DAVID & GOLIATH IN THE MIDDLE EAST—TURNABOUT NOT ALWAYS FAIR PLAY

The recent demise of the Peace Talks on the Palestinian / Israel question, in a cloud of new Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank, begs the question. Does Israel really want peace? In a Times Magazine article, Sept. 2, 2010, the answer appears to be the Israelis aren't interested.
"The truth? As three Presidents, a King and their own Prime Minister gather at the White House to begin a fresh round of talks on peace between Israel and the Palestinians, the truth is, Israelis are no longer preoccupied with the matter. They're otherwise engaged; they're making money; they're enjoying the rays of late summer. A watching world may still see their country as being defined by the blood feud with the Arabs whose families used to live on this land and whether that conflict can be negotiated away, but Israelis say they have moved on." [1] Reading the full article on these shifting attitudes is instructive. A possible U.S. answer to this problem of Israeli apathy will be part of next weeks posting.

Photo by Larry Towell, WEST BANK. Hebron. February 2003. A religious Muslim woman and her children navigate their way around an Israeli tank during the Army's invasion of Hebron which helps to enforce a 24-hour curfew on the city center.

These talks are now in limbo, and 300 new settlement structures [2] are furiously being built to add to the thousands that now stand in the way of an independent Palestinian state. Israel, which didn't exist over 60 years ago, has moved on, behind a tall wall, confident of its prosperity and military dominance, with 10,000 troops stationed in the West Bank, in the midst of the Palestinians, on the other side.

Barrier wall West Bank, by Joshua Hough, morning lines [presumably Palestinians awaiting work in Israel]

Image may be enlarged to better view extent of wall, and geography, "West Bank "[of Jordan River] to the east of most of Israel. Palestine landlocked, with only coast in the small Gaza strip to the southwest of this image.

They have placed their trust in weapons, massive amounts provided by the U.S., not remembering the ancient lessons of their scriptures, only their more recent terrible persecutions in the World War. David has now become Goliath, and faces a new stone throwing David within his realm.

Photo by Larry Towell, Bethlehem. West Bank. Rachael's Tomb. Young Palestinian man loading stone into home made catapult during clash with Israeli Army following funeral of 13 year old Moayad Osama Jawareesh, shot and killed the previous day on the same spot by Israeli soldiers. Jawareesh was a resident of the adjacent Aida Refugee Camp. 2000.

The polls show most Israelis agree with a true two state solution. Can't Goliath leadership lay down the swords of military conflict, and both peoples be given lands of milk and honey? Justice demands that Israel has its home in the Middle East, and that Palestine be guaranteed their ancient homelands also, and compensated for that taken to make the modern state of Israel.

Let the walls come tumbling down. Remember Jericho? May there be bountiful harvests in peace, in the gardens of the Kibbutzim, and the olive orchards of the Palestinians. [3]

Omar on his way with sacks to harvest his olives in the West Bank near Awarta, a crop often stolen by residents of neighboring illegal settlements. Michigan Peace Team has accompanied him--see below.

Please read some or all of these, and other sources, to inform on this most crucial central area struggle between war and peace and justice in our world.

1 http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2015602,00.html

2 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/22/world/middleeast/22mideast.html?ref=world

3 Helping in this harvest we have Sandy Quintano of Port Huron, who is now in the West Bank with a long term Michigan Peace Team. [see their webpage: http://www.mptinpalestine.blogspot.com/ ]

For a report on "Peace Now " flights over the West Bank to show extent of settlements to peace activists and hardliners alike,
see---http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/world/middleeast/21mideast.html?_r=1&ref=world

The statement also criticized some Zionists who use the Bible to justify the Jewish presence in the occupied territories, saying that "recourse to theological and biblical positions which use the word of God to wrongly justify injustices is not acceptable." --from just concluded Vatican synod of Middle East bishops, which supports the 2 state solution. For full report see: "Bishops at Meeting Urge Israel to End Its Occupation of Palestinian Territories" NYT 10-24-10, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/24/world/europe/24vatican.html?ref=world

STAR WARS, NUKES, OR START TREATY -- CHOOSE LIFE, ANYONE?

