The First Unitarian-Universalist Society of New
Haven, 608 Whitney Avenue,
New Haven CT 06511
Phone: 203-562-4410
email: newhavenuu@sbcglobal.net
Website: uunewhaven.org
UUNIVOICE Summer 2010
Have a Great Summer!
Sunday Informal Services at 10:30 a.m. Child Care provided.
JULY
Sunday, July 4: "The Gifts of Enlightenment" Smishmas--the post summer solstice
equivalent of Xmas, but generally turned upside down--will be celebrated with three Tibetan
Buddhist tales, each of which illustrates a different facet of enlightenment. Why do we complain of
good or ill fortune before we know the consequences? Can we learn to face what we fear as a
friend? Is compassion hazardous, or the only road to enlightenment? Coordinated by Francis
Braunlich and Elizabeth Neuse with music chosen by Steve Hall.
Sunday, July 11: Summer Picnic at East Rock Park, Ranger Station, corner of Orange and
Cold Spring. Plenty of room to socialize, playground for kids. Bring food to share and games to
play together–frisbee, soccer balls, badminton, or anything else.
Sunday, July 18: “The Eight Fold Path - Right Speech.” The importance of speech in the
context of Buddhist ethics. Coordinated by Todd Wormell.
Sunday, July 25: "Great Code of the West: God Who Acts." There will be a biblical text,
followed by interpretation, followed by fantasia and free association. Go figure! Coordinated by
Fred Cervin.
AUGUST
Sunday, Aug. 1: “Lughnasa.” Celebration of the harvest. Coordinated by Coven of UU Pagans
(CUUPS).
Sunday, Aug. 8, 10:30 am: Annual Hiroshima Memorial Service. Coordinator: TBA
Sunday, Aug. 15: "The Jokes on UUs." Uus are proud to tell people we are a”church where
people laugh. We certainly avoid fire and brimstone. On the internet there’s a trove of jokes by the
UU minister Meg Barnhouse. Search/borrow/copy whatever you find, short and long, and bring it
to share. Join us also in singing “Coffee, coffee, coffee.” Coordinated by Gaianne Jenkins and
Sheila Brent.
Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 21 & 22, 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.: “Labor of Love.” Another
weekend to clean up the meeting house and gardens! Come prepared to get somewhat dirty.
Refreshments, coffee and juice as well as fellowship provided.
Sunday, Aug. 29: "Gospel Invitation" Visiting Gospel musicians play and sing and celibate
the inspired music known as gospel.... Coordinated by Ben Ross, Shula Weinstein, Philip Greene
and Henry.
Update: Francis had a kidney stone removed on Tues., June 29 and is recuperating at home
(mostly), taking it easy and feeling better!
Change of Address for Dave Taylor: 166 W. Salaignac St. 2nd floor, Philadelphia, PA 19128
Phone: same (203) 288-4074 email: davida.taylor@me.com
Calendar of FUUS Events
Wed., July 7, 7:30 p.m. Worship Committee Meeting. We are planning services for the fall.
Bring ideas or suggestions to the committee: Steve Hall, Sheila Brent, Terri O’Brien Stephens,
Francis Braunlich, Elizabeth Neuse, Mark Mitsock or Gaianne Jenkins.
Wed., July 14, 7:30 pm: CUUPS meeting. Call Gaianne 203-562-4410 to confirm.
Wed., Aug. 12, 7:30 pm: Board Meeting. Conducting the business of the society.
Thur., Aug. 20: Monthly deadline for the Sept. Newsletter. Submit articles, items to Elizabeth,
february@snet.net or 203-562-0672.
Community Events:
Mon., July 5, 6 p.m.: Vigil at corner of Broadway, Elm and Park, marking the cost of the ongoing
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Sat., July 10, 12 noon – 4 p.m.: Potluck and Music Bash—fundraiser for the Stratford food
pantry. Let Cynthia Russell know what food you’re bringing and/or what music you would like to
perform. RSVP to Cynthia, psynnie@ aol.com, (203) 377-2421. 225 Main St., Stratford, off exit 32,
W. Broad St.
ANNIHOILATION BLUES by Peter Berg (c) 2010
Raw oil erupting
refrigerator hums.
to Ireland's west coast then around British Isles
themselves.
Traffic crawls
pelicans smother in greasy spoil.
Surface sticky tentacle strings
red and yellow fire gushes black unbreathable
smoke.
Unrelenting oleum
panicking animals flee.
A mile underwater
ceaseless bubbling crude.
Gulf Stream runs from Amazon River mouth
to Caribbean to North America's Atlantic
Seaboard
up to Cape Cod then out through fish-breeding
Grand Banks
Flip switch on
sea floor cracks.
