March 12, 2009                                                                                        Issue #25

Dear Friends,

Once again, there is a bucket collecting water in our shower.  As a native Californian, I know that droughts come and go; however, this feels different. Climate change is pushing Californians and many others around the globe to reexamine our relationship to water.

A lot is at stake. 

How safe and sustainable is your water supply?  If water runs uphill toward money, how will the interests of low income people  be protected? How can we protect the cycles of nature and the watersheds that sustain us all?

From forest to desert, California Unitarian Universalists live in vastly different watersheds and work in regions with varied economic interests.  As UUs, however, we share values that California sorely needs when it comes to making decisions about how water is used, conserved, governed and shared.

justice....equity...compassion....a free and responsible search for truth....sustainable living....interdependence...democracy....human rights....respect for the earth....

We are building a movement of those Californians interested in bringing UU values into the public dialogue about CA water in a time of climate change.

We invite you to join us. Please send some representatives of your congregation to this historic and informative statewide UULM and UUSC sponsored workshop. In addition to great speakers and workshops, you will be able to take home the newly released UUSC and UULM CA Water Justice curriculum, offering a wealth of information and strategies for education and action.

Blessings,

Rev. Lindi Ramsden

Let Justice Flow:
California Water Justice and Climate Change Workshop

Saturday, April 18, 2009
9:15 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Mt. Diablo UU Church, Walnut Creek

$15 for adults, $5 for students (lunch provided)
Child care, home hospitality, rides from BART, Amtrak, Airport by prior reservation.

Sponsored by UULM, UUSC, and the Mt. Diablo UU Church

Register and pay on-line by clicking here

World Water Day - Join UULM at the Water March '09

Sunday, March 22:  This World Water Day, bring your congregation’s banner and join the UU Legislative Ministry, Urban Semillas, Environmental Justice Coalition for Water, Food and Water Watch, and many other community groups in the March for Water ’09.

The day starts with a rally at 9AM at the Los Angeles State Historic Park in Los Angeles (1245 N. Spring St.). The march begins at 10AM, ending around noon at the , followed by a water celebration. Help the UU Legislative Ministry and UUSC lift up UU support for the human right to water! Volunteer to pass postcards in support of the Human Right to Water Act of 2009!

UUs who want to walk together are meeting up at the Homegirl Café right off the Gold Line at 8:30am.

March for Water 09 Website

Trailer from "Flow" the film that started it all

UULM and UUSC co-sponsor the Human Right to Water Act of 2009

In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was ratified by all the nations of the world. At the time, water was plentiful, and the 30 articles which make up the declaration did not recognize the human right to water. Now, with millions dying annually due to a lack of clean affordable water, a world wide movement is rising to add the human right to  water to this historic declaration. Sign the petiton for Article 31, the Human Right to Water.

In California, the UU Legislative Ministry has been active with a statewide Water Summit, and suggested the Water Summit bring forward a bill on the human right to water in California. An estimated 150,000 low-income Californians do not have access to safe affordable drinking water. The UULM Action Network is now co-sponsoring (along with our wonderful national UU Service Committee, the Environmental Justice Coalition for Water, Community Water Center, Food and Water Watch, and Urban Semillas) the Human Right to Water Act of 2009 (AB1242) carried by Assemblymember Ira Ruskin.  The UULM Action Network will be in touch with congregational environmental justice leaders to discuss how you can be involved in this historic action - the first such bill in the nation.

Quote for the day:

Each of us belongs to a particular landscape, one that informs who we are, a place that carries our history, our dreams, holds us to a moral line of behavior that transcends thought.

And in each of these places homework is required, a participation in public life to make certain all is not destroyed under the banner of progress, expediency, or ignorance.

We cannot do it alone.

This is the hope of bedrock democracy, standing our ground in the places we love, together…  
                                                                                             - Terry Tempest Williams  

To contribute to the UULM Action Network CA and/or the UULM-CA, please visit our Donation pages. UULM Action Network, CA (non-tax deductible) UULM-CA (Tax deductible, for educational purposes). Monthly donors are vital to our work, and one time donations are also gratefully received.