Last in the "Decade of Disarmament Delayed" trilogy.

Government brochure--17 pages-- availability limited, but see below

The debate called for in the letter that follows, never happened. Debate on how much money and technology we dedicate to War in Space, and the military in general, was demolished along with the World Trade Towers, less than two weeks later. Now we begin to come to our senses--that War on Terrorism, or War in Space, can never deliver the promised security, but only profit the business of war. Time for an informed public to demand that the Arms Race be abandoned. Time to start the Peace Race. You get what you pay for.

In this month of October, that many churches dedicate for Right to Life, what better way to lead all the world's peoples to Respect Life---work and prayer to end the spirit of war and violence, on earth, and in the heavens. All the planet's children born and unborn will be blessed. Victim of Hiroshima bombing
--unlikely to have survived. Photo
also published in Life magazine,
Sept. 1952,
seven years after taken in 1945.

August 29, 2001

Dear Editor,

My oldest child, Maura, came home for a visit last weekend. She is a wonderful achiever, graduating from Georgetown University, and landing a job with the Federal Reserve. She has a hopeful spirit, is a logical thinker, and is not shaken by much of anything. When I showed her the U.S. Space Command's brochure, "Vision 2020", outlining our plans to take military control of space, tears came to her eyes and she said, "Dad, this can't be true." Then she made me agree to publicize this plan to 20 newspaper editors [none did publish], in hopes that its absurdity will provoke widespread opposition. I'd thought that I'd been over-reacting, the aversion I have to this attempt to go beyond the first "Star Wars" plan of former President Reagan which did nothing but waste 80 billion dollars. I was feeling weary because over 15 years ago we'd been through all the arguments against a star wars missile shield, and militarizing space. The arguments remain and have proven true, but this doesn't seem to matter to the military and this administration.

First called Strategic Defense Initiative [President Reagan's Star Wars], then called Limited Missile Defense, now called National Military Defense. Never proven workable under any name--a defensive precedent in space which has opened space to these offensive plans of the U.S. Space Command.

Maura's reaction made me see that we must all rise to the call and defeat this idea--that we can be safe as a country by ringing ourselves with defensive missiles and filling the heavens with weapons of mass destruction.

Space laser, from the pages of the "Vision 2020" brochure.

I'm hoping your staff, and the public, will take the time to contact Space Command at 719 554 6889 and ask for their "Vision 2020" brochure. It's a frightening program to militarize space--that we are in the process of implementing. [Within weeks of this letter, the brochure became unavailable from the government—it can now be found at the website below. 1] The former commander of this Space Command has just been nominated by President Bush as head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and President Bush last Thursday announced that the anti-ballistic missile treaty will be rejected unilaterally by the U.S. in 1 or 2 months. There is little publicity about where this is headed--multiple lasers, nuclear weapons, & military satellites deployed in space, billions of dollars wasted in the vain attempt to hold the rest of the world hostage to our every priority.

hen you get your brochure {which is also available on line to be printed, www.spacecom.af.mil/usspace [No longer], yet more imposing perhaps in their glossy publication-- [See again new reference below,1]} please review carefully, and add the information and critique of local and national sources, for feature presentations and editorials. Have other colleagues at news organizations order copies, and spread the information far and wide. We need as many of our citizens as possible to realize what our military is planning for us: war-fighting without limit nor boundary--to infinity and beyond, if we could.

I feel re-commissioned in this task by my 21 year old [now to be 31] daughter. I hope you will feel so engaged as well, for her, and for everyone on this planet. Thanks for your consideration.

