| Understanding the UUA's viewpoint |
Thursday, December 31 2009 @ 01:45 AM PST
Contributed by: Jimmy C
Views: 650
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After reading Duncan Metcalfe's entry on the UULOGY blog http://yruuinstmem.blogspot.com/ dated February of 2008, it hit me that what the UUA staff's efforts to dismantle continental YRUU are about are purely about governance and control, from the UUA's perspective. And, that what they are doing actually makes sense from that perspective.
It always seemed ironic to me that the UUA staff took the wind out of the sails of the UU youth and young adult anti-oppression and anti-racism efforts while promoting anti-racism efforts by the UUA. Why not keep the part you want?
Youth office staff reported on FUUSE that it was frustrated that Con Con youth did not attend the UUA staff's anti-racism workshops as one reason they would dismantle Con Con.
Youth Council did not support (then) UUA President Sinkford's efforts to move towards the "Consultation to and with Youth", the UUA's peachy keen blitzkreig that dismantled continental YRUU.
As the UUA staff took funding away from the UU youth institutional structure like Synapse, Con Con, Youth Caucus, the YRUU Steering Committee, and also C*UUYAN (the continental young adult organization) in order to promote anti-racism programming by the UUA staff in a more cost effective manner (one of ten goals) and to bring youth programming home to local churches (whatever), the UUA staff simultaneously wiped out the most energetic efforts for youth programming on anti-racism in the UUA's history. Ironic isn't it? I mean... what the?
It is easy to point to all business bureaucracies like the UUA as being short term focused and filled with power hungry individuals who simply fail at promoting their own goals through incompetence and a lack of intelligence on the part of the individuals involved in that bureaucracy. (Which has been my own viewpoint in regards to this situation.)
But, that is too easy.
There is more to it.
It was not enough that the youth and young adult organizations were promoting anti-racism programming. The UUA was not willing to sit back and support that effort through funding and staffing unless they were in charge of it. Pure power and control issues.
That is all it is. It makes sense. The UUA says: We don't need no stinking youth and young adult leaders. We will do it. So, they find funding youth leadership building entities like Con Con and Youth Council as not being cost effective. Get it?
Now, don't get me wrong. There are few things that I hate more than 1) the UUA bureaucracy and 2) what has passed as anti-racism programming by the UUA or the UU youth and young adult continental and district leaders.
To be clear: I am one of MANY long time Unitarian Universalists who simply hate the UUA, for good reason. Plus, I simply hated the UUA's and the youth and young adults vile anti-racism programing. Hated it. Spittooee! Yuck!
So, as Sinkford took away the YRUU Steering Committee's ability to staff the Youth Office and put in his own anti-racism goons instead, I was incredulous. But, it was clear to me and also ironic that what the young adults who were youth leaders and Sinkford were fighting over was who was in control of the youth anti-racism efforts. It was the UUA staff vs. the UU youth and young adult leadership.
I knew that, but I just felt that they were all just being morons who were wiping out a great spiritual culture of youth and young adult conferences in the process.
(I still keep the spiritual side of youth and young adult conferences separate in my mind from the new development (1995-2008) of anti-racism programming, which I always thought was sub-par (most polite wording) and did not utilize UU values in its processes, like identity groups and AR workshops, which I refer to as anti-UU values brain-washing sessions (AUUVBWS). Yes, I'm talking about UU anti-racism anti-oppression efforts.)
But, it does make actual sense from the UUA's point of view. Even though Sinkford himself and some Youth Office staff at that time were themselves former UU youth conference culture leaders, they are still people who believe in being in charge of their own programming. This took priority to any empathy they held in the past for the value of the youth con culture to UU youth and young adults, youth leadership development, and youth empowerment.
Especially in an environment where few UUA leaders have any real understanding of the youth conference culture. Plus, the UUA leaders from coast to coast even say things like "youth conferences do not serve the needs of our youth", which is the highest form of ignorance.
If you went to a youth conference, you would know what the youth vote would be.
People who grow up going to UU youth conferences consistently say that it is the UU church on Sunday culture that does not meet the needs of people who grew up UU (and went to UU youth conferences).
I think the biggest issue is that the UUA could grow if it changed its UU Church on Sunday culture dramatically. And, that the division(s) between the religious expectations of those who grew up UU and the religious expectations of those who join a UU church as a "new-UU" adult needs more looking into, if UUism is going to grow.
But, the current UU Church on Sunday culture does provide a good service for adults who are alienated from other churches through a crisis of faith. But, that is the great failing of the UUA.
Unitarian Universalism is now and has always been a greater entity than just being a haven for atheists and agnostics. It can also be a community that is a source of boundless faith and meaning-making for people of various religious perspectives.
In that regard, the UU youth and young adult culture has much to teach the UU Church on Sunday culture and deserves much greater respect by the UUA staff and UUA leaders from coast to coast.
In the fight for control over what I consider to be truly vile anti-racism programming efforts, I think what Unitarian Universalism is all about has been left by the wayside.
