*Column appeared weekly in the News Democrat newspaper in Brown County, Ohio. FIELD OF DREAMS- AMISH STYLEIn our travels through southern Illinois last week, we came across a "Field of Dreams," if you will. A baseball diamond in the middle of a corn field, some donated bases, and this funky wooden concession stand with peppers - I'll get to that.Now, instead of Kevin Costner hearing the "If you build it, they will come" thing; this time it was several Amish guys who heard the voice(s) of a couple of their cousins. The cousins, who were in their mid-20s, played in a couple organized softball leagues. But they felt they needed a diamond for some "low key games" where everyone could participate.Gary Schlabach had some land out next to his corn field, and brothers Lamar and Ronnie, and a number of others, chipped in some grounds keeping help, backstop construction, and so on. On Memorial Day, 1999, the first game was played. Some 15 guys participated that day.There were rules. The main one: "Anyone could play." Lamar Schlabach said there's, sometimes, an insular aspect to Amish life. That is, sometimes Amish hang out with Amish. However, the ball field was for Amish, "English," anyone who wanted to play.In fact, Hispanics would probably feel right at home at the field, especially at the concession stand. Several years prior, a local Amish craftsman had built a rather smart looking wooden concession cart for an Hispanic fellow to use for a downtown stand in Indianapolis. The guy never picked it up. "Itch Field" (there's some mosquitoes) adopted it, acrylic painted peppers, and all.Lamar said the Amish community, just like any other community, has troubled youth. And because of the rather quiet Amish lifestyles, the Amish kids sometimes need outlets."You can't bring a kid into the world, then offer him no outlet for his youth," said Lamar. And the field is more than merely an outlet. It's a reflection of a life, it seems to me, that is a lot more sane, a lot more spiritually balanced.Another rule at Itch Field: Anyone can play, at any position. Sides are chosen by merely counting off. If a 12 year old kid, has, say, an 8 mph fast ball, and wants to pitch an inning, he pitches. Also, another kid, who enjoys playing first, is somewhat developmentally disabled. He won't field ground balls because his place is right on the bag. No one objects. And he gets to play as much as he wants.In a world primarily possession oriented and achievement driven, how often do we see this at a corporation, for instance? That is, along side a highly skilled computer programmer you see a developmentally disabled person learning and working the best they can. A place where some profit margin is sacrificed for, well, love, relationship building, social justice... Lamar said the games at Itch Field are "competitive, but not that competitive."Also, letting everyone play at Itch Field, could well be a metaphor for letting everyone "play" in society. Instead of parlaying more money into bigger ventures that squeeze more of the competition out, maybe being "competitive, but not that competitive" is about being content with an "adequate" lifestyle, staying somewhat small, and allowing other businesses to "play" too.Maybe if there were Itch Fields, with Itch rules, in towns all across the country, kids would learn a saner, more balanced way to approach business, and for that matter, life.Note: The last game of the summer, more than 150 ball- players and fans participated at the Itch. The concession stand all but paid for itself that day.
