Sanctuary

Some time in the early 1980's El Salvador was in the midst of a civil war. People were fleeing the death squads for safety and the chance at a better life in the United States. Our Unitarian Universalist congregation symbolically provided sanctuary to a family. While the family didn't technically live in the church itself, our congregation sponsored them.

I'm not sure how it all worked out but I recall that the family had very few options to travel about and anyone aiding them could risk arrest. One afternoon my dad drove the father to a medical appointment.

This caused much concern in my little brother. He was of the age where police were always right and people shouldn't break laws. He was upset that my dad would risk making the police angry.

While I didn't fully understand the dynamics I knew this man needed medical care. I was also proud that my dad was taking a risk to help someone.

What I also didn't understand was how this deed ran counter to my dad's upbringing. He was born on a dairy farm in Virginia in 1940. He grew up in the segregationist south, where the white kids went to one school and the blacks to another (of course that happens today - while it was by law in the 1950's, it is through economics today). He earned his undergraduate degree at a public university that did not formally admit women until 1972. It would be understandable if he carried the privilege of a white man.

And yet, he has always worked to make the world, both in his neighborhood and much farther away, a better place. He has been a town meeting member and active player in local politics for decades. He has been on the board for an elder housing organization, a domestic violence shelter and an organization that advocates for severely developmentally disabled adults. I wish I had a recording of him describing volunteering at a food bank for the residents of the Chinatown neighborhood. He talks about the pride of the elderly men and women who entered the church as they walked in to receive their food.

He had a heart attack last year the day before he was to lead two church services about the genocide in Darfur. He was very worried about how the services would go even though he was told he needed triple bypass heart surgery. So while he couldn't get himself discharged from the hospital - he promised to return -he spent the days in the hospital trying to get the nurses to read his pamphlets about Darfur. To this day he still wears his green Not on Our Watch bracelet.

I've gone on to a career in social justice - first through public policy to expand health care coverage and now working on economic justice.

My father is the reason why I think I can make a difference.

Because he drove a man to a doctor's appointment.


This post is part of a blog exchange. Thirty-eight year old Allison can be found proudly wearing a pink "daddy's little girl" shirt. She is the mother of three children- twin 6 1/2 year old boys and a three year old girl and works outside the home as an advocate for economic justice. She found the the quotes at Nancy's place Just Thinking inspiring. Today the thoughtful Nancy is over at Allison's place - Soccer Mom in Denial. You can find more exchanges at The Blog Exchange.

Overwhelmed and Yet . . .

I've been (once again) trying to catch up on my magazine reading - mostly political in nature - and I've been trying to keep up with the many email lists I am subscribed to - again mostly political in nature - and I've become, well, disenchanted.

I used to think that by "getting involved" I could make a difference, have an impact, help move along real change. And while I still believe that I'm getting frustrated with the enormity of the situation. That is, I try to stay on top of so many issues, and the mere fact that there are SO many issues to keep up with, that I'm overwhelmed by all that needs to be done.

It's like when I was a kid and my mother would tell me to clean up my room. Usually she didn't bother making me clean it up until it was a disaster area, so when I went into my room I would suddenly be struck with a terrible feeling of dread, of hopelessness. How would I ever be able to clean this WHOLE room all by myself? It just wasn't possible! And so, usually, for the first 20 minutes (or maybe it was an hour - Time has no meaning for a child) I would simply fall onto the floor and cry.

Well, that's kind of where I'm at right now. I just want to fall on the floor and cry because I just don't see where I fit in. I don't see where I can help because the need is so great and I don't know where to start. I want to do it all and yet, right now, I'm really doing very little.

It's like my booklist. I have this list of books that no matter how many books I read off of it the list never seems to get shorter. Well, sometimes I get really excited about a book or two that I've found and I add it to the list of "to read" but I feel like I can't wait and I toy with the idea of reading several books at once. But I know that I can't do that because I'd be short-changing myself by trying to keep up with the plots or arguments of several books at once. I'd get confused, then frustrated and wouldn't enjoy any of them. Instead, I finish reading my current selection and then move onto the next title. I don't find myself wishing for fewer great books to read, just more time to devote to reading them.

So I think the answer is to go local and to pick something or someone I want to give some of my time to. And then, I think maybe it's time for me to figure out what one or two "causes" I really and truly care about, the ones I feel most passionate about and think I will have the most impact on - those are the one or two things I should focus on. While I don't want to become ignorant with regard to all things political - there is after all a VERY IMPORTANT election coming up in 2008 - I think I need to take a step back and stop getting so worked up over it.

Yes, I think that's the answer, at least for now. Going local. Going small. More is not always better. While my intentions are honorable, they are ineffectual because I they have no focus and I feel scattered, as if I know a little about a lot of things and not a lot about anything.

So I'm going to go read now. I'm reading an amazing novel, The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, about a very scary future that isn't really that far-fetched. Kind of Orwell, 1984-esque but in a different world, a world where women have become nothing but vessels for procreation or beings well-suited for domestic work. It's a frightening and intriguing tale and I'm going to go back to it.

Because while I've been going a bit crazy doing so many other things, I haven't been reading enough - I haven't been doing what I want to do enough.

