Omer Ismail, a Sudanese activist, was one of several UUSC speakers at this year's General Assembly in Portland, Ore. You can check out some of his thoughts about bringing peace and justice to Darfur in our Drumbeat for Darfur website area.



Also, Stop Genocide Now is streaming video over the next couple of weeks of their work in camps in Chad. It's really great work, worth checking out!

I rushed into the Oregon Conference Center, just before the "Spirituality and Social Justice" workshop that Rachel Jordan reports on below. The conference center was absolutely empty. Where was everybody? Had someone pulled the fire alarm? Was I missing something really important?

Yes, I was. No UUs were anywhere to be found because they were all piled into the giant room set aside for GA plenaries. In that room, Democracy Now host Amy Goodman was preparing to moderate a panel to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the publication of the Pentagon Papers by the UUA's Beacon Press.

In addition to Goodman, the panel featured Daniel Ellsberg, former UUA President Robert West and Sen. Mike Gravel, the only presidential candidate to appear at this year's GA.

I stuck my head into the plenary room and the energy of the place was like no other moment during GA 2007. A huge crowd had gathered for this momentous event.

A good doobie (and a chump) to the end, I somehow turned around and marched off to UUSC's scheduled workshop. I can't report on the Pentagon Papers discussion until I am able to view it one the UUA website. I can, however, report that I interviewed several people right after the discussion, and they all found it to be an incredibly moving ode to the courage of those who did the deed in 1971, and a call for someone on the inside to release today's Pentagon Papers.

As I hurried through the nearly abandoned corridors, I wondered who so disliked UUSC and Rev. Marilyn Sewell that they scheduled this workshop opposite the Goodman-Ellsberg-West- Gravel extravaganza? Were Jesus Christ to have the ironic sensibility to schedule his long-promised return appearance on earth for the Saturday afternoon session of GA 2008 in Fort Lauderdale, would the GA program include a full set of workshops alongside that appearance? In that case, I suppose it most certainly would...and those workshops would be well-attended.

As Ms. Rachel reports, the Sewell-Lore workshop was a fine one. It is a tribute to the importance of the topic and the Rev. Sewell's renown that well over 100 people joined me in participation. I'm sure that was the only event that could have kept Charlie Clements out of the Pentagon Papers talk. I went up to Charlie after the workshop to be sure it was him. Sewell, Kate Lore, and the inspired leadership of Portland's First Unitarian Church have done an amazing job of modeling a faith of "deeds, not creeds."

Today, I was privileged to attend the workshop, "How to Build Spirituality into Social Justice Work," given by Rev. Marilyn Sewell and Kate Lore of First Unitarian Church in Portland, Ore.

Attendees learned a clear headed, positive, and powerful approach to doing social justice within Unitarian Universalism. I will try to summarize it here. Visit the church's website to learn more.

• Mission. Have a mission larger than ourselves, our own needs.
• Resources. Commit larger resources of the church.
• Questions. Deepen our questioning: study, read, debate.
• Spirit.Build spiritual components into every meeting.
• Support. Offer support, especially through small groups.
• Joy. Be joyous in our work.

It is a seemingly simple recipe that can be challenging to put into practice. Kate, First Unitarian's full-time social justice director, shared with us the social justice council structure that makes this model work for them.

I found their focus on conflict resolution within the social justice program especially interesting. Members of the social justice council participated in a workshop on nonviolent conflict resolution. And the Public Conversations Project has been a great resource to them. The lesson is that our programs are stronger when we as a community are stronger. By being comfortable with conflict and being able to transform or resolve conflict successfully, we strengthen our communities, become stronger leaders, and are able to do so much more.

As example of the success of the First Unitarian method, they discussed the congregation's involvement in the Drumbeat for Darfur campaign. The short story is that after UUSC President Charlie Clements delivered a sermon posing spiritual questions and providing real actions to take on Darfur, Kate held a follow-up meeting for those moved to action. Eighty people attended! This social justice issue's fit within the congregation was clear.

Subgroups were formed, each leading a wide range of activities, including researching the genocide, inviting a Darfuri refugee to speak, and participating in UUSC's full day Drumbeat for Darfur activists' training here at GA.