TV blares
enough, enough...no oil
NOIL! NOIL! NOIL!
We can't stop ourselves
look away it still comes.
As of a phone call today from the assistant assessor of NH:
FUUS: Meeting House, Parking Lot, Carriage House, personal property
PreSchool: personal property
All are exempt from NH Taxes for 2009, the current Grand List.
Future filings (every 4 years?) must show from both FUUS & PreSchool the strong connections
between us. From the FUUS resolution to start the school in 1971, joint board of directors,
scholarship program, joint insurance, to working together on projects a precedent has now been
established.
I will now take my summer vacation. --Paul
Report Direct from New Orleans by
Debra Sweet, The World Can’t Wait
[in case you missed a report of the conference
in the major media]
I've been here in New Orleans less
than 48 hours, but it quickly becomes
clear on the ground how the oil spill is
intensifying the trauma of Katrina and
its aftermath. I've met people who are
too shell-shocked to be able to think
about the disaster looming here.
Local activists helping on the Gulf
Emergency Summit urge that the
stories of the people out in the
parishes, the bayous; the fisher
people, Native Americans, those who
work in the oil drilling industry, the
scientists who have experience and
ideas -- all who are NOT being
listened to -- finally be heard. People
speaking for the effect on wildlife,
including that which cannot be seen
from shore...they also are voices
which we must hear.
Used with permission of Stephanie Mills
Environmental activists here such as Marylee Orr from the Louisiana Environment Action Network have
been speaking out very forcefully, including last night, about the health hazards from the dispersants that,
with the oil, are affecting air and water quality of communities close by as well as "first responders" sent out
to do clean up.
Her group is providing respirators to clean up workers, etc., but she says that very little protection is
generally offered, or information shared, and that many of the people hired to do clean up are willing to risk
their health because they are so desperate for work, and that there are reports of BP actually telling people
not to wear protective equipment (Orr says this is likely done because they worry about the public relations
effect of armies of people wearing all this gear--and the fear this might induce about safety). She says that
some local health agencies are reporting increasing instances of respiratory problems.
We also hear reports that BP is controlling access to public beach property, keeping news media from
talking to clean up workers.
Obama's speech Tuesday night was an insult towards suffering people and the planet. We watched it in a bar
in the French Quarter. Essentially, people should pray for help, and this is a great "opportunity" for the
country to work for green energy! Platitudes about God watching over the fleet delivered from a leader who
acts to protect profit. 17 countries have offered help; all have been denied. Where are the ships to siphon up
the oil? they have not been brought to the Gulf, right now, where they could make a difference.
The basic message of the federal government and BP hasn't changed: "we're in charge, and we're handling
it." Obama acknowledged that people have a right to be angry about the damage, which is still being lied
about, as the flow rate of the spilled oil continually gets readjusted up. Now -- officially -- it's 60 times what
BP said when the well blew.
People from all over are writing and calling to say: something is really WRONG with this! We can't trust the
government or BP to tell the truth about the problem; to have the right answers, or to go all out to stop the
damage. And with more drilling, it will happen again. it's not just that Obama or BP doesn't have "the
answers." They show no intention of stopping this direction. And what they have done has had a main
consideration of hiding damage, and protecting BP's public image. I am not swallowing any of it! ---Debra
Sweet, The World Can’t Wait
Call for a Gulf Emergency Summit Website: gulfemergencysummit.org
Saturday, June 19, 2010, 10AM-End Time TBA
First Unitarian Universalist Church, Sanctuary, 5212 South Claiborne Ave., New Orleans, LA
AN EXTRAORDINARY CRISIS REQUIRES AN EXTRAORDINARY RESPONSE
THE PEOPLE MUST ACT TO STOP THE GULF CATASTROPHE
The BP oil blowout is an environmental catastrophe, bringing great peril to marine and wildlife in the Gulf
and threatening ecosystems of the planet. The spill is still out of control and spreading. It jeopardizes
communities and livelihoods. The government and BP have proven unable and unwilling to stop the disaster,
protect the Gulf, or even tell the truth.
The people must come together now to stop this nightmare.
Millions are sick at heart and looking for ways to act. Many individuals and groups have spoken out, offered
suggestions, volunteered to help, protested. BP and the government – pursuing their own interests – have
ignored people’s ideas, blocked public participation, suppressed and harassed scientists, and prevented
people on the Gulf from taking initiative to keep oil away from shore.
This must not continue. A broad, determined, and powerful “peoples’ response” is urgently needed – to get
the truth out, to protect the shores and oceans and deal with the ecological impacts, while exploring deeper
causes and solutions.
