The Washington Post Prints A UU Opinion

As an unexpected gift for the outgoing year, Steve Eckstrand, Co-Convener of UUSJ's Immigration Action Team, got his reaction piece in the post. Opinion: Making migrants wait in Mexico is not a good solution, December 29, 2023 (behind paywall), and via UUSJ here.

We encourage justice-minded folks to be brave and submit opinion pieces to their local papers. Narrative advocacy work is well served by regular folks speaking up and sharing their common-sense opinions in favor of economic justice, environmental and climate justice, a healthy democracy, and—as in Steve's case—immigration justice.

Please celebrate with us and Steve. Consider spreading the word.

Challenging Lifetime Voting Bans

In December of 2023, UUSJ joined an amicus brief from a diverse coalition of faith groups—organized by the Brennan Center—in opposition to Mississippi’s lifetime voting ban as harsh punishment and contradicting values shared by all major faiths, such as forgiveness, mercy, redemption, and compassion.

UUSJ joined the brief in response to an August 2023 ruling by a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit finding that Mississippi’s lifetime voting ban violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Read more about the court’s ruling here. 

The full Fifth Circuit has agreed to rehear the case, with oral arguments expected on January 23rd, 2024.

UUSJ Board Meeting

Our Trustees will meet on Tuesday, January 2, 2024.  For more information, email info@uusj.org.

30 Days of Love 2024: Imagining an Interdependent Future
January 15 - February 14, 2024
See full details

Side With Love has announced 30 Days of Love 2024! The annual month of spiritual nourishment, political grounding, and shared practices of faith and justice, 30 Days of Love, will go from Martin Luther King Jr. Day (January 15) through Valentine’s Day (February 14). 

UUSJ is cosponsoring or offering several events in the spirit of collaboration with 30 Days of Love 2024.

Faith in Democracy Interfaith Vigil
Sponsored by Franciscan Action Network
Cosponsored by UUSJ and others

Friday, January 5
4:00 p.m. EST • 3:00 p.m. CST • 2:00 p.m. MT • 1:00 p.m. PT
In-person at the Capitol: RSVP (Mention UUSJ in the “Organizational affiliation” field)
Live Streamed on FAN's YouTube Channel

As people of faith, we are called to act as peacemakers and bridge-builders. We will begin 2024 by calling on all Americans to respect and improve our democracy as the best way to resolve political differences in our country nonviolently. The events of January 6, 2021, continue to divide Americans, which is of particular concern as we enter a year of important national elections amidst ongoing polarization.

The 3rd Annual Faith in Democracy interfaith prayer vigil with our cosponsors will bring together faith leaders from several traditions to reflect on how our sacred texts and culture can guide us as we begin this crucial year.

Wednesday, January 10
8:00 p.m. ET • 7:00 p.m. CT • 6:00 p.m. MT • 5:00 p.m. PT
Online, via Zoom: RSVP to join

Author David Pepper will challenge and guide us in playing a more active and effective role in lifting democracy than you might have imagined. UU advocates and activists have received Pepper's book well, especially those engaged in pro-democracy legislative and voter mobilization efforts. 

Saving Democracy details how we all can and must play a role in saving democracy at this fraught time; it explains how all levels of the pro-democracy side, from national political leaders to grassroots activists to everyday Americans, must switch to offense; and it shows how to stay on offense and win on offense.

Join the UUSJ Democracy Action Team to hear directly from author David Pepper.

Reimagining with Energy Democracy
Sponsored by Create Climate Justice
Cosponsored by UUSJ and others
Hosted by Rachel Myslivy, UUA

Thursday, January 25
7:00 p.m. ET • 6:00 p.m. CT • 5:00 p.m. MT • 4:00 p.m. PT
Online via Zoom: RSVP

For the last in the webinar series on Clean Energy as a Human Right, the UUA’s Organizing Strategy Team invites you to explore the power of Energy Democracy and the ways our congregations can reimagine energy for our communities. 

Energy Democracy helps frontline communities build power and liberation by reimagining how we organize our lives toward new systems that support our communities and ecosystems' health and well-being. Join guest speakers from the Energy Democracy Project, Cleveland Owns (OH), People Power Solar (CA), and POWER Interfaith (PA) for Reimagining with Energy Democracy on January 25. 

UUSJ cosponsors this event in the spirit of collaboration with 30 Days of Love 2024. 

