Check out Social Justice Action Notes! We receive action alerts and opportunities from several different organizations/programs every week. There are too many to pass on without fear of overwhelming you. So, we have asked a few activist friends to become a steering committee (Mary Cummings, Maureen Dolan, Kiki Giatis, Kate Lenox, and Joanne Pohl) to organize and prioritize all the information and requests. We put out a weekly email summary of a few priority actions for which we will provide detailed information on our website (currently a work in progress). We decided to call the email Two for Tuesday.  

UU Mass Action Action Alerts

Join UU the Vote for our pop up virtual rally in support of the National Call In Day for the  Read the Brennan Center’s description of this HR1 which we must get passed. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/policy-solutions/congress-must-pass-people-act  Many thanks to all our Jewels of Justice who wrote post cards and called voters with UU The Vote.

WE WON

We beat voter suppression, especially in Georgia where Stacey Abrams led the way.  With the help of volunteers from UU The Vote and hundreds of other organizations, people whose votes had been suppressed for years were able to get out and vote.

Next Steps

Our First Parish Jewels of Justice joined over 5000 UUs across the nation working with UU The Vote.  Our “little” group of about 100 made over 400 phone calls and sent 8500 postcards.  Can you imagine how many calls and cards went out from 5000 UUs?  We targeted suppressed and under-represented voters mostly of color.  We helped them to register or re-register to vote, vote by mail and vote early and safely at the polls. We Won! AND we enjoyed meeting some of those 5000 other UUs.  No election results have ever been as satisfying as these. Our work and play with UU The Vote is far from done. We want to deepen our connections with all those others at UU the Vote.  We want to thank and congratulate them for all their work and get to know them personally.  Stronger connections among us will help to prepare us for the hard work ahead of getting good legislation passed and good candidates elected in the future – especially for the midterm elections. Our campaign to deepen connections with each other is starting off with four phone banks on Sundays and Thursdays for the next two weeks: this Sunday, Jan. 17th, Thursday the 21st, Sunday the 24th and Thursday the 28th.  There will be brief trainings before the calls for those who have not used the ThruTalk system before.  These calls should be easy and fun as we will be talking with UUs around the country and celebrating our great success. Please sign up to join one of these UU Connection phone banks and bring a friend or two.  Sign up here.

Additional Action Opportunities 

Thirty Days of Love 2021 — Side With Love
Call UUs across the country
FIRST PARISH MEMBERS’ SOCIAL JUSTICE ACTIONS

First Parish’s Social Justice Committee is the central resource and conduit for social justice work that expresses the values, concerns, and interests of the congregation. The Social Justice Committee helps to support our congregation’s belief in living our faith in a variety of ways including:

  • Administers Giving First program
  • Coordinates Living Our Faith and Shinn (special speakers) Programs
  • Holds annual Social Justice Dinner
  • Logistically and financially supports action groups and individual Social Justice projects
  • Promotes opportunities for social justice/social action work in the community
  • Raises operating funds annually through Pie Palace
  • Hosts special social justice related events such as Windborne Concert, Haitian Art Sale, educational events
  • Administers a grant program to support a variety of social justice actions.

Committee Members: Mary Cummings and Maureen Dolan (Co-Chairs), Linda Brown, Shevawn Hardesty, Alan Linov, Ellen Leigh, Allan Schramm, Mary Lou Solliday and Anne Wright   For further information please email socialjustice@firstparish.info or visit our table in the Vestry after services once we get back there. If you would like to participate in or just learn more about First Parish Social Justice Actions, contact the Social Justice Committee at socialjustice@firstparish.info or see us at our table during coffee hours.

Social Justice Working Groups

“Let’s be realists, let’s dream the impossible”

(Che Guevara) Shared by Rev. Cathy Rion Starr