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I'm a believer. Of all the things that define who I am, this comes first. My faith in Jesus affects the way I think about my identity, the way I think about what I do, the way I think about the world.
This journal expresses the ideas and feelings and convictions to which my faith in Jesus leads me. It is a personal journal, and I do not claim to speak here for First Congregational Church or the United Church of Christ.
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at our worst … and best
Posted on July 2, 2008 | Filed Under justice, torture
Three Iraqis and a Jordanian filed federal lawsuits Monday alleging they were tortured by U.S. defense contractors while detained at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2003 and 2004.
The lawsuits allege that those arrested and taken to the prison were subjected to forced nudity, electrical shocks, mock executions and other inhumane treatment. They seek unspecified payments high enough to compensate the detainees for their injuries, and to deter contractors from such conduct in the future.
“These innocent men were senselessly tortured by U.S. companies that profited from their misery,” said lead attorney Susan L. Burke, of the Philadelphia law firm Burke O’Neil. “These men came to U.S. courts because our laws, as they have for generations, allow their claims to be heard here.”
From an Associated Press article by David Dishneau, Abu Ghraib Inmates Sue Contractors, Claim Torture
Terrible things — truly terrible things — have been done in our name, “to protect the interests of the nation.” Terrible things have been done, with precious little accountability. Only media reports and opinion pieces — not really the courts and not really the congress — have held the practice of “enhanced interrogation” up to the light of day, but, even so, such reporting has sparked little outrage. Some of us deny it. Some of make excuses for it. And some of us just chalk it up to the cost of ensuring our security.
Personal and national security, whatever the cost, without regard for law or principle or love of neighbor: this shows us at our worst.
But now four individuals subjected to “enhanced interrogation” are suing. I applaud this opportunity to “try” the case, to bring the facts to light, to put the minds and hearts of the American people and the American justice system to the test. And as the lawyer for the plaintiffs suggests, this shows us at our best, capable of facing and redressing our own sins. The American system of governance is supposed to work that way, giving all access to justice, and allowing for self-correction as we learn from our mistakes.
May it be so in this case …
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good news: burger king changes its mind
Posted on May 30, 2008 | Filed Under justice
Burger King has reversed its entrenched opposition to raising wages for the tomato pickers helping to provide the produce necessary to its business, removing the last major corporate obstacle to a more just wage for the farm workers. However, the tomato growers are still set against a wage increase. Read Andrew Martin’s coverage in the New York Times:
After a contentious battle that included allegations of spying, Burger King announced on Friday that it had reached an agreement to improve the wages and working conditions of tomato pickers in Florida.
At a news conference on Capitol Hill, the hamburger chain, based in Miami, said it would pay tomato prices adequate to give workers a wage increase of 1.5 cents a pound. A penny a pound will go into the workers’ pockets. The extra half-cent is intended to cover additional payroll taxes and administrative costs for tomato growers.
The 1-cent increase means that for every 32-pound bucket of tomatoes they pick, the workers will earn 77 cents, instead of 45 cents. That is a 71 percent increase, the first substantial one in decades for the workers. At the old wage, a farm workers’ group said, the pickers typically earned $10,000 to $12,000 a year.
“If the Florida tomato industry is to be sustainable long term, it must become more socially responsible,” said Amy Wagner, a senior vice president at Burger King. She estimated that the wage boost would cost Burger King about $300,000 a year.
In a statement, Burger King’s chief executive, John W. Chidsey, said he was sorry for previous negative remarks directed toward an activist group that has fought on behalf of the pickers, the Coalition for Immokalee Workers. Immokalee is a town in southwest Florida where many of the farm workers live in decrepit shacks and trailers.
Mr. Chidsey praised the workers’ organization as “being on the forefront of efforts to improve farm labor conditions, exposing abuses and driving socially responsible purchasing and work practices in the Florida tomato fields.”
McDonalds and Yum Brands, the parent of Taco Bell, had already agreed to similar deals. But it remained unclear on Friday if workers would receive the pay increase, because Florida tomato growers had resisted it.
The Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, which represents 90 percent of the state’s tomato growers, told The News-Press in Fort Myers, Fla., on Thursday that it was withdrawing its threat of imposing $100,000 fines on members who provided a penny-a-pound pay raise.
Reggie Brown, the exchange’s executive vice president, told the Florida newspaper that he remained troubled by legal questions prompted by the raise and was advising members not to participate.
Mr. Brown could not be located for comment on Friday.
The announcement was hailed by some members of Congress and by farm workers’ organizations, who had waged a vigorous campaign that included petition drives and Congressional hearings.
Senator Bernard Sanders, an Independent of Vermont, said the working conditions of the tomato pickers were a “national and international embarrassment,” and he praised Burger King for agreeing to raise wages.
“We all know that this has been a long and hard road for Burger King,” he said.
Lucas Benitez, of the Coalition for Immokalee Workers, said he was thankful that Burger King agreed to the wage increase, and he said his group would now set its sights on other restaurant chains and grocery retailers who continue to pay wages his group regards as substandard.
Noting that some of those companies market themselves as being socially responsible, Mr. Benitez, co-founder of the farm workers’ group, said, “It is time for those companies to live out the true meaning of their marketers’ words.
