Assembly of People Into Giving a S**t: Am I on My Own?

As I write this, I am thinking about 25 years ago when our youngest, Joseph, came into the world. We had only been in Nicaragua for a year-and-a-half. I was 41 years old and had already birthed two sons and had a miscarriage. Everything was going well with the pregnancy, which was good, because I was really anxious after the miscarriage.

Public hospitals and even the private hospitals here in Nicaragua gave me the willies since I didn’t speak Spanish and health care was no priority then. We had found an obstetrician who spoke English and was willing to do a home birth.

Our life-style was much rougher then than it is now. We had no telephone. We had no hot water. The electricity went out all the time and with it went the water. We lived out in the middle of the campo on a badly maintained dirt road which was our only access to “civilization” or medical care. Yet we did have tiled floors, showers (when the water was on), and we had a community.

After a false alarm the night before when Mama and Daddy arrived in-country, Mike, Mama and I went bouncing in the truck to see the doctor. On the way home, labor was jostled into full blown.

When it was time to push Joseph out, I learned that the doctor who had been here for a couple of hours waiting, had left to find a phone (no cell phones then) to call the pediatrician to come.

Kathy went with the doctor to use the friend's phone that we borrowed in that house. Pat kept Daddy busy talking with him. Mama was praying. Sarah was watching anxiously for the doctor to return. Jessica was keeping Coury (almost 7 years old) and Daniel (age 3) entertained, and Mike was with me in the bathroom. The next happened in about three minutes…

Mike saved Joseph from being born in a toilet. I pushed once in our bed, and Joseph came plopping out screaming with the cord wrapped around his neck three times. Mike calmed me and unwrapped the cord…as family and community flooded in…and handed me our little Joseph to hold.

Very soon Sarah with a very embarrassed doctor came in. As the post-birthing activities took place…cutting the cord, wrapping Joseph, etc. … my placenta refused to budge.

Then came the scaping manually of the placenta with no anesthesia at all…Mike supported me. Mama prayed and the rest held Joseph, cooed and aahed, and helped Coury and Daniel meet and hold their new brother. I only had to focus on not kicking the doctor in the face.

I have always been offended by couples who say, “We’re pregnant.” After four pregnancies, puking my insides out with morning sickness, back aches, false labor contractions, swollen feet, and being so uncomfortable…I insist that only I was pregnant…WE were having a baby.

I have also said, “Doctors do not deliver babies unless in labor themselves…they help.” After three labors…believe me, neither the midwives nor the doctor worked like I did. 

Joseph's baptism - 1996

But having my community with me meant that labor was easier. I knew before the labor I could count on them to help me if the doctor could not come… and they did. Knowing that the other small ones were being cared for left me to concentrate on relaxing during contractions and Mike coaching me. Knowing that Daddy and Mama were being hosted allowed me to focus on the job at-hand. And I knew when Mike told me the doctor was not here, that Mike would help me get Joseph out safely.

We are interdependent on each other.

No one is completely independent. No one can make their own success by themselves. No one can pull themselves up by their boot straps. And having a baby alone would be terrifying.  We are all interdependent.

Many doctors may think that they are God’s gift to humanity because of all their studying, but without their nurses and lab techs they struggle…I have seen this when they have come to work down here in our Clinic without them. They depend on the support and tests.

Many lawyers may think that they are the right-hand of the law, but without their secretaries and paralegals, they are bogged down in paperwork and may miss crucial aspect found in the books of law.

Many founders of businesses think that they made the business themselves and deserve huge salaries, but without the infrastructure of the roads, electricity and water…without the support of their workers…they would just have good ideas brewing in their brains.

The poor know this. They know that they that they only survive together.

And the rich know that if the poor truly unionize and join together, despite race and religion, they will be a force that demands more equality.

We are all interdependent.

EVERY. SINGLE. LAST. ONE. OF. US.

And that includes cities, states, nations, and continents…even Antarctica is dependent on us to do our part to save the ice.

If climate change has taught anything, it has taught us that we are all dependent on each other. We all share the same air, the same water, the same hurricanes and fires, the same droughts and floods, the same sea-level risings.

When leaders of our world seek to divide us, we need to grab the hands closest to us and keep reaching to bring us all together.  Together we are a force to be reckoned with.

