To view all of our earlier webinars, please use this link to visit our YouTube page. 

Mark Taylor-Canfield

Thursday, May 8 at 5 PM PDT, 6 PM MDT, 7 PM CDT & 8 PM EDT

Click here to register

https://www.unesco.org/en/days/press-freedom

https://rsf.org/en/index

Nick Buxton

To see the recording, click here

Nick Buxton is an activist, communications specialist, and researcher on militarism and climate change. He currently works as Knowledge Hub Coordinator for Transnational Institute, an international research thinktank that works with social movements globally. He is co-editor of the influential book, The Secure and the Dispossessed - How the military and corporations are seeking to shape a climate-changed world (Pluto Press, 2015) and regularly produces research on the impact of military spending on climate action. His latest report, Climate Crossfire, explores how NATO’s 2% military spending targets contribute to climate breakdown.

Event summary

As the horrific LA fires have shown, being prepared for climate instability must be one of the top priorities for communities, states and nations in the next decade. One of the few institutions that has long been thinking about adaptation to climate change is the military.

Further reading: 

Geopolitics of Capitalism, State of Power 2025, an online book edited by Nick Buxton.

Gary Butterfield

To see the video, click here

“Wake up to the Climate Crisis” will examine the US military’s relationship to the 

climate crisis and what we can do to raise awareness as we move from Empire to Earth

Community. Specifically, he will examine the Veterans For Peace’s “No MAS” (No Military
Air Shows) initiative to end the polluting and wasteful Blue Angels and Thunderbirds aerial
acrobatics over our cities.

Military air shows are a highly visible example of the Pentagon’s exorbitant contribution TO the
climate crisis, and the San Diego UU’s Climate and Justice Committee was among the first
endorsers of these protests! Focusing on air shows is an effective way for activists to make the
connection between the military and climate degradation. We plan to increase our support for
local efforts in targeted cities in 2025 and we would like to invite other UUs and their
Congregations to collaborate with us going forward.

Gary Butterfield is a member of the First Unitarian Church of San Diego, where he is active in
the Climate Justice Committee. Drafted into the US Army during the Vietnam War, he declared
as a Conscientious Objector and is resolute in acting on his commitment to Peace. As a former
President of the San Diego Chapter of Veterans For Peace, he currently serves on the Steering
Committee of the National Veterans For Peace Climate Crisis & Militarism Project and is in high
demand as a speaker addressing the military impacts on climate. A member of 350.org, he has
been instrumental in helping to unite the peace and climate communities in our common goals.

David Delk

Thursday, February 13, 2025 

To View the recording, click here

Democracy is under threat in several ways. Some of those ways are hidden. Others are in plain sight. Delk discusses three ways, and then takes a deeper dive into one of them -- the Military-Industrial Complex. He also will discuss corrective measures including ways to combat militarism.

Anti-War Protest Signs

Here's a document on cutting military spending.

David Delk

Long time UU Democracy Advocate, David Delk, is an activist and a Unitarian Universalist. His work has centered on campaign finance reform in Oregon.  He is the founder of the Portland Chapter of Move to Amend, as well as anti-war work with the Peace & Action Group of the First Unitarian Church and the Alliance for Democracy, of which he is national co-chair.  He is also on the Board of the Unitarian Universalists for Just Economic community as an essential member of its Peace Equity and Climate Task Force.

Jan Booher

Thursday, January 9, 2025  

To see the video, Click here

Our speaker:

Janice Booher, MS, is currently serving as the Director of UU Justice Florida’s Climate Resilience Ministry and as the Vice President of the non-profit Health Initiatives Foundation, Inc. with the goal of obtaining resources to address community-identified issues. She works to create Whole of Society collaborative efforts to address environmental health issues and weak Social Determinants of Health by engaging with multiple stakeholders, including marginalized people, low-capacity community groups, social service providers, academia, public health, arts, government, faith, advocacy, education, and other collaborators.  She assists community groups in diverse low income communities to build the capacity for data gathering and sharing to establish a common set of facts that support partnering and decision-making.

Beloved Community: Building a Village in the Face of Climate Chaos

Thursday, November 14 

5 PM Pacific, 6 PM Mountain, 7 PM Central & 8 PM Eastern

To view recording, click here.

Steve Morse

Steve Morse grew up Quaker on a dairy farm in PA, He entered Swarthmore College in 1964 where he joined a very active early Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) chapter.  He got involved in anti-Viet Nam War work, and also spent a summer in Cleveland on an SDS community project, focused on building an interracial movement of the poor.   Leaving college after two years, he moved to San Francisco where he was active in anti-war activities.  Although he completed alternative service as a conscientious objector during this period, he chose to enter the Army in fall 1969 to be part of a group project organizing resistance within the military.

