The following texts were read as a part of the service February 27, 2005. The sermon follows. The service ended with the congregation singing all of the verses of This Land is Your Land by Woody Guthrie. The text of the song is attached after the sermon.

 

THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS

 

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this 

continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the 

proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in 

a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so 

conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great 

battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of 

that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their 

lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and 

proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot 

dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. 

The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated 

it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will 

little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never 

forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be 

dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here 

have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here 

dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these 

honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which 

they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly 

resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this 

nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that 

government of the people, by the people, for the people shall 

not perish from the earth.

 

 

 The Declaration of Independence

 

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

 

We hold these truths to be self-evident:

 

That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

 

THE PRAMBLE TO THE CONSITUTION

 

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

 

 

 

 

 

Americans Bound: the search for truth,

The aesthetic of protest, and the spirit of the American people

 

by William Payne

 

Some of you may have noticed that I have been absent most Sundays since

September. I left my position as Worship Committee chair for a reason. I have

been creating. In the spirit of the twelve step process, and a former Catholic,

I have a confession to make:

 

I am an artist.

 

Back in the fall of 2003 I heard about a new initiative through my employer,

the University of Minnesota Duluth, and more specifically Vince Magnuson, the

Vice Chancellor of Academic affairs. It's called the American Democracy Project

and it is sponsored by the American Association of State Colleges and

Universities and the New York Times. It strives to create a more civically

engaged student body in campuses all across America.

 

A fellow artist, Zack Swanson, and I had already agreed to make a documentary

and we were searching for THE topic. Zack and I, during our previous

collaborations, had found ourselves discussing many social and political

issues. You see, Zack is a young conservative. I am a middle aged liberal. The

discussions were quite animated. But they were fantastic! We found that our

disagreements were substantial and yet the distance between our positions was

not that great. We became friends through these discussions.

 

We then proposed to Vince that he fund the creation of a documentary about why

people in America vote, and why they don't vote. The working title says it all.

50/50: the American Electoral Divide. You see, prior to the 2004 election,

since about the middle sixties, about half of us bothered to vote. Half of us

didn't. I knew the numbers and gleaned a great deal of information from such

sources as the Vanishing Voter surveys of 1996 and 2000. I knew why people

didn't vote, according to the surveys. But we wanted to travel around the

country during the 2004 election and see and hear for ourselves why people

voted…or not. We wanted to create a video document of the American People

talking about their relationship to the electoral process, to the media, and to

the politicians and political parties.Vince said yes.

 

Off we went on our first trip, almost exactly one year ago today. During the

course of the next 9 months, we would travel once or twice a month through

election day to 22 states and interview almost 300 people. We asked a simple

set of questions.

 

Do you vote? Why do you vote or not vote? Do you always feel there is a

candidate on the ballot that represents your point of view? Where do you get

your information about issues and candidates before you vote? What kind of a

job do you feel the media is doing informing you about issues and candidates?

Are you paying attention to the campaign right now? What is your reaction to

the way the campaigns are being run? Why do you think half of us don't vote?

What do you think would need to change to get more people to participate in the

electoral process?

 

The interviews lasted between 5 and 25 minutes. We arranged some interviews in advance before each trip and also just walked up to people on the street and

asked if they would be willing. We are qualitative researchers, so I can't

claim that this collection of interviews is a statistically accurate

representation of the American electorate, but I would guess we are not too far

off. We sought out a variety of voices: urban and rural, liberal and

conservative, young and old, rich and poor. We engaged our fellow citizens for

a few minutes asking how they felt about the electoral process, and the country

they call their own.

 

We found that the vast majority of people are frustrated with the electoral

process, they are disappointed in the media, and they really, really want the

political process to change. We found that this subset of Americans were more

united than divided -on most of the topics we discussed. The collective

responses, coupled with our experience of the journey and our decision to pay

close attention to the media and its coverage of the election and the political

parties and candidates, led Zack and I to a few conclusions.

 

We feel that the combination of a corporately owned media and a

corporately owned two party system - and the introduction of new voting

technologies coupled with an attack on our civil liberties by the justice

system- is a threat to our democracy.

