WE BECOME OUR OWN WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION

How sad!  How spiritually corrupt.  Hate-mediated disposable indiscriminate death, the latest versions in El Paso TX and Dayton OH.  When will we examine our collective conscience?  Our society assents to its own atrophy, by violent attrition.  Guns as always the solution.  Glamorized in our fictions.  Guns for killing those we despise for their race, politics, poverty, or perceived personal threat to us.  We are in the process of indiscriminately shooting ourselves, for our own protection.  It has become a national obsession, a duty to be armed.  Everyone should be packing, to not be is to be irresponsible.  In Guns, not God we trust [God invoked but the gun comes first].  Shoot first, pray and ask questions later, but let us not ever pray, “into God’s hands commend our spirit,” unless well-armed ourselves.

We have become our own Weapon of Mass Destruction.  On a larger scale, in the same trajectory as our daily guns massacres [251 in the first 219 days of 2019], we have just abandoned another nuclear arms treaty.  There will be no more limits on our Intermediate Nuclear Forces, and we are on the verge of stopping our START treaty on the biggest nuclear weapons with the Russians, so we can both rush on into oblivion, no holds barred--to extremity and beyond!  This is only good for those whose business and true belief is the supremacy of weaponry. The military industrial complex has no place for a merciful God who welcomes all the peoples of the earth as children.

There will now be only one major arms control treaty left standing from the 1980’s Nuclear Freeze movement.  That is the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty which has been terribly weakened in practice, especially by the nations with the most powerful nuclear weaponry [most prominently the U.S.].  Many are the humanitarians and clergy who’ve tried to save our country from the Mutual Assured Destruction.  Yet we are about to freeze ourselves in to a nuclear arms race which can end, in self and planet destruction.

s we allow for outbreaks of hyper-armed citizen violence on our streets, it becomes harder and harder to hold ourselves up as living in the land of the free pursuing happiness, liberty and justice for all.  The same applies to our role as the world’s most prolific profitable arms maker and exporter.

For all the conservatives who believe that protect-oneself-at-all-costs measures are good, how will this help us being pro-life?  How can these callous killings masked as justified in someone’s perverted racial, political or religious thinking, bring our society any closer to ending abortion?  The message is that anyone's life, friend or enemy, is dirt cheap.  Arming ourselves to the teeth to shoot the shooters first just further floods our country with overwhelming lethality.  We’ve become too accustomed to violent death inside and outside the womb.

Dr. Martin Luther King preached of the primal threat to our souls of the three headed monster of militarism, racism and poverty.  This beast has met its companion, posing mortal danger to our values:  a monster of giant military weapons, private weapon arsenals, and abortion machines.  Justifying and then trivializing the intent to kill anywhere in life, ends in spiritual death for a society.  We are all here on the planet a very short time.  Let’s do some good, and fully respect life.  Put away all the swords. 

FIRST THE FLOOD OF BANAL GREED, THEN THE BIG FISH OF XENOPHOBIA TRIES TO SWALLOW US

Our church community is now like the Noah’s Ark, adrift on a sea of nationalistic & personal self-sufficiency, a spirituality of agnostic apathy.   If we are to reach the shores of a new evangelism, see the rainbow of a new covenant based on the nonviolent merciful unconditional love of God given us in Jesus, then we must send forth the dove of a soaring joyful, informed and committed, youth service ministry.

They will be our missionary peacemakers, with olive branch in their mouths that speak many languages.  And understanding many cultures, they will work and pray together with both friend and enemy to bring us all closer to the inclusive, peaceable kingdom God has prepared. 

Two of a number of good resources for the vocational voyage ahead.  Catholic Volunteer Network [order their free catalog], and Mennonite - Christian Peacemaker Teams.

