It is our duty to fight for our freedom.
It is our duty to win.
We must love and support one another.
We have nothing to lose but our chains.
Assata Shakur
Dear friends,
I’ve read and heard these words from Assata Shakur several times. Once I learned the words, thanks to the Ohio Student Association, I shouted these words on many occasions. However, it was only recently that I learned what these words meant.
Unitarian Universalism is in my blood. I am here today because my parents met at the UU church in Birmingham, Alabama many years ago when they were seeking spiritual community in young adulthood. Despite growing up within UUism, I feel like my faith is very deliberate and was truly formed by my involvement in my home church in Chapel Hill, North Carolina throughout high school. One day my minister mentioned to me a program for youth involved in social justice in Boston. This would turn out to be the inaugural Activate Justice Training of the UU College of Social Justice. So, I went to Boston and was exposed to this faith organization on a national level for the first time while I solidified my commitment to social justice. Also, I met an intern they were hosting and I made a note in the back of my head to remember that as an option when I became a college student. Three years later, after my first year studying religion and political science at UNC Asheville, it seemed like the perfect fit, so I applied and was placed with our Standing on the Side of Love campaign in the UUA’s Washington DC office.
Image from Moral Monday CT
What can UUs do in the face of #SandraBland, #CharlestonTerroristAttack, #BaltimoreUprising and #Ferguson? If aspiring allies are concerned about race relations, white supremacy and Black Lives Matter, can engage in our own "racecraft" campaign to fight back?
The 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act is being commemorated this year, as the ADA was signed into law on July 26th, 1990. This landmark legislation provides important protections for Americans with disabilities, and requires that employers provide reasonable accommodations for all people with differing abilities. See a compelling message here from the UUA President, Rev. Peter Morales that celebrates this exciting anniversary. The Standing on the Side of Love summer intern, Carter Smith, interviewed Sally Wetzler of the First UU Church of Richmond, VA to discuss this important milestone. EqUUal Access has curated new resources for the anniversary, check them out here.
I’m angry. I’m not even sure that’s a big enough word for what I’m feeling. The rage is deep, so pervasive at times it threatens to paralyze me into inaction. I struggle against the threat of being rendered immobile by this anger every day.
This week, I braced myself for the release of another video of a heinous police shooting of an unarmed black man, this time in Cincinnati, Ohio. I must fight with every fiber of my being to stay in my body, to stay connected to my feelings and ground myself, bracing for another wave of grief and pain that feeds my deeper rage.
That’s why on August 7-10, I am responding to the call of leaders in Ferguson to show up and take collective action for racial justice on the anniversary of the Ferguson uprising. I invite you to join me. Click here to view the invitation from local and regional clergy in Greater St. Louis and the MidAmerica region.
Last summer, the news was filled with stories about the thousands of unaccompanied children coming across the US border, fleeing violence and poverty in Central America. Inspired to make a difference, more than twenty ministers joined us in Tucson for our first Clergy Border Witness that fall.
The publicity has faded since last summer, but the reality remains unchanged — and desperate. Children and families are still being deported, regardless of the deepening peril they face in their home countries. Our border has become a militarized zone, and violence has increased as our government pressures Mexico to turn back migrants no matter what their ages or circumstances.
This continuing crisis cries out for a response from people of faith. Please join us this November 2-7, to bear witness to the continuing human rights abuses on the US Mexico Border. UUA President Peter Morales, UUMA Executive Director Don Southworth, and Director of the UU College of Social Justice Kathleen McTigue will lead this delegation.
As I traveled from my home in Richmond, Virginia to Portland, Oregon, I entered Kentucky with a feeling of trepidation. For the next 1300 miles, I would be driving in and out of states where my wife and I would no longer be considered married. Before I left home, Wendy made sure I had our paperwork with me – medical and legal powers of attorney, advanced directive, even my will – because that’s what we had to do to protect our rights in places where our marriage wasn’t recognized.
Within days of our arrival in Portland, on June 28th, the Supreme Court announced its decision that same-sex couples had the constitutional right to marry. Wendy and I were so overwhelmed by emotion that there was nothing we could do but hug each other and cry. But we couldn’t cry for long. We were at General Assembly, and in just ninety minutes, UUs would be gathering for the morning’s general session. There was a celebration to plan.
At the base of the Statue of Liberty, a national symbol of democracy and freedom, these words by poet Emma Lazarus appear: “Give me your tired, your poor, [y]our huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” Most U.S. residents are descendants of immigrants. The privilege of being a U.S. resident comes with a moral duty to assist people fleeing persecution and seeking safe haven at our borders. Acting on this moral responsibility, UUSC is working with the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Legal Services and Education (RAICES) to support families seeking asylum as they navigate the inhumane immigration system.
Defending the rights of refugees goes beyond acting on a gut feeling that it’s the right thing to do. Protections for asylum seekers are actually codified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the U.N. 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and Protocol, and U.S. domestic legislation in the form of the Refugee Act of 1980.
Thousands of people from across North Carolina and the country came to Winston-Salem on Monday, July 13th, to march for the full restoration of voting rights in the state that is home to what has been described as the worst voter suppression law in the country. Hundreds of those people were Unitarian Universalists from NC, eighteen other states, and Washington, DC.
Our UU planning team for the Mass Moral Voting Rights March extends our deepest thanks to all of you who showed up to support the movement in North Carolina! We feel enormous gratitude to those who took the time and took on the expense of travelling here. The UUs in Winston-Salem and across North Carolina who have been sustaining and building this movement felt so supported by your presence. In our debrief phone call yesterday, the lead organizer from the NAACP NC, Roz Pelles, called in to tell us that Rev. William Barber wanted us to know how much they appreciate the partnership with Unitarian Universalists and that they see that we have helped build the movement to be broad, inclusive and deeply moral. Roz also expressed appreciation for the UUs who have shown up at the Mass Moral Marches in Raleigh, committed civil disobedience at the state legislature, and are spreading the moral movement across the U.S.
Whether you were able to be in Winston-Salem or not, please join us for a "North Carolina Is Our Selma: Debrief of July 13 Rally and Next Steps" Voting Rights Webinar, next Wednesday, July 22nd at 8 p.m. ET.
“… as a Unitarian Universalist minister, I joyfully celebrate a victory for love. And I pray that this joy may open our hearts to the continued fight for dignity for all Missourians and all people.”
Last week, I wrote a column for my local newspaper, The Missourian, about my delight at the Supreme Court’s ruling which allows for federal recognition of same sex marriage and about how that joy has galvanized me toward all the work that still remains.
People of faith have been supporting same sex marriages for decades, including members of my denomination, Unitarian Universalism. The impact of this positive ruling will be life changing for many same sex couples. Especially in a conservative state like Missouri, having their marriage affirmed and receiving the legal and financial benefits equal marriage provides has been a deeply emotional as well as practical victory for couples in my congregation and in my community. We have been waiting and working a long time for this. Some had begun to despair that this day would ever come to our state. And so this particular victory for love is a sweet one.
