follows the progress of a nonviolent protest movement by the people of buderus a palestinian village in the occupied west bank these people are in opposition to the construction of israel's separation wall the infamous separation walk-through. Would have separated villagers from the olive groves and livelihood but the israeli army did not expect the people of boudreaux's to stand up to them in a desperate but nonviolent attempt to save their village the proof there protests planned ultimately succeed through the courageous and intelligent actions of the fifteen-year-old daughter of the community organizer of the dress and i promise you will fall in love with. That program committee to see whether we want to show it at night or after church at one point it's a full it's can be a somewhat short of 50. 552. Shortened version or and the full length movie so you can think about that right now but recommended is boudreaux most up-to-date up-to-date. Okay and now music which was such a wonderful part of the meeting. The downside was that i didn't attend a broad variety of sessions that's the other people got to do. One of the music sessions that i went to with an introduction to our new spanish-language handbook and i picked up a copy and will be working on songs from this over the course of the next year because the next general assembly is going to be in phoenix arizona and will focus on immigration. And. I'm sure that at that chie they'll be singing lots of things from this in spanish so i'm going to preparas. But for that by picking out some things from here. That we will learn as a congregation that the choir will learn perhaps the sink for you i'm going to have to bone up on my spanish which is virtually nonexistent. We've time for one more in these various workshops i attended more and more a matter of not having enough african-american general. Thank you fellow panelists. The closing words today are by robert weston cherish your doubt for doubt is the attendance of truth. Greet your neighbor and join us for soup sunday their soup and salad and bread and having ice cream for dessert.

uuprairie_org

Pr111002DrsHaqMarchand-ed.mp3

Today we're going to start a first in a series of this course this year on death and dying in america which is. Country way. Branches grand transitions in our society both in terms of women's rights. Headed terms of gay rights. And i remember in terms of death rites. Like grandmother. When she died in 1980 at age of 96 session of heart attacks. Evercoat blue her and they was slam the paddles on her and should be screaming let me die. Let me die i want to change we've been today. Guess two wonderful people who are fully focused on these issues doctor's lucille. Prashant and cynthia and cindy also has been a longtime quiet member. A prairie. And the path of hope to a better future to build to our next talk on april but october 16th on the hospice. Thank you so much for coming and you can just speak anywhere around this and this is supposedly dorothy says we'll work. Great. Well thank you peter for inviting me and i wanted to share a special thanks with eileen nettleton who has been a long-term friend it's really wonderful to be back and to see so many old friends that i haven't seen for many years and to see so many new faces and wonderful changes occurring in prairie since i've come to milwaukee for the last few years so. We're going to share some examples from our practice and then switch to the doctor marshawn who will share a little bit more detail of her work in palliative care. And what we were asked by peter is to talk about. Initially the horrible things doctors do to patients and i said will could we change the subject slightly the changes that have occurred in approaches to death and end-of-life care. Really over the course of my career as a family physician and so he agreed and we're going to share that shift but also with it keeping in mind the things about this shift that are important for you to know. So that you can really take. Into account these changes as you consider. End of life for yourself and for your loved one. So at any rate i thought i'd share a little bit from the course of my practice. And first of all i finished medical school. In 1979 okay 7083 1983 i started in 1979. I graduated in 83. So i'm going on now three decades of practice almost as a physician which. Trying to keep pinching myself wondering we could that be true but it it is and i thought i would describe kind of how i was trained as a medical student and young doctor to deal with death and die and to share actually one of my very first experiences. And working as a medical student i went to indiana university and was at the riley children's hospital assigned to neurosurgery. For my one of my pediatric surgery experiences. And when i when i went into the ward the resident chief resident in his seventh year of neurosurgery training said thank goodness you're here. Because you'll be doing all the talking and i'll be doing all the operating i hate talking to people and and literally when when we would be on rounds. And basically making rounds on children by and large who had really serious brain tumors terminal condition very severe cases. He would literally jump into the closet and hide if he saw family members and send me as a third-year medical student to talk to the family and explain what was going on and it was very difficult of course because i wasn't sure what to say to these families of young children many of whom had terminal brain cancer but i think this was very reflective of the time and the era of my training in that. Doctors relief. Fear death they were not really trained to deal with it. Not trained to talk about it. Or to work with families effectively. And very much trained to be a good technician. A manager's of technology. But not in dealing with the more humanistic aspects. Of health and end-of-life care. There was a concept and end this was really striking as a medical student one of our faculty said you know that a survey was done of position to ask them what percent of their patients did they think would die. And a question and the answer the answer by the doctor's was approximately 5% okay and so there is an illusion of immortality or at least not my patient my patients not going to be dying or not on my watch and so that was basically the ethos is that basically if you. If one of your patients died you were a failure as a doctor and therefore your job was to do everything in your power to keep those patients alive and that was basically the ethos of the time and and what we were all trained to do and of course becoming a resident physician a young physician you're trying to master all the knowledge and skills of being a doctor. The technical aspects. And so in general you're really fearful. That you might screw up and make a mistake in a patient will die on your watch and so again kind of the training. Mold was. Do everything you can to keep patients alive whether it's adjusting the ventilator or intubating or crash management in the emergency department for train to keep patients alive. And that's our mission that's our mandate. And again very limited discussion about. The. Management of end-of-life care. The management of keeping people comfortable when we all know of course. That. Every single one of us will guy. And that in indy death is inevitable. So. The other thing i i think i'll mention is that. One of our most. Predictable assignments as young resident were what's called death pronouncement so basically when you're on call in the hospital working all hours of day and night. If a patient dies in the hospital guess who gets to go and pronounce the patient as dead and give the news to the family it's the young residents who are on call. And generally you be get a call 3 a.m. you be asleep. If someone's died you've never met them before you don't know their family. You're called into the room cold to see this patient who's died. And you pronounce them legally dead you write the note you inform the family and it's a very kind of perfunctory task. It's unsettling because you don't really know how to handle it. But you do it again and again and again and and so. You can imagine how that affects young doctors in training seeing patients dying and informing over and over. Do not know that for the last 17 years i've been teaching family residents about doing death pronouncements which isn't widespread but. Our residency does it very well because they learn that this is the first step in getting comfortable with death talking to families when there's really nothing to say. But to be a present a healing presents for family that's great. Thank goodness she came on the faculty but not when i was a resident in uganda which was at the end of my residency training i went to the country of uganda in 1986 and this was at the end of a brutal civil war at the time when one and three children did not live to the age of five. And so you had horrendous statistics and tragedies all around with with daffy having. Been such a normal but tragic part of daily living. And one thing that happened when i was in uganda i was caring for a child who died. Many children died and. And ii went to visit the family and share my condolences. And the family was celebrating and they were so grateful that i had. Cared for that child in the end of life. In the last days. The child actually died from measles in the monia which i felt was a tragedy. Which could have been prevented. And i was feeling horrendously guilty because i hadn't saved that child's life. I done everything i could have with what i had at that time. But nevertheless the family thanked me. And they celebrated. And they said you know how lucky we feel that you did the best you could to care for our child at the end. And and they were actually celebrating the life of that child. And for me it was so. So confusing because i was feeling guilty and horrible and that how could. How could they be celebrating the death of a child and it was a culture in which everything was kind of turned upside down the death of children was so commonplace that that was considered an everyday occurrence. It was the death of elderly actually that was more often mourned because the elders who were very few and society were considered much more precious and valuable than the children who you would count on you know one or two out of every three or four dying and so it was really i think education and eye-opener for me and i came back kind of trying to take. Better. Better care of patients at the end of life. And i started reading looking for direction and came across the work of the great psychiatrist in teacher elisabeth kubler-ross many of you heard of her and she really started the movement. Changing the approach to end-of-life care and her book her landmark book on death and dying with publishing 1969 and she actually describe the five stages of coming to grips. With a terminal illness denial anger bargaining depression and acceptance and really learning about those stages and kind of thinking about my role as a doctor. Help me to reconfigure my what i could do to be helpful to patients and family. And i let me just quote ross. It's only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth. And that we have no way of knowing when our time is up. We will then begin to live each day to the fullest. As if it was the only one we have. And so elizabeth had a wonderful approach not only to end of life but to living very fully. And i embraced her teaching really tried to learn work with colleagues like dr. marshawn to develop curriculum and approaches to caring for patients at the end of life but also to teaching a new generation of doctors to do better than we had done. And before i shift to lou i'm going to share a brief patient story of one of my patients i cared for for almost 20 years i worked in belleville wisconsin little farming town south of here. And i had the privilege of caring for up to five generations of some families from womb to tomb i delivered babies i care for patients in their homes and at the end of life and i reached finally i reached an equilibrium in my practice which was quite remarkable that i got to the point where. If one of them if i would attend a birth one of my patients with died almost in the same week and sometimes within the same 24 hours and it was a wonderful time as a family physician to be part of his whole cycle. A. And death and renewal. And everything in between. But it kind of share with you the issues as physicians. I care for a gentleman named norman who is a wonderful dear patient for many years. 62 years old at the at the time of this illness. Chicken a veteran i believe in vietnam father of nine children he lived hard like many veterans he was a heavy smoker or drinker and there was a lot of issues in his family in terms of his early drinking beers but at any rate he develop respiratory failure what we call chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and we getting sick. In and out of the hospital. I made the point to discuss and of life issues to go over his power of attorney for health care to make sure he had articulated his living will. And sure enough i gets a call one at one point that he's in the hospital he's been admitted he's at the uw he's in the intensive care unit he's on a ventilator and they're calling me as his family doctor because it's looking really bad. They don't know what to do. And they don't think he's going to have much chance of surviving the family has been in. They been talkin. They basically the medical team at come to a conclusion that. Keeping him on the ventilator was not really making much sense that his lungs were so bad he was going to die they were just prolonging his death. And could i come as his family doctor because. The medical team didn't know how to deal with this family. And sure enough. I had actually printed out the document from clinic where norman and i had talked in some detail about what he wanted what he didn't want. How much treatment so was very clear that norman did not want to be kept alive on a ventilator if there was a remote chance of recovery. I met with. We convened a family meeting i met with his wife. His i think nine of the children were able to come and many of the grandchildren so it was room almost as big as this to discuss norman's care. And and sure enough the wife is very upset hysterical really crying can't stay involved in the meeting. Norman can't be involved. About half of the children say it's dad's time to go and the other half are lined up saying you can't kill our father you have to do everything for him and if you turn off the ventilator you're killing our father and so we are not ready to let him go. So this went on for several days actually a series of family meetings until we were finally able to reconcile the differences. Really clearly identify the decision-makers in the family and and make a decision to. To stop life support. And norman died really very peacefully and comfortably surrounded by his loved one. But but i share this as an example of how. Complex it can become for the doctor and had i not as his family doctor had very clear documentation of his wishes. And been able to convene and work with the family many of whom knew and trusted me. The outcome may have been much more complicated in and drawn-out. So i'm going to stop at this point because i like to share introduce my colleague dr. drew marshawn. it'll bit more about the movement so thank you is palliative medicine which is trying to have people have their symptoms being pain. Shortness of breath nausea whatever it may be under the best control possible so that they can attend to their emotional and spiritual life because when you're in. Pain when your having extreme anxiety when you're nauseous it's very hard to attend to the matters of the soul and palliative medicine also is for end-of-life planning but if i could say if i could do a diagram here of curative medicine which is extremely small in medicine we can cure very few things usually we manage chronic illnesses or problems that are ongoing but sometimes if somebody has a strep throat we can actually cure that with antibiotics but most things we can. And then we have hospice care will circle here hospice care and that's pretty much determined by medicare that that's care in the last 6 months of life. But someone could be dying over. Years. And so hospiscare ideally should be over years not just in the six last six months of life but that's what i reimbursement system has left us with right now. And then palliative care surrounds that. And so it begins at any diagnosis of any problem any health problem and it what it does is it helps people to livwell. So some people think old palliative care so i'm the medical director of palliative care services st. mary's hospital and some doctors think of the palliative care services. When we're ready to throw in the towel whatever that means. I mean when we're getting up at the doctor but they're always. Things that we can do so when people ask for everything. I see that as a sign of hopelessness that they're just sort of grabbing for whatever and they haven't really had a conversation so just dr.haq had. With this family about what are the pros and cons of everything what are options here what are possibilities. And when patients are presented with that hopefully they can have hope in that and are not just grabbing for whatever i want to be resuscitated well. Your 83 years old you have three serious illnesses the chance of us being able to successfully resuscitate you are bouncing europe. Do you still want that want everything. And so people aren't always thinking clearly about what they're asking for and then things that they think are life-prolonging. Actually will not prolong their life. And some things that they pick such as perhaps a very high wrist surgery or whatever may actually shorten their life or 4th or 5th line chemotherapy. After all the others have failed may actually shorten their life and so palliative care is looking at options and possibilities well-being symptom control working with families such as doctor had said to get some kind of agreement in the family of what's the best course of action if the patient is not able to tell us that themselves and so that's where is vance planning and attorney are very helpful cuz i could be in a car accident today i may not be able to make my own decisions and i need to know that somebody i trust will be making those decisions for me. Long ago all doctors were pretty much trained in very similar way and we're very comfortable with end-of-life care palliative care they did what they could to help patients be comfortable and do what they could to heal patients as well as try to cure them so healing is beyond curing healing is on all levels of. Physical the emotional the spiritual. And so what happened is in the twentieth century we discovered antibiotics and things that we couldn't cure before all the sudden because you are so there was a big huge revolution in medicine and scientific and so the science and the art of medicine are woven together. And yet the science started being the god of medicine as opposed to the art of medicine. And it's complete physicians is whole physicians we bring both to the bedside. And so. People started having a love affair with the science that was being born and so i was a nurse before i became a doctor and i was on a coronary care unit a post heart surgery unit and when we started doing heart surgery in the late sixties and seventies we were very careful about who we chose to have heart surgery. They were the people that would receive the greatest benefit from heart surgery. And then the reimbursement got in the way we can make a lot of money on these heart surgery send me started being fairly indiscriminate and the patients that we saw coming through our unit it was unbelievable that they would put ninety-year-old patients through heart surgery it was crazy but we thought we got so puffed up. Defeat death. We can have people get all new plumbing and they could live forever and so we can really full of ourselves and and that really came into full bloom with intensive care units and rather than people dying at home with their families where they would feel most comfortable most connected. The dying started to happen mostly in the hospital. The hospice movement which is a very old movement. Became the modern hospice movement to help balance this tendency for most patients to die in the hospital so today 50% of patients die in hospitals. 25% die in nursing homes 25% diet home. And when i ask patients where would you like to be. In your dying time. Home i want to be home and where do most people end up. Nursing homes in hospital why because when the time comes. There everyone is getting such mixed messages from society from doctors from their families of. Maybe this isn't the time for you to die maybe we could postpone it. Even though someone may have significant illness that we know as doctors this does not look good. And yet will do everything in our power especially in the last year of life to prolong and prolong and prolong life with very little quality. And so palliative care is looking at what the risks and benefits are rather than just looking at everything is this available to me i'll take it is that available to me yes i'll take it because modern medicine is just so fantastic right. Well we're 42nd in the world in terms of the quality of our care. We spend the most amount of money. 440 seconds in the world. So don't have any illusions that you were under the best care here and a part of it is because you're getting a lot of inappropriate care. A lot of ineffective care. And so there's this movement and 75% of hospitals have palliative care service to help balance the craziness that we have in hospitals of trying to do everything and so they're many more and and there's a lot of education that needs to happen so i was a medical student in san francisco in 1983 is when i started after almost a decade of being a nurse. And i was there at the height of the aids epidemic. So i graduated in 87 and it was a very difficult time to be a medical student i didn't know if i'd get out alive. So here i am a young medical student while i was a little older than young but there were young men dying cuz it's mostly young men in san francisco that were dying. And i never heard of hospice the whole four years i was there even though the two most incredible early hospices were developed in san francisco. And my time as a medical student was get the blood get the x-ray do the task of taking care of these people. And i was not equipped. And never. Ever did i have a conversation with an attending physician. About how to deal with my emotions around this how to deal with dairy in terms of dying. And so that's why san francisco they had to. Galvanized around what are we going to do for ourselves because the hospitals are not taking care of what we need taken care of and so. That was a very important experience for me seeing and. So many young men not getting the care that they needed there was no palliative care they suffered. Tremendously they suffered because people were afraid to give them pain medicine. They were free to give them many many things that would have been helpful to them and then i moved to hartford from my residency program hartford connecticut and this time it was men women and children with aids the aids epidemic raged on. And yet there was no recognition of the knee. Of dying people. And so for me that was a time that i became a champion for this. And i've learned that there was actually a specialty of palliative care. And so i joined that movement as well as integrative medicine. Integrative medicine was opening up the options even larger for the my patients. So acupuncture could be helpful healing touch could be helpful certain botanicals could be helpful so using everything to help with quality of life. Spending time addressing nutrition. And movement exercise mind body therapies very very important to the care of patients. And so now in 2004 i had proposed to be a palliative care services st. mary's in 2010's they were finally ready so more and more there's a movement afoot to help. Make the whole system of care more appropriate for the values and needs of patients. And so all of you when you are in the hospital there may be a lot of therapies that are offered to you. And some of them have high risk involved and you may not want to have those therapies so you will have someone in all the hospitals in madison there's a palliative care service in each hospital that can help with the decision-making very difficult decision making not only at end of life but when dealing with multiple chronic illnesses together where one may be causing another one to be worse. I had a patient just the other day who his wife died and he said doctor. I was going to be looking at a funeral homes today and i feel like it's not right for me to be doing that. And i think his reflection was is that in society we're not comfortable with talking about what actually happens to us it's a part of the life cycle it will happen to all of us. And so can we start having conversations like you're having now to help normalize that even our poor pets it used to be that we had a cat who would get sick and old and one day they would just leave or they would be with us and they would die now in that with veterinary services they have all the technology we have. Getting in your lap and dying with love surrounding it it's like. What happens to us. And what happened sometimes to our past you know and so i will close with. Just the thought that it's very difficult we haven't come a long way in our medical education with teaching people about palliative medicine. But now our hospitals at least if you get there. Do you have palliative care services as a resource. Hospice is a huge resource that needs to be fully utilized not just in the last one to two days of life but way before that but it needs for us all. People. Physicians everyone in the hospital to start recognizing what is really happening and that we are not immortal. And that our time will come and can we make that a gentler time. I'm more loving time a connected time with each other with our family possibly be at home. Not all of us will be at home some of us will be too sick to be at home but as many of us that can be at home with everything that we need to be the most comfortable to live well as opposed to living sick. And so we'll have a question-and-answer. and i really invite you to be at that for particular questions that might. Be for your situation or family members situation but we'd be happy to answer those questions after work. Thank you so much dear powerful talk i can't begin to express our appreciation. But when they were supposed to indiana with a green to stay from 11:30 to 12:15 with probably. He's doing that in the lower level. So let me just say that as physicians we are legally bound to do everything for everybody. Once you step foot in the hospital unless it's very clear that you have instructions otherwise to withhold certain therapy. Or treatment so that's why it's so important for you to make decisions early on now the other problem with position is we're very. Malpractice suit averse okay and so even if you have clearly identified your wishes if there are very strong family members and often it's the out-of-towner phenomenon or it's the child who's feeling very guilty they haven't been around where there's conflict in the family dollars at history of problems. They'll be they'll be disagreement and physicians can override the family. They are bound to follow the the decision of the power of attorney for health care okay. But if that power of attorney in this case norman's wife. Couldn't make the decision because her kids were all fighting okay so she was conflicted. So it made it hard for the doctors to say okay you know time out we're going to turn off the ventilator. You can do that doctors have the authority to basically call an ethics review and override the power of attorney if care is indeed futile. But. You know how it's really hard for us to say there is 0% chance that this person will survive really hard to say that you can say it's very unlikely but zero you know you can never say never in medicine is what we're taught and so if you override a family's wishes you better have absolute certainty that that's the case otherwise you may have a lawsuit coming back to haunt you and that's something that most doctors don't want even go anywhere close to. Also it's really an important advance care planning is not a private document that you keep in your drawer that has your wishes it has to be talked about with all of your family that these are my wishes okay i filled out this document i want everybody to like take a look at it this is what i want and that's really important and also we're very aware of the grief and the trauma that can be occur with the family so we're not just caring for the patient with caring for the family as well and so we want the best for this family. Also cindy mentioned in ethics committee meeting now when ethics committees need they only give recommendation. They say it's not the law but they would probably in this case backup. The patient's wishes. For certain care. The clothing birds will be by heidi. So from the. Always funny woody allen it's not that i'm afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it happened to her.

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Pr100110-ed.mp3

In this service i'll be. Reading. Words. From martin luther king jr.. Just like to open with these. Every man and woman. Must decide whether they will walk in the light of creative altruism. Or the darkness of destructive selfishness. This is the true judgment. Life. Most persistent and urgent question is. What are you doing. For others. It is pretty difficult to like some people. Like is. Sentimental. And it is pretty difficult to like someone bombing your home. It is pretty difficult to. Like someone. Threatening your children. It is difficult to like. Congressman who spend all of their time. Trying to defeat. Civil right. But jesus says love them and love is greater than like. When i speak of love i am not speaking of some sentimental. And weak response. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen. As the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door that leads to ultimate. Reality. Something should remind us once that the great things in life are things we never see. You walk out at night. And look up at the beautiful stars as they predict the heavens. Like the swinging lanterns of eternity. And think you can see it all. Oh no. You cannot see the law of gravitation. That holds been there. Today. January 10th we honor the life of dr. martin luther king jr.. He was born on january 15th 1929. And if he were alive today. He would be celebrating his 81st. Birthday. This coming thursday. He would. Contemporary. With some of you here. Myself included. As. A special way. We. Know that. Even though. He has. Not been living. His way of life and his teachings are still an influence on the way we. Who are alive today can live our lives. As unitarian universalist we say that the living tradition that we share. Draws from many sources. The second source. That we draw from. Words and deeds of prophetic went women and men which challenges to confront powers and structures of evil. With justice. Compassion. And the transforming power of love. Words and deeds of prophetic women and men. Who challenged us to use the transforming power. Of love. Now some of us when we hear words like. Prophet. Prophetic. Prophecy sweet we get a little jumpy. That's that's kind of a unitarian universalist response. 2. Words like that. Some of us. Are skeptics. Either by birth or by training or by some form of reasonable reflection we get some p with the understanding that assumes that these words are all about foretelling the future. A prophet we may think his someone who can foresee what is going to happen. Before it happens. And even why. It's going to happen indeed seeing the future is a small part of the abrahamic prophetic tradition but i want you to consider. This. Larger meaning. How prophetic. I want to suggest this morning that it is better understood. To think of. Prophetic. As not for telling but. Force. Selling. That is. Prophetic is not so much about predicting what will happen in the future but rather instead. I'm asking us to consider the meaning of prophetic. As. Being called forth to live out and act in ways. That can confront. Those structures louis systems and unfair practices that diminish us as humans within the present the right now this time in our lives. Martin luther king's words. Give us a lens. Not only for viewing ourselves but for understanding the meaning of what he called. Prophetic love. Fort living our lives. With prophetic love. Is a. Deeply meaningful way to live. And i hope i can. Kacchan. The many ways in which. Prophetic love can affect us. In our lives. Now for some of us. very very small number. It may mean not only living in the most meaningful way we can. But also suffering. And for some dying. In a most meaningful way. Dr. king. Spoke. To the unitarian universalist association. When you gave in 1966 the where lecture. This is a yearly lecture that is given by an outstanding. Thinker. Speaker. 2. The general assembly. That is held every year. Dr. king. Impart. Said. We cannot in all good conscience. Obey unjust laws because non-cooperation with evil. Is. As much a moral obligation. As his cooperation with good. Rowlison jail. And we will still love you. Threaten our children. Palmer homes. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our communities at the midnight hours and drag us out on some wayward road in fetus. And leave us half dead. And as difficult as it is. We will still love you. Send your propaganda agents around the nation. And make it appear we are not fit morally culturally. Or otherwise were integration and we will still. Love you. But be assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. And one day. We will win our freedom. We will not only win freedom for ourselves. We will so appeal to your heart. And your conscience. That we will win you in the process. And our victory will be. A double victory. Do i have used. The term the word. Of dr. king. And just as long as i have been speaking. And you've been listening. Want to start a shift. 2 another way of communicating. I have a video. Cliff. But i'm going to show. It's about the deeds. Of prophetic. Women and men. The time is march 1965 the place selma alabama alabama. Perhaps you already know the story. Andy doll unitarian universalist. Children and adults should learn about it. Ford helps to remind us of who we are as a religious people and what we are called to be. A young african-american named jimmie lee jackson has been murdered near selma while he was taking part in the voting rights. Demonstration. In response dr. king called for a nonviolent protest in selma asking the all-white police and public officials to protect the citizens and allow african-americans to register to vote. Went may reacted with brutality. King called. The clergy of america to join him in selma. At 25 beacon street in boston to uga director of social justice. Reverend homer jack. And the uua president at that time the reverend dana mcclain greeley. Help spread the word to you use and others. Among the first minister's to arrive and selma were three unitarian universalist. James reid. Clark olson and orloff miller. On their first night in samos, they were assaulted by a group of white races. Reeb. Was brutally beaten. And died a few days. After. He was attacked. And of the clergy who eventually came to selma unitarian universalist ministers were there in a vastly greater number than one would have predicted from the size of our. Denomination. Laypeople. Also came. Viola liuzzo auu from detroit. Drove her car down from detroit to selma to help drive civil rights workers around the county. As she was driving one. Young man. Back from birmingham to montgomery back to selma. Klansman. Drove up alongside. And shot her to death. Worth. Thousands of words. And i believe though. Footage that we just witnessed. Tell. The tragic story. Of the three. Individuals. Jimmie lee jackson. James raven viola liuzzo. Much more. Compellingly. Then words that i. Could use. There has been. Recent. Work. Investigating. The. Wrongful. Judgments. Especially in the case. For leah of viola liuzzo. The unitarian universalist association. 210 years ago. Did. Create a bronze. Martin memorial. That is now. In the eliot chapel in our. Main office building in boston 25 beacon street. And i know that i are young people are going to be. Traveling. How to boston in march. And they will be. Able to see that bronze. Memorial. To jackson. Read. Handley yuzo. I just wanted to close with these. Thought. Prophetic. Loving. Is about listening to hearts. Hours. And others. What does it mean to draw from the lives of prophetic women and men who confront these structures and systems of unfairness and injustice. For who are unwilling to give up. I submit to you that it means that we draw from the great. Prophets of course. But it also means. That we need to draw from the lives of. Ordinary folk. Just. Like. You and i here sitting this morning. What if we took to heart. The prescription that you open our hearts by observing what in our daily lives surprises us. What moves us. What inspires us. We could begin right here with those of us sitting. Fascitis. For we. All of us. Here. Have the potential and the promise. To be prophets. We too can live lives. From which others can draw inspiration and strength. We2. A part of. A living tradition. Our living tradition. So i. Close. With this. Thought. We open our hearts and our minds to the words and deeds of great prophetic women and men. And also. To the lives of ordinary. Men and women. And may we be surprised and touched and inspired as we discover. Set all of us can answer. The call. 2 prophetic. Loving. And living. And now as we. Take our leave. Before we gather here again. Let us take heed of herman hagdorn words. We must do a harder things in dying is. We must think. And ghosts will drive us on. And may we remain together in spirit. Till the hour we meet again. Go in peace. Turn.

uuprairie_org

Pr100411Jaeger-ed.mp3

Today. We have jim jagger. Jim is. Finishing. His second year. Fourth-year at. Meadville lombard. School of theology in chicago. And. He's been doing this. On a part-time basis he's still. Is in practice as a lawyer here in madison and to be able to combine all of that is a huge commitment of. Time management and also reflection on what it means to be part of our uu movement. Jim is going to be. Discussing who is my neighbor. Moral dimensions of public policy. We are delighted to have jim jagger. Present this morning. Jim. Thank you very much usually people wait till the end of decide whether to applaud or not. It's very good to be here this morning i've been here at prairie ford in different functions at different times and it's always a delight to get back together to see many old friends and to make new ones begin my comments this morning i want to read from the christian tradition from the gospel according to luke 10:25 through 37 i suspect this was a piece many of you will recognize on one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test jesus teacher react what must i do to inherit eternal life. Basement of his church is part of the underground railroad he says. Brz religion which like sunshine goes everywhere. Kids temple all space. It shrine this good heart. It's creed all truth. It's ritual works of love. Is profession of faith. Divine living. Go in peace. Our worship has concluded. Our service continues.

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Pr141019Hunt-ed.mp3

So welcome to pray unitarian smith i'm a member of the program committee i'll be providing prairie aspires to be both an open-hearted and open-minded congregation. We welcome people of every ethnic and religious background. Whatever your color sexual orientation gender or family structure. We welcome you no matter what your age or your abilities or in abilities. On sunday mornings we provide a wide variety of services. They're presented either by a prairie member such as myself. Member of the wider community or by our minister sandy ingram. Reading the opening words because they're pretty short. Two sounds of autumn are unmistakable the hurrying russell of chris leaves blown along the street by a gust of wind and the gavel of a flock of migrating geese how borland. Thank you. Are presented today is juliana paradise hunt. She is retired from two decades of teaching ancient philosophy and the history of ideas. In the university of wisconsin system. She's a practicing philosophical counselor and educational consultant and the director of the medicine mentor center newly-established at 6302 odana road. And she is all about applying ancient wisdom to modern problems especially those involved in how we educate our young i'd like to welcome her. Damned if i do wander away you'll you'll tell me right. Thank you for having me today i think you might have found a new member now that i'm here too. To reach you because i'd like to cover about 25 years 2500 years. Ancient thought in 25 minutes. So what what it did do is i made some handouts also wrote an extended version of this talk that i will put online and there's the website on here so. Maybe if you. Yeah i wondered already right you might want to look at our website and and. Maybe take one of my classes. So that's part of the reason i'm really glad to be here is as a retired teacher some of you probably are right you know that you never really finished teaching. And this is part of the reason that we started the. The metrocenter. But i don't talk about that today i want i want to talk about is the ancient wisdom cultures behind. This idea. And of course many of you are quite familiar with many of them part of my purpose is to. Encourage you to. Study 22re study maybe. The way that we tend to learn about these. These wisdom traditions in academia for instance is a bit of a game of telephone. And by the time you have taken. What you learned from many secondary sources you may have lost the real substance of what these ancient cultures where bottled. Band. And when i say. Ancient wisdom traditions i'm really talking about. The best of them not the rest of them and in what that means. Has has to do with this. Ideas that. There are traditions throughout history. That nurture intelligence. As opposed to believe. Belief. Can be wonderful depending on what we believe in i supposed but what these traditions had in common. Was the understanding that everything is connected and that there are many different ways of looking at. All knowledge. The way that i used to. Characterize this in my classes was him using whatever was at hand. To illustrate write that. We all no matter what it is that we're talking about whether it's. You know justice or love or. History or democracy. For my cup of coffee we all see from a different point of view we come from different backgrounds we have different experience we speak different languages so we have different world views. We are along our pads we face different challenges we learn different lessons. And and so diversity. Was understood to be a great. Value in these ancient cultures. And voice. As. Is one of your. Founding values. Was understood to be. Critical. You you probably all have heard the saying right that of those to whom much is given much is required. And we typically attribute that to jfk but but. I haven't ever heard anyone notice actually that he was quoting pericles. When he said this and pericles understood this. To be a founding principle of democracy. Probably most of us would be surprised. To learn that the ancient greeks at least paid taxes voluntarily. But the pericles wasn't talking about extrinsic riches he was talking about intelligence about inner well. And they understood this to be. If our children's proper inheritance. That our responsibility was to pass this on to the young. And i think this is a lost. A lot. Have it replaced it maybe with many. Bad habits we we tend to. Think of teachers as those professionals that we send our children to and we maybe forget our responsibility to be mentors to those young people in our lives and that in fact. There is much that is. Worth remembering about ancient cultures. That they will never learn anywhere in their education maybe they will learn it here. And the. Uu church maybe they will learn it from. Children's story. Are wonderfully philosophical right they they offered these these moral but they don't. 10 to learn it in. And culture at large. And an academia has a way as i was saying of. I'm representing these. Innocent of outside looking in. Way. And and one of the things ancient cultures understood about wisdom traditions. Was. Understood about intelligence was that. That. It's not about the truth it's about the whole truth. And so the search is never ending. We never finished learning. And the challenge is to look from both outside in and from inside out. Which requires more empathy more ability to. To recognize that. Everyone has different sees the world differently and so we have something to learn from everyone and this dialogic. Tendency this. Ability to recognize that. Is that everyone is a teacher just as we are all students. And that the process of learning is. Question-and-answer that it is. What indigenous people call. Multiplicity in unity diversity and unity. Putting our minds together as one mind. These are. Habits that we tend to have lost in our culture. Goodness knows there's not time for this in school. Part of the reason my talk is it is entitled why mentor right and and of course. Part of the reason we would encourage this is because. The need exists. There are by all estimates 7,000 young people drop out of school everyday. Most teachers will tell you that by their estimation. About 40 to 60%. Young people do fairly well in schools as we know them. But. That leaves. 40 to 60% the other 40 to 60%. Who tend to fall through the cracks. And. The consequence of that. I know i see as a counselor. Is that too many people grow up with the scars of having done poorly in our schools. And of course as i was a homeschool parent once upon a time. You know my. Relate to the frustrations of parents who. Don't. Feel that their children are getting the kind of personal attention that they might have gotten. In a community like this that that spends. One-on-one time with its children. Sing about. Schooled as they are is. We cannot really blame schools for these problems right. They are being starved for the sake of other private enterprises that are using those resources those funds. Teachers are under so much pressure that. Even good teachers don't have time to be good teachers. That they would like to be. Schools are asked to be all things to all students. And annette. If you think about it an unreasonable expectation. Is that the idea that an institution should be able to be all things to this diverse. Group of children. And. This is. One of the. Principles i guess of this date when i say the best of them not the rest of them that the wisdom traditions we would drawn or there would be wise for us to drawn are those that. Racket that learn from nature this is why we shouldn't be surprised that there synchronized across cultures even though many of them did not learn from each other indigenous cultures around the world for instance. Independently discovered their own. In their own way and their own experience. The same principles that are learned in every other indigenous culture. And so things like the golden rule and the golden mean and the harm principle and karma either ideas that you see in all of these. What we call wisdom traditions. Because they learn from nature and nature is everywhere and always the same. Many. Ancient traditions. Like many modern traditions take there. Learning from other human being. And they accept belief systems that very often put them in conflict with other belief systems. And it said this is what how we distinguish those wisdom traditions from some others that might not be as worthy of our. Of our attention. When did the wisdom traditions that took their wisdom from nature. Understood that. Everything everything everything is connected. That. We have this. The different ways of looking at things and that. Inter-community especially but in every one-on-one relationship to there is a responsibility to be both teacher and student. And you know somebody wants a socrates what he was good for. And he said pimping. Which way the truth and feel a little guilty of that myself here today because my object is to encourage you to reach out to young people but that's not what i mean and what socrates this is. Bringing people together who have something good to learn from one another. Something good to share with one another. And this as cheese's notorious in our the way that we have taught him. 4. For being a cranky old. Man who uses sarcasm ironically to. To reach those people who are beyond the reach of reason. And i know that was one characteristic that he that he displayed but the socratic method itself. Which we. Practice very poorly in my estimation. The socratic method itself. Was about. This. Socratic relationships were both our teacher and both our student. And. We. However. I'm in a we all know relationships are right. And and yet ian. 2520 400 years then. Socrates taught. We seem to either lost or simply have never wondered what socratic relationships would be infected googled it. And found basically nothing which is curious. And so the thing. Important to remember all these ancient wisdom traditions use this method. Long before socrates was born. But it's probably rightly attributed to socrates because he gave his life for it. And if it was worth. Giving his life for this. If you're basically helping the young to think for themselves. And teaching them to question authority then it's probably worth a hour. Examining more closely what did general genuinely meant. Socrates despite his reputation as a cranky old philosopher ultimately said before he died that love is the only thing i ever claim to know anything about and that's curious that. Ought to tell us something about what he was up to. When we look closely at the socratic method. What you see. Is. That. He like many other of these traditions. Understood that. In the dialogue dialogic process. Trust. Affection. Humility. Are all essential elements. And. This. Process by which. We. Learn. Is also the process by which we love. This true thing. We're not. Different they were both about understanding their object was different we tend to love. People and and things experiences we have emotions about them but that's not the sense of love. That they meant. The sense of love that the ancients. Understood. Was not about how we feel about these things but it was about a moral responsibility. To treat. Others. As equals. To humble ourselves. Understand that we. And they. Are different sides of the same coin in the same way that teaching and learning are different sides of the same quinn. And in the same way that learning and love are different sides of the same point please. Ar. Skills. And in this again is something is that. Ancient traditions what makes them synchronized. Is that. They weren't about passing on theoretical knowledge or doctrine or dogma. They were about practical wisdom. Mike campos. Princeton. But this practical wisdom. Was it as we were saying the golden rule the golden mean the car my these ideas. Were understood to be. Cool. That everybody needs that we all. Have. I need four in our journey. And for this reason these cultures did not compete with each other each of them. Specialized in a certain sense. In some of these teachings for instance you know we typically associate hinduism with karma. We typically associate the greeks with. Development of character different things they just talked about them in different ways. So again they. It's what it says play-doh said it's as if all lines of discourse. Converge on a common center. That when you listen to these. Diverse traditions. You hear them talking to one another. It is if they were all sitting around a campfire for instant because. They're dressing the same human concern. The same practical wisdom that we all need to. 2. You don't mean our backpacks like tools. As we go about our journey. And. We need. Curtains for instance. When we face danger. We need temperance when we face temptation. We need. Justice when we face injury. We need wisdom when we face ignorance. And life is. About. Being a different points in our path as we don't. Learning. Children's learning takes the same form. Children are on different points in their learning pads and. As institutions go. They have very little choice but to assume that there is. A certain stick. Order that learning is properly presented in. And as we said this. Soon. Maybe 40 to 60% of our children. But learning itself. Tends to be very idiosyncratic and readiness if any of your teachers you know right readiness is everything. Found it. Sometimes. Children simply aren't ready for what they're being presented with when they're being presented with it. So this idiosyncratic need for mentors for teachers who can. Personalizar education and can develop a relationship with us in a way that teachers generally don't have time for. Is one of the reasons that we started the mentor center. Yes. Tendency to 2. Think of education as one-size-fits-all. Is. Difficult for many students. If you don't pay attention to to what is happening in schools you see this struggle in almost every classroom. That. Some kid. Simply need more individual attention than schools can possibly provide. So as i said it's may be unrealistic to expect institutions to be able to. To serve the needs of all kids when. Kids are individual. And. Individuating that. Education isn't something that can reasonably be expected of them. But as they think traditions wood. Encourage us to recognize. Many of us are qualified. 2. Reach out to young people to share our learned experience or expertise our. Very often hard learned experience right the practical wisdom that we have. Developed over the course of our life. Is something that they need and they may not even recognize that they need it which is why it's up to us. To pass this on. To make a point of. Sharing what we have learned and to continue learning right if we want to bring out the best in them we really haven't responsibility. To give them the best in us. And to do our part because there is a part for everyone everybody has a part to play and and our tendency sometimes is to lament that. Other people aren't doing their part but. We don't really have a right to do that right if we're not doing our part. And in our part may very well mean that. We have in a certain sense of duty. 2. To offer our skills to those who can make the most of them. And i guess i would argue that it's maybe also the most fun you'll ever have. Because there is something right to all of you who are teachers know that. Part of the reason teachers become teachers is because there may be is no more rewarding experience to be had then the declick of a true teaching and learning relationship. And this again is what socrates meant by a loving relationship right it isn't about your emotions in text sometimes like native americans would say you don't have to necessarily even like another person but you do have to do is treat them with the same respect that you would want them to treat you. And so this heart of listening to the young is the other side of teaching the young hearing what they need and. Following their cues and offering them what they need when they need it. Is part of the socratic method it's about going to where they are. And and then letting them teach us in a certain sense the greeks had this really literally actually it wasn't the greeks it was pagal many years later who came up with this characterization of what the greeks called dialectic thinking. There their idea was that for every thesis. There is an antithesis. And in the deliberation between thesis and antithesis. We get synthesis. But in a synthesis. You have a new feasts in thesis right. And therefore i knew antithesis. And therefore a new synthesis. And so on and so forth. This idea to them was that learning climb. And it climbs between two people. Who are both teacher and students who are asking each other questions who are gently correcting each other. Who are. Concerned with bringing out the good in one another. Because. That really is. What is ancient cultures how they differed made me from us. In in the most fundamental way besides being very egalitarian and being. Focused on this idea of nurturing intelligence. They understood human beings to be good. And. Understood their responsibility to bring out the good in others. An hour. Traditions we tend to think of. Human beings. Add anybody would when you glance out into the world and see. How we have become. But their argument would be we're not born that way that's something we learn. Learning to be selfish and to be greedy and to be all about us. Is in a certain sense that they would understand a defense mechanism. It's a conditioned habit. That we develop along the way to protect ourselves from other people that we perceive to be that way. And yet. If we lived in a culture where we perceived people to be. Kind and supportive and gentle. And. Listening to us. We wouldn't develop those tendencies this is how we know that what we call human nature is not in fact human nature because if it was we would see it in all traditions at all times. But in fact you don't say that. What you see is that young people grow on what did said to them. And many cultures throughout history have been able to raise. Gentle kind humble. People. Confusion. We're all about. Genuine relationships and true human connection. All of them have this in common but again each of them focuses on their own unique. A sentence for one reason or another. And so this. This idea. That human nature. Is. Why do we call it in. Larry's raised catholic and. Bought that we are falling right. That there is that there is what is the phrase for it. This. They would say. Is a self-fulfilling prophecy right that if you tell children this is true what choice have they got but to defend themselves against. Give me all those other humans acting on their nature. The way the greeks. Thought is that. Everything living again they learn from nature everything living is always changing it's always either getting better or getting worse. And so every step of your life is a choice. For your better self. Or toward yourself and that makes everything relevant and all your actions become seed for your future experience right this is the way they understood karma. It's not that if you do good things great things come to you or if you do bad things terrible things happen to you. It's sad that you carry within you the knowledge of who you are and what you have done and plant the seeds. Of your future as you go. And so you are bound to live in the garden if you will that you plant. So, is one of these ideas that. That we 10 again we we look at these things from outside looking in and sometimes miss their really important point. And. These lessons. Arnot. Again something that children have access to. Because in our culture we will certainly they have access if they reach for it but they don't have. Generally people who are representing these wisdom traditions from inside looking out to them. Ben and of course in our culture we many of us. Have been raised on the idea that one belief system competes with another and therefore we have to choose between them rather than that. Each of them has something good to offer something important for us to learn that we should put it our backpack for our further travels right and that each person having followed their own past the hindus have this really wonderful metaphor that they taught their children there are many paths to the same summit they understood religions to be many paths to the same summit but they also understood each individual person. To be taking their own unique path. But if you're searching for truth your path is always upward. Yoga for instance there are four different kinds of yoga write this is probably the same idea people have different strengths in different weaknesses. You might follow your strengths you might try to strengthen your weaknesses your individual challenges our yours individually. And yet. Because this is true each of us has a bounty of learned experience. That other people would benefit may be greatly from learning in my classes i always asked. My orb were toward the end of my teaching career i realized the wisdom of of asking my students. As a sort of icebreaker to introduce themselves. What's the most important thing you've learned in life. Which you would think would be. Can i make them like deer-in-the-headlights but not at all in fact. There there learned experience would come pouring out. And in what a wonderful way for them to get to know each other. It's in a way that bonds them and and makes it so they are certainly not inclined to go out into the hall and begin bashing each other right once you've heard somebody story. You understand them in a way that. That. There may be no other way to understand them but through hearing them. I'm just a lovely quote houston smith by the way i sometimes i'm skeptical of secondary sources. Even though i think he's a white methodist. Pastor or at any rate he's so fair and he's able to cuz he's such a wonderful writer he's able to represent each of these traditions in their their full glory. And and so he's a great place to start if you're you're looking for a reintroduction to ancient wisdom traditions at any rate he has a wonderful quote. That love. Understanding is love. And love breeds understanding. The two are reciprocal. And. The only way to love another is to hear them. Listening is. V. Probably the most important human skill that these ancient traditions taught. Of course they. Lived in circles in a certain sense right where everybody had a voice much like. Like. Your congregation here. Everybody. Is welcome to speak and to share what they have. And to is invited to respect themselves as a teacher. This is something that our children miss out on in our schools again because there isn't i'm teaching and learning art you know the old saying right that you never really learn something until you have to teach it. Teaching and learning. Are different sides of the same client teaching is part of the learning experience and if children never. Developed never have an opportunity to develop their boys to share what they think to. To be the teacher. They are possibly receiving what is being told to them. And and who knows what they're missing in the true learning experience. Because the. Habits of question-and-answer. It's something that. We have lost. Touch with over the centuries. And in fact you know in schools as it is. I at least can't tell you how many times i was grounded for talking to my neighbor. And this is right that you know your kid is as likely to be scolded for talking in school as they are to be engaged and heard. And in this is unfortunate again it's not school's fault they're doing their very best but. But the nature of education is that it can't really be in the bitter end institutionalized. And and it might be that. Elementary movement this is my objective here today and in life i did as a retirement career of taking this. I'm task of trying to motivate people to want to mentor. Boynton because we need it. But two because it's good for you. It is again maybe the most fun you'll ever have but it also is just good for the soul. To have these conversations with young people who may never otherwise learn this anywhere else in their experience. And if you think about it children will have hundreds and hundreds of teachers and their lives. But they only have very few. Parents grandparents trusted elders. Cruise. Words may be a very few well-chosen words could last a lifetime. Probably all of you have somebody like that in your life a grandparent or somebody who whose words ringing in the back of your mind and that guides you. And that's the. Responsibility that i'm pranking to that's that maybe we can be more deliberate about sharing the heart our own hardware blessings with our children. So that they have those voices that that tend to be lost. On our culture. There's again you know 25 minutes is not enough time to to cover all of these these wonderful ideas that. That i hope. Some of you will continue to learn i actually should have passed this around those color wheels that are colored. Other than two who knows what could have gone wrong with that. So. Dementia center is. We hope. Indicated right we're just starting out. We hope it will serve as something of a safety net. For those kids who do fall through the cracks. We hope that it will help some. Teachers retirees. Better provide for their own living certainly we don't appreciate teachers enough anymore and it's getting harder and harder for them to to make a decent living at this very difficult job. As it is in madison the madison teachers contract actually prevents them. From teaching outside of the classroom. Some of you know. Which is at least with their own students students. From teaching all of you write a mean part of our. Target population i suppose we would call it our retirees learn from my own experience teaching that in fact. This is probably this is both. The most the richest resources resource teacher as teachers. And the best students. Something about about you know all about that baby boomer isn't that that by the time you get to our age you realize how much fun learning is the intrinsic good of learning. And and that is something that. Unfortunately is too often lost in our schools the fun of it even though we're all born with this love of learning. So. So like i said i wrote a much laundry more extended version of what i've been talking about here today and you can go later this afternoon to the website listed on that handout and and you'll find it posted there or maybe penny will post it on the. Did. Uu website. If you're interested my contact information is on there some of the classes that i'll be teaching this winter and rest of the fall or also listed there. So i thank you for your time and. Welcome any questions that you might have. If you have any questions please raise your hands and. Actually i am showing you this is one of those tangent i didn't have time to go out on. Organization and we're trying you know what we're doing is growing a pool of teachers that can serve the diverse needs of those who need it but one of the objective objective create technology that will allow teachers and students to find each other globally because the need for learning is worldwide and unfortunately teachers tend to be in places where most of the students who really need them or not. It's so i believe technology could have a wonderful influence does it have an influence well. Chuchu work is that the ability to create wonderful content that you can put online that people can you know access and and learn in the the privacy of their home. Now we can go online and see these 10-minute videos that summarized. Acanza mathematical concept for instance very wonderful and then i go to class and they get the dialogic help from their teacher which is a great resource if you ask me. We know technology. Officer more than what is good for us. And this is a dangerous for kids right if you're familiar with us ogata mitra is that he won the award last year for this wonderful idea about the granny cloud he was the head of it was called the hole-in-the-wall project where he took computers and he put them in sloan's around the world to see what would happen didn't give any instruction or any. Up there in the next town woohoo where they could afford it. But. Now. It turns out those computers research indicates those computers have been dominated. Buy little boys who are watching p***. Objective. Is to offer technology. That is covered with words but in fact if this were images. A child in africa could. Look at image and look deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper into it you're all familiar with fractal the nature of fractal technology allows us to study deeper and deeper and. If we can have access to teacher and that's really what we're trying to create a something that will allow people to connect over the specific ideas they're interested in. With those teachers who have that expertise and have that wisdom to share. So. The good question. Thank you for your time. Allison. Jewelry the closing words. The most important part of our spiritual preparation is as ancestors. It's the challenge that all of us face who are alive on earth today. How do we prepare to be ancestors of future people. Thank you for coming today please join us for coffee afterwards we have to have soup sunday. I am. And then there's a kickoff for circle dinners as well so please extend a hand of friendship to your neighbors and go and have a wonderful day.

