9.1.26 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.
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:
As ICE surges arrests to record levels, 200 faith leaders, including dozens of Unitarian Universalists, answered the call to solidarity with the Haitian community of Springfield, Ohio as they continue to be targeted by ICE, with detention and ankle monitors, including two beloved Haitian pastors now facing deportation. Reports from Haiti are that those deported back to the country are facing grave danger of kidnapping, robbery, and death from the gangs that STILL control the country. Meanwhile, August marked an entire year of Trump’s unjustified, illegal, and dangerous militarized occupation of DC.
Amidst the trauma of more and more families torn apart by ICE detention and deportation and overpolicing in general, we must keep answering the calls to witness with our bodies and hearts, to show up with and for our neighbors, and to weave webs of solidarity with our resources, moral courage, and our strategic presence.
Take Action:
Actions to Take Today in Solidarity with Haitians in Springfield, Ohio - Wherever you are, please make these phone calls, donate, and contact your congressperson
Resources:
Read:
ICE arrested 50,000 people in July – quietly the biggest month in Trump’s second term. Administration moved away from high-profile raids that defined immigration enforcement approach last year but still deported record number of people (The Guardian)
First Universalist Church was among the community groups targeted in a U.S. Department of Homeland Security undercover operation. (UU World) “‘The congregation’s response this week to the news of the surveillance is ‘a strengthened commitment to keep on showing up for our neighbors and telling truth about this kind of intimidation and tactics and government overreach,’ said Rev. Jen Crow from First Universalist Church in Minneapolis.”
Learn:
How to do a local Ritual of Resistance using this toolkit and the training we led last week based on Faithful Witness from Delaney Hall.
Join:
September 14th Gathering: Declarations of Democracy: Solidarity
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: Solidarity panel with special guests Aisha Hauser (Church of the Larger Fellowship) and Rev. Jason Lydon (First Parish Brookline, MA). Rev. Sara Green will root us in song and prayer. Register now for September 14th, 8 ET / 5 PT / 2 HT
Watch/Listen:
Fascism Barometer Podcast: How We Grow Our Power with Linda Burnham
Ejeris Dixon sits down with legendary activist, writer, and strategist Linda Burnham for a clear-eyed conversation about what it will take to fight fascism in this moment and for the long haul. Drawing on more than six decades of movement work, Linda names the dangers of fascist targeting, the need to broaden anti-fascist alliances, and the importance of building real power across elections, culture, economics, and the streets. Together, Ejeris and Linda explore why movements must learn to collaborate beyond political comfort zones, think generationally, and bring each person’s unique gifts into the anti-fascist fight.
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:
This is part 2 of the Gary, Indiana Blackout update. Power has finally been restored and recovery efforts continue.
Last week, we shared how environmental racism created the fragile conditions that the derecho storm and resulting floods devastated.
Environmental racism is an intentional, longstanding, still-occurring, policy decision. Our faith, through the 8th Principle, calls us to build a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions. As such, we are called to be in true and actionable solidarity with communities targeted by environmental racism.
According to “Environmental Racism in America: Minority Communities as Dumping Grounds for Environmental Waste,”
Environmental racism refers to the disproportionate exposure of minority communities, primarily Black and low-income Americans, to pollution, toxic waste, and other environmental hazards. These communities often live in areas with fewer regulations and weaker protections, such as near factories, landfills, or industrial sites. Such conditions lead to higher rates of health issues like asthma, cancer, and other illnesses due to constant exposure to poor air quality, contaminated water, or unsafe living conditions. For example, Black and low-income communities are more likely to live near highways or areas where industrial waste is dumped.
Both environmental and institutional racism fosters an environment where marginalized communities have limited access to safe, clean, and healthy living conditions, resulting in poorer health outcomes. Policies that prioritize the interests of wealthier, white neighborhoods while neglecting or exploiting the environment of poor and Black communities perpetuate this cycle of harm.
