Against Racism and Oppression: September 2005 Archives

Unitarian Universalists take stands on issues of the day. This is not new. It is a practice that has deep roots in our faith tradition. We don't take stands on the issues of the day because we have substituted "liberal politics" for "liberal religion" as some would contend. Unitarianism and Universalism were both ethical religions, and Unitarian Universalism is decidedly ethical in its stated principles, and as a preferred orientation of most of its adherents. When Unitarian Universalist congregations are searching for a minister they take a €˜theological orientation poll." This consists of choosing from among a group of possible Unitarian Universalist positions what best describes ones theology. One can choose more than one. In most congregations, Ethical religion and Ethical Christian have been high vote getters. Ethical Christians believe that the ethics taught by Jesus are important to living ones life, while Ethical Religionists do not need to specify which ethical teacher they follow. I suspect a lot of people check both.

We distinguish between personal ethics and social ethics. Personal ethics has to do with how we as individuals conduct our lives in relation to the world, and how we relate to other people. For religious people, personal ethics would involve how the apply the precepts of their religion in the choices that they make in life.

For example, our religion might teach the virtue of generosity. What does that mean in practice? What do we give to others? how much? to whom? and why? What do we expect in return. To we give with conditions? To we give to deserving poor? What does it mean to be generous to a fault?

But most religious communities also have teachings and traditions relative to how we relate to the larger community. If the religion teaches that one must do justice and walk humbly with that which abides, how does a religious community respond to injustice in society. If the religion teaches that it is the peacemakers who are blessed, how does one contribute toward a more peaceful world.

Our considered ethical responses to social injustice, war and the misuse of power by authorities constitutes our social ethics, and Unitarian Universalists have historically been a religious community that understood their responsibility toward the larger community. Some have said this is gift of the Puritans, who labored to bring about a Holy Commonwealth. Whatever the source, we have never been a tradition that cultivated inner peace, and personal virtue, and ignored community.

Some criticize Unitarian Universalists for being too political. If I understand, the criticism is that they experience their congregation as being overtly partisan for political liberals and against political conservatives. I think that it is possible that some congregational leaders are unclear about religious community and social ethics, and engage in Democratic Party politics in the church. I have never seen open partisanship by a minister or board member, but I believe that it happens.
I have seen a lay persons abuse candles of joy and concern to make a political action announcement, or blast some political leader for their politics. (I have always found support when I openly criticized the practice and asked the congregation to covenant not to allow such abuse.) There are those who abuse our faith community, congregational leaders must set firm guidelines to prevent such abuse.) Most congregations in my experience know the difference between ethical witness and political mobilization.

It is also possible that some Unitarian Universalists are uncomfortable with social ethical stance taking. For a congregation to conclude that the war in Iraq is wrong is consistent with our faith communities historic values. Some might accuse that congregation of being involved in politics, but they are wrong.

Gandhi once remarked "To see the universal and all-pervading Spirit of Truth face to face one must be able to love the meanest of creation as oneself.  And a man who aspires after that cannot afford to keep out of any field of life.  €¨€¨That is why my devotion to Truth has drawn me  into the  field  of  politics;  and I can say without the slightest hesitation, and yet in all humility, that those who  say that religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion means."

I have witnessed Unitarian Universalists becoming involved in opposition to war and injustice for forty years, and at every juncture I have also witnessed considerable resistance on the part of some Unitarian Universalists to their congregation or their Association taking a stance no matter that the decision was democratically decided according to the established procedures of the Association.

A more serious criticism concerns how our community converses about differences relative to social ethical stances. There is too much divisive squabbling and self righteousness that these procedures. How we talk with one another about social justice, anti-oppression and the justice of a particular war is too often charged with emotion. Our goal must be to discuss these questions and come to a majority vote without raising our differences to the level of emotional conflict. Some good people who have social consciences with draw from the process because some emotionally changed opponent has just read them out of the faith because of difference over words and their meaning.

We must creating safe communities for discourse and creative conflict, we must learn to base our procedures on religious principles.

