Podcast: Play in new window | Download
First UU Church of Austin General Assembly Attendees
Gillian Redfearn, Mike LeBurkien, Judy Sadegh, Carolyn Gremminger & Peggy Morton
July 29, 2012
Bringing Justice Home from General Assembly. FUUCA members Gillian Redfearn, Mike LeBurkien, Judy Sadegh, Carolyn Gremminger & Peggy Morton share their General Assembly experiences and human interest stories from immigrants, undocumented workers, undocumented children, and UUs around the nation who are working for Social Justice.
Gillian Redfearn
I don’t want to assume that you all know what General Assembly is and so I won’t. General Assembly, also known as GA, is the Unitarian Universalists’ annual meeting. It is attended by thousands of UUs and is held in cities all across the United States. This year’s GA held in Phoenix, a decision which had been made some years ago, left many of us wondering how could we possibly go to Phoenix in light of its anti-immigrant laws, best known as the Arizona Senate Bill 1070, put into place in 2010. BUT IN TRUTH, HOW COULD WE NOT GO TO ARIZONA?! It was our opportunity to live our UU faith, live our UU principles, make a difference and most importantly, understand what doing justice really means. This GA, in fact, quickly became identified as the Justice Assembly. It was an opportunity to learn from, partner with and support the many groups and individuals whose daily work, seven days a week, is for the greater good of all people.
There are so many organizations hard at work in Arizona and some of those organizations include the ACLU, ALEC, Grassroots Leadership, National Day Laborers Union, Amnesty International, Puente Arizona, American Progress, and No Mas Muertes.
In coordination with these many groups and during GA, the UUs decided to hold vigil at the local Phoenix prison and it was this vigil that most made me want to attend this year’s GA. I don’t know how many of you are familiar with the Phoenix prison, but it is rather infamous and is best known as America’s toughest jail or Sherriff’s Appaio’s tent jails, where 1,000 plus undocumented people are being held for no REAL crime. This place resembles a concentration camp, even Sherriff Appaio describes it as such. There is no a/c in a place where temperatures can be as high as 118 degrees, meals are only served twice a day, and medical attention is often denied. The tent jails were established in 1993 when Sherriff Appaio decided to use tents acquired at a surplus sale after the Gulf War, rather than add on to the existing building, seemingly a cheap solution. Since then approximately 138,000 people have passed through these tents and approximately 150 people have died there.
Every night in Phoenix at the prison, a small group of people hold a vigil for those held in those tents, probably in many cases, their own family and friends. On the evening of Saturday night, June 23rd, we were able to add to their support in a BIG way. Approximately 2,000 of us, many of us wearing our “Standing on the Side of Love” t-shirts, boarded school buses and were driven to the prison to stand with these people. For the “regulars” at the prison, it must have been quite a sight to see as bus after bus arrived and dropped off 100s of people, then leaving again only to return with even more people.
For two hours, we stood together, peacefully, singing songs and chanting words of support that we hoped and believed could be heard by those locked up inside. The experience of standing with so many people who share your core beliefs is a rare one and it touched me greatly, but what I most remember about the vigil is the gratitude of the “regulars.” As we reloaded onto the buses, they thanked us at large and in many cases, thanked us individually. One woman, in particular, and I made eye contact and I noted that there were tears running down her face as she said, “Gracias. Thank you.” I was so sad in that moment, but I have to believe that our presence brought a renewed energy and hope, but at the very least, that they, the inmates, the families, the Phoenix Latino community, know that they have support outside their own communities and that we, who do not suffer the same injustices, are aware of theirs. I hope and pray that we can live up to the call to “do justice. “
Judy Sadegh
I am Judy Sadegh and I have attended GA several times in the past, but this Justice GA was a very special experience for me.
Describing GA is almost as challenging as trying to decide one’s schedule from all the programs offered from 7am to 11pm during the four and a half days of the conference. It is really unique for each individual as I think you will hear today. If you would like to get a better picture of the entire experience, you can see and hear many of the sessions on the UUA website.
Daily worship services were inspiring and the music was wonderful. There were a lot of new songs introduced, but it is also amazing how great our familiar hymns sound with 3000+ UUs singing together.
Every day we heard stories from members of the partner organizations in Phoenix about the hardships people suffer there. We heard of children afraid parents would not be able to pick them up from school, of parents afraid to go out or send their children to school after hearing about issues going on in the community.
One family’s story especially affected me. Maria’s mother came to the US with her young son before Maria was born. Last year the mother was stopped because of a burned out taillight, detained and deported as a result. Maria remained in Arizona with an aunt and finished high school. She spoke to us of her sadness that her mother could not attend her graduation. Maria is very close to her brother and his family, but she fears that he will be deported, as well. Maria’s sister-in-law spoke while holding her young toddler of the fear that her husband would be deported. He had an opportunity to go back to Mexico to try to get a Visa. However, he was told that it might take a year before he got an answer and there was no guarantee that he would be able to return. He decided to stay in Phoenix so that he could participate in his daughter’s early years. Although the stated policies of ICE and the administration focus on deporting criminals and dangerous individuals, the reality is that families are being torn apart and individuals who have lived peacefully in our communities for many years are being swept up and sent back to countries where they are no longer familiar.
