Post 54

Northwoods Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Brainerd/Pine River MN 9/16/14

Greetings, UUs and fellow travelers! It is now midSeptember, and the summer flurries and activities are winding down. Pipeline Protests are continuing with much discussion about these environmental issues facing our State. You might want to check the PUC website, to see where all this stands at the moment.

We began our effort to rename Columbus Day to honor our native American population, sending a proposed proclamation to Governor Dayton for his consideration for this fall. Also contacted by letter all the UUs across the state, and results of that are slowly coming in. We were delighted to hear that the city of Brainerd was considering such a change, with Chip Borkenhagen, city councilman leading that discussion. It was tabled, and readdressed yesterday, Monday Sept. 15. Again it has been tabled, and Chip recently asked to have his proposal taken off the table indefinitely. He received a lot of negative feedback through the press, and said in a memo to the Council, "clearly the vocal minority  has moaned loud enough to foul the air to the degree that I don't wish to pursue it....if Columbus were alive today, and it was discovered he had done the 'atrocities that he did in fact do, he would be tried as a terrorist and war criminal." So Brainerd Council has not followed the lead of Mpls or Red Wing or other places across the US in making a change, at least not now....Our email committee is continuing to explore strategies and will be reporting from time to time.

Our first meeting at theTimberjack turned out well, and next Sunday, we will welcome Rev. Suzanne Wasilczuk back for another Sermon,  this time called The Profit of Prophets. 11am.

The first of the fall meetings on food preservation was held Sept. 11, with Barbara Kaufman presenting information on seed saving. More to come on this series.

Stay tuned.

Respectfully submitted, Mary DeYoung, news director 218-587-2543