Comments on: What if everyone boycotted GA?

By: h sofia

h sofia — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 03:09:34 +0000

Kim - wow, that’s pretty shocking. I’ve visited SLC three times and never experienced anything even remotely close to that. I found people there to be very polite.

By: kim

kim — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:49:53 +0000

Salt Lake city is the only city i’ve ever been in where I had a bad experience just walking down the sidewalk — some guy grabbed at my crotch. I have never been bothered like that in any other place I’ve been, so I have the impression that Salt Lake is a particularly gross, sexist, immoral city. I may go to GA in Salt Lake, but, frankly, I will be more frightened than I was in New York or London or San Francisco or Boston….etc.

By: h sofia

h sofia — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:36:12 +0000

Kim, GA 2010 is in Minneapolis. For my part, I’m looking forward to SLC; probably because it’s only a 90 minute plane ride or 11 hour car ride away - and it is a DRY heat.

By: kim

kim — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 07:28:34 +0000

Well, as ChaliceChick says, it’s not the convention center that is imposing this ID thing, it’s Homeland Security. So why take it out on GA and the convention center?
On the other hand, I’m boycotting Florida for several reasons having nothing to do with GA. I’m not crazy about Salt Lake City either. Where’s the next one? (2010)

By: GA ID Issue Round-Up « Elizabeth’s Little Blog

GA ID Issue Round-Up « Elizabeth’s Little Blog — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 22:56:18 +0000

[…] UUA Politics, iMinister (and here), RadicalHapa, The Chaliceblog (and here),Â the Yes Church, and Making Chutney. Feel free to add posts I’ve missed. You can also read about it at UU World here and here. […]

By: chutney

chutney — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 04:09:49 +0000

The United Methodists meet annually by conference (generally a state or half a state) and then nationally every four years. And it seems to work fine.

By: Dan Harper

Dan Harper — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 02:34:01 +0000

“Or what if enough people boycotted to render GA useless?”

Ummm, not to be cynical or anything, but GA is pretty useless already. There is simply no way that we need to meet every year — every second year would be plenty (and there are lots of denominations much bigger than ours that meet biannually), and I believe we could get away with every four years without any real harm. But since many of the delegates who attend GA tend to be GA junkies, it has proved to be impossible to get them to consider voting to hold GA less frequently.

By: h sofia

h sofia — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 23:23:41 +0000

I don’t think of myself as boycotting GA 2008 (though maybe that’s what it amounts to). This situation just gave me one more (big) reason not to go. Now that a group I’m working with to coordinate programming at GA has decided to postpone the event until 2009 (because of this Port/ID issue), it’s just a no-brainer for me.

Personally, I don’t feel strongly about whether others go. I understand my feelings about it aren’t necessarily well-reasoned; they have to do with what I feel comfortable with, and what I’ve learned about societies that give up their civil liberties (e.g. they are always able to rationalize it to themselves). I see it as a personal sentiment that I (fortunately) share with half a dozen others that I’ve been working with.

By: Christine Robinsonc

Christine Robinsonc — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 23:03:18 +0000

Another thing you need to know is that ID’s are checked on the little hotel vans that take you and 14 other people to the convention center. You don’t show your id, you get off the van so the people who don’t mind showing their id can get where they are going. If you hold things up, it’s no skin off anybody’s nose except the other people in your van.

By: Kim Hampton

Kim Hampton — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 21:55:40 +0000

Chutney,
My argument is that even with a boycott, GA would be neither useless nor meaningless.

If there weren’t enough delegates, any business that required a vote would wait until 2009. In terms of the UUA budget, it would stay at 2007-2008 levels.

Most of GA is taken up with workshops. None of those would be cancelled unless the presenters decided to boycott. (my guess is that they won’t be boycotting)

I don’t there will be many who won’t come to GA because they are boycotting. (I actually think the location is more a detriment than security issues) But even if there is a sizable number, I don’t think it would render GA useless or meaningless.