We continue to play whack-a-mole in resisting the infinite cruelties of U.S Imperialism.
From Minneapolis to Caracas to Gaza, it’s all connected. “The circle of impunity is widening,” says UUJME President Dana Ashrawi. “BIPOC and other targeted communities in the United States have always experienced state violence with zero to little consequence. The violence is expanding, and echoes the experience of Palestinians in the West Bank and the lack of accountability of the State of Israel and its global north enablers.”
U.S. imperialism is doing what it has always done, pillaging the wealth of other nations, harming those most at risk, and choosing profit over people. It is trying to create as many crises as possible for the people in the United States - and beyond - its actions doing double duty as both cruel oppressions and ways to keep people busy and in despair. The impacts are the most devastating in historically marginalized communities - trans people, LGBTQ people, immigrants, the Black, Indigenous, People of Color community, women, people with disabilities, and people in lands overseas where the resources and strategic locations are more valuable than the lives ended in service of profit.
We mourn the killing of Renee Good, a trained observer of ICE activities, in Minneapolis. This murderous shooting by an ICE agent was less than a mile from where George Floyd was suffocated by the knee of a police officer in 2020. It occurred in the same state as the largest mass execution in U.S. history, in 1862 when 38 Dakota men were hanged.
We mourn the loss of life and the torpedoing of international law in Caracas, Venezuela, as the tools of Empire were deployed to extract the president of Venezuela and his spouse claiming rights to control Venezuelan oil and the affairs of the country itself.
We continue to mourn the loss of life in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, and other sites around the region, where deprivation and death continue unabated, with Israel and the United States ever more brazen in their cruelties. The demand of Empire to impose its will for control of resources continues to take a deadly toll. In our country we see the rolling tide of fascist operations. But we also see the opposing tide of the people’s popular resistance.
This is the time to reach for each other – in congregations and beyond. Side with Love, to name but one UU organization, continues regular offerings to connect, refresh, and direct us back to the work of the world. Board member Rev. DL Helfer says, “I was taught long ago, and have always found it so, that when I am at my most despairing, being in service to others – whatever that looks like - shifts my perspective. So whether you are out marching or answering a defense line or feeding the unhoused, do that work. Every bit of each and every thing we do will help weave our work more strongly. As always, we are powerful when we act together.”
We lift up all the statements issued by so many of our justice partners - including but not limited to statements by the UUA, the UUSC, Side with Love, DRUUMM, Church of the Larger Fellowship, and beyond. We lift up UURISE, which passed an Action of Immediate Witness in 2018 calling to abolish ICE. We lift up those who are present to witness today, including the UUJME sponsored delegation of seminarians and religious professionals witnessing Israel’s illegal settlements, apartheid, and brutal treatment of Palestinians right now.
The harms continue, here and beyond. So too does our faith in action. Rest when you need, find courage, beloveds, and do not let the intentional overwhelm deter you. Love is, and always will be, stronger than hate. With collective action, a better world will be born.