 Please join me in a moment of centering silence and now Please remain seated as we sing our in-gathering hymn number 396 words appear in your order of service Good morning and welcome to the first Unitarian Society of Madison a community where curious seekers seek to explore Spiritual ethical and social issues in an accepting and nurturing environment Unitarian Universalism supports the freedom of conscience of each individual as together we seek to be a force for good in the world my name is Jim Jim O'Brien And on behalf of the congregation I would like to extend a special welcome to visitors We are a welcoming congregation So whomever you are and wherever you happen to be on your life journey We celebrate your presence among us Newcomers are encouraged to stay for our fellowship hour after the service and visit the library which is straight across the commons area behind the service area here and Bring your drinks and your questions Members of our staff and lay ministers will be on hand to welcome you You may also look for persons holding teal stone coffee mugs These are FUS members knowledgeable about our faith community who would welcome visiting with you and Experienced guides are usually available Understand they are available today to give you a tour of our facility after each service So if you'd like to learn more about this sustainably designed edition or our national landmark meeting house Please meet near the large glass window on your left of the auditorium We welcome children to stay for the duration of the service However, because it is sometimes difficult for some to hear in this lively acoustical environment our child Haven which is back there and the commons area are excellent places to retire the child needs to move or talk a Service can still be seen and heard from those areas This would also be a good time to turn off all devices that might cause a disturbance during the hours especially cell phone ringers I Would now like to acknowledge those individuals who help our services run smoothly Our most important person of course is David Braille's the sound operator Our lay minister is Tom Boykoff our greeter is René Rice our ushers our Melinda Carr John McEvna and Nancy Daley and The hospitality in process right now is being run by Helen McEvna and I think our tour guide today will be a John Powell. Oh, I don't recall seeing him yet Somewhere out there. All right Please note note the announcements in the red floors insert in your order of service Which describe upcoming events of society and provide more information about today's activities again? Welcome. We hope today's service will stimulate your mind touch your heart and stir your spirit Just tradition To this house this morning We bring our boldest dreams seeking here the inspiration the strength and the synergy to bring those dreams into being May we renew our commitment to serving that which is highest and most ennobling and In the spirit of mutual trust abiding faith and overflowing generosity Let us rededicate ourselves to a ministry of hope and of healing for all I invite you to rise in body or in spirit for the lighting of our chalice Come right on up Jim And if you won't join me now in reading our words of affirmation May this time of worship be a time of gathering and in gathering a Time of renewal a time to rediscover hope optimism and commitment in this house of the spirit We gather to affirm the potential we all share for building community for undertaking constructive change For engaging in moral and ethical growth for achieving greater humanity than we have known May our hearts find sensitivity May our minds find wisdom and may our souls find peace as we seek Communion with the mystery of being Now I invite you to turn to your neighbor in exchange with him on this fine morning a warm and friendly greeting Please be seated and if we have children that would like to join me in the front for the message for all ages So this story is called the boy who was afraid to try have any of you ever been afraid to try something Yeah, maybe like playing a musical instrument You've been afraid to try something Tamara Or maybe your your your parents say here is a here's a new food. I know you'll really like it You said ooh that doesn't look very good to me Well, this is about a little boy who was afraid to try and it's a story from Africa from the country of Uganda So once upon a time in a village there lived a potter a man who made pots out of clay and his wife And they had a little boy whose name was kumba now kumba was kind of small for his age And so when he played with the other children in the village He often couldn't do the things that they could do and so well They teased him anybody ever been teased You might know how he felt like that and so because he didn't like this teasing kumba began to play by himself But the more he stayed away from the other children the more afraid of those children he became and the more lonesome he felt He wanted so badly to be somebody But he was afraid of doing even very simple things because he was afraid that other people might laugh at him and tease him He wouldn't even try to make bowls and vases out of clay like his father did because he was afraid his father would say Kumba, you know your bowls aren't very good And so he spent most of his days walking in the fields and the woods all by himself Dreaming and wishing that someday he would be very wise and very great But he was afraid to learn how and the people of the village they kind of look at each other and they say oh Poor kumba. He must be really stupid Well one evening kumba was in a really bad mood you can understand why right? And so he wandered off into the