On an early spring morning, the day outside bright and clear, UUSC Civil Liberties Program Manager Wayne Smith stood at the pulpit of the First Church in Belmont, Unitarian Universalist, in Belmont, Mass., for Justice Sunday. Against the backdrop of a Tiffany window, through which the late March sun shone its beams, Smith got ready to speak, his face and figure limned by the glow of the chalice flame that burned before him.

Reminiscent of a prophet of old, he delivered a jeremiad, asking what we are prepared to do to help those whose lives have been forever changed by the Iraq war. Though he paid a great deal of attention to the people who’ve borne the most immediate costs of the war – members of the U.S. military and their families and the people of Iraq – his overarching point was unmistakable: all of us are paying for this war.

In building his case, Smith cited a list of figures that describe in concrete terms exactly what the dollars spent on the war could have paid for in terms of domestic needs. For the $3 trillion that this war is now estimated to cost, how many millions of Americans could have been provided health care? How many elementary schools could we have built, and how many teachers to staff those schools hired? (Click here to learn more.) Broken down like this, astronomical (and highly abstract) figures like billions and trillions of dollars become more comprehensible, enabling us to grasp the full scope of what has been lost.

*****

After the service, Smith and fellow speaker Camilo Mejía met with interested congregants for an open, back-and-forth discussion. One congregant raised an interesting point: while she noted the effectiveness of describing the financial cost of the war in terms of forgone social benefits, she reminded the group that the government has financed the war using borrowed money. To the extent that these funds are, in some measure, nonexistent, she wondered about the accuracy of drawing comparisons of the kind that UUSC and others have made. These “could-have-been” assessments may give people the impression that, but for the war, the government would have provided social programs.

As UUSC’s communications director, I’ve given a great deal of thought to this point. Intellectually, I agree with her. These social benefits would not have been provided, because the money to pay for them (or the war, for that matter) only exists as a gigantic footprint of debt. Moreover, if history is any guide, it’s highly unlikely that a Republican administration would have engaged in such astronomical amounts of borrowing to pay for social programs.

As a first response, I would say that to preserve intellectual honesty and rhetorical precision, it is important for us to use the operative verb “could have,” as Smith and others representing UUSC have done, and not “would have.”

Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, while it’s true that our government would not have placed a $3 trillion charge on the nation’s credit card in order to provide social programs, that it did so to pay for a war that’s gone terribly wrong is an irrefutable fact. This year, with UUSC’s focus on the Iraq war, on Justice Sunday and at the UUA General Assembly 2008, we are asking Unitarian Universalists, and all concerned Americans, to consider how this reality squares with their values. Does this reflect the priorities of “we, the people of the United States,” to whom is assigned the singular responsibility of ensuring that our government remains by, for, and of the people?

Freedom of inquiry and thought, values of both Unitarian Universalism and our democratic society, oblige us to consider this question – and more: to take action once we’ve found our answer.

Written by Patricia Jones, program manager, Environmental Justice

Elliott Nsundu is the Coalition Against Water Privatization's local task force leader for the Kwa-Masiza Hostel in Vaal, Zone 20 -- an unofficial settlement 45 minutes outside of Johannesburg. There is no running water, sanitation, or electricity in Kwa-Masiza. Many of the residents are "retrenched" workers (laid off) from EastCo and Metal Works factory, who are suffering from work-related illnesses, particularly from the chemicals used in the factory.

Elliott spoke to us: "Twenty four hours without water -- for many days. How many hours in a year? Water trucks come by once per week -- you can only have 40 liters." Elliott and the community members who met with us told about their struggle to keep living at Kwa-Masiza. Originally it was a "hostel" organized as temporary housing, but with well-built buildings and a large park-like area surrounding the compound. The buildings are not shacks -- they are two to three stories high, built out of cement, have windows, and were built in the 1960s. But the utility services were shut off, and police were sent in to forcibly evict the residents. Many of the flats show the effects of this action -- broken windows, doors. The community resisted and have stayed.

The property changed hands from the government to private owners, who insisted that the residents pay 300 Rand per bed (many of the flats have three to four beds) per month to stay -- even without any utilities. The average salary is 800 rand per month (300 rand is approximately $43.) They refuse to pay until the conditions change. Elliott wants people in the United States to know how difficult it is, how dangerous for children, for the residents, for their health. There is no privacy for sanitation.

Says Elliott: "Hope? We have lost hope -- but we are still prepared to fight. We are slowly losing our trust in this government." It makes you think about the definition of hope -- if a person can continue to work day in and out to better the community, and others, despite police attacks and very difficult living conditions as Elliot does -- isn't that hope? Maybe it's stronger stuff than hope. Whatever it is, Elliott has it and South Africa will be better place because of people like him.

[Note: The friend of one of our constituents shared this information with us. The writer is currently in Burma.]

October 6, 2007

Dear Friends,

The events of the past weeks are shocking, barbaric, and unbelievable.

