Yes We Can...Yes We Did...Yes We Will (LLJL)

Yes We Can...Yes We Did...Yes We Will

by Linda Living Joy Lorenzo on Tuesday, January 20, 2009 at 9:53am

The following was written and delivered by Linda Lorenzo
as the Call to Worship
for the Sunday services following last November's historic election 2008

This past week we have witnessed, participated in and experienced,
what has been called,
one of the single most historic moments in our country's history.

More important, than an historic election,
Is that we, as a unified body,
Came together, empowered and determined to exercise our rights and our responsibilities.
To begin to take back our freedoms and our country's rich heritage of truth and justice for all.

This past Tuesday, the simple act of stepping into the voting booth,
Surprisingly stirred in me an emotional surreal state of awe.
Instead of hurriedly pulling down the levers of my predetermined choices,
My eyes lingered over the names that were before me...
And in those brief seconds I was seized with the enormity of the moment
With the awareness of just how far we have come as a nation.

Scenes from my youth, flashed before me,
The civil rights marches and the anti-war protests of which I had been a part.
And the lost battle over the the establishment of the ERA...
All came flooding back with a profound sense of completion...

We had come full circle...it had not been in vain.

And there were others who spoke of much the same experiences...

One who had said, that she felt the presence of the earlier suffragettes,
Susan B. Anthony and Alice Paul with her as she cast her ballot.

And still others, no matter how they voted,

Said that they felt that the very act of their showing up...
Gave them the sense that were participating in something much greater than themselves.

On that day, as One nation...we began the journey from fear and cynicism
to faith and a renewed pride in ourselves and all that we can be.

As the writer Toni Morrison said...
"We have begun to take the first steps towards a Participatory Democracy."

The following is an excerpt from a sermon given two weeks ago,
by UU Minister of Public Theology of All Souls Church in New York,
the Rev Dr. Forrest Church.

"The votes we cast for president are much less important than the votes we cast with and in our lives.
It is far less important that the trains run on time,
even that all the passengers have a government-stamped ticket,
than that the passengers are willing to take responsibility for one another’s welfare.

On this historic election year, the choice we must make,
not just with our vote, but with our lives,
is a choice between hope and fear.
Hate is not love’s opposite, fear is.
When we are frightened —by others,
by life itself—we cannot love.
We can hide.
We can fight.
But we cannot love.
Conversely, love casts out fear."

Abraham Lincoln, who recalled us to “the better angels of our nature,” put it this way: “The question is not whether God is on our side, but whether we are on the side of God.”

And now in the Spirit of our common dreams and visions for the ideal of true Democracy,
May we move forward in hope,
reclaiming our personal power and responsibilities
and understanding our true purpose, found in the words...
Of the People, By the People and For the People.

-Linda Lorenzo

(A little adendum to this piece...during the subsequent months and years of this presidency, for me, sadly, President Obama has not lived up the promise that was held so high on this historic day...but I will forever believe that WE as A People are meant to rise up to the challenges of our world and transform it to a place of Liberty and Justice for All)