I see an analogy between cross cultural borrowing, and scholarship. If one is writing a paper, one makes an effort to cite the source of an idea, or information. If one quotes, one makes sure to quote exactly. It is not appropriate to distort what another writer has written in order to make polemic. And if the other writer has expressly forbidden the use of his/her words, it is considered unethical to use those words in one's paper.

Most writers agree, and vigerously defend their copywrite.

The Hopi do not want any one using their ceremonies. The Cherokee say you are welcome to use our stuff, but do it with respect. The Reform Jews say learn from us, but do not do our ceremonies our of context. Orthodox and Conservative have other concerns.

At the superbowl last year had what appeared to be native Americans dressed, doing a modern dance, dressed in totally green lycra... that is an example of distortion and misuse of Native cultural ways .

My results are pretty much the same on that politics test that Cranky Cindy, Lawperry, Chutney, Peacebang and John Cullihan have taken and commented on their blogs. The test designed to go beyond Democrat and Republican labels and report on what people actually believe reports that I am a " Social Liberal and and...Economic Liberal and I am best described as "a Socialist." The test reports that I exhibit a very well-developed sense of Right and Wrong and believe in economic fairness. [ loc: (56, -150) modscore: (6, 39)]

I am not and never have been a Democrat. I don't think of myself as a "socialist" as that word is ordinarily used either. But I do believe in public solutions to public problems, and that we have a responsibility to make equality real in society. The Unitarian Universalist Principles and Purposes are not simply good intentions, they are meant to lived and promoted in society at large.

Many UUs actually believe that our Unitarian Universalist values are guide to personal and social ethics, and yet we view the Democratic Party with some skepticism. I asked several of other UUs at the church I am serving to take the test, and they all produced similar results. I think we share a common social ethics rather than being party line "socialists."

I am a Unitarian Universalist and I vote. So do lots of other UUs. Maybe that is why we pass resolutions critical of both establishment parties at General Assembly, and maybe that is why Bill Sinkford is President of our Association.

Shawn Desjarlais tells the story of his efforts with other Native American youth to create an art form that speaks both to his indigenous roots and to his generations sense of self expression. The Native "hip hop" that Shawn and others are working to create is a distinctive beat, and style, and is explicit in its anti racism and struggle for sovereignty.

State and local evacuation plans the United States assume that people own a car! Few if any of these plans make any provision for providing transportation in the case of a "mandatory evacuation" to people who have no car, no truck, no SUV to wisk them away on the interstate to a safe haven away from whatever disaster is about to visit their city.

This was not a secret before the Katrina, we simply choose to ignore the implications. In September 2004, a full year before his city flooded New Orleans mayor Rick Nagin stated that he could not order a mandatory evacuation in advance of Hurricane Ivan because he had no way of evacuating people without cars.

There are 11 million households in the United States that have no motor vehicles. That means as many as 30 million people are left out of the evacuation plan on file with FEMA for their city or region. Thats more people than California, our largest state!

My own state is prone to Hurricanes and its citizens have often been advised to evacuate. Florida's Department of Emergency Management's website, has a chart walking people through the decision of whether they should stay put or evacuate in an emergency, advises citizens in either case to fill their cars with gas. No mention of what to do if you have no vehicle, as is the case for 8.1 percent of Florida households.

How can we make real our promises to each other? We say that we covenant to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. We say that "we the people" form a government to provide for the common defense, we include an equal protection clause in that constitution. How can we leave the poor, the elderly. the frugal, the ecologically aware, and sight limited behind?

Thanks to Allison Stein Wellner, a writing on Alternet for bringing this to my attention.

There is no such thing as a traditional family pattern! How can there be traditional family value?

There are family patterns that have lasted a long time, but the ideal that is put forward Male Dominated, Female as Housekeeper children bearing the father's name, is a concept of the family that is less than four thousand years old and took root only among a minority of the worlds population.

More ancient than Patriarchy, there prevailed a more egalitarian form of family, some in which lineage was traced through the women, but all in which both men and women were equal in law and practice.

In English speaking colonial America, the male owned all property,and marriages were arranged by men, to facilitate property arrangements. That was a "traditional" family, for the male property holding European settlers in North America. The European who settled in North American brought their family pattern with them, but on this continent with lots of land to steal, and so the children were not as dependent on inheritance for land.

