Ferguson is Everywhere

Ferguson is Everywhere

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On August 7th through 10th, UUs from throughout the United States joined local UUs, multi-faith, organizing and advocacy groups to commemorate the life of Mike Brown and to organize and take action for Black liberation. The weekend included spaces for mourning, healing and ritual, relationship building and organizing and direct action. Following a powerful weekend of remembrance, activists were again met with heavy policing and military tactics by police. Let this be an opportunity for us to re-commit to taking action today.

Whether or not you were in Ferguson earlier this month, join us to hear learnings and next steps on Monday, August 24th at 8pm ET/5pm PT. RSVP to join here.

Living into Accountability

Living into Accountability

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In the early months of The Movement, I came to believe that being accountable to marginalized communities essentially required supporting and showing up to those communities’ acts of struggle and protest.

It was only recently that this belief was shattered by Leslie Mac, a Unitarian Universalist, Woman of Color, and prominent #BlackLivesMatter activist. She published a powerful series of tweets critiquing this view of accountability, explaining that “it’s time to dig deeper into the meaning of accountability [to Black leaders]. Accountability means that your ACTIONS are in alignment with Black leaders. Accountability means that you align YOUR group or personal goals and actions with those of black led organizations and leadership.”

It is our duty to fight for our freedom

It is our duty to fight for our freedom

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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.

A Summer Standing on the Side of Love: My Story

A Summer Standing on the Side of Love: My Story

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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.

Calling all UUs on the Road to Ferguson

Calling all UUs on the Road to Ferguson

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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?

Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the ADA

Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the ADA

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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.

 

Let your anger guide you to beloved action: Join me in Ferguson

Let your anger guide you to beloved action: Join me in Ferguson

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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. 

Clergy: Our work is still urgently needed at the Border!

Clergy: Our work is still urgently needed at the Border!

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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. 

Making Dreams Come True

Making Dreams Come True

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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.

Defending the Rights of Asylum Seekers

Defending the Rights of Asylum Seekers

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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.

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