Unitarian Church Promotes Carbon Cashback

The Social Justice Council of the Unitarian Church has found success writing persuasive postcards to introduce people to their points of view. They are planning to send postcards to Hawaii Legislators explaining and asking support for HB134 and SB 311, the Carbon Cashback bill that Faith Action’s Environmental Tax Force has been working on.

The Carbon Cashback bill would set a fee on fossil fuels entering Hawaii, which would have the effect of increasing prices to consumers.  Revenue raised from the fee will be returned to citizens of Hawaii in equal shares in the form of a dividend.  Most people would benefit because their dividend would be bigger than their spending due to price increases. 

Each card writer will be given a number of postcards, a list of legislators’ names and addresses, and a sample message.  They will provide their own stamps for their cards. 

Nancy Young of the Unitarian Church said, “We would love to have members from many of the Faith Action groups join us in writing ten to thirty postcards. If you are willing to help, please contact me at salth2onancy@gmail.com.”  

The legislative session has already begun, so the sooner you contact Nancy the better.

 

Faith Action Focus Groups

Beginning in April of 2020, Faith Action formed a communications committee whose purpose is to inform, on a regular basis, the broad membership of the organization.  Shared information has included news about service projects, updates about organizational structure and behavior, and explanations of our civic engagement via our task forces.  Especially during the next few months, messages from the communications committee will encourage understanding of and support for the work of our task forces.  It is through this work that we accomplish Faith Action’s purpose: to address the root causes of challenges to social justice.

With nine months of such sharing now behind us, the communications committee is taking on a complementary task: listening.  We have questions for our member units.  Are we telling you what you really need to know?  Too much?  Not enough?  Is the work of Faith Action truly relevant to the work of your unit?  What could be better?  What other social justice issues are important to the members of your unit?

We will do our listening via focus groups — two members of the communications committee meeting (virtually) with two to four members of each unit.  The units will be represented by their clergy (or CEO of lay units), their steering committee representatives, and one or two other individuals chosen by the unit leader.  We anticipate taking several months to schedule and complete these focus group sessions.  The feedback from them will be incorporated into the work of the communication committee as we go along.  If you have input for your unit to share in its focus group session, please notify your pastor/CEO and/or your unit’s steering committee representative.  We look forward to listening and learning.