When I joined Side with Love over four years ago, I could not have predicted the assaults, experiments and possibilities that were before us. I’m writing to let you know that my time with the campaign is coming to a close. It has been a pleasure to be able to connect with you - online and in person - helping us guide and grow Side with Love into who we will become. I am planning to spend some time in Georgia this Fall with Mijente’s Gente4Abrams team building power and getting out Latinx voters in support of Stacey Abrams for Governor (who is amazing & you should look into!) along with diving deeper into my interest in doula work, informed by doula training through with Ancient Song Doula Services (check them out!).
On my way out, I’m hoping to leave you with a few of my favorite things - a short bullet point list of reflections, a mixtape of some of my current favorite tunes and some questions i’m leaving with. The reflections are heavily informed by Black and POC organizers within and outside of the faith. Thank you for supporting our work and keep on building.
Read MoreAs minister from the UU congregation closest to Standing Rock, I have important news. In a sea of injustice, it is very good news.
Since the Water Protector camps went up in 2016, the movement at Standing Rock has been hailed as world-changing, showing us what prayerful resistance to contemporary forms of colonialism, like the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), can look like – and how crucial it is to maintain our commitment to the water and to one another, even as DAPL ultimately got pushed through Indigenous treaty lands. And even today, Indigenous-led resistance continues from Standing Rock to organizing to Stop the Bayou Bridge Pipeline and beyond
Before the Water Protector camps at Standing Rock were forcibly evacuated last year, UUs showed up – you showed up – with your bodies, resources, and prayers. As UUs, whether we came to camp or participated from home, we knew what solidarity looked like.
Overwhelmingly, we were welcomed as relatives – and experienced as relatives.
I brought a lot of people in my heart with me when I and more than 70 people of faith went to #FloodtheDesert to put water out where people who are migrating need it and in solidarity with No More Deaths humanitarian aid workers facing criminal charges. I brought my father’s family who crossed the Mekong and then the Pacific Ocean as part of their migration journey. I brought the names of so many fighting deportation, keeping hope alive in detention, of Black, Muslim, indigenous, and undocumented organizers who are facing down charges and trials and prison time because the state is targeting them for their justice work.
Organizers are calling for all current charges against humanitarian-aid workers to be dropped and for land managers in the west desert to ensure that civil humanitarian response is allowed on public land without fear of harassment or prosecution. Please sign on to the call to #dropthecharges and assert that people arriving at our border deserve to be met with #waternotwalls.
Read MoreDuring World War II, Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat, wrote illegal visas for Jewish families fleeing Lithuania. He did not follow the rules about who should get a visa and who should not. He followed his moral compass. He wrote them for anyone who asked. He issued 10-day visas for transit through Japan in clear violation of his orders. He decided he had the power - even though he could have assumed he had none. I have the seal to stamp the visas; I have my signature. He wrote visa after visa.
I learned about Sugihara the same day I learned some children who have been separated from their parents at the border are being drugged to keep them listless and sleeping. The guardians who have been reunited with their children find their children are not the same—they are changed from the trauma they’ve experienced.
Just like Sugihara, we must all ask what our conscience requires of us in this time when the most inhumane abuse is being carried out against the most vulnerable by the government.
When asked what the most important commandment is, Jesus answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and ...Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”
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