During the two years in the Army, he acted as his own attorney in two public, well-attended court-martials for distributing literature on base, and where he attempted to put the Army on trial.  After the first court-martial, he was shipped from the stockade to Viet Nam and put In a combat unit.  After 4 months of a year-long tour, he was shipped back to the States due to his dissident activities.  He spent about six months in Army stockades.

He was active for almost two decades with the GI Rights Hotline, as volunteer counselor, and coordinator of volunteer counselors. He has been active in anti-war veterans work for decades, particularly in Veterans For Peace (VFP).  Within VFP: he co-founded the Climate Crisis & Militarism Project in 2020, where he is on the Steering Committee; he co-founded Veterans and Labor for Sensible Priorities in 2023; this year, he has taken a leading role in creating a Labor Working Group.  

He worked in the building trades as a sheet metal worker, and was a shop steward.  He and his wife and their daughters livs in Oakland, CA, where they were active in the  Oakland UU church during the 1980s.  He has been active with labor/climate issues since 2017. 

John Braxton

John Braxton is a graduate (1970) of Swarthmore College.  As a college student he became a crewmember of the Quaker ship Phoenix that delivered medical supplies to North Vietnam during the war.  Seeing first-hand the devastation from the U.S. bombing of Vietnam, he became a draft resister and served 16 ½ months in Federal prison for refusing to cooperate with the conscription system.  After prison he became interested in the environmental movement and earned a masters degree in ecology. 

John then turned his interest to the question of how the labor movement might be able to play a powerful role in a progressive social movement that could unite the struggles for peace, environmental sustainability, and social justice.  He worked for 20 years in the reform movement within the Teamsters union, and helped prepare for the 1997 national UPS strike, which created 10,000 new full-time jobs.  He also taught at Community College of Philadelphia, where he was co-president of the union there. 

He was a founder of US Labor Against the War and Philadelphia Jobs with Justice and has helped to build the Labor Network for Sustainability.  In 2010 he was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from Swarthmore College for his lifelong commitment to peace, justice, and environmental sustainability.

Marcy Winograd 

Thursday, September 12 at 5 PM Pacific, 6 PM Mountain, 7 PM Central & 8 PM Eastern

Unfortunately, this webinar wasn't recorded, so we have no video.

Marcy Winograd volunteers as Co-Chair of the Central Coast Antiwar Coalition, Coordinator of CODEPINK CONGRESS and a co-producer of CODEPINK Radio. 
 
In 2010, Marcy mobilized 41% of the vote in her primary congressional peace challenge to then incumbent Jane Harman. In 2020, Marcy served as a CA DNC delegate to Bernie Sanders, mobilizing 500 other DNC delegates to challenge the influence of neo-conservatives on foreign policy. During her work on the Bernie campaign, Marcy organized polling locations on almost every college campus in Los Angeles County and Orange County.
 
Marcy's activism began in high school when she marched against the Vietnam War and later joined the defense team of beloved Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg. 

Professor Sut Jhally, PhD

Saturday, July 13  

To view the recording on YouTube, click here. 

Sut Jhally is the founder and executive director of The Media Education Foundation he is also the producer of another 40 films (including; Tough Guise - Violence, the Media and the Crisis in Masculinity (with Jackson Katz); and Killing Us Softly 3 - Advertising's Image of Women (with Jean Kilbourne)) dealing with issues from commercialism and popular culture to violence and gender.

The author of 6 books and numerous scholarly and popular articles, Sut Jhally is one of the world's leading experts on advertising and media studies. He is also a renowned public speaker and teacher. He has won the coveted "Distinguished Teacher Award" at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst where the student newspaper has also voted him "Best Professor." He has shown his films and lectured at many colleges and universities nationally and internationally. He was named one of New Woman magazine's "People of the Year" in 1992.

Thursday, May 9 8 PM Eastern

To watch the recording on YouTube, click here

To rent the movie, please contact; hospdeseg@gmail.com

Lena K Gardner, photo by Bethanie Birnie

Thursday, April 25 1 PM Eastern 

   Manuel Pérez-Rocha                          Stuart Trew                                 Stephanie Camarillo       

Thursday, April 11 8 PM Eastern

To view the recording on YouTube, click here

There are around 3,000 Investor-State Dispute Settlement treaties globally that allow international fossil fuel investors to sue governments for climate policies. Countries need to collaborate to tackle challenges from existing investment treaties while designing new approaches that promote the energy transition. ISDS is a mechanism included in many trade and investment agreements to settle disputes. Settling these investor disputes relies on arbitration rather than public courts. Under agreements which include ISDS mechanisms, a company from one signatory state investing in another signatory state can argue that new laws or regulations could negatively affect its expected profits or investment potential, and seek compensation in a binding arbitration tribunal. Corporations typically seek compensation which may amount to millions or billions of US dollars.