uuprairie_org

Pr141228Ingham-ed.mp3

Good morning we're all kind of moving on a holiday time movie. Visitors or new people today. But you know all of you that we welcome i hope you know this. We welcome you no matter where you are on your journeys. We welcome you no matter the color of your skin your sexual preference. Your. Bob engenders. Whatever your health. Wherever you are in life's journey especially wherever you are in the spiritual. Journey in the sacred path we welcome you and course we always invite you if there's anyone who hasn't been here before to come here more than once because our services are very different on. A different sunday mornings. The opening words. Are these written by alfred s. Into the bright circle of life and light. Which is the christmas season. We have come to warm our hearts and minds at the cradle of the child. Make something of the beauty mystery and promise of this lovely old story. Fall like silver rain. Upon the broken dreams that hates and fears of all. Once again. May we pause. Look up. Ed in the far-off distances. Hear that old. Old music. The music of hope brotherhood sisterhood. And blessed. Peace. And that's why i chose. We three kings of orient are. For today's opening him not your traditional unitarian universalist him. Body wash i want to invite you to try to interpret the words. More objectively. And universally then you might otherwise be fine to do. And remember. Always take into account when things are written. In this case well over 100 years ago. They have these wealthy men. Is kings. Taking off on what is essentially a wild goose chase. A snipe hunt. I searched. 4 meaning. For goodness. Four lights. In a dark. Trouble. Violin. World. In the darkest time of the year. And isn't that exactly what we are all doing. No matter rc ology what we are all in search of meaning goodness light peace on earth for the first verse sets the scene since number 259. And then i like to think of the next 3 verses as the past the present and the future you know a bit like we're dickens was going with scrooge. You will quickly note. That in that second verse. It's very lot of god language in that second verse. Okay long time ago. And talking about the past. The way. Things were when this person was writing the way things were theologically. The middle of the third verse is about the present. And about how this new life bather looking for is probably going to have a troubled life. Nobody escapes. And then of course the 4th verse. Full of joy wonder and. Finding the love and the light. Number 259 with a slightly different take. Two-face the world's coldness. A chalice of warm. Two-face the world's terrors. The chalice of courage. Two-face the world's turmoil. A chalice. A piece. May its glow fill our spirits. Our hearts. And our lives. Grandmother's house. A short reading by unitarian universalist minister christopher abuse. He writes. Over the river and through atlanta traffic. To grandmother's house we go. That was our routine. During various family holiday gatherings of my childhood. I remember looking at all the food spread out on grandma's dining room table. There was a large turkey roasted to a golden brown. There were salads. Casseroles dressing freshly baked rolls and a variety of vegetables to choose from. No interest to me. There was only one dish that mattered. It was served in an elegant. Fine china bowl with a ladle to the side. It was a delicious. Piping hot bowl. A spaghettios. I was always excited to see that grandma had cooked my favorite fish. She had lovingly open the key. Pour the contents into a pot. And warmed them to perfect. Course there was the presentation. I'm probably one of the few people on earth. Who has been served with patios from the finest. My grandmother was a southern baptist. My father her son. Became an episcopal priest. I write spuse am i at unitarian universalist minister. Perhaps this is the trickle-down theory operating in religion. Grandma died before i became a member of a uu church. I'm not sure how she would have reacted. Perhaps you would have felt the same as my aunt. Who wants explain to my brother sam. Chris is a unitarian. I thought it was at least an episcopalian. This was not a diplomatic comment considering that spam is an episcopal priest. Would my grandmother be surprised by my choice. Maybe not. Grandma taught me. From earliest childhood. That there is room at the table for someone who is a little bit different. From the wrath. The memory of that bowl of spaghettios. Continually reminds me to make room in my heart. 4 people. For a bit odd in their tastes and dispositions. There can be room in our hearts for diversity. There can be a place at the table. For everyone. Even the more finicky children of the universe. Well they should be. A place at the table for everyone. Even the more finicky children of the universe. That is one of the two most important things that i think jesus was trying to teach us. Now they'll be several references to the fellowship of the opentable. 2 inviting everyone to that table in the next few minutes. But first the story. A true story. That i revisit every year at this time. As i contemplate my relationship with that historical figure we know as jesus. I have told this story before some of you have probably heard it please do not react until the end. But like any good story it is worth the retail. When i was a seminary student living in berkeley in the mid-1990s. One beautiful spring day i went to the bank. Made a deposit. Received the deposit slip. Stuck it in my pocket. When i got home and was putting my banking items away i check that deposit slip to make sure it agrees with my figures and i. Was appalled. Juicy. At the bottom of that slip these words. Thank you jesus. I couldn't believe it.. Those fundamentalists are everywhere i thought. How dare they put their personal theology on the bottom of my bank deposit. Bateman. Ar-10 the bank. The person i spoke to seemed as indignant as i was. Ashley immediately put her supervisor on the line. Said the supervisor i can't believe it. She asked me to send her a copy of my statement. I didn't lie feeling righteous. For doing my little part and pushing back the inroads the religious right or making. Supervisor responded to me within days. She was sheepish. I could hear it in her voice. She said. Did you know that most of the tellers put their names on the bottom of bag slip they hand to you. Knows that i. Neither did i. She said and not only that they usually type in the word banks followed by their name and the name of the teller you went to the other day is jesus a common name at that time certainly in the fence. Bay area. So much for religious righteousness. Who is this person but i am so beautiful. A cavity shoved down my throat and why do unitarian universalist tend to be reluctant to talk about him why are we so willing to give him up to the fundamentalists or even two more moderate christian. Don't think we should let him go. Without a fight. The man is way too valuable to let him slip away from our awareness. When we reject all of christianity we are in danger of throwing out the baby with the bathwater almost literally. I am interested in doing some reclaiming work. About jesus. The person. Now please note. And i'm not talking about the post easter. Jesus. That's a subject for another day. Flannery o'connor o'connor once described jesus as. That. Ragged. Figure. Flipping from tree. 2 tree. In the back of the mind. End of her quote. He haunts us. Sneaks up on us. Pursues us especially this time of year. Mount this can be problematic for those of us. Myself. Who were raised as christians. Happily race. But. Don't necessarily describe ourselves as christians anymore. Someone once asked me what my relationship is to jesus. Swiss in church i served in south. Eastern. Iowa. I probably should have told him my jesus story that tree would have been. But i fought him and i said well i don't have any relationship or. Connection to jesus in the sense of his being my savior. Or of my having to be born again in christ. However i would like to have a relationship with jesus fat. Consisted of my emulating his life. Following. Is teaching. I think i'm coming full-cycle in this relationship as a child. In that presbyterian church in which i grew up in. I would have had no trouble seeing jesus as. Pagan to christian heritage rabble-rouser peacenik warrior in a nonviolent way. As a child i grass patch. I have. Amazingly good sunday school teachers. Who seemed to understand that a jesus could not be put in a box and easily defined. And be the life of jesus was much more important than his death. And what happened or didn't. After his death. Corsair presbyterians knew some people. From time to time we unitarian universalist to show. A renewed interest in jesus. I think that has a great deal to do with what i said about not throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Several years ago there was an article about jesus and it was actually the lead story in an issue of ruu world magazine. The title of the article was seeing jesus with modernize. Bea arthur. Quoted as that author probably should have unitarian minister theodore parker. Who. Preach. What turned out to be one of the most. Controversial sermons in uu history in the year 1841 some of you know about this summer as long as you know theodore parker was. I'll probably mention him again on martin luther king day because. Parker. Had a gun up here because he was such an abolitionist. That. The moms with sometimes throw rocks through the window and. And try to passavant. Cathedral park. Preach the sermon in which he said. So the christianity of jesus. Is. Permanent. The what passes for christianity with popes. Catechisms with sex. And churches. In the first century or the 19th century prove. Transience. Also. In other words. But one of the biographies of parker's this sick so i'm trying to say all that in like 2 minutes. Parker maintain. It didn't matter if someone named jesus. Put out these radical ideas i would maintain their still radical about peace. On earth. Loving each other it didn't matter if that person happened to be named jesus but these ideas would come out of our human spirit eventually so that christianity was permanent. He meant the ideas those ideas. Those radical ideas for which jesus was killed that's permanent. Everything else hopes. Churches. Is transient. It's not permanent. Well you know parker. Got in a whole bunch of trouble. For that sermon. It's almost excommunicated. Yes we do do that. Officially. Some of you will know who elaine pagels. They might sound familiar to you. Pagels is the leading authority in the world. On christianity. Press. Possible. And you may have heard of some of her books. The gnostic gospels maybe the gospel of thomas. She has started the nagamati text. Text. Buried by ancient months to protect them from. A rash of reactionary book burning. In the. following jesus's death to be confused with the dead sea scrolls. Which are about ancient judaism. The nagamati text. Are all about jesus. They portray jesus as a mystic. And they give credit to his pagan leanings. There jesus. In an in an automatic text is zen-like. Imaginative poetic. He is portrayed as. Androgynous. And is having a yin-yang duality. Is the reason these texts have been. And they still are. Wanaka hammadi texts were written by gnostics. From that greek word gnosis. Which connotes a kind of direct. Intuitive knowledge. As opposed to what unitarians laws analytical knowledge. Also opposed to belief based on faith. Now you might not be surprised to learn that orthodox movements in ancient times wanted to suppress teachings. About this type of experience because. Such experiences are pretty much beyond the control of an institution. Oh wait a minute silly me. What am i say orthodox movements in ancient times. Wanted to suppress knowledge that people claim to have intuitively. I think that's still very much with us. In the interest of accuracy i think i should say that that all. The orthodox movements in all times. Try to suppress this kind. Acknowledge. There are some parts of gnosticism that i embrace most notably that idea that we can know settings intuitively even if they can't be learned. Or take it on faith. Bring something intuitively isn't the same thing as taking something on fake. The candy but it doesn't necessarily. Red-headed robbie in that story intuitively knew. What were the most important. Aspects of christmas. Yes before you take. Show kindness to someone new and forgive a person who has hurt you. Children. Often know things intuitively until we throw it out of them. So was jesus a mystic. A pagan. A peacenik a warrior a friend and enemy. An enigma. A case can be made that jesus was all of these. And more. The historical jesus was a complicated person. Although there are many aspects of him that we know little about. We would do well to emulate his action. Especially during this month in which we celebrate his birthday. For me and for elaine pagels and for many others. Jesus is every person. And if he is every person that is he has the capacity to completely empathize with others think about that. How much empathising do we really do with each other a little. But it'll completely empathize with others. So it's jesus's every person then it doesn't matter what we personally believe about him. In the theological sense because. There are many paths to true. Many ways to be spiritual and religious. I think it is sad and i would go so far as to say yes even sinful. To portray jesus narrowly. Oh here's an example mel gibson's movie. The passion of christ. How many basalt. I figured nobody had. I did see it because i didn't feel i could critique it. Without seeing it. I almost didn't make it through. Because. Not only was a theologically. Wrong. It was. What is the worst movie. But i've ever see i mean the holiest screenplay in the costuming in the and the the torture of jesus was campy i mean. What is the service. Gibson dead. To the character of jesus. Give me jesus christ superstar any day. There is a wonderful story. About knowledge through intuition. A few years ago at the seattle special olympics. 9 contestants. All physically or mentally disabled. Assembled. At the starting line. For the 100-yard dash. At the gun they all started out. Not exactly in a day. But with a village to run the race to the finish and win. All that is except for one little boy who stumbled. On the asphalt. Tumbled over a couple of times and began to cry. The other eight. Her the boy. Cry. They slowed down. They looked back and then they all turned around. And went back. Every one of them. One girl with down syndrome bent down and kissed him. Nsaid. This will make it better. Then. All night. Linked arms. And walk together. To finish line. Everyone in the stadium stewart. And the cheering went on for several. People who were there are still telling this story. Well maybe because. Deep down we know this one thing. What matters in this life is more than winning for ourselves. What matters in this life is helping others win. Even if it means slow it down and changing our course. What matters is making room for everyone at the table. Those kids knew intuitively. How to welcome everyone. To the table. Would be appalled i think if he were here today. And witness the things that are done in his name. Jesus did not want people to worship. Him. He's simply lived a life that is worth if not worshipping. And certainly. Copying. My brother loves to use a one liner for grace before meals. Jesus's neat. Well jesus is neat and radical. And that is the second thing i hope you will take away with you today. Jesus as. Revolutionary. Jesus as. Radical. Remember he was killed for his beliefs. 10 years ago at the protest in georgia. Before the school of against the school of the americas which i know it's another name but i think most of us still not one school of the americas. I i came across a wonderful little book by a catholic priest john deere. The book is jesus the rebel. In that deer says that jesus is public life became a string of civil disobedience actions against injustice. But the culture of violence in which he live. That sounds familiar. The culture of violence did not understand this way. Of nonviolence. The culture. Jesus's time which is so similar to our own. Glorified violence. Indeed even encouraged. Addiction to violence. Which i think this culture we are in right now does. But jesus stood firm. In his path of non-violence. Jesus summons us to that spirituality of non-violence calling us to reject violence and its fallout of despair doubt domination and especially since 9/11 fear. That is the real jesus. The one who fights non-violently for peace and justice the one who says there's room at the table for all of us. He didn't just say that of course. He acted that way. Some of you will know or remember from your own. Pratt's christian upbringing the jesus befriended everyone and he dined with the lowest. Buffalo. Prostitutes the paxful. For example. What would jesus do you remember those. Bracelets that mostly kids war. Wwjd. Well. To borrow a phrase from rebecca parker. Who was president of starr king seminary when i was there she's not related to theodore parker i don't think. According to rebecca. Jesus would do. Whatever. Serves. Life. I want song newspaper article that asked. What would jesus. Dry. Dry. Use mass transportation. Whatever best. Life. That would be the determining factor. It how he got around. As it should be ours. I one more short story of my own for you and then a poem. To wrap up. Here's my. Second-story christmas season. The first sunday after new year's day. 2001. I am with my dad and my original home church. That presbyterian one in northwestern pennsylvania. Northwestern pennsylvania. Actually a bastion of. Liberalism. But in that church many of the people. I've known me or didn't know me since i was a baby. They had a guest speaker that morning a man was pretty canada dating for a position in a presbyterian church in a nearby town. I'm sort of daydreaming. During his sermon. When suddenly i hear the words. Unitarian universalist and blasphemy. Hi snap to attention. The guest minister had attended a unitarian universalist service. Christmas eve service. And could not understand. Why the uu minister had never once mentioned god. Or said that jesus was the son of god. Or anything about whether jesus was a divine being or not. All that the minister said on that christmas eve. Was that jesus was the ultimate lover of. Peace. And that we would do well to emulate him. So. Yeah. What's the problem. Managed to capture the essence of the real jesus. Jesus as non-violent jesus as lover of peace. As a host. Invites everyone to the tape. We would indeed do well. To emulate his lifestyle. Would like to end my reflections with a poem that was written by. Carl dennis who won the pulitzer prize in 2002. Poem is titled. Jesus freaks. The approval they get from above is all they need. So why should they care if they offend me. Here in the parking lot of the super duper. My arms full. By stuffing a pamphlet or two. In my pocket. No point in shouting at them to keep back. When they're looking for disapproval. No reason for them to obey the rules of one of the ignorant. Who supposes. The perpetual dusky lives in. Sunny noon. Their business. Is with my soul. However buried. With my voiced wish for the truth. Too soft for me to catch. Over the street noise. Should i rest my packages on my car a minute. And try to listen if i'm sure. They really believe. They're vexing me. In my own bath. Interest. Shazam i'm the loser that used to be. When they sweated daily to please themselves death. To the real wishes. Why make it easy for me to load the trunk of my car with grocery bags. When they offer a joy that none of my purchases however free of impurities. Can provide. Their calls to attention shouldn't sound any more threatening than the peel of a church bell. And if i call in the car phone to lodge a complaint. Jail. Will seem to them the perfect place to bear witness. In this dark dominion. We're herod rules. In jail but also. Yes. At a banquet. Well i you're certain. Stubbornly. Stand outside. Chivalry. In the snow. Too proud. To enter a hall not of my own devising. And wore myself at a fire. I didn't like. And enjoy a meal. Stranger. I've taken pains with. Yes. The table. Crowded. But there's room for me. Now i don't intend to become a jesus freak. I do intend to try to keep in my awareness. The real jesus. The one i understood as a child. And i'm now coming back to understanding. Batches. Is every person. That jesus. Tells us everyone. Must be seated. At the table. And until that happens. We better get out there and work. For peace and justice as non-violent people of course. Out of these two components of the real jesus is belief in the open table fellowship. And his commitment. To nonviolence out of these two. Flow everything else. But you need to know. There is a book value may be aware of it and blanking on the author and the title it takes the new testament in different colors and different colors. There's not much of that. But but you also have to always remember when reading ancient things this includes bible course metaphor metaphor metaphor metaphor metaphor metaphor. And as i said a few minutes ago jesus would be appalled to come back he did not want to be worshipped as a person and ally was a historical jesus. But they're what justice there was a confucius but it was probably more than one person but but i think you hit on part of it but i think it's you have to it's that orthodox thing you have to try to break out of the box that the think differently i give you the current pope. Who's trying to do a little bit of this old way of thinking and it's. I think you just fumble or stumbling into things that that's not true of all christian churches by enemy but you hurt. You will not find a more. Amazing wonderful christian than a man named howard. Sermon and some sunday i'll tell you more about him. The closing words arceus and it's number 615 in the back if you want to. Read silently alone. When the song of angels is stilled. When the star in the sky is gone. When the kings and princes are home. When the shepherds are back. With their flock. The work of christmas begins. Define the lost. To heal the broken. To feed the hungry. To release the prisoner. To rebuild the nation's to bring peace among the brothers and sisters. To make music in the heart. So make music in your heart. And a happy new year.

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Pr110522BarbPark-ed.mp3

Her opening words this morning will be provided by bob park. Caesar. Taken from a book called the larger face. By charles howell. In september 4th 1793 a group of people who call themselves universalist. Gathered in the village of boxford massachusetts for a day of preaching prayer. Fellowship. Mutual support. An organizational business those presents call their meeting a general convention. Of the universalist churches and societies in massachusetts rhode island new hampshire vermont connecticut and new york. The reverend john murray. Was there moderator and the only record of the preceding is a circular letter written by him on behalf of those who attended. Although they could not have known it. At the time their meeting mark the beginning of a new denomination that would survive or 168 years. Until that united with the unitarian. In 1961. Okay we're going to start with you have a packet of of him on your. Somewhere on the pew is there 6 packets and we're going to be singing. The first the first one that this program is based on a program that was done at general assembly in alberta canada. And calgary. On june 28th 1992 out of this and so i've got the proceedings of this singing shouting celebrating. And so all of the things that we do today are going to be based on this program. And. We'll do a lot of singing and we'll do a little bit of connecting explanations. So if you want to stand as you're willing and able and will sing the first hymn that was written by hosea blue for the general convention of 1808. To do sliding. By the same author of the song we just sang jose at ballou early universalist preacher and leader if we agree in love there's no disagreement that can do us any injury. But if we do not know other agreement can do us any good. Let us endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit. In the bonds of peace. Thank you so much. A few weeks ago reverend kailyn chris dad presented a brief history of universalist thought. Down through the history of christianity. But that program rose smith read us the story of john murray the moderator at that first meeting. And how he came from england to america discouraged and despondent after the death of his wife and child and determined not to preach the universalist message again. Today for the children's story we're going to hear about another one of what they called the dissenters people who were in a group of various churches. That did not agree with the church of england and the government was really squashing. Their descent in the early 1890s rather than the bulletin and minister. Who also fled to america. As did the universe was john murray he arrived in new york in 1794 so after marie. And helped found the first unitarian church of philadelphia. So although priestly was a unitarian and marie was the universal if they were both for persecuted by being part of this dissenters group. So rosemary. Well new grandma. New grandma at a new names for a grandma i'm from germany so people there call their grandma oma. You can call me or not really hungry if you want. But most people like best about drinks. Like coca-cola or sprite. Do you like the bubble on your way you were going to tell me. What do you like that. And it was a unitarian minister in england joseph. Experimented with gases in his laboratory and made the very first visit. So we could say he invented soda pop. Without caffeinated it's messing around. 1707. He was a curious person who asks lots and lots of questions. About how things work in the universe. And about religion. But in those days and fasting questions about religion was a dangerous thing. Especially prime minister because. It was against the law can you believe that to believe anything that was different from what the church of england. And that church taught that jesus was the real son of god. And that all humans were born. You know what symbol is. Well. They were born with evil inside them. To begin with. Pencil priestley was not sure he could believe that. And he decided a person could very well believe that jesus was a wonderful teacher. Without believing he was the real son of god. Sent to earth. To save people. The unitarian churches of that type. Report a small and they were even attacked by people were afraid of his freedom-loving ideas. Insofar few years. Briefly left left church work and opened his own school. Four students were encouraged to ask questions about everything. And work on their own ideas and experiments. Cricket sport sounds like. But while some spot his teaching was very good the school never made enough money to support him and his family is so attached to close. Finally any 1773 placed relax out. He got a job as a private tutor and librarian with a very wealthy english aristocratic family. Like pretty. And gave him space and money for his experiments. And during those years priestley wrote about 150 books about air electricity. And a lot of things that you learn in school today. As one of the important things we remember what he discovered oxygen some of you know that already it's the stuff that we need to breathe in that we need to split really. Quit that job ended preaching took another job as minister. And this time at a church where people agreed with his. Free religious ideas. He was happy there. But 10 years. But then the infighting between. The traditional church leaders the old-timey one. And the new one. Got so bad. That at one point you won't believe this. An angry mob burned down his house. His church. Is library and his laugh. And in the end he and his wife just barely escaped. If they like. Obviously it was high time to leave england than just sit and move to the us where his two adult sons live. And they settled in the small-town northumberland is fairly close to philadelphia. It took more than food. 4 years to build a home in a new lab. And during that time. Priestly travel to philadelphia to set up a unitary congregation. But he never accepted the job as administrator. That he was offered that. And today we remember him as its founder of unitarianism in america. Basically because of his work with that philadelphia church. Have the last years of his life pretty please please fence. Doing. What do you like best experiments. And interesting leave writing about the history of. Christianity. But science and religion remains is to grace life passion. Eddie died at age 70. In 1800s. 4. And a little after so ikea this your mom and pop tell you not to drink so much soda pop. Because it's unhealthy. Well you might remind them that it was after all invented. By the grade unitarian. Our program this morning is being presented by barber park. Okay. Today we're going to first of all i hope you came prepared to sing because today we're going to talk briefly about a few of the founders of universalism in north america recount a few stories and sing several him which you have in your packets all of which illustrates our gospel of love. Their yearning spirit and their social prophecy. So some of the words sing of another time then h c universalist founders pioneer the questioning mine and the loving and caring spirit the keen sense of justice and equality that we prize today and if framed in the principles and purposes of our sociation. First of all john murray. Who we've had talked about before it's considered by most to be the father of universalism in north america. He became the. Minister to preach the. One of them was considered the first universalist service. And he became the minister of the first universalist church of gloucester massachusetts. In 1779. That is interesting cuz that congregation 12 landmark victories for religious freedom. And the separation of church and state and i think we don't often. Acknowledge or even know about this. You know that the. There was an established church in massachusetts. And marie and his congregation stood to get the right of concreted congregations to be free of financially supporting the state church. And the right of independent churches to ordain their own clergy. And grant them the right to perform marriages. So this is stuff that. You know we take for granted that you know if there was established church you got to be kidding. While he was in gloucester he met and married the talented author essayist and woman of letters judith sargent and together they spread the idea that all are equally dear to god. There were other pioneer ministers who preached universalism in the late 1700s along the new england coast. Then turning as far as canada. These folks were even jeff evangelist. We don't think of you years as being a vangelico but they definitely were. They preached they travel around. As revivalists. Articulate thoughtful passionate. They preached god's universal love of all people in all places times and conditions. We're going to start singing one of the tunes butt. And you're going to be familiar with all of these tunes because in the 18th and 19th century authors wrote the text. In a meter of a tune that they were familiar with. But the hymn books when they were printed only has a text. This was true before 1850. They just assumed everybody knew. New the tune. So we seldom know exactly which tune the author had in mind when he or she wrote the song so when they. Developed this program what they did is they took him that were program mainly set. Tom and tunes that were already composed. By the date when the text was written. So that they could have. Could have been what they use and they're all tunes that are very familiar to us today. So the next thing we're going to sing as number two in your packet which is by john marie goforth my friends. Well force they went the work was arduous the trials great the harvest of souls heartening one of these men was hosea blue whose words we read for the chalice lighting. Hosea ballou was a self-educated farm boy from vermont who became of forceful and progressive speaker for the universal is caused. In 1805 he published a treatise on atonement. Asserting that god was a loving father rather than a punitive judge. But jesus was an exalted human being rather than a member of the trinity so these folks were also unitarian in their theology. And that and that soon with personal rather than inherited. Keytrain generations of ministers. And santos has came to hear him speak. In 1807 the universalist convention charged hosea blue and three other ministers with writing a book of knew him that would unite mind and spirit in singing the universalist gospel. One year later they published a himno 475 sense leather-bound it contains 400 original hymns by the four editors. So now we'll sing one of those hymns by baloo for telling the glories which will come to earth when all creation hears and responds to this new truth. So we'll see number three when god sends to earth. For the hope was millennial and the spirit contagious. Universalist universalism spread north south and west past the alleghenies removing the fear of hell and bringing the hope of universal salvation. Well unitarian spread and unitarianism spread from city to city. Universalism spread everywhere preachers took the gospel on horseback two cities towns hamilton crossroads. I'm skipping a bunch here so. They went from canada down to new orleans. The last interesting lee that fight i read this in another place the last. Evangelical. Circuit rider with quillin shin. Who died in 1907 so this is pretty modern at the age of 62. And it said that his last missionary trip with the south carolina. And it is and in the years reporter between 1904 and 1905. Alone he traveled more than 38,000 miles 900 of them on horseback or by foot. Russell miller observed that that shin. Brought hundreds of individuals to universalism with responsible for building at least 40 churches and recruiting at least 30 people for the ministry so it's the traveling. During the 1800s and the early 1900s. Universalist were known for having studied the bible and early realize that the bible was written by many people and is some parts carried more historical weight than others. So they were very interested in the bible. One example of this traveling creatures with david leavitt. And he traveled the far corners of ontario challenging orthodox preachers two debates that lasted two or three days people love this religious sports and on one occasion leavitt with his prodigious biblical memory and skill at quoting the proof text down for methodist preachers in a row. There was not unanimity among the early universalist. Universalist were not of one mind yesterday and a more than unitarian universalist our of one mind today the independence that brought universalist out of orthodoxy resulted in a variety of beliefs. The death of glory universalist how that everyone no matter how evil went immediately to heaven after death. Where's the restorationist clear that the world did not provide sufficient comeuppance. To the wayward believe that a god of justice would need of some purgatorial punishment before the final restoration of all souls with the divine. Interesting lee enough this debate basically went forward until. Universalist. You know in the end in the unitarian universalist editions kind of stopped believing in heaven all together. Thomas whitmore was a universalist minister who edited and published the universal is. Trumpet which was a very which became very influential in shaping universalists.. He preached the simple gospel of god's unfailing love of all people in all time places and conditions. And he butted head with abner nealon. Who was the most radical of universalist ministers and ultimately left the universalist full. Nail in the same social mores preferring naturalistic and personal quest for truth. And will identify with a lot of what nuland said in 1831 after several stormy ministries. He went to boston and founded the first society are free and choirs and a newspaper called the boston investigator. Whitmore challenge neil into a newspaper debate in there to publications. Neil and declare that universalist belief in god was a figment of their imagination. Universalist belief in jesus was nothing but myth and fable. Universalist faith in eternal life fall. Dillon ended up being arrested for blasphemy which was still in the on the books in massachusetts at that time although it was certainly against the constitution and after four tries for different trials he was convicted. Although there was a lot of support from the lowest local clergy of the unit both unitarian and universalist guilt. Both minute of the year. The prosecutor and the judge. 4 unitarian. But he they convicted him anyway he spent 60 days in prison and when he was released you left for iowa where you found it a small utopian community community name salubria. Today we would not find his idea shocking. He believed in equal treatment of all people. Both under the law as well as by society. By supporting such controversial ideas as divorce rights for women married women keeping their own name and property. He refused to condemn interracial marriages. And was in favor of birth control. This is before 1852 sing is one of neil and hard-hitting him so this how have a very different field in his words from some of the other happy joyful one has number 6 in your packets of you of christendom. From private school to tax supported public school and very strongly supported the shepherd separation of church and state in the school and work very hard to keep public schools non-sectarian. Where no religious instruction would be permitted. Get ahead of their time. Universalist women were among the most ardent and prolific of the hymn writers. The kerry sisters and tv hannaford remember the represented that numerous plan. The kerry sisters literary sorties authorities rather in new york apartments. Drew some of the most famous authors and public figures of their time. They gather to the unknown especially women. Jose guided and encouraged. So we'll sing a short hymns by alice cary. That was published in services for congregational worship in 1877 it's number 9 in your packet. Poet lecture and author of about two dozen books. She wrote in midlife quote all my books have been prepared among pressing duties of a domestic. Editorial and past role characters but god called me to preach. And preached she did all of these women. Universalist women did not only about universalism. But women's rights and hopes for children. These women forge the trials of life into poem song him that move the hearts of all women and men alike. And i think we're going to skip. Her him which was. Call cat real singer. Bounciest the harvest for hat but the harvest is social reform was important to. Is there really a 1790. The philly philadelphia convention of universalist address the social issues of its day. Just as we do in general assembly today. They passed pioneers resolutions opposing war. Slavery and compulsory both taken. And affirmed arbitration in place of litigation. On the issue say slavery is a reason that since people were all equal in heaven. They had best practice getting along with april's here on earth are the universal is were working for temperance temperance women's rights prison reform the rehabilitation of prisoners. And the abolition of capital punishment. Hilton in steals day. I guess we won't another reform movement with the utopian community. And in 1842 one of the first and most successful ones the hopedale community was founded by adin ballou. You'll recognize that in real life. Association with the alcott family. I'm trying to skip. So here so we're going to sing. His piece which is 166 and our hymn book is yours are coming feed them onward. Okay we are. Rapidly running out of time which is too bad because we have lots of other things that we could talk about. But there's one more him that i really want to do some of and that's 100 years hence which is number 13. Written by frances dana gage. And. She was a champion of the cause of which most of the women were doing abolition women's rights and temperance. So this. And as she said we're going to just rings do a couple do in 1850s. Protest petition the ohio state legislature to remove two words of power and privilege from their state constitution. The words were white. And nail okay so we'll sing. Call alexi. Yeah we're certainly not going to do. Okay okay that you read the words afterwards cuz it's really interesting what things should prophesize is. Will happen. And what things actually happened versus what things. Didn't happen. So so we'll just we'll just sing him verse one and four popular request but definitely read cuz they're just a stitch. We will carry on at that point but there's chance for a couple of more of these that wonderful old songs. Right out there is definitely a strong movement on of these what they called dissenting churches. So both in england there was a man named rally. Who was preaching the universe was gospel. And that's who john hurry marie heard and was converted from private seller i don't know if he was presbyterian or what he was to. To the universal is philosophy. Yeah that it was an end in germany the there was a group that freethinkers who were very much pushing up against the the clergy of the day. And and then in 1848. Most of many many of them were pushed out of germany on fear of imprisonment and death. And emigrated to the united states which is where we get our church in sauk city that was formed by those people at that time and it still was taken under the unitarian.. Is a late forties only when the speaker discovered that there were no. Other freethinker groups that he could find and so they joined the unitarians even though they found the unitarians way too conservative i'll be around afterwards you can ask questions then. We're going to have our offertory now and the choirs going to sing. Sing that tori and him. And i watch as the composer of both words and music is thomas whitmore which as we said they were usually centex time and tune so the fact that he wrote this music is unusual with publishing the 1842 in a book called the conference him and. And picture picture you're at some sort of revivalist. The closing words which again recording from the famous quotation from jean-marie that we heard a few weeks ago. Because this so wonderfully. Captures the early spirit of the universe with. Go out into the highways and byways. Give the people something of your nuvision. You may possess a small light but uncover it. Let it shine. You said in order to bring more light and understanding the hearts and minds of men and women. Give them that he'll. But hope and courage. Preach. The kindness and everlasting love of god.

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Pr120108PLong-ed.mp3

Good morning welcome universalist society my name is christina class and i'm on number here at prairie prairie aspires to be both and open-hearted and open-minded congregation we welcome people of every ethnic and religious background. Whatever your color sexual orientations gender or family structure. We welcome you no matter what your age or your abilities or your inability. Later in the service we will invite visitors guests and returning friends to introduce ourselves so we might get to know you better. On sunday mornings we provide a wide variety of services. They're presented either by a prairie member a member of the wider community or by a minister or the we are currently performing a ministerial search. Today phyllis long will be presenting a program on 12 steps to a compassionate life. Aunt karen armstrong's latest book offering. I do have a couple of announcements before we get started today. The new art display around our meeting house is from mary mullen these photographs were done for the arboretum corps of discovery and were part of an exhibit in the arboretum visitor center in july and august of this past year. Now is the time for our presentation. Our program today will be presented by phyllis long phyllis has been a member of prairie for about 10 years she was a delegate this past year to you you a general assembly in charlotte north carolina and their herd karen armstrong. Karen armstrong speak on our topic today and i was also there and karen armstrong did a fabulous job she's a very entertaining and educated woman. Aunt karen spoke for her keynote on our topic today which is the 12 steps to a compassionate life which is her latest book i believe it would have been available since early last year so it may be about a year. Karen and phyllis share a worldview that we are all connected as part of an interdependent whole. Sauce walka. In 2007 karen armstrong won a prize from the technology entertainment design organization. This organization awards prizes to people they feel have made a difference in the world. But could have an even greater impact with their help. Armstrong was awarded $100,000 for this purpose. She determined that the impact she decided to make us to build a world community. Where people would live together in harmony with mutual respect for one another. She felt religion should theoretically be a major contributor towards this goal but instead appear to be seen as part of the problem. All faiths state that compassion is the true test of spirituality and all have some version of what we have come to know as the golden rule. To treat others the way you wish to be treated. Her concern is about the polarisation so prevalent today. To further her goal she brought together thousands of people from throughout the world to draft a charter on a multilingual website. Their comments were then submitted to a council of conscience made up of well-known leaders from 6 faith traditions. Judaism christianity islam hinduism buddhism and confucianism. The group met in february 2009 in switzerland and composed a final version as follows. The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious ethical and spiritual traditions calling us always to treat others as we wish to be treated. Ourselves compassion compels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures. To dethrone ourselves from the center of our world and put another there. And to honor the inviolable sanctity of every single human being treating everybody without exception. With absolute justice equity and respect. It is also necessary in both public and private life. To refrain consistently and empathetically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite chauvinism or self-interest. To impoverish. To exploit or deny basic rights to anybody. And to incite hatred by denigrating others even our enemies. Is a denial of our common humanity. We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion. We therefore call upon all men and women to restore compassion to the center of morality and religion. To return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence hatred or disdain is illegitimate. To ensure that you are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions. Religions and cultures. To encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity. To cultivate and informed empathy with the suffering of human beings even those regarded as enemies. We urgently need to make a compassion a clear luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principal determined to determination to transcend selfishness. Compassion can break down political dogmatic. Ideological and religious boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence compassion is essential to human relationships. And to a full-field humanity. It is the path of enlightenment and indispensable to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community. This charter was commenced on november 12th 2009. In 60 different locations throughout the world. And was enshrined in synagogues mosques temples and churches as well as a number of secular institutions. The book 12 steps to a compassionate life was written by karen armstrong to further this purpose and what follows is based on that book. The first step is to learn about compassion. This involves learning to retrain our responses and form bento habits. That are kinder. Gentler and more compassionate. It is important to explore your own religious background to discover what teachings are about compassion. That way. The whole idea of compassion will be more familiar to you. The second step. Is to look at your own world. Confucius believed that everyone should behave away from home. As though you were in the presence of an important guest. Deal with common people as though you were officiating at an important sacrifice. Do not do to others what you would not like yourself then there will be no feelings of opposition to you whether it is the affairs of a state that you are handling or the affairs of a family. There would be no destructive wars if a ruler behaved toward other princes and states in this way. The golden rule would make it impossible to invade somebody else's territory because nobody would like this to happen to his own state. Confucius saw each person at the centre of a constantly expanding series of concentric circles of compassion. The lessons he had learned from taking care of his parents his wife and his siblings. Would educate and enlarge his heart. So that he felt empathy with more and more people. First with his city or village. Then with his state. And finally with the entire world. We must look at our community with compassion. Estimated strengths as well as its weaknesses. And access the potential for change. Creating a compassionate family life is one of the ways in which we can all make a constructive contribution to a more empathetic society in the future. The third step is having compassion for yourself. Compassion is essential to humanity we have a biological needs to be cared for and to care for others. But it is not always easy to love ourselves. The golden rule requires self-knowledge. It asks that we use our own feelings as a guide to our behavior with others. If we treat ourselves harshly. This is the way we are likely to treat other people. So we need to acquire a healthier and more balanced knowledge of our strength as well as our weaknesses. Before we can make friends with others we have to make a friend of our own self. We need to recognize that we all have a dark side. If we are unable to accept our shadow we are likely to take a harsh view of the darker side of others. Suffering is a law of life. It is essential to acknowledge our own pain. Or we shall find it impossible to have compassion for the distress of others the vivid memory of painful times past is a reservoir. On which you can draw when you try to live according to the golden rule. By remembering your own sorrow vividly. You will make it possible for yourself to feel empathy with others. The four-step is empathy aristotle believe the tragedy educated emotions and talk people to experience them appropriately. As he watched the drama unfold a small minded person would see his own troubles in perspective and an arrogant person would learn to feel compassion for the unfortunate. Purified drained of their dangerous potential the motions could just become beneficial to the community. The art of the dramatist enable the audience to achieve an expansion of sympathy so that they had a taste of the immeasurable power of compassion. Tragic drama reminds us of the role that art can play in expanding our sympathies. Please films and novels all enable us to. Enter imaginatively into other lives and make an empathetic identification. With the people whose experiences are entirely different from our own. Imagination is crucial to the compassionate life. A uniquely human quality it enables the artist to create an entirely new world and give a strong semblance of reality to events that never happens and people who never existed. Compassion and the abandonment of ego are both essential to art. It is easy to spot a poem a novel or a film that is self-indulgent or brittle with cruel cleverness. When a film makes us we. It is often because it has touched a buried memory. Or unacknowledged yearning of our own. Art calls us to recognize our pain and aspirations and to open our minds to others. Art helps us as it helped the greeks to realize that we are not alone everybody else is suffering too. Our pain can become an education and compassion. Some people deliberately steal their hearts against involvement with other people suffering. During this step we should be aware of our initial reluctance to engage. We don't want to listen to the sad story that a colleague is telling us. We feel that we have enough to deal with and push her troubles from our mind. We can be irritated by somebody's bad mood instead of asking ourselves why she is depressed. We hurry past the homeless man outside the supermarket refusing to allow his plight to disturb our equanimity. But when this happens it is time to draw upon everything you learned in the last step and recall your own past this dress remember the things that help you when you are having a bad day. A kind word a smile and a joke and try to give that gift to at-st colleague. Remember what it is like to feel along with sadness and take the trouble to listen to your friends tale of woe. The fifth step is mindfulness. The purpose of mindfulness is to help us detach ourselves from the ego. By observing the way our minds work. Mindfulness is a form of meditation that we perform as we go about our daily lives and is designed to give us more control over our minds so we can reverse in green tendencies and cultivate new one. A calm dispassionate appraisal of our behavior. Helps us to become aware that our judgments are often biased and depended on a passing mood and our endless self-preoccupation brings us into conflict with people who seem to get in our way. The six-step is action one small act of kindness can turn a life around. We can all create small apps for others. Try to think of spots of time in your own life. Moments when somebody went out of his or her way to help you also consider the effects of unkind remarks. That have been a corrosive presence in your mind over the years. We need to become aware that are impulsive words and actions have consequences apply the insights you gained in the practice of mindfulness. In your daily dealings with others. Shielding them from your destructive tendencies and trying to lighten their lives with acts of friendship. The seventh step is to recognize how little we know. All too often people impose their own experience and beliefs on acquaintances and events making hurtful and accurate and dismissive snap judgment that only about individuals but also about whole cultures. It often becomes clear when questioned more closely. Derek their actual knowledge of the topic under discussion could comfortably could be contained on a small postcard the pursuit of knowledge is exhilarating. And science medicine and technology have dramatically improved the lives of millions of people. But unknowing remains an essential part of the human condition. Religion is at its best. When it helps us to ask questions. And holds us in a state of wonder. And arguably at its worst. When it tries to answer them authoritatively and dogmatically when we cling to our certainties likes and dislikes deeming them essential to our sense of self. We alienate other ourselves. From the great transformation of the way as confucius put it. Because the reality is that we are all in continual flux. Moving from one state to another. The aim of this stuff is threefold. One to recognize and appreciate the unknown and unknowable. To to become sensitive to overconfident assertions of certainty in ourselves and other people. And 3 to make ourselves aware of the numinous mysteries of each human being we encounter during the day. The 8-step is how should we speak to one another. Dialogue is one of the buzzwords of our time. There was widespread conviction that if only people would enter into dialogue piece would break out. But there is very little socratic dialogue in the world today. Put play-doh describe the dialogue as a communal meditation that was hard work. Requiring a great expense of time and trouble. But he insisted that it be conducted in a kindly compassionate manner. It would not bring transcendent insight unless questions and answers are exchanged in good faith and without malice. We should make a point of asking ourselves whether we want to win the argument. Or seek the truth. Whether we are ready to change our views if the evidence is sufficiently compelling. And whether we are making place for the other in our minds in the socratic manner above all we need to listen. All too often in an argument or debate we simply listen to others in order to twist their words and use them as grist for own meal. True listening means more than simply hearing the words that are spoken. We have to become alert to the underlying message to and hear what is not uttered aloud. Angry speech in particular requires careful decoding we should make an effort to hear the pain or fear that surfaces in body language. Tone of voice and choice of imagery. The principle of charity and the science of compassion are both crucial to any attempt to understand discourse and ideas that initially seemed baffling distressing and aliens. We have to recreate the entire context in which such words are spoken. Historical. Cultural political intellectual question them deeply and as the footnote on the science of compassion advised drive our understanding to the point where we have an immediate human grasp of what a given position meant with this new empathetic understanding of the context we will find that we can imagine ourselves in similar circumstances feeling the same in other words we have to see where people are coming from in this way we can broaden our perspective and make place for the other. We can ignore this compassionate imperative only if we do not wish to understand other people and ethically problematic position during this step we try to make ourselves mindful of the way we speak to others when you argue. Do you get carried away by your cleverness and deliberately inflict pain on your opponent's do you get personal will appoints you make further the cause of understanding or are they exacerbating an already inflammatory situation are you really listening to your appointment opponent what would happen if while debating a trivial matter that would have no serious consequences you allowed yourself to lose the argument. After a contentious discussion conduct a post-mortem with yourself can you really back up everything you said in the heat of the moment. Did you want to inflict pain. Did you really know what you were talking about or were you depending on hearsay. And before you embark on an argument or debate ask yourself honestly if you are ready to change your mind. The 9th step. Is a concern for everybody we have a duty to get to know one another and cultivate a concern and responsibility for all our neighbors in the global village understanding difference national cultural and religious traditions is no longer luxury it is now a necessity and must become a priority. The stranger phil many of us with alarm. However the process of global globalization seems irreversible and this means that whether we like it or not our societies will become more multicultural. Like any major political or social transformation this will be painful now that we are living side-by-side with people who may be at a different stage of the modernization process there will inevitably be tensions that as we seek to accommodate one another. Listen critically to the voices in your own society that preach hatred or disdain of other national religious and cultural traditions is there not something disturbingly familiar about it do you hear the hotter of the colonists or the bigotry of the fascist and some of their arguments. A dehumanizing discourse that seeks to dominate a group often uses the language of disgust and contempt. This kind of thinking led to the enslavement and oppression of african and native americans the armenian genocide the show of apartheid in south africa. The tribal wars in rwanda and the mass killings in bosnia. Make a habit of looking behind the headlines to the ordinary people who are affected by a crisis. Remember that they did not choose to be born into that part of the world like you they simply found themselves in a particular situation and may have been forced to conduct their whole lives in a context or violence deprivation and despair we can no longer strive at the expense of others a practically expressed respect for the other is probably indispensable for a peaceful global society the 10th step. Acknowledge. The effort of getting to know one another demands sound information and a willingness to question received ideas. We need to make a serious effort to fill in some of the gaps in our knowledge. We begin with ourselves we often have a myopic view of the history of our own country or religious tradition and criticize others for behavior of which we have been guilty in the past or even continue to be in the present. When we are about to criticize another nation or religious tradition we should get into the habit of catching ourselves and asking whether our own country may have been responsible for a similar abuse in the past. The 11th step is recognition. During the previous steps we have been developing a more sympathetic outlook based on imagination rather than logic our work has revealed that we are not alone in our suffering but that everybody is in pain we have allowed our own unhappiness and the sorrow of other people to invade our consciousness. We have learned that we cannot put ourselves in a special separate category. Instead we have tried to cultivate a considerate attitude reflexively relating our own pain to the distress of others. Instead of stealing ourselves against the intrusion of other people's pain we should regard our exposure to global suffering as a spiritual opportunity to enter our consciousness and take up residence there extend your hospitality to them and make place for the other in your life it is a powerful way of developing concern for everybody if a particular image speaks to you strongly focus on it. There may be a special reason for this. Bring this image deliberately to mind at various times in the day. Summit when you are feeling sorry for yourself or during a moment of happiness when you are filled with gratitude for your good fortune. Make a friend of the distressed person so that she becomes a presence in your life. Direct your thoughts of loving kindness and compassion to her. If we hug the memory of our own grief to ourselves. We can close our minds to other people's wretchedness the golden rule requires us to use our afflictions to make a difference in the lives of others. We cannot allow ourselves to feel paralyzed by the immensity of global misery. Enmity shapes our consciousness and identity. The people we hate haunter. They inhabit our minds in a negative way as we brewed in a deviant form of meditation on their bad qualities the enemy thus becomes our twin a shadow-self can we come to resemble nations may also feel deep antagonism toward people they have wronged and the enemy may become so central to national consciousness and identity that he becomes a second self if we want to achieve reconciliation not only do we have to struggle with the enemy but we also have to wrestle with ourselves. The 12-step is to love your enemy. The golden rule teaches that i value my own self and my own tribe and nation as much as you do yours. The great sages who formulated it believed that if i made my personal and political identity and survival. An absolute value human society would be impossible so they urged us all to yield to one another. The dalai lama suggested that the concept of war has become outdated more fair is an integral part of human history but it no longer makes sense in our global society if we destroy our neighbors or ignore their interest this will eventually rebound hideously back on ourselves tyrants cause their own downfall because when a ruler tries to impose his will on other people they automatically resist him. So discerning ruler would resort to arms only with regret and as a last resort. There must be no triumphalism chauvinism are aggressive patriotism he knows that we must bring hostilities to an end gently. Bring it to a conclusion but do not boast. Bring it to a conclusion but do not brag. Bring it to a conclusion but do not be arrogant. Bring it to a conclusion but only where there is no choice bring it to a conclusion but do not intimidate. A wise ruler does not try to make the people what he wants them to be but tastes as his own mind the mind of the people the only person who is fit to rule is the man who has overcome the habit of selfishness we can stop the vicious cycle of attack and counter-attack strike and counter-strike that we see in the world today only if we learn to appreciate the wisdom of restraint toward the enemy. We have witness the result of hardline policies inspired by a righteousness that can only see the worst in the enemy we have seen the danger of ruthless retaliation that drives people to despair ignores their needs and refuses to take their aspiration seriously we have become aware that when people feel that they have nothing to lose they resort to hopeless self-destructive measures try to wish for your enemies well-being and happiness. Try to develop a sense of responsibility for your enemies pain this is the supreme test of compassion if you have the will and determination to overcome your own hatred this can overtime change your patterns of hostility suspicions and disgust. We are bound together with our enemies because we share the same predicament. Today some of the israelis and palestinians who have lost children in the conflict have come together there's suffering creating a bond that transcends political division in order to work for peace. On the indian subcontinent indians and pakistanis shocked by the terrorism they have both experienced are campaigning together for peace between their countries. When we feel cast down by our pain and by the misery that we see all around us we should experience our dejection as a call to further effort. The missiles of compassion tells us what to do instead of becoming depressed by our repeated failures we should remember that constant practice does indeed make perfect and that if we persevere we too can become a force for good in the world. Thank you phyllis that was a lot to think about. Are closing words today will be provided by phyllis. Circumstances are beyond human control but our conduct is in our own power benjamin disraeli.