Yours truly,

Michael McCarthy, PA-C

Port Huron, MI 48060
810 982 2870
mccpax@comcast.net

1 http://www.peaceactionme.org/vision.html

These 17 pages are worth looking at, to better discern the "vision" our leaders have still in process for our future. A Space Command vision. I also have a clearer pdf copy I can send to those interested.

Also below is this still available link [with cover picture], of the slightly newer [and more wordy] version developed by Donald Rumsfeld and others, just prior to his activities in the Bush administration. These globally positioned war tactics have been part of both Afghan and Iraq wars. The Obama administration, while now calling for an end to nuclear weapons, continues much of the program, as evidenced in the remote-control warfare of drone technology now surging in Pakistan.
http://space.au.af.mil/space_commission/

Please contact your members of Senate and House, 202 224 3121, calling for a complete end to our dependence on nuclear weapons and their sophisticated systems. Ask Senators to vote for the START TREATY as a first step. Convert our security spending into life supporting education and development.

Life hangs in the balance.

Illumination by Kathy Brahney

LOST DECADE FOR DISARMAMENT--RENEWED POSSIBILITY

Scientists at A-Bomb test site -- 1945

Last week I posted a May 8, 2000 letter to Bill Clinton, pleading for courageous action to make a real push for nuclear disarmament, in the final months of his presidency. But by then he'd humbled himself, and nothing could be done. And nothing was done, a lost decade for disarmament was to follow.


Things, after Clinton, turned from bad to worse. As reported in the Dan Schorr NPR commentary [again referenced below 1], for some reason, Russia in May of 2000 started disarmament talks with Texas Gov. George Bush, well before he was narrowly elected president. During this near decade of the George W. Bush administration, the oldest nuclear arms treaty, the Anti-Ballistic Missiles Treaty, was dropped, and the START treaty negotiations, [limiting the number of nukes] stopped. The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, signed at the end of Clinton's term, was mothballed, never brought out to be ratified by Congress. Though we invaded countries to track down non-existent Weapons of Mass Destruction, and possess world-dominant thousands of them, our leaders thought we needed more, new, and better ones.
Finally, there is a small break in this mind boggling nuclear cloud cover. On Sept. 16, 2010 the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee after a 10 year lull, voted to allow a vote on the "New START" treaty. The first nuclear weapons treaty in years should be voted on, the sooner the better. President Reagan's Secretary of State, George Schultz, argues for this in a 9-7-2010 article in the Wall Street Journal. Many conservative experts are joining the call—for treaties, and for a complete end to nuclear weapons. Contact your Senators—urge they vote for this first step to "re-start" nuclear disarmament, before Nov. 4 elections, before Christmas, ASAP please. [See website link below - #2]
I've been following the mysterious permutations of nuclear weapons treaties well before teaching a class on the subject at Prestonsburg [Kentucky] Community College in 1982. The names of many of the political strategists remain the same [called the nuclear priesthood by some 3]. Their domineering incantations on national security / homeland security have lulled us into a dangerous spell, under which we risk self-destruction because of our own reliance on nuclear weapons.

Collage--a few pundits of past & present warfare doctrines: Richard Pipes at Harvard; Richard Perle commenting at NBC; "Communism"
--first need for nuclear weapons; Daniel Pipes [the son] on TV promoting the ongoing need--the MiddleEast & terrorism.

We must get serious, beyond words to actions. Nuclear weapons must be abolished, worldwide, starting here at home, where they originated. . We are certain to lose the War on Terrorism, and our self-respect, if we remain the world's predominant producers & guardians of these most terrible weapons.

"It is a sin to build a nuclear weapon." Fr. Richard J. McSorley S.J.

When I pray for peace, I pray not only that the enemies of my country may cease to want war, but above all that my own country will cease to do the things that make war inevitable." Fr. Thomas Merton, 1961, as quoted in Passion for Peace, p. 36






As we come to reject the Mutually Assured Destruction doctrine of nuclear strategists, that's been pointed at Russia, we must now reject Mutually Assured Jihad.