Film Screening And Talk:
Power to Heal: Medicare and the Civil Rights Revolution
Narrated by Danny Glover
Screening and talk with producer Dr. Barbara Berney 

Wednesday, January 31
7:30 p.m. ET • 6:30 p.m. CT • 5:30 p.m. MT • 4:30 p.m. PT
2-hr event: 1 hr screening and 1hr other interactions
Online via Zoom: RSVP 

Power to Heal: Medicare and the Civil Rights Revolution presents the compelling and largely unknown story of how civil rights activists joined forces with the federal government to use Medicare funds and the Civil Rights Act to compel America’s segregated hospitals to open their doors to African Americans. This dramatic documentary is narrated by Danny Glover and directed by Charles Burnett.

We will show the 1hr film via Zoom, and producer Dr. Barbara Berney will speak to Unitarian Universalists about making the film.

UUSJ offers this event in the spirit of collaboration with 30 Days of Love 2024

Defending immigration and asylum 

Take action: reject extreme changes to our immigration and asylum system

As Congressional negotiators worked through December to develop legislation funding support for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, some members insisted on including restrictive new policies to limit asylum. These proposals, unfortunately, seem to have strong support among Republican members, and now some Democrats and the White House seem open to some of the ideas.

These ideas include:

• Making the criteria and process to request asylum (long established under U.S. and international law) more onerous, 
• Detaining and removing more arriving families in an expedited fashion, 
• Closing the border when an arbitrary daily limit of arrivals is reached,
• Extending these draconian policies from the border to migrants settled in the interior of our country and
• Removing the ability to give sanctuary (through temporary parole) to classes of people escaping war and conflict, for example, those who recently fled Afghanistan and Ukraine

While negotiations continued, even in recess, UUSJ took many steps to oppose these proposals, including issuing a new action alert and holding a “power hour” so UU volunteers could make dozens of calls to the offices of key members of Congress urging the defense of our asylum system.

We will need to continue our principled advocacy in January and beyond!

Championing a welcoming asylum system

Take action: add your voice to say #LetAsylumSeekersWork!

Thousands of asylum seekers want and need to work to support their families while their claims are processed and adjudicated, in a process that often takes years. However, the current system is stymied by a daunting administrative backlog, preventing access to work permits in the initial phase of the process and limiting the number of permits. 

In response, UUSJ joined dozens of other groups in the #LetAsylumSeekersWork campaign to support bipartisan legislation, the Asylum Seeker Work Authorization Act (ASWAA) of 2023 (H.R.1325, and S.255), which has been introduced to remedy the situation.

In December, the team continued participating in an effort urging constituents to contact their Congress members to support this legislation. The response from membership was very positive; UUSJ's amplification of this opportunity led to the third highest number of actions among the coalition members, outperforming many much larger organizations!

Supporting adjustment for Afghan allies

Whether it is called the Afghan Adjustment Act or something else, the fight for an “adjustment” will continue in 2024 until the U.S. keeps its promises to Afghans.

Congress is struggling to provide long-term protection and opportunities to tens of thousands of Afghan allies who aided the U.S. war effort in that country and fled when the Taliban regained power. Many Afghans are now living in the U.S. with no long-term status or access to benefits. Many have relatives left behind in harm’s way. In past conflicts, the U.S. provided “adjustment” for similarly escaped allies, offering pathways to citizenship. 

As part of the Evacuate Our Allies (EOA) coalition, our team participated in nationwide actions to push Congress toward an adjustment in December. Team members led meetings with congressional staff in three states as “accompaniers” for constituents of multiple faiths and backgrounds.  In a relatively rare occurrence, one Senator joined a meeting. In another instance, UUSJ had an eye-popping 25 constituents as part of a delegation. The team also helped populate delegations for additional meetings around the country.

Supporting Democracy and Voting Efforts in 2024

We are at the beginning of 2024, and as scary as it sounds, it promises to be a make-or-break year for democracy in the U.S. The threat of losing our democracy to authoritarianism is something that we haven’t faced before, and we need to gear up like we’ve never done to address this very challenging situation. 

The UUSJ Democracy Action Team (DAT) will work with many other groups, including UU the Vote, to engage and support you in whatever efforts you are willing to commit to this work. We hope you will join us and participate in our work. If you want to join our team, please get in touch with Fred Van Deusen.

We recommend congregational volunteers start planning for voter education and mobilization soon. Now is an excellent time to reconvene any core team and establish interests, roles, and resources. 

