RAMANAM
In the Name of The Father, and of The Son and of The Holy Spirit, Amen.

Countrymen,

LEARNING IN FERGUSON, SERVING IN NEW YORK

Dear Union Community,

This morning I was greeted with an avalanche of notes from many of you who protested these last two nights. Some of you arrested, others of you exhausted, and most of you eager to figure out what to do next. No one in this community—a community dedicated to deep faith traditions, critical thinking, and care of the world—can feel unaffected by what is happening.

As I wrote about in TIME, if it wasn’t clear before it is abundantly clear now. We are in the midst of a deeply sinful and systemically broken system, and the collusion of police and capitalist structures has prevented meaningful criminal justice reform from happening.

Earlier this week I was on the ground in Ferguson as part of a trip with a select group of national progressive clergy. We stood on the steps of the courthouse where the Dred Scott case led to the Supreme Court declaring that black people aren’t people. We saw where Michael Brown’s body lay for four hours in the street. Most importantly, we listened and we learned from the leaders of the movement there: young people. Their fierce determination to work for justice in the face of overwhelming brutality is inspiring and humbling.

Here at Union we have people from a diversity of ages, races, and nationalities working together for justice in as many different was as there are people. Some cook, some coordinate, some pray, and some protest. If you’d like to keep up with how Union is responding to this crisis, we have frequent updates on our Facebook and Twitter pages. These have already helped one student find their way to a protest, as reported in the Wall Street Journal.

If you’d like, please also tune in to the Melissa Harris-Perry show on MSNBC this Sunday, where I have been invited to close out the show with a theological discussion on where we go from here.

Remember in the midst of all this, that grace abounds and love is the truest word of all.

Peace,

Rev. Dr. Serene Jones
President

In Contrast:

 

During the 3-1/2 years of World War 2 that started with the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and ended with the Surrender of Germany and Japan in 1945, 
“We the People of the U.S.A.” produced the following:

22 aircraft carriers, 
8 battleships, 
48 cruisers, 
349 destroyers, 
420 destroyer escorts, 
203 submarines, 
34 million tons of merchant ships, 
100,000 fighter aircraft, 
98,000 bombers, 
24,000 transport aircraft, 
58,000 training aircraft, 
93,000 tanks, 
257,000 artillery pieces, 
105,000 mortars, 
3,000,000 machine guns, and 
2,500,000 military trucks. 

We put 16.1 million men in uniform in the various armed services, invaded Africa, invaded Sicily and Italy, won the battle for the Atlantic, planned and executed D-Day, marched across the Pacific and Europe, developed the atomic bomb, and ultimately conquered Japan and Germany. 

It’s worth noting, that during the almost exact amount of time, the Obama Administration couldn’t even build a web site that worked.

Update 1: Paul Mirengoff at Power Line on related at Columbia Law School (Union’s neighbor and affiliate on Morningside Heights) and again, and again, and again, and again  David Schizer

Update 2: Randy Barnett and Josh Blackman: The Next [Supreme Court] Justices

AMDG – VICTORY