2005 News

September 24: Los Angeles Peace March 
LA MESJ members Sue Cannon and James and Debora Tobler joined the 15,000 to 20,000 people who marched in downtown Los Angeles in a local action corresponding to the Mass March held in Washington DC that same day. The march protested the U.S.'s continuing military presence in Iraq and a broader pattern of imperialistic foreign policy. James Tobler writes: "As 'one nation under God' we would hope that we as a people would be a nation of peace. It is unfortunate that we are not. We marched about three miles and heard from religious leaders, community and labor activists as well as from Martin Sheen. It was an energetic and positive event. The spirit of democracy was alive and well that day!"

August 31: LA MESJ Supports Unionization of Ensign Group Employees
Los Angeles MESJ held its second official meeting at the Fairfax Farmers Market. Discussion focused on the Ensign Group, a California-based nursing home company which has been criticized by senior advocates and whose owners are LDS. Many Ensign employees are trying to organize a union, and Ensign has made every effort to suppress this process. CLUE, a coalition of clergy and citizens, had approached LA MESJ about helping support the unionization campaign. LA MESJ members expressed their disappointment at seeing others from their own faith involved in suppressing workers' freedom of assembly. The chapter formed a committee of two LA MESJ members to head up the MESJ/Ensign effort.

August 6: Tabling with CORC at the Farmer's Market
Members of Salt Lake MESJ helped staff the CORC Sales Tax Table at the Farmers Market, held each Saturday morning during the summer at Pioneer Park in downtown Salt Lake. The table was to gather signatures for a petition asking Governor Hunstman and the state tax task force to remove the sales tax from grocery store food items as a way of helping low-income families in Utah. Salt Lake MESJ resolved in June to support this campaign of the Coalition of Religious Communities.

August 3: O.P.E.N. Meeting
Suzette Smith and Margot Dana, of Salt Lake MESJ, attended the first meeting of O.P.E.N., a social justice network organized by the Utah region of the NCCJ (National Conference for Community and Justice). The meeting was held at Salt Lake's Westminster College.

July 28: MESJ Conference 
All MESJ members, wherever they lived, were invited to Salt Lake City for a MESJ Conference to chart the organization's future. MESJ Conferences are the organization's major decision-making body at the "global" (that is, as opposed to the local) level. Between 15 and 20 members and observers came from various parts of the country, including California, Nevada, Iowa, and North Carolina. One observer was a professor at Graceland University, owned by the Community of Christ (formerly the RLDS Church), who had discovered MESJ via the Internet. At the Conference, reports were given on the recent founding of new chapters in Los Angeles, Madison, and New York City and the creation of "sister websites" for MESJ in other languages. Items for discussion included:

• Revising the MESJ mission statement (no action taken)
  
• Adding a new position of Chapter Coordinator to the MESJ bylaws
  
• Continuing to support the Yahoo! group Progressive_Mormon_Congress
  
• Effective use of Anxiously Engaged, MESJ's online newsletter
  
• Better membership tracking and member benefits
  
• Ideas for future projects and growth
  

July 28-30: Sunstone Symposium
Salt Lake MESJ tabled at the annual Sunstone Symposium, held in the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City. Literature was available, and new MESJ t-shirts were for sale. On Saturday, Salt Lake MESJ sponsored a session organized by Burton Stringfellow, known for his work with the Utah chapter of Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM), which works against inflexible and excessive mandatory minimum court sentences. The speaker at the session was G. Donald Gale, a Deseret News columnist, who spoke about the social cost of addiction disease--that is, drug and alcohol abuse--and the need to shift energies from the punitive "war on drugs" toward prevention, treatment, and counselling.

July 24: Discussion, "Microcredit and Microenterprise"
For its second meeting, held on the evening of Pioneer Day, New York MESJ invited Jim Lucas, coauthor of Working Toward Zion, to speak to them about his work in microcredit and microenterprise. Dr. Lucas introduced chapter members to microenterprise projects to which BYU and the Church have lent support and directed them to online resources compiled by BYU business professor Warner Woodworth, his coauthor for Working Toward Zion. Chapter members resolved to look for microcredit projects they'd like to evaluate for donation-worthiness in preparation for a stake informational fireside in the fall.

July 17: a new MESJ chapter in Boston
On July 17 2005, thirteen MESJ-members met at Harvard College to organize MESJ Boston. They discussed the MESJ mission, their interests, and how to proceed to integrate discussion, education, and action, while taking advantage of the expertise of some of local members to learn about issues from literacy in the developing world, to peace keeping, homosexuality in the church, environmental concerns, and access to health care. Since their first meeting, they have alerted each other to service opportunities and issues that beg for attention-- locally and worldwide.

