Albany Times Union: Death penalty is not the right choice Suicides at Guantanamo Bay prison lead to renewed calls to close the facility.  Mainline leaders urge Congress to reject budget cuts Abramoff scandal could have been avoided... A Call for Free and Unfettered Pulpits Federal budget is ‘beyond redemption,’ bishop says A matter of honor. On the matter of torture.... Rosa Parks:  A seat on the bus... A note from Judy Shepard Presiding Bishop thanks Senator John McCain BUDGETS ARE MORAL DOCUMENTS: Jim Wallis Hurricane Katrina-Our Experiences.  Larry Bradshaw, Lorrie Beth Slonsky What the waters have revealed. by Jim Wallis Criminal justice requires united effort, Means says.  By Val Hymes CHANGING LIFE:  "Gonhue, who was pregnant with her now 2-year-old daughter at the time, changed her life. She has been drug-free since her diagnosis, and works at the Damien Center in Albany preparing meals for its visitors."  Read the Gazette article. Click on any of the above, or just scroll down the page.

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Albany Times Union Oct 12

Albany Times Union, Thursday, October 12, 2006
Death penalty is not the right choice
 
 
By WALTER AYERS

   Reports of last week's murders of Amish schoolchildren shocked the nation, but perhaps even more surprising to many was the reaction of the Amish themselves in asking us to pray for the family of the murderer.

   The Amish believe they must forgive, and that to withhold forgiveness is sinful, the Times Union quoted Voorheesville resident Dennis Sullivan, who is editor of Contemporary Justice Review, as saying.

Such a reaction may be incomprehensible to those who favor the death penalty, but as someone who has had a family member murdered, I can testify that there is a growing awareness of the futility of capital punishment and the need for forgiveness in our lives.

   In the four years since my cousin's 21-year-old granddaughter Melissa was abducted and murdered, I have had the opportunity to meet members of other families who have suffered a similar loss, and who have chosen to oppose capital punishment for the people who murdered their loved ones.

   At one local gathering, I met Bud Welch, whose daughter Julie Marie was killed in the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. You can learn more about him at http://www.theforgivenessproject.com, where he writes: "In December 1998, after Tim McVeigh had been sentenced to death, I had a chance to meet (his father) Bill McVeigh at his home near Buffalo. I wanted to show him that I did not blame him. About a year before the execution I found it in my heart to forgive Tim McVeigh. It was a release for me rather than for him."

I also met Renny Cushing, a former New Hampshire legislator, whose father was murdered by a rogue police officer. Cushing is the executive director of Murder Victims Families for Human Rights.

   At another gathering, I spent time with local residents who have suffered a similar loss. Anthony Aversano of Troy talked about how his father died in the World Trade Center on 9/11, yet Aversano testified against the death penalty for Zacharias Moussaui, the one person convicted of involvement in the events of that terrible day.

   Marie Verzulli talked about the murder of her sister, one of several victims of a serial killer from Poughkeepsie. She is doing outreach to murder victims' families and friends for New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty, a group to which I also belong.

   We have shared dinners, shed tears and united in our opposition to the death penalty. That opposition is not out of a misplaced concern for murderers; rather, it is a realization that killing the killers does not bring closure. Whatever happens to the murderers, our loved ones still are dead.

   On the night I learned that Melissa's body had been recovered, three weeks after her abduction, I read the following passage in evening prayer for that day: "As I live, says the Lord God, I swear I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked man, but rather in the wicked man's conversion, that he may live" (Ezekiel,33:11).

As I pondered those words over the following days, my faith was tested. I realized that the New Testament gives us examples of forgiveness in practice: Jesus forgiving those responsible for his crucifixion (tradition holds that Saint Longinus is the Roman soldier who pierced Jesus with his spear and later became a martyr for the faith); Saint Paul converting from persecutor of Christians; and St. Stephen forgiving those who killed him.

   Not everyone who opposes the death penalty does so for love of Jesus, love of neighbor or belief in the redemption of the killers. Some are concerned with the conviction of innocent people: just last month, Jeffrey Mark Deskovic, convicted in 1991 of raping and killing a classmate at Peekskill High School, was released from prison after DNA proved he was not guilty.

   Others are aware of the discrepancies that lead to greater conviction rates for minorities, or for poor people who cannot afford a lawyer. Yet for all of us, the result is the same: we oppose the death penalty.

We want you to know where we stand, because, in light of the murder of a New York state trooper and horrors such as the killings at the Amish school, there will be renewed calls to reinstate the death penalty in New York. We ask you to join with us to ensure that never happens -- not in our name.

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Walter Ayres is chairman of the Commission on Peace and Justice for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, and a member of New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty.  All Times Union materials copyright 1996-2006, Capital Newspapers Division of The Hearst Corporation, Albany, N.Y.
 

 

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Guantanamo Bay

 

 

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budget_cuts_Jan_2006

Episcopal News Service
Monday, January 30, 2006

Mainline leaders urge Congress to reject budget cuts

Presiding Bishop and others decry reductions in programs serving working poor, children and elderly

[ENS] Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold and the leaders of four other mainline Christian denominations have called on Congress to defeat the fiscal year 2006 federal budget reconciliation spending reduction package due for a vote on February 1, saying it is harsher than even previously understood.

In early December, the five leaders said the version of the budget then under consideration failed to bring good news to the poor. They criticized Congress for making decisions they said "benefit the rich but are paid for by the poor and most vulnerable in our land."

The package now includes $39.7 billion in cuts over five years from poverty-reducing programs such as Medicaid, Medicare, child support enforcement, and student loans.

