At this Thanksgiving season, we are grateful for our many blessings. We are reminded of the love of family and friends... and even of the animals in our lives. We celebrate the blessings of bounty, the foods of this season: the turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin and squash pies topped with vanilla ice cream. We celebrate the blessings of plenty that we enjoy in our homes every day, realizing that others are not as fortunate as we are.
One blessing we don't often think of is clean water, water which comes out of the faucet clean enough to bath in and to drink. If we don't like its taste, we can go out to buy bottled water or a filter, but in most places it won't hurt us to drink this water. We may draw our water from our own private wells, and that's a different story. But if our homes get water from city or town systems, usually we don't think of where the water came from or the city or town workers who make sure it's clean and safe. Water is something we just take for granted.
But it's not that way for everyone. Around world, even in some places in the United States, people don't have clean and safe water. Sometimes a natural disaster is the cause. When Hurricane Katrina caused flooding in New Orleans and other places along the Gulf Coast, we heard on the news that large areas lost such services as water and electricity.
Sometimes people don't have water because large private companies replace public water departments. The companies are given the right to sell clean water to people in their homes and businesses for a profit. They can make the price of water so high that some poorer people can't afford it. Then they don't have water to drink or to wash in. What a terrible situation. I can't even imagine it!
In last week's sermon, I talked about the "five smooth stones" or elements of liberal religion as the Rev. James Luther Adams described them. He said that the third stone was the moral obligation to work for communities of justice and love in whatever way we could, large or small. Sometimes a small gesture, even a warm smile, may be all we can give, but even that is important. A warm smile or giving a dollar to someone who really needs it may start something bigger than you ever thought. You never know.
On the other hand, in order to create such communities of justice and love, we need to do more, to use our real power in the world. To do this, we need to organize with other people. As Adams wrote, "It requires not only the power of thought but also the power of organization and the organization of power." Many churches do what we may call social justice work in the world. Some churches (but not UU churches) may call it doing "mission" or "outreach work". Some people call it "applied" or "practical spirituality". UUs generally call it social activism and it has been a part of our history since the beginning.
One such organization that puts spirituality into practice is the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee. This morning I'd like to tell you a little about the service committee. It is an independent human rights organization whose work is grounded in UU principles. It is independent of the Unitarian Universalist Association and doesn't receive money from the UUA, but works closely with it in many areas. And what's more, most of its 40,000 members are Unitarian Universalists. Over the years, many UU churches and fellowships have taken part in a program called Guest at Your Table to raise money for the service committee.
The UU Service Committee has done some amazing work on behalf of human rights and justice for 30 years. It seeks out the most promising activists and groups around the world, particularly those who work at the ground level where the problems are. Then it creates partnerships with them, supporting them with funding, technical assistance, and advocacy. I'll tell you a story about Atlanta, Georgia where the UU Service Committee helped some folks defend their right to water.
Maude Kimball is a retired kindergarten teacher living in Atlanta. She began having trouble with her tap water 7 years ago. This was soon after the city signed a 20-year contract with United Water worth $420 million. Atlanta was one of 12 U.S. cities to privatize its water systems in the hope of saving money and improving water services and quality for all residents. (To "privatize" is to transfer something from public or government control or ownership to private enterprise, like a company.)
Things didn't turn out as expected in Atlanta. The water became dirtier and at times became dangerously contaminated with bacteria. Maude lived through five "boil-water" alerts and got used to brown water coming out of her tap. When her water pipe broke, it took 10 days for United Water to respond. And Maude was forced to move in with her sister until the water pipe was repaired. Then her landlord started charging her for water for the first time in 35 years, saddling her with large water and sewer bills.
Maude began to hear reports of neighbors' water being cut off because they were behind in their payments. And her nephew lost his job at the water company after United Water reduced its employees from 700 to 300 to reduce expenses. Maude and her nephew joined with other consumers to form a citywide organization. Its goal was to persuade the city to cut ties with United Water. The UU Service Committee supported Maude Kimball, her nephew and their grass-roots organization and helped them succeed. After many protests at city council meetings, which received great media coverage, Atlanta's mayor gave United Water 90 days to turn things around. On January 24, 2003, the mayor terminated the contract.
