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Social Justice Committee News

October 2007

HELP WANTED! The Live Oak Social Justice Committee had two separate meetings where individual members decided what they planned to do in 2007-08. We found that we’re covering many bases:

If you want to be involved in any of these areas, you’d be welcome. Just call Lynn Slater (219-6404) and tell me what area interests you.

Because of these meetings, we learned that there are some high value areas where we have no staffing:

Presentation Support: Every presentation requires at least three support people to make the event happen. If food is involved, such as a pot luck, that number becomes at least eight and twelve is better.

So to really get up and do what needs to be done, we need at least eight people to join the 16 we already have. If you’re willing to be one of the 24, please call Lynn Slater (219-6404) and we’ll talk.

September 2007

Our Social Justice Committee at Live Oak is a confederation of individuals, each using their own thoughts and energy to bring more social justice into our society. Most of our work is performed by individuals working alone, but team efforts are welcome. At the moment, about 14 of us are working in 12 areas:

Perhaps you’d like to add your energy to one of these areas, or maybe you’d like to see us open in yet another area. If either of these are true, then come to our Fall Planning Meeting on September 10 at 7:00 pm in the Fellowship Hall. We will be discussing staffing and priorities and your presence would be most welcome.

August 2007

Unitarian Universalists for Alternatives to the Death Penalty take the position that capital punishment is inconsistent with respect for human life. Some of us at Live Oak wish to form a chapter of UUADP, and hope that others will join us as we inquire into the many aspects of the death penalty, working to share our knowledge as we look for solutions which avoid meeting violence with more violence.

We hope to study capital trials and criminal investigations; judicial, attorney, police, and prosecutorial misconduct; death-qualified jurors, jurors struck because of racial prejudice, and those given incomplete or insufficient information as well as misleading instructions. We will also discuss particular trials and appeals, concentrating on those defendants who were convicted, sentenced to death, and later found innocent.

Delia Perez Meyer, whose brother, Louis, is on death row for a crime he did not commit, reveals that much of the crime scene evidence was not tested. The family must provide thousands of dollars for forensic testing. Furthermore, the Railroad Killer, Maturino Resendez, confessed to a similar murder in a similar place, and, but for his own execution, could have provided information exonerating Louis and probably others.

When confronted with the inequities of the death penalty, abolitionists have been urged to work legislatively to reform a system obsessed with winning at all costs. But after so many years seeing justice reform bills die in committee, it becomes obvious that our lawmakers have no interest in making even small changes in the process.

Anti-death penalty activists will be sponsoring an information table on Sunday mornings from 10:00-12:00. We will provide articles, studies, and reports, free or for just enough to cover printing costs. Those willing to be more active can volunteer to make legislative visits to their state representatives, get signatures for petitions, and/or help with the table.

It is hoped that many of you will decide to be charter members of the Live Oak Chapter of UUADP. An organizational meeting is being planned for the near future.

Contact Alison Dieter (331- 5124) if you are interested.

July 2007

The Sharing Side of Social Justice

The most common social justice activity involves efforts to change policies so that life will be more equitable for all of us. Those policy activities are often fun and sometimes cause considerable good.

Then there’s the other side of social justice — sharing resources with those who are already behind and whose lives are unlikely to be improved by any immediate policy change. Our sharing activities are coordinated by Sharon Fitzpatrick, who describes Hill Country Community Ministries below:

Hill Country Community Ministries (HCCM) has been providing assistance to families in crisis and living in poverty since 1983. HCCM is supported by area churches, businesses, civic organizations, individuals, and the United Way of Williamson County. HCCM is located at 1005 Lacy Drive in Leander. The facility consists of a Food Pantry, Clothes Closet, and a caseworker office. Families must be qualified for financial assistance for rent, utilities, medical and dental services, prescriptions, and other basic needs. There is a severe shortage of caseworkers. If you are a compassionate person with basic computer skills and a day a week or a month to volunteer, the volunteer coordinator would like to hear from you.

Other needs are:

Sharon Fitzpatrick

May 2007

Peacemaking

What is Peacemaking? It’s the new UUA Congregational Study/Action Issue!