Griswold, along with Bishop Mark S. Hanson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Rev. Dr. Clifton Kirkpatrick of the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Rev. John Thomas of the United Church of Christ, and James Winkler of the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church, sent a letter January 29 to the House of Representatives as members were returning to Washington, D.C., for the President's State of the Union address on January 31. The five leaders represent nearly 20 million Christians.

The House is expected to consider the budget bill, now known as the Conference Report to S. 1932, on February 1 with a close vote expected.

Before adjourning for the Christmas recess, the Senate and House narrowly passed budget-reconciliation bills as part of the complicated and nearly year-long budget process. Following a round-the-clock session, the House passed the bill just after 6 a.m. on December 19. The vote was 212-206 with nine Republicans joining all Democrats in opposing the bill. Many members complained that they had little time to review the 700-page bill.

For the Senate's part, vice president Dick Cheney cut short a trip to the Middle East and returned to Washington, D.C., on December 21 to cast the tie-breaking vote, 51-50, for final passage.

The House must vote again because of changes in the bill.

Opponents have used the time since that vote to educate members about the bill's contents. One member, Rep. Rob Simmons (R-CT), an Episcopalian, has announced that after listening to constituents and learning the bill's full implications, he will now vote against the bill when it is considered on February 1.

The letter from the religious leaders applauds "those of you in both political parties who sought to prevent those living in the margins of society from bearing the greatest burden. We are deeply grateful that the Food Stamp Program was spared."

However, the leaders say that "the final legislation is harsher for those most vulnerable and in need than previously understood." They lay out a long list of harmful cuts and policy changes that will hurt many low and middle income Americans.

"[Y]ou now have an opportunity to redeem the image of Congress in the eyes of the nation by rejecting cuts to those who suffer in sickness, live in hunger, struggle in poverty, live in the cold and seek brighter futures through education," they write.

Maureen Shea, director of the Episcopal Church's Office of Government Relations, predicted another close vote.

"The grassroots faith community has been recognized for the important role it has played throughout 2005 in raising concerns about the budget," she said. "It is a role we will continue to play in 2006 as we again seek a budget that addresses those most in need."

The full text of the January 29 letter can be found online at: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3654_71303_ENG_HTM.htm.

A list of some of the most "egregious" cuts and policy changes that were included in the Conference Report to S. 1932, compiled by the Office of Government Relations, can be found at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3654_71300_ENG_HTM.htm

To see previous statements on the budget from the mainline leaders and Action Alerts from the Episcopal Public Policy Network, go to: www.episcopalchurch.org/eppn

Previous statements from the mainline leaders can be found at: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_59751_ENG_HTM.htm
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_65527_ENG_HTM.htm
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_70004_ENG_HTM.htm

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>From time to time, ENS provides information and resources which we consider to be of interest to our readers. However, statements and opinions expressed in the articles and communications herein, are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of ENS or the Episcopal Church.

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Abramoff scandal

NCC News

 

 

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A Call for Free and Unfettered Pulpits
 

A Call for Free and Unfettered Pulpits

Download A Call for Free and Unfettered Pulpits (PDF)
View Signatories.
Take Action - Sign the Call

All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California has been subjected to an extensive examination by the Internal Revenue Service, prompted by a sermon preached at All Saints just prior to the 2004 national election. In that sermon, Dr. George Regas, former rector of the Church, spoke out against the war. At no point in his sermon did he instruct the congregation to vote for either candidate. Instead, he challenged both candidates to reexamine their support for the preemptive war in Iraq in light of Christian teaching.

As a result of the audit, the IRS threatened to revoke the non-profit status of All Saints Church. After negotiations, they relented provided that the Church would confess its wrongdoing and promise not to repeat the "offense."

In their efforts to intimidate congregations like All Saints, the IRS has dangerously overstepped the boundary of the constitutional guarantees for the freedom of religion and the freedom of speech. Throughout the history of this country, indeed the history of humanity, preachers of every faith have answered their prophetic responsibility to call congregations to a faith-filled understanding of their times. It is from these courageous pulpits that a portion of the fabric of our nation was sewn. Religious leaders like William Penn, Jonathan Mayhew, Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson, Mary Dyer, Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, John Witherspoon, Sojourner Truth, Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Theodore Weld, Martin Luther King, Jr., William Sloane Coffin and countless others have held the plumb line of faith to our nation. The actions of the IRS threaten to unravel these defining moments and dismantle a vital portion of the loom upon which our national conscience and character is woven.

The First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees that: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

The limitations of the first amendment are on the government, not on the church.

We unequivocally condemn the blatantly political actions of the IRS and call upon all persons of faith to join us in our demand that the pulpits of this nation remain free and unfettered.

Statement prepared by

Nick Carter, President, Andover Newton Theological School, Newton Centre, MA
Joe Hough, President, Union Theological Seminary, New York, NY

11.11.05

For more information contact:

Karen Brockney
Director of Communications
Andover Newton Theological School
kbrockney@ants.edu
 

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A matter of honor

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Friday, November 04, 2005

Federal budget is ‘beyond redemption,’ bishop says

ENS 110405-1
 
[SOURCE: Episcopal Public Policy Network] Standing in the LBJ Room of the U.S. Capitol adjacent to the Senate floor, the Right Reverend F. Neff Powell, bishop of the Diocese of Southwestern Virginia, declared, “The current budget reconciliation package in Congress is quite frankly beyond redemption and should be abandoned.”

Bishop Powell spoke at a press conference November 2 with U.S. senators Max Baucus of Montana and Dick Durbin of Illinois to criticize the fiscal year 2006 federal budget reconciliation bill now before Congress. 

Also participating in the press conference were Judy Cato of Camp Springs, Maryland who formerly ran a home for low-income retired seniors and Medicare recipients, and Thomas G. Giessel, a life-long farmer from Larned, Kansas. Both raised objections to the package. 

