Dear Kent Streeters,

“There are means that cannot be excused. And I should like to be able to love my country and still love justice. I don’t want just any greatness for it, particularly a greatness born of blood and falsehood. I want to keep it alive by keeping justice alive.”  
~ Albert Camus

These are words I come back to over and over again as we struggle against the forces that aim to remove justice as the centerpiece of who we are as a people, as a nation. Surely, we have yet to rise to the full potential of who we – who America – can and should be. Our history has shown the cruel toll that happens when words exist in pretext only.

We celebrate Juneteenth this Thursday knowing that the promise of American freedom was brutally denied for so long to so many – and that even now, full liberation, full equality, has yet to be fulfilled. We know that countless generations have suffered, that many today continue to suffer, from a constitution increasingly interpreted to grant rights to some while denying rights to others.

And yet, and yet…in Camus’ words I have always found hope – it is justice that demands our loyalty, it is justice that defines us a people, it is justice that ultimately transcends borders and nations.

We gathered this Saturday across New Hampshire and across the nation in the name of justice. We gathered knowing there is something so much greater than a patriotism that demands loyalty to a person, obedience to a political party, allegiance to an angry and cruel agenda. We gathered knowing that true patriotism is not about borders and but about a commitment to fundamental truths: equality, freedom, equity, liberty, justice and compassion.

“I should like to be able to love my country and still love justice.”

This is a clarion call leading us forward. Many have asked, “What is next?” In the bigger sense, we must answer the call of justice. We must let it lead us forward…the lens through which we peer as we decide our next steps.

With that in mind, we are facing here in New Hampshire grave injustices – a budget that gives tax-payer handouts to rich corporations and millionaires, that targets the most vulnerable among us, that bows down to right-wing extremists and Free State radicals, that downshifts costs to local taxpayers and that denies average Granite Staters access to affordable healthcare, housing, and mental health services.

So, what is next?

Please join us at the State House on Tuesday, June 24^th, 5 to 7:30 pm, as we Fight for Our Future by Demanding a Better Budget…Demanding a Just Budget…Demanding Justice.

Please let us know if you can join us – Sign up here. 
In the meantime, we need you to contact your state representative(s) and state senator, urging them to restore fiscal integrity, common sense and compassion to a budget gone amok.

With eyes on the prize,

Louise