A Hunger Op-Ed Written Fifteen Years Ago in The Albuquerque Tribune

Even though we live in a country with an incredibly high standard of living, there are many in our communities, locally and globally, who do not share in this prosperity. They are nonetheless our neighbors and part of the fabric of our life together, and justice demands that we work both collectively and as individuals to ensure that all people can sufficiently meet the basic needs of life.

Who remembers Albuquerque's now-defunct afternoon newspaper The Albuquerque Tribune? This great newspaper, like many newspapers around the country, was a victim of the changing times: a decline in readership, rising costs and other factors. All of a sudden, there was no room for two newspapers in Albuquerque.

We remember some of the great attributes of "The Trib," including its Insight & Opinion section. For Jack Ehn, editor of this section, the voice of the community was very important. He would often ask representatives of various community organizations to put together Op-Ed pieces on a variety of issues to publish every week.

Here is a piece that Ruth Hoffman of the Lutheran Advocacy Ministry-New Mexico (then called the Lutheran Office of Governmental Ministry, LOGM) wrote exactly 15 years ago, on Sept. 14, 2001. We put together the piece, partly to promote a join conference on hunger sponsored by LOGM and Bread for the World on Sept. 29. The keynote speaker was Rev. Arthur Simon, founder of Bread for the World. Here are scanned images of the piece.