It’s a blessing to connect with you across the distance, especially in these times made frightening by those in power. I’m certain I’m not the only one in need of community and care, and I hope that you and yours are finding those needs met at your congregations.

The fear I feel has been growing during the past two months, as I have been closely following the504 lawsuit—originally filed to harm trans youth— along with the plethora of other attacks against disabled folks from the new administration. While the suit, which includes 17 states, puts k-12 transgender students and those with disabilities in jeopardy, the suit also attacks 504 as a whole, making an attempt to repeal the first civil rights law for disabled people.

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 makes it so disabled folks can attend and participate in city council meetings across the country, being able to get into the room, and receive any accommodations they might need to engage. It makes it possible for people with disabilities of all ages to access needed medical care, from the routine to treatments for serious, life-threatening conditions. It makes it so we can ride public transportation, so that there’s spaces for my friend’s powerchair and my Guide Dog, and so I can hear audible announcements of our location, enabling me to request my correct stop. It makes it so public libraries across the US have to accommodate our access needs. It’s the reason I was able to go back to school, to get the accommodations I required to finish my bachelor’s degree after going blind, and to go on to complete an MPA. I was the first blind student to earn a Master’s in Public Affairs at the University of Missouri’s Harry St. Truman School. I want to know that future disabled students will have the right to earn their degrees as well.

Looming beyond the 504 suit are thehuge cuts to Medicaid, which, if passed, would make many of us not even be able to consider attending higher ed and participating in our communities. These cuts could eliminate Home and Community Based Services for millions of people with disabilities, along with placing needed healthcare and prescription drugs out of reach.

Disabled workers have also been facing attacks. Physical and digital accessibility jobs were eliminated with the other DEI cuts in the federal government. Accessibility and disability researchers at universities have had their grant funding slashed. The administrationblamed the tragic January 29 plane crash on disabled federal employees. However, with the potential Medicaid cuts, it would make us so focused on scrambling to survive that disabled people couldn’t even think about employment. These attacks and the threat to 504 by Missouri and the other 16 states is making people with disabilities like me, and parents of kids with disabilities, extremely concerned for our futures.

At times like these that love needs to loom larger than all of these threats combined. It’s right now that not just care within communities, but care for communities, those groups most oppressed need to be lifted up. As UUs, we know that when we each choose to put love at the center, everyone thrives. May your heart be a place of thriving, connected with all the other hearts in your community.