The congregation continues to be highly active in the global struggle to end the genocide of our times. Within such an empowered social justice structure, their efforts are fulfilling, their actions are effective, and the whole congregation is involved.

I hope today's workshop helps spur a movement toward more empowered social justice programs throughout the UU community.

While Unitarian Universalism may be considered a “free faith” in which “every human being needs to be absolutely free to follow his or her own conscience,” it’s still pretty clear here at the UUA General Assembly in Portland, Ore., that you don’t need a dogmatic sets of beliefs to rally around critical causes of the day.

And that’s a relief. On issues ranging from racism to sexual orientation to the genocide in Darfur, UUs are debating, advocating, and joining hands to take action. Here at the UUSC booth, a constant stream of individuals interested in connecting their spirituality with social action have been asking questions, signing our letter to the International Olympic Committee to pressure China to do better on Darfur, and making the choice to join UUSC in our efforts to promote human rights and social justice. UUSC's national cochairs Sarah Karstaedt, Nancy Nowak, Marje Park, and Jack Stiefel have spent hours upon hours manning the Drumbeat for Darfur tables and educating people about our booth's "Kalma Camp," a mock tent that teaches about the daily struggles of Darfur’s internally displaced people.

With all this energy and action, it’s hard not to see this microcosm of the political left and worry just a little bit. Surrounded by workshops ranging from “What the Buddha Really Said about Gender” to “Gaping, Gawking, Staring: Living in Marked Bodies” and “Letters from Young Activists: Today’s Rebels Speak Out,” there’s space for numerous perspectives to be shared here at GA. But the liberal left has often been criticized as being scattered, working on too many issues and changing focus too often, thus failing to do what the radical right has done through institutions such as the Heritage Foundation and the Manhattan Institute which:

“Through the constant repetition and dissemination of conservative policy ideas…[conservative think tanks]…have provided a philosophical underpinning for many of the most important fiscal and social policies developed and implemented over the past 16 years. And in the end, they have succeeded in making 'positive government action in social welfare and economic development policy seem off limits and inappropriate.'"

Perhaps one critical challenge for the left, and for UUSC as an organization working for justice in solidarity with people who face severe oppression and vulnerability, is that achieving human rights requires openness, tolerance, and understanding in a way that appears in stark contrast to the dogmatic agendas of the political right where issues such as sexual orientation are boiled down to “right” and “wrong” and religion is a matter of “believing” or not.

But witnessing the inspiration with which UUs here at General Assembly are taking action on issues like Darfur, it’s hard not to feel that we’re doing something right!

Sudanese activist Omer Ismail issued a challenge to those of us present for his talk about Darfur yesterday. He said, “History will judge us one day. And not only history . . . somebody, your grandchildren or children will ask you one day, ‘What have you done when genocide was declared in Darfur?’ I want you to look them straight in the eye and say ‘I was there, and I’m proud to report I have done something about it.’”

It was a great honor for me to meet Omer while he was here at GA, and deeply moving to learn of the way he has given his entire life to do the work of his heart: seeking peace and justice for the people of Darfur.

We can’t all do that, to be sure. But I think if there is one message that has really resonated throughout this GA is that we should each respond in the ways that we are individually and personally moved to respond. For some people, it’s signing a letter to the International Olympic Committee, urging them to push China to take action on Sudan. For others, it will be taking part in our community event on Sunday.

Charlie Clements, UUSC’s president said, “[Sudanese President] Bashir wants you to feel helpless, he wants you to think you can’t do anything about it. We have to prove him wrong.” Ismail said, “For evil to triumph, it only takes one person like me or you to stand on the sidelines.”

Last night, at UUSC’s annual meeting, I was deeply inspired to hear the stories of those UUSC volunteers and supporters as they received UUSC’s top awards for social justice leadership. One of them, Rev. Richard Gilbert, the recipient of the Social Action Leadership Award, recalled an old UUSC poster with the slogan, “Who are you to think you can change the world?”

Gilbert and the others who were honored last night don’t seem to be asking themselves that question, though, and neither is Omer Ismail. Rather, they seem to be asking another question, one that leads more to action, that is, “Who are you to think you can’t change the world?”