The press conference was held as the Senate prepared to vote on the budget-reconciliation package this week with the House vote expected to follow next week.

The Senate narrowly passed its version for the budget on October 27, which includes $39 billion in cuts, including cuts to Medicaid, student aid, and farm subsidies while offering limited Hurricane Katrina relief. The House bill cuts $50 billion for programs serving the working poor, children and the elderly, including eliminating 300,000 individuals and families from nutritional assistance, 40,000 children from free or reduced-price lunch programs, and reducing care for 4,000 foster children.

If the House bill passes, the House and Senate bills will go to “conference” where differences will be ironed out. A final vote on any compromise measure is now expected before Thanksgiving. 

Since its introduction earlier this year, the budget targeted cuts affecting those most in need.  Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold and leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, United Methodist General Board of Church and Society, Presbyterian Church (USA), and United Church of Christ have questioned the budget’s priorities throughout the year.  They have been joined in their objections by the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. 

“Our concerns, however, have grown more urgent as we have seen the faces of poverty exposed during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita,” Powell said at the news conference. “And read the statistics on poverty contained in the most recent Census Bureau and Department of Agriculture reports; we now know that 37 million people in this nation lived in poverty in 2004 - 10 million of them children.”

Maureen Shea, director of the Episcopal Church’s Office of Government Relations in Washington, D.C. said that, “Episcopalians across the country have been heavily engaged in the budget issue. Letters to the editor and opinion pieces by members of the Episcopal Public Policy Network and our bishops, as well as calls and letters to key Members of Congress, are building a chorus of concern about this budget package.”

John Johnson, a domestic policy analyst in the government-relations office, explained that budget rules protect the reconciliation process from filibuster in the Senate and limit the amount of time the budget bill can be debated.

“In addition to hurting the working poor, children, and elderly of our nation, this budget reconciliation package threatens the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; drilling proponents were able to include Arctic drilling in the budget reconciliation package as a way to avoid filibuster in the Senate,” he said.

“Congress and the President must come together and focus on the poverty that exists across the nation, and not exacerbate poverty by passing a budget reconciliation bill that further impoverishes one group of poor people in order to help those impoverished or further impoverished by the hurricanes,” Powell said.

For further information on the church’s advocacy work on public policy, go to www.episcopalchurch.org/eppn. You can read a copy of “A Moral Choice for the United States: The Human Rights Implications for the Gwich’in of Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge,” a report done in partnership with the Episcopal Church at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3654_69063_ENG_HTM.htm

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A SEAT ON THE BUS, A SEAT AT THE TABLE

To the end of her life, Rosa Parks was beautiful: her radiant smile, the knowing snap of her black eyes, the braided coronet of her hair that went from coal black to white over the years. Her clothes were classic and understated, and you never saw a photograph of her in which she was not elegant.

But these things were details, not at all her main focus in life. She had more important things to think about than her hair or her clothing, and she thought about those important things for as long as she could think at all. The dangerous act of integrating the seating arrangements on Montgomery's public transportation was begun by this slight young woman and carried forward by thousands of people who walked, drove, bicycled, even skated to work and school -- got there any way they could that did not involve taking a city bus, and did it there for more than a year.

A lovely young woman, looking younger than her 42 years. A very young Dr. King -- we forget how young he was when all this was going on: he was only 39 when he was killed in 1968. We forget how young and how human they were: not supermen and superwomen, not without fault and not without error -- just human beings who understood their own worth and were brave enough to claim what they knew was theirs by right. And smart enough to know that the rightness of their cause would not by itself ensure its success, but that sheer numbers would, that you can't run a bus system if nobody rides the bus.

Depending on how you count, Mrs. Parks either had no children or millions of them. "The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement," she is often called, although she herself usually brushed that title aside. She was more interested in the movement. She knew that the movement had many fathers and many mothers, that it was in its unity that its strength and its future lay.

And in its children. Mrs. Parks feared that young people would take their freedoms for granted, would not remember what it had cost to win them. That their parents would be embarrassed to tell them how they used to live, about the colored restrooms and drinking fountains, the restaurants in which they could not eat, the car trips they planned carefully, carefully, so that there would be a colored motel to stay in, a colored gas station on the way, a place to pull over and have a picnic of food they brought themselves because there might be no place for a black person to buy any. About being cautioned never to look a white person in the eye. About yielding, always yielding, always giving place, no matter what.

White people didn't know the strength of the black community. Didn't know about its dedicated teachers, doctors, ministers, merchants and business people. Did not know about its reverence for education and civility. Did not know how self-sufficient it had been forced to become, and what that self-sufficiency would mean for the system of American apartheid that was beginning to show cracks.

But on December 1, 1955, when Rosa Parks refused to yield her seat on a city bus to a white man who demanded it, they were about to find out.


Copyright © 2005 Barbara Crafton - http://www.geraniumfarm.org

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A note from Judy Shepard

October 12, 2005

October 12 ^th 2005, is the seventh anniversary of my son Matthew's murder. His murder prompted unprecedented media coverage and focused the nation's attention on anti-gay hate crimes like never before. These past few weeks I have been thinking about what has changed - and what has not changed. What has been done to make our communities safe from violence resulting from anti-gay hate? I quickly learned my son's violent death was a fairly common occurrence. This prompted our family to create the Matthew Shepard Foundation and do our part to create a more respectful and caring culture free from hate. I have spent the past seven years traveling across the nation, speaking to schools, churches, anyone who will listen, to try and stem the tide of hate that is eating away at the fabric of our culture.

The number of hate crimes against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people has not varied much during the last five years. They remain the third highest category after race and religion. However, it is apparent that there are certain changes in the 'environment' that do impact hate crime activity. In New York City, every July, anti-gay violence usually increases by about 8% as people respond to the outreach programs and the visibility of the Pride celebrations. After the Lawrence v. Texas decision and the premiere of additional gay identified television shows, anti-gay violence in New York City rose 52%.

