{"id":31,"date":"2008-07-31T20:15:38","date_gmt":"2008-07-31T20:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/progressiverevival\/2008\/07\/pursuing-justice-one-step-at-a.html"},"modified":"2008-07-31T20:15:38","modified_gmt":"2008-07-31T20:15:38","slug":"pursuing-justice-one-step-at-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/07\/pursuing-justice-one-step-at-a.html","title":{"rendered":"Pursuing Justice One Step at a Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, a group of thirty or so
\nyoung Jews, Christians, and Muslims came together to participate in a voter
\nregistration drive in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston.\u00a0 Working in
\npartnership with the local ACORN<\/a> branch,
\nthe interfaith activists received training on non-partisan voter engagement,
\nparticipated in conversation about the spiritual underpinnings of their civic
\ncommitments, and canvassed in small interfaith teams.<\/span><\/p>\n

This program was initiated by the Righteous
\nIndignation Project<\/a><\/span>, a progressive
\nJewish justice program aimed at mobilizing the Jewish community to voice issues
\nof social justice and environmental responsibility as religious and ethical
\npriorities during this historic election season.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

We invited our friends and allies from
\nCooperative Metropolitan Ministries<\/a>\u00a0and the Muslim
\nAmerican Society, Boston Chapter<\/a>,\u00a0to join us knowing that they share the conviction that to create a just
\nsociety, we must work to involve as many people as possible in the democratic
\nprocess.\u00a0 We chose to canvass in Dorchester because this urban
\nneighborhood, with its large low-income and minority populations, has had lower
\nvoter turnout than other, more affluent areas of Boston, and is in great need
\nof quality government services. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As Mimi Ramos, State Head Organizer for
\nACORN commented, “Some people in this neighborhood simply lack the knowledge
\nabout the voting process, but many others have given up on the process.\u00a0
\nIt is hard to believe that your vote matters when you suffer from
\ndiscrimination and poverty and are trying to be a responsible citizen.\u00a0 We
\nhave to help empower people, reminding them that without their votes we will
\nnot break the cycle of injustice and despair.”<\/span><\/p>\n

I was proud to be a part of this program not
\nonly because of the voters we were able to register, but also because of the
\npositive relationships we were able to forge among people of different faiths
\nand ethnicities in just two hours.\u00a0 By coming together for dialogue and
\naction, we bound ourselves to one another through a shared commitment to
\nreligion and social justice.\u00a0 <\/span>By
\nthe end of the afternoon, it was clear to everyone present that we would resume
\nthis sacred work in the near future.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As I reflect on the voter registration
\nexperience, I think of Thich Nhat Hanh’s wonderful little book Peace is
\nEvery Step<\/a><\/i><\/span>.\u00a0 The title encapsulates the spirit of our
\nDorchester experience, as people from diverse backgrounds came together seeking
\nto advance the cause of justice one step at a time.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier this week, a group of thirty or so young Jews, Christians, and Muslims came together to participate in a voter registration drive in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston.\u00a0 Working in partnership with the local ACORN branch, the interfaith activists received training on non-partisan voter engagement, participated in conversation about the spiritual underpinnings of their…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":162,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,1,15,2,9],"tags":[35,27,34,33],"class_list":["post-31","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christians","category-election-08","category-jews","category-muslims","category-religion-in-the-public-square","tag-boston","tag-interfaith","tag-social-justice","tag-voter-registration"],"yoast_head":"\nPursuing Justice One Step at a Time - Progressive Revival<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/07\/pursuing-justice-one-step-at-a.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pursuing Justice One Step at a Time - Progressive Revival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Earlier this week, a group of thirty or so young Jews, Christians, and Muslims came together to participate in a voter registration drive in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston.\u00a0 Working in partnership with the local ACORN branch, the interfaith activists received training on non-partisan voter engagement, participated in conversation about the spiritual underpinnings of their…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/07\/pursuing-justice-one-step-at-a.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Progressive Revival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-07-31T20:15:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rabbi Or N. 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Rose","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/0ff\/0ffde3e65a2b5f659f4d229fe35ff98ax96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/0ff\/0ffde3e65a2b5f659f4d229fe35ff98ax96.jpg","caption":"Rabbi Or N. Rose"},"description":"Rabbi Or N. Rose is Associate Dean of the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College in Newton, MA. He is the co-editor of Righteous Indignation: A Jewish Call for Justice and God in All Moments: Spiritual and Practical Wisdom from the Hasidic Masters (both from Jewish Lights Publishing). Rabbi Rose is a contributing editor for Tikkun and a member of the editorial committee of Sh'ma. He is currently completing a doctorate in Jewish thought at Brandeis University.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/author\/orrose"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/162"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}