"Almighty and mericiful God, ...

Save us from the compulsion to follow our adversaries in all that we most hate, confirming them in their hatred and suspicion of us. Resolve our inner contradictions, which now grow beyond belief and beyond bearing. They are at once a torment and a blessing: for if you had not left us the light of conscience, we would not have to endure them. Teach us to be long-suffering in anguish and insecurity. Teach us to wait and trust. Grant light, grant strength and patience to all who work for peace,…Amen."

From a Thomas Merton "Prayer for Peace", delivered before Congress, April 12, 1962, {months before the October Missile Crisis}, full text in Passion for Peace, p. 166-169

Illumination by Kathy Brahney

Next week: letter to editor of 10 years ago--on the planned resurgence of
"Star Wars"--looms in the heavens while War on Terrorism grabs our attention here on earth. Last posting in this disarmament-almost-forgotten trilogy.


1. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1073609

http://capwiz.com/fconl/issues/alert/?alertid=14700501

3. http://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/14/weekinreview/the-world-nuclear-priesthood-gets-a-new-credo.html?pagewanted=print

LETTER TO A PAST PRESIDENT—NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT PAST DUE

Letter never responded to. See next week for further details of the continued struggle towards nuclear disarmament.

May 8, 2000

Dear President Bill Clinton,

You have a few months left to give the people of this country something of lasting value--a world working towards peace through disarmament. This is the only political treasure worth having, or passing on to our citizens as your legacy. Peace through weapons is the lie that has killed millions down the millennia.

Now we have the zenith of weapons madness--the nuclear arms race. We have the hugest surplus of nukes; the Russians have too many and don't have the means to get rid of them; the bombs never helped either country; we don't want any new countries to have them; we say we want to get rid of them. Yet we will not stop testing, designing, and building new ones. We shot down the Comprehensive Test Ban. And now we risk destroying the small limits of the START nuclear arms treaties, by violating the ABM treaty--setting up our own "limited missile defense" system.

Anti-Ballistic Missile bomb catcher as devised "the boys in the back room" as envisioned by Dr. Seuss in his Butter Battle Book

We appear to be making up our own rules. We have the best and most nuclear weapons so we'll sit pretty with them thumbing our nose at the rest of the world and trying to put up a technologically imaginary ABM Star Wars system to protect ourselves and our missiles. And then we tell them not to build any nukes themselves. Non-proliferation for you guys, nuclear weapons plus for us. This is the incredible arrogance of people in Congress like Jesse Helms and the weapons merchants and ballistic think-tankers he and others like him represent.

I heard the very depressing commentary of Daniel Schorr on NPR, May 1st [I hope you will listen to it if you haven't already--see web address below]*. He describes the machinations of these nuclear death star true believers, and how they've completely lame-ducked you on disarmament. Don't let them do this. You can banish the influence of those who've been sitting in smoke-filled rooms endlessly planning more deadly missiles to protect their scandalous wealth.

Say right now that there will be no Star Wars ABM system--limited or not. What need for further tests in June, or ever? Go to Russia, more a statesman than any we've had in the past 100 years, and negotiate deep reductions in nuclear weapons beyond START II into START III, until they are finished, gone. And we can begin to base our national security on something other than the most lethal machines ever devised, and start having a real peace dividend--work on health, education, and creative ecologically responsible energy technology, becoming true leaders of a free world.

It is high time your presidency took the high road. Put the weaponeers on notice that they no longer run our country [as President Eisenhower on his retirement suggested we do]. We can then forthrightly tell the rest of the world, Iraq, North Korea, Israel, Pakistan, India, etc., not to build nuclear bombs. These weapons are the doomsday virus, still exceeding virulent, that we cannot let proliferate. Their control and elimination are crucial to any national health plan. Be the disarmament president! Lead the nation to renounce its inordinate belief in, and addiction to, all weapons great and small.

