Mailbox, Summer 2008

War and racism garner responses.
By Jane Greer
Summer 2008 5.15.08

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COMPANION ARTICLE

Letters, Summer 2008 Readers respond to the Spring 2008 issue. Jane Greer (Summer 2008)

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Paul Rasor’s article about pacifism and the just war tradition, “Prophetic Nonviolence,” in the Spring issue drew 16 responses out of a total of 69 letters. “My personal philosophy is to live with the spirit of complete nonviolence as the highest goal,” wrote Ronald A. Stanley of Clearville, Pennsylvania. Doug Traversa of Tullahoma, Tennessee, saw things differently: “There are just wars, and to suggest there aren’t is a tragic mistake,” he wrote.

Some writers expressed concern for those in the military. Stefani Barner, a military spouse in Clinton Township, Michigan, wrote: “Let us not, in our outrage at those who lead us into war, institutionalize hostility towards those who are sent to fight it.”

William Doherty’s article about bringing religious education into the home, “Home Grown Unitarian Universalism,” elicited seven responses. “As a ‘home grown’ UU I appreciated Doherty’s article on developing home-based rituals for raising UU kids,” wrote Jan Ogren of Rohnert Park, California. “I grew up knowing more about what I wasn’t than what I was.”

Four readers responded to the Forum article about municipal racism, “Was Your Town a Sundown Town?” by James W. Loewen. Rita Sizemore of Greenwood, Indiana, wrote about buying a home many years ago in a town with a reputation as a former sundown town. “The home was built in the 1940s and we were given the original abstract to the property,” she wrote. “In this abstract it was written that no African Americans were to be in the town unless they were domestic help and that they were to be out of the town by 5 p.m.”

Five letters addressed General Assembly security issues, and another five reacted to W. Frederick Wooden’s Bookshelf essay on reading the classics.

The always-eclectic “other” file included missives on the marginalization of vegans and the UUA’s advertising campaign in Time, as well as a tribute to former UUA moderator Natalie Gulbrandsen.

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