Greetings!
The legislative session is just around the corner, and MUUSJA is gearing up for another year of working collectively as UUs, bringing our moral voice into the public sphere.
There are lots of events and actions you can support! I'll highlight a few here, but read on through the Connection to see what MUUSJA and our allies have in the works to move our values forward:
- HIRE Legislative Dinner & Training - The 2010 bonding bill can bring jobs and opportunities to all in Minnesota. Find out how you can help realize green jobs and equity for communities at risk for being left behind by the changing employment landscape.
- Candidate Forums - We draw your attention to two in particular that focus on homelessness and on transit.
- "I Do!" Faith Rally for Love & Equality - A key issue for our liberal religious faith. In the wake of Prop 8 and other setbacks, we're still moving forward and believe it is winnable. Come help set the stage now.
- Sacred Choices intergenerational film night - Comprehensive sex ed and a woman's right to choose can never be taken for granted.
Are you on Facebook? You can keep up on rapidly changing events, actions, links to interesting readings, streaming audio and other items too fast-breaking for our e-news by becoming a fan.
Not on Facebook? You can see and connect to our "Facebook feed" right on MUUSJA's home page, muusja.org, without being a Facebook member.
However you choose to stay in touch - at our events, via the Connection, and Facebook - your support is vital to the grassroots justice work of Minnesota Unitarian Universalists. Thank you.
Ralph Wyman
MUUSJA Director/Organizer
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| MUUSJA Action News |
 Precinct Caucus Training:
Moving a resolution for employment equity
Saturday, January 30
10:00 - 11:30 am (muffins & coffee at 9:45)
First Universalist Church
3400 Dupont Ave S, Minneapolis
Sierra Club/EJAM organizer Karen Monahan has trained many in how to move a citizen resolution through a local precinct caucus and is offering us this UU-specific event. MUUSJA EcoMinds is supporting HIRE Minnesota's non-partisan effort to pass a racial & economic justice resolution in any February 2nd caucus: Green, Republican, Independence or Democratic. FFI Catie: catiechi@ix.netcom.com
 UUs Out 4 Marriage
Monday, February 1
7:00 - 9:00 pm
First Universalist Church
3400 Dupont Ave S, Minneapolis
Get ready to Rally! Also, our "Beyond 'Duh': UU Youth Speak on Marriage Equality" workshop has been accepted for General Assembly this June - so we need to work towards that. First Unitarian Society has pledged to take the lead on placing a float in this year's Pride Parade (coinciding with GA Sunday) and UUO4M wants at least 500 UUs to march with the float. We can do this!! FFI Ralph: 612-998-6624 or rwmuusja@gmail.com
MUUSJA Board Meeting
Monday, February 8
7 - 9 pm
First Unitarian Society
900 Mount Curve, Minneapolis
All
are warmly welcomed to attend and to join in conversation at our monthly board
meeting. Contact Ralph at 612-998-6624 or rwmuusja@gmail.com for information or to request an agenda. MUUSJA EcoMindsThursday, February 11 7:00 - 9:00 pm First Universalist Church 3400 Dupont Ave S Keep up with the notes and activities of MUUSJA EcoMinds via our announcement list, and join us for this next monthly meeting. EcoMinds is our connection point to the HIRE Minnesota coalition, and is also working on a General Assembly workshop as well as a networking event for climate change-minded UUs during GA. FFI Catie: catiechi@ix.netcom.com 
 Film: I Had an AbortionFriday, February 19 7:00 pm First Universalist Church 3400 Dupont Ave S, Minneapolis Cutting across age, race, class and religion, this film - by Gillian Aldrich and Jennifer Baumgardner - movingly shares personal narratives of 10 women who candidly describe experiences spanning seven decades
from the years before Roe v. Wade to the present day.
Join AUW & MUUSJA's Reproductive Rights Sacred Choices for this screening and an intergenerational discussion among UU parents, teens, young adults, mentors and friends. Free admission, refreshments served. RSVPs appreciated to Sara:
612-729-2028 mckru@comcast.net
Save the date: Voter Rights will meet on Saturday, March 6th. Details in the next Connection.
