A Different Reality is Possible

Earlier this week, we sent an invitation and call to Phoenix from B. Loewe at Mijente. This fall, we’re doubling down because Black and Latinx organizers across the country are leading local and national actions to stop the violence facing our (and their) communities. For many of us, it has been a confusing season. We have watched the rhetoric and actions of hate intensify and scale up around the country. Everywhere we turn we have to hear evil spoken of our beloveds: our beloved Black family, Brown family, women-identified family, LGBTQ family. It can be hard to know what strategies and projects to participate in at this key moment because there are no easy answers. But campaigns can move us from words to action, from numbness to clarity. They can remind us who we are, what we are working for, and who is by our side. 

Please join me tomorrow for a conversation about what we can do. Details about this Friday afternoon call are below.

As Unitarian Universalists, we say we come when called by the marginalized, by the oppressed, by the justice speakers. So, can you come? It is short notice. It is not convenient. Heck, some of us (I know) cannot even afford it. Yet, if you can please do come. Here in Phoenix there are so many Unitarian Universalists who have left a positive footprint on this long fight against human rights abuses in Maricopa County. Our work alongside this community has mattered before. It matters now.

I’ll tell you what is on my heart today. I live in Phoenix. All week I have woken up thinking that here in Phoenix this could be the last autumn that youth of Color from these neighborhoods spend in chain gangs. It could be the last season that I have to go to local organizing meetings and hear people weep for their families who are in the Sheriff Department's self-named ‘concentration camps’. This is not about rhetoric. This is about the possibility of a different reality in this county, and the true collaboration we are seeing here on the ground already. Union rank and file next to Chicana students. Working class mothers of five getting up at four in the morning so they can hit the streets all day for the campaign. 

UU Justice Arizona Network (UUJAZ) and local congregations are sending folks. UUA President Rev. Peter Morales will be joining us. Our Standing on the Side of Love team will be in Phoenix all week. Lena K. Gardner will be joining us representing Black Lives of Unitarian Universalists. And whether you can be in Phoenix in person or not, we have compiled information on joining us and ways to stay involved here.

Tomorrow, Friday, October 14 at 4pm ET/1pm PT, we will host a ZOOM call to give updates from the ground and answer any questions you have. No registration is needed and we hope you can join us!

VIDEO: https://zoom.us/j/424201103
PHONE: Dial: +1 646 558 8656 (US Toll) or +1 408 638 0968 (US Toll) Meeting ID: 424 201 103 or iPhone one-tap (US Toll):  +16465588656,424201103# or +14086380968,424201103#

Interested & excited? Find more info and I hope you'll consider signing up here!

With love from Phoenix,

Caitlin Breedlove
Campaign Director, Standing on the Side of Love