Sun, 16 Aug 2026 17:57:43 -0400WeeblySun, 09 Aug 2026 13:01:27 GMThttps://www.wyomingvalleyuu.org/social-action-minute-archive/why-you-should-plant-a-native-tree-or-shrub-august-2026by Eoin Carroll

Birds need our help.  Habitat loss is the number one threat facing birds and we can do something about it in our outdoor spaces, gardens, and landscapes.

Reproduction success is closely tied to food availability.  For 95 to 98 percent of songbirds the main food that they feed their young are caterpillars.  If there are not enough caterpillars then the babies will starve.

Insect populations are declining across many regions, especially the species that ecosystems depend on most. One major reason is the loss of the plants they need to survive.

The vast majority of North American caterpillar species can only feed on a small number of specific plants. They cannot develop on most other types of vegetation.  This is because most plants have created various defenses to keep from being eaten.  Only certain caterpillars have evolved the various enzymes that are necessary to break down these defenses.  If those plants are missing, caterpillars cannot survive, and the food web begins to break down. Caterpillars are especially important because they transfer energy from plants to other animals, making them a critical link between plants and wildlife.

Thus you can have what appears to be a very beautiful yard that is full of healthy plants but if they are not native plants then what you have is a caterpillar desert and is no help for our hungry bird babies.

The same logic holds for the rest of the insect kingdom.  One example, which most people know, is the dependence that monarch butterflies have with milkweed plants.  This is the only plant that the monarch butterfly will lay her eggs on as it is the only plant that will make both the monarch butterfly and its caterpillar taste really bad and thus avoid being eaten.

One place that you can get native trees and shrubs is from the Master Watershed Stewards annual fundraising sale which is in progress now.  There is a link to the site in our weekly announcements.  The catalog on the website has lots of information on the 24 varieties of trees and shrubs to help you understand if it would do well in your yard.  Proceeds support Master Watershed Steward projects and educational programs in the selected region, including stream restoration efforts, tree plantings, youth education initiatives, and other community-based conservation activities.  

You place your order online and then need to pick up your purchase from the site you designate.  The closest sites to our church are at the Wyoming County Conservation District in Tunkhannock or at Sweeneys Beach in Scranton.  If you come to the Wyoming Country site then your plants will be personally loaded into your car by either me or my wife.]]>Sun, 02 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMThttps://www.wyomingvalleyuu.org/social-action-minute-archive/executive-order-forms-religious-liberty-commissionby Lilly Gioia

In May 2025 President Trump issued an Executive Order forming his RELIGIOUS LIBERTY COMMISSION made up of 12 members, many of them his allies: 11 CHRISTIANS & 1 ORTHODOX JEW. The Commission was to hold hearings and issue a report on the history and state of religious liberty in America. Its draft report just issued in June focused on witnesses and members who basically spoke about RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE and INTIMIDATION primarily faced by CHRISTIANS!

In case you were not aware of the persecution and discrimination against American Christians, you can read the 224 page Religion Liberty Commission report online containing dozens of policy and legal recommendations. It calls for establishing a Religious Liberty Violation Hotline, expanding school choice funding, appointing judges with a proven commitment to religious liberty and forming a Justice Department Religious Liberty Task Force. I watched the testimony on C-SPAN as a supporter of the Interfaith Alliance.

The Interfaith Alliance filed a lawsuit forcing the administration to publish Religious Liberty Commission records that had been kept secret from the American people. The suit was a multi-faith coalition effort represented by Democracy Forward, and Americans United for Separation of Church & State, arguing the Commission violated federal law as an unbalanced, biased panel operating in near secrecy. Facing the lawsuit, the Commission allowed public comment on its draft report. 1,700 people flooded an email portal with objections.

The Religious Liberty Commission is what Christian Nationalism looks like when it has the power of government and weaponizes language of religious freedom, critics said. Not only have the Interfaith Alliance, the Secular Coalition for America, Muslim, Sikh and Hindu organizations strongly objected to this Commission’s narrow focus, but also Catholic Bishops voiced criticism. Critics have attacked the Commission for ignoring issues like Islamophobia.

Basic takeaways from the report are the Commission’s argument that there is a misunderstanding of SEPARATION of CHURCH & STATE. They claim the “wall of separation between church and state” has been misapplied and  weaponized to restrict religion’s place in public life. They assert that the term separation of church and state never appears in the Constitution. That religious liberty is the “bridge” between church and state. They recommend that the Department of Justice issue guidance clarifying that.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation was among organizations raising an alarm because the Fourteenth Amendment’s Establishment Clause bars passing any laws that favor one religion over another. Freedom From Religion Foundation said, “The Establishment Clause exists precisely because the government must remain neutral on matters of religion.”

