"Prepare to Govern"

Rev. Bruce Russell-Jayne
November 16, 2008

This morning I will not to celebrate victory nor lament defeat in the recent election.  I acknowledge that in our congregation today many of us are still feeling strong emotions as a result of the election, and those emotions vary depending on where on the spectrum lie your political loyalties.  Let us be sensitive to each other about those feelings.  My goal, as always when I talk about politics, is to be non-partisan.  Our liberal religious worldview has room in it for Democrats and Republicans, Greens and Socialists, Libertarians, Naderites and more.  So, I come here this morning not to praise McCain or Obama, but to praise you.  I am so proud of you, this congregation of people with mixed political persuasions, who nonetheless have remained steadfast supporters of human rights, social justice, and the environment for so many years. 

Unitarian Universalists bravely marched for civil rights in the 60s.  In the seventies we made banner headlines when our own Beacon Press published the Pentagon Papers exposing the abuses of an out of control President.  In this decade we proudly hung our banner advocating Equal Marriage on the side of our headquarters building in Boston facing the Massachusetts State Capital building and performed some of the first legal Gay and Lesbian marriages.  I have often been amazed and gratified by the courageous stands the UU movement has taken.  This congregation has worked for reconciliation between the races in Cincinnati and to help alleviate the ravishes of poverty in our area.  The church has done many things we are proud of.  I am constantly impressed when I talk to members by the amazing things you do as individuals both in your work and as volunteers to make our world better.  I congratulate you on your many efforts

That we have an opportunity now to influence a new President to move forward on major social issues plaguing this country is a consequence of your persistence through one administration after another that have never quite been bold enough to enduringly solve them.  It is due to your determination to learn more about the issues and to keep pressure on the government even when you have been disappointed with its responses.  In recent years, with the erosion of civil liberties and the damage to America’s international reputation, you have kept the faith.  You have made a difference to our country, and I thank you.
:::
And now, it is Unitarian Universalists and others who share our values who can make the difference between success and failure for our new President when it comes to key issues like gay rights, greening the economy, and universal health care.  And there’s much more we will need to weigh in on.  With people rating the current administration’s policies at historically low levels, our economic system in meltdown, and both major parties promising change, it is possible we will see a significantly new paradigm in our socio-economic and political systems.  In light of the potential for change, changes in the model by which we do business, and in the way we each participate in our society, it has never been more important that our values be articulated in the marketplace of ideas.
As I said, we have always made our voices heard; we are used to being the loyal opposition, sitting on the back bench and shouting at those in power.  We have been protesters, we have been demonstrators, we are very accomplished naysayers.  Now we need to learn to govern.  This last election changed at least one important thing.  There is a possibility our government will listen to us and move to make progress on the issues we care about.  So, we need to change our approach to government.  What is called for is a more positive approach, one which holds open the possibility of success.

I give credit to Van Jones, who delivered the Ware Lecture at last summer’s UU General Assembly, for awakening me to this reality.  Jones, as an eco-justice activist who leads the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland, California has given hope to thousands of at risk youth.  The Ware lecturer is a non-UU who, as an outsider, can appraise our role in American society and tell us how others see us.  Former Ware Lecturers include: Mary Oliver, Holly Near, Morris Dees and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Every one I’ve heard has been eye opening.  Van Jones told us we need to transform our messages of protest into messages that will inspire people to work concertedly toward a more wholesome future.  He reminded us that Martin Luther King in his speech to the country didn’t say, “I have a Complaint!” or “I have a long list of suggestions!”  No, when he said, “I have a dream!,” words that now ring down thru the generations and which we repeat once again with the election of an African American President, he was laying out a vision.  Vision is what we need now.  It must be a large scale vision, bold enough to tackle an inequitable healthcare system, two wars, poverty and inequality, and to restore the US as a respected citizen of the community of nations.

The expansive vision of our liberal religious worldview is what our country needs right now.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if everyone approached politics with an ethic of universalism, a real commitment to government of, by and for all the people?  Wouldn’t we all be better off if government and business would not focus exclusively on economic concerns such that materialism dominates all aspects of our lives?  Business must learn to have a heart and government must share in our concern for the environment and in caring for every member of our society with generosity and kindness.  We want a realistic vision, but I don’t think it is aiming too high to propose that over the next twenty years or so we could eliminate hunger, homelessness, inequitable health care and education and environmental degradation in this country and much of the rest of the world.  Now those are the kind of bold initiatives that can get us all working together again.  And wouldn’t that be awesome?! We could all use a little more awe and hope in our vision of the future.
:::
Okay, Okay, I know I am flying at about 5 miles above the surface of the earth right now, talking about our worldview and an idealistic vision for twenty years or more in the future.  So, I’ll bring this back down to ground level and give you an example of what our 7 principles could look like if they were acted upon in the near term.  For that I will tell you more about Van Jones.  In his recent article for “The Nation” magazine, Working Together for a Green New Deal, he relates his own personal evolution as an activist.

When he began working for racial justice and criminal justice reform he used the model for politics many of us learned in the last century, one in which the oppressed rise up and fight against the oppressor. He fought to stop building superjails, to control rogue cops, and the prison lobby whom he saw as the slavers of today.  “Yet at some point it occurred to [him] that what we need is less investment in the fight against and more energy in the fight for: for positive alternatives to violence and incarceration.”  And he created some alternatives that have really been successful. His center’s “Books Not Bars” campaign is credited with reducing California's overall youth prison population by more than 30 percent. “It was around that time [he] got involved in the environmental movement, and [he] came to understand that the answer to our social, economic and ecological crises can be one and the same: a green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty.”
 