Noe lache la colombe - by Chagal

{Noah releases the dove}

Illmination by Kathy Brahney

REFUGEES WELCOMED BY THE POOREST OF THE POOR

elping in El Paso in the midst of our recent refugee crisis, with thousands of teaming masses at the border, mostly from Central America {and our history of past wars there}, I remembered a picture.  It hangs in the rectory of the San Mateo Catholic Church in Tila, Chiapas, Mexico.   I’ve visited there to work in their clinic various years from 1998 till 2015.  When I first went they were suffering their own war—the national government had a full one half of their troops stationed in Chiapas [one of Mexico’s 29 states] to put down an indigenous Zapatista movement.

Yet the poster represented a time just past in the 1980’s when this very poor area with its own troubles, and it’s diocese of San Cristobal, committed to helping the poor seek justice and had opened its doors to thousands of refugees from terrible massacres in Guatemala {just across the border from Chiapas}.   It was remarkable, with all this trash talk promoted by our administration & media about immigrants [then Communitsts and now gangs] to see evidence of a faith that would share meager resources with those even less fortunate, and more abused.

    “They tore away our fruit, They cut off our branches, They burned our trunk, But they were not able to kill our roots.”    1978 – 1988, 10 YEARS OF CAMPESINO STRUGGLE -  Guatemala, Central America

To get a some idea of what that struggle has been, please listen to the NPR story, Dos Erres, and then read a commentary from one of the long term non-profit groups working in Central America.

 

The faithful of San Mateo in Tila shame us.  We have supported terrible suffering in the lands to our south in the name of our supposed national interests, while they gave aid to those we helped dislodge.  The Central American people’s economy, and livelihood, and personal safety are nearly destroyed, and now we build walls and rail against their “illegal” plea for asylum.

he mostly indigenous Mayan people of the diocese of San Cristobal are a much better living example of the scripture’s commission, “you shall love the alien as yourself, for you too were once aliens in the land of Egypt.”  Lev. 19:34    Most of us in the U.S. are just a number of generations away from having been welcomed, and often invited  ourselves unwelcomed, into the land of the original inhabitants of America.   Let’s have a little humility, and engage in Gospel hospitality.  “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”  There may come a day, as has frequently happened to dominant societies down through history, that we ourselves may seek shelter at other nations’ borders.


Resources

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/465/what-happened-at-dos-erres

https://nacla.org/blog/2013/7/29/this-american-life-whitewashes-us-crimes-central-america-wins-peabody-award

Illumination art by Kathy Brahney

CONVERTING THE PAIN OF CONSOLIDATION, INTO YOUTH-FILLED HOPE

The Catholic Volunteer Network

t is a trial of our faith, when in the midst of a new evangelization, we are trapped in a downsizing of our local parishes.  What are we of the Port Huron Catholic community to do?  At Holy Trinity parish, not only must we think of the troubles of collapsing St. Josephs into St. Stephens if this is to be so, after losing the triad containing Guadalupe, but we must also consider the fact that we are slated to further consolidate, perhaps within 5 years, all into St. Mary of north Port Huron, truth be told.

 

The stark reality, as well known by our diocesan leadership, is that as our older members die off [myself to be included], we are becoming a smaller less financially able church.  It is therefore crucial that we focus all available resources and spiritual energy on inviting and inspiring our young people to take up the challenge of living our faith and Gospel truth.

We no longer have extensive Catholic schools as wellsprings for next generation Catholics.  We need a new inclusive vibrant youth ministry, full-time and with deep pockets, that leads from CCD to active service opportunities for young people, in year-long mission programs that extend their faith paired with our religious & laity who work to solve the world’s problems of war & poverty.

This, as Bishop Don Hanchon has concurred, should be the expected progression of the sacrament of Confirmation.  One organization helping in this effort is the Catholic Volunteer Network.  Order its catalog.  It, and many of our existing diocesan programs for young adults, need much more encouragement.

Let’s not spend more than the absolute necessary on our properties.  Remodeling and new parking lots should not be in the budget.  Continuing to support such projects with our diminishing funds puts the new evangelization in great peril.  We need to invest deeply, not in liturgical facilities, but in the People of God, especially the young People of God, and their ministries of faith and service.

