Send an E-Card to President Obama

The ONE Campaign and (RED)™ are urging us to send an electronic card to President Barack Obama urging him to place a high priority on the The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria as he considers his budget proposals for the next fiscal year.

Here's a note from ONE

It's not just the holiday season, it's budget season -- when President Obama makes critical decisions impacting the Global Fund and all our other anti-poverty priorities. That's why it's so important for you to ask your friends to join you in sending President Obama a special holiday message about the Global Fund and the fight against AIDS, TB and malaria. 

Click here to sign the card to President Obama

As part of this effort, (RED)™ has released a short videoabout people with HIV/AIDS who are alive and healthy today because of the miraculous power of antiretroviral medicine they receive through The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

  

Advent: Getting Rid of the Clutter

By Cathy Brechtelsbauer

  
I didn't grow up knowing about Advent. So, I’ve been intrigued about it as an adult. I found out, it's about Jesus' next coming, not only his first coming.  Well, duh, we do plenty to remember the earthly birth. But what about the next coming? That's what started me on Advent justice projects.
      
I noticed that when company is coming to our house, the messes suddenly glare out - the stacks, the newspapers, the counters, the floors - neatness not being one of my virtues. Suddenly, cleaning and de-cluttering become high priorities.
       

At some point a similar reaction dawned on me while thinking about Jesus’ coming back to earth. How would we welcome him? The messes glared out - the violence, the hunger, poverty, unfair wages, lack of healthcare, trashed places, trashed people. Are these what Jesus' should come back to, after all he taught us?

So I began to do advent activities related to cleaning up some injustice. If you have come to my house lately, you know I have pretty much gotten over my previous company-induced house straightening compulsion, but the advent justice projects continue to make advent a worthwhile time for me.
   
I usually start the planning for Bread Days or the Bread for the World workshops. I talk to some legislators about some potential legislation on behalf of low-income people. Things like that. This year I am urging people to write to their papers on preventing a sales tax hike.
  
If you don't already, try adding a justice project to your Advent. For me, it trumps house cleaning.

The author is a Bread for the World activist in Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Christmas and the Millennium Development Goals

Reprinted from the December issue of Prints of Peace,  the monthly newsletter for Peace Lutheran Church in Las Cruces

By Becca Winship

Jesus is HIV Positive. Jesus is dying of a hunger-related disease. Jesus has malaria. Jesus has no clean drinking water. Jesus needs a new pair of shoes for Christmas. How are you serving Jesus, your neighbor?

Four youth from Peace Lutheran Church recently returned from the Rocky Mountain Synod High School Youth Gathering. As some of you know, we have been focusing on advocacy since our return from New Orleans, and we spent a weekend talking about the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the ONE Campaign, and what we, as young people can do to reach those MDGs by 2015.

We were treated to a wonderful conversation with Bishop Mark Hanson, who shared with us the story of a Bishop in Tanzania who opened a sermon “Jesus is HIV Positive” and what that means for us as Christians.

As baptized believers, our call to action is to live out our faith in such a way that we treat all people with love, honor, and respect. We are to help where we’re able, we are to fulfill the challenge of Jesus-to love our neighbor as ourselves, and we are to work hard-together- to achieve the MDGs.

Bishop Hanson challenged us to think about what we as congregations are doing to help achieve the MDGs as part of the ministry we do together. Listed below are the 8 MDGs; take some time to reflect on what you as a minister in this congregation are doing to help achieve them, and spend some time thinking about how we (or you) can do more.

#1-Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger

#2-Achieve Universal Primary Education

#3-Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

#4-Reduce Child Mortality

#5-Improve Maternal Health

#6-Combat HIV/Aids, Malaria, and other diseases

#7-Ensure Environmental Sustainability

#8-Create a Global Partnership for Development with targets on aid, debt and trade

The Rocky Mountain Synod Youth were challenged this weekend by our Lutheran Youth Organization to take on MDG #6 and participate in the Lutheran Malaria Initiative. The LYO challenged each congregation present at the gathering to raise $1,000 by the Synod Assembly in May. In addition, each participant was challenged to raise $100. That sets our RMS fundraising goal for the Malaria Initiative at $75,000. That $75,000 will provide approximately 25,000 mosquito nets to be placed over beds in countries where malaria is rampant to help prevent transmission of the disease.