In the decades prior to the American Revolution, a radical change in family relations began to emerge. We see it in the church records of marriage and baptism. In Concord, Massachusetts in decade of the 1760s, more than half of the first born children baptized at the church, were born less than seven months after their parents were married! The diaries also indicate considerable concern, anxiety, "what is going on with the children, they are so defiant." Unlike their parents, they were choosing who they would marry, and defying the arrangements made between patriarchs.

With two generations beginning in New England, the old Patriarchal arranged marriage system collapsed in America, and a family formed on the basis romantic love and self initiated courtship emerged.

In the 1840s we begin to see another big change in the family, men going off to work.....for millennia in Europe and Asia, the patriarchal household had been the center of economic work. Silversmiths for example worked in their shops and their residence was attached. Bankers had offices in their residences, as did lawyers. Pastors lived in pastorates, next to the church. Farmers lived in a farm house on the farm, or walked out to their plot from a nearby village.

In the 1840s that pattern broke down, and males began to spend hours away from the residence, in offices, in shops, in factories and middle class women ecame the de facto head of the household, and child rearing The resident patriarch that had been the basis of the European traditional marriage was no longer resident.

The new division of roles for men and women began to become articulated. women as nurturers, men as bread winners. We do not find those ideas before, most women worked in their husbands trade in the centuries before, men had supervised children.

In the twentieth century a new pattern emerged, becoming significant in the middle decades of that century. We see middle class women going off to work, women pursuing careers children being cared for in the day time by institutions and service providers. Again a new pattern, a new way of being family.

I have not surveyed the change in Native American family patterns, the change in African American family patterns, or the changes in the family patterns of Europeans who became industrial workers. Each of these are significantly different from what was considered to be ideal by the dominant groups in American society both in the past and in the present. I have only surveyed the changes in what was considered "ideal" by the white people of property.

But even with those limitations, I believe we can see from this very brief trot through the family history that family patterns change, family dynamics change. There is no one way of being family in the United States today, no singular way of being family that is embraced by a majority, and none of the many ways of being family we see in the United States have sufficient antiquity to claim to be the traditional American family.

In the wake of Katrina the details of FEMA's previous record are being exposed.  FEMA under Bush has been converted from a disaster relief agency into a apparatus for buying votes and doing public relations work for the Bush White House.  William Fisher reports on FEMA's response to Florida's destructive hurricanes last year just months before the elections.

We arrived at the Woolworth's
and the picket line was already in motion.
The demonstrators Black, White, young and old,
were singing songs I had never heard before,
shooting slogans about Freedom, 
holding signs accusing the five and dime chain of Jim Crow,
Segregation, Racism,  Bigotry,

It was 1958
and I had come to believe
that Segregation was very, very wrong
so very wrong that I must act.

Paul Vitney writing for the Common Dreams News Center  writes:

"Claims that the New Orleans floods have laid bare a growing racial and economic divide in the US have, until now, been rejected by the American political establishment as emotional rhetoric. But yesterday's UN report provides statistical proof that for many - well beyond those affected by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina - the great American Dream is an ongoing nightmare."

It is uncommon for United Nations reports contain criticism of the United States, but as this report makes clear "Poverty and social breakdown are core components of the global security threat."

Later Vitney writes:
"Child poverty is a particularly sensitive indicator for income poverty in rich countries. It is defined as living in a family with an income below 50 per cent of the national average.  The US - with Mexico - has the dubious distinction of seeing its child poverty rates increase to more than 20 per cent. In the UK - which at the end of the 1990s had one of the highest child poverty rates in Europe - the rise in child poverty, by contrast, has been reversed through increases in tax credits and benefits."

As huge numbers of Americans watched the news from the Gulf Coast they saw this nations poor as humans, and were outraged by the slow government response to their plight. Many are now open to new understanding how government policies of help perpetuate and deepen that poverty.