 It is the beauty of God dwelling in our faith communities embracing all ages, alive with work and prayer, not our buildings, that will save us.  Our Eucharistic celebrations will be renewed and grow with the fully invited participation of our young people and their families.  Lord, give us the wisdom and courage to follow your Gospel way. 

For more opportunities

Detroit diocese - https://aod.app.box.com/s/5e2hw5yvujdcebluwq5004x6bh4r45tb

Sarnia Ontario - https://rayjon.org/awareness-trips/

Marysville St. Christophers - http://www.stchrismi.org/dominican-republic-mission/

Across the U.S. - https://focusoncampus.org/missions/trips

Illuminations by Kathy Brahney

SHOELACELESS IN EL PASO

Photo by Bri Erger, Denver, CO

They can be seen here at the border at Annunciation House’s non-profit refugee welcome centers in El Paso, TX, shoe-tongues flopping as they walk in from the CBP detention wagon drop-off — everyone’s shoes are loose, from adult to small children.  Our group of volunteers helps welcome them, most from Central America, and make the next step in their journey, to the security of friend and family.

We in the US have made them a shoelace-less people, uprooted them from their homelands. When they come to the border our government detains them, unlaces them, and slaps an [soon dirty from forced sleep outside under a bridge] all-inclusive type bracelet on their wrists. The authorities don’t want them doing suicide while in their custody, with a lace around their neck.  What are the chances they’d want to do that--finally at our border after having risked their lives surviving bad conditions a month or more to get here!  We’ve contributed mightily to their desperate journey north from Central America, cutting them off from their traditional work and family surroundings.  We have done this.

Photo from El Paso Times

ID bracelets removed--free to continue search for asylum

Photo by Ande McCarthy

It was our Guatemalan, Salvadoran, Honduran, Nicaraguan wars of the 1980’s, White House engineered and illegal, that destroyed by assassination, military death squads, and paramilitary raids, the fabric of their societies.  Our government was running drugs and helping create drug cartels to finance their fight against “communism.”  The majority of our "red enemies" were just peasants trying to form more just and inclusive governments.  The dictators we supported killed many priests, nuns and labor organizers --and we paid for it.  We’ve since run off to the bigger wars of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, leaving those trained in this Central American violence to form ever more vicious gang and crime enterprises.

 he violence we taught has left them and their societies run by drug lords, with compliant police and government authorities, economically exploited and unlivable, and left us with refugees, as in need as any of those fleeing the tragedies of many past wars in Europe.  We raised the torch of the statue of liberty for those coming from Europe then.  Will we drop and extinguish it now with refugees coming to us from the South, and now from our wars in the Middle East as well?

Our government has a responsibility to help these people get back on their feet, either here or back home. General Colin Powell said, “If you break it you fix it.”  Jesus says love these neighbors as ourselves, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger.  They would be a valuable asset to our workforce. They are leaving El Paso for all parts of the USA with their families and friends, already gainfully established, paying for the plane and bus trips.  No cost to U.S. taxpayers.

 

 The persistent, self-reliant, resilience they are demonstrating should be encouraged, not disparaged.  Go volunteer to help at one of Annunciation House’s facilities at the border and see for yourselves.   As the U.S.  population rate goes negative, [see WSJ article] we need their help to make America great again.  We will all be better off for their presence.

