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A Unitarian Universalist Crisis of Faith

I am a Unitarian Universalist. At least, still am. In January 2026, I attended the “Side with Love” meeting of the UUA online. At one point, the moderator was listing the things that make us, as UUs, against Donald Trump. One thing she listed was that Trump captured Nicolas Maduro and then, she took great care to emphasize that Maduro was the “duly elected” president of Venezuela. Well, not really. Not really at all. We may not believe what the US State Department lists at their website: that 50 countries don’t recognize him as the duly elected leader, but many independent sources question the results of that election, such as the January 2025 article by Javier Corrales and Dorothy Kronick “How Maduro Stole Venezuela’s Vote” in the Journal of Democracy. I think it’s safe to say that Nicolas Maduro was most certainly NOT duly elected. My point isn’t to say that the moderator kind of goofed, but to point out that she emphasized the goof in such a way as to make it crystal clear that it w...
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Minneapolis, Political Violence and the End of Democracy

 As the situation has been evolving, this original 1/24/26 post was updated 1/30/26.  Political Death. Death in the name of politics. Do they suggest they are the same thing? George Floyd died during the confusing time of COVID and galvanized the African American community and sympathetic whites. And this accomplished the Black Lives Matter movement. White folks got three political deaths recently, Charlie Kirk, Renee Good and Alex Pretti. They don’t carry the same resonance of oppression. Charlie Kirk had already founded his movement and made it into a multi-million dollar business which flourishes now all the more and Renee Good and Alex Pretti believed they were standing up for the oppressed and their deaths have inspired more messy protests but there doesn’t seem to be a galvanizing emergence of a new movement. Pardon the cliche but we all seem to be deer still stuck in the headlights. Now, I ask you... What good did any of it do, anyway, except to outline the times in wh...
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Responsible Gun Ownership

  There is a lot that can be done about gun violence and all of those things would allow me to own a gun. I used to own a gun and I may want to again. Maybe even more than one gun. But, there should be a limit. Not everyone who wants to do something about gun violence is a left wing nut case that wants to take away everyone’s guns. That’s just the narrative of foreign operatives on social media that want our society to remain in turmoil. People have picked that up and are repeating it but it is not true. Gun violence doesn't have to be at the level we're at, but if we do something about it, we're coming very late to the game. First, there are 1.21 guns per person in the US. We would need gun programs to turn in guns across the country.  Then, we would have to require background checks, licenses, training and required safety precautions. And yes, there's just no need to have certain types of guns. Just because American's invented these semi-automatic weapons a long ...
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My second blog entry - Racial Diversity

  My second blog entry, as it turns out, is going to be about racial diversity. I recently attended the play, "American Son" by Chrstopher Demos-Brown. It offered, in an hour and half, an intense look into the issues of racial equity and race relations. As a non-profit professional, I've attended several hours of workshops and seminars about this same subject that didn't have the impact or the information-content that the play had. These constructs - and race is a construct just as gender is - are best viewed on the lattice of our own human stories rather than stand-alone abstract concepts. Several of these concepts and racially destructive policies, like red-lining, are tossed off in the play - in an almost weaponized way, the truth of which is not denied, and yet used to wound or denote the wedge in race relations. As I've stated already, I'm a genderqueer person, but I am also white, and, come off as male, so, my privilege I acknowledge in my interpretation...
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My First Blog Entry...

  I was recently at my therapist (ya, therapists are good for your mental health. Try one.) and she told me that whatever I do next in my life, I should keep sharing what I know. What I’ve learned over my lifetime (so far at least). This led me to thinking about how we don’t really value what our elders say. Specifically, my therapist was addressing what I share as far as knowing about gender, sexual and neuro- diversity. Offensively, queers and retards. But there’s so much more to people than meets the eyes, ears, nose, mouth and hands (that’s 5 senses, right?). What exists, is indeed a “spectrum” - that now-overused organization name for diverse groups. It means that there isn’t just “this or that” There’s everything in between and nothing at all. To be fair, my therapist’s suggestion was to write an advice column so I could respond to real people about real things in real time and not just try to wax philosophical about a bunch of crap. I think that’s probably good advice in and...
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Steve & the Reticence of Death

Death is a Gentlewoman Who comes on slippered feet Floating Like a Geisha Surprisingly tender For those who see her She comes in answer to prayer She comes despite prayer She has her own time She will not relent But she will be soft She touches a cheek She is the final act of Love This world offers And the first act Of the next She is the only one Positioned thus Only she understands And she neither needs you Nor I to comprehend It is all in a breath Then it is clear: A life happens in a breath And she brings release With the final respire June 26, 2018 Sunbury, PA I didn’t know it then, but Steve would die a mere 8 days later. So many things start and come to an end in our lives. Many of those things we may deem as a disappointment. Many, we commit to the “best of times”. Still others are unremembered: Unremarkable. Steve’s death was all of those things, but none of them. How could we not term the death of a loved one a disappointment? Yet, his life and the time we were together were ...
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