PEACEWORKS STANDS FOR SOCIAL JUSTICEWe came across the non-profit organization Peaceworks in Columbia, Mo., last week. It's a grassroots educational organization that's vision is: ... "an ecologically sound, sustainable world, and a violence free community, in which human equality and justice flourish." Columbia's Peaceworks spokesperson Mark Haim said the local membership is about 500 families, and the organization is continually working for social change through public education, advocacy and fellowship.The night we arrived in Columbia we attended a Peaceworks sponsored talk on Third World sweatshops at the University of Missouri campus. Global Exchange spokesperson Media Benjamin said it would take a Nike Company worker in Indonesia two and a half months of wages to afford one pair of company shoes; while Nike's CEO, Benjamin said, is worth $5 billion."There's something wrong with this system," said Benjamin.An MU campus arm of Peaceworks is organizing strategies, including protests, to get the college to buy clothes (that carry the MU emblem) only from companies that offer a "living wage" and other basic human rights to their workers.Peaceworks also has a number of regular volunteers to help with things like the operation of their downtown store PeaceNook.While at the store, I interviewed volunteer Sharon Lee. She has been a volunteer the past six years, and is particularly interested in things that contribute to "sustainable living." (Peaceworks offers a rather comprehensive series of classes on sustainable living, said Haim).Lee said in her evolution toward sustainable living, her and her husband grow an organic garden; recycle; com- post; use alternative medication (herbs, etc.); use bicycles (she's 66, he's 65) as their main mode of transportation."We come from a generation that believes that since we're Americans, we have a right to use up the world," she said. "We don't. "The following night I attended a Peaceworks sponsored talk by Native American Tom Bedonie, who is traveling the country to raise awareness about what he says is the unfair, if not unconscionable, relocation of the Dine (a traditional Navajo tribe in Hoteville, Ariz.). It is reported energy companies interested in extracting coal from the land the Dine currently are living on have created pressure for the relocation (for some 10,000 people). Bedonie said it is a travesty the US's insatiable demand for electricity creates such devastating human rights violations.Traditional Navajos, because of cultural, family and spiritual reasons, don't want to give up their land and people around the country are now mobilizing to help.This night at Peaceworks, people donated money, volunteered to do advocacy woding against what they believe is unfair relocation, standing for, for that matter, sustainable living... Wouldn't it be something in this country if the real enemy for everyone was poverty and human rights issrk, and some are even considering traveling to Arizona to help.As I walked the several blocks back to our motor home after the event this night, I thought back over the last three days. People standing against unfair Third World labor practices; standing against what they believe is unfair relocation, standing, for that matter, for sustainable living... wouldn't it be something in this country if the real enemy for everyone was poverty and human rights issues worldwide?
YUCCA MOUNTAIN IDEA IS "YUCKY"I've found the key to not wiping out Generation Z.But first, some background.Some time this month [2/02], Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham has indicated he will present a formal plan to bury 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain in Armargosa Valley, Nevada.Negative sentiment in this "three corner" (Nev., Ariz., Calif.) area is running high. People are concerned about accidents.For instance, a truck carrying nuclear waste cargo could get a flat and crash. It happens.Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn thinks it could happen. And, as he so eloquently put it to Abrahams: "I think the decision stinks..."During a recent trip to this area, Mohave Valley Community College geophysics professor John Squibb told me a few other reasons the idea might 'stink.'First, there's always the possibilty of a geological fault-line and/or volcanic activity developing in this area. They happen too -- in the darndest places. And if an earthquake ever, say, hit this area, it would be Chernobyl with an exponent -- a big exponent. The exponent would be on these figures: Chernobyl's 1986 nuclear power plant meltdown created fall-out that was greater than any single atomic bomb explosion, ever. According to the book The Chernobyl Disaster, the carcinogenic particles that fell over a good deal of Europe from the accident could shorten the lives of up to 100,000 people in the next half century. Back on this continent, professor Squibb said, earthquake or not in the Yucca Mountain region, another major problem is the waste containment vessels won't outlast the nuclear reactions they contain.One would have to ask on this one: What the heck was going on with this thought process?I asked the professor if there was a safer place to dispose of the nuclear waste. He said the Mohoravcic Zone of Discontinuity. I asked him to spell that, twice. Then I asked him where that was, pretty sure it wasn't a suburb of L.A.Professor Squibb said the Mohoravcic Zone was extremely deep in the earth. What's more, he said this wasn't his idea. He said it was told to him by Dr. Dixie Lee Ray, former Atomic Energy Secretary for the Nixon and Ford Administrations.She said what was being considered at the time was to drill a hole in a desert region (area with little aquatic life) of the Pacific Ocean near North America. The hole would extend to the Mohoravcic Zone, with a bunch of reinforcing material to make it as safe as possible.Then the nuclear waste would be injected into the hole to a point where the North American platelet (which is in slow, continual motion) would fold it over into the core of the earth. Professor Squibb explained the core of the earth is radiocative and this nuclear waste would safely dissolve into the other atoms there. After I got the professor to repeat this, even more times than I had him repeat how to spell Mohoravcic, I asked him why this hadn't been done.He said, "primarily, cost."It would cost much more for this tremendously deep ocean hole than to simply bury the nuclear waste in the mountain.An ethics question: If the current American citizenry's corner, and cost, cutting on this nuclear waste issue leads to the deaths of future Americans, have we committed a crime? Then again, who's going to have to worry about prosecution, huh?A spiritual question: When God said, "Thou shalt not kill.", did He just mean while we were alive?Note: While talking about this topic with a reporter at the Kingman (Ariz.) Daily Miner newspaper recently, he told me he thought it would be safer just to bury the nuclear waste close to each nuclear power plant site. I said what would be even safer still, would be not to have nuclear power plant sites in the first place.