Jones’s center is working with the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies to create the country's first-ever Green Enterprise Zone to attract environmentally sound industry to Oakland; and is starting a "Green Jobs Corps" that will train youth for eco-friendly "green-collar" jobs.  His testimony in Congress helped pass the Green Jobs Act of 2007.   Jones’s approach might be termed eco-populism.  He proposes we “Green the Ghetto First,” as a way to put the poor to work in green jobs giving them hope while at the same time improving the country’s infrastructure and slowing climate change.   He urges us to begin “training and employing a “whole generation of sisters and brothers” coming home from war or sitting on street corners to weatherize, retrofit, and repaint millions of buildings; to install solar panels; to plant millions of trees; and to transform Detroit by making wind turbines instead of gas guzzlers.”   And he has shown it can really work that way.  He says it’s what Al Gore would do if he were a black man.  Jones’s “goal is straightforward: to promote the interests of green capital and technology in a way that spreads the benefits as widely as possible.”   I encourage you to view his Ware Lecture on the UUA website and be inspired by his passionate and hopeful vision.  Also, we have a DVD copy of it in the church library if you would like to borrow it.
:::
I expect that many of you consider yourselves environmentalists, as I do.  Yet in the twenty years since I first joined the Sierra Club, Van Jones’s is the first approach to environmentalism I know about which combines several of our core principles and could be a pragmatic example for the rest of the country to follow.  Maybe its because he brought a unique background and perspective to the issues.  When I lived in Chattanooga I organized a committee to create Greenways on the south end of the city, and worked with leaders of some neighborhoods blighted by industrial pollution and a superfund sight.  My UU minister at the time told me not to go into those neighborhoods like some kind of white knight, purporting to have all the answers, but to instead commit myself to working with and for some of the African American leaders there.  Her advice was right on; I had so much to learn.  The greenway that was built was not what I had in mind, but I have to admit, it was what was needed in that community, and I am glad I listened.

Now we all have a chance to follow an African American leader, and I intend to try to follow his lead.  One of the reasons I am drawn to him is the way he connects with the psyche of the people.  I want a president who has a sense of the feelings stirring in the country and one who can react appropriately in relation to where we are in times of crisis, a lot like a good minister does.  President-elect Obama has articulated a vision for our country that contains many of the things UUs have been yearning for, and I remain hopeful his actions will bring about some of them.  As we prepare to govern, we need to find ways to work with our government, not against it, and be prepared to follow and support our leaders.

On the other hand, I don’t expect our next President to solve all our problems.  Obama is not the Messiah.  Certainly we should let him know when we disagree with him.  He has promised a lot, but he will be constrained by the poor economy and by his plans to escalate the war in Afghanistan.  I see Obama as a Centrist, not nearly as far left as some tried to paint him during the campaign.  He is obviously a gifted politician who seems to be remarkably un-ideological, a true pragmatist.  He routinely seeks out opinions from all sides of an issue.  As the AARP reading suggested, we should keep advocating for solutions to the issues of concern to us.  I believe he will listen.  Parallels continue to be drawn between Obama and Franklin Roosevelt, and with good reason.  Both Presidencies will have begun in a time of deep recession, and as Roosevelt did, Obama will need to make some bold moves to turn things around.  But let us remember that Roosevelt was pushed to make some of his more progressive moves, and pushed hard by the people.  Obama has asked us to keep the pressure on him, and we should accommodate him.  Protest and advocacy have a lot in common, and we already know how to do it.

Another part of preparing to govern along with President Obama is looking at our own assumptions to see if they still fit the current reality.  Some of our historical approaches to societal problems may no longer fit the emerging American paradigm.  Our UU approach to racism is a perfect example.  As UUs we have long had a commitment to end racism in our personal lives, in our churches and in American society.  Obama’s almost “Post-racial” candidacy was for me another time when an African American showed me to a new approach to one of the country’s intransigent problems.  Because of his candidacy, not necessarily in ways he planned, some pretty amazing progress was made on race relations.  Right here in Ohio, where race surfaced as an issue around kitchen tables, in workplaces and union halls, there were many debates about whether someone would vote for a black man.  And to our great credit, at the same time racism’s ugliness came to the surface a whole lot of brand-new anti-racism activists were born.  When “An uncle used an epithet, a best friend insisted Obama was a Muslim, or a co-worker forwarded one of the endless loops of emails challenging Obama’s patriotism, and someone on the receiving end, felt their patience snap.”   Many people decided to stand up for the first time and initiated some of the hardest conversations they’d ever had with the people they love.  It seems enough of these conversations were had to make a difference in the election, and although the topic could have been more volatile than it was, we can be grateful for the progress that resulted.  Now, racism is not over, not by a long shot.  “America is, in fact, divided: by race, by party, by class. And these divisions will matter greatly as we grapple with the whirlwind of financial and economic crises, of prospective ecological calamity, of generational and political change,” but maybe something is different in our country.  We should take another look at our UU anti-racism program and do some personal self reflection to assess if we are ready for the current reality of race in America.
:::