Category Archives: Human Rights

March 12, 2016 · 7:01 am

All people have voices

On 11 March 2016, I spoke about the work of advocacy at the orientation for the Presbyterians attending the 60th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. I was asked to post a portion of my remarks and did so on the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations blog. I reprint the words here with the permission of the blog editor (who happens to be me).

All people have voices.
The task of advocacy has nothing to do with giving voice to the voiceless, because
all people have voices.
Some people have voices we choose not to hear.
Some people have voices we ignore.
Some people have voices we force to the margins.
Some people have voices we oppress, repress, suppress.
Some people have voices we have silenced, sometimes for a long time, but
all people have voices.

The work of advocacy leads us
to uncover the voices of our sisters and brothers whose voices we ignore, drive to the margins, suppress, or silence
to hear the voices of our sisters and brothers
to listen, truly listen, passionately listen to the voices of our sisters and brothers
to heed the voices of our sisters and brothers
and then to work with our sisters and brothers whose voices we ignore, drive to the margins, suppress, or silence
to amplify the voices of our sisters and brothers
to bring the voices of our sisters and brothers to the halls of privilege and the tables of power
to invite and call and challenge all people, particularly privileged, powerful people, to hear the voices of our sisters and brothers
to demand that all people, particularly privileged, powerful people, listen, truly listen, passionately listen to our sisters and brothers whose voices we ignore, drive to the margins, suppress, or silence because
all people have voices.

See you along the Trail.

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November 24, 2015 · 3:10 pm

A Thanksgiving prayer for Syrian refugees

My friend, the Rev. Sung Yeon Choimorrow works for Interfaith Worker Justice. She recently wrote a reflection on Syrian and Iraqi refugees in which she 535553_418699534886667_1200697668_nexpresses her “prayer that the spirit of hospitality and generosity will rule this nation. It is my prayer that we give thanks that we get to partner with our creator in this journey of seeking justice and peace.”

She reminds us that the U.S. “narrative of exclusion and oppression isn’t a new one. It is one that has repeated and continues to repeat itself in history.”

And she challenges us to make sure that

Fear does not win. When people who live in hope and fight for justice work together, we can and do drive out fear. We, the people of faith must act on our convictions to stand up against Islamophobia that is driving our legislators to pass a bill that would stop women and children fleeing war from coming to our shores. We, the people of faith must act on our convictions to stand up against splitting up families due to deportations. We, the people of faith must act on our convictions to stand up against poverty wages and corporate greed that puts profits before people.

For her words, which I encourage you to read, I say “Thanks.”

To her prayer, I humbly say “Amen.”

See you along the Trail.

The photo shows the Rev. Sung Yeon Choimorrow attending the UN Commission on the Status of Women in 2013 and was taken by our mutual friend, Bruce Reyes-Chow.

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September 7, 2015 · 10:30 pm

For all who work

I give thanks this day for all who work –
whether that work is
paid or unpaid
honored or unrecognized
whether that work
earns a pay check or simply involves the day-to-day tasks of living
whether that work is
a labor of love
or somehow combines all of the above.

I give thanks for all who have lived and died
to protect the lives and rights of those who work.

I give thanks for all who live and give of themselves,
and risk themselves,
to make a better world for all who work.

I confess and grieve that the life I live,
the privilege and comfort I enjoy,
too often rests on the backs of brothers and sisters who work.

I recognize that all too often sisters and brothers work
in dangerous conditions, in situations where they are exploited, violated.

I pray that the day will come when all people have work to do
work that is safe and meaningful,
work that is honored and valued,
work that pays a wage that allows the workers
to provide a decent living for themselves and for their families.

I pray that I will receive the grace and the wisdom and the courage
to in some small way
make a contribution to the dawning of that day.

I give thanks this day for all who work.

See you along the Trail.

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August 18, 2015 · 10:13 pm

Make a difference

Any time you have an opportunity to make a difference in this world and you don’t, then you are wasting your time on Earth.
– Roberto Clemente

Roberto_ClementeToday Roberto Clemente would have turned 82.

Tomorrow the world marks World Humanitarian Day.

Coincidence?

Clemente was a great baseball player. He was an even greater humanitarian and human being.

I wear his jersey today as a reminder of his challenge to make a difference.

Feliz cumpleaños, Roberto. Te recuerdo.

See you along the Trail.

 

 

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March 17, 2015 · 8:03 am

17 March – each year, every year

I speak for no others,
only for myself.
For me, this day has
nothing to do with
green beer or
green rivers or
green clothing,
this day has nothing to do with
pinching me or kissing me;
my bad jokes aside,
this day has nothing to do even with Jameson.
Today is a day
to remember oppression
to honor resistance
to recognize that, despite the efforts of
systems of race and racialization
to separate us,
struggles for dignity and justice,
freedom and equality,
human rights and humanity
are inseparably linked:
none of us are free until all of us are free.
for that reason, in that spirit, and in my own fashion,
I mark this day, and each 17th of March.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day.

Fitzgerald, from County Cork, on my mother’s side.

See you along the Trail!

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February 28, 2015 · 12:47 pm

March with me on March 8

In commemoration of the 20-year anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, Presbyterian participants in the 59th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women will join the march for gender equality on International Women’s Day! Please join us and our partners, the City of New York, the UN Women for Peace Association, NGO CSW New York, Man Up Campaign, and the Working Group on Girls.

We will march through New York City midtown, starting at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza and ending on Times Square.

TIMELINE:
1:30 p.m. Participants begin to assemble (Dag Hammarskjold Plaza – 47th St and 2nd Ave)
2:30 p.m. March begins (see below map for the exact route)
4:15 p.m. Final convening point: Renewing commitments to gender equality (Times Square – 42nd St and 7th Ave)
5:00 p.m. March concludes

Participants are welcome to produce and bring their own banners with powerful messages calling for women’s rights.