Column01

Joe's Column

more...

back...

"ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP" (and TOADS) IN NORTH CAROLINAToward the start of this tour, we stopped at the Silk Hope Catholic Worker Community in the outskirts of Siler City, North Carolina. On one and a half acres, this is one of the best land utilization models weve seen in the country.At Silk Hope, we talked with Dan Schwankl who had recently written an article on the concept of perma-culture for the communitys newspaper.Schwankl, who has a degree in Sustainable Agriculture from Central Carolina Community College, explains permaculture is short for: permanent agriculture. And he wrote that the principles of permaculture focus on how well a land design uses energy (your energy, the sun, the water, the wind). And how do the elements work together so that relationships between plants and animals aid the rest of the system?He used the example of a design that used ponds, chickens, vegetable gardens and orchards all in close proximity to on another.Toads who like the moist banks of the ponds during the day come into the gardens at night and can each eat up to ten pounds of insects a month. When they go back into the water during the day to keep cool, their poop helps fertilize the pond bed. Duckweed grows easily on the pond surface and, thanks to the nutrient rich pond water, can be skimmed off and used as a protein rich food source for the chickens.If the orchard is connected to the chicken coop, Schwankl writes, the chickens can fertilize the orchard yard; and as they scratch for bugs to feed themselves theyll keep insect levels low.All the while, the people who live in this well designed system get fresh eggs, vegetables, fruit, fish and meat without the need of bringing in fertilizers (provided by the chicken manure), pesticides (bugs eaten by frogs and chickens), or herbicides (chickens eat weed seed). The variations of permaculture are virtually endless.But Schwankls point is: All people, not just farmers, need to be open to seeing these patterns in order for more food to be grown in areas where it is currently trucked in (often thousands of miles) from outside. Permaculture is not just for people in the country who have acres and acres of land. People can design and grow things in the space they have.In the space Silk Hope has (again, one and a half acres), they have a fruit tree grove, a greenhouse, chickens, raspberries, black berries and grapes, extensive organic garden beds, a compost area, a wild bird habitat And nestled in between are three small, quite energy efficient homes with composting toilets, solar shower, wood stovesIt is, I believe, environmental stewardship at its best.And why is all this so important?Because with the advent of industrialization, urbanization, suburbanization weve significantly shifted our focus away from a small, agrarian based society with good utilization of the land. And whats more, weve significantly moved away from our connectedness to the land.This is not only tragic environmentally and interpersonally its sin. By the wholesale bulldozing of the natural environment and artificially carpeting it with concrete and chemically treated sod were killing the eco-system, one-acre, one yard, at a time.And in the face of the damage thats already been done, in choosing not to restore the environment in the form of varying degrees of permaculture on our properties, we are further committing the sin of omission.And if that isnt bad enough, we point to idle (read: another sin, as in: idle hands) non-life-giving pastimes like restoring a classic vehicle, watching hours of TV, playing card games on the computer as excuses not to put time into life-giving things like working in a garden or establishing a Backyard Habitat. Like my friend Ted Zawistoski did.A probation officer in Cleveland, when Teds 9 to5 was done each day, you could often find him, his wife Marge, and daughter Karen out working in their half-acre backyard in North Olmsted, a suburb of Cleveland.Ohio (as do many states) has a Backyard Habitat Program. Regional consultants tell you about plants and animals indigenous to your area. With this information, the Zawistoskis planted trees, bushes and other plants that provide natural habitat for some of Northeastern Ohios natural species. In addition, the Zawistoskis planted a rather big garden and maintained two beehives.The family proudly displays a framed document certifying that they (like 20,000 other Ohioans so far) have met the requirements necessary to be an official Backyard Habitat.And Im sure if God were giving them out, there would be another document on the Zawistoski wall certifying the family was, indeed, official Environmental Stewards.