 

We feel that the country, or rather the electorate, is not quite as divided as

the media makes us out to be. We feel that this divide is something that the

political parties and the media have created because it is good business.

 

We feel that most Americans are aware of this disconnect, even if they can't

express it as explicitly as I just did.

 

Don't get me wrong, we know that there are divisive issues present in early

21st century America. But we found that people were much closer to the middle

on most issues. Statistics bear this out. I returned from a trip last fall and

turned on C-SPAN, as is my habit, only to find a social scientist presenting

facts about how the large majority of Americans are bunched in the middle on

several key issues, while the voting records of the politicians are largely out

on the extreme left and right, leaving precious few senators and congressman in

the middle. And the media tells us we are divided? Hmmmmmm...

 

News is no longer information. It has been entertainment for a long time now.

And they know, just like the political ad men know, that negative sells. We

don't tune in to see what went right today, we tune in to see what went

horribly and irrevocably wrong. Since Watergate, the news has become more and more negative. And in the last decade it has also become more perverse, seeking out ever more lurid and shocking stories about ourselves. We love a good fire, a good "fall of the mighty" story, a good natural disaster.

 

Today we are the most informed people ever to live, and we can't find the truth

anywhere. I have come to realize, through this process, that I cannot trust my

usual sources for information. I really can't say with certainty whether there

are or were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. I can't say with any certainty

whether or not Bill Clinton "had sexual relations with that woman."  I really

don't know. What I know is what I experience, and even that is suspect

sometimes. After all, I'm a crazy artist.

 

Here is a good example. Zack and I attended the last two days of the Democratic

convention in Boston. When we arrived, the organizers informed us that they had

only secured one pass for us. I arranged a second pass for Kerry's Thursday

acceptance speech and sent Zack into the Fleet Center, with the camera, to

record the Wednesday night slate of speakers and events.

 

I wandered around Boston all night. I ended up at the Quincy market, right by

Faneuil Hall where the MSNBC people had set up there temporary studio. Chris

Matthews was playing hard ball with various guests, oh so evenly divided

between left and right. While I was there, Al Sharpton began to speak at the

convention. Immediately Matthews began a diatribe about what a big mistake it

was for the Democrats to have this guy speak. His two sidekicks joined in and

soon they actually took the speech off the air. Matthews said "We're doing the

Democrats a favor by not broadcasting this speech." The total condemnation of

the Democratic Party and of the Rev. Al Sharpton continued non-stop, until it

was time to sell some products. I watched this circus for a while longer until

I had to leave.

 

Later, the convention over for the evening, John Edwards having agreed to be

the Vice Presidential candidate, I drove to the Fleet Center to pick up Zack.

He got in the car and the first question out of my mouth was "Who gave the best

speech tonight?" He never hesitated. This 24 year old republican from the

Northland said "Al Sharpton."

 

Two months earlier, Zack and I had entered the ghetto of East Cleveland and

interviewed a handful of African American teachers and janitors at a public

elementary school my sister teaches at. This was all new to Zack. A month

later, we were in the middle class section of Black Houston, speaking with 70

year black activists. And following our trip to Boston, we went to New York

City where I heard Zack say to one of my friends "I really understood where Al

Sharpton was coming from, because of what those people said in east Cleveland. Al Sharpton made the most sense of anybody I heard speaking at the convention."

 

Both of us, liberal and conservative, were frustrated with the way the

political process was being mediated. The most important speech at the

convention for me, a liberal, was that given by Wesley Clark, taking back the

flag and patriotism for those who have the audacity to protest the use of war

pre-emotively. It wasn't in prime time, so most of America didn't see it, and

most of America didn't hear the punditry talk about it over and over again so

it must not have mattered. It was the convention that made us realize just how

the media has influenced our ability and desire to participate in the electoral

process.

 

And so, it was here that we knew what our movie was going to be about. And it

was here that this liberal and that young conservative realized that we were

making a work of art that will be considered a protest.

 

How do we protest these days? If you have seen, like we did in Boston, the

caged protest zones of the present America, you have some idea that the tactics

of the sixties are no longer viable. How many of you would take part in

something like what happened in the Ukraine recently? Would you go hang out on the National Mall in DC for three weeks? Would your job be waiting for you when you returned? Our lives are too full to make room for a protest like this. We

are far too busy being productive and consuming to participate in something so

disruptive to the American economy. We have been well groomed to offer no

resistance to business as usual.