Jim Sechrest
Unitarian Universalist
UUs who love to hate the UUA
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| Authored by: Jimmy C On Thursday, December 31 2009 @ 02:17 AM PST |
I don't believe that the UUA staff's plan to develop anti-racism programming in our local congregations and including local youth in that effort has much chance of success compared to what the youth and young adult leaders were successful at implementing at youth and young adult conferences in regards to anti-racism programming, although this, too, was controversial.
But, it has occurred to me that this is not the highest priority of the UUA staff, to actually implement truly effective anti-racism programming in our local congregations, so much as it is simply a lot of talk which is being used by the UUA staff to promote their real primary goal, destabilizing the rapidly growing and genuinely disturbing gonzo anti-racism youth and young adult leadership, at any cost.
This was done without any regard whatsoever in regards to other aspects of UU youth and UU young adult conference culture or youth empowerment or the spirituality and community aspects of youth and young adult cons.
Jim S.
---
The panther moves in the dark.
Seeing the truth of night.
The Sorcerer Tripper hunting for the believers of the temple of acid...
-Michèle Raper Ritt
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| Authored by: Jimmy C On Monday, January 04 2010 @ 01:50 AM PST |
Thanks, Donald.
What I get out of what your saying is that the UU youth and young adult leaders were not living up to their responsibilities as sponsored organizations in terms of how they related to the UUA. And, did not even care about their responsibilities to that relationship. Is that correct?
That is an interesting point. Because, it harkens back to my day when I was on the youth adult district committee for the Central Midwest District in 1978, when the same charge was leveled against the continental youth, LRY.
A UUA committee called SCOYP basically decided that LRY was over, without saying what the future held. (We recieved a 9 month "stay of execution".) In 1981, we had the first Common Ground to create the new plan. One of the main issues that emerged in this "process" was the
(guess what?) accountability of the youth and the structure of the youth organization to the parent organization, the UUA.
The whole reason the Youth Steering Committee was created was to act as a vehicle for more adult (UUA) input into the process. More adults were put on youth council.
The entire structure of continental YRUU reflects this effort to make the youth more responsible to the adults (UUA).
But, in 2006-07 or so, we see UUA President Sinkford battling with the gonzo anti-racism Youth Steering Committee over picks for positions in the Youth Office. Sinkford nixed the Steering Committee's decision and put in his own anti-racism candidate.
The Steering Committee had actually booted the Youth Office Director person from the candidate meetings, and he was ON the Steering Committee. And, Youth Council failed
to back Sinkford's plan to revision the whole UU youth structure.
So, not only were the UU youth and young adults ignorant of their responsibilities to the UUA, as you point out. THEY WERE OPENLY HOSTILE TO UUA INPUT. They were basically in open conflict with the UUA.
So, yeah, there was this huge split between the UU youth and young adult leaders and the UUA staff. What was so freaking weird to me is that this was all over the issue of anti-racism anti-oppression work. Because, the main bulk of the UU young adults on FUUSE were super pro-ARAO and pro-UUA. I mean it like this: the ARAO young adults came off as storm troopers for the UUA's misguided ARAO programming, all along. And, they backed the UUA's efforts to shut down continental YRUU.
So, to see this split between these groups harkens back to political purges inside fanatical historical groups. Internal splits between the most fanatical parts of a nation.
This around the time when most folks attending Con Con, the UU youth continental conference (last one in 2004), refused to go to the Youth Office staff's ARAO programming at the conference.
Youth Council fails to back Sinkford's plan to revision the whole UU youth structure, and it was the most gonzo ARAO youth who protested this decision against the majority of youth, protesting against the UU Youth Council (decision to ajourn without backing Sinkford's plan). And, it was these same youth who took their anti-racism protests to GA, protesting against racism at GA by trying to disrupt the closing ceremonies and crying on a couch, en masse.
This is the split I am trying to wrap my mind around: The split between the UUA staff and their most ardent supporters, the super gonzo, over-the-top, anti-racism youth and young adults, all under the guise of promoting youth programming in the local churches and anti-racism programming for youth.
I mean, for Christ's Sake, they were fighting over anti-racism programming. The UUA staff and the UU youth and young adults could not find a way to move forward together on anti-racism programming. What a fiasco!
Worse, in the meanwhile, the UUA completely stripped the continental structure for an entire Unitarian Universalist subculture, the UU youth and young adult movement. Again!
Whoa!
It seems to me to just be a bunch of control freaks fighting for power.
This did not go over too well with the majority, the
famously "grumbling" youth and young adults, who did not like the anti-racism anti-oppression programming, no matter who was in charge of it, because it was so irrationally caustic. (Rev. Wright styled incendiary anti-racism statements, as opposed to Obama's version of anti-racism efforts.)
The UUA has a long history of not being accountable to their responsibility to the relationship between the UUA and the continental UU youth, as well. I don't think they even understand the concept of what a youth conference is and why it is important to UUism let alone UU youth. I see that as ignorance on the part of the UUA staff and UU leaders from coast to coast.
