 Please join in a moment of centering silence so we can be fully present with each other this morning and Now let's get musically present by turning to the words for our in-gathering hymn, which you'll find inside your order of service With that I wish all of you a pleasant good morning and welcome to another Sunday here at First Unitarian Society It also happens to be Super Bowl Sunday, or as some of us Packer fans might call it Passover I've been waiting a whole year to use that line. I hope I don't have to wait another year anyway Here we are at First Unitarian Society where independent thinkers gather in a safe nurturing and football-free zone to explore issues of social Spiritual and ethical significance as we try to make a difference in this world I'm Steve Goldberg a proud good-looking member of this congregation And I'd like to extend a happy hello to those of you watching and listening at home and a special welcome to any guests Visitors and newcomers if this is your first time at First Unitarian Society. I think you'll find it's a special place And if you'd like to learn more about our special buildings We'll be conducting a guided tour after today's service Just meet over here by the windows after the service and we'll take good care of you Speaking of being good to each other. Let's Silence those pesky electronic devices that we just will not need for the next hour Thanks for doing that speaking of need if you are accompanied today by a youngster and that youngster is worried that you might become fidgety during the services We offer a couple of spots from which you can enjoy the service One is our child haven in the back corner of the auditorium and then there's some comfortable seating right outside the doorway in the commons As is the case every Sunday our service is brought to us by a wonderful team of volunteers and Someday if you join that team you too will hear your name announced from this microphone So our thanks today to David Brails for operating the sound system our thanks to Tom Boykoff for serving as a lay minister today Thank you to Dorot Bergen for greeting us as we arrived Thank you to Pamela McMullen Marty Hollis and Nancy Daley for serving as ushers Our hospitality and coffee are offered and hosted by a rups Nitschke and bis Nitschke John twos made sure that the foliage up here is properly watered and John Powell will be our tour guide after the service a couple of announcements Sunglasses will be for sale a little later on today Hope you enjoy working on your tan during the service If you haven't heard Reverend Everett Mitchell talk about racial justice and criminal justice You're in for a treat if you come here on Tuesday evening to hear Reverend Mitchell He's gonna be talking about that topic a very important topic and again It's Tuesday evening right here at First Unitarian Society The only other announcement is that in 75 days that is Friday April 22nd This entire facility gets turned into one huge cabaret party as the cabaret calendar countdown Continues again 75 days Friday evening April 22nd a musical extravaganza auction fundraising gourmet food and a lot of fun to raise money for that organization We all love so well first Unitarian Society So and by the way, it's not available in stores How many days till April 22nd? 75 Julie they're paying attention already and you haven't even got up here That ends the announcements, please sit back or lean forward to enjoy today's service You'll find that all the words for today's service come from members of the congregation starting with these announcements So please sit back enjoy today's service. I know it will touch your heart Stir your spirit and trigger one or two new thoughts. We're glad you're here. Awesome children I'm a member of FUS, and I'm also a member of ViewSop, which is First Unitarian Society open poetry We meet here every other Monday Tomorrow is one of those Mondays We welcome everybody who's here and any friends that they have that's why it's called open poetry and Today I'm gonna read a poem by my friend Ray Rachel who Who wrote this to support today's theme? She's a great poet. So I'm proud to read this. It's called when we're together When we're together a poem is just words We can hold it in our hands and crunch it like marbles Spoken it's like magic a giving away a voice It gives life to the specks of light in a dusty room or the way children tie their shoes It cradles the reader in nameless It makes breath love When we get together we're small four maybe five Unitarians Universalists and poets we read our lives in our lines. We power our hopes and claim our fears After two years. We see the beauty in each other similes and trust each other to title the impossible Just like here in this room right now We're heard We're mighty We're everything a Poem is just words, but it gives strength to the quiet It's music for the ideal its truth to the untold When we get together we're small, but we're here We're all We're an orchestra of peace Okay, if you would please rise in mind and or spirit We will now light the chalice as we kindle this flame May it spark in each of us connection and commitment To this living tradition and to each other Now if you would please turn in exchange friendly greetings to your neighbors. Thanks Just be seated and I would like to welcome any children who would like to hear a story up to the front Today's story is really special because it was written and Illustrated by Ross Woodward who was a member of our congregation Isn't that cool the cool giraffe? So this story is called the King's headache, and I hope that you can see the illustrations It's really sunny in here, but Ross drew these pictures and wrote these words, which I think is pretty cool There was once a king of a very big kingdom and one night he woke with a huge headache He tossed and he turned so much he woke up the queen What is it my dear? The king said people are pounding on the palace doors. They don't want to help pay for the good things I'm trying to give them like