November 17, 2024
Rev. Janet Onnie
The story of Nehemiah is my go-to story whenever I think about the challenges of building the world our Unitarian Universalists values dictate. Values we share with those ancient Jews. Last week those values came under attack. As did many other congregations, we at HUU participated in a grief vigil. Last Sunday the Unitarian Universalist congregations nationwide reported overflowing sanctuaries with people expressing their fear, anger, shock, confusion, and despair: all appropriate responses to the outcome of the national presidential election.
The pundits have been working overtime analyzing what went wrong, many looking for someone or something to blame. Although this is probably a useful exercise it’s more useful to strategize on ways to restore – repair – the damage. To move to Plan B. I have been doing a lot of reading this past week and found that some of the authors have offered ways in which to move forward.
The most helpful advice I found is in a newsletter entitled “Waging Nonviolence”. Author Daniel Hunter offers 10 Ways to Be Prepared and Grounded for the days ahead of us. I have framed my remarks on this article. Noting that the autocrat’s goals is to perpetuate our fear, isolation, exhaustion, or constant disorientation Hunter counsels that we must closely and continually monitor our inner states.
First, we need to trust. Trust our own eyes and our own inner voice. Have you actually witnessed an influx of pet-eating immigrants? If not, be wary of reports stating this as true. We also need to be trustworthy — not just with information, but with emotions. Acknowledge what you know and admit the parts that are uncertain fears nagging at you. Then find others who you trust. We have a ready-made community at HUU. Further, we have the smaller covenant groups and affinity groups like the Red Tent Book group. Use that trust to explore your own thinking and support each other to stay sharp and grounded.
The next thing to do is grieve. We started that grieving process last week. No matter what we try to do, there’s going to be a lot of loss. Name and allow feelings that come to the surface. Name all the bad things we knew we’d lost and things we think we’d be likely to lose. Grief is a worthwhile use of our time because it leads to acceptance of loss. Ultimately, this helps us cope with the reality of what has happened to our country.
Once we have accepted the reality of our situation we need to release that which we cannot change. Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr what we know as the Serenity Prayer as he was watching the rise of Nazis in Germany: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.”
We don’t need to respond to chaos by thinking we need to change everything now. Hunter suggests a journaling exercise that invites you to reflect on which issues you’ll spend energy on. It asks: what are issues you’ll focus on, issues you’d do a lot for, a little for, or — despite caring about it — do nothing at all for? Internalize the fact that we cannot stop everything. Love, grant us to know the difference between what we can and cannot change. At least in the short term.
Let’s focus on how to change what we CAN change. We know the initial weeks of the Trump presidency will look chaotic no matter what. While we may need to post outrage on social media, commiserate with friends, share awful news, make public statements, and/or attend marches – like the upcoming women’s march in DC — these actions have been shown to have limited long-term impact. There are other, more effective ways to engage.
Hunter identifies four differentiated resistance pathways that begin to emerge in any response to facism.
One pathway is called “Protecting People.” These are folks surviving and protecting our own — especially those directly targeted, such as trans people, folks choosing abortions and immigrants. This might mean organizing outside current systems for health care and mutual aid, or moving resources to communities that are getting targeted. I understand that HUU individuals support Climate Action Alliance of the Valley, Solar and sewing projects for Gemeinschaft House, Friendship homeless lunches, Democratic Party, LGBTQ and Pride organizations and events, Valley Interfaith Action and Council. Collectively we contribute financial resources to DANA and hold fundraisers from Ukraine and Helene victims. Are there groups in the local community under threat? How can we identify them?
Another pathway is “Defending Civic Institutions.”. Insider groups – think federal civil servants — will play a central role in the battle against fascism. These insiders will need external support. Can we celebrate people getting fired for the right reasons? Can we then offer them practical help with life’s next steps? I know I joke that I only use my full title — Reverend Onnie — when handcuffs are involved. I’m now wondering if this is prophetic.