Volunteer Ande McCarthy, 66, comforts Jose, a six-year-old boy from Guatemala before he leaves with his family to the El Paso International Airport.  
Photo by Aaron Montes, El Paso Times


https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-population-grew-at-slowest-pace-in-more-than-80-years-11545240620?mod=article_inline

More references

RESOURCES ON OUR BORDER REFUGEE CRISIS

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2019/04/23/central-american-migrant-caravan-resisted-mexico-trek-us/3547928002/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/migrant-families-how-acting-dhs-chief-kevin-mcaleenan-plans-to-handle-southern-border-60-minutes-2019-04-28/

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/465/what-happened-at-dos-erres

https://nacla.org/blog/2013/7/29/this-american-life-whitewashes-us-crimes-central-america-wins-peabody-award

https://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2019/04/10/lead-kaitlan-collins-dnt.cnn

https://www.wsj.com/articles/immigrants-propel-population-growth-in-10-of-u-s-counties-11555560061

https://www.npr.org/2019/04/24/716873090/main-migrant-shelter-in-el-paso-opens-new-building-for-families-released-by-ice

SHADES OF THE HOLOCAUST

 Or I'll shoot?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/shoot-them-trump-laughs-off-a-supporters-demand-for-violence-against-migrants/ar-AAB8b2O?ocid=spartanntp

Shades of the Holocaust--the deaths of those deemed disposable is now a laughing matter. 
        Lord have mercy on our souls.

ANDE'S EL PASO DIARY - LIGHT IN BORDER DARKNESS

View video of under bridge detention darkness here

From under the bridge detention--to rooms, a table, sandwiches for the next leg of journey to family

El Paso Day 1

Hit the ground running.  Getting immigration information from migrants, giving meals, making sure they understand how to use things in their rooms, making sure they are prepared for their journeys by giving them clean clothes and underwear, etc.  they are all so helpful and they sit quietly.  Today Mike drove some to the bus.  I was left in charge.

El Paso Day 3

I’m amazed at the resourcefulness of these refugees.  They wear T-shirts for dresses (on the little girls), Onezis on toddlers, hats for belts, people eating baby cereal because we ran out of real cereal, men getting the heavy water jugs full.

It’s a wonder and it’s beautiful.

El Paso Day 4  Today Mike and I got a break.  We are resting in our room at the shelter.  This morning I got up at 6am to wake up 2 women and their children for their airport run.  All refugees here have people we contact who buy them a bus or airline ticket.  One woman is going to Washington State by bus!!

Many men here have a child with them.  (Probably some back home too.) I think it increases their chances of staying in the U.S. if they have their child.  An extreme case was a 20 yr oldboy whose first language was not Spanish, with a 6 month old.  The baby was drinking juice from a bottle top, not sucking.  I’m afraid for them.

El Paso Day 5  Today an amazing thing happened.  Here is the story.  We have 2 large trays of mashed potatoes in the fridge.  Can’t help.  Oh well. 

Then 10 minutes later, I am emptying a bag of garbage in dumpster, outside with a little Guatemalan boy.  A man and his daughter walk up and wants to ask questions about our situation here.  He wants his daughter to bring some of her unused clothes here.  So I show them around.  During our conversation he tells me his mom runs the restaurant!!! He calls her and we put our cold mashed potatoes in the oven.  A small but sweet blessing.

El Paso Day 6.  This morning I got up at 5  to wake a woman and child so they could catch their ride to Houston, 15 hours from here by bus.  She is from Honduras.  She came here by bus also.  It took her 8 days.  Her daughter is 8 years old.  They lewft a 4 year old back in Honduras with family.  Mom hopes to work in a store.  The little girl wants to go to school.

El Paso day 7.  Last eve we had 3 desperate bus loads of people from CBP. First was 30 ish, second 60ish, and just when I thought I had put the last person in the last room, they brought 10 more people. 
Getting these tired, dirty (some who have been sleeping under bridge outside), their eyes are red and scratchy, noses may be running. They sit with infinite patience while their children squirm or sprawl out sleeping on floor. We feed them and welcome them and make sure they have a bed and shower in a safe place. 
One man who I put in a room with his family and explained in my Spanglish the intricacies of flushing the toilet or using the shower, I saw later , outside. The sun was shining, and he was standing in the courtyard , smiling, big smile, naked torso wrapped with a clean white towel

around his waist. His whole self was deeply enjoying the present moment                                             

El Paso Day 8. It is our day off.  Last night mike and I tipped a few with another volunteer who leaves tomorrow.  Here’s a couple of things.  Immigration brought people last night, some without papers.  When they don’t have papers they have no legal photo I.D. They can’t fly, they can only travel by bus. When they have no papers they can’t even do that.

