Celebrate!
Hooray for May! May not only brings those of us in the Northern Hemisphere warm weather and flowers, it also brings us a holiday created by a Unitarian (Mother's Day) and a holiday to honor those who gave their lives in war. But this year we take as our theme a holiday which gets less attention these days, but is still worth noting—May Day, which has been celebrated since 1904 as a day for honoring workers and trade unions.
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We Honor… |
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| Ruth Young Jandreau, who was a labor union leader in the 1940s, and who, in 1944, became the first woman member of the executive board of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), a union that had some 600,000 members. Ruth started out life in poverty, and started working in a factory when she was still young. But she had a tremendous dedication to getting justice for workers, and her drive and commitment eventually led her to the top levels of union leadership. She led strikes for better pay and met with government officials about working conditions for women in the big factories. She also was a mom, and later in her life, a member of the First Parish Unitarian Church of Schenectady, New York. Read memories from Ruth's interesting life in her own words. |
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Act!
Did you know that some of the most important movements for justice have made a difference in the world by actively not doing things? Labor unions, such as the one Ruth Young Jandreau worked with, use various techniques to pressure corporations to improve matters for workers. As mentioned above, one technique is a strike, in which workers refuse to go to work until the corporation they work for agrees to raise wages or improve working conditions. So my not doing something, they often end up having a big effect. Another way to change things by not doing something is called a boycott. A boycott means that people agree not to buy a certain product or shop at a certain store until there is a change. For instance, César Chávez and Dolores Huerta led a boycott against grape growers, asking people not to buy grapes until the owners of the farms created better working conditions for the people who picked the grapes.
Generally speaking, only workers who belong to a union can change things through staging a strike, but kids can certainly participate in a boycott. Is there a store or a recreation program in your community that you think has unfair policies? Might you want to protest a giant corporation like Wal-Mart, which doesn't allow its employees to unionize, and doesn't pay its employees enough for them to make a decent living? (Find out more about Wal-Mart.) An important thing to remember about participating in a boycott is that in addition to not buying from the folks you're protesting, you also need to let them know that you're not buying, by writing a letter and explaining why you are boycotting them. You could also write a letter to your local newspaper explaining why you are boycotting a corporation or product, and asking others to join you in the boycott. |
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Nurturing Your Spirit
Strikes and boycotts are ways of changing society through actively not doing something. And one of the most ancient and widely-practiced ways of nurturing your spirit is the practice of actively not doing anything—more commonly known as meditation. Meditation is a way of turning off the chatter of your mind, and entering into a peaceful, quiet space where you can listen to your heart. You can find some suggestions about meditation for kids and a meditation for kids site with downloadable MP3s .
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Principles in Practice
Our sixth UU principle is “The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all.” In other words, UUs believe that we should work toward having a world where everyone can get along, and where everyone can be treated fairly. Our Act! section this month describes how you could work for justice through participating in a boycott. But there are lots of other ways that kids can promote “peace, liberty and justice for all.” Think back through your past week. Can you think of anything you did to make peace, like helping friends settle an argument, or asking for forgiveness for something you did wrong that a friend or family member was mad about? Was there any time when you saw something happening that was unfair or unkind and you tried to stop it? Was there any time when someone was unfair to you, and you clearly and respectfully said what was unfair and said what you wanted instead? We probably won't ever have a world where there is peace, liberty and justice for every person all the time, but if we hold that as our goal, like the principle says, then we can make small differences every day—and those small differences can add up in amazing ways!
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Ask CLiF
Ask CLiF any questions you have about religion or living
a good life.
What did Viola Liuzzo do, exactly?
—(No name given)
Dear Writer,
Viola Liuzzo was a white woman who believed in rights for Black people at a time when the topic deeply divided the USA. Viola decided to take part in the Selma to Montgomery March on March 25th, 1965, in which Martin Luther King led 25,000 people to the Alabama State Capitol and handed a petition to Governor George Wallace, demanding voting rights for African-Americans. After the demonstration had finished, Viola volunteered to help drive marchers back to Montgomery Airport. Leroy Moton, a young African-American, offered to work as her co-driver.
On the way back from one of these trips to the airport, Viola and Leroy were passed by a car carrying four members of the Ku Klux Klan from Birmingham. When they saw a white woman and black man in the car together, they immediately knew that they had both been taking part in the civil rights demonstration at Montgomery. The men decided to kill them and after driving alongside Viola's car, one of the men, Collie Wilkins, put his arm out of the window, and fired his gun. Viola Liuzzo was hit in the head twice and died instantly. Leroy was uninjured and was able to get the car under control before it crashed.
Find out more about Viola and her UU connections.
—CLiF (aka Lynn Ungar, minister for lifespan learning)
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