San Diego UUs Stand with Immigrants to Rally for Comprehensive Immigration Reform
By Martin Kruming
(San Diego, February 28, 2010) On a clear, sunny afternoon, over two-hundred Unitarian Universalists (UUs) and friends gathered in downtown San Diego at the Edward J. Schwartz Federal Building, home to the U.S. District Court and Immigration Customs and Enforcement, for a rally to support Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) legislation H.R. 4321—the CIR ASAP Act authored by Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL).
“We’re standing with Catholics, Jews, Evangelicals—people of all faiths,” said Rev. Peter Morales, who was on his first West Coast swing since being elected as the first Latino President of the Unitarian Universalist Association last June. “We are united. The real question is not a legal question but a moral question of who has a right to be here. We’re called as people of faith to change the law when the law is not just.”
President Morales was one of several speakers, who spoke in English and Spanish, including Enrique Morones, founder of Border Angels and Bishop Brenda Evans Cooper of Christ Chapel World Ministries. San Diego Cluster Ministers Rev. Dr. Arvid Straube of First UU Church of San Diego, Rev. Kathleen Green of Summit UU Fellowship in Santee, Rev. David Miller of UU Fellowship of San Dieguito in Solana Beach, and Rev. Dr. Beth Johnson of Palomar UU Fellowship in Vista led prayers and a litany. Daniel Stracka, founder of Unitarian Refugee and Immigrant Services and Education (UURISE) and chair of the San Diego County UU Network (SUUN), welcomed the overflow crowd, many of whom wore bright yellow Standing on the Side of Love T-shirts and carried signs reading, “Immigration Reform for the Broken System” and “Unitarian Universalists Standing on the Side of Love.”
“We are all family,” Bishop Cooper, an African American, said. “We are all part of the human family. We stand on the side of love.”
San Diego is only fifteen miles from the Mexican border. When immigrant families arrive here they see a fence much like the former Wall that separated East from West Berlin. Morones, whose Border Angels provide water for immigrants crossing the California desert into San Diego County, said, “Today, tomorrow we stand on the side of love. Love is the only way to overcome hate, to overcome darkness. Now is the time for love. Now is the time to have humane immigration reform. We need to speak out,” he said. “We need to have these rallies. The loudest voice out there is silence. Laws that are immoral need to be changed. The change begins with the person you look at in the mirror every day.”
Unitarian Universalists and others came from throughout San Diego County, a drive of up to forty miles for many. They were young, middle aged and old; they were Latino, African-American, Pan Asian and white. They sported ties, caps, hats, short sleeve shirts and shorts; they walked, were in wheel chairs and used canes, and some brought their dogs.
Elementary school, high school and college students, and young adults were holding signs and a large banner along Front Street that evoked honks and words of support from passing drivers. Nearby teenage skateboarders agreed to videotape the crowd while Chris Hassett of First UU Church of San Diego, belted out Woody Guthrie’s classic song, “This Land Is Your Land” (in English and in Spanish) and rally-goers sang along.
“This gathering today is not the end of anything, it’s just the beginning,” said Rev. Dr. Beth Johnson of Palomar UU Fellowship, where earlier that day, Adam Gerhardstein, Campaign Manager for the Standing On the Side of Love (SSL) Campaign preached, and where on Saturday the 1st Annual San Diego County UU Social Justice Conference was held. “It has just begun and we will not stop. We will not stop. We stand squarely on the side of love.”
Next steps for SUUN, the San Diego County UU Cluster of six congregations with more than 1,500 members, include participating in the March 21st Standing with Immigrant Families Cards for Congress Campaign and a few folks are traveling to the big immigration reform rally in Washington, DC, on that day as well to join up with the SSL contingent.
As Rev. Morales and the other ministers took off their colorful robes, as petition organizers packed up their materials, as rally-goers drifted off while the sun headed down and temperatures dropped, the marvelous wailing sounds and voices of Greg Brown and Dave Ploeser of North Crust Blue-geois Band from UU Fellowship of San Dieguito, wrapped the afternoon up just as they had opened the peaceful gathering.
Martin Kruming (martin @ kruming.com) is a member of First UU Church of San Diego, administrator of SUUN and an attorney.
This work is made possible by the generosity of individual donors and congregations. Please consider making a donation today.
Last updated on Tuesday, October 11, 2011.
Updated and Popular
Popular New Searches
For Newcomers
Learn more about the Beliefs & Principles of Unitarian Universalism, or read our online magazine, UU World, for features on today's Unitarian Universalists. Visit an online UU church, or find a congregation near you.
