The Bradford UU Church survived the fires of Monday night, some of which burned adjacent to their building. More important, their sense of mission and the priorities in their ministry emerged with such clarity.
On Tuesday, I wrote to that church and their minister to express our support.
To the Clergy and Congregation of the Bradford UU Church of Kenosha,
The ministers and senior staff of the First Unitarian Church of Portland, OR are in solidarity with you. We applaud and aspire to the clarity of mission and courage of spirit that your response to the shooting of Jacob Blake makes clear. We say “Yes!” to your statement, “we would rather lose 100 buildings than one more life to police violence.”
We send you, the Blake family, and the entire Kenosha community our prayers that peace might follow real justice.
Black lives matter!
Rev. Bill Sinkford
This is a time, I believe, for clarity and purpose, a time for decision. I believe that there is an opening for real change. I believe that enough Americans may have realized that the way we have been willing to live together cannot and will not be the way we are willing to live together going forward. Letetra Widman, Jacob Blake’s sister, got to her own clarity about this: “I haven’t cried one time. I’m not sad. I’m angry and I’m tired. This has been happening to my family for a long time. … I don’t want your pity. I want Change!”
When professional athletes refuse to play AND receive support in that decision from the billionaire owners of the teams, it should be clear that a new level of consensus has been reached.
It is tempting for me to call up images of the “End Times,” the final battle of good vs evil. But I believe that great turning points most often grow out of readiness in many individual hearts and minds that makes possible the finding of the collective will for change.
Those who would keep us trapped in the past have powerful voices. It has not been since 1968 and the George Wallace and Richard Nixon campaigns that the defense of racism has been so explicit. Those voices will use the resistance and the protest on the streets, seizing upon statements for liberation to generate fear. “Defund the police,” the call for major rethinking of the goals and strategies for public safety, is being used that way. Just as the phrase “Black Lives Matter” has been used that way for years.
Whatever we say will be seized upon to generate fear. Artificial fear is what has sustained this last iteration of oppressive policies for 50 years.
The minister of the Kenosha Church responded to our message:
Rev. Sinkford,
Thank you so much for your kind words of support – I’m sure you are very much involved in the response in Portland and really appreciate your ongoing service to our collective faith.
Many blessings and hope you and the whole UU family in Portland are safe and well in these incredibly difficult times,
In Faith and Gratitude,
Erik
Our witness for justice and civil rights does indeed continue here in Portland, as many of you know. You can read a current report from Dana Buhl about the police response to protests and the increasing presence of white nationalist extremists here: “Who Do the Police Serve and Protect?”
This opening for real change comes amidst a pandemic, an economic meltdown and, today, a hurricane made more intense by global warming. Oh, yes, also the national election drama which will have such an impact on all of the above.
There is much to hold. That truth makes it even more important for us to hold one another.
Blessings,
Bill