We began this year with a 30 Days of Love reflection from our Democracy Strategist, Nora Rasman, who wrote, “This year, we will tell the truth to each other and ourselves about the political landscape we inhabit, the conditions and threats we are facing and the power of the left.” The truth is the stakes are high. It is also true that every action that chooses democracy as the method to express political desires or dissent is an invitation to building a new world, together.

Last night millions of voters went to the polls to express their desires about the leadership of their states and country. Hundreds of thousands voted “uncommitted” in protest of the ongoing assault in Gaza. Several voter suppression laws have created an unjust field that cannot produce accountable and representative elected leadership. Some candidates speak openly about ending free and fair elections, disparage trans people and immigrants, and celebrate limiting our individual freedoms. Last night, we faced hard realities together. Now, we must decide what we will do in the days ahead. 

Let us remember that every movement forward generates new possibilities. Every new person we invite into our work grows our power. Each time we respond to the grief, rage, and demands of a people yearning to be free with compassion and a faithful recognition of our shared humanity, we Side With Love. 

We invite you to use today to deepen your commitments to justice. This moment and our movement, needs you. With UU the Vote 2024, we are leaning even more deeply into the shared values that move voters to the polls. We are equipping leaders to engage in compassionate conversations that hold our grief as well as our commitment to building a multi-racial democracy. We are resisting state violence in our work to Stop Cop City in Georgia. We’re showing up to protect abortion in the Yes on 4 campaign in Florida. We are launching Green Sanctuary 2030 to ground our congregational climate justice work in local and accountable relationships.  

Throughout history, we have shown up to kindle the flames of justice in uncertain times. Today, we build on that legacy and commit to justice and prophetic action to build a future where we all thrive. This is our work. We forge the paths that lead us towards the just and loving world we seek to create.

Join a community of people who greet each day a new opportunity to Side With Love in all that we do.

Upcoming Events from Side With Love

March 14: UU the Vote 2024 Launch

UU the Vote 2024 is an ambitious strategy to grow a powerful pro-democracy majority. This year we will build our commitment to democratic practices and recommit to showing up for social movements building infrastructure and relationships to sustain us the beyond the electoral year. Join us to learn about our work with State Action Networks and their partners in key states, key ballot initiatives, political education and spiritual grounding opportunities and our mass voter contact program.

March 20: Climate Justice and Racial Reconciliation in a Predominantly White Congregation
Integrating justice in our climate work is essential, but many UU congregations struggle with this component of the Green Sanctuary 2030 process. Join Dorothy Swain from UUs of Grants Pass, OR, and her colleague Gabi Johnsen from the Pursuit Church of the Nazarene, to learn about the ways their congregations are advancing climate justice in a predominantly white, rural community.

March 18: Side With Love Monthly Mixer
Join us if you are doing the work on the ground, if you are showing up for and with Side with Love, and/or if you are just learning about Side with Love. Come connect with one another, build community across issues, and have some facetime with our staff.

March 21: UU Stop Cop City Monthly Action Huddle
Our huddle this month will focus on writing letters to those imprisoned for protesting Cop City in Atlanta. Writing letters to folks locked up is a ministry, a political act, and a great way to invite new folks into decriminalization work. As always, we’ll also review what’s happening and what you can do with Stop Cop City more broadly. Join us to get activated or to jump back in.

After closing out this year's 30 Days of Love, Side With Love is looking forward to exciting opportunities for faith-filled action this spring. Starting March 6, we have a range of offerings that we hope will ground you and help sustain your commitment to liberation, democracy, and justice. Please join us and share with your congregation!

If you haven't already heard, we're getting ready to activate every corner of our faith for UU the Vote 2024. This year, we will mobilize our friends, our neighbors, and our fellow UUs to generate a groundswell of democratic action and leadership towards a thriving future beyond November 5. If you aren’t already subscribed to our UU the Vote newsletters, you can sign up for updates here.

Join our UU the Vote 2024 Launch!

Get ready for UU the Vote 2024! On Thursday, March 14 at 4pm PT / 7pm ET, join UU leaders and partners to learn how you can show up for our values and communities in the critical 2024 elections. Invite your congregation and social justice teams to join us for an exciting launch of UU the Vote 2024.

When we organize, we build power in our communities for justice, accountability, and healing. In the last four years, UU the Vote has built new networks of spiritual and political communities to #VoteLove and #DefeatHate. With UU the Vote 2024, we’ll be showing up to combat criminalization; protect and expand healthcare, including abortion; and deepening local democratic practices, from participatory budgeting to ranked choice voting.

