7.28.26 Action Center Update
Welcome to the Action Center Weekly Update. Each week, we’ll share:
A brief analysis of critical issues in this political moment
Immediate actions you can take
Resources to deepen knowledge and strengthen our collective work to side with love
Nothing is inevitable. Justice movements are built by ordinary people who come together to defeat oppression and nurture a loving world. You are not alone. We have power. Together, we can create a just and thriving future.
Movements are strongest when we act together. Organize with your teams and networks, and take these actions in community. For practical tools, see our Organizing School and Trainings & Webinars.
Democracy
Core Principle: Democracy is not a destination but a practice rooted in interdependence and the worth and dignity of all. While authoritarianism consolidates power, we are the majority—and we must organize to build a truly multiracial democracy.
The Update:
Last Sunday marked 100 days until Election Day. Our faith commits us to the long-haul work of building democratic practice and a liberated world where everyone thrives. Part of that commitment is being clear about how we will contribute to that goal. UU the Vote is not the solution to authoritarianism; it is a strategic choice about one place where we can make an immediate impact on this long journey. It asks us, "What will we do in these 100 days that can shift conditions and transform people for the next 100 days, months, and years?"
The electoral landscape is shifting constantly. In Missouri, the governor signed H.B. 1871, which restores voting rights to approximately 40,000 people on probation or parole and provides automatic restoration of voting rights for most people upon release from incarceration. The Kansas Supreme Court struck down a law that would have eliminated the postmark grace period for mail ballots. At the same time, Missouri and Colorado are preparing for ballot measures that attack abortion and trans rights, while Virginia is working to pass a constitutional amendment that protects abortion rights.
The work will look different depending on your context. Yet all of our efforts, taken together, build the power to ensure our communities' voices are heard and strengthen the solidarity needed to care for one another no matter the outcome. That is the power of solidarity through UU the Vote: building the conditions for our collective thriving, both in and beyond election seasons.
Join us to practice solidarity in our electoral work.
Take Action:
Join the deep canvassing phonebank training with UU Justice NC to talk with voters of faith to combat Christian nationalism
Resources:
Join:
Help build solidarity by joining a Solidarity Summit near you!
Watch/Listen:
Building Solidarity Infrastructure as a Survival and Civic Strategy episode on the Solidarity Is This podcast
Decriminalization & Immigration
Core Principle: Criminalization and dehumanization deny the dignity of our communities. Safety cannot come at the expense of others. As people of faith, we proclaim a future of care, abundance, and mutuality—not domination.
The Update:
With its origins in “slave catching,” policing has always been inherently violent and unjust. The latest police and ICE killings continue that legacy of more trauma, fear, rage, and grief in Black, brown, and immigrant communities. We say their names: Corey Ruiz. Kadir Skinner. Johan Sebastian Guerrero. Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. May these beautiful human souls rest in power and peace. May we continue to work for a world where healing and safety are more present than violence and fear.
Take Action:
The Supreme Court cleared the way to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitians and others, but we are fighting back! Take 2 minutes to personally and urgently tell your Senators to co-sponsor S. 4814 to extend TPS for Haitians and protect 350,000 hard-working immigrants from mass deportation. Even better, take this call to your congregation and make calls during or after worship!
Resources:
Learn:
Join:
Haitian TPS & Beyond with Black Alliance for Just Immigration, Wednesday July 29th @ 6pm ET. A call to talk about using the current Haitian TPS Extension legislation in the Senate as an organizing tool to fighting for permanent protections for Haitians
The Gathering: Declarations of Democracy - Healing and Repair
As this country marks 250 years, we will examine the limits and possibilities of American democracy and our sacred call to shape a multiracial, interdependent democracy where everyone can thrive at Side With Love’s monthly event to strengthen your spirit, make sense of the threats to democracy, and take meaningful action alongside others!
This month's focus: Healing and Repair panel with special guests Caitlin Breedlove (UU the Vote), Rev. Vahisha Hasan (Movement in Faith), and QuianaDenae Perkins (Black Women of the Chalice). Rev. Verdis LeVar Robinson will root us in song and prayer.
Register now for August 10th, 8 ET / 5 PT / 2 HT
Climate Justice
Core Principle: A just and loving world is also a flourishing one. A fossil-free future is possible, where clean energy is a human right and all beings thrive. To get there, we must create new systems, norms, and practices.
The Update:
War decimates people and the planet. It is well established that the U.S. military is one of the world’s largest climate polluters, and a significant climate change enabler. Brown University’s Cost of War Project names the U.S. Department of Defense as the world’s single largest institutional consumer of oil—and as a result, one of the world’s top greenhouse gas emitters.
A 2019 Lancaster University independent public assessment names the U.S. military as “one of the largest climate polluters in history, consuming more liquid fuels and emitting more CO2e (carbon-dioxide equivalent) than most countries.” This same report establishes that if the US military were a nation state, it would be the 47th largest emitter of green house gasses in the world, if only taking into account the emission from hydro-carbon based fuel usage.
Unitarian Universalists work to cut carbon emissions in our homes and congregations, end the era of fossil fuels, fight for a clean energy future, and Make Polluters Pay compensation to frontline communities disproportionately impacted by industrial pollution.