Jeff Wilson making a comment at Coffee House writes " it's worth considering whether American society has also changed over the past couple of generations. I don't feel I'm old enough to have sufficient memory of earlier decades to make such a determination. So, let me ask it here: has American society become more or less racist? Or, if you prefer, how has racism in America changed? Is America more anti-racist than it used to be?

My short answer is that it is not better, and it is not worse, it is just different.  Progress, the idea that things get better and better until they are really good is one of white America's favorite myths, and the notion that we have overcome racism in the last several decades is almost an article of faith.  And there are markers that point to "progress."  Schools are no longer legally segregated, lynchings are less frequent, people of color appear in the popular media in professional and leadership roles, access to public facilities is not openly denied.  In the last three decades an African American middle class has grown significantly, and there is an emerging Latino/a middle class.

The images of Native people have improved.  When I was a child the indigenous people were despised, "the only good Indian was a dead Indian" was standard operating procedure both in the media and in practice in most parts of the country.  Now lots of folks want to be Indian, and search their genealogy for that Cherokee princess that their great, great grand-daddy picked up cheap on the way West to settle on stolen land.  Middle class whites embrace native spirituality, and are sweating their way to enlightenment.  White suburban youth are into hip, hop, and their parents love Halle Berry and Tiger Woods.  Such are the signs of progress.

On the other hand poverty among people of color has deepened, and the gap between "whites" and "coloreds" has grown.  The prison-industrial complex now captures more than a third of all young African American males; more than half of prisoners are African American.  Native Americans and Latinos are also swept up by the criminal injustice system, while the majority white population experiences less prosecution and lenient sentences. (Drug use among whites and people of color is statistically similar, arrest and imprisonment is disproportionately a matter of color.)

We could go on with many other examples indicating impoverishment has increased for most people of color, and the violent repression of people of color has become the responsibility of the state rather than the mob.  People of color will not soon forget that the President of the United States issued a shoot to kill order to the national guard on their way to do search and rescue in a mostly African American city.

Institutional racism has been defined as "the network of institutional structures, policies, and practices that create advantages and benefits for Whites, and discrimination, oppression, and disadvantage for people of color."  In the 1950s and 1960s mass movements swept away Jim Crow, or legal segregation.  During the same decades we began to see organized efforts to scare white working class people to sell their homes in the city and move to suburbs, and the practice of "red lining" by financial institutions to deprive inner city communities of finances for housing renovation.  We witnessed the use of resentment and fear of people of color by a major political party to gain votes and cause a major realignment of voting patterns.

These and other policies by government, political parties, the media, and corporations are only a sample of the institutional reconstruction of racist relations in the United States since the breakup of Jim Crow legalized segregation. After the Civil War the institutional racism of slavery was replaced by the institutional racism of legalized segregation.  After the civil rights upsurge institutional racism of legalized segregation was replaced by the institutionalized racism of selected criminalization and the "color blind"  discrimination caused by the "wealth gap."  Institutional racism has changed in America, and that change has been reflected in American's ideas about race.

There is a rejection of the old blatant racist ideology.  Today, Ideological racism among most white Americans is more a denial of their own privilege and choosing to live their lives in isolation from poverty and state violence.  Most white Americans try hard to maintain the pretense that they live in a color blind America.  They resent people who suggest that this social construction is self serving illusion.

On the one hand the fact that most whites reject open racism is a good thing, and it we must take notice that most people in our country today are predisposed against open racism.  Most whites will support efforts that will improve the conditions of people of color.  But being "blind to color" also blinds people to the working of the new forms of institutional racism, which has made the work of overcoming the economic, social, and cultural impoverishment of all Americans more difficult.  Being "blind to color" means the political impotence for all but the most wealthy, it is just as true today as it was for Abraham Lincoln, "we the people" can not be half free, and half oppressed.

It is not better, it is not worse, but it is  different.

(I am in debt to George Tinker for this maxim,  we were having breakfast just before his Center presentation and I made some observation about progress.  He said "I don't know about progress.  Not better, not worse, but different.")

This is not a happy immigrant story, but it is a renewal story.  It is not a suffering Indian story, but it does have a message of good news.  In many stories of the indigenous peoples of this land, a sea turtle emerges and first soil and ground, and then vegetation, and finally animal and human life grow upon the back of the turtle.  Thus this land is known as Turtle Island.

