In the inner city of El Paso, Texas, we visited the Annunciation House — a shelter for illegal immigrants. I interveiwed Director Rubin Garcia, who has been with the Annunciation House the past 28 years. He said he is particularly concerned about the growing sentiment in this country against Hispanic immigrants. And he said he’d like to see a lot more dialogue between the cultures, especially because there is so much interdependence of late. He explained after NAFTA, many multi-national companies have gone up on the northern border of Mexico to take advantage of the cheap labor. In turn, the U.S. has become major purchasers of the products from these companies… As an example, Garcia explained there is a huge television manufacturing plant in Mexico (with 70 semi-truck bays). Workers here make 50 cents an hour, $4 for an eight-hour shift. Because of this cheap labor, people in the U.S. are able to purchase a television(s) at, say, “Best Buys” for a mere $200. For someone making $20 an hour in the U.S., it would take them 10 hours to afford the TV. For one of the factory workers in Mexico, it would take them 400 hours to afford the TV. (However, many of their homes (shacks) don’t even have electricity and they are just scrambling to afford the basics in food for their families.) Translated: We are building our lifestyles in the U.S. on the backs of the poor in Mexico (India, China…) The answer (spiritually speaking): Dramatically reduce our lifestyles in the U.S. and just as dramatically fund Third World humanitarian projects — and places like El Paso’s Annunciation House as well — to help those in Mexico (India, China…) become as sustainable as possible. Social justice would demand no less.
2/14/06
I was interviewed by Larry Hiatt, the editor of the Fort Stockton Pioneer newspaper. I said our platform called for amnesty for all illegal immigrants in this country. What’s more, several years ago I researched a program called the Hispanic Council in Eunice, New Mexico. Local people in this border town had set up a grassroots program to help new Hispanic arrivals by doing fundraising to help with higher education. They put on seminars to help people liaison with social service help. They also put on trainings to help new arrivals learn how to start their own businesses, etc. We’d like to see Hispanic Councils all over the country and at the time, I’d told the Hobbs, New Mexico Sun newspaper that we should look at new Hispanic arrivals, not as burdens, but as a tremendous opportunity to help those who are less fortunate. I mean, what a spiritual blessing, huh… Note: Coming into Ft. Stockton (and heading west out of it) the topography is flat, dusty and, well, no man’s / or no woman’s — to be politically correct — land. A person on the street told us that while Ft. Stockton isn’t the end of the earth, “…you can see it from here.”
2/13/06
On the square in Ft. Stockton, Texas, is a plaque that reads: “Dedicated to the pioneer spirit of the 13,176 people of Pecos County to commenmorate the celebration of the Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986.”… I recently read part of James Mischner’s: Texas. The Mexicans had been in Texas (it used to be pronounced Tejas) for 300 years before the American ‘pioneers’ came. And the Native Americans had been there a lot longer than that. America’s sheer numbers in pushing into the area to get as much land as posssible would eventally put Texas square in the hands of the U.S. Pioneer spirit? Or unbridled greed?… Should we be ‘celebrating’ that in any way, or should we be urgently trying to figure out as many ways as possbile to make it right, spiritually? Perhaps a first step would be offering amnesty to all the Hispanic illegal immigrants in Texas (and elsewhere). I mean, it was their land before it was ours. The least we could do is offer more access so even more Mexicans could own land in Texas (and elsewhere). And to those who say: “Well, the Mexicans took some of the land form the Native Americans first…” Do two wrongs make a right?
2/11/06
We’ve traveled out of the ‘hurricane zone’ and into west Texas. In Sheffield, Texas, I interviewed rancher Ron Stuard. We are close to the border here, and Stuard said labor is hard to find for, not only his ranch, but ranches throughout the area. He said he personally would be in favor of a program that would, in essence, have Hispanic immigrants get temporary “sponsors.” That is, south of the border there would be a list of names of people willing to work up north. Reciprocally, employers to the north would post jobs. And people would be matched up. Stuard proposed that these workers would then come for a specified period of time (3 months, 6 months, 9 months…), and at the end of the work, the employer would be responsible for getting the worker(s) back to a check point. Stuard added that in the middle part of last century — during World War II when there was a shortage of laborers in the U.S. — there was a Congressional Act passed that set something similar to this up. But it since has been rescinded. Note: Stuard said if he is caught employing illegal immigrants on his ranch, he can be fined up to $10,000.