I was moved to tears to see the overwhelming support of the international community, especially since today, Saturday, is the Support the Monks' Protest in Burma Day. I wish the people in Burma had access to the news to know how many millions around the world are gathering in solidarity. I will most certainly relay this message of support upon my return. Information has been cut off to most of the country. Some people have been arrested for listening to the BBC and VOA.

I am aware that the news coverage of Burma has declined over the past days. This is primarily because the Internet was shut down. The BBC received 20,000 images in one day, they received but 12 the next, when the government shut down the Internet for the entire country. The violence has not stopped. So many are being taken away at night, beaten, and detained. I have eyewitness accounts from several Burmese saying that the violence is continuing in neighborhoods during the night. These incidents aren't being photographed because only the soldiers are allowed on the streets during curfew hours.

Here are a few stories that aren't making the news:

One man I know posted negative images of the regime on his blog and escaped just before the authorities came to his house. He and his family are safe, back home in Korea.

Demonstrators identified in the international news such as CNN and the BBC are being arrested at night, beaten, and taken away. One long-haired Burmese man seen on the BBC is in hiding. He came in the middle of the night to my friend's house, asking that he cut his hair to hide his identity.

The monasteries are empty. We don't know for sure where the monks are.

Many of the wounded demonstrators came to a health clinic I know about. The army demanded that they board it up within 10 minutes or they would be arrested. A friend saw several corpses, and many arrests are still being made at night in the houses of her neighborhood.

The hardest thing to deal with right now is the lack of reliable information and the complete lock down of the Internet, which has been down for over a week. Though all the major news items of the past weeks have happened within a mile or so of my house, the lack of information/news journalism is paralyzing. The paradox is that we continue with our daily life: we still go to school and to the fruit market, passing truckloads of armed soldiers.

Life, strangely, goes on, which seems, somehow, so very surreal, as if we're all dreaming.

Through it all, we have been deeply moved by the brave in heart, the demonstrators and monks who risked their lives for peace. The exuberance of the Burmese people in the streets those first few days of mass demonstrations was palpable; it was as if a weight had been lifted off of the country: everyone was happy, and smiling in the streets. The lid of oppression had been temporarily lifted. It was so inspiring to see the demonstrations and to see the people standing up in unity after all these years.

One of my friends was a teacher at the University of Rangoon during the 1988 uprising. She saw all her students taken away. Though I long for home, I want to be a witness for what is happening. Just being here matters.

I strive to be like the monks in the streets by being as peaceful as I possibly can. As truckloads of soldiers roam the streets, I look at their faces. Some of them are terrified, having been forced to join the armed forces. They are asked to "kill or be killed."

We are all assessing the risk factors and are being pushed outside of our comfort zones in these times. We are taking calculated risks. We are not discouraged by the suppression of the demonstrations; there is a deep, deep dissatisfaction among the people that still remains. Over the past two decades hundreds of thousands have died in struggles to create independence and democracy, and it is not over.

Many of you have called or e-mailed asking how you can help.

One way to help is keeping informed and spreading the word about what is happening in this country. The Internet offers much better commentary than the television media, with many support groups forming overnight to organize campaigns and peace vigils.

Please forgive the somber note of this letter. I'm usually much more upbeat and optimistic. But, I'm finding it difficult to be cheery these days, and I walk around with a deep, deep sadness for the nation of Burma and the people who I love so dearly.

Thanks for your prayers and support,

In Peace,

(Anonymous)

Written by Martha Thompson, program manager, Rights in Humanitarian Crises

Today is the second anniversary of the day the levees broke in New Orleans. On the front page of newspapers, bold headlines announce that federal assistance has still not reached the majority who need it. A drive through New Orleans East or the Lower Ninth Ward is all you need to see that bleak truth as you pass slabs on lawns, and broken houses, with holes in the roof where people climbed through trying to save themselves two years ago today.

A group of us from UUSC is here to attend activities that commemorate the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. We were in the Ninth Ward, trying to locate the anniversary march organized by several of our program partners. We stopped to ask directions from a group of three women standing in front of one of those houses with broken doors and holes in the roof. When we started talking, we noticed the bouquet of paper flowers in the mailbox.

We realized that we had stepped into a memorial. One of the women, Iris, told us in a soft whisper that her sister, two daughters, and a niece died in that house when the water came in from the levee. Her cousin then took up the story of how she was on the phone with them, trying to explain to them how to break through the roof when the phone cut out. They both repeated how they could hear the youngest over the phone, crying for her mother. The father, who'd joined us, quietly said that he just has to take one day at a time.

Then they told us of the daily frustrations, the way FEMA kept putting them off for rental assistance for weeks only to finally decide they are not eligible. Vanessa told us how hard it has been to repair her house – she is still waiting for federal assistance.