The Commission also recommends REPEALING the Johnson Amendment that forbids nonprofits, including houses of worship, from endorsing political candidates. Repealing the Johnson Amendment has the potential for turning churches into tax exempt Political Actions Committees able to endorse candidates. This Religious Liberty Commission report fails to discuss the rights or experiences of the religiously unaffiliated, who make up roughly one-third of all Americans today.

The Secular Coalition for America said: The report is “not a blueprint for protecting religious freedom. It is a roadmap for expanding religious privilege.” The Interfaith Alliance (to which our congregation has donated) said: The report and the Commission behind it fail to represent and uplift the importance and tolerance for all faiths in our country—not just a special, chosen few.”

On July 28 a federal judge dismissed the Interfaith Alliance lawsuit. In a statement the Alliance said that with multi-faith partners they intend to keep standing up to Christian Nationalism wherever it threatens our democracy. A coalition built to promote a true and inclusive religious freedom will outlast any single ruling.

On a positive note last week we saw a meeting of the Third Annual Congressional Freethought Caucus Reception. Sponsored by the Secular Coalition for America, the American Humanist Society and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, there are now 37 members of Congress in the Freethought Caucus on Capitol Hill. Their keynote speaker was Mary Trump as they gathered to celebrate Constitutional Democracy, Reason, and the rights of non-religious Americans. They reflect increasing support for religious equality and secular government.

]]>Sun, 19 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMThttps://www.wyomingvalleyuu.org/social-action-minute-archive/cyclosporiasis-you-know-the-parasite-affecting-people-all-across-the-countryby Brian Dugas

For those of you who don’t know, one of the previous duties of the CDC was to monitor foodborne illnesses through the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network. Of course this network, and 60 other programs were eliminated by the present administration. The number of pathogens being surveilled dropped from 8 to 2, with Cyclosporiasis being one them cut. This is in addition to a 50% budget cut in 2026, ¼ of the workforce being cut, and the rescinding or blocking of 600 million dollars worth of grants.

Erica Schwartz was recently nominated to be the new CDC Director and has bipartisan support. She is a real physician and lawyer with years of experience in public health in the military and has served as the Deputy Surgeon General in the past. She is a black woman, and get this, she believes in vaccines.

She is quoted as saying ”If confirmed, my first priority will be restoring trust in public health institutions through radical transparency and unwavering scientific Integrity,” Schwartz said,  “As CDC director, my sacred responsibility is to provide the American people with public health guidance that is clear, honest and evidence based. I will never betray the science.”

I don’t know about you, but I almost fell off my chair. There is some question as to whether she will be able to stand up to the pressure from her political bosses whose names I won’t mention, but it seems to be a positive step and demonstrates that pressure does work on our politicians. Now is the time to use that pressure on your elected officials. Stay informed, get active, and most important of all, get out and vote.

There are a few important elections happening in our area for the November elections. They could use our help, and Ward 12 is looking for some pollworkers.
]]>Sun, 12 Jul 2026 13:33:40 GMThttps://www.wyomingvalleyuu.org/social-action-minute-archive/learn-to-embrace-the-messiness-of-natureby Eoin Carroll

Our love of tidiness and our desire to shape nature to be more attractive to us is killing the natural world.  When I started gardening as a teenager it was constantly stressed that the good gardener should always remove dead material from the garden as soon as possible.  By removing dead trees and plants we are eliminating the spaces needed by insects, birds, and bats for nesting and overwintering.  We are short circuiting the carbon cycle by removing the plant material which if left would be food for many more organisms.

We find large lawns to be the most attractive option for our landscape and therefore have created ecological deserts where there is no food or shelter for the rest of nature.  To keep our lawns green we apply lots of water, fertilizers, and pesticides.  Unfortunately most of these end up in our waterways due to over application, poor timing (applying before a rainstorm), not testing the soil and thus fertilizing when it is not needed, and the inability of most lawns to infiltrate more than a small amount of water at a time.  Also by fertilizing we create the perfect conditions for most lawn weeds which prefer a richer soil and thus require us to spread even more pesticides.

We spend an enormous amount of time mowing our lawns and in the process create lots of air pollution (lawn mowers produce much more pollution than cars).  The constant walking or riding over the ground compacts it and makes it even less able to infiltrate water thus causing stormwater issues.