Like us civilians, our government also has a responsibility to ensure a truly livable future for all life on this planet. A new report offers a solution: “Reducing U.S. military spending could lead to substantial decreases in energy consumption.” As demonstrated, sustained cuts to U.S. military expenditures, which would decrease “Department of Defense energy consumption from facilities, vehicles, equipment, and jet fuel in particular … could result in annual energy savings on par with what the nation of Slovenia or the U.S. state of Delaware consumes annually by 2032.”
Not only are carbon emissions a consequence of war, environmental destruction has become a military tactic. As we have witnessed with the genocide and ecocide in Gaza, “colonial violence is ‘foremost an ecological violence.’” Furthermore, Gaza is in a water crisis, as “Israel has weaponized water, turning it into a tool of mass suffering.”
As is stated in the UUA’s 2024 Action of Immediate Witness: Solidarity with Palestinians, “The persecution of the Palestinians is also connected to a global commitment to profits over human lives and parallels greed-fueled conflicts in Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Ethiopia. While we call for the liberation of Palestinians, we also call for the liberation for all persecuted people across the globe. At the core of our Unitarian Universalist faith is the belief that life is sacred. Amidst global efforts to tamp down on speaking up for the lives of Palestinians, Congolese, and all oppressed people, we must find our courage to live and speak our beliefs into the broken, breaking world.”
As Unitarian Universalists, we must recognize war for what it is: an attack on the dignity of life. Our Side With Love March Gathering, “War, Empire, and How We Got Here,” is a helpful resource to ground us in the norms and history that got us to the severe and colonialist escalation of attacks against multiple communities in the “Middle East,” and encourage us to imagine new worlds of thriving rather than strive to get “back to normal.”
Do you hope to deepen your understanding of climate justice? Do you seek a cross-regional community of UUs to further climate justice alongside? Awesome news: the 2026-2027 Green Sanctuary Community Meeting schedule is now live!
Guided by UU values, the Green Sanctuary community nurtures resilient, thriving communities through climate actions that prioritize justice. All are invited to join our monthly community meetings to learn together, support each other, and celebrate progress.
Join us on the 3rd Wednesday of most months* from 7:00-8:30pm EST:
Love is the Framework for Climate Justice on August 19th, 2026
Creating Hubs of Climate Resilience and Community Care on September 16, 2026
Standing Rock Anniversary on October 21, 2026
Fractal Practices for Faithful Climate Justice on November 18, 2026
Green Sanctuary Celebration! on January 27, 2027*
Climate Justice is Racial Justice on February 17, 2027
What Does Your Money Believe? Faith, Wealth, and Climate Justice on March 17, 2027
GS2030 Community Meeting: April TBD on April 21, 2027
Green Sanctuary 2030 is essential to Side With Love’s climate justice work. Together we will create a thriving community of congregations advancing climate actions that prioritize justice, center love, and root in UU values.
Take Action:
In following through on our collective commitment to Defend Against the Assault on Environmental Protections: Public Lands Rules and the Endangerment Finding, JUUstice Washington invites you to join UUs on taking the following actions. If you want to contribute to the content of any public land actions, use their form. Each of these is critical! Please take some time to address all of them:
Comment on Chaco Buffer Zone Withdrawal Due July 29, 2026
Comment on Changes to USFS Manuals and Handbooks Due July 31, 2026
Oppose the Fix Our Forests Act
Oppose the Wildfire Prevention Act
Respond to the Bears Ears/Grand Staircase-Escalante Reduction
Minnesota has the power to protect the Boundary Waters by canceling the Twin Metals’ state mineral lease for copper-nickel sulfide mining. Over 50 Minnesota legislators and countless civilians are urging Governor Walz to cancel Twin Metals’ state mineral lease. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has the legal authority to end a lease Twin Metals has held since 1990, as the company has not met the required conditions to maintain these state mineral rights. Even after Congress opened 225,000 acres of protected public land near the Boundary Waters to copper-sulfide mining, Minnesota still has the authority to act. This is a real opportunity to protect the Boundary Waters, but it only happens if people speak up.
Call Governor Walz at 651-201-3400 to help keep the pressure on
Sign the Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness’s petition
Resources:
Read:
Learn:
Amidst such attacks on human and planetary dignity, how must we act? The Side With Love Grounded, Resilient, & Responsible - Responding & Organizing in Authoritarian Times Toolkit offers critical guidance.
Join:
Love is the Framework for Climate Justice online on August 19th, 7:00pm - 8:30pm EST. Unitarian Universalists are people who love. Climate Justice is how we practice loving our world. Elio Farley, the Side With Love Climate Justice Fellow, will kick off our fall Green Sanctuary community meetings by grounding us in Unitarian Universalist organizing frameworks. Together we will learn practical tools for approaching love as our strategy, ethic, and spiritual practice. In these times of fires and floods, we must courageously love. Guided by UU values, the Green Sanctuary community nurtures resilient, thriving communities through climate actions that prioritize justice. All are invited to join our monthly community meetings to learn together, support each other, and celebrate progress.
Watch/Listen:
Watch the moving “Imperialism, Ecocide, and Climate Justice: A Conversation with Dr. Rania Masri of NCEJN” webinar from NC WARN, an organization tackling the accelerating crisis posed by climate change by building people power for a swift North Carolina transition to clean power.
Together, we practice the world we long for. Together, we win.