Yours truly,
Michael McCarthy

Depiction of projected weapons control from space. Donald Rumsfeld was chairman of this report's commission, until nominated for Secretary of Defense by President-Elect Bush on Dec. 28, 2000

*
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1073609
Take time to listen to this year 2000, Daniel Schorr [died last month] report, on the almost impossible U.S. politics of nuclear disarmament.

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed....
This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron." --President Eisenhower, 1953

Illumination by Kathy Brahney

Next week--some current hope that the START treaties, can be now "re-started", and then strengthened, to lead finally to a world with no nuclear weapons.

POLITICS AND FUNDING OF BRIDGE PLAZA PROJECTS

September 8, 2010, Site of former Blue Water Free Methodist Church--Was the congregation happy to move?

What is the future of the biggest infrastructure remodel in St. Clair County? Let's keep our eye on the ball, not just the wrecking ball. Has the Blue Water Bridge Plaza demolition & reconstruction project secured anymore than the 19% actual funding of the estimated $583 million for completion needed, last reported in the Times Herald on March 1, 2010? Apparently MDOT's effort to make a huge second Ambassador Bridge Plaza south of the current one has fallen short of funds, and been rejected. [see 9-20-10 report of "The Windsor Square" http://www.windsorsquare.ca/2010/07/27/no-excuses-now-build-the-ambassador-bridge-project-already/ ]

Also overdue for investigation are the financial benefits [mitigation] received by Port Huron and St. Clair County to offset the losses we see almost daily in the pages of the Times Herald--pictures of perfectly good homes and businesses [and their tax base] demolished in the path of Bridge Plaza [Homeland Security] expansion. Rep. Candice Miller was instrumental in bring this plaza reconstruction to our town. She, MDOT, and the Times Herald should now provide updated accounting on the specifics of how this disruption of neighborhoods and businesses helps us.

Riverside Condominiums, of sound construction, being brought down, 8-25-10 Times Herald photo

The Times Herald negotiated with MDOT a weekly update on the number of completed home demolitions in the Bridge Plaza footprint. It features such information in frequent news reports headlined, "Bringing Down the Houses." What would serve the community better, with contribution from Rep. Miller and MDOT, would be weekly reports titled, "Bringing Up the Wages & Jobs in the Bridge Plaza Area." It would feature the actual contract money spent each week, of the estimated 583 million total, and the portion that went into the pockets of City of Port Huron, and St. Clair County, citizens and businesses.

Torrelo Demolitions has made some money, and the owner, a resident of the county, is investing in a new home in the City of Port Huron. There is some good in that.

Many footprint area residents have received buyouts and moved. What money has MDOT expended on this so far, demolitions and buyouts? A mixed blessing at best. How many of them bought new homes in the City of Port Huron? Their old neighborhoods are decimated, and remaining residents complain that some of those left are converting what were their homes, into rentals. [This will be illegal if a currently consider City Council resolution persists.]

study was done, and community group formed, to study the economic effects of the Bridge Plaza project and design new economic developments in our area. The T.H. 9-16-10 opinion page column by Jeff Beckett attests to the ongoing local effort of this St. Clair County Economic Strategic Development Plan, and everybody hopes some good progress will come of this. Wilbur Smith Associates, with offices from Houston to Hong Cong [as per their website], was to oversee this 1 million dollar project. How much have they been paid thus far—is the reported $220,000 the whole amount? Is there not a remaining $780, 000? Has our community group been paid, or are they to be paid, anything for their role in actually implementing the plan?

A bar graph should be published on a regular basis. Two columns: total thus far spent on the Blue Water Bridge Plaza, and the amount of that spent to local benefit. These are our tax dollars being expended. The infrastructure here and across the nation continues to crumble around us. Please Rep. Miller, MDOT, and Times Herald give us the facts and figures.

