On this election day, we share a poem, Election Promises by Rev. Marko Belletini. Marko was the chairperson of the hymnbook commission for the Singing the Living Tradition hardback hymnal and he was one of the first openly gay ministers in our tradition.

I hear the polls

are going to be open on Tuesday.

All day. Good. I certainly intend to go to them.

I certainly invite you to go to them and vote too.

But today I say the polls

are not just open on Tuesday.

I say they are open every day.

Every hour. Even here. Even now…

I’m going to vote, right now,

for the right to dream of a world

where the word politics

doesn’t stop me in my tracks,

and where the word honor still

has a few good meanings left.

I’m going to vote right now

for the power of free people

to actually be free,

no matter who they are,

no matter who has abandoned them,

no matter who hates them.

I actually am going to vote for love,

I am going to vote for truthfulness as the norm,

not the exception.

I’m going to vote for a world

that doesn’t vote for killing, control and swagger,

I’m going to vote for you.

I’m going to vote for me.

Right now. Right here. Silently. But for real.

We have grief for the ways that elections have been threatened and gratitude for all the ways that folks from UUSS show up and live our shared values!

Rev. Wendy & Rev. Lynn