A woman from Brazil was sooo mad because immigration did take her photograph.  They just didn’t include it on her paperwork.  Forgot? Mistake? On purpose?

2^nd story.  We generate a lot of garbage.  So we put up a sign by the watering hole saying “write your name on your cup”.  Some little boys did.  But then they put their cup right back in the stack.  Oh well.

Someone brought about 10 boxes of canned corn.  I said to her “What!  We have no place to heat this up” so she took back the unopened cans.  My Bad because the refugees took those cans and ate that corn like it was Thanksgiving. 

El Paso  Day 9
Heard Story from another volunteer today about a man and son who walked every day for 15 days. 1 hour of sleep a night, only drinking water. Sounds like an exaggeration to me, but even so half that would be almost impossible. 
One volunteer here is N 80 yr old nun. She worked for 10 years in El Salvador. She met with both side of the conflict helping to sort things out. 
We have local volunteers, one from Wash. D.C., Vermont, Denver. Albuquerque, and of course Michigan. Some have raised money and we're spending it on clothes. Some are fluent in Spanish and are doing the phone work. 
My big contribution has been to befriend the restaurant manager (remember the cold potatoes miracle), and get her to make us delicious Mexican food everyday. She is happy to do it. She undercuts all the competition and she's makin bank.

El Paso day 10. 
This man drove from Houston (15 hours by car) to pick up his wife and 2 kids. It was beautiful to behold. 
The other, similarly grateful person is leaving for the bus. 
(I know none of you will post any photos on social media)
Just another day in paradise.

El Paso day 11
These are the paper bracelets worn by the refugees while in detention. We cut the off their wrists when they arrive. They're pretty worn and dirty. 
The people I've met have. Even mostly from Guatemala. Next would be Honduras then El Salvador, Brazil, Nicaragua only 2 families. The one family each from Ecuador, Cuba. The Brazilians seem to be the most prosperous or middle class   
The 2nd picture is pork and beans with cilantro. Very good. Gonna try that one.

El Paso day 12
A volunteer took refugees to the airport this morning. (This happens everyday). While there she was alerted to a woman and child from our shelter who could not board a plane (we thought it was because she had no photo on her immigration papers). She came to us a week ago without Any papers. (Mistake at CBP) and has been at the Mesa inn since.
Meri, the volunteer, leaves the airport with her. They stop at Starbucks for coffee ( Meri is thoughtful that way). In the line at Starbucks is a TSA worker. Meri chats with him and soon they are talking about The Situation. TSA guy looks at paperwork and says "this paperwork is fine".
They hurry back to airport. Go back to Delta. Meri is sure the flight has left. NOPE. So they run to security, and Iris, gets on her plane to her family.
We all had a hug fest when Meri tells us this sweet wonderful story
Apparently the real problem was El Paso airport was overwhelmed this morning with Central American refugees

El Paso Day 13

I asked a man today who traveled with his wife and 2 daughters how he got here from Honduras.  He said part by bus and part walking.  They walked for 2 weeks in Mexico.  While walking robbers stole his money and cell phone.  They took pictures of his family and made threats against them.  They had little food and no security.  Sister Arlene had a similar conversations with 2 young mothers.  They stole everything of value.

El Paso Day 14.

Today is our last day here.  We have trained our replacements and we leave in the morning.  I’m not sure I mentioned that we have been living at the Mesa Inn.  A half star hotel.  It is rented by Annunciation House to house the refugees.  It has this sign taped to the front desk. (For those without the photo I will tell you.  It says “We do not knowingly rent to undocumented aliens.  If you are and undocumented alien DO NOT RENT HERE”). I’m pretty sure they know what’s going on in the back rooms here. [All our Annunciation House guests have documents given them by ICE, and a court date for their initial refugee status hearing.] 

