By Dana Buhl, Director of Social Justice
In the midst of many, seemingly relentless attacks on human dignity and our shared Earth home, it is a joy to receive good news of First Unitarian’s justice efforts. Over the last few weeks, I’ve received two such messages for the congregation.
The first piece of good news comes from our community partner the Portland Poor People’s Campaign to update us on their progress. In January 2020, First Unitarian shared our Sunday plate collection with Portland PPC to support their planned trip to Washington that year. Our gift was over $4,000. We had also supported them by providing space in our Buchan Reception Hall for a large organizing meeting and also opened classrooms over a two-month period where members of the PPC delegation could workshop their stories.
Portland Poor People’s Campaign organizer, Amanda Bollman, wrote to thank the congregation:
The Portland PPC is sending a delegation of folks from the Sisters of the Road community to the Mass Poor People’s and Low Wage Workers Assembly in Washington DC in a couple of weeks [June 18, 2022]. The funds you all raised to send us in 2020 before the event was postponed is providing lost wages, transportation, food, and lodging support while we are in Washington, DC. Your support is also allowing us to stay for an extra day to visit the National Museum of the Native American and the National Museum of African American History and Culture and hold intentional conversations around the connections between systemic racism and systemic poverty.
In these chaotic and stressful days, it was a tremendous blessing to have these funds saved and not have to manage a significant fundraising campaign. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
The second slice of goodness is the positive outcome of the federal lawsuit that First Unitarian Portland joined as plaintiff in July 2020 with Western States Center (along with Rep Janelle Bynum, Rep Karin Power and citizen Sara Eddie). The lawsuit held that the Department of Homeland Security under the Trump Administration violated the First Amendment rights to free speech and freedom of religion because of DHS’s extreme tactics to suppress racial justice protests. The filing brief stated:
First Unitarian is hesitant to encourage its congregants to protest even though such protesting is peaceful, because defendants’ unconstitutional targeting of peaceful protestors increases both the risk of bodily harm to congregants and the likelihood of the church’s civil liability to congregants who are injured or traumatized in the course of abduction by federal law enforcement. Through their unconstitutional overreach into general policing, defendants have thwarted First Unitarian’s pursuit of social activism as a tenet of faith.
On March 16, 2022. Clifford Davidson, the lawyer with Snell and Wilmer who represented us, wrote: “I am thrilled to inform you that Judge Mosman reversed Magistrate Judge Russo and awarded $144,043.48 in attorney fees, and $5,092.53 in costs!!” This means that Western State Center will be reimbursed all of its fees and costs to pursue the case. Then on May 19, 2022 Clifford wrote to inform the plaintiffs that the USDOJ did not appeal the award. He writes: “The court’s award of attorney fees recognized that we achieved a significant victory, and reinforces the Church’s position: stifling speech and religious witness is deplorable no matter how long it lasts, and preventing such oppression for any amount of time is a victory.”