bridges and roads and clean water It is the only way I can pay for the whole kingdom and the whole kingdom is fighting over it I don't know what to do. I think my head is splitting in two The queen jumped out of bed the king's head she cried call for a doctor The maid woke the doctor who came in and looked at the king felt his pulse listened to his heart and said I see no evidence that the king's head is splitting in two Meanwhile the chambermaid had heard this so she ran to the kitchen to alert the cook who told the shoe cleaning boy Who related to the stable boy who told the horse? The king's head is splitting in two because the whole kingdom is fighting Now perched in the rafter of the stable was a little screech owl that was woken up by the racket She overheard the stable boy shook herself awake and then very upset took off Immediately even though it was the middle of the day and she was a night owl This seemed to be important She flew towards the peaceful mountains of the east and on the way she told every bird she met The king's head is splitting into because the whole kingdom is fighting Pretty soon the entire bird kingdom was chattering and screeching about the king's headache It was such a ruckus that birds were flapping around everywhere and Everybody was upset throughout the kingdom Folks even stopped fighting with each other To figure out what was going on Meanwhile the little owl had flown east she landed at a little shack in a small village in a valley in the peaceful mountains There was an old woman who tended her garden and eaked out a poor existence by helping her neighbors doing whatever she could The owl screeched out the message about the king's headache. Oh Dear this is very serious. She muttered. I must make my way to the palace right away She packed a little bag and started out in the long journey to the castle and as she walked She saw and heard all the birds screeching this message the king's head is splitting in two No, I know right Nonsense she told them it's all the worries and cares in his head if all of your kingdom was fighting You'd have a headache too Pretty soon. She arrived at the edge of the fighting kingdom People had now stopped fighting with each other But we're fighting with all of the birds that were trying to yell about the king's headache What now one of the old woman's gifts was that she knew how to talk to birds and animals So she sat in the middle of the first town square She entered and called all the sparrows and pigeons and starlings and anything else that would listen The town's people stopped fighting in amazement the old woman explained the problem and a town meeting was called To figure out how to stop all this fighting for good It took a lot of work because they were used to yelling at one another about what they had About they were used to learning. Excuse me. They were used to yelling at one another that they had to learn to do something else Particularly they had to learn to listen to each other And find a way to be helpful instead of hurtful and it is not easy to learn new habits Everywhere she went the old woman taught the towns and villages about the king's headache And by the time she reached the palace many months later the birds were carrying messages of peace from the east The king was still tossing and turning the doctors were still unable to treat the headache The queen was still worried and the message had not yet reached the palace So one morning the old woman knocked on the door of the stable and she told the stable boy Who told the shoe cleaning boy who told the cook who told the chambermaid who related to the doctor who told the queen and She said to the king My dear Your kingdom is no longer fighting. Let us go out and see this marvelous thing So the king stopped tossing and turning and went outside to breathe the fresh air of his new Peaceful kingdom. He saw people smiling and help and helping and playing with one another and His headache evaporated Yeah, it's almost the end Well, a couple more sentences. He saw the people Smiling and helping and playing and his headache evaporated like dew in the sunshine the next day he issued a Proclamation to ask for help to build bridges and roads and houses and schools and all the other things that are needed for a peaceful kingdom and The people pooled their resources and talents and pretty soon all the things the king had worried about were taking care of a Few people few people ever knew about the magical old lady from the east who talked about the birds and understood about splitting headaches But now you know and now you know how to take care of these problems And I hope that you do So we're gonna think we should listen to the children's choir one more time. What do you guys think? Yeah, let's listen to the hymn later. I Think we can clap have a great time at your classes Last week I did something a little bit risky And I asked all of you to send me your dreams and visions of a world that you wanted to live in And I wondered if I would get any responses and then I realized that I forgot who I was dealing with You all sent me such Beautiful amazing visions of the future that I have actually been able to fill this entire service with your words The opening reading this reading now the benediction and many things in the actual message Come from your visions of the world that you want to live in and I wanted to share two visions right now that were Particularly well thought out and detailed One of them is very specific about f us one of them is wider with world implications They get a little bit political some of them have financial Suggestions and I want to let you know that these are a couple of the many visions f us is not endorsing any of the Ideas in either of these but there are some amazing ideas If only for the fact that they are your visions of the future by 2025 or sooner I want to live in a country where everyone has a guaranteed minimum income My role in working toward this world is as a founder a founding member of the minimum income