UU CANDLE LIGHTING TEXT
BY BOB STONE & CLIFF DURAND 9/17/06

We light this candle of concern in order to reach out to the many people we have talked with in recent weeks, Jews and non-Jews, who were deeply hurt by some of the words Mike Rivage-Seul spoke at this podium and wrote in Atencion as a Global Justice Center column.  While we know peace through justice, rather than division and demonizing, was Mike’s intent, and it was certainly ours at the Center in running the piece, the result was more the latter than it was the former.  We regret the needless provocations in Mike’s piece that make reasoned debate difficult, and what we regret most in it, and we’ve brought Mike to see this, is its failure to recognize the courageous Jews, including several of our San Miguel friends, who have opposed Israeli foreign policy.  For our own failure to catch the hurtfulness of Mike’s words beforehand and call him on them, we are deeply sorry.