Resources and Reflections for Justice Leaders

Justice Leader Fellow Venessa Day Johnson reflects on key takeaways from the Fellowship.

Achieving water justice is both a hard truth and a more abstract metaphorical truth for our collective work in Baltimore. Within those hard truths, we engage in and understand the work differently. Each approach is valid, and each approach validates our own lived truths, while seeking justice for everyone.

Justice Leader Fellow Kylie Patterson reflects on the commitment to justice found across religious texts, the value of understanding context and learning in community, and the implications for this current moment.

In this unique time of relative isolation, yet still inundated with the all too-familiar refrains of the calls to stand up, be present, be heard, I am struggling....Perhaps this reflection, this confession, really, will lift my haze, break down my walls, and reawaken the refrain of my childhood—tzedek, tzedek, tirdof (justice, justice, shall you pursue).

As I write this, it is raining – a late spring lightning shower over Baltimore. I am remembering desert rains and the rainbows that follow the floods: We will be better, we promised. With our use of water and everything we put in it, we have the power to harness and create a life-affirming society. Let us remember what we are made of.

In this unique time of relative isolation, yet still inundated with the all too-familiar refrains of the calls to stand up, be present, be heard, I am struggling....Perhaps this reflection, this confession, really, will lift my haze, break down my walls, and reawaken the refrain of my childhood—tzedek, tzedek, tirdof (justice, justice, shall you pursue).

The consistent message of the interconnectedness of religion, water, and justice encourages religious beings to collaborate in the pursuit of justice. In the context of today’s society, it points to the importance of interfaith organizing and dialogue.

On Thursday, April 23, ICJS Justice Leaders Fellows convened for their monthly meeting, this time via Zoom. After much-needed check-ins (with COVID-19-related adjustments necessitating the cancellation of the March meeting), […]