ADEQUATE HOUSING...… FOR EVERYONE IN THE WORLDWe traveled to Habitat for Humanity National Headquarters in Americus, Georgia, where poverty, and hope, come alive.Walking into the headquarters office, you are greeted with an extremely large picture. It doesnt say where the picture was taken. It could have been taken in practically any Third World country.It is a panoramic of a slum.Cracker box shacks slapped together with cardboard, rusty tin and rotting wood. Each small room (read: house) pushes up against the next. Garbage is strewn everywhere, with open sewage running through the streets. Kids play in the streets.Children living in poverty are five times more likely to die by age 5, a sign by the picture reads.rats, roaches, mosquitoes and spiders come up through the holes in the floor, another sign reads. Our children are constantly ill. They cant eat well, or study well.Yet another sign, a bigger one above it all, reads: More than 1.2 billion people live in absolute poverty.Thats a lot.Even one person living in absolute poverty is too much for the Habitat Program. Its goal is to provide adequate housing for everyone in the world.So far, Habitat has provided 2 million homes for 10 million people around the globe, site manager Linda Mills told us during a tour of an extensive, mock Third World slum built on the grounds here.It was an uncharacteristically blustery January day in Georgia. With the wind chill it was maybe 15 degrees. In each of the tiny dwellings, the cold wind whistled through slats in the wood and open windows. (The windows are open because there is no glass).Probably not unlike the wind that whistles through similar slums in, say, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the UkraineIn one tiny home our children briefly lied down in a small bunk bed, with tree branch legs and small wooden boards. Dirty blankets covered the boards. There were no mattresses.Ms. Mills said volunteers from all over the country came to Americus to build the mock slum here over a two-year period. Like those in the Third World, they gleaned building material (rusty metal sheets, old wood, old bent nails) from dumps and the side of the road.And what they have done is striking.So striking, in fact, a grandmother from a middle class farm family in Kentucky broke down in tears.My goodness, people have to live like this? Ms. Mills said the woman gasped when she saw it.Thousands of people have come to Americus to see this display in the past several years. And for many, it has poignantly touched their heartstrings as well.So much so, Habitat now has a steady stream of volunteers (individuals, church groups, college groups) who go all over the world to help build adequate housing. Ms. Mills said Habitat now sponsors Volunteer Vacation Trips to build homes in 50 different countries.And some of these homes are on display at the Americus site as well.As you walk out of the slum area here, you are greeted with a stark contrast, and some hope. More volunteers have built a series of homes that replicate the kind of Habitat homes going up in the Third World.Homes like a brightly colored, one-story stucco design that regularly go up in Mexico, or a two-story wooden frame design that would be built in Sri Lanka, or a one story brick one (where the volunteers make their own bricks) in Tanzania All the homes are quite modest by American standards, but an absolute dream to many in the Third World.Whats more, Ms. Mills said many of the homes Habitat builds in the Third World cost less than $2,000. (And there is a donor program on their website to help subsidize these.)Ms. Mills ended the tour by telling me she believed the mock slum here, even without the open sewers and sound of crying and dying babies, has, indeed, helped increase empathy for the plight of the poor in other parts of the world. In the near future, she said Habitat is planning to allow people to sleep in the slum here over night to experience some of this poverty even more.I couldnt help but think for those who cant make it to Americus, any tin lawn shed (with the windows open and no mattresses and dirty blankets) would do. Yet even at that, many of these American lawn sheds would still be tremendously better accommodations than those in the slums of Uganda, Haiti, Guatemala
