"Post Election: Our Work at Hand"
"For some things there are no wrong seasons. which is what I dream of for me."
- Mary Oliver
Tuesday night, didn’t end up as we expected. Not at all.
I thought I’d be doing victory laps on Wednesday, making my arrangements to go to the inauguration, ordering commemorative T-shirts and coffee mugs, celebrating our First Woman President.
But instead,
as I sat in the Fireside Room with many of you,
I felt the energy shifting
as we watch the returns with increasing disbelief.
We kept asking,
over and over,
how is this happening?
Wednesday morning many of us woke up feeling sick.
Feeling like we’d been in the hurricane from Mary Oliver’s poem.
This election didn’t behave like anything
we had ever imagined.
We felt stunned, surprised, shocked.
Many of us moved into feelings of grief, and despair.
wondering how we would live through this.
Would our leaves finally give up,
and fall mercifully to the ground?
My own grief around these election results is complex.
Just like yours is.
We’re holding different kinds of losses,
everything from feeling like the values we hold most dear
aren’t shared by as many Americans as we thought;
to a feeling that we may lose a sense of
American cohesion if we don’t start
to come together now.
I hope you are giving yourself time to
identify and grieve whatever losses
you are holding,
because naming them,
and understanding them,
will help you gain strength
for our long haul work.
I’m dealing with a painful disappointment
that we still do not have a woman president
in our United States.
Last Tuesday morning, election day,
in the early hours,
I walked across a parking lot alone.
And my thought was,
“Tomorrow, I will feel safer
when I find myself alone like this,
b/c having a woman president
will surely shift our culture.”
And held my shoulders
a little higher.
And while I can’t get over feeling vulnerable at times, as a woman,
I can get over the fact that my candidate didn’t win,
The day WILL come that we inaugurate our first Woman President.
Maybe it will be me!
Or you!
Or one of the girls or young women
who are finding a spiritual home here.
But what I can’t get over,
and what I don’t want you to get over,
and what is our work at hand,
is the fact that hatred, racism, misogyny, and xenophobia
won on November 9.
I don’t say this to be alarmist.
Or hysterical.
Or divisive.
Knowing that you trust me
with the power of this pulpit
is a humbling experience,
and I don’t say things lightly
or without consideration.
But Donald Trump’s campaign was built
on a bed of hateful campaign rhetoric
that we are hoping and praying
won’t continue into his Presidency.
We are organizing and mobilizing -
so his hate-filled platform
won’t become practice and policy.
But we all know people
who are deeply and authentically scared for their
safety and well-being.
You may be scared for your own safety and well-being.
If so - know that you are safe here.
We woke up on November 9
more scared that ever that our African American sons
will face more violence at the hands of police.
We are scared that our transgender child
will face harassment or worse.
We are scared about the marital status of our gay and lesbian friends,
and worry that passage of a “religious liberty law”
would increase discrimination against them.
We are scared that our friends and family
who are here without legal paperwork
will be deported.
We are scared that our Muslim neighbors may be
told they have to register with the government.
We are scared that our daughters
will encounter increased sexual harassment.
We are scared that our Jewish family and friends
will be targets of anti-Semitic hate.
These fears aren’t baseless.
We carry these fears today because
the election of Donald Trump
has emboldened the forces of hate and bigotry.
Daily, reports roll in about hateful acts.
Nazi themed graffiti in Philadelphia.
The Ku Klux Klan is planning a Trump victory rally in NC.
School children being subjected to taunts of Build That Wall.
Gay pride flags being burned in New York.
A Muslim student in Ann Arbor was threatened
with fire unless she removed her hijab.
These acts are evil.
They deny human worth and dignity.
The one positive is - now we see it,
crystal clear and closer than ever before.
Which means we can counter it.
Our tradition of Unitarian Universalism
has always been one in which we look evils in the eye
and move forward in resistance.
That is our role now, more than ever.
We will resist.
We do so with millions of other people
who are lifting their voices
to say NO to harassment and intimidation.
Like Mary Oliver wrote,
we’ll be like those trees,
caught in the hurricane storm,
pushing new leaves from
our stubbed limbs.
People all over the United States are banding together.
