The Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashua is a beautiful old building. It is centrally located on top of a small rise near downtown. A number of presidential primary campaigns have rented this space for their town hall meetings, which is great way for this wonderful congregation to get a little extra money. The LOVE 2020 Campaign has also had a few events here, including a July meeting with Beto O’Rourke and a September meeting with Tulsi Gabbard.
I must confess, before meeting Beto I didn’t really know who he was. I thought he was just some guy who almost won an election in Texas. (Sorry!) Wow, does he ever light up a room! It is hard to pinpoint the source exactly but he has great energy and charisma. He speaks pretty good Spanish, too.
At our meeting with Beto, our team of leaders shared stories about the impact of draconian immigration policies on their families and communities. Beto listened and answered from his heart – in Spanish! We were all impressed. And, as I have said before, he has one of the hardest working, most earnest and committed staff I ‘ve ever seen. There is always someone from the Beto campaign at our Immigrant Solidarity Team events.
We had fairly short notice for our LOVE 2020 meeting with Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, so our team was small, but also mighty. We had the same questions for her we bring to all the candidates: “Will you use your executive power to put an end to unjust deportations and detentions of our immigrant neighbors within your first 100 days in office?” and “Do you love us enough to divest from militarization of the border and invest in our communities?” Although we may not agree 100% on the issues, Congresswoman Gabbard comes across as a person with rock solid integrity.
Though meeting with the Presidential Primary candidates, promoting these meetings, and writing about them in this blog do NOT constitute endorsement of a political party or candidate, the LOVE 2020 team is grateful to O’Rourke, Gabbard, and all the other Presidential Primary candidates who have made time to meet with us to discuss values critical to the governing of our nation.
Up next, conversations with the “front runners”.
#LOVE2020, #betoorourke, #tulsigabbard