We modify the color, size, and shape of flower blossoms to be more pleasing to us but most of the time these changes make the plants unrecognizable to our native insects.  We abhor any insects eating our plants and unleash hellish brews of toxic chemicals to kill them which in turn kills the butterflies and fireflies that we want but wonder why they are disappearing.

We plant nonnative trees and shrubs because we think they are prettier and novel and that is what is available at most nurseries and big box stores.  

The solution is that we must reduce our lawns and plant more natives.  We need to learn to embrace the messiness of nature and stop trying to tidy it up if we want our native animal world to survive.]]>Sun, 05 Jul 2026 11:19:37 GMThttps://www.wyomingvalleyuu.org/social-action-minute-archive/do-we-have-president-or-a-kingby Joseph Czarnecki

1. Hamilton was in favor of a strong presidency and Jefferson in favor of strong states, because he did not want to be ruled by a king similar to what was happening in Europe
   
2. Jefferson argued against anything similar to having a king here in the United States. Whereas Hamilton felt we needed strong leadership and a national bank.
3. The solution was to have three branches of government: a president, Congress and Supreme Court.  Checks and balances would prevent a president from acting like a king.
4. Unfortunately, we have a president now who wants to act as if he is a king:

• He started the war with Iran without approval by Congress.
• He knocked down the east wing without approval by Congress or anyone else.
• He had his name placed above John Kennedy‘s at the center for the performing arts.
• He used his influence as the president to accumulate billions of dollars.
• When he is interviewed in the White House, you’ll often see gold in the background on the walls. That is similar to what the Kings did in the past.

It appears that phone calls or letters to your Republican congressman will not change their behavior, because they are afraid of being primaried by Trump’s support for their opponent.  The solution seems to be to support and vote for Democratic congressmen. 

]]>Sun, 28 Jun 2026 20:18:26 GMThttps://www.wyomingvalleyuu.org/social-action-minute-archive/renters-deserve-the-same-consideration-as-ownersby Jenny Blanchard

We’ve all seen those iconic images – the house with the blue shutters, the red chimney, and the white picket fence, complete with a driveway and a two-car garage. There is often an apple tree in the front yard with a tire swing. American schoolbooks and culture are replete with these images, despite the fact that children living in Puerto Rico are totally baffled by these images since none of their house resemble those depicted and apple trees do not grow in Puerto Rico. 

What is lionized in our society is not so much the dwelling itself, but owning the home, as home ownership has long been considered an integral part of that increasingly unattainable American dream. This worship of property has led to the cruel dismiss al of a large swath of our population known as renters. Those who rent are often unfairly stigmatized as less mature and financially irresponsible. Cities and towns view often view renters as a transient population that is less invested in the health of their local communities.

If a municipality has a high percentage of renters, they are often looked down upon as eroding the tax base by not paying property taxes. This is a common fallacy: While they do not pay property taxes directly to the government, they contribute indirectly through their monthly rent, as landlords factor these tax obligations into their rental prices. Credit applications often ask if you are a renter, and use these responses as a way to measure financial stability. Worst of all, renters are far more vulnerable to evictions. As of 2026, roughly to 90% of landlords are represented by attorneys in eviction cases, while only about to 10% of tenants have legal representation.

All too frequently, the worship of the ownership society means that you’re on your own. Renters clearly need more protections against arbitrary evictions, excessive rent hikes, predatory leasing and unfair fees. But more than anything, they need to be afforded respect and freedom from societal shame and judgment.

In his book Eviction , Matthew Desmond speaks eloquently of home as “the center of life. It is a refuge from the grind of work, the pressure of school, and the menace of the streets. The home is the wellspring of personhood. When we try to understand ourselves, we often begin by considering the kind of home in which we were raised.”

These words are true regardless of whether we rent or own a home. Home is not the property we own, but the place we live, and it should always be a refuge.

]]>Sun, 14 Jun 2026 11:43:10 GMThttps://www.wyomingvalleyuu.org/social-action-minute-archive/mosquito-bucket-challengeSummer is here and the world is flush with lush green growth.  Nature is fully alive and bursting with growth.  Unfortunately, this is also the prime season for mosquitoes.  Besides being a nuisance they can also be carriers of serious health problems like the West Nile Virus.  At this time of year you will see lots of advertisements by companies that sell various types of mosquito fogs.  Unfortunately there is no scientific evidence that fogging reduces the mosquito populations.  However these broad spectrum pesticides do kill a lot of our pollinating insects including some like dragonflies that help to reduce mosquito populations.

