HOMILY: DECLARATION OF INTERDEPENDENCE
Hope Unitarian Church
July 1, 2012
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Anyone recognize this poem? Yes, it’s on the Statue of Liberty. It’s The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus and it was written in 1883.
Where is this land? The mother of exiles? Where is the place that takes in the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free? Would you harbor me?
This week, as we prepare to celebrate the birthday of this country we all hold so dear, I cannot help but wish that it would live up to its own dreams.I cannot help but promise to continue to work towards the vision of a united states that I can be proud of.
Perhaps the ways in which our country falls short of its own ideals are particularly on my mind this week, having just returned from Phoenix where our national gathering of Unitarian Universalists met a little differently this year. General Assembly moved outside of the convention center this year. And it invited others to join us in our work.
For the past two years, UU’s in Arizona had been preparing for our convergence in Phoenix by partnering with local, grassroots organizations that are working for human rights and comprehensive immigration reform. These partner organizations met with us in the plenary hall at GA, led workshops and witnessed with us all around the city. Our biggest event was an interfaith vigil outside Tent City, an outdoor prison where the temperatures have been recorded as high as 140 degrees.
When SB1070 went into effect in 2010, Tent City was expanded to provide space for the detainees who were picked up for not having the proper documentation. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio invited some of our leaders in to visit the jail. Rev. Bill Schulz, President of the UU Service Committee and former president of the UUA and Amnesty International, was appalled by the conditions and compared it to developing countries which are notorious for human rights violations. And this was after it had been cleaned up for their visit.
Rev. Leslie Takahashi Morris, minister of our congregation in Walnut Creek, CA, told of how looking into the eyes of the incarcerated people she could not help but think of her father who was put into an internment camp in Arizona during WWII. Though they were told that they would be put into lockdown if they spoke to our delegation, imprisoned people told of being repeatedly denied water after working all day while in the three digit heat. And for those who were brought in during one of Sheriff Joe’s ICE raids, the laws they have broken are at the same level as a speeding ticket.
Immigration is becoming more and more criminalized, as the prison industrial complex rises into power more and more, but let us remember that it is a civil infraction along the lines of a moving violation in your car. And yet, this is how we welcome the poor, huddled masses. We have created a place of fear. I wonder what we are so afraid of?
Perhaps some are so terribly afraid that people will find out that The Doctrine of Discovery, on which we still base the so-called legal theft of the land we now call the United States of America, is still on the books as law and has been used at recently as 2010 to continue to assert that we have more right the indigenous land that those who have lived here for generations longer than we have.
The Doctrine of Discovery is the papal bull that legalized the colonization of land already inhabited. It states that white Christians have the right to “discover” land if its inhabitants are not white Christians and it further allows for the killing of its people if they will not leave their land peacefully. The Doctrine of Discovery was one of the most significant agenda items at this years GA. By a strong majority, we voted to repudiate it. Through this action, we take a strong stand against the continuation of the lie that it was ok for my ancestors and perhaps some of yours to have stolen the land and in many cases the lives of other people. And through it we also send a message that we, as a religious body, will not stand for the Doctrine of Discovery to remain law any longer.
We cannot go back and change the past, but we must speak out that we know now that what happened was not acceptable. We know better now. We have learned that all life is sacred. That no matter what we worship or do not worship, we are sacred human beings. We cannot continue to allow people to be treated as any less than what we know them to be, children of creation, beautiful blessings all. We must love Americans. Whether our backlogged and broken immigration system has recognized each of them yet.
Our faith calls us to love all of humanity. Our faith calls us to create a land that truly welcomes those in need. To harbor those who are in danger. To think of others. Our faith calls us to build a land where we bind us the broken. Where justice shall roll down like water, quenching the desert of Arizona, the desert of this country that is thirsting for justice. Let peace come, like an ever flowing stream. Let us witness to that vision. To that vision of a country that we can truly be proud of and celebrate with full hearts.
This is my home. The country where my heart is. But I cannot stand by and watch as it does not live up to what it is called to be. I cannot stand by where our own sense of independence has overwritten our sense of connection.
On this fourth of July, I will celebrate our interdependence. I will celebrate the ways in which you bring joy to me heart. And the help that I have received on my journey. I will celebrate that my family has not been separated and does not live in fear that we may be scattered and unable to see each other. I will not celebrate how each of us is independent and finds our success completely on our own, for this illusion will continue us on a path of destruction. I will celebrate how much we need one another, how much we need the migrant workers who pick the food that we eat each day. I will celebrate all of the blessings in my life that I did not earn. With humility. This is how I will spend the birthday of my home.