 

 I watched a couple of hours of the protest march in New York during the

Republican convention and I found only one group of protesters truly effective;

the group that silently carried flag draped coffins to the Madison Square

Garden, set them down, paused, and lifted them up again and continued marching. This was a remarkably simple, powerful, and gripping performance, one that brought so many truths about the real cost of war, the real cost of the control of media by the corporate power structure, and appreciation for those patriotic Americans willing to sacrifice everything in service to their country.

 

 

In the fall of 2003, I also agreed to create a production of Prometheus Bound

by Aeschylus for the UMD Theatre department. I began to study the play and ask, as I usually do, where the relevance was for my audience, in our world.

Aeschylus was a war hero, a politician, and a protestor. He was speaking not

too subtly to his budding empire about what they might do with the gift

of "fire" they had been given.

 

I asked myself what this fire was for my world today. My answer is this;

 

The Promethean fire for my country, right now, is the idealism of the fifties

and sixties. This period was a revolution for our country and for our world.

The introduction of nuclear energy, computer technology, identity politics via

Blacks, Latinos, Women, Gays and Lesbians, the changing attitudes about sex and marriage, all of these developments have changed the world. And they all grow out of an idealistic belief that we can be a better place.

 

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union,

establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

 

A more perfect Union They didn't say a perfect Union but they came awful close.

 

And so I looked for music to capture the art and the politics of the time.

Stevie Wonder and The Temptations emerged - not their pop hits but the music

called Psychedelic Soul. The lyrics of the seven tunes I wove into the play

could have been  written by Aeschylus himself, if he had been hip to the groovy

slang. We created dances and digital video imagery of the elements. The

production style had some of the spirit of the late sixties, and a great deal

of resonance, as a text, with our world today. Every time I heard Jon Berry's

beautiful translation spoken, another line would leap off the stage and make me

think of the America of the early 21st century. We, and The Temptations, and

Aeschylus, were protesting.

 

First and foremost, this protest play was entertaining, on the terms that my

audience has given me. I kept it short, only 85 minutes long. I created a lot

of visual spectacle, there was always something interesting to look at. I

worked with Jon so that we presented a text that was not a blunt instrument, 

but a fine, subtle tool that delivered ideas that wash over the audience and

ask that they decide what it means.

 

 

But make no mistake, these words and ideas were designed to be critical of our

society. We must inspect how we choose to use our incredible privilege and

power at this moment of history. If we dislike how our government is using the

power that they attain through our electoral process, then we have to do

something about it.

 

It is our fire, our imagination, our inventiveness, our ambition, and our

ability to dream something better that is a blessing…and a curse. Even if we

can imagine it, does that mean it is attainable? So John Lennon tells us

to "Imagine there's no country" or "Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you

canre" and can we? Do we? Should we?

 

My life as an artist has taught me a great deal about this country. Art has

taught me how to research and how to put 4 and 4 and 2004 and 1776 together -

to see the real AND the fantastic together. It has taught me to be humble and

to know that I can speak through my art but I must always remind myself that I

can never really KNOW the great truth about human existence. I can only attempt to express some of it, and hope that I muster something relevant and arresting, to be witnessed by others at a community event.

 

Governments are instituted among Men and Women, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, and whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government

 

Wow, this was written a long time ago, as a foundation for the country that all

or most of us call our own, and we have this statement at the very center of

our American Spirit. Is this spirit still alive?

 

I have followed with great interest the election aftermath and the coverage, or

lack of coverage, by the mainstream media. There were many problems with the

technology in this election and some have called into question the outcomes of

both Florida and Ohio. Once again, I have to be skeptical of all the news I

receive, so I can't say with certainty if the election was stolen, but for the

second time in four years, we have problems counting black votes, problems

having machines, old and new, working properly, we have problems with partisan

Secretaries of State in charge of counting the votes. What is going on? We, the

most informed and technologically advanced country in the world ever, can't

tabulate 120 million votes properly?