Dr. Sailesh Rao

Thursday, February 8  8 PM Eastern

To view our recording via YouTube, click here. 

Dr. Sailesh Rao is the author of four books, Carbon Dharma: The Occupation of Butterflies, Carbon Yoga: The Vegan Metamorphosis, Animal Agriculture is Immoral and The Pinky Promise, and an Executive Producer of several documentaries, The Human Experiment (2013), Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret (2014), What The Health (2017), A Prayer for Compassion (2019), They’re Trying to Kill Us (2021), The End of Medicine (2022), The Land of Ahimsa (2022), Animals – A Parallel History (est. 2023) and Milked (2022). 

Curtis Bell, presenter

Thursday, December 14, 8 PM Eastern

 To watch the recording on Youtube click here

What is happening now in Gaza is deeply disturbing because of the human suffering and the real threat of a devastating regional war. In the short term one must be pessimistic.  But the massive worldwide opposition and attention provides an unprecedented possibility for change toward the world that most people want, a multipolar world that respects human life. The talk will cover what is happening, the worldwide response, the role of US imperialism, and where UUs have been and are on the issues raised.

Curtis Bell, Portland, Oregon.
Curtis Bell was born in Bahrain of American parents and went to high school in Beirut Lebanon. While there, he saw the camps of Palestinian refugees around the city, filled with people who had been forced out of their lives and livelihoods in what is now Israel. He became active in support of Palestinian human rights in 2008 and is a past president of Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East (UUJME.org). UUJME is a UU Related Organization that works for the human rights of all people in Palestine/Israel.

Todd Fernandez, Esq, presenter

Thursday, November 16, 8 PM Eastern

Watch the recording on YouTube here. 

The Earth Bill - The Political & Policy Solution to the Pollution Crisis.

There is a new flagship bill in Congress to stop our climate pollution this decade as science urges, designed to unite a movement powerful enough to break the power of Big Ag & Big Oil in Congress.  This is an all-hand-on-deck moment that will only work if we unite as one with a singular intention, powered by each of us taking action individually, toward one shared demand:  The Earth Act to Stop Climate Pollution by 2030 (H.R. 598), aka The Earth BIll.  

Emily Schoerning

      Thursday, October 12 at  8 PM EDT

Watch the recording on YouTube here. 

Do you want to know how the climate is likely to change where you live?  When we understand what’s coming, we can get ready for a future that contains opportunities as well as challenges.  Using high-consensus federal resources, this conversation helps you understand America’s projected climate by 2050 in terms of changes to summers, winters, precipitation patterns, and where people may want to move. 

Bio: Dr. Emily Schoerning is an internationally recognized educator whose research on socially controversial science helps bring people together.  She is the founder of American Resiliency, the first nonprofit focused on communicating climate resilience information to the general public.  She lives in Iowa with her husband and their three children.

Juan Pablo Echeverria

Thursday, September 14 at  8 PM EDT

To watch the recording on YouTube, click here

Juan Pablo Echeverria - Arcadia Outreach and Education Manager is responsible for expanding farm education programs, creating strategic partnerships, and building capacity for schools and communities in Fairfax County - Route 1 Corridor to grow their own food. He joined The Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food & Agriculture in 2019 to address food system inequities in local communities with the intent of improving food access, reducing food insecurity, and fostering better nutrition. He has 12 years of experience in agriculture and nonprofit management. In Guatemala, his home country, Juan Pablo co-founded an urban sustainability organization, owned and managed an urban organic farm, owned a bar and restaurant and served as president for a Public Health nonprofit. He also completed a business management degree from Universidad Mesoamericana de Guatemala.

Clayola Brown

Thursday, August 24,  8 PM EDT

To view our recording on YouTube,click here

Clayola Brown, President of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, a longstanding constituency group of the AFL-CIO, discusses how her life was guided by union and civil rights activism. The discussion will include LGBTQ+ rights, antiracism, climate change ,and how labor and organized religion can work together for justice. UUJEC leaders will discuss Clayola's presentation and answer questions

                                                        Chuck Collins, author         Click here to listen to Chuck's presentation

Rae Kelliher is a veteran environmental activist and pioneer in the death-with-dignity movement. Her husband Reggie calls her "party in a box" and "a weaver of people and movements." Facing a diagnosis of terminal illness, Rae engages in a shocking suicide-murder, taking the life of an oil company CEO for his complicity in delaying responses to climate catastrophe. Seven years later, Rae's friends and family gather at her Vermont farm to try to understand her violent exit and the rapid social transformations triggered by her desperate act.

Miriam Kashia

Thursday, May 25 at 8 PM EDT

Watch the recording here

Miriam will share her experiences as a climate activist and some adventures and lessons learned along the way. She'll share her mottos: "Action is the antidote to despair," and "Everything we do matters" and how they have guided her life as an activist. 