Think Before You Drink That Glass of Water

According to UNICEF.org:

"The world water crisis is one of the largest public health issues of our time. Nearly 1.1 billion people (roughly 20% of the world’s population) lack access to safe drinking water. The lack of clean, safe drinking water is estimated to kill almost 4,500 children per day. In fact, out of the 2.2 million unsafe drinking water deaths in 2004, 90% were children under the age of five. Water is essential to the treatment of diseases, something especially critical for children.

This problem isn’t confined to a particular region of the world. A third of the Earth’s population lives in “water stressed” countries and that number is expected to rise dramatically over the next two decades. The crisis is worst in developing countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

The world water crisis is created by a confluence of factors including climate and geography, lack of water systems and infrastructure, and inadequate sanitation, something that 2.6 billion people (40% of the world’s population) lack access to. Some of these countries have additional problems, including high levels of arsenic and fluoride in drinking water.
Many women and young girls in rural areas in Sub-Saharan African and other parts of the world must trek as much as six miles everyday to retrieve water for their families. Due to this manual labor, such women and children are prevented from pursuing an education, maintaining their households or earning additional income.

Thus, the lack of clean water, coupled with the lack of basic sanitation and a dearth of hygiene education, is one of the largest obstacles to progress and development in these regions and across the world. The UN has prioritized water access among its Millennium Development Goals because it contributes to such widespread suffering, including increased poverty, high child mortality rates, depressed education levels, and political instability. Without question, the world water crisis condemns billions of people to a perpetual struggle to survive at the subsistence level, thus inspiring millions to engage and alleviate this problem. Join us. Get involved today.

As if I need to say it again, but if you're reading this you are one of the LUCKY ones. So what are you going to do for those who aren't?

A Day to Celebrate & Help

Today is officially recognized (yes, by even the U.S.) as International Women's Day. Dating back to 1908 when 15,000 women marched through NYC fighting for shorter work hours, better pay and voting rights March 8th has evolved to include activism, celebration and a chance to honor and respect women around the world for the struggles they endure and ultimately conquer.

In several countries (Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Vietnam) IWD has become an official holiday, much like Mother's Day, where women are given flowers or small gifts in a show of appreciation by their children, husbands, boyfriends, etc.

Events are planned all around the world including rallies, fundraisers, lunches, lecture and discussion groups, all demanding better pay, more opportunities, health care, a safe place to raise a family, etc. - not unlike the women marchers from 1908; so while much progress has been made in the last 100 years there is still so much more that needs to be done.

While I will be going about my daily routine today I am going to take a minute to make some kind of donation in honor of all the beautiful women in my life. I am one of the lucky ones. I have a wonderful, safe home in which to care for my family; I have good health insurance to assist us when we are ill; My husband and I are both employed with jobs that do not cause us physical harm or require us to work obscene hours and provide us with enough money to afford food, shelter, clothing, toys for the kids, etc.; While our country is involved in a war the war is being fought in Iraq and I do not fear for the safety of myself or my children when I step outside my front door.

But the women of Iraq do have that fear; the women of Darfur are still struggling daily to protect themselves and their families from the genocide being perpetrated in Sudan; Mothers in Africa are dying by the thousands from the AIDS virus and leaving behind millions of orphans who must raise themselves and their younger brothers and sisters; a mother and her daughter were in court yesterday fighting a citation regarding "illegal housing" within town limits (a town just miles from where I live) that posed a health hazard both for the family and the public - the family of four lives in a 15-passenger van - in not one, but now two separate towns. And what would be less of a public health threat? Having them sleep on a park bench or in a cardboard box in an alley when the temperatures have been dropping to the single digits for the last week? That would be more suitable and less of a health code violation?

My point is that we cannot be complacent and assume that because so many of us have computers and heat and food and clothing and all kinds of toys and gadgets that the rest of the world is just as fortunate. What is in fact true is that if you're reading this - you're in the minority when it comes to your lifestyle. Poverty, extreme poverty even, is an epidemic and we must not forget those, most of them women and children, who are struggling everyday just to survive.

So here is a list of some of my favorite organizations. Make a donation. Get involved. Find something locally. But do something. Do it in the name of your mother, your sister, your aunt, your girlfriends, your daughter and do it for all those women who don't have the opportunity to help themselves unless they are given the means. If we all do just a little bit we will create a world as of yet unimagined.

• One.org - an organization that is fighting extreme poverty through legislation and direct action.
• Women for Women International - my favorite right now where you sponsor a woman who goes through a year long program to help her get herself and her family back on their feet after suffering the atrocities of war. (My sister in Kosovo is about to graduate from the program which she has said has helped her immensely since her husband is still unable to find work. She lives in a house with just two rooms, but has told me through letter writing that I am welcome their any time. Yeah. Take that in for a moment. And it cost me only a few dollars to help change someone's entire life.)
• Global Sistergoods - an online marketplace where fair trade items are available from around the world made by women who are paid a fair wage for their creations.
• Care.org - an international humanitarian organization working to eliminate extreme poverty with a special focus given to poor women.
• The Greater Good Network - another online marketplace where you can purchase fair trade goods with a portion of the proceeds going to charities to fight breast cancer and hunger, save the rainforests and abused animals and promote child health and literacy - you choose where you want your money to go.

That's just a small list of organizations I have had good luck with. If you don't see what you're looking for above, find your own outlet. But do something. Don't wait another day.

P.S. March is also Women's History Month so you'll be hearing about that in upcoming posts as well. It's time to rise up, ladies!!!