The main reason that fogging doesn’t work lies in the life cycle of the mosquito.  Once the female gets a blood meal from us or other animals she lays her eggs in stagnant water.  There they hatch into larva which then molt several times and finally pupate.  From the pupa the mosquito then emerges, waits for its wings to dry, and then starts flying around to mate and find a new blood meal.  This entire cycle can take anywhere from four days in the warmest part of summer to as long as a month in cooler weather.

Any method that relies on just killing adult mosquitoes is thus bound to fail as there are many more mosquitoes in the pipeline so to speak.  Unfortunately there is no silver bullet that can eliminate mosquitoes.  The best way to reduce the number of mosquitoes relies on a number of steps meant to reduce the number of larvae.

Homegrown National Park has introduced the mosquito bucket challenge which is a nature friendly way of reducing the mosquito population.  It involves building mosquito buckets which provide an enticing habitat for the female to lay her eggs.  It then uses mosquito dunks which contain a biological larvicide called Bti which prevents the larvae from developing into adults.

There are six steps in this responsible way of mosquito management.

Step 1 - Support a healthy habitat by planting native plants and avoid sprays to help encourage our native dragonflies, birds, and bats that eat mosquitoes.

Step 2 - Make a mosquito bucket to target larvae in a controlled spot before they become biting adults.

Step 3 - Dump standing water.  Female mosquitoes will only lay their eggs in still water.  It can be a very small amount of water so search your property for containers, gutters, or saucers that might be a tempting breeding ground.

Step 4 - Treat standing water that you cannot dump.  Use mosquito dunks in bird baths, rain barrels (if they have openings - close barrels will not be a problem), and ponds.

Step 5 - Protect yourself by using screens, fans, repellents, and protective clothing to help reduce bites.

Step 6 - Spread  the news and get your neighbors involved.  Mosquitoes don’t respect property lines and even if you remove or remediate all the breeding sites on your property, they will be happy to use your neighbor’s yard instead.

Building the bucket is pretty simple and you can find the complete instructions and much more information on the Homegrown National Park website.

]]>Sun, 07 Jun 2026 04:00:00 GMThttps://www.wyomingvalleyuu.org/social-action-minute-archive/removal-of-religious-affiliations-from-the-defense-departments-military-listby Lilly Gioia

On Friday the Defense Department announced it has removed 180 separate religious affiliations from the U.S. military’s list of religious affiliation codes. The code for Unitarian Universalists was eliminated as well as Humanists, Atheists and pagan traditions, and many others. A statement by the Unitarian Universalist Association said, along with dozens of other religious traditions, UU’s will now be categorized broadly under “OTHER” in military religious affiliation codes.

This decision does not impact the status of our UU military chaplains, but may make it more difficult for our uniformed UUs to access the spiritual care that they need. At this time the UUA is diligently working with our UUA counsel and partners in a variety of faith traditions to craft a strategic response that faithfully represents our values and demonstrates clear support for our UU service members and their families, as well as all those who are impacted by the DOD policy.

As Unitarian Universalists, “Today we declare that no government action can erase our faith nor lessen the powerful and necessary grounding it provides for those who serve.“

These new reforms mark the first time the code list has been revised since March 2017, decreasing the total number of faiths from 211 to 31, according to Military.com. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth intends to enhance the delivery of targeted religious support from the Chaplaincy. This is the same Pete Hegseth who recently prayed at a Pentagon Christian service for VIOLENCE “against those who deserve no mercy.”

The revised list does include Agnostics, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Judaism, Sikhs and “Other.” The rest are Christian-based groups (22 in all), everyone from Baptists, Catholic, Assembly of God, Evangelical, Orthodox, Pentecostal, Non-Denominational, Mormons and even Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Who’s not there anymore? Deists, Druids, Heathens, Humanists, Magik, Pagans, Shaman, various Wicans and Unitarian Universalists.

This represents a stark change from 2017 when the Armed Forces Chaplains Board endorsed an expansion “to standardize and better identify religious preferences recognized by the military services.”

In December 2025 Secretary Hegseth announced his intention to “make the Chaplain Corps great again.” He stressed prioritizing religious liberty and practice in the military by executing a “top-down shift, putting spiritual well-being on the same footing as physical and mental health.”

A former U.S. Army chaplain told Military.com that the revised list is
“horrible.” Mickey Weinstein, cofounder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, told Military.com that the new DOD list is a “middle finger to the United States Constitution’s separation of church and state. Reducing the number of religious faiths from hundreds to 31 is another absolute, clear, filthy, and disgusting unconstitutional, immoral and unethical attempt to force only the approved solution, getting closer and closer to Christian nationalism,” Weinstein
said.

