Unitarian Universalists for Verified Voting
Sunday Service Materials
Responsive
Reading 1, text by Alice Walker
We maintain relationships and
create community by participation. The responsibility of citizens in a democracy
-- to maintain an active relationship with our government, and to participate
in our own governing -- has been emphasized by many philosophers and statesmen.
(1) J. Rousseau, who lived in the 18th Century, wrote: "As soon as
any man says of the affairs of state, What does it matter to me?
the state
may be given up as lost."
(2) In 1902, Theodore Roosevelt stated: "The first requisite of
a good citizen in this republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to
pull his weight."
(3) In the case of Whitney v. California in 1927, Supreme Court
Justice Louis Brandeis wrote: "Those who won our independence
valued
liberty as both an end and as a means. They believed
that the greatest menace
to freedom is an inert people; that public discussion is a political duty; and
that this should be a fundamental principle of the American Government."
(4) In an April, 1938, fireside chat, Franklin Delano Roosevelt
stated: "The only sure bulwark of
continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of
the people and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain
its sovereign control over its government."
"UUs
cover the entire political spectrum, just as we do the entire theological
spectrum. What we can agree on is the need for effective democracy, on the
right of all persons and all points of view to be heard and respected.
Everybody counts; everybody needs to be counted. This is not about politics;
it's about governance."
--Rev.
William G. Sinkford, President, Unitarian Universalist Association
Wlliam Penn, the Quaker
founder of Pennsylvania, wrote in 1682 -- and this is a paraphrase -- If the
people are good, the government will be good. But if the people are bad, no
form of government will save them from their own evil.
In this presidential
election, in November, 2004, an estimated 30% of American voters will vote on
electronic systems that hide evidence of errors, prevent recounts, invite
fraud, and hide evidence of it.
How did this happen? Where
did we go wrong? Are we bad, that we have ended up in this situation?
It may be that our evil is
our lack of community. Our elections people don't know us, and we don't know
them. Our governmental officials don't know us, and we don't know them.
Most of us don't even notice
this until we start to get involved, and we have to look up the names of our
elected representatives -- state Representative and State Senator, US
Congressional Representative. We realize with a start that we don't even
remember who they are.
We have not been
participating. We have let ourselves be shut out.
One more thing -- we don't
know anymore what the processes of our government consist of. If we suddenly realize
that our officials are acting in their own personal interests and not in the
interests of all, we don't have any way of plugging into the process and bring
about a course-correction.
Community is a network of
interaction -- personal relationships sustained by interaction.
But we have been disengaged.
We have been passive. And we have been ignorant, and haven't made the effort to
inform ourselves in the independent media.
Is there time to change all
this? The big question! Well, it's not over till it's over, and if we get
involved today, we can make a difference.
May we commit ourselves to
community with our democracy, our government, and the individual people with
whom we need to be in community because we have delegated to them to make the decisions
that we live with as laws and regulations and election procedure and election
equipment.
Responsive Reading 1, Text by Alice
Walker
Leader: During my years of being close to
people engaged in changing the world, I have seen fear turn into courage.
Congregation: Sorrow into joy. Funerals into celebrations.
Leader: Because, whatever the consequences,
people -- standing side by side -- have expressed who they really are
Congregation: and that ultimately they believe in the love
of the world -- and each other -- enough to be that which is the foundation of
activism.
Leader: It has become a common feeling, as
we watched our heroes falling over the years
Congregation: that our own small stone of activism, which
might not seem to measure up to the rugged boulders of heroism we have so
admired, is a paltry offering toward the building of an edifice of hope.
Leader: Many who believe this choose to
withhold their offerings out of shame.
This is the tragedy of our world.
Congregation: For we can do nothing substantial toward
changing our course on the planet -- a destructive one -- without rousing
ourselves, individual by individual, and bringing our small, imperfect stones
to the pile.
May we find some way "to
come into community" with our government.
May we find some time
"to form a deep, continuing relationship" with our democracy.
May we find some way "to
balance all of our commitments."
May every new relationship be
balanced and fruitful.
May we enjoy every new day,
its pleasures and burdens, its adventures and challenges.
As a member congregation of
the Unitarian Universalist Association, we covenant to affirm and promote the
right of conscience and the use of democratic process within our congregation
and in society at large. We are supported by the pledges of our members and
friends, and by additional free will offerings collected each Sunday. With
thanks we now give and receive the morning offering.