It's clear that in some ways, our nation has become a more accepting place. We have witnessed the progress of gay and lesbian rights with the recent Supreme Court decision, Lawrence v Texas. We have seen our neighbor to the North - Ontario, Canada - acknowledge same-sex marriages. They have recognized that same sex couples are as deserving of the same equal rights and responsibilities as heterosexual couples. We have seen gay adoptions increase. We have seen growing visibility, acceptance and understanding of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in our families, in the corporate world and in our culture.

However, we must also remember that there has been scant progress in areas of legislation and securing equal rights for the gay community. We continue to fight for hate crime legislation that will include sexual orientation, gender, and disability, and for federal job protection based on sexual orientation. Yes, you can be fired for being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender in 36 states of this nation. It is as if we are living in two Americas - one that tunes in to "Queer Eye for a Straight Guy" but turns a blind eye to the injustices gay and lesbian people still face.

It is evident that with progress comes the inevitable attack by those who are threatened by our work for justice and fairness. Visibility - whether in the media or being out of the closet if you are gay - can serve as an unfortunate catalyst. Those who are threatened by our community are threatened by these strides. In 2003, more than 30 cities and towns reported crimes against gays. The vast majority do not garner national headlines like my son's murder did. Sakia Gunn, a 15 year old lesbian was fatally stabbed in Newark, New Jersey on 5/11/03, F.C. Martinez, a Navajo, transgender 16-year old murdered in a bias motivated attack are two examples but the list goes on. We have so far to go, so much hate is out there. It must be acknowledged, addressed and erased before any of us are safe.

As we approach the anniversary of Matthew's murder it is appropriate to redouble my efforts to invoke a grassroots solution to this problem. It is a solution that begins with parents, educators, clergy and our communities as a whole. We have the opportunity to help our children understand and accept diversity before their school years begin and before hate can provoke violent actions. If we do our jobs correctly, it should never cross the minds of our children to harm someone, physically or emotionally, because of their gender, race, national origin, religion, disability or gender identity and expression.

Hate is a learned behavior. If a child is taught to hate and fear diversity, then the next place he or she expresses that hate is at school. Ten percent of all hate crimes occur at schools and colleges . Bullying in our nation's schools has resulted in countless acts of violence. The cycle continues until that child who is filled with hate becomes an adult citizen in your community and begins to teach others to hate.

Please help your children understand diversity without fearing it. Be an example of acceptance and compassion. The consequences of hate hurt everyone. It hurts not only the victim - it hurts their family and friends. It destroys the families of the perpetrators. Lives are lost, lives are ruined and lives are changed forever.

~Judy Shepard

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Senator John McCain

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Presiding Bishop thanks Senator John McCain in letter for senate action regarding Guantanamo detainees

Griswold urges ‘conferees’ to preserve standards under veto threat

By John Johnson

ENS 101205-1

[Episcopal News Service] Responding to Senate action last week, Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold sent a letter to Senator John McCain (R-AZ) thanking him for offering and gaining passage of an amendment establishing uniform standards for the conduct of U.S. military personnel when interrogating those held in U.S. custody, including detainees being held at Guantanamo Naval Air Base in Cuba.  In a 90-9 vote on October 5, the Senate passed his amendment to the Senate’s FY ’06 Department of Defense Appropriations bill.  Despite the strong Senate vote, the amendment faces opposition when it is considered in conference committee with the House and from the Bush Administration, which is reported to be prepared to veto the bill if the McCain amendment is included. 

Speaking on the Senate floor last week in support of his amendment, Senator McCain said, “The intelligence we collect must be reliable and acquired humanely, under clear standards understood by all our fighting men and women.  To do differently would not only offend our values as Americans, but undermine our war effort because abuse of prisoners harms – not helps – us in the war on terror.” 

In his letter Bishop Griswold stated, “On behalf of the Episcopal Church, I want to express my appreciation to you and your colleagues in the Senate who supported your amendment to the FY ’06 Department of Defense Appropriations bill establishing uniform standards for the conduct of U.S. military personnel prohibiting 'cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of persons under the custody or control of the United States Government.'

A similar letter will be sent to House and Senate members who will form the “Conference Committee” to work out differences in the separately-passed defense appropriations bills.  They are expected to convene next week when members of Congress return from their Columbus Day recess.  That letter will urge them to preserve intact the language of the McCain amendment and note that it is consistent with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which the U.S. is a signatory, and the Convention Against Torture. 


The following is the letter to Senator McCain from Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold:


October 11, 2005

The Honorable John McCain
241 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Senator McCain:

Episcopalians, along with many in our nation, have expressed grave concern for the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. On behalf of the Episcopal Church, I want to express my appreciation to you and your colleagues in the Senate who supported your amendment to the FY ’06 Department of Defense Appropriations bill establishing uniform standards for the conduct of U.S. military personnel prohibiting “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of persons under the custody or control of the United States Government.”  As the Conference between the House and Senate moves forward, I write to urge Conferees to preserve intact this important language consistent with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which the U.S. is a signatory, and the Convention Against Torture.

The Episcopal Church through the Executive Council, a governance body, at its June 2004 meeting established policy calling on the U.S. government to:

“conduct itself in all aspects of the [War on Terror] with the highest standards of human rights and regard for due process, which are cherished values of our nation and when disregarded diminish credibility of the U.S. in the world.