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Pr211205JohnGernandt-ed.mp3

Today's presentation. Working with families law enforcement mental illness. Bajan canadian. Relates to our second principle justice equity and compassion in human relations. Your dad has been a volunteer. Advocate and educator nami. National alliance for mental illness. More than 20 years. He believes that speaking out about mental illness helps immensely reduce stigma. Those who suffer from mental health disorders and their families. John has worked indoor volunteered in juvenile prisons. Adolescence. And psychiatric last avenue. Withhold your words. Good morning. Hazmat said i've been working as an advocate with mental illness for about. One of yours. It all started when. My youngest son. Came down with a serious mental illness and suicide. I've been reaching out into the community and trying to make things. As best possible for him. When i talked to police officers and cit training which is critical intervention training. I'm talking about families why am i talking about families. I'm talking about families because most often when officers received a 911 call. And they go out to a house. They're not meeting with. The person with. They help mental health. Problem. Personnel answers outdoor is the mother or father and grandmother or aunts uncles. And typically they're working just as much or more with the family. And they are with a person with a mental illness. So how do i start my presentation when i when i go with. Out to see police officers or meet at a cit training. I try to take it from the top down. Until officers. We get a 911 call. From mental crisis emergency. We drive up to the house we're going down the street. And what do we start doing we start profiling. Which one i supposed to do but we. As humans can. Can't help that week we profile. That means we start assuming things. Which we don't want to do. I told him the only thing you really want to assume is when you pull up to that house. There may be a very loving family and. Caring family. What all they can to help with a person with mental health crisis. In their home. I want to remind them is is there pulling up to my house. That are. Under the employee. Strongly strongly under the influence. Not under the influence of alcohol. Or drugs. Under the influence of trauma. Grieving. Broken families and disruptive family. Individuals feeling tremendous amounts of guilt. Social isolation. Feelings of shame. Families experience loss real loss. They've lost the child. That they thought they brought into the world. It's catastrophic. So. We have all these words up here. What does that mean. That's that's not what you're seeing in the home. We're going to find out about these. These first impressions. Is listening to. The feelings that people are. Are going through. The trauma. They're going through a catastrophic stressor. Inner hall. These people met with a doctor. Who told them that their loved one maybe it's there someone immediately in their family. Is living with a lifetime disease. Without acure. How would you feel. The terrible anxiety confusion. Struggling with emotions. Memories that won't go away. They're grieving. We can have fewer panic. Denial. Confusion. Regret sadness. Depression and spiritual questions like why me. Broken family. Emotionally exhausted was. With what's going on. Find a weave their way through. Society in medical and doctors and state and money. And also financial exhaustion there's a lot of financial exhaustion. I know when my first time when my son got sick. About a week later i got a prescription from the doctor. A $1,200 a month. That was a punch in the gut i was another mortgage. It is. Exhausted our financial. Being right then we weren't able to go on vacations with sock going out to dinner or some stuff like that just to be able to pay for them at the medication. Gil there's a lot of discrimination. Parents are wrongly believed. Trevino hotel about 1960. The mother was responsible for mental illness. Suzanne and i had an anomaly affiliate in the southern appalachian mountains. And we had mothers that came into our meeting that were absolute that were ousted from the family. They were kicked out of the family. For bearing a child. With a mental illness. Turbo. It's not that way now but back in the country and rural areas. Weekend. We can we can still find. Shame and humiliation do the stigma. Never seen that guy walking to the walmart or the grocery store home the hand with a down syndrome child. Pushing the wheelchair. Of a child with cerebral palsy. Spinal bifida muscles are all ataxic and tight. Little kid walking in the song goofy news touching everything is ocd is out of control and playing with things. I'm at guy. I am that guy i've been there. That's not fun. Have respect for those guys. They're just standing straight. They're walking tall and moving forward. Okay so what do families expect. Where they're at the front door. We're going in to walk into the house what do they expect. Expect respect and dignity. Just like that. Any human being deserves. They they want to acknowledge that they know best. Those people in the house the people who visit him they know their loved ones triggers. And then they know they're coping skills. You want to know them right away you don't want to go anywhere near those triggers. And you want to use those coping skills when communicating and talking with the family. They want you to ask questions and not give demands. They want clarification of who you are and how you can help. Avenue c i t certification. It's good to tell him let him know i've been trying i'm trying to do this i want to come here. New house i help you. We want you to use the right words. And the right phrases. The ease the tension in their hole. So you can move forward. They want to be given options. And not threats. So so what approach can we take. Walking dead house. We can show a theme. We can use a calm and relaxed body language. We can use a calm and relaxed tone pitch pace and modulation of voice. We can express hope. Not too much rope you want to be a little careful with her. Hopes of two ways it is a two-way street. It may not always come true. I like a prayer or wish. We can find the appropriate environment to speak. You don't want to have a family on a couch with you standing there. Over them i ran over them. Make sure you find a place in the house. What everybody is at the same level. So you can talk freely. Well dominating the conversation. By standing over them. We can listen we can really really listen. Define doubt the concerns. Their wants and their needs. Swappa. What do we do. We listen only to reply. Stop doing that listen to find out what you need to carry on the conversation and help as you can. You can use words that are on accusatory. Threatening. And you can structure are our language and question. And a positive outcome. Empathy. Empathy is probably going to be your biggest tool in. An inner toolbox. The biggest bourbon action that you can bring with you. Empathy lowers tension. Empathy is the ability. Recognize. Understand and share the feelings and thoughts of another person. Not your own. So important. Not your feelings if someone comes up to you. And says. My son's been sick for two or three years and you say oh i know some of those feelings. Don't don't go there don't talk about you talk about them and their feeling. Empathy bills trash. Episode shows that you have some understanding where you're interested and what their feelings are. And how you can help. Empathy is expressed through your physical presence your body language. As well as your words. Have you ever walked into work one day and. Summer's over. Walks in ingles. Pretty good bye my brother died. Over the weekend. What do you do. Your shoulders drop. Bend your elbows a little bit. You speak with soft honey i'm so sorry. That sympathy. Identity through your body language. Empathy can only be shown personally and not professionally. So you going to the hospital. The doctor comes out over surgery and is shrub is using his. Aubrey and clothes and everything. I'm sorry things didn't work out the way. We wanted to. About music in my office. The doctor comes in his office. And there is a person. Is real person. He's able to show empathy. Being an individual and being a person. Same to you same way you can police officer. Don't show anybody as a police officer. Try to show yourself. Your personal self. When you express. Spell sympathy. Works a lot better. Naked. Anthony warning there's a war. Speak only to someone's feelings and not you're wrong like i mentioned earlier. Empathy is not giving advice. Empathy is not making judgments. Empathy is not sympathy. Sympathies going along with x. Empathy. Is not to take pity on someone. Shawn porter. Understand. Words of family want to hear. Words people want to hear. So often. We let were slip off all our time. That when you're done you wish you didn't news. Let's go over a couple of them look at it. How about. Be reasonable. Gerbil. No one a miss to be some reasonable you're inviting conflict. Try. Reason with them and a real logical meaning. Like i'm being as reasonable as i can. I don't know how to do it any better. It'll get better here as we keep going. But right now. I see the problem a little differently. About come here. Slap is so terrible. Like they having a baby. Try. Excuse me. That works a lot better. Because those are the rules. We heard that has kids. Don't understand father stands there and says because i'm the father that's why. Emily doesn't work. Try explaining the rules to be very specific. A lot of times. When. Individuals are going to go to the hospital. With a please. The madison police force has a rule that you have to be hancock. Paris flip out about the why you hang up in my son we're not here for a reason. Is there pulse. Sit down and explain to the people wyassup policy. By the time you explaining they may think. This is okay and they can talk to their loved one and try to ease the tension from that. How about what's your problem. Snotty. Is signals this is a you. Bruce's meat battle. Uber versus me battle rather than us discussion. What's the problem back on the one. Who needs our assistance. Prime. What's the matter. How can i help you. Start a real conversation with the people as individuals. You you never or you always. You never realize that's accusatory. Absolute generalizations. Are probably not true like you never clean your room last wednesday. Or you never take your medicine. Say. I don't see you taking your medicine very well or. I've noticed that. The. The agreement we had has to take our medicine and i don't. I don't see that being followed. Phrases that family want to hear and they're going to work for you to use the tension in the house. Let me be sure i heard what you said. Prevents you from being. Misunderstanding. Vinci from being misunderstood. Being misunderstood is probably the worst situation you could be. When a parent when you're misunderstood and you say something incorrectly or you don't repeat back to them the right words. What does it say. You're not listen to me you don't care you don't care about them even came here you have no interest in me. You don't want to be in that situation. It gives you a chance to really find out what they said so you don't make a mistake. Is there anything i can do to gain your cooperation positive. Pleasant. Meet you now. Call oakwood. I sure like that think there is something that we can. Radar. Help me understand the pain and feelings explain to me. What you what you think and what's causing. So much fear and anxiety and distress. Is asking for cooperation. Reaching out. Is showing empathy. So why do we do all this. Our goal at least my goal is when i go into a house and i start the whole things going and i'm talking to people i'm trying to gain voluntary compliance. Voluntary compliance.. And be honest with one another. Voluntary compliance. Calm down. Voluntary compliance to. If you go to the hospital. Maybe go downtown. Voluntary compliance. Did hear each other out. You know. As a police officer that's what you're trying to do. You're going to these houses not because someone's in a burglary has not been a shooting or. Weapons everything like that. You trying to help. You're trying to help. Thank you let me know. Most of the time it's very very positive. This is making their job easier. You know the police officer if they lay their hands on somebody. That's taking a half-hour report they got to write intro for our report. And a meeting with their lieutenant or their sergeant or so forth of why did you have to. Show involuntary compliance. And put your hands on somebody. If you do verbal de-escalation and you're able to get out of that house. Keeping people calm. Without touching them and only using your voice and your body. You going to start on your on your. On your shoulder when you leave. It makes their job so much easier i put a lot of a lot of police on me now. You're going to hide. I can use this in my field work. Without having to get. All police like in a. In someone's home. About. A year ago. Hazard presentation. An older policeman he came up to me. Is it jonathan warne. Pistol on my hip. For 32 years. I've never pulled it out. I get 50 hours of training every year for how to use it. I do with the mentally ill 6 to 7 times a day and i have zero training. Alarm these guys haven't had any training at all. Now. Today they're bringing it into the dads. And it's used to be voluntary. And the cops that did it voluntarily we're kind of giving us a soft ride we don't need you type thing. It's mandatory now. To take cit training. And they're really happy they're getting. After they learn how to use it. And learn. Techniques in verbal de-escalation. No cit training is a 40-hour program for police. I'm just one part of it there's a lot of seminars that come in with. Doctors and nurses and behavioral us and stuff and we're all working on this. And for the last two days there's a lot of role play. Collateral playing out in field as well as in the class i know the last one we did we. We work with loose women. Call.. They come up to a car and someone maybe. I've been called guns of difficult. Cognitive difficulties or something. And the cop says. License and registration. How long do you think it takes. Macaw. Before they start flipping out. Because of non-response. Doesn't take very long and we found out that a lot of people that have causing her problems are grew slow at a processing. It can take up to 15 or 20 seconds. Resume monday. Process that whole thing and pull out their license and work on the registration thanks most police officers didn't want to wait more than 10 seconds before they're ready to pull you out of the car. And so we work a lot. We work a lot on that i'm a. On the last role players giving this. Having patience. Some people process as fast as you do. Some people need extra time to do that we work a lot on that. Lot of patience. It's like if there's a. Was on. Call one-time wear. There's a child up under tree. It wasn't coming down. Cops were getting all wrestlers of the tree. Not that dragon out of the tree. You're going to sit there. And you're going to talk. And you're going to wait and you're going to wait and you're going to wait and you're going to wait. You just going to have you known you have to show the patience. You make us some food and put at the bottom of the tree and. Have the vapors of the good smells coming up to bring them down. You are sitting in the back of the patrol car you are handsome. And they have their reasons and they have the reasons and reasons in. Some of them make sense. I would love it if they didn't. Now a lot of police officers that are in the critical intervention training or officers that are specifically in the. In the group to go out to these calls. They come in. Without uniform on. But if they get in the back of the car they they have to handcuff them. And they're looking at this policy maybe they can change it but if that's the way their policy is right now and it's a real, policy it's not. Just only madison. But i agree it's. It's a little threatening one.. Someone told you put your hands behind your back. One thing i left out of what i was talking about a one real important than police officers have to do when they go to a house and if they're getting the family together for sitting the table is go over the resources that are available to them. In the community. So they can find housing they can find psychiatrist. Therapist. And all all that kind of stuff. Mommy puts out a booklet. Of resources for the mentally ill which is fantastic it's a really really good pamphlet. And then hand it to the families. And go over the difference. Areas of the. All the book that. That maybe helped. But that's so important. To give them resources. It's like i said that emotional exhaustion is people don't know where to turn. It's. During these crisis calls intervention falls. Then. We have time to go over. The resources that are available. They're not getting a lot i'll tell you especially with parenting and. And things like that i mean if susannah my 22 class. Unami call it's up. 12 week 8 week program. Call family-to-family. Or trying to talk to mothers and fathers of children with. Weather. Adults with mental illness. Different techniques of working with him in the hall. And a lot of it has to do with vocabulary. The other half half hazard do with. Helping them understand what's going on. What the whole thing is with the medicine with the whole thing is with social security. And medicare not whole thing. It's on. And i'd love to roll out. These type of programs. In the schools and things like that i also teach. A program called and the silence. Which is a suicide prevention in in high school program. Teaching kids to react with her friends. When you see friends that are are. They're having difficulty. And so you want to reach out you want to speak to your teachers if you want to go to their teachers or you want to go there ministration going i think judy john has a problem. Can you think you can help out. I know and suicides i mean. I'd say about. 90% of the time. People are asking for help. And you just can't walk away and they want help. It's like that one kid the other day off and we shot the four people on that note he was asking for help. He put it on a note to the teachers help me. They didn't help. Infirm parents and teachers police officers nursing home you got to put yourself in a position that you're willing to. Deescalate instead of escalate the situation with their hands so often people that don't understand the techniques of helping people. Lower the tension. We all knew we could all use the training. In the workplace if it didn't matter where if you. If you get a little training you can be a big help. One thing i also want to bring it up. Is as a tipped as anybody. Is in a position where they have to call the police because they think something's happened to the point where. It's an emergency. When you call 911 or anything. Tell them that you want a cit officer. Come to the house. Nobody else to cit officer that's an officer. Dustin training through kalama. And physical intervention. And you'll get an officer to come that's had 40 hours of. If someone is causing a threat or there is a weapon present. The police have to go into police action. And i don't blame. They can do it as nicely as they can. But they're going to have to stop the punch in the fighting the slapping and if there's a weapons that they got to protect themselves and the other people in the room or around. So that. That happens i know with myself when i. Hundreds of times i've gone out with police officers. I don't go in the house. If i think there's any weapons. I make sure it's clear that there are no weapons. Or no immediate threat. To myself. Before i walked into. That's why the police were good to have there. Leather provide in a funk. It's going to be a lot easier for for dispatch. To be able to signal that call or send that call to the right people and into the right areas where people are i think is greater at 899 or something like that. It's supposed to come out this year next year. Besos come out early in the year. And the reallocating funds you know when they do a cit is not. G. Officer. Office be tore out of his patrol car for 440 hours. What he's not doing his typical job and they're paying him. To take. This training so it.. It does cost money. But one thing i remind this officers is that they're not going to fix it. They're not doctors they're not therapist they're not going to fix it. Their biggest deal i think is to bring in lower the tension to the house and see what's going on. And if they need to bring another people. Then they have the option to do that. So long time. It's the settle in and find out where what resources they have available and resort what resources they can give the people. If they need to go to the hospital because it's an emergency psychiatric problem. Or if they need to. Get social services involved in immediately they can do that the police. Serve a really good purpose in the fact that a lot of these calls are dealing with some violence. I mean when the kids just breaking everything in the house it's throwing every possible thing breaking every possible thing. He can find in the house. He's hitting his mother or punching holes in the wall. Please go work good on that low. More so then. Social worker someone else can work on. On that level. So if they can get in. And identify the resources that are needed. Then call him up. And get them in there. It is a two-way thing it takes professional help as well as police help sometimes. Sometimes bowl.

uuprairie_org

Pr140223GA-ed.mp3

Good morning welcome to prairie unitarian universalist fellowship society whatever that last word. We welcome people of whatever religious beliefs. Welcome you no matter what your skin color no matter. What's your sexual preferences no matter where you are in this journey of life we hope to make you welcome. Here. I always encourage people to code in more than one service if this is a new experience for them because. Our services are sometimes led by me reverend sandra ingham please just call me sandy. Or by on people from within the congregation or sometimes by outside speakers. And this morning we're doing i'm a mix of speakers from. Within the congregation. The opening words then aren't these the written by andrew bacchus i slightly adapted them. Come in from the cold. Make yourself a sacred home. If only for these brief moments. In spite of time. We shall soon bear us away from one another. Make this a family. Treat us as your own. Make us. Your religious sacred spiritual family if only in this space which we make sacred. By our connections here and beyond. Come on inn. Make yourself at home. Sing. And love life. Hey did you give a child for reading and penny will like the child blessing the candles here in the last gentle light past sunset at the end of the week. In the last years of the century it is not hard to grasp after the receding light it is hard not to wonder what is left. Two candles burning insufficient light plant or cook or paint the kitchen. Anything's purposeful that might claim some conviction of the future. There is so little we create a few lines that take on life a bookcase but stand steady there is so little that remains and always someone wanting i could hand out quarters on the street all day and no one would be saved or safe or whole outside the street lamps are blinking on into a false pink phosphorescent shear and we are sitting silence in the wake of the candles first flair i am watching you looking at the candles or the darkness between them. This is the blessing that we have kindled this particular dark. This space between two poles which we who are not angels can inhabit. If you stand facing me this is what you will find the gap between us where are common lives take shape the space between us that we reach into for love. Outside the royal blue is deepening to black the stars begin to form their million-year-old light into constellations which we. In our demand for form and story have decreed. And you and i are caught between the candles. Where we cannot help but live in the clothes and infinite abundance. Held between the kindling and the dying of the light. Praised be thou eternal god who has sanctified us with thy commandments and required of us. The kindling of the lights. You made thank you kate you may be going to say this later but that's from a general assembly service you went. Unitarian universalist have family reunions. Just like the people in cynthia rylant. Book. The relatives. Kane. Well maybe not just like. Union. Unitarian universalist may not be related by blood. But we are connected. Buy something just as deep. How are unitarian-universalist face tradition. Our religious heritage. When i use the word religious or religion i mean. All in life that is mysterious. Awe-inspiring. Sacred unknowable. But yearned for in the deepest parts of ourselves. I mean that would cause us to be the best that we can be. Too bad the army co-opted. Beautiful phrase. And all that challenges us to find peace and strength within ourselves. So that ideally we will be better able. And equipped. Toosii. And work for justice. And goodness. In the world. Religious. Is a shorthand way to say all of that. More conveniently at more convenient. Van my expressing all of that every time i refer to religion. At least for me that is what the word. Religion. But we are not gathered here this morning to dissect the meaning of words. We are here to celebrate. The larger organization of unitarian-universalism off which we are apart. And. Hopefully to get some of you so excited. And interested enough and what goes on and you you land in the region and the nation and the world to get you so enthused and fascinated that you will want to attend a general assembly. If not this year next year. We can even tell you where they're going to be for the next 5 years. Perhaps you could get yourself to a regional meeting. We're doing this today because. Registration deadlines are coming up soon. For both. The june general assembly. And the april regional meeting. Well this year's general assembly may be too far away for some of you to even consider going to. It is in providence rhode island. April regional meeting is in wausau. Just up the road. On april 11th and 12th. If you register for that meeting by march 15th registration fee is $60. On-site registration is $100. Deadline to get at least a $50 discount on general assembly registration is april 30th. That registration begins march 3rd and of course i have the websites for all those things. That i could give you later or i'll also try to remember to put in prairiefire. Kate lewin die. Will tell you a little bit about our general assembly experiences but to give you a broader picture we have invited others to share their experiences at general assembly. And i will be asking them to come up in alphabetical order in just a moment they are. Phyllis long mary mallon bar part and cheryl robinson. I have been to. 20 +. General assembly. Boss track. Most recently the one in phoenix arizona in 2012. What was living in flagstaff so that was a pretty easy one for me to get to. First official one i attended. Was in milwaukee. In 1988. Apparently though the first one that i actually ended. Was in columbus ohio in the. Early 80s maybe. Somebody else remember any of. I just didn't realize until many years later. That i had been. Eddie unitarian universalist general assembly in columbus now. That is not because it was a lot of drinking on the bus that went although there was. I was a member of first unitarian society then and that choir was at that point in time. One of the best choirs in our association and we had been invited to sing and many of you will remember the director of supplier. Ellsworth's. We had been invited to sing at the. Gathering. Event. In columbus ohio. I tell you this story somewhat shame-faced italy. But mostly i tell it as an illustration of how insular. Our congregations are. How bad we are. Honore and acknowledging our place in the larger organization first unitarian society was not as big dinosaur is now but it was still one of the larger congregations in the denomination. You are such a small group such a small denomination. Small bots. Powerful. And. We will always be even more. Powerful. An influential in the world the more that we join with other unitarian universal. Congregation. To do the work of the world. It also is incredible. Morale-booster to know that there are other congregations out there. Doing what we do. And of course. Often different way. The first few times i went to general assembly i was in sort of a tramp. Most of the time being surrounded by so many others from the uu family. There was lots of hugging. There's always lots of hugging. There's always lots of gathering around together at mealtimes. Also lots of quiet talk. Into. + 3. Lots of laughing. Lots of crying. And i have even experienced was cynthia rylant called. Going to sleep with all that new breathing in the house. More than once i have shared hotel rooms with four or five others. I think six in a room is my record. Once i shared a room with pat. Watson. In spokane washington in 1995 i think. Many of you know who pat is. She's not physically with us. About 3 months ago. December. Uppity certainly with us in spirit and anytime we do a service about anything denominational i think we dedicate it to pat. Also i wore this not just because i do tired of not having bright things. Pat loves this. Jacket of mine and always wanted me to wear it when i went to visit her. Soap at this one's for you. And through all of these general assembly. None of us thought about virginia much. Or wherever we were from. Because we were so busy. Hugging and eating and breathing together and going to meetings and worship service since the heading to know each other better and learning about how other congregations do things and gathering so much wisdom from others about how to make. This strange tradition of ours unitarian universalism. Stronger and how to get the word out about who we are. So that maybe there ought we will attract a few others who probably are out there we know they're out there and they believe what we believe they just don't know it yet. And that's what general assembly this year is going to focus on. Phyllis. Not since i'm doing the strange alphabetical order thing. Even though you're in the middle of the alphabet. First. Oh please, open. Useless miss your mic. Should be fine i have been a delegate from prairie 22 giaise in recent years and it was. An amazing experience. You suddenly feel like you're in this great big family that extends all across the country and it just gives you a feeling of connection to all of the uu's all over feeling of excitement and. Just just so warm and i think that's where all the hugging in the kissing comes from is just this recognition and everyone is so glad to be there. You get you get that positive feeling also. And there are so many things going on all the time that you can never go to all the meetings that you really want to because their conflicting with other meetings you want to go to so you have to kind of pick and choose but whichever one you go to there's always a good speaker. And a lot of times there's discussion afterward which is. Urge anyone who hasn't been to a ga that's sometime you should be sure to go because it is such an inspiration. And it's something you'll always remember and you meet a lot of interesting people from all over the country. And they're always an interesting places to and then you also have an opportunity to attend if you're a delegate you get to attend these meetings where you vote on things that affect. Every all the uu's decisions about what issues you want to concentrate on you get information to bring back to your congregation. And there's always a really outstanding special speaker that everyone comes to see there's also lots of music and singing. And that also gives you a good feeling inside. That's about it for me. I i need wanted to introduce phyllis by her proper title. She is the chair of our denominational affairs committee which is looking for a. And it's a committee that doesn't meet. Monthly doesn't have to so that's a good committee to be on thank you phyllis. And friends. Phyllis mention the business meeting i neglected to look at what exactly what business exactly we're going to be doing in 2014. But matt tedesco. Mansions and i think christina clock to. You kind of got into it on the sunday you did the service that 10 things that we're looking at in our business meeting is changing that first principle. The one that says we affirm the. Worth and dignity of each. Person we're not we're not going to change it to say we don't we are going. We're going to expand it. Expand to include. Well i want to say animals i don't think that's quite right all sentient beings maybe that's the way it's. But it's a fascinating concept. Well i heard that i could be talking today last night so i got out a piece of paper and i wrote down all the things that i like about general assembly and then you know it got kind of cluttered here with arrows and things and then i yellowed in the box before i even start with that i just wanted to show you that what you get when you go or maybe get it before you go as you get this. Book that shows you all the many things that you can attend and what i usually do is i look through the mall and i circle the ones that are most interesting to me and then usually there two or three that happened at the same time each time you know so then i have to pick there on the spur of the moment but which one am i going to go to. So this is the order i wrote down and i'll tell you a little bit about them first excellent sermons. Some of the best sermons i've ever heard in my life talks whatever you know where they have you crying you know i've gone to some of those and i remember one by barbara pesce who at that time i she may still be at the unitarian church of evanston illinois. And you know she had us in tears about this. And the idea the name of her sermon was only by your presence to be with people and then i wrote down secondly performances while you can go to two or three plays one was that i saw for the first time with the laramie project it was done as a reader's theater and it was so excellently done i saw it later here in madison wasn't nearly as good and then. And how scared she was and you know how she felt it first and she was actually playing three part she played her own part. Then i believe she played an uncle who believed in the certain way about homeless people when she played another person. And so you got all sorts of use of it and the way it worked out the archivist this one-woman show with by the end she was going out and being a part of the homeless population and that leads me to another thing about ga there's usually some social action and when people could choose to go and be with the homeless population in that city i don't remember which city it was anymore but. Finally says you know i'm going to find out who's throwing those babies in i'm going to stop that from happening you know when that was his story about how we should look at the causes of things and try to fix them rather than just trying to rescue you know results of that. Alright music well i attended music one of the music workshop and it was put on by grace smooth mclaren who is a songwriter. Workshops let's see things your congregation and can do to become more welcoming. That was one of them another one i remember was 10 ways you can increase your attendance or something. For under $1,000 each. that was good and then they had something about breakthrough congregations every year they'll have congregations that grew like a hundred percent over a few years or something like that and they have like one of them is an example from of small congregations one medium and i don't know if they have one for large and they detail how they went about doing that. Couple more things. The plenary the 8th when your delegate you go to the plenary i don't know if i organized it is and they have the moderator while jimmy carter was the moderator for many years and she was so good at. Clearly. Professor type and very good so anyway i would urge all of everybody to try the least the first time you might be overwhelmed. And i was and i felt kind of lonely and then i think the next year people had had feedback about this. And they had you could meet in a little group. So every day you can meet this little girl you got to know on the first time and then you could talk about things and then you didn't feel so lonely. so good to go with someone who's experienced with this or just someone else so that you have someone to. I could talk ice mary i forgot i was in boston also i didn't see you there. There and thank you for bringing up the social justice component because when i was in phoenix. We mop we i mean they were three thousand of us i think. Marched on joe maricopa's. To jarrettown her copas. Jail. Maricopa county jail in. It was some music. Lmnop park president of our congregation. And then i was up to four and five i think now it's 6 but it may be more and but i also go to have been 23 u umn which is the unitarian universalist meeting and there's a interrelationship it's hard to get to to both in in one year. And the highlights of the specific ga that i've been to i was in columbus back in the one that you saying it as a delicate with my daughter who was maybe fifteen at the time and i think i barely saw her the entire time i was there because she was off doing things with other kids so there are programs for youth there that are very dynamic and when you get into the youth have all discussed whatever issue is there and they're up at the mic talking i mean it very. Guiding principle. It wasn't in the original.. If i can remember these people standing up in a cluster writing it. And bringing it to the general assembly right there and people were really excited about it about it past it so it was a very interesting dynamic step. Thing. Mary mentioned the where lectures those are probably one of my favorite things that happen. The one that stands out most in my mind was it 2006 in st louis when mary oliver the poet spoke. And that was amazing thing since your sister huge auditorium with thousands of people. And one spotlight on this bare stage. In this tiny little woman. Walking across the stage. Looking to know so frail and. And and alone in this big place and then trust. Killing us. With her thoughts and her poetry and her her essays at was just an amazing experience for which i would never trade for anything. I'm also love the service of the living tradition which starts with always all the ministers processing in using that kim that we started with. And. Because i've been around. You know unitarian-universalist since i was like four. I've gotten to know a lot of people from aladdin. over-the-air in the service of the living tradition they read who died. So that's always you know meaningful if i called you know and also it's the people who when they celebrate people who. Just been are welcomed in the fellowship so it that's an interesting. Kind of thing. I stopped. Being a delegate as soon as we got. Delegates from other things because. When i go i like to be really involved in the music i mean after all that's kind of my thing and it's hard i've discovered it's hard to do both that the music is so involving that for me to concentrate on the music and concentrate on being a delegate is too much. So i've the last several giaise when i've gone i've just focused on being a musician as opposed to a delegate. The ministers always get together head of time for a i don't know what you call that but some sort of annual meeting yeah and and they have acquired that sings at that for their service will they always invite. U umn members to come yep go like 2 days early. I'll because they want to pass the choir so so i've done that a couple of times i've picked up some some music that i brought here because it's not quite as complex sometimes as the music that's the great big choir sings singing in the choir had a chance to work with. That's true thank-you bar inc you in st louis i was there i was in the third row to hear mary oliver because that year in st louis i got final fellowship and mary oliver was there for me right my favorite poet and cheryl robinson i know you've been three. I was just overwhelming to see it. And then. This isn't important. He's generally but there is an overall but there's a lot of pageantry that is very moving like there's an opening ceremony for the olympics or something i don't know if they cause they. March in a banner carried by someone from that church of everybody that's represented there so you will see banners from just all over the country and they're all. You know the felt and homemade and whatever banners like we have and someone from their church will be probably carrying it and they do a whole procession around and it's just it's very very interesting and when that meeting is over with wherever you're staying they hang these banners like the sears two-story. And. The programs and workshops that's been mentioned i mean in that book that mary should there are things from usually about 7:30 in the morning until 9:30 10:00 at night that you can be going to it any hour of the day and i mean 45 choices if those times of each hour so you really do have to take a look and make your own schedule and in be willing to change of course but it's just going to keep you very very busy and intrigued with all the topics that you will find you will be interested in there's something for everybody. I don't stare into quebec city want. They're doing some some social action out in front of that one where. The people from canada were actually trying to separate off from the regular you anyway i think they thought we weren't. Being christian enough anymore something what was the point. Something that was going to be. When we had time for stuff we took the two-hour bus tour and they have old hartford city they take you through in the wall and they have the new parts of the city and you can get out and. Walk around on you no overlook the saint lawrence lawrence. We learned a lot of things about the way of life here when we were out in the country they show how all the farm houses and all has like brightly colored kinross. And the reason for that being that in the winter when there's so much snow you can kind of see oh there's my destination that red roof the green russell blue roof and. People who are that. Talk to you in the winter and snow really want to spend the time of the year when it and when they can be outside being outside and so almost every restaurant has an outdoor eating part in at night we've only got four hours of. Of darkness and you would go to bed at midnight and just still be bright and then 4 in the morning here comes the sun but it was because of the the the time difference of rotational difference and all that. So it was wonderful and one other thing that you noticed every time. Don't have an enormous display exhibit hall. And all kinds of books. Heal from from skinner and from different press and all kinds of representation of the smaller. Groups. It's kind of form within like the humanist group in this and that will all be represented there are. Tzu-yu jewelry i got this year. Stoles for the minister's all kinds of goods and then a lot of people set up tables for. The social action that they're doing it their church and raising money for. That by selling some of the where's that have been made by people live in the country they're supporting or that kind of thing. Portland i remember. Enjoying to see pat watkins and st mary mullen. Maybe i'm thinking i'm thinking if we back okay and. Mike and carolyn briggs we've been gone for a while so to see people from up here over there was a smile you know and. And we also saw somebody we knew from a whole different you uterus is very very nice to me. The other unitarians you may have met before. That year we had the privilege of being one of the breakthrough congregations this was a small congregation in southern illinois carbondale unitarian fellowship and when we arrive there 16 years ago it was in a building but no bigger than this and we had no minister and was completely for about fifty years and then within a matter of a couple of years we had all kinds of democratic discussions and everybody and we did it. So we were small and so we were honored in portland and the four of us went up to the. Beginning of the front of the stage. Last one i remember was st-louis that was very close to home for us then so it was only about a two-and-a-half-hour drive and so we saw a lot of people from our own church would come just for one day or one afternoon and that was very very nice and that was the mary oliver where lecture that was superb. Publicize our phones watergate. You may have thought about her or knowing about a couple years and you'll find out so much more about it. I'm sure i've already took i thought well going last i'll have i'll have everybody else that everything but i i hope this. Actually we do have one more person and i did see you in portland. Because well because of the breakthrough congregation award i remember it carbondale being up there on stage with such an honor. It will be in portland again in next year. 15. Cs go back to portland and i would like to invite kate to wrap it up. Tell my my comments about dar to be a little bit different i think from what other people have said because i have only been to one and i was the sole prairie member who went to louisville last year. That is so for me is i guess the first thing was said ga is big i mean like really really big overwhelmingly big and huge and for me i die attend prairie because i i want to be able to deal with all of their life's biggest things in room where i know everybody's name and i have known a lot of you for many many years and i feel comfortable with all of you and for me that seeing seeing what i believed splashed up on jumbotrons was actually kind of off-putting to me that i'm like yeah this is okay but it's starting to feel kind of. However ga also has tons of small worship services church services anything that you could possibly want in a smaller kind of environment so what i did is that i went to a friday night shabbat service with my louisville host at with the do you use for jewish awareness and so that chalice lighting was the the poem that was used to light the candles in the shabbat service and i found it that that service which is actually conducted about half and hebrew which i don't speak but that the the small environment and the closeness that made me feel much more at home so i would definitely recommend it for for those of you who have sought out prairie as your home definitely look into those smaller services because it definitely gives you ignored smart much closer kind of feel another very big part of my experience and so for a very modest cost per night i stayed at the home of another another you you with another young woman from york pennsylvania and so every night that i was there a rough alena darlene and i sat around drinking tea and eating and we stayed up until 1 or 2 in the morning pretty much every night and the connection was extremely important to me because to do that and so 4ga is it really truly representative of us. But on the other hand then we voted to create this enormous region. Breaking up so dissolving smaller districts in creating a huge region which is not going to make it more expensive to attend regional meetings because now we're in the same region with lewisville and a couple of other places where it's a much longer. You cannot drive from one end of the region's the other in a day so there's. That kind of a conflict. We're embracing the needs of our transgendered members at the convention center. All the bathrooms were labeled gender-neutral. So there were no bathrooms that were specifically matter women so we have come a long way as a people of learning to what what helps to support our transgendered folks but we still needed to be reminded that in the big convention hall that when something was done to let the folks and mobility devices get out first so that they could get out. But. It seems like we all as congregations feel kind of alone and disconnected in this and we're all kind of surprised but it's like oh you're having this issue to that word were surprised by that and so i think that the fact that like one of the things that's important about teenage that we can get our conversations together to realize that we do have these things in common other people have mentioned that there is so much that you can eat you want to do sufi dancing. It's not that good witch does happened that you can then sneak out without being detected but the two far it is possible to kind of overeat innocence and that then that's where having your connections is extremely important because then you can find find your arlene and rocket lena and go off and have a cup of coffee and kind of decompress from all of it so this was it was a very good experience. Thank you kate are we barb or and or a light shouldn't look this up before the service but we can send at least we can pay registration fees for at least one person maybe to the general assembly i i'm not sure either but we can find that out as short least one. So general assembly. Wrapping it up thank you all of you spoke it can be overwhelming expensive noisy confusing and just as frustrating as any other reunions. General assembly and the regional meetings can also be. Uplifting challenging energizing these gatherings can fill your heart with gratitude but we exist. But within this church this denomination you are encouraged to be a free thinker unencumbered by doctrine or creed bound together not by someone telling you what to believe and how to act. The bound together by los compassion community in the search for truth and justice. For me despite all the drawbacks and shortcomings of these reunions every time i attend one. I feel tiny bit closer to if you look at the quote at the top of the order service. I feel a tiny bit closer to unveiling the bonds. That bondage to all. You don't have time for any feedback. But that's okay if you've been to general assembly and want to continue the conversation weekend. Upfront for a little while and if you can keep it i can. I think what we'll do now is go directly to extinguishing the chalice because we are running a little late and it's the words for that are in ordered service if he's all like to join me and saying them we extinguish this plane but not the light of truth the warmth of community or the fire of commitment. Be sweet carry in our hearts until we meet again. Did your neighbor and go in peace.

uuprairie_org

Pr110123MargaretCarpenter-ed.mp3

Good morning everyone and welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society i'm rachel on i'm one of the prairie members. Who has most of her voice this morning with hot water to help me out today. spires to be both an open-hearted and open-minded congregation. We welcome people of every ethnic and religious backgrounds whatever your color your sexual orientation or your family structure. We welcome you no matter your age your abilities or your inabilities. Later in the service will have an opportunity to invite visitors guests and returning friends to introduce yourselves so we might get to know you better. On sunday mornings we provide a wide variety of services. They're presented by either a prairie member a member of the wider community or by our minister reverend jane as simpson and today margaret carpenter will be presented to us and i'll be introducing her in a little bit. We now have a story for all ages. So children feel free to come on up to the carpet and margaret carpenter will be reading to us today. Woodson. Only on visiting day is there a chicken fried in the kitchen at 6 a.m. and grandma hommy saw and low smiley secret just for daddy and me smile and. She can be all pretty for her visiting day and maybe daddy is already up question his cheap combing his hair back thing yeah that pretty little girl of mine is coming today with all the men around him looking on jealous life they wish they had a little girl. Heavy with presents for her son, saying please can you take these with you and grandma taking the presents from his mistakes arms are getting presents and shooting me a look that says you better not make a sound about mrs. tate not having money to take the bus there to see her only son and i sit quiet respectful and she thinking that mrs. takes to go but me to take him food it only. The tower. And only on visiting day do i get to tell daddy everything that has happened over the month. While i sit on his lap and he pulls on my braids smiling is big me and grandma have been gone forever smile laughing his big lots join me and grandma off his friends pressing peppermint into my hand and kisses against grandma. This is one of visiting room typically looks like. I've been in many of them. Grandma says it's not forever going to be like this. They have to leave. I look at the father's looking sad. Everybody smoking sad cuz i have to go find stop she says one day we'll be able to wake up and have daddy right there in our house again and we won't have to take long bus rides once a month i walk home from the bus stop hand-to-hand feeling a little sad already starting to miss daddy. Grandma says. All it takes is time a little time and why we're holding out waiting for daddy to come home we can count our blessings and love each other up and make biscuits and cakes pretty pictures to send daddy. And in the early evening if there's a little chill outside we can sit. Outback bundle up in blankets and make each other laugh. As we make big plans. I'm daddy from daddy comes home again and that's what they're doing. When you thinking. It makes me think of my past but i was very fortunate to not have anybody that was close to me in prison. I was very fortunate and you'll hear that when i relate my story today. Well i get the opportunity to introduce margaret carpenter and i have to tell you that i had to really take a pencil to her biography because otherwise i probably could have been speaking for most of the time of the presentation so i'm only telling you part of her biography he is a native of memphis tennessee and she earned her bachelor's degree in ethnic relations from university of state of new york or usny and her master's degree in urban teaching from concordia university and she also has wisconsin teaching and administrative simplification she held many positions in the chicago public schools and also in the kenosha unified school district she worked as a human relations officer specified specializing in discipline referrals she worked as a teacher of both six and seventh grade add science math and reading. Oh she was a learning specialist interim assistant principal and then later a principal. She joined the department of corrections in 2007 as education director for the division of adult institutions and she has overseen efforts division wide to help offenders in our adult system make educational games in math writing reading and other areas. In october of 06 she was appointed to the division of juvenile corrections as a division at as the division administrator. She's volunteered numerous hours for the verona public library and in the verona area school district as an elementary tutor and served on a high school committee that is focused on bringing underrepresented groups of students into advanced placement courses. She has the department of corrections adopt-a-school program which provides tutors and mentors for students at the sherman middle school she's coordinating a department of department of corrections partnership with reach which is reach a child through books as well as a partnership with the national council on crime and delinquency in order to assess. The academic games that youth make while they are in the corrections or detentions system. So i welcome margaret carpenter say to speak on correctional education. Welcome margaret. It's actually an honor to be here and rachel has given a biographical summary of my formal training at current status. I would be greatly remiss if i did not provide you with another look at my background facetime my upbringing and i need to start this off by doing that. I grew up on 53rd and state street in chicago. The area was the robert taylor housing project. I spent 17 years in a drug-infested. Daniel fasted crime-infested warzone. I grew up on welfare. My family depended upon food stamps and medical card. For survival. In 1978. My 18 year old brother who was ted just graduated from high school straight a student. Who shot in the head in a robbery attempt. In 1984 a guy put a gun up to my head. Kitchen sets rob me the attempted to rape me. He attempted to kill me by shooting at me twice. Once my mom and i witnessed a single homicide in our neighborhood. Years later we both witnessed again a triple homicide. I have names for numerous peers who were murdered. When war zones are referred to people naturally think of current places like afghanistan or iraq. However i challenge the inner cities all across america. Are just as war-torn. Does environment contribute to poverty and illiteracy. It's way very to a very large degree. Those same environment. Feed the prison population in america. I frequently tell my story. To incarcerated youth an emmy in an effort to stimulate a sense of hope. That they too can unlock doors the doors of poverty and crime and illiteracy. I use my life as a living example to inspire hope and change. Because during my 17 years as a resident and the numerous. Chicago housing projects. And one of the numerous chicago housing projects i was always just one step away from becoming prey. Or being forced into predatory behavior. In an effort to protect myself. One scenario could have resulted in death. The other in prison. Mikey that unlock the doors of poverty and crime was without a doubt education. A huge percentage of america's inner-city population never succeed in unlocking those doors. Death and or prison become their destiny. So now i'm going to give you some statistics that relate to dlc. I currently i'll just give you my status and dlc department of corrections. I'm currently the acting administrator for the division of juvenile corrections. And the education director for the division of adult institutions i'm doing both jobs right now. When the government interchanged. My position eyepatch resign my position as the administrator for juvenile correction. And the current secretary who's secretary gary hamlin asked if i would consider staying in. The division of juvenile corrections as acting administrator for an additional 45 days. And i agreed because they're so many initiatives on the table to include the possible closure of a juvenile institution which is a good thing. Job because the numbers are low which hopefully reflects the fact that. Qantas dropping with you. And we do believe that is occurring because are serious juvenile offender population. And that is the group that commits certain types of crimes that. Automatically commits them to long-term in the juvenile system. It has dropped so we think the crime is dropping. And i volunteered to continue to do the education director's piece because i didn't want to go back in 45 days and started ground zero and so i'm juggling two positions is very difficult i'm exhausted but it's part of my passion and it's in azure c. I'll give you some statistics. And i will take my time and flow through this however it won't be long and drawn-out. Celebrity view an opportunity to ask questions and hopefully i can provide answers. As of january 21st. 2011 just this past friday. The inmate population for wisconsin department of corrections division of adult institution. Is 20 1667 inmates. The youth population for the division of juvenile corrections is 6. 105. 359 are in institutions. And 246 are on community supervision. There are. 6644 adult offenders on community supervision. Incarcerating adults are managed by the division of adult institutions. Community supervised the delta managed by the division of community corrections. However youth incarcerated for on community supervision are managed by the division of juvenile corrections which is what i do. For the purpose of this presentation. I will concentrate on the inmates and youth in the institutions. Cuz there's lots of data for all of the components. The statistics that i will provide were primarily reflect the adult population within the institution. I just have a very little that i would share about the juvenile environment although i'm open to questions. At the point that we have questions and answers. 47% of adult inmates lack either a high school diploma or its equivalent. 49% read below in 9th grade reading level. As 74%. Performed below in 9th grade level in mathematics. Another caveat that i want to add but i am not going to focus on it today. Is that 70% of adult inmates entering prison have alcohol or drug abuse treatment needs. 24% are on clinical monitoring for mental health needs. 8 to 10%. Are seriously mentally ill with conditions such as bipolar disorder. Schizophrenia and major depression. Those factors naturally present additional challenges for us and serving the inmate population. For the youth component over 60% of youth read significantly below their grade levels. Has 75% perform significantly below their great levels in mathematics. And 65% of the youth have a oda treatment needs and roughly 25% have mental health treatment needs. There are 19 adult institution sites. 18 have full-time schools. There are 16 adults centers. 3/2 full-time schools. The 18 full-time schools in the adult institutions. Have the following. Adult basic education to focus on basic literacy. Across all subject areas. Vocation and technical education that prepares them in the for the job market. And there's the thin carcerated individual program which i will talk about in just a little bit. This is something that most people are not aware of. The department of corrections is a local education agency. With a local education agency number like every school district throughout the state of wisconsin. I know that's not common knowledge to everybody. Each institution has a school code assigned by the department of public instructions. Ppi. There are 13 special education sites. And 9 title one site now in that number i have included the three juvenile correctional institutions as well. The adult basic education program enrolls an average of 4800 students per year and graduates. About 1050. Puryear via hscd. As of juice july 2010. There was a waiting list of roughly 1,300 students for the adult basic education program. Under the umbrella of the adult basic education the special education and the title war programs. Are highlighted components. Adult and youth. Are set for various learning disabilities. And individual education plans are developed to meet those disability needs ip. Special education funds or received and directed to the departments 13 sites that are special education sites. Provide opportunity to support necessary accommodation. As required by law. I oversee that component. The elementary and secondary education act. Esa esea. Provide. Funding support to adult and youth who are under. 821. And without a high school diploma for its equivalent. This is title 1 funding. The funds are used to focus on literacy across all subject areas. As support graduation. For those individuals who are delinquent and are considered at-risk. Again. Only the nine identified titleone sites receive title 15. And their plans that are required. For how those funds are used in order to address. The academic deficits that the inmates have and you have. Third the department. Also receives carl perkins vocational and technical education act funding. The perkins funding supports 62 vocational-technical classrooms. Opportunities. That are spread throughout the 18 adult institution. The 62 classes come from 36 different vocational programs. 20 fiscal year 10 the department enrolled 1054 student inmates. Can graduated 621. Last but equally as important there is the incarcerated individual. Program called the iip we used lots of acronyms the corrections it is a united states department of education grant funded project. The grant financially provides tuition for student in me to attend post-secondary academic courses towards an associates. Arts degree through matc milwaukee. Student inmates must be within seven years of release to qualify for this program. They must be from ages 18 through 35. Who have not committed the crimes against minors and other violent offenses and this includes sex offenders since the 2003 start of the grant. There has been. They have been 293 inmate served those served have successfully completed 1580 credit and four have obtained associates degree. The department of corrections employees 297 educators for the adult facility. 60% of a teacher's provide direct academic instructions to address literacy needs. And we're in process of redesigning our whole literacy approach. We're focusing on literacy across all continents areas. And we're focusing aren't engaging. The student and me in learning. The remaining 40% provide vocational training special education focus and guidance counseling. The majority of the teachers are certified through the wisconsin technical college system for adult basic education. Special education. And title one teachers are department of public instructions certified. For the juvenile correctional institution all of the teachers are dpi certified. There's ongoing research. To measure the impact of education on recidivism. The department of education and bureau of prisons. Have conducted individual research that show bad that shows that the more education. That an inmate receives while incarcerated the less likely that individuals will go back to prison. Occasional training and acquired marketable skills have been directly linked to the reduction of recidivism. Wepay. $32,080. So how's feed clove provide medical services in education. Anime. Pretty. Bought the picture. One of the prisons with the money. The department of corrections leadership. Smoke some key beliefs. And engages and practices that encapsulates the following points. Inmates are sent to prison as punishment. And not for punishment. And we rigorously practice that. We must believe in a person's capacity to change his or her behavior. Image must be treated respectfully and with basic dignity. This can be done without compromise of the essential element. Professional distance. This discipline must be consistently fair. Inmates need legitimate opportunity to enhance their self-esteem. And provide necessary tools to their tool boxes. There's inherent value and self-improvement programs such as education finally. 97% of all wisconsin incarcerated inmate will return to society. That's a statistical fact. We want them prepared. First successful re-entry. Department the department of correction works hard to foster. Human treatment. Because we believe that human treatment. In a positive sense is the greatest. Teacher for humanity. And that is my present infant presentation. And i'm hoping for question. If i can just make reference to the victim peace the department of corrections has an office of victim impact that we spend a lot of time and energy in coordinating and paying attention to the victims of the inmates that we have in place we work in terms of restorative justice a greatly so the point that you make is his very valid that victims say that and we do everything we can to support the victim end of things to include restitution we are collecting restitution to a great degree from inmates who have committed a crime so that's a very valid point that you make but we also feel that if we provide and met with tools to successfully re-enter society that we are hopefully hopefully reducing future. It still exists today in that environment as a matter fact i group on 53rd and state street spent 17 years there. Just about few months ago they were raiding the most dangerous neighborhoods in the united states. And 55th and state street. Is rated the second most dangerous neighborhood today in the united states today and just one more point in reference to what you said in terms of how humiliating it is i went to a service station yesterday on south park street. To buy gasoline. And my credit card. Didn't work in the normal fashion that it works out in verona and. The directions were clear as to what i needed to do in order to make my credit card work in order to get gasoline. And. I'm punching buttons in and they're locking me out you know that to be quite so some of that still exists even in this environment in the poor areas. Even a madison. And it is humiliating. I want to relate to stories and i know there are other questions here i go throughout wisconsin's prisons doing graduations as the keynote speaker telling my story hopefully inspiring inmates to look at their life differently to make different choices different decisions and use the opportunities that they have it while in prison to grow and i was at columbia correctional institution which is a maximum institution. Had a graduation and one of the inmates was the student keynote speaker and of course the local reporters are there because they cover these things if the pot is positive story. And the inmate was twenty-five years old and he had been incarcerated for eight years. So when he walked into prison he was illiterate and he relate that story and this was back doing the election. Time just before president obama was elected and he stated that it was very sad that he had to be incarcerated in order to learn how to read which was a very valid point and then you started talking about the state of the economy and all of the other pieces that exist in our society and he says and what's really sad is i'm incarcerated doing one of the most important elections in the history of the country and what's even sadder is if i would not have been incarcerated i wouldn't even understand the impact of that organ economy. What was the plan for education to remember that i'm the whole department of corrections is a local education agency so special ed needs are spread across the whole department gear for youth goes into an adult arena and is a special needs student that that that youth is assessed for what his or her special needs are and they are served based on those needs even in the adult arena. My mom who ducked me very well today always said that i want you to be better than i am. I want you to have better opportunity that wasn't she said that religiously and i was reading you know probably by age three or four i remember that you know and. And it should push that cuz she said that was our true ticket to to freedom from poverty and cry and we were hearing that that was important to us. But i also feel that the education system in the public school arenas first in memphis tennessee. And then in chicago in the black communities i felt they were deficient very deficient and they're still deficient i know jim last we talked about his joys and concerns. Where he was dropping crockett off at oakey and and and the difference is that still exist. Kid never came home with homework and it's like why does he have homework we're now transferring him to verona and i told him you will have homework is jim and i will help you you know the differences are just bad. I remember feeling frustrated as a student wanting more you know reading and understanding and wanting more from the school environment and not getting it but my mom you know with her deficits in my mom had five of us she and my dad my dad stayed together for 18 years before they separated. And a. I knew and i was 33 when my daughter was born which is rare and that was by choice because i saw my mom when my mom and dad separated i saw my mom is being in prison with us. And having very little education working two jobs as a maid. The connections have to be made but the connections can't be forced in my view is just the other side of it there's so many things that we're not going to be able to change with the family environment so we as a school need to do every single thing that we can swing big kids and learning and when kids are walking into school doors and i say this as a teacher and they haven't been engaged we are pushing them aside because many of us are inadequate in our abilities to engage them so we move them aside i've watched this happen over and over again so teacher preparation needs to change yes we do need to have a better family connection but we can't just focus on that we need to do everything we can within the education arena i was a principal in a school 140 students 77% poverty. I took the school when it was a failing school. We turned it around by. Creating a community. I'm learning within our environment. And having that family component. Be brought in through helping parents to understand and educating parents not forcing the process because many times parents work 2-3 jobs. They just couldn't afford to be involved the way of parenthood can in a middle-class environment. So we have to try and make adjustments for that not excuses but adjustments for that. And that's just my take on it. You know recidivism is dropping prison population is dropping you know inmates are going back out into instant into their communities and they are connecting two jobs even in this job market. So i think that it's not there listening to. For the moment. Role of our prisons are not punishment so i'm going to read that quote again to you because what we do is we send them to quizzes. And i read it exactly the way it says that inmates are sent to prison as punishment there sent there. But not for punishment. So we remove ourselves from the punishment arena once they're there and we try to help rehabilitate help change provide hope. So we truly believe that it's not for we shouldn't be punishing within the system once we get them because them being there is punishment. What everybody is aware that the owi legislation that came out back in june or july of this year and that's another factor that's on the table that we have to address in terms of drinking and driving and we are looking at right now within the community corrections environment as well as the institution environment applicable. Research base. Proven. Aoda treatment program and that has been our biggest challenge that we don't have enough of that part of it and i think that would be one rocketed take if you guys are looking at preventive measures that maybe you even partner with dlc and it's part of community corrections and institutions in how do we. Jointly put together a preventive program or have prevention programs in place within the community. See that's where it needs to be a bit more so than anything even before they get to us get to corrections how do we do that i think that would be a good route to take an unwilling to talk about that more and there are other people who are willing to talk about that more with you in corrections because we thought about how we partner with our state other states hardness to deal with this issue of drunk-driving prior to bringing them into the correctional environment because that's going to be a key piece to keeping them from coming into correction and then also keeping them from coming back after they've gone back out. Yeah we have aoda treatment we have extensive ldh written about the treatment and i just talked about the education and other.

