Unitarian Universalist FaithAction NJ
A Unitarian Universalist voice for justice, equity and compassion in NJ
Time: Nov 7, 2020 10:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join the Issues Conference General Zoom Meeting using your computer or smartphone video camera!
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Meeting ID: 884 6435 0796
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Meeting ID: 884 6435 0796
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What Is the Reproductive Justice Task Force Involved With Today?
Championing Reproductive Freedom Act: On Oct. 2, Governor Murphy and many of our coalition partners (Planned Parenthood, The Thrive Coalition NJ, Cherry Hill Women’s Center, etc.) announced new legislation called The Reproductive Freedom Act. The Reproductive Freedom Act protects and expands access to birth control and pregnancy-related care including abortion by breaking down medically-unnecessary restrictions that only serve to block access to care. It also secures a future that safeguards reproductive care, upholds basic rights and justice, and respects decision-making throughout pregnancy.
Passing the Reproductive Freedom Act will help protect everyone’s ability to receive reproductive health care, from birth control to pregnancy-related care, including safe, appropriate and individually-sensitive abortion.
A Win for Women/People Incarcerated at Edna Mahan Correctional Center for Women: With encouragement/pressure from your emails and calls (Thank You!!), Gov. Murphy mid-September signed Resolution SJR-79/AJR-167 (Greenstein, Gill/Vainieri Huttle, Tucker, Murphy) to create a commission to study sexual assault, misconduct, and harassment by staff against inmates in State correctional facilities.
Ms. Sampson, Senior Counsel and Director of Racial Justice at the nationally-recognized Brady Campaign, works to prevent gun violence through cultivating a committed, informed, and effective pro bono attorney network, educating the courts on gun violence related cases, and making the connection between gun violence prevention and racial justice. In 2016, Kelly and Jon Lowy co-authored The Right Not To Be Shot: Public Safety, Private Guns, and the Constellation of Constitutional Liberties, published in the Georgetown Journal of Law and Policy. Originally from Detroit, Kelly is especially interested in addressing gun violence’s disproportionate impact on the Black community. Kelly earned a Bachelor’s degree in Public Policy from the University of Michigan and a J.D from Columbia Law school.
Mr. Patel is a Gun Violence Prevention activist and gun violence survivor from Jersey City. A student at Rutgers University majoring in Criminal Justice, Jai was an organizer for Jersey City’s March For Our Lives in 2018, an event which drew over 3,000 people. He founded the Hudson County and Rutgers Chapters of Students Demand Action, and sits on the Students Demand Action National Advisory Board.
Special invitation for UU High School Students and Friends.
The Fall Issues Conference is at the heart of our ministry together as UU social justice advocates in the state of NJ. Come help us choose the key issues for 2020-21!
This year we’ve chosen to highlight our Gun Violence Prevention Task Force with two amazing keynote speakers, as well as making a special outreach effort to youth and campus activists. If you know youth/young adults who might be interested, please invite them to check us out.
After a two week virtual shutdown here at UU FaithAction NJ, I am at last able to be back in touch with all of you, our family of supporters. I’d like to explain why I have been so silent in the midst of the coronavirus crisis, explain how we go about our work together going forward and provide an update about the previously scheduled Sat. April 25th Annual Meeting. Please also see information at the bottom of this email outlining 2 actions–one happening TODAY—to support detainees and release them and other vulnerable inmates in NJ ASAP.
March 11th to Today
As some of you will already know, I tested positive for COVID19 after experiencing my first clear symptoms on Weds. March 11 (though those symptoms did NOT include a fever–an important point as we begin to see a surge in cases here in NJ.) I began self-isolating that same day and immediately notified all those with whom I had been in close and sustained contact over the previous week–including some of you.
The Annual Meeting is necessary to UU FaithAction NJ since it is there that we carry out the mandated annual business of the organization. In particular we are required to pass the official budget for the 2020-2021 fiscal year; we also need to offer candidates for election to the Board of Trustees, and vote on those nominees.
There is a UUFANJ Board working group charged to determine the particulars of the Annual Meeting. If you would like to offer suggestions or otherwise assist this group in planning the June 6 Annual Meeting, please reach out to Tom Moran (UU Morristown):
thomasmoran.inspace@gmail.com Mobile: (973) 960-2346
You may also contact Board Vice President, Nick Lewis (ozballnick@gmail.com)
Social Justice Actions Now
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2) Consider joining a “drive through” protest TODAY (NEARLY NOW) at Bergen Co. jail campaign in support of the inmate hunger strikers asking for similar help during the COVID19 outbreak.
 There remains much we can and are called to do. We’ll get through this together, as we have done before and will do again. I’m lighting a virtual chalice here at “Office #2” (aka my living room) for each one of you and for this organization as we channel our grief, anger, worry and uncertainty into a future-oriented hope. It’s how we will make it through this current crazy rip-tide, with the understanding that we mean not only to survive these times but to be part of the wave demanding a better way of living for all God’s/the universe’s creatures. Now we gotta help make it so.
In faith, with love, for justice, Rev. Rob Gregson, The Board and Task Force Leaders of Unitarian Universalist FaithAction NJ |
Pilgrimage by Rev. Rob Gregson
“Spirit of Life and Love,
Amor sin fronteras ni paredes…love without borders or walls
We gather and we march with strength and determination to call out evil actions
while holding fast to our faith that no one is forever outside the circle of amor sin fronteras ni paredes.
Neither migrants nor the undocumented, not Jews nor the police.
Not African-Americans nor gays, lesbians or transgendered people.
We pray that our strength today builds and grows along the path we walk, the same one named by so many prophets across time and tradition: Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, Mother Theresa.
In the words of contemporary Buddhist monk and teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, written the day after the 9/11 attacks that took place just across the harbor from us here today, we call on that same prophetic tradition,
‘…So that we can hold in our arms the suffering of America as a nation, the suffering of humanity as a family–[una familia]–the suffering of the earth as a home for all of us.
We need their energy so that we can become lucid and calm, so that we will know exactly what to do and what not to do in order not to make the situation worse.
We know that…responding to hatred and violence with hatred and violence only makes the hatred grow one thousand-fold. Only with compassion can we disintegrate hatred.’
We recommit ourselves today to standing up to hatred with a thirst for la justicia: for justice informed by love.”
UU the Vote is a non-partisan faith initiative to engage our neighbors, educate our communities, mobilize voters, and rally around key ballot initiatives. All through 2020 the UUA is supporting congregations and UU organizations in activating thousands of Unitarian Universalists to mobilize for electoral justice at the local, state and national levels.