co-op started by the first Unitarian society in Madison, Wisconsin in 2015 in 2015 f us invited everyone in the f us community to make two pledges The first was to the f us annual campaign the annual campaign was a huge success Because of this where the total pledges for the 2015 2016 fiscal year was 15% higher than had been pledged to the previous year and because of this increase in budget F us was able to offer more Programming raise the salaries of current staff members and add additional staff These additional funds helped f us to be a force for good in Madison and in Dane County What really got everyone's attention though was the request for a second pledge This additional pledge pooled money from f f us congregants and was Distributed directly to a family in Madison with no strings attached This idea came from the long-running family to family Christmas where hundreds of f us congregants Donate their time and treasures to provide holiday gifts to struggling families in the Madison area Using a similar strategy the congregation agreed to support a family throughout the year to help them meet their basic needs Rather than just a one-time gift around the holidays Like family to family the recipients of the support were selected by a social worker At first f us could only afford to support one family But as word got out more people pledged to the co-op and f us was able to add One additional family to the co-op each year this program not only helped the recipient families It also demonstrated how families who had economic security could thrive in fact Many of the early families that benefited from the program were able to increase their earned income and They were able to withdraw as recipients of the co-op and became modest contributors instead this model also caught on with other faith communities in Madison and soon dozens of Congregations were pledging to support area families as well Currently in 2025 the Dane County Board is discussing a proposal to raise tax funds to fund a similar program and bring families up to a Minimum level of income once famous for high incarceration rates of people of color Dane County is now leading the country in innovative programs to decrease economic inequality So that was 2025 and now we move forward to 2067 Climate change this is a different person writing Climate change has brought a great deal of change to the planet Thankfully the rapid proliferation of renewable energy resources Mostly owned by community cooperatives and city governments has allowed humanity to keep climate change to less than four degrees Fahrenheit That's very specific The developing countries that's in quotes of the 2000s including the continent of Africa now have large middle classes and Democratic systems of government Remarkably they have avoided the worst polluting forms of industrial development and in many cases They've pioneered new inexpensive energy technologies rather than face exploitation by multinational corporations Which have slowly atrophied as a result China is now the world's most populous democracy following a peaceful transition of power from the Communist Party on This new more balanced world stage The United Nations has finally come into its own in enforcing human rights and environmental protections around the globe in the United States the long conservative drift that began in the 1970s was broken by a coalition of new movements including black lives matter the environmental movement and a newly invigorated labor movement that blossomed in the late 20 teens with mass demonstrations across the nation beginning with the 2016 election of a candidate who truly cares about the people the federal government launched a massive public works program that employed millions of people in retrofitting cities with green technology and Dramatically increased investment in education while cutting back on military spending the two-party system has splintered Allowing people to choose a political choice closer to their own view the old Republican Party is now comprised of the Evangelical Party the Lutheran Party. I'm sorry the Libertarian Party it says Libertarian that was my slip and Business first with an exclamation point to the left exists the progressives the greens and the old Democratic Party The work of repairing the world is by no means complete. There is far more to be done But as those who brought about this change tell each other as they sit on shaded porches The children who have grown up in this world need their own work and have their own dreams Thank you for sharing your dreams Will you rise and sing a hymn with me? Dr. Susan Ritchie is the secretary of the Unitarian Universalist Association She's been a minister in Ohio of a parish for nearly 20 years And she teaches Unitarian Universalist history polity and identity to seminarians at all of our identity schools and She still has problems with her elevator speech She still struggles when people ask her What is Unitarian Universalism and so one day she was at an interfaith event She was talking to a colleague who was not a Unitarian Universalist and she's trying to describe Unitarian Universalist to this colleague and they said well, I know what that is your post-Christian Protestantism and I thought this was great because really that kind of does sum up and describe Unitarian Universalism in one way we started with the Protestant Reformation and then I described this in detail in a sermon in October So I'm not going to get into it But we decided that the hierarchy of the church wasn't exactly what we liked in that Protestant reformation and then the transcendentalists decided that the Bible was not inherent the Inherent Word of God and that even Jesus was unnecessary for all our salvation And then in the 20s the humanists decided that actually we didn't need a tangible anthropomorphic God at all So we are the religion of the constant reformation. We went from Catholicism to humanism in under 500 years That sounds like pretty good reformation to me Or pretty evident