For a peek at what past World Fellowship presenter, Rob Richie, executive director of Fair Vote has to say about reforming our elections, tune in to C-Span’s Washington Journal at 9:15 am on Sunday morning. Viewers can call in with their questions.

C-SPAN  reached out to Rob after his letter was featured by the New York Times this week its “Invitation to Dialogue “series. His letter appeared Sunday.  The Times will print reader responses and Rob’s final comments this Sunday.

Great news today! NY City Council passes a resolution declaring that Corporations are not People. As Justice John Paul Stevens recognized in his dissent in the Citizens United decision, “corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires. Corporations help facilitate and structure the activities of human beings, to be sure, and their ‘personhood’ often serves as a useful legal fiction. But they are not themselves members of ‘We the People’ by whom and for whom our Constitution was established.”

Do we have to wonder whether the Occupy Movement has been successful? Consciousness can be raised! (And we’ll bet People – not Corporations – will take responsibility to ensure that consciousness will continue to be raised.) Toward justice and liberty for all.

FROM CONWAY, NH (via Kit Schmauch): 

A local group (consisting of the UU minister, 2 friends from that church and the Conway Congregational Church minister)  sing their creative rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus, with lyrics for our time…corporations, beware! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws0WSNRpy3g

(You can also search for it on youtube at Hallelujah Corporations.mov)

A message from Andy:

Have you reread the last chapter of Howard Zinn’s “People’s History” lately? Check this out: “One percent of the nation owns a third of the wealth. The rest of the wealth is distributed in such a way as to turn those in the 99 percent against one another: small property owners against the propertyless, black against white, native-born against foreign-born, intellectuals and professionals against the uneducated and unskilled. These groups have resented one another and warred against one another with such vehemence and violence as to obscure their common position as sharers of leftovers in a very wealthy country.”

In light of everything, remember the long view: “I’d like to widen people’s awareness of the tremendous timespan lying ahead — for our planet, and for life itself. Most educated people are aware that we’re the outcome of nearly 4bn years of Darwinian selection, but many tend to think that humans are somehow the culmination. Our sun, however, is less than halfway through its lifespan. Six billion years from now, it will not be humans who watch the sun’s demise. Any creatures that then exist will be as different from us as we are from bacteria or amoebae.”
     -Martin Rees, cosmologist and astrophysicist (b. 1942)

“Much protest is naïve; it expects quick, visible improvement and gives up when such improvement does not come. Protesters who hold out longer have perhaps understood that success is not the proper goal. If protest depended on success, there would be little protest of any durability or significance. History simply affords too little evidence that anyone’s individual protest is of any use. Protest that endures, I think, is moved by a hope far more modest than that of public success: namely, the hope of preserving qualities in one’s own heart and spirit that would be destroyed by acquiescence.”
– Wendell Berry

Tonight from 7 – 8:30 in Jamaica Plain

Radical Refuge – 70 Years of World Fellowship

The First Church in Jamaica Plain, Unitarian Universalist
6 Eliot Street
Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts

Followed by 70th Birthday Party with music and refreshments.

and Sunday from 3-6pm in Lexington 

“Going to the Promised Land”
A Benefit Concert by the Peregrine Players

Hancock United Church of Christ
1912 Massachusetts Avenue
Lexington, Massachusetts

For info or to help: Anne Legêne 413.528.5311 

     Our summer season ended on September 19th with the departure of most of the hardworking staff members and Ivy and Seth (the happy couple of the wedding weekend).

     I was at the Conway Library checking out books for some pleasure reading, and Betty shared that she’d heard from guests who visited the Library throughout the summer that World Fellowship’s summer was GREAT: Interesting programs, good food, we survived the extreme weather (the heat wave, Irene…), fabulous staff, and the pond never better. 

     It’s all true. It was a great summer. Fantastic vibe. Reading over guest evaluations confirms this: ‘Big sense of welcome,’ ‘Active,’ ‘Engaged,’ ‘Fun,’ and ‘Community’ – lots of mention of Community.

     Thanks to each of you – for referring people to World Fellowship, for making pledges and gifts, for being kind to others and working to live the World Fellowship way… We are filled with gratitude for this community as we look forward to some relaxation and quiet over the next couple of weeks. While we shut down the buildings, we’ll be preparing for our October Board retreat where we’ll take time to look at long term trends and deeper potential in the midst of our hurried-up, often distracted, rapidly changing lives.

     And we look forward to World Fellowship events in the Boston area late next month: JP Forum and Fundraising Party in Jamaica Plain, MA on Friday evening, October 28^th; and a Sunday, October 30 afternoon concert with the Early Music Week faculty in Lexington, MA. 

     Here’s to hoping that your September is sailing along with time for appreciation and reflection.  

On this day 125 years ago, Geronimo surrendered to General Miles. That’s not so long—it seems like we ought to be able to repent and give it back! 

It’s also the anniversary of the Peekskill Riots in 1949, inPeekskill,New York. A little background: a Paul Robeson concert had been planned to take place on August 27 to benefit the Civil Rights Congress. Anti-Communist organizing resulted in violence that prevented the concert from happening; Robeson showed up, but was prevailed upon by friends not to get out of the car, and a new concert was scheduled for September 4. 

A few days before that date, he gave a speech at the Golden Gate Ballroom inHarlemthat included the following words: 

“I will be loyal toAmericaof true traditions; to theAmericaof the abolitionists, of Harriet Tubman, of Thaddeus Stevens, of those who fought for my people’s freedom, not of those who tried to enslave them. And I will have no loyalty to the Forrestals, to the Harrimans, to the WallStreeters… the surest way to get police protection is to have it very clear that we’ll protect ourselves, and good!… I’ll be back with my friends inPeekskill….” 

So, in the words of the Pete Seeger song, let’s hold the line inPeekskill, and hold it everywhere!

Our quote of the day comes from Sarah Orne Jewett, whose 162^nd birthday it is. Jewett lived out her life 60 miles from here, in South Berwick, Maine, bringing to literary life memorable characters connected to the land and the sea.

 “A harbor, even if it is a little harbor, is a good thing, since adventurers come into it as well as go out, and the life in it grows strong, because it takes something from the world, and has something to give in return.”

 And what a good thing it is to have guided our prows into World Fellowship Harbor!