HIGHER EDUCATION?Is a lot of higher education today really higher education?That is, would God approve?It seems anymore, most college brochures scream something to the affect of: Come to XYZ University, Where the Path to a Bright Future (read: Path to the New Lexus) Begins!Translated even more: It is all about: money.But not at the University of Dayton.UD, a Catholic school in Southwest, Ohio, is on the leading edge of helping students consider the lives they lead, the work they choose, as: vocations. And the program, for instance, is propelling students on Spring Breaks to one of the poorest areas in New Mexico; on social justice summer trips to rural South America; on fall semester outreach excursions into Daytons inner cityIn the current society, students feel so much pressure to make money, Chaminade Scholars Program Director Maura Skills told me.However, UDs elective program helps orient students to look in a broader context toward the: common good of all.Credit courses in this program have students looking at such topics as: how to build communities that will positively impact society; and, how to use prayer in discernment of career (including a trip to St. Meinrad Seminary in Indiana to study how the monks there use contemplative prayer).Now how youd actually grade prayer is another thing, butIf, for instance, a UD student has a passion about helping end world poverty, they are encouraged to explore ways their talents, untied with, say, an international aid agency, may help impact this global issue.Like what happened with Allen Schulze.Allen had been in the Chaminade Program for three years. He was majoring in engineering. The summer of his third year, he chose to wave going back to his hometown to work in a high-tech factory for good money and a chance to hone more of his skills; instead opting for a low-tech job volunteering with Ethos Engineering in Nicaragua and Bolivia.Allen explained to me that people in the rural areas of these countries often cook in their small dwellings with open fires that are not vented. This causes many severe burns, especially to children, and a tremendous amount of respiratory problems.As an answer to this, Allen said Ethos Engineering (an international aid agency) shows people how to design and install closed, ceramic stoves, that are insulated with pumice and vented out of the dwelling. While the stoves are somewhat rudimentary by American standards, Allen said they are a marked improvement from the open fires.And as Allen chose to spend the summer in South America, other Chaminade students recently chose to spend their Spring Break, not partying in Key West, but rather working in Lumberton, New Mexico (no postcards, or anything) in an economically depressed area near an Indian Reservation.Chaminade students have also been involved in any number of service learning projects around the Dayton area, including helping at a homeless shelter, in a community garden, at a Boys & Girls ClubAs I listened to all this, I couldnt help but think how much better off wed be as a society, wed be as a world, if similar elective programs were instituted at every college in America.And if this became the case, I also couldnt help but think how the term higher education would take on a much richer meaning.That is, richer when it came to the common good, for everyone.
Column 3

Joe's Column

back...

IF A TREE FALLS IN THE FOREST, AND WE KNOW ABOUT IT...If everyone in the United States recycled their newspapers, we would save 500,000 trees: every week! Let that one sink in.This quote is from the book On Beyond A Million (An Amazing Math Journey), which my young children are currently studying. (Who needs to rifle through reams of Bureau of Statistics data, when ya got the Childrens Library, huh.)Now, the alarming increase in lack of trees globally is causing some major eco-system problems. Not the least of which being: mankinds possible extinction.According to Simon & Schusters Guide to Trees, the process of photosynthesis (which, in large part, takes place in tree leaves), makes the development and preservation of life possible on earth.Let that one sink in, too.Photosynthesis is, basically, a leafs ability to absorb carbon dioxide (which is being emitted all over the place now with the burning of fossil fuels in cars, in factories); and the leafs ability to give off oxygen. A biggie if youre a species that breathes air, like us.The irony is that the current enemy to all this (a few beavers notwithstanding) is none other than: us.Environmental historian Alfred Crosby once asked: Are human beings to be viewed as part of nature, and therefore as a legitimate element of any ecosystem to which they choose to attract themselves? Or are they, because of their inherent selfishness, hubristic sense of superiority and unrivalled capacity for manipulation, an inevitably alien and malevolent (bad) ingredient in ecosystems that have evolved in their absence. (Well, I dont get all my research from Childrens Library sections.)And weve developed all these problems because weve developed an addiction to news (sports, funnies, business) pages; or rather, read: information glut. But its not just addiction to news. The real problem, I think, has been addiction to: anything.Money, for instance.While in Rawlins, Wyoming last year, Bureau