We’ve seen letters from American Civil Liberties Union,
the California Legislature.
Online groups like Pantsuit Nation
and Nasty Women Empowered
are acting as both support groups
and foundations for local organizing.
The buds are forming.
You and I will sit in our despair, yes;
and then we will resist together.
And we will resist in that unique way of
liberal religious people.
We will fight back with the only weapon
that has ever really worked: Love.
Our job is to love the heck out of this hurting world.
We have so many ways to do that.
I lift up a few now.
One way is multi-faith collaboration.
This afternoon,
you are invited to attend a session of strategic organizing,
sponsored by CLUE - Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice,
Southern Christian Leadership Council,
and Jackie Goldberg.
It’s at 4:30 pm,
Holman United Methodist Church.
Rabbi Jonathan and I will be there -
please join us.
Another way is financial giving.
If you are financially able to give to an organization
that is doing something far beyond what any one of us can do alone,
please set up a recurring donation.
I lift up four possibilities here, but there are so many more.
1. American Civil Liberties Union.
2. UU Rise - located in San Diego,
they provide low-cost and no-cost immigration legal help,
especially to the most marginalized:
poor, victims of human trafficking,
gay and transgender people.
Their folks are working 14 hour days,
answering a flood of terrified messages
from people who are trying to find
protection before January 20.
3. Planned Parenthood.
They will be under increased attack.
In some areas of our country,
Planned Parenthood is the only place
low-income women can go for healthcare.
4. CLUE,
Rabbi Jonathan’s organization,
that works with some of the most vulnerable low-wage workers,
many of whom are immigrant women.
One more way for you to love this world
starts today,
right now.
It’s offering support and sanctuary to those
who are bearing the brunt of the hate.
This morning, Everett shared the story
of how the symbol of a chalice
came to mean safety and freedom from hate.
Now, another symbol is emerging
that serves as a signal
that we will speak up and help
if we see an individual being
harmed physically or emotionally
because they are a woman,
or Muslim,
or perceived to be an immigrant,
or black.
It’s the symbol of a safety pin.
Coming from the example of British citizens
who stood up against hatred
in the wake of the Brexit vote,
the safety pin represents the real spirit
of our America of immigrants -
the spirit of freedom, unity and love.
An American where everyone belongs.
What will it mean exactly,
if you decide to wear a safety pin?
The message is I am with you.
I will move against all hate.
Together, let’s work for a bigger, brighter future.
The safety pin movement created a pledge.
I share most of the pledge with you now,
so you can decide if this is something you want to do.
The Pledge: By wearing this safety pin, I am making a public, visible promise to live out my values of love and justice through action.
I will seek out individuals who belong to groups that are experiencing abuse, in order to ask for advice and insight on how to be a good ally and person of safety.
I pledge to support people and to intervene and report if I witness incidences of abuse.
Everyone who sees this pin can know that I will not stay quiet or inactive if I witness verbal or physical attacks on another person.
In a moment, Everett and I will welcome you
to the front to accept a safety pin,
and to offer a blessing on you as you put it on.
We’ll also have a small slip of paper that
contains this pledge,
so you can carry it with you
and you can use it when you are asked
what your pin means,
and you can invite them into the movement.
Everett and I understand that not every person
feels safe enough in your own
identity or location
to intervene in an instance of verbal or physical attacks.
But any of us can and should regularly check in
with people we know or those in helping professions,
especially those who work with populations that are in fear,
such as teachers and social workers.
I bless these pins
with a passage from Psalms 15:
Lord, who can be trusted with power,
and who may act in your place?
Those with a passion for justice,
who speak the truth from their hearts;
who have let go of selfish interests
and grown beyond their own lives;
who see the wretched as their family
and the poor as their flesh and blood.
They alone are impartial
and worthy of the people’s trust.
Their compassion lights up the whole earth,
and their kindness endures forever.
——————————————————————————————-
The buds of our resistance are forming.
Some of you have already been at it for a long time,
welcome in new people and new energy,
so that we may blossom together.
I end the sermon today
with words from my lady,
Hillary Clinton:
The measure of a person is not whether you get knocked down,
but whether you get back up.
Let us have faith in each other.
Let us not grow weary and lose heart,
for there are more seasons to come
and there is more work to do.
