Social Justice – Page 4 – The Future is Open

February 9, 2020

A day to remember

There is not a February 8th that goes by that I don’t remember graduating from the US Navy Hospital Corps School in Great Lakes. With that on my mind earlier today I drove to St. Bonaventure University with a load of groceries in the rear of my car. I was joining a group of Franciscans and other members of the St. Bonaventure University community to assemble food packages to be sent to the Arizona-Mexico border.

On my way to the campus my car started making some scary noises and lights appeared on the console to let me know that something was seriously wrong. I slowed down and drove along the shoulder of the road and arrived at the campus of St. Bonaventure and unloaded my groceries. Br. Joe Kotula, OFM drove me to a local repair shop where mechanics quickly determined that my car needed a new wheel bearing. Joe drove us back to the campus and when we arrived we were joined by dozens of volunteers who took hundreds and perhaps thousands of dollars worth of energy bars, meat sticks, and other snacks and placed them in large plastic bags along with a greeting in Spanish and English. Each note was signed by a volunteer who packed the bags. In all three-hundred-fifty-two plastic bags were filled with snacks and other goodies. They filled 15 shipping boxes and were shipped to Elfrida, AZ. There these care packages will be taken to the US – Mexican border and given to migrants who need some love and care.

This wonderful venture was inspired by Br. Joe who recently returned from three weeks that he spent with the Franciscan Intentional Community in Elfrida who make regular trips to the border to help migrants and recent immigrants on both sides of the border. Before we started packing and after we were through Br. Joe shared his personal journey to the border along with great photographs of the people he met, the conditions he observed and the thirty foot high border wall which is being constructed along our southern border to keep immigrants out. In some places the border wall is topped with concertina wire designed to seriously injure anyone who would attempt to scale and climb over the wall. Joe’s voice was choked with emotion as he described the experiences he had on both sides of the border and of the horrific plight that these migrants face and the reasons that they are gathering at our border.

As I helped pack bags and worked in assembly line fashion with the dozens of volunteers my eyes filled with tears and I knew that we were truly doing God’s work. Immigration is a serious problem. That’s for sure but there must be a more humane way to deal with it. One of the stories that Br. Joe shared was of an migrant boy who threw stones over the wall and how one of the border guards killed the boy with his weapon. The guard shot through the wall into Mexico and after killing the boy refilled his weapon and shot the dead person some more. What motivates a person to do that? The boy was wrong. He should not have thrown stones over the wall, but does it justify murder in cold blood?

For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors forever and ever. — Jeremiah 7:5-7

I hope that our efforts with BonaResponds today helped to atone for the way we are currently treating the aliens in our midst.

November 27, 2013

No To An Economy of Exclusion

Thank you Pope Francis for the words of your exhortation, Evangelli Gaudium. You have spoken powerfully. In his own way this pope has touched the lives of millions of people around the world who have been praying for a prophetic voice. When Jorge Mario Bergoglio was selected as the successor to St. Peter few people realized the effect this humble man would have on not only the Catholic Church but the world in general. I remember the morning prior to his selection that I prayed that we could have a pope who spoke with a prophetic voice like John XXIII. My prayers have been more than answered. This is only part of his Apostolic Exhortation, but it’s been getting a lot of press because it challenges the status quo. Many times since March 13, 2013 I have thought, “Gaudium Magnum, Habemus Papam.” Thank you for answering our prayers, Holy Father!

53. Just as the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say “thou shalt not” to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills. How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion. Can we continue to stand by when food is thrown away while people are starving? This is a case of inequality. Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape.

Human beings are themselves considered consumer goods to be used and then discarded. We have created a “disposable” culture which is now spreading. It is no longer simply about exploitation and oppression, but something new. Exclusion ultimately has to do with what it means to be a part of the society in which we live; those excluded are no longer society’s underside or its fringes or its disenfranchised – they are no longer even a part of it. The excluded are not the “exploited” but the outcast, the “leftovers”.

54. In this context, some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting. To sustain a lifestyle which excludes others, or to sustain enthusiasm for that selfish ideal, a globalization of indifference has developed. Almost without being aware of it, we end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other people’s pain, and feeling a need to help them, as though all this were someone else’s responsibility and not our own. The culture of prosperity deadens us; we are thrilled if the market offers us something new to purchase; and in the meantime all those lives stunted for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they fail to move us.

October 29, 2013

The Warming House Needs Bread

The Warming House in Olean, New York is the nation’s oldest student run soup kitchen. It provides meals six days a week to the neediest in the Olean area who find their way to our tables. It serves more than 12,000 meals annually. Each day volunteers from St. Bonaventure University and the local community assemble and prepare a nutritious meal for our guests. The Warming House is well stocked with food donated by various groups and individuals in the Olean area. So why does the Warming House need bread? We need bread to pay the rent which costs $1500 per month. We’re asking that you consider a small gift to help us continue this tremendous gift to the community. We need a thousand people to donate $1.50 each month to cover that expense. We seek to build relationships with those that we serve by respecting their human dignity and by helping them to restore hope in their lives. Please help us to continue in that work.

Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. – 2 Corinthians 9:7

Those of you who wish to contribute may contact Maggie Morris, Warming House Coordinator at 716-375-7813 or Email. Please share this opportunity with your friends on social networks. Peace!

June 8, 2013

Ready to Rally

In a few hours I will join other educators from around New York State at a rally at the state Capitol to protest the current destructive policy of subjecting our students to relentless testing. Since the Truman Report in 1947 nearly every president has had something to say about public education. Many of these commissions while well intentioned have concluded that we are a nation at risk due to a poor system of public education. The most recent iteration of this political focus has been the Common Core.

The Common Core State Standards provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them. The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers. With American students fully prepared for the future, our communities will be best positioned to compete successfully in the global economy.

— Mission Statement from Common Core

Despite the good intention of the policy and even those who crafted it the result has been the emergence of a high stakes testing environment that is actually destroying public and private education in New York State and elsewhere with its over reliance on testing. This culture of stress and testing is harming our students who are the future of our country. I’ve never seen children so stressed and at such an early age.

I’ve long been an advocate for social justice and this is one of the issues that cries out for those of us who can speak and can rally to be a voice for those who cannot. Today those of us who have come to Albany, New York will rally for the hundreds of thousands of students and teachers who could not come. We stand in the gap on behalf of our beleaguered constituents. The prophet Ezekiel gave voice to this thousands of years ago.

“I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land.

Ezekiel 22:30

Today we join the prophets of old as we stand in the gap on behalf of teachers and students everywhere and implore the policy makers to end this oppressive plague upon our children and our schools.