reformation. I don't want to say good and I Started using this post-Christian Protestantism post-Christian Protestantism Church of the constant reformation that is us Until I read this book by Rebecca Parker and Rita Nakashima Brock. No relation It was called saving paradise and The thesis of the book was that Christianity gave up this worldview of paradise that the actual Salvific event of Jesus's life was giving us Lessons for a world where we could create paradise here on earth In exchange for the salvific event of Jesus's life being the crucifixion They make the argument in the book that this needed to happen because the empire took over and the Romans were Had a world that was built on slave labor and Gladiatorial events and they needed people to identify with a suffering God more than a God who was sitting in a garden of paradise or else They weren't gonna go for the world as it was very well But when they describe this world when they describe the beginnings of the Christian church From the time of Jesus to the time of Constantine specifically those about 300 years before the Bible was canonized and Before the empire had co-opted Christianity when they described that church I Understand why Christianity has become so prolific and so powerful for so many people And it even makes me want to claim Christianity for my own even though I don't believe in Substitutionary atonement or the idea that we are saved because Jesus died for our sins They describe this world where people who have all kinds of different Theologies and beliefs about Jesus come together in beloved community Because his main message that they repeat over and over again in their rituals and in their stories is That Jesus said to feed and heal the people to come together to love one another Take care of one another and then use those communities to go out in the world and feed and heal the people The rituals of the early church were not only meaningful and beautiful. They were super useful Communion back then was not about just bread and wine in the body of Christ Communion was actually an agape feast people would bring bread and wine But they would also bring produce and grains things to actually feed each other Those who had more would have more would bring more and those who had less would bring less But the remembrance of me when they when they ate and drank and remembrance of him It wasn't in remembrance of how he was going to save your soul It was in remembrance of his message that you needed to feed and heal the people And they had these anointing rituals that were really gorgeous and weren't about wiping away of sin or God's particular blessing They would actually crush up healing herbs in oil and the community would lay hands on each other and Rub this healing solve into the physical and spiritual wounds Even confession which we think of something is sort of shaming nowadays was a beautiful practice rooted in community Confession in the early church Had the purpose of talking to your community about what you were struggling with and what you needed and how you needed help So people didn't say I messed up. I'm bad People said I haven't been acting the way that I want to act Because I'm struggling with alcoholism and I need your guys's help or I'm struggling with greed and this issue And I need your help and when I think of the early church that way it's described basically as a non-higher Archeal gathering of people in beloved community people with diverse Theologies who didn't have one specific creed or dogma and people who wanted to just come together To feed and heal one another and make the world a better place Based on the principles that Jesus of Nazareth taught us When I think about it that way it doesn't sound terribly unfamiliar and I wonder if instead of being The church of post post radical reformation if actually we're just terribly traditional Maybe we just want to bring it back to the original intent of the religion And then I think wait a minute wait a minute in that 300 year period That is the time that Mark Luke Paul and John the guys that wrote the Gospels There were lots of other Gospels, but the guys who wrote the Gospels that got canonized. That's the time that they lived and These this is the church that they encountered and in modern-day Christianity one of the biggest evangelical tenants of the church is actually from the book of Luke and it says go forth and preach the gospel The evangelical sects of Christianity talk about this all the time go forth and preach the gospel But if you read the rest of that Bible phrase, it actually says go forth and preach the gospel to the poor So that we can release the people from prison and have the people not be oppressed anymore And I was like wait a minute So if the gospel right is that Jesus Christ died for our sins and we'll have this salvation. Why are we only telling that to the poor? And what does that have to do with releasing people from prison and I was in seminary at the time So I had a wealth of books that I could go check out It turns out other people thought the same thing as me They thought that it was interesting that this preach the gospel didn't fit with the rest of the Bible verse And it turns out if you go back to the original Greek If you go back to the original Greek, it translates more perfectly into go forth and preach the good news Go forth and preach the good news to the poor That people shall be allowed or people shall be set free from prison and the oppressed shall be set free And if I think about Luke writing in that world Where Jesus was talking about this message of feeding and healing the people where we were actually Trying to create paradise on earth and take care of one another and we weren't all worried about crosses and things like that yet in fact a Picture of Jesus on the cross doesn't show up anywhere anywhere in the Abrahamic the seat the seat of the Abrahamic faiths in the Middle East until 1000 AD before that it's all Jesus in the garden and I think Luke actually had a completely