of Land Management representative Mark Williams told me the early pioneers essentially clear cut the entire eastern U.S. (never mind the Brazilian rainforest situation), to create, primarily, as much farm land as possible to be able to make as much money as possible.No thought of conservation.No thought of moderation.Addiction.So what do we do in the here and now?Share newspapers with neighbors and plant trees.Nebraska City, Nebraska (pop. 7,000) is being part of the tree solution. On a trip there several years ago, we learned Nebraska City had established a Tree Board, marshaled a good number of volunteers and have set out to plant 10,000 trees there over 10 years.However, short of a Tree Board and teams of volunteers, all you really need is: a yard, some baby trees, and some time.Time youve saved, perhaps, from the curbing your news addiction by cutting back on reading your newspapers Forum Section, which generally doesnt provide much in the way of things to read, except of course, this column.
HOP ON THE BUS GUSIf you take the bus, not only is it a better route to the corner of Euclid and East 9th Street -- but its a better spiritual route as well.In Mobile, Alabama they are trying to get all kinds of people to take the bus. Not so much for spiritual reasons, as for common sense ones.As greater Mobile grows, roadways are increasingly getting clogged with traffic, and bad ozone above the city is increasing as well.If more people took buses, well, common sense would say that these things would decrees.And this was one of the subjects at a Transportation Forum put on in Mobile recently. Don Domico, from Fair Hope, Alabama attended the forum.He said it was noted, more than once, that a highly improved area bus transportation system, and in turn, many more people riding the bus, would significantly solve some of Mobiles transportation dilemmas.One problem.It was also noted at the forum that most suburbanites will not take buses until theres a perceptual change about bus riding in general.Namely, its the poor that ride the bus.And Id have to say, currently, thats for the most part right.The family and I just took the #326 Bus into downtown Cleveland. It starts in a far west side suburb and heads east along Detroit Avenue. We got on the bus in Lakewood after it had already gone through a couple good-sized, well off suburbs.The bus was almost empty when we got on.However as we got closer and closer to Cleveland, the bus started to fill up with, for the most part, what society would consider the marginalized. It filled up with people dressed in mismatched thrift store fashion, old, brown plastic-framed eye wear, dirty baseball caps. A young mother across the isle clutched the handle of a rather worn baby stroller. A man who smelled like he hadnt had a shower in the last week sat down next to me. He carried a heavy box of glass framed, Cleveland Indian plaques that he told me he sold from street corner to street corner to get by. I asked a bit more about that, had him show my son Joseph one of the plaques, then donated some money to him, not for the plaque (My wife says professional sports are the tool of the devil.), but just to help.He smiled. And you could tell this man, who has to hawk his wares in the face of much rejection, was genuinely touched, not only with this unsolicited donation, but with our family taking the time to get to know him a bit.Whats more, if we had ridden this particular #326 bus more (we happened to just be visiting Lakewood this day), we would have strove to get to know this man even better. And as we did get to know him better, perhaps would have learned a lot more about more ways to help. Maybe he needed money for rent, or even a room in our house. And/or, maybe he needed to further his education or get some mental health counseling, and we could have helped with that. And maybe he needed some caring, long-term friends -- as do many of the poor.My wife Liz, who at one time worked on a public relations campaign to get more people to ride the bus in Wellington, New Zealand, said evoking the perceptual change meant having people think more about the environment, or the fun of riding with other yuppies (young urban professionals) to work, orWhereas I think a better strategy is to appeal to ones sense of: spirituality. For instance, many of the early Christians were inspired to live together, sharing everything in kind, so: no one was in need.So if I want to live the spirit of that Bible passage, do I stay cloistered in my comfortable suburb, and in my comfortable car (spewing greenhouse gases); or do I move out of my comfort zone, get to really know those in need then help them.And what better way to get to know those in need in America than on the #326.Or as singer Paul Simon would sing:Hop on the bus, Gus.
