As I entered the church, I noticed a huge white altar with
these yellow bottles around the top. Looking more closely, I realized they were
bottles and bottles of yellow vegetable oil.  My first though was what an interesting way to
decorate an altar. Then… “Wow. Using money that would be used for flowers to
buy food for people in need. That’s really justice!” Later I learned that the
parishioners were decorating the altar by bringing different food items each
week.  By Christmas, the altar would be
filled with food and boxes prepared for the families who use the soup kitchen
that the parish also runs.  It was a
beautiful witness to the mission and charism of the Vincentians and a sad
commentary that in the U.S. there are people without enough to eat.

We have a love/hate relationship with food in our
country.  We eat too much and yet are
malnourished.  We are so busy that we
have to depend on processed food or fast food restaurants rather that eat fresh
meals made from scratch. While we produce enough food to feed the world, there
are millions of children who go to bed hungry every night.   We throw out about 1/3 of the food produced
for human consumption or about 38 million tons each year.

Does the United States have a responsibility to make sure people
in the U.S. and the world, aren’t hungry? 
I don’t know …. but as the richest nation, one blessed with prosperity,
we certainly could.  When our government threatens
to defund programs like WIC, SNAP, Food for Peace, USAID that feed people, and
we don’t try to stop this, are we forgetting the bounty that we are blessed
with or do we see only scarcity and want to protect our portion?

I love thanksgiving. It’s my all-time favorite meal…filled
with memories of my parents and family gatherings. But there are others who
because of poverty, famine, or war will have nothing to eat.  Let us take a minute to recognize our
blessings and resolve to work to eliminate hunger in our world. 

Don’t like wrinkled clothes? Don’t like to iron? Then
buy materials with polyester? Perhaps we want to think again about what is
convenient, practical, or time saving. 
All choices have consequences, right?

Sisters and Associates in the Congregation participate
in a campaign against the wide use of plastics—straws, containers, bags.
Clothing/materials have escaped our attention, yet 60% of our clothing made out
of plastic.  Polyester comes from oil—a polymer
which is a long chain of repeating molecular units; the synthetic polyester of
clothing results from a chemical reaction involving coal, petroleum, air, and
water (one type: purified terephthalic acid or PTS). (For the non-chemical
engineer the names are tongue-twisters.) Polyester has become ubiquitous in
clothing because the threads in the spinning process can be spun short or long
which enables blending the threads with the natural fabric threads of cotton,
wool or silk. And so we can have our warm fleece or non-wrinkle pants or
fast-drying shirts. Did you know that China is a leader in producing all
plastic clothing?

A major problem exists, however: producing polyester
requires great amounts of fuel—oil and coal—which releases significant CO2 into
our atmosphere—adding to the CO2 and methane trapping the sun’s heat on our
earth and into our oceans. We in the US and peoples around the world in the
Americas, Africa, Europe and Asia experience its consequences of extremes in
heat, fires, droughts, and home losses. Do we include all the animals, fish,
and birds lost in these events?

Another related consequence is adding to the amount of
plastic in our earth’s water. In laundering fleece and other materials-often of
50-50 polyester fabric composition-microfibers are released by heat into the
waste water, ending up in our oceans, lakes, rivers for ingestion by aquatic
creatures and us.

All of us can and must speak up and resist continued
dependence upon fossil fuels.

In  light of what’s been happening on the border, I wanted to share an article from the Southwest Kansas Catholic written by the editor, Dave Myers.  It may be hard for some of us to imagine this happening but this is why so many good people will walk thousands of miles for peace and safety.

Honduran family journeys to Kansas seeking
Freedom from Fear

By David Myer 
Southwest Kansas Register
Editor’s Note: Ana’s name has been changed for this story.

For 10 minutes, Ana felt the cold steel of a gun held to her head.

For 10 minutes, the mother of three children knew she would die at
any moment, and when that moment never came, it was nothing short of a milagro
(miracle).

When the Register spoke with the diminutive woman from Honduras, she was only six days in the United States
and living with family members. The relief she felt was palpable. She and her
two sons were safe, and she soon would be reunited with her husband and
seven-year-old daughter, from whom they separated before crossing the border.
She was at peace. Finally. And she no longer had to face the inevitability of
her two sons being forcefully indoctrinated into a gang or cartel.