woods by himself and the sun was hanging low in the sky Was about to set and he came to a hillside in a clearing and he could watch the red glow of the clouds as the sun Went down and he sat down and he covered his face with his hands And he was so sad that he began to cry But then guess who came out of the woods a lion Lion came out of the woods didn't eat him said What are you doing here little boy? I? Am feeling so bad kumba replied. I want to be wise and great, but I don't know whether I'm bright or whether I'm just a fool Well What are you thinking about all the time? I? Just think about how sorry for myself. I am Then you are a fool said the lion People who are wise think about what they can be doing for other people And the why and the lion walked back into the into the woods But then before long another animal came out of the woods an antelope Leaping over onto the hillside and he asked kumba. What are you doing here little boy? Feeling miserable kumba replied. I want so badly to be wise and great, but I'm afraid I just a weak fool What do you eat asked the antelope looking at kumba's thin legs? My mother cooks me two meals every day, and I really like them, and I eat them all up said kumba Do you ever thank your mother asked the antelope? No said kumba. I don't remember to Then you are a fool said the antelope all wise people thank the other people who do nice things for them And the antelope bounded down the hillside Then a third animal came out of the woods an elephant and the elephant looked down at little kumba and said What are you doing here little boy? And what do we think that kumba said he repeated the same complaint to the elephant about how miserable he was how Fearful he was how he thought he might be a fool Well said the elephant what kind of work do you do I? Don't do any work said kumba Then you are a fool said the elephant all wise people work and with a disgusted twist of his tail He ambled down the hill Now at this point kumba was ready to burst into tears again, but then he heard this small gentle voice from right beside him What are you doing here said a little gray rabbit? I'm feeling miserable said kumba. I want so much to be wise, but all the animals tell me that I'm a fool And for a moment the rabbit didn't say anything and just let kumba cry And then the rabbit said well what what animals told you you were a fool And so kumba said well the lion and the antelope and the elephant little gray rabbit nodded her head and What did they tell you? What are they saying to you? Well, they said that I don't think about other people and I don't thank my mother when she cooks for me And I don't do any work Then you are a fool said the rabbit For those animals are telling you the truth No more words passed between kumba and the little rabbit for a long time Began to get dark and the rabbit invited kumba to come over and to sleep next to his hole He said you'll be safe there for tonight And so kumba followed the rabbit when he laid down in the soft grass in the dark And he began to think to himself. Maybe maybe I should be a little more courageous And he went to sleep In the next morning he got up and he thought to himself You know what? If I have been a fool before I'm not gonna be a fool any longer And so we walked back to the village came into his mother's house Hi mother. He said with a cheery smile Sat down to breakfast was really good Said thank you afterwards then she went out to work in the garden. He followed her and she was hoeing in the garden Mom, do you have another hoe? She got another hoe for him and he began to work with her in the garden And then after they finished gardening for the morning He went out and he started to play tag with the other little boys and girls in the village and no He couldn't keep up with him. He wasn't as fast as they were but he didn't give up Then in the afternoon he went in where his father was making pots and he looked and he looked and said Father could I try making a pot? I know it's probably not going to be very good But I'd like to learn how to do this and his father helped him to make his first pot And as the days and the weeks passed Kumbha felt less and less afraid and he even began to be curious about some things and one day He asked his father's father Where do you get all these wonderful colors that you use to paint your pots and his father said kumbha come with me And they went out into the fields and they gathered plants and flowers and he washed this his father ground those up to make paint to paint his pots with So the years went by and kumbha grew to be a man and his father became an old man and Kumbha at that point in time had become the village's best potter And people came from miles around to buy his beautiful pots, which were not like anybody else's pots But what what pleased kumbha more than all the money he was getting for those pots was the fact that now his neighbors They liked him they admired him and they would say to themselves as they passed by him making his pots You know that kumbha is really great and really wise So that's the story of kumbha and I hope you enjoyed it and I hope that you will go out and prepare yourself to be great and wise We're gonna sing you out Alexander is a professor at Ohio State University are the one social group in America that we all have permission to hate In colorblind America criminals are the new whipping boy Criminals today are deemed a characterless and Purposeless people deserving our collective scorn and contempt When we say that someone was treated like a criminal What we mean to say is that he or she was treated as less than human And not only are African Americans far more likely to be labeled