From Friends Committee on National Legislation leaflet

Our War on Terrorism and Homeland Security mindset of the past 10 years has contributed to the scuttling of our economy, and greatly diminished traffic across the Blue Water Bridge--one of the presumed reasons for the new plaza. The other dominant one being that the new plaza design would protect the bridge itself from terrorists. Misspent money on overwrought security here and countrywide has contributed to the self-inflicted sabotage of the very economic lifestyle we sought to make safe from all attack.


There are only two powers in the world--the power of the sword and the power of the spirit. In the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit. --- Napoleon

Dismiss all anxiety from your minds. Present your needs to God in every form of prayer and in petitions full of gratitude. Then God's own peace, which is beyond all understanding, will stand guard over your heart and minds, in Christ Jesus. -- Philippians 4:4-7


Illumination by Kathy Brahney

CAPAC MICHIGAN, SUMMER MIGRANT PROGRAM, 1967

From a mural by Diego Rivera

The excerpts below are from a report I did when 20 years old and a student at Michigan State University. I'd been given the great opportunity [during the summers of 1966, 1967, and 1968] to work alongside migrant farm workers families in the Capac, MI area by a Spanish-speaking Detroit diocese priest, Fr. Joe Melton, with financial support from Fr. Hogan in Lakeport, MI and the Deanery of Catholic Women. Most weeks I'd work about 3 to 4 days in the fields--picking pickles and hoeing sugar beets--and the other time spent trying to organize migrant access to social, job, and church services.

It was a time when the organizing of farmworkers by Cesar Chavez in California was just becoming known in Michigan. No one here had the illusion there'd be farm labor strikes in Michigan where, as at North camp, the families of labor crews came from many disparate places, and never stayed long at one place as they followed the rumors of available harvests. Some of these Mexican American families had small homes in rural Texas or Florida, but they were seldom at home. The workers of California had possibility of more solidarity, in the stability of working closer to their communities. Baldemar Velasquez' Farm Labor Organizing Committee of Toledo, Ohio did have some success, most in that area's tomato fields. In our local area, there was a one day labor stoppage due to Weller Pickles [Croswell, MI] paycheck irregularities, mediated by Fr. Melton and a FLOC representative.

Understandably, the hope of most field workers was to migrate out of the migrant stream into stable, better paying jobs, whether on farms, in towns or cities. In the passages to follow [the whole report was five times longer] I've added some clarifying comments. The writing is dry, when I fashioned myself a grassroots, hands-on social scientist/community organizer, but tells of that era, when there were perhaps ten times more agricultural workers in our state than there are now. It was also a time of national "War on Poverty" programs—almost in complete retreat now.

CAPAC SUMMER MIGRANT PROGRAM, 1967 [written in March of 1968]

As planned, this [past] summer I was to be responsible for helping the people of the camps develop a sense of hope, and for helping the community [towns of Emmet & Capac, MI] to be responsive to the spirit. Efforts were to be concentrated in two areas. First I was to relate the various interested organizations to the needs felt by the migrant people. These efforts were to center on the Capac Community Assistance Center and it director Bob Aguinaga. Second, I was to be a young adult religious formation program in which those of the community were to share ideas and feeling about God with those at the camps. While carrying out these commitments I lived and worked with the migrants. As it turned out, being with the people became the foundation and the determinant for everything that happened this past summer. …

Moving into North camp was a problem. [located ~2miles north of town on Capac Rd, then 1 mile west—abandoned and demolished over 35 years ago; I remember the multiple seat holed outhouses, and a string of barbed wire around the 20 or so wood shacks] The people of the camp were very accepting from the time of my first visit, but those who owned the camp were much less so. Michigan Sugar Company owns North camp. Their field man was quite worried when I told him of my desire to live at the camp and work in the fields. Although he was in charge of the labor force in our area, he had no authority over such decisions. My application had to be made directly with the man who controlled all company labor operations at the company office in Croswell, forty miles away.

