First Unitarian Universalist Church of New Orleans
Sunday, February 13, 2011
On Wednesday, February 2nd, from 1 pm to a little after 2 pm, I stood shivering in the cold of the parking lot outside the office of Criminal Sheriff Marlin Gusman, despite my heavy coat, scarf, hat, and gloves. I was part of a circle that included Rev. Jim Vanderweele of Community Church, a Roman Catholic nun, representatives from Catholic Charities, the Restaurant Opportunities Center, organizers from the Worker Center and the Congreso of Day Laborers, and a group of Latino day workers. Everyone was heavily bundled up – with the notable exception of the Latino workers, who were wearing only hoodies and layers of sweatshirts. There was one down jacket for the five of them, and the man wearing it periodically removed it to warm up the next man.
The wind was so strong that everyone’s eyes were watering, and strands of Congreso organizer Jacinta Gonzalez’s long hair whipped about her face as she spoke. Over the loud barking of the police dogs kenneled near-by, she told of Gusman’s practice of “disappearing” members of the Latino community into unconstitutional indefinite prison time and Immigration custody after minor or trumped-up offenses. She spoke of fathers and husbands – and even mothers and wives – who simply never came home from work or an errand. Other speakers spoke of the injustice of having the workers do so much for the recovery of post-Katrina New Orleans, only to be racial-profiled, jailed, and deported afterward.
The group was the vanguard of a 24-hour action to raise awareness of the situation, and to force Sheriff Gusman to stop the harassment and unjust imprisonment of Latino workers. But when the action was planned, it was not known that those 24-hours would be the coldest of year so far. While the group huddled out-side without shelter, it began to sleet. Despite the weather, a group of about 20 stayed the course the whole time, spending the frigid night in sleeping bags and lawn chairs in front of the office. When Sheriff Gusman arrived for work Thursday morning, he insulted them and threatened them with arrest. Nonetheless, they bravely remained.
Over the time of the protest, members and friends of this church and Community Church, as well as staff and volunteers of the Center for Ethical Living & Social Justice Renewal, came and went, bringing rain gear, warm clothing, blankets, hot food and drink, and words of support. I am proud to say that the Unitarian Universalist community of New Orleans were where I always want us to be – standing on the side of love.
Standing on the Side of Love is a national, interfaith movement sponsored by the UUA, to bring the proactive power of love to bear on a variety of social justice issues. It is a simple but profound analysis that we bring to what otherwise might be thorny social challenges: What does it mean to stand on the side of love?
•On the right of the Latino community to remain in New Orleans after all their hard work for our recovery, Love says that we must work to support their right to remain, and on the right to hold their families intact and together, without fear of deportation.
•On the right of all workers – laborers, skilled craftsmen, housekeepers, janitors, waiters, busboys, whatever their work – to be paid for every single hour they work, Love says that we must work to enact Wage Theft legislation, first as city ordinance, later at the state level in Baton Rouge, and finally at the federal level.
•On the right of committed same-sex couples to marry and be equal in their civil rights to male-female couples, Love says that we must work for full equality, for legal marriage in every state – even Louisiana!
•On the rights of transgender, intersexed, and Queer individuals to live their lives in safety, free from harassment and violence, to find and retain housing and jobs, to walk the streets without fear, Love says that we must work for a world in which these rights are routine and normal.
•On the right of People of Color and their communities not to be subject to extra scrutiny in retail stores, racial profiling by authorities, discrimination in jobs and housing, redlining by banks and insurance companies, lack of police protection in their neighborhoods, and harsher prison sentences when convicted of a crime, Love says that we must work for a world free from racism in all its insidious forms.
•On the so-called “Don’t Ask-Don’t Tell” policy on gays and lesbians in the military, Love says that we must work to end this failed policy, which keeps able military personnel in fear, and unjustly expels them from military service, thus depriving our country of their talents and gifts.
•On the appalling suicide rate of teens who identify as gay, lesbian, or trans, Love says that we must keep all our young people safe, give them hope for a better future, and support them in the face of bullying and peer pressure.
•On the plight of the thousands of homeless people in our city, Love says that we must work to provide them with decent shelter, with food to eat and personal toiletries to use, and work also to find counseling, job preparation, and transitional housing to end the scourge of homelessness for individuals and families.