criminals They are also strongly affected by the stigma of a criminal record Black men convicted of felonies are the least likely to receive job offers of any demographic group An ethnographic work suggests that employers have fear of violence by black men Relative to other groups of applicants and they act on those fears when they are making hiring decisions Employers may be consciously or unconsciously treating all black men as if they had a criminal record Effectively putting all or most of them in the same position as black offenders Now many ex-offenders will tell you that the formal mechanisms of exclusion That's not the worst of it the shame The stigma that follows you for the rest of your life. That is the worst but One need not be formally convicted by a court of law to be subject to this shame and this stigma As long as you look like As long as you seem like a criminal you are treated with the same suspicion and contempt Practically from cradle to grave black males in urban ghettos are treated like current or future criminals Today when those labeled criminals return to their communities they are often met with scorn and contempt not not just by employers Not just by social workers and housing officials But also by their neighbors their teachers and even members of their own families Young black males in their teens are often told You will never amount to anything. You'll just find yourself back in jail just like your father Not so subtle suggestion that there is this shameful defect that lies deep within them at an inherited trait Now none of this is to suggest that those who break the law bear no Responsibility for their conduct or that they exist merely as a product of their environment To deny the individual agency of those caught up in the system their capacity to overcome these seemingly Insurmountable odds that would be to deny an essential element of their humanity We as human beings are not simply animals or organisms that respond to stimuli. We have a higher self We are all capable of transcendence and Yet our ability to exercise free will and to transcend the most extraordinary obstacles That does not make the conditions of our lives irrelevant We all know that even small challenges Breaking a bad habit sticking to a diet often proves too difficult even for those of us who are relatively privileged and comfortable in our daily lives And so considering the way that our criminal justice system now works and the disproportionate burden that it places on African Americans It is truly astonishing That so many people labeled criminals Still manage to care for and to feed their children still manage to hold their marriages together Still manage to obtain employment or start businesses And perhaps the most heroic are those who upon release launch social justice Organizations that then challenge the discrimination that ex-offenders face and that provide desperately needed support for those newly released from prison and these heroes unfortunately go largely unnoticed Unnoticed by politicians who prefer to blame those who fail Rather than to praise with admiration and awe those who manage somehow and despite those insurmountable odds to survive the second reading It's a very short poem from the Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes I too sing America. I Am the darker brother They send me to the kitchen to eat when company comes I laugh and I eat well and I grow strong Tomorrow I'll be at the table when company comes and nobody will dare say to me eat in the kitchen then Besides They'll see how beautiful I am and they'll be ashamed Because I too am America clean the spittoon boy, Chicago Atlantic City Palm Beach Clean the spittoon and the steam of hotel lobbies and the smoke of hotel kitchen Hotels between part of my life a dollar Two dollars a day. Hey, boy a nickel a dime a dollar two dollars for the baby rent to pay gin on Saturday on Sunday gin in church and women and Sunday in dollars and clean Spittoon house rent to pay says Thank You Christian on a rare free Sunday Sometime last spring I've entered over to Madison's east side to attend the 11 o'clock service at Christ the Solid Rock Baptist Church This is the congregation as some of you know that is Presided over by the Reverend Everett Mitchell Reverend Mitchell preaches on most Sundays, but for him. This is definitely a part-time gig Because during the week he directs UW Madison's office of university relations. I Have sat in on services at this predominantly African-American church on several occasions having accepted Reverend Mitchell's challenge to us white folks that we Move out of our comfort zone from time to time That we experience what it's like to be in the minority Putting ourselves in a context where black people run the show and where they control the social norms. I Have to concede that this can feel rather disconcerting at first But then of course I know that after two hours on a Sunday morning I will re-enter this white dominated world that is for all extensive purposes My oyster now Everett Mitchell is a powerful and persuasive preacher and despite the many Explicitly Christian references. I find his message is compelling and on this occasion He expressed concern about the tendency in many Christian circles to dwell on Adam's fall and the grim consequences for humankind that inheritance of corruption and depravity that the first father bestowed upon us Such teachings Mitchell suggested can cause us to lose faith in ourselves We are all too prone to dwell on our deficiencies rather than our assets our incompetence rather than our capability And we will thus fail to acknowledge and to utilize the potential that each and every one