Canadian Unitarian Universalist statement on Israel/Palestinian conflict

We believe that as a faith organization that respects the inherent worth and dignity of every person and our interdependence we can strongly state that no circumstances justify the horrendous acts of violence against civilians. As well, no circumstances justify subjugation, isolation, persecution, and violence against another group of people. Our statement calls for a peaceful resolution and condemns all acts of violence. We stand by this call. As the situation changes or escalates, we may reissue this call more stridently; the Religions for Peace statement is an example we feel aligns closely with our stance.

I urge all those who feel passionately about the situation in Israel and Palestine to write to your MPs and the Prime Minister. You can use the words grounded in our U*U faith that are supplied in the sample letter and expand on your own personal convictions. Please speak to those with the power to effect change. Use your voice to amplify the call for a ceasefire and real efforts for peace and justice with mutual humanity at its root.

– Kiersten Moore

CUC Board President 

Naomi Klein: A grift only works if you've got customers -- The Tyee

https://thetyee.ca/Culture/2023/10/16/Naomi-Klein-Interview/?utm

A very interesting post from Naomi Klein in the Tyee.  Please read it for the sake of those who will be harmed by fascism if we allow it. 

Humanity and Civilization

There are Jews, Palestinians, Americans, Canadians, British, French, German, Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, and many others. They have these descriptions because of where they live, where they were born. In the last century or two, there have been changes in names. Even genders have been renamed. These are all humans and there are many others I haven't listed because I suspect no-one would be willing to read them all and these names can change without changing the personality of the ones named. 

Descriptions have more to do with politics and general attitudes than with lived realities.

These last few months have shown me just how much I don't know, and just how little my opinion and beliefs matter in this world.

There is one thing that shakes me about the world as it has been revealed recently. That is the extent of influence power has on our sense of well-being. That power can be political, economic, social and emotional. We are created by what we are taught and what we have endured. But will we become less human from now on?

Influencers are humans who have changed my thinking. Noam Chomsky, Gabor Mate, May Partridge, Wendy Burton, Leah Hokanson, Tony Vickers, Rose Grabinsky and many others. (Apologies to those who have contributed to my well-being whose name is not listed here.) Then there are those who have lifted the spirits of many others.  All these names have made the world better because of what they have given of themselves, how they have nurtured civilization in profound ways. Heroe does not describe them sufficiently.

Today we have houses, heating, language, music, history and science in the mix, influencing our thoughts, less forests, more roads, and climate change. 

The centuries seem to offer more violence or if not, the media focuses on violence. Entertainment is about conflict as if bloodshed is fun, a game for man to prove himself. The most famous names could brag how many people died for their leaders, for the cause.

Commentators like to claim they know the nature of the Jew or the Arab or the Christian. It's taken seriously as if we train a group of people to be one thing so we can spot one in the shopping centre.

This is not helpful. I have concluded that the natures of species are different. There is the Narcissist, the Psychopath, the Healer, the Leader and the Follower. This is not scientific, I am a poet not a scientist, but I am a passionate grandmother and it is past a century from the women who fought for the vote.

To watch or listen to media strikes me that everything depends on money and power. Or at least these are the only two newsworthy things. Sexuality and love are merely rewards who those who have won. Losing means you have failed. Being vulnerable means you haven't grown up. Supremacy is whiteness and whiteness is a clean blank slate with no character or colour, manageable to the imperialists.

Since the Israeli issue I have been consumed with one question. How does it benefit humanity to have the most in harming, destroying and killing, rather than building, saving or healing? Commenters, reporters are supposed to be human, perhaps were raised by loving parents, inspired by kind teachers and gentle health care.

The Holocaust succeeded in making the world a place where power was the only thing. How to harm others, how to kill the most, was the game. The suffering was well reported by those who suffered.

Gabor Mate probably had the most significant report and knowledge but has suffered terribly. Yet most media attention goes to a man who promotes rape as an achievement, possessions as proof of success. To abuse others for one's gain is the highest achievement. 

This is the greatest and most destructive lie since the Nazi's marched across Europe, finding any reason to kill others and destroy the lives of those who remained. We are continually traumatized by opportunists who think the proof to winning is the number of dead bodies we leave behind.

We are being destroyed by the will to power turning individuals into "isolated units competing for the most". Our minds are complex and we are being conditioned to fear and hate so that the ego of one can rule without conscience. What would we call this creature?

Social Democracy Needs Support

"Reagan and Thatcher quite consciously set out to roll back social democracy. In Canada, this thinking led to the 1995 federal budget, which slashed federal spending on housing, among other things, and ultimately cut the full array of federal housing programs. Not only was responsibility for delivery downloaded to provincial and municipal governments, but it also prompted governments to increasingly treat homes as investment vehicles – financial instruments disconnected from the needs of people." Ed Broadbent https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-if-we-really-want-freedom-for-the-majority-then-we-must-support-social/

Come Join With Me In A Circle of Song

"Come join with me in a circle of song, the young and the old, the weak and the strong, singing with one voice though we may speak different tongues in the circle of song we are one" tonyturner.ca

For several years now I have become sickened with the way humanity has been presented in media, politics and war. Outraged about the way things have become. Yes anger is understandable but we can't survive by seeing who can hurt the most people.

