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The Unitarian Church of All Souls • 1157 Lexington Avenue • New York, NY 10021 email: peacetaskforcenyc@yahoo.com
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CHANGE THE WORLD BEFORE THE OTHER GUYS DO
Talk by Bruce Knotts Review by Phoebe Hoss March 8, 2009 Peggy Montgomery opened by reminding us that this was International Women’s Day, which was established in 1909 in the United States and is now an official holiday in fifteen countries. She noted that the Charter of the United Nations in 1945 constituted the first international recognition of the equality of women and men. Now in 2009, the Secretary General of the U.N. is determined to raise public awareness of violence against women and girls–the least punished crime in the world. Peggy was followed by Marilyn Mehr, current board president of UU-UNO, who introduced Bruce Knotts. This event was co-sponsored by All Souls UU-UNO and the Peace and Justice Task Force. Bruce Knotts, having served in the Peace Corps and spent twenty-five years in the State Department, is executive director of the UU-UNO. He spoke both of the United Nations’ achievements and of the UU-UNO’s in promoting Unitarian Universalist values in the world organization. Only in the United States, where the U.N. is roundly criticized by both the government and the media, do people discuss peace without referring to the United Nations. The U.N. acts as a check and balance on all powerful nations, including our own; and it has to be part of total peace. Also, it does vital and important work that no other entity can do. Only the U.N. can speak credibly on behalf of all humanity and the planet. Indeed, Mr. Knotts said, the U.N. is truly effective when its member states allow it to be. He himself saw U.N. Peacekeepers end a brutal civil war in Sierra Leone and restore that nation to health and stability. And U.N. emergency teams care for refugees fleeing war, quickly supplying them with water, medical attention, clothes, food, and shelter. Contrast FEMA after Katrina struck New Orleans, where people who were rescued were then left on highways without water, food, medical help, or any attempt to reunite them with their families. The U.N. organizes global meetings to galvanize action on such vital issues as climate change, human rights, the rights of women, muclear disarmament, ending poverty, global health. Since many politicians in this country find the U.N. hard to control and would like to see it destroyed, Congress consistently votes not to honor our promises to pay our U.N. dues and peacekeeping assessments. By not paying what we owe, we cripple the U.N. in its effort to create peace in Darfur and in nearly twenty other war-torn locations. As for the UU-UNO, it was, in the 1990s, crucial to the establishment of the International Criminal Court. It has lobbied hard to ensure the right kind of peacekeeping in Chad and the Central African Republic; and works on the Commission of the Status of Women and to help children in Ghana orphaned by HIV/AIDS. It has pressed for an end to discrimination against homosexuality, which about ninety countries around the world have laws against, laws that are ruthlessly enforced and that may include death. For sixty years, the U.N. did not address the issue of LGBT rights–until this last fall under pressure from the UU-UNO at a human rights conference in Paris. We paved the way for the historic LGBT statement at the U.N. General Assembly in December 2008, when sixty-six nations called for an end to laws depriving people of their human rights because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Of the “Western” bloc, only the United States and Turkey failed to sign this statement. The United States also voted against resolutions to end racism and the use of mercenaries to deprive people of the right of self-determination. As for the resolution asserting that food is a human right, the United States was the only nation not to sign. We need to urge our government – the State Department and the White House – to change their attitude toward these crucial issues of human rights. While a small minority of UUs persist in vocally opposing our LGBT initiative, we – the silent majority of UUs – must speak up. We must stand up for human rights and to protect the innocent and the helpless. We have an obligation to make the world more just and compassionate. Like the U.N., the UU-UNO is crippled by inadequate funding from the church it represents. Mr. Knotts said that part of his aim is to spread the word about the good works of the UU-UNO and gain more members and more support for its research, for its work on climate change, for diplomatic work at the U.N. He urged people to join and both to speak out and to act forcefully and persistently against abuses of human rights. He reminded us of our commitment to compassion and justice and of the words of the anti-Nazi pastor Martin Niemöller: First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a communist; Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a socialist; Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionist; Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew; Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak out for me. |