The Emergency Summit will bring together scientists, people from fishing communities, environmental
activists, progressives, radicals and revolutionaries, artists, intellectuals and all who want to halt this horror.
There will be testimony on the true scope and impact of the disaster and on what can be done to protect
ecosystems, wildlife, and people. We’ll thrash out ways for people to act now – on different fronts and in
different ways – and to galvanize many, many more, across the Gulf and beyond.
The world is watching. We must not allow the Gulf and oceans to be devastated. Our mission is nothing less
than stopping this catastrophe.
Draft Demands:
1. Stop oil drilling in the Gulf
2. The government and entire oil industry must allocate all necessary resources to stop the spill and clean up
the devastation. Full support, including by compensation, must be given to efforts by people to save the Gulf.
3. No punishment to those taking independent initiative; no gag orders on people hired, contracted, or who
volunteer.
4. Full mobilization of scientists and engineers. Release scientific and technical data to the public; no more
lying and covering up. Full and open scientific evaluation of emergency measures like the use of dispersants.
Fund all necessary scientific and medical research.
5. Full compensation for all losing livelihood and income from the disaster.
6. Provide necessary medical services to those suffering health effects of the spill. Protect the health of and
provide necessary equipment for everyone involved in clean up operations. Full disclosure of medical and
scientific studies about the effects of the oil disaster.
Initial Endorsers:
William Quigley, Loyola University; Legal Dir., Center for Constitutional Rights*
Michael G. Hadfield, Marine Biologist, University of Hawaii*
Larry Everest, author Oil, Power & Empire, Revolution newspaper
John Pearse, Prof. Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz*
Eloise Williams, Lower Algiers Environmental Committee, New Orleans
Elizabeth Cook, Women United for Social Justice, New Orleans
Andy Washington, Civil Rights Activist, New Orleans
Survivors Village, New Orleans
* for identification purposes only
What I Learned in Detroit by Reverend Billy Tallen
At the United States Social Forum in Detroit I concentrated on three areas: reclaiming the commons, organic
farms and the end of mountaintop removal. My idea was that this trinity of issues make a revolutionary
combination.
Reclaiming the commons – taking back into public ownership the air, water, parks, schools and much of
government from the privatizing take-over begun by Ronald Reagan, is already underway. Commonsdefense is often couched in liberal NPR-like soft-focus rhetoric, but can be an effective bullwork against
corporate capitalism. The expansion by Wall Street each quarter mandates a broad attack on the natural
world (often commonly owned only in theory, like “the sky”). The one-way extraction can be from the
ocean beyond the national 200 mile limit or deep in the interior of our individual psyches. From first nations
people to government financial regulators – we are now resisting. With new limits, corporate capitalism can
no longer expand. It must change or die.
Organic farming is on the upswing in the United States. For the first time in 40 years we have more farms
now than we had a year ago. Small farms begun by young couples or groups of friends, often without
farming as an inherited skill is making the difference. The economy that results is the non-corporate and
locally sensitive culture of food. The farmer’s market and roadside trading undermines chain stores like
Whole Foods. Of course, the sheer health that this personally-raised minimally-shipped food allows in its
customers – results in radical clear thinking!
Removing mountaintop removal would end a domestic terror-war and the political corruption that has kept
this violence going for decades. It would bring democracy to Appalachia, corrupted so thoroughly by big
coal. For the West Virginians and Kentuckians in our choir, the end of the bombing of old peaks means
breaking the siege on their loved one’s communities, the end of asthma in children and all the cancers from
selenium, magnesium, chromium, arsenic, etc. released by the bombs. For The Church of Life After
Shopping, this breakthrough must come at least partly from America’s consuming of power: We must make
visible the light, heat and air conditioning of our invisible consumption. This would be a great (and very
difficult) step forward for our longtime anti-consumption project…
The commons, the food and the energy. This trinity of issues interacts to set a course that is driven by a
fierce common sense. Americans know that corporations will not look out for their families or communities.
And we know that corporations do not cause prosperity if they are allowed to devour alternative cultures.
And we have learned the hard way that profit motives do not necessarily serve our self-interest. But the
public commons allows the play and mix of people in the way that a healthy eco-system fills up with life.
The farmers will tell you that life on earth responds to our seeding and tending with its intimate power.
And the mountains are a good place to take a long walk after my workshops in Detroit. Much thanks to the
many people who worked on the US Social Forum this year.
A student of the writers Charles Gaines and Kurt Vonnegut, Reverend Billy Talen moved to New York City in
1994 and joined the sidewalk preachers of Times Square, specializing in exorcisms of sweatshop companies
such as Disney and Wal-Mart, and opposing the gentrification of neighborhoods. He has been jailed
countless times in his quest to stop the Shopocalypse.