Miriam Kashia is 80. She’s been an honor student, a struggling single parent who finally finished her undergraduate degree at age 42 and then went on to earn 2 master’s degrees and became  a psychotherapist. Add a stint in the Peace Corps in Namibia, Africa at 62, and for the past 10 years, a climate activist. 

Jared Trujillo, JD

Thursday, April 27, 8 PM Eastern

To watch the webinar recording click here

 The relationship between incarceration and poverty is circular, cyclical, and symbiotic – poverty is a cause of incarceration, and incarceration causes poverty. Shortly after culture shifting civil rights victories in the 1960’s, states began enacting draconian sentencing laws that required judges to sentence children and adults to longer periods of incarceration. This coincided with policies that divested money and public resources from the same communities that were the targets are criminalization. For the past half century, these harsh sentencing laws have been the primary driver of mass incarceration. As a result, generations of families with criminal legal system involvement have been damned to multigenerational poverty. This is most profound in low-income communities, particularly low-income Black and brown communities.

Jared will discuss how sentencing laws operate, how so-called tough on crime sentencing paradigms are counter productive to community safety, and how sentencing structures can be reformed in order to improve community safety and ensure more people can live with their families in their communities. 

Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., MPH

Thursday, March 9, 8 PM Eastern 

To view our recording via YouTube click here.

Tom Rogers

Thursday, February 9, 8 PM Eastern

Thursday, January 12, 8 PM ET

To view our webinar on Youtube, click here. 

UUJEC Board Member and COP 27 Delegate representing the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Cindy Piester, will offer her observations following her participation in this major climate summit.  UUJEC deals with a broad range of economic justice issues and Cindy saw some of these same issues writ large at COP. As in the past, the dominance of fossil fuel rich interest prevailed to the detriment of global and intergenerational climate justice.  While this is a significant challenge, Unitarian Universalists have a long and storied history of having taken on the major issues of our times.  Facing the climate challenges ahead can and will be done and she urges UUs to lean in and help to build the successful avenues of change that are needed to bring true climate justice. She can be contacted at: cindympiester@gmail.com

Thursday, December 8

To view our recoding on YouTube, click here

Bruce Knotts is the Director of International Engagement at Community Church NY and is co-chair of the UN NGO Committee on Human Rights, the chair of the NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace and Security, a member of steering committee of the NGO UN Security Council Working Group.

He will speak of his experience in Africa where African nations are enticed to take loans they can never pay, but the servicing of the debt ruins all hope for progress. Bruce will mention a time when I heard the Minister of the economy in The Gambia mention that 60% of the national budget was going to service the debt leaving 40% of the national budget for everything else: education, defense, infrastructure, etc.

Thursday, November 10 with William Yasnoff, MD, PhD, FACMI, a well-known UU national leader in health informatics, is Managing Partner of National Health Information Infrastructure (NHII) Advisors

To view the recording on YouTube, click here

The lack of availability of complete medical records when and where needed results in hundreds of thousands of adverse outcomes, many fatal, as well as hundreds of $billions of unnecessary costs. Central community repositories for medical record information controlled by patients known as Health Record Banks (HRBs) can ensure the availability of comprehensive electronic medical records whenever and wherever needed.  HRBs are secure, low cost, simple to operate, and technically feasible. 

Unlike most problems in our health care system, fixing our medical records is non-partisan, consistent with current law and policy, and has a straightforward and readily deployable solution.  It is the most important health care problem that can be solved now and, by freeing up currently wasted funds and providing the information needed to make smarter policy decisions, could contribute significantly toward a more just and equitable health care system overall.

Thursday, October 27, 8 PM EDT

To watch the recording on YouTube, click here. 

The fate of Mother Earth and her children depends on mutual aid.  Mutual aid projects are voluntary, participatory,  empowering, and equalitarian arrangements, that provide goods or services.  Personal and social wellness are encouraged. The emphasis is on direct action and on  being the change that you want to see in the world. This webinar will introduce Climate Justice, mental health, and food justice programs that involve Unitarian Universalists.  Speakers include Astoria Nickerson and Nancy Hoffman from Key West, Florida, Rev. Barbara Meyers with the UU Mental Health Network, Rachel Myslivy with the UUA Climate Justice and UUJEC’s Rev Bob Murphy. 

Thursday, October 13

To watch the recording, click here.

Climate change threatens food and drinking water supplies. What's the Unitarian Universalist message during the harvest season?  In the American South, congregations are feeding the hungry, working for fair trade economics, and helping to create an ethical and a sustainable food economy during a time of crisis. Information about Florida's response to Hurricane Ian will be included in this webinar.  It's information that's needed in congregations and in communities in every region.  