of us possesses Mitchell told his listeners God wants you to succeed not to fail He wants you to make the most of the hands and the hearts and the heads that you have been blessed with now as a Unitarian universalist who has never subscribed to any doctrine of original or ineradicable sin. I really didn't need to be persuaded Everett Mitchell had me in his corner before he even uttered the first word, but this is an African-American Congregation and many of those who wander in the front door Do not come with a positive self-image. They lack a sense of personal agency They do not believe in a brighter future And so Mitchell's mission and that of the church He serves is to try to change that the words of welcome that are extended at the beginning of each service Identify Christ the solid rock as a place where everybody is somebody And that includes former prisoners who are re-entering society under this cloud of suspicion and this is important that there be a church like that because as Michelle Alexander writes church far from being a place of comfort or refuge can be for these Excons for these outcasts a place where judgment and shame and contempt are felt most acutely too often and According to another African-American pastor Joseph Bering that I know too often even here in Madison black and white churches may shun Exconvicts out of a concern for the institution's Respectability now no matter what? our racial or ethnic heritage And whether or not we possess a criminal record many of us Still have difficulty forming and maintaining a positive self-image Because we may have been raised in a home with parents who were quick to criticize and slow to praise Or like the boy who was afraid to try we may have been mercilessly belittled and teased by our classmates because we were too small or a little too heavy or less Coordinated or less articulate than they were and as adolescents and young adults perhaps we had a hard time finding a direction for ourselves And we lacked the focus necessary to succeed without positive role models or helpful Mentors perhaps we drifted from class to class to job to job without sufficient motivation places where success proved to be elusive as Stanford University Shelby Steel writes as children We were all wounded in some way and to some degree By the wild world that we encounter and from these wounds. He writes comes a disbelieving anti-self This internal antagonist that embraces the world's negative view of us that believes that our wounds are justified by our own Unworthiness and that this anti-self then entrenched itself Inside us as this lifelong voice of doubt the anti-self this hidden aggressive Saboteur that scours the world for fresh evidence of our unworthiness In a similar vein Carol Pearson a Jungian psychologist says that in the development of our personalities each of us will acquire the characteristics of a certain archetype a wanderer a warrior an altruist a magician But Pearson says all of us will enter into and experience childhood under the aegis of another More problematic archetype that of the orphan And the orphans story she says is about felt powerlessness and Disappointment with the world into which we have been so unceremoniously thrust Now in the normal course of things the orphan phase It's pretty mild and although none of us are ever completely free of it It doesn't cause most of us a great deal of trouble as we move into adulthood But Pearson allows if our childhood if in our childhood the environment didn't feel safe Or if some serious trauma Accompanied our upbringing or if our parents or some other respected authority taught us not to trust ourselves Not to believe in ourselves that we can end up throughout our lives being mired in and stymied by The orphan this anti self So let's return to Everett Mitchell for a moment Listening to him on an earlier occasion Everett alluded to his previous previous position as an assistant district attorney in Dane County And as a prosecutor he said he frequently found himself in a room with a black male at the cusp of adulthood and he would sit across the table from the accused and Acquaint that person with the options at his disposal and not infrequently one of those options would be an alternative to incarceration You don't have to go to jail But to his deep chagrin These young men would often respond to him with resignation Just send me to the joint they would say Because that's where I'm gonna end up anyway Given the percentage of black males between the age of 18 and 35 who will serve time That fate can begin to seem all but inevitable Even prior to the commission of any crime It already is a part of one's identity as Michelle Alexander observed as long as you look like as long as you seem like a criminal You will be treated with the same suspicion and the same content That being the case young black impoverished males may well decide that if they are generally perceived as criminals Well, I might as well act like a criminal After all society hasn't provided me with many other possibilities so for me The phrase black lives matter That phrase is certainly about the deaths of unarmed african-americans accosted by or in the custody of law enforcement officials and Clearly there have been enough widely publicized fatalities to justify a mass Movement marching under that banner but for me black lives matter is also about the depressed and Disadvantaged conditions in which so many african-americans continue to languish today and that phrase black lives matter Rebukes a system that for centuries has denied african-americans the opportunity to compete on equal terms for society social and economic benefits black lives matter is As much