” Dear Jim,
The weekend at Penn Center was intense but worthwhile. I know you were deeply disappointed by the vote and since I was not able to give my reasons due to lack of time, I want to express them now in the hope that you will understand why our delegation voted the way we did.
I found myself pondering the words of the great Teacher and wondering if I were sufficiently without sin to cast a stone at Thomas Jefferson. He knew he “had a wolf by the ears” and feared letting it go. I too keep creations, which while not human, do for me what Jefferson’s slaves did for him and I don’t have the moral fiber to let them go. I keep them working although I know that soon they and all our fossil fuel powered labor-saving devices will wreak havoc on the entire planet and on a huge number of people, most of them poor people of color.
But I won’t go back to washing my own clothes in Twelve Mile Creek any more than Jefferson would. I won’t live by sun and candlelight and I probably wouldn’t have walked from the station to the Penn Center even if Amtrak went to Beaufort from Clemson.
While my granddaughter is not of mixed race like your new grandchild (or any more so than the majority of UUs are), I will have to face her and say I didn’t do enough to save her future. I won’t have to say, however, that I thought myself morally superior to the author of the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom.
In my opinion, global climate change is the moral issue of the day, not slavery. I hope I can do better in the future than I have so far to work against it.
We did not rejoice in the outcome of the vote because I know so many people felt so strongly about it but we just could not join you in it.”

Perhaps we’ll meet you on the 23rd when we’re up for our granddaughter’s ballet recital in Luray.

Joni Grady
UU Fellowship of Clemson”

I for one hope UU’s find new and more relevant issues to address when the next such convention rolls around, but it was good to have this dialogue. I hope more HUU members & friends use the Community Cafe.

We honor him for his landmark Statute for Religious Freedom of 1779 which forged the way for us to be free to be Unitarians, or anything else we choose.

It is an error to judge historical figures by contemporary standards. We might as well opt for kindness, if we want future generations not to revile us for our blatant stupidities.

We cannot and should not white wash history. When we begin expunging heroes from our record, who will finally pass the purity test? Slavery is a shameful stain on our history, but where are our stainless heroes? Martin Luther King was apparently something of a womanizer. Should we rename avenues all over the country in feminist outrage?

However, someone in our congregation suggested that one of the purposes of the district name is to tell people where it is, so she prefers the locational name, Atlantic Southeast District. I’ve become convinced that this might be the best option overall. Besides, if the UUA decides to go from districts to regions, which I understand is a possibility, the question will become moot.
Pat