Just got on to the blog. It is hard to find a wireless spot to get on the internet here. The UU Cyber Cafe is always packed and the Convention Center doesn't provide Wifi. Recommendation to future GAs: Demand Convention Center Wifi hotspots for attendees.
Great posts from Sharon, Jody, and Linda. I can just visualize Adam visiting a toxic waste dump and taking notes with a bunch of other UU kids diligently taking notes. It is so nice seeing so many First Uers her at GA. This setting provides the opportunity for conversations with our own members that we probably would never have back home. Just delightful.
Maybe some of you remember the great First U Worship Service we had in April of 2011 with Frank X Walker. Well, on the opening night of GA the UUA got a taste of Frank's poetry as he was a guest of honor and opened the first service with 3 poems. Frank is now the Poet Laureate of Kentucky, the first African American writer/poet to receive such an honor. He is now in the same league with Wendell Berry. It was a fitting tribute to his talent that the UUA invited him to open this GA and definitely a great gift to the UUA that we all got to hear him again. He read three of his signature poems about Kentucky, "this once dark and bloody ground whose cash crop causes cancer and whose run for the roses is only two minutes long." He compared strip mining and mountain top removal to a cancer that ravages the human body and then ended with the question of how anyone could truly believe that an old White Kentucky Colonel could actually know how to fry chicken "without lookin' over some black woman's shoulder." "At least he could've given her credit for ringin' a neck." With a sharp analytic wit like that to start our GA, it can't help but be a good event.
I am very impressed with the GA Planning Team's serious effort to honor the traditions and concerns of the people who are hosting us. Today was no exception with many workshops on Appalachian culture and political/religious heritage. And to top it off we were blessed to have Wendell Berry in our midst as he and Tim DeChristopher (the UUer imprisoned for falsely bidding on oil and gas rights on National Park land so it wouldn't be destroyed) highlighted tonight's Worship Service. They also led us to an Action of Witness on the Ohio river to raise our consciousness about the devastation of West Virginia, Kentucky, and the Ohio River Valley because of our insatiable demand for energy. The urgency of their appeals to stop the insanity is quite compelling and something with which we as UUers will need to grapple as we seek to live up to our 7 principles.
This is my 4th GA in a row and I am continually challenged to live up to my beliefs. There is so much more to say, but I'm afraid to type anymore for fear the upload will take forever. This internet connection is iffy at best.
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