As a new staff member attending GA with UUSC for the first time, I have had the privilege of interviewing our workshop presenters each day. After Frances Moore Lappé’s presentation, I enjoyed the opportunity to sit down with her to discuss social justice issues and hear her advice for those who want to get involved in effecting change.

Lappe’s parents taught her early that an engaged life was the good life and the issues of the day that faced the world were also the issues discussed at the family dinner table. She remarked, though, that the Vietnam War was a "wake-up call" for her and social justice has been her life's work ever since.

When I asked what advice or words of encouragement she had for UUSC's hard-working activists, she replied that “what the world needs now precisely is to raise our voices.” By speaking up, she said, we face our fear of rejection and we risk feelings of humiliation, but these emotions that rise up inside are signals to us that we are in new territory, and are doing the right and just thing.

GA attendees lined up to speak with Lappe as she signed copies of Democracy’s Edge at UUSC’s booth. She will be taking pre-orders for her next book, Getting a Grip, throughout summer by contacting info@smallplanetinstitute.org before its public release on October 5.

In the opening ceremony of GA 2007, both UUA Moderator Gini Courter and President Bill Sinkford set the tone for this GA by signalling their intention that Unitarian Universalism deepen its self-reflection on issues of racial and cultural diversity and anti-racism.

As part of their joint opening address, Courter and Sinkford took a fascinating retrospective look at how resolutions of the General Assembly impact the life of the denomination. They raised up past resolutions on Women and Religion, on Serving People With Special Needs and on Diversity and Anti-Racism.

While celebrating positive change in all areas, both speakers showed a certain impatience with progress on issues of Diversity and Anti-Racism. For President Sinkford, "...progress has been agonizingly slow. There are too few people of color in our congregations."

After noting the fact that 54 percent of UU congregations have become Welcoming Congregations by participating in a special program to address how the congregation is relating to the LGBT community, Gini Courter wondered aloud why we have been so effective addressing one form of oppression and not the other.

Sinkford followed up the opening reflection with a call on Thursday for the denomination to revisit the issue of reparations for slavery. Seats squeaked as many of those occupying them squirmed in uncomfortable memory.

The Oregonian quotes Sinkford saying, "Many of our churches with beautiful steeples on the New England Coast were built with money from the slave trade."

Not surprisingly, this very public treatment of this long-submerged issue by the UUA leadership has created a considerable buzz among GA attendees. I've been in at least a dozen conversations with people looking back on some of the UUA's painful history in this area...and nobody talks to me.

Even the press covering GA has picked up this issue. Based on a series of interviews that extended well beyond the official UUA spokespeople, a writer for Oregon's largest circulation paper wrote a provocative analysis of diversity (or lack of same) within the UUA. While not particularly flattering of Unitarian Universalism, it does suggest that the UUA is trying to address the issue, which puts it in select company in this country. The article also references a weblog by a newly-ordained UU minister of color who shares his own reflections on these issue.

One hopes that the increasing prominence given to this discussion by the UUA will help UUSC in its own efforts to address issues of diversity from an anti-oppression perspective. As Joseph Santos-Lyons suggests in the article in The Oregonian, "A habit of liberals is to want to fix everything on the outside....But we don't turn inward and fix ourselves." Can we look inward and outward at the same time?

Around the corner from our hotel in Portland sits a drumming shop called Rhythm Traders. The side wall of the shop hosts a beautiful mural depicting a group of drummers and singers making music and enjoying life. The mural caption reads, "Hope Is Vital: It Takes a Planet to Save a Village."

That's a fitting message for any gathering, but it is especially right for a GA in which UUSC is drawing attention to the ongoing genocide in Darfur.

As of this moment, over 1,000 people at GA have attended an event on Darfur or joined our advocacy action to get the Chinese government to work actively to end the genocide. As the most important purchaser of Sudanese oil and the source of much of the Sudanese regime's weaponry, it matters what China does.

In addition, black T-shirts bearing the Drumbeat for Darfur logo and a request that people "Connect, Take Action, End the Genocide" are popping up all over GA. UUSC Washington DC representative Shelley Moskowitz was minding her own business buying a sandwich across the street from GA, when the man behind the counter asked, "Where'd you get that cool t-shirt?" Shelley answered that they were available across the street at GA.