-Kathleen

NOTE: If you are reading this blog using the mobile version,click on "web version" to see the full blog with all the features including "subscribe to blog by email".  

Please join us and also share on your social media.

Donate here to the ongoing work of the CDCA with the poor in Nicaragua:

https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/jhc-cdca 

Assembly of People Into Giving a Sh*t: Hypocritical, Me?

Several years ago, when memes were first brought to my attention, I loved the ones that made fun of First World Problems with a white woman looking distraught with her head in her hand. I thought, “I’m going to do one and post it!” I thought and thought and finally came up with something like “Trying to think of a First World Problem meme and not succeeding” [is a First World Problem].

Today I have been wracking my brain to find an example of how I am hypocritical. I even asked Mike and being the loving (and smart) partner that he is, he, too, couldn’t come up with an example. But not knowing HOW I am hypocritical is hypocritical in and of itself.

Hypocrisy is something that I detest and I try extremely hard not to be hypocritical. I would rather be honest and just admit that in our lives there are places where we fail at self-awareness.

Hypocrisy was one aspect of the 2016 U.S. presidential elections that drove me insane with rage. I remember our dear friend, Josh, saying “2016 is the year that will be known as the most hypocritical year in the U.S.”.

I could not believe all those Christians voting for a man who was extremely unethical, immoral, and blatantly so. I could not believe that there were women who voted for this man who openly talked about grabbing women by their p------. I could not believe that there were poor people who voted for this billionaire who was handed his empire on a silver platter and squandered it. I could not believe there were college graduates who voted for this man who ran a bogus university and made fun of people with disabilities, veterans, and used words like “bigly” and ignored science.

It was a year of hypocrisy. The last four years were years of hypocrisy, but now the U.S. has Pres. Biden and what is one of the first things that he does….

After having his election questioned with people breaking into the Capitol on the grounds of stopping the Congressional vote to approve his win of the presidency, he…Pres. Biden…is still acknowledging Juan Guaido as the legitimate leader of Venezuela. Guaido, who has not ever won the Venezuelan presidential elections. Pres. Biden refused to acknowledge the Venezuelan elections because of “irregularities"… sound familiar? If you had listened to Former Pres. Trump rant about U.S. Democrats, it would sound very familiar.

Hypocrisy. We learned on Real Time with Bill Mahr that the woman who was shot and killed in the assault on the Capitol was an Air Force veteran, Ashli Babbit, from San Diego, CA. We learned that living in California, one of the most progressive states in the U.S., she had to borrow from a lending firm at 169% interest in order to purchase her family’s small business -  a pool supply company. How can such a lending firm operate within the laws of one of the most progressive states? Hypocrisy.

Here in Nicaragua closer to our home, the opposition to this present Sandinista government consists of the local hierarchy of the Catholic Church, many intellectuals, former Sandinistas who fought against the U.S.-backed dictatorships of the Somoza family, the insurrectionists of the Contra War in the 1980s, as well as others. The Catholic Church leaders called for arms in 2018…they were even taped as saying they would work with homosexuals, drug traffickers, and abortionists to overthrow this government. Hypocrisy.

The intellectuals thought they were the only ones capable of running a country like Nicaragua, despite the fact that the Sandinistas have tremendously improved the nation's infrastructure, education, health care in the country, and have lifted so many out of poverty. The intellectuals think they are the only ones who understand “democracy” even though the poor who vote have differed greatly with them, by voting the Sandinistas into office by more than a majority in each election. Hypocrisy.

And in 2018 many of the disillusioned Sandinista founders and fighters went to the U.S. Congress to ask for support for their own attempt at a coup here. The highest form of hypocrisy.

Jesus said, “Why, then, do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the log in your own eye? How dare you say to your brother, ‘Please, let me take that speck out of your eye,’ when you have a log in your own eye? You hypocrite! First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will be able to see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” (Matt 7:3-5) 

As individuals, societies, and nations, before we think we know best for someone else, we need to seriously removed the blinders off our own eyes.

We need to look at ourselves, our own societies, our own nations, our own biases and eliminate them BEFORE we going poking around in someone else’s life, society, and nation.

We must be honest…and clear sighted…that is the path forward.