Martin Luther King, Jr. once said that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Once you begin to use the lens of Love for analysis, you begin to see how justice is connected, across all categories. When you are standing on the side of love, you are compelled to be actively for all oppressed people, every group that is treated negatively for some aspect of their identity, to make yourself an ally in their cause in whatever ways you can.
For some of us, standing on the side of love might mean participating in a public protest, like the one in front of Sheriff Gusman's office, or attending and testifying at a City Council meeting, or being part of strategy meetings with groups under siege. For others, standing on the side of love might mean writing opinion pieces and letters to the editor or to elected officials, and signing petitions. For others, standing on the side of love might mean donating needed money and requested items. There are many, many ways to stand on the side of love.
It is very easy to feel overwhelmed by all the justice issues and all the needs in the world. It is easy to slide into a sense of helplessness, to feel that there are so many needs, so many problems, so many challenges, that it’s impossible to start. And for parents of small and middle-school age children, with all their responsibilities and commitments, the idea of going “out there” to stand on the side of love can be daunting.
On Martin Luther King Day of 1983, my son Stevie was 5 months old. I dressed him in layers that could be removed if the day warmed up, and brought him in his stroller to march in the Parade which was led by Mayor Dutch Morial and Jesse Jackson. The baby fussed at being surrounded by the legs of grownups, and I took him out of the stroller to carry him. Slowed me down by his weight, I ended up falling behind and walking with members of the Communications Workers Union, who noticed that I was juggling the baby while pushing the stroller. A man smiled at me and said, “Trade ya,” offering me his sign while holding out his arms. I don’t know exactly why, but I handed over my son and took the sign. Another union man started pushing the stroller, and I walked the rest of the parade with the CWA, my little son being lovingly passed from man to man. I saved that sign for years, telling Stevie it was his first civil rights march.
In 1985, when Stevie was 3, New Orleans Public Service was seeking a rate increase to support the construction of the Grand Gulf nuclear power plant. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission held hearings in New Orleans. That morning, I bundled Stevie into the stroller, packed the diaper bag with extra supplies, and boarded the Magazine bus. (The driver helped me get the stroller on board.) I rolled into the federal building, and into the hearing room, and there spotted several friends of mine of the activist community. When my name was called to testify, I left my son with those friends. I guess if they hadn’t been there, I would have had to have the stroller with me at the podium – I don’t know, I hadn’t thought that far ahead, I just trusted once again that things would work out.
In the summer of 1990, at the start of the first Gulf War, when Stevie was 8, his father and I took him with us to a protest at One Shell Square on Poydras (which at that time was still the regional headquarters of Shell Oil). The three of us marched and chanted with the others, following the leader with a bullhorn, on such slogans as, “No blood for oil” and “Bring the troops home” – at least we did until Stevie objected.
“Mom, the troops could come home dead,” he said seriously. I brought him over to the protest leader with the bullhorn, and told him my son had something to tell him. Stevie repeated his objection, and the leader asked, “What should we say?” and the boy replied, “Bring the troops home alive” and that’s exactly what we all chanted.
I tell these stories, not to say that my son, then or now, is a perfect saint – I love him, but he isn’t – or to say I’ve been some kind of model parent – believe me, I haven’t – but to stress that parents who care about justice can play a significant role in their children’s lives by helping them to be a part of movements for social change. You can do this in ways that work for your situation and circumstances, and yet that help educate your children about the ways things are and the way things ought to be.
Last Sunday, when we announced that the New Orleans Mission needed help with supplies for their increased client population due to the extremely cold weather, a family brand-new to the church volunteered to help make the delivery of donations. The young people who made that trip had their eyes opened to the lives of people much less well-off than themselves, and offered real help and support. You don’t have to be an adult to stand on the side of love – it can be done by people of any age and condition.
Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. Pressure is all around us to make this a private day of flowers and roses and candy. But the UUA has offered us an alternative: turn eros into agape, turn romantic love into self-sacrificing love, turn the strictly personal into wider compassion for all those in need. Together, let us make Valentine’s Day – whatever else it might be – into Standing on the Side of Love Day. Find a justice issue that calls your heart and contribute in whatever you can. Do it tomorrow – and then do it again, and again. Let us live our faith in the world. Let us always stand on the side of love. AMEN – ASHE – SHALOM – SALAAM – NAMASTE – BLESSED BE!
