I’ve just been approached by the Green Party in Virginia to participate in a series of Independent Presidential Candidate Debates they are setting up at colleges throughout that state… This past week, I’ve also been finishing up our position paper on terrorism. And I make a point in the paper that responding to terrorism is not just about shoring up Homeland Security, but it is also about looking at the systemic roots of terrorism. Note: I told ABC News in Dayton that if a kid grows up in a dead end poverty situation in LA, Chicago, Cleveland… they are apt to join: a gang. If a kid grows up in a dead end poverty situation in Baghdad, Tehran, Calcutta… they are apt to join: a terrorist cell.
12/29/06
For the last week, I’ve been painting the interior of an office complex up the street that is being readied for a Cleveland, non-profit refugee service. The building was constructed in the late 1800s and just exudes character. The woodwork and cabinetry is solid (and I mean solid) wood, inlaid with intricate designs. It reflects an era when things were done at a slower, more considered pace and the work was meant to last, indefinitely. Now buildings are often slapped together with much less solid, prefabricated material that has a planned obsolescence (like car parts). We’re going at the wrong speed in America these days, too fast. Note: I told the Crescent News in Defiance, Ohio that, in many respects, it would be a step forward in this country — to go back.
12/27/06
Just prior to Christmas, my family and I participated in the annual, Catholic Worker: ‘Social Justice Bowl Game.’ My team, among others, included my wife Liz, who is from New Zealand and only knows rugby. And Marie, a Catholic Worker volunteer who is here for a year from Germany. Marie only knows soccer. In the first huddle, I directed Liz and Marie to both split left and go out for a pass. In unison they asked: “What’s a pass?” …In the Social Justice Bowl, everyone — in rotating fashion — gets a chance to try each position. Each peson gets a chance to run, throw or catch the ball at some point in the game, no matter how small, how slow (that would be me), how non-athletic… We played for almost two hours, with everyone giving it their all as they dove across the wet grass to make a catch, sprinted to beat a linebacker to the corner on a sweep, went all out to chase down someone who had broken free on a kick-off return… ESPN, however, didn’t carry the final score because, well, there was no final score. In this bowl game it’s truly not whether a team wins or loses in a traditional sense — it’s how they played the game. Note: In our campaign travels through Illinois several years ago, we came across an Amish ‘Field of Dreams’ with an ethos that was very similar to the Social Justice Bowl.
12/22/06
What if we in America limited all our family and relative gift giving to one, relatively inexpensive gift per person? Then what if we took the approximate savings (in the billions of dollars) and sent it to, say, Nigeria, where scores of little children are starving to death every day? How we in America sing Joy to the World with a straight face — in the midst of so much potentially, relievable worldwide human suffering — is absolutely amazing. Note: During a campaign talk at the Bluffton Senior Center a few years back, one man asked: “So, you’re campaign is about asking people to sacrifice?” I said “yes.” What’s more, I told the Ashland Times that we should actually ‘declare war’ on poverty and social injustice.
12/19/06
For the last week I’ve been working on a position paper about: terrorism. And I start the paper with an overarching lens through which I believe we should view our contribution to the world of terrorism. The late Thomas Merton, who was a monk and a well known author, wrote that hatred of ourselves is often too deep and too powerful to be consciously faced. So we minimize our “sins,” and exaggerate the faults of others… The enemy’s bombs are always from Hell. Our bombs are always from “Divine Providence.” And speaking of bombs: “What if we let the weapons inspectors into Montana?” I posed to an ABC News reporter out of Toledo, Ohio? The point being that we’re hyper-concerned with North Korea, Iran and other “rogue” nations developing nuclear weapons — while we have 10,000 nuclear warheads aimed all over the world! Why wouldn’t the countries those warheads are aimed at consider us “a potential terrorist threat?” I mean, c’mmon.
12/11/06
I mentioned in an earlier post that my daughter Sarah is reading the book: 25 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save Energy. She recently read me: “If you replace just one regular bulb with a compact fluorescent bulb, you will save as much energy over a lifetime of the bulb — as you’d get from burning 600 pounds of coal. Shortly after, I went out and bought a package of six compact fluorescent bulbs. If you do the math, our household is saving 3,600 pounds of coal with these babies. Not bad for 8 bucks. Note: For more on our environmental position…
12/9/06
I attended a talk at the Cleveland Catholic Worker House last night on Human Trafficking (Slavery in the 21st Century). The presenter, Sherry Watts, said a staggering 2 to 3 million people are “trafficked” every year in the world. They are often trafficked into hard labor or commercial sex jobs, either in their own country or they are transported to foreign countries. In the U.S., Ms. Watts pointed out that people are often trafficked into agricultural jobs (farm labor, processing plants, and so on.) People are abducted, or coerced, into these jobs — then given no way out. While in some Third World countries, because of extreme abject poverty, parents will actually sell some of their children to traffickers — so other children in the family don’t starve. Among some of the groups working to end human trafficking: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, The Emancipation Network… Note: Ms. Watts is also a consultant, organizational developer and mediator for her business: The WATTS Connection, www.thewattsconnection.com
12/4/06
I gave a talk to the Sacred Heart Church Social Justice Committee in Oberlin, Ohio, this last week. Sacred Heart is one of 10 churches in Lorain County to sign onto the Intefaith Hospitality Network to help the homeless. I said our family had signed on too, metaphorically, by moving to the inner city of Cleveland to help. After the talk, a reporter from the Chronicle Telegram asked me more about this. I said we’ve set aside a “Christ Room” (Catholic Worker phrase) in our place to periodically help the homeless. Comical note: While stumping in downtown Oberlin, a woman noted the signage on our van, which in part reads: Back Road to the Whitehouse Tour. “Are you coming to my house?” She asked. Her name: Laura Whitehouse.
12/2/04
I gave a talk on Finding Common Ground in Politics at the Oberlin, Ohio, “Peace Potluck” tonight. During the Q & A period, people from the audience talked about their protests at the School of the Americas, their work to end the death penalty, their support of Christian Peacekeeper Teams… The energy to live out their faith was not only palpable, it was inspiring. When the subject of Iraq came up, Ed Horner suggested we follow the “Truth and Reconciliation” initiative that was so successful in South Africa in bringing about a peaceful end to Apartheid. Churches around the world twinned with churches in South Africa to provide humanitarian aid and to set up groups to teach about reconcilliation and forgiveness. It worked.
11/27/06
My daughter Sarah, 11, is reading: 25 Simple Things Kids Can Do To Save Energy (Earth Works Press). She read to me today that if every homeowner in the U.S. cut back their thermostat 6 degrees, we would save 570,000 barrels of oil a day. We’ve cut our heat back at home to 62 degrees, for Sarah’s generation’s sake. I recently told the Chronicle Telegram newspaper that I don’t want our children inheriting a world of global warming. Quip: How do “KEEP OFF THE GRASS” signs get there?