Those responsible for the violence and terrorism in our world must be found and punished for their acts and disregard for human life.  Yet history, both past and present, have shown that torture is often counterproductive, resulting not in information that would reduce violence but in a rage and desire for vengeance that only produces more.  Instead, we are obliged to treat others as we would want to be treated.  You spoke with painfully gained personal wisdom when you said in support of your amendment:  “The intelligence we collect must be reliable and acquired humanely, under clear standards understood by all our fighting men and women.  To do differently would not only offend our values as Americans, but undermine our war effort because abuse of prisoners harms – not helps – us in the war on terror.” 

The President and his Administration, the Congress and our military forces have our prayers as you seek ways to address the challenges facing our troubled and fragile world.  Our nation has an opportunity to reflect the values and ideals that we espouse in our treatment of others.  I pray that compassion and reconciliation and healing may become the realities of our common life, thereby reflecting God’s own passionate desire for the life of the world God sent his Son to save.

Again on behalf of the Episcopal Church, I appreciate your efforts to preserve intact the Senate approved amendment to prohibit cruel and inhumane treatment of those held in the custody of the United States.

Sincerely,

The Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold
Presiding Bishop and Primate


-- John Johnson is a domestic policy analyst in the Episcopal Church’s Office of Government Relations in Washington, D.C. 


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Sojourners:  A Campaign for Compassionate Priorities - SojoMail 10.06.05
 

by Jim Wallis

There are moments in every generation when a society must decide what its real moral principles are. In the aftermath of the hurricanes on the Gulf Coast, this is one of those moments in history. Yet, while the nation is still stunned by the pictures we saw of thousands of people wandering homeless and hungry on roads and railroad tracks, cowering on rooftops, wading through waste-deep water, or camping in stadiums turned into shelters, leading politicians in Washington are oblivious to everything but their ideological blinders.

I'm asking you to help ensure decisions to be made by Congress in the next few weeks that impact all people in our country - especially "the least of these" - are not ignored. I'm asking you to speak and act to prevent unjust budget and tax plans now on the table. Priorities that ignore and hurt those most in need while enriching the wealthy call out for religious resistance. We must proclaim that budgets are moral documents - and current proposals fall short. As we recover from these natural disasters, with the nation at war and deficits rising at record rates, Congress is still planning $35 billion in cuts for Medicaid and Food Stamps, low-income health care and nutrition programs, and more - plus $70 billion in new tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. Just this week, President Bush asked Congress to increase its social program cuts from $35 billion to $85 billion.

We must draw a line in the sand now against these unjust budget priorities. Many of you committed to a moral vision of personal involvement to change our nation's priorities by taking the "Katrina Pledge." It is time to act on that pledge - or commit to it for the first time. Your witness is needed at this crucial time to urge a better moral and political logic for our nation - toward a vision for a new America. In the name of social conscience, fiscal responsibility, equality of opportunity, protection of communities, and the very idea of a common good, it is time for the moral center of American public opinion to stand up and say, "Enough!" In this moment of history, we need politicians and policies who serve the needs of our country rather than increasing the wealth of a few. Please read the following alert to send a message to your members of Congress and for more information on how you can act with a National Call-In Day - as well as writing letters to the editor.

But that is only step one. We must also put forth a vision for the future that restores values and priorities to strengthen the common good, and lifts up solutions to poverty that honor the best of our humanity and hope. This is a teachable moment, but it requires good teachers. The religious community must offer leadership this week and month - and in coming years.

Sojourners and Call to Renewal are honoring this vision by launching a "Covenant for a New America," based on two basic principles:

he critical needs of poor families must become the top priority of our government. The blatant inequalities of race and poverty in America - especially in the critical areas of education, jobs, health care, and housing - that have come to the surface must now be addressed. How we help families build assets and take responsibility for their futures must be central to the discussion.

Each "side" of our political landscape ignores too many valid concerns of the other side. Poor families do not need us to take sides. Much could be accomplished with a merging of personal and social responsibility, a commitment to reverse family breakdown, and a more honest assessment of both the personal decisions and social systems that trap people in poverty. The lives of poor people must no longer just prompt a debate between the left and right; but rather, overcoming poverty must become a bipartisan commitment and a nonpartisan cause.

The "Covenant for a New America" is a commitment to teach and lead; to change perspectives and priorities; and to find common ground for the common good.

I ask you to take step one - drawing a line in the sand against budget and tax cuts - in coming days and weeks. This must be done in the name of making the livelihoods of poor people our top priority. Then, join us over the next months to develop a new policy platform in the "Covenant for a New America." We'll be asking for your ideas to help move the national discussion about the common good toward renewed commitment to our neighbors in need. Stand up against a budget lacking moral vision - and prepare the way for a better America.

+ Please send a message to your members of Congress now.

+ Write a letter to the editor of your local paper.

+ Participate in call-in days on October 17-18.

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Hurricane Katrina Experiences

Subject: Back to the Future

The following is a message from Tobias Wolff to his father, Robert Paul
Wolff, professor in the Afro-American Studies Department at UMass Amherst, and contains an eyewitness account of two friends of Tobias who were trapped in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Dad --

Forward this message to your friends in the department (and elsewhere) -- it is quite something.

Begin forwarded message:

Two friends of mine-paramedics attending a conference-were trapped in New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina. This is their eyewitness report. --PG

 

Hurricane Katrina-Our Experiences

Larry Bradshaw, Lorrie Beth Slonsky

Two days after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, the Walgreen's store at the corner of Royal and Iberville streets remained locked. The dairy display case was clearly visible through the widows. It was now 48 hours without electricity, running water, plumbing. The milk, yogurt, and cheeses were beginning to spoil in the 90-degree heat. The owners and managers had locked up the food, water, pampers, and prescriptions and fled the City. Outside Walgreen's windows, residents and tourists grew increasingly thirsty and hungry.

