REFLECTIONS

I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in
religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.
--Thomas Jefferson 1743-1826 U.S. President

from "Being A Unitarian, In High School"

by Rachel Kovac

When you start high school you think it is going to be four of the
best years of your life. As a Unitarian in high school, I can tell
you, it's not. Younglife, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, prayer
group, Teens for Christ, etc. Surround you from your first day as
a freshman stepping into a new world. Every day from when I
walk into the school to the time I leave there are constant
reminders that I am one of four UUs in my high school. I am a
minority. I had an
experience in which someone who grew with me in my church
was in the same Sunday School class as me since I was in
Haunting House ridiculed me and my beliefs. These were
beliefs that the person used to hold true to themselves. This
person called me a devil worshipper and convinced their friends
that I was one. The person's friends began calling me this. The
person also made it seem like my beliefs were not important. I
now debate telling people I am a UU. If someone who used to
go to my church can do that to me, how will others respond to
my religion? I still do not understand the person's reasons for
leaving the church and their beliefs behind. One of my friends
tells me "if they don't accept you it's their loss." That
saying has gotten me through the loss of several friends who
just couldn't accept me because of my religion.

I know that there are people who accept us and who don't. I also hope
you know that sometimes we want the support of our friends at
church. If you happen to see a high schooler looking for the UU
army behind them to help explain, go help them.
Also, be the person that you want to be. Respect yourself
even if the people around you do not. And always remember that
you are always welcome in UU churches and that there you will
be respected for who you are and what you believe in.

To an honest judge, the alleged convergence between religion and
science is a shallow, empty, hollow, spin-doctored sham.
-- Richard Dawkins, The Devil's Chaplain 2004

About Malcolm X
"…I always had a deep affection for Malcolm and felt that he had a great ability to put his finger on the existence and the root of the problem. He was an eloquent spokesman for his point of view and no one can honestly doubt that Malcolm had a great concern for the problems we face as a race."
-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in a telegram to Betty Shabazz after the murder of Malcolm X.

There is no security in life, only opportunity.
-- Mark Twain 1835

"Our democratic values are imperiled because too many people
of reason are willing to appease irrational people just because
they are pious."

- Bill Moyers

He that will not reason is a bigot. He that cannot reason is a fool, He
that dares not reason is a slave.
Sir William Drummond 1585-1649

The men who are not interested in philosophy need it most urgently; they are most helplessly in its power.
-- Ayn Rand, "Philosophy: Who Needs It," Philosophy: Who Needs It

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the former.
--- Albert Einstein

Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness and the word happiness would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.
--- C.G.Jung

"Man is the result of a purposeless and natural process that did not have him in mind."-
George Gaylord Simpson, The Meaning of Evolution

"This is a great country, and it wasn't made so by angry people. We
have a
sacred duty to bequeath it to our grandchildren in better shape than
however
we found it. We have a long way to go and we're not getting any
younger." -
Garrison Keillor

If everyone was alike in this world then what a boring world we would have!
--- Brittany Little

We do not stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing!
--- Benjamin Franklin