Having a gun pressed to her head was not the first time Ana felt
heart-crushing fear, and it wouldn’t be the last. But it was the moment
when the family finally decided it was time to leave.

With the help of Sister Janice Thome, OP, who acted as
interpreter, Ana described the day she encountered the gunman. She was at work
in a restaurant when a gang of thugs flew through the front doors.

“They wanted to kill a [wealthy man], but he was surrounded by
body guards,” Ana explained. “They killed a lot of people. They wanted money,
but it was 9 a.m. when we opened, and there was no money yet.”

Because Ana was a witness to the shootings, she surely would be
killed, too.

“I ran to the back, but a man caught me and put a gun to my head.
For 10 minutes he didn’t say anything. I don’t know why he didn’t kill me. When
this kind of thing happens in my country, they shoot you for sure. It was a
miracle.”

Why didn’t she go to the police?

“The police and the gangs are linked. I would be dead.”

If it was just about her safety – going to work and getting
home without being victimized – they might have stayed. But then there were the
children. Ana explained that when children enter, say, the ninth or tenth grades,
they are approached by cartel members wanting to “train them to be drug mules
or to kidnap people for money. If they don’t want to be a part of it, they are
told that their whole family will be killed.

“I didn’t want my sons to grow up and be bad men. I wanted to come
here and be safe, where they could grow up to be good men.”

She found the help of a kind “coyote.” (Coyotes are those who help
others cross the border, and are notoriously less interested in their
“customers’” welfare than they are in money. To find a kind coyote who
charged the “very cheap” price of $9,500 for the entire family, was another
“milagro.”) Ana, her husband, three children and two other family members
boarded a bus and began the long trek across Guatemala,
along the vast expanse of Mexico,
and finally to the border of Texas.

Like so many immigrants flooding into the southern states, once
across the border, Ana and her family allowed themselves to be taken by
immigration officials, in hopes that they would be granted asylum. She and her
husband – she with their two sons and he with their daughter – separated,
hoping that each, having children but being without a spouse, would be
granted the asylum they desperately sought.

It was a decision that would haunt each parent like a bad
nightmare for several days to come.

“They took all my jewelry,” Ana said. “They went through my hair
and gave me a total pat-down. They took my fingerprints, took my picture, and
wanted to know the address of family members here so we could prove we had some
place to go.”

According to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, because of
the overwhelming number of immigrants crossing the border, the conditions of
the temporary facilities “are lacking in even the most basic services and
conditions.”

For two days, Ana and her two sons slept on a bare, cement floor.
It was cold, and they had no blankets. Her oldest son slept sitting up, while
the younger son slept with his head on his brother’s leg.

“I didn’t eat or sleep for two days,” Ana said. “I was so scared.
I began shaking. They asked why I hadn’t moved to a different place in Honduras.
I told them because of the violence. They asked why I didn’t move to Mexico.
I said I didn’t have family there. They wanted me to sign a form, but I was so
scared. I didn’t speak English and didn’t understand what I was signing. I
began to cry.

“One of the [guards/immigration officials] became so angry when I
wouldn’t sign that he made a slashing motion across his throat. I was so scared
I would be killed.”

Eventually her sister, who resides with Ana’s mother in southwest Kansas, convinced her by
phone to sign the paper, and she and her two boys were released.

With no money and no food, the three stood helpless outside the
detention center; Ana was crying. With little hope, a kind woman spotted them
on the road and offered them her phone, which Ana used to call her sister. The
woman took them to McDonalds and told them to order whatever they wanted. Ana
was so distraught that she couldn’t eat. Then the woman took them to a Catholic
church where Ana offered thanks to God.

A priest brought them to a “place for food and rest” where they
slept two nights. “It was wonderful; I helped cook,” she said.

Even better than the food and shelter, is the fact that they offered
help in finding her husband and daughter.

Meanwhile, back in Kansas,
Ana’s mother and sister obtained the aid of a minister. He enlisted the help of
his congregation to raise the gas money so that he personally drive to Texas,
pick up Ana’s family, and bring them back to Kansas. It turned out that Ana’s
husband and their little girl had been released after only two hours of
incarceration, and had been given shelter by her husband’s friend in Dallas.

As the Register spoke to Ana, her husband and daughter were
packing their bags to begin the end of their long journey. “They should be here
tomorrow,” Ana said with a broad grin. “When we talk on the phone, we want to
have each other in our arms so bad that we cry. He’s my support. He’s my
shoulder.”

