The Backlash to GA Entry and Security-- why the uproar?
I am having difficulty understanding the reaction to the entry procedures at Fort Lauderdale and TSA.
For the life of me, I haven't been able to see what the big deal is, and why it is SO important to colleagues that they will use the entry procedures as a reason to "boycott" GA or call for the resignations or apologies of those involved. Or feel that "I also have this overwhelming sense that no matter what we do, this will cause huge repercussions in our association for years to come."
I honestly have been unable to see what the brouhaha is.
And yet, it also strikes me that those ministers who have lamented so vigorously on the minister's email chat must have their reasons.
And then, something occurred to me. I asked myself, what frame I would have to be in to have the same reaction? Because most colleagues are reasonable people, and the uproar over the entry issue has seemed way out of proportion.
So, it occurred to me that I would take the same umbrage if I thought of the GA facilities as "my church." If I thought the convention center were my church, I would be unhappy if there were armed guards I didn't ask for there to check my ID. Yes, I would be very unhappy and heading a little toward "righteousness." Okay a lot toward "righteousness," umbrage, picketing, and demonstrations.
I am reminded of a time in Connecticut, where I came to pick up my daughter at our then child care provider's house, who happened to be members of my church-- only to discover that she had cut my daughter's hair!!
Okay, it was a trim, but still! I was incensed! Morally outraged! But it was just a little hair. But it was MY daughter's hair. It felt like someone had come behind me and cut MY hair.
For me the GA convention center never has been and probably never will be "church." As a founding member of Eliot Chapel said after a fire devastated the old RE wing-- "Eliot Chapel is not brick and mortar; it is people and what they do." I could be with other UUs on a lake, or eating cake; in a cave or on a mountain-- the people make church for me, not the buildings & grounds.
But for those of you who consider the GA buildings and grounds like church, maybe now I understand a little better about where you're coming from.
Please advise, thanks.
Daniel
Thursday, January 31, 2008
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4 comments:
You have a point about church. I think that a similar thing that is going on is that we go to GA to be together with our, politically progressive people, to feel powerful and effective and right as we craft our resolutions. Having to show our ID to get in to that gathering is going to pop that little "we're powerful" button two or three times a day, and that hurts.
But powerful was an illusion. Our spiritual growth requires us to set illusions aside and go on anyway.
but it's being hard....
Well Christine Robinson is certainly right about it being an illusion that U*Us are powerful. I could even point out that it is also an illusion that U*Us are "effective and right" when it comes to a variety of matters. . . I dare say that UUA Presidential candidate Rev. Peter Morales very effectively bursts that U*U bubble on the home page of his Peter Morales for UUA President web page -
"I am running because I believe that we Unitarian Universalists are called to be far more than a tiny fringe religion."
That's right. Rev. Peter Morales is publicly calling Unitarian*Universalism "a tiny fringe religion" and, quite regrettably, he is quite right about that sadly realistic assessment of contemporary U*Uism. How effective Rev. Peter Morales will be in changing that unfortunate fact of life as UUA President, or not. . . remains to be seen.
There is no question that at least some elements of UUA GAs are considered to be "worship" by U*Us and thus can thought of as "church" by some U*Us. It will however be quite ironic and even funny if U*Us, including U*U ministers, engage in picketing, and demonstrations outside their own "church". Of course it won't be the first time that misguided U*Us have engaged in picketing and demonstrations outside of a U*U "church". . . ;-)
note: there actually won't be any armed guards.
you won't have to take off your shoes and all that stuff you have to go through at the airport.
The most worthy argument I have heard against going to GA is that showing an ID goes against our civil liberties to worship and gather as we please. As a dissenting tradition many feel as though this GA could be used to show our disapproval of the infringement on civil liberties (mainly privacy) since 9.11. However, does any one congregation refusing to send delegates to GA make any sort of difference to anyone other than the people who will miss them at GA?
In my January Midwesterner article I highlight some of the things that happened that got us into this mess.
I don't think that people should be mad at the GAPC or the Board of the UUA Staff for not moving the location (something that would cost over a million dollars, not to mention the fact that hotels and airfare to Ft.Lauderdale are the cheapest ever for a GA, therefore making it a more economically accessible GA than any other location)
At the last UUA Board meeting (January) At-Large Trustee Charlie King brought up that this war on terror has sucked up the money that should have been allocated to moving the security line to only include the port of entry, not the convention center. This is something the GAPC was promised would be done when the site was selected in 2004. Be mad at the war that has sidelined little projects like this... I'm sure there are more productive things people can do than boycott GA to get the government's attention.
With that being said, if anyone does see GA as their place of worship, I do not think less of them for refusing to attend, and agree with what the UU Ministers Association had to say about this.
Speaking of U*Us showing disapproval of the infringement on civil liberties, I wonder if there are any U*Us out there who would care to show their disapproval of this infringement on civil liberties, or this one, or this one, or this one. . .
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