Dear UUSP Community,
What a week! Not the least momentous things being the differences in our reactions, between groups, between persons, sometimes between one moment to the next in oneself.
My own prevailing reaction has been to advise myself, No need to panic, given what has happened so far. Outrageous behavior has offended us and the national security response was so poor that it put many leaders at risk on Capitol Hill. Things could have gotten worse in terms of loss of life. Things could have been much better if insight had been greater. Things could have….
But overall, it was stupid and pathetic as far as insurrections go. Many of its participants will spend time in prison. Its precipitator(s) will be at risk of being in there with them at some time – that, hopefully, depending on what course our wiser minds chart.
Overall, I’d say not much has changed. Many of the same few people continue to hoard power over the social well-being of our multitudes. The same multitude of people will continue to suffer unnecessarily unless the hoarding of power stops and the spirit of humanity and earthkind are given their due.
On January 20th, the power to hoard power will start to change. How much is up to us.
If you are a citizen active with social justice organizations (LWV, NAACP, Sierra Club, ACLU, FAST, Planned Parenthood, Celebrate Outreach, countless others) you are making a difference in society that we need. If you have been part of our religious studies for spiritual growth (eg, recently studying Lappe’s Daring Democracy, Harari’s 21 Issues for the 21st Century, Barber’s The Third Reconstruction: How a Moral Movement is Overcoming the Politics of Division and Fear, Buettner’s The Blue Zones of Happiness, Pachamama’s Game Changers, etc.), you are making a difference in yourself that we need.
If so, we are all so far in your debt. And as Unitarian author Charles Dickens’ said through David Copperfield’s appeal, we ask, “More, please.”
Hope to see you on Zoom,
Pastor Jack