Amen.
July 1, 2012
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Anyone recognize this poem? Yes, it’s on the Statue of Liberty. It’s The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus and it was written in 1883.
Where is this land? The mother of exiles? Where is the place that takes in the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free? Would you harbor me?
This week, as we prepare to celebrate the birthday of this country we all hold so dear, I cannot help but wish that it would live up to its own dreams.I cannot help but promise to continue to work towards the vision of a united states that I can be proud of.
Perhaps the ways in which our country falls short of its own ideals are particularly on my mind this week, having just returned from Phoenix where our national gathering of Unitarian Universalists met a little differently this year. General Assembly moved outside of the convention center this year. And it invited others to join us in our work.
For the past two years, UU’s in Arizona had been preparing for our convergence in Phoenix by partnering with local, grassroots organizations that are working for human rights and comprehensive immigration reform. These partner organizations met with us in the plenary hall at GA, led workshops and witnessed with us all around the city. Our biggest event was an interfaith vigil outside Tent City, an outdoor prison where the temperatures have been recorded as high as 140 degrees.
When SB1070 went into effect in 2010, Tent City was expanded to provide space for the detainees who were picked up for not having the proper documentation. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio invited some of our leaders in to visit the jail. Rev. Bill Schulz, President of the UU Service Committee and former president of the UUA and Amnesty International, was appalled by the conditions and compared it to developing countries which are notorious for human rights violations. And this was after it had been cleaned up for their visit.
Rev. Leslie Takahashi Morris, minister of our congregation in Walnut Creek, CA, told of how looking into the eyes of the incarcerated people she could not help but think of her father who was put into an internment camp in Arizona during WWII. Though they were told that they would be put into lockdown if they spoke to our delegation, imprisoned people told of being repeatedly denied water after working all day while in the three digit heat. And for those who were brought in during one of Sheriff Joe’s ICE raids, the laws they have broken are at the same level as a speeding ticket.
Immigration is becoming more and more criminalized, as the prison industrial complex rises into power more and more, but let us remember that it is a civil infraction along the lines of a moving violation in your car. And yet, this is how we welcome the poor, huddled masses. We have created a place of fear. I wonder what we are so afraid of?
Perhaps some are so terribly afraid that people will find out that The Doctrine of Discovery, on which we still base the so-called legal theft of the land we now call the United States of America, is still on the books as law and has been used at recently as 2010 to continue to assert that we have more right the indigenous land that those who have lived here for generations longer than we have.
The Doctrine of Discovery is the papal bull that legalized the colonization of land already inhabited. It states that white Christians have the right to “discover” land if its inhabitants are not white Christians and it further allows for the killing of its people if they will not leave their land peacefully. The Doctrine of Discovery was one of the most significant agenda items at this years GA. By a strong majority, we voted to repudiate it. Through this action, we take a strong stand against the continuation of the lie that it was ok for my ancestors and perhaps some of yours to have stolen the land and in many cases the lives of other people. And through it we also send a message that we, as a religious body, will not stand for the Doctrine of Discovery to remain law any longer.
We cannot go back and change the past, but we must speak out that we know now that what happened was not acceptable. We know better now. We have learned that all life is sacred. That no matter what we worship or do not worship, we are sacred human beings. We cannot continue to allow people to be treated as any less than what we know them to be, children of creation, beautiful blessings all. We must love Americans. Whether our backlogged and broken immigration system has recognized each of them yet.
Our faith calls us to love all of humanity. Our faith calls us to create a land that truly welcomes those in need. To harbor those who are in danger. To think of others. Our faith calls us to build a land where we bind us the broken. Where justice shall roll down like water, quenching the desert of Arizona, the desert of this country that is thirsting for justice. Let peace come, like an ever flowing stream. Let us witness to that vision. To that vision of a country that we can truly be proud of and celebrate with full hearts.
This is my home. The country where my heart is. But I cannot stand by and watch as it does not live up to what it is called to be. I cannot stand by where our own sense of independence has overwritten our sense of connection.
On this fourth of July, I will celebrate our interdependence. I will celebrate the ways in which you bring joy to me heart. And the help that I have received on my journey. I will celebrate that my family has not been separated and does not live in fear that we may be scattered and unable to see each other. I will not celebrate how each of us is independent and finds our success completely on our own, for this illusion will continue us on a path of destruction. I will celebrate how much we need one another, how much we need the migrant workers who pick the food that we eat each day. I will celebrate all of the blessings in my life that I did not earn. With humility. This is how I will spend the birthday of my home.
Amen.