Unitarian Universalist Church at Washington Crossing

“It is one thing to say with the prophet Amos, ‘Let justice roll down like mighty waters,’ and quite another to work out the irrigation system. Clearly there is more certainty in the recognition of wrongs than there is in the prescription for their cure.” William Sloane Coffin

Isn’t that the truth? Even when we have an inkling about the cure for some injustice, carrying it out is a challenging task. You do not have to be a bleeding heart liberal to want to do something about injustice in the world, in the nation, in our adjoining states, in our counties, or local communities. Concern for Justice is not limited to any country or to any one political party or any one religious orientation. Yet, how are we, as individuals or even as a group of caring people, able to help cure injustice?

The following story, gives a clearer picture why we are called to do something to help justice roll down like mighty waters. We may not move mountains of injustice, but we can move a little dirt out of the irrigation ditches.

“The Brick” A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag’s side door!

He slammed on the brakes and backed the Jag back to the spot where the brick had been thrown. The angry driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car shouting, “What was that all about and who are you? Just what the heck are you doing? That’s a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?”

The young boy was apologetic. “Please, mister…please, I’m sorry but I didn’t know what else to do,” he pleaded. “I threw the brick because no one else would stop…” With tears dripping down his face
and off his chin, the youth pointed to a spot just around a parked car. “It’s my brother,” he said. “He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can’t lift him up.”

Now sobbing, the boy asked the stunned executive, “Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He’s hurt and he’s too heavy for me.”

Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into the wheelchair, then took out his handkerchief and dabbed at the fresh scrapes and cuts. A quick look told him everything was going to be okay.

“Thank you,” the grateful child told the stranger.

Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the boy push his wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk toward their home It was a long, slow walk back to the Jaguar. The damage was very noticeable, but the driver never bothered to repair the dented side door. He kept the dent there to remind him to, “Not to go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention!”

We do travel through life pretty fast. The injustice right in front of us has a hard time getting our attention. It takes a pretty large brick for us to notice. Well, there are a number of substantial bricks that have hit us lately; a $2.4 trillion dollar brick, the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It has done a lot of damage. Can you picture a trillion dollars? I have a hard time picturing a million dollars let alone a billion. When it comes to trillions, I just can’t get a realistic picture of what that means. One U.S. representative said, “The number is so big, it boggles the mind.” (Representative Rahm Emanuel) It helps break it down to a cost per each man, woman and child in the United States of about $8,000.

Last Thursday, another brick caught our attention in a report stating that almost 1 in every 100 American adults is behind bars, 2,319,258 adults. $49 billion was spent on corrections last year. That is just dollars, think of the human damage. I have one child who just finished college and another child still in college, I know how fast the costs have gone up, but the rate of increase costs for prisons is six times greater than for higher education. State after state is feeling the impact of that financial brick. David Muhlhausen, a criminal justice expert with the conservative Heritage Foundation, said, “We need to be smarter. We’re not only incarcerating all the people who commit serious crimes — but we’re also probably incarcerating people who don’t need to be.”

Thirteen states have begun working to develope programs that will divert offenders from prison without jeopardizing public safety. They question the reliance on prisons for lower-level offenders. The higher rate of incarceration does not even reflect a corresponding increase in crime. More people are behind bars because of tougher sentencing, like the “three-strikes” laws.
It is not just or even mainly the cost. What does it say about our society that one in 30 men between the ages of 20-34 are behind bars? When it comes to black males between the ages of 20-34 the figure is one in nine? Sadly, our country is the world’s leader with more people jailed per capita. We have far more people imprisoned than China.

Poverty is related to incarceration, another hefty brick of injustice hitting our country daily. Twelve to fifteen percent of our population is classified poor in any given year. Most poor people cycle in and out of poverty over a long period of time. So, during a ten-year period, up to 40 percent of the population experiences poverty. That brick leaves major ongoing damage. Young children, still developing, are the most common to live in poverty. In 2001, 14.8% of all those under 18, were most likely in poverty. For African Americans, 30% of the children under 18 were living under the poverty line, a direct relationship to the high percentage of African Americans in prison? In 2006, the poverty rate for minors in the United States had grown to 21.9%, the highest rate in the developing world.

Ironically, these bricks hitting us have been taken from the very foundation of society. We are starting to feel pretty wobbly right now. More and more bricks are being removed from society’s foundation and thrown at the walls of society. It really is not only or even largely the dollar amounts that are important. It is just easier to talk about dollars than it is to talk about the lives that are being damaged, destroyed and prematurely ended by the injustice in our country and around the world. In war there are the killed, the wounded and the disabled.

I have talked with parents about their fear for their son about to go to jail for a non-violent offense. I too cringe at the thought what if it were one of my children. What would the lives of people be like, if instead of spending $40- 50,000 to imprison them, we spent that much to motivate them with jobs, job training, health insurance and an affordable place to live?

What would it be like with less poverty, and more jobs and educational opportunities for people of all races? What would it be like if people didn’t have to worry about how they would pay for their medical care? What would it be like if people didn’t have to worry about bankruptcy because of a sudden illness?

Justice work cries out for men and women of all races, all beliefs and all political philosophies. We are called to respond as individuals, as congregations and as coalitions of congregations? We cannot stand back silently doing nothing while brick after brick is removed from the foundation of society. We respond as individuals. We also come together to work for justice and equity. We as the Unitarian Universalist Church at Washington Crossing pool our resources to reach out in the name of justice in many ways. But one congregation, alone, is too small to make all the needed changes. So we join in coalitions with other organizations.

As a dues paying member of the New Jersey Regional Coalition, I serve on its Board, because we make a difference working together with others of many different faith communities for Justice and Equity. We are a supporting member of the Peace Coalition that works hard in both Mercer and Bucks counties. Our Unitarian Universalist Association president, the Reverend Bill Sinkford, was their key note speaker last fall. We are a founding partner of the NJUU Legislative Network. Two of our members serve on its steering committee, one of them as co-chair.

Justice and equity is why I joined a coalition of Rabbis, Imams, Christian Ministers, a RC Sister, a Buddhist on our Compassionate Listening Tour to Israel and Palestine later this month. That is why I encourage you to work within and contribute to the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee. Justice and equity is why our congregation supports Homefront, Women’s Space and Place, the Morrisville Food Pantry, Loaves and Fishes, Task and other coalitions and organizations. We work to build a more just society.

The driver whose car was hit with a brick, stopped, expecting the person who had thrown it was an enemy. He discovered something completely different. Last fall, Desmond Tutu, speaking about his hope for peace between Israel and Palestinians said, (October 26, 2007) “All things become possible when hearts fixed in mutual contempt begin to grasp a transforming truth; namely, that this person I fear and despise is not an alien, something less than human. This person is very much like me, and enjoys and suffers, loves and fears, wonders, worries, and hopes. Just as I do, this person longs for well-being in a world of peace.

Most South Africans did not believe they would live to see a day of liberation. They did not believe that their children’s children would see it. … But we have seen it. We are living now in the day we longed for. It is not a cloudless day. The divine arc that bends toward a truly just and whole society has not yet stretched fully across my country’s sky like a rainbow of peace. It is not finished, it does not always live up to its promise, it is not perfect - but it is new. …”

If it can happen in South Africa, Bishop Tutu believes it can happen with the Israelis and Palestinians. He does not have reason to be optimistic, but he has reason to hope. If it can happen in South Africa, why not in the United States? We may not have reason to be optimistic, but we have reason to hope that together we can begin correcting the injustice in our land. I see the reason for hope sitting right here in this room.