Happy Election Day! November is a month of healing. This month, we’ll return to tender subjects in our nation’s history, we’ll think about how we relate in healthy ways to our families and our communities, and we’ll give thanks for the healers among us. We reflect on healing this month, yet we can’t fully heal in situations where harm is in progress. We should not mistake a call for healing as an invitation to ignore the wounds that are still open.

One of the ways WES members and many of our community partners have been engaged in healing is by attempting to restore or install some features of a functioning democracy. Thank you to those who have organized and volunteered to make this election as free and fair as possible. If you are able to vote and haven’t already done so by mail or early voting, today is the day. If you have voted or can’t vote, today is a good day to check in with your neighbors to make sure they have the transportation or childcare or face masks they need so they can make their voices heard.

Election results are going to take time. Before, during, and after those results are known, our work is to continue amplifying the voices and leadership of those most impacted by systemic oppression, and to move toward systemic change by whatever means are available to us: direct action, compassionate response, legislative advocacy, community organizing, study groups, art and music for liberation, and whatever other tools we can find within reach. After the results of the election are known, “healing” will NOT mean coming together in unity with those who have been dedicated to harming our neighbors, or to pretend that their ongoing project of oppression is a bygone that we can let be bygone. Whatever happens with the election, healing is about listening to those who are most vulnerable, and about working in solidarity to marshal the resources we need for everyone to be free.

In Ethical Culture, we understand that our choices are always in the context of relationships. Our relationships give us some of the motivation and support we need to continue on our ethical journeys and to sustain our commitments to make good choices. WES is in relationship with a number of community partners so that we can do this on an institutional level. I hope you will join us on November 8 as we welcome a guest from the Washington Interfaith Network and re-commit to building power with the interfaith community of Washington, DC.

Let’s honor today as a sacred day of empowerment, a day when we take the next action available to us in moving bit by bit toward the world we dream about. After that, let’s take a breath, give thanks for what we’ve done and for the people we’ve worked alongside, and turn toward our next set of goals in collective liberation.

Thanks for all you do.

Take care,-Lyn