Story after story we’ve heard lays bare the daily humiliation, frustration, and obstacles survivors have faced in trying to put their lives back together. But they have kept going, they are back here in the place they are from. They are still standing. Iris said at the end, "I say to people, 'you can stand it. If I am still standing, you can stand too.'"

On Wednesday, May 2, the Rev. William Schulz, former long-time director of Amnesty International USA and current chair of UUSC’s board of trustees, spoke at Harvard Divinity School on the topic of "Religion, Torture, and Human Rights." His wide-ranging remarks connected the recent ascendance of neoconservative political philosophy to the foundational moment of American exceptionalism – the creation of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and John Winthrop’s sanctification of it as a “City Upon a Hill.”

He noted that the act of holding one’s society up as model for others to follow is predicated on assumptions of inherent moral superiority. Such a position is, at best, precarious, and can lead easily to disdain of other societies that decline to follow the “model” society’s lead.

This disdain can lead to contempt, as has been illustrated all too vividly by the attitudes and policies of the U.S. government of the past six years, vis-à-vis the international community. Of equal concern, this same arrogance and hubris have also instigated disregard for key precepts underlying the best of the American model: due process of law, respect for minority rights, and unqualified rejection of torture.

The continuing influence of American exceptionalism on political thought, at least as exemplified by neoconservatism, has not served the United States well in the contemporary world. Although contempt for world opinion and disregard of key principles of our own society are linked, the latter, especially, has been most damaging to the United States’ standing.

Our greatest resource, Schulz argued, and the true source of American standing in the world, derives from those moments when U.S. society has been at its best, when due process and minority rights have been protected and advanced. Indeed, these very values lie at the heart of the leadership role played by the United States when the instruments and institutions comprising the foundation of modern human rights were devised.

To the extent that the current government has enacted policies and practices contrary to those values, the United States’ greatest resource has been diminished, placing human rights in grave, unprecedented danger.

An engaged crowd of jazz fans turned out on Sunday night (March 25) in Boston’s North End to learn about the ongoing crisis in Darfur and UUSC’s Drumbeat for Darfur campaign. Organized by MuseAid, a nonprofit group that puts on concerts to benefit relief efforts, the event featured hot jazz, spoken word pieces, and thought-provoking encouragement on how to get involved.

The last was provided by UUSC Program Associate Gretchen Alther, who got the evening underway by sharing an e-mail from a 12-year-old Michigan girl offering to help. This young UU congregant had written in right after a Justice Sunday presentation on Darfur at her church. Gretchen pointed out the ways in which her correspondent’s expression of concern exemplified the very approaches UUSC recommends: “educate” and “advocate.”

One hundred percent of the proceeds was donated to the Dumbeat for Darfur campaign, thanks to the generosity of the Improv Asylum and the players in the Phill Argyris Quartet and the Jamie Stewardson Quintet. Musically, the highlight for this blogger was the Argyris Quartet’s rendition of the Antonio Carlos Jobim classic “Corvocado.” Nothing like a little Jobim sung in Portuguese on a chilly Spring evening in Boston . . .

Ending the weekend on this upbeat note was welcome, coming as it did on the heels of disappointing news on the diplomatic front. As reported by the Associated Press, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak declined U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s request that Egypt join the effort to persuade Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to drop his objections to a U.N. peacekeeping force entering Darfur. Reaching out to Arab nations is part of the secretary general’s plan to broaden the base of nations working to end the crisis in Darfur.

This latest (non)development underscored for me the need to keep the pressure on, through all the means available to us. As Gretchen mentioned, the weight of international pressure contributed directly to the north-south peace agreement – speaking out works. It’s therefore incumbent upon us not to let up until the safety and basic well-being of all the people of Darfur are secured.

Mihir Bhatt of the All India Disaster Mitigation Institute (AIDMI) visited the UUSC office on March 14 to give a presentation on his organization’s work to help victims of disasters -- both natural and human-caused -- throughout South Asia.

A key program partner in UUSC’s efforts to help individuals displaced by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, AIDMI is an “action research” institute that conducts research and places findings immediately into practice. AIDMI emphasizes the point of view of persons affected by disasters and conceptualizes disaster mitigation broadly, to extend beyond the immediate response work that most often draws the attention of the international community.

Mihir (pictured left with UUSC Deputy Director Mark McPeak) shared the findings of a recent AIDMI study that sought to learn the ratio of “lateral relief” (i.e., assistance provided by local communities) to external relief (foreign aid) received by disaster survivors. Across several disaster incidents, the ratio was strikingly consistent: for every one dollar (or rupee) in assistance funded by external sources, disaster survivors received three dollars’ worth from neighbors, friends, local businesses, etc.

Mihir explained that this finding has implications for how financial assistance from international donors ought to be applied. Such aid, he suggested, should be leveraged to ensure that the exchange of lateral assistance be conducted in a coordinated fashion, ensuring that the largest numbers of people benefit from this vital source of relief.