A third pathway is “Disrupt and Disobey.” This goes beyond protesting for better policies and into the territory of people intervening to stop bad policies or showing resistance. In effective disrupt-and-disobey- type actions the ultimate goal is paving a path for mass noncooperation: tax resistance, national strikes, work shut-downs and other nonviolent mass disobedience tactics. Training is available on how to do that. (Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan. Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, August 2011). (Strategic Escalation in a Trump Era, Google docs)
Lastly, there’s a key fourth role: “Building Alternatives.” We have to have a vision. This is the slow growth work of building alternative ways that are more democratic. Fortunately, Unitarian Universalists have that vision expressed in our values. We center love as we work to build a world that is more just, equitable, transformational, pluralistic, interdependent and generous.
Your path may not be clear right now. It may not even be represented here. That’s okay. There will be plenty of opportunities to decide how to respond as events unfold.
Moving on from these pathways, Hunter recommends that we do not obey in advance; that we do not self-censor. The refusal of the Washington Post to endorse a candidate is a classic example of self-censorship. Maybe they thought their non-action would keep them safe. But if autocrats teach us any lesson it’s this: Political space that you don’t use, you lose.
That’s why it’s necessary to reorient our political map. When your party is out of power, it’s easy to unify — but their coalition’s cracks will quickly emerge. We have to stay sharp for opportunities to cleave off support. That means we need to turn away from our Unitarian Universalist tendency to preach to the choir or engage in ideological purity tests. There is a lot of pain in high-ranking people of great power admitting a kind of defeat. Compassion for powerlessness is in order.
Speaking of which, let’s talk about power. It will be helpful to have a power analysis in our minds, specifically the tool that’s known as the upside-down triangle. This tool was built to explain how power moves even under dictatorships. The central tenet is that like an upside-down triangle, power can be unstable. It naturally topples over without anything supporting it. To prevent that, power relies on pillars of support to keep it upright.
Removing one pillar of support can often gain major, life-saving concessions. Remember the response to the 2019 government shutdown? Flight attendants threatened a national strike that would ground planes across the country and disrupt a key transportation network. Within hours of announcing they were “mobilizing immediately” for a strike, the president capitulated.
In these times power will need to emerge from folks no longer obeying the current unjust system. This tipping point of mass noncooperation will be messy. It means convincing a lot of people to take huge personal risks for a better option. I’m remembering the civil rights movement and the number of people who risked – and lost — their lives to change their circumstances.
This naturally leads to the question of how to handle fear of reprisal; of political violence. Handling fear isn’t about suppressing it — but it is about constantly redirecting it. I understand there are at least 4 militias in Rockingham county. The key component to political violence is to intimidate and tell a story that they are the true victims. Making political violence rebound requires refusing to be intimidated and resisting those threats so they can backfire. Although I don’t see much risk of widespread militia activity HUU might want to look into training on this backfire technique. (see the HOPE-PV guide.)
Hunter’s tenth suggestion is to envision a positive future. Go for a walk. Consider the lifespans of trees and rocks, heading into spiritual reminders that nothing lasts forever. Already there are signs of hope: many states and municipalities voted in favor of expanding health care, reproductive rights, voters’ rights, and economic ballot measures that will increase minimum wage and paid sick leave for workers. In an Arkansas school district, banned books were returned to the library shelves. Virginia is still a state with reasonable abortion access. I subscribe to the Americans of Conscience weekly newsletter, which describes positive actions taken by state and local communities across the country.
Now MY suggestion to you; a plea, really. Let’s all take a deep breath. No one has DONE anything yet. Yes, there’s been a lot of handwringing about what could go wrong. There’s been … and probably will continue to be … scary nominations for high office. But Nehemiah didn’t actually post armed guards on the wall until it was clear that the workers were in danger. Neither should we. Let’s not get ourselves whipped up into action before we know the specific threat. While we are developing strategies to limit the damage of the incoming administration we need to offer a path back into right relations to those who saw a different solution WITHOUT SHAMING THEM. Without shaming them. There is a tremendous amount of ignorance around the consequences of the majorities’ choices. Compassion for those suffering the consequences of their choices – including those of us who will also be impacted – is imperative.
As Nehemiah repaired the city walls he also repaired the gates. Remember the gates. There’s a tension between the reality that walls function to keep people in and, at the same time, they keep people out. We relieve that tension by the use of … gates. Gates are the mechanism by which people can come into the safety of their community and go out to be engaged in the world. Let us resolve to keep the HUU gates of compassion and love well-oiled as we the people turn our minds to work for a more perfect union. May it be so. Amen.