Wider View
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?
MCC Responds to ICE Raid in Postville, Iowa - 5/30/2008
Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Central States is responding to a May 12 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid at Agriprocessors meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa.
The Malthusian Nightmare - 5/16/2008
I live in a small town in southwestern Ontario. When forced to wait for more than a few cars at the main intersection you begin to wonder what’s wrong and why people don’t just stay at home and stop pushing my road-rage buttons.
Why Are We Doing This? - 5/2/2008
“Why are they building the wall?” That was the question I got from 10-year-old Christopher after he heard me speak to the congregation at Iglesia Menonita Rey de Gloria this past Sunday on the environmental impacts of the U.S-Mexico border fence.
Fear Mongering in the Immigration Debate - 4/25/2008
Back in college, my roommates and I made a game out of watching the introduction to CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight. We tried to guess how many headlines would relate to the “threat” of “illegal aliens.” Whether it was a crime wave spurred on by Spanish-speaking gangs, leprosy carried by immigrants across the border, or a loss of jobs by “hard-working Americans” to “illegals,” Dobbs’ anti-immigrant paranoia usually saturated half his headlines.