The folks who work for and support the service committee dream of a world free from oppression and injustice. They dream of a world where all people can realize their full human rights. To increase its effectiveness, the committee forms partnerships with many kinds of organization... like small community organizations, larger relief agencies or national coalitions focused on particular issues. In general, any organization which confronts unjust power structures and challenges oppressive policies. The UU Service Committee began with the merger in 1963 of two older organizations: the Unitarian Service Committee and Universalist Service Committee. Each of these began over 60 years ago, initially to assist refugees fleeing Europe during World War II. The service committee pledged from its beginning to uphold the values and principles of the UUA (itself only 2 years old)... and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948. Today it is working in a few key areas. Most recently the UUSC and the UUA joined together to form relief funds to help communities in South Asia after the tsunami disaster and places along the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. I'd like to share with you another wonderful story of hope.
Gowri and her son were fortunate to survive the December 2004 tsunami, which devastated her coastal village in Tamil Nadu, India. Help from the UUSC partner, the Forum for Women's Rights and Development (or FORWORD) has enabled her to support herself and her son in the wake of the disaster.
FORWORD helped women with emergency relief, trauma counseling, and alternative livelihood training in camps set up for displaced people. They also made it possible for children like Gowri's son, Ajit, to stay in school.
The tsunami wiped out Gowri's livelihood buying fish directly from the catch and selling it to street vendors or local markets. She also dried the fish, seasoned it, and stored a small amount for later sale. After the tsunami, livelihoods dependent on the fish market were destroyed. But through FORWORD's alternative-skills training program, Gowri learned to make and sell household items. She says, "FORWORD helped open up new venues to look at life. While making candles and soap powder, I feel that my mind gets engaged. I am happy now."
Let's step back a moment and look at the broader picture. Today the UUSC focuses its work in three areas:
The first area is advancing economic justice by addressing issues of globalization and privatization. "Globalization" is when companies become very large and operate in many countries around the globe. They can become more powerful than governments and can ignore laws which protect workers. The service committee's primary focus in this area is to defend workers' rights and support living wages campaigns.
The second area is defending civil liberties and promoting the democratic process. This is especially important where democracy is threatened by terrorism, anti-terrorism and increasing authoritarianism. Last year, the UUSC began the STOP campaign. STOP stands for Stop Torture Permanently and its first goal is to end U.S.-sponsored torture worldwide. The service committee is working very hard on this campaign right now along with Senator John McCain.
The third area is promoting environmental justice. The committee's primary focus is on promoting and defending the right to water. The UUSC is now urging Congress to defend water rights for all people, all around the world by voting for special legislation... so that places like Atlanta, Georgia will never have to fight large companies to have inexpensive and clean water.
That's not all that the UUSC does. It also runs Just Works camps for older teens and adults. These are short-term projects that help volunteers examine and understand the causes and damaging effects of injustice. Participants work directly with people in the communities they serve and experience social justice struggles firsthand. Have you heard of Equal Exchange? It is a worker-owned fair trade organization founded in 1986. Buying coffee, tea and cocoa directly from farmer cooperatives, Equal Exchange ensures that low-income farmers earn a fair price for their products. If you've visited another UU congregation for Sunday worship, you might have noticed at coffee hour that they bought their coffee and tea from Equal Exchange through the UUSC Coffee Project, which is one of its supporting partners.
I am very proud that my husband and I are longtime members of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee. I feel it is a privilege to support the UUSC which does such good work in our country and around the world. I urge you to read more about the UUSC by looking at its newsletter or visiting its website and consider joining.
At this time of Thanksgiving, may we be grateful for our many blessings. Let us be willing to share a portion of these blessings - of money, power and other resources - with the world in such desperate need of our help. Let us uphold our Unitarian Universalists principles and values, furthering the causes of human rights and building communities of justice and love.
In the words of Rabbi Tarfon in the Talmud, "Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obliged to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it."
Amen. And blessed be.