[Green] FW: Let Atlanta Breathe - Your Invitation to Spiritually Grounded Activism

Thu Jul 27 12:29:20 CDT 2023

Dear Green people,

The information below arrived in the church lady’s inbox a few days ago. The city of Atlanta is planning to cut 300 acres of forest that sits in a poor and predominantly Black part of unincorporated DeKalb County to build a police training center. There’s lots of opposition, and UUs are getting involved. Maybe some of you will feel the urge to help, somehow. 

Dawn Hewitt
Office assistant
First Unitarian Universalist Society of Marietta

From: Nicole Pressley, Side With Love
Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2023 10:21 AM
To: Chris Keller
Subject: Let Atlanta Breathe - Your Invitation to Spiritually Grounded Activism

One of the nation’s most culturally consequential referendums is underway in Atlanta. Join our learning event on August 3 and take action!

Image Description: Person with short white hair outside chanting while holding a sign with a tree. Words say #LetAtlantaBreathe It's What UUs Do. Contribute from anywhere to defend the forest and stop cop city. 

Dear Chris, 

One of the nation’s most culturally consequential referendums is underway in Atlanta. 

Pictured: Rev. Tyler Coles & Rev. Misha Sanders collecting referendum petitions last weekend, holding clipboards with images that say "Let Atlanta decide."  Nora Rasman and Rev. Jonathan Rogers rounded out the UU contingent.  

Will you join them?  Locals, professional UU organizers, other spiritually grounded activists—including your fellow volunteer UUs—and others from around the world are actively leaning into the work, going door-to-door and at busy community sites to collect the signatures needed to bring this issue to a vote.

The City of Atlanta will contribute nearly $70 million to the deletion of at least 13,070,000 square feet of the Weelaunee Forest—developing it into a training ground that militarizes and equips police forces with the skills to quell democratic assembly and protest while protecting profit and property. We have two weeks left to show up for democracy, climate justice, and community security by collecting 70,000 signatures to let the people of Atlanta decide. 

You can contribute to this referendum from wherever you reside, when—and how—you feel called. This is what UUs do.
Join us for the Week of Action July 27 - August 5th

Thursday, July 27
7:00 - 8:30 PM ET
6 CT, 5 MT, 4 PT
Thursday, August 3
7:00 - 8:00 PM ET
6 CT, 5 MT, 4 PT
Saturday, August 5th
12:00 - 3:00 PM ET
On the ground In Atlanta

#LetAtlantaBreathe: A UU’s contribution to the #StopCopCity & #DefendTheForest movement.

The UU principle of interdependence may sequentially follow those of justice, peace, and dignity, but respecting, “the interdependent web of all existence” may be the bedrock of those other principles. Can you think of it as the unsurfaced molten rock, the magma of the other principles? Interdependence generates heat, heat generates energy, energy that is transferred to our work in human and environmental rights. What energy will you transfer on?

You have breathed the oxygen made by the trees of the Weelaunee Forest and you’ve felt the rain drops made by its water, too, regardless of where you live.

Such is the interdependence of things.

If the forest is disassembled and replaced by a “city” that trains police but is unable to house the many unhoused, if it is forced to relive being kidnapped from Native stewards and plundered for gain, then its energy is being mis-transferred and misused.

This is a moment of justice. As much as it feels like a fight, it is a moment for you to contribute to peace.  How will you join us? 

With the deepest gratitude and in solidarity,

Nicole Pressley
Nicole Pressley is the Field & Programs Director for Side with Love at the Unitarian Universalist Association.

Links for more info:
• View and share this content on our Blog
• Action of Immediate Witness to Stop Cop City passed at General Assembly in June 2023
• Vote to Stop Cop City Campaign Page

Connect with Side with Love

Unitarian Universalist Association
24 Farnsworth St
Boston, MA 02210
United States
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