about dignity a sense of self-worth and the freedom to develop and utilize one's native talents as it is a demand for physical safety Now there are of course those who dispute the claim that many if not most african-americans must contend with this world where the odds are stacked against them presidential aspirant Ben Carson He dismisses the idea that all of this severe Disadvantage the poverty the poor schools the lack of access to decent jobs the mass incarceration the social stigma He denies that this undermines the black Individuals aspirations and thwarts their efforts to achieve upward mobility. He says that is not the case Slavery entered 150 years ago. The civil rights era spelled the end of Jim Crow Ben Carson was raised in Detroit in humble circumstances by a single mother. He blossomed Into a celebrated pediatric neurosurgeon in his opinion Individuals always have the capacity to conquer adversity and to become something special But would that dr. Carson represented the rule rather than the exception Because even as talented a figure is viola davis Who last week became the first black woman to win an Emmy for best actress in a Dramatic role the first woman black woman ever to win an Emmy for that kind of performance She used her acceptance speech to address inequity the only thing she said that separates women of color from everyone else is opportunity Because you cannot win an Emmy for roles that simply are not there Where there is opportunity? We can draw from our strengths. We can be recognized for our assets And we need not be demeaned for our real or imagined deficiencies But this has not been the case for many men women and children of color in this putatively land of opportunity Shelby Steele says that black skin has more dehumanizing stereotypes associated with it than any other skin color in America Why did the expressions black is beautiful black pride Become so popular in the 1960s and 70s Precisely because the predominant culture had judged black features to be ugly to be unattractive Seeking to escape from their blackness and gain greater acceptance many african-americans straighten their hair They bleached their skin. They adopted white mannerisms and the black is beautiful aesthetic arose in Tandem with the civil rights movement and it gained in popularity as one woman has put it When black people not only said they were beautiful, but they came to believe they were beautiful Now appearances aside black people have historically been judged by white Americans as lacking in intelligence incapable of making sound decisions unfit for leadership. I remember a few years ago former CEO of Alliant Energy Errol B. Davis He shared his displeasure with teachers here in Madison who presumed that his children needed to be placed in remedial classrooms simply because of their race And other black professionals have had similar experiences So even a black family's higher status does not serve Automatically to dispel the stereotypes that african-american children must live with as adults african-americans still have difficulty competing on equal terms with white applicants for attractive and even professional level jobs Many white employers as Michelle Alexander said harbor this irrational fear particularly of black males And if the person has served time if only for a nonviolent drug offense They can have consequences that will leave him or her in a state of perpetual disadvantage Because no country in the developed free world is as harshly punitive of its ex-offenders 60% of whom are black as the United States no country So in many instances these people are permanently deprived of rights and opportunities that you and I continue to enjoy And all of this affects not only a person's prospects But it does have a deleterious effect a harshly deleterious effect on their self image These negative messages heard over and over again cannot simply be brushed aside more typically They are internalized and they curdle into contempt for oneself Although whites we whites may have been wounded and like blacks we may harbor this anti-self Shelby steel contends that a white skin with its connotations of privilege and superiority Help protect us from the undermining power of that Anti-self the anti-self. He says is an internalized racist our own subconscious bigot as black people and it conspires with society to diminish us And that is consistent with an argument that the Brazilian philosopher and educator Paulo Freire offered about a half a century ago the oppressed Freire wrote suffer from the duality that has established itself in their inmost being They are one in the same time themselves But then they are also internally the oppressor whose consciousness they have internalized So the problem that African-Americans face is not confined to the unique and challenging social Circumstances in which they find themselves There's also this inner dynamic that can lead many people of color to simply say Why should I bother? As Frederick Douglass put it 150 years ago If nothing is expected of a people That people will find it difficult to contradict the expectation And that is why the slogan black lives matter is so important and why it needs to be accepted for what it is of course all lives matter That goes without saying But who has ever disputed that white lives matter? But throughout our history black lives and Native American lives for that matter have mattered far less These were lives that for several centuries were quite utterly Dispensable disposable 70 years ago African-Americans were still being lynched for attempting to vote 70 years ago They died after having failed to be admitted to white only hospitals Public figures like Mike