uuprairie_org

Pr141130Ingham-ed.mp3

Good morning. Thank you to the choir for. For that different piece by piece. And the words are somewhere. I have now. And now without any thing. Welcome. To prairie unitarian universalist society. Where we always say that you are welcome here no matter what's your ethnicity no matter your gender preference no matter where you are. On your spiritual or sacred journey you are welcome here we also always encourage guests and visitors to come more than once because our services are very some sunday mornings i do the service i am sandy ingham the halftime minister hear some sunday mornings people from within our congregation do the service and sometimes we have speakers from outside. The congregation. But do try to come more than once there is a spot later on in the service. For people to introduce themselves if they wish to do so we do not force you to do. We do have something very special going on this morning. Which is the dedication of. Perhaps the youngest member of our congregation. The opening words. We're written by w.e.b. du bois. Now is the accepted time. Not tomorrow. Not some more convenient season. It is today that our best work can be done and not some future day or future year. It is today that we fit ourselves. For the greater usefulness of tomorrow. Today is the sea time now are the hours of work and tomorrow comes the harvest. And the playtime. Honey would you like the door susan would you like the chalice somebody like that. Flame of fire. Spark of the universe. That warmed our ancestral hearth. Agent of life and death. Symbol of truth. And freedom. We strive to understand ourselves. And our earthly home. Somucha knurl just stayed still. And enjoyed nothing. And everything. Perhaps this nicely sums up how you would really like to spend the holiday season. Just. Staying still. And enjoying nothing. And everything. That probably won't happen. But maybe we could aim for a few moments here and there of doing exactly that staying still. Enjoying nothing. And everything. When putting together the child dedication part of the service. I found some words that i had used. Years ago for a service about rites of passage. They were written by stanley kelemen and i no longer remember who that is. If i ever knew. But they seem to be too me to be especially appropriate for today's service. He writes this. Life can be described. As a migration. Through many formative loops. Many little dying's. Gross. Change and meaning. Occur. By d forming the old. Informing. The new. This morning's music reflects this quotation. All of our music today is about the circle of life. The journey we make together. Between birth and death. Life can be described as a migration through many formative loop. Many little dying. Growth change and meeting a curb id for me. The old. Informing. The new. These two sentences tell us much about the progress. Or lack thereof that we make during our lifetime. And how that progress. Occurs. B e forming the old. Informing the new. Deforming the olden forming the new requires times of doing nothing as well as times of doing something. The time between thanksgiving and christmas is a perfect time to practice. Discerning which time it is. Time to do nothing. Or time to do something. The phrase the gift of nothing. Is a seemingly simple. But actually complex. Phrase. Mooch found that out. When he decided to give his friend earl the gift of nothing. And i've discovered this. 2 over the last several holiday season when i wanted to stop buying gifts thinking that by giving nothing that i purchased. Instead just giving my time. Or energy. Or a cow or goat would purchase those two but through heifer international or oxfam or some other organization improve the state of economy. Or our culture or who knows. Sometimes we give the gift of nothing because it is the best thing to do. The right thing to do at that particular time for example volunteering at homeless shelters or food pantries. Several of which were mentioned last week. Adoring our service. Places where many of you already volunteer. Sometimes sharing our energy giving our time is absolutely. What we should be doing. Sometimes. We don't mean to give the gift of nothing even when nothing. Is. Something sometimes a lot even. To the person receiving. Now. I probably totally confused you. And i know that sounds confusing so let me see if i can make some sense out of it with a couple of examples. A few days ago i was putting gas. Into my car. When i witnessed a robbery. I don't think. And i blew my chance to be a. You use superhero because i didn't yell out and tell the man to stop. I watched him open a car door and take a wallet off to see the car woman. Leave the wallet in the car turned out i found out later that our credit card just having trouble getting the car you know having the. Take the card so she went inside. And had her back to the and i had my back to the man also. But the wind it was. Sokol. And the wind was blowing at me so i stepped over that hose. Face the other way. I thought. He was clearly homeless. He wasn't dressed for the weather. We were i was on university. Jennings mobile. He he he just only had on with a sweatshirt and pants and and he also wasn't young. He limped. Over to the car door and he really had a hard time running although he did 12 the bus which magically appears only plan that or not. Who's it was this. An act of desperation on on the part of this by all appearances homeless person i'll probably never know why did what he did. Witnessing it though reminded me of a one-time something significant was taken from me. $400 inside wedding ring. On a bus in brazil don't even ask why i was carrying these things around. My son who was an exchange student that time in brazil. Said he assured me now this was. The early 80s. My son is shirred me. That's a money would most likely go to feed a family. For significant amount of time. In an odd way. Gifts were received by these two men who were seeds. Though neither i nor the woman at the gas station on university avenue. Had gifts in mind when the events occurred we had no plans to give nothing. Poor anything to anyone. Please note i'm not condoning stealing. There's another take on the gift of nothing. Sometimes maybe the gift of nothing. During the holiday season is not the best. Sing the right thing to do and i was really hoping that a couple of. People who belong here who are in the choir would be here today and you'll understand why in a minute. I'm going to go against the grain now at least the unitarian universalist green. At this time of the year every year you can bet money that most unitarian universalist congregation will be doing programs about simplifying the holidays. At some point in these programs the audience the congregation will be told not to buy so much. Or often not to buy anything at all. Now there's nothing wrong with these kinds of programs we've done them here at prairie and they've been very good program. But. Do such programs always manage to take everything into consideration. Points of view are we leaving out parts of the story about this whole shopping experience. Are we falling into that trap that unitarian-universalist often fall into. We're we're just a little too sure of ourselves and our stand on the consumer culture in which. We are so stuck. I hate shopping. Priscilla righteously proclaim. Every year at this time i'm allergic to malls imei to read me some truth in this. I can't breathe. But some. There are major exceptions to this proclamation. Put me in an rei store. Don't know what that is. Hiking stuff okay. How about maybe putting me into bunch of bikes or any bicycle store for that matter. And sometimes i think that i am single-handedly keeping a certain bookstore in downtown madison afloat. Certainly don't hate shopping when books are involved. I am definitely not opposed to shopping when i want a really good piece of clothing or a nice. Specific missing a couple people. Kitchen tool store that specializes in such things if you want me to explain that come up to be afterwards. An article in yesterday's milwaukee journal sentinel caught my attention because of this headline. Some shoppers choose. Bonding. Bonding. And bargains. Subtitled. Black friday. Much more than deals expert. Say force i'm always. Leary when i see the word expert. I read on black friday has lost its singular character as d-day 4-door busting blowout i can't believe these prices shopping frenzy but the traditions remain still quoting here. And where would we be without them. If we're at all like rachel breger and her brother cousins and aunt a happy crew of five chatting and laughing at bayshore town center with cups of coffee enhance and shopping bags at their feet will we be mostly a little bit poorer. And of course. Say what. As i wrote this article with increasing outrage and a giant helping of judgement. Then. A memory was triggered. A memory from the late 60s and early 70s a memory of being with my sister my mother. Sister my favorite aunt and two cousins at. Eastwood mall. Outside of youngstown ohio not far from where i grew up in northwest pennsylvania. On. The day after thanksgiving. Had to call my sister yesterday to verify this memory. Which move me to tears. Not call. The memories. She who had forgotten that we used to do this. Her and my mother and me all this time declaring our hatred of shopping. Yeah we love those trips. So what's with this double standard am i to say what people should do with their thanksgiving weekend. Baby shopping is not always about shopping. And if we all agree to give nothing material. During the holiday time of year if we all decided not to shop. What does that say about our respect. For those in our midst who owned or managed stores. And businesses. Never mind what would happen to the economy in the stock market if no one spent any money this time of year. Yet i remain a communist. Hello this is being taped or not. I truly believe that all wealth should be shared everything should be equitably distributed. It should all be equally distributed. I do not think that we are here on this earth to amass stuff. To see how many things we can acquire he who dies with the most toys wins mentality actually new man who believed that. Hello nice things though. I once briefly considered minoring in economics. Because such a fascinating yet absurd discipline my apologies to an economist out there. B based on faulty and flimsy principles in my humble opinion. There is a man named mark who sells. The street pulse newspaper on the square which you should all get. I'm at volleyball no mark now because mark is featured in the current issue. I'm sorry and marcus my homeless person. I'm sorry you're going to have to find another. As if i could adopt. I always buy the paper from him even if i've already bought it. And perhaps more importantly i usually talk to him me and probably those two. For a few minutes no matter how bad the weather is. There are plenty of other homeless people on the square to whom i would like to give time and money. And resource is only goes so far. Something is very wrong with a system in which one of the end results is so many homeless. People. Building a massive economy such as ours that requires lots of spending on trinkets. At one end of the spectrum is why i get elin mole. And on weapons of mass destruction at the other end of that spectrum with a hefty dose of spending on weapons of. quite mass destruction. In the middle aka guns. The dons vasa. Result in mass shootings every few weeks now every few weeks in this country. There's something wrong. With building an economy like this. An economy that depends on spending that is immortal outrageous analogical. Who remembers molly ivins. The wonderful reporter for the. Paper dallas. Texas observer who always told us to. Follow the money. Capitalism doesn't work. For the longest time i thought maybe i was the only person in the world to have this thought. Similar to how i felt before he discovered unitarian-universalism when i thought there must be something wrong with me because my physiology and beliefs did not seem in sync with mainstream culture. Capitalism does not work. More accurately when i mean by that i now realize is that the corporate capitalism doesn't work. And i have yes magazine to thank for helping me make this distinction yes magazine you don't know what find it continually impresses and astonishes me and it will give you hope. In a sometimes hopeless world. The fall 2014 issue focuses on ending poverty. There's an aside but a relic relevant one last week we contemplated the distribution of food in the world. And among other things we considered how lack of access to healthy food is part of the problem well in the 2014 winter issue of yes. A year ago now. There's an article about a novel approach to this problem some of you may have heard of it in oakland california you can now buy fresh fruits and vegetables. Growing about 200 miles away on small minority owned farms. In your friendly neighborhood corner liquor store. Thanks to the healthy neighborhood store alliance. What really distresses me about black friday in the garage of advertisements and the unrelenting pressure to buy. The brainwashing that this is somehow normal. This hype and frenzy about consuming consuming consuming. Did you know that the new york city. Commissioner of police is another kind of. 50 and by the way when i read this article in friday's market journal sentinel i discovered that the new york city commissioner of police really isn't tom selleck. Who's on blue bloods. Tom selleck much better after reading this quote. That the commissioner of police had to say about the 50 or so 50 50. Protesters who showed up thursday at the end of the macy's parade. The commissioner of police said we will not tolerate under any circumstances any effort to disrupt this parade. This is a national event. Dorothy's aunt. Anybody who would seek to interrupted would be callous indeed on this very special day. And of course. Some of those protesters were arrested and i tell you this because it is about priorities priorities priorities. In our country what really distresses and saddens me is a reduction of everything. $2 and cents everything. When my pittsburgh pirates started playing in. Did you know commercial stadium now. Forbes field or three rivers or. Yeah. The value of everything in our culture is now determined. How much it cost. I mourn. For this country. It has its priorities so out of. In an article written by dean patton in that fall of 2014 yes magazine that i just reference. Patton says that in the past. So this is the hopeful part am i going to leave you down there. Helping the poor has been mostly a discussion on the fringes. At last patent rights the terms of public debate of change. Because inequality. And poverty now are debated regularly in the mainstream media. And across the political spectrum. And of course. You're a lot of books out there right now about this subject. About how to change the system. And systemic change is the only kind of change that's going to work it won't matter if we don't talk so much. Season. It's the stomach thing. Here are three books that might give you hope. Capital in the twenty-first century. Buy french economist. Thomas. Akc. Pick any. He's not a marxist. At all i just wanted to solutions is a concert. Satori. Tax on wealth. Who stole the american dream by hendrix smith name some of you might recognize he's not only won the pulitzer prize but he. Was a former new york times reporter. And. This one what then must we do. By gar alperovitz. Is a professor of political economy university of maryland. Dean patton says that appearances book could have been titled. Here's what we're already doing. To create fresh models that can inspire a new economy. Here's where i got really excited. According to patton quote what makes a pair of it says ideas valuable is that he not only. Lays out an array of alternatives already keeping people from poverty. But solutions we also can build a pond. To create strategies. That overtime. Might. Replace. Corporate. Capitalism. And replacing capitalism is no longer. Far. Faxed. I am not alone. We are not alone we can change the paradigm. Paradigm. An outstandingly clear or typical example. A typical condition. Response we can create a new form of capitalism one that actually cares about people. Not corporation. In his book hedrick smith says that the american system is now so obviously broken. That even some corporate leaders. Are calling for a domestic marshall plan. Everyone know what that is. If you don't see me. A domestic marshall plan to repair eaconomy i've been saying this for years. I just never got published. Be still my heart. The change is already happening we are already making attempts to democratize wealth she got to love that. Democratized wealth i turn that all these authors use. There are myriad number of ways to do this i'm on it then name them all but. There's one worker ownership. Did you know that high v grocery store. Which is owned by employees to a prophet. Sharing program is ranked 4th. On the forbes list of the largest united states private companies. It has 69,000 employees. 8 billion dollars in sales yearly. Now i'm not endorsing heidi. I am using it as an example of a successful war. Workaround. There's lots of otherwise traditional coops. Ariana's wanted. Does ace hardware. Community development corporations land trusts. Just a bunch of them ownership of banks. Harry c simon one of the quote militantly conservative economist. At the chicago school of economics says every industry should be either effectively competitive. Or. Social. This is a conservatively. Militantly conservative econ. Oh and that idea out-of-this-world surprised with you of public ownership of banks goes back to the great depresh. One more way to democratize wealth. Is to raise the minimum wage. What city in 2013 voted to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour to fully take effect by january 1st 2017. Seattle well the little places that's right there by the airport. Attacked. That little community was very instrumental in getting this back. What other city voted on the issue this month since november and passed it. Passed a bill to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. What closer to us city is on its way to the minimum $15 rate having convened a minimum-wage task force model on that seattle. Big city post office. Chicago. Sometimes the gift of nothing can start out as something and end up as something else entirely so i wanted a funny story for you at least i think it's a funny story. But i don't know whether to explain part of it if i explained it now it'll give away the punchline. So i'm just going to do it today. Can probably get it. My my kids were. 10 and 12 maybe 11:13. That was the first year that we gave him a little bit of money and they went to. Hilldale. To buy each other. Christmas morning. My daughter is. Her brother. Obviously an album was lil hard to wrap bozeman. If i known an album. And my son opens about pc older one. Two almost three years older. And it's. Crosby. Hits. My phone barely know who ben crosby with. He won't know who became famous singer for in my grandfather's. In. My son really really loved and was expecting. Cost. Pause baby. Oops i'm sorry bill cosby you're looking so puzzling that i didn't get that right thank you. Got bing crosby by quickly. Anything through and it was many years before we could actually choked help us with. So the kiss meant nothing to my son. You know sister intended it to mean something to him. But by recovering it so well he turned it back into something. Archer. Is to find a balance. Between giving the gift of nothing. And literally giving the gift of something something tangible because we all have things that we want. And might even need. And because we really don't want our economy to come crashing down. The change away from corporate capitalism. And spending on destructive meaningless items. Has to happen gradually. The good news is that it is already happening. He's going to take a very long time. My hope is that aurora and liam. And all of their generation will have a different understanding of how to spread the wealth around. A different idea about material goods. We are not powerless. It's up to us to support any and all efforts. That are trying to shift the current cultural paradigm away from reducing everything to a monetary value. We can take on the work of beginning to redefine the bottom line. Nice phrase i made that up. Although it's probably out there somewhere. Redefined the bottom line we can shift that paradigm by educating ourselves and others. And by participating in the many efforts and opportunities. To democratize. Well. Unitarian universalist. Pride ourselves on being on the cutting edge of things such as this. Is this a new cutting-edge for us to take on to be out in front of the protesters at the front of the revolution. And hedrick smith's words. Changing america's direction will not be easy. It will happen only if there is a populist. Grassroots surge demanding it. Like the mass movements of the 1960s. 1970s. The subtitle of smith's book. And remember the title was what then shall we do. Subtitle is. Straight talk. About the next american revolution. These are the closing words. And now. May we have faith in life to do wise planting. But the generations to come may reap even more abundantly than we. May we be bold and bringing to fruition the golden dreams of human kinship and justice. This we ask. But the fields of promise. Become fields. Of reality. Going do nothing.

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Pr100228CSAs-ed.mp3

Heidi hughes gets the. Honor of presenting our guest today heidi was the coordinator for the. Whole service arranged everything so my thanks to her and please introduce our guess. Okay well i'm very pleased and honored to have three of our own. Madison area farmers here today to talk to us i'll be introducing them in a minute but i just want to take a brief moment to talk to you about how this came to be and what we ask the farmers to address. So. The green sanctuary committee and denomination with farrah's felt that this was a very natural progression of our exploration of ethical eating and environmental justice issues. We thought it would be great to have csa farmers here just to come and talk to us. Many of us in this congregation rcsa members and many of us aren't. So it's just another way of helping promote the positives of eating locally. Bar park and i got our heads together and came up with some questions that we felt we wanted to know and hopefully the rest of the congregation wants to know and those are basically you don't tell us your story why do you do this. How do you do it how did you come to do it. And you know a little bit about the logistics of your farm what you do what your plant white howdy decide to plant what to plant. Tell us a little bit about can you support yourself while you're violent or do you need a supplemental income to do this and then finally. If you want in time allows you can tell us personally about your take on the political. Aspects of farming locally organically how you relate to southern wisconsin farmers the nation that's for the thing and you can free flow from there and this. Is all in 5 to 7 minutes so pretty soon and get you guys up here and then after they're done speaking the three of them judy skogen will say a few words about being a long-term member of a csa and her experiences with that and then we'll open up for discussion. We have kate eddie here from ridgeland harvest farm. And to be sitting up here. Speaking first and then we have beth cuz mark from tv produce. And. from shady blueacres. Okay thank you so much and i think that. Kate will speak first. Can you hear me. I am a farmer and not a public speaker so thank you for for being a receptive audience.. As heidi said my name is kate eddie i've left my husband and our two young children at home this morning because everyone's getting over a cold. Hold it to the office at easier okay thank you we are richland harvest is in the southwest part of the states and we own and operate 70 acres. We purchased our farm back in 2013 that first summer we operated a half an acre with a little walk behind tiller and realized we own a lot of acreage while we had worked on other farms the first time i worked at was actually teepee produce with stephen beth their familiar. Fixes to be here but. That we rented out the rest of our acreage then and over the course of the last 10 years we have gradually accumulated the equipment and the infrastructure in order to operate all 70 acres right now we've got thirty acres in permanent hay and pasture 20 acres in vegetables and cover crops and another 20 acres in woods. So not only do we raise a whole gamut of vegetables. Give me a asparagus to zucchini essentially with some fruits in there but we also raised livestock we enjoy nurturing things which i think is one of the biggest draws of. Why we came to this profession is that watching things grow from animals and plants is something that has always been a part of our our being and so we raise cattle some cattle and also hogs and then chickens as well those things we offer through our community supported agriculture so we just raised enough but also it's a wonderful way for us to be managing our. Are steeper slopes of our property by rotational grazing our cattle. While this is our 10th year of farming it is our first season of being full-time farmers. We've both been working full-time jobs in the past as well as working the full-time job of getting a farm going but now this season we can say we can pour our hearts and souls into what we truly want to be doing in that is to farm we are first-generation farmers and it is a challenge we can't deny it's difficult in that. While our families are wonderfully supportive of what we do we miss out on the reunions the weddings and the camping trips that happened throughout a season and so community supported agriculture for us has given us an income that is stable and that has allowed us to grow our farm and to say let me back up here we've got. In the last season we had 200 csa members. And that is giving us enough income to be able to purchase oliver input hire 326 employees every season and. Do now hopefully dedicate ourselves to this career and this passion. I'll maybe i'll just. Pass. Pasta. Okay my name is beth casmar. It is working i'm from tipi produce. And we are located near evansville wisconsin which is it's a little over half an hour from here so not not too far i farm with my husband steve pincus and with a crew of about 15 long-term returning employees. Who helped us build our farm up. We grow 45 acres of mixed vegetables and some fruits. Our business is split into two portions we sell a lot of produce. The wholesale accounts and that is natural food stores in madison and milwaukee food places like willy street co-op where the biggest supplier for willy street co-op so if you shop there. You very well could have already bought our produce. And then their equivalents in milwaukee as well as whole foods and then in addition to those accounts we have the csa and it's about half and half. And for us a csa is a pact. A little over four hundred boxes and fed about 652 household. Which were very proud of we'd only been doing the csa for. This'll be our seventh season my husband some farming since nineteen seventy-six 11 years ago when our first child was born. But the csa so for us is going to 7 years we have it under our belt but that was a new addition to our farm we really like having both of those two components to the farm because we feel like having the wholesale business. Sympatex rcsa. To see if they gets first dibs and if they there's a crap that's short or something like that we always make sure that that goes in the boxes we feel like those two half of the businesses. Other business balancing sells pretty well. My husband started forming. He grew into it neither of us grew up on farms. He started because he was part of a small group that started the outpost natural foods co-op in milwaukee and he was the first manager and one of his job was to go out and sort the produce. For the store and he just grew enchanted with these farms in the the hard-working farmers were doing and what the lifestyle was like and so he decided with no experience he decided he was going to become a farmer. Which i put to use on the farm so. We feel like the csa contributes to a farm in exactly the same way that kate described so that. Members commit to the farm we commit in return. The stability of having members come back year after year knowing that they're going to be with us. Lexus make investments in the farm it supports our farming in in a way that i just almost can express your appreciation for how much stability that brings to our farming. In terms of of what we grow we grow huge range of fruits and vegetables. We have brochures on the table in the lobby. And when you if you pick up one of those is that list inside the shows everything we growing also. List some sample boxes from previous years if you want to see what. What sorts of things you would get if you join a csa. I think in terms of your decision of supporting local foods i feel like that's a very good decision on several levels. If you buy local foods i think it's good for you personally think it's good for your community and good for your environment. Innocence that is good for you because local foods you will find are almost always a better quality than what you can buy in the grocery store you on average produce has tipped about 1,500 miles. For the place it has grown to where it is eaten for american consumers. And that is not going to be the freshest produce you can get. Right and so i think that buying local produce is good for you because you're going to enjoy the quality. I think it's good for your community because you are investing in your in your community you're putting your money back into committee instead of shipping it out of the community and i think it's good for the environment. Because we're certified organic farmers i think blue and kate i think we all are and so we try really hard to be responsible and how we manage our farms and not release pollutants into the environment. And be good responsible on caretakers of the environment. So that's kind of all i have to say and i think i'm going to have some time for questions and answers. Okay. Every farm is so different you know that's the first thing i want to say is each firm has things that they do and it's great to as a consumer to always ask questions and find out if farms are good fit for for you our farm is out in richland center which is also in southwest wisconsin. And we are market farmers csa farm and we had 83 members last year we have 17 acres and the process of trying to acquire another 20 adjacent to ours as well as rent another 18 adjacent to that so and also if that doesn't work out we're looking to actually get on a larger farm over the years has been such a process for us i got into farming originally i was. Doing the emt and firefighter training here in madison and actually start to work at teepees in order to keep myself in shape and then i just loved it i love being outside i like to working with my body with the soil just interacting that way watching things grow the nurturing process that you described and in 2003 we rented some acres outside of madison and by 2004 we had moved on to our farm in richland center. And we have a ride right if things that we do we grow all the vegetables and again in our brochure it does also the list and most firms that they're doing see if they have similar but sometimes some grow fruits or or don't or something like that. And we overtime started to bring animals on tar farm and we just really feel like they have just brought a lot of life to our farm we really wanted to create our own effort ization program and they just now having their i can't imagine how they were never there before you know it just we always want them there we focus on heritage breeds like the black mulefoot hogs some of the breeds that we focus on our endangered livestock species for example the hogs that we raised only have 600 registered animals right now so we really do feel like this is really important to get that pieces of of our. As well as a type of varieties we choose our lot of heirlooms and varieties and things of that nature. We also have a commercial kitchen r firmware we do canned goods and we also watch eggs so with our shares you can also add on eggs chairs and and canned goods are there separate we treat them as a storage here so we can all season long obviously starting with asparagus we do pickled asparagus and then strawberry jam and moves on to the whole season and then in the fall we deliver that all at once so that's an additional share that we offer as well as the the pork and lamb and we actually just invited some scottish highlands a very small fold of just 42 are firemen that's why we're trying to acquire the additional acreage now for them. See if there's anything else here. Right now it's just really the two of us we had a part-time worker and an intern that helped at the dane county farmers market on the square with us last year last year was actually my husband dies first year working the whole year together on the farm and that was just amazing i we want to keep it that way we just it's really opened up a lot of doors and we can get a lot more complicated and really need all their own personal goals as far as what we're trying to do on our farm and. Hotsy x-ray didn't miss anything major here. Oh one of the big things for us for being certified organic at especially with her animals is that you know there are there are farms raising animals locally but they might also be buying you a genetically modified food for them and we're just really against anything that's when i came out of fighter engineered crops and one of things that organic does guarantee is that you're not receiving that's not allowed in the program and so that's important to us because we just feel like that's very detrimental to the environment and to our house and you know there's a lot of information out there about that but that's a very important piece to us to educate our consumers about and this year were looking to have 100 members and. And i guess that's about it will answer more questions later. I just wanted to say that we have some of our long-term csa members as part of their congregations and karen and donny nicholson raise your hands. Could i just ask for a clarification of terms before we move on you use the phrase heritage heirloomed if you could just explain to those who don't know and i assumed at some point you'll get into what organic actually means and what you do differently and kind of alluded to that would be helpful a lot of us probably don't know what certified organic really implies. Celtic of the question of what is certified organic that is now legal term so the first the first thing to mention is organic. Production systems are intended to be sustainable their intended to be. Easy on the environment. A few years ago that the federal government actually legislative what you can. Call certified organic and that's where the term certified means you've gone through the process. Tootsie that so what is it to be an organic farmer i think the big difference between organic farmer is we don't feed our plants we feed our soil. So there are restrictions you cannot use chemicals like pesticides you cannot use chemical fertilizer on your crops you cannot have used them three years previous. To crapping your fields but what that really means is we work with growing crops that will. Sustain the next crap we grow a leguminous crop that will feed the soil and therefore feed the next crap. I'm kind of rambling here kate we have to add to that. Well i guess i can also add kind of the regulatory side i worked for a certifying agency for 6 years and so i know the ins-and-outs of of what the actual usda regulations brings but indeed it is there is approved substances that people can use on their farm but i think one of the things that's wonderful about investigating a certified organic farm is that you know the basics of things that they are not doing no genetically modified seeds you're not going to be having any type of synthetic unless they are approved so yes there are approved synthetics that can be used what are the degrees of that will all those things have to be gone through an approval process through the organic certifying agency who is reviewing their substances on their farm so every i mean it's amazing to me i think how many chemicals there are even when you look at potting soil the fact that there's synthetic wedding agents that can be added to the potting soil so all of those little things that we didn't really think about before certification are put under a microscope and all of how you manage your farm from soil to crop inputs to livestock inputs are evaluated so i think that's it's a meaningful thing yes there are people who are certified organic because of the monetary differences between crops and often times in a commodity situation. And that's where i feel like we're there's consumer involvement in the you can ask why why you do certain things on your farm or how you do certain things is that it creates that next level of yes we understand your certified organic but there's something else that's important to you as a consumer then you can also get that understanding from from the farmers directly. With organic there are products and i think it is confusing to consumers cuz for example sewage sludge is an organically drive product but is not organically approved product and so and then even some there's a number of products on the market that she'll see will say organic on it because of how it's dry as a natural. Product that isn't mechanical base type thing but it isn't approved and so there there's a lot of you know things like that that you know what you dig deeper you find out a lot more about it and the certification process helps you know understand all that too. I get to talk about how to survive csa i always look forward to the first box in the spring and i also look forward to reclaiming my refrigerator in whenever we finally eating all of the vegetables. And i would like to stress first of all i think probably everybody here understands the concept of fair trade. You know fair trade coffee fair trade three and all of their rt. Okay. Fair trade means that the workers were paid a living wage. For whatever the community is the. Product was raised in a van in a way that's. Less harmful. So it supports local communities like fair trade coffee i'm often fair trade coffee will be shade-grown so it's much less damaging to the environment the farmers can make a living. And afford to send their kids to school. It's it's. A good thing to do lots of. Churches in and houses of worship consider it part of their mission to promote their train. I would also like to stress that. Eating locally can be considered fair trade. Fair trade. Eating participating in a csa can be sitter considered fair trade it does not have to be. Overseas. It can happen here. We joined. I don't know how long macsec is you guys know how long neck sex been around. Anyway we joined eat we we doing this. A csa farm the year before macsac was was founded so it's been forever i don't i don't know 15 16 17 years something like that. Macsac madison area community supported agriculture thank you there the. Start of the organizing group from which you can get information about all of the different farms. It's really a collective of us farmers and we band together to promote the idea scsa in this area and we are having our annual open house on sunday march 14th so it's come out looking to be at monona terrace. And how many friends showed up this year 2535. The farmer that service area go to the open house. Monona terrace at monona terrace you will get an opportunity to talk to the farmers to look at their brochures see what they raised cuz that's they said every firm is different we're not in this farm anymore but i really miss. The goat cheese. And another prime you know i miss something else for various reasons we've we've moved firearms. So joined initially i prompted us to join for political reasons to support local organic food. And discovered over the years that i really can't eat any other way because it tastes so much better. I learned. Vegetables i never thought i'd like like fresh beets whole world of difference between fresh beets and candies. I ate things i've never eaten before like turnip celeriac burdock root our farm is real famous for. Really weird stuff like burdock root and its really good. Surviving csa it's a whole different way of cooking your way through the week. Then just. Creating a menu. I don't create the menu until we get the box on saturday. And i look and see what's in the box. And i craft a menu. I bought last week's menu. I have down here the nights when we have meeting so i know which nights i have to cook something that's easier like grilled cheese but. The goal is to eat through the box by the end of the week because there's more vegetables coming next saturday i know certain things you can let slide i've also learned some techniques for how to deal with. Less than perfect greens. You can saute anything and greens actually not even let us it tastes good sauteed so it's it's it's not a big deal. When our girls were little i would construct the menu such that we would alternate kid-friendly day adult-friendly day and they had to eat a little bit of whatever i cooked. I said i don't care how much you make you have to taste it after that you can go make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich i don't care but you have to taste it and. Erica in particular has grown to really appreciate. Which has been ruined for store store-bought produce now. She came home from college her freshman year. She said mom what's left from the box i said well jesus you know all we got left is spinach and i know how much she hated spinach when when she was living at home. I said well i could put it in a salad she said no that's okay go ahead and steam it i'll eat it. This was the picture of the two kids. They don't just have this out front to sell for. For their help this guy could not survive csa without this cookbook because it has at least two or sometimes four pages of recipes. For any kind of weird vegetable you can come up with including burdick it's in here. Yeah and it's a fundraiser for macsec. And i have and i've gone through this is my second but i went through an earlier version of it to which is in a 3in spiral-bound notebook. Can get a really sweet and probably get it at whole foods you can get it from borders you can get it from macsac you can get your be able to get it at the at the open house. And if you get it at the open house macsec will get more of the money but money actually goes into a program called partner shares and it helps serve low-income folks to be able to get csa share so they actually help fund like up to half of the share so it's a really great program is supported nice coso. Just two more quick things certain of our local help. Do insurance companies give a rebate. For participation in community supported agriculture still available. Physicians plus. Group health maybe dean. And unity yeah. Will give. I did very. Buy insurance but. How much do we get can visit. Yeah up to 152 $100 or more rebate you have to prove to them that you actually participated in the program but that's not hard because they know that people eating healthy food keeps the people who are eating and healthier. And i can wanted me to mention that the drop-off and pick-up because it's it's really easy. The farm at least the way our firm works. Direct drop sites spaced around the city so there's a side job sites beside drop sites. Our site is i don't know maybe six blocks away and the farm arrives there somewhere around 10 on saturday morning delivers all the boxes and after they're done then we go and we check our names off the list and take her box and go home and that's it. That's how we get our veggies. Just want to make a comment on that. Every farmers will different we have different delivery days we deliver on thursday when do you guys thursday. Wednesday. Many firms have different schedules i think one thing when you're choosing to farm purcell's look real closely at the pickup sites make sure there's really going to work in your life without a big trip. Out-of-the-way. Cuz there's so many farms you'll find one that's within your with your neighborhood. We have probably 15 minutes for questions so mary will carry microphone. Yeah and that's a great point we i guess we did assume that everybody can already knew and yeah csa is a community-supported agriculture and what it is is early in the year let's say you sign up for a share with our farm or another farm and then. Did that in the season we start to deliver by the pharmacy or doing the work even beginning in january we're already ordering seeds for february and february start you know seating in the hoop houses things of this nature and so our work starts way before you ever get your vegetables and so what it is is you buy a share of the farm and that means there's different sizes there you can get like a box of food every week a box of food every other week half a box of food every other week there's different types of shares and basically what the share is it is you're getting a box of vegetables in season season progresses you're going to see different types of vegetables do in the beginning you're going to get green onions and things like this and then you're going to get more peppers and tomatoes and of course potatoes and things like that you pay well it just depends like sometimes offer a payment plan like we have a payment plan where you can commit30 you pay one check right away in the other two or post-dated checks or you can pay it all at once farms love to have you signed up as early as december january-february but we have people signing up all the way until you know april or may even so as long as we have space become pretty popular with the with the rebates a lot of farms are selling out and so and that's why more firms are joining in the coalition trying to. You'll have more availability of these products and. A win-win for everything because you get money back from your insurance company like i said there's also partner shares through max fact that you can apply for and you'll perhaps get that refunded to to get prettier share paid for the number of ways to be able to participate in this and it helps the farmer earlier by the things that they make the investment they need to for the year and then you get fresh vegetables for 20 weeks and even up to 26 weeks. The question is how large is a share or half shark share every farm is going to be different and i think the soup i just want to walk through the process of choosing a farm and the first step is either go to the macsac open house. Or go to the macsac website and that's ww.w macsa see.org so it's just like it sounds and there's a list of all the forms on there with links to websites. Most of the farms on the website or in their brochures. Who described for you roughly how much you're going to get in those boxes. And i can tell you that for almost all the farms the springboks is our lighter that's when you got a spare gets in lettuce and scallions do not a whole lot but it's a stuffy really looking forward to. Later in the season the boxes and more abundant. I could just. Minnesota starfarm i'll just i think what we shipped on a couple of boxes and you guys can come and just to give a sense so this is what we would send to improve some a couple years ago on may 18th. In our weekly box we packed three quarter pound of asparagus. This is where we pack one size box. And then you either choose for our farm you just get it every week or every other week sometimes offer large and small chairs and that's we have to do your research actually before i start meeting at just to finish the idea and do your research investigate the farms how big are their shares how much are they sending where their pickup sites. What does it cost how long is the season i think those are pretty good variables in making the right decision talk to friends absolutely absolutely several households can share. A box we have many household to do that. And now i'm going to read psalm 18. From couple years ago 3/4 lb asparagus a pound and a half of spinach. Green leaf lettuce a bunch of arugula. Sweet salad turnips which has a white turnip which is. Something unusual he said do you learn to turnips it's not the normal stores turn it but it's a. It's a very popular thing in our csa. Green garlic which is like garlic scallions and a pound and a half of rhubarb so that was one box may 18th. By august 20th the boxes bigger it's. One watermelon about 3 lb of mixed types of tomatoes. A pound of zucchini and summer squash. Three peppers red orange or green. Submit italian peppers. This is august 20th so this is when everything's really in abundance yes. We don't grow field corn so we don't have that problem but i know that that can be an issue in terms of cross-pollination happening are organic certification agency minnesota crop improvement association out of saint paul they also are seed breeders and so they have a lot of information that i've had opportunity of reading regarding cross-pollination i know they are seed certifiers as well and so they get into the issue of how large of a buffer is needed how how much space can pollen drift and i think that in terms of organic certification when i've talked to farmers who are trying to certify field corn and they have conventional neighbors they have to each farm has to have their own significant buffer inappropriate buffer made especially for their farm and so during their annual organic inspection and especially during their first inspection buffer review is a really important part especially when their adjoining conventional farms but we encourage people at the certifiers encourage people to not have something close by that could create a problem. That's a great question and for our farm here's what it means to us we do not put our chickens in postage stamp boxes and move them around our personal feeling is we want our chickens completely free-ranging so they're getting sunlight because if they get vitamin d into their body we're going to get vitamin d & r body when we eat them and so we feel like in those boxes yes it protects them from predators but it and maybe make some size up quicker but for us it was not. It was added labor and it wasn't even a. A system that we agreed with our fellow wind up with our values are hogs for example. We're on a four-acre. Pastor woodland lot running free they had access to a pond we actually found that they improved our pain because they would go in and blow bubbles and perhaps even eat some of the algae we had less algae blooms last year and actually they helped and it it's funny i mean it's it's it's a blast because you know we can just walk away from the vegetables and go interact with her animals for a little while and it just breaks up our day in a way that is very enjoyable and like i said brings a lot of life in a lot of fun to our farm for us it's not the right fit for every farm but for us like i said we could imagine it any other way and all that it is the way that we got it to be and and but some people do they pat they pass your hogs. I guess it what i call toasted sam but it's it's it's still an approved way of a free-ranging but we really free-range i am we let him go completely means more work for us and in some ways at sometimes but in other ways we just we wouldn't have it any other way because we just we want them for us we want to create an environment where animals can live as a natural of a lifestyle to them as they can and one of the things that we're currently doing above and beyond organic certification is getting animal welfare approved because some of the things that even an organic you know there's like pigs grow wolf teeth. Those are good questions to ask friends if you're interested in those products because not all farms are doing the same thing. Well. Finley cities are encroaching on farmland in madison is located on a type of soil called plano silt loam which is set up some of the best soil in the world and it's being lost to development there is no doubt about that and that is irreplaceable. I think that again your decision to support local farming provides an opportunity for local farmers to actually make a living and keep those forms in existence because the reason people sell out is because the prices that are available to sell for development are so high. And that if a farmer has come to the end of their life and they don't have retirement. Package and the only way that they can retires to sell their land well. That's often when the land gets sold and so i think it's another argument for supporting local farms. I just want to trust your point you said that. Cards against smartphones actually getting bigger. So that there are far fewer farmers than they used to be but the farms in cells are bigger so that as farms go out of business and neighbors by the land. I just wanted to briefly, yeah we we not only supply a weekly box people can choose from a half a share or a full share but then provide a weekly newsletter which tells people we turn mars the weekly reader and people hear people hear news from the farm so you get to understand what we did this week if there was a specific challenge in the production that was happening for your box and also some recipes to help you deal with things that maybe you don't know how to cook with but yes that's the wonderful part of sharing i think our story as well. I think just about every csa farm provides newsletter with recipes enhanced and induces farm. Cuz you're coming. Okay pickup site numbers again a very by the farm i would say most terms of pi require at least 10 boxes week to open up to open a site we tend to kat bars when it reaches about 75 boxes to pick up sites are in members garages and after that it just becomes unmanageable with parking in the neighborhood so that's. Pretty pretty normal 250 boxes is pretty normal and i have two children ages 7 and 10 they they are involved in the farm our farm is big enough. Nothing i didn't address early my presentation was a question of whether we are full-time on our farm or have other jobs we do not we work full time we work our path full-time and so this is our life we have quite a few employees as well and so we have sort of a really busy farming machinery the ways we have integrated our children is into rcsa so they only pack 2 boxes to help me sometimes pick the herbs but for us most of the work really is done by the employees and buy up my husband died in our children's involvement as yet give them a little bit more responsibility. But as yet their responsibilities are pretty a pretty small. Our children are our oldest son is three and our youngest is one but they take long and do everything matt rides the cultivating tractor with a backpack on his back it's a quiet enough machine where they can fall asleep we have many pictures of them doing that but as well paul two-and-a-half last year could pack the garlic bulbs into the box and so that was his job but yes they are involved in everything and love especially the animal carrying so that's a great part. My son is 13 and. He he has his own challenges he was years ago diagnosed with tourette's syndrome as well as ocd and anxiety so he is his attention sometimes can be a limited but at the same time i think he really enjoys our lifestyle he does do some seeding like with fennel seeds things better you know bigger see that are easier to to countin and to see in the field and. He's done of writing things he's helped us plant put transplants into the ground he really enjoys the animals of course and. But you know our thing is that we don't we don't force anything there's there's no like you have to do this it's not a chore we don't want to make it a chore because we want him to overtime season 2 it's on his own level and enjoy it for the long run instead of like many farmers from long ago that the kids grew up and left the farm cuz everything was such a tour of the time and that's not the kind of environment we want for him. We were like. 1 and 3/4 vegetable l between the four of us so a full share was. Just enough now with just kidding me. We're going to drop down to an every-other-week share this year cuz we just can't i have still not reclaim my refrigerator from the vegetables although it's at this point it's root vegetables but. For a single person i would either go every other week or split even every other week split with somebody cuz it's a lot for what we packed that's a good assessment either every other week or more likely splitting and every other week or every other week. Yeah we're at the dane county farmers market on saturday as well as doing rcsa drop-offs thursday and our surplus we have very little and our hogs are always happy to oblige. i know we have more hands up but don't forget they'll be here after service please feel free to ask your questions and i'm sure they would appreciate it please join me in thanking our account.

