ESTHER’s Promise in 2025
Empowerment, Solidarity, Truth, Hope, Equity, and Reform
Connie Kanitz, ESTHER President
ESTHER is rooted in the commitment of knowing there is inherent worth and dignity in each and every person. Everyone deserves respect, access to rights and to the promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
ESTHER is committed to acting in love for one another. When we expand our understanding of “family” to include everyone; when we welcome cultural, racial, economic, and gender diversity AND a diversity of ideas and perspectives; AND when we ensure everyone has access to rights and opportunity, we can build a community that is amazing to behold.
As the new administration begins on January 20, 2025, on the very same day we celebrate the life and legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., ESTHER will continue to tell the truth and stand up for the truth. We will make space for stories to be told of those whose rights may be attacked or oppressed. Stories of families who may live in fear due to threats of deportation or family separation. Stories of people who may become homeless due to a shortage of affordable housing and who lack access to basic daily needs of food, shelter, and a means to support their families. Stories of families and communities weakened through unjust incarceration where people are incarcerated instead of receiving necessary treatment for addictions or mental illness. Stories of families experiencing intergenerational poverty as they continue to be trapped by generations of unjust laws and policies. Poverty often leads to homelessness and wrongful incarceration.
ESTHER will act to protect the dignity, humanity, and rights of LGBTQ+ individuals and families. ESTHER will act to protect the rights of women who must have access to make their own decisions to address their reproductive needs.
As those stories are told, we will work to change laws and systems that continue to stand in the way of accessing those rights and justice. We will work to protect people who may be targeted by this administration or by state or local actions. Watch for calls to action from ESTHER and other organizations throughout the area who will fiercely work together to protect all members of our community.
ESTHER will continue to insist that all levels of government make investments in communities so that everyone can live into the values that define and sustain them for all the days of their life. These investments and changes in policy and in systems are necessary to have access to the promises guaranteed in our constitution.
Only when we come together with a goal of ensuring all people living in America have access to our rights and opportunity, can we become a healthy, safe, productive, just, and thriving community.
Redeeming Justice: From Defendant to Defender: My Fight for Equity on Both Sides of a Broken System, by Jarrett Adams
October 29, 6:30 pm, doors open at 5:30 pm
“The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Evicted reimagines the debate on poverty, making a ‘provocative and compelling’ (NPR) argument about why it persists in America: because the rest of us benefit from it.”
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