{"id":21267,"date":"2019-11-26T23:35:48","date_gmt":"2019-11-27T04:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/?p=21267"},"modified":"2019-11-27T00:00:04","modified_gmt":"2019-11-27T05:00:04","slug":"in-thanks-and-gratitude-for-a-loud-unified-uu-voice-why-i-cherish-working-for-uusj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/in-thanks-and-gratitude-for-a-loud-unified-uu-voice-why-i-cherish-working-for-uusj\/","title":{"rendered":"In Thanks and Gratitude for a Loud Unified UU voice (Why I Cherish Working for UUSJ)"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_21268\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-21268\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-21268 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/IMG_0454-420x315.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/IMG_0454-420x315.jpg 420w, https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/IMG_0454-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/IMG_0454-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-21268\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rev. Micheal Crumpler, UUA, Rev. Linda Olsson Peebles, Rev. Dr. Pippin Whitaker, and Rev. Dr. Debra W. Haffner with Pablo DeJesus, UUSJ.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><b>This year,\u00a0<strong>this Thanksgiving,<\/strong>\u00a0I am thankful for my right to engage in values based advocacy and for the opportunity to educate and mobilize UUs toward a more just democracy. I feel blessed to work providing UU Advocacy in the Nation\u2019s Capital.\u00a0 <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Conflicted as I am about the historical underpinning of this holiday, I am deeply, sincerely, grateful that so many of you have joined UUSJ in our work as supporters, volunteers, thought leaders, rally participants and volunteer policy advocates.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example, in August 2018 UUSJ membership voted to engage on the health of our democracy as a new and priority issue area. Subsequently you helped form our new defending our democracy task group. This has permitted UUSJ to more fully participate in interfaith campaigns such as the Faithful Democracy, declaring that a just democratic system is an assertion of every human&#8217;s dignity and worth, as well as our own UUA\u2019s \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uuworld.org\/articles\/pres-winter-2019\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">UU the Vote<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>President Rev. Dr. Susan Frederick-Gray<\/strong> says \u201cFor Unitarian Universalists, this is faithful, moral action because democracy and the right of all people to have a voice and a vote are at the very heart of our Seven Principles.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Through these efforts, I am regularly reminded of lessons from earlier in my career as a campaign organizer, that:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I am thankful I live in a democracy, however imperfect it currently is.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The best version of our democracy is forward looking and inclusionary.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Each generation can do its part to help form the \u201cmore perfect union.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We the people provide consent to be governed and in that consent we are endowed with the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">claim<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to a <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">right<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the right to hold our governors to account.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We must be shoulder-to-shoulder, eye-to-eye in our struggles for justice.\u00a0 Only that way can we place a beloved community at the heart of our democracy.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This means each of us should cherish that claim to right and seek to exercise it fully, with full throated vigor. Also, that we are beholden to help our communities strive to achieve full and authentic participation. Only together can we pursue a democracy that centers love (Agape) and prioritizes justice.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Earlier this year, we made UU voices heard calling on Congress to support the Voting Rights Advancement Act (H.R. 4)! And just last month we urged the Senate to properly fund election security in advance of the 2020 elections.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your presence at rallies, your voter registration, your policy analysis, your letters voicing concern for our democracy&#8211;they all matter and make a difference.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Yet more remains to be done.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> We UUs are called to do our part to ensure all citizens have the right to vote freely and fairly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For me, the calling is what former <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">UUA President Rev. John Buehren articulated in his vision of UUs having \u201ca loud, unified voice on public policy issues.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To achieve this goal, throughout 2020, we will continue defending our democracy, working towards a just democratic, inclusionary system of government. We will help show UUs are present and accounted for on this most important venture, during this most important year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I invite you to join us and I thank you for all you have done. Please know, you are deeply appreciated by all of us at UUSJ.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We are thankful for the blessings of your time, talents and treasure. We are grateful that you have joined your spirit to ours in <em>raising a loud unified UU voice<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In gratitude,<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pablo DeJesus<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>*\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/uusj.salsalabs.org\/PrimaryDonationForm\/index.html\">Please consider making a donation to UUSJ to support our work into 2020<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0*<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>(Pablo) Pavel DeJes\u00fas<\/strong> is the Executive Director of Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice (UUSJ). He has been a Unitarian Universalist since 2009. Pablo has a background in government affairs, advocacy, voter mobilizations, and non-profit development. He\u2019s worked on issues such as Vieques, Economic Development, HIV\/AIDS, Medicaid\/care, Census errors, MD\u2019s Marriage Equality &amp; Dream Acts, Fracking, Reproductive Rights, Immigration, Arts &amp; Culture, and school partnerships.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This year,\u00a0this Thanksgiving,\u00a0I am thankful for my right to engage in values based advocacy and for the opportunity to educate and mobilize UUs toward a more just democracy. I feel blessed to work providing UU Advocacy in the Nation\u2019s Capital.\u00a0 Conflicted as I am about the historical underpinning of this holiday, I am deeply, sincerely, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/in-thanks-and-gratitude-for-a-loud-unified-uu-voice-why-i-cherish-working-for-uusj\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">In Thanks and Gratitude for a Loud Unified UU voice (Why I Cherish Working for UUSJ)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,42,1934,12,13,1938,1952,17,14,335],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advocacy","category-community-organizing","category-democracy","category-interfaith","category-politics","category-racism","category-testimonials","category-unitarian-universalism","category-volunteer","category-voting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21267"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21273,"href":"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21267\/revisions\/21273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}