The much-promised federal, state and local aid never materialized and the windows at Walgreen's gave way to the looters. There was an alternative. The cops could have broken one small window and distributed the nuts, fruit juices, and bottle water in an organized and systematic manner. But they did not. Instead they spent hours playing cat and mouse, temporarily chasing away the looters.

We were finally airlifted out of New Orleans two days ago and arrived home yesterday (Saturday). We have yet to see any of the TV coverage or look at a newspaper. We are willing to guess that there were no video images or front-page pictures of European or affluent white tourists looting the Walgreen's in the French Quarter.

We also suspect the media will have been inundated with "hero" images of the National Guard, the troops and the police struggling to help the "victims" of the Hurricane. What you will not see, but what we witnessed, were the real heroes and sheroes of the hurricane relief effort: the working class of New Orleans. The maintenance workers who used a fork lift to carry the sick and disabled. The engineers, who rigged, nurtured and kept the generators running. The electricians who improvised thick extension cords stretching over blocks to share the little electricity we had in order to free cars stuck on rooftop parking lots. Nurses who took over for mechanical ventilators and spent many hours on end manually forcing air into the lungs of unconscious patients to keep them alive. Doormen who rescued folks stuck in elevators.

Refinery workers who broke into boat yards, "stealing" boats to rescue their neighbors clinging to their roofs in flood waters. Mechanics who helped hot-wire any car that could be found to ferry people out of the City. And the food service workers who scoured the commercial kitchens improvising communal meals for hundreds of those stranded.

Most of these workers had lost their homes, and had not heard from members of their families, yet they stayed and provided the only infrastructure for the 20% of New Orleans that was not under water.

On Day 2, there were approximately 500 of us left in the hotels in the French Quarter. We were a mix of foreign tourists, conference attendees like ourselves, and locals who had checked into hotels for safety and shelter from Katrina. Some of us had cell phone contact with family and friends outside of New Orleans. We were repeatedly told that all sorts of resources including the National Guard and scores of buses were pouring in to the City. The buses and the other resources must have been invisible because none of us had seen them.

We decided we had to save ourselves. So we pooled our money and came up with $25,000 to have ten buses come and take us out of the City. Those who did not have the requisite $45.00 for a ticket were subsidized by those who did have extra money. We waited for 48 hours for the buses, spending the last 12 hours standing outside, sharing the limited water, food, and clothes we had. We created a priority boarding area for the sick, elderly and new born babies. We waited late into the night for the "imminent" arrival of the buses. The buses never arrived. We later learned that the minute the arrived to the City limits, they were commandeered by the military.

By day 4 our hotels had run out of fuel and water. Sanitation was dangerously abysmal. As the desperation and despair increased, street crime as well as water levels began to rise. The hotels turned us out and locked their doors, telling us that the "officials" told us to report to the convention center to wait for more buses. As we entered the center of the City, we finally encountered the National Guard. The Guards told us we would not be allowed into the Superdome as the City's primary shelter had descended into a humanitarian and health hellhole.

The guards further told us that the City's only other shelter, the Convention Center, was also descending into chaos and squalor and that the police were not allowing anyone else in. Quite naturally, we asked, "If we can't go to the only 2 shelters in the City, what was our alternative?" The guards told us that that was our problem, and no they did not have extra water to give to us. This would be the start of our numerous encounters with callous and hostile "law enforcement".

We walked to the police command center at Harrah's on Canal Street and were told the same thing, that we were on our own, and no they did not have water to give us. We now numbered several hundred. We held a mass meeting to decide a course of action. We agreed to camp outside the police command post. We would be plainly visible to the media and would constitute a highly visible embarrassment to the City officials. The police told us that we could not stay. Regardless, we began to settle in and set up camp. In short order, the police commander came across the street to address our group. He told us he had a solution: we should walk to the Pontchartrain Expressway and cross the greater New Orleans Bridge where the police had buses lined up to take us out of the City.

The crowed cheered and began to move. We called everyone back and explained to the commander that there had been lots of misinformation and wrong information and was he sure that there were buses waiting for us. The commander turned to the crowd and stated emphatically, "I swear to you that the buses are there."

We organized ourselves and the 200 of us set off for the bridge with great excitement and hope. As we marched pasted the convention center, many locals saw our determined and optimistic group and asked where we were headed. We told them about the great news. Families immediately grabbed their few belongings and quickly our numbers doubled and then doubled again. Babies in strollers now joined us, people using crutches, elderly clasping walkers and others people in wheelchairs. We marched the 2-3 miles to the freeway and up the steep incline to the Bridge. It now began to pour down rain, but it did not dampen our enthusiasm.

As we approached the bridge, armed Gretna sheriffs formed a line across the foot of the bridge. Before we were close enough to speak, they began firing their weapons over our heads. This sent the crowd fleeing in various directions. As the crowd scattered and dissipated, a few of us inched forward and managed to engage some of the sheriffs in conversation. We told them of our conversation with the police commander and of the commander's assurances. The sheriffs informed us there were no buses waiting. The commander had lied to us to get us to move.

We questioned why we couldn't cross the bridge anyway, especially as there was little traffic on the 6-lane highway. They responded that the West Bank was not going to become New Orleans and there would be no Superdomes in their City. These were code words for if you are poor and black, you are not crossing the Mississippi River and you were not getting out of New Orleans.

Our small group retreated back down Highway 90 to seek shelter from the rain under an overpass. We debated our options and in the end decided to build an encampment in the middle of the Ponchartrain Expressway on the center divide, between the O'Keefe and Tchoupitoulas exits. We reasoned we would be visible to everyone, we would have some security being on an elevated freeway and we could wait and watch for the arrival of the yet to be seen buses.