Do all the good you can,
by all the means you can,
in all the ways you can.
I thought I’d be doing victory laps on Wednesday, making my arrangements to go to the inauguration, ordering commemorative T-shirts and coffee mugs, celebrating our First Woman President.
But instead,
as I sat in the Fireside Room with many of you,
I felt the energy shifting
as we watch the returns with increasing disbelief.
We kept asking,
over and over,
how is this happening?
Wednesday morning many of us woke up feeling sick.
Feeling like we’d been in the hurricane from Mary Oliver’s poem.
This election didn’t behave like anything
we had ever imagined.
We felt stunned, surprised, shocked.
Many of us moved into feelings of grief, and despair.
wondering how we would live through this.
Would our leaves finally give up,
and fall mercifully to the ground?
My own grief around these election results is complex.
Just like yours is.
We’re holding different kinds of losses,
everything from feeling like the values we hold most dear
aren’t shared by as many Americans as we thought;
to a feeling that we may lose a sense of
American cohesion if we don’t start
to come together now.
I hope you are giving yourself time to
identify and grieve whatever losses
you are holding,
because naming them,
and understanding them,
will help you gain strength
for our long haul work.
I’m dealing with a painful disappointment
that we still do not have a woman president
in our United States.
Last Tuesday morning, election day,
in the early hours,
I walked across a parking lot alone.
And my thought was,
“Tomorrow, I will feel safer
when I find myself alone like this,
b/c having a woman president
will surely shift our culture.”
And held my shoulders
a little higher.
And while I can’t get over feeling vulnerable at times, as a woman,
I can get over the fact that my candidate didn’t win,
The day WILL come that we inaugurate our first Woman President.
Maybe it will be me!
Or you!
Or one of the girls or young women
who are finding a spiritual home here.
But what I can’t get over,
and what I don’t want you to get over,
and what is our work at hand,
is the fact that hatred, racism, misogyny, and xenophobia
won on November 9.
I don’t say this to be alarmist.
Or hysterical.
Or divisive.
Knowing that you trust me
with the power of this pulpit
is a humbling experience,
and I don’t say things lightly
or without consideration.
But Donald Trump’s campaign was built
on a bed of hateful campaign rhetoric
that we are hoping and praying
won’t continue into his Presidency.
We are organizing and mobilizing -
so his hate-filled platform
won’t become practice and policy.
But we all know people
who are deeply and authentically scared for their
safety and well-being.
You may be scared for your own safety and well-being.
If so - know that you are safe here.
We woke up on November 9
more scared that ever that our African American sons
will face more violence at the hands of police.
We are scared that our transgender child
will face harassment or worse.
We are scared about the marital status of our gay and lesbian friends,
and worry that passage of a “religious liberty law”
would increase discrimination against them.
We are scared that our friends and family
who are here without legal paperwork
will be deported.
We are scared that our Muslim neighbors may be
told they have to register with the government.
We are scared that our daughters
will encounter increased sexual harassment.
We are scared that our Jewish family and friends
will be targets of anti-Semitic hate.
These fears aren’t baseless.
We carry these fears today because
the election of Donald Trump
has emboldened the forces of hate and bigotry.
Daily, reports roll in about hateful acts.
Nazi themed graffiti in Philadelphia.
The Ku Klux Klan is planning a Trump victory rally in NC.
School children being subjected to taunts of Build That Wall.
Gay pride flags being burned in New York.
A Muslim student in Ann Arbor was threatened
with fire unless she removed her hijab.
These acts are evil.
They deny human worth and dignity.
The one positive is - now we see it,
crystal clear and closer than ever before.
Which means we can counter it.
Our tradition of Unitarian Universalism
has always been one in which we look evils in the eye
and move forward in resistance.
That is our role now, more than ever.
We will resist.
We do so with millions of other people
who are lifting their voices
to say NO to harassment and intimidation.
Like Mary Oliver wrote,
we’ll be like those trees,
caught in the hurricane storm,
pushing new leaves from
our stubbed limbs.
People all over the United States are banding together.
We’ve seen letters from American Civil Liberties Union,
the California Legislature.