The youth in our congregation are challenging you to help us raise $1,500, one and a half times what we were challenged to raise. Only $3 (three dollars), approximately what you would spend on a coffee out, buys a mosquito net to help save a child from contracting malaria. Buy a mosquito net as an alternative gift for someone this Christmas.

Help save lives.  We have been given a beautiful gift-the love and grace of Jesus Christ, who gave himself to die so that we may be saved. We are set apart as baptized believers, with a faith that calls us to action, and we can change the world. ONE voice at a time, ONE step at a time, ONE simple change will make a difference.

Join us in the fight; help us say “Time’s up!” to all that prevents our world from being ONE.

The author is the Family Ministry Coordinator at Peace Lutheran Church 

The Lights of Advent

By Rev. Kay Huggins

This morning I’m up early...wandering through the house, enjoying the lights inside and out. In the family room tiny colored lights intertwine with greens and plants, in the living room white lights surround the nativity scene, through the bay window icicles shine, across the backyard wall stars twinkle...and atop the roof a large star marks our home. 

Lights are a magical gift we give ourselves and others at Christmas time. Soft lights inside, bright lights outside, and the twinkle of a star help us appreciate and endure the darkness. 

Our seasonal lights are improvisations on the survival technique of those who learned the secret of sparks from fires or light from oil lamps.  We’ve transformed their ancient wisdom into Christmas lights!

And then come the luminarias, lighting the way for the Christ child into our hearts and homes. This dark morning as I watch for dawn, I’m comforted by small lights and aware of their symbolic value. My thoughts relax into the promise of the season: In him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. (John 1:4-5). How are you appreciating or enduring the darkness of Advent this year? 

Seek with me loveliness divine in small, soft lights -- look out your windows at the trimmed houses, light a candle, watch a fire -- and ponder God’s gift of spiritual light in Christ Jesus.

The author is interim pastor at New Life Presbyterian Church

Lieutenant Governor Opposes Tax on Groceries

Thanks to the Democracy for New Mexico blog for alerting us to Lieutenant Gov.Diane Denish's comments opposing the proposed tax on basic groceries.  Denish adds a lot of weight to the growing effort to defeat this ill-advised solution to the state budget deficit.  

Here are the Lieutenant Governor's comments:

“Like many other states, New Mexico is facing tough times and we have to make some tough decisions in order to close our state’s budget shortfall. A lot of ideas have been put on the table, but one thing I will not support is an across-the-board tax on all food. When families are pinching and scraping to get by, taxing the basics like milk and bread is just not right.

We need a solution to the state's budget problem, but it should not come at the cost of making tough times even tougher for regular New Mexico families. We must start the upcoming legislative session by identifying ways to make government smaller and more efficient, such as overhauling the capital outlay process and ending the practice of double-dipping.”

Advent is an Oasis

Reprinted from the Immaculate Conception Church Bulletin
By Father Rafael Garcia, S.J.

What has changed during Advent?  I hope that you are finding some time for prayer, reflection, remembering that “Jesus is the reason for the season”!

One suggestion that I once heard which appears to be great for families that are typically “on the go” is the following:  Set aside a evening(s) during the week when all the family can be present.  Have dinner together; have some time for prayer together (more than just saying grace).

You could read the Gospel for that day or for the previous or for the following Sunday and then make comments on what you find is the message for you.  Talk about Advent.   Then, play a table game together, preferably non-electronic, where you are all interacting.  Thus, eat together, pray together, play together.  Definitely, No T.V. during any of this time!