2/10/06
We traveled further into southern Louisiana where I was interviewed by the Houma Diocese Catholic newspaper. After explaining the Pro-Life part of my platform, I was asked how I differed from “conservative Republicans” on other issues. I said St. Benedict believed we should treat the environment as we do the “sacred vessels of the altar.” I said I believed that too. (We’d actually like to end pollution, altogether.) I said with 24,000 people starving to death worldwide that we’re asking Americans to cut back dramatically on their lifestyles and help much more in the Third World. I said we’re spending millions on “weapons of mass destruction” to keep oursleves safe, while these people starve. And I said I thought that was a social justice travesty… We then headed further into ‘Cajun Country’ where I interviewed Steve Harrington. He said during Hurricane Rita (which hit shortly after Katrina), his Vermilion Parish was totally flooded in swells that were as high as those of Katrina. Steve said right after the storm hit — and before the government got there — some 300 pleasure and fishing boats were scrambled by local people to pick up everyone in their homes. As a result, there were no drownings in Vermilion Parish. “We’re Cajuns. We take care of our own,” Steve smiled. Note: I asked Steve what was the most poignant thing he encountered during Hurricane Rita. He said during the height of the storm, he couldn’t get his dog, a Labrador Retriever, to come in from off the porch. Steve said every time another piece of siding, or a shingle, or whatever… blew off his home, the dog would race into the yard, retrieve it, and bring it back to the porch.
2/9/06
Took a tour of the “Save a Life” crisis pregnancy center in Picayune, Mississippi. Besides counseling for crisis pregnancy and post abortion trauma, the center offers counseling for women who have had miscarriages as well. Director Mary Fowler told me it’s important for women (and men) who have had miscarriages to be able to grieve for the baby. Save a Life also has a sonogram machine and I was shown a poignant, and quite detailed, picture of a 10-week-old baby in the womb. Even at this early an age, there is no mistaking it’s a baby. Over and over as we’ve stopped in these centers, we’ve been told the incidence of abortion decreases dramatically after a woman is able to see a sonogram picture of their baby — and they realize he/she is anything but a “blob of tissue…” We then headed down to New Orleans, driving by the 9th Ward and into the French Quarter area. The devastation continues to amaze us. Yet what amazes us even more is the insistence on having Mardi Gras go on. Billboards around town (including one in front of the Super Dome where there was $140 million in damage) read: “Mardi Gras …let the party begin!” [Southern Louisiana’s The Advocate newspaper carried a story today that read: “Mardi Gras, which always holds a bit of mystery for outsiders with its fun, frolic and debauchery…”] Have we grown that desensitized to sin? At our last stop, a priest said Katrina seemed to be a distinct wake up call — but he wondered how many people were listenning?
2/8/06
I interviewed Frances and Jack Huck in Picayune, Mississippi. Several years ago they converted a free-standing garage on their property into a two bedroom apartment for Frances’s elderly mother and an aunt. It cost $23,000 to covert the garage to a kitchen, two bedrooms and a small living room. (Jack installed all the wiring and put in sheet rock and the doors on his own.) Frances said it was a tremendous blessing having her children living so close to their grandmother and aunt as they grew up. “Also, my mother had loved us growing up, and I wanted to return that.” And Frank added: “God put us here to help each other.” Note: Our platform points out that when Americans think “Social Security,” the first thing that pops into most peoples’ minds is: “the Fund.” Our belief is that Social Security should be about an elderly person feeling as ‘secure’ as possible in their family, their neighborhood and their community — emotionally, physically, financially… And the Hucks in Picayune, Mississippi, provide an absolutely excellent, grassroots example of this.
