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In ongoing commitment to climate justice, at least ten Unitarian Universalists participated in a “Week of Love, Solidarity, and Resistance” in mid-August in Louisiana, organized by the grassroots-led coalition Another Gulf Is Possible. The week of action included a parade in New Orleans with an intersectional message of collective liberation in the Gulf South, two nonviolent protests of a federal lease auction for offshore drilling rights, flood relief service in Baton Rouge to help an elderly woman remove moldy wall boards from her home, and a two-day “Just Transition Solidarity Summit” of environmental and climate justice organizers, according to Aly Tharp, coordinator of UU Young Adults for Climate Justice. In addition to Tharp, three other core members of the UU young adult group attended—Jimmy Betts, Lee Stewart, and Tim DeChristopher—as did Irene Keim, board president of UU Ministry for Earth.
“Our parade ended with a water ceremony at the Mississippi River, led by indigenous women and movement leaders Kandi Mossett, Cherri Foytlin, and Monique Verdin,” said Tharp. “We offered our prayers and gifts to the water of the Mississippi in solidarity with those upstream resisting the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) to protect the Missouri River at the Sacred Stone Camp—in unity for all nations, all relations, all water. Our week in Louisiana was truly an embodiment of love, solidarity, and resistance.”