A recording of the presentation is now available here as an MP3 file. RT 32:42

A good turnout greeted American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas’ Executive Director Terri Burke. Ms. Burke addressed the State Board of Education’s recent abuse of its authority, including the efforts of some members to insert personal ideology into curriculum content. She also discussed issues of importance to voters in the upcoming State Board elections in November.

Burke drew on information gathered in the ACLU of Texas report, "The Texas State Board of Education: A Case of Abuse of Power" issued last May.

Diane Jennings of The Dallas Morning News quoted Rev. Walz in two articles on the event: “The Rev. Mark Walz of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Oak Cliff said he was there both as a pastor and as the father of a Marine. ‘No one who ascribes to terrorism has the right to claim a religious motivation,’ Walz said.”

“Waltz said he is passionate about battling the tendency to ‘demonize each other as human beings.’”

You can watch a video of  Jonathan Betz reporting for WFAA (Channel 8):
http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/Dallas-religious-leaders-call-for-unity–102713909.html

Arezow Doost covered the event for CBS (Channel 11) News
http://cbs11tv.com/video/?id=57342@ktvt.dayport.com and featured Ministerial Intern Shams Cohen of First Unitarian Church of Dallas.

According to the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance (MDHA, 2008), in their annual “Point in Time” homeless census count, in 2008 there were 5,869 homless persons counted, which was a 14% increase from 2007.  There were 611 “chronically homeless” counted, an increase of 8% from 2007.  Forty-three percent of those surveyed in that count reported they had been homeless for more than one year.  (Chronic homelessness means an individual has been homeless for 1 year or has had 4 episodes of homlessness in a 3-year period.) 

As the winter weather descends upon North Texas, I am excited to announce this year we will partner with the national non-profit organization One Warm Coat to aid in our coat drive.  Our recipient this year will be the Austin Street Centre.

OWC has been gracious enough to send me a wonderful banner and other materials for our coat drive, which will be held through December 20th.  I will be delivering the marketing materials at church this weekend. 

***WE ARE IN URGENT NEED OF A LARGE COLLECTION BOX (or boxes)*** 

If anyone can bring one to the church this Sunday, December 13th, it would be much appreciated.  If you have a box or boxes, please contact me (Jase) at org.psych2010@gmail.com.

For more on One Warm Coat, click here.

For more on the Austin Street Centre, click here.

On Friday evening I was volunteering for Planned Parenthood at the Women’s Expo and learned that they will be hosting a discussion on sex education in the schools at our church on Sept. 17 from 6:30 to 8 pm. I posted a flyer on our Announcements board, but I was wondering if we could publicize this as well by mentioning it at the Social Justice movie screening, a ppt slide before the service, putting it in any and all appropriate places on our web site, and anything else we can do. Marcia is going to let the teens know about this event.

I believe that teen pregnancy is a social justice issue. Texas has the 3rd highest rate of teen pregnancies in the country and the highest rate of repeat teen pregancies. Having a child at a young age (before age 20) increases the likelihood of dropping out of high school. Boys who father in their teen years are more likely to father children with multiple women and are more likely to be incarcerated. Research shows that the most effective way to prevent teen pregnancies is to educate teens on how not to become pregnant. I have materials on the exact statistics at home if anyone is interested..

The link for the event at our chuch is here: http://www.ppaction.org/ppntx/events/whatyourkidsdontknow/details.tcl

The link to a webinar about the issue is here: https://uthconnect.uth.tmc.edu/p35149603/

If we could announce this meeting and give it a little publicity, this is a relatively easy way for us as a church to promote this social justice issue.

Unfortunately I will not be able to attend the meeting that evening, but I strongly support the cause. I have also sent the flyer to my dad for him to look into publicizing it at his church. If anyone knows of any organizations that might have an interest, please pass the information along or let me know and I will pass it along. They ask for RSVP to make sure there is enough food.

Thanks,
Amy