If you attend the march, share your images and messages on social media via the hashtag #Beijing20, and follow @UN_Women on Twitter for coverage!

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January 24, 2015 · 10:22 am

Protect church leaders in Colombia

logo1I signed a petition this morning to support Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) partners and denounce the death threats were received on January 11, 2015 by three of the pastoral leaders in our partner church, the Iglesia Presbiteriana de Colombia. Thanks to the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship and Presbyterian World Mission for creating the petition. Thanks to the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for sending a letter on behalf of our partners.

You can sign too.

See you along the Trail.

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December 24, 2014 · 10:55 am

On this night we gather

On this night, as we gather,

bellies spasm with hunger
winter seeps into the bones of people with no homes
thoughts turn to Syria, South Sudan and places between and beyond
people plot violence
children watch parents die of AIDS, wondering when their turn will come
relationships fray and come apart
children and women and men endure abuse
economic uncertainty undoes nations and households
walls divide people from their homes
handguns bark and blood flows
racism, sexism, heterosexism, ageism, and more
privilege some and crush life from others
drugs surge through veins to allow escape from reality’s pain
death comes calling — sometimes welcome, sometimes not
sorrow and suffering spread around the world
trouble and turmoil touch us all
evil stalks the earth

Yet
in the midst of all that
in the face of all that
in spire of all that
because of all that
on this night,

we gather

to sing and pray;
read ancient words and light candles
as we celebrate again
the birth of a child —
— nothing more and nothing less
than the every day miracle —
except that this child — this Jesus —
tells us
teaches us
shows us
life does not have to be the way it is
but that it can be filled
with
hope and
faith and
grace and
sharing and
commitment and
community and
justice and
righteousness and
well-being and
wholeness and
peace . . .
. . . on earth . . .
. . . for all!

May it be so.

(originally written for Christmas Eve 2003; adapted annually since)

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December 4, 2014 · 2:46 pm

Always broken

The system is broken.

I have heard that often following the decisions of grand juries not to indict in the cases of the killing of Michael Brown and the killing of Eric Garner.

The system is broken.

Unless the speaker means she/he is just realizing that for people of color, women, immigrants, members of the LGBTQIA community, and many others, the system has always been broken, I strongly disagree with that statement.

The system was built on the institution of chattel slavery. And when that institution ended, it was replaced by Jim Crow laws that legalized segregation. And when those laws were overturned, institutionalized racism remained, expressing itself today in the New Jim Crow that results in “millions of African Americans locked behind bars and then denied rights, rights won in the struggle, and relegated to a permanent second-class status.

The system was built on indentured servitude.

The system was built on the genocide of the indigenous peoples and the theft of their resources.

The system was built on the theft of the land of Latinos/Latinas.

The system was built by controlling who could enter the country. And then providing a welcome that grudginly accepted labor but only slowly and incompletely accepted humanity.

The system was built on the view that women and children were property of men to care for, perhaps, but also to dominate and abuse and violate.

The system was built on driving people who did not fit the cisgender, heterosexual norm into closets.

The system was built to privilege a few at the expense of the many.

The system is broken. The system has always been broken.

The vision of a system that provides justice and equality for all has long been with us, perhaps always been with us. It judges and challenges the status quo. Since the beginning, there have been people who have been caught by the vision and have challenged the system, who have worked to remake it. Through their efforts, progress has occurred. I give thanks for them. I give thanks for where we have come. But significant work remains to create a system that provides justice and equality for all.

The system is broken. It has always been broken.

God grant me grace and courage to support and join those who seek to remake it.

See you along the Trail.

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November 29, 2014 · 1:57 pm

Remember those who sought peace and justice

Eggs in cannonToday marks the 150th anniversary of the Sand Creek Massacre. A National Park Service press release describes the event in these words (italics added):

The Sand Creek Massacre, tragic and unnecessary, impacted Federal-Indian relations and created the circumstances for years of warfare. With the events of November 29, 1864 fixed in their minds, Plains Indian nations faced an uncertain future between warring against and accommodating the federal government.

Cheyenne and Arapaho peace chiefs [Black Kettle among them], influenced by assurances of peace at the Camp Weld Conference, reported to Fort Lyon throughout October of 1864. The fort’s commander told Black Kettle and other leaders to await a peace delegation at their camp on Sand Creek and to fly the U.S. flag to indicate their peaceful intent. Throughout November, these elders waited.

On November 29, U.S. Army (Volunteer) soldiers
[under the command of Colonel John Chivington, a Methodist minister], attacked the village. Disregarding the greetings and calls to stop, these “beings in the form of men” fired indiscriminately at the Cheyenne and Arapaho. Of approximately seven hundred people in the village, about two hundred died that day. Two-thirds of the dead and mutilated bodies left on the ground were women and children.

Boasting of his victory and downplaying Army casualties, Colonel John Chivington paraded the body parts of dead Cheyenne and Arapaho through the streets of Denver, reveling in the acclaim he long sought. However, not all of Chivington’s officers and men agreed with his actions, and soon the
consequences of these actions would sweep up and down the Plains, back to Washington, D.C., and into the lives of thousands of people. [Captain Silas Soule refused to order his company to fire during the massacre; he and Major Ned Wynkoop played key roles in the investigation of the massacre.]

Learn more about the Sand Creek Massacre:

Remember.

Remember those killed and wound and violated.

Remember the horror, the atrocity.

But remember also Black Kettle, who sought a just, honorable peace for his people; and remember Silas Soule, and Ned Wynkoop and the others who, in their way and fashion sought peace and justice for those touched by this day of horror.

May the day soon come when, by God’s grace, we transform weapns into implements of production and healing.

See you along the Trail.

 

 

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