All day long, we saw other families, individuals and groups make the same trip up the incline in an attempt to cross the bridge, only to be turned away. Some chased away with gunfire, others simply told no, others to be verbally berated and humiliated. Thousands of New Orleaners were prevented and prohibited from self-evacuating the City on foot.

Meanwhile, the only two City shelters sank further into squalor and disrepair. The only way across the bridge was by vehicle. We saw workers stealing trucks, buses, moving vans, semi-trucks and any car that could be hotwired. All were packed with people trying to escape the misery New Orleans had become.

Our little encampment began to blossom. Someone stole a water delivery truck and brought it up to us. Let's hear it for looting! A mile or so down the freeway, an army truck lost a couple of pallets of C-rations on a tight turn. We ferried the food back to our camp in shopping carts.

Now secure with the two necessities, food and water; cooperation, community, and creativity flowered. We organized a clean up and hung garbage bags from the rebar poles. We made beds from wood pallets and cardboard. We designated a storm drain as the bathroom and the kids built an elaborate enclosure for privacy out of plastic, broken umbrellas, and other scraps. We even organized a food recycling system where individuals could swap out parts of C-rations (applesauce for babies and candies for kids!).

This was a process we saw repeatedly in the aftermath of Katrina. When individuals had to fight to find food or water, it meant looking out for yourself only. You had to do whatever it took to find water for your kids or food for your parents. When these basic needs were met, people began to look out for each other, working together and constructing a community.

If the relief organizations had saturated the City with food and water in the first 2 or 3 days, the desperation, the frustration and the ugliness would not have set in.

Flush with the necessities, we offered food and water to passing families and individuals. Many decided to stay and join us. Our encampment grew to 80 or 90 people.

 From a woman with a battery powered radio we learned that the media was talking about us. Up in full view on the freeway, every relief and news organizations saw us on their way into the City. Officials were being asked what they were going to do about all those families living up on the freeway? The officials responded they were going to take care of us. Some of us got a sinking feeling. "Taking care of us" had an ominous tone to it.

Unfortunately, our sinking feeling (along with the sinking City) was correct. Just as dusk set in, a Gretna Sheriff showed up, jumped out of his patrol vehicle, aimed his gun at our faces, screaming, "Get off the fucking freeway". A helicopter arrived and used the wind from its blades to blow away our flimsy structures. As we retreated, the sheriff loaded up his truck with our food and water.

Once again, at gunpoint, we were forced off the freeway. All the law enforcement agencies appeared threatened when we congregated or congealed into groups of 20 or more. In every congregation of "victims" they saw "mob" or "riot". We felt safety in numbers. Our "we must stay together" was impossible because the agencies would force us into small atomized groups.

In the pandemonium of having our camp raided and destroyed, we scattered once again. Reduced to a small group of 8 people, in the dark, we sought refuge in an abandoned school bus, under the freeway on Cilo Street. We were hiding from possible criminal elements but equally and definitely, we were hiding from the police and sheriffs with their martial law, curfew and shoot-to-kill policies.

The next days, our group of 8 walked most of the day, made contact with New Orleans Fire Department and were eventually airlifted out by an urban search and rescue team. We were dropped off near the airport and managed to catch a ride with the National Guard. The two young guardsmen apologized for the limited response of the Louisiana guards. They explained that a large section of their unit was in Iraq and that meant they were shorthanded and were unable to complete all the tasks they were assigned.

We arrived at the airport on the day a massive airlift had begun. The airport had become another Superdome. We 8 were caught in a press of humanity as flights were delayed for several hours while George Bush landed briefly at the airport for a photo op. After being evacuated on a coast guard cargo plane, we arrived in San Antonio, Texas.

There the humiliation and dehumanization of the official relief effort continued. We were placed on buses and driven to a large field where we were forced to sit for hours and hours. Some of the buses did not have air-conditioners. In the dark, hundreds if us were forced to share two filthy overflowing porta-potties. Those who managed to make it out with any possessions (often a few belongings in tattered plastic bags) we were subjected to two different dog-sniffing searches.

Most of us had not eaten all day because our C-rations had been confiscated at the airport because the rations set off the metal detectors. Yet, no food had been provided to the men, women, children, elderly, disabled as they sat for hours waiting to be "medically screened" to make sure we were not carrying any communicable diseases.

This official treatment was in sharp contrast to the warm, heart-felt reception given to us by the ordinary Texans. We saw one airline worker give her shoes to someone who was barefoot. Strangers on the street offered us money and toiletries with words of welcome. Throughout, the official relief effort was callous, inept, and racist. There was more suffering than need be. Lives were lost that did not need to be lost.
 

by Jim Wallis

Sojourners    09.09.2005   www.sojo.net

In what may be the most catastrophic natural disaster in American history, the waters of Hurricane Katrina are washing away our national denial of just how many Americans are living in poverty, our reluctance to admit the still persistent connection of race and poverty in America, and even the political power of a conservative ideology that, for decades now, has seriously eroded the idea of the common good.

 

The pictures from New Orleans have stunned the nation. They have exposed the stark realities of who is suffering the most, who was left behind, who was waiting in vain for help to arrive, and who is facing the most difficult challenges of recovery. The face of those stranded in New Orleans was overwhelmingly poor and black, the very old and the very young. They were the ones who could not evacuate; had no cars or money for gas; no money for bus, train, or airfare; no budget for hotels or no friends or family with room to share or spare. They were already vulnerable before this calamity, now they were totally exposed and on their own. For days, nobody came for them. And the conditions of the places they were finally herded to ("like animals," many testified) sickened the nation.