2/7/06
I gave a couple talks at the Masses at St. Charles Borromeo Church in Picayune, Mississippi this past Sunday. I commended this church for their large display of small white crosses out front, signifying the graves of the unborn. I also said that in Nazi Germany on Sunday mornings just like this, the Christians would hear the trains heading for the concentration camps, children screaming, parents wailing. The response in many of the churches? They would turn the organ music up and “sing a little louder.” I continued that in America another (metaphoric) train is coming down the track, everyday — carrying some 4,000 little unborn babies. We know. Just like the Christians in Nazi Germany knew. And I said, just like the Christians in Nazi Germary, our response is, for the most part, to (metaphorically): “sing a little louder.” That is, we are so caught up in work, in hobbies, in entertainment… that we are continually looking the other way. I told the congregation that until we collectively, and continually, pray and fast against this, fill the streets with constant protest, flood the newspapers with letters to the editors, and flood our legislators with letters and calls, continually fundraise and volunteer with crisis pregnancy centers… the trains will keep coming down the track. That simple, and horrendously tragic. Note: Future generations will look at us the same way we now look at the many Christians in Nazi Germany who did practically nothing — but sing a little louder. I ended the talk by saying it’s time to turn the Super Bowl off (this was Super Bowl Sunday), pick up our cross and do something for Life this night. And I ended by saying that I wholeheartedly hoped the talk: would “ruin” everyone’s Super Bowl. Interestingly, this was met with applause. Note 2: Fr. Mike Snyder said during his homily today that we are to unite our suffering with Christ’s to bring grace for others [and good causes]. I couldn’t help but think how much more we could suffer in our own American lifestyles to bring grace in averting the suffering of a little baby who is killed and dismembered in the womb.
2/6/06
In Pacayune, Mississippi, I interviewed Tammie Norsworthy who lost her daughter during Hurricane Katrina. A heart wrenching story. They had lived just north of Pascagoula, Mississippi, in Helena. The 12-year-old daughter had cerebral palsey and had gotten sick with pneumonia two weeks before the storm. Her condition continued to deteriorate, and the day before the storm hit she was brought to Pascagoula’s hospital. As the storm approached, they were going to Life Flight the girl to a hospital in Mobile, Alabama — but the winds were too strong, Mrs. Norsworthy relayed. After the hurricane, the electricity was out in the hospital for quite some time and without functioning resperiation equipment, etc., Mrs. Norsworthy’s daughter grew worse. She eventually died on Sept. 25.
2/5/06
Was interviewed by Paul South, the managing editor of the Mississippi Press newspaper. At one point he asked me my take on the American people in general after all my traveling. I said it was my opinion many Americans have a “myopic” view of the world. That is, we are so focused on ourselves we don’t ‘see’ tumble down shacks with corrugated tin roofs and open sewage lines spilling into the streets of the Third World. I said the FEMA trailers here would be considered “mansions” there. And I called on some along the Gulf Coast to consider buying the FEMA trailers from the government (which are being offered at a reduced rate), taking them to higher ground and taking the savings from not building another home — and sending that money to the Third World. [What a social justice witness that would be to the rest of the country.]… I also said to Mr. South that we were adamantly pro-Life and we “win” the Election every time our message inspires someone to keep their baby or someone else to help at a crisis pregnancy center, or… And, yes, maybe one day one of these children would make it to the White House themselves. “But it’s even more important for them to just make it: to life.” Note: After the interview, we headed west along Rte. 90 viewing more Hurricane Katrina devestation through Biloxi and Gulf Port. And like in Pascagoula, it was mind boggling destruction. One of the eeriest scenes was in Gulf Port amidst a decimated section of businesses along either side of Rte. 90 along the beach. The buildings had been totally blown away for about a half mile with just remnants of part of a McDonald’s arch, half of a Huddle House Restaurant sign, the rest just scattered debris. In the midst — and totally intact — was a Lamar billboard with a close-up of the face of an old man giving a rather pronounced “rasberry (thumbs in his ears, tongue way out).” The caption read: “Say This To Your Competition!”