UNITARIANS RAISE FUNDS FOR NATIONAL ORGANIZINGby Adrienne Lauby
Utah Phillips and Rhiannon will bring their music to San Francisco for an event called "Making Speech Free." The April 30 evening also features removed Pacifica Network News Director Dan Coughlin, Pacifica Governing Board member Tomas Moran and public media maven, Nicole Sawaya. This meeting of voices and minds, sponsored by Unitarian Universalist for a Just Economic Community, will raise money for a nation-wide movement to supprot Pacifica's peace and justice mission.
The fundraiser comes from Unitarian activist Neil MacLean's and the San Francisco Unitarian Community's understanding of the current state of national listener activism.
"Community groups are active in each of Pacifica's broadcast areas," MacLean said. "Groups meet regularly, stay in contact nationally, and are expanding their bases locally. At the Pacifica Board meeting last October in Houston, members of community groups from each of Pacifica's broadcast areas formed a national alliance to further coordinate our efforts."
MacLean, part of the Unitarian church justice group, is raising money so that the national alliance can solidify and grow.
Noting that Tomas Moran, bay area Pacifica Board member who often attends listener, activist meetings, is the past president of the Palo Alto Unitarian Church, MacLean noted a historical connection of Unitarians and Pacifica.
"The Unitarian core commitment to democratic dialogue and the peaceful resolution of conflicts have put us at the center of the Pacifica network since its founding in 1949," he said. "As one of my church members put it, 'The best present I ever got in my life was in 1949. It was a subscription to KPFA and the FM receiver to hear the station on.' Our churches in Houston, Sepulveda, San Francisco, Palo Alto, Washington DC and Berkeley have all played crucial roles in developing the grass roots community."
"I am finding that Unitarians all over the country know about, regularly listen to, and are passionate about keeping critical public affairs radio prigramming alive in their communities...This organizing effort is creating an important sub-group [in the Unitarian group,]" MacLean said.
Maclean believes that the Pacifica Board has attempted to be a voice for people of color to insulate Pacifica from Newt Gingrich-type attacks on Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).
"The problem is that the Pacifica Board members in charge are not sincere in [these diversity goals]." MacLean said. "They have fired more people of color than any previous administration, and the stations they control (Houston and Washington DC) are the least diverse. Many listeners, and certainly Pacifica's anarcho-pacifist founders (from both the Quaker and Unitarian movements) would never have accpeted any government sponsorship in the first place."
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