Handed down as a traditional Cherokee story from grandmother to grandchild.  Similar stories are to be found other indigenous people.
€¨The storytellers say that spirits foretold since the beginning of the people, that a monster with white eyes would cross the great eastern water.  The monster would possess evil and terrifying power, and would wreak destruction in its path.  The spirits of the animals and trees would wither. €¨
Prophecy states that Mother Earth herself would be devastated and her heartbeat would become faint. The monster was said to devour the children of Turtle Island tribe by tribe, with no escape.  If one did survive, its spirit would be dead since it would now be lost and have no connection to its ancestors. 

Then after many generations, the Earth would begin to sing a death song due to the severity of the harsh conditions. ۬
When this happens, the children of the people who followed the white-eyed monster to the island would look into their hearts and realize that they faced annihilation at the hands of their fathers.  They would find that the spirits the original people being reborn, waiting to guide the children of the white-eyed monster. €¨
The few keepers of the truth would emerge, becoming strong enough to overcome the power of the white-eyed monster, restoring Mother Earth back to health.  The children of the tribes of Turtle Island would lead the people back to the right way.  The races will  live in peace, the spirit of the animals and trees would return to safety, and the monster with white eyes would fail to exist.

Last Thursday, George W. Bush declared "''there ought to be zero tolerance of people breaking the law during an emergency such as this, whether it be looting or price-gouging at the gasoline pump or taking advantage of charitable giving or insurance fraud."

The "ethics of looting" during a catastrophe will provide many a good topic for sermons for months to come.  If you were without food and water for three days would you resupply yourself from Ma's convenience store?  from WalMart?  If one and not the other why discriminate?  We learn that New Orleans police whose homes were underwater, who were out contact with their families, and whose police station was destroyed by the storm making a Super-pharmacy into their staging area and eating the food of the shelves.  Were they looters?  Their authority came from necessity, and was made on the spot. They applied for no warrant.  Emergencies give all us liberties not delegated by constitutions.

I am not advocating a situational ethic, I argue that human beings share a morality that gives us standards of judgement, but that we make judgments about particular choices based on the concrete situation. But in every disaster there are those who take advantage, those who loot television sets, designer clothing, alcoholic beverages, drugs are criminals along with all those who engage in "price-gouging at the gasoline pump or taking advantage of charitable giving or insurance fraud."

Criminals must be prosecuted, including those who loot the people at the gasoline pumps.  I agree with Derrick Z. Jackson who wrote in Friday's Boston Globe that in the midst of this national crisis:
"big oil looted the nation. The pumps instantly shot past $3 a gallon, with $4 a gallon well in sight.  In a thinly disguised attempt to act as if it cared about the people wading in the water, Chevron has pledged $5 million to relief efforts. Exxon-Mobil and Shell have pledged $2 million apiece. British Petroleum and Citgo have pledged $1 million each.

This is nothing next to their wealth. Of the world's seven most profitable corporations, four are Exxon-Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, BP, and Chevron. Exxon-Mobil is the world's most profitable company, making $25.3 billion last year. It and the other three corporations had combined profits last year of $72.8 billion. Exxon-Mobil is also the world's most valuable company, with a market value, according to Forbes magazine, of $405 billion. The combined market value of Exxon-Mobil, BP, Royal Dutch Shell, and Chevron is nearly $1 trillion.
And that was last year. A month ago, Exxon-Mobil, Chevron, and Conoco-Phillips announced record second-quarter profits of $7.6 billion, $3.7 billion, and $3.1 billion, respectively. Royal Dutch Shell's quarterly profits of $5.2 billion were up by 34 percent over the same period last year. Other well-known companies like Sunoco also had record second-quarter earnings.
If Exxon-Mobil were to maintain its current pace of profits, it would cross the $30 billion barrier for 2005. The company's chief financial officer, Henry Hubble, bragged in classic corporatese, ''Our disciplined project management and operating practices deliver the benefits of strong industry conditions to our shareholders."
Those disciplined operating practices are hardly confined to the oil fields. Everyone knows that Bush does not really mean what he says about price-gouging at the pump, since he just gave energy companies the bulk of $14.5 billion in tax breaks in the new energy bill. Surprise, surprise. In Bush's two elections, oil and gas companies gave Republicans 79 percent of their $61.5 million in campaign contributions, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
If Bush really meant what he said, he would call for a freeze or cap on gasoline prices, especially in the regions affected most dramatically by Katrina. He would challenge big oil to come up with a much more meaningful contribution to relief efforts.