On the day I went to Croswell he wasn't in, so I talked to one of his associates in the office. After I had made a fairly long and careful explanation of my purposed he was ready to let me sign a work contract. Then I mentioned that besides working I also wanted to live in the labor camp. I could see that he could make no sense of this. He could understand a person who worked for the church wanting to become a little closer to the people to understand them better—but to live with them? Suddenly he was telling me that finalizing a contract was really not his business anyway, and that he would have to clear everything with his superior. There should be no problem however, and in a couple of days I would be contacted and contracted by the local field man who lives in Capac. That was the last I heard from Michigan Sugar Company. A week and a half later I moved in anyway. This was mid-July and the pickle-picking would start toward the end of the month. I had convinced Weller Pickle Company of my "good intentions." It was unlikely that, in the couple of weeks that remained before they were to lease their camp out to Weller, Michigan Sugar would go through the trouble of tying to evict me. [and they didn't] …

North camp license--expired; camp long gone as well

Thus began my stay at North camp. What the companies both feared to varying degrees was that I would become a labor organizer and lead an insurrection against their corporations. [some self aggrandizement here, tempered by mild sarcasm, and some over-projection as to the companies thoughts about my presence; I did realize that listening to the people of the camp's concerns was most important] The small farmers to a no lesser degree feel threatened by labor organization. But those who most fear unionizing are many of the migratory workers themselves. They have to work in order to live. They have no resources to rely upon in time of unemployment. Pancho said that since both of his boys were old enough to work, the four of his family could work intermittently and still get by. The children of the family next door were small. Their parents had to work whenever possible. In North camp each family had its own situation and its own aspirations. Unity was hard to conceive of when each one had his own to look after.

UFWOC March to Sacramento, CA

[A group of us did make a concerted attempt at change.]
Many married men wanted training for new occupations, but marriage made them ineligible for the High School Education Project [HEP, a paid GED program] and any other program which had no provision for family support. The same problem of obtaining training and still receiving a livable income confronts many single men too old to qualify for HEP. The Michigan Development & Training Agency [project that was run by the MI unemployment office] offers a wage along with its training sessions. After many phone calls [to these offices] and after a trip to Detroit with five prospective applicants [in which we had to wait many hours due to their not being ready for us, and lack of translators--besides my (2^nd year Spanish) self--to help with forms], we found no opening at this particular time. We were asked to try again. By now the group has dispersed itself in to Florida and Texas. They are not likely to try again.

[One of them] Homer had been offered a job with an automobile assembly plant in Detroit. He couldn't find a place to live where he would still have some Spanish-speaking people as friends. A few days later all the people had left North camp and Homer was on his way back to Florida to work for a farmer he had worked for once before.

[Addendum: Later on I learned that Homer, due in part to letters our group had sent to Congress and the Labor Department voicing our frustration, did eventually get training as a welder in a similar Florida program.]

Mass during Cesar Chavez' Forty Day Fast 1968, Photo by Jon Lewis

Our efforts throughout our lives barely scratch the surface, but it's better to try to dig in, than not to. A purpose of this posting near Labor Day & 9-11, is to encourage new positive steps towards creative labor, jobs, and justice projects at home and internationally. Locally we've started an Alternative Service Opportunities agency, perhaps to be renamed Community National Service, or Blue Ops, … to recruit for our county Volunteer Action Center, AmeriCorps and Peace Corps as initial objectives. Years ago a little investment of my time and money, supported by church mentors and farmworker families , has made for a lifetime of changed attitude. Muchisimas gracias a todos que me han ayudado. May we help others to the same great gift.

"I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of humanity is to sacrifice ourselves for others in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice." --Cesar Chavez


Some answers to Terrorism on the date of 9-11

If we believe that God does not intend us to live in fear, how do we make the conscious decision to live unafraid? Perhaps a new spiritual discipline based in mindfulness, compassion, humility, and solidarity can move us from fear to freedom.

