Welcome!
Bending Toward Justice is a group of friends who feel the need to act in the wake of the 2016 U.S. Presidential election. We perceive a lot of new energy in ourselves and among people who support progressive causes, but there are so many important issues and opportunities to act. We want to do something focused on working together, and particularly on issues of honesty, integrity, and fairness that we think the great majority of Americans support. We want to do our little part to leave a high-functioning American democracy to future generations.
We’ve all been politically active to some degree in our lives. For most of us, this is the first attempt at organizing a group. We’re taking many of our cues from the excellent Indivisible Guide. We’re going to propose a weekly action that supports our goal of having a high-functioning American democracy. We’re all going to take the actions we propose. We’re going to invite others (you!) to take them with us. We’re going to leverage social media to publicize our actions, build community, and report back. As we choose issues and actions, we’re going to do our best to be both meaningful and effective. While we acknowledge that “doing something” is a component of self-care for ourselves and others who value our democratic republic and its philosophical underpinnings, we want to focus on things that work.
Who Are We?
Although we’re not formally affiliated with any church, the original group members met at First Parish Unitarian Universalist, a 325 year-old church on the Battle Green in Lexington, Massachusetts.
In 1853, Unitarian minister Theodore Parker predicted the success of the abolitionist cause:
I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.
More than a century later, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. echoed Parker’s words:
The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.
We’re going to try to bend the arc a little faster.
Ben
Bernie
Chris
Deb
Elizabeth
Erik
Sally
Susannah
Bending Toward Justice 