HUMAN RIGHTS WORKING GROUP
Co-chairs: Jeff Pekrul, Dolores Perez Heilbron, and Melvin Starks
Email: humanrights@uusf.org
DANGEROUS TRUTHS
New Perspectives on America’s History
The Human Rights Working Group and the Forum Committee of the First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco will present a series of programs on new perspectives about the history of the United States.
THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
May 15, 2022 at 1:00pm
Professor Woody Holton is the McCausland Professor of History at the University of South Carolina, and author of several books including Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution, and Abigail Adams, which won the Bancroft Prize.
His latest book, Liberty is Sweet, the Hidden History of the American Revolution, is a deeply researched and insightful retelling of the origins of our revolution, examining the mythical narratives of our founding, and consequences of the revolution that are not well known. He will explore with us the lives of common men and women, and especially the roles played by both indigenous and enslaved peoples involved in this complex history.
Our discussion may consider: Who benefitted the most from the American revolution? How does this history and the subsequent writing of our Constitution impact on American life today?
Join us for a lively and provocative discussion!
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HUMAN RIGHTS WORKING GROUP MEETING!
The UUSF HRWG will meet on Wednesday, May 11 at 7pm. Our proposed agenda is:
Widening the Circle check-in
Review of HRWG Committee Annual Report - July 1 2021 to June 30 2022 for CCC
Report on latest news from the Women’s Rights Group and future plans
Review the 3rd Dangerous Truths series on April 30
Planning for Dangerous Truths session 4, which will be on Sunday, May 15, and future session dates, subjects
US Immigration/Asylum updates (Title 42 - which bars people entering the US during pandemic) [Bruce?]
HRWG planning team planned "away" and vacation dates
June General Assembly and Climate Crisis AIW (Actions of Immediate Witness)
Other
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HUMAN RIGHTS WORKING GROUP NEW YEAR’S LETTER
January 1, 2022
The UUSF Human Rights Working Group looks forward to 2022 with renewed hope that our activities and goals will gain momentum and/or provoke favorable outcomes for the coming year. Human and civil rights in this country are at a tipping point, the stakes are high at this moment in our history - that is why we UU human rights advocates are determined to sustain our efforts.
For 2022, we continue to focus on five of the issues we deem most urgent in our country:
Racial Justice
Immigrant Rights
Voting Rights
Climate Crisis
Women’s Rights
The last focus. Women’s Rights, was voted upon by our members last September after the state of Texas severely limited abortion rights, and the Supreme Court refused to interfere, thus denigrating the rights of women to control their bodily health. As a result, the Women’s Group was organized, with Reproductive Rights its priority, and Lori Lai as the Coordinator.
New for 2022: “Dangerous Truths”. HRWG will be hosting a new Zoom series on racial justice called “Dangerous Truths” starting in February, Black History Month. Stay tuned for more information about these new insightful history shows.
We hold monthly HRWG Cmte meetings via Zoom on the 2nd Wednesday of the month, and continue weekly Wednesday morning vigils urging the public to support immigrant rights, voting rights and to remind them of the climate crisis, a universal concern. HRWG supports other international human rights organizations, often endorsing, participating and hosting educational Zoom events on these issues.
We work closely with the UUSF Sunday Forum, and appreciate the technical support and advice from Forum Chair Bruce Neuburger, also a member of HRWG. We are thankful for the advice and help we receive from Rev. Vanessa Southern, and our staff, especially Jonathan Silk, Communications Manager.
We welcome newcomers to join us, or to contact us about any issue or suggestions which we might address.
In hope and struggle,
Dolores Perez Heilbron and Melvin Starks, co-chairs
BELOVED STORIES
The materials below provided a helpful starting point for this and other possible future projects. Click the links below to see the materials. The video produced in 2019 features members of our HRWG. Special thanks to Shulee Ong and Lori Lai for their contributions in the production of this special project.
FOCUS FOR 2022
Racial Justice
We will continue to support the Black Lives Matter movement and other related groups, along with other UUSF racial justice efforts, as we did in the past during the 2020 George Floyd demonstrations against police brutality throughout the country towards Black, Brown, Asian and Indigenous sisters and brothers. We will continue special projects about our unique American history of slavery such as the “1619 Project” readings. We continue to work closely with our UUSF BIPOC group. (See videos below produced under the auspices of the HRWG.)
Immigrant Rights
We will continue to press for a sound immigration policy for asylum seekers and special DACA children of undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children and deserve full citizenship. New immigrant groups are expected to be fleeing their homes due not only to on-going conflicts, at times perpetrated by our foreign and military policies, but also by the climate crisis. Many HRWG UUs visited and worked at the southern border in El Paso, helping the asylum seekers there, and returned to report on that situation.
Voting Rights
We will work to promote the Constitutional right of all Americans to vote in a safe manner, without danger as happened in our prior history after the Civil War. All acts to suppress the vote by any organizations will be exposed and special educational projects will be undertaken to advise all citizens of their rights to vote.
Climate Crisis
We will focus on how ordinary citizens can work in ways to stem the oncoming crisis, for example, by advocating that the City of San Francisco and state governments buy only electric vehicles (EV), and offer financial incentives to residents for the purchase of EV and the installation of solar panels on their homes. We continue to work directly with environmental groups on special educational and advocacy projects.
Women's Rights
Women’s Rights, was voted upon by our members in September 2021, after the state of Texas severely limited abortion rights, and the Supreme Court refused to interfere, thus denigrating the rights of women to control their bodily health. As a result, the Women’s Group was organized, with Reproductive Rights its priority. They have been very active in demonstrations and continue to work on new issues. Lori Lai is the Coordinator. See more on their latest activities (click here)
PRIOR ACHIEVEMENTS FOR 2019-2021
US Immigration Policy: HRWG held live (before COVID) and later Zoom presentations (called “Close the Camps”) about the destructive policies such as the forced detention of asylum seekers, separation of families, and the mistreatment of children at our southern border. We began and continue to demonstrate on the steps of the church every Wednesday mornings to draw public attention to these issues.
Voting Rights: During the Presidential campaign in October 2019, HRWG organized a March for Democracy to demand a fair election where constitutional rights to vote would be protected across the country. Many other civic, social justice and labor organizations joined this march from the Mission to downtown San Francisco.
International Human Rights: HRWG joined with other faith and justice groups to draw attention and protest actions and policies of the United States as a contributor to violations of human rights across the world.
Ending Racism: HRWG conducted a variety of events explaining the roots of American racism and White Supremacy. With the UUSF BIPOC committee, we produced and presented a video workshop entitled We Built People of Color Visibility at the UU General Assembly in 2019. Our video was called the “Beloved Stories UUSF”, and we started with the Story Corps Toolkit. Also, included below are the questions we used in our interviews, the release form for the participants, and a flyer.