About a third of Gary residents live in poverty. In a climate disaster, people in poverty generally do not have the resources required to recover. A practical example: if a beloved is in poverty, they are also food insecure. In a power outage, perishable food spoils. Frozen food defrosts. Dairy curdles. In a flood, any food contaminated by flood water must be thrown out. Many of these beloveds already cannot afford to eat, which has been exacerbated by SNAP cuts. Disaster-SNAP should help communities like Gary recover after disaster, but with rising food costs, D-SNAP’s current monthly allotment is unable to fully meet the need.
Everyone deserves to eat. No one should go hungry. There are enough resources for us all to have what we need. We just require the mass political will and infrastructure to make that truth a reality.
Northwest Indiana’s over two week power outage has brought increased attention to the Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO). The rest of this update will focus on this utility company, with the encouragement to research your own local utility company. Many utility companies place profit over people and the planet. Both climate and energy justice ask a critical question: what is a more equitable way to resource communities?
As reported by BreakThrough News, As NIPSCO “released consistent ‘progress updates’ to white communities and the Lake County Fair was pushed back online, [...] Gary couldn’t refrigerate food, run breathing machines, or send their kids to school – all while [NIPSCO was] charging customers more than full price.”
This concerning behavior predates the derecho: On top of already rising electricity and natural gas costs, NIPSCO incorrectly installed mechanical meter indexes and billed more than 3,500 customers for roughly twice their actual usage. As highlighted by Capital B Gary, “the company did not report the error to state regulators for nearly a year after discovering it.” The Citizens Action Coalition is fighting for full refunds.
If that isn’t bad enough, Indiana currently has 23 operating data centers and 130 more data centers have been proposed. NIPSCO has a data center deal with Amazon. Like many communities across the country, Gary residents are asking who will pay for this?
As confirmed by CBS News, NIPSCO charges the highest electrical rates of any Indiana utility and has the worst reliability record among Indiana utilities. Local residents recently filed a class action lawsuit against NIPSCO for power outage “harms that could have been prevented through proper vegetation management.”
In 2011, NIPSCO signed a settlement agreement to invest approximately $600 million in pollution control technology to resolve violations of the Clean Air Act through the U.S. Department of Justice and the EPA. The proposed settlement covers all of NIPSCO’s coal fired power plants, located in Chesterton, Michigan City, Wheatfield and Gary, Indiana. It required that NIPSCO spend $9.5 million on environmental mitigation projects and pay a civil penalty of $3.5 million. The state of Indiana had been involved with developing this settlement and was a signatory.
In April of 2026, the Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO) locked out over 1,600 United Steelworkers amid failed contract negotiations in a move the United Steelworkers condemned as “an aggressive escalation that threatens worker safety, undermines labor rights and disrupts communities across northern Indiana.” A lockout is a union-busting tactic. NIPSCO ended that lockout a month later, following a successful negotiation with the striking union. NIPSCO asserts that their anti-worker behavior has not impacted recovery efforts.
People currently incarcerated by the Indiana Department of Corrections are removing derecho debris. 2017 prison wage research by the Prison Policy Initiative states that incarcerated people in Indiana earn 12 to 25 cents per hour for their labor. To make a phone call to an in-state loved one, an incarcerated person in Indiana must pay an average of 21 cents per minute. Like every state, people of color are overrepresented in Indiana’s incarceration system.
Who ultimately picks up the pieces after a storm, a flood, a power outage, or an electricity shutoff? The people do.
Take Action:
Gary has a long recovery ahead of them. Here are community organizations to support.
On August 18, the USDA Forest Service announced the release of a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) on the proposed repeal of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule. The public has until September 20th to urge the Forest Service to maintain the rule that protects undeveloped roadless areas across the country. Please submit a comment here. Learn more, including talking points, here.
Resources:
Read:
Learn:
Join:
Drop into any of our monthly Green Sanctuary Office Hours to ask questions, learn what other congregations are doing, and get the support you need to create climate justice in your community. Our next one is Wednesday, September 2nd 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM EST.
Watch/Listen:
Together, we practice the world we long for. Together, we win.