Huckabee and Scott Walker have recently dismissed the black lives matter movement as racist and as anti-police But in so doing as the New York Times editorial recently stated they betray a Disturbing indifference to or at least a profound ignorance of our history Here at FUS we are in earnest in our support of black lives matter because we know that as white allies We at the very least are afforded the opportunity to lift our neighbors spirits and to show respect for their aptitude Writing in the Capitol Times Former Madison poet laureate fabu reported that she passes by our meeting house on her way to work every day She sees our black lives matter signs and she feels momentarily uplifted the people who put those signs up She wrote will never realize what the sight of those signs means to me And this is a high achieving young black woman Now some of us do realize what it can mean and that's why the signs are out there the subject The subject of Langston Hughes's poem the brass spittoon The dance of which you saw a few moments ago The subject of that poem performs an unbecoming task Suffers contemptuous treatment at the hands of patrons and employers One would understand if that man succumbed to despair and yet He lovingly polishes those spittoons bringing out their luster which makes him feel worthy It is an act that reassures him that his life does matter at least in the eyes of God a bright Bowl of brass is a beautiful thing to the Lord. He thinks to himself He ignores the calls of hey boy come here boy. At least he says I can offer that Hughes's poem Exposes the debasing nature of the work that many African Americans are obliged to perform But it also speaks that poem speaks eloquently to the possibility of transcendence And how African Americans have been able somehow To reframe their experience to find something redeeming in it and thus keep the anti self that Internal oppressor at least to some degree at bay But you know that must be exhausting work In a culture that has been as critical of punitive toward and frightened of black people as ours Considering the odds that still are stacked against them and Madison is by no means the exception here It really is quite remarkable that so many of our black countrymen and women have determined that they are going to succeed They are going to sit at the table And we use can help in this effort by endorsing the black lives matter initiative And in so doing we will be standing once again. I guarantee you on the right side of history This will entail an honest ongoing examination of our own attitudes a Commitment among ourselves to keep the conversation going Partnering continually with people of color to create a community where anyone and everyone is able to lead with their strengths There was a resolution passed at last june's general assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Congregations and that resolution stated you use and the greater society have the power to make this happen. So Let's just do it Blessed be as you can see from your program our offering today Will be directed toward six African-American churches in the south that have been destroyed by fire in Recent months and years. Please be generous. So at this time I would invite you to join me in the spirit of meditation As the names of 20 black men women and children are in vote unarmed They suffered violent deaths Their futures mattered, but not enough for them to be granted one These 20 names represent, of course, but a small fraction of black lives lost under similar circumstances May we be cognizant of the many who remain unnamed because they mattered as well Please be seated and let us continue now in the spirit of meditation The days grow short the seasons turn and Life's adventure continues through incalculable numbers of births and deaths ages past And ever so slowly humanity struggles out of the shadows the nether regions of ignorance superstition and fear Not forever will the blight of prejudice corrupt our relationships Someday we surely will understand that the superficialities of color creed gender ethnicity Have nothing to do with intrinsic human value Let us hold out the hope that at some not so distant time the old errors finally will be erased And that we will be one people richly diverse resourceful and talented Celebrating in Marvelling at the world we have created through common effort for the common good May it be so now I invite you to rise once more in body or in spirit for our closing hymn number 1007 which puts the flight all fears and which reconciles all who are separated may that love be in us and Among us and within us now and always. Please be seated for the post Hey Betsy net FUS saying black lives matter Don't all lives matter There's no need to say all lives matter though because it's so obvious that's true Yes, so but don't we as you use believe in the inherent worth and dignity Every person why are we only concerned about black lives now lives matter isn't saying Can you hear me now saying black lives matter isn't saying that only like black lives matter We say it to remind everyone that black lives matter to with the sign out front We're bearing witness to the fact that African-Americans inherent worth and dignity is just as important as everyone else's Yeah, but everyone is equal nowadays. Heck. We've got a black president We've had laws since the 60s that prohibit segregation allow everyone to vote any programs true But the availability of opportunities is still not equitable. Let's get down then this ridiculous So something on his end. Yeah, I had a turn on the mics In the meantime, I'm gonna have a spot of coffee. Hello again soy Soy, I think we need more what? Oh