20250722 STAND Newsletter – Get excited for bubbles…
What’s new with STAND
Our next general meeting is slated for July 26th – this Saturday at 3pm! Come learn about affordable housing initiatives in DeKalb, and how we can build MLK’s beloved community through coalition building. Info and action items below – please help!
More sidewalk rally action and solidarity to come on August 2nd and 9th.
Bubbles – so many bubbles. Intrigued? Details are emerging, but take a hard look at September 20th and get excited; this will be STAND’s next major event.
Dear Friends,
We continue to build great things. On Thursday of last week, we honored John Lewis with flowers, song, reflection, and coalition building. I’m certain that we made him proud, and through your efforts, we played an important role in the civic life of Decatur. People stopped by to see what we were doing, joined in our songs, and even came back later to bring flowers and remembrances of their own. I stopped by the statue a few times in the coming days to clean it up and make sure that the display remained worthy of the recipient, and at one point, one of the city officials said that Decatur was lucky to have me around. That’s the wrong way around – I feel extremely lucky to be here in a community capable of responding with this kind of compassion and energy in a moment that could easily be defined by darkness and silence. As much as this moment needs grit and determination, it also needs joy, and community, and hope. I will continue to push us all to be that deeply needed light in our streets so that we can continue to rethink and reframe what activism and governance can look like.
To do that, I need your help. We need reach, and the only person that can provide that is you. On Saturday, we welcome the Coalition for a Diverse Decatur & DeKalb to our general meeting to discuss the critical issues around housing affordability and access in our communities. We will learn from them to understand how we can support the dignity of all people through housing initiatives, and begin the process of activist coalition building here in our city. There is so much we can do, but we have to show up and listen. So here’s what I need from you over the next 5-10 minutes:
Visit our facebook event here, ‘like’ it’, and tell us if you’re coming.
Share that event with your own network so we can begin engaging and educating the broader community.
Think about 5 people that you know that might be interested in learning more about affordable housing, and consider following up with them directly.
Whether you can come or not, take 5 minutes to follow and review our facebook page.
Encourage your fellow members that may miss this note to do the same.
Why? Because at this moment, online presence and reputation is a stand-in for legitimacy. We have taken the hard road to build our legitimacy in the streets and through our actions, but it is ultimately our visibility that allows us to draw support and make an impact. As we launch our exciting next steps towards coalition building and local action, it is time to take our presence seriously. You’ve seen the great things we’re building – let’s show them off a little.
STANDing with you,
Matt
