Charleston, SC, USA- This morning’s organizing meeting largely consisted of people phoning in their input, but the trip to N. Charleston City Hall wasn’t wasted. We warned the mayor’s office about the UnityCity scheme and let US Senator Tim Scott know that we knew about it too.
“Unity City” plans to organize “Christ followers in the tri-county area to . . . influence the culture for Christ. (and) impact Education, Family, Government, Media, Faith, Arts & Entertainment, Business, and Science and Technology.” These are the objectives of the Christian Dominionist movement.
We are now well on our way to mounting a challenge against the Christian Dominionist plan to take over every aspect of public life in the Lowcountry being planned by UnityCity, a slicker more ambitious scheme that that pushed by Moms for Liberty and the other groups we’ve stood against since some of us came to the rescue of Pumsey the Dragon back in the late 1980s.
This is a coalition effort by veteran resistance leaders in our area. We expect to recognize partners and co-sponsors as we move forward, but the sudden appearance of Unity City caught most of these organizations off guard. However the infrastructure to resist is very much in place here now, merely awaiting various meetings and board actions to come into formal involvement. We’ve engineered this project with opportunities for many groups to connect and contribute. Expect change as we prepare.
Chick-fil-A Has a Cow
Boycott card challenging Chick-fil-A’s alleged support of Unity City. About 300 were printed and distributed before the effort was suspended on information that Chick-fil-A had demanded its logo be removed from the Unity City website where it had been listed as a sponsor.
On our way home we visited the Mt. Pleasant, Johnnie Dodds Chick-fil-A to request clarification on the status of their participation in the Unity City scheme. They had been listed as a sponsor of UnityCity on it’s website. Their national office claims they were never a sponsor and only contracted catering services at the Music Hall. The manager at the Chick-fil-A was visibly shaken by our little card. He insisted we contact the national office. I advised him that he needed to send that card up the chain of command so they could respond. We believe a business present in the community must be accountable to the community, in person, at the counter. The manager and staff there were very polite and professional.
Local activists had already contacted the National Chick-fil-A HQ.
UnityCity removed the Chick-fil-A logo from their website.
In places like SC, where our vote is often gerrymandered into irrelevance, people underestimate the power of their spending. Anyone who saw how worried and shaken the people at Chick-fil-A were by a postcard would know otherwise. Many, many people told us they’ve been boycotting Chick-fil-A for years, but an effective boycott requires the participant to remind the local retail outlet, at least once a year, of the reality of their decision not to buy. Otherwise, as their impact is baked into a years long trendline, there is no reason or even way for the retailer to detect it.
If you still have some of our cards or can download one, take it to Chick-fil-A this weekend and ask for clarification to be emailed to you.
Resistance Takes Form in the Holy City
We’ve drawn up a preliminary weeklong schedule of events to respond to Unity City. Our overall goal is to celebrate and strengthen the resistance that is alive in Charleston. In the year and a half since Moms for Liberty captured 5 seats on the school board, they have been unable to ban a single book in Charleston County and only a handful in Berkeley. While the Superintendent was treated shamefully, they’ve been unable to purge faculty and staff of non-believers. Two Moms supported Board Chairman have returned to normal board service.
Our record isn’t perfect and there have been disappointments, but we’re doing vastly better than the massacres that have been seen elsewhere throughout the South. In November, we may be able to return control of our school board for the citizens at large by defeating Moms for Liberty School Board Ringleader Ed Kelly. Of course, we could also lose and be forced to struggle through two more years of endless meetings.
Unity City has chosen to aim for the Lowcountry’s heart on the first weekend of the internationally famous Spoleto Arts Festival, shortly before our Pride Parade. This is an attack upon the soul and joy of our community in and around the Holy City and clearly targets artistic freedom. However, our planned events and others, provide us with a powerful springboard to push back.
DiversCity Charleston - Tentative Schedule
- Friday, May 24, Public Outreach in Downtown Charleston, 10 am.
- Saturday, May 25, 8:30 to 9:30 am- Demonstration / Protest around the Charleston Music Hall on John Street (Led by Allan Morris), ; 9:30 to 10:30 am- Diversity Dutch Treat Breakfast nearby and a Diversity Discussion with four speakers at the Main Charleston County Library from 10:30 to noon. Topics will be Two Years of Resistance in the Lowcountry, The cruelty of Christian Nationalism in Charleston (local human Impacts), how Charleston relates to the National Struggle, and what we need to do in the immediate future followed by a short Q&A.
- Sunday, May 26, Church on your own if you wish in the morning, supporting a major local community initiative in the Afternoon focused on preventing gun violence.
- Saturday, June 1, Pride Parade Super Selfie, After we participate in the Pride Parade with our various organizations well gather downtown for a super selfie showing the strength and diversity of our local movement posing as a group either around the Pineapple Fountain at Waterfront Park or on the Steps of the Customs House.
Louise Brown, 1960s Civil Rights Leader, demonstrating in Summerville, SC for Transit Equity with Lowcountry Progressive Unity Flag. Yes, we know, $15 an hour is out of date now.
This won’t complete the effort, but hopefully after this cooperative demonstration of force and freedom, we’ll be in a stronger position to Protect the Lowcountry from things like UnityCity, Moms for Liberty and the other right wing Christian Nationalist efforts trying to wipe out our local culture of tolerance, creativity, and diversity.
If you have input contact William Hamilton 843-870-5299, wjhamilton29464 or Allan Morris. Plans will be finalized on Monday, May 20 and released to the press on Tuesday, May 21. The full schedule will be released and distributed in Google Calendar format.
Logo for Lowcountry Up is Good. We confront an inherited culture of Low expectations where people have been conditioned to accept less.
William J. Hamilton, III
Attorney at Law
Executive Director, Lowcountry Up is Good, Inc. (Political Action Committee)
ph (843) 870-5299, wjhamilton29464#gmail.com