I believe that the path to healing ourselves begins with learning to love others unconditionally, to serve others, and to work to build a society that is better, fairer and more peaceful for everyone, regardless of race, nationality, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity. Today, I want to revive my blog with a few brief reflections on some issues of social justice that have moved me recently, and that I hope might inspire others.
At Unitarian Universalist service this morning, I was deeply moved by a talk from transgender rights activist Nancy Nangeroni, who has received the Courageous Love Award. Thanks to her efforts and those of other activists, the Massachusetts legislature recently enacted the Transgender Equal Rights Act, which protects transgender people from discrimination in employment, housing, credit and education, and adds them to the protections of the state’s law against hate crimes. Unfortunately, the Act fails to include protection from discrimination in public accommodations, and there is still much more to be done. It reminded me of the horrifying truth that transgender people continue to face frighteningly high levels of violence and discrimination throughout the world, and that many thousands have been victims of hate crimes, as commemorated each year with the Transgender Day of Remembrance.
Another current issue of concern in Massachusetts, about which I learned this morning, is the “three strikes” bill currently pending before the state legislature, which, like its counterparts in other states, would mandate tougher prison sentences for those who commit multiple offences, and eliminate parole for many of those people, taking away the discretion of judges to set sentences according to the needs and circumstances of each individual offender. This can only reinforce the deplorable situation of prison overcrowding, grossly excessive terms of detention, and racial and socio-economic inequities that already plague the criminal justice system; and the increased rate of incarceration will come at a considerable cost to taxpayers, taking more funds away from schools and vital community services. Locking more people up for longer is not the way to reduce crime. Rehabilitation and education are demonstrably more effective. It’s time to base the criminal justice system on an ethos of healing and forgiveness, not on thoughtless vengeance.
I also plan to attend this week’s rally for immigration justice outside Boston City Hall on Tuesday, February 14, to protest the detention, abuse and forcible deportation of immigrants at the hands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the badly-misnamed “Secure Communities” program which has made life harder and more dangerous for undocumented immigrants and their families across the country, an issue about which I have written recently. Earlier in the week I also came across this horrifying report, compiled by ACLU immigrant advocates, about the deaths of hundreds of migrants every year crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, a situation which the report rightly describes as a humanitarian crisis. America’s unjust immigration laws come at a terrible human cost, and reform is urgently needed.