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UU & Allied Social Justice Events
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 HIRE Minnesota Legislative Dinner & Training
Thursday, January 21st
6:00 - 8:00 pm
Minneapolis Urban League
2100 Plymouth Ave N,
Minneapolis
(map)
Make your voice heard on climate justice!
Co-chair Will Steger will talk about his experience in Copenhagen at the climate talks and how vital efforts like HIRE are to moving forward. Get briefed on HIRE's legislative agenda, and get training on an effective citizen visit to a legislator. Food and beverages will be served from 6 - 6:30 pm. The
program will begin at 6:30 and ends by 8:00 pm. Free event.
 Candidate Forum on Homelessness
Sunday, January 24
6:30 pm
Temple Israel
2324 Emerson Ave S, Minneapolis
Downtown
Congregations to End Homlessness, JRLC, MUUSJA, and many other
co-sponsors invite you to this Gubernatorial Candidate Forum as we
discuss
ending homelessness in Minnesota. We will ask: What
is the role of the government in meeting basic needs of jobs, housing,
and health and human services, and how do our values inform our
response?
Transit for Livable Communities is also hosting a candidate forum, on transit and land use, on Monday, January 25th, at 6:30 pm.
Marriage Equality Organizing Meeting for
People of Faith
Thursday, January 28th
7:00 - 8:00 pm
Mayflower Church
106 East Diamond Lake Road, Minneapolis
Please
attend our first meeting of the year to plan how we are going to pave the way
for a legislative victory for full inclusion for civil marriage in Minnesota. FFI: OutFrontMN
Faith Rally at the Capitol - I Do Support Love!  Thursday, February 11 8:30 - 9:30 am Minnesota State Capitol
Rotunda
75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard St. Paul, Minnesota Make
your
sign, put on your Standing on the Side of Love tee shirt, or grab a
friend and your congregation's banner! Head over to the capitol to
show your support for enacting
marriage equality legislation in Minnesota. Clergy and faith leaders
will lead
us in an inspiring rally for justice. FFI Ralph rwmuusja@gmail.com |
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MUUSJA is dedicated to building the UU social justice movement in Minnesota. Please contact us with your event suggestions, questions about how to get involved, or to update your information with us.
Sincerely,
Ralph Wyman, Director/Organizer
MUUSJA
612-998-6624
rwmuusja@gmail.com
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Kelli Clement reports from ProChoice
Lobby Day in D.C.
The call to action to go to Washington DC
for pro-choice lobby day on Dec. 2, 2009, was just too exciting and necessary to pass
up, so I got a cheap ticket, packed some good walking shoes and headed
out.
Over 500 activists from around the country showed up to lobby our
Congressional representatives for full access to reproductive health care, while
local activists rallied at the State Capitol in St. Paul.
As the co-chair
of the Minnesota Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, I visited the Washington offices of
all eight Minnesota Representatives and both of our Senators. I let them know that
as pro-choice people of faith we believe that robust reproductive health care
must be available to all women and that restrictions like the Stupak-Pitts
amendment are unacceptable.
I consistently heard from pro-choice legislators
that it is meaningful to them receive such messages from people of faith as
this debate rolls forward.
Please let me know if you would like more
information on how to help keep restrictive language out of the healthcare
bill, and/or how to further and support the work of the Religious Coalition for
Reproductive Choice.
Kelli Clement, kjclement@comcast.net
Prairie Star
District rep and Board co-chair, MNRCRC |
Coming soon: Watch "I Had an Abortion" with MUUSJA, AUW & RCRC.
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Help make MUUSJA a clear moral voice for justice with your donation to MUUSJA. We accept secure, tax deductible, online donations via Paypal: Checks can be mailed to: MUUSJA c/o PSD 122 W. Franklin Ave Suite 303 Minneapolis, MN 55404 Thank you to the Prairie Star District of the UUA, our fiscal sponsor. | |
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