Join him and stop the lies. Help send vans to follow ICE and record them as they round up “immigrants “ for deportations, without due process. Shine the light on what’s happening and bear witness!
Lies that are told to divide people for political gain always seed political violence. But moral movements know that the truth will set us free.
When we say, “Stop lying,” we are saying no to the violence that has too often plagued this nation.
We we say, “Stop lying,” we are pledging our allegiance to the freedom that can only come by insisting on the truth.
When we say “Stop lying,” we are loving our country, where people who disagree can work out our differences in open debate and fair elections.
When we say, “Stop lying,” we are also committing ourselves to tell the truth that those in power are trying to suppress and distract us from paying attention to.
When Fannie Lou Hamer led Black and white people in singing “This Little Light of Mine” together, they weren’t just defying the silence of Jim Crow’s lies. They were committing, however small their individual efforts might seem, to use what they had to shine a light on the immoral acts that were being done under the cover of darkness. They would expose segregation’s violence by nonviolently sitting in. They would show reporters what happened to Schwerner, Goodman, and Cheney when they tried to investigate a church burning in Philadelphia, Mississippi. They would nonviolently insist that the press corp at the Democratic National Convention bear witness to the way Black people had been excluded from the democratic process in Mississippi.
In short, they took nonviolent direct action to shine a light on the violence that the regime was trying to deny.
This weekend, we are headed to Los Angeles – the City of Angels – for the same reason. With the support of a military occupation, masked agents have been in LA for months, disappearing people from their neighborhoods and workplaces without due process. We have listened to stories of citizens who’ve been wrongfully detained for days, workers who’ve been disappeared to detention centers, and children who live in fear. LA is a city that has experienced horrors.
But it is also a city that risen together as a powerful demonstration of nonviolent moral resistance. In the Bible angels are messengers sent to the people in times of crisis. We believe the City of Angels has an important message for all of us as we face an authoritarianism that depends on lies about immigrants. Their message is simple: solo el pueblo salva el pueblo. Only the people save the people.
The answer to our present crisis isn’t coming in a messiah candidate who will save us in the next election or in a single organization that can bring us all together. No, the answer to our authoritarian crisis is already among us in everyday people who have discovered that they can let their little light shine by nonviolently challenging and exposing the evil that is being perpetrated against immigrants in our name.
We are going to LA to help launch “Liberty Vans” that will work with the community to send video crews to sites of ICE raids to shine a light on the immoral actions of masked agents and to spotlight the moral response of neighbors who are standing together to say, “Not in our name.”
Exercising their first amendment right to document what is happening in their communities, chaplains, veterans, lawyers, and concerned neighbors will ride with camera crews on these Liberty Vans, letting their light shine in nonviolent witness to the immorality of unidentified agents raiding communities and snatching away neighbors without due process.
They will remind fellow Americans who’ve sworn an oath to protect and serve that they do not have to obey unlawful orders.
They will make sure people who are being questioned or detained know their rights.
And they will document the assaults our tax dollars are funding for all to see.
In the face of official lies, we need an honest account of what’s happening in front of us just to stay sane. It’s truth-telling time, and we must demand it from ourselves in a moment when we cannot expect it from the White House.
The Liberty Vans will do this in partnership with LA’s angels because we know that, even when we cannot immediately stop an authoritarian regime’s violence, we can shine a light on it. A free people can tell the truth in the face of lies, and we can trust that truth to set us free.
This is why, whenever angels show up in the Bible, the first thing they say is, “Do not be afraid.” Authoritarians want us to be afraid so we will obey in advance, so we will stay quiet, so we won’t come together and remember what we know to be true – that we’re stronger together than when we’re divided by lies.
America must hear this from LA’s messengers: don’t be afraid. Yes, the horrors are real. Yes, the raids are spreading to other cities. Yes, this is authoritarianism, and it is growing bolder.
But we do not have to be afraid. Agelinos have shown us a way of nonviolent truth-force that can expose the lies and bring us together. They have shown us how to let our little lights shine. And when a whole lot of little lights get together, they can drive out the deepest darkness and illuminate a way to something better than any of us could achieve by our own strength. It’s why we sing, “Let it shine.”
Light has an inherent power to drive out darkness. They say it’s the best disinfectant. The truth is the light, and it will show us the way whenever and wherever we let it.
If you are in the LA area, please join us for a mass meeting with the community on Friday night, 6:30pm. The service will also livestream here.
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