Our intern minister, Monica Clark-Robinson, shared her recent experience in Minneapolis and provided resources for resistance:
The city of Minneapolis is under siege. I know it may sound like hyperbole to say that, but I can assure you, it’s true.
Recently, the Minnesota-based interfaith peace, justice, and antiracism organization called MARCH issued a call to the nation’s clergy: They needed help. They needed witnesses. The city of Minneapolis needed the rest of the country to hear about what they’re actually going through right now. Over 600 clergy answered the call only a few days after they put it out, and after talking it over with Molly, we decided that I should be one of them.
Clergy from so many faith traditions showed up, including a whole pack of Unitarian Universalists. There were also Jewish, Protestant, Catholic, Muslim, Native, Hindu, Buddhist, and Sikh faith leaders, among others. We gathered, and sang, and learned about nonviolent protesting. We also had a handful of opportunities, of varying levels of personal danger (not to mention varying levels of extreme cold!), to protest and observe and volunteer around the city.
While I was there, I heard from Minneapolis activists and citizens, people who are very brave but also so tired and so in need of our attention.
Of course, a couple days of activism can only do so much. The organizers of this event were clear about what they needed moving forward from the clergy who came: they wanted us to go back to our congregations and our communities and tell them what we saw, what we learned. I’m still processing the experience, but here are my initial thoughts a few days after I came back home:
First, it is so much worse there than we can understand, and now is the time for us all to stand up and demand a stop to this occupation. To quote a poem that was shared by the Minneapolis poet laureate, Junauda Petrus, we are living in a country where people are “paid three times as much to take children away from their parents than you get to teach them how to read.” We are so upside down, it’s gonna take all of us to turn things right side up.
Secondly, the citizens of Minneapolis are so much stronger and sweeter and braver than we can understand. They are not playing with this ICE occupation, and they are showing up for each other in ways that make me weep with joy at the beauty and tenderness and courage of humans. Show them love any way you have at your disposal, by sending money or prayers or activism or anything else you got.
The third thing I learned comes from a quote by Frederick Douglas that was shared by one of the event organizers in Minneapolis. Douglas wrote that “Power concedes nothing without a demand.” We cannot change this only by wishing and praying and posting on social media. We cannot change this merely by waiting for our time to vote. We have to demand it, with our actions and our words and the way we love each other and stand up for each other and fight for each other.
Political scientists and researchers say that it takes 3.5% of the population actively and visibly participating in nonviolent resistance to achieve major reform or political change. And that doesn’t mean 3.5% showing up to one big march on one day, or 3.5% reposting something on social media or sending money once. It’s about consistent, sustainable, visible resistance. I believe our Unitarian Universalist values explicitly call us to this kind of work.
Let’s work to be part of the 3.5%, dear ones. To paraphrase a line from Dr. Suess, the truth is, unless a lot of us care an awful lot, it’s not going to get better. It’s not. So in whatever way YOU uniquely can, resist. Let’s count ourselves among those brave and tender souls doggedly and visibly resisting, demanding a more loving and just world.
Here are some resistance ideas for you:
The poem Junauda Petrus shared at the clergy gathering in Minneapolis
Here’s a way to support the organizers in Minneapolis financially
A script to help you call your elected officials to demand DHS funding be removed from the current Senate appropriations bill
Additional action alerts and resources from UUSJ (UUs for Social Justice, a national organization)
A local Ice Watch group to follow on Instagram
Encourage your favorite local business to become a 4th Amendment Workplace, ready to use their constitutional rights to defend their staff and patrons from illegal search and seizure
Consider boycotting businesses with ICE contracts, and informing them that you are doing so: