20250624 STAND Newsletter – STAND at a pub!
What’s new with STAND
Our next general meeting is coming up this Saturday from 3-5:30pm where we’ll review recent STAND efforts and help you plug you into the next phases of the work.
We’ve launched our first casual meeting event: STAND @ A Pub! Find us at Marlay House tomorrow, June 25th, at 5pm. No agenda – just conversation and community.
Our members at Clairemont Oaks will be holding sidewalk rallies on the second Saturdays (12-12:20pm) over the summer to bring attention to the potential impact of cuts to medicare, medicaid, social security, and HUD. Email us for more details and support your community!
Dear Friends,
Last week, I related to you how proud I was of our city and our members at NO KINGS, Just Pops! With photos of the event continuing to roll in, and as we reflect on what that event meant to the larger movement we are working to bring to life, I keep coming back to community. Those of you that were there got to see what it looks like when people from all walks of life come together in common purpose with clear intent to protect our rights, but perhaps more importantly, to protect the rights of our neighbors. It was joyous, inclusive, loud, and peaceful. I’ve said it before, but it is a mistake to inherently associate peace with quiet, and I am convinced that last Saturday what we all participated in was an energetic and uplifting community projecting a model of peace into our world.
And that is something which this world desperately needs. It is not lost on me that it took a moment of national anger to bring us together, and all I’ve been asking myself since is: why? Have we trained ourselves only to try to change things when we are outraged? Have our online bubbles allowed us to forget what meaningful in-person connection and common cause looks like? Why is our instinct to confront division frequently reactive instead of proactive?
I believe that there is more here than common anger, and I’d like to continue to find it with you all. At our meeting this week, we will begin to think seriously about how to continue to build community that uplifts people in their everyday lives, not just in moments of anger or threat. We will organize opportunities for people to just simply meet and converse with no strings attached. And of course, we will continue to do the work of recognizing and defending the dignity of all of our neighbors with the confidence that the more we show up for each other, the more effective we will be. Please take a moment to imagine what that would look like. And then come help us build it.
STANDing with you,
Matt
