We had a great time with UUSE and USH at the Hartford Pride Festival on 9/8/18. We handed out rainbow “give aways” and also offered information on voter registration.
Latest in a CT Immigration Story
A Bangladeshi woman facing deportation has been granted a last-minute stay following public outcry against her removal. Salma Sikandar’s deportation was halted less than 24 hours before she was supposed to board a one-way flight to Bangladesh, leaving behind her husband and 17-year-old son, who is a U.S. citizen. Sikandar has lived in the United States for nearly 20 years. But in June she was told by Immigration and Customs Enforcement that she had to leave the country by August. That’s when her community stepped in, staging protests in New Haven and a hunger strike outside the ICE office in Hartford, demanding Sikandar be allowed to stay in the United States. We speak with Salma Sikandar and her son Samir Mahmud, who will start his freshman year at Quinnipiac University next week. It has been Sikandar’s lifelong dream to send her son to college.
From Democracy Now posted on 8/24/18
Black Lives Matter
At the Annual Congregational Meeting on June 10th there was a unanimous vote to place a Black Lives Matter/Siding With Love (formerly known as Standing on the Side of Love) banner/sign) on the Meetinghouse/Church building. The type of banner/sign will be determined by the Anti-Racism Discussion group and the Social Justice Council. Our goal is to do the research during the summer and have the banner/sign ready for installing in September.
One of the greatest responses to the “Black Lives Matter” statement is “But don’t all lives matter?”
I give you two potential responses to consider:
One that was placed on a UU Church’s Black Lives Matter banner: “Of course all lives matter….we believe that every individual is important and every person deserves to be treated with justice and compassion. We live, however, in a society that often suggests otherwise. Because of the continuing injustice and violence disproportionately faced by people of color, we affirm that Black Lives Matter.”
And another authored by Gene Testimony Hall:
Let’s be clear: Black Lives Matter
We never said: Only Black Lives Matter
That was the media.
In truth we know that: All Lives Matter
We’ve supported your lives throughout history.
Now we need Your help: Black Lives Matter
For Black Lives are in danger