Presenters include UUJEC Board Member Rev. Bob Murphy, Jim Scott author of the "Missa Gaia/Earth Mass” with the Winter Consort, Jay P. "Jungle Jay" Hardman member of UU Clearwater in Central Florida, Spirit of Life UU co-president, Dara Moore and Rebecca Allen of the UU Animal Ministry. 

Thursday, September 22

We experienced technical difficulties during the first portion of our webinar, but you can view most of  Gillian's terrific presentation recorded here.  

Gillian Mason is the Director of Communications and Development at Healthcare NOW. The Healthcare Census is a major effort to talk to our friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers about the healthcare crisis in this country this year. We know that talking - and most important, really listening - to people is the only way to better understand the issues they are facing and invite them to join us in fighting for Medicare for All.

The Census interview is a 15-20 minute survey about issues people might face in getting or paying for medical treatment, and it's a great way to start a conversation about healthcare. The answers can remain anonymous, or respondents can give their contact info. The interview can be conducted over the phone, via zoom, or in-person (with COVID safety precautions in place) - whatever works best for you.

Thursday, September 8 at 8 PM Eastern

To see the recording of the entire webinar and discussion, click here  

Ideas for Organizing an Effective Climate Action Task Force in Your Congregation” with presenters from Saltwater UU Church, Des Moines, WA and UU Fellowship of Ames, IA including Lee Anne Willson UU Ames, Allison Brundy UU Ames, Mary Paynter Saltwater UU,  Sheri Jacobson Saltwater UU.  

We love hearing stories of what works to solve the problems of our day.  Climate crisis is upon us and how to prevent its further escalation has become urgent as weather calamities mount. Two congregations in different areas of the country have organized, with local action, to address causes and prevention of our climate crisis. Other congregations are looking for effective ways to develop their own action plans, involve their members and work with other community and interfaith organizations to make a difference.  It is UUJEC’s hope, with a series of webinars, that we can spark lively dialogue, share useful “how-tos” and support one another as we address this increasing challenge to the earth and the hometowns we love.

Thursday, August 25 at  8 PM EDT

Watch the recording on YouTube here. 

Carlos Jimenez leads special projects for the AFL-CIO, where he works with affiliated unions and state and local labor federations in the development of strategic organizing campaigns and increased organizing capacity. His focus is on multi-union and multi-stakeholder partnerships and collaborations, and bringing the AFL-CIO's resources to efforts that seek to expand collective bargaining and raise standards for working families. He also supports the AFL-CIO’s national campaigns and priority programs, including efforts to pass the PRO Act and support for new worker organizing across the U.S. South.

Ecological Civilization:

Earth, Religion & the Human Future

With David Korten, Rev. Dr. Lucy Hitchcock, Aly Tharp & Michael Cox

                        
      

A Webinar to give our responses to the GA program, “Ecological Civilization: Earth, Religion and the Human Future.”

Program Follow-up Conversation Thursday, July 14  8-9:30 ET

Watch the recording on YouTube

UU Ministry For Earth, UUs for a Just Economic Community and Cedars UU Church, Bainbridge, WA and others met for our opportunity to reflect with David Korten on his vision for an Ecological Civilization and how we, as people of faith, can bring it into being.

Let us step out of the quagmire of war, disease, insurrection, political discord and impending climate disasters to focus on the positive steps we, Unitarian Universalists, are and will be taking to create and implement our vision of a better world for all.  Bring your clarifying questions, ideas, and examples from your experience of what our next steps can be.  Look through the Discussion Guide here which provides a framework for our webinar conversation. 

If you have not yet seen the “on demand” video presentation, of “Ecological Civilization: Earth, Religion and the Human Future” from GA, or wish to see it again, you may view our recording of it beginning on June 27: click here to see the video workshop.  

 
For more information and resources from the workshop panelists, visit:
https://davidkorten.org/
https://uujec.org
https://www.uumfe.org/
https://www.cedarsuuchurch.org/justice/green-action/

   Cindy Piester 

2022 Action of Immediate Witness Proposal 

 Thursday, May 12 

 Watch the recording here: YouTube 

 Pressed for time, watch the slide show instead.

Dr. Chris Jones

Thursday, April 28 

Watch the recording on our YouTube page.  

Chris Jones is a Research Engineer with IIHR Hydroscience and Engineering at the University of Iowa.  His research focuses on water quality in agricultural watersheds of the US cornbelt.  He has a bachelor's degree in chemistry and biology from Simpson College, and a PhD in Analytical Chemistry from Montana State University.  He has previously worked at the Des Moines Water Works and the Iowa Soybean Association. 

Register to join via Zoom, so you can participate in the discussion.

To begin not shopping, pick up the book at your public library.

UUJEC Board Member, Rev. Bob Murphy, joins

Congresswoman, Rep. Frederica Wilson and other experts.

Florida has been ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic with more than 3.7 million cases and more than 62,000 deaths related to the disease.

