La Lotta Continua

My wife and I watched the 2015 movie "Suffragette" tonight on TV.  It stars Carey Mulligan, Anne-marie Duff & Helena Bonham-Carter. It is the story of As imdb.com describes it, it is the story of "the foot soldiers of the early feminist movement, women who were forced underground to pursue a dangerous game of cat and mouse with an increasingly brutal State." As I watched this movie, I found myself thinking over and over again, "we are still fighting these battles today." 
Yes I know women have the right to vote. Most countries now protect the rights of women to vote. (in 2014 Saudi Arabia promised women would get the right to vote, but it has yet to happen.) However, as is vocalized early on in the movie by Carey Mulligan's character Maud Watts, this is about so much more than voting.  The fact that the rights of women to be treated as full human beings is still questioned by far too many people today.
And that's not all. I am struck by the level of racial bigotry that is being felt and openly expressed in today's age. When right-wing pundits accuse President Obama of bringing more division they are somewhat right. Because it is coming out in the open now that too many white Americans are not pleased to live in a country where we allow an "uppity" POTUS. I can't believe we are still having this conversation about racial iniquity and are having to battle systemic prejudice against people of color.
Gay men are still killed by haters because of who they love. Young black men are still disproportionately pegged by law enforcement, the courts and popular media as the as the most likely "bad guy."  Muslims, Latinos, non-whites in general stand a good chance of encountering the hatefulness of bigotry many times in the course of their lives.
Elements of society that should have been permanently laid to rest decades ago still threaten the rights, safety and economic freedom of far too many. 
Basic human and civil rights cannot be taken for granted in our country by many, even when such laws of assurance are on the books. As I contemplate this reality I am reminded of my youthful days in Italy, in the early 70's.  At that time Italy had thee largest communist party in Europe outside of the Eastern Bloc countries. The idealistic fervor of young communists and socialists was very present in the cities, north and south. I talked with a few such people over my time there and the one thing that remains with me to this day, is the slogan that was chanted in demonstrations and painted on signs, placards and graffiti. That slogan was "La Lotta Continua!" (The Struggle Continues!) I had a sense of what it meant to those young people in the heady days social change and I think it needs to be chanted again, in our conversations, writings and demonstrations.  Because these words are not owned by the communists. They are the words of truth that all people who hunger for justice and freedom should chant! Over and over again, until we remember and struggle on.

Brief Bio

I was born in 1954 in Tulsa, Oklahoma and raised there into the 6th grade. After my parents divorced and mom remarried we moved to California briefly before going to the Dallas-Ft. Worth area for the remainder of my adolescence. In my Junior year in High School I was baptized and became a Christian.
I spent two years living in Italy, where I worked in a missions organization associated with Churches of Christ. Upon my return to the U.S. with the intention of studying to be a missionary in Europe. I attended a small Christian college affiliated with Churches of Christ beginning in the Fall of 1975.
I married my wife in May of 1978 and following graduation, moved to another Christian university where I did graduate studies until taking a minister position in new Jersey, where I remained from 1981 to 1993.
In 1992 we had our one and only child, our daughter.
From there I took a ministry position in Illinois but was forced out of that position by my own undoing after 2 years. During these years in ministry my views continued to take on a more and more progressive stance. By the time I left the last church i was decidedly no longer theologically a part of the denomination of my heritage.
We moved to Pennsylvania where I looked for a new ministry position. Finding no opportunities I eventually was forced to take on other work, ultimately working in the telecommunications industry where I took the position of Vice president of a small telecom/telemarketing brokerage firm.
By 2001 I was restless in the business world and sought to reenter the ministry, but certainly not with the Churches of Christ. I eventually took the position of pastor for two small rural congregations that had recently left the United Church of Christ denomination.  We remained there until November of 2014 at which time we bought a house in a nearby community and I left ministry and began,in earnest, a reassessment of my religious views.
In October 2017 Sharon and I visited, for the first time, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Harrisburg. Since then we have placed membership and become active in the choir, membership committee, worship committee (me), the religious education program (Sharon), and numerous activities of the community life. Being a part of the UU has been liberating, enlightening and joyous. It has given me a place where I feel free to be myself with all of my questions, doubts and inconsistencies.

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ATTENTION: For those friends and family that are invited to view my blog I only ask that you respect my privacy and to not talk about my postings or beliefs outside of this venue. Not all of my family are aware of the changes that have taken place in my life and I prefer not to distress them at this point in their lives.