uuprairie_org

Pr120902Benavidas-ed.mp3

Good morning and welcome to prairie labor day weekend little light but that's good i'm glad everyone's able to be here for his failures to be both an open-hearted and open-minded congregation we welcome people of every ethnic and religious religious background whatever your color sexual orientation gender or family structure we welcome you no matter what's your age your abilities or inabilities later in the service we will invite visitors guests and returning friends to introduce themselves so we might get to know you better sunday mornings we provide a wide variety of services remember a member of the wider community as we have gladys here today or very soon we're going to have our new minister nothing nothing is real or ally you are looking through. I'd like to invite the children to come upfront gladys is going to tell them a short story. When will ask you something have somebody ever said anything you don't like about you sometimes cuz they said something that you said that's not nice even if you're not doing anything people will say things you know for example let me tell you i have an accent right you know what an accent is because we if we if you speak more than english like with your parents or with your family sometimes you develop a nice and you have an accident and people look at you and it's like my granddaughter she's four years and she said to me you know my grandma talks funny that she's nice. And sometimes when you hear even your parents if they come from other lands like i do sometimes that's what happens people will think that you talk funny rather than different and so you have to let them know that we also look different right you look different because we have different colors of the hair and skin is nice and we should feel really good about it doesn't matter what people say and if people say something that is not nice to talk to your parents you need to talk to the people that love you and they will tell you that it doesn't matter. Whatever over 30 years of experience in the public and private sector what's the name of the benefit neatest enterprises inc gladys and company gladys is a skillful presenter able to develop policies and procedures and practices. Enhance work-related interpersonal relationships and successful successfully bridge cultural differences. When gladys first enters a workplace for an assessment she does so with a keen eye and discovering what services and or training is needed an expert in us federal laws and regulations gladys provides expert counsel in contract compliance equal employment opportunity and labor relations along with expert counsel and training in conflict resolution organizational development employee development and training and targeted marketing clients applaud gladys for not only her ethics professionalism and knowledge but also the sense of levity she brings to her trainings awardee of the dane county martin luther king jr. award and hispanic woman of the year. She has previously worked as an investigator for the equal opportunities commission and was instrumental in developing policy and procedures for the wisconsin's health and family services as civil rights director please help me welcome gladys. Good morning buenos dias it's always a pleasure. Being here and being able to be in madison wisconsin i travel quite a bit this face all over the place gets stuck in airports and have wonderful rides and trains and all that. And what i wanted to do today more than talk about the whole immigration nationwide excetera. Is coca-cola bottle wisconsin. And madison urbanizing wheat we see the the whole issue of the difference between immigration and integration. You know. My belief is that primarily in this country where racially integrated but culturally segregated and one of the challenges that madison has is that we have inclusionary housing. Is that we have now developing environments in the north side is south side of the downtown and those areas that are around madison and dane county where we are seeing more and more diversity but also more and more challenge. You know when i do training i talked about the fact that we are not widgets where people. And because we are people we have cultural tapes. And so sometimes when we see a person who speak spanish. Let me give you an example i was reviewing the capacity of a small county some years ago to provide services to latinos and i was dressed casually i walked in and. The person that was in the front desk. Said to me. How are you and i said fine and she hands me an application for food stamps in spanish and said go sit over there so i went inside over there for a little while and then i pull my card and i said actually. The poor woman just about died she killed on and said just a minute and run to get the director who came in with one of those smiles you know that i kind of like hey there how you doing. What i know is that she didn't know what to do with me. So my question to you is. W don the training required by the title 6 of the civil rights act. So your employees understand what is that they have to do to address the needs and the issues of every individual that is entitled to receive. And what i see in madison is an interesting thing about immigration because if we focus on people who are actually here and not documented we see different reactions. From not only the service delivery areas but also the folks in general so the assumptions to are the when we talk about immigration and people who are not here legally we're only talking about lighting. And we're only talking about mexico i started. With the community action commission in this city 40-some years ago i can't believe it i was just kind of counting. And i thought mike that is not i kept saying 25. And then i go wait a minute glad it's you are 66 it has been a longer than that that you were here but i was bilingual secretary for the latin american project funded by the federal funds. And it was to resettle migrant families into the dane county airport. My boss was olegario diaz. My boss was mexican. Is mexican think that and. I went to him because i didn't understand how some of the mexican individuals we're talking to me they were words that were not spanish. Like farkle. Entropia. And to get it. And that's what i go spanglish you know you'll get the english word and you put on ar and on their people call it spanish in spanish. And that was my first wonderful lesson from my boss who was who was the next migrant worker can wonderful family. And so to assume that just because when is bilingual. We are going to be able to understand the culture. Do understand the struggles to understand the challenges. To be able to know that they are good bad and ugly in every group. You know we were just stalking before i came here that that. there was a shooting. In-n-out in a bar that is generally you don't have to let latin music and and so a lot of the people do. And. When i look at what is happening with immigration i also see this over-reaction sometimes. That goes both ways. It goes we want to help and be good and and and be supportive for people and bring them in into our communities and be able to treat them fairly. With others assuming that every latino particularly male is a bad person. Or is here taking away from other people. And so. What i think it's important is not that we only talked about like community but you need to understand the community. Understand how things happen did remark to me is a wonderful wonderful initial way of addressing what is happening with young people and in many cases that came here when they were babies. And so let's see what happens next with that because you have a transition now that allows people and of course there is a cost involved. For people to get those papers and then we're talking about economics. And where is that you know assistance or that help that comes to people that maybe already strapped in terms of the kids going to school and. And they are all doing wonderful but what is happening to their parents and their grandparents. So when we talk about latinos. We are talking about many cultures. Many people many situations. Just like with anybody else you know this is a wonderful state. Goodnight when i go to up north. You know you see native americans and you see latinos and you see mom. And when i was director of the office of civil rights i spend a lot of time up north because i went at my feeling was we don't spend enough time or not we talked about milwaukee the most segregated city in the country and we talked about madison who's the most wonderful country city in the country. And we share our experiences only from the standpoint of where we live. When we talked about inclusionary housing. Now you're talking about the fact that there are people now that the infant the last several years in medicine that are in inclusionary housing kind of dropped in the middle of neighborhood. Especially. And so people may not understand the difference between people who are immigrants. And i are here with papers and those who are not with papers. So immigration is just not something that you can look at it with a single look. Like where we went when we read today talks about the different crystal wright. I'm so you cannot understand a community unless you participate in their community. You cannot understand what is going on and what are the nuances of the subtleties. Aurora community unless you are part of it. My concern is that if we look at immigration and immediately equated with people who are mexican. We are limiting the scope of what we need to look at. Yeah many many people from central america that are coming here both legally and without papers. Your many people from south america. You know it's interesting but when i was talking about working with mexican-americans people used to call me waiter. Where is a term that you use for white people. For white women. And so i was aware i'm going i'm not look at me i'm not you're not then i forgot it but as long as they come. An app for service at 10:15 give them i don't care what they call me except a couple of words in english that i wouldn't like to be called. So. Immigration it's important. I did there is wonderful wonderful work doing by churches doing by it being done by activists in the community done by people that have come together. Understanding the issues looking at the nuances because. If we do not integrate immigration is superficial. If we only get together to talk about it. But we don't have amongst us. People who live it. You know i can come and translate my community to you but when we talk about immigration. The folks that you need to dialogue with to be with is those that are part of that those issues. I need to learn their words and they need to learn their history so you can collaborate and doing what needs to be done recently i was. By receiving an award from the latino community. You know it's very very meaningful to me call la voz the voice and what i appreciated. Was that. It wasn't because of my leadership because i'm not a leader in this community i try to be to some degree the voice of the community. And that's the difference we cannot the majority cannot define who's the leader in this community's if you want to learn about immigration bring people that know immigration that live in malaysia. Give them the sense of trust and protection but you will have people that maybe undocumented that can tell you what they are going through. They're telling you what is that they need from you. And i think that's important i would be more than willing up as i have done in many other organizations to volunteer to facilitate a dialogue between the people in the community and you that is not a speech. That is not. I removed presentation. About what is going on but wings the people that need to have the dialogue and you need to have the dialogue with them. So we can understand it when i'm working with puerto ricans they have a different way of life a different way of being in this country because they are from this country. When you are working with mexican mexicanos mexican americans that have been here for ages. There is no immigration issue for them you know it's a different experience when you have latin americans like myself you know somebody want time call me a souvenir latina. So i got all the title. From within and without the community. And so i have to accept the fact that my experience is very very different it is not better or worse but it cannot make lee much better. Choices but when we look at what we need to deal with. Especially right now i mean the politics in this country are very somber to me an unnecessary just one part. You know i think it's important for us to look at both parties. And maybe create a fire when i don't know i've been thinking that that might be the saving but you know we have the right to be in whatever party my concern is that we don't assume that one serves. You know better than the other entrance of this very very critical issues such as immigration. What is interesting to me is when i talk with native american. in the nation's by the way when i was director of your so civil rights and would have gatherings of people of color in in different capacities. You know my issue as i had gotten used to being very linear when it came to meeting we started this time and rihanna this time and what's wrong with this people you know and i would go to tribal of course you know it takes whatever time it takes to get whatever we need to go. And i remember just going to come on the next meeting her know what's going on. When you come here be here. And i was embarrassed. Because my nonverbal switch sometimes people express when you're talking with people from other culture or they have an accent but they don't speak english and we have to translate and we takes twice as long. Do subtlety is what gives people the feeling of not being included. They might be in the room. But they're not being included when you go to where they gather. And try to understand how they do things or what they need excetera it's a much better thing. Then if you just simply have somebody. That's been sometimes telling you a lot of latinos recently i facilitated. A discussion between puerto ricans and jewish people. In milwaukee it was a wonderful thing i was very honored to be able to do that they would. Pieces of paper. And the individuals were saying what their history was in the context of when they came to milwaukee and under what conditions and then we stopped. Can we had different groups with different people talking about the challenges and opportunities. I'm talking about their experiences good bad and ugly. And the wise. And then as we finish there was a much better understanding of how people could collaborate but how people could not. And one of the issues was palestine. And the difference in terms of the kind of militant aspect of the puerto rican to struggle and then. What happened what's happening with palestine and they agree to disagree so we're talking about latinos and immigration. We like any other group have people that come here without papers. A people who come here to study the university of wisconsin has an incredible amount of people who come from different countries. Including a number and it's increasing from central and south america okay and so either you have it occasionally says you have temporary b says we have people working among us that come with very limited this because because they have a talk a little bit about they have things that the united states meet. And so there is a lot more flexibility with corporations with with the federal government to bring in those folks to a speed proxy process but if they can only work for certain time and then we do have people i got like myself who have come here got married had children got doubt.. What i want to do right now is open it for a dialogue between you and i. Okay and so use this time. Well i was talking about the different kinds of immigration that i see endurance of latinos and others. You know that when you come here for a vocational purposes there there is a speed line in a in a way that you know what universities working with universities for people come here to particular reason. And and then you have you know this influx of people who may not be documented. Adara coming from south america central america and north america and mexico. One of the interesting things. Is. You know there's a saying that says you should be able to pull yourself by the bootstraps. Lot of people don't have boots. And so you know it's it if everything is equal. Then we can talk about equality but it isn't and if you know the more the physical differences. The more people are not used to. You know having an integrated environment. The more your tapes go off. An assumptions are made. And people react to you i mean i'm sure that that woman up north in this little town did not want. Don't have the director of gifts of civil rights. You're not upset. But to her i was a migrant worker. Coming for services and therefore i don't speak spanish i mean english. And therefore she has the mouse that works. So you know and i tell people sometimes we discriminate without intent is kind of being pregnant by surprise okay. It surprised when your pregnant and you have to deal with it. And so. You don't. The things that happens in madison for example is that because we are organizing wasting people's behavior for tickle early kids in school that is different. But that does not negate the fact that if they are not behaving appropriately they should not be calling it. Okay because to me. Do to allow people to do things that are either illegal or discriminatory or or they are wrong. Is racist. Okay if i put up with somebody. I just finished doing some training for the cab company for union gap my guys. And i don't drive so they take me everywhere you know but what i'm talking about is that there is a fairness and equity issue here. And when we are talking about the fact that people hire people who are not documented. Because of a number of reasons. Some of which is that they know they don't have to be. People waited they know they don't have protection. One thing i'm going to tell you and i'm going to take some other questions recently i investigated a case. I was asked by but by an organization to help. To assist. This lot of this mexican woman. That works together with her husband and son this is madison wisconsin by the way. In a factory a large factory. Where she was sexually assaulted assaulted by a mexican. Supervisor. And when she went. To complain to the to the owner. She was stole. That. They couldn't do anything. Cuz he was a good supervisor. Okay. When i met with her she said i'm concerned for my son and my husband who work under the same guide. Okay. When i talked to her and i explained to her she had the right to file a police report she had the right to go to equal rights she had the right to file with the federal government. Because the protection is there whether you are documented or not. And i went with her to the police department we filed a complaint with when two equal rights division we filed a complaint. And. Their attorney. Subpoena me. And he was. Abrasive. He was disrespectful. He was challenging. You're in the process. We were able to establish that not only has she being assaulted. In the place of business. He went she was also discriminated. By the owner. In terms of addressing this issue properly of course by the before the time they they the case was. Allocate in terms of what they what they needed to do. That he had terminated the supervisor who had disappeared. Gosy originally came from chicago. This was three months ago. Okay stuff happens here. And if we don't get. Fully involved with communities of color. If we don't look at what's happening in the schools what's happening in social services what's happening in terms of. How folks are dealt with. If there are challenges or they are issues that come in i can be here standing. Talking about it. But you are not really. Being able to understand it to be able to support and assist people that need it. And importance of. Florists in madison. Not to be just racially integrated but culturally integrated as well. I think it's. What we can do individually. You know i'm able to look at the bigger picture with looking at. What's ideally but ideally needs to happen. I have been. Go to feel very strongly. That. They are. Symbolic things that we do. The don't necessarily reflect. An an an action for integration. You know ad. We see it for example i did respectful dialogues with a purpose for the mayor's office how many years ago. And that was after study circles. I think it's study circles were wonderful. For awareness purpose. The cultural competence. Is how you do it. Not being aware. Not even being sensitive but how do you go about doing what you need to do in the context of work i call it a performance issue. And so you know. We have the symbolism i love to go to thing dances sundance 45 straight hours. With anybody you know i love to go to 2. The events we have like baby. You're not has his beautiful festival an event. I were can i go into environments on a daily basis whether its custodians that i do training for and food service people in the public school system. Or. You know craft. Weather executive body or st. mary's with 62 managers being pull out for a whole day to talk about how do we serve people. A various cultures. So when people say we don't have time i said you make time for whatever it's important. We always do that as human beings. And you see sometimes kindness. And best intentions. Transferred. In in in my tapes. As arrogance. At you trying to imply that i don't know how to speak english. You know i mean so that's what i think is so important that we have dialogues. I'm not just. Presentation. Get because then you can ask the questions we can develop the trust. Necessary to be able to say would you be comfortable with this. You know it's like. I did training for principals in school system okay 35 principal. And i asked how do you benchmark cultural competency for teachers and social workers. What kinds of things do you ask that will tell you that they are culturally comp. And the response was. Bilingualism. And i said you know what i noah. Bunch of people. That are bilingual and not culturally comp. Because i need to be culturally competent when i am working with people who are from mexico or they are from central america. Or they are from south america cuz they knew one says are there. And i need to learn that i need to be aware of that. And so you know when we talk about cultural competence how many teachers in our school system. Are trained to deal with the urban dynamics of language. Poor african american kids. Four african-american parents. And how many people think that if you went to mexico for two weeks. Or 3 months. You can come back and be a bilingual social worker even if you have the social worker certification. And so you know to me. Oldest layers. Need to be taken one by one. And you don't need to be an expert in everybody's culture but you need to be an expert on your own so you know. What is that is different than what you need to learn about other cultures. And i think the wonderful thing i was very privileged. To be able to. Be in different countries. Draw my life. Grayson federal born in brazil racing fuel went to france when to morocco. And then when i got married. I came to the united states to beloit wisconsin. And i'm going like where's the city. Duquoin from very large cities. To a very small beautiful little city with wonderful college. So it's not just. The language and is not just you know this country is made out of people from many cultures. But there has been the connection between the european culture. And is the impact of european cultures when i teach i teach from an anthropological. Point of view. Not racial. Rachel comes into it as part of it. But. Edward t hall hughson anthropologist and i will encourage you to read his work. It says that 98.7% of anything in this country that's organized. It's linear single response yes or no and time-limited. Think about. Think what happens when you have people. Who are monolingual northern english. When you have to bring a translator when you provide the service which takes more time and not exactly 47.3 minutes. Sparklight. Think about what happens when you actually are getting with people from many different cultures not just language but cultures. And you have to adjust what you do and who you are. Do that. It's a natural challenge and then if we have a racist tendencies we because every individual can be a racist regardless of waze. It could we have those tendencies we immediately shut down if we see anything that's different. I'll be around for a little while so. Come up and we can talk thanks so much. Are closing words today. My struggle is for recognition. Acceptance and inclusion. As well as against racism sexism and the dominant male society. Which never expected much from me. But still did not allow my voice to be heard. That is. From sarita martinez she's a puerto rican artist the creator of. Her dad is on art style painting juxtaposed with written social commentaries. And i included her website there so take this home and look up bursitis actually quite good.

uuprairie_org

Pr200112Wunderlin-ed.mp3

Good morning my name is rick wrecking. Longtime member of prairie. My pronouns are. He him and. His. I've been apart of fairy for about 35 or 40 years. I've done everything but. Deal with money. They don't trust me with your money. Prairie aspires to be both an open-minded and open-hearted congregation. We welcome people of every ethnic and religious background. Whatsoever your color sexual orientation. Family structures age. Abilities or inability. Later in the service will invite visitors. Guest and returning friends to introduce yourself so we can get to know you a little better and then we can speak to you. Using your name. On sunday mornings we provide a wide variety of services they presented either by a member of the prairie. Member of the prairie community as we are this morning. Or a member of the wider community. Are opening words today. Will be read by karen dating. The earth will not continue to offer its harvest except with faithful stewardship. That's from pope john paul the first. Coachella sliding. Today will be read by. Kent wagner. We light this chalice for the web of life which sustains us. For the sacred circle of life in which we have our being. For the earth the sky above and below. And for our mother earth and for the mystery. Propel spencer. Thank you ken. Our presentation today is by john wunderlin a five-year member of prairie. John is a musician. As we saw earlier. He's a professional software engineer. He's an amateur. Astronomer he's our friend and he's going to presento program today called who saved the electric car. I'm really excited to share this presentation with y'all. In february 2016 elon musk. Announce the their mass production car the model 3. And nancy knight put in our deposit that week. Two-and-a-half years later. I took delivery of of my model 3 and i've had it for just over a year now. So today i'm going to be talking about the history of electric vehicles. A little bit about global warming that's a very that's multiple stalks in itself. A few bumps in the road for electric vehicles. The rise of tesla. The reluctant realization of the car industry. And then my personal experiences with my car. The future of electric cars. And i don't think i'm going to get to the fighting the fight out anybody wants to talk to me afterwards about what flood means i'll explain that. Anella openldap prison questions afterwards. So i was going to start with a quiz on when you all thought the first electric car was invented but the kids work today can i gave that away. So in 1832 robert anderson from scotland created a rough prototype. That's his first picture. That was 1832 as long time ago. 1881 gustav trophy presented electric car at the international. Electrical congress of paris. In 1884 20 years before the ford model t came on the market. Thomas parker of england. Delta production. Electric using his own and design high capacity batteries. That's actually this picture. In 1889 the first electric cars were made available in the united states. And this picture down here is actually thomas edison that's. That's thomas inspecting the electric car. So by 1900 electric cars were amongst the most popular cars in the united states. It was roughly 130 electric 1/3 steam as we heard in the in the kids book. In 1/3 gas. Oh and then one of the picture i included here this is. Trinidad ferdinand porsche. That porsche. And he actually invented the. The world's first hybrid this is an electric and gas hybrid car in 1901. The last picture here is not electric car that's henry ford. With his first. Model t car and his 10 million. Model d. And after that picture was from 1933. By the 1930s oil was discovered in texas and the oil boom began. The availability of cheap oil. And low-cost mass-produced ford model ts was too much for the electric car industry. Can electric cars basically disappeared overnight. And i just wanted to say that gasoline is amazing. 1 gallon of gas can move a 2-ton vehicle and occupants more than 50 mi. Its energy density is basically unmatched 1 gallon weighs only 6 lb. I knew that 2 ton vehicle 50 miles to think about that that's pretty amazing. Are the equivalent energy i just wanted to put this in perspective a lot a lot of some of us and lot of people have solar power today. Typical solar power house. With with collectors on to sunny days. The combination of all of that energy is about the same as one gallon of gas. I'm also the equivalent energy weight in my my tesla model 3. For the batteries to eat equate for 1 gallon of gas. Is 351 lb of battery. So electric is kind of up against some stiff competition here. Gas is relatively safe it won't explode unless you. Try to make it explode. It's easy to transport it's cheap price table and it's ubiquitous right now. In the early 70s electric cars made a brief comeback when the gasoline prices spiked. So this first picture here is a gm prototype. It was never about the production. About this car was this is called the citicards. And it's it was made by a company called sebring vanguard. In that company briefly became the six largest us carmaker with over 4,000 sales of that car. I never seen one until i started researching this. Unfortunately or fortunately it will help reduce prices return to normal. And these cars disappeared again. So just a little bit on global warming as early as the late 1800's scientists had realized that human emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Potentially we're going to make a change the climate. In the 1960s the evidence began to mount and by the 1990s a broad consensus among client climate scientists. Bad carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Before significantly warming the planet. So gasoline is not so amazing when it comes to climate change. One gallon of gas generates nearly 20 lb of carbon dioxide. And i wanted mention this a little bit one again when i was for studying this. A gallon of gasoline weigh 6 lb how can. One gallon of gas when it's combust generate 20 lb of carbon dioxide. And the reason is that. Gasoline is mostly carbon and hydrogen. And when a single carbon molecule combines with two oxygen molecules its mass increases so it's drying are oxygen out of the air and it actually generates more mass. I mean you can't put it on the scale. But one pound of one gallon of gas generates 20 lb in mass of carbon dioxide. Do the average american drive 13476 miles per year the average fuel efficiency of cars in the united states is about 25 miles a gallon. So the average carbon contribution to every single driver. In united states is 5 tons of carbon dioxide per year. In this show many of you probably seen this is from nasa i believe the. Average global temperature from the 1800s to today. That trend right there is rather alarming especially. It seems to be spiking recently. And. Of the last in the last 6 years. The last six years of all been the hottest 6 years in the history of record-keeping. 2019 they just came out this week is the second hottest year on record. In nine of the last 10 years. Have been in the top 10. Of all time temperatures. So as i mentioned by the 1990s. The consensus was reached among among climate scientists and governments began to take notice. In the 1990s california implemented strict regulations that said the top seven manufacturers. House of automobiles muscle zero-emission vehicles in order to continue operating in california. California such a huge market. A lot of vehicles manufacturers took that seriously. Gm in 1996 release the ev1. It was the first electric car to provide significantly more range than any prior. Electric vehicle up to 142 miles on a charge. And this car was developed in direct response to the california rules. Reception was overwhelmingly positive. In the car received the near cult-like following. I remember watching at the tonight show and tom hanks came on and was just strolling the virtues of his electric car. There was a catch though. Jim released all of these cars only with. Lease. And write in the contract it stipulated that customers were not able to buy the cars at the end of the lease. And during this time. All of the major manufacturers were really lobbying california to get those rules relaxed well they want. As soon as the rules were relaxed gm went out gathered up all of those. Great easy ones and smashed him. And if you want to know more about this there's a documentary that the problem how many of you seen who killed the electric car. Yeah it's a gradient seats available on streaming services i highly recommend. Watching that and then they also have a follow-up called revenge of the electric car. Do the same year the ed1 was smashed. And elon musk's as a direct result of that. Silicon valley engineers martin zebraherd and marked happening. Carpeting sorry. Founded tesla motors. you notice that i said those two names. Not elon musk elon wasn't a founding member of tesla. But but the engineers almost immediately seek additional funding and that's when eli came up came aboard and and gave them $7000000 towards the towards the effort. So tesla initially had a lot of challenges. They were bleeding money the research and development costs are out of control and in five years they went through five ceos. At that point elon musk was on the board of directors. And he decided to step in as chief operating officer. So he came in and kind of got things under control they were still bleeding money but the actually managed to get the roadster out. And. This car was was a real special. Introduction. It was the first. Good-looking exciting car. And it had 240 miles of range. And it would also accelerate 0 to 60 in 4 seconds so even though it was expensive they sold all of them they made. 120 thousand dollars. So the upper left there is nissan leaf. Was an affordable vehicle that came to market in. In about 2010. And it had limited range but it was was more like gas powered cars as far as the price. Oh man it's sold really well over 400,000 sold have been sold to date. The chevy volt lower left. Is a plug-in hybrid. I like the toyota prius you can plug this car in and get up to 40 miles of range over thanks. You can get up to 40 miles of range on just electric so foremost commuting most of your shopping trips around town. You can run on with without any emissions. And then if you want to go longer you can put in gas and it's also very efficient car when it's using the gas. And then the tesla model s came out in 2006 of july 2012. And you my last had the highest rating in history of consumer reports it had a near-perfect rating from that organization. And then the model x came out a couple years later this is basically the sport-utility version. Of the model s. In both of those cars have about 300 miles of range. So fast forward today. We've got in the upper left here this is chevy bolt. And i'm more reasonably priced car with a nice with a nice 200 230 miles of range i think it is. And then. Toyota updated their prius with something called the prius prime which i know bob. Bob and barb have. Which is similar to the v where you can drive for local aaron's you can drive an all-electric. And then there's gas when you need to go longer distances. And then. This is the toyota came out in 2016 or 2017 is when natural release. My car. Do tesla doesn't have any delivery centers in wisconsin yet. So when when i bought this car i had to drive down to chicago so i took it i should i didn't drive i took a bus to o'hare and then had to take an uber over to the delivery center. So i got there and the the the poor. Delivery specialist truck struggle to explain the workings of the car but by that point i'd watch every single youtube video in existence so i let him off the hook pretty pretty quickly and took the car and proceeded to drive this brand-new. Car in. Chicago rush hour traffic. It was fun and totally scary. So i just want to talk a little bit about living with an electric car from for my first year i put over 25,000 miles on the car and i do a lot of driving. We took i took two major road trips one with nancy we drove down to arizona that was probably 5,000 miles or so total. And. So between all of my driving 25000 miles i actually ended up saving over $2,000 in fuel and maintenance over my previous car. And that's just since they're in the screen if you're curious about the details. Show my personal driving i save more than 10 tons of carbon dioxide in that first year. 22000 lb based on what i would have done if i had had my prior car. It's the most comfortable car i've ever owned. And one interesting aspect about the cars that you can do car camping. Because you can sleep in it and it the hvac system you can have heating or air conditioning all night long. And you don't have to worry about carbon monoxide poison. And then another fun thing i did this year was drag racing. With the car. And it turns out. Turns out it's pretty quick. So i i won i won the open class seat. And i won drag racing twice now and i've probably done 50 some races against other cars i lost 3 times. Twice against cars that had nitrous oxide injection. And one car masonry superfast and one time i lost to a tesla model s. So i just wanted to go through some frequently asked questions i get first questions what's the range. The ranger my car is 310. And tesla just updated their model s now with it's like 260 miles of range i think they're their top-end model s. Do tesla's. That's basically the same range is a gas car. Next question is how long does it take to charge so there's a couple of different ways i charge the car i most commonly charge at home. And i've got a 220-volt outlet in my wall and i'm in a plug into the car. And. If i happen to come home with no charge. It will refill the entire car in 10 hours so basically overnight go to bed and wake up and it's fully charged. And then how much does it cost to charge. At home based on 2050 sense gas price and my current electric electric race rates it's about 1/4 the cost of gas. At the superchargers are a little more expensive it's about half the price of gas. Do my favorite things about the car or the amazing handling website once i drove this car. You almost have to drive a tesla to get it. Because the full power of the cars available right as soon as you push the pedal down. Uncontrollable to you and it's not like you touch the pedal. It's just very smooth. The center of gravity is really low because all of the batteries which have all of the weight are actually. So you can you can you know that the cornering is just something else i just i can't say enough about how it drives i'm a sports car guy in. This car is by far the best car i've ever driven. Autopilot makes the long drives much much less tiring i'm not going to talk a lot about autopilot technology that it basically drives the car itself. Highway. It does all it does a steering and it'll break for cars in front of you. Not going to talk about it lot cuz that technologies also coming in gas cars. Indian software updates for tesla is something that the car industry is going to have to get on board because. I've had the car a year in almost every month they come out with a new software update. And it's like christmas every month. The car didn't have a security system when i first got it. The first month came out within a software update gave me a security system. It's got one pedal driving the car actually got faster with an update. Not that it really needed to happen. And i got i can watch netflix and youtube in the car now it's just not while you're driving.. A few not-so-great things about the car the cost of my car it course my car was a higher-end model 3's it was pretty expensive. Although the cost of a comedown a lot in back my car has dropped in price though. How many years has dropped by more than $10,000 since i bought it. And i'm the entry-level model 3 right now is stands at $35,000 so it's almost into the range of of a typical car. The long refuel times is not so great if you happen to be in a hurry but the thing with the car is. Is everyday i have a full charge so so it's really it's really not much of an issue. And when i'm driving on a long trip i can usually drive 3 to 4 hours. Before i need to charge and i don't know about all of you but when i drive long distance i like to take 20 min. So after 4 hours i stop for 20 minutes or i might get a quick bite to eat at home on cars ready to go for another three to four hours so really that has not been that big. And then the last thing is tesla service has been is really hit and miss. They have two types of service they've got service centers and the closest one from he's in chicago so if i have anything major i actually would have to have the car towed to. Chicago for it to be fixed although rumor is that there's going to be a service center opening in madison soon. But tessa also has for about 80% of the problems that happen with the car they have something called mobile service they'll actually come to your house come to work it out of my garage i've had that done a couple of times i had a couple of minor issues with the car. And they just came into my house and fixed it. And that was always the degree. Every everybody loves. Exlines. Poop. All right so just a couple points on the future of electric transportation. It to me it seems like electric cars of turn the corner nearly every manufacturer has announced plans to electrifying. The cost of living in my own batteries which is the type of battery that are in most electric cars have dropped in half in four years. In the factor of 10 in less than 10 years. Electric buses are being sold at an exponential rate. Andy dumper is something i wanted to talk about briefly cuz it's it's such a cool story. Then in switzerland they develop this prototype. Big haul truck is 121 ton. Vehicle. And it's a rock hauler. And it's an electric truck that only ever needs to be recharged once. So they charge it but it doesn't it hauls mountain house rock top of a mountain. So they charge it at the base of the mountain. It drives up to the top of the mountain they fill it up with rocks and ask the truck is coming down at uses regenerative braking which all electric cars have. And so it actually recharges the battery. Pheasant coasts down the hill. And by the time it gets back to the basics fully charged. So this thing has been operating for about 6 months now so like 5 years and never need to be charged. Hopefully at the top of the mountain. Tesla and other companies have announced semi trucks in tesla's planning to bring their semi truck production this year. That that's going to require a whole nother level of charging infrastructure but they're they're working on. In the last league electric bicycles is a transportation. Newest transportation i know actually quite a few people in here have electric bikes including us. An interesting note about electric bikes so my car gets. Epa equivalent of 120 miles per gallon. But i did some calculations on electric bikes they get over 2,000 miles per gallon equivalent. And then enter that very interesting aspect of electric bikes there was a study done. Dad said says electric bikes actually have a smaller carbon footprint than regular bikes sorry camp. This is in this is based based on the typical american diet. If you source locally that doesn't count. But for most people that eat typical american diets you actually have a lower carbon footprint if you use an electric bike then if you use a regular bike. Interesting fact. I think i think i'm going to stop there. Go ahead and just get to the the last line. Yeah that's a good question. Tesla has superchargers. Do tesla has over 15,000 chargers across the country in the world. In the united states all of the major routes have superchargers strategically-placed 350 miles. And the car itself on the screen when you when you plug in your destination it will automatically tell you where you need to stop. There is actually just ended january 1st of this year. $7,500 and actually there's a little story on that. There was a bipartisan bill. That went to just went through both both houses of congress or the senate installed because president trump said no way i'm not extending the electric vehicle credits he stopped it cold in its tracks. So the so they did the batteries will degrade over time but there's been castles have been around long enough and i know tesla's more than other cars. They've been around long enough that there's been a lot of cars with three to five hundred thousand miles on the batteries. And it looked it looks like tesla batteries in general will last at least 300,000 miles within 80% range. So it takes a long time before they need to be. Recycle. And one thing that people are very interested in using old car batteries for is house power backup. So there's a very good chance that these batteries will be able to be used. Because even at 80% these batteries could run a typical american household for about 2 days. So that that would be a good second second life for them. And at the point that you need to be recycled there about 96% recyclable. So. It is a common talking point of. And it is a talking point and it's invalid it's a valid point like any good. What item there's a grain of truth into it. In-n-out wisconsin we get i think we get about a third of our power from cole but even given that even if it were higher than that. Electric cars are so much more efficient than gas cars. That that the amount of the carbon footprint of an electric car even in the worst-case scenario. Is still far better than gas cars. I'm in fact even it's even better than hybrid cars except for kentucky. In kentucky that get most of their power from coal. In in kentucky if you have a very efficient hybrid the carbon footprint is actually lower for hybrid than the electric car but only in that one state. There haven't been all of that many incidents of. Electric cars i didn't judge still up fairly small percentage of the overall right i can't really speak to that i will speak to one thing though they're in the news. There there have been a few tesla fires. And it is always over the news that these battery cars are exploding on the time. As a percentage of. All car fires. Electric cars are much smaller percentage than gas cars. So it's just it just any anything with the tesla named associated with it right now makes the news. So are you you think that. Tesla cars blow up all the time there's actually never been a documented case of a model 3 catching fire. Other than. They only a couple of my license. In a release that they release the recently-released an over-the-air update they did find a problem with my glasses under extreme conditions where they would they would catch fire but they over-the-air updated the software so that's not possible anymore. Yeah just one comment on that to tesla is actively researching alternative. Chemistry. For the batteries i'm hoping by the time i mean right now the lithium mines are providing all. All that's needed. If every single car on the road was the same chemistry that might be an issue. Stereo samsung there's also there's already some standardization there's something called chademo and ccs are the two most common. Universal plug types. And they there their they're working in that direction. Thank you john. Our closing words will be read by randy converse. Some people don't like change. But you need to embrace change. Alternative is disaster risk. Thank you for coming this morning. Send a hand of friendship to those around you greet your neighbor. Then join us for coffee and conversation and cake. Pancake cake.

uuprairie_org

Pr160925JanMiyasaki-ed.mp3

Good morning. I'm out middleton remember prairie. And i want to welcome you. And this morning i'd like to read the welcome to unitarian universalism. Statement from the website. We are people of all ages. People of many backgrounds and people of many beliefs. We create spirituality and community beyond boundaries. Working for more justice and more love in our own lives. And in the world. Unitarian universalism affirms and promotes seven principles. They're in the front of your run handle. Grounded in the humanistic teachings of the world's religions. I spirituality is unbounded. Drawing from scripture and science nature in philosophy. Personal experience in ancient traditions instead described in our six sources which are also. In the front of the hymnal. Get to know us. Lelabar is going to help lidar challenge this morning and openness to new ways of understanding and doing things. A special attention to the other and the sense of service beyond self development today this morning but it's right the chalice for openness willingness to grow enriching curiosity and active cooperation. Facial then we'll introduce our speaker today. Morning everybody i guess more than an interjection this is kind of a. Testimonial. And i also a personal honor. I'm i've known jan. Miyasaki for. Almost 25 years in. For me she's been a friend. A counselor a mentor and literally a lifesaver. Like so many others like i'm holder it all. When i get into. Trouble. I tried to shake now what would jan do. She is. Done. Accomplished so many things in your life. Illinois or if i go into all of them but i do have to say she's an attorney. She's on the faculty of w.w. and ethnic studies. She doesn't morning show at wart. And of course she's the director of project respect and i see. Sun-swept 1993. And that's where we met. Respect is a program which helps women get out of the life of prostitute. And that's. That's where we met. And. Here i'd like to say. That this project respect is not just about social work. Because. Prostitution does not exist. Merely because cd. Are dysfunctional or powerful men by sex from vulnerable are exploited women. It exists because it's functional. For capitalism witches. Wichita. Is a. Supported by a misogynist sexist society. In which were all complicit. I can tell you. From personal experience. Are any woman or girl in a life in this life. Can be severely traumatized. Spiritually emotionally sexually and physically. Perhaps for life. Hartford. The same women. Are some of the strongest. Smartest. Most compassionate. I've ever known. And respect is where we found each other. And it's jam. That's made it all happen. And so i'm very very proud. Thank you face. Thank you for inviting me to to be with you and. Enjoying the. The. Service and kind of soaking in its all of this social justice energy in the room. I really appreciate that thank you and thank you face for the for the kind words. So. Project expect emerges from an international anti-human-trafficking movement. With a very long history. And even though that topic of human trafficking and i will. Get to the point where i make a connection between women trafficking and sex trafficking and prostitution in a little bit. But even though that the topic of human trafficking has become highly visible. In the last few years thank you. I'm international anti-human-trafficking movement. 19:49 we come into existence by the 1980s but i always want to make this linkage back. To the international movement. In 1949 when the united nations at the behest of women worldwide first addressed the issue of human trafficking. Especially sex-trafficking when it made a formal statement that declared. But the trafficking of persons for prostitution with incompatible with the dignity and worth of the human perspective. And for the early on recognize this. That that that is a violation of human rights. It's nearly a decade so even fighting 1980. The 80s a decade of the women. I'm lenny shoes that came for the women. The un prioritises and pushes. For the advancement of women's human rights throughout the world but there still is considerable. Confusion and contradiction remaining in the area of sexual exploitation. Do you have this early statement in 1949 but even. My 1980 when they're looking at the advancement of women's rights throughout the world. They hesitate to make a statement further because of a lot of confusion and contradiction i'm remaining in the area sexual exploitation. It is. By 1991. That the united nation destination stussko further. And i can see make a rather radical statement because it is been in 1991 that they say that it is a fundamental human right to be free. In sexual exploitation. In all of its forms including rape. Domestic violence in prostitution. Ally nation sad that prostitution preys on women and children made vulnerable by poverty. Under development and displacement. And my government decision a policy. Which promote these. So they say this in 1991 i think a radical statement. And identifying government decisions and policies that displaced people. And make them vulnerable to prostitution. By others. Could you bring. Mystery home to bring it locally code in county and the city of madison were among the first us communities to recognize the bundle of issues and problems that women and prostitution save. And then trap them in prostitution. Anarcha munity give us some snaps for this our community acknowledges this in 1981. I'm with a creative project respect. And i'm expecting 1993 so these founders 1981 you took a huge step in this activity. I'm going on in those years. The respective sounded by those indian county's district attorney and the city of madison attorneys offices. And was founded by those in law enforcement but also by. Policymakers and community leaders. Physicality group leaders and the revolving-door nature prostitution arrests. By promoting access to essential community services. And directing these mostly women away from the criminal justice system. And in 1981. They created the country's one of the country's first deferred-prosecution programs for women in prostitution. The 1981 trying to. In the city of madison. Criminalize prostitution in the city limits. The project. Was moved into the community in 1985. At least under the management of arc community services which continues to manage the program today. On the move into the community was designed to promote self-referrals. And that is. I think the success we've had you still function receiver ferral's from. Online forcement and from the court. Auntie diver women away from the criminal bozeman prostitution and now you. Away from on the criminal justice system. I'm but. About three-quarters of the people we serve come on their own. So we've been located. F800 blah. All avenger block of east east johnson 1980. Other than providing outreach. Crisis intervention counseling support groups intensive case management and advocacy. Services at address. The unique complicated needs. Atif aslam. If i remember a woman i worked with years ago she came from many generations of women who had been prostituted i just i don't forget her. And she told me that her mother. Add your grandmother and her great grandmother all had been prostituted. And she told me that prostituted women are in the bible. And i asked why then was she at least that she didn't have to be there she was coming. To get support. Change your life. And she told me that prostitution with not her destiny. And strengthen her dignity her insight. Dy continue to motivate me and i somehow cast people into this role in our society. Yeah there is a saying that prostitution. Is not a. Contradiction in the female sex role in our society but an aspect. Obviously male sexual in our society what decides what role a girl is going to play in society. You know what decides. Alone. Her memory. And the memory of so many women and and man i can counter the very first supercross race class and culture. Alexity. Shared experience. My men and women across repast and culture. You able to surpass what we sink her into passable difference is. Define support over the shared experience. By having your. Body. Used by others as a consumer god. Inovelli tells me about. This problem in our society. And it shows me the the the power of the transformational vision and thinking of the leaders of the anti-human-trafficking movement. I want to make sure to say that respect as a member of the coalition against trafficking in women the oldest international anti-human trafficking organization. It is a civil society based response and the coalition against trafficking in women is a non-governmental organization with consultative status with the united nations and is on it economic and social council. Sulfur 13 years now i'm expected been assisting. Adele cover system for prostitution no matter how they got trapped into it. Entrance 2012 we've been working with adults and children to access the benefits and protections of the trafficking victims protection act. That passed in 2000. Immigrant from the united states department of justice at maybe see if beginning in 2012. Auntie address the issues of. Domestic prostitution of adults and children in our community. The formation of vision of some of our leaders. Freedom house which was. School that preceded operation fresh start. 1970 archives somebody who had attended there a good friend of mine has always been around. And for kids and adults. So i'm. So this issue the trafficking of domestic adults and children. I'm other we often think of this is something that happens you know. Play far away. How many view these new anti-human trafficking laws with a transformational development and how societies used those houston systems of prostitution transformational impact of a sexual assault. And anti domestic abuse love that preceded are. But how how are sex trafficking and prostitution made first i must say that sex trafficking deal i realize it must have a system of prostitution to exist so. I system of prostitution i'm referring letting faith you were referring to that to a system of human bodies adults are children's bodies for sex. For anything of value and the prostituted person is the supply. They are the sex object for sale. And let me add that it isn't about such as it is about abuse of power just like when we look at sexual assault and domestic violence. Other human trafficking laws protect children who are using systems or prostitution. And you'll be protected dope if they identify additional element. That are. In the law. Elemental force fraud or coercion. So. All children weather. Consent is not an issue or not. Who are using systems of prostitution. Our protector. Lol i don't who are you from system to prostitution or protected if we can identify these additional alamance. And that's another. I remember a young woman a very young mother who had been repeatedly beaten by her partner her boyfriend be there hospital records to document this broken bones fuse is she would report that these interviews were from falls night at the hospital she was afraid to ask for help afraid of what disclosure. And her her boyfriend pants was offering her limited choices you either do robberies were you turned eight. Or prostitute it didn't matter to him she just had to bring in money somehow and that's what he said you know i don't care how you doing just have to bring good money and so she was beaten and she was arrested for crimes other than prostitution before her victimization. If you could have people who are victimizing system for prostitution who are in our criminal justice system for other time like robbery in fast and so forth. I'm berkeley and so. I should be interested 42b jen and training dates all the while having because yet. Generate money somehow. Victimization was recognizing today she is with her children she is living face when another community angie's benefiting for the protection of the trafficking victims protection act which year. This is what's going on with me this is why i have been doing these acts. And she was able to defend herself and delilah had her back. I remember another young fifteen-year-old girl trafficked from the age of 13 and these are people who live in our community. These are people we see our somebody's mother daughter sister schramm. And i remember another 15 year-old girl just traffic from the age of 13 between madison in chicago and community. And because of that it made it difficult to recover her. And it was awesome elsa made it difficult to see this fifteen-year-old as a juvenile delinquency system. However our community and i'll describe what we've been doing in the second and we're working together to identify. Americover victims from within our juvenile justice system. And you were able to ultimately. Recover her. No. Victims have been emerging all levels of society across race socioeconomic class and culture and they come from urban communities. I'm packed because most common precursor is something that occurs and all levels and places in society. I'm child sexual abuse and neglect and it's important to abbott child sexual abuse and although it's not the car. It doesn't somehow spoil a child. Rather it is how we. It's if we respond to that part diminishing a child self worth. They were making. The child more vulnerable to attacks. What isn't the child sexual abuse at some house with a chow. But it is how we respond to. That probably not society do we believe her. Dvd ministries.org. Do we help. Make her vulnerable. I don't have to say that you're leaving children alone and disturbing we want kids to be running around in to enjoy the kind of thumb. Happiness maybe we were allowed. To have and just come by. But she's alone especially you know. Being accessible to the scouting and grooming of traffickers who will step in. Meet you. You think about how we talk to our kids about this actually was writing notes. I'm about to. Difficult it can be to try and treat the material to discuss this issue with children. But we have to. I'm surprised situation by any name is not new. But historians have located the origins of prostitution. I'm a great history and drill during their from ew. Did some work into the origins of prostitution and she and others were trying to locate its origins i'm dated all the way back to you mesopotamia to the origins of civilization when slave women produced in brasov finance. So. You're not the oldest profession. But boy dating back to the origins of civilization when slaves remember used in bothell right now. It's based on long-standing harmful attitudes and beliefs. That's so long-standing that subordination of women and children. Capri two practices that are that appear natural. But they're not natural they're based upon attitudes about the worth of some people over others. And when and if we recognize that these attitudes and behaviors are harmful and not natural. That we can bring it to an end. So let's start with. It's a fundamental human right to be free from sexual sexual exploitation and all of its forms. And that recovery for victims can be very difficult. Because of the accumulated effect of childhood sexual abuse perhaps her neglect. Juvenile domestic violence sexual assault and domestic violence as an adult. And the after effects of the trauma and abuse suffered at the hands by those who sell them. Our benefit benefit from the sale of them or by those who buy that. Abuse break the victim donald sexually that she might not like that. She may even defend her victimizer because many traffickers will seduce their victims. Don't tell them that they love them take her heart. And then i take her body. So we're traffickers will take their victims hostage. After your physical and emotional abuse victim develop an emotional bond with her captor. So he'll enid recovery of difficult people need our support and compassion and judgement. Someone that focus on the needs of children and what we can do the respect is part of the coordinated community response to the commercial sexual sexual exploitation of children and i members include a lot of. Agencies that i really value in our community briarpatch i think it's. An essential partner school district work with dane county human services in the neighborhood intervention program work with healthcare providers access community health has been. Really helpful and seen our victims adults and children really quickly and the dane county juvenile court administrator. Municipal state and federal law enforcement civic and tates creek i could cups macy madison you might be familiar with also sexual assault and domestic abusers providers. The recreation center domestic abuse intervention services and we've been working together to improve identification of victims and to direct them into appropriate services. Or to build it. Build something that they will use and hopefully spare them from additional years of trauma and abuse. That occurs when their victimization goes unrecognized. So the ccr community coordinated community response group to the commercial sexual exploitation of children sponsors. In early 2012 the first broadcom unity conference in dane county to address victim identification. I'm sex trafficking victims of a particular. Distance investigation and prosecution. And some of you might have attended that. Also we completed the commercial sexual exploitation of children in dane county needs assessment and it was the first study of its kind in the state of wisconsin and the study was conducted in response to increasing me partizane county girls being exploited for sex. Why don't males. And the kids we served as a respondent the vast majority of them come from lies of chaos and suffering that most people in madison cannot even imagine and this is a madison metropolitan school district teacher who participated in the study and i love our school district teachers they are first responders they are caregivers to. County for children not community. The study of all the need for increased coordination between county social workers law enforcement youth providers juvenile justice. A victim advocates to protect juvenile victims and also documented the need for a residential safe house or shelter. And the study found that teeming with schools to identify victims and to prevent victimization should be a priority and the school district here has taken a great leaving.. But one of the respondents to our energy involved who is part of the school district said that it is frightening quote to bring this issue out into the open it will explode is important to make sure our community is ready for it. I'll let somebody who is in the madison school district. And what else do we need to respond to the needs. We need safe harbor laws provide legal protection for victims. And diversion into specialized services to in wisconsin a child under the age of 18 can still be charged with prostitution. Philip schmidt look for elements of for sporadic origin in order. Alfred channel to abc anti-human-trafficking protections using the adult standard really bypassing the protections that exist for children. Literally one of the big issues that are our coalition is another coalition called the wisconsin anti-human-trafficking consortium. That's trying to develop safe harbor law. Elsa. Wrecker services then that would be needed on to address the needs of these victims outside of the criminal justice system we need to be able to provide a spectrum of services on that fit with a child needs and will use including community based services all the way to long-term residential treatment and care and we need to support the guidance where they must now invested e89 classification on caregiver cases meaning that they did not have to investigate. Cases that did not involve. Abusive by caregiver this potentially could cause bear. Caseloads to. Multiply substantially and we need to help our community's needs to investigate these and provide protective custody. And for these children all the way making. Identification of victimization not a negative experience. Confidentiality. But needing to work together to protect our kids on the school district juvenile justice nankani human services and law enforcement and victim services to respond to this problem and we need to address the effects of poverty of people fly so i had been posed the question you know do i think that our community is doing enough to address. Said that to reporter. And i think the question is are we doing enough. To spawn to that office trafficking in our society and we need to adjust a course which affects poverty because children's vulnerability is increased by inadequate mental health services. Lack of secure housing and economic insecurity taking us back to the original statement in 1949 by the united nations. I'm and you can support the andyman campaign. Educate ourselves and community to reduce the demands were talking about. Children that people will talk about this in the larger context of sex trafficking out together to reduce the demand of your children's respect because without the deep and there would be no child sex trafficking and that gets back to that economic analysis that face made in her comment. So. Get to be able to think about this issue. Bellaire. That other people are not product for consumption that they have inherent value that there is no price to pay. Cinemark at. And that people facing limited options it should concern that they become vulnerable to. Traffickers and those who want to buy them. So again the. Bateman child without without then there would be no need for supply. I'm if i think. To summarize. This. So i just want to end there i think i bet. Get a thank you for inviting me i could talk about this for our and i'm trying really hard because it's sunday so i have a lot of coffee not as much as i would have had by this hour on another day until usually when. I talked about this i get really worked up but i'm feeling the feeling the love of the space. Alex really keeping me grounded. Obvious i can get really really mad. About this and but i think like you really try to direct it into social change were. I'm still at respect you definitely the spa nicor you know duty is to respond in an individual level. And and. Help people access services but we do do work on the stomach change level. Omelette. Prevention level policy level is low. So. I am glad that i was invited to talk about this. The focus of our work in the. If i need to human trafficking has been on sex trafficking cuz that's to work that we've done historically and there are a lot of organizations i think that focus on sex trafficking only intend appeal that off of labor trafficking but we all the focus of our work isn't sex trafficking we are in alignment with helping those who are trapped in it in labor. And you know. Think of the whole issue i would have the causes of labor and sex trafficking and let me just add that when women are lyrics to. But not always but often and so. Yeah you can't i think you do i avoid. Educating our kids about olive a system that exists that. Make anything for sale. And that you know depressing something so that you have a animal word. To pay your energy nbamtzone. Have little negotiating power depending on how desperate they are may have to turn a couple of days to pay the mgne bill so i guess my answer to that question is that to kind of incorporated into. The other kind of lessons you have with kids about sexuality for her and a time when she is at her most high-risk sexual practices for the people who are buying it it's about power. And so and i had a teacher and then another woman his hair twisted up kids at the rainbow project tell me that it's really hard although i ain't get what you're saying but she put this into perspective for anything on this issue to expect kids to be able to protect themselves so that said what can you do you know it is really about availability. That the research shows that when kids are being stolen. That is a matter of a couple of minutes before person who's trying to identify a kid will know who to follow upon and so if it's any kind of ways to make his unavailable for scalding at all. Or to be able to pass cups building food. Any kind of reaction that she wants somebody to listen to her you know. It's like fishing. Nothing. You know. So i think it is about availability i think self-esteem early on like very early on to. You know address the the question of worth as being tied to stuff. That is actually what happens with a lot of kids though. And. Simon's it's really complicated and they're still good school curriculum that that are used for prevention. About worse and. Value. Fac and you know what are the practices of these guys but if they're trying to seduce you truly hard. 2. Parcel out the seduction from the truth so your good question but. It is a larger problem about the g-man beaverton was loaded and they wouldn't need these kids and we can't expect the kids to protect themselves. Strike that. Sorry was a long as i told you i could go on. So that question i think is one that a community can have. I mean i would you know if you should have a discussion about racism. And slavery and you know sexism and let's have that discussion into it and discuss it after a really really good discussion about. About oppression. Agra community values after all that that this is okay then that's where we're at. But i don't think that that's what we've ever had about you didn't raise you know so i guess i would have to say that. Short of that. What we have is a. You know what discussion. That that doesn't really. Determine whether or not we're going to provide services to somebody will serve a person whether however she got involved in prostitution. Right i like many of you don't like to. Recognize. How difficult it might have been to be victimized right it's a lot of folks don't really. How that identification till later down the line. So i guess i would say to that question from respect standpoint. And that's why i said the. Horseradish courage in exception in the adult log really is showing. Kind of lack of consensus in a community about. Whether or not we would support this behavior and that we need to have a good debate about it. But doesn't matter to us we will provide services no matter how. A person got involved i think that's the larger discussion i'm davis saying that you do respect alone cannot and this problem it takes the whole community. There are movements i think you might have known about the. Stockholm. At stockholm between where they have legalized they had they didn't realize it but they criminalized it for the demander. Right that seems to be the that.. Ways in smite. Developed. I'm is not coming alive from that for women which is different from legalizing. But criminalizing that for the dementors. This is like really really tough question. A good majority of it. Adult. That we cleu 3c has some kind of addiction it's more chronic. In the adults. Keep the kids between may not be dependent yet but they're using drugs. It's used as a way to. To entrap people in 2002 chanel important is because when you're dealing with the folks that i seen often they might say unite i only do this with. It drugs to control people. So. Yeah i mean drug addiction is you know. The driver 44. It often. Kobe dies root beer in terms of services that we need you know it's been. If i were to ask. For what we can have in a community be great to have. More. Try treatment programs. Particularly longer. Stay. Program. I'm not a criminal justice case. Again thank you very much. Ryan camp reader closing words. Sorrow will one day return to joy. All that breaks the heart. Oppresses the soul. Well one day. Give place. Peace. An understanding. And everyone. Will be free. Please show greet your neighbors. And join us for coffee and conversation.