different message Luke had this saving message He was not saying go forth and preach the gospel as it's written in The canonized Bible because there wasn't a canonized Bible back then He was saying go forth and preach the good news that we have the capacity to care for each other and make a better world and Actually funny enough the UUA has the same advice There's a woman named Tandy Rogers in the Unitarian Universalist Association and she is the growth Specialist of the Unitarian Universalist Association and she spent years conducting a study on Churches that are growing rapidly and She wondered what these churches might have in common because they were all different sizes to begin with They came from all kinds of places geographically and had all kinds of different demographic makeups and different budgets and Felt lots of different places on the theological spectrum. So she's like why are these particular churches who don't appear to have anything in common the ones that are growing and She found out that there was actually a specific thing that all of them had in common all of them had a saving message that they had thought about and Lived out in the world and they had a preacher or a minister or a pastor Who had incorporated that message into their theology and talked about it regularly? And I heard this at a GA workshop and I thought What the heck is a saving message in Unitarian Universalism? That doesn't make any sense to me And then I thought about this good news this good news and I thought about it in other contexts of other faiths outside of Christianity because While good news is a very specifically Christian phrase All faiths have some sort of hopeful message that is good news if you believe in that faith, right? The Buddhists say there's suffering on the planet, but good news if you can detach from it and understand that it's Impermanent you can achieve this state of enlightenment the Muslim folks would say if you good news if you believe in Allah and worship him and follow his laws Which are mostly about taking care of each other Then you can you will be rewarded the Jewish folks the older more orthodox Jewish folks might say good news We are of a chosen people and there is a Messiah coming and More humanist more reformed Jewish folks might say good news We are part of a long legacy of wisdom and we have everything we need here on earth to take care of one another The Wiccan folks might say the universe is part of a continual flow, but good news You have the ability to have personal agency and direct a small part of that flow So there's good news all around in all of these religions and I thought okay, so what is our good news? What is our saving message? and it occurred to me That all of these good news is all of these saving messages They kind of had a similar theme There is something larger than yourself that you can personally hook into To help you live your best life to bring you good things to help save the world And it kind of reminds me that it's not really that different than our first and seventh principles is it? Every human being has worth and dignity and we are part of an interdependent web Every soul is important and we are all connected You are part of something larger than yourself and you are inexorable and necessary to it or Maybe more simply put Your voice is necessary and you are welcome here Your voice is necessary and you are welcome here If I think back on my own life being raised unitarian universe list That message has saved me in many ways many times How amazing if everyone had a place where they knew that their voice was important and they were welcome and The great thing about those principles is they don't exclude the specifics of any of the other Theologies in fact they enhance them you can believe that you have personal magical agency Or that you need detachment to reach enlightenment and it doesn't Counteract the message that every soul is important and we are all connected That may be a pretty saving message But saved from what? See that's another problem right with those words with those very Christian words because our unitarian side sort of gave up That whole idea of salvation and atonement But our universalist side didn't in fact You can't have a religion that is based on universal salvation Without the salvation part But they did reform what that meant There's a man named Clarence Skinner who's one of my faves And he wrote in 1915 the social implications of universalism It's an essay. It's not really a book But it's a longer essay and I'd say for the first third of it He rails on about how we have gotten it so wrong We've gotten it so wrong this idea that we can do things on this planet and then pay for them in the after life But that's not it at all that we are all connected so that actually on this earth we create our own Retribution for our actions And you can see it when we don't take care of one another in the pockets of humanity that are poor in the pockets of Humanity that aren't given the health care that they need in the pockets of humanity that are degraded based on any kind of identity that is marginalized in Essence when we don't take care of one another we create hell on earth and That is why and since we are all connected Since what happens to me is also effect also affects what happens to you We have to work towards a vision of the world Where we all take care of one another we have to preach Luke's message And so I asked you last week to give me your visions of the world I asked you to write out how you thought that we could possibly achieve this dream And I realized two things and then had a wondering and the first thing that I realized is that I did not need to give this sermon today I Didn't because you guys basically get it I mean I heard so many stories and so many visions of a world where every voice Matters you talked about it in different ways Whether it be democracy or a totally non hierarchical system Which I thought was kind of cool because last week I talked about Octavia Butler