UUFSMA: “The Worst of Times: Human Rights Opportunities”

Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Online Service

“The Worst of Times: Human Rights Opportunities”
Speaker: Bruce Knotts

Sunday, July 4, 2021
10:30 am

Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/414604040
Password: 294513

By Joseph Plummer
UUF Secretary

For this UUFSMA Online Sunday service, Guest Speaker Bruce Knotts will discuss the interwoven crises of these “tough times” – a global pandemic, rising authoritarianism, political and social violence, and the fear of war – as a reminder that similarly chaotic eras ended with great and positive social change, such as the United Nations and Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  Today he sees a chance to end systemic racism and repair the damage of bigotry and colonialism.

Repair requires a truthful reckoning with poverty and the multi-generational damage to people of color and colonized nations, Knotts argues. Such repair calls for reparations to societies destroyed by racism and colonialism. Generations of wealth owed to black Americans were destroyed by massacres like that in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1921. Economic rapine in colonized regions imposed similar deprivations on generations of people of color throughout the world. Indeed, by overthrowing economic policies that benefited Great Britain and disadvantaged the American colonies, the revolution forming the United States echoed such demands for generational equity. Crimes many times worse have occurred for centuries in the colonized world. Indigenous peoples worldwide excelled in land management only to lose their lands and human rights. For example, we see the devastation of the northern triangle of Central America where colonial rule devastated local economies that today remain prostrated by gang violence and corrupt governments. Amid our current crises perhaps a turn toward a just reckoning awaits us.

Knotts has directed the Unitarian Universalist Association Office at the United Nations since 2008, working with many UN committees and working groups. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ethiopia, worked in Saudi Arabia for Raytheon and then Somalia under contract to the World Bank before joining the U.S. Department of State in 1984. As a diplomat he served in Greece, Zambia, India, Pakistan, Kenya, Sudan, Cote d’Ivoire, and The Gambia where he was Deputy Chief of Mission. Knotts served as the U.S. Regional Refugee Coordinator for West Africa and observed UN peacekeeping operations in Sierra Leone.  He retired from the Foreign Service in 2007. and

To participate in our Sunday Service, visit www.uufsma.org and click on the Zoom Service button displayed on the home page. If requested, enter password: 294513. Sign-in Sunday mornings by 10:25 am CST.

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UUFSMA has suspended in-person Sunday services and other gatherings. A growing collection of previous online services can be found on the UUFSMA’s YouTube channel. Go to https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8R1ZIQnz53FB2FSPpe7CqQ and enter UUFSMA in the search box. The UU Fellowship welcomes people of all ages, races, religions, sexual orientation, and gender identity.