BONFIRE

It’s our spring bonfire! We hope you’ll come! And bring whomever: And whatever (e.g. dogs, kites, balls)! It’s on Saturday, April 2 from 2:00 PM until after dark, but come whenever you can. We plan to light the bonfire at around 2:30, watch the flames roar up, and then letting the fire slow down, as it burns into the evening.

It’s at ‘Playland’, our 13 acre property on Welsh Road in Chartiers Township. That is approximately 10 minutes from the Meadowlands Racetrack and McDonalds. It’s rustic: and we don’t mean just no phone or computer. We mean no plumbing, no electricity, no shelter --- and few restrictions. If the thrill of a bonfire in the meadow isn’t enough for you, there are acres of woods to explore (dress for poison ivy) and many of us picnic, play, and stretch our muscles. Whatever the case, bring clothing for all seasons. (One year the weather went from T-shirt weather to a blizzard in the same afternoon!)

You may want to bring lawnchairs and blankets. Some people bring food and drink to share - that's really nice. And, if you have some tree parts that you want to get rid of - just bring them and throw them on the fire. (We had someone bring a box of old tax records, but that did not work out so well as some of the pages were sucked up in the heat to perhaps 100 feet up, and then the breezes wafted them away.)

In case of bad weather (i.e. a lot of rain or wind), it will be postponed to Sunday afternoon. If you RSVP, we will know with whom to get in touch in case of questionable weather. Feel free also to call or email us about the weather situation or anything else.

Hope to see you there!

Peter and Denise

Ralph Reiland at the Forum

Ralph Reiland (an associate professor of economics at Robert Morris University, a Monday columnist with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, a contributing writer at The American Enterprise Institute, an associate editor at Liberty magazine, the owner of Amel's Restaurant, and a former president at Sunnyhill) will speak this Sunday, 3/20/05, on "REGULATION & LITIGATION: THE NEW SOCIALISM IN AMERICA "

The Forum will start at 10:15 on Sunday.

Caving trip

Hey, Sunnyhillers, most of you know by now that I am an avid caver (one who
explores natural, undeveloped caves). Many of you have expressed interest
levels ranging from genuine to morbid curiosity in my hobby. Some of you
have been so bold as to approach me and say you think you'd like to tag
along sometime. To this my response is, GREAT!

Mark your calendars for Saturday, March 5. I have reserved a group trip
into the wild, undeveloped area of Laurel Caverns. I need 6 to get the
group rate of $18/person, group max size is 16 (I think, gotta double
check). The time slot I have is 2pm-5pm, I would suggest we meet at
Sunnyhill at 11:30am. Laurel Caverns is located east of Uniontown, PA on
US40, atop Chestnut Ridge (and the view on a clear day is stupendous!) The
cave trip is into the undeveloped part of the cave: No lights, no walkways,
no hand rails, no tourist trails, the cave is pretty much in its natural
state (for as much visitation it gets). You will need grungy clothes, and a
change of clean clothes.

This is a great trip for folks who think they may be interested in caving,
but want something relatively easy to start (I was 8 years old when I
started doing this cave trip with my dad, due to insurance issues these days
the minimum age is 12). Because this is a trip into undeveloped cave, there
is no access for those with physical disabilities (sorry). You will be
climbing over underground rocks, walking through a shallow stream, and doing
a minimal amount of crawling and squeezing (for a wild cave trip, this one
really is pretty easy).

How did this trip come to be? I had originally reserved this trip for my
high school youth group, but interest in anything this year on their part
has been dismal at best, so I decided rather than scrapping it to offer it
to you Sunnyhillers. Most of the caves I do are the "hike through the woods
to the hole in the ground and go in" type, completely wild, no fees, guides,
etc. but this is a real good into to the sport.

If you are interested, here is a website with more information:
http://www.matheia.com/caving.htm . Please read over the information on
this website so you know how to prepare and what to expect (I can print it
for you if you need me to, let me know). You will need to sign a waiver to
go in (insurance reasons, again...). There will be a signup sheet on the
bulletin board at the bottom of the stairway where you can sign up. Because
I need to keep track of the group size, I need folks to sign up.

Hope all of you who are interested can make this!

Carl Pierce

(PS - Hey Spiritways Pagans, get to know our Earth Mother in a new and
intimate way!)

The Drummer goes to PDF to save on postage

the church administrator sent out this email:

Greetings Sunnyhillers

The Drummer (Sunnyhill's Newsletter) will be sent electronically in PDF
form beginning with the February Issue. If someone doesn't have email or I
do not have their email address then I will be snail mailing the February
copy but starting in March they will have to pick up a copy at Sunnyhill or
receive it electronically. Exceptions are Churches that we exchange
newsletters with and visitors that do not provide an email address.