The news has reported people dying on the street of overdoses, politicians scheming to win through division and despair, the breakdown of our health care system and the threat of climate collapse. Voices questioning whether we are headed for war, strong men seeking how much damage and cruelty they can inflict, terrorism in Ukraine and Israel. 

All this against the backdrop of the economy, inequality, celebrity and fascism. Its as if we are waiting to die when there are so many good anxious souls working to feed the poor, house the homeless, build schools, display art and write songs.

When I first heard Tony Turner's "Circle of Song" - I thought yes the number of people writing songs and singing them, working for and wanting peace, putting their time and energy to solving problems through kindness, raising families, healing the sick, counselling the hurt - far outweighs the people looking for power-over at any cost. 

The majority of human souls struggle to survive and help their loved ones survive. So I propose that people write short poems on the grist of our efforts to present who we are by what we want to save, what takes up our daily chores of care to nurture, what brings us home to the circle where we share the songs (poems) and we find inspiration among the brave acts of men and women.

Send your written poem to janetvickers@shaw.ca with a note to give me permission to publish. The submissions chosen will be include in a book, with your name and a short blurb about who you are.  I can't pay for your work but I hope to send out booklets as an example of the part of humanity that doesn't get headlined.

The circle of song is how we contribute to the future, to kindness for the sake of survival. Not that we can offer any promises we shall survive, but we can do whatever we can.

Oh Israel!

Oh Israel

The hope of dreamers

teachers, healers and minstrels

your story erupted from Abrahamic traditions

so old and so at home with furless bipeds

Where is Jesus now that man has fallen in love

with his own creations

yet trapped by fear and the economy—

am I going to irritate my family and friends

thinking too much while doing very little

So many  Jews have nurtured my mind

and comforted me with their wisdom

yet I fear my words will hurt

the sensitive souls who give their all

expecting little praise in return

but I can no longer see the world

in terms of race or gender

I feel the world

and make judgements based on

how we — Palestinians by any other name

ordinary creatures our various skins and 

broken hearts our rivers of blood

still beneath the flesh rushing through veins

not ready to die yet

washing and feeding our babies

between stories and glasses of wine

armed with words and a little education

singing as we walk across the deserts of our fears

Surely you deserve respect in your struggle

to survive another century

as long as our souls can rise above

the earth.

What If All This Was Planned Centuries Ago?

What if we learned that all that has happened in the world of humans, was not just an evolution of social norms, but  planned a long time ago, about the time King James 1 of Scotland was on the throne?

What if the King James version of the bible was written to take away the essence of the Jesus' message and since he left the earth is  trivialized with many instructions by different people. 

Then later the Church could endorse teachings that mostly benefited the systems in power more than our soul. 

Then the charge of witchcraft made the wisdom of women a thing of evil, and the feminine voice was silenced.

And what if the later focus on rules supported the values and vanities of hierarchical societies, more than society being built on the teachings of Christ. Where wealth was praised in beautiful churches rather than the reverse. 

And the readings from Genesis focused  on woman coming from the rib of Adam and the sin of Eve listening to the serpent, as a warning against the power of women. 

Then the requirement that women obey their husbands and fathers, and laws forbidding woman to speak in public. To remain soft and "feminine" and focus on the home, to love, honour and obey, which removed the feminine experience from public discussion, making her a possession.

Not even capable to create men, boy yes but man must be self-made to be real. 

Earlier women warriors, long deleted from history, a man must be conditioned to dismiss his feelings to be the warrior. 

Society then must have a structure of habits and laws that revere a class system from aristocracy to slave, to keep social order and people in line.

Then laws on who you can love, obey your elders, marry who they choose for you, and make sure you do not bring shame to your family.

Capitalism decides who can earn money and how much, who can build transport systems, cities, houses and parks.

Democracy was developed to engage all citizens in the legal and educational goals, but the class system encouraged knowledge for some and shut out the majority of people, which enabled business to exploit the desperate poor as workers.

Morality declined as the human conscience was overruled by manners and traditions. The essence of justice is to alleviate suffering for all. Such an idea is often trounced as soft and naive and systems of terrible cruelty have even ruled the church. (Residential schools, removing children from their parents to "kill the Indian in the child"). 

There were no laws that said we should care about each other, make sure people and animals are not treated cruelly. No sense that how we treat those on the "bottom" affects our own well being, no relationship of duty towards those who were lower in the public order.

 Materialism replaced relationship, power replaced compassion, and capitalism replaced wisdom. 

Politics is the public display of how we treat one another, keeping some in line, allowing others  privilege.

Where power-over has been the primary goal we fail to take responsibility to care for the future. Now power has its appetite on the breakdown of society in readiness to grab more power for the few and disaster for the majority.

Was this the plan from the beginning, to cloud our minds from the task of responsibility, insight and intelligence, for the sake of self-interest? To keep the focus on power in order to override the wisdom of our conscience? Or is it simply self-interest overriding our deeper selves?

These are the questions we need to trouble ourselves with. We are not thinking too much, we are thinking.