In my recent reading I came across a quote from Max Frisch, a Swiss playwright which struck a note with me. In 1965 when guest worker programs were starting in Europe, he wrote, “We called for workers, and there came human beings.” May we never lose sight of the fact that we are all human beings, documented or undocumented.
Carolyn Gremminger – Exposing For Profit Incarceration
One of the talks that hit close to home was on For Profit Incarceration and Detention Centers.
I am reminded by our Principle that all people have inherent worth and dignity, not just some, not just the documented..
The talk focused on Corporations that profit from the detention of undocumented people. They treat this population as profitable new market. The Industry lobbies for and drafts harsh anti-immigration legislation. The owners profit from the suffering of others. They exploit inmate labor by contracting with outside corporations, paying the inmates roughly 40 cents an hour.
In my mind, this is exploitation. I hope it is in your mind, too. I learned that the facilities are often sub par for both the incarcerated and the staff, while the owners profit enormously. Security is lax and there is very limited governmental oversite of their operations.
Corporations should not be allowed to profit from the incarceration of Human Beings.
What can we do?
Visit the website: Grassrootsleadership.org. Attend Teach in at First UU on Saturday, August 4, at 6pm.
Contribute to organizations working to stop incarceration and detention for profit.
Get educated.
Join other faith based organizations in the opposition.
Make Family members and friends aware of this issue
Talk with elected officials.
Strive for a more accountable and humane Criminal Justice System.
Peggy Morton
Hello, I’m Peggy Morton and I’m you’re new Social Action Chair, and I bet you can guess why I was attracted to attending my first GA, it’s Justice Theme.
Now, I’d like for you to imaging these snippets of stories you’ve just heard, multiply that times 25 and that’s how my head was spinning the the third night when we heard Keynote speaker Maria Hinojosa, who you may know from her NPR Radio program Latino USA.
After having been an undocumented student and worker, she eventually became an American citizen and one day when she was talking about illegals, Holocaust survivor and Nobel Laureate Ellie Wiesel said “Don’t say that.” and asked “Why do you call them illegals?”
When we get a speeding ticket, you don’t hear anyone call us illegal drivers. Lou Dobbs first call them illegals like the Nazis had called Jews illegals. I left GA with the new language of calling them undocumented workers, undocumented students or undocumented children.
Another lesson I learned at GA was that I had to travel to Arizona to connect with fellow Austin UUs, not only from our church but also our other Austin UU churches Live Oak in Cedar Park & Wildflower in South Austin.
We returned and joined forces to work with Austin immigrant rights and labor worker rights groups to protest in front of Sheriff Greg Hamilton’s office July11 because he gives Immigration Customs Enforcement officers 24-7 access to our Travis County jails, which is why we have one of the highest deportation rates of non-criminal undocumented workers in our nation.
At the rally, we heard a local undocumented female student tell about being picked up for J-walking and held at Travis County taxpayer expense in jail for 4 days. Yes, for a misdemeanor J-walking offense she served time. She’s not being deported, she’s a law abiding student.
I appreciate all of you here today listening to our stories because just hearing what’s happening in our own city can be heart-wrenching and for many of you that in it’s self is major, but for those of you wondering what you can do, I hope you’ll join me as our Social Action committee adds immigrant rights to our mission to do Justice.
Next weekend we will host 30 members of the National Day Labor Organizing Network, who are traveling across the country to tell their stories. They’re traveling on the UndocuBus and they say “No papers, no fear” to put a spotlight on the dehumanization that’s taking place in our country. They will roll out sleeping bags in Howson Hall Friday night through Monday morning and you’re welcome to sign up to help us feed and host them.
We also want to invite you to join us and our guests as we head over to Sheriff Hamilton’s office again next Friday at noon to stand behind our Standing on the Side of Love banner and work to convince the sheriff that he doesn’t have to keep giving ICE 24-7 access to our jails. We want to build trust between our law enforcement officers and our community.
On Saturday, I hope you’ll attend the TeachIn that Carolyn told you about and then next Sunday before the Worship service, please come to a casual meet and greet breakfast in Howson Hall eat tacos and visit with our guests personally to get to know them as fellow humans.
We will also have future opportunities to learn what we can do to stop the dehumanization because we must return to civility as we recognize the worth and dignity of all people.
After the service today, our group will line up as usual outside the sanctuary, except for me because I’ll head to the Social Action table in the gallery to visit with you, give you flyers about our planned activities and tell about how you can help us host the UndocuBus travelers.
If you want to join our grassroots effort, please visit with me at our Social Action table to see how you can join the good fight with the Power of Love.
Rev. Dr. Rebecca Parker’s lecture “Standing on Holy Ground” can be found on our iTunes podcast. Podcasts of sermons are also available for free on iTunes. Click here.
