Wider View
Advocacy, Faith and Iran - 8/15/2008
The Mennonite Central Committee Washington Office just recently celebrated our 40th anniversary. While Mennonites have long engaged in peacemaking and relief work, we are relative newcomers to participation in the work of legislative advocacy.
Trade as if People and Earth Matter - 8/1/2008
What did you eat today? And where did your food come from? Many of us cannot answer these basic questions. In the United States food travels, on average, 1,300 miles before it reaches its final destination. International trade has been used as a vehicle to move commodities from distant parts of the world to our local grocery stores. Conversely, food grown in the United States is imported into distant markets, which has resulted in the devastation of rural communities, displacement of small farmers and environmental degradation.
Choose Life - 7/18/2008
Will we choose life or death? Will we love God, or turn away? Will we love others, or turn away? As a nation, we ... face this choice. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill make decisions and annually allocate billions of dollars that can support life or lead to death.
So He Gave Them Over to Oil - 7/11/2008
A year ago I polled a few Mennonite organizations about their efforts to address climate change. I found them poised for action. Given their enthusiasm, I promised to check back in a year. Here's what I found.
Saying Sorry - 7/3/2008
On June 11, 2008 Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he was sorry. Unlike many other remorseful politicians, however, Harper was not confessing some adulterous escapade that had come to the attention of the masses who enjoy a little spice with their elected officials. In fact, Harper wasn’t apologizing for his own misdeeds at all, he was apologizing on behalf of us all: on behalf of we white Europeans who thought people different than us could be abused, cajoled, and assimilated into church and colony through some proper education and retraining.
On the Road - 6/27/2008
A Walk for Life - 6/13/2008
It was afternoon in the Arizona dessert and the temperature was well over 90º (F). Huddling under a tarp with 65 other people, I searched for some shade. After walking about 13 miles, I felt hot, dirty and tired. I began to wonder if I would survive the next five days as a participant on this year’s Migrant Trail – a 75 mile solidarity walk from Sasabe, Mexico to Tucson, Arizona to raise awareness of migrant deaths in the borderlands.
Boycott Bejing? - 6/5/2008
China's Olympics and the World's Response
On the eighth day of the eighth month of 2008 the focus of the world – at least the consumer and athletic world – will be on Beijing, China when the XXIX Olympiad begins. Will you be watching or will you boycott?