-Kathleen

NOTE: If you are reading this blog using the mobile version,click on "web version" to see the full blog with all the features including "subscribe to blog by email".  

Please join us and also share on your social media.

Donate here to the ongoing work of the CDCA with the poor in Nicaragua:

https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/jhc-cdca 

When There's No Such Thing as a Rainy Day Fund

Thanks to so many of you, we finished 2020 in the black!  We even have a small surplus which clinic expenses are going through like water through a sieve.

We have to order some medications from abroad now, because some labs here in Nicaragua closed in 2018, and the U.S. State Department has imposed sanctions on Nicaragua.  To make it worthwhile to the distributors, we have to order in bulk, as the sellers will not bother with a small order.

As a result, we buy all our birth control implants for the year at once.  They are good for three years and it will save us money in the long run, not to mention no unwanted children being born to families barely getting by financially.

We also buy a year's worth of medications for our Parkinson's and epilepsy patients.  If you have ever watched someone having a seizure, you can identify with the need to control them for patients.  If you have ever seen someone with Parkinson's try to steady their hands to grab a fork, you can identify how desperately people with Parkinson's just want to control their shakes.  

Chronic Care patient receiving medicine at Nueva Vida Clinic

With the purchase of the implants and these medications, we are looking at spending an extra $11,400!

We are also needing to vaccinate our Nueva Vida Clinic staff with the two doses each of Hepatitis B vaccine, which will cost $1,950.  Nicaragua now vaccinates children as part of its free childhood immunization program, but does not have enough vaccine to cover all the adults, and there is Hepatitis B in Nueva Vida.  I know that this need seems outside of everyone's focus on COVID-19 vaccines coming, but Hepatitis B is not curable and is passed through blood. In a health clinic - blood is an issue.

Add to all of that - our lab needs a new hemoglobin testing machine.  We have an old, working one, but the machine's reagents are no longer available.  Sometimes I get extremely frustrated that the industry has to make old, reliable machinery obsolete.  The least expensive machine not in the old unusable style, is $6,500.  Yikes!

Lab technician Massiel at Nueva Vida Clinic

If we just laid out all this money, our funds would be gone.

When the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, God sent them manna to eat, but they were not to save the manna, except for use on the Sabbath.  We save very little, using what we have as we have it.  Some of us worry that if a staff member resigns, we won't have saved the five months' salary of severance pay that the law requires us to pay, and yet we always manage to pay people.

We try our best to keep reserves, but when an expense arises, somehow we always pay for it. Our finances drive business people crazy.

But manna appears when needed, thanks to you and the Provider.

- Kathleen

NOTE: If you are reading this blog using the mobile version, click on "web version" to see the full blog with all the features including "subscribe to blog by email".  

Please join us and also share on your social media.

Donate here to the ongoing work of the CDCA with the poor in Nicaragua:

https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/jhc-cdca 

Assembly of People Into Giving a Sh*t: When to Forgive?

I'm terrible at forgiveness.  I'm great at excusing away behaviors that are not helpful.

"Oh, he grew up with a dysfunctional family.  His father abused him and his siblings."

"Oh, she grew up in a family that never encountered people of other races."

"I understand that in a society of bigots how bigotry is just normal."

"We only have to show people a different way."

This is also the way I treat people who do me personal harm.  I excuse.  I understand.  I explain away all the hurt...

BUT - BUT when someone crosses a line that I did not even realize I had and are just plain-out mean and selfish, I have an impossible time forgiving.

We've seen this at the Capitol in Washington.  People - newscasters - explaining all the bizarre behavior from people who blindly follow Pres. Trump and who hold to the QAnon conspiracy theories.  But on the 6th of January the line was crossed.

6 January 2021 - breaking into the Capitol - Shutterstock licensed photo

Many have called for healing in the nation.  Many have called for ignoring what happened and moving on.

But here's the rub.

There can be no healing unless the blood-coated bandage is ripped off and the wound cleaned out and treated.

There can be no moving on until there is accountability.

Forgiveness starts with confession.  To receive forgiveness we have to first acknowledge our guilt.

The word "guilt" has gotten a bad rap by people feeling laden down with the burden of guilt.  But guilt can be good.  It can serve as a catalyst for change.

