Justice

Many members of UUCM joined the local chapter of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) in the Grass Valley July 4th Parade. By partnering with a local organization, we are more effective than working alone and significantly strengthen the impact of our partner.

The CCL float promoted the four climate solutions:

1. Healthy Forests
2. Electrification
3. Permitting Reform
4. Carbon Fee & Dividend

Keith was in the lead supporting one end of the banner. Shannon and Leonna were Healthy Forests, Carol K rode in Bob B’s plug-in hybrid electric vehicle pulling the float. Bob M and granddaughter, Elif, were Carbon Fee and Dividend. Elif handed out dollar bills to kids viewing the parade. Andy drove a Bolt EV. Claire brought up the rear in her recumbent bike flying the stars and stripes. Carmen just avoided running over people as she whizzed around on her eBike.

We got an enthusiastic reception from those lining the root. The exceptionally large crowd, that lined the route, received our climate solutions message.

Please be patient until we are ready to have another Stop the Mine Task Force Meeting.
We will need to prepare for the Supervisor’s hearing and vote on the project now scheduled for Oct. 3 and 4.

For information on what’s happening now, please email Jim Bair: StopTheMine@uugrassvalley.org

UUCM’s May Share the Plate recipient, Child Advocates, will receive $792.79, thanks to generous UUCM members, friends, and visitors.  These weekly donations add up.  Thank you all.

We are finishing up collections for our June partner, KARE Crisis Nursery.  To make a contribution to the KARE Crisis Nursery’s plate-share, click here.

Our July Share the Plate recipient is Color Me Human.
The mission of Color Me Human is to celebrate, elevate, and advocate to create a safe, equitable world for black, indigenous, people of color and LGBTQ+ folks.  Led by a multi-racial, multi-cultural team, Color Me Human supports the under-resourced communities in California’s second whitest county.  Rev Kevin serves on the Board, and UUCM member Tracy Pepper is the Executive Director and founder of Color Me Human.

Thank you, each of you, for your continual compassion and justice-centered generosity.

Beloved members and friends of UUCM,
The Justice Team, Steve Temple, Leisa Huyck, and Rev. Kevin have some very exciting news: we are bringing a young Haitian family to Grass Valley!
Steve and Leisa have known this young couple, Nazaire (papa) and Moustapha (maman), for ten years, through our shared work in rebuilding Haiti’s agricultural education system after the 2010 earthquake. Nazaire and Moustapha have two little boys, ages 8 and 4. Steve is godfather to the older boy.
Both Nazaire and Moustapha are agricultural extensionists by training. Nazaire has come to the U.S. for two short periods to get advanced training, taking his new skills back to Haiti to help rebuild his country.
For the past three years, the situation in Haiti has been so unstable and violent that neither Nazaire nor Moustapha have been able to leave their apartment in Port au Prince to go work in the countryside. When we speak to them on the phone, we often hear gunshots in the background. We have occasionally had to send money so they would be able to buy food. The boys cannot attend school nor play outside due to the dangers of kidnapping, and Moustapha can’t go out because of the danger of rape as well as kidnapping.
For all this time, we have been exploring possible avenues for bringing them to the U.S., until Haiti is more stable. In January, the Biden administration opened a “Humanitarian Parole” program that admits 30,000 Haitians per month to the U.S. for a parole period of up to two years. We submitted the paperwork, and learned just two weeks ago that Moustapha and the boys have been cleared for travel! They will arrive on July 18! Nazaire is still waiting to hear, but we have every expectation that he will also be cleared.
In the meantime,…we need help! They will need everything! Moustapha and the boys will live at Steve and Leisa’s house in a (mostly) separate apartment we are setting up, and until we can all figure out what their next steps might be. They hope eventually to move to a place where there is more ethnic diversity, and possibly even other Haitians, but for now they are coming here.
We hope all of you will help make them welcome, not only emotionally and spiritually, but also materially. We have some furnishings for their apartment—two beds and two couches—but that’s it! They and we will need money to purchase supplies, pay for things like medical and dental care, buy a used vehicle to transport them around in (we only have our tiny electric car), and much more. They and we can certainly use donations of kitchen items like dishware, small appliances like small microwave, blender, toaster oven, etc. New or used toys, games, art supplies, and all things for 4- and 8-year-olds will also be needed, as will PLAYMATES! Steve and Leisa are of grandparent age and so are not plugged into the local family scene; we welcome suggestions for things young kids can do in the area to meet other kids and families.
We are in the process of setting up a fund to which people can donate money, as well as a wish list for particular items needed and a place to drop them off. We may also will have a work day or two to help us get everything set up. We have less than four weeks to go until they arrive!
We know our UUCM community will come together to help welcome this Haitian family into our midst. We look forward to introducing them to you. Thank You!

Dear Congregation,

Our Justice Team Task Force was a major force!  When the five County Planning Commissioners voted unanimously to recommend rejecting the Rise Gold Corp. (the Mine) proposal, many of us in the packed (several hundred attended) Nevada County Board Chambers cried tears of joy.  The Commissioners cited our overwhelming Community opposition as one of the important reasons they voted no.

Our Task Force was second only to the MineWatch organization in actively opposing the project.  We initially enabled Community members to write 359 letters of opposition to the County citing heinous damage to our people and environment by reopening a huge gold mine.  We set up and ran information tables at key locations around the area and attracted hundreds of citizens who signed the MineWatch stop-the-mine petition (over 5,500 signatures were submitted to the County.)

We developed reports, fact sheets, handouts, posters, and presentations identifying the negative environmental impacts.  One of our Task Force Members even wrote to the Rise Gold Corp. Board of Directors in Canada asking them to consider the destructiveness of their huge industrial factory in the midst of family residences.  We submitted detailed analysis to the County on the economic reports that falsely claimed the Mine’s financial benefits to our Community. Our letters to the Editor of The Union were posted on the MineWatch Web sites.

We became a resource for the Board of Supervisors and had meetings with three.  In addition, when the Planning Commissioners made their declarations at the Hearing, they used our material and identified our Task Force Leader as one of two contacts. Overall, there wasn’t a single public meeting regarding the Mine where we were not present.

One of our contributions was making public the Mine’s attempt to erase an earthquake fault line running though their industrial facility.  After the revelation of that attempt at the Hearing, there was an earthquake that shook the Chambers and set off alarms!   What could be more improbable?

Our work is not done. We need to help the Supervisors make the final decision in August.

Proudly,

Jim Bair, Leader of the Stop the Mine Task Force, UUCM Justice Team