When Shelley told the guy that the shirts cost $15, he asked whether or not the money goes to a good cause. As Shelley considered the perfect response, a woman two people behind her in line chimed in, "You bet it does!" Shelley turned around to see that this UU from Sacramento had on the same t-shirt. GA is pulsing with the Drumbeat for Darfur.

The mere threat of action by hordes of gentle UUs has already goaded the Chinese government into action. China's newly appointed special envoy to Sudan made a public statements today defending China's actions to bring peace to Sudan, and indicating that the Chinese were thinking seriously of contributing troops to a UN protection force in Darfur.

We are now hearing that this is the second-largest General Assembly ever. Rumor has it that registrations are approaching the 7000 level, which is quite exciting.

Many exciting things happened on Thursday, but, for me the most moving moment was a workshop entitled, "The Story of Rachel Corrie: A Death in Rafah," organized by Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East.

If you don't know Rachel's story, she was a young activist who went to Palestine in 2003 to work with The International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a group promoting direct action against the Israeli occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The workshop involved a dramatic reading of a script put together by Madeline Izzo from the writings of Rachel, her parents, and other sources. Rachel's parents, who live in Olympia, WA, were in attendance.

Rev. David Herndon, minister of the First Unitarian Church of Pittsburgh, Rachel Krishnasawami and Aushra Abouzeid performed the reading beautifully. Tears flowed freely down the cheeks of many of the 200 people jammed into the small room given over for this purpose.

Relying heavily on correspondence between Rachel in her parents during the last days of Rachel's life, the play provides a rare view into the mind of someone developing a powerful commitment to act against injustice. Ultimately, it was the strength of this commitment and an absolute faith in the power of life to overcome death that put Rachel in the path of the bulldozer that day. The reading offers less insight about what led the two Israeli soldiers driving the bulldozer to drive over Rachel with the giant machine and then shift into reverse and back over her, again.

It will come as no surprise that not all UUs are of a single mind on this issue. When Rachel's parents offered themselves for a Q & A session after the reading, one woman stepped to the microphone and suggested that, while she truly wanted peace for the region, Rachel had been manipulated by a group that was consciously recruiting foreigners to act as "human shields." If patience is a virtue, Rachel's parents showed themselves to be uncommonly virtuous.

Rev. Herndon suggests that any congregation or community group wishing to receive the script to hold their own event can contact him at the First Church of Pittsburgh.

There has been an incredible amount of energy here at GA around UUSC's Drumbeat for Darfur campaign and the work to end the Darfur genocide. But there is another issue that is very much on people's minds here in Portland, Ore., and that's the war in Iraq.

This afternoon, the UU Peace Fellowship presented Camilo Mejia with its Adin Ballou Peace Award, given annually to someone who has made a significant contribution to advancing the cause of peace in the world. After five months of service in Iraq, Mejia came to the conclusion that he could not and would not support the Iraq war. For letting his conscience be his guide, he served one year in military prison for refusing further duty in Iraq.

During his time in Iraq, one of Mejia's jobs was to "soften" Iraqi prisoners, many of whom he knew to be innocent civilians. He became disgusted with this abuse and could no longer stomach the things he was asked to do. His compassion grew, but at first he felt powerless to act.

"In the face of the abuse of the dignity of the Iraqi people, I remained paralyzed and kept my mouth shut," he said. "But a change was taking place inside of me. Not because of how the war was affecting me, but because of how the war was affecting the people of Iraq."

"We're doing the Iraqi people a disservice if we turn away from the horror," added Charlie Clements, UUSC's president.

Mejia was adamant that we have to stand up for what we believe in, and fiercely defended the right of our service men and women to do so. "It is not only our right to refuse to fight," he said, "it's our legal duty. It's our moral duty to humanity to refuse and resist."

Millions of Iraqi civilians have been displaced now. It's a humanitarian crisis that is growing daily, and who better to bear witness than someone like Mejia, who has been there. He is asking us to bear witness with him to two sides of the same of coin that is Iraq: by supporting the rights of the people in that nation, and supporting the rights of our troops who, like him, are trying to right what they have seen as a terrible wrong.