So I have this sweet little Guatemalan girl’s face in my mind.  A round  little face, pig tails, I caught her singing once.  Her dad is maybe 22 yr old.  They took a bus somewhere.  We make them signs in English saying “I only speak Spanish.  Can you help me.  I have a ticket already”.  My final prayer is for all our refugees to reach a safe haven where they can be productive and happy and feel safe.  Esp. my little girl.

'

THE CHAOS WE'VE CREATED AT THE EL PASO BORDER

The people in outdoor detention, before they're released to us at Annunciation House 

Photo by Bri Erger of Denver CO -- also one of our volunteers

This is something I wrote at 4 am on about the third day of Ande's & my 2 week 12-14 hour days helping the refugees of our Central American wars past.  President Trumps invective against these people, seen on the news, was deeply upsetting.  In interviewing over 200 of them I found no gang members.  Mostly young women, or men, with a child or two, having left the rest of the family behind, in a desperate  attempt to find safety--all their belongs carried in a meager basketball-sized plastic sack.  Few spoke English, and for many Spanish was a second language as they came from remote indigenous areas Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

After their release from border patrol detention, we at the Annunciation House centers arrange multiple phone calls to friends & family sponsors, already living & working all across the USA, who'd buy them bus or plane tickets, so they could move on asap, to be reunited, sustained after thousands of miles, and now awaiting asylum court hearings.  No cost to U.S. taxpayers, and welcomed by families here who know their former distress and continued value.

*******************************************

March 28, 2019

Open letter to President Donald Trump, from El Paso TX.

Dear Mr. President,

I watched you on a Washington Post video clip yesterday from where we
work with the refugees of your “emergency” at our southern border. It was hard to
believe. It was appalling—the level of self-satisfied arrogance.
My wife Ande and I arrived in El Paso answering a call from our churches in
Port Huron, MI to assist in this situation of border chaos. You talked as if the
families we are helping here to find refuge, as simply a matter of the bad politics of
Central American governments and their taking out their trash, dumping it on poor
U.S.A. Please inform yourself on the history of our brutal Iran-Contra wars in these
countries you berate [and don’t trust your Elliot Abrams, who back then engineered
this mess, to be your guide].  For just one incident -- NPR program on Dos Erres village massacre, and critique by NACLA .

There is a real danger that our society, in its blind push to make ourselves
great again, will die of its own excesses. These people whom we’ve been welcoming
here are not perfect, and are certainly no more nor less “great” than any of us. When
you demean them and their place of origin, you place a dangerous gulf between us
and the rest of the war-stricken world. Once upon a time, we viewed them as the
teeming masses yearning to be free.

This is a question of our own salvation, more important than politics—rich as
we may be. We must pay attention to the Gospel story of Dives the rich man and
Lazarus at his gate Lk 16. What does it profit if we control and consume the whole
of the world’s resources, from our own gated community, if we lose our own souls.

Mr. President, consider joining the Peace Corps [there are a number of ex-
members doing hands-on assistance with us], AmeriCorps, or a faith–based mission
project. Get out of your rarefied policy bubble. Work alongside former President
Carter on an international Habitat for Humanity project. Learn more personally
about these people of whom you most carelessly speak. Many great civilizations
have expired within their own selfish militarized boundaries. More people have
perished, many souls have been lost in the needless tragic wars created out of hell-
bent self preservation at all cost.

There are hundreds coming in here in El Paso each day now. They need
bridges to cross over [and not to be corralled under as the CBP is doing now] and
certainly not walls.

They take care of each other here in our center and display amazing patience
in their long trying travels. My wife and I also witness the extraordinary efforts of
staff and many local volunteers here at one of Annunciation House’s centers. All
guests and staff stretched to the limit, and still progressing. Wake up America.
Repent Mr. President Trump and followers of the flag before the cross. Walls are for
castles, not for countries.