Online groups like Pantsuit Nation
and Nasty Women Empowered
are acting as both support groups
and foundations for local organizing.
The buds are forming.
You and I will sit in our despair, yes;
and then we will resist together.
And we will resist in that unique way of
liberal religious people.
We will fight back with the only weapon
that has ever really worked: Love.
Our job is to love the heck out of this hurting world.
We have so many ways to do that.
I lift up a few now.
One way is multi-faith collaboration.
This afternoon,
you are invited to attend a session of strategic organizing,
sponsored by CLUE - Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice,
Southern Christian Leadership Council,
and Jackie Goldberg.
It’s at 4:30 pm,
Holman United Methodist Church.
Rabbi Jonathan and I will be there -
please join us.
Another way is financial giving.
If you are financially able to give to an organization
that is doing something far beyond what any one of us can do alone,
please set up a recurring donation.
I lift up four possibilities here, but there are so many more.
1. American Civil Liberties Union.
2. UU Rise - located in San Diego,
they provide low-cost and no-cost immigration legal help,
especially to the most marginalized:
poor, victims of human trafficking,
gay and transgender people.
Their folks are working 14 hour days,
answering a flood of terrified messages
from people who are trying to find
protection before January 20.
3. Planned Parenthood.
They will be under increased attack.
In some areas of our country,
Planned Parenthood is the only place
low-income women can go for healthcare.
4. CLUE,
Rabbi Jonathan’s organization,
that works with some of the most vulnerable low-wage workers,
many of whom are immigrant women.
One more way for you to love this world
starts today,
right now.
It’s offering support and sanctuary to those
who are bearing the brunt of the hate.
This morning, Everett shared the story
of how the symbol of a chalice
came to mean safety and freedom from hate.
Now, another symbol is emerging
that serves as a signal
that we will speak up and help
if we see an individual being
harmed physically or emotionally
because they are a woman,
or Muslim,
or perceived to be an immigrant,
or black.
It’s the symbol of a safety pin.
Coming from the example of British citizens
who stood up against hatred
in the wake of the Brexit vote,
the safety pin represents the real spirit
of our America of immigrants -
the spirit of freedom, unity and love.
An American where everyone belongs.
What will it mean exactly,
if you decide to wear a safety pin?
The message is I am with you.
I will move against all hate.
Together, let’s work for a bigger, brighter future.
The safety pin movement created a pledge.
I share most of the pledge with you now,
so you can decide if this is something you want to do.
The Pledge: By wearing this safety pin, I am making a public, visible promise to live out my values of love and justice through action.
I will seek out individuals who belong to groups that are experiencing abuse, in order to ask for advice and insight on how to be a good ally and person of safety.
I pledge to support people and to intervene and report if I witness incidences of abuse.
Everyone who sees this pin can know that I will not stay quiet or inactive if I witness verbal or physical attacks on another person.
In a moment, Everett and I will welcome you
to the front to accept a safety pin,
and to offer a blessing on you as you put it on.
We’ll also have a small slip of paper that
contains this pledge,
so you can carry it with you
and you can use it when you are asked
what your pin means,
and you can invite them into the movement.
Everett and I understand that not every person
feels safe enough in your own
identity or location
to intervene in an instance of verbal or physical attacks.
But any of us can and should regularly check in
with people we know or those in helping professions,
especially those who work with populations that are in fear,
such as teachers and social workers.
I bless these pins
with a passage from Psalms 15:
Lord, who can be trusted with power,
and who may act in your place?
Those with a passion for justice,
who speak the truth from their hearts;
who have let go of selfish interests
and grown beyond their own lives;
who see the wretched as their family
and the poor as their flesh and blood.
They alone are impartial
and worthy of the people’s trust.
Their compassion lights up the whole earth,
and their kindness endures forever.
——————————————————————————————-
The buds of our resistance are forming.
Some of you have already been at it for a long time,
welcome in new people and new energy,
so that we may blossom together.
I end the sermon today
with words from my lady,
Hillary Clinton:
The measure of a person is not whether you get knocked down,
but whether you get back up.
Let us have faith in each other.
Let us not grow weary and lose heart,
for there are more seasons to come
and there is more work to do.
Do all the good you can,
by all the means you can,
in all the ways you can.