Take our survey, an invitation to participate in planning

Recently, our Democracy Action Team (DAT) sent an email message and survey to nearly all UU congregations in the U.S. to see if they would like to collaborate with our team for voter education and mobilization activities in the coming year.

In the past, our volunteers have curated excellent lists of opportunities and materials from various non-partisan, pro-democracy groups and organized events for volunteers to gather in mutual support and assistance. UU congregation-based volunteers received these materials and events well, and our DAT plans to do that again this year. These activities dovetail and do not supplant what UU the Vote will offer.

If you are a primary congregational contact for voting rights/democracy, please complete the short survey for your congregation. Emails were sent to congregation administrators, asking them to forward the message to the best contact for voting rights/democracy. It’s all right if we receive more than one response from a congregation.

Join us for David Pepper and go further

On January 10 at 8:00 p.m. ET, the democracy team is hosting a live Zoom event with David Pepper, author of a very useful book, Saving Democracy: A User’s Manual for All Americans. You can register for the event here or above.

Our team will be utilizing this book as a reference to help identify good work to do throughout the year, and we will be passing that information along regularly to the people and congregations that have asked to work with us via our survey. We will provide a presentation, some training, and a checklist for congregations to use.

You can start by talking to your friends, neighbors, relatives, and others about the current democracy situation and encouraging them to participate in this work to support democracy. You may want to make use of the following materials: 

• Commentary “Our Country Needs Our Words and Values More Than Ever” and a related sample narrative “A Country Based on American Values”
• Video: How Voter Suppression Works Today And What We Can Do About It
• Video: Fascism at Our Doorstep and What to Expect Next with Dr. Ruth Ben-Ghiat
• Video: Tyranny of the Minority with authors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt
• Video: A Fascist Campaign in Plain View? with Dale Anderson
• Video: Reflections on Federal Matters with UUA President Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray

Genesis B. v. United States Environmental Protection Agency

On Sunday, December 10, 18 children under 18 filed a new federal constitutional climate lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the U.S. District Court in the Central District of California. 

The case asserts that for decades, the EPA has intentionally allowed life-threatening climate pollution despite knowing the harm it causes to children’s health and welfare. The plaintiffs also claim that the EPA has discriminated against them as children by devaluing their lives when it decides whether and how much climate pollution to allow. 

• Read the press release and reference the complaint. 
• Visit the Genesis v. EPA webpage to learn more about the case and the plaintiffs

Further COP 28 content

• View a COP 28 photo spray by Rachel Freed, UUSC
• If COP28 Is A Farce, Activists Ask, What’s the Alternative?
• An equitable phase-out of fossil fuel extraction, Equity Review
• Global Tipping Points report released during COP28
• The world agrees to climate deal that makes an unprecedented call to move away from fossil fuels, but ‘cavernous’ loopholes remain, CNN

Highlight: during COP 28, Rev. Susannah Tuttle, a UU Minister with North Carolina Interfaith Power and Light and the North Carolina Council of Churches, launched a campaign to call attention to the U.S. Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) or Fair Share: Hundreds demand the Biden Administration do its fair share for climate action at COP 28. The push included the release of a letter imploring the Biden Administration to do its fair share for climate action at COP 28 and an explainer on Why historical responsibility could make or break COP 28.

Support The PUPP Act of 2023

Action Alert

Many Unitarian Universalists care about basic human dignity, economic justice, and homelessness. Others care about the interconnected web of life and include animal welfare and animal use in testing for science and industry in that caring calculus. Most of us can understand what it means to bond with pets.

• But did you know people experiencing homelessness are sometimes accompanied by a companion animal?
• Did you know these human-animal partnerships face a standard “no pets allowed” rule in emergency shelters and housing programs?

The bipartisan Providing for Unhoused People with Pets (PUPP) Act of 2023 (H.R. 3957) was reintroduced in June to support the adoption of pet-friendly policies in homeless services. The Bill authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to make grants to modify and upgrade structures to serve as interim and permanent housing to accommodate unhoused individuals with pets and for other purposes.  Advocates who work with homeless individuals who also own pets believe that this bill proposal is an important step forward in championing the needs of such homeless and houseless individuals.

You can view the video from a “learn more” session on the PUPP Act here.

Defending Tax Collection

UUSJ joined a letter by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) to Congressional leadership in strong opposition to House proposals that would rescind some of the IRA’s IRS funding. The loss of funding would fray service provision to working families and imperil improvements in taxpayer services, further exacerbating the $600 billion annual tax gap observed in the U.S.