If Bush meant what he said!  Well long time ago Woody Guthrie sang:
Yes, as through this world I've wandered۬I've seen lots of funny men;۬Some will rob you with a six-gun,۬And some with a fountain pen.

Funny men with power. Funny men with connections. Funny men with an agenda.

We see unfolding in our nation reported to the people by a variety of media an important religious, moral and ethical lesson.  There is a difference between the politics of domination and the ethics of mutuality.  The corporate power elite sees the people of the United States as consumers.  Their politicians are charged with keeping order.  Their media are charged with portraying a picture of smart elites who benevolently rule happy contented consumers.  But sometimes the world is turned upside down by a crisis, and we see even through the corporate media ordinary people coping with disaster in the face of bureaucrats, criminals and the grass roots of our nation responds with solidarity and compassion.  Despite the attempts to portray New Orleans as a city that had descended into anarchy, needing a "strong hand," we the people instead choose empathy and compassion.  Mutuality happens in the face of greed, corruption and political conspiracies.  Unitarian Universalists can learn a significant lesson from the crisis, the principles of our faith community are based on an ethic of equality, mutuality and interdependence. Oftentimes, we celebrate those principles in the abstract, but in this crisis we can see how they apply on a mass scale.  And we can choose to be people who live those values, or passive consumers in a corporate state who come to church to be comforted, entertained and "intellectually stimulated."

Unless we are completely gullible we know that politicians stage photo-ops, we know that they are more attentive to appearances than to substance and we have learned that one needs to take whatever they say to the media with a grain of salt.  But when the President diverts "assets" needed for New Orleans disaster relief for his own public image we must cry "dereliction of duty."

From a press release LA Senator Mary Landrieu sent out today:
But perhaps the greatest disappointment stands at the breached 17th Street levee. Touring this critical site yesterday with the President, I saw what I believed to be a real and significant effort to get a handle on a major cause of this catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a Presidential photo opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment. The good and decent people of southeast Louisiana and the Gulf Coast - black and white, rich and poor, young and old - deserve far better from their national government.

Thanks to Americablog for the Landrieu press release.

Our Unitarian Universalist religious movement arose in the context of the American revolution, and the ideal of a democratic republic founded on principles of equality and the common good was integral to the Unitarian and Universalist message.  Taking responsibility for society, and holding political authorities accountable for their conduct has been and continues to be central to our ethical response to the world. 
We make the distinction between partisan politics, and liberal religious ethical response to the world.  Partisan politics seeks to take advantage of "issues" to advance the interests of politicians, partisans are defensive about their own conduct, and criticize their opponents with an interest in replacing them in the halls of power.  Religious liberals witness their values in the world as an act of love and without regard to  seeking the advantages of office. 
When we review the conduct of political leadership during the crisis unfolding on the Gulf Coast, the basis for our judgments must be our Unitarian Universalist values, we must hold the political leadership accountable for how they responded in light of those values.

I just spoke to José Ballester, co-minister at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston, Texas.  Houston is the first site of the mass relocation of 25000 refugees from New Orleans.  Most of the people coming to Houston are coming from the SuperDome and will be put up at Astrodome.  The churches of Houston have mobilized people to greet the buses to give that human touch that these people need so much.

The churches are organizing to provide showers, food, water and care for these people who are suffering from traumatic stress (nothing post about it.)  The churches in many parts of the South, Southeast, and Southwest will be mobilizing to help provide hospitality and support for evacuees.  Below is the information being sent to members of that congregations.  First UU is also working closely with the other churches in the city.

