What is unfolding in Minneapolis is not an isolated incident. It is a mirror, and we must look inside and make the changes required of us.
When innocent protesters are killed for exercising their God-given rights, when armored police roll through city streets like occupying forces, something sacred is being violated. Not just bodies. Not just laws. But the soul of a nation that claims liberty as its birthright.
And when people seeking a better life — mothers, fathers, children — are treated as disposable, caged, or turned away in the richest country in the world, we must name the truth: this is not who we say we are. This is not who we are meant to be.
Silence in moments like these is not neutrality. It is permission.
We have both a right and an obligation to stand up, to speak out, and to take a stand for what we hold dear and precious. The founding promise of this country is not order at any cost, but dignity for all. The Declaration did not say some are created equal. It said all.
Justice and freedom are not separate ideals — they are inseparable, inexorably linked. You cannot have one without the other. Freedom without justice becomes privilege. Justice without freedom and the rule of law becomes oppression.
Dr. King reminded us that justice must roll down like waters. Today, we say: we need more than a trickle. We need:
A flood like Niagara’s never-ending flow
A river like the Mississippi overflowing its banks
And waves from the Atlantic and the Pacific, rising again and again, reshaping this land until justice and freedom are no longer ideals we speak about, but realities we live.
This is not a moment for comfortable faith. This is a moment for embodied courage.
At Unity San Francisco, we stand for the inherent worth of every human being. And we invite you to join us this Sunday — to bring your voice, your presence, and your courage — and add it to the growing call for justice and freedom.
We will stand.
We will speak.
We will act.
Until justice and freedom wash over us all — and this land is reshaped forever.