applewuud
Active Member
There's been a major controversy among UUs since the Arizona legislature passed its law forcing all law enforcement officers to act as immigration agents, because the UU General Assembly for June 2012 was planned to be in Phoenix and most UUs feel it's a repressive, racist law.
The Board placed a resolution before the Assembly last week proposing that we boycott Arizona and cancel GA 2012 or hold it somewhere else. But, that would have meant we were leaving all those in Arizona who are against the law--including UU congregations there--in the lurch. The UUA might also lose hundreds of thousands of dollars of deposits, from what I heard. The workers in the convention center and hotel would be the ones who suffer, not the state legislature.
After much discussion, mini-assemblies, and floor debate, the UUA decided to hold a "social justice" GA where the minimum amount of business would be done, and the focus would be on immigrant issues and activism. The details are on the UUA site if you want to see the actual resolution.
This could be a pretty big deal. It's going to be challenging. There will be demonstrations out in the June heat, a long process of working and planning with organizations on the ground and groups within the UUA (like DRUMM) who are already active on immigration issues.
The moderator challenged the GA attendees afterward whether they were clear on what they were asking the planning committee do do. Will people come, if there are no workshops, no exhibit hall, and only social action and some plenary assemblies? Will this be as divisive at the local-church level as the black empowerment issue was for the UUA during the sixties?
Will there be any point to all this if, as seems likely, another 20 state legislatures pass similar laws in the next year or two?
And, are we playing the right wing's game by paying so much attention to this? They chose to deflect the failure of their economic policies by bringing up the typical whipping boy, immigrants.
I wonder what's going to happen? This will be happening in a presidential election year, BTW...
The Board placed a resolution before the Assembly last week proposing that we boycott Arizona and cancel GA 2012 or hold it somewhere else. But, that would have meant we were leaving all those in Arizona who are against the law--including UU congregations there--in the lurch. The UUA might also lose hundreds of thousands of dollars of deposits, from what I heard. The workers in the convention center and hotel would be the ones who suffer, not the state legislature.
After much discussion, mini-assemblies, and floor debate, the UUA decided to hold a "social justice" GA where the minimum amount of business would be done, and the focus would be on immigrant issues and activism. The details are on the UUA site if you want to see the actual resolution.
This could be a pretty big deal. It's going to be challenging. There will be demonstrations out in the June heat, a long process of working and planning with organizations on the ground and groups within the UUA (like DRUMM) who are already active on immigration issues.
The moderator challenged the GA attendees afterward whether they were clear on what they were asking the planning committee do do. Will people come, if there are no workshops, no exhibit hall, and only social action and some plenary assemblies? Will this be as divisive at the local-church level as the black empowerment issue was for the UUA during the sixties?
Will there be any point to all this if, as seems likely, another 20 state legislatures pass similar laws in the next year or two?
And, are we playing the right wing's game by paying so much attention to this? They chose to deflect the failure of their economic policies by bringing up the typical whipping boy, immigrants.
I wonder what's going to happen? This will be happening in a presidential election year, BTW...