Other churches might find elements in FUUC plan helpful.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Many are asking what you can do to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.  I'm summarizing a dozen or so opportunities here.  As future plans are made, we will do our best to keep you posted.

1.  To offer living space for a UU family (or others), go to the Southwest UU District website, www.swuuc.org, and click on Hurricane Katrina Resources, then on Locating and Housing UU's Displaced by Hurricane Katrina (or just click on this hyperlink or copy and paste to the address line of your web browser).  Or, call the church office and we will pass the information on to the folks coordinating this effort.

2.  To give a financial donation, write a check to First UU Church, with "UU Gulf Coast Relief Fund" in the memo line.  You may send it to the church, bring it by, or put it in the offering plate on Sunday.  We will also be donating the entire offering collected on Sunday, September 11, to the Hurricane Relief Fund.  We will forward these funds to the Southwest UU District and the UUA who will use the funds to support UU congregations in need, to support their members in need, and following that, other worthwhile relief efforts as determined by a grants panel.

3.  Volunteer at the Emergency Aid Coalition, located close to First Church, by contacting its Volunteer Coordinator, Carol Burrus, cburrus@eachouston.org or 713-522-0879.  They need help in making lunches.

4.  Volunteer at the Astrodome, which is being prepared to house thousands of refugees, by visiting the web site for Harris County Citizen Corp: http://www.harriscountycitizencorps.com/.

5.  For direct hands-on support in Louisiana, perhaps you can assist the North Shore UU Church in LaCombe, about a 7-8 hour drive, this weekend (yes, Labor Day weekend).  They need to tie down a huge tarp (assuming someone donates one) over the exposed part of the church building.  Several chain saws are needed to clear out fallen trees.  Since phone lines and wireless towers are down in the area, contact the Baton Rouge UU Church at 225-926-2291 or email minister@peacestones.org for directions and/or more information.

6.  Donate one or more of the following items (bring to First Church or take directly to Interfaith Ministries on Montrose at Westheimer):
    Paper Goods - plates, cups, diapers, tissue
    Cleaning Supplies - bleach, Top Job, Mr. Clean type products
    Water - bottled drinking water (NO glass containers)
    Single Serving Snacks -- Pop Tarts, Cereal Bars
    Peanut Butter
    Heat and Eat Foods - Chili, sew, canned pasta with sauce, canned vegetables, etc.
    Lunchables or other single serving foods that DO NOT REQUIRE REFRIGERATION
    Meals Ready to Eat
    Personal Care Items
    Formula

7.  Donate phone cards (bring to First Church) so evacuees can contact their families.

8.  Donate one or more backpacks for children to use for school; many have registered and will continue to register at schools in the area (as homeless children, they do not have to be residents). Bring to First Church.

9.  Tell any gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender evacuees who are staying in the Houston area about the support group on Tuesday, September 6, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Montrose Counseling Center at 701 Richmond (on the 25 Richmond Avenue and the 34 Montrose Boulevard crosstown bus lines).

10.  While Jose is coordinating relief efforts, Gail is setup up Chalice Circles, as well as Grief and Support groups, for survivors and their families, for volunteers, and for others of us who need support as we process our emotions during these heart-breaking times.  We will provide more information on these in the next few days.

11.  To learn about the fate of fellow UUs and their church homes in the path of Hurricane Katrina, visit the update page at the Southwest UU District website: http://www.swuuc.org/hurricaneupdates.html

12.  Every chance you get, say a prayer (or throw your positive thoughts out to the Universe) for the victims and those of us who are trying to help in any small way we can.

We are in the process of updating our website, www.firstuu.org, with this information and will add new information as it becomes available.  We will limit the number of our batch emails we send -- so make a point to check out our web site for up-to-date relief information.  If you have any information you would like for us to post to our web site, please send an email to newsletter@firstuu.org with INFO FOR WEB SITE in the subject line.

By the way, the First Church office is open Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. and Sunday from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.  So you can bring by your donations during these hours.  Mail donations to First UU Church, 5200 Fannin Street, Houston, TX 77004.

Rev. Jose Ballester
Minister
First Unitarian Universalist Church
5200 Fannin Street
Houston, TX 77004