<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif">Rebecca,</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><font size="4"><br></font></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><font size="4">In response to your query about the resolution on disinvestment and reparations, I don't like resolutions with long lists of "whereases". By voting for the resolution are you also supporting all the whereases? Each one of them makes factual assertions and moral judgments that would have to be given due diligence, but treating all of them seriously would take hours and hours of work, dominating the whole meeting. Or, if the whereases are just preamble and not being voted on, then why include them?</font></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><font size="4"><br></font></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><font size="4">As to the substance, the UUA Board's position seems much more reasonable. I would favor just voting this down.</font></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><font size="4"><br></font></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><font size="4">My larger concern is that the UUA a will be dominated by ideological posturing and struggles over payoffs to interest groups, as it has been for the last several years.. The black caucus or whatever it calls itself will focus on statements about white supremacy ideology as a means of justifying more money paid to them and racial preferences in hiring decisions. They have gone back to tactics that failed in the 1970s such as self-segregated, blacks-only groupings. The UUA message board has had a number of posts recently from young (white) people who are questioning preparing for careers in the UU ministry, and I would find it hard to encourage them. </font></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><font size="4"><br></font></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><font size="4">Very little attention seems likely to be devoted to dealing with problems that are central to the UU churches, especially the continuing steady decline in religious education enrollments. We don't have good answers to the question of why UUism is in general decline among the younger generations, along with other religious denominations, but I don't think the answer is to double down on political posturing and reparations. </font></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><font size="4"><br></font></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><font size="4"> I'll be interested to hear your impressions after you come back from the meeting. I would drop out of the UUA if there was individual membership, and I favor FUUSM cutting its annual contribution substantially but the Board rejected that. As a FUUSM pledger, I have to accept that part of my pledge goes to them when they clearly can't be bothered about us, as shown by the fact that they didn't even answer the thoughtful letter George Banziger sent them. </font></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><font size="4"><br></font></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><font size="4"> I'm not sure we have the energy to actually rebuild the church, but I am encouraged by what the Chalice Lighters group is proposing to do. I wish we were spending our energies on that instead of on the UUA nonsense which drains our energies and our resources.</font></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><font size="4"><br></font></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><font size="4">Personally, I'm going to put more energy into helping to rebuild the Quaker group.</font></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sun, Jun 11, 2023 at 3:05 PM Rebecca Phillips via Fuusm-l <<a href="mailto:fuusm-l@fuusm.org">fuusm-l@fuusm.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div class="msg9099806937870609681">
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Hello, all (again),</div>
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This is likely the last email you will receive from me regarding this year's General Assembly. In addition to the Article II revisions and the Actions of Immediate Witness, delegates will be voting on a business resolution calling for immediate divestment from
fossil fuels by the UU Common Endowment Fund and the use of those funds for reparations to communities harmed by fossil fuel development. The resolution was submitted by the Youth Divestment caucus.</div>
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Some background: in 2014, the UUA voted to move toward fossil fuel divestment and began by divesting from directly-held stocks in fossil fuel companies other than select companies targeted for shareholder advocacy. It has retained shares in banks and other
pooled funds that are invested in fossil fuels, in part because of a 2021 decision to engage in shareholder advocacy. The full proposal, the trustees' statement, and the UUA treasurer's statement are attached.</div>
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The business resolution calls for immediate divestment because of the immediate nature of the climate change threat and the ongoing mistreatment of frontline communities, particularly communities of color. The reparations would come from those UU Common Endowment
Funds belonging to the UUA, not those invested by individual congregations.</div>
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The UUA trustees oppose the resolution, arguing that the advancement of UU values is better supported by following the processes adopted in 2014 and 2021 and continuing in some cases to work from within.</div>
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The treasurer's statement primarily examines the numbers and claims that adopting the proposal as written would require approximately $700,000 from the UUA's annual income each year for twenty years to fund the reparations work, roughly the cost of seven staff
positions when benefits are factored in. (I will add that members of the Youth Divestment Caucus have arrived at different numbers; I cannot evaluate them.)</div>
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All three statements agree that divestment from climate-harming companies is the goal.</div>
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Please let me know your thoughts by Tuesday evening.</div>
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Rebecca</div>
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<div>"If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need."-- Cicero</div>
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