uuprairie_org

Pr120715Ingham-ed.mp3

Good morning. Welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society. I am christina i am your board secretary. Prairie aspire to be both an open-hearted and an open-minded congregation we welcome people of every ethnic and religious background. Whatever your color sexual orientation gender or family structure. We welcome you no matter your age or your abilities or your inabilities. Later in the service we will invite guests and visitors and returning friends to introduce yourself. So that we might get to know you better. On sunday mornings we provide a wide variety of services. They are presented either by a prairie member. A member of the wider community or by our minister as soon as we slept one today barb park will be our president will be introducing our guest speaker so i won't steal her thunder i'll let her come up in a few minutes and do that. Now i'm going to invite barba. To introduce our speaker today. Well we're very privileged today that have the reverend sandra ingham. With us today better known by your friends is sandy. She has graduated. From star king. And many of you know her or she might look familiar to you because she spent many years at first society first dessa in with apparent of sundays it's involved in sunday school and for several years at the administrator there so i'm figuring she should be a great help to dan cuz she knows how important it is to get information to him on time so she has served including most recently in green bay. She's going to speak to us today. And then after the salad lunch we will be having a parish meeting. To of because sandra is the person that our ministerial search committee has. Found for us and is recommending for our consideration to hire so so she sort of auditioning with us this morning and then we will be voting on her after the. Clearly we need a quorum for this assistant important. Vote. And. So we welcome very much welcome. Sandra reverend sandra inc. First i want to thank barb for. That wonderful introduction. I'll see if i can live up to it i wish i'd brought my tap shoes since this is. It is an honor and a privilege. And a blessing for me to be here. These are the opening words. Come into this place of peace. I'm glad it's silence heal your spirit. Come into this place of memory. I'm glad it's. Mystery. Warm your soul. Come into this place of prophecy and power. And let its vision. Change your heart. Mavis light. These lights. Kendall within us the warmth of compassion. Not too much warmth. The glow of love. The fire of commitment. And the light of truth. I don't usually include two responsive readings in the same. Service but i am today. Part of the audition thanks first one. I couldn't remember the number so it's my fault not damn. Obviously not in your program it is. Number 466 in the back of the big king. 466. No fear reading ahead to see what the other one is on riddle. If you would read the italicized. That would be. What religion be to us life and joy. What religion be to us. A dissatisfaction with things that are. Which bids us serve more eagerly the true and right. Let religion be to us. The wonder and lure of that which is only partly known and understood. Let religion be to us. Security and serenity. Because of its truth and beauty. And because of the enduring worth and power of the loyalties which it engenders. Religion. Uniting us with all that is admirable in human beings. Everywhere. Many years ago. I gave up religion. Or thought i did. I had never heard of unitarian-universalism then. I did not feel particularly safe. Or at home in the religion of my childhood. I did not want to sleep over. I did not want to commit to even one night. With or without my teddy bear. I did not know then that. If you're in a religious congregation and ask god for longer life. You are likely to get it. According to psychologist. Michael mccullough. Who isn't. Religiously to pout itself. And luckily for us. It doesn't even seem to matter. Which god you ask. Any sort of. So-called religious activity increases your longevity. According to a study done in the year 2000 and since confirmed by other researchers. At any given point. A religiously active. Person. What's 25% more likely. Havana non-religious person. To remain alive. So this statistic somewhat baffled me. I considered calling this morning's reflections. Coming home. Because. That is how i felt the first time i attended a unitarian universalist service. I felt that i had. Come home. Bought. We are in the middle of baseball season. And i am a big baseball fan so i opted for safe. At home. I actually found it to be a better description of how i felt. That day. When i first entered a unitarian universalist. Church. Or building or space or whatever word you prefer. don't get hung up. Anis wonderful descriptive words. Such as church. And religion. I'm into reclaiming song. I don't remember the subject of the sermon that day but i do remember that i felt safe. I felt safe. In expressing my beliefs. I found that no one was going to ridicule me for my feel logical position. I felt comfortable. And at home. Knowing that i could express my belief. And that these beliefs did not have to fit into any mold. Nor did i have to order any cream. Or recite any dogma. Unless i wanted to. That was remarkable. Unique. Eventually i decided that i wanted my life to be my life's work to be centered on unitarian universalism. That led to seminary and almost 10 years in perry's ministry before i realized that i needed a break. My father my last remaining parent. Died in 2008. About the same time as the economy fell apart. The congregation that i was then serving. Was struggling financially and i was not performing as well as i. Could and should have been. I took a sabbatical. I extended it. I thought maybe i was finished being a minister. Ihunt. In the southwest. Of the united states. I hiked some more. I must have bought about ministry on some level because one. In a while. I would check the listings to see what was available. And i would like some more. Until sometime during. Late march. Went because of a chance communication with a friend from seminary days i learned that prairie unitarian universalist society. In madison wisconsin was looking for a part-time minister. The fact that this was right around april 1st was not lost on me. Was this a universal idea of an april fool's joke. Really looking for another ministerial position. Once i finished with all that. Tentative informal contact. And here we are. And just cuz i realized i was ready to jump back into congregational life. One final push. From the universe occurred. Where was this year's general assembly. Why in phoenix. Only 130 miles from flagstaff arizona where i. I'm currently living. General assembly ga. Is an annual event. Helen a different location every year where we conduct the business of the unitarian universalist association. And immerse ourselves in programs and lectures and worship services and laughter and joy and sorrow. And what a general assembly it was. I don't think that i have ever been more proud of this face tradition. Of hours then i was three weeks ago yesterday. When we held a candlelight vigil. At the maricopa county jail where sheriff joe runs what amounts to a concentration camp. For the documented and the undocumented alike. Our vigil included almost 3,000 unitarian universalist. What's a few baptist. And folks from the united church of christ. And wonderful people from several local grassroots organizations with whom we have partner. This was the biggest protest ever. Against conditions in that jail. A sad facility that has been in existence for over 20 years. For me our vigil was proof that together. We can do such. Great. Things. Together. We can take on the work of the world. First. First we have to prepare ourselves. For this war. Which includes both the work of building our own face community. And. The work that needs to be done in the wider world. How do we do this. Well i discovered. That you are already doing a lot of this work. And they're certainly not time this morning for me to consider all of the things of what i believe. All those things that go into building a strong face community so i mean i want to mention a few of the ingredients that i think are necessary. Let's start with some radiant's. You ever hear that word. Radiance. Bill scholz use this word radiance. In one of the programs i went to in phoenix. Now some of you will recognize that name. Shoals was president of the of our unitarian universalist association in the 80s. I think. Before that i believe that he was president of our going to turn universal service committee. And after he was president of uua he was head up and the state international. And now he's back as president of. The service,. I was startled when he threw out the word radiance. I think he's onto something important. He used the word in this sentence. Helping each other. Clear away. Anything that stands in the way. Tapping into our radiant. Our inner goodness. And our compassion. Helping each other clear away our baggage. And arsura. And our pain. Things that all of us. Carrie. So that we can more easily get to or underline humanity. This is at the sermon about raiding so there may be one in the future. But as i said i think he's onto something. Because we need a new underused word. To help us talk about the mystery and the wonder and the. Awesomeness. Of the universe. And the importance of recognizing the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Another vital ingredient found in a strong face community is identity. How do you identify yourself are you. How do you want the larger community to think of you. When they think of prairie unitarian universalist society. We will find our identity as a face community in tandem. With finding our radiance. We will know how we want to be seen in the larger world. When we feel. Safe. At home. Humility is a factor in this process. Of uncovering our radiance and maintaining a. Safe. Place. When i was. In seminary in berkeley. At starr king school for the ministry which is part of the graduate theological union. I went to the bank one day. Time to get the wells fargo bank with us a little irrelevant his story. Have i go back to my room and i looked at my deposit slip. I'm at the bottom in handwriting it said. Thank you jesus. Runner bob at bank teller putting his personal beliefs on the bottom of my deposit slip. I clearly had a duty to defend the world from creeping. Peeping what. Exactly keeping fundamentalism. Quite sure my righteousness. I called the bank. Terrible the first person i talked to said let me get. Let me give you a manager. Said the manager i'll get back to you. The voice sounded sheepish. Did you know she said that it's common for toddlers to sign their names at the bottom of your deposit slips and that is what jesus did i seem to get a dose of humility often. Humility helps me remember that i don't know everything. Indeed i. Humility reminds me of how difficult it is to be truly. Except. Of the beliefs of others humility slaps me. Upside the head from time to time and says hey. Judgmental attitude of yours. Humility i believe can help us be even more welcoming than we already are. One of my dearest friends from seminary is the reverend linker. Now minister of the maumee valley unitarian universalist congregation in. Northwestern ohio. This past november lynn's congregation purchased a rainbow flag to hang. Outside their building which is located on somewhat busy road. After some discussion about whether or not the flag could be stolen. Subordinate. They would get another one what was the point of their having gone through the process to become a welcoming congregation. If no one knew this. On a windy march. Right before a board meeting they hung up the flag. Not without some difficulty because it. When. They began their board meeting. About 20 minutes into the meeting wainwright's in a newsletter call him. Our front doors opened. Any middle-aged man stepped through. Flying out his arms and explaining i'm gay. As it turned out this man belongs to another church. Where he said they would never hang a flag like the one he adjusting. He wanted people in the maumee building to know how excited he was upon seeing that's why he told my friend lynn that he was an old queen who still struggle. To find places where he could fit in. Maybe he would go back to the maumee valley church maybe he wouldn't. But he wanted them to know that he loved them for what they did. 20 minutes. Wainwright's. 20 minutes. That is all it took for someone to know that our church would welcome him in. Being a welcoming congregation doesn't necessarily require a whole lot of time. It does require vigilance. And creativity on our part. Requires group action another important ingredient in building a strong community. I may seem like a no-brainer happy you have a strong community without working together as a group. But throughout our history as unitarian. Not as universally. But as unitarians we have over emphasized the importance. Of the individual. And neglected the importance of community. You will undoubtedly hear more about. Bakery things go well later. What kind of group do we want to have in here in this beautiful. Sacred. I want it to be as inclusive as possible. Though alas i don't have a magic formula. For accomplishing that short of hanging out flags and being very clear about who we are. Those of you who've gone to general assembly in the pass will know about the where lecture. A very important part of ga past speakers have included martin luther king jr. julian bond mary oliver. So many wonderful people. This year's where lecture. Was given by journalists. People who speak fluent spanish in here. I'm trying i'm going to try and i've got it here. Then i'm going to take spanish. Years where lecture. Was given by journalists maria. In xhosa. Anchor and managing editor of national public radio's latino. Usa. Murray. Maria. Spoke about being invisible. And how we are creating to america's and about how important it is to find your voice. And tell your story. She said that the core value of making the invisible visible is what moves me. He repeatedly asked us this question. What do you want your community to look like. She told us about meeting nobel peace prize winner lav sal who survived the holocaust. B cell. Hinojosa said. Parker. Question the use of the term illegal. Immigrant. Bissell said she should not use the word illegal. Refer to these immigrants. Why. Because there is no such thing as an illegal human being. Peace out reply. You may have broken and immigration law. In this case actually only a misdemeanor. But that does not make you any legal person. What do we want our community. To look like. You know house that ended her remarks on a note of hope and i will. And my remarks with her story. She reminded us that there are many stories of a new american reality.. Doesn't want anything to do with to america. Examples of american people trying to overcome differences. She told us about the family of antonia. Antonio hernandez. An undocumented mexican immigrants who was a cook. At the windows on the world restaurant. At the top of one of the world trade center buildings. On 911. He had a wife. And for children. In a hole saw. What's the cnn correspondent van. And she had a team at the hernandez home the next day september 12th they put. Hernandez on television and told her story. Being a widow now. A widow with a hero. But a widow who could be deported. At any time. After the story aired many people from around the country road to julio. You know how so says. That it was that moment. When i remember feeling like the entire united states identified as new yorkers. As citizens of the world where there were no borders. Because there was so much. Grief among us. Bat december i got a call says you know from a south carolina game on. Aj jenkins. I wish that i could tell you your hostess story the way she did complete with the south carolinian draw and exuberance. Aj jenkins talked about doing something to help julia and her children. Hello maria this is aj wonderful accent and acting as if he'd known her all all her life. I think it's wasn't living in south carolina in september of 2011 he was living in augusta maine. With rudy. His farmer not former his former partner. And together they had raised several thousand dollars. For julio hernandez and her kids. Aj jenkins went to new york city and brought the family gift he told in a hole said that he and his partner wanted the children to visit their farm in maine. Write maria fought like that is ever going to happen that family can't afford to take that kind of a trip. 6 months later. Leah and her four children visited dinkins. And rudy at their expense. For a week on their farm. The gay hairdresser. The stern new england farmer. And the undocumented mexican. Immigrant became best. Friends. I have a photo of myself. Leah hernandez and aj jenkins wearing his american flag t-shirt. Casinos. That is my vision for a new america where people get out of their own comfort zone and embrace difference and only see. Their common humanity. That is my vision too. Not only for america with but for all of our unitarian universalist community. What do you want your community. You look like. What is your vision for this community. What is h. Identify. I am glad that you are here now at this place at this time. And not you individually though that is important. But you as a group. As a community. As an institution. As of safe. Tradition. We might shy away from using the word. Religion. But the ideas expressed in our two responsive readings this morning about what religion really is. Well that is a different matter altogether. What religion be to us life. Enjoy. Uniting us with all that is admirable in human beings everywhere. In a world with so much uncertainty. And despair. We need a religion. That teaches our hearts to hope. And our hands. To serve. That is exactly. But we have. Right here. In this community. May we leave this sacred space thinking about what our identity will be. In the larger world. Remembering. That together we can accomplish. Great. See safeway.. I invite you now into the congregational response part of the. There's a time and place i'm not going to get way into this but i know i have to say something. A congregation response and then i told the search committee to talk about this. We talked about this at length. And i and i hope that. That we don't always have one time and don't take it away. I think it's very important. But i think there are times hopefully when i'm a service can be very moving. But but you know we're we're maybe there isn't anything to say. But there but there will be later. Somebody save me. An initially it was ministry. And an actually i i wanted part. So that that helps. But it was first it was ministry. And my my profession i mean i could have gone working. Bookstore bookstore. But first it was was prairie and and then. Even though madison's home. It's in factory in. To the decision. And i am not as many of you in this room know. 5. prairie every time every single time you've been looking for a minister. Because when i got out of seminary when i was between jobs.. I needed full-time income. Those other times. It's easy to say god is love. But there's so many different ways of viewing. Whatever god is and i didn't i didn't like to use that word for a long long time. Presbyterian. And i sort of threw everything out the past water or something. But i do believe is the word god can be a very convenient shorthand. Especially when the mystery in the wonder and everything we don't know i'm human is basically. When i'm when i'm out at an interfaith meeting or i'm working with other groups in the community. I have to be comfortable with that word. I'm a button off. What you were asking last night was very informal and actually have repeated i think a great deal of my. Parts of my conversation from both last night and christina maybe from also. Yesterday afternoon so you've heard a great deal of it actually. But and i was asked. What you would expect although it was it was really informal in wonderful it was. People. And try to remember names and we didn't get into big theological debates once we touch them politics at one table. Yeah we're going to have to wrap up now cuz it's getting late but why don't we all we thank you for being here and. About religion. The first reading. From the hymnal. Was written and i think the 50s maybe the early 60s by vincent silliman who is a humanist was a humanist. This one was written very recently. So i need the caps. In a world with so much hatred and violence. It's on the list. In a world with so much brutality and fear. In a world with so many persons abused and neglected. In a world with so much dogmatism and falsehood. In a world with so much tyranny and oppression. In a world with so much in equality and strife. In a world with so much environmental degradation. In a world with so much uncertainty and despair. Thank you so much for a bernina. If here you have found freedom. Take it with you into the world. If you have found comfort. Go and share it with others. If you have dreamed dreams. Help one another. That they may come true. And if you have known love. Give some back. To a bruised and hurting. World. Go in peace and. Take a supposed to go eat salad.

uuprairie_org

Pr110417JaneEsbensen-TheGroundofourBeing-ed.mp3

For good morning. Welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society. My name is nick ass and i'm the chairman of the program committee here at prairie. we welcome people of every ethnic and religious background whatever your color sexual orientation. Gender or family structure. You're welcome you no matter what your age your abilities or your inability. Where in the service will invite visitors guests in returning friends to introduce yourselves that we might get to know you better. And hopefully you'll take the opportunity to do that. Have sunday mornings we provide a wide variety of services they're presented by either a prairie member. Remember the wider community. Port byron minister reverend jane espensen. Time today is a little bit of a bittersweet day for all of us because it will be james last presentation at prairie. And i'm not here to make a speech but i just like to say thank you. Did you sleep well. The title of my sermon this morning is our ground of being. The name of this infinite's and inexhaustible depth and ground of all being is god that depth is what the word god means. And if that word has not much meaning for you. Translated and speak of the depth of your life. Of the source of your being of your ultimate concern. Of what you take seriously without any reservation. Perhaps in order to do so you must forget everything for additional that you have learned about god. Perhaps even the word if so. Those words are by paul tillich a theologian when i came upon paul tillich while i was sitting at seminary i was intrigued. And relieved i was sitting at aucc united church of christ seminary which is the liberal side of congregationalism. One of my professors once said to me there you know what ucc really stands for jane don't you unitarians considering christ but i wasn't considering christ. Since i'm not a christian. But i was interested in who jesus was. And although i was also not considering god. Since i'm not a theist. I was interested in how that concept concept of god might be understood. And so when i came upon paul tillich and his various wonderful ratings. I was really intrigued. Because although telek was a christian he was also a humanist. Meaning that his belief in the christ opened up for him the best ways to consider what it meant to be human. And one of those concepts was talking about god and posing god is nothing other than that which is the ground of our being. That which is of the utmost importance to us. That which is our ultimate focus our innerstand. Our very soul and reason for existence. Tillett understood that god for him was the end-all and the bl. And he also believed that this was true for everyone even if one didn't use the word god. I had heard this type of argument before that god exists even if i didn't believe in god and who can dispute that possibility for the reverse of it. That god doesn't exist even if i believe in god. I find those discussions to be round robins. Whether only stance is taken but nothing concrete to show for it at the end. And now here with paul till its expression of god as the ground of being. That which is of ultimate concern to us that which we have faith in that which guides us and determines our actions and supports our internal belief system and leads us in the attempt to lead a meaningful and a relevant life. Well i like that. That concept of god i could accept and use. So much so that when i have spoken to you from the pulpit before as a non theistic humanist i have used the word god at times. And i've done so not to pander to those of you who wants the word heard in a sermon r2 nor did i use the word to agitate those of you who don't want the word use and that i'm challenging you to use the consider the word differently i use the word because it fits a message it supported my premise it was both an illustration and the ground of my being when i am speaking. And as i speak to you this morning and what is actually going to be my last tournament that i prevent here. I've been brought to once again reflect upon the beauty. Of unitary music universalism. Its strength of character because of its necessary central theme which is to ask questions rather than to provide answers. Its willingness and actual push. To consider other ways of believing because its expansion as a religion overtime has necessitated that it become more than it once was. And that is to say that it is no longer a christian religion. But insane that it does not mean that the works of jesus and his teachings and his sacrifice for the greater good is missing. Brandy it is not. Jesus is radical challenge to his jewish faith. Get seeking to rid it of its current focus on how things are done the oil the incense the rituals of shoulds in the shipment. Rather than focusing on what god wants his people to do which was to act justly to have mercy and to love god as one loves one's self these are the same challenges unitarian-universalism requires of itself and of those who profess to be unitarian universalist principles and purposes do not ask us to do particular things in a particular way. But to be particular people who behave. In a particular way. The central core of this religion is not about a thor t out there but about the independent authority that every congregation holds within itself. The authority that only resides here. In this room with all of you. And nowhere else. Our way of governance which is how we run this ship. It's called congregational polity. Which means that is the congregations of each single uu church fellowship or society which decides for itself how it is to be run how it makes its has its decisions and even if it wants to be a layla congregation or a congregation with a minister. And it is only the congregation who decides who that minister will be. And indeed it can be anybody. Even a person among you whom you value respect look too and trust. It need not be a person specifically trained in ministry. No need to be a person who holds a particular theological bend that messes with yours. The person you choose to be your minister must be a person who holds your vision of yourselves aloft. Who takes the best and the brightest bits of who you are and who you aspire to be and help bring your light. Out into the world. Between 1971 and 1993 david hall with the ministerial transitions and directors ministry at the ua in boston and during that time he wrote a pt called the tendencies of ministry i had those tens years of ministry pasted on my bedroom wall when i was in seminary and i found a priest and folded in the papers i was sorting through recently as i prepare for my journey sweden words and i wanted to share it with you because i think we'll give you a good grounding upon which you may stand as you embark upon this new journey for a search for your future minister these are his words if i were serving on a ministerial search committee or we remember of a congregation about to seek a new minister when expectations would i bring to that search what qualities would i like c&r next minister and what priorities would i assign to them there are at least ten specific qualities of the solid rather than the kind of minister that would have priority for me and it happens with my fondness for alliteration that all of these qualities begin with the letter c alliteration like illustration can be a helpful teaching and preaching device and so i use it here without apology but with the admission that it took a little straining to come up with words to maintain the alliterative consistency what i would look for first of all his character i do not have in mind here either eccentricity or self-righteousness but moral consistency stability and reliability all of us no persons we could count on to whom we feel free to go to for help and whom we can confide hide from whom we expect candor and concern ministers of character also have what might be called personal authenticity genuineness or the absence of phoniness airs and self-important unitarian universalist minister in recent years we have seen in a rosian of that authority of role so that what limited authority ministers do have must and should come from their own authenticity and reliability as men and women of characters the minister by being a certain kind of person should be able no amount of professional skill or intellectual acuity can compensate for the absence or inadequacy of characters i wouldn't the second-place look for a minister with a sense of calling the minister is not apart from or superior to other careers but as an all genuine vocation there's to be a compelling urgency to do one's best because what one is doing is important and holy eternity as well as our own and of life possibilities that infuses us with enthusiasm. Has emerson wise why the observed nothing great is accomplished without enthusiasm it energizes us for our work enabling us to work hard and to work well not in a frenzy driven sense that in a clearly focused self-directed way in recent years ministers have sought to professionalize are calling i needed but perilous venture. As we have sought to be treated in a more businesslike manner regarding decent financial compensation. Employment benefits in sabbatical leaves all in a letter of agreement. We sometimes encourage a climate where a covenant of trust. Is replaced. Buy a contract of law. Similarly some laypersons propelled prematurely to perish leadership positions and lacking experience with our congregations in and within our movement. Import attitudes and practices incompatible with ministry. They may in fact you ministers as hirelings that are accountable to them. Both ministers and congregations need to strike a healthy balance. Set the best qualities of professionalism and calling are strengthened. For example ministers might remember that a sense of calling renters talk about 40 hour work weeks inappropriate. And unprofessional. All of us need to remind ourselves that ministers. Of whatever else. Are called. Into the vocation. And therefore called. Buy all of you not hired. And that difference is very significant. I wouldn't a third-place hope for minister who is a person of culture. I don't want sermons written in textbook jargon or conversation heavy with grimm pretentious intellectualizing. But it is reasonable i think to hope a minister will be cultured in a sense of being reasonably learning informed and interesting as a person. Administer ought to cultivate a catholicity of taste and avoid becoming either a boar or a snob a cultured minister is acquainted with the arts and sciences with religion and politics sports and television. How else can you be contact in communication with people where they are in their everyday lives. How else can one learn from people with varied in different tastes. Afford quality before and a minister is that of caring. He or she should be genuinely interested in and concern for other person. Neither excessively self preoccupied nor interested in others only to the extent that they need his or her need. This is especially crucial and personal counseling where they're always looks the temptation to play god. Or whatever. To dispense divine wisdom board to create an unhealthy dependency. Caring is healthy and liberating when it is rooted in a vision of others as our brothers and our sisters. Flesh of our flesh. Camphor home we feel kindness. And empathy. An extension of the cary ministry is concerned for the larger community especially for the voiceless. The dispossessed those who do not have. Or do not believe that they have any power to change their situation of suffering or of oppression. Simply put. Care needs prosthetic as well as pastoral expression. Compelling us to comfort the afflicted. And to afflict. Comfortable. How deeply does the minister care about the struggle for peace and justice and bread in the world. Is there only rhetoric about caring or is there evidence of trying to learn more about and do something constructive to solve the social problems that a fix arlo that afflict our local communities. The nation and the world. The solid minister reconciles the pastoral and the prophetic since both spring from a spirit of caring. And a result of that what we claim for ourselves. We wish for others. 1/5 qualities i seek in a minister has the capacity to be creative. Most of us may not be creatively gifted. However much. However much we have fantasies about writing the great novel or painting a memorable work of art or being the chef of a gourmet restaurant. We can't help however to cultivate a first-hand relationship to reality. To be original in the sense of listening to our own response to life. And being courageous enough to share it. We can be open to new. Enter disturbing ideas. And new and disturbing ways of doing things. Not venerating either the old and new. But trying to see what's out there. Been willing to hear a person out who has a new idea to try to see if something works. Or deliberately sheep something new with a stamp of our own character upon it. A healthy capacity to innovate is every bit as important as the capacity to conserve and to transmit. The tried in the true. This is the continuity of a humanities pilgrimage. A minister needs to see his or her role as being catalytic. Helping to make things happen. Galvanizing people into action. Sometimes providing just the impetus to bring to pass what had previously been just a little bit latent. An effective minister is a lever or an agent. Neither a do-it-all figure of paternalism nora passive technician. The catalytic minister works to develop a ministry of the laity. The layperson to participate in the worship teaching counseling and who work with the call professional leader to build a caring and a redemptive community. 1/7 quality worth seeking in a ministry is a leadership style that is consultative. Uncooperative. It is it is a given of our movement that leadership be democratic and not authoritarian. Nonetheless. Democratic leadership is still leadership. It is the willingness to be out front and upfront and risky than initiatives and suggesting tactics and goals. Democratic leadership is not about an application of either initiative or of advocacy. I don't want to minister to tell me what to do. But i do want him or her to tell me what he or she believes ought to be done. I would like to see a leadership style that is neither diffident nor arrogant. Just as i would like to see congregations that are neither anti-clerical those who do not want a minister nor clergy eccentric giving all the power to the minister. The consultative and a cooperative minister represents the middle way. Of aristotle. Listens as well as speaks. Learns as well as teaches. Shares the challenges and burdens of leadership rather than monopolizing or relinquishing them. There's an inequality i would look for in a minister summed up by the word collegial. A word that points to the need to relate personally and professionally to colleagues. Both in one's own denomination and in the interfaith community. There are loners who succeed in ministry. But i think the diminish their own richness and shortchange their colleagues buying essentially private practice of ministry. Ministers need one another for support. For learning for fellowship. And for straight talk. So if you have a minister in your midst in the future who does not have colleagues to share their ministry with. It is important for all of you to support that minister and advocate for their right. To have that collegial relationship. For the good of the minister for the good of the congregation. And a nice hope i have and it should be an assumption i suppose he's at the minister will be professionally competent. Like other professionals i minister ought to possess the theoretical knowledge and practical skills of the craft. Congregations have a right to expect that their minister will have mastered for example the art of communicating. I ministership project. And not mumble and not walk away from the microphone that is placed specifically right here i learned that and shape a coherent message and not ramble. He or she should have something to say and be able to stay it well and with power. Teaching counseling witnessing manage a business and empowering laypeople constitute the balance of what lyle shalour called the kit bag of parrish skills. Competence by itself is morally neutral. It's simply the ability to do one's work well. But in combination with the other qualities of a good minister it represents the capacity to deliver. To be the agent of our faith heritage and vision. So the greatest number of men and women and children know it and see it and can be empowered by it. Finally i believe a minister should have a sense of the comic. If for no other reason that it takes what i have said but what a minister should have they should take it with a grain of salt. A minister no less than other people and perhaps more than most needs a healthy sense of humor and an awareness of his or her own limit. Life is rent with absurdity incongruity and foolishness. It is also witness to our tragic and amusing tendency to take ourselves and our work a bit too seriously resulting in an either unbecoming self-important or an overdeveloped sense of responsibility we need to be able to laugh or at least smile both at our own and others foolishness humor has been defined as the absence of logic and since we are working our expectations are often illogical we need a sense of the comet to keep realistic and to keep saying especially in a calling that can too easily become stalin utopian and all-consuming. Beyond that it helps cheer it helps us to cheer the hearts of those who have joy who's joy and living life has perhaps become a little bit jaded. My model ministry in summary is a person of character and culture. Here she has a sense of calling to the profession. She or he seeks to be caring creative catalytic consultative collegial competent and to survive under the heavy weight of all these expectations. A little bit comic. How such a minister comes into being is beyond the scope of these remarks and frankly beyond my own understanding perhaps it is a gift of the grace of god. But these are what i believe to be the solid rather than shining parts of a minister. Our ministerial search committees are giving increased priority to them rather than to special skills. A charming manner or an assumed ability to deliver the institutional 6s symbols of increased membership or budget while we may be tempted to regard the 10 c's of perfectionistic or pollyannaish. The truth is i believe something different. A good many ministers do embody these qualities in their professional and personal lives disproving the arguments that such a model of ministry is a fantasy. What conversations administers need is the wisdom to give such qualities a priority. And to do what can be done to encourage their development and to deepen their screening interviewing auditing and deliberative procedures. With a truer sure knowledge of potential candidates they will be in a good position to affirm and recognize those who manifest the tendencies of ministry. Well that is the end of david poles thought. Pass them along to you. Did you find yourself once again and search for minister. Have you searched for the right minister i hope that you will also look at yourselves. And see what your tendencies might be. What are your strengths. And what are your weaknesses. As a congregation. What has allowed you to endure all these years. And what is perhaps keeping you back from continuing to thrive. Where are the bulk of the young families and their children for example course year 43 years ago. Who will be this congregations future. And as you do your search for your next minister this is now the chance for each of you as individuals and as a whole which is this congregation to take this deeper look at asking who am i as a person. And how do i help to create. The type of congregation i want to be a part of. What does this church mean to me. Why am i here. Why do i bring my children here. Or why do i not. And what does it matter to my life. Baptist church and these people sitting around me. That i have come to know have now become such an important part. Of my life. You are a wonderful congregation. The history of relevance. And with a strong human is grounding which speaks to the integrity and core essence. How about unitarian universalism has to offer at its very very best. You are not the little church on the corner. In some talk to wayne neighborhood. You are a true beacon of light. In this town of three you do churches. And your challenge. Is entrusting that. And believing in it. I didn't doing all that you can to make yourself known. And letting your light shine both inside these walls and outside on the lawn and in the gardens. For there are many who you glad to know that you are here and you must help them to find this church and you must make sure that their first impression of you both from the outside. And then once again inside these walls is one of beauty. And of caring for that is who all of you are as people. At the congregation. That's what i see. And that's what i love so very much about all of you. And so i ask of you. What is the ground of your being. Madison is waiting. Thank you. This is a time in our service where we have a few minutes which i do not determine i just want you to know for a discussion about what has been spoken here this morning or whatever your thoughts are. You like to share you just raise your hand and someone will come by with the microphone. Well i'm actually there was a lutheran church that wanted me to to throw my hat in the ring and i got it explained that i wasn't lutheran. And that i wasn't even christian and that i wasn't even see his dick and i explained about what universal laws and social justice and whatever they said that is great but i didn't i am hoping to be interviewed for a job working with refugee children. Which they don't need help with sebago does the schools but helping their they're adults men and women in the community are also refugees and sweden who come from people assholes to say they come from afghanistan iran iraq. Somalia and eritrea. Probably libya will be coming there now so it's fun like it too. Improve my own swedish by helping others. I'm going to be giving a rebecca and cade and barb's they're my team of people that i work with every every other week but every week and i'm going to give them you know you have the wwjd bracelets. This is what would james do i'm at the end of the one we have over having something after like eating by. Join me again and thank you james for her. Well if it weren't for my think i would still be here so you can throw things at him later on. Tell my holding off in the benediction mean. Be lamps unto yourselves. Be your own confidence. Hold to the truth within yourself. As to the only lamp. Going peace.

uuprairie_org

Pr020915Nichols-ed.mp3

I thought i would probably do my introduction and just. First editorial on madison's pledge of allegiance controversy with considerable dedication john is covered progressive politics in newspapers and magazines for over 10 years. Even posted articles from italy during his honeymoon this past august on september on september 7th. Highest praise for john comes from capital times editor dave's we fold. John is a gem of a journalist. Tireless worker and a brilliant commentator. He's fiercely proud of his wisconsin heritage in his family's role in so many of the state's important causes. Extremely lucky to have him as a member of the staff. And we are extremely lucky to have him here at prairie. Let's welcome john nichols. You can't leave week or introduction 5 much more esteem people actually. Start speaking. I think your your point is well taken and just say that i don't necessarily believe attacks on september 11th were a direct outgrowth of us actions because. With the rest of the world begin to talk to begin to think the weekend. Find real relationships. Approach to almost every question sense and now amazingly enough. We'll see how cynical you are already calling for the nation magazine in the latest that the issue that just came out on friday i guess my my column is basically about that issue and do what i do. To my mind about this because after september 11th i don't think it's enough for progressives and people as i a quaker to simply say well it should be no response.

uuprairie_org

Pr090510Reilly-ed.mp3

Okay then barb you get the joy of introducing our presenter today i do indeed it's my great pleasure to introduce to you and riley to you who's been here once before. And obviously this is up always a musical extravaganza when we have. Have gym with us. He and i. Spent time together as kids and junior high levels kids i guess in the universalist church in syracuse new york where we where we both grew up and have maintained the. Old friendship over this long and many. How many years he has worked in numerous churches as. Music director choir director that sort of thing. Including the universalist church in minneapolis and most recently the norwegian lutheran church whose name i can't quite pronounce. In minneapolis and retired from that job what two years ago now three years ago. And had to learn norwegian of course when he went to that church because one of the services was in norwegian fortunately he's very facile in languages and speaks fluent french and i both know fluent norwegian and did a wonderful program at first society for their new musical on friday some of which was in icelandic. First time i've ever heard icelandic sun he said to me one time that one of the privileges of his life is that he's been able to earn a living as a musician which is just a rare privilege that he has. And he's obviously an outstanding pianist. He said vocalist tenor. Panda performs. Extensively in minneapolis in. Other places. And i'm where chess. Absolutely delighted they have been with us today to talk about. Mothers. Annabelle more specifically women composer so all of the music today has been composed by women i wanted to just point out a couple of things bathtub. The proclamation by julia ward howe she was a universalist. Then the choir piece was written by elizabeth alexander who used to be a member here. For those of you who are old-timers you'll remember elizabeth. Thank you so much for having me here today and thank you barb especially for the introductions it's always good to come to madison to see barber to see her when she comes to minneapolis. A funny thing happened on the way to the service today i had originally picked an entirely different topic did i had done at another uu church in willmar minnesota a few months ago it was about friends and enemies and then when. Taxi if i had known it i could have kept the same service but i thought it was something else and so we switched gears and we decided to do this women composers program in the eighties when i was at first universalist church in minneapolis we had a. Something we called the women composers project where we had a rule actually for several years that's a rule that i made so i didn't mind following it that we had to have a piece by a woman at least one piece written by a woman every sunday as a part of the music. Third of an affirmative action music program if you will and that was partly because i had known of women composers and i had played a little bit of amy marcy cheney beach. But i realized that my own repertoire as musician was probably ninety-nine and a half percent. And i knew that fanny mendelssohn had existed and i knew that clara schumann had existed but i had never seen or heard any of the music. You would think that nowadays so course that such a thing is no longer necessary 20 years later and and in some sense it is less than siri if you go to concerts and if you see music that's being written now you'll see a higher percentage of pieces. Written by women still nowhere nowhere in the numbers in in classical music of what you'll hear written by men and recently i was reminded of that fact when i discovered five songs by a woman named hilda noise.. And. The question is then lock solenoid switches norwegian for who was hilda northport. And because she was norwegian. You can find out more about who she was related to then you can find out about her a typical. Fate her father was the first. Commissioner of roads to translate the title into english in in norway and her husband was edmund norbert who was a very well-known pianist was the pianist in the very first performance of the grieg piano concerto. They came to new york where he was teaching in new york when he died. A relatively early death leaving him he'll do with one son to raise. After that i know nothing about her. Except that there are 45 songs that she wrote and which were published in the royal. Library in norway and i happen to be the owner of five of them an addition that i bought from a used music store in copenhagen. That i online because i scour their site online every month to see what's there and i buy things that i don't know what they are and hope that there's something good in this case they decide songs turned out to be quite wonderful and i i fed them so to speak to one of the singers i work with who sings in the group called women performers which is a group of women that just performs music by. When decomposers. So that sort of brought my attention back to this whole question and led to the program today that's why we switched gears i don't want to say a lot about everyone in one of these women some of them were mothers and some of them weren't. Some of them had significant obstacles to their lives as composers such as fanny mendelssohn who while she was trained as a musician and was equal in talent to her brother felix was discouraged from becoming a professional musician because that was not something that women were supposed to do. For example this was written about her about her father perhaps for felix music will become become a profession while for you fanny. It will always remain but in ornament. Only the feminine ornaments women. And felix wrote sandy neither wishes to be an author nor has she a vocation for it for that she is too much of what a woman should be. She wrote hundreds of pieces of course and until recent times most of them remained unpublished. The guardian of the archives in berlin really thought they did all of the ones who were worth publishing had already been published a long time ago i turned out not to be true and when he left the post we seen an increasing number of her pieces. See the light a print so you could tell. Astoria right another about almost anyone on this program but i would rather have the music speak for itself. And i also want to say one word to thank you to all the people today who are reading and contributing musically in other ways because it makes for a much mature presentation my own range as a musician while i try to make it as large as possible is limited because i'm limited as a human being and if we all work on this project together we get all kinds of stuff. I'm going to sing one of those songs by hillary newport. And it has a text by yvonne olson. Who is the. Norwegian men in the nineteenth century who more or less invented the dialect of. Nino's. He went around and made a compendium of folk dialects. To see the norwegian language from danish influence. And. And this companion of dialects then became known as new norwegian and it's still one of the two legal norwegian dialects in the country of norway. You didn't know maybe that there are two norwegian languages there not one. And then there are many other dialects that survive is dialects. It's a very difficult home to translate because ninoshka begin to change immediately after he invented it. And i had to get a lot of help it's a very very sad. Poem. I know. Stillwell. There is a treasure. Which i will should have had. And it would harm no one if i had that treasure. And if i found it. Everything would be alright. I would be rich and happy. But i will never know the place where it can be found. I know so well there is a place perhaps close at hand. There i certainly could be glad and forget all my sorrow. And if i went there. Then i would obtain the thing which i missed the most. But that is the very problem i will never find the place. I know so well there is a breast with the same feelings inside it. With the same wish in the same sorrow and the same hoping the same memory. And if i. Came there. Everything would be alright. And life would pass more easily. But that is the worst. To think about. That we never found each other. Before i sing my song i'd like to. Take a moment to. Tell jim that if. Purely coincidental. There was a bake sale in stoughton that very norwegian town just down the road. And there were some leftover norwegian goodies. And i just happen to bring them today i didn't realize we would have that connection. Be sure to save one for him because there aren't a whole lot of them. A my father wrote the song mother dear. For a my grandmother. And i think it's a song for all mothers. I'm planning to sing it to my 96 year old mother when i go to celebrate mother's day with her tomorrow so i'ma hope you enjoy it you are a symbol of everything that sweet million make you so complete mother dear mother thank you also thank you for all the things you do understanding so lovely and true. Bless you oh bless you for all the things you are mother mother. Of the women represented on today's program its composers. Marriage and motherhood. Meant the end of some of them for composing and for others it did not. We've already heard a piece by clara schumann. And some of you may know that clara schumann was one of the great pianists of her age she was a child prodigy her father was her teacher. And her father also. Taught her composition. And she was already. Accomplished as a composer when she met robert schumann. Who was. Of course the greater figure in music history. And even with robert she shared composing games more or less so they would write pieces for each others. Birthday. But she had seven children. And robert died early. And she had to make a career for the rest of her life as a pianist to support those seven children. And she eventually gave up composing. This is what she wrote. I once thought that i possessed creative talent. But i have given up this idea. A woman must not desire to compose. No one has been able to do it course she did not know that was not true. No one has been able to do it. And why should i expect you. It would be arrogance. Do indeed my father led me into it. In earlier days. A very sad ending to someone who could write music. As beautiful as the peace. That you are forever already heard. But the next composer is a somewhat different story amy marcy cheney beach was an american. From new england. Most of her training was self-training she was very largely self-taught. And her. Relatively early marriage to a much older man actually liberated her. To become a composer and pianist. Out of professional level. She was known in her lifetime and she preferred to be known in her lifetime as mrs. h h a b. Doshi long outlived her. Husband. Nowadays her name is usually written as amy marcy cheney fish these things change with. Politics in with fashion and for a while many europeans regarded her as the most accomplished of american composers. She remained however incredibly conservative in her composing style although she lived for a long time. So she has fallen by the wayside to some extent in music history. This piece which you are about to hear is from. Early in her life 1905. Thank you so much and please join me in thanking jim rowley. We get one more shot. Tomorrow okay this one later. Oh yes okay. So this one is. Westlife blues by bessie smith. But this way we get the postlude. So instead of closing words. We get to hear jim riley. Thing to us once more billie holiday somebody's on my mind.

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Pr010617Carre-ed.mp3

Welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society this is our president's morning off i saw her last night and said so what you going to do tomorrow morning she said sleep it's almost morning to sleep.. Other chapters in a book and other things that are how to build coalitions education and media campaigns pitching reporters working with school boards lobbying legislators and then the book concludes with two case studies saying what can be accomplished when religious organizations or otherwise enter about sexuality issues.

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Pr110213Esbensen-ed.mp3

Now we will have our story for all ages we welcome all of the children parents and anyone else who wants to come to the front and jane will be forever jane will be telling a story 2. Cutting out cookies and decorating them and they will be offered during coffee hour today valentine's day so today we're going to be talking about love up here you did i know we're going to talk about love up here and love is what makes the world go round no matter what happens in the world no matter what you think about somebody or how you're feeling about somebody if you just say something kind then you are opening their hearts and that's what we all need to remember to do. So this is a. A beautiful book how to everything. It's really the pictures in this book that are so lovely is to everything there is a season. And a time for every purpose. Under the heavens. There's a time to be born and there's a time to die. A time to plant. And a time to pick. Cookies are apart and a time to sew together. So if you make somebody feel bad that's tearing them apart isn't it but if you make him feel better by saying i'm sorry your sewing the back together. There's a time to cry. And there is a time to laugh. And a time to mourn used to feel very sad and a time to dance. When you feel very happy. A time to give. And a time to receive. You can give love. And you can also receive love can't you. A time to hold. And a time to let go. So sometimes you feeling mad at somebody and you feel just so mad refresher you don't want to be your friend anymore it's better to just say i do want you to be my friend. And then you're not mad anymore. There's a time to be silent. And a time to speak. So if you see that something's happening that make sense someone else feel bad. Don't you stand by silently you have to say don't do that that's not nice because you made my friend feel sad. There's a time for love. And there's a time for anger. Somebody does something bad you get to feel angry about that. You say that is wrong. There's a time for war. And there's a time for peace. And it's a time for cookies to everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under the heavens. And cookies are about love. Not long ago i received an email from a man who contacted me about coming to church to see what it was like. This man didn't dare to just come to the church and trust that he would be welcomed as a gay man. Even though we stated that we are a welcoming congregation. For him because of the real world he lives in where there is hatred and bigotry abuse and violence for someone who stands outside the center of some norm someone else has determined. He was worried. Worried that we might say we were welcoming. But that we might not really be that. Worried that there might be hypocrisy. Inside the walls of these church of this church as there is so often hypocrisy inside the walls of so many religious institutions. We really a different place to worship. She wanted to know. Bizarre church really a place where one is allowed to be oneself. I'm a gay man just coming to terms with his homosexuality he begins. How welcoming is your church. Do you have openly gay members. Are all members equally welcome in. I don't know if i consider myself out but i'm working on it but it's a slow process. I just feel very alone. And tired. Shortly after i received that email i started working on this service for today. The second annual standing on the side of love service. The focus this year is on civil rights. An equal rights. At a church can focus either on immigration issues or lgbtq issues. And i chose the latter. 1. Because prairie had focus a great deal on the complex issues of immigration and will continue to do so. Into. Because lesbian gay bisexual and transgender issues are in this room with us today. Not only as a national issue. But as a highly personal issue. And it felt wrong to me to ignore that. Do not face it head-on. And make that our issue. For this day. Here at prairie. We have the unique distinction of having not only gay and lesbian members. But also transgender members. I say unique distinction because in a small congregation such as this. Even in liberal madison. It is a rare and courageous thing to have openly transgender people. And i'm not using the word courageous. In terms of back-patting for feeling some sort of pride on my part. But i use the word courageous because of the very real danger transgenders can find themselves again. In our still so behind the times culture here. In america. But somehow that makes a purge to walk through these doors and prairies commitment to truly be a welcoming congregation. To all do so. Has work. There has been honesty and openness and integrity on all sides. Which is made today's service about standing on the side of love. A service of truth. But the core issue that stand before us today the court issue of equal rights and the dangers of not having those rights in place for everyone. Put me in mind of the word from one of the songs from the 1947 musical south pacific. Well this song is speaking about racism. A message of hate and fear of the other. Is the common theme that my mind left to. And here are the words. You've got to be taught. To hate and fear. You've got to be taught. From year to year. It's got to be drummed in your dear little ear you've got to be carefully taught. You've got to be taught to be afraid of people whose eyes are oddly made and people whose skin is a different shade you've got to be carefully taught. You've got to be taught. Before it's too late. Before you are sick. 47. Aurate. You are to hate all the people your relatives hate. You've got to be carefully taught. I want to ask this question today. Before we made our own first visit to this church. How many of us felt the need to contact the minister ahead of time. To be sure was really a safe place to come to. How many of a sitting here today worried that we would be shunned or ridiculed or worse if we came to this church and allowed ourselves to really be seen for who we are. How many of us needed to think about which bathroom to use before we pushed open the door that said men or women not knowing how we watched regarded. Or worse. Treated once inside those closed bathroom doors. What norm is so firmly in place in this country we're still in the year 2011 a person who is not heterosexual needs to feel worried about being accepted. Needs to worry about being open about whom she he or she is. Who needs to worry that even in a place of worship. Even a religious institution where god's love or in whatever form or name it may have. Maybe espoused but may not really be alive in the hearts and minds of the people sitting in the pews. What norm is so firmly in place in this country still. That we as unitarian universalist feel proud and even courageous. To be able to say that we are welcoming congregation. Why are we not instead saddened. Or even angry. That we have to say this. Send an angry that we live in a time where this must be said. Because we are still so far from being a country where these issues of sexual orientation and gender identity were resolved long long ago. Are we unique. And i conservative stance toward lgbt communities. Can this nation. Well yes. Compared to many parts of europe. We are. Were you aware that from many gay partners in the united states europe offers them a safe haven. Did you know that 14 countries in europe offer some sort of legal protection to same-sex couples. Denmark finland and norway croatia germany switzerland sweden luxembourg scotland france iceland portugal britain and hungary. This wasn't always the case of course. Although same-sex relationships were quite common in ancient greece rome and the pagan celtic societies. After christianity became the official religion of the roman empire. Several laws against homosexual behavior appeared on an everything appeared and everything changed for the worst. An edict by the emperor theodosius the first in the year 390. Condemned all homosexual men to death by public burning. This was followed by the corpus juris civilis of justinian the first in the year 529. Which prescribed public castration and execution for all who committed homosexual acts. This law. Call the justinian law code served as the basis for most european countries laws against homosexuals for the next fourteen hundred years. And during those fourteen hundred years homosexual behavior was considered a capital crime. And thousands of homosexual men were executed across europe during wave the persecution of these centuries. Lesbians were less often singled out for punishment but they also suffered persecution and execution from time to time. I finally things begin to change. Although various countries under dictatorship in the 20th century were still very anti-homosexual such as in nazi germany and in spain under franco's regime. Once poland regained independence after world war 1 in 1932. It became the first country in twentieth-century europe to decriminalize homosexual activity. Followed by denmark in 1933. Iceland in 1940. Switzerland in 1942 and sweden in 1944. The situation was improving greatly but certainly not perfectly. Far into the 1970s homosexuality was still cited by the psychoanalytical world as being an illness. In both europe and in the united states. So in 1979 feeling that something must be done about the ludicrous identification of homosexuality being considered an illness and a radical move a large number of people in sweden organized themselves and called in stick to their workplaces with a case of being homosexual and sweden became the first country in the world to remove homosexuality as an illness. In 1989 denmark was the first country in europe and the world to introduce registered partnerships for same-sex couples. And some 20 years later in 2001. And next up was made when the netherlands open civil marriage for same-sex couples which made it the first country in the world to do so. Since then. Six other european states have followed suit. Belgium in 2003 spain in 2005 norway and sweden in 2009 in portugal and iceland in 2010. In october of 2009 the assembly of the church of sweden voted strongly in favour of giving us blessings to homosexual couples including the use of the term marriage. Or matrimony. The new law was introduced a month later and it is the first case in the world. Now here we are in the united states. In the year 2000-2011. The various states in our nation actively seeking to repeal the right of the lesbian gay bisexual transgender communities. We are here celebrating today standing on the side of love sunday a day we're within unitarian universalism we stand alongside of an advocate for those poor disenfranchised in our culture. In our country. Whether we are focusing on immigration rights or on the rights of lesbians gays bisexual or transgender people. Today. Here in our uu churches across the country we are meant to feel proud and progressive liberal and the leaders in this nation by stating that we are a welcoming congregation. Was certainly this is an important thing to say in these times and in this nation. But i would like us to look at this from another angle. From the angle that having to say that we are welcoming congregation is really a strong reminder to us of how very far we have yet to go in this nation. For the people who belong to the lgbtq communities in our country. There is profound unemployment underemployment. Physical and verbal harassment. The fact that trans people particularly to trans women are the most likely to be killed among marginalized groups for who they are. That many are harassed arrested or attacked over which bathrooms they use. The gender-variant children or children who are thought to be gender-variant by classmates. Are the most likely to be bullied. And that this leads to depression at the least and as it is for many of those results in a high rate of suicide. And finally. The transphobia is alive and well even here in madison the city that is called by many the san francisco of the midwest for liberal mess and it's queer population. Sadness. Is what i felt when i received the email i got from that young man. And sadness and anger for what i felt when i learned about more about tony and her life story. And concern and sadness and anger is what i felt for sven state. When i think of the enormous possible life of pain he has before him. Because of the great dangerous ignorance of the unwashed public in this nation. Because of what is being so carefully taught. Beyond these doors. This great nation of ours is not progressing forward as it should be but is instead in many many ways going backwards. A date to stand on the side of love is a radical political day which we must pay attention to. Whether we are talking about slavery or women's rights or civil rights or immigration rights for lgbt rights it all boils down to the same thing. The culture we live in. The prejudices that are being taught and the ongoing work we must all do to counter those teachings to education. And with love. There's a petition that is ready for you to sign today after the service. And i'm asking all of you to sign it so that full equality may fall upon the lives of those in the lgbtq communities. And by god i hope that next year when this annual standing on the side of love campaign comes around again we are further down the road with regard to these rights. And i hope. There are children here in this church are being carefully taught. So that in their lifetime there will be no need for this annual campaign. But that it will be a thing of the past. And we will truly and finally the one country indivisible with liberty and justice for absolutely all. All humans need love whether straight or gay bi or transgender black or white short or tall man or woman. The email finishes saying. Love nourishes the soul and the spirit. What's the waffen for someone who is not heterosexual. Not being able to be open about one's sexuality or about one's true gender identity can mean a life of loneliness. Or deceit. Which can be a very difficult act to play. I just wish above all else. To be able. To be me. And i just wanted to read the final the closing words are from corinthians if i speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels but do not have loved i'm a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal and if i have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and if i have all faith remove mountains. But do not have love. I am nothing. If i give away all my possessions and if i hand over my body so that i may boast. I do not have love. I gain nothing. Love is patient love is kind love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude it does not insist on its own way it is not irritable or resentful. Does not rejoice in wrongdoing. But rejoices in the truth. It bears all things believes all things hopes all things. Endures all things. And now i know only in part. And then i will know fully even as i have been fully known. Now i called forth to me. Faith hope and love. That they may abide. These three. And at the greatest of these. Is low. Thank you for today.

