We are all reeling, trying to make sense of the incomprehensible, feeling panicked, angry, afraid, confused. We see you, and we are with you.
I have turned to Clarissa Pinkola Estés several times this week, and this excerpt from “Letter to a Young Activist in Troubled Times”, keeps coming back to me:
“..One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times. The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up flares, builds signal fires … causes proper matters to catch fire. To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these — to be fierce and to show mercy toward others, both — are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity. Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it. If you would help to calm the tumult, this is one of the strongest things you can do. “
Let’s all BREATHE.
We must pace ourselves, calm the tumult, and shine like gold for each other.
Some concrete things we can do:
- As much as possible, reduce exposure to news sites and socials except those that offer us real sustenance. Find reliable sources for critical and actionable updates/developments, check them at most once a day, and leave the rest alone.
Rely on news sources that don’t report on every asinine comment being made, but instead use sources that give you real information and hope. Here is a curated list of independent news sources: https://www.projectcensored.org/independent-news-links/
This is going to take discipline, but the goal is to be adequately informed about actionable developments without being psychologically and spiritually destroyed. - Please let’s use caution in posting or reposting ICE/immigration raid sightings that we do not have firsthand or highly reliable information about. Many social media posts warning about ICE are made without verification or are AI generated as an attempt to sow fear. Get information verified or get some level of detail before posting–otherwise we just cause needless panic.
- Outrageous, heinous, alarming, terrible things are going to be said every single day. Use caution in reposting and reacting to terrible things that are being said. We are seeing what they want us to see. We are hearing what they want us to hear. We are fearing what they want us to fear. Let’s not make their job easier. Outrage fatigue helps no one, and it drains our ability to be constructive and strategic.
- Protect our sources of love and joy and act from those. Acknowledge our despairing and cynical impulses, and when we dip down into that abyss, have people around us who can tend our heart and hold us till we can come back up. UUWF is here for you.
- Build safety networks with our people. Pay attention to leaders in the immigrant and trans communities (for starters), and think about how we want to position ourselves as helpers and subversives for the long term.
- Pick one thing that will make real people more safe, learn about who is already doing the best work around that thing (and probably have been for years), and go from there. There is already leadership out there, and UUWF will continue to identify and curate organizations you can tap into.
BREATHE.
We are souls on deck, shining towards you.
We are going to save each other. We can, and we will.
In community,
Ann, Antoinette, Candace, and Dana
*P.S. A note about UUWF and public statements: The line between public solidarity and contributing to the cacophony is thin. UUWF will be attempting to be judicious about when and how we release commentary about specific events or developments, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t paying attention. If you want to know where we stand, and you haven’t seen us say something you think needs to be said, please email ann@
Support our work: If you want to support our work towards collective liberation, please visit https:/
Gender Justice and Shared Leadership