Granite State Organizing Project (GSOP)
Thursday, January 29 @ 2 pm
Manchester, NH
Today among these beloved leaders, in this beloved place, in this beloved city: we stand on the traditional ancestral homeland of Pennacook, Abenaki and Wabanaki Peoples of past and present. We acknowledge and honor with gratitude the aki (land), nibi (water), and alnobak (people) who have stewarded the N’dakinna (homeland) throughout the generations and continue to be a vital voice for the good among us.
Today among these beloved leaders, in this beloved place, in this beloved city: we stand on the traditional ancestral homeland of Pennacook, Abenaki and Wabanaki Peoples of past and present. We acknowledge and honor with gratitude the aki (land), nibi (water), and alnobak (people) who have stewarded the N’dakinna (homeland) throughout the generations and continue to be a vital voice for the good among us.
Opening/Framing:
Good afternoon. I am the Reverend Dave Grishaw-Jones and I am glad to stand today with clergy and leaders from many wonderful New Hampshire faith communities and the Granite State Organizing Project. I am myself the Pastor and Teacher of the Community Church of Durham, a Sanctuary Congregation of the United Church of Christ.
We stand together this afternoon just a stone’s throw from West High in Manchester to cry out for our children’s futures, for our families’ futures, for our teachers’ futures, and for our country’s soul. At its best, at our best, we Americans are as safe and as strong as a public high school. We are as confident as its students, and as dedicated as their parents and teachers. What makes America truly great are schools like West High where students from many cultures and nations study together and grow together and develop a sense of community and civic commitment together.
When ICE terrorizes our streets and schools, as they’ve done this year in Minneapolis and Manchester and a hundred other cities, ICE strikes violently at the heart of our American community and the spirit of our democracy. When students have to ask parents over dinner whether they’ll be ambushed next, or taken next, or even killed next, ICE has sown fear and panic in our children and their dreams.
We stand together—leaders, clergy, believers from many traditions—to speak to our elected officials and to our neighbors with one voice today. In our America, from Manchester to Minneapolis, there is a plumb line—straight and true—that falls clearly and unmistakably in our midst and holds us all to account. Who will we be? To terrorize our neighborhoods and deport neighbors and friends is to commit a kind of civil and moral blasphemy, a crime that diminishes our democracy and tears at the ties that bind us. Who will we be? To kill advocates for immigrants, champions of human rights, in our own city streets, is to pervert the cause of righteousness in plain sight. Who will we be? To sow fear and panic in our children is to abuse the power entrusted to our leaders by the will of the people. Who will we be?
Today we will bring our many traditions to bear on this American crisis. Today we will speak of ICE’s cruelty and crimes. Today we will insist on rigorous accountability for the madness our own government has set loose in our streets. Today we will insist on congressional oversight for everything ICE is doing and every dollar ICE is spending. Today we will call out the courage of communities resisting together, in solidarity, in Minneapolis, Manchester and across the country. And today we will speak with one voice of a plumb line—straight and true—that does not tolerate hatred, that does not accept state-sponsored violence and weaponized occupation, that does not in any way acquiesce to fascism and racism in this good land.
Because we love the children of New Hampshire, today we say “No more!” Because we love our cities, our neighborhoods and schools like West High in Manchester, today we say “No more!” Because we love this country and are committed to a better future, today we say “No more!”
And because we love one another, one people from many faiths and cultures and nations; because we love one another not only in word, but in deed, we say—with the Prophet Amos and the Prophet Martin and so many others throughout history—“Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
We stand together this afternoon just a stone’s throw from West High in Manchester to cry out for our children’s futures, for our families’ futures, for our teachers’ futures, and for our country’s soul. At its best, at our best, we Americans are as safe and as strong as a public high school. We are as confident as its students, and as dedicated as their parents and teachers. What makes America truly great are schools like West High where students from many cultures and nations study together and grow together and develop a sense of community and civic commitment together.
When ICE terrorizes our streets and schools, as they’ve done this year in Minneapolis and Manchester and a hundred other cities, ICE strikes violently at the heart of our American community and the spirit of our democracy. When students have to ask parents over dinner whether they’ll be ambushed next, or taken next, or even killed next, ICE has sown fear and panic in our children and their dreams.
We stand together—leaders, clergy, believers from many traditions—to speak to our elected officials and to our neighbors with one voice today. In our America, from Manchester to Minneapolis, there is a plumb line—straight and true—that falls clearly and unmistakably in our midst and holds us all to account. Who will we be? To terrorize our neighborhoods and deport neighbors and friends is to commit a kind of civil and moral blasphemy, a crime that diminishes our democracy and tears at the ties that bind us. Who will we be? To kill advocates for immigrants, champions of human rights, in our own city streets, is to pervert the cause of righteousness in plain sight. Who will we be? To sow fear and panic in our children is to abuse the power entrusted to our leaders by the will of the people. Who will we be?
Because we love the children of New Hampshire, today we say “No more!” Because we love our cities, our neighborhoods and schools like West High in Manchester, today we say “No more!” Because we love this country and are committed to a better future, today we say “No more!”
And because we love one another, one people from many faiths and cultures and nations; because we love one another not only in word, but in deed, we say—with the Prophet Amos and the Prophet Martin and so many others throughout history—“Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