This will save money- postage and paper and it is in line with our Seventh
Principle.

The February Issue will be sent out at the end of January to this list. If
you would not like to receive a copy of the Drummer then please reply to
this email.

Thanks-
Amy Kent
Church Administrator

Congregational Meeting was held

We did meet on Jan 23, 2005.

A budget passed.

Nuff said, but others are free to post in the comments section.

Ex-cop: Rein in the war on drugs

Ex-cop: Rein in the war on drugs - PittsburghLIVE.com: "Ex-cop: Rein in the war on drugs

By Mike Seate, TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Howard Wooldridge rode into town last weekend on his horse, just like a lawman from the Old West. But the former detective didn't visit Pittsburgh to lock up bad guys. He was here to lecture on what he feels is the biggest fraud ever perpetrated on the American public."

Some coverage of Howard, our LifeCraft presenter. Howard did a great job. Thanks for setting up the meeting.

Kakizome, haiku and cinquain

Kakizome is a traditional Japanese way of greeting the new year with poetry, written for the occasion. In recent years this has become a Sunnyhill tradition as well.

Haiku is a form wiht three lines, the first with five syllables, the second with seven and the third with five. The lines need not rhyme. (See notes for example and submissions.)

Cinquain is a five line poem, with a structure which gives it the form of a diamond.
Line 1: one word to name the subject.
Line 2: two words to describe it.
Line 3: three action words about it.
Line 4: a four or five word phrase describing the subject (a thought, not a complete sentence)
Line 5: one word that means the same thing as the first word, or a word that sums it all up.

1421 - Emerson Group

Thanks for the great discussion and materials that centered on the book, 1421, the year that the Chinees discovered America.

Butch and George - Date is Jan 15, 1:30 pm

Please sign up on the board at the church. Invites were not sent out to those at Sunnyhill, so we need to be sure to pass the word.

Eight at Eight schedule for the spring of 2005.

Eight at Eight schedule. Please sign up with Dennis soon so he can get the word out.

February 5, 2005

March 5, 2005

April 2, 2005

May 7, 2005

What do you think about NOT ONE DAMN DIME Day for Jan 20, 2005

This isn' my idea. What do you think? I'm not sure myself. But, it might make for a good blog comment topic point.

Since (SOME OF) our religious leaders will not speak out against the war in Iraq, since our political leaders don't have the moral courage to oppose it, Inauguration Day, Thursday, January 20th, 2005 is "Not One Damn Dime Day" in America.

On "Not One Damn Dime Day" those who oppose what is happening in our name in Iraq can speak up with a 24-hour national boycott of all forms of consumer spending.

During "Not One Damn Dime Day" please don't spend money. Not one damn dime for gasoline. Not one damn dime for necessities or for impulse purchases. Not one damn dime for anything for 24 hours.

On "Not One Damn Dime Day," please boycott Wal-Mart, Kmart and Target.

Please don't go to the mall or the local convenience store. Please don't buy any fast food (or any groceries at all for that matter).

For 24 hours, please do what you can to shut the retail economy down. The object is simple. Remind the people in power that the war in Iraq is immoral and illegal; that they are responsible for starting it and that it is their responsibility to stop it.

"Not One Damn Dime Day" is to remind them, too, that they work for the people of the United States of America, not for the international corporations and K Street lobbyists who represent the corporations and funnel cash into American politics.

"Not One Damn Dime Day" is about supporting the troops. The politicians put the troops in harm's way. Now 1,200 brave young Americans and (some estimate) 100,000 Iraqis have died. The politicians owe our troops a plan - a way to come home.

There's no rally to attend. No marching to do. No left or right wing agenda to rant about. On "Not One Damn Dime Day" you take action by doing nothing.

You open your mouth by keeping your wallet closed.

For 24 hours, nothing gets spent, not one damn dime, to remind our religious leaders and our politicians of their moral responsibility to end the war in Iraq and give America back to the people.

Kennedy and C-Span II

C-SPAN II has a bunch of political chatter this time of year and one interesting quote was about religion and the US President. Seems J.F.K. said something to keep active the Unitarians writting his Catholic speeches.

Carol gets us all singing. 

New baby?

If you would like a baby born since last Christmas Eve honored then
please email Amy Kent. I would like Name, Relationship to you and date of birth.

Now that the elections are over -- Humanist meet and ponder.

From Ken:

Now that the sporting event (a.k.a. election) is over, we could review the process and examine its effects on the American public as well as other nations. As you may recall, we did not get the opportunity to have a full meeting due to the fire alarm and our having to leave the building early.

We can now question the effects of the voting and whether America has been made better by what has been experienced as a result of the recently held election. Two questions should be "Should getting people to vote be what really matters or is there something more important?" "Should elections be about who has the power to impose conduct on the others?"

