More catch up....(Sean)

A few additional minutes here for another couple of observations.

Several references have been made here thus far to some incidents at or around the Fort Worth GA concerning youth of color. A brief statement from President Sinkford and Moderator Courter was read at all in-gatherings asking all to be mindful, and the special commission that was assembled after Fort Worth to investigate the matter spent a few minutes at plenary introducing themselves and, again, urging mindfulness. The actual findings of the commission and the facts around the incident, however, were touched upon only in the most superficial way.

The mystery around the incidents was nagging at me and last night I finally made time (perhaps at the expense of posting here) to get on the UUA web site and read the commission's final report -- all 25 pages. It is an interesting read that is quite thought-provoking, and I encourage you to make the time yourself. I had to poke around to find it... here is the link (pdf).

In the same vein and following up on Louise's comments about other GA attendees in our own restaurant, we found out today at plenary that last night, at another restaurant, a UU youth with a service dog was having dinner when another group entered the restaurant, was seated, and complained loudly to the manager about the presence of the dog and asked for it to be removed. The manager, to his credit, refused, as it was a legitimate service dog on duty. The group apparently continued to discuss the dog situation among themselves loudly for the remainder of the meal. When the youth got up to leave, she observed that this group was wearing GA badges. As this aspect of the story was related, one could hear a collective gasp from the gathered delegates, and the feelings of anger and sadness in the room were palpable.