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Active Member
News flash--
This morning (6/26/2010) the General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association voted for "Immigration as a Moral Issue" as this year's Congregational Study Action Issue (CSAI), over "National Economic Reform".
I was a little surprised, because I think a good case can be made that most immigration controversies in the world are a result of economic injustices and malfunctions. Mexican farmers are crossing the border into California because NAFTA policies have let American agribusiness wipe out small farming in Mexico.
The other thing that occurs to me is that the Arizona law that's stirring up so much heat is a gambit by the right to turn attention away from failed economic policies that have enriched a new aristocracy instead of increasing overall prosperity. "Don't pay attention to corporate robber barons--it's the fault of those brown people over there!" George Lakoff would say that the Right has gotten us to reinforce their frame of reference and their definitions of the problem by focusing that way.
However, for congregations to study this issue for the next three years is a good thing (to the extent that congregations pay any attention to SAIs) because we don't really have a good idea of what to do about immigration. On the one hand, we believe in freedom and equal rights; on the other, immigration is a tool used to break unions and keep wages low, leading to a different kind of injustice.
On the agenda today is an Action of Immediate Witness opposing the Arizona law. You can follow the debate on the uua.org website...and learn something about how Plenary sessions at General Assembly work.
This morning (6/26/2010) the General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association voted for "Immigration as a Moral Issue" as this year's Congregational Study Action Issue (CSAI), over "National Economic Reform".
I was a little surprised, because I think a good case can be made that most immigration controversies in the world are a result of economic injustices and malfunctions. Mexican farmers are crossing the border into California because NAFTA policies have let American agribusiness wipe out small farming in Mexico.
The other thing that occurs to me is that the Arizona law that's stirring up so much heat is a gambit by the right to turn attention away from failed economic policies that have enriched a new aristocracy instead of increasing overall prosperity. "Don't pay attention to corporate robber barons--it's the fault of those brown people over there!" George Lakoff would say that the Right has gotten us to reinforce their frame of reference and their definitions of the problem by focusing that way.
However, for congregations to study this issue for the next three years is a good thing (to the extent that congregations pay any attention to SAIs) because we don't really have a good idea of what to do about immigration. On the one hand, we believe in freedom and equal rights; on the other, immigration is a tool used to break unions and keep wages low, leading to a different kind of injustice.
On the agenda today is an Action of Immediate Witness opposing the Arizona law. You can follow the debate on the uua.org website...and learn something about how Plenary sessions at General Assembly work.