ON REFUGEES AND LIBERIAN CLEVELAND INDIANS FANSAccording to U.N. figures, there are a staggering 13 million people living in refugee camps around the world. And there would be more, if it werent for Cleveland, Ohio. And Ill get to Cleveland in a minute.The refugees have been driven out their homes, sometimes their countries, by: civil war, by political oppression, by natural disaster.The refugees live in tents, no running water, no sanitation and no windows for that matter. Adults and children swelter in camps in the Sudan summer (genocide all around). They shiver in camps in the Afghan winter (suicide bombers all around).Yet through a compassionate emerging network, some refugees are getting out, thanks to cities like Cleveland, and people like Bill Merrimen.A former mailman, and current deacon at St. Patricks Church on the near west side here, Merrimen told me Clevelands Migrant Refugee Office, in tandem with non-profit agencies like Catholic Charities, help arrange safe passage and more help for the refugees when they get to their respective neighborhoods.The most recent set of new arrivals to Cleveland have been families from violence-racked Liberia.Merrimen said its been quite a transition.One day people are at a refugee camp in 100 degree weather; then the next day they are on a plane (often for the first time) flying over an ocean, and then landing in the middle of a Cleveland winter almost enough to make anyone want to go back.Yet they stay. And it gets even more boggling.Refugees coming from Liberia, Somalia, Rwanda are brought into a home where you flip a switch and, magically (to them), a light comes on.Electricity. What is electricity? They'll ask amazed.And they will soon be as amazed with the generosity that surrounds them. The Migrant Refugee Office and the non-profits will help the new arrivals connect with such social services as Medicaid, food stamps, English language classes And while this formal networking is going on, Merrimen and others help arrange getting furniture donations, blankets for the kids, additional food.Merrimen talked of one church that brought regular meals to a refugee family until they were able to get on their feet. Then there was a nun who volunteered time to teach sewing to some of the refugee women so they could, not only repair the family clothes; but start small cottage industries.Eventually, as Merrimen said he has seen time and again, the adult arrivals find work, get off Welfare roles, and start giving back to the city. (In fact, some circles of the city have so embraced these new arrivals that, in gratitude, many of the Liberians have become Cleveland Indians fans in return. No small thing, given the teams record the last few seasons.)Whats more, as the refugees get established, they also start up informal networks of support for other new arrivals.Everybody wins.Everybody, except of course, the circles of people in Cleveland (and elsewhere in America) who arent helping these refugees on some level, whether here or over there.Example: Refugee camps, almost all refugee camps, are short on food. And news reports in the past couple years have chronicled cases of parents in Afghan refugee camps (and other camps), selling their children for as little as $30 in American money so the other children in the family could eat, for a month.Anybody remember the last time you and the family spent 30 bucks on dinner at Applebees Restaurant, without a thought?Bill Merrimen told me he doesnt eat out hardly at all.The money could be much better spent.He said helping these refugees is, ultimately, what the gospel message, in its essence, calls for: to welcome strangers.But how welcoming is God going to think we were, if we continue to sit in the Applebees, air-conditioned dining room eating steak in Cleveland; while a little child goes hungry in a sweltering tent in the Sudan?Especially when the $30 youre about to spend on your family for that one meal at Applebees -- could even determine whether that little Sudanese child will ever see his or her family again.To help, see: Refugees International, or Bill Merrimen.
HomeAbout JoeFamilyJoeismsUpdatePolicies in ShortPolicy PapersPolicy Papers2QuotesPodcastsTheme SongsBlogJoe TVNewsHandoutsFacebookTour MapsTours 2Tours 3Road PhotosRoad Photos 2Special ExtrasHelp UsDonateBooks and GearContactArticles