Congregations are invited to learn about Peacemaking, respond to it, comment on it, and take action. Locally, Wildflower UU Church is participating in the UUA’s pilot program this spring. From that, study materials will be evaluated for use beginning in the fall and developing programs for 2008. So, you may ask, what can we do at Live Oak? We can begin by forming a small discussion group to talk about the issue and to learn more about it. Suggested possible study questions include: Should we, as a member congregation, adopt a “just war” policy as our guide? What are the hallmarks of peaceful cultures? How can we promote peaceful coexistence in our civic, congregational, family, and personal lives? From these discussions we would then develop some actions that we could take, both as individuals and as a congregation, toward our Peacemaking goal. Interested in being a part of this exciting ministry? Contact Larry Smith larry.smith46@yahoo.com. 

Afghan and Iraq Wars Explained on May 22, 6:30 pm, at Live Oak If you’re interested in learning more solid facts about our two current wars, join us on Tuesday, May 22 at 6:30 pm in either the sanctuary or Fellowship Hall. Paul Sullivan will be our presenter. He is a UU from Fairfax, VA, new to Austin, who has experience on speaking about the details of these wars. He is also involved in Veterans for Common Sense, based in Washington, DC.

April 2007

Social Justice now has projects working in several areas.

Global Warming: Katharine Marvin represents Live Oak on a committee of Austin UU churches, searching for strategic possibilities for Austin congregations. This will be one of our first sustained partnership linkings.

Also, Lynn Slater and Leslie Cunningham are working to bring a one-day symposium, Awakening the Dreamer/Changing the Dream, to Live Oak on Saturday, April 28. Watch the Announcement email list for details. Leslie will be the Register for Live Oak.

Peacemaking: In another denominational partnership, Larry Smith is monitoring a pilot group that is developing this Boston project at Wildflower. He will feed us news as events happen.

Shared Resources: Sharon Fitzpatrick coordinates this effort for SJ. She was active in planning/ working the CROP Walk and she is very aware of needy individuals now being served by Hill Country Ministries.

Death Penalty and Criminal Justice: Alison Dieter worked our very first project, when we showed State vs. Reed in October. She continues with her wide range of social concerns, and our new Yahoo Group will help all of us know more about what she’s doing.

Communication: We are developing better options for those who wish to read about and/or those who wish to be informed and discuss SJ issues.

Our Next Trick?: If you’d like to see us doing something else, suggest the area and offer to coordinate the first task group for that project. Almost all things are possible, as long as we have people energy to make it happen. If you have a suggestion, please contact Lynn Slater (lynnslater37@sbcglobal.net)

March 2007

If you read your announcements, you may have noticed that Social Justice at Live Oak moved towards birth during Valentine Week. As you probably know from prior writings, Social Justice includes at least two goals:

Causing change is the bulk of our action focus. Generally, the action arm of Social Justice at Live Oak will be clusters of people with common SJ interests, working on those areas of shared interest.

As a working convenience, I have called those clusters LOGs, short for Live Oak Groups for Social Action. I see LOGs as our framework of stability as we reach out to the larger community and/or the fire of Pentecost as we try to encourage change. Before the announcement, we had two LOGs, a Death Penalty LOG (LOG A) and a Global Warming LOG (LOG B). The announcement was in search of staffing for a total of 12 LOGs, including the first two and:

At this point we have about a dozen volunteers and more are likely from this article. Also, other LOGs have been suggested:

So at this point we have 13 potential LOGs, and I think that over half will become operating LOGs—meaning that we may need some communication system. Starting a Yahoo group for Social Justice has been suggested, as has using the church’s current chat system for SJ communication.

There has been little internal response by people interested in being a member of yet another Yahoo group. Until this has changed, I suggest that we try using the chat email list for policy issues. For how to and technique messages, please deal directly with one another, keeping me in the loop with a copy of the message to lynnslater37@sbcglobal.net .

Many of us may find our message and our ministry through Social Justice. Let’s talk or email while you’re thinking about what might fit for you.

Thanks. Lynn Slater

February 2007

What is Social Justice?:

The definition of Social Justice offered by a UU at the Texas Impact Conference was strong: “Social Justice works to create social systems where all members are treated fairly.” [For example: working to raise the minimum wage.] “Charity”, on the other hand, is a gift of resources to those who have been treated badly by the system. [For example, Christmas baskets of food to the families of the working poor.]

Our Live Oak mix is likely to be a little of each, with more justice than charity. Workshops/Conferences:

1. Several of the Live Oak Social Justice Organizing Team attended a workshop offered by Texas Impact, a confederation of churches that advocate for social justice. The weather was terrible, which reduced attendance from Live Oak, as well as other churches.