The pandemic has laid bare the dangers our profit-driven health care system. It is past time to demand Medicare for All.

 January 27 8 PM EDT watch the webinar Discussion with Producer Robert Lang here.

Doris Marlin's Review of COP 26.

Thursday, January 13   View the recording here. 

Doris Marlin, Unitarian Universalist Ministry for Earth & Green Sanctuary Program; Strengthen Local Climate Commitments (SLCC) Campaign Coordinator, Member, All Souls Church UU, Washington DC Doris Marlin has been Unitarian Universalist since 1985 and a Board Member of the Unitarian Universalist Ministry For Earth. She is a member of All Souls Church, Unitarian in Washington, DC. 

Retired from federal service, she has an academic background in water resources management with 30 years of experience applying and credentialed in project and risk management. As the UUA Civil Society Observer Delegation Head for COP 26 in Glasgow, Doris and the delegation channelled attention towards the social justice and UUSC / UUA priorities that: Fulfill the US Fair Share of the Green Climate Fund, Dedicate funding for Loss and Damages, and submit Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) consistent with the goal of preventing warming that exceeds 1.5 degrees Celsius

                                     Medicare (dis)Advantage with Diane Archer

November 30  View the recording: here

Diane has been leading the effort to build Just Care so that it helps ensure people's health and economic security.  Diane currently serves on the Board of Consumer Reports and the Benedict Silverman Foundation.

It’s Medicare Open Enrollment season, and you are likely getting bombarded with pitches to sign up for different Medicare plans. Here are four things to think about: The doctors you can see, your costs, the care you’ll get and the administrative hurdles you’ll face, particularly if you develop a costly condition. Unlike Medicare Advantage, traditional Medicare gives you easy access to care from the doctors you want to see anywhere in the US. Medicare Advantage gives you an out-of-pocket cap, some additional benefits, and an insurance company that profits more the less care you get. What should you do?

Here are four articles that Diane has written about Medicare Advantage.

https://justcareusa.org/choosing-between-traditional-medicare-and-medicare-advantage-plans/
https://justcareusa.org/well-kept-secrets-of-medicare-advantage-plans/
https://justcareusa.org/ten-ways-medicare-advantage-plans-differ-from-traditional-medicare/
https://justcareusa.org/people-with-serious-health-needs-more-likely-to-disenroll-from-medicare-advantage-plans/

 Author Stan Cox

Thursday, November 11  

View the YouTube Recording here 

The crises that collided in 2020—climatic disasters, the pandemic, economic breakdown, near-collapse of the U.S. food system, unconstrained police violence—all disproportionately impacted marginalized communities. Various legislative initiatives to end these crises, including the Green New Deal, contain some solid “New Deal” policies for economic and racial justice; however, the “Green” policies remain wholly inadequate. The crucial but missing piece is a fast-falling cap on quantities of oil, gas, and coal that can come out of the ground and into the  economy each year, reaching zero within 15 years. Adapting to the cap will require that sufficiency, equity and fairness, not economic growth, become U.S. society's central aims.

Read Stan Cox's recent cover story for YES.

Thursday, October 28 

To watch the recording, click here.

Alan Michael Collinge is Founder of StudentLoanJustice.Org, a grassroots organization, and political action committee. He holds B.S., M.S., and Eng. Degrees in aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California.

Since Founding StudentLoanJustice.Org in March, 2005 as a result of his own personal experiences with college loans, Collinge has been featured on 60 Minutes, and also in print media including Fortune Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Boston Phoenix, The Village Voice, Inside Higher Ed, and others. He has published editorials in the Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun, Denver Post, and many other outlets.

Green Hydrogen with Allan Lindrup

Thursday, October 14  

Watch the recording of this webinar on YouTube here.

Allan Lindrup, a UU since age 10, is retired after a 35 year career with the U.S. Social Security Administration. He is one of the founders of UUSJ (Chicago area), and has served on its Board since 1990. He Chairs its Task Force on Economic Justice and Homelessness and has also served on its Environmental Task Force for over 20 years. Allan has lead two UU church's successful efforts to become certified Green Sanctuary congregations.

Here's an article explaining green vs blue hydrogen.

Chuck Collins, author of "Is Inequality in America Irreversible?" and "The Wealth Hoarders" 

First Session: Thursday, September 23 

To watch the YouTube recording from September 23rd, click here. 

Second Session: Thursday September 30

To watch the YouTube recording from September 30, click here.

 This year we have a special offer for members: a copy of Chuck Collins’ book, Is Inequality in America Irreversible?, and many of you took us up on that. Thank you to those who joined us for our book discussion on September 23rd and for joining our second discussion with Chuck Collins about his latest book, The Wealth Hoarders, on September 30.

