“Show me what Democracy looks like. This is what Democracy looks like.”
This chant is often heard in nationwide protest rallies. I love it! It affirms that we Americans have freedom of speech, freedom to assemble and the right to urge our government to make changes. It also affirms our Unitarian Universalist principles of the use of the democratic process and the worth and dignity for all. I’m proud to be on the board of Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice, which actively works to promote and preserve these values.
Earlier this year, I joined members of UUSJ, the UU Service Committee and other organizations in protesting the administration’s inhumane and unjust immigration policy that separates immigrant children from their parents and detains them in squalid conditions. We delivered petitions with more than 100,000 signatures to the U.S. Health and Human Services secretary, calling for closing the largest for-profit children’s detention center in Homestead, Fla. and reuniting children with their parents.
Our kick-off speaker was high school student Alex Kohn, UUSJ’s 2019 Emerging Leader award- winner and member of the UU Congregation of Columbia. Alex brought attention to the plight of immigrant children by displaying children’s pajamas as part of his Where are the Children? campaign on the National Mall.
On the way to the HHS office, we chanted, “What does democracy look like? This is what democracy looks like!” We also chanted “Refugees under attack. Stand up. Fight Back.”
In October, UUSJ Executive Director Pablo DeJesus and I joined activists protesting the administration’s decision to cap the number of refugees annually admitted to the United States at 18,000, helping to ensure UUs are “flanking the impacted.” This is the lowest number in the history of the 1980 Refugee Act, which set average U.S. refugee admissions at 95,000.
Marching to the Capitol, I carried a photo of a refugee and joined in chanting: “Say it loud. Say it clear. Refugees are welcome here.” It was important to be there as an UUSJ activist bearing witness.
On the steps of the Capitol, police arrested 18 leaders of faith and humanitarian organizations such as the Church World Service and Amnesty International who refused to stay silent on the plight of refugees seeking safety in the U.S. Police handcuffed the leaders, put them in police vans and drove off.
I also remember the Sunday morning at my church after the 2017 Women’s March. Those of us who had attended the rally in Washington, D.C., were invited to continue our march at the beginning of the service. We held up our signs and walked around in the Meeting House at Paint Branch Unitarian Universalist Church. Those seated chanted “Show me what Democracy looks like” and we replied, “This is what Democracy looks like.”
As I put on my yellow Side With Love shirt and join protests and marches, I’m grateful to be part of UUSJ’s social justice work. To me, “This is what Democracy looks like.”
In gratitude,
Pat Behenna
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Pat Behenna has been a member of the Paint Branch Unitarian Universalist Church (PBUUC in Adelphi, MD) since 2013 She is a member of the UUSJ Capitol Hill Advocacy Corps and organizes Write Here! Write Now! events monthly. She is also the PBUUC representative to the UUSJ Board of Directors. She is a retired elementary school teacher and counselor.