 

From the reporters covering the unprecedented disaster to ordinary Americans glued to their televisions watching their reports, a shocked and even outraged response was repeated, "I didn't realize how many Americans were poor." Powerful images have emerged along with the pictures. "We have now seen what is under the rock in America," said a carpenter in Washington DC. The vulnerability of the poorest children in New Orleans has been especially riveting to many Americans, especially other parents. Many say they had trouble holding back their tears when they saw mothers with their babies stranded on rooftops crying for help or jammed into dangerous and dirty places waiting for help to arrive. And the pictures may get worse as countless bodies are brought out of New Orleans. Even Homeland Security Director, Michael Chertoff, is warning that it will be horrible and gruesome. Clearly, a very high percentage of those bodies will be poor, black, elderly, and even children. The public anger may grow.

 

As a direct result of Katrina and its aftermath, and for the first time in many years, the media are reporting on poverty, telling Americans that New Orleans had an overall poverty rate of 28% (84% of them African-American), and a child poverty rate of almost 50% - half of all the city's children (rates only a little higher than other major cities and actually a little lower than some others). Ironically (and some might say providentially) the annual U. S. Census poverty report came out during the Hurricane's deadly assault showing that poverty had risen for the fourth straight year with 37 million Americans stuck below the poverty line - and they were the ones most stuck in New Orleans.

 

Katrina has revealed what was already there in America; an invisible and mostly silent poverty that we have chosen not to talk about, let alone to take responsibility for in the richest nation on earth. This week, we all saw it; and so did the rest of the world. And it made Americans feel both compassionate and ashamed. Many political leaders and commentators, across the ideological spectrum, have acknowledged the national tragedy, not just of the horrendous storm, but of the realities the flood waters have exposed. And some have suggested that if the aftermath of Katrina finally leads the nation to demand solutions to the poverty of upwards of a third of its citizens then something good might come from this terrible disaster.

That is what we must all work toward. Rescuing those still in danger, assisting those in dire need, relocating and caring for the homeless, and beginning the process of recovery and re-building are all top priorities. But dealing with the stark and shameful social and racial realities Katrina has revealed must become our longer term but clear goal. That will require a combination of public and private initiatives, the merger of personal and social responsibility, the rebuilding of both families and communities, but also the confronting of hard questions about national priorities. Most of all it will require us to make different choices.

 

The critical needs of poor and low-income families must become the first priority of federal and state legislatures, not the last. And, the blatant inequalities of race in America, especially in critical areas of education, jobs, health care, and housing which have come to the surface must now be addressed. Congressional pork barrel spending which aligns with political power more than human needs must be challenged as never before.That requires a complete reversal of the political logic now operating in Washington and state capitols around the country - a new moral logic must re-shape our political habits. In the face of this natural disaster, during a time of war, with already rising deficits; new budgets cuts to vital programs like food stamps and Medicaid, and more tax cuts for the wealthy in the form of estate tax repeal and capital gains and stock dividend reductions, would now be both irresponsible and shameless.

 

Restoring the hope of America's poorest families, renewing our national infrastructures, protecting our environmental stability, and rethinking our most basic priorities will require nothing less than a national change of heart and direction. It calls for a transformation of political ethics and governance; moving from serving private interests to ensuring the public good. If Katrina changes our political conscience and re-invigorates among us a commitment to the common good, then even this terrible tragedy might be redeemed.

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Criminal justice effort, Means says
 

Daybook, from Episcopal News Service
August 22, 2005 -- Monday Mission

Criminal justice requires united effort, Means says

By Val Hymes

[ENS] -- Calling on all dioceses and denominations to help confront the crises in the criminal justice system, the Rev. Jacqueline A. Means, the Episcopal Church's criminal justice officer and director of prison ministry, has said that "the challenge ... is enormous."

Attending the American Correctional Association's 135th Congress of Correction and visiting a prison August 6-11 in Baltimore, Maryland, Means said she gained a "wider perspective of the enormity of the problems" that impact inmates, staff, families and especially children.

"The churches need to hold joint forums on the problems and the good things that are happening," said Means, "and pledge to begin a united effort as the faith community, regardless of our own agendas."

The conference highlighted problems such as overcrowding, racism, medical care, mental health, disabilities, violence, prison rape, gangs and addictions. They were countered by reports of successfully-reformed juvenile systems, community and faith-based partnerships and arguments for treatment over punishment.

Means was accompanied to the ACA conference by the Rev. Marjorie H. Holm, chaplain at a Virginia prison. They joined a tour of the state-run Baltimore City Detention Center, where a federal suit had been filed because of past conditions.

They also visited The ReC, a unique Reentry Center for Baltimore's ex-offenders, which features digital learning laboratories, training, identification, jobs, housing and child support services. The center, created by the mayor's office, also offers business incentives to employers like tax credits, a bonding program and reimbursement for on-the-job training.

A meeting with Bishop Robert W. Ihloff of Maryland signaled the beginning of planning for a week of camp for inmates' children next summer.

"If one child learns about unconditional love, it will be worth it," said Means. Five dioceses have camp programs and more are planned for 2006.

Means also met with Maryland's secretary of public safety and corrections, Mary Ann Saar and her deputy for operations, Dr. Mary L. Livers. They discussed camps, creating comfortable visiting rooms that would "bolster family relations"; mental health training; the possibility of inmate-run hospice care; a hope that churches outside prisons might create day care centers for the children of prison staffs and RESTART, a new Maryland corrections reentry program.

"In the face of the destruction brought on by criminal acts," said Chaplain Holm, who ministers on Virginia's death row, "God calls the people of the Episcopal Church to represent his grace in an ever hurting and vengeful world. There's an urgency in our ministry to respect the dignity of every human being."

[A photograph accompanying this article can be found online at: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_64298_ENG_HTM.htm]

--Val Hymes is editor of Prison Ministry Network News, and a member, St. James' Parish, Lothian, Md. Email: PrisMinNet@aol.com . www.prisonministry.ang-md.org .

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