2. The workshop lunch was an opportunity for SJUU’s from Live Oak, First Church, and Wildflower to discuss shared concerns and possibilities.

3. In late February, Lynn and Billie Slater will attend a Mountain Desert District Social Justice workshop in Denver, featuring the Faithful Fools Street Ministry of San Francisco. Rev. Deborah Holder, a friend from prior workshops, will be the coordinating presence.

Birthing the Social Justice Committee: We have begun the process of identifying areas of interest and dividing ourselves into action teams based on those areas. We have three Action Teams as of the end of January, and more will form in February. The current three are: Death Penalty (Alison Dieter, Chair), Sharing (Sharon Fitzpatrick, Chair), and Global Warming (Lynn Slater, temporary chair).

The Energy/Interest Survey: I expected to send out a survey through the announcement email list in January, which will now be in February. The survey will list concerns that we can consider. The survey will ask which areas would be most attractive to Live Oak members and I would expect most people will pick one to four interest areas. The information will be used to create additional Action Teams. It might be easier to answer the survey if you knew which of your skills could be used by the Social Justice Committee.

Depending on the project, we can use any mix of these skills: readers/teachers (people who can digest material about a cause and then tell us what we need to know), writers, speakers, attendees, drivers, telephone workers, email workers, and chairs to organize and coordinate. If you’d like, let’s talk: February is likely to be a very important month for Social Justice. If you’d like to talk about what you can do and where you’d like to do it, contact Lynn Slater (lynnslater37@sbcglobal.net).

January 2007

The Social Justice Committee is different from Community Outreach, which is focused on service to our community, such as Hands on Housing. Social Justice is less about direct service and more about social policy, such as global warming, the death penalty, etc. The group is just now deciding what energy we have to do what, so announcements about that will come later.

Live Oak UU's:

Those of us who are concerned about global warming are likely to be concerned about the Governor's proposal to build 18 or so more coal powered energy plants in Texas. So are Texas Impact and the Sierra Club concerned, as well as our social justice partners at Wildflower UU.

The environmentalists have proposed that building the plants be delayed until adequate information has been gathered -- a delay that would cause no damage to anyone, except for those who expect to build the plants, and the small communities who hope to have people employed by the plants. The proposal to delay is called the Coal Moratorium, opposed by Gov. Perry. Perry's view is that this issue is so urgent that we simply can't waste time thinking about consequences and considering alternatives -- a "Daddy knows best" position.

The Sierra Club sees the issue differently, and has organized a two day event for mid February:

Both events have a common purpose: focus the legislators' attentions to the fact that people care about the coal plant issue. Generally speaking, if we care, then they are more likely to care. This point applies to so many issues that you're likely to enjoy the Sunday evening Lobby Training. (Speaking in favor of occupational education, I've made lobby visits in both Texas and Washington. It's often considerable fun, and has the potential to make more difference than you'd expect.)

For more information, contact: Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, 512-477-1729 or lonestar.chapter@sierraclub.org 

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I hope to see you at the rally and/or the Monday lobby activities. If you have questions or comments, please call me at 219-6404.

Lynn Slater, Chair Live Oak Social Justice  lynnslater37@sbcglabal.net

In the meantime, here is information on a workshop Live Oakers might want to attend:

Faith-Based Advocacy for Social Justice Building Skills and Relationships TEXAS IMPACT (http://www.texasimpact.org/drupal/) invites you to a networking and training event focused on advocacy for social justice on January 13, 2007. The purpose of the event is to provide information, skills, and networking opportunities for congregations wishing to start or strengthen social justice groups. The timing also coincides with the beginning of the legislative session. We are excited to have The Reverend Emilee Whitehurst, Executive Director of Austin Area Interreligious Ministries, as our keynote speaker. This workshop will be at the University Presbyterian Church in Austin, 2203 San Antonio Street, on January 13, 2007 from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. A $10 donation to cover the cost of food is requested. Please RSVP to gkopas@msn.com  or judymorgan711@yahoo.com  (with a copy to lynnslater37@sbcglabal.net ) by January 6 if possible, as space is limited. You can call 472-3903 for more information. Cosponsors of this workshop include AAIM, Central Texas Muslimaat, the Amos Commission of the District Office of the United Methodist Church, Faithful Citizenship Committee of the Catholic Diocese, and the Baptist Christian Life Commission.

Copyright ©2006, Live Oak Unitarian Universalist Church.
Last edited Friday, September 21, 2007 08:41 PM by webmaster@liveoakuu.org