June 18: Discussion, "Christianity and Feminism" 
They had planned to hold a silk-screening party to create MESJ t-shirts. But when the t-shirts didn't arrive in time, the Madison chapter held a discussion about Christianity and feminism instead. The discussion revolved around articles produced by Sojourners magazine, which Las Vegas MESJ had used for a series of discussions during March and April 2005 (in connection with Women's History Month). Madison MESJ's discussion touched on: differences between the few examples of women in the Book of Mormon and the women highlighted during Christ's ministry, patriarchy, revelations, past and present prophets, and conservativism.

June 14: "Iron Jawed Angels"
In a meeting to discuss plans for the summer, Salt Lake MESJ determined to support the Coalition of Religious Communities in its campaign to remove the sales tax from food and to support People for Peace and Justice by attending periodic peace vigils. In addition, one member chose to represent MESJ at meetings of the Utah Population and Environment Coalition. Following the short meeting, the group viewed the film "Iron-Jawed Angels," about the work of Alice Paul and Lucy Burnes working for passage of the 19th Amendment, which in 1920 gave the vote to women in the U.S. Following the film, there was a discussion about women's rights and the efforts (and pain) it takes to work in social justice.

June 12: New York Chapter Created
Fifteen people gathered in a Manhattan apartment to create New York MESJ. Michael Shirts was appointed chapter coordinator, with Kristin Andersen and Julie Kanan as assistant coordinators. Kamla Fenimore led a discussion of "Wealth and Poverty," an article by BYU sociology professor Richard Johnson. The group discussed what poverty means to them, where they see themselves on the continuum of generosity, and what they can do to contribute to the ideal of economic equality. The discussion also centered around how much is too much and how participants could make better use of their own time and money. A partial conclusion was that while we cannot take on the world, we can all contribute indivually, and we can always work to find a way to do more.

May 10: CORC Annual Meeting
Suzette Smith and Karl Goodman represented Salt Lake MESJ at the annual meeting of the Coalition of Religious Communities, which organizes people of faith in Utah to work on legislative issues affecting low-income people. At the annual meeting, the various religious communities represented at CORC laid out three platforms for the coming year: removing the sales tax on food, increasing the minimum wage in Utah, and supporting passage of hate crimes legislation.

March 17: Founding of Los Angeles MESJ 
The Los Angeles chapter of MESJ was officially founded at a meeting attended by James and Debora Tobler, Eric Taylor, and Charles and Kathrin Quisenberry. During the meeting, the group discussed how the teachings of the Savior and the prophets inspire them to offer solace to the oppressed and dispossessed. The group prayed for justice and comfort for those who suffer in the world and for greater love for those who are "the least of these our brethren." In a report about the meeting, Charles Quisenberry writes that "the group is small, but then all good things have small beginnings. We humbly pray that our work is pleasing in the sight of the Lord, and that we can bring even a glimmer of his love into the lives of his children."

March 7: International Women's Day Celebration
Salt Lake MESJ participated in "A Celebration of Woman," held at the Salt Lake City Public Library in connection with International Woman's Day. MESJ worked in conjunction with People for Peace and Justice and the National Organization of Woman to pull together an interesting and diverse program, which started with short films made by young women from local high schools about the lives of woman in Salt Lake. Other events included a panel discussion about the need to educate woman and girls around the world, a keynote speaker on woman's reproductive health/rights, and a film about a matriarchal society in Mexico. MESJ, along with other women's groups from the community, tabled at the library.

January 17: MESJ Meeting in Madison
The newly formed MESJ Madison chapter held its second meeting to finalize its primary goal: to find volunteer opportunities where children and youth can participate alongside adults and to influence their wards and stake to volunteer similarly.

January 17: Martin Luther King Day Family Home Evening
The Salt Lake City and Utah County chapters of MESJ celebrated Martin Luther King Day with a family home evening at the home of Suzette Smith in Salt Lake City. About 30 people attended the event, which included a reading of King's "I Have a Dream" speech. The main speaker was Darron Smith, co-editor of a recent University of Illinois publication, Black and Mormon, who shared his experiences of being black in a while community, culture, and church.

January 15: Martin Luther King Celebration  
Las Vegas MESJ celebrated the 2005 Martin Luther King Day with a number of activities. Several chapter members visited the traditional parade in downtown Las Vegas, cheering along many UNLV sorority and fraternity friends of our chapter who were participating in the parade. After the three-hour parade, with its many floats, marching bands, and displays of Martin Luther King themes, the chapter hosted a festive lunch buffet, followed by a video and discussion on civil rights. In many ways the Las Vegas chapter feels closely associated with Dr. King and his dream of civil rights, as many members are of African-American and Polynesian descent.