Sermon- February 22, 2026

“We Can Do This!”

A few evenings ago, I was watching the news – MS Now with Nicole Wallace of course! And the opening segment was of children running from bus stops and their school, because ICE had shown up. The kids were terrified and were looking for places to hide. The news reporter then interviewed a young boy – couldn’t have been more than 7 or 8 years old, and he was crying because he was afraid that ICE would find him or take his parents.

This was in a small community in NJ with a significant immigrant population. Well, the community came out almost immediately in protest, with whistles and horns to protect their neighbors. The reporter went up to one of the protesters, a guy no older than maybe 25 or 26 holding an American flag and asked him what brought him out to this protest. The young man was a counselor and a coach at that school and witnessed those little kids running for their lives.

He said “I have never protested in my life, as a matter of fact I haven’t paid much attention to politics at all. But what I just saw horrified me. In this country? These are our kids, little kids. What are we doing? This is not right.” He became very emotional, which embarrassed him, but the reporter was very kind and gentle with him. The young man ended by saying “God bless America. We can do this!”

With those words “we can do this” I immediately knew what my sermon would be about! Yes – we can do this. Yes – we are doing this!

I have said many times to all of you that one of the things this congregation does very well is its Social Justice programs. UU Wellesley Hills has a deep and meaningful history of justice making going back to its inception. That tradition has carried through generations and generations of folks who grew up here, raised their children here, called justice seeking ministers to lead them. But I think that sometimes we forget why justice matters, and more importantly, why it matters to us as Unitarian Universalists. We don’t “do” justice just for the sake of justice. We do justice because it is at the core of our faith. Treat everyone fairly because we all are deserving of dignity and respect. Love your neighbor as yourself because outside of all of our differences, we are all connected. Our new shared values are grounded in and by love. What you do unto your brother you do unto yourself.

I’m sure that many of you read Heather Cox-Ricardson’s blog every day. On Wednesday Governor Pritzker of Illinois gave his state of the state address and hit upon what I believe is the reason we’re seeing what we’re seeing from our communities. Cox-Richardson quoted part of Pritzker’s address. After he berated the Trump-Miller regime for their cruelty and hate-based policies, Pritzker spoke about love. I’d like to read a bit of it for you.

“I’ve been thinking a lot lately about love—about loving people and loving your country and the power involved in both,” the governor said. “I know, right now, there are a lot of people out there who love their country and feel like their country is not loving them back. I know that.” But he told those people that “your country is loving you back—just not in the way you are used to hearing.”

“It’s not speaking in anthems or flags or ostentatious displays of patriotism. It will never come from the people who say the only way to love America is to hate Americans. Love is found in every act of courage—large and small—taken to preserve the country we once knew. You will find it in homes and schools and churches and art. It is there; it has not been squashed.”

Pritzker called out the love shown by “the bicyclers who showed up in Little Village every day during Operation Midway Blitz to buy out tamale carts so the vendors could return to the safety of their homes,” “the parishioners who formed human chains around churches so that immigrants could worship,” and “the moms in the school pickup line who whipped out their cameras and their whistles,” and in “the face of every Midwesterner who put on their heaviest coat and protested outside on the coldest day.”

That love for one’s neighbor, he suggested, is the country’s most powerful tool against the rise of authoritarianism.

“I am begging my fellow politicians, my fellow Illinoisans, my fellow Americans to realize that right now in this country we are not fighting over policy or political party,” Pritzker said. “We are fighting over whether we are going to be a civilization rooted in empathy and kindness—or one rooted in cruelty and rage.”

“I love my country,” Pritzker said. “I refuse to stop. The hope I have found in a very difficult year is that love is the light that gets you through a long night.”

Pritzker sounds like a UU if you ask me! His words are simple yet powerful, a testament to the impact that stepping outside of our little bubbles can have on the world. A testament to the universal power of love. We’ve seen it in LA, we’ve seen it in Chicage, we’ve seen it in Minneapolis. We see it anytime a community comes together seeking truth and justice.

This is our living faith, our living tradition. We fight back not only because it’s the right thing to do, because it is, but because it is what our faith calls us to do. And the phrase “we can do this” springs from the knowing that our ancestors and generations before us fought back. Yes, we can do this!

Jimmy Carter once said, “You can do what you have to do and sometimes you can do it even better than you think you can.” And I believe that’s what’s happening in our country right now. Think back to 8, 9, 10 months ago, when this horror started unfolding. The craziness and instability of the president, cabinet members who are nuts, Elon Musk and his goons pillaging departments. We’ll probably never know that damage DOGE did to this country. As all of this started to unroll, one insane presidential executive order after another, the feeling of helplessness was overwhelming. We expected our leaders to lead, to do something. For the most part, crickets.

And then the anger came – anger at the administration, anger at our political leaders, anger at each other. Then the resolve – this is how thing are so we need to figure out how to deal with it, and now action. It reminds me of Kubler-Rosses stages of grief!

This “we can do this” attitude is permeating red states and blue states. It’s permeating religious organizations and secular organizations. But most importantly, it’s permeating our hearts. Governor Pritzker is on to something. At the end of the day, love is the only thing that matters. At the end of our lives, how we have loved is all that remains. I am confident that we are a at the precipice of significant change in our country and in our world. And I’m not only talking about political change, but more importantly, how we treat each other, how we remain in relationship with each other, despite our differences. It is becoming clearer and clearer to me, watching how people are responding to this madness, that love is at the core of who we are as human beings.

We can do this!

In the words of Dr Maya Angelou, “We are more alike my friends than we are unalike.” I am confident that this chaos and craziness will end, and when it does, I believe Dr Angelou’s words will be imprinted on our hearts. As a congregation who holds love at our center, we know what that power is. And we know that yes, we CAN do this!

I’d like to end with this poem by Dawna Marcova:

I will not die an unlived life

I will not live in fear

of falling or catching fire.

I choose to inhabit my days,

to allow my living to open me,

to make me less afraid,

more accessible,

to loosen my heart

until it becomes a wing,

a torch, a promise.

I choose to risk my significance;

to live so that which came to me as seed

goes to the next as blossom

and that which came to me as blossom,

goes on as fruit.

May we make it so.