Friday’s announcement was a sharp departure for Burger King, which had vigorously fought increasing its tomato costs. Burger King acknowledged, for instance, that it had hired a private security firm to obtain information about student and farm worker organizations that were demanding price increases. The company has since severed its ties to the security firm.
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going to new orleans
Posted on May 15, 2008 | Filed Under church, faith, personal life, ucc
Even three years after hurricane Katrina, there is much rebuilding work yet to do in New Orleans as this video from the Center for American Progress indicates …
Tomorrow I leave with a mission team of twelve adults from our congregation for a week’s work in New Orleans. We will be one team among many taking part in the ongoing efforts of the United Church of Christ to help the people of New Orleans rebuild their homes and their lives. Ours is a good team — six men and six women — and we go with strong support from our church family. I have high expectations, both for the blessings we will bestow by our work and the blessings we will receive from the people we meet.
We will be hosted by St. Matthew/Central United Church of Christ. We will worship with them on Sunday, make their church our home for six days, share a red beans and rice supper with them on Wednesday evening … and see their city up close, both through their eyes and our own. So we go not only to help, but also to be helped, to be helped to see our neighbors as Jesus does.
Our 400 man-hours of work will make only a small contribution to the larger needs of the city, but, we pray, a contribution that will make a great difference for the two families in whose homes we will work. It is good to be able to do something … to take our faith beyond mere words, to live our compassion beyond mere feelings.
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nrdc update: 37 wolves killed
Posted on May 2, 2008 | Filed Under politics, the natural world
An update from the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) on what has happened since protections for wolves were lifted in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana …
The government-sanctioned massacre of wolves is now under way.
A mere 30 days after the Bush Administration stripped Yellowstone’s wolves of their Endangered Species protection, the Northern Rockies have been turned into a killing field.
Thirty-seven wolves are already dead. Hundreds more are being targeted by Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, which have waited years for this chance to put their plans for extermination into action.
But today there is reason for hope: America’s best wildlife legal team is riding to the rescue.
Our partner organization, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) — and 11 other groups — filed suit this week in federal court to stop the killing and restore the wolf’s desperately needed Endangered Species protection.
The court action comes not a moment too soon. Eyewitness reports of the latest wolf-killing rampage have been heartbreaking to people all over the world who care about wildlife.
On the very day that these wolves lost their Endangered Species protection, a crippled wolf named “Limpy,” one of the most photographed wolves in Yellowstone’s famous Druid Peak pack, was shot to death when he ventured outside the park.
Another wolf was stalked for over 35 miles by snowmobile before being overtaken and shot. Another was found dead on the side of the highway, his still-warm body torn apart by bullets.
And, tragically, at least four female wolves have been killed just prior to the denning season, which could doom some of the region’s wolf pups.
Wolves simply cannot outrun these relentless attacks. Their last, best hope now rests with the life-saving reprieve that NRDC is seeking in federal court.
You can learn more about the threats to the gray wolves in my earlier post, putting the wolf in danger. You can take action to ban wolf poisons here.
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i applaud jimmy carter
Posted on April 22, 2008 | Filed Under peace, politics
I applaud Jimmy Carter for his courage, for engaging the leadership of Hamas in dialogue, for searching out any avenues for moving the peace process forward.
He has been criticized for meeting at all with Khalid Meshaal, by both the Bush administration and the Democratic presidential candidates. Dialogue should be absolutely contingent, they argue, on Hamas’ recognition of Israel and renunciation of violence. But it seems to me if the goal of a peace process is made a precondition to dialogue, then the process will surely go where it has always gone … nowhere.
Start talking! Explore options! Get the people who have a stake in the process — all the people who have a stake in the process — to start talking … and listening. The alternative is to draw lines in the sand (on both sides) and stake out intransigent positions (on both sides) and continue to be mired in the cycle of violence and misery that has plagued the peoples who live on this land for generation after generation after generation.
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here!
Posted on April 19, 2008 | Filed Under beauty, humility, the natural world
This poem by David Wagoner, entitled “Lost” was posted on April 18th at the inward/outward website …
Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.
Every place is a Here … and every place may be a home.
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justice stevens disavows the death penalty
Posted on April 17, 2008 | Filed Under death penalty
In an opinion released on Wednesday, United States Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens wrote:
I have relied on my own experience in reaching the conclusion that the imposition of the death penalty represents “the pointless and needless extinction of life with only marginal contributions to any discernible social or public purposes. A penalty with such negligible returns to the state (is) patently excessive and cruel and unusual punishment violative of the Eighth Amendment.”
Absolutely right …
It is difficult for me to discern even a “marginal” contribution to the public good. What does the death penalty accomplish, except to satisfy an unholy desire for retribution or revenge? It does not make people better or society safer. On the contrary, it reinforces a culture of violence and encourages the least helpful — and the least noble — impulses in a victimized society.
As a nation that proclaims itself a defender of liberty and human rights, it would only be right for us to lead the rest of the world toward the total abolition of the death penalty, but we aren’t. We aren’t leading. We’re not even following.
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