Dear Ones,

I find it difficult to believe that it was 50 years ago yesterday that protesters for voting rights were attacked and beaten by agents of the government—state and local police forces—as well as common citizens, crossing a bridge in Selma, Alabama. Two Unitarians—the Rev. James Reeb and Viola Liuzzo—died in the aftermath of that vicious day.

50 years is most of my lifetime ago, and yet the problems of systemic racism and oppression persist. State governments are passing restrictions on voting, making it harder to vote in very case, in the name of a false idea of voter fraud but really to maintain power. At the same time, the very governments limiting votes are also limiting the rights of queer people, especially but not only trans people. When difference becomes in tolerable, all of us are at risk. We are a vulnerable people in these times, as rights slip away and injustice is too often normalized.

Many of us feel heartened by a DFL Minnesota government and so may find it easy to forget this great truth: that what effects one negatively affects us all. Voting rights and bodily autonomy are the foundations of democracy. All have a right to be and to be counted. May we feel threatened by the oppression developing in our country, not so that we fear but so that we act, with all the power our privilege affords us. Watch the news for the places where political violence is growing. Support those local efforts to resist. Encourage your family and friends in those places to write to their elected officials, letting their views be heard as well. And write to our elected official here in Minnesota, reminding them of our values and voices. Small voices together can be loud, and they are needed in these times, more than ever. Take action in faith that you are loved, you are worthy, you are welcome, and you are needed. May you feel it so and may it be so.

Blessings and warm wishes, Rev. Rita