In my Ethical Culture home, Labor Day was perhaps the most sacred holiday, perhaps the only sacred holiday that we observed. Some of my earliest memories are of my stroller being decked out with crepe paper streamers to go to the annual Labor Day parade in Manhattan.

I was so proud to be able to participate in the parade as a union member myself back in the early 80's. I was a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the first parade I was in was during the year that Ronald Reagan was busy breaking the PATCO union. There was a lot of pro-union energy at that parade.

Supporting labor unions, not crossing picket lines were just something I grew up breathing. My parents were both active in their unions - my mother 1199, which continues to this day, although expanded from its scope as a union for health care workers, and my father, District 65 and even at 6 years old I could tell you that RWDSU stood for Retail, Wholesale, Department Store workers Union.

So I come to write about Labor Day for ESWoW this weekend and it occurs to me it is worth asking the question, why does labor day matter to Ethical Culturists, and of course, the underlying question, why do labor unions matter to Ethical Culturists. Of course, being a non-dogmatic religion, I can only tell you why labor day and labor unions matter to me. It has been a useful exercise to consider why unions were so important to my parents, and why I support unionization today. Read more »

How do you cook your okra?

Who would have thought that this simple question, asked in a supermarket would create international connections?  

Although this time of year I buy most of my produce at local farmers' markets, I did find myself in the produce section of my favorite supermarket last week. My favorite supermarket is Market Basket in Somerville, MA.  I like it because it is not a super big chain, and I'm trying to shop local more and more.  

But what I like most about it is that I often feel like I am shopping at the United Nations.  There are people of zillions of ethnic groups, speaking lots of different languages, many that I can't even identify.  The ones I can recognize include Haitian Creole, Portuguese, Spanish and sometimes English.  I know that people from Somalia, Cape Verde, Nigeria, and India shop there.  

  Read more »

A Rose is a rose......?

The Fourth of July is upon us – Independence Day in the United States of America.

My usual theme for this holiday is about interdependence and how Ethical Culture holds that fostering the relationships between and among people is a path to living most ethically. I still think that is true, it is a concept I hold most dear and with high regard.

Yet this year, in planning to write about how the United States was founded with the acceptance of the idea that immigrants to this land, Pilgrims and others, could dominate a land that was not theirs and the acceptance of the idea that it was good practice for one human being to own another as a slave, I thought my theme was going to be different, more political, if you will. Read more »

Opening Words:

What a foolish notion, that war is called devotion
When the greatest warriors
Are the ones who stand for peace. 

- Holly Near

On Memorial Day this year I joined a group of people at the Boston Harbor who were honoring those who have died in wars, those who have had their lives touched by wars, those who work for peace.

I wasn't there for the whole program which included a memorial tribute to Howard Zinn. He is being well-remembered in the Boston area. I went to a lovely tribute program to this ardent activist several weeks ago and was pleased to hear more about the many realms in which he had practiced his activism.

I arrived at the Memorial Day for Peace event while they were in the midst of reading the names of people from Massachusetts who had died while serving in the military in either Iraq or Afghanistan. The readers were primarily people who were members of Veterans for Peace groups or Gold Star Families for Peace. (I find the term gold star abhorrent in this context – it is the military saying your loved one died while serving in the military, now we'll give you a gold star.)

After each name was read, a flower was thrown into Boston Harbor. Some of the people throwing flowers were relatives of the person whose name had been announced, but mostly they were just part of the gathered crowd. I thought about throwing a flower in, but to me, at that moment, throwing a flower into the harbor didn't seem like it would address the great sadness I was feeling, hearing the names of all those people who, in my opinion, had died needlessly. Read more »

It's hard to believe that we have been observing Earth Day for 40 years. I remember the first one and the little green button I had that simply said "environment" on it. In some ways, we, as a country, have made some progress in protecting our environment, but in other ways, we haven't made much progress at all.

Having an understanding of and a sense of responsibility toward the natural world we are part of fits in well with my Ethical Culture perspective of the world. Just as I have relationships with human, some close and very intentional, and some neither close nor intentional, I have a relationship with the world around me, whether or not I am intentional about it. For most of my life, at least since the first Earth Day in 1970, I have tried to be as intentional as I could in using as few resources as I can, being somewhat obsessed about recycling, and lately, not owning a car, biking and using public transportation. I have a good appreciation of how one's life circumstances influence the choices we make - I didn't feel I had the option to not have a car when my two children were young, but I think it is important to always reflect and make the best choices we can in the moment. Read more »