How can a long-lasting healthy relationship be created between the UUA and the continental UU youth and young adults with such a long standing history of a lack of commitment (and ignorance) between the two, even despite efforts to change the structure of the relationship dramatically?
Jim Sechrest
---
The panther moves in the dark.
Seeing the truth of night.
The Sorcerer Tripper hunting for the believers of the temple of acid...
-Michèle Raper Ritt
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| Authored by: Jimmy C On Wednesday, January 13 2010 @ 07:53 AM PST |
Thanks Donald, for posting. This is good stuff. I think you have made a good case that democracy is not what the Youth SC (made up mainly of young adults) and the C*UUYAN steering committee didn't respect the UU value of democracy.
The folks who gravitate into these positions are not your typical former youth and new-UU young adults. They are mainly folks who want power. And, I think that you will see these same folks moving right along into other positions of power within the UUA soon, if not already.
But, why leave out the pulling of UUA funds from Con Con in 2005? Why leave out the pulling of UUA funds for the Synapse, the youth newsletter in 2004? There were always two sides to this fiasco, not just a shortcoming by UU youth and young adults. They UUA did not live up to their written agreements to fund Con Con and Youth Council and C*UUYAN and the YRUU SC. These were "Supported Organizations" while funding was removed. Their status had not been changed.
What this tells me is that we can never have a system which includes the UUA and our UU Youth and UU Young Adults until the youth and young adult bylaws are included into the UUA bylaws in a substantive form.
Jim Sechrest
Unitarian Universalist
more background:
Most youth and young adults, who lost their continental organizations in this process, are not really interested in politics and were quick to turn their backs and walk away entirely from UUism in general. They just want supportive communities with lots of friends and some of them want something deeper like good worships or social action.
But, very few of them are willing to step forward and make sure that democracy is being exercised in their Steering Committees and Councils. The people in those seats are folks who get something out of it and that is "being in charge" or "being a honcho", or whatever. Lots of these folks are trying to build their resumes in order to become UU ministers. (Look out UU world!)
But, this is nothing new. Trashing democracy is the first thing that happens in UU politics and this latest round is just the latest round, in my experience and even before me.
Let me assure you that there were negotiated agreements between the UUA and many other groups that have not been honored by one side or the other in the last 40 years that I know of.
LRY had a $100,000 endowment that was supposed to go to YRUU, but it was just spent in the general UUA coffers. Later, the UUA was embarrassed into saying it would put $10,000 per year into YRUU for 11 years. But, nobody noticed the increase in spending to YRUU for more than a year. -Connexion (late 80s, early nineties UU young adult newsletter)
The Unitarians got into bed with a guy who wanted to use their non-profit status to protect a financial scheme to grow money indefinitely and leave a lot of money to his descendents. The UUA went to court and was able to take all of the money that had been made in the scheme. - UU Ministerial Candidate Thuriaraja
When the UUA deprived the Black Caucus of funding in the late 1960s, LRY (youth) individual(s) stood with them at the mikes at the GA plenary as a show of support. The Black Caucus would not let any one else use the mikes during the protest at the UUA GA. In the end, the Black Caucus got some money. Guess from where? The UUA took it from LRY, hurting that continental UU youth organization drastically.
LRY never fully recovered from this in some ways. - People Soup (LRY newsletter), and local church history (our local church minister was in the middle of this).
The Young Adult Ministry Office was not originally the only body slated to receive money that came to UU young adults from the UUA. It was also supposed to go straight to C*UUYAN, according to tom kunesh, member of the YAM Task Force that first worked on creating the YAM office.
In the end, I think it has always been about who has the power to do what they want to do with the money that the UUA has. Mainly, the UUA's point of view is that they should be in charge of it, which makes sense. The GA Plenary is mainly sidelined to talk about lots of piddly diddly stuff that the UUA has no control over, as if they were the United Nations, and just approves a UUA budget without much real discussion. The GA Plenary spends most of its time on the piddly diddly stuff. (A generalization.)
The UUA does not have a history of disseminating power to supported organizations or similar bodies. Quite the opposite. In 2008, the UUA launched a major power grab over youth and young adult matters that had been building for 4 years.
Former youth leaders who were current UUA staff members were instrumental in this process. (Sinkford, and Youth Office Staff). It is not about democracy to the control freaks in any organization.
---
The panther moves in the dark.
Seeing the truth of night.
The Sorcerer Tripper hunting for the believers of the temple of acid...
-Michèle Raper Ritt
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| Authored by: Jimmy C On Monday, January 18 2010 @ 08:21 PM PST |
What he said.
---
The panther moves in the dark.
Seeing the truth of night.
The Sorcerer Tripper hunting for the believers of the temple of acid...
-Michèle Raper Ritt
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| Authored by: gatsby9 On Wednesday, January 20 2010 @ 01:31 AM PST |
oH, don't say that the ignorant deserved what they got. I'm sure they were learning as fast as they could. God knows, the world (even the UU world) is complicated and full of passive and timid people. Instead, get out there and GENTLY. KINDLY, TACTFULLY whip them into shape!!! =)
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