and Her actual idea in the book that I talked about was that the main flaw of the human race was that they were hierarchical and I don't know if the person that wrote about hierarchy knew that but it was a cool interplay and I thought I'd share You guys also got the idea that we are all connected you talked about all of the Relationships that you had you talked about how you had to reach out beyond your own sphere of comfort and Knowledge to connect with a wide breath of humanity before you could see the full spectrum of What is possible within our human selves and it was really really beautiful The other thing that I got from your stories Was a kind of courage that is beyond the go forth and tell it on the mountain speak truth to power kind of Courage that I've sort of been talking about I talked last week about the courage of Harriet Tubman and sojourner Truth and people that are crusading for a better world and You all said yes and We also need to work on ourselves and The best way to do that is to learn to be vulnerable It was kind of an amazing message and I'm really glad that you guys ministered to me this week Some of you talked about Relationships that you had with people in marginalized communities and you even said in this open way That these people would talk about their discriminations And you said I don't actually even see that But I'm gonna trust this person's experience Some of you talked about your discomfort with some of the things that are going on in the world specifically with things like interruption demonstrations and You said and and some of you talked specifically about how the Black Lives Matter movement was anti-police and that bothered you and Then you said But I wonder I wonder if I'm uncomfortable with these things because they have benefited me I Wonder if I'm uncomfortable with the criticizing of systems That have actually helped me because of my own privilege Those weren't my words. They were yours and They're prophetic and they're beautiful Because really we don't know what it's like to walk in another person's shoes if you're female That you understand that the best Intentioned males the most feminist males don't understand what it's daily like to walk through the world in a woman's body If you are economically oppressed even the most left-wing radical economic well-meaning well-off people Don't know what it's like don't have that gripping fear of not knowing how you're gonna pay rent at the end of the month and I know that I certainly don't understand what it would be like and I'm not reminded on a daily basis of What a life would be like if I couldn't walk around up here right now If I couldn't easily go grab a book from my bookshelf to read all the things that I'm talking about I Don't know I care. I sympathize I try to empathize but there's a level where I just can't share that experience and you all reminded me You all reminded me that in our visions of the world We need to deeply learn to listen to one another about our experiences And to radically believe each other's stories So that gets to my final wondering. I wonder if you do I Wonder if you talk about these things. I wonder if they shit you share them with each other I wonder if you have debates about what you can do to really bring about the visions of the world that you wrote to me about I Hope that you do they were beautiful Erin Winkler talked to us a couple weeks ago in a series called children are not colorblind how to talk to your kids about race She is a excuse me She's a professor at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and she said we can't ever Really talk to our kids about the issues of the world unless we practice those conversations with each other May this be a place where those conversations can be practiced because from what I learned this week You all have amazing points and you all are really good ministers May it be so I Personally have a vision of the world where women don't have a don't have trouble getting access to reproductive health care and so today we are going to again take a Offering for Planned Parenthood. Please hold CC Boliard and Susan Miller in your hearts on the death of Susan's niece and CC's sister-in-law On Friday Lisa West's father Jim Vogelsberger died from Alzheimer's disease For the past eight years He has been a model of living with acceptance while loving the good things in life that were still available to him a Grace hospice was very helpful to the family and we are grateful to them and To end on a high note Congratulations to our own Steve Goldberg Honor Goldberg honored as an agent of change for his organization in Cuna and the community by best of Madison 2016 Can we get a hand for Steve is apparently not only a good-looking and active member of this congregation But of the whole community Each week we are given an opportunity to Write our cares in a book that is placed in the commons. Please do so if you have something that you would like to share and Now please rise and join me for our final hymn Number 1028 the fire of commitment. Please be seated. I'd like to share one more Reflection from the congregation with you It would be great if we made a concerted effort to read and learn about Reconstruction the periods of old and now the new Jim Crow in America the great migration, etc There are lots of good books available But we can't stop there We need to push ourselves to be uncomfortable to be courageous to reach out to find ways to connect Attend the offerings of the FUS equity team in Moses visit Reverend Everett Mitchell's church per his invitation over a year ago Read you Moja or hues publications get involved with our new local chapter of the NAACP Help out with our UW odyssey project volunteer to work the Juneteenth celebration Volunteer at Madison elementary school. Oh, there are so many possibilities Looking out at you all I have to conclude that this person is right Share your dreams with one another today and beyond Go in peace return in love and please remain seated for the postlude