Tom Paine Courageous Spirit Awards - Historic Fellowship Hall Berkeley 1-30-14
Channel: SOCIAL JUSTICE IN THE HEART OF BERKELEY
Date: 09/02/2014

Tom Paine: American Revolutionary Writer (1737 - 1809)

The TOM PAINE COURAGEOUS SPIRIT AWARDS - TOM PAINE BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION is annual event where we pause to give recognition to several social justice activists who, we feel, show the living spirit, the dedication, and the principles expressed within our precious common heritage represented by the American Revolutionary writings of Thomas Paine. Paine was the author of "Common Sense", "The Crisis Papers", The Rights of Man", and "The Age of Reason". Tom Paine's "Common Sense" gave reason to the sentiments of the American public in those "soul trying" times. His writings sparked the successful struggle against monarchy and colonial subjugation, while advocating for an Independent representative republic with a well-articulated "Bill of Rights".

In honor, and in celebration of, courageous Thomas Paine's 277th Birthday, January 29, 1737, the BFUU Social Justice Committee presents the 2014 "Tom Paine Courageous Spirit Award" To: Peter Dale Scott, Chelsea Manning, Scott Olson, Cynthia McKinney, Diana Bohn, Bonnie Faulkner, and Vic Sadot.

Sponsored by the Social Justice Committee of the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists at Cedar & Bonita in North Berkeley

1 Welcome to BFUU by Virginia Hollins-Davidson, President
2 Invocation: "Tom Paine and the Spirit of True Democracy" written by Ben Burch; read by  Virginia Hollins-Davidson
3 Blessing & Opening Remarks on Tom Paine by Rev. Joy Atkinson
4 Awards presented by Cynthia Johnson, BFUU SJC Vice-Chair, and Cynthia Papermaster, a past recipient of the "Tom Paine Courageous Spirit Award". (Skype w/Cynthia McKinney)
5 The Ballad of Tom Paine - Song by Vic Sadot
6 The Diggers - Traditional song sung by Maxina Ventura, a past recipient of
    the "Tom Paine Courageous Spirit Award".
7 Audience participation in reading of Tom Paine Quotations

Historic Fellowship Hall is located at 1924 Cedar Street, Berkeley, CA 94709. And the BFUU Social Justice pages are at www.bfuu.org/events/social-justice 

It is historically noteworthy that Tom Paine, with Ben Franklin, formed the first American Anti-Slavery Society in Pennsylvania before the revolution. He was strongly against the death penalty in all cases. In fact, after the American Revolution, when he went back to England and wrote "The Rights of Man", it was poet William Blake who warned him that he was charged with sedition and would be hung. Blake got Paine on a boat to Calais, France where he received a hero's welcome. He was immediately given citizenship and elected to the revolutionary French National Assembly. Later during "the reign of terror" of Robespierre, Paine was imprisoned and scheduled for the guillotine because he spoke against the death penalty for the king, taking the position that you did not need to kill the king to end the monarchy. James Monroe finally got him out of Luxembourg Prison and got his health restored from the terrible conditions of cold and damp. But while in prison, he wrote "The Age of Reason". Thomas Jefferson arranged for Paine to have a US government pension and to come back to the USA to live out the rest of his days.