Soon they will have to report to the immigration office in Wichita where they will
have the difficult task of proving that “the fear; the absolute fear” of
staying in their homeland is real.

If they are unable to do so,
the family faces the very real possibility of being deported back to the
violence they left behind.

Sunday was an especially amazing and yet difficult day –  a day when God smiled and cried at the same time.  Sunday was the dedication of the first Social Justice Park in the United States.  The Washington Gladden Social Justice Park, a brainchild of associate Rev. Tim Aherns, had its grand opening. Although it was a damp, dreary, cold day, hundreds came out including Dominican Sisters of Peace and their Associates.

At one point, the rain began and colorful umbrellas covered the crowd like so many mushrooms.  It occurred to me that God was crying about all the injustice happening in our world– the shootings in Pittsburgh and the Kroger outside Louisville, KY, the pipe bombs, the caravan from Honduras and the fear mongering bent on stopping them at our border, the laws and rules determined to keep refugees and asylum seekers from being welcomed, the bombing in Syria and Yemen, and many, many more actions that don’t seem to represent the values of our country.

Then, in the midst of the rain came the sun.  Just a glimmer at first but later bright,
warm, loving sun embraced our cold, damp bodies.  It seemed miraculous to me – almost as if God
was smiling down on the park and all the folks supporting it.  There was reason for us to be happy at that
moment as we heard from various speakers of the promise of the park.  We need a park full of beauty to keep us
thinking about and acting for the cause of justice. 

I was particularly moved by the poem written and read by Sara Abou Rached, a 19 year old raised in Syria whose family came here because of the war, who described America “as one reliant woman who is loud, proud, strong. Whose shoulders shelter continents. Who arms extend and reach beyond oceans.”  Yes…. America who is welcoming and sheltering and peaceful.

She reminded me of the greatness of America in a time when
it’s easy to feel the stinginess of our government’s actions and overwhelming
amount of injustice.

In his daily email on that same day, Fr. Richard Rohr wrote
that that we are each love. “When [we] don’t live according to love, [we] are
outside of being. [We] are not real or true to ourselves. When [we] love, [we]
are acting according to our deepest being, our deepest truth.  [We] are operating according to our
dignity…This kind of love is… outflowing.” 
That same day, God cried and smiled on us at the same time, an outflowing
of God’s presence to remind us that we must also promote an outflowing of
justice.

You can listen to Sara’s entire poem here:  https://www.pbs.org/video/i-am-america-sara-abou-rashed-awtcyo/

One of the freedoms that I am most grateful for is
freedom of speech. As citizens, we are able to disagree publically with our
elected officials and each other without worrying about the police arresting us
when we walk out the door. And most importantly, we can make our voice heard
through our vote. 

When we vote, we look for the person who will best
represent our values. This can be especially difficult in today’s climate and we
might be tempted to vote only for our party, or for women…or Latinos…or
liberals… or…..   You get my point.  

Some might vote only for a candidate who professes
to be pro-life. Voting for a person who is anti-abortion is not necessarily the
same as voting pro-life.  Life does not
stop when a child is born.  There are so
many other important life issues to be considered.  I would suggest that all the issues that the
Dominican Sisters of Peace have included in our voting guide are pro-life
including protection from violence in our own communities and welcoming people
escaping from it in their countries…ensuring that our creation is protected and
its resources are available for all…protecting adults and children from sex or
labor trafficking. They address the sanctity of life from conception to natural
death.

So what do you do when a candidate professes to be
pro-life but addresses none of the life issues after birth? That’s where our
consciences come into play.

A recent article in America called Catholic Teaching on Conscience is (Again)
Topic of Discussion at Synod, states “Catholics believe that following
one’s conscience is paramount—and that believers should do their best to form
their consciences in the light of reason, experience, Scripture and spiritual
formation, always with the help of church teaching.”  The Church’s Social Teaching is one source of
formation and includes the rights to life, dignity, work, care for the poor and
vulnerable, and care for creation. Perhaps we need to work together to end
abortions by helping women to avoid them or supporting mothers when their children
are born.

So, in the end, each
person must make his or her decision on how to vote. That decision must be done
with prayer, information, discussion. 
Voting is an important action that cannot be taken lightly. It affects
each of us personally and communally. 
May you find peace in this important action.