Herman Mehta, author of the Friendly Atheist Substack, questioned the exclusion of so many faith groups, including Atheists. “There are reasons to include folks, not just for accuracy, but because it makes it easier for people of minority beliefs to get the help they need.” “The new list “looks like a list made by Christian nationalists who have no awareness of the world that exists outside their bubble, but who know that there are some different kinds of Christians,” Mehta said.

Scott MacConoway, Government Affairs director for the Secular Coalition of America, stated that the military is slightly more religious than the population in general. About 25% will probably choose No Religion. That is about 525,000 service members. About half of them would say they are spiritual, but not religious. The rest would identify as atheists or humanists or something else.

The Religion News Service commented that Unitarian Universalists and Deists who are now excluded from the latest list, are among signers of the Declaration of Independence, although Unitarians and Universalists were separate groups at the time.

]]>Sun, 31 May 2026 04:00:00 GMThttps://www.wyomingvalleyuu.org/social-action-minute-archive/the-government-wide-non-disclosure-agreement-for-all-federal-employeesby Jenny Blanchard

This week the Office of Personnel Management in Washington issued a draft proposal that would implement a government-wide non-disclosure agreement for all federal employees. Under this proposal, all new and current civil servants would be required to protect any "non-public, confidential, or proprietary information". The stated purpose of this requirement was to cut down on unauthorized leaks of information to the press and media, especially those that might threaten national security. Violators could face potential firing, civil penalties, and even criminal charges.

There are many inherent dangers to this proposal. It could undermine whistleblower protections. Employees could be easily intimidated, making them hesitant to report fraud or corruption. The use of the terms “confidential” and “non-public” are purposely broad and expansive, creating confusion among federal employees and empowering government officials to silence their critics.

We feel compelled to ask: Who owns information? Most certainly some information is private and confidential – your medical history, as an example. Job interviewers cannot ask questions that reveal protected characteristics such as race, religion, age, or disability status. At the national level, disclosing the identity of an intelligence agent immediately endangers lives. There are instances where we are compelled to safeguard information.

When the Freedom of Information Act was passed in 1966, this law gave any person the right to request access to the records of any government agency. Consumer groups have used this act to retrieve undisclosed reports on infant deaths linked to dangerous products. Investigative journalists obtained records revealing that the Department of Homeland Security was monitoring social media accounts to track dissent.

Going public with information has changed the course of events in our country. Daniel Ellsberg leaked the classified documents the Pentagon Papers, revealing that successive U.S. presidential administrations had systematically and secretly misled the American public and Congress about the scope and the likelihood of success in the Vietnam War. An employee of the U.S. Public Health Service named Peter Buxtun leaked information to the press to expose the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, an unethical, decades-long experiment on Black men.

The distinction between private and public information is far too complex to be reduced to this sweeping and authoritarian NDA. Most egregious of all, the NDA requirement inhibits the public’s right, our right, to know. This right to know is at the foundation of our democratic principles. It allows us to hold public officials accountable, it forces government agencies to operate transparently, and gives each one of us the power to make an informed decision. What we don’t know can most certainly hurt us
]]>Sun, 24 May 2026 04:00:00 GMThttps://www.wyomingvalleyuu.org/social-action-minute-archive/patriots-cove-veterans-retreatby Lindsey Riddell

Founded by a military veteran, Jeff Swire, Patriots Cove offers more than a retreat—it’s a 40-acre sanctuary nestled in the mountains of Noxen, Pennsylvania, complete with an accessible trout stream, fruit orchard, lodge, pavilion, ADA Hunting blinds, food plots, Caregiver center, and accessible trails. Designed to invite physical rest and spiritual renewal, the property is fully wheelchair accessible and thoughtfully outfitted with fishing docks, rest areas, and communal gathering spaces.

The Cove retreats serve those who were ill or injured in the line of duty—and those patriots whose situation is terminal, as well as the dedicated caregivers who support them—offering free meals, lodging, fishing, and hunting gear. But beyond the comforts of a getaway, Patriots Cove cultivates community, healing, and a renewed sense of purpose.

They foster camaraderie through environmental stewardship, inviting veterans, first responders, and caregivers to serve as mentors, fishing guides, and volunteers, uniting participants and volunteers alike in revitalizing the Beaver Run waterway and strengthening bonds through service.

At their core, they are devoted to serving those who have served, helping them heal, and empowering them to embrace life’s next chapter with renewed purpose and belonging.

For more information, you can check out their website at www.PatriotsCove.org. 

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