Celebrate!
Welcome to the New Year—for those of us who celebrate on January 1st, and also for those who celebrate the Chinese New Year on January 26th. However, our page this month concentrates on the celebration of the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., who was born January 15th, 1929. Click on the links below to learn more about these and other holidays.
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We Honor… |
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| Unitarian Universalists who gave their lives in working with Dr. King to bring racial justice to the United States of America.
Viola Liuzzo was a mother of five who decided that, for her, religion meant standing up for what she thought was right – the principle that all people should be treated equally. She answered Martin Luther King’s call for people to march on Selma, Alabama for justice for African-Americans. Tragically, Viola was murdered while giving a ride to a Black fellow protester. Find out more about this amazing, ordinary, woman.
Rev. James Reeb was a Unitarian Universalist minister who also responded to the call to march for justice in Selma. He was attacked by white people who didn’t want the justice-workers in their city, and died from his injuries. Learn more about James Reeb, and read the words that Dr. King spoke at his funeral. |
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Act!
The brave work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and thousands of civil rights workers, led to enormous changes in the ways that African-Americans are treated in the U.S. But people around the world are still struggling for basic human rights. And what are basic human rights? Well, 60 years ago the United Nations created the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to set that out in writing. There’s a fun online picture book that explains what these rights are, and you can sign an online pledge to support human rights for everyone.
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Nurturing Your Spirit
The movement for civil rights which Dr. King led was rooted in spiritual practice. Dr. King was not only a Christian minister, but he was also very much guided by the Hindu civil rights leader Mohandas Gandhi. Both of these great leaders understood that spiritual practice is at the heart of social change. One spiritual practice that was very important to the civil rights workers was singing. People sang while marching and sang at protest gatherings. They sang to keep their spirits up, and to let the people they were fighting know that their protest was both peaceful and strong. If you’d like to sing some of these freedom songs, this site has recordings and lyrics, so that you can sing along, or learn the songs so that you can take them into situations where you might need to build your courage and center your heart of justice for everyone.
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Principles in Practice
Our sixth Unitarian Universalists principle is “The goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all.” Hey, that sounds a lot like a very short version of a Universal Declaration of Human rights. Peace, freedom and fairness for everyone all around the world is a great goal. But remember that such a big goal for all across the world starts with how we treat people at home. Eleanor Roosevelt, who worked for human rights when she was First Lady, said, “Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home -- so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any map of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person: the neighborhood he [or she[ lives in; the school or college he [or she] attends; the factory, farm or office where he [or she] works.”
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