Society can say to a person, "What you have done is wrong" and "Whether you think so or not, we find you guilty."

Change is the next step.

But society as a rule doesn't forgive.  When society finds a person guilty it wants revenge.  And with revenge, change never comes.

Revenge is a vicious spiral downward into the depths of hell.

This does not mean that I think that accountability should not be applied.  It should.

Good parenting teaches consequences for certain actions but with love and forgiveness.

Can you imagine a good mother or father exacting revenge on their child?

Working for change is redemptive.

In college when I realized that "yes, I am racist in many ways and yes, I had profited all my life by being white and yes this was wrong", I felt tremendous guilt; a heavy burden of guilt rested on my shoulders.

To ease the burden I began to change my ways - my assumptions - my actions.  Real change relieves guilt and I've felt the forgiveness of many people of color.

So why is it so hard for me to forgive?

For a long time I thought that my "excuses" of others were forgiveness, my "understanding" or my "empathy" were forgiveness... until my line was crossed.

And the first time it happened the anger in me grew and grew.

I couldn't and didn't break relations with the person, but over the years the anger ate at me.

Finally with no confession from the person... no hint that they thought they might be wrong, though we had talked often... one night as I lay in my bed... I felt the grace given to my hurt soul to forgive.

And I understood forgiveness was mine to give and not only receive.

It is still hard for me to forgive... but I do now know that that is the only way to live without anger and hate.

The only way.

- Kathleen

NOTE: If you are reading this blog using the mobile version,click on "web version" to see the full blog with all the features including "subscribe to blog by email".  

Please join us and also share on your social media.

Donate here to the ongoing work of the CDCA with the poor in Nicaragua:

https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/jhc-cdca 

Future Fridays: Small Steps WE CAN Do!

2021 is a year for getting serious about climate change.  What are we doing here in Nicaragua?

• With help from so many of you, we are implementing the digital record-keeping system in the Nueva Vida Clinic that will save the world 8 trees a year in paper. 
  
  
• We have installed a personal bidet in our main bathroom to cut down on toilet paper use - every 3 seconds a tree is cut down for toilet paper.
  
  
• We are leasing fuel-efficient and less-polluting vehicles to run the multitude of errands that must be done, instead of using our heavy, diesel-guzzling ambulances.
  
  
• We compost and are drastically cutting back on trash and trash bags.
  
  
• We use reusable bags for shopping (when we remember to take them) and are buying fresh local produce from a grower who grows organically and uses paper bags to deliver the produce.
  
  
• Now we are working towards the goal of raising $35,000 to install solar panels both at the Nueva Vida Clinic and here on the office property. We will need two bi-directional meters to feed excess generated energy back into the grid.

Rogelio and Solar company engineers testing energy use

Besides creating renewable energy for us and the nation of Nicaragua (77% of its energy is already from renewable sources), estimates are we will cut our electric bills in half.  Electricity is expensive.  It is our highest utility bill.

But most importantly we vote and/or support government leadeers who make climate change a priority.

I have five grandchildren. I want them to have a lush, green world to enjoy and protect when they are adults.

- Kathleen

NOTE: If you are reading this blog using the mobile version,click on "web version" to see the full blog with all the features including "subscribe to blog by email".  

Please join us and also share on your social media.

Donate here to the ongoing work of the CDCA with the poor in Nicaragua:

https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/jhc-cdca 

Banana Republic? I think not.

Pres. George W. Bush made a rare public statement that the attack on the U.S. Capitol this week was reminiscent of “Banana Republics”. He said, “This is how election results are disputed in a banana republic”.

Finally, on Sunday on the PBS News Hour, they interviewed an expert on these so-called “Banana Republics”. Lucia Dammert, a Peruvian academic who has studied political unrest and security across Latin America, talked about what WE, ourselves, have seen over and over in Central America, watching the politics in Nicaragua since the 1980s and living here for the last 27 years.

“…in most cases, when we had coup d’etats, the American embassy was involved in some of those situations,” Dammert said.

A U.S. State Department paper, Responsive Assistance in Nicaragua (RAIN), was leaked last year, detailing how the U.S. plans for involving itself in this year’s Nicaraguan general election. It spelled out how the U.S. AID was going to use the opposition, the