Last month, we interviewed Professor Bill Ong Hing, founder of the Immigration and Deportation Defense Clinic. Professor Hing had a lot to say about our broken immigration system. He suggested things we can do to participate in the fight against mass deportations including showing up for protests, accompanying immigrants to their scheduled court hearings and perhaps most important, to keep humanizing the issue by sharing the stories of the people most directly affected by the MAGA immigration policies.

So in addition to our usual satire, music and final reflection from Rev. Vanessa, we decided to devote this episode to sharing a few of these stories.  We collaborated with Guillermina Castellanos and Francisco Herrera, Co-founders of  Nuevo Sol Day Labor and Domestic Worker Center, who introduced us to some friends that generously agreed to share some stories of overcoming, of what it means to hope and dream, and what it takes to build a good life. Our goal isn’t to explain, or argue -for or attempt to prove the worthiness or the humanity of the people whose stories you will hear.  What is in question at this moment in our history, is our own humanity.

So breathe, settle and come on in!

Here are a few links in case you want to dive a little deeper:

Nuevo Sol

https://www.instagram.com/nuevo_sol_sf/

“I Cannot Sleep” Jon Fromer and Francisco Herrera

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNR2o2DPCrA

Francisco Herrera 

https://franciscoherreramusic.com/

https://eltecolote.org/content/en/sf-immigrant-undocumented-workers-defend/

Jon Fromer

 https://www.youtube.com/JonFromer

First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco

https://www.uusf.org/

Vanessa Rush Southern

https://vanessarushsouthern.com/

The Tiger Club

 www.tigerclubband.org

The Mike and Mari Show

www.themikeandmarishow.com

Pod and Country YouTube Channel Playlist

https://t.ly/Pod&Country-YouTube

Other Pod and Country episodes

http://bit.ly/3TDFpmv

In this episode we continue in the best tradition Unitarian Universalism to take it to the streets.  We speak with Bill Ong Hing, a leading voice in the struggle to ensure that immigrants are treated with dignity and fairness under the law that serves all of us regardless of our immigration status.  Bill is a law professor and Associate Dean at the University San Francisco and is the founding director of the Immigration and Deportation Defense Clinic. We also have a delightful conversation with the Rev. Stacy Craig who serves as the minister to both the Chequamegon Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Wisconsin and the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Chico in northern California. As with every episode, we offer a bit of comedy (hard to do in these times!), poetry and music. Come on in!

Bill Ong Hing - https://www.usfca.edu/law/faculty/bill-hing

Rebellious Lawyering - https://rebelliouslawyeringinstitute.org/what-is-rebellious-lawyering/

Immigration and Deportation Defense Clinic

Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Chico: https://uuchico.org/

Chequamegon Unitarian Universalist Fellowship: https://www.chequamegonuuf.org/

The Tiger Club: www.tigerclubband.org

The Mike and Mari Show:www.themikeandmarishow.com

Francisco Hererra: https://franciscoherreramusic.com/

Other Pod and Country episodes: http://bit.ly/3TDFpmv

Our previous two episodes gave us a firm grounding in both theological and historical ideas animating Unitarian Universalist thinking and actions in the fight against oppression and tyranny.  With this episode 3, we move out into the world and into our communities.  We seek to listen and learn how best to support the heroes and saints among us on the front lines of resistance and explore how we can take action in service of those least able to defend themselves against systemic injustice.

Our interview segment features Adrian Tirtanadi, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Open Door Legal. Open Door Legal has created an innovative place-based general practice to demonstrate that universal access to legal services is possible. In the first community that they served, homelessness dropped in half within a decade. In our State of the UUnion segmant, we travel to Baton Rouge Louisiana to visit with Rev Nathan Ryan, Senior Minister of The Unitarian Church of Baton Rouge.  We talk about gumbo, crepe myrtle trees and the importance of always including a cultural context in our dialogue with each other.  We also have music from Francisco Hererra, a little comedy and poetry along with a final reflection from Rev Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister of First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco.  As always, we invite you to come on in!

After listening, here are a few links to explore more about this episode:

Open Door Legal - https://opendoorlegal.org/

Open Door Legal Case Study - Citizenship and Safety After Fleeing El Salvador:  https://youtu.be/oUCzxpKk6_g

SF Board of Supervisors:https://sfbos.org/roster-members

The Unitarian Church of Baton Rouge - https://unitarianbr.org/

More about Bacon’s Rebellion - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacon%27s_Rebellion

Paula Cole Jones - Community of Communities -  https://www.uua.org/leaderlab/community-communities

The Tiger Club - www.tigerclubband.com

Francisco Herrera - https://franciscoherreramusic.com/

Welcome to Pod and Country, an audio magazine for the spirit! 

In this episode we’ll  continue our conversation with the Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern and the Rev. John Buehrens. In the previous episode they looked at the theological grounding of the Unitarian response to tyranny and oppression. This time they will take a deep and honest dive into the history of the Unitarian response to tyranny and oppression and what it might inform us about how to confront it today. 

We’ll have some comedic sketches and a song from singer/ songwriter Baxter Robertson and we’ll  interview  Rev. Laura Shennum, UUSF  Minister of Congregational Life and former Minister of  the Cascade Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Wenatchee, WA.

So get a cup of tea, relax and enjoy this month's edition of Pod and Country.

Resources:

Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern. https://vanessarushsouthern.com

Rev. John Buehrens https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_A._Buehrens

Books by John Buehrens: John Buehrens books

Rev. Laura Shennum, Minister of Congregational Life https://www.uusf.org/ministers#laura

Baxter Robertson https://baxterrobertson.bandcamp.com

The Tiger Club https://tigerclubband.com/

The Mike and Mari Show https://themikeandmarishow.com/

Send us comments and feedback at [email protected]

Previous Episodes of Pod and Country

In this episode. we speak with the Rev. John Buehrens. John was the 6th President of the Unitarian Universalist Association, 1993 to 2001 and is the author of several books about the history of Unitarian Universalism. His most recent book is "A Religious Center with a Civic Circumference: Unitarians in San Francisco Since 1850". He also published "Conflagration: How the Transcendentalists Sparked the American Struggle for Racial, Gender and Social Justice in 2020". 

We'll also feature a comedy sketch and a song from Jon Fromer as well as an interview with Jay Wolin, Senior Minister, UU Church of Sarasota Fl as we reach out to connect with UU churches across the country and hear how they are navigating these uncertain times.

The lights are on - come on in!

Resources:

Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern.

https://vanessarushsouthern.com

Rev. John Buehrens

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_A._Buehrens

Rev. Jay Wolin.

https://www.uusrq.org/rev-jay-wolin.html

Brian Leonard

https://www.brianleonard.website/

The Jon Fromer Estate—- 

https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/jon-fromer-a-political-life-in-song/

The Tiger Club

https://tigerclubband.com/

The Mike and Mari Show

https://themikeandmarishow.com/

Comments: [email protected]