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Pr960303BJallings-ed.mp3

I have paid for the privilege of introducing her this morning she is a life on sojourns in other places. This is the first and betty's lay ministry on books that have made a difference and teddy comes to this. And her rugs picking out some things for us to hear about in terms of books adam a difference thank you betty. You'll have to bear with me because i didn't have time to type it is written and i might miss some of the words. I made it to paige list. Then i realize that your listing mine might be different. I think we can all agree hit for western civilization the bible and the quran must be at the top of our list. But quite a few years i've collected books about the bible to start of combat the christian fundamentalist beliefs that every word is the word of god and this is only true. The first thing i have read in the book of james which is about one of the writers of the old testament. J stands for yellowwood. What's college degree is the oldest train in the tannersville probably written in the tenth century bce. Later strain saturday visions or sense rings of jade and they reclose for the priestly school that wrote nearly all of the viticus. D4 deuteronomy and are for the rejector who finally to defile lyrics. Revision after the return from babylonian exile. Harold bloom considers j to have been a female member of the court after solomon. He was not a historian arthrology and he said she was more literary like pasta. Another bird book is exodus the true story behind the biblical account by jan wilson and another is out of the desert. Archaeology in the exodus conquest narrative. Elaine steven who asked. Who asks was the exodus historical. Probably but i'm much smaller scale princeton days did they say they were like 600,000 people marching across the desert for all those years. But probably they were just small tribes of people moving around in the hill. The israelites are supposed to come to have come to. Destroyed long before like jericho jericho. According to the head falling down before they just got here. Indian sea scrolls deception. Fan inlay decals the 35 years of keeping a stroller from being translated. Because we people in charge of this girl where all the catholic. Archaeologists from the vatican. And it seems there might be some ideas there were contradictory to their face. Perhaps. Jesus wasn't asking who lived in the in the desert. Some of the ideas of the essay invariably school. And. They predict a messiah. 200 years before jesus. There's a wonderful book called folklore in the old testament by james fraser. He traces some stories in the bible in the pathologies dozens of tribes and peoples around the world. Princess celestia in africa have the same law about not cooking kids in their mother's milk. Unfortunately for true believers we have a large number of studies 10 325 and at the council of nicea. 325 at the council of nicaea where they decided what to keep and what to put out in the christian bible and history show how he was mainly patriarchal priest. Heart-shaped the gospels to justify their own leaves to maintain their power or the power of their teams. They're also studies of epics and how they evolved and were used to justify and connect the rulers to their pants. From the window ethic of central africa. The mahabharata hindu india tales of king arthur the kalevala of finland. The iliad of the greeks. Abraham from the bible. All you hero tales is there any concept a proper correct and herbalife and reinforce that through customs. In creation by gore vidal. He described the adventures of. Cyrus, who was an ambassador of xerxes the persian king. To deport them as gavin. He is revered as a grandson of zoroaster an early believer in the one god on her a mazda. He goes to india as an ambassador for the king where he needs pulled up. Atlanta china or you needs confucius endow. Virginia. around 400 bc and the implication is that at this period in human history people in widely separated areas where confronting questions of mortality and creation from a background of belief in multiple gods. Probably some of your sunday school children have been studying like. The indian native americans. Many years ago i took a course from professor winspear on early christianity in the greek and roman empire. Ian patterson students in the front row came to hear the gospel were extremely disappointed to hear of the pre-christian virgin births and creation flood stories for babylonia and heroes who died who were born in egypt and mesopotamia.. According to study the bible history the first written account of tvs teachings were in aramaic and greek around 280. Then they were. Translated from greek and latin by st jerome. Think it was. Then from latin and greek they were translated to english. Stupid in like 1300 there were. Monks and monasteries writing new little by what we could carry around and reading this was an explosion of learning about the bible if head.. Anyway. Every time you translate you miss something. So the original language. It's probably not what we're reading in our modern bible at all. The apostle paul who answered his conversion from playboy to follower of jesus was the new one was the one who organized the small congregations are christians writing at risk because balls to tell them what to do. And what you believe. Is famous for his saying it is better to marry than to burn. Christianity the state church. Christians were oppressed arrested. Torn apart by wild animals in the form impaled on shaft holes crucifier be candid and heather property c. Numerous states were created by mistreatment. Chris and hidden underground choose to conduct their services. Constantine called together his vicious. And they decided which gospels could be included in the bible and christian. Which unbelievers they should exile. Mongolia. So they were called heretics. A doll hair made it to get through destroying except in egypt in 1983. These have been translated into book by elaine pagels. It's been given the table. When the crusaders organized after the council of clermont in 1096 by pope urban the second thousands of people at loose ends because of poverty and went to plunder palestine. On your way to germany and massacred thousands of jewish citizens who were trying to find safety in the cathedral they were their friends the cabinet to totally be safe. A lot of crusaders were captured by pirates and sold into slavery. Many of those who got to the holy lands were starved and killed in battle with the real organized arab-muslim defenders of their land. The crusaders were successful in a few of the battle. And the king was set up to rule. The walled city. Planet coaster jerusalem. Eleanor of aquitaine and she's one of my favorite people he probably saw a movie about her. And when they left the safety of her uncle's birthday were defeated and the remnants of their army had to sail back to rome. Crusaders continued for several hundred years. Can crusades of various kinds started by the christian bishops the unbelievers in poland egypt thing or are or where there was somebody who didn't agree with this. So it went on for quite a while. An interesting novel called the romance of the rose. That was me in trouble of keeping them longer ignorant of the signs of aristotle his and her manuscript collection. Image of queen isabella and king ferdinand in spain thousands of people were tortured chapter faces stretched on the rack and burned as heretics including the entire jewish population and the muslims who were killed in les they embraced christianity. The church in the crown confiscated the property of heretics and anyone who was mad at his neighbor could accuse him or her with no evidence and enjoy seeing and vern. The church was right there when columbus and numbers agree sailors convert to invaded north and south america. Spreading contagious disease and killing and torturing the natives who refused to work in a mine. Chopping off hands of those who didn't reach their quota for the golden today. A few fryers collected stories of the aztecs and maya. But they were mostly anxious to save these savages. Missionaries from gary space invaded africa with a message of god's love and fought among themselves. And with native to achieve their goal. Changing your way of life to accommodate the county colonies and copying the individualistic uncaring society exist in europe. During the middle ages in europe many scholars reading the bible for themselves disagree with the catholic church and were declared heretics and burned at the stake after torture there was even one guy. Dyer. Belief in one god instead of three. Was burned at the stake and of course joanne of arc was burned at the stake because she saved french king. But she was a heretic persephone know angel spoke to her and they didn't believe it and there were all these protestants martin luther john calvin john knox rodger williams. Daniel manzano on the quakers. Developed ideas and were persecuted or exercise along with their followers. The mormons were persecuted then they traveled west to utah and today. Juice michael. Pro-choice offender the clinic and premier kids in the wrong neighborhood. Homosexual bad lady mentally retarded teenage mothers. Persecuted by fellow citizens who think they are christians. There's an interesting book here, islam the view from the edge. Apply richard bowling it to the history and them islamic history. Antique. Describe the development of the muslim faith. I just thought i'd tell you at the beginning and if you want to become a muslim there only five things you have to do. You have to say. There's no god but allah and mohammed is his prophet. It's definitely maybe i mispronouncing sally's words if you can pronounce a shout it out. Then you have to pray 5 times a day. And if you are ever in one of the eastern countries your grandma's calling out for prayers. Early in the morning. And we have to wash before you're pregnant cuz you're supposed to be cleaned and pray to god. If you have to give off 35 things. And if he keeps your grandma even you have to fast all day and then what you don't eat or drink anything not even water just sundown. And it is in the ninth month of a thirty-three-year-old should i go through this year for modern was a couple weeks ago it could be in september. And at least once in a lifetime you have to go on a pilgrimage to the sacred mosque in mecca. What do the five things you have to do. In addition you may not drink wine 84 gamble or practice ussery. And you have to accept the sharia or the legal court. Decisions as a sister can live life. Now this is a very simple things you have to do to become a muslim and this is one of the reasons why. Islam was so successful because i didn't have to be able to read everything everything you learn about her hannah's about his staying. What's tomorrow. During the course of this book that i was reading on islam do for the edge example. 11th century biography of religious scholars from the ringing city of gorgon. The messenger of god god's prayers and peace be upon him. San dimas companion. Abdelrahman tamara mellon. Do not speak to command. Or if you are given it will be. Because you asked. You weren't there the full responsibility but if you are given without asking. Godzilla versus gf. A successful politician. In the muslim faith is not supposed to ask to be elected. Directions to zala candidates talking about how they got to be chosen is contrary to their beliefs. Today's islamic activists get inherited from his historical tradition a claim to authority which holds promise of restructuring the political cultural elite. It's already been a real busy ability to answer questions raised by believers in a fashion that convinces the believer of their correctness. Amarillo history. Is 61180 in mecca muhammad her voice. The 800 million mustang today consider to be revealing god's word. That he began to recite this growing body and revelations to his community. 22 unbelieving megan's forced him and his kool-aid similar to the nearby. Oasis of medina. They call themselves muslims. Those who makes the mission to islam to the will of god. By the time of the prophecy of his 632 islam had spread to almost every part of arabia. You have to realize it ready at the time of the bunch of try with little petty tribal gods all fighting each other. Miracle. The prophet closest friends and family members. The camp count succeeded to muhammad's leadership but without a mandate to deviate from the prophet's words and if he was a political. To preserve them from corruption. By 7-eleven boyfriend had conquered from spain in the west to pakistan in the east. There has also been a change in the caliphate. A civil war on his over the succession. To get assassinated third tail and it is 661 if it will lie i can't galaxy j6.. Supporters of the prophets first cousin instead of law given iv tower. And his descendants developed a religious rationale for their allegiance can form that she has out for the party ever known as the shiite sect of islam. 750. Heads or defeated by the artist it's from a eastern terrain. And move their guns at sebastian 200 years later. 100 years later the seljuk turks came out of east enterprise hours. They were so nice. In 1258 genghis khan's mongolian. Set vegas and put the last episode kala kala to death. After that the ottoman empire took over turkey the balkans and after 1516 most of the land of the arabs in the shiites safavid empire in iran. Benjamin partying invasion of egypt 798. 1798 weather and then world war the turkish empire was dissolved. Don't my author. Concludes with. Only with the islamic revolution in iran in 1979 is the struggle of muslim activists. Seeking to resend her society and politics around islamic values convert. Temperature get whole. of time here all split up into small groups. This bullet playing is the view from the center that historians always used to describe islam but it leaves too many questions unanswered. Where do dogs muffins come from. Why did they develop a coherent civilization while you're with so fractious and did you buy diverse. What is the role of religion in their society. Who do the people follow. Who is onto their needs. Most muslims. The arab peninsula they learned about muhammad from the oral teachings and will hannah's companions and when they died from their followers. The obama a remarkable body of religious scholars and moral guides living in every community traveling to study under famous teachers. A study in real-time law bialigy quran interpretations the traditions of the prophet. Other steve all the time and energy to compile a biographical dictionary. Hundreds of thousands,. With various data related to. And his father has spent 25 years reading those. Description. Separate to find out what was really going on here 1146a religious scholar from northeastern here's an odd duck, completed on proper conduct in teaching and studying had habits. A hottest consisted of a statement made or an act performed by the prophet muhammad. Which was remembered by his followers or his companion and then orally told people from bandana. And every time you told his hottest you have to say where you heard. So it goes like i heard from a who said he heard from me because he heard from the messenger of god god's prayers and peace be upon him and this isn't competition on. List of names. Disengage person who had heard with his own here's the person before him. Clear back to the word ascribe to the prophet. Almost everything muslims knew about the prophets life and behavior was preserved in the form of a heart attack. And no houses just considered a source for tomatoes. Without if the company is not you have to tell who said it and it has to be somebody to really hurt it can't read it in the book. He is not as the believers with this system is an oral tradition not a manly tradition boys who knew arabic began attending had a session between the ages 5 and 10 continue until they're 20 and went oregon state where they were 50 became teachers. Religious authority came from the oral trip transmissions of sacred war. People who only hurt books or not considered a story. 250 years after muhammad's death how is 4 divided into wink and stone. Hey by the 13th century sticks book of sound traditions were accepted as canonical. Tenant. For the sunni-majority. This resulted in a homogeneous body islam tear. Nikki bella. A giving getting a growing uniformity of islamic beliefs which was taught. Getting on. Like my dress ties. Which are the schools for the llamas their students. Continuously throughout the conquest so even though there were wars and fighting going on a stablished in people were learning about. All of the famous sayings of at the same time. And stuart school in. In spain is gold in india. The whole extent of the muslim conquest in head schools and teachers in. Patriarchal. But they were so cute and he doesn't use to finish up from town instead he gave me a couple of examples. Spell after conquering the country who was from government gave people a choice of accepting islam retaining their christian or jewish religion centennial taxes. Or being destroyed. Why did my hair and are both their language and their way. There's a. I just a novel about. Superman versus a. Turkish emperor. And now that 1500 and he married on. After class and slave from the north who was the red-haired russian looking girl and she was converted from christianity to being muslim. Islam. Eventually. A minor glitches zombies. In afghanistan mike shot the people in damascus. The waiting until is from the way the language structure and rules of writing for different at different. and the way you talk about somebody.. Thank you very much. You forgot something i forgot to ask you guys to tell me what famous book you think i made a big difference and there is no difference.

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Pr130804ShahlaWerner-ed.mp3

Good morning walk of a unitarian universalist society my name is christina. i'm happy to be here this morning. spires to be both an open-hearted and an open mind and congregation we welcome people of every ethnic and religious background whatever your color is sexual orientation gender or family structure or your ability or inability later in the community. Now it's time for a presentation and i'm delighted to have the honor of introducing our guest today on shala werner has been the director of the sierra club john muir chapter in wisconsin since 2008 she earned her ms and phd in entomology. Images two-sided similarly and in people's lives as consonants not any sunny california will l germany. I'd love to go there sometime to see all the things that they're doing because they've shown that you can do it if you want to do it also i tried some other figures this is kinda do monkey part that has solar is much more affordable it's just economy. We very much opposed the nearly doubling of the rates for the green power for tomorrow program we are family. You said you can read i can't remember how it works that you could raise your rate for a certain amount and that's the limit or or if i mean the public service commission. The event on august 15th focuses on solar homes and said that's a program that the sierra club has with h.h. solar we're just started it this year is a very big thing to get to request for proposal. Climate change problem the easiest thing is just to go home and forget about it obviously.

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Pr130120Riddle-ed.mp3

Better perfect okay. Yeah i absolutely free seems like a lot of these situations that arise from that a person that didn't quite fit in and hasn't been treated right and also maybe was natalie all of that what led to this. Absolutely i guess really good point that i did mention that the people most vulnerable to not only violent news stories but in particular violent entertainment video games movies are people who are already aggressive in their personality to come from low socioeconomic backgrounds males are more effective and people that have prior.. Absolutely yeah i definitely the research so that the younger kids in particular are so affected by the striking visuals are going to be affected by after the 9/11 study i referenced. Absolutely yeah and i did spend most the time talking today about the news it's been hours talking about entertainment media and desensitization i think is one of the most fascinating areas of research and and thus findings are a really remarkable that when you watch media entertainment and then you are. Thanks so much. Our closing words will be read by heidi hughes a child selden needs a good talking-to has a good listening to robert.

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Pr110116IntheMidstofDarknessEsbensen-ed.mp3

uuprairie_org

Pr160313Gardening-ed.mp3

Good morning everybody who got up an hour earlier than you said today i don't know if they're going to be more people coming in about an hour but will find out but welcome. terry and universalist society i'm mary mullen i'm a member of the program committee. Perspire to be both an open harder than an open-minded congregation and we welcome people of every ethnic. A background every religious background whatever your color. All your sexual orientation or gender or. Your family structure. And we also welcome you no matter what your ages or whatever your abilities or your inability. Later in the service will invite. Visitors guests and returning friends. Introduce yourself so that we might get to know you better. On sunday mornings we provide a wide variety of services sometimes they're presented by minister sand in them sometimes by a member of the wider community. Or sometimes like today by members of our. Society and that includes. Me and kathy converse who are presenting today. Our opening words will be read by. Elmo. These words are b e e cummings. Cummings father was harvard professor and a unitarian minister to few. I think. You got it. For most this amazing day. For the leaping greenly spirits of trees. And a blue dream sky. And for everything which is natural. Which is infinite. Which is yes. I who have died. I'm alive again today and this is the sun's birthday. This is the first. Day of life and of love and of wings. And if the gay grace happening and limitedly earth. How should tasting touching. Hearing seeing. Breathing. Any lifted from the no of all nothing. Human merely being. Doubt. Unimaginable you. Now the ears of my ears. Awake. And now the eyes. My eyes. Are open. Vitalis wedding will be read by ken skok. This reading is by nancy wood. Hurry. Cure me. Earth. Received my woe. Rock. Strengthen me. Rock. Receive my weakness. Rain wash away my sadness. Rain received my doubt. Sun. Make sweet my song. Son received the anger from my heart. Well today our presentation is called gardening body mind and soul and i don't think i really have to introduce catholic congress because if you've been coming to this church. You've known her for many years. She's going to give the first part of the service and i'll be giving the last part of it. So kathy. I'm going to start with. Talking about gardening from the more biological aspect. And then. Maryville talk about the more. The aspects of how we go about doing this. The spring is definitely here. And anyone who's already gardner this means that we're out there moving leave. Taking down dead stalks harvesting our compost for my winter bin. And reconnecting up are rain barrels. All the while we're enjoying fresh air. And the constant chatter of birds but she's so loud when it's been gone. Is a mouth-watering thinking of all the good things. To eat after winter of less exciting produce. Sure but what is the driving force that sends us out there. It makes us do that hard work year after year. Even when we have disappointment to your failures to rain disease and other frustrations. I mean you can just go to the grocery store the farmers market. Is it the snap crunch slurp that we associate with fresh produce from the garden. Or is it that we enjoy watching hummingbirds come to our garden flowers. As per remember carl wacker posted on facebook yesterday. If it snows tomorrow it's my fault i just had to plan something because thing it didn't snow carl for me is just in my blood based on family photographs i was out in the garden in vermont where i grew up as soon as i could stand up. With exception of a few years living in cities in college. I've had a garden every year sometimes being potted plants on my apartment balconies. I just can't imagine a summer with no gardening. Looking at some of the tangible results of gardening. I'm not alone in this endeavor is we have master gardeners among us. And also many of you who have fought for many years enjoyed all types of gardening. What is this desire. To garden just a personal preference. Or is there some. Tangible results of our garden gardening that keep enticing us back year after year. George gordon of the daily mail wrote. Those with green fingers have long known that gardening is good for you physically and mentally. And now it's been proven scientifically. Research researchers have found that smelling roses and pulling up weeds can lower blood pressure. Increase brain activity and produce the general upbeat feeling. A1984 environmental psychologist rodger ulrich in texas a&m. From patients recovering from gallbladder surgery in rooms. Were they had a view out the window of trees. If they actually had significantly shorter hospital stays fewer complaints. Took less pain medication and had fewer post-op complications. Then other patients who were in a room that was just looking out of the brick wall. She was the first researcher to use the standards of modern medical research. To document both experimental controls and quantifying results. Paul sheppard had a 1982 brook nature and madness. Tips for the effect of ever-diminishing engagement. With wild nature. On the psychology of human development. Theodore roosevelt and his 1992 book the voice of the earth coined the term ecopsychology. Which is the study of the relationship between human beings and the natural world. There's many other terms who now use 24 this whole field of equal psychology. Doesn't he like to work. Green psychology global therapy. Birth center therapy in my favorite rebirthing. I think every spring and i feel like i'm rehearsing after being wisconsin. Am i group together several general ideas of health and wellness. There's. A gazillion publications out there so i put it into some general topics. The first is stress relief and self-esteem. Researchers of the netherlands conducted a trial with two groups of people who were asked to do a very stressful task. They then were given a half an hour to either go out and walk in the garden. Or they were inside reading a book. The garden group reported a greater improvement in mood and tests revealed that they had lower. Levels of cortisol. Compared to those who tried to relax by just quiet reading. I found that many of the studies talk about cortisol levels. And what lori cortisol is important because. If you have chronically elevated cortisol levels that can be linked to. I mean function problems obesity. Memory changes learning problems heart disease. Are these are. All stress-related diseases. In the journal of health psychology a study and gardening by vanderburg and custer's. Show the gardening definitely produce significantly stronger. The decreases in the cortisol. The positive mood was fully restored after gardening. This defines provided the first experimental evidence. That gardening can promote relief from acute stress. Secondaries heart health and disease risk. Gardenville maybe a way to achieve your two and a half hours of moderate-intensity exercise we all do every week. Regarding it maybe a more rewarding motivation than feeling like a hamster running on a treadmill inside a building. Particularly the summer. Learning is not only helpful in managing your weight but also in reducing high blood pressure heart disease and other threatening diseases. In fact regarding actually scored a space on the national heart lung and blood institute recommendation for badly high blood pressure. A large dose stockholm studies show that regular garden cut stroke and heart attack risk by up to 30% for those people above 60. Complete viewing plants not even being in the garden is looking after. Has been shown to reduce fear anger blood pressure and muscle tension. Gardening has been linked to significant beneficial changes and total cholesterol hdl cholesterol and systolic blood pressure. Reported in the journal of environmental psychology researchers took 112 young stressed out adults would probably have a lot of those around. And split them into two groups. The first group chat. In a room which had a view of trees and then they strolled to a garden. The second group said in a windowless room and then went walking in an urban environment. The group that relax in the garden show decreases in blood pressure positive changes and feelings. Researcher terry hartog noted that some of these changes particular blood pressure could be seen within minutes. Of them entering these faces. In addition. If you expose your limbs without sunscreen. About 10 minutes during the midday. Garnet will give you enough vitamin d. Reduce risk of heart disease osteoporosis and various cancers. Keep in mind that low vitamin d levels are usually caused by having spending too much time indoors. According to the american journal of preventive medicine. The creation or priests access to places such as gardens for physical activity. Produced of overall 48% increase in this physical activity in a 5% increase. In aerobic capacity reduced body fat weight loss. Improve flexibility and increase and perceived energy. Besides being a great way to exercise garden motivates people to actually exercise for a longer. of time. People get out in the garden they spend more time there than they would if they were just walking or biking. Charlie burns calories according to the centers for disease control garden for an hour can burn up to 330 calories. This is more than weight lifting weights for that same. of time. The national institute of health do so far as to recommend 30 to 45 minutes of gardening three to five times a week is a part of a good exercise strategy. Their findings are particularly important for older adults. Ssh group tends to have during the course of a day spend a lot of active time performing regular task and find it difficult to actually have a regular. Increase exercise program. Can strengthen dexterity. As we age our. Diminishing dexterity and strengthen our hands. And it can narrow the activities that are possible for us or pleasurable. Garden keeps house. Hand muscles rigorous and agile. Play research has expired rehabilitation program. Patients that are disabled. Particularly after stroke. A particularly satisfying and productive way of rebuilding their strength and ability. Brain health and alzheimer's risk. A new systemic systematic review looked at the impact of gardens and outdoor spaces. On mental physical well-being of people with dementia. The research suggested that garden use even if it's as simple as watering plant walking through a garden or sitting in a garden. Led to decreased levels of both agitation and anxiety among these patients. Interesting horse painting at i'm in the garden may help release some dementia symptoms. It may also reduce your risk of developing dementia in first place. One long-term study for when you were 3,000 older adults for 16 years. Keeping track of what level does dementia they pet and look at all their different lifestyle choices. Researchers found that gardening. Represented the single biggest risk reduction for dementia. Reduce the incidence by 36%. And another study estimated the risk reduction at 47%. I mean regulation. This one's a wildcard. Why don't you just a vitamin d you're soaking from the summer sun help you fight off colds and flus. But it turns out that even the dirt under your fingernails may be working in your favor. Christopher lowry assistant professor of integrative physiology at the university of colorado and boulder. As an injecting mice. With an organism mycobacterium baxi. This is a harmless bacteria commonly found in soil and he's found it in my house this exposure can increase the release and metabolism of serotonin and parts of the brain that control cognitive function and mood. Serotonin production helps to make you feel happier. And more relaxed. No wonder so many people describe their garden answer happy place. Digging in the dirt isn't the same as taking prozac as lowry says. But he agrees that humans involved with this organism this embassy. And a host of other friendly organism. That in relative lack of. Contact the soil in contact with these portable old friends. In a current environment has maybe the reason why some of us have our immune system thrown out of whack. By reintroducing this bacteria in our environment. It may help us alleviate some medical problems lowry sis. Larry dossey author of one mind how our individual mind is partly great consciousness and why it matters a title. He right we know that children who are supposed to do. Uniformity formative years. Develop healthier stronger immune systems. When compared to children whose parents kept them squeaky clean. That makes me feel good, and allergies later in life. Subjective depression a mental health the growing field of horticultural therapy is given proven results for relief with people with depression and mental illness. In a study in norway of people who had either depression low mood or bipolar or. Bipolar 2 disorder. They haven't spent 6 hours a week growing flowers and vegetables. After three months after the participants had noticeable. Improvement in their depressive symptoms. And what was more interesting is that this. Elevation of the moon actually continued for over three months after the study with ended. The evidence of getting a positive boost from gardening is being used to treat hospital patients that uses school. The planned cities and even to calm prisoners in jail. Horticultural therapist are being employed by major cities such as chicago. Oakland park and botanical gardens. Seven schools of architecture now have academics on the staff to study. The different kinds of gardens that are most likely. Best relate to people for people to realize. Relate to. At new york's notorious rikers island jail horticultural therapy is used to come prisoners. And prepare them for the release. They have a greenhouse project. Which is transformed in the breakfast right into small oasis. Was butterfly bird garden a medieval style herb garden and waterfall. In hospitals rehabilitation centers throughout the us they have healing gardens which were there for patient but they're also being used by nurses and doctors who are. Under stress and trauma from dealing with all of the illness and death if they have to face. Horticultural services gardens produced the most positive effects of mental health but they're also beneficial for stroke patients that was recovering from physical trauma or people with disabilities. A simple thing is growing a potted plant from a cutting is in a feeling of control. Sister theresa hasten to oversees the horticultural. Therapy programs in oregon. Darby more than most rehab activities has ability to be very distracting. Simply by taking people's minds off their problems can relieve pain and also depression. Electrician. Final one. The food you grow yourself is the freshest and healthiest food you can eat. Not surprisingly several studies have shown that gardeners eat more fruits and vegetables than their peers. Somebody's got eat all that zucchini kayla because people who garden or who live with someone. Eat more fruits and vegetables on a daily basis. A study in flint michigan show the only seventy-two 17% of people from non garden families. 8:30 necessary amount of fruit and vegetables. But that job in families at garden 32%. Medford mattress no guidelines. Eating organic local produce reduce exposure to chemical fertilizers. And pesticides and also local food doesn't have to have the preservatives in it. That are needed if it's transported long distances. Studies of after-school garden program suggest the kids hoegaarden are more likely to eat fruits and vegetables. A lot more adventurous about giving new food to try. Suzanne palmer he's a program director of eating for the future. At the john hopkins school of public health. I watched a lot of cooking and gardening classes with kids it's amazing how many will try things like arugula. Agreement has pretty strong flavor and he'll say this is good. The american heart association has planted more than 200 teaching gardens across the country. I'm teaching guns are cuvantul the fight against childhood obesity. They're fun hands-on ways for young youngsters to learn what it means to be healthy. And more importantly they take this information home to the families. As you've heard in the book the screen children how to plant seeds nurture growing plant and harvest produce. Teachers can make garden seems lesson to teach nutrition math and science. Tender interest in trying new foods because they had grown them and they felt the closer connection to them. Because of the garden. A my conclusions not married but mine. Extended exposure to nature and wildlife. Increases people's compassion for each other. As it because their compassion for the environment increases in their life. Many gardeners give their hobby as a perfect antidote to the modern world. A way of reclaiming some of the intangible things that we've lost in our busy dirt free lives. We live in a society where maxing out all the time in terms of paying the kind of directed attention. That we need for cell phones and email and computers and such. Andrew trailer at the university of illinois at urbana-champaign says. I'm at capacity gets used up. We tend to become irritable error-prone distractible and stressed out. Training your blackberry for blackberry bushes. Maybe an excellent way to fight stress and attention fatigue. The longer you guarding the more you realize how many different ways you benefit. Beginning with your body. Extending to your intellect. Creative abilities. And finally reaching to your soul. The biologists edward wilson cause this garden connection biophilia. Which is where distinctively drawn to connect. With other living growing things we want to feel part of the web of life. This reminded me of. When i invited a csa farmer to my fourth grade class years ago. And he brought a big box of lettuce and onions and carrots and whatever he was producing at that time. And i have the impression that kids didn't like fruits and vegetables but when he finished his talk he offered that they can come up and have any anything they wanted to eat out of that and those kids came up there they were like it was like a feeding frenzy eating those onions. It just goes to show that if you are kind of talked it up and he's got food they'll eat it even if you think they don't like fruits and vegetables. 7 years ago we had a service gardening we called the zen of gardening and gardens and a group of prairie members. Talked about two topics they talked about how they became garden gardeners and then they talked about. Of problems of gardening and also mostly the satisfaction so garden. Gardening and it was really a fun service some of the satisfactions people mentioned resonate with the research that kathy just talked about. For example pat watkins mention how she loved lying in the ground on the ground in her yard which was kind of a wild garden. And just weeding that garden and she just got up a tremendous. A feeling of happiness there. I talked about how the garden for me was a gardener of connections that connected me with my past when i was a young child and i was given a little platte to take care of. And also with nature of course and then. With the people i shared my produce with because if you have a garden guys have too much. We also laughed when kate fronsman showed us a piece of binderies with which she said was the bane of her existence in her garden if you ever see buying these you know he's got to keep pulling it the entire year. Yeah major highlight was carl wackers powerpoint show about his garden so that you could really enjoy. What what he grows. Where the focus of my part of the service will be a little different from that time i'll be focusing on community gardening. As opposed to say backyard gardener gardening in general. Oh well. Oh you might ask why i'm focusing on unity gardening and one reason is that i started a community garden in the marlboro parts of quarter of a block from here. About 45 years ago. And i still garden there i started that garden because. In this neighborhood but the yards are very small and my yard with a 40-foot yard and it was shady and couldn't really grow a garden. And that marlboro park at that time was had just stopped being a farm. And it was. Development land. So i thought i want to have a garden out there but i thought if it's just me. It's going to get vandalized to nothing so i think i'll get some company the first i talked to the developer and he said he was a gardener to and he says he could have a gardener we didn't have to pay any rent for that land. And so i went around to all the neighbors got about 25 gardens gardeners and that was our first garden. Well now if you look on those two on the sidewalls you'll see that marlborough garden has grown to about 160 plot. And if anyone's interested in having a clot there there's a registration this wednesday or you can just see me yet after the service. Anyway so that's one reason because i've had some good experiences in marlboro. Garden. And also turns out that community gardens have. Additional benefits just beyond backyard gardening which i'd like to tell you about. And also there are many community gardens in dane county you were supposed to have a handout but i was their hand out that. Got here. I guess not have to turn it turn it over to you next week. Because there's a website on the garden gardens network site. That shows you all the gardens in dane, all the community gardens in dane county if you go to that website. You can go to the map and you can it's an interactive map and you can just put your cursor on the little. and it'll show you. What where the garden is what the garden is and who to contact to get in the garden. And then just in case some of you might think of organizing a garden yourself a community garden some time i have a list of criteria that someone put out. All right so first i'd like to give you some insights from my first-hand experience in the marlborough community garden this right here in the neighborhood. Oh well why i like it is this much better location than my garden first of all is funny. Grasmeyer to shady. Second land very spacious at several acres in that park is 28th or so you feel like you're really out in the country. It's unhindered by tree roots no trees right next to the garden. And also often have experiences with birds looks like this handouts here. Great. It also away from home and go sometimes you just have to get out of your house if you get out of your house your mood changes and special to go to the garden. But i might point out that in a community garden you also develop friendships that you don't if you're just working in your backyard garden. I've got to know my neighbors and my gardening neighbors and some of them are people from the neighborhood a lot better because we garden next to each other and we. Stop and talk to each other and visit. But beyond that that's it's a multicultural experience. In a place where i can form friendships across ethnic lines. In our garden here that about 65% latino gardeners. And. Although i have neighbors who are from puerto rico i don't. I didn't get to know them. I got to know my latino neighbors who are in the garden much better because some of them work on a committee with me or i see them at work days. And i find that that's a really big benefit something that i don't get just by sitting in my house are working to my backyard garden. And i also use this as a way to. Bridge. The gulf between myself and my african-american neighbors inn on allied drive. You may know that i'm involved in my neighborhood association in for a long time we had a very negative person on our neighbor on our neighborhood council. And how criminal they were and things like that and i can after years of listening to her i can find myself starting to having a negative attitude towards them like that i have to do something about this. Because i've been taught as as a young child's know everybody is equal and i didn't like this. Attitude that i was finding with rubbing off on me. And. I'd also been an exchange student down at spelman college which is a black women's college in atlanta georgia. So you know i should have been prejudiced i should have had this fear but i started to have this fear just because of the negative. Stops at this. Person in our neighborhood. Feeding to us time and time again. So at that time it is said but what can i do to. Counteract this and. I said well maybe i could mentor. A black person in my garden because in our garden. If we're lucky if we have one black person. There. Because they come from an urban society and their grandparents great-grandparents grew up in. Mississippi or arkansas or somewhere. Oh where they were gardeners. But when those people came to chicago they stopped gardening. Then when they came to madison know by that generation that had no experience whatsoever. So i did mentor. Woman what are two different black women in my garden in 2010 and 2011. And i wouldn't say it was a success as far as gardening was concerned. But certainly was a success in making a friendship. With those two women and with getting a totally different attitude and feeling very comfortable then. In my neighborhood. And then i also see a really gigantic benefit of. For the new immigrants to our part of the world. For latinos in the southeast asian so are also members of our garden. I think it's especially important because for them. Because they come from an agrarian society. And this is probably the only thing that feels like a comfortable thing to them feels like at home when they're out in the garden and growing the things that they used to grow. And i'm glad that you know we have that opportunity for them as well as. No just for their own benefit. Kathy pointed out you know it probably does relieve a terrible stress that there. Feeling. In 2010 the benefits of community gardens from research. Are many some of. Community got it's not just guarding this in general. And we had. A phd. Phd student from the university of wisconsin do some research on community gardening and gardening and general in. The madison area vincent smith was his name. And he asked the people that he recruited to keep track of everything that they harvested gave us a little scale. And we measure things to the tenth of an ounce i think. All through the season and he came out and measured our garden is so he knew how many square feet we had. And. For a couple of his findings he found that community gardens were just very very slightly less productive that year. In pounds per square foot. But he found that community gardens were more productive money-wise because what he did is when we turned into each week. He found the prices of things that were for sale that we would be growing in our garden. And i needed all these calculations to see how much we raised and how much it was worth. And he found the unity gardens were more productive money-wise per square foot. In the kindergarten made a dollar 21 cents per square foot for the season and the home gardens made a dollar 84 square foot. Anda. He also found that community people raise more calories per square foot is hot as as well. About 69 calories per square foot for the community garden and. About 50 80 calories per square foot for other garden. But what was most surprising to him. Was that he learned that people talk they didn't just talk about how they got fresh food or how it was healthier food or things like that. They talked to him about. Hoegaarden with therapeutic. Just like kathy said. There's a place where people could forget their cares. They talked about how their minds cleared up when they were out the garden. They talked about how spiritually satisfying they use that word spiritually satisfying. And they felt like they were really a part of things of of a continuous process this is really surprising to him because his focus with you know the money the economics of it. So. Research. I just wanted one thing about others research about community gardens. They found that opening a community garden in especially in a most disadvantaged neighborhood really increases the property values around the garden within 1,000 feet of the gardens they go up. And then he found that another study found that community gardens strengthen neighborhoods and other ways. They give rise to a whole series of social processes. Including social connections like i've talked about. Reciprocity gibson's way to your gardener to your friends. Mutual trust. Collective decision-making we do that in our we try to do that. garden. Civic engagement and community-building so. This was especially noted in disadvantaged areas. Now i know we're just got to the a but i want to share one more. Traffic. And that is criteria for choosing a community gardening site. And when i started the marble garden back about 1970 i didn't know anything about this research maybe there hasn't even been any john about in. Characteristics of a community garden should be. But i have seen the eagle heights garden and i travel to germany i seen they had acres and acres of community gardens outside their cities. And when i wanted you know that place where i could grow things better than i could in my yard. Why not start a community garden. It turns out that this face on this marlboro community garden does that a lot of these criteria maybe that's why it's been pretty successful. Person should be in an area where there's a concentrated population we have apartments here and we have very small lot so that. So it suggests in there we have renters. So ranchers and condo owners and concentrated residential area. Music got a critical access critical mass of people that don't have access to land so they're wanting it. If you have more low-income people they're more likely to want to supplement their income and that's true this neighborhood. If you have a high percentage of recent immigrants from agrarian backgrounds well that's true here wasn't necessarily true in the beginning but. After the vietnam war we had an influx of hmong people here and course they love to garden. And then more recently we've had many many latinos move into the neighborhood so that's that agrarian background. Just be sure you should place it where it's not served by another community garden well that was true here. Hopefully have good soil. Quality not contaminated by lead and something that we didn't actually test our garden but it always bend farm so we assumed it was good land. To be flat pretty flat up there. Funny. Water available will it first there wasn't we had to had to ask the neighbors to use their hose to fill up garbage cans with water so we have water for planting. But later we got a community block grant from the city. And put in some hydrants so now we have water. A couple more things should be at least 100 peeps on the public streets we're up there in the middle of the park that's more than 100 ft. To be a concentrated area not just a strip with some of the madison gardens are along railroad right away that's not the ideal because you just have a narrow area but we have about 3 acres now up there. To be visible from neighborhood residences i think that's because it can prevent vandalism and because people feel safer if they know someone else is around. And. I guess that's all i'll say huh. So i hope my little part of the talk here at has given you some inside and enthusiasm for community gardening. And if you're not already involved in a community garden. Or gardening at all that now or later when that door opens i hope you go through it. Kathy laurita closing words. Now is the accepted time not tomorrow not some more convenient season. It is today that i best work can be done and not some future day or future year. It is today that we fit ourselves for the greater usefulness of tomorrow. Today is the same time. Now where the hours of work. Tomorrow comes the harvest and the playtime. But i want to add that you can pick up a package of seeds out in the lobby in the window there i got these free seeds from dane county uw-extension. Flower seeds or if you'd like to go mini pumpkins mini gourds those are in that pet so help yourself to one of those. And i'll extinguish the chalice in a minute then please greet your neighbor. Have a good day.

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JohnMaryFrantz-ed.mp3

Today we're interviewing john and mary france about. Dan holman monroe. Why don't you tell us about these. Solar features you designed into your house john. Well. We have experimented. With adding solar panels to an older house. And making calculations about what the consequences would be. A game obviously you can do a lot better with the new design. Solvent. You'll have. Storage of heed. Automatically with concrete construction. So our house is flexicore. For the basement ceiling at the floor of the manor. And the basements have finished so that's. Can restore restore. Depending upton. Little sunshine. And all of the windows essentially all the windows in the house are on the southside. Three tiers of windows in basement. First four in the clerestory. In the light of the north rooms comes from the clerestory. 2 indoor window. There's no north windows at all. And at night. There's movable insulation for all the windows. Woodson's. Quilts running. Intrax so the air doesn't circulate behind the quilts. And then it's illegal comprable to the ski jacket. So that keeps the cold air at night from cooling off the house. Panels. Basement and the clerestory and they. Can be closed. We got all of that work done by creative energy who were very creative about solving those problems. In fact i was a volunteer for experimental project. Randy corti was involved. Back years ago when they thermax panels were being experimented with the seaward p market field test. Designed our system we're very happy with it. Lake wisconsin on the south-facing side that were made by creative energy hot 16. Accordion-style 10 insulated they had flaps that close over the edges to seal them off at night. And we have. R35 immortals on i-55 in the ceiling. It's kind of a ego trip for the car. What other utility to put one of those fans in the. Layton door. We were ten times tighter than going to think they that were tested wow. So very well-constructed thanks to our carpenter. Even take the staple lines. Screen was stapled after. If this is a standard test procedure that. Power company does for how tightly sealed your houses. As a result the house is practically draft-free so it doesn't have to be kept as warm in order for you to feel warm. Booby. With a wood-burning stove we can keep it plenty warm anyway. Senator it can take for the wood-burning stove. 3 in. There are.. The passionately song is too cool. That's in the house you have to have an air-to-air heat exchange with that title house or you would be. Fresh air. So have you ever. Compare the energy efficiency of your house with a typical house of that size. No. Well we have the. And. Parmesan. The guess is essentially for. Hot water. Big because of her. That's built so small investment. Solar water heater justified. And so increased gas bill in the winter. And counting whether that hundred dollars a card. Let me see didn't go over a hundred and $20. But we didn't pay for the wood but we waited also then. Was the fair test. And incidentally when you wait. It doesn't matter how many chords it was because if it's willow. You have to pull up one time. The different kinds of wood or quite comfortable. So. In the winter your he is son and would primarily. Panda. Your water heater good. Contribute a little bit if necessary. Hoteles about your garden. Well i guess. Alot of people have gardens in our garden isn't outstanding. Need. It's a. Garden with raised beds and. 50 ft by 50 ft. 18 of these beds. But. They're not all for garden just got one whole beds for compost and once for grapevines and. And now we. Recently been. Party. Sharing some with some neighbors who want a garden because it's so much. Well we collect rainwater. Throughout the. Months when it isn't freezing. And we can. Rain barrels all over the garden which we can siphon the water into. From a main barrel. Strange off the roof. And so we rarely use the hose. Forgot id. But our whole water system in our house is primarily sister rainwater. We have city water. But we used to teach. Peach facility has a city water tap. But we don't use it very much we use it we use it for drinking cold water brushing our teeth before our. Hot water for making tea or coffee we use the rainwater. For cooking. And it's time. This barrel collects it has to fill up. Sounds like above that that gets it high enough to go into the basement so. The roof is wins by a barrel of water before it goes into the system then. This is an awful lot of requirement. The cistern is a whole room in the basement that was made at the time. And. That's more than enough for all we're still extremely thrifty water users because we've done enough backpacking where you carried all your water that we know you don't. And then the garden has a big tank. I think alexa rainwater. 10 different 55-gallon drums. Round plastic drums. At the time the brewery was fighting some edited with no spirals. And one was afraid sending him back so they gave him away. The nearest steel heavy plastic. Food quality plastic. Beer. Garden in addition. It's raised beds permit you to garden somewhat earlier because they drain well and we have. Some plastic domes that we can put over. The beds to start things earlier. And. And you can start spinach in the fall. And it goes dormant and then it's not one that comes on at the spring weeks before you could get. It's the thrill of it all winter and then. Ending. Freshman at several police report you could possibly bring. And. Please. Then germany will be cold weather. Where is ben going to shovel snow to plant peas. Really it there are a lot of people who have. Equally or more successful gardens in arms but we. With. Learned a lot over the years in garland. Probably the most unique thing about our. Is we have 23. Blueberry bushes. And we figured out how to do it without adjusting the ph of the soil. Then we dug 4 ft deep. And put glitter style in the bottom and plastic all around. And then we put them all roofing in top of the glenys time we filled it up. With sandy. Find soil. For malone wisconsin over them. Eating pineapples. Focus oil stays acid for the same reason that it stays at 7. And its original place. And that eliminates the need for testing and chemicals and getting the dog flan and blueberry. If you put in one dose of organic fertilizer. It doesn't just the screws on the filson. You are successful blueberry razors. Johnny campos all the time. And if you have neighbors who give us their grass clippings and. Try to melt our beds with all the things it'll save water and provide fertility for the. Garden. And all the vegetable. Mater from the kitchen and the garden goes into the compost. Like i'm stupid. With more alkaline you can put what ashes. And in order to avoid meeting. Lastly fertilizer. Woodburn. Wood stoves. Lol ss. What's higher in phosphorus in with isis because of the bomb. And what bones do you use. Chicken bones in. Pork bones. Sounds like a good use for them. Any other. Tips for gardeners. Reduce their impact on there. Our environment. Well we started our car we have bought a lot. Grass. And instead of. Digging up this whole 50 by 50 ft. we started even a year or two before we built the house. Planting a crop on it and covering it with 6 or 8 in of hay mulch. And then that killed the grass and meanwhile we had melons or potatoes or whatever it was growing. Enough. Hereford so we didn't have to dig up all 18 bedside cell. And that were a bunch of us back there and that was a power line across and i called the power company and says i'm going to cut down. I didn't. So you don't have any black walnuts around it. Well the pear trees do very well. Good luck with pear trees we've had peach trees that last a few years and. Intend not have some cherry trees that we compete with the birds and get a few cherries. Had some problems at the beginning. But. Grow plums was becoming close. The same worms affect cheerleading. But they taste like cherry so it doesn't. The worst a b eric. Where is the plum trees they just die in fall off the tree before they formed. And. Crop is extremely successful. He have grapes along those 100. Theater. Grapevine. Started up. Was delaware. Force reserve. Hybrid. With north american. Grape so you don't need the girls. The olympian grapes. On north america load stops because of the file officer of which. Is it north america parasites doesn't permit building groups biryani. And these fitness post grapes are primarily a wine grape within we have several lines of. Eating grapes. So do you make wine. Breakfast grape crop was 400 lb. And that makes a lot of wiring. Less than. Some some years the wind comes out really quite good another year so quite so good but we're not too proud to mix it with some cheap. Grocery store wine and. Make it seem better. With some cigarettes. Ellen's champion bottles and it comes out sparkling wine. To get home. Coke bottle caps will fit on. Snap-on type. The kinds of classes download. Grow rhubarb. Strawberry. And then the blueberries. Solar garden husband. Give us fed us. Our neighbors and our kids. Do you do any canning whole lot of canning and freezing. A little bit of dry yes when we used to go backpacking a lot we would dry most of the food we wanted. At what point would join with the additive. The freeze-dried setup but that was a little too elaborate decisions to buy. Freeze drying. Brazil. Quality. Are any concluding remarks for the green committee. Anybody is welcome to visit our house. Look at it and on john's website. Description of the. House and features. 01 few photographs of when it was first built. Then what's the weather url. Www.frontier.com phone. And there's an article on there about how the drive up for us to get better mileage than toyota. 50 separate subject. Mileage is gone up from the low fifties when i bought it. 5 minutes later. Wow that's good. Outfits mileage with alphabet to but not that high. Well the trick is. That was it was the brakes acceptance. You know about that things slow down going downhill without using the brakes. It's called. Letslose it down more. Original. What year is yours. Play music. 2006. Chrysler 2008. It says be on. Let's port clinton drive. Recall seeing anybody. Hill display make head or tail out of it. Interesting that all. Zillow. All the prius electric system is made so reliable. What lacrosse tomorrow. And the toyota has a 27 horsepower electric motor. Was no comment a maintenance problem in electrical equipment. And what it is cheese at. Isn't it honestly powerful from the anus. In aurora. Which contains several. Kg was one of the rare earth metals permits. Ferrous metals to retain a permanent night. That's all we have. Thank you thank you very much.

