I am writing this on November 5th, election day. Today I am at the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix, serving as a Poll Watcher. I am helping voters as they are figuring out if they are in the right place to vote (hooray for Voting Centers in Maricopa County, where you can vote at any voting station!), reporting any issues, and de-escalating any situations if they arise. It is an honor to be involved in our democratic process.
I have no idea what the world will look like on Thursday, the day you are reading this. Will we have a President-elect? Will there be violence? Will the rights of women and immigrants be changed? Are we heading towards fascism or democracy?
What I will tell you is that this election season has probably been my most involved as your Minister. I am so proud of what this congregation has accomplished and how we have lived into our values:
- Our people have written THOUSANDS of postcards.
- We hosted UU The Vote door-knockers from across the country in our homes, trained them in our sanctuary, and worshiped with them on Sunday. We solidified our connections with national UU Social Justice leaders in the process.
- We collected signatures to get a woman’s right to an abortion on the ballot and then campaigned for it.
- We fought for dignity and safety for our black and brown neighbors with Prop 314, and I made some amazing connections with organizers from Corazon and Aliento. We celebrated the community at a Party At The Polls event with amazing food and Offrendas in Guadalupe, AZ last week.
- Our Civic Engagement Team brought us voting guides to help us vote our values.
- We reinforced connections with organizers from PAWS (People Against White Supremacy) as they recruited and trained poll defenders.
- We showed up at rallies and cheered for candidates.
No matter what happens today (or two days ago, depending on your perspective), I am so proud of what we’ve done as a community and how we’ve lived our values. I’m excited to continue these partnerships in the future.