You may want to review the attached article which had been made available before, but is even better now that the emotions have settled. This point is now very obvious: "partisanship serves as a filter. A partisan filters out facts that are inconsistent with the party's approved worldview and exaggerates facts that confirm it." "That suggests that political polarization is the result of deep and self-reinforcing psychological and social forces."

(See the comment for the article.)

New web design at Sunnyhill.org

Hats off to Peter and the others who made a redesign of the web pages at Sunnyhill.Org. What do you think? Tell us in the comments section of the blog.

There is a web crew email discussion list that accepts mail, Sunnyhill - web - crew @ Sunnyhill.Org. (Retype without the spaces.)

Open Mic Night at the DownUnder

You are invited to attend the DownUnder Coffeehouse on
Saturday, December 18 from 7:30-9:30 for an Open Mic night
featuring some of best local acoustic performers, including
First Church's own Rich Wells. Any wanting to be added
to the playlist, should send email by December 5th.

The DownUnder Coffeehouse is open the third Saturday of
every month in the basement of the Allegheny Unitarian
Universalist Church, 416 West North Ave, North Side.
Suggested donation is $3.00. Call 412-322-4261 or see
www.alleghenyuu.org for more details.

Need a Spiritual Lift -- err -- Left

The Democrats Need a Spiritual Left

This piece is so right-on says a net friend in Pittsburgh, Jim. He and Holley love this guy, Rabbi Lerner. He's totally right in his analysis of why Kerry failed to reach a mass following when his opponent was so vulnerable on so many issues.

God is Truth, Truth is God, as Gandhi liked to say.

The Democrats Need a Spiritual Left by Rabbi Michael Lerner

For years the Democrats have been telling themselves "it's the economy, stupid." Yet consistently for dozens of years millions of middle income Americans
have voted against their own economic interests to support Republicans who have tapped a deeper set of needs.

Tens of millions of Americans feel betrayed by a society that seems to place materialism and selfishness above moral values. They know that
"looking out for number one" has become the common sense of our society, but they want a life that is about something more - a framework of meaning and purpose to their lives that would transcend the grasping and narcissism that surrounds them. Sure, they will admit that they have material needs, and
that they worry about adequate health care, stability
in employment, and enough money to give their kids a
college education. But even more deeply they want
their lives to have meaning - and they respond to
candidates who seem to care about values and some
sense of transcendent purpose.

Many of these voters have found a "politics of
meaning" in the political Right. In the Right wing
churches and synagogues these voters are presented
with a coherent worldview that speaks to their
"meaning needs." Most of these churches and synagogues
demonstrate a high level of caring for their members,
even if the flip side is a willingness to demean those
on the outside. Yet what members experience directly
is a level of mutual caring that they rarely find in
the rest of the society. And a sense of community that
is offered them nowhere else, a community that has as
its central theme that life has value because it is
connected to some higher meaning than one's success in
the marketplace.

It's easy to see how this hunger gets manipulated in
ways that liberals find offensive and contradictory.
The frantic attempts to preserve family by denying
gays the right to get married, the talk about being
conservatives while meanwhile supporting Bush policies
that accelerate the destruction of the environment and
do nothing to encourage respect for God's creation or
an ethos of awe and wonder to replace the ethos of
turning nature into a commodity, the intense focus on
preserving the powerless fetus and a culture of life
without a concomitant commitment to medical research
(stem cell research/HIV-AIDS), gun control and
healthcare reform., the claim to care about others and
then deny them a living wage and an ecologically
sustainable environment --- all this is rightly
perceived by liberals as a level of inconsistency that
makes them dismiss as hypocrites the voters who have
been moving to the Right.

Yet liberals, trapped in a long-standing disdain for
religion and tone-deaf to the spiritual needs that
underlie the move to the Right, have been unable to
engage these voters in a serious dialogue. Rightly
angry at the way that some religious communities have
been mired in authoritarianism, racism, sexism and
homophobia, the liberal world has developed such a
knee-jerk hostility to religion that it has both
marginalized those many people on the Left who
actually do have spiritual yearnings and
simultaneously refused to acknowledge that many who
move to the Right have legitimate complaints about the
ethos of selfishness in American life.

Imagine if John Kerry had been able to counter George
Bush by insisting that a serious religious person
would never turn his back on the suffering of the
poor, that the bible's injunction to love one's
neighbor required us to provide health care for all,
and that the New Testament's command to "turn the
other cheek" should give us a predisposition against
responding to violence with violence.

Imagine a Democratic Party that could talk about the
strength that comes from love and generosity and
applied that to foreign policy and homeland security.

Imagine a Democratic Party that could talk of a New
Bottom Line, so that American institutions get judged
efficient, rational and productive not only to the
extent that they maximize money and power, but also to
the extent that they maximize people's capacities to
be loving and caring, ethically and ecologically
sensitive, and capable of responding to the universe
with awe and wonder.