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Pr140406Ingham-ed.mp3

Good morning. Welcome to prairie unitarian universalist society we are a welcoming congregation. No matter what your religious beliefs or non beliefs no matter what the color of your skin your gender straight gay bi trans you are welcome here. If this is one of your first times here but you'll have a chance to introduce yourself in a few minutes if you want to we don't really require that this is one of your first times here i encourage you to attend several services. To get a better idea of who we are and what we do here. Money services are led by sometimes by myself but reverend sandra lampstand is just fine. By outside leaders late leaders in congregation by other ministers sometimes. In keeping with my scene of introducing you to a small band. Of liberal women ministers whose work took place in what was then the frontier of this country the wild west. I share with you these welcoming words of unitarian minister mary safford. To use them in our humble iowa congregation. Between. 1880 and 1885. She wrote our church. Welcomes all people of goodwill. Regardless of religious connection and draws no sharp lines between sacred and secular but tries to discover. God the power that makes for righteousness in whatever learning and truth its members can find. That is just one way of many ways these liberal women ministers. All that time. try to give a broader definition. To the word. God. The 135 years ago. These then are the opening words. Today we come as people have come for thousands of years. To give thanks and sing praises. For our being together. To celebrate the victory of hope. Over despair. To be reminded of the ever renewing life of the spirit. And. To mark the season of springtime. Call my dad. Welcome to our festival of joy. We light this chalice. To remember. Besouro the lost and the joy. That are within this season of the year. The upcoming passover that brought freedom from slavery and bondage for the jewish people continues to bring light into the world. Palm sunday good friday and easter. That brought joy and the triumph of life over death where the christian people. Still. Bring the light of that joy to the world. And the spring equinox that brings new life bursting forth on the land each year. Brings lengthened days of sunlight to all. Life. Passover for freedom easter for life. Spring for rebirth. Weed lidar chalice. For all three. Like to share a brief reading with you. Title the ideas that have moved us this is written by barbara road ela leader in one of our. Congregation. She writes. We can catch glimpses of who we are. By looking at our historical past. Elsa denomination and as a fellowship. To know who we are. We must know where we came from. And which ideas moved us. The nature of unitarian universalism is constantly changing and we have no creed. That certain ideas have existed throughout our history. We have always believed that the source of religious authority does not reside in the pope. Or the minister. Or in a book. But within the center of our own personalities. Within our deeper. Deepest. Sounds. Bad idea. Has often been corrupted to suggest. That all expressions of belief are equally valid. We have always believed in freedom of thought. And the expression of thought. That idea has been corrupted so that it often seems to be saying. Leave me alone. Rather than tell me. What you see. We have always been advocates of religious tolerance. But that belief has changed. I'm saying i won't burn you at the stake. Two saying i won't let you know i disagree with you. In the great religious division between those who would exclude. In order to purify and those who would embrace in order to redeem we have always been. With the embracer. We have no creedle requirements for membership which is how it should be. But that does not mean. We should not be passionate. About our search for truth. That membership has no meaning. This is your program tells you it's part 2. A reflections on the women of the prophetic sisterhood. I could probably do 10 part. But we'll probably stop for now with this. Once a day. For now. When last seen our heroines were busy starting new congregations. Supporting each other. Grappling with the harshness of the untamed west. Trying to make the frontier a more hospitable place. If you were not here three weeks ago when i first spoke of this small but powerful group of unitarian and universalist women ministers. A brief review. Mary safford and eleanor gordon. I won't be at ass later you won't remember their names probably but. Just to say their names is important and it kept. Sense of what they were doing. In the time. between roughly the 1870s and the 1930s. Mary safford and eleanor gordon. Were the founders of really mean to be but they were the original members of a group of women ministers who came to be called. The prophetic. Sisterhood also known as the iowa. Sisterhood. Although widely scattered geographically. They needed each other. Because they lived in isolated communities in what was then known as the west. They weren't prophetic. In the sense of proclaiming themselves to be prophets. Nor did they have any interest in predicting. Future. They were prophetic. In the much wider sense. That they looked at the world. Realistically. Acknowledged its brokenness. And then set about doing what they could to mend that broken this. These women were not wild exactly either. Not in the sense that they were immoral or over-the-top or whatever you will get interesting results if you google wild western women but you don't get anything pertaining to his amazing. They were wild and their imaginations. Their creativity. They're optimus. Their endurance their belief in the human spirit their determination to make the world a better place. Mary stafford and eleanor gordon as i told you three weeks ago grew up on neighboring farms. On the mississippi river. In hamilton iowa. I started a church there in the spring of 1879 and by the end of that year the sunday attendance in hamilton. Which was tiny. Was averaging over 150. With as many as 200 on some sundays. My next started a unitarian free-thinking congregation in humboldt iowa which was also amazingly successful after five years and humboldt they went to sioux city iowa yet another 125 miles west in iowa. 18 months of arriving there. The membership went from 26. Almost 200. And they paid off the mortgage. On the new church building. Three weeks ago i talked about the fact that safford and gordon wanted to go to college but there was no money to do so. They started on their own to get the equivalent of a college degree. They were greatly influenced by emerson. Especially by. These two beliefs of his. One we should use book learning. To make the world a better place. Into. We should find the divine within ourselves. The same divinity that is found in jesus is also in you. This led them to a deep belief in human. Progress. More than emerson though eleanor and mary were very fond of theodore parker. Because he took unpopular positions on social justice issues and he believes that religious communities needed to spend less time in prayer. And more in ethical action. It was through their reading of parker that they discovered the philosopher kant. Who defined god as collective. Humanity. Definition i particularly like god is collective humanity. One of the things that most in deers me to this group of women is their continuous search. Four ways to define god and a much. Broader more expansive all-encompassing way. Then the culture at large then defined.. And i would add probably not define. It is important to note that these women and the men who supported and encouraged them were unintentionally also redefining. The church community is or should be. The women were not only reading work by unitarian universalist authors they were also hearing caring and universalist ministers preach. For example. Oscar clute who is the interior minister in keokuk iowa i was once the minister in keokuk iowa. Also jenkin lloyd jones played a big role in the lives of these women and some of you will recognize that name and talked about him three weeks ago jenkin lloyd-jones. Was frank lloyd wright's uncle but jenkins jones was. Quite well-known. Which he lived. He jones was the american unitarian association's anyways western secretary. He had trouble getting meal clergy to come out and fill the many empty pulpits that he had. Please. Newly-graduated usually from harvard male ministers young they didn't want to come out here to what they called the border of civilization. The work was too hard the pay was too. Low. Bye. That opened the door for the female master. Define churches. During this time.. These women would not have been welcomed as leaders in the eastern churches east being. Anywhere west. Or anywhere east of. It was boston in the eastern seaboard. Their this is their quote they found life there to be harder than anything they had ever known. And i grew up on farms. Of course you know they had an upstairs apartment everything had to be carried in and out. Garbage and ashes owl firewood in there was poverty and illness to deal with him we would know nothing about this it was a harsh climate to deal with. I also told you three weeks ago that this work was not just a challenge physically. Anyone who was a unitarian universalist was constantly being challenged about their beliefs. We only thing about that either doing there were plenty of orthodox christian to it also moved west and they regarded these freethinkers as heretics. Businesses owned by so-called heretics were boycotted. And so unitarian and universalist church has needed to be in the words of mary safford. Outpost. A rationality and human worms. And technically nothing about christ. In safrits the ology though she would have used jesus as a good example of how we should try to live our lives. Her sermons would not have been similar to what most of the unitarian creatures in the east. We're preaching in this time.. Intellectualism was not the most important part. Of the church experience out on the frontier i'm not saying people are stupid by any means. But it was as much a heart thing and in a creating community thing is trying to be up here. The sisterhood believe. With theodore parker that intellectualism was useless. Unless. And on till. It was integrated with current affairs. Community service. As i said before there are recurring themes here and these scenes. Provide connections between their lives. And hours. This is something i call the stanc factor. Some things never change. Today in the second decade of the 21st century we're still debating whether or not community service and current affairs. Aka social justice. Is the primary purpose for forming communities of faith. Gender inequality is another stinc issue. Perhaps not so much in this country as in other parts of the world by would argue that women. Still are not equal to men. In this country. Obama tackles pay equity was the headline of an article recently in the milwaukee journal sentinel. Women are still making $0.77. On the dollar. Including when they enter high-paying professions. Here are a few more anecdotes about the sisterhood before i tell you about their demise. But the demise of their ministries. And of the prophetic sisterhood. In 1885 ordinary safford west humboldt iowa and went to sioux city iowa to be the minister's they are the murdoch sisters marion and amelia. Took over the humble parish. As is true of all these women their story is fascinating their mother was a universalist. I am their dad wasn't any. There were five daughters in the family no sons five daughters and each of them they were all expected to be interested. And actively participate in the affairs of the world. Marion was the first woman to receive a bachelors of divinity from meadville theological. School. And it probably mentioned before meadville is dear to my heart because it is only about 18 miles from where i grew up. In northwest pennsylvania. This part of pennsylvania was one of those areas where the missionary so we don't use that word emissaries from boston settled when they moved west. I got all the way to west northwest pennsylvania. Well that means you'll be a logical school marion murdoch encounter. Of all things. And evangelical unitarian lecture. He try to pressure the minister of the unitarian church in meadville. Into requiring declarations of faith. Creed. By the theological students. The unitarian minister refused to do this. And luckily president of the theological school backed him up. And by the way that unitarian church in meadville. Middletown of. Eastbay 18000 properly. 10000 now. That unitarian church still stands that one from the mid-1800s one of my best friends from seminary was the minister there for awhile and of course. Miitopia illogical school became allegheny college one of the best liberal arts schools in the country. And that the illogical school you know what happened did it merged with lombard college 24 me to lombard. Which still exists but in chicago. There is a recurring theme in the lives of these women of fighting not only isolation and loneliness as they became ministers. But also prejudice and discrimination because of their gender. Not. Only because of their religious beliefs. Marie jenny how. Commented and i may have used it 3 weeks ago but it's a good quote that she doubted that more than one and 100 women really like. Sewing as much as the typical clergyman seem to think that. Began her professional life as a public school teacher before she became a unitarian minister. According to cynthia grant tucker eleanor gordon insisted that her students. Approach whatever was studied. In the scientific. Spirit. They were expected to use their powers of observation and reason to form their own perceptions of truth. Well this led to gordon frequently having to appear before the school board. With his all trinitarian numbers. To explain why she was teaching what they called. Flagrant unitarianism. Eleanor had better luck with her sunday school class. Course unitarians. Where she taught darwin. And emerson. And. The reading of scripture. In the light of that hire biblical german criticism. Before these. Students these young people had even reached the age of 12. Last time i told you a little bit about carrie julia bartlett. We eventually became caroline bartlett crane. She decided to carry wasn't professional enough so she changed. Caroline she dropped julia so she could keep. Her maiden name bartlett is a middle name after she married a doctor warren crane. Now carries the one who went still a child. She rebelled against her religious upbringing because she's going to think that a god were scurrying about couldn't slip pain as arbitrarily as the church said he did. Nor did she believe that unbaptized babies. And so-called heathens in other countries. Were sent to hell. I can read late because this was the beginning of my own theological downfall. And she certainly didn't think that jesus for him she felt deep affection. As a human being. Have been involved in anything is impossible as the resurrection. Before becoming a minister though bartlett crane was a journalist and it one time she was the city editor of the city times newspaper in oshkosh wisconsin. When working for the minneapolis tribune she sometimes carry gun. Well working on dangerous stories she had refused to work. On the society. Were the editor of the paper wanted her to be. Eliza wilkes another member of the prophetic sisterhood recruited terry bartlett in 1887 to the. Sioux falls. South dakota. Minister. You see how far west these women went i mean south dakota. The next place bartlett went was to kalamazoo michigan. Where she would be the longtime minister of the unitarian church in that city and that was considered the frontier also the west. In the pulpit. Bartlett crane took strong stands on the controversial issues of the day. Issues such as legalized prostitution and. Prison reform. Something. A newspaper once made the mistake of commenting on her quote. Charm and diplomacy in the pulpit. Uncle jimmy blinds. She would have to decline being diplomatic. If this imply dodging the issue to avoid disagreement. Her story leads us to some of the reasons why the sisterhood fell apart. In 1899 carrie bartlett crane now married to dr. crane to believe. From ministry to start a family. But she and dr. crane were unable to have children. Sew-in 1901. Gary tried to return to the pulpit. Just two years later. She found it in her words almost impossible for a woman to get her own pulpit. At this point. Well then the reason that was. Because the cultural trend of the cultural trend toward. Muscular masculinity. At this point bartlett crane convinced her woman's club to get involved in municipal housekeeping as public works. Or call them. And in 1904 they tackled public sanitation. Quite literally. Horse-drawn carriages were still the major way. I'll getting around during this time. and. Well there was a lot of cleanup in the streets. Caroline bartlett crane. Became nationally known for her municipal housekeeping work and area where many of her sister ministers went. After leaving the ministry. There were several reasons why many of the women in the prophetic sisterhood left the ministry the spring about the demise of the sisterhood. 41 the congregations in what had been the west. Gradually became more like the ones in the east. That is the west was not so wild anymore and horse really talked about the midwest. The parishioners. We're not as receptive. Ashley wants had been to the prophetic messages the women continue to preach the women still were enthusiastic about solving the problems of the world whether or not their constituents wanted to follow the lead. Many of them the female ministers began to look for other ways. To build. Beloved community. They discovered the social gospel buddy know that termini's sociologists out there. Or people who've run across it in history classes or something and capital s capital g. The social gospel called for the kingdom of god to be billed on earth. The reforming the social and economic fabric. Don't let that terminology distract you. The kingdom of god is simply another way of saying. Life on earth should be as ideal as possible for as many people as possible. Everyone on earth should have the basics. Food shelter clothing the opportunity to be healthy and happy gardens in haiti. I was asking for money for gardens and haiti a bit ago. Finish that. Demark wildest. Strapped me before i told you why we wanted this money. For gardens. The president of starr king school for the ministry where i went to seminary. Has written a lot of books rebecca parker i've mentioned her before she's probably one she is one of the leading theologians. Living right now. And she. She has written about the kingdom of god is right here. We don't know what happens next if anything this should be the kingdom of god. So the social gospel became very popular the movement took off in the 1890s. Popular in many protestant churches but it's on his real home. Among the so-called radical unitarians. Resulting in. Settlement houses such as hull house. Work such as already mentioned cleaning up the phone. Public streets. Horse-drawn carriages in kalamazoo. At the same time as all of this was going on the women were getting very involved the women ministers other women in. Women's clubs. Which. The best of them dude worked in the settlement houses and work for prison reform. Some of them though got caught up in trying to look as good as they could. At meetings sent which led one of the prophetic sisterhood minister celia wooly to say fancy telling susan b anthony or clara barton or jane adams at their first duty is to be beautiful this could be another example for my some things never change list. It was a terrible economic collapse in the american economy in 1893. And that's what convinced many of these liberal women ministers that they needed to do more than just preach. Against injustice. And oppression. This might sound somewhat familiar to you because again it's one of those some things never change. Women were confronting the eternal question for people of faith how to walk the talk. We haven't figured this out yet it's going to seem throughout not only our history but i would say most. Places of. Of faith. Roanna morse who didn't start preaching regularly until 1906 and was the last woman to be a part of the prophetic sister and she didn't die until 1958. She challenged the view that preacher should talk just about hell and heaven. And not get involved with pickup lines. Or government policy. She wanted to know if jesus's purpose was. A quote to teach individual kindness or to redistribute what. Mary sanford called this an unfair question partly because she thought that ministers needed to teach. The ten commandments and other moral lessons. Before people would actually go out. And do something put those teachings into action. Suction er. Are are hardy band of liberal women having this conversation at the same time that their church members. Seemed increasingly i'm interested in what they were trying to preach about social justice they were guilty of. Afflicting the comfortable maybe a little too much. Discovering that they want a bigger platform they want a better way to confront injustice they want more effective means of healing of the broken world. At the same time they're dealing with the ongoing hostility towards them. Of the american unitarian association. They constantly battled boston over matters large and small. An example of a small matter which might seem trivial but it was very very frustrating to them. They would try to order pamphlets. From boston. We had pamphlets just like the ones out in our lobby and they would order hundreds of them because they had hundreds of people in their congregations and they would get at most. 10. Eventually they got. Crafty and clever and. The male mistress to order them for them oscar clute enchantingly jones and others. Tell me where the deeper more complex issues that they were always battling boston about that cut to the heart of what is a religious community what's that all about. These women believe that ministry at its best was homemaking. For church family. It's it. Is that ministry at its best or his ministry lay and professional noise and professional ministry. Is ministry at express really about power. And control. Or should i say. Not it's fast but in reality. How important is it to have. This community right here prairie be a nurturing kind of place. Women's natural inclination was to make a church of home and this man however inadvertently they were changing the role of the minister and the church and the lay leaders. This made the people in power. At our headquarters in boston. Very uncomfortable. Clearly the women of the prophetic sisterhood were trying to reconcile their natural style of nurturing. With a culture. That theologically only allow for a male conception of god. 4 male deity. Complex. Deep. Work. Attempting to put the feminine back. Into the divine. Getting back to. Mother father god a conception of the divine in the sacred found in other cultures. And other parts of the world in other time. but still not found in this culture nor in this time. which we live. The president's day of prayer comes to mine. Are they praying to him i don't mean the president. Remember that i mentioned earlier the efforts of these women ministers in this time. to redefine what the word god means and i gave you one who's another one humans felt god. Most immediately as the binding force that held them together. And may the relationship. Possum. They also understood by to be. The harmonizing power that worked. Toward a larger state of love in communities families and friendships. Are they going to stop with that word god they had a dynamite definition of the word religious give you in just a minute. Another factor in the demise of the prophetic sisterhood was the ongoing theological disagreement among unitarians and the lesser degree universalist. During this time.. Try as they might the women could not avoid being caught up in these arguments. Which basically revolves around how christian. We should be and whether or not. We should be reciting creed's. And declaring our allegiance to anything. Believe it or not this hasn't changed either. We're still battling this. That was not the right word. All of this coincided with a broader cultural movement that was occurring in the late 1800s and early 1900s a backlash. Against the supposed the perceived emasculation of men in the culture in general and in some professions in particular. Especially ministry and teaching. Manlier man we're needed. To continue america's greatness. To solve the social ills and injustice has this was no job for women. There was no place for them outside the home. The world being such a. Rough and dangerous place. Social problems would be solved by a more muscular approach. Not by trying to get to the root causes of poverty not by building more settlement houses. Well i interpret this. Movement as telling the poor and oppressed. If they needed to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Not depend on the government or others to bail them out. It sounds familiar. Some things never change. Churches were to be strengthened by. Purging them a female influence. The goal of muscular christianity and that was an actual phrase used during this.. The goal with my steeler christianity aim to restore the people's respect for religion. By changing its emphasis from feminine saintliness and gentleness. To the rugged virtues of the athletic field. Well what if i said i had when encountering this movement was follow the money. Remember molly ivins any of you is always telling us to follow the money. -1. Here is an excerpt. Summit church periodical published. In august 19th. Pan. The mascot of the periodical promises readers of errol optimism in religion. In this particular issue women are urged to quote cultivate their special quality of unobtrusive. That went along with intuition and purity. The home and family pages in this issue reminds readers that so they could never be preachers and heroes. Does homemakers they could evangelize two souls within their short-reach. And fill a lifetime with. Small amp. Kindly app. A church periodical. From 1910. Wait for it. A church periodical from 1910 title. The unitarian. Flower. Cynthia grant tucker in her book prophetic sisterhood liberal women ministers of the frontier 1880 1930. Has been invaluable for these services. Tells us that samuel elliott who was in president of the american insurance association often ask. Leaving les women and prominent ministers wives and officers of a women's alliance. To wait on tables at luncheon. Arrange for the man at the annual meeting. In 1906 in his presidential address to the aua. Elliott declare that he wanted to start a school for parish assistance but women only. To train them to be superintendents and teachers and their religious education programs visitors to the sick and elderly and basic all-around general program coordinators. Elliot continue to oppose admission of women. To unitarian seminaries. Finally there is another reason. For the end of the prophetic sisterhood. They were getting older. They were tired radicals. By the 1920s. Certainly disillusioned by. World war 1 as. Liberals then were. And also do i hate to say it they sometimes found it more difficult to have enough. Energy to fight. The good fight. Although they were still fighting it and where irritated when their efforts were ignored. Caroline bartlett crane. Latin this is her quote she let the younger generation know that older folks did not exist merely to experience life vicariously through them. Until their deaths. The women continued the struggle of trying to make a place. For the female element in a male. Skewed system in the words of cynthia tucker. Not only did they want to get more women into the ministry but as noted earlier they wanted to return to a conception of the divine of the sacred as being both. Mail. And female. Masculine and feminine. They believe that to be religious. To be religious meant to possess a fundamental reverence. 4life. I consider myself to be religious if this is the definition. We are going to use. To possess a fundamental reverence. 4life. Amazing women. An amazing man who supported them. And lucky us. Do you have them. As our spiritual ancestors. The challenge to us is twofold. To keep our free-thinking religious tradition alive. And to continue the work of trying to heal. A broken. Closing words. Titled spring. May the warm sunshine up on us. May the brightness of the green grass. Eventually fill up with exultation. May the sweet perfume of the spring flowers sent the place where we stand. Play the songs of the birds bring music to our souls. And love. Fresh and bright. Renew our life. Go in peace with your neighbors. Right here.

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Pr201108-what_matters-MichaelEselun-ed.mp3

Today's presentation is what matters by michael esela. It relates to the fourth principle of free and responsible search for truth and meaning. It also released the seventh principle respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are apart and maybe more of our principals as well. Michael esalen serves as a chaplain for the sims man ucla center for integritive. Oncology. Two-time tedx speaker michael speaks extensively to healthcare professionals patient populations and faith communities across the country. He's also work as an activist and educator addressing anti-lgbtq bias in the larger community for over 30 years. Michael was recently inducted into the ucla. Semel institute eudaimonia society. Recognition of having lived a meeting driven life. Yes for volumes of cds available for purchase you can contact him through his website which is ww.w.. Michael s one.com. So. Please welcome michael. Good morning. It is really a big pleasure to join you from across the country on such a spectacular. Historical moment as this one so much joy so much relief. So much gratitude. But in the midst of all that we are still in the midst of this devastating and lethal pandemic. And as we are all sheltering in place it seems like we're all valued with dozens. Unanswerable questions. Each one competing for our limited attention and limited capacity to focus. How long is this going to last. How we got to keep ourselves safe how we going to make it financially. How do we live. With this kind of uncertainty. As we vacillate between one question or another whatever happens to be working at over at any particular moment there might be one question. Lies beneath all the others. What matters. A year ago. In honor of the ucla centennial i was invited to be a part i was invited by the ucla department of arts and architecture to be a presenter at their special 10 questions event. The centennial edition it was a series of 10 evenings. Each one devoted to one particular question for our life and times each one explored by. Multidisciplinary panel from across the university. When i told my husband scott about this honor of having been invited have court to ask me what's your question. What matters. Isat. Oh is that everything and nothing. And that he left the room. Pissy yes but also true in a way. Everything. Matters and nothing matter. Our own individual lives such as they are in this moment are indeed. A compilation of the countless decisions we have made. Over the course of our lives both large and small. Decisions that were informed and shaped. By our idea of what mattered at the time. Do i marry this person or do or not do i live in the city or not do i pursue. This career or not. Or on a whole other dimension do i buy this new pair of shoes with save my money do i eat that last piece of chocolate cake. Or let it pass me by. Decision. Was shaped by our idea at the time of what matters. On a national level we only have to look one year ago to our democratic national primary debates. To get a cross-section of what matters. Day one of my presidency we're going to be addressing the healthcare crisis. No for me my primary priority is climate change for me it's the corruption washington or the catastrophe happened in our southern border. And it all matters. But look at what happened in the span of so few months. All of that had been trumped you should pardon the expression. By the covid-19 pandemic. Does that mean none of that matters anymore of course not. It just means that this. Has captured our attention now. On a whole other dimension do you know what else matters that you get home safely from your next trip to the supermarket that. We have cat food that rupert has been fat or that i have milk for my oatmeal tomorrow morning. I think ultimately what matters. Is this very moment the thing that's right in front of us. I remember in the early 80s reading a magazine interview with rosalind carter this would have been not long after she and jimmy had moved out of the white house back to their home in plains georgia. At the time of the interview she was busily engaged. In laying a new brick pathway up to the front stoop of their house. She commented to the interviewer. About how astonishing it was to reflect that just very few months ago she and jimmy have been living in the white house. Hosting steak dinners camp david peace accords. All of that. And now the most important thing in the world. Is that this brick is. And it matter she's. Do i was such a young man i was so struck by the profundity of that. So much so that it still sticks with me 40 years later. It's almost at like isn't it. Around the same time. I remember taking some kind of. Self development seminar or another. After all it was the 80s. In which we were given the task of writing our own epitaph. Now if you've never tried that it can be a daunting experience. But also illuminating. It also. Becomes even more daunting when we have to do it. For real. My mom died. A year ago april. And there's only so much room on those little bronze plaques. Which few words are you going to choose to. Summarize to encapsulate an entire human life. What i chose for myself in my early twenties was. He was moved by life. I think what matters is really quite fluid and changeable over the course of a lifetime maybe even over the course of an afternoon. What matter to me in 25 is not what matter to me at 45. Which bears little resemblance to what matters to me today. At 65. I think in the first half of life we are so consumed with pursuing our goals accomplishing something achieving success. Maybe starting a family success as if we have the vaguest idea what that mean. The second half of life i find a different story. The one inescapable truth for all of us. Is that a couple of generations from now. No one. Will know or care. Or remember that you even walk the earth. So given that reality. What matters. I have to come back to roseland carter. Set the brakes are straight. And yes while i'm focusing on the brick of this moment i have to be mindful and attuned to all the enormous problems that. Play the world but when it comes time for me to take my last breath. What will i say matters then. In my role as an oncology chaplain i would say i'm sort of in the coming out business. I'm creating a safe space for people to come out to me. To tell me their truth often their deepest. And offered at the most critical time of their lives. At the end of it. But the way i see it it's not only coming out business it's also a meaning-making business because once that truth is out there on the table. How do we hold it how do we contain it. How do we make sense of it. That's part of the gift and exhilaration of getting to do this work everyday i get that constant reminder. Michael pay attention. Particularly as i move well into the third act of my life. When i think back on act 1 and 2 i realize how seldom it was but i was ever. Focused on the break in front of me. I always had my eye around the corner to the next brick what's the next thing how does this decision affect that one what. Classes do i take what do i major in which college do i go to which career do i pursue which relationships do i nurture and pursue to somehow get me closer to wherever it is that i think. I want to go. And of course that's still kind of true in a way but. Maybe with less urgency. But then again perhaps with more urgency because at this. Stage of my life a big what's next for me now. Is the home stretch. The final reckoning as it were. So when it comes time for me to take my last breath. What will i say matters.. Of course there are as many answers to that question as there are people on the planet. And still i hear, thieves from folks we're wrestling with that very question. When deciding whether or not to sign up for guaranteed more suffering with the next drug trial. Chemo treatment radiation or surgery. What makes life worth fighting for. Well i'd like to see my son graduate high school i'd like to live long enough to see my daughter get married or my grandchildren. Be born. Still i find those to be deceptively simple. And tidy answers. Seldom revealing the larger picture. Many years ago i worked on the bone marrow transplant unit at ucla. Leukemia and lymphoma patients mostly who often spent many weeks if not months in the hospital. And they're on that leon who was a difficult prickly guy. Not at all. Likable. In all of his weeks in the hospital i never saw that you had a single visitor. And he almost seemed proud of that fact i don't need anybody he would say. He had his own business and he had a dog who scared the neighbors. Leon identified as an atheist. A secular jew and he presumed. I was religious and a christian neither which are true. But he. Used to enjoy duking it out with me philosophically speaking so that was the nature of my spiritual care engaging in these theological discussions with leon. Once he had his bone marrow transplant. Things went south. Very quickly. And the doctors came in with that awful news. There's nothing more we can do. And then. The heart began to soften and the tears came. But the very next day the doctors came in and said wait we think you might qualify for this brand new drug trial. Oh his spirits went through the roof mine too. Leon this is great news tell me what are you going to do with more time if you get it i eagerly wanted to know here's the very nexus of it what matters. I'd like to finish my invoicing. He said. My heart just sank. In total judgment i admit i was not a good chaplain in that moment i did not ask the next obvious question all really that's interesting tell me. Why is it that your invoices mean so much to you at this point. No i just kind of. Sat there in stunned silence. I guess i was hoping he'd say i'd like to walk my dog on the beach one more time i'd like to see. One more beautiful sunset i'd like to. Hear rhapsody in blue one more time. No. He said i'd like to finish my invoice. That's where he found his meaning. That's what mattered. Marianne in her forties had lived the past several years with pancreatic cancer. And i walked the last few months. I've heard journey by her side. Not long before she died and went to see her in the hospital she was hooked up to every kind of tube and pump. And hoes imaginable. She was absolutely. Tried. Just cooked. I'm done michael i don't want anymore i'm ready to leave. But it wasn't an option. Her husband and her kids of course water to keep fighting have the next surgery try the next drug trial let's get a second opinion or third opinion of fifth opinion. I can't die having them think for the rest of their lives that i didn't love them enough. To keep trying. You think that's what they're going to think of me michael. Marianne. What would you want right now if you could call the shots. That's easy she said i would disconnect all of this. I asked my husband to get in bed with me. And hold me and look out that window. Across my room at the tree across the street. And say look. At those leaves. Look at how they capture the light and they flutter in the breeze isn't that beautiful. A god moment she would call it. Over months of conversation she told me about other god moments that she had had. Moments is sort of. Anchored her into life moments in which not much really happened. In which the stuff and business of life just. Feliway. Leaving space for awareness of this moment. Being beautiful. And being. Enough. I'd like one more god moment. I met evelyn. On her first day of chemotherapy after being newly diagnosed. For ovarian cancer. She came to see me every two weeks for the next. 6 years. Although she never wanted to talk about anything of any deeper consequence than what she and her husband gene had done the previous week. Despite all my invitation holding the door open to talk about. The deeper themes and questions that are coming down the pike. You never took the bait. I didn't feel like i was doing much of anything but. It was concluded to visit by saying oh michael thank you so much i always. Feel so much better just talking to you. I went to see her in the hospital the day before she died. Her husband gene was there of course they've been married just. Forever. No kids though. High school sweethearts. The buddhists believe it's a good idea to be reflecting on the sweet memories of life when one is about to make their transition. But somehow maybe it greases the wheels for the neck. Incarnation. No matter what. Our beliefs are about such things it is not a bad idea. So i asked jean tell me that story again about how you guys met i love that story. And he launched into the story and suited up evelyn was getting a little irritated because she didn't remember. Undaunted. Jean preston sure you do honey remember we went to that football game and we were in the backseat of that car. And now she was getting. Very distressed because the memory. Was god. Forever. Gene change course and said that that's okay honey maybe you're just tired and want to sleep tell you what michael and i will go out in the hall and we'll chat a bit give you a chance to rest how about that. No. She said defiantly. I'm not tired. I don't want to sleep i want you both here. I just don't want anybody to talk. Until i got on one edge of the bed and jean said on the other and we each held a hand and we just sat there. In silence. Looking at each other nothing. Nothing to do nothing to say. Just the awareness. Of love. A present for the rest of my life. That moment has imprinted my heart with what truly sacred space looks like. And just maybe the thing that matters most. Is what's left. When everything that we thought had mattered so much. Is burnt away. So. What matters to me. Today. This conversation matters. Kindness really matters. Friendship love of course. Humor. Kinship legal witness to one another in our lives that matters. Communion. An old-fashioned religious word but i love it in the imagery of it taking in and digesting our common humanity the thing that connects us to each other and to nature and of the source of life itself that matters. Sure i'd like to think what i'm breathing my last breath. But i'll think. That i made a difference that. I relieve some suffering here and there. I provided some encouragement. That i had a blast. That i saw the world. That i loved. Hard. I'm not so. Grandiose gesture think it was ever anything more than one conversation at a time. One brick. At a time. We go through our lives having so many interactions with so many countless numbers of people a little encouragement here a little inspiration there a laugh here. Those little contacts mike. Have the greatest impact of anything that we do in our lives all those things that we thought were so important. They in fact might be. Our greatest legacy. Joseph campbell believes it's important. To realize the eternal was in. But we. Should participate with joy. In the sorrows. Of the world. I love that i come back to again and again. Mantra to participate with joy. In the sorrows of the world. I don't know. Maybe it just comes down to. Being moved. I live. So bad. Why i'm not a hospital chaplain i we are the simms mann center we are on the outpatient side so i'm providing. Before the pandemic i'm providing support to people in infusion clinics or they come meet with me as they would have therapist driving when i'm in the clinic. A doctor might pull me over and say i'm about to give a patient bad news can you come in. And be ready here so. It was still face-to-face but it wasn't. In a hospital patient got sick and went to the hospital i will go see them in the hospital but. Primary basis of my work isn't it outpatient setting. Right now i'm totally on zoom all day having sessions with patients and it is terrible and it's not. Remotely. The same thing is being there you're not even making authentic i contact a patient's looking down at their computer and you. Wanted to look at you and. You can't touch them you can't hug them you can't hold their hand. And the sounds going out and there's. Lack of synchronize. Synchronization i have a patient. I see for bereavement support and it was it was just. It was ridiculous her. Emotions are very volatile as you might imagine and. My computer screen showed her laughing she had said something that was funny but i'm hearing her cry. So i'm like a week behind here how am i supposed to be responding and what is she seeing it's not authentic communication. It's the best we got. So how do we listen how do we create that presents against. All of these barriers. And some of it much of it might be the same way we when if you travel to a foreign country and you can't speak the language. What do you do. You use your eyes. Your heart you'll hope that your intention is. Is going across this barrier where there's. No language no articulation. Can the heart speak is kind of similar to that how do we do that for each other. Yeah zoom is a tool but it's it's a flawed one but it's the best we got. We do have a phone. But these are really hard times. And to really. Rely on other modes of of maybe multi-dimensional communication that aren't just words. And in time and space. My role is to and for any person who's pursuing compassion as far as i'm concerned is to beware the person. Yes. I might need a patient an infusion clinic their first day of chemotherapy they're stressed out of their minds this. They were just diagnosed maybe 2 weeks ago their world is upside down their head it's been. And they're going into orbit about try to find a parking place in the parking structure and how much the parking cost. That that's. I come to them where they are isn't it awful yeah i know. To be where they are to be a witness to be seen. I've got to kind of illustrations what is a movie that came out i don't know 10 years ago this age everything was 10 years ago could have been 15 it could have been 30 put up at 5. It was called a little miss sunshine i don't know if you saw it hysterical movie. This family is driving across countries vary, colon and they're in the middle of desert somewhere in the th. Teenage son. Who is dream has to be a pilot. Discover's reading a magazine that he's color-blind in one of those little color blind test which there goes his dream out the window he jumped out of the car and goes around in the desert and the mom doesn't know what to do with a little girl olives is sweet kind of dorky little girl and. The mom says. Olive gotalk to your brother. And she goes next to him and just sits there. Does not say a word. Just sits right next to him and after while she just kind of. Nudges hemlane tantrum like that and then he says okay. Let's go. That's a time of perfect compassion. Just being a compassion just means to be with suffering it doesn't mean fix it advised it say something positive comparative you should be grateful because. Just to be with it and it's not an easier small thing. I do a lot of speaking and. Years ago i spoke at this cancer support community out in a suburb of los angeles to mostly cancer patients and there was q&a afterward nisswa moment woman asks me what's the meaning of life. As if i have that answer. And she doesn't wait for my response she wants to tell me her answer. And she says i think the meaning of life is that everyone wants to be known. Not as in famous but as inseam. Witness. At a time i remember my judging mind going into overdrive thinking though that's way too simplistic of an answer but thank you dear is there another question out there. But. I've quoted her ten thousand times. In the years since cuz i think she came close to hitting it right on the money. Just being seen. Seeing ourselves and seeing each other without the judgment without just i see how hard your life is. Do somebody you know it's holding pain. Or. Maybe they're talking about harming themselves or something but they don't want to talk. Can you be still and just be with them and went wherever they are you go with him. Could you believe stephen colbert last night yeah what you think about this will tell me about it i didn't see it. Make the the connection is the sacred piece. Not any wisdom you've got you're not in their shoes you don't know what they're going through. Not really. So can i be a student of their tell me what's it like to be you how can i. Sit with you. And hear you. And understand you. They're suffering. Like we all are suffering. They want to hug their grandchildren that i mean a lot of. People that get to a certain age our grandchildren becomes a centerpiece for their lives and. They can't see them they can't hug them and they're dying. So it's sad there's no way to say well let's look at it this way or at least you've got that again how can i be present becomes a spiritual crisis i feel like i'm in a spiritual crisis i'm an extroverted person. I get my connection from being with people not on zoom. I had to go into work for a meeting and there's a maintenance person the elevator go or how was your day today i mean the most inconsequential conversation just gave me. Oxygen. I love travel more than anything i love going to the theater. Cabarets concerts. Socializing going to movies all that's taken away from me. Going swimming everyday at the gym. Those are the things that keep me. Afloat spiritually counterbalance all of this. Suffering it's not available to me. It becomes a spiritual crisis how do i be present in a try to find other sources of oxygen it's not the same. There's no shortcut around the suffering so how do i put faith in the idea like the pema chodron quotes. Am i getting annihilated so i can discover what truly indestructible within. If i can make peace with that as the process i'm in right now rather than how do i get the same bus i used to get from going to see a great film. That's at that's a higher goal i'm not remotely there. But i do see that as my task. I think. We need to let go of the idea that the goal is to hurt last and that life is always supposed to be joyful and pleasant. As just not it's not built that way we're all going to lose everything. Everything we have everything we love everything we are walking to lose it guaranteed. So does that mean. That we alternate leetsdale. Some would say yes you know some. Interesting lee enough i. I find it. Super religious people. Evangelical christians most particularly like in end-of-life situation and i see you where someone is so far gone i mean maybe brain-dead or the skins. So we could falling off if you touch them. And the family said no we cannot. Allow a natural death here we have to give. Got a chance to do a miracle interesting lee when the faith tradition is based on the whole idea that it's gets better on the other side often those folks are the most to try every scientific measure possible to keep cells alive. I remember a family who asked me either we have to give chet got a chance to do a miracle and i kind of took a risk and just said what his death is the miracle. If if birth is americold everybody seems to say that is it a miracle new life then by definition death has to be too it just. Has to be it's a mystery you were here. And then you're gone what happened. Where did you go are you still there were you here really. I'm so sorry for your pain. Add that you can't you couldn't be there at 2. This is a tragedy. This is a tragic situation. Well i invite you to perhaps. Close your eyes where you are and take a few nice deep breaths with me. And. Breathing in the law of the intention. The commitment of this community. To come together and to connect. Despite all that there is now two separate us. Physically. As we exhale. Can we release the light and the radiance of our coming together not only back to one another. What is a larger circle. Of life. That's even stretch your arms out right now where you are. And imagine our embrace of each other. And those larger circles of life getting a sense of our connectedness. In a place. Beyond time and space. Despite the physical isolation of this moment. As we breathe. And that embrace let's absorbed the words of the poet rilke as a blessing. Troy's house. Be patient. Toward all that is unsolved. In your heart. Try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms in like books. Written in a very foreign talk. Did not seek the answers which cannot be given to you because you would not be able to live them. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually without noticing it live. Along some distant day. Anthony answer. Sobia. You again. Thank you again my phone. Thank you. Everyone who attend.

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Pr140518RobinProud-ed.mp3

Welcome prairie unitarian universalist society my name is christina clock and i'm happy to be your provider today prairie aspires to be both an open heart and an open mind. Are opening words from julia ward howe god forgive me if i do wrong in following with ardor. The strongest instincts of my nature. Arkhalis fighting today will be done by 7 and it's a little depressing for the victims of human and natural catastrophes around the world for those bent under the burden of aids the stigma of disease and the lack of understanding of those close to them neighbors and family members for victims of famine among them the many children with shrunken bodies and eyes that don't know where to look for help for those injured by the breach of couples especially the children. For refugees and those displaced by countless wars that ravaged so many regions of our world and who are left to stand on the doorstep of despair. For victims of the errors brought about by human whims and caprices of which global warming is but one symptom we light this flame also is a sign of our gratitude for all the love care and solidarity of which women and men are capable in the face of such terrible tragedies vol'jin's. Indego jomana. Submitted by the assembly de claudia a unit in burgundy. It's my great pleasure to introduce around proud for her program today robin has been a you you for almost 40 years and has spoken and numerous you use societies in minnesota and wisconsin this is the latest installment in her series famous uu women you've barely heard of. Little do know a little something about julia ward howe the two things that people have generally heard of our that she wrote the lyrics for the battle hymn of the republic and that she instituted an early form of mother's day. So foremost to achievements you might assume that she was typical example of nineteenth-century domesticity that she was patriotic and. Supporting the wife as the. The angel of the home for her. Husband and children. So you might assume those things but you would be very wrong julia ward howe with radical free-thinking independent creative individual who struggled her whole life. Against restraints. First a strict father then her demanding husband and then society-at-large. No julius background was quite different from the other women that i've researched i've done talks on six or seven women and mostly they were from very poor backgrounds they had to support themselves and their families. Julia was a society girl for father was a banker in new york city. On one side she was descended from rodger williams and the other side from francis marion the swamp fox. One of her brothers married an astor so they were in high society. However when julia was only five her mother died in childbirth. And her father was already rather conservative in his christian views became even more so he forbade his daughter to attend theater or. Concerts. You pretty much secluded her at home even though her older brothers were allowed to go out. Any emphasize the seriousness of her position as the eldest miss ward. For instance when she was nine he ordered that her dolls for taken away because she needed to be serious. Now this was not a big trauma for her because your favorite thing to do really was to read and study and write. From an early age. She loves most to write poetry. One of her daughters later said. From earliest childhood julie awards need of expressing herself in verse was imperative every emotion must take metrical shape. And she herself wrote that she had a vision of some great work which i myself should give the world i would write the novel or play of the age. That was remarkable because of the time woman authors were very rare. When julian was 20 and her father died after a short illness. And a brother died soon after rather than taking advantage of her freedom she for a while. Retreated into a more. Strict vision of division of religion herself. Her brothers changed her nickname from jolly julie to old bird. Which they called her for the rest of her life. This was our chance for a bit of freedom but at first she still buried herself in abstention. But during her two-year period of mourning she read a lot in the books that her brothers had which included many european werks. And she came to a more loving view of god and i'm more free and view of herself. So when it was time for an interest of society she did so with pleasure. Integrated claim. She and her younger sisters were called the three graces of bond street. And julia was acknowledged the most beautiful. She was introduced to the cream of society in new york and boston. In boston at 1841 she visited the perkins institution run by samuel gridley how he was a quite a romantic figure in his own right. After receiving a medical degree from harvard he volunteered as a surgeon in the greek war of independence. This put him on a par with the famous lord byron and apparently he had the looks to match. He was famed for his black hair blue eyes and his excellent figure on horseback. Because of this image and the recognition he had received in greece his friends called him chevalier or show for short and this was the name that he went by for the rest of his life. And what do you return from greece. He set himself up to work with a blind who at the time most people considered feeble-minded thought there was no point in trying to teach them. At the perkins institution he developed many methods and he even worked with a girl named laura bridgman who was both blind and deaf. Developing the message that were later to revolutionize the life of helen keller. He was very admirable. Junior found him fascinating and he found her fascinating as well within a year they were engaged. There were some warning signs. About this match how was 18 years older than julia. So could it be she was trying to replace her father. He was a demanding man running his institute with personal attention to every detail. He resented julius money and insisted that he take control of it. And he was adamant that a woman's place was in the hole. Assume that you would never publish or speak in public. Is it rougher enthusiastic love letters but harry was food included in one of them. I give you fair warning. I shall not help you out of the cocoon stayed at all. You are a sweet pretty little mortal and shall not be immortal if i can help it this many a long year. I suppose you think you would look very beautifully emerging from the chrysalis state and that i should be proud to see a pair of wings sprouting out from your white shoulders. But no such thing and i advise you not to show even a feather for i shall and mercifully cut them off to keep you prisoner in my arms my own dear earthly wife so. It could be the joy and shove we're like many of us they thought the other person would mellow what time he was sure that marriage and motherhood.. And she thought that love and patience would wear down his resistance to her wishes. Unfortunately they were both wrong. Their marriage started well enough they took a honeymoon trip to europe accompanied by julia sister annie and also another newlywed pair forest and mary peabody man who you might remember from where my other talk. Julius letters were happy at first but her poetry from the time depicts some sad and morbid images. So they travel to london where they met many celebrities they moved on to switzerland austria italy where their first child was born and this girl was named julia romana after the city of rome. Julius letters from this time and from the birth stuff later children seem to show that she suffered from postpartum depression. In addition she always fear childbirth because that was how. How her mother had died. No shame. the whole point of childbirth was glorious he wrote to his friend charles sumner the famous abolitionist no true woman ever considered it a burden to bear an infant. And he insisted that his wife had been transformed from a new york bill to a domestic goddess and he discoursed on how the pains of labor where seeds are beautiful and ennobling affections. What his views to be fair reflected the victorian idea of the woman. As the goddess or angel within the sphere of the home. Ironically shove himself with a persistent hypochondriac. Who's mysterious symptoms demand of the attention of his already beleaguered wife. Noticing it lived in new york or boston julia would have had least had a few outlets but they were living at the institute which was outside of a small town and she was as just as isolated as she had been in her father's home. He worked long hours and expected her to be content and he was totally opposed to her publishing or having any outside roll. She was still young. And it barely begun to enjoy society. No they were both strong personality. Her family called her diva julia. She needed a lot of attention and emotional outlet switch couldn't provide or even understand julius housekeeping skills were minimal and she had had little experience. Supervising servants who came and went with discouraging frequency. But most of all julia felt that she was not able to express the passion that she had for writing. She wrote to her sister louisa. My voice is frozen to silence my poetry chain down by an icy bond of indifference. Julius letters throughout her marriage reveal anger bitterness fear and guilt. She wanted to convince others and herself that she was happy. But she and shepard caught in a constant cycle of argument frustration and misunderstanding. She wrote in another letter. God knows one's wedding day maybe worse than the day of one's death. When's husband may prove anything but a comfort and support. She still hope to change show he must learn to understand those things which have entirely for my character. I have come to him have left my poetry my music my religion have walked with him and his cold world of actuality. There i have learned much but there i can do nothing. He must come to me must have ears for my music must have a soul for my face. In my nature is to sing to pray to feel. His ass to fight to teach. 2 reason. Don't like them mars and venus right. What forest park show was only echoing the expectations of the time. And the couple had four children in 6 years. And then 14 years later at another five years after that. So between the ages of 24 and 48 julia was pretty much having and raising children. Now her children when they were grown wrote a lot of torreon prize-winning biography of their mother and they avoided any mentions of marital discord but they did confide before the birth of each successive child she was oppressed by deep and persistent melancholy. There is one close here. How she felt about being pregnant. When the unwelcome little unborn shall have seen the light my brain will be lightened. And i shall have a clear mind. Thank god that even this weary 9-month shall come to an end and leave me in possession of my own body and my own soul. Joyous children carefully groom their domestic history for public consumption later and i we've seen this with a number of the other women that i've talked about louisa may alcott or margaret fuller that later in the victorian era there. Independence and their originality was toned down. I need to know some good times as a family putting on plays and certainly the children admire their parents devotion to social causes. However one thing that was totally hushed up with the fact that julie and she have separated for almost a year in 1850. Julia sister louise i had married a sculpture it was living in rome. Show took a six-month leave to accompany julia on a visit with their two youngest children at the time harry and laura leaving the two older children in a cara friends. Will julie estate on aftershave left for almost a year we know little about this time her letters to and from chevron apparently so troubling that he asked her to burn them. So we don't know whether she wanted to come home and he refused to receive her until she met his demands or whether he wanted her to return and she was refusing. In the ensuing years apparently she repeatedly asked for a divorce but he demanded to keep his two favorite children. Julia romano was the oldest and harry the sun. What's your mother would never agree to. Roman soldier and split up the family the two older ones who have stayed home with her father tended to take his part the two younger ones. We're very close to each other and often took their mother's card. December 18th 53 julia published a book of poems entitled passion flowers. It was published anonymously but apparently there were enough clues for readers in the boston circles to identify its author there are also a number of allusions to julius disappointments in marriage. She was furious. Julia wrote that he was cold and indifferent to her. Although this did not stop him from again getting her with child at this point a public separation or divorce would have been a huge scandal. And neither was willing to give up any of the children. Sword in her poetic endeavors julia threw herself into a cause that she shared with shove and most of their acquaintances which was abolition. They were close friends of charles sumner and shares may have been one of the secret six who financed john brown. During the civil war they served on a sanitary commission and its was identity greatly needed because more men died of infection and disease during the civil war than from the actual wounds themselves. On a trip to washington dc in this capacity with their unitarian minister reverend james freeman clarke julia and her companion sing some popular songs with the soldiers including john brown's body. Clark suggested that julia write some more uplifting words to to to the to and then john brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave which was what they were singing so that night she later recalled. I awoke in the gray of morning twilight. And along lines of the desired poem began to form themselves in my mind. She jumped out of bed and scrawled versus. On a piece of paper. When she awoke she could not remember the words but they're on the paper she found six stanzas they were published two months later in the atlantic monthly which that's delightful we still need that today the songs biblical and apocalyptic imagery mated a perfect fit with a messianic mission that the north one. Julia was instantly famous across the country and even shave could accept this sort of poetry. So we can talk about the battle hymn of the republic without singing it because otherwise i'm stuck in your head as i have for the past two months working on this. State apparently she often wrote poetry in that way but most of that is not survive so we can sing the four verses that you have on your sheet. After this julia was much in demand to speak into read her poetry. Shuffle still oppose the personal tragedy help push julian to the public in may of 1863 for young son sammy died of diphtheria both parents were distraught but grieve in different ways and this is something we can relate to she'll refuse to ride with the body to the funeral and did not want to talk about him he sounded painful will julia wanted to ride with her son's body as a last opportunity to be with him and she wanted to speak of him constantly so this was another conflict that they had her only escape was in her studies and writing and especially when she had the opportunity to read her papers to an audience. Chef never approve any insisted that of course you never take any compensation. What 1864 julia travel to washington again this time to deliver a series of lectures not always just shoved it was approved and her children who are now growing up but their friend charles sumner who told her no one in washington wanted to hear her julia said i go in obedience to a deep and strong impulse which i do not understand or explain but whose bidding i cannot neglect. The satisfaction of having it last obey this interior guide is all that keeps me up for no one so far as i know altogether approves of my going apparently the lectures were a success. But i'm a return show punisher by refusing to hear about the trip and stressing how much are absent taipei in the family. In november 1864 she was invited to new york to read a poem in the company of oliver wendell holmes and ralph waldo emerson. She said i read well yet shove was much opposed to my going and no one in the family celebrated what she called the greatest public honor of my life she recorded the experience in her diary for the sake of her grandchildren who she hoped would someday live in a more enlightened time. With your children growing up and with her abandoning any hope of changing her husband's opinions. Julia formally join the women's suffrage movement. In 1868. We'll shift complaints about the movement in the women is totally unlike someone with some of us. I've heard in the 1970s and soon he thought that the women abandon their children and they were just getting together to enjoy frivolous evenings out. But one area where shoving julia could still work together with for international peace in the civil war she had the same conflict as many of the unitarians that she was opposed to war in general but felt that slavery was so terrible that perhaps where was justified. But in 1870 as europe was struggling through the franco-prussian war she called for mothers around the world to join in on my t&a gus congress. She felt that all mothers are naturally supporters of peace. Wanting to keep their children safe from being killed or from killing. Give me at the mother's day 4-piece never actually happened and when mother's day was later revived it wasn't a more domestic contact. But you do have in the back of our him know there is an excerpt from what she wrote arise mothers of the world something like that. As the 1870s progressed knows how steadily decline so remember he was 18 years older than julia. Shortly before his death in january 1876 he confessed to julia that he the champion of traditional domestic happiness had been unfaithful to her seemingly more than once. This fact as well as most of the conflicts between julian show with kept secret throughout her life and even well afterwards julia's daughters wrote a biography that actually won a pulitzer prize but they featured their happy home with devoted and unified parents and they burned letters and journals that did not support this happy view but apparently there was enough remaining for scholars to uncover this. The day after show death julia was in her fifties wrote in her journal. My new life begins today. So this is the part that some of you may be more familiar with so i would just briefly mention. Some of the many projects that julia undertook. Finally free to travel. To write and speak as she desired. She lectured on a variety of subjects. She use the fetus to support herself as it turned out show. Had mismanaged her fortune and in male cousin had managed to lose arrest she preached regularly. Beginning in 1873 she hosted an annual gathering of women minister so i was thinking of the presentations at sandy has been giving on them. And in 1870 she helped found the free religious association. In 1879 he published an article in the north american review and it was in response to an earlier article the famous historian francis parkman had written about why women suffrage was unnecessary. And she had a number of excellent responses but. Prince's the husband represents his wife well that was supposed to be the case for slavery as well but it was clear that the slave owner was not representing the interests of the slave. And one that i liked was why should 16 assume to legislate for both because it has always done so. Because women have already possess political power and have abused it. This argument can be used with triple force against the other six. She traveled to europe in the middle east. She published a biography of margaret fuller and it 1889 she helped to bring about the merger of the american woman suffrage association with a rival organization led by elizabeth cady stanton and susan b anthony those forming the national american woman suffrage association. She was a founder of multiple women's organizations including 1876 the wisconsin women's club she was editor and writer for the magazine women's journal for 20 years. She continued to write poetry and published her memoirs in 1899. In 1893 julia well-known and sometimes called the queen of america and at this point she actually resembles a bit her contemporary queen victoria they were born in the same year actually julia participated in the chicago columbian exposition or world's fair and she spoke on what his religion and included the following. I think nothing is religion which puts one individual absolutely above others and surely nothing is religion which puts 16 above another any religion which will sacrifice a certain set of human beings for the enjoyment or aggrandizement. Or advantage of another is no religion. It is a thing which may be allowed but it's against true religion any religion which sacrifices women to the brutality of men is no religion. Interesting lee jimmy carter win a book with the same theme. When julia died in 1910. 4000 people attended her memorial service where samuel g elliott. Head of the american unitarian association gave the eulogy. So she had had live to 90 years. Julia ward howell public accomplishments are many and admirable. But what most inspires me about her is her determination to follow her passion and her gifts she did this even when her family her husband and all of society not only failed to support her. But actively a poster. She was always confident that the most important thing was to listen to that inner voice that compels her to speak up. And to be heard. But i don't i don't have it answer to that is it her case she seem to always have the center drive that she was absolutely sure we would only prove people who are writers friends with her artist say that they are just driven to do whatever it is a couple of the other women it was because they had been educated by their fathers and took that as a role model even though other women in society we're not acting that way but yet certainly there was nothing in julia's home actually. The extra bed i read about true religion could not be anything where one group is superior to enough she did have more in that vein and also that that religion around the world with more alike than different so she did have more of a universalist view atwood. Actually you can find me a lot of her her writing is on because she was famous on the internet. Published. Flowery because it wasn't talking about social issues. Yeah my understanding is that she didn't write about her personal conflicts that that was under slater from letters and so on. I had thought that the one i was sure that the one which it was just be jubilant my feet was supposed to be as we go marching on but apparently she wrote god and in all those verses so. That was that was just what was expected it is it's called to him so that makes sense but the language of it and a very biblical sound of it and of course we do have several things we have quotations taken from the book named. The grapes of wrath is also named in the beauty of the lilies come from there. And is a song when i was yours ago studying in france was like of these european kids all knew this or at least they know the chorus and maybe had other words to add so that was something that on the bus these young people from switzerland and finland and other places new then glory glory hallelujah chorus. Thank you so much for having that was that was excellent as usual. And robin will be. Alright from julia ward howe i shall stick to my resolution of writing always what i think no matter who made offense. It was those words please stay for coffee and remember we have a meeting and sunday today so we're going to have. Babysitting watch out so please stay and enjoy.