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We believe in human goodness.
Yet, in all our faces every day is the great harm
people can do to one another. 
Wars, violence, racism, greed fill the news. 
In our day-to-day lives,
we encounter selfishness and pettiness,
frustration, anger and blame.
It’s true.
And we witness people
be generous, imaginative, compassionate,
respond to one another with tenderness, support and care. 
Look around and you see much human goodness every day.
Most people are like you
wanting to make a difference,
to be helpful,
to make life meaningful through doing good.

Most people are good at heart. 
You can make a case for human depravity
and choose to believe people are bad. 
But, for many of us,
keeping faith with the goodness of the human heart
helps make goodness.
We humans survive because we come together in caring ways.
In the midst of injustice,
there are human beings
who respond with courage and goodness.

Their actions, large and small, inspire more.
Goodness grows. 
We put our faith in one another
and our human potential for goodness.

The two of us participated
in UUA President Peter Morales’
BorderLinks trip to the Arizona/Mexico border. 
What a great experiential, emotional, educational time! 
This border trip and others like it
are set up to help us prepare
for the gathering of Unitarian Universalists in Phoenix
this coming June for a Justice General Assembly.

The last week of June in Phoenix,
UUs will learn, serve, and worship during the day
and in the cooler evenings
join with interfaith and community groups
to witness and rally for immigration justice.
More UUA BorderLinks trips are planned for April and May
with more to follow after General Assembly, 
We hope you’ll plan to participate in General Assembly.
Will you please rise or wave your arm in the air,
if you are thinking of going to GA in Phoenix?
Flyers about GA and about BorderLinks trips
will be available in the Atrium.
Please consider participating.

At the border our group leaders were bi-national. 
We participated with religious communities. 
Their faith in God sustains
and compels them to do good.
We also participated with community organizations.
They do good guided by morals, ethics,
a human impulse toward fairness and justice. 
Good with God and good without God.
And the good news is both groups work together.
Last Sunday we shared
the work of some of the interfaith religious groups on the border. 
This morning we’ll tell of some of the work of community organizations. 
All these groups touched our hearts. 
So many people of faith and people of conscience do good.

The organization Scholarships AZ believes every student deserves
a right to higher education regardless of immigration status.
In Tucson, we meet six Arizona students
from high schools and a community college.
Each of them tells their story.
These students arrived in this country
when they were young children.
They’ve spent almost all of their lives here
and gone through the school system.
65,000 students without documents
graduate from high school each year.
Only 5% attend college.
We listen to the students’ stories.

They are bright, articulate, bi-lingual, hard-working.
They are in honors and Advance Placement courses
and rank high in their classes.
They dream of being doctors, lawyers, psychologists.
Their classmates ask them, “What college are you going to?”
They tell us how hard it is to answer. 
They feel shame. 
They have no documents, no social security numbers.
Lower in-state tuition, scholarships,
and higher education are not possible.
One young woman, tears streaming down her cheeks,
asks us if we saw the youtube video
where two high school girls talk.
The two tell young women like her
to go back to Mexico and have babies.

She says, “it’s painful to know that’s what people think of you.”
She says, “I want to be an engineer.”
She is grateful Scholarships AZ offers mentors,
people like her who openly tell their stories
and share their dreams.
Scholarships AZ helps her learn about creative fundraising, accepting help, and being proud of who she is.
I feel shame when I hear these students.
I feel shame
that we aren’t making possible their higher education.
I want them to be courageous, strong,
to know how intelligent and beautiful they are.
I want doors to open for them.
I want to help.
Their education serves us all.

A community college student, Anisa, says,
"I'm not afraid to hear a 'No' from someone
because I know that someone else will say, 'Yes.'
I know if I get the opportunity
I can make a huge difference in my community.”

At the border in Mexico resides the Home of Hope and Peace.
This community organization provides
adult education so parents can complete high school
and job training,
a community garden,
nutritious lunches for children,
and children’s camps.
The camps’ theme is A Culture of Peace.
They teach active non-violence and conflict resolution.

