Perhaps like you, whenever I hear the phrase, ‘justice & equity,’ I also hear the word, ‘compassion’ – the second UU principle, a guide for ethical living, part of our covenant as Unitarian Universalists (both individually and as congregations).
I suspect that each of us has our own journey, waking up to injustice and the call for justice, and then to the
need for equity, for correcting a massive and on-going moral imbalance. My own awakening began at age 5, when I learned that ‘people’ were uneasy that Judith and I wanted to play together after school. I remember our mothers looking at us (and each other) uneasily, not knowing how to talk with us about racism. I didn’t understand the privilege that came with white skin. I felt the weight of their fear. They got my attention. Judith and her family moved away. We lost contact. She doesn’t know that I dedicate all my efforts for understanding and confronting racism to her well-being.
It has taken me decades to mature my perspective on equity, which I feel as a moral and collective soul debt weighing upon our culture to see and feel, to grieve and seek repair for the consequences of generations of violence, dehumanizing, redlining, preferential hiring practices, and the consequences of physical, psychological and spiritual stress from being subjected to discrimination.
I know that equity is necessary – for all those who have been harmed and for the wholeness of our society. I don’t know what equity needs to look like. And I acknowledge my need to be part of that learning and implementation.
I hope you join me and Betsy and Zellda in reading the UU Common Read, On Repentance and Repair, which gives us a process for the deep work necessary for living in community.
May we all continue waking up and deepening our hearts’ commitment to justice and equity with compassion, the building blocks to the Beloved Community we envision and create together.
In Fellowship,
Rev.Mary
