| | |  Americas & Beyond 
UUs Arrested July 29th, 2010 – National Day of Non-Compliance
 Enrique Morones - Border Angels
December 25, 2010
On July 29th, 2010, 29 Unitarian Universalists (UUs), many of them ministers, including the president of that denomination, the Rev. Peter Morales, were among more than eighty people who were arrested for civil disobedience during two days of non-violent protests.
The demonstrations were highly organized. The Standing on the Side of Love team received training in either how to conduct civil disobedience or how to support those who were being arrested.
Those who broke the law on July 29th participated in three different actions that, for about six hours, shut down the Sheriff’s office at the Wells Fargo building and his downtown jail on 4th Avenue. The actions prevented the Sheriff from conducting his planned neighborhood sweeps which he announced would happen whether SB 1070 was upheld or not. On Friday, July 30th, a fourth action blocked the entrance to the Sheriff’s infamous Tent City jail on Durango St. in Phoenix and prevented further community sweeps.
One of the first people to take an arrest was Mar Cárdenas, a UU from San Diego. There she was the next morning, on the front page of the Arizona Republican, wearing her bright yellow Standing on the Side of Love T-shirt and grimacing in pain as officers jammed her arms behind her back to handcuff her.
Once in the county jail, Sheriff Arpaio, wanted to see just who those yellow shirts that disrupted his plans for his biggest raid to date were. Mar sees him and makes the sign of a heart with her hands and says, “I love you Sheriff Joe.” He looks at her and says, "Who? Me?" “Yes, you.” she replies. He shakes his head in bafflement at her gesture. Mar Cardenas later states that she recognizes that Sheriff Joe Arpaio despite his cruel and sometimes sadistic actions against the Hispanic community, he still has dignity and worth as a human being. It is simply a matter of reaching that core of him that still recognizes others as human.
Rev. Dr. Arvid Straube, lead minister of the First UU Church of San Diego in Hillcrest has this to say, "As people of faith we have some things we can do. We must, kindly and forcefully, challenge stereotypes and false statements when we hear them. We must reach out to people in these groups to know them and understand them. Under this convulsion of hatred there is fear. We are called to love, and perfect love casts out all fears."
“It has been wonderful to see Mar Cárdenas develop from a quiet Border Angel on Marcha Migrante III when we traveled as a caravan to the Canadian border on the “TU VOTO ES TU VOZ” campaign (Your Vote Is Your Voice), to being the first person arrested for Civil Disobedience in Phoenix protest against the racial profiling of SB 1070” states Enrique Morones, President/Founder of Border Angels. “Faith without works is dead, and Mar Cárdenas exemplifies that faith with works is very much alive as she truly Stands on the Side of Love” Enrique concludes.
Rev. Susan Frederick Grayfrom the UU Congregation of Phoenix said minutes before her own arrest at the Fourth Ave. Jail on July 29th, “Love is our future is. Not fear. Not hate.”
Mar's court date is this Thursday, July 16th at 10AM at 300 W. Washington in Phoenix, AZ.
Contacts: Enrique Morones - enriquemorones(at)cox.net - 619-269-7865 - Border Angels
Rev. Dr. Arvid Straube - Arvid(at)FirstUUSanDiego.org 619-298-9978
Mar Cárdenas - Mar(at)FirstUUSanDiego.org 619-947-4612
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