At the Home of Hope and Peace,
women learn their rights to be treated with respect
and find safety from domestic violence.
The Home of Hope and Peace advocates for sources of
employment in Mexico with healthy, fair working conditions.
They operate a woman’s cooperative.
Crafts are made and sold and provide an economic alternative.
Their mission is to make immigration an option
rather than an obligation.

The Home of Hope and Peace Director Jeannette Pazos tells us,
November 20 is the annual celebration of the Mexican Revolution.
Soldiers parade. 
Men grow their moustaches bigger.
Flags wave. 
People fire guns into the air. 
Kids carry toy guns and wear bandoleers,
straps of bullets across their chests.

At The Home of Hope and Peace they ask,
Who benefits from this telling of the revolutionary story? 
Who are today’s revolutionaries?
What story needs to be told?
The Home of Hope and Peace joins the parade.
Their children parade with no toy guns.
The children dress in traditional costumes.
Instead of carrying guns,
they carry images of peace,
The Home of Hope and Peace flag.
They carry banners:  I have a right to food.
I have a right to dignity.
I have a right to housing.
Don’t touch me.  I’m a kid.

One banner we saw in Nogales is of a peace dove.
The words proclaim: 
I have a right to live a life free of violence.

We revolutionize, the director says.

Nogales, Jeanette tells us in softly spoken words,
has a particular beauty.
Maybe sunsets are as beautiful where you live,
she whispers.
Up on this hill, birds fly freely.
No wall holds them back.

Sunset, the work day begins for the migrant.
Crossing the desert is dangerous.
She sees migrants’ feet with the blistered soles peeling off.
The migrant yearns to cross to be reunited with family.
She talks with Border Patrol.
They tell her they are at risk in the desert.
Wild animals, criminals.
Their great hope is to make it home at night to their family.

She tells us in her heart
she knows the migrant and the border patrol are the same.
They both just want to be with their loved ones.
The system blinds us to the truth that we are brothers and sisters.
Our work is hard, she says, but inspiring.
We plant ideas with the new generations.
The young people are budding, blossoming.

What can all of us here do?
Gather in community to learn more. 
Second Wednesdays 7:30 – 9:00, Elisabeth and Katherine Jay
lead the UUA’s Immigration Curriculum.

Third Wednesdays, that’s this coming Wednesday,
gather at 5:30 outside the West County Detention Center
at 5555 Giant Highway in Richmond for an interfaith immigration vigil.

Our offering this month supports East Bay Sanctuary Covenant
who support, protect and advocate
for immigrants and refugees.

Speak appreciation
for whatever you see people doing that creates good. 
Whatever.
Appreciate someone’s being a good parent, a good teacher,
a good volunteer.

Thank you for getting out and coming here on Sunday,
for bringing your energy to this community,
for your reaching out to greet people you don’t yet know.
Being here changes you.

In all about love, poet bell hooks writes,
"Enjoying the benefits of living and loving in community
empowers us to meet strangers without fear
and extend to them the gift of openness and recognition.

Just by speaking to a stranger,
acknowledging their presence on the planet,
we make a connection....
We can begin the process of making community wherever we are.
We can begin by sharing a smile, a warm greeting,
a bit of conversation...."

We give thanks for your presence on the planet.
We give thanks for all the good people
we met on our BorderLinks trip. 
Everyone we met thanked us for coming.
They cheer UUs coming to Phoenix in June.
The more people who show up for any vigil or rally or public witness, t
he more attention comes to immigration and justice.
They tell us the change in immigration
will come from people like us.

We invite you to come to Phoenix
to join with other interfaith groups and community groups
to witness for immigration justice. 
The people you meet, the groups you’ll experience
will change your heart.

Let the goodness of the human spirit
open our hearts, our hands, our minds.

Guide us to cross borders of all sorts.

Connect us with our human family. 
We are brothers and sisters.

Plant what you long to see bud and blossom.
Grow your compassion.

Let the day come when no wall holds anyone back,
When the dove of peace flies freely.

Love guide us on our way.

Blessing:

Let the goodness of the human spirit
open our hearts, our hands, our minds. 
Guide us to cross borders of all sorts.
Connect us with our human family. 
Grow our faith, our hope, our joy.
Love, guide us on our way.

Copyright © 2012, Revs. Barbara and Bill Hamilton-Holway. All Rights Reserved.