This seems to be a good “oasis” in our fast-paced, fast-food, electronic dominated, individualistic, secular culture.  There are many good things in our culture, undoubtedly, for example it’s efficiency and the many alternatives available to us, but our spiritual life pays a price for this.

Make Advent different than “ordinary time”.  Slow down to encounter Jesus at Christmas.

Christ's Peace.

The author is pastor at Immaculate Conception Church in Albuquerque

Another Voice Against the Food Tax

In a blog we wrote a couple of weeks ago entitled, Feeding America vs. A Food Tax in New Mexico, we discussed an ill-advised proposal to re-impose a tax on groceries.

The plan, endorsed primarily by the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, is one of several solutions floating out there to deal with the state budget deficit.  But critics say the tax would disproportionately hurt low-income working families.  
 





Several ant-poverty advocates have come out publicly against the tax.   But the opposition comes from all circles, ranging from the New Mexico Voices for Children to blogger Mario Burgos.

 The latest group to make its opposition known is the respected think tank Think New Mexico, which says, "We believe it is a bad idea to balance the budget on the backs of working low- and middle-income New Mexicans."

The organization reinforced this view in an opinion piece  co-authored with the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops, that was published in the Albuquerque Journal   Furthermore, the food tax is viewed as a counterproductive measure for the economy.

The money that would be spent on  a new food tax is money that these families would otherwise be able to spend on other goods and services.  In this sense, reimposing the food tax would function as a sort of antistimulus, draining dollars out of the economy.

This is not to say that all taxes are opposed.  Think New Mexico and others have come out with a plan to impose a tax on junk food.

A junk food tax would do some good. It would, for instance, help combat New Mexico's growing obesity crisis.which would reduce health care expenses over the long term.

Think New Mexico encourages us to add our voices to this effort by writing our state legislators and the media. 

Sunday People Column: At the Summit in Copenhagen and A Mayoral Camapign in Florida

Who would have thought that we'd have a "people column" in the Bread for the World-New Mexico blog? It's my way of highlighting the activities of two great people I know. One of them has a connection to New Mexico and the other is someone I know from Bread for the World.

Blogging from the Summit in Copenhagen

Joan Brown, a Franciscan sister who is director of the New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light, is in Copenhagen, Denmark, to attend the UN Climate Change Conference on Dec. 7-18. Joan will be updating us about the conference through a blog. Joan's coverage will complement videos from Odyssey Networks featuring faith leaders and organizations at the summit who are working on issues related to climate justice.

I don't have a link yet, but check this site later.  You'll get links to Joan's blog and videos from Odyssey Networks.

Joan's work at the summit is relevant to the Bread for the World Institute's 2010 Hunger Report, which argues that that reducing climate change and creating so-called green jobs are key factors for economic growth and reducing world-wide hunger and poverty.

Joan is a great friend of Bread for the World-New Mexico.  She was one of the speakers for our workshop on the 2007 Offering of Letters, which sought to ensure just changes in the Farm Bill.

A Bread Activist in the Mayor's Office?

Peter England, a Bread activist in the Miami area, has launched a campaign for the mayor's office in Palmetto Bay, Florida.  The election is in November 2010.

 Peter and I have both served on the Bread board, but our terms did not overlap. I had the pleasure of meeting him through our joint work on a special task force to examine Bread for the World's grassroots strategies.  I've also seen him in Washington at several National Gatherings. 

Peter is part of a group of Bread activists, including my friend Pablo Sanchez (with whom I did serve on the board), that has been instrumental in getting parishioners at St. Louis Catholic Church in Miami to participate in a big way in Bread's Offerings of Letters every year.  This congregation sends thousands of letters to Congress yearly!  

Peter has also served a director of government relations at Camillus House, an organization that provides humanitarian services to men, women and children in South Florida who are poor and homeless.  Camillus House was founded by the Little Brothers of the Good Shepherd, the same order of Catholic brothers that staffs Good Shepherd Center in Albuquerque.