Imagine a Democratic Party that could call for schools
to teach gratitude, generosity, caring for others, and
celebration of the wonders that daily surround us!
Such a Democratic Party, continuing to embrace its
agenda for economic fairness and multi-cultural
inclusiveness, would have won in 2004 and can win in
the future. (Please don't tell me that this is
happening outside the Democratic Party in the Greens
or in other leftie groups --- because except for a few
tiny exceptions it is not! I remember how hard I tried
to get Ralph Nader to think and talk in these terms in
2000, and how little response I got substantively from
the Green Party when I suggested reformulating their
excessively politically correct policy orientation in
ways that would speak to this spiritual consciousness.
The hostility of the Left to spirituality is so deep,
in fact, that when they hear us in Tikkun talking this
way they often can't even hear what we are saying ----
so they systematically mis-hear it and say that we are
calling for the Left to take up the politics of the
Right, which is exactly the opposite of our point ---
speaking to spiritual needs actually leads to a more
radical critique of the dynamics of corporate
capitalism and corporate globalization, not to a
mimicking of right-wing policies).

If the Democrats were to foster a religions/spiritual
Left, they would no longer pick candidates who support
preemptive wars or who appease corporate power. They
would reject the cynical realism that led them to
pretend to be born-again militarists, a deception that
fooled no one and only revealed their contempt for the
intelligence of most Americans. Instead of assuming
that most Americans are either stupid or reactionary,
a religious Left would understand that many Americans
who are on the Right actually share the same concern
for a world based on love and generosity that
underlies Left politics, even though lefties often
hide their value attachments.

Yet to move in this direction, many Democrats would
have to give up their attachment to a core belief:
that those who voted for Bush are fundamentally stupid
or evil. Its time they got over that elitist
self-righteousness and developed strategies that could
affirm their common humanity with those who voted for
the Right. Teaching themselves to see the good in the
rest of the American public would be a critical first
step in liberals and progressives learning how to
teach the rest of American society how to see that
same goodness in the rest of the people on this
planet. It is this spiritual lesson --- that our own
well-being depends on the well-being of everyone else
on the planet and on the well-being of the earth --- a
lesson rooted deeply in the spiritual wisdom of
virtually every religion on the planet, that could be
the center of a revived Democratic Party.

Yet to take that seriously, the Democrats are going to
have to get over the false and demeaning perception
that the Americans who voted for Bush could never be
moved to care about the well being of anyone but
themselves. That transformation in the Democrats would
make them into serious contenders.

The last time Democrats had real social power was when
they linked their legislative agenda with a spiritual
politics articulated by Martin Luther King. We cannot
wait for the reappearance of that kind of charasmatic
leader to begin the process of rebuilding a
spiritual/religious Left...

My personal assumption: When you got west far enough you end up back in the east. And, I guess, it goes the other way as well.

UU Church of the North Hills -- arts festival

Please extend our invitation to your congregation and any others to attend our first annual Arts in The Autumn Festival, running from Friday, November 12 through Sunday, November 14. The exhibit opens at 1:00 pm Friday and continues through 6 pm Sunday afternoon. Special events include: Meet the Artists, with Food and Entertainment, 7:00-9:00 pm on Friday; a folk concert and musical spoons workshop with Simple Gifts, 2:00-4:00 pm on Saturday; a jazz concert by the Carl Arter Quartet, 8:00-10:00 pm on Saturday; and of course, your very own Tom Roberts and Jennifer Russell singing American classics at 1:00 pm on Sunday. Everything is FREE. Refreshments will be available at all times.

Please consider joining us Sunday morning for the service at 11:00 am to be sure not to miss Tom and Jennifer. We'd love to have you.

UUCNH is located at 2359 West Ingomar Road, phone: 412-366-0244 for directions.

(P.S. to anyone in the choir: we are in desperate need of women's voices for our Thanksgiving service on November 21, when we will be singing Aaron Copland's The Promise of Living from The Tender Land. Let me know!) Thanks - Kathy

East Suburban UU Church Tree Sale

ESUUC's Christmas Tree Sale calls for Orders and Payment Due by Nov. 21st. Checks should be made out to ESUUC. Delivery date December 17th 7-9pm at ESUUC.

The following items are available,

$15 20” Wreath
$15 6’ Garland
$9 36” Swag
$35 4’-6’ Tree
$40 6’-8’ Tree

We are also accepting donations to provide trees or other decorations to families in need in conjunction with the local food bank. You can email orders to fundraising@esuuc.org or send orders, payments and donations to:
ESUUC, Attn: Fundraising, 4326 Sardis Rd., Murrysville, PA 15668.