Choosing to Side With Love One Action at a Time!
"Oh great force, you remind us that we can choose to face things in this World with love and dignity. You remind us of the sweet spot that we can relax and breathe into as we center our faith, lean in and act courageously. We have the power to create change. We do this even when we are uncertain. We do this to honor all who have come before us, knowing we must create justice now. We face these moments with power and grace." - Let it be so!
Family, we are bombarded with the ugliness of the news detailing atrocities that our siblings domestically and abroad are facing. If you are like me, you might feel overwhelmed by the requests to act, and numbness and dissociation becomes our default. I question, "How much more must our people endure, when will we be free?"
This morning, when I woke up I started to think about the power of choice and measured acts of resistance. I remembered I have a choice in this moment, to turn and face this moment with an unrelentless resolve to fight my own numbness (giving thanks for the power of numbness to keep me safe in times when things have not been and numbness was a welcomed emotion) and move to face this urgency of what is right now.
I am writing to ask you to also face these moments and do these three things, stretch and move from a place of love and resolve.
Black and Brown Trans* women are being murdered by the hands of the State, systemic oppression and senseless profiling and targeting.
We must face the urgency of the murders of our Black and Brown trans* and gender-nonconforming siblings. You deserved life and dignity.
We #SayYourName Johana Medina, Chynal Lindsey, Muhlaysia Booker, Michelle Washington, Dana Martin, Michelle Simone, Paris Cameron, Jazzaline Ware, Claire Legato, Ashanti Carmon, Chanel Scurlock, and to the ones whose names we do not know, you deserve life. We take action by educating ourselves and lifting the words of transgender leaders.
READ: Op-ed: 50 Years Later, Pride Month Is a Disgrace to Our Ancestors by Ms. Raquel Willis
Our country is still putting migrant children in cages. Let’s Shutdown Homestead Child Detention Center and fight to end the practice of detention and deportation of immigrants. The Department of Homeland Security has engaged a for-profit corporation to run the Homestead Child Detention Center in Homestead, Florida. More than 2000 refugee children, aged 13-17, are being warehoused at this facility in prison-like conditions. Yesterday, the Trump administration announced that they are cutting legal aid, English classes and activities, including soccer for youth in detention. The cruelty and the racism of this move is a blatant part of this administration's white supremacist agenda.
We ask you to sign our petition to Shut Down the Homestead Child Detention Center. We will deliver the petition to the Health & Human Services Secretary who has the authority to close this youth prison. Side With Love is joining the Shut Down Homestead Child Detention Center National Week of Action June 9-16. We know we have the power to end this practice of immigrant detention and we will take the power of our people and our resolve to the streets!
If you’re able, please join me in Homestead, Florida (30 miles from Miami) for the June 16th Action on Father’s Day at Homestead Detention Center! We say #Not1More and Demand Homestead be Shut Down! I will be there, come join me!
We must face the urgency of political moment, where acts of kindness are being penalized in an effort to make us stop moving from our values of justice and dignity. We ask that you form your own virtual courtwatch of the trial of Scott Warren, a humanitarian volunteer of No More Deaths/No Mas Muertes who faces 20 years in prison for providing water and aid to migrants crossing the Arizona desert.
We face the urgency with power and grace taking one action at a time. That's how we build movement and ultimately - justice!
Choose Love!
Everette
Side With Love Campaign Manager