 

Some questions…Why must we know the outcome of the election by the following morning after the election day? Why must we vote on the first Tuesday in November, a work day? Why must we vote on only one day? Why must some voters register 30-60 days before the election when right here in Minnesota we can manage to register and vote the very same day? Who is directing this show?

 

My answer would be the corporately owned media and the corporately owned two party system. When we interviewed Glenda Hood, the Secretary of State of

Florida for Jeb Bush, she told us flat out that nothing could go wrong with the

electronic voting machines. Oh, and they did too print out a list of all who

voted and how they voted - but it would take longer than the current law allows

for a recount.

 

All in all, our journey through America looking for why people participate in

this process and why they don't, and my journey creating Prometheus, gave me

hope. What inspired me was the sheer drive of so many intelligent, passionate

Americans. I am confident that if these people, no matter what their political

constellation, knew for a fact that their government was corrupt and attempting

to wrest away power by the consent of the governed, they would move to "alter

or abolish" that government. We listened to what the people had to say, and it

was reasonable, not the shrill, extremism of the far left or right.

We the people are good and fair, and we are not as far apart as we are being

painted. We are not Red or Blue, any of us, but we are red, white and blue, and

perhaps a few thousand other colors as well. We are complicated. I found, over

and over again, that the current political labels were inadequate as a tool to

describe who we are politically. We are not simply one or the other, but a

mixture of many ideas and beliefs. Look closely at poll numbers. They seem to

defy logic sometimes if you look at the whole picture. Just sit and have an in

depth political discussion with the person across the street who had

the "other" yard sign out last fall. There will be common ground- it is there-

buried in your American collective unconscious.

 

I am also excited about what is happening amongst our young people. In 96 and

2000, about 3 out of 10 18-24 year olds voted. This past election that number

is somewhere in the high forties. I saw it on the campus here at UMD. The

students were far more engaged in the process and they turned out to vote. I

think that they have realized that now is the time to do something with their

fire. I was also inspired by the young actors and dancers and musicians and

designers and technicians I had the good fortune to create with. These young

people understood inherently the meaning of this play, once they had the chance

to listen to it, act it out, move through the life of it. They all really liked

the music but many hadn't begun to connect it to their world.

 

When the light bulbs went off, it was like a supernova. I made it clear to

these young people, some of them conservative, that, when it comes to policy on

Iraq, I have just as much difficulty with Mr. Clinton as I do with Mr. GW Bush.

The aesthetic of this show was not about my politics, but about my need to ask

us all some hard questions. I have far more questions than answers.

 

But I can see, in the eyes of so many young and old, and I can hear, in the

voices of  many more, that the American spirit is not dead. I really think we

are just too busy, moving through our lives at the speed of light. Perhaps we

should slow down and ponder our next move, our next use of the fire, before we

jump in feet first?

 

I once heard a great director, Michael Maggio talk about the problem we face in

the theatre of declining audiences. He was able to illustrate all of the many

challenges we face in this day and age getting folks to our theatres. After a

while I asked him what he thought would change the trend, make people come back to the theatre in droves, as a community, like the society that Aeschylus was a part of.

 

He said "When the American people slow down, and begin to divorce themselves

from the high speed, fast lane lifestyle that dominates our culture, theatre

will make a come back." People have to be willing to stop and make the time to

ponder the big questions of our existence, together, in a little room.

 

The foundation is there, laced through the documents of our democracy. The

resources are available to us, we have the wealth and intelligence to make this

a better world. And if we don't like something about the way our government is

doing its job, we can abolish it- it says so right there in the Constitution.

 

The American spirit has changed the world, through the lives of millions of

Americans over the past two centuries.  Most of that change, by and large, has

been in the name of liberty and freedom for all. As Americans, we have an

obligation to know and honor and live the foundations of our democracy. With

that challenge in mind, I ask you to tend your fire, gaze into it, warm

yourself for a while getting to know what makes it special-.and then find a way

to move the embers of your fire to another, stoking the flames of someone else.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND

words and music by Woody Guthrie

 

Chorus:

This land is your land, this land is my land

From California, to the New York Island

From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters

This land was made for you and me

 

As I was walking a ribbon of highway

I saw abo