[JTWNews] UUA Summer of Peace & Democracy

[Audra Friend]

Dear JTW-News Readers:
 
This issue brings you news and resources about UUA and UU congregational
efforts in coalitions for peace and democracy.  
 
(1)  Join the grassroots advocacy campaign to support bi-partisan
legislation calling for withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and the
September anti-war mobilization.
(2)  UUA President Bill Sinkford accepts an award in James Reeb's honor
from the New Democracy Coalition that is working to renew the 1965
Voting Rights Act.
 
ENDING THE WAR IN IRAQ
 
Tom Andrews, Director of Win Without War http://www.winwithoutwarus.org/
<BLOCKED::http://www.winwithoutwarus.org/> , has described this summer
as "the beginning of the end of the war in Iraq."  As a member of that
coalition the UUA has initiated a Summer of Peace. 
 
This summer, the war in Iraq has dragged on with its ever-climbing death
toll while polls indicate that a growing majority of U.S. and Iraqi
people want US troops to exit the country and return home. The Homeward
Bound Act (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:H.J.RES.55
<BLOCKED::http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:H.J.RES.55> :) , a
proposal for bi-partisan legislation, was introduced in Congress in
mid-June and calls for the U.S. President to develop a plan for a phased
withdrawal of US troops from Iraq by the end of 2005 and to initiate the
plan as soon as possible and no later than Oct. 1, 2006. An intensive
grassroots advocacy campaign in support of this legislation has begun
and will continue this fall. A major mobilization for peace
(http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?list=type&type=91
<BLOCKED::http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?list=type&type=91> )
is planned for September 24-26th in Washington, DC.

Having observed the sixtieth anniversary
(http://www.uua.org/news/2005/050720_hiroshima/index.html
<BLOCKED::http://www.uua.org/news/2005/050720_hiroshima/index.html> ) of
the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, we are now presented with
the opportunity to increase our public witness of the destruction
wrought by war and actively seek peace.  For the complete story, please
go to: http://www.uua.org/ <BLOCKED::http://www.uua.org/> 

RENEWING THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT

UUA President Sinkford Accepts First James Reeb Service Award

(Boston, August 4, 2005) The New Democracy Coalition yesterday honored
UUA President William G. Sinkford with the first "Rev. James Reeb New
Democracy Service Award" at a ceremony at the Massachusetts State House.
The award ceremony was the final event in a morning "teach-in" held by a
coalition of civil rights groups working to raise awareness of the need
to extend key provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which is due to
expire in 2007. The events were organized by Kevin Peterson of the New
Democracy Coalition and chaired by the Hon. Judge Charles Walker, who
presented the Reeb award to Sinkford "for work in the area of civil
rights on the 40 th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act." Speaking to a
deeply moved crowd, Walker recounted Reeb's heroic sacrifice in Selma
and read excerpts from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King's eulogy of the
slain Unitarian Universalist minister: "One day the history of this
great period of social will be written in all its completeness...When
this glorious story is written, the name of James Reeb will stand as a
shining example of manhood at its best." Full story here:
http://www.uua.org/news/2005/050804_reeb.html
<BLOCKED::http://www.uua.org/news/2005/050804_reeb.html> 

 
"...all will be well, and will be well, and every kind of thing will be
well."  -- Julian of Norwich
 
Audra Friend
Assistant, Office for Congregational Advocacy & Witness
Unitarian Universalist Association
25 Beacon St
Boston, MA 02108
(p) 617.948.4656 or 617.742.2100 ext 656
(f)  617.742.0321
www.uua.org/justice