Innocence does not die at once, in that first raptured thrust. It dies in each small seduction, in every subsequent acquiescence....

Step One:​ Invoke an external and internal threat. Pose it as a threat to civilization itself. Create a sense of overwhelming crisis beyond the reach of any traditional solution. Insist that the leader’s superior instinct and access to privileged knowledge are more reliable than universal...

"Few of their children in the country learn English Unless the stream of their importation could be turned they will soon so outnumber us that all the advantages we have will not be able to preserve our Language, and even our Government will become precarious." Does this sound familiar? This...

How clearly I remember it. My husband, Dan, and our daughter, Sarah, had spent the night in Taos, New Mexico. The next morning we set out for the pueblo, an ancient village inhabited by indigenous people known as the Pueblo. Clearly tourists, easily identified as European Americans, we were...

Pity the poor dandelion. It is, in many ways, nature’s perfect plant. With a tap root that grows more than a foot long, it can survive in climates of scorching heat and bitter cold. Its tender, young greens make a tasty addition to any salad, or they can be boiled like fiddleheads or as a tea...

The first step is to notice the mountain. It is there. And it belongs to a range of mountains. There’s no going around it. The next step is to reach the kind of acceptance that has us praying in our hearts: "Lord, I don’t ask you to move the mountain, just give me the strength to climb." The...

We retell the birth, life, and death of Dr. King to symbolize that it is not until humanity can measure the worth and meaning of a single life, that it can extend worth that to all souls. But, this is a new day....

Holy and Creative Light, teach us to love this earth, our home. Together we live in one small house, even though to us it seems so large, with so many rooms. This quiet star, marbled blue and white, was hanging here and spinning in black space long before we came....

God of all oppressed persons, remind us of your presence in voices of protest; shatter our self-complacent faith in liberty freely given; and remind us of the cost of hard-won freedom. Let the pain of strangled dreams return us to a knowledge of our own triumphs in the struggle to be free....

Once upon a time there was a drop of water named Higgins. Higgins was no ordinary drop of water. He was a drop with a dream. Higgins lived in a valley where it had not rained in a very long time, so all the lovely green grass was turning brown, all the beautiful flowers were wilting, and all the...

We have come into this room of hope where our hearts and minds are opened to the future. We have come into this room of justice where we set aside our fear to name freely every oppression. We have come into this room of love where we know that no lives are insignificant....

We have come together to share our deepest concerns, speaking and singing words of inspiration and hope. We have committed ourselves to do what we can to ease the burdens of those who suffer, to stand for decency and compassion....

We shall overcome. When we can truly celebrate the diversity of contributions and talents offered by all people, we shall overcome hatred and prejudice and oppression. When we can truly extend our hands to one another in loving acceptance, we shall overcome the past that haunts us now. Living in...

A while ago my friend told me that his son had come home from school with a new put-down expression. “That is sooo gay.” My friend explained to his son that perhaps he didn’t want to say that—after all, he lived in a family with two daddies—“gay” as a put-down just didn’t seem the...

For years now, my conservative friends have asked me, “Do you really want to live in a welfare state?” I’ve thought about it and I’ve decided: Yes, I do. I want to live in a welfare state! If we define “welfare” in the original meaning of the word, “the condition of being or getting...

SERMON DELIVERED BY REV. ROBERT WEST at the First Unitarian Church of Rochester, New York on September 8, 1963. This was Rev. Robert West's first sermon at First Unitarian in Rochester. Late on a Sunday afternoon, five weeks ago, my family and I drove into Rochester to begin our life here with...