Our culture of addictive consumerism prevents us from seeing and believing the truth about ourselves. And what is that truth? We are sons of God. We are daughters of the Most High Creator. We remember this through contemplative prayer, which teaches us that every moment is a sacred invitation from God to become fully human and fully alive. --Words of Tom Cordaro

For more of his thoughts on truth-will-make-us-free freedom, see his book, Be Not Afraid: An Alternative to the "War on Terror" available from Amazon.com.

IMMIGRANTS MET BY A WALL OF GUNS IN THE BORDER LANDS--WANTED: JUSTICE FOR FARM WORKERS

Making the rounds of the guns' righters websites was the Mexican army's discovery and confiscation of a drug gang's huge arsenal in an orchard hideaway south of the border on May 12, 2010. [ original article in La Jornada—respected left leaning Mexican national newspaper 1 ] For some reason this was to offer further proof of how we must arm ourselves to the hilt on our north side, to guard against Mexican incursion. Unfortunately, Mexican drug syndicates operate with army-sized armaments only because of the liberal supply from gun sellers in the U.S., paid for with drug money provided by U.S. customers. [see NYT story on the problem 2 ]. Without us they have no market for their goods, and no open-ended access to guns galore. We are our own worst enemy in this regard, but who gets hurt?

Since 2006, 28,000 Mexican citizens have been caught dead in the cross-fire between Mexican army and drug cartels. There have been few if any U.S. citizen casualties north of the border. An untold number of migrants trying to cross our border have died, some by violence others by exposure. The Zetas gang recently executed 72, kidnapped before they could make the border, perhaps because they couldn't raise ransom from poor families further south, but probably because they refused to join in the gang's transporting drugs to the USA. 3, 4 They died violent deaths by resisting being part of this violent business—shot dead by weapons procured in the USA, paid for by profits made in the USA. God bless their strong, nonviolent witness.

Etching by Fritz Eichenberg--published in NYC "Catholic Worker" newspaper

Why do the migrants come from Mexico, Central and Latin America to take these risks--long journeys and illegal crossings? Same reason you and I get up every morning to go to work—to make a living for self and family, to make a better world. And in their case, poverty is a most powerful motivator. The gainful employments they may find are our society's leftover farm labor, construction and service jobs. Should we be irate and armed against their efforts, or welcome their contribution. The Statue of Liberty and the Bible recommend open arms.

My experience as a young adult working and living in Capac, MI area migrant camps summers of 1966, 67, 68, was to be kindly received by the farm workers from south Texas. This was a Catholic Church project helping in a small way to organize for social services. They were Mexican American U.S. citizens trying to pursue a livelihood of simple homes in neighborhoods back in Carrizo Springs and Crystal City, TX, by traveling all over the Midwest most of the year, harvesting our crops, putting the food on our tables.

It was a time when "La Causa" -- Cesar Chavez's United Farm Workers Organizing Committee in California --was just becoming known nationally. For the people I lived and picked pickles with [for Aunt Jane's and Weller's of Croswell, MI] in North Camp [W. of the road N. out of Capac towards Yale], it was difficult to envision forming a union for labor rights. They went from Texas to Florida, West & East Michigan, Ohio, Colorado, and back around again, every year, with Minnesota sometimes thrown in. Chasing the crops, keeping family together and fed, cars in running order, and some school for their children, were constant organizing challenges. Still there was interest in the solidarity to bring justice and opportunity, that was preached by Cesar Chavez and the members of his union. To be continued next week.

!Que viva la huelga! [ Long live the strike—the spirit of self-sacrifice for common justice! ] Farmers, factory, construction, and service workers included. In spirit, and on the ground, recognizing all the difficulties of implementation.

!Happy Labor Day!

1. http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2010/05/12/index.php?section=politica&article=007n1pol

2. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/15/us/15guns.html

3. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129427837&ft=1&f=129427837

4. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129583155