BLM banner controversy

[John Bostrom]

I'm not sure I can attend the virtual Board meeting but I'd like to put my two - no, three - cents in.  It seems to me there's room to move on both sides of this division, that all disagreements can be resolved, and we can get past it and back to the dignity and care for each other which are why we're together in the first place. 

1. The concern about the BLM banner being put back up without congregational approval seems entirely valid to me. and one that's fairly easy to address with a carefully thorough poll of members asking yes or no, and abide by the result.  I'm also concerned about the way the banner was placed.  When I see the slide on Sunday, if I can speak frankly, it seems slipshod if not ugly.  I'd much prefer the sign moved to the lawn, set up carefully and aesthetically so that it's visible to passing motorists,  Moving it further from the building may also alleviate the perception that it politicizes UUFBR itself. 
2. On the other side, I just came across this image online. It seems to me to make an essential and very relevant point.   Those opposed to the banner consistently cast BLM as a political organization or movement, and extending that categorization to the hanging of the banner.is the essential point of their objection - that it politicizes UUFBR.  Unfortunately, that very approach very much politicizes the issue.  The image above reflects my stance, and I suspect that of many others at UUFBR, very clearly and far more accurately. Merely hanging the banner (with a caveat about HOW its hung) only says that we agree with the words of the banner themselves.  "BLACK LIVES MATTER."  It simply does not that we support everything that every organization that uses that slogan does or even stands for.  To insist that it does is to remove the issue from the realm of our principles and place it squarely in the merely political arena. which is almost synonymous with divisive either-or ultimatums in our regrettably merely two-party system.  We can all agree that politicization is not a good thing. 
3. HOWEVER I would strongly recommend that we move quickly past the hanging of the banner, and argument over it, as nothing more than an empty side show compared to what we could, and should, and for some of us, have been doing, in terms of addressing the issue of racial inequality.  I believe the best thing we can do now is to invite local black ministers, and members of their congregations,  to our pulpit regularly - at least once a month - I would prefer more often - to address their concerns with the current crisis with our congregation. That would have a much more practical effect and could hardly be subject to concerns about politicizing the church.  I hope the Board will move forward quickly on this suggestion. Considering COVID we'd have to do this virtually to start with.  But it can be done.  Once that is started, a whole new practical dimension will open up of ways to heal the wider racial division that will be addressed this coming Sunday.  Just talking to each other about it, or worse, arguing with each other about it, is not what we commit ourselves to.  Rather it's the easily dismissed travesty of UU's as a bunch of white folks who like to talk and talk to each other about important issues, and consider themselves better than others for just doing that. 

  Sincerely.

  John Bostrom

[Paul Libert]

Hi John:

 

And not supporting BLM and LGBTQ+ makes you inhuman?

 

Paul

 

From: uufbr...@googlegroups.com <uufbr...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of John Bostrom
Sent: Wednesday, August 26, 2020 3:49 PM
To: uufbr...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [uufbr-board] BLM banner controversy

 

I'm not sure I can attend the virtual Board meeting but I'd like to put my two - no, three - cents in.  It seems to me there's room to move on both sides of this division, that all disagreements can be resolved, and we can get past it and back to the dignity and care for each other which are why we're together in the first place. 

1. The concern about the BLM banner being put back up without congregational approval seems entirely valid to me. and one that's fairly easy to address with a carefully thorough poll of members asking yes or no, and abide by the result.  I'm also concerned about the way the banner was placed.  When I see the slide on Sunday, if I can speak frankly, it seems slipshod if not ugly.  I'd much prefer the sign moved to the lawn, set up carefully and aesthetically so that it's visible to passing motorists,  Moving it further from the building may also alleviate the perception that it politicizes UUFBR itself. 

1. On the other side, I just came across this image online. It seems to me to make an essential and very relevant point.   Those opposed to the banner consistently cast BLM as a political organization or movement, and extending that categorization to the hanging of the banner.is the essential point of their objection - that it politicizes UUFBR.  Unfortunately, that very approach very much politicizes the issue.  The image above reflects my stance, and I suspect that of many others at UUFBR, very clearly and far more accurately. Merely hanging the banner (with a caveat about HOW its hung) only says that we agree with the words of the banner themselves.  "BLACK LIVES MATTER."  It simply does not that we support everything that every organization that uses that slogan does or even stands for.  To insist that it does is to remove the issue from the realm of our principles and place it squarely in the merely political arena. which is almost synonymous with divisive either-or ultimatums in our regrettably merely two-party system.  We can all agree that politicization is not a good thing. 

1. HOWEVER I would strongly recommend that we move quickly past the hanging of the banner, and argument over it, as nothing more than an empty side show compared to what we could, and should, and for some of us, have been doing, in terms of addressing the issue of racial inequality.  I believe the best thing we can do now is to invite local black ministers, and members of their congregations,  to our pulpit regularly - at least once a month - I would prefer more often - to address their concerns with the current crisis with our congregation. That would have a much more practical effect and could hardly be subject to concerns about politicizing the church.  I hope the Board will move forward quickly on this suggestion. Considering COVID we'd have to do this virtually to start with.  But it can be done.  Once that is started, a whole new practical dimension will open up of ways to heal the wider racial division that will be addressed this coming Sunday.  Just talking to each other about it, or worse, arguing with each other about it, is not what we commit ourselves to.  Rather it's the easily dismissed travesty of UU's as a bunch of white folks who like to talk and talk to each other about important issues, and consider themselves better than others for just doing that. 

  Sincerely.

  John Bostrom

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