We are fighting for so much in 2024. Together, our communities can address the current threats to our democracy and human dignity. Join us in this fight on Thursday, March 14 at 4pm PT / 7pm ET for the launch of UU the Vote 2024!

March Programming from Side With Love

March 6: Green Sanctuary 2030 Orientation

Get to know the new Green Sanctuary! Join the monthly orientation session to get a better understanding of the program and learn how your congregation can engage in ongoing climate action. Green Sanctuary 2030: Mobilizing for Climate Justice can transform your congregation through climate justice!

March 8: UPLIFT Transgender/Nonbinary+ Pastoral Small Group

This is a space to share the hard stuff and to hold the hard stuff that others are navigating in their lives. During our time together, our lead chaplain/facilitators will share opening and closing words, and in between, there is time for everyone to share what's on their hearts, and receive what others are sharing about their own lives. It's a supportive, judgment-free place to connect with other trans/nonbinary+ people.

March 18: Side With Love Monthly Mixer

Join us if you are doing the work on the ground, if you are showing up for and with Side with Love, and/or if you are just learning about Side with Love. Come connect with one another, build community across issues, and have some facetime with our staff.

March 20: Climate Justice and Racial Reconciliation in a Predominantly White Congregation

Integrating justice in our climate work is essential, but many UU congregations struggle with this component of the Green Sanctuary 2030 process. Join Dorothy Swain from UUs of Grants Pass, OR, and her colleague Gabi Johnsen from the Pursuit Church of the Nazarene, to learn about the ways their congregations are advancing climate justice in a predominantly white, rural community. 

March 26: UPLIFT Trans/Nonbinary+ Monthly Gathering

This is a cozy, drop-in community space for trans, nonbinary, and other not-entirely-or-at-all-cis UUs and friends of UUism where we connect with each other with games and breakout groups, share ideas and stories on all kinds of topics, listen to music and poetry (often by trans/nonbinary+ creators), and much more! This space is intentionally multi-generational. It is open to and welcoming of trans/nonbinary elders as well as children, youth, and young adults. Standard UUA online safety measures apply to ensure all people under 18 are able to attend.

March 28: Faithful Grounding

Join our Side with Love Fun & Spiritual Nourishment Squad for an hour of spiritual sustenance and grounding with others organizing on the side of love. Come drink in the music, meditation, play, and prayer. We end with a Connection Cafe for those who wish to talk together. Show up as you are, whatever is in your heart, and with your camera on or off as you need.

By Nora Rasman

In our final week of 30 Days of Love, we explore the theme of “democracy and electoral justice” and how it is situated within our broader organizing. 

As we begin our electoral work of 2024 together, I return to recent remarks by Working Families Party National Director Maurice Mitchell: the organizing principle that we build trust by telling the truth about the world we share. The core truth that I’m reckoning with this year is that democracy—the promise of our elected officials feeling a direct and accountable tie to us, their electorate—has always been aspirational.

I acknowledge the fear that many of us hold–that the threads of democracy we’ve had will fully unravel, and we will lose the pieces of representation we rely on. And I ground in the possibility that with the millions of people who have come into social movements in the past four years, we might push closer to a more just world. We will continue to fight and build the power of the working class multi-racial majority to exact wins from the people in power that will make all of our lives better. 

This year, we will tell the truth to each other and ourselves about the political landscape we inhabit, the conditions and threats we are facing and the power of the left. We will share, heavy hearted, the truth that we are facing massive devastation and suffering by war and genocide, climate catastrophe, legacies of colonization and imperialism, and rising fascist politicians and policies. We will share the bitter reality that our social movements fighting for justice have grown while also facing massive backlash and criminalization. We will also share in the conviction that our work in the year ahead is to continue to fight for the political conditions where winning is more possible.

Organizing is where we draw hope and build long term power. It is where we invest in each other and our communities through relationships and partnerships with grassroots organizations. Organizing is where we move towards the aspiration of representative democracy; a place where local but consequential change happens. Collective decisions like distribution of parking spaces at our congregation, the neighborhood association being trained on de-escalation techniques and the passage of a new lead abatement law at city council. 

When we look back on 2024 - what are the relationships we have built? How is our local organizing landscape stronger? How have we changed? 

Our work should ground and fortify us for whatever outcomes lie ahead. This means building and strengthening our local organizing landscapes. Growing and sharing our skills and resources generously. Engaging humbly. And always telling the truth. 

Unitarian Universalism calls us towards building democratic processes - in our congregations & communities. I hope we can do that together this year.

Nora Rasman is the new Democracy Strategist for the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Organizing Strategy Team, which drives Side With Love and UU the Vote.

See all the resources offered for Week Four of the 2024 30 Days of Love campaign