More News from Salt Lake City

UUSC President Charlie Clements spoke to a packed audience during the plenary session on Saturday, the third day of UUA General Assembly 2009. Highlighting the work of UUSC, he focused on the role we continue to play in social justice and human rights.

Citing our role in calling for the closure of Guantanamo Bay, he further pushed for a bipartisan inquiry into the actions that have taken place there under the watch of the U.S. government. Reminding the audience of the range of social justice activities we are involved in, he cited the right to water in California and the progress of the state bill guaranteeing all Californians the right to safe, drinkable water, the expansion of our work on gender-based violence in Darfur in training the police on gender-protection strategies and expanding income generating activities for women, and more recent activities with UUs and Arab and Muslim Americans, building interfaith and multicultural understanding.

The day concluded with the Ware lecture, delivered by Melissa Harris-Lacewell, a professor of African American Studies at Princeton University. A signature event at G.A., the lecture was established "in honor of the distinguished services of three generations of the Ware family to the cause of Pure Christianity." Former Ware lecturers are Jane Addams, Reinhold Neibuhr, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Saul Alinsky.

Harris-Lacewell had the hall spellbound as she spoke of how both faith and reason can guide us in the political process for greater justice. Her dynamism, humor, and wisdom carried the crowd forward on a wave of optimism. The lecture is available online for viewing by anyone who did not attend.

UUSC's President's Brunch closed our activities at GA. Together, we celebrated our loyal supporters and profiled the right-to-water work that is so central to our human-rights mission. We recognized the volunteer contributions of Giles Holt, who received the 2009 Mary-Ella Holst Youth Activist Award, and participated in a Taizé water ritual, led by Environmental Justice Program Manager Patricia Jones.