Here's a question it would be good for us to answer in pursuit of economic justice:  "What are the reasons the social benefits floor and safety net are so low in America? ... so low that so many do not have the basic right to a full education, a home of their own, guaranteed healthcare, dignity and safety in a job with a living wage for full time work?"  And what can we, Americans, do about it? 

Julie Skye

Watch now on YouTube

View Julie's slides with links to more information.

Neidi Dominguez

Watch our YouTube recording of the event here.

Neidi Dominguez is the Executive Director of Unemployed Workers United (UWU), a movement project to organize precarious and jobless workers. Neidi is a national immigrant and workers’ rights activist and organizer. Neidi migrated from Mexico at the age of 9 with her mother and younger sister where she resided in Pasadena, California, and began her involvement in social justice organizing from a very young age. In Los Angeles, CA Neidi was Co-Director of the CLEAN Carwash campaign that successfully unionized hundreds of workers in the country. Formerly undocumented herself, Neidi was a central leader in the campaign to win Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

UUJEC's Annual Meeting July 10 

Jerry Ashton, cofounder, will be speaking about RIP Medical Debt, a charity that buys struggling individuals’ medical debt from collection agencies with the express purpose of forgiving it, and his new book, End Medical Debt: The COVID-19 Edition, coming out late summer.

View UUJEC's 2020-2021 Annual Report by clicking here

  Watch our YouTube recording of the event here.

Stop our Pollution! Take Action for “The Earth Bill” and Climate Justice Legislation

To learn more and choose the actions you would be interested in working on, click here.

Paul Greenberg and “The Climate Diet” Thursday, June 10, 2021  

How can we eat better for the climate? In this talk bestselling author Paul Greenberg will walk us through 13 simple steps you can take to change how you choose, cook, and manage your food. For a preview have a look at www.paulgreenberg.org.

Paul Greenberg writes at the intersection of the environment and technology, seeking to help his readers escape screens and find emotional and ecological balance with their planet. He is the author of six books including the New York Times bestseller and Notable Book Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food. His other books are The Climate Diet, Goodbye Phone, Hello World, The Omega Principle, American Catch, and the novel, Leaving Katya. Paul’s writing on oceans, climate change, health, technology, and the environment appears regularly in The New York Times and many other publications. He’s the recipient of a James Beard Award for Writing and Literature, a Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation, a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship and many other grants and awards.

Healing from Hate, with Moderator Car McCargo

To watch our webinar on YouTube, click here

Healing From Hate examines the root causes of hate group activity through the bold work of those battling intolerance on the front lines, including “Life After Hate”, an organization founded by former Skinheads and neo-Nazis, now engaged in transforming attitudes of intolerance, and groundbreaking sociologist Michael Kimmel (author, Angry White Men, Healing From Hate). Documenting a stunning year of hatred in America, Healing From Hate follows these reformers in their work to de-radicalize White Nationalists, and heal communities torn apart by racism - a deep dig into what's needed to return meaning, identity and tolerance to a generation of disenfranchised white men. 

Carl McCargo (M.S.) has been a UU for 34 years. He earned his M.S. in Clinical Psychology in 1981, entitled, “The Differential Portrayal of Black and White Television Families.” Carl has an enduring concern for the insidious and overt ‘teachings’ of racism in our U.S. media

Carl cautions you: It is my view that when you deal with antagonists as an enemy, using a combative approach to social justice (an us against them mentality), corporate leaders, are especially without redeemable characteristics.  Therefore, activists overlook and can't access the UU first principle of, "The inherent worth and dignity of everyone."  The activists' approach may feel that the only way to "get through" to those people at the top, is via the "sledgehammer" across the head method.  And, America sets-up activists for this failure by making the top level executives predominantly white.  It is therefore easy for a long-suffering activist who has seen and been a victim of police brutality as a set-up for activists to overlook a more humane approach to social justice work. 

Climate Disruption and Militarism with Cindy Piester

To watch on YouTube, click here

Cindy Piester’s earlier anti-war, justice, and human rights work included forming and chairing Venturans for a Just Palestine, as well as Citizens for Impeachment, Ventura County. This was during the George W. Bush years.  She was arrested for non-violent civil disobedience protesting the war against Iraq and the government’s spying on the American people and use of torture, and calling for Bush’s impeachment.  For six years she and a small team were actively engaged in alternative media programming featuring issues and voices such as Daniel Ellsberg and Ray McGovern who are often ignored by mainstream media.  

Dahr Jamail and the End of Ice

Click here to watch the webinar on YouTube

The Earth is now experiencing human-caused climate disruption at an ever-accelerating pace. At present, even the best case mitigation strategies will not stave off catastrophic changes that are already heated into the biosphere. How, then, shall we Live? The talk will give a brief overview of how far along we are with climate disruption, then shift into spending the majority of time addressing how we find meaning, and purpose, during such a time. 

Maya Rossum and the Green Amendments

 Click here  to watch the webinar on YouTube

Maya K. van Rossum will speak on the Green Amendments movement.  Maya is the author of The Green Amendment, Securing Our Right to a Healthy Environment and the founder of Green Amendments For The Generations, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring a movement to amend state constitutions to recognize and protect environmental rights on par with other inalienable civic and political freedoms. She is also a part of the Delaware Riverkeeper leading the regional advocacy organization.

Public Banking

February 2021 Click here to view the webinar.

Sarah Manning, Rebeca Jasso-Aguilar and Melissa Pickett are volunteers with the Alliance for Local Economic Prosperity, the think tank for a New Mexico Public Bank. A public bank is owned by the people through their representative government: a Tribe, City, County, State or Federal Government. It can receive deposits of public funds (taxes, fees, fines and interest earned) to  make loans to business and fund infrastructure projects.  Public Banks take our money out of Wall Street to keep our funds safe, local, and working.

Additional Information:

Public Banking in Northeast and Midwest White Paper

                 Public Banking in New Mexico

                                 How Public Banking will change things

Panel discussion and webinar:

Thursday, December 10 

UUJEC Green Task Force hosts a monthly zoom meeting.  In December, we are trying something new: a discussion of The Story of Plastic.  We will send participants a password-protected link to watch the film during the 10 days before our meeting, which will be on December 10.

We are currently assembling a panel to lead us in the discussion of this complex subject about a class of material that seems ubiquitous, but that can have serious environmental impacts.  We will start with a panel discussion, then break into small discussion groups.

Roots of Justice

October 8  Click Here to watch a recording

What are the roots of justice? How do we create and grow justice? Our deteriorating ecology, politics, and economics have given new salience and urgency to answering these questions by living our faith and acting upon our principles. To create and grow justice, we need to throw off the shackles of our conditioning. We must learn the purpose and the history of the injustice and how we acquire the power to defeat it. Our education and our media have poorly served us. To find justice and build solidarity, we must learn what they are and the obstacles to clear thinking and decisive action. We must acquire the power to create and enforce justice.

Solutionary Rail Webinar

Thursday, September 10 2020

Bill Moyer of Vashon Island, Washington has dual and intersecting paths as an activist and artist. In 2003, he co-founded the Backbone Campaign with friends from an artist affinity group. In the last 17 years, Backbone has emerged as a leader and innovator in the theory and practice of “artful activism.” Bill works with progressive change agents and organizations around the country to design and produce creative protest actions and provide training in grand strategy and creative tactics.

Bill is also the co-author and project lead for Solutionary Rail, a book produced by the Backbone Campaign in late 2016. Solutionary Rail provides the guiding vision for a people-powered campaign to electrify America’s railroads and open corridors to a clean energy future. Rail, unique among forms of mass transportation, can easily be electrified and is being electrified around the globe. Because electricity is increasingly coming from clean sources such as sun and wind, rail has the potential to serve as a clean and reliable form of transportation while invigorating communities along the way. Solutionary Rail proposes overhead rail electrification (possibly in combination with batteries) powered by renewable energy, utilizing rail corridors for efficient long distance transmission, as well as track modernization and mode shift of freight from trucks to trains.

Adam Wasserman, UUJEC Board Member and Webinar Facilitator 

Thursday, August 13 

In this webinar we will introduce the En-Roads Climate Simulator, an online model of the global climate system developed by Climate Interactive in conjunction with Ventana Systems and MIT Sloan.  The En-Roads Simulator allows an individual or group to quickly see the impact of a wide variety of climate interventions—economic, technical, and behavioral.   In real time, users can see how valuable different policy choices are in actually affecting global temperature and the concentration of greenhouse gases.  Participants will get a brief overview of the simulator and how it is being used by Climate Interactive to educate involved citizens and policymakers all over the world.  We will then use the simulator to look at how different technologies and policies affect global climate.  We all have our favorite approaches to stopping global warming—which ones really work?  Let’s find out! Adam Wasserman, leading the workshop, is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Santa Fe.  He is active in environmental issues in his congregation and in 350 Santa Fe.  He is a member of the board for UUJEC.  He recently completed an online training program for the En-Roads model. 

A General Assembly Debrief  

Thursday, July 9, 2020

Members and friends of UUJEC will share highlights from this year's General Assembly.  We'll discuss changes in process and changes that happened to accommodate a virtual event.  We'll talk about UUJEC's proposed Action of Immediate Witness, AIW: The Pandemic: A Religious Response.  UUJEC's sponsored workshop: Reparations: Rooted in Repair will surely be a conversation starter.  Come as we share our biggest take-away and you can share yours.

What is the United States strategy to pass federal legislation to achieve the Paris Climate Accord?

July 1, 2020. Noon-1:30 Eastern

Urgent: Federal Climate Bills & Strategy

Co-sponsored by UUJEC