Another Advent Reflection

"Hope" is the thing

with feathers –

That perches in the soul –

And sings the tune

without the words –

And never stops at all. 

- Emily Dickinson

A Thought During Advent

There are only two ways of spreading light -- to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. 

- Edith Wharton,
American novelist (1862-1937)

Anticipating Advent: Beads of Hope video

The season of Advent is just around the corner. In that spirit of hope and anticipation, I want to share this video that Rene Ronquillo, a member of the Young Adults group at Immaculate Conception church in Albuquerque, recommended.

Beads Of Hope from Lee Springer on Vimeo.

A Friend Co-Authors Book about Katrina

For those of us looking at the impact of Hurricane Katrina from the outside,  this was a very sad chapter in our nation's history.

Then there are those folks who were on the inside, residents from New Orleans who stayed or evacuated for a short period,   They have accounts that we cannot even imagine because we weren't there.

One of those "insiders" is Sandy Cordray, a good friend from my days at Loyola University.   

Sandy, who was working in marketing and media relations at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans when Katrina hit, has teamed up with Denise Danna, an associate dean at LSU Health Sciences School of Nursing, to write a book from the point of view of the nursing profession.

Here is a short blurb from the publisher:

Nursing in the Storm: Voices from Hurricane Katrina takes you inside six New Orleans hospitals-cut off from help for days by flooding-where nurses cared for patients around the clock. In this book, nurses from Hurricane Katrina share what they did, how they coped, what they lost, and what they are doing now in a city and health care infrastructure still rebuilding, still in jeopardy.

In their own words, the nurses tell what happened in each hospital just before, during, and after the storm. Danna and Cordray provide an intimate portrait of the experience of Katrina, which they and their colleagues endured.

The book also discusses how to plan and prepare for future disasters, with a closing chapter documenting the "lessons learned" from Katrina, including day-to-day health care delivery in a city of crisis. This groundbreaking work serves as a testament to nurses' professionalism, perseverance, and unwavering dedication.

 Read full account from Springer Publishing (you can purchase the book from this site)

Incidentally Sandy has been a member of the anti-poverty advocacy community in New Orleans, serving on the board of New Orleans Artists against Hunger and Homelessness and supporting the work of Sister Jane Remson at New Orleans Bread for the World and the Global Network for Justice..

If for some reason you happen to be in New Orleans on Saturday, January 16, there will be a book launch at the Garden District Book Shop, 2727 Prytania St., 1:00-3:00 p.m.

A Vigil at Civic Plaza Ahead of Climate Conference

The Seventh of the Millennium Development Goals seeks to Ensure Environmental Sustainability as part of the international effort to address global poverty.   As people of faith, we have a great opportunity to make our voices known about this issue.  Sister Joan Brown, director of the New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light  invites us to a special vigil, entitled Light a Candle for Hope: Prayer Vigil for International Climate Change Meeting in Copenhagen.

The vigil, scheduled for Wednesday, December 2, seeks to rally people of faith ahead of the International Climate Change Meeting in Copenhagen, which begins December 7-18.  The vigil will begin with a candlelight procession from Civic Center the Cathedral Church of St. John Episcopal. Participants are invited to bring their own candle to light the 4-block journey that represents our walking as people of faith with brothers and sisters throughout the planet as we enter the meetings in Copenhagen.

An Interfaith Prayer vigil at the Cathedral will involve leaders from various faith traditions and conclude with a blessing of Sr. Joan Brown, osf, who is a religious delegate to the international climate meeting. All are cordially invited to participate. For questions or to become involved in the work of NM Interfaith Power and Light contact info@nm-ipl.org or call 505-266-6966.

Sponsored by: New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light in collaboration with Cathedral Church of St. John Episcopal and other faith communities

When: Wednesday, Dec. 2, 5:00-6:30 p.m

Where: Gather at Civic Plaza in downtown Albuquerque and walk in candlelight procession to Cathedral Church of St. John  Episcopal, 318 Silver for interfaith prayer vigil(bring your own candle)

Contact for questions: Sr. Joan Brown,osf, New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light, 505-266-6966, joankansas@swcp.com

C-SPAN features Bread for the World Institute's 2010 Hunger Report

The Bread for the World Institute was featured on CSPAN on Monday morning, Nov. 23, with the launch of the 2010 Hunger Report, A Just and Sustainable Economic Recovery. The report shows that reducing climate change and creating so-called green jobs are key factors for economic growth and reducing world-wide hunger and poverty. This video is 107 minutes, including questions from the audience. (You can also view the video on the C-SPAN site by clicking on this link )

Thinking Outside the Box

By Monique Rangel
[Reprinted from Aquinas Newman Center Bulletin, Nov. 15, 2009]

 I wake up to a dim light entering into my cardboard box; my face is cold and my feet numb in a freezing straitjacket of a sleeping bag. It is 6:18 in the morning, a time that I can safely say that I usually sleep through most Sunday mornings. And when I do wake up, I’m not cold, tangled or tired. But that is not the case today—today I wake up exposed to the outside. How did I get here?

Perhaps that is a question that some ask every day, but I know why I wake up outside. Project Box is an annual event held at  Aquinas Newman Center at the University of New Mexico. It is intended to raise awareness about homelessness in our community. 

Participants in Project Box spend the night outside to expose the homelessness that is overlooked by people, since it takes place in the “lesser” places of our community: the places that we are eager to forget and quick to pass through (or avoid) on our commute to work/ home/shopping. Besides being a visual demonstration against homelessness, Project Box’s main objective was to invoke thoughtful, prayerful and serious discussion about the needs of this neglected population and what realistic and sustainable solution was necessary.

We had a guest that evening--a homeless woman who, unlike the many biases that exist, does not have a substance abuse addiction nor was she an alcoholic. Before she became homeless, her life was like that of many who live pay check to pay check. Losing her job was the push that led the dominoes as they fell in sequence. Now she does not have a stable home to go to every night, so she camps outside in a sleeping bag in spots where she feels safe. 

As she detailed her daily routine, it became clear that although it may seem that the homeless population does absolutely nothing every day, much activity occurs, and the majority of a homeless person’s time is spent on what takes minutes for people who have basic resources.

Some points she mentioned are:

• everything from eating to getting clothing to showering involves waiting in lines for hours; 
• to add time to waiting in line, people who are homeless must walk everywhere (unless they gather enough change for the bus); 
• they must carry all their belongings, or, stash quantities of their belongings (which is extremely risky) in areas around the city. 

From this aspect, it becomes obvious that most time is spent tending to daily basic needs. When one task is finished, there is no time to waste before the next one is begins, or in many cases, is already over. An important aspect to the lack of consciousness about homelessness in the general community is that a homeless person must stay out of sight so he or she is not harassed. There is a balance in appearance that must be met. If someone looks too nice and like he/she has nice belongings or money, he/she runs the risk of being mugged.  On the other hand, if someone looks too unkempt, he/she is in danger of being noticeable—a nuisance and a target for harassment by law enforcement. 
.
This discussion made me realize that perhaps the needs of the homeless population were not being truly met. After all, we are not homeless and are reluctant to perceive homelessness for what it is. It is true that we must consider sustainable and measurable improvements on how to approach this issue, but crafting sustainable solutions might be easier if we perceive homelessness as if we were homeless ourselves. In order to find a solution that works--a solution that suits the needs of those who lack a home--we must think outside the box.

(The author is an Economics Major at the University of New Mexico and Gospel Justice Peer Minister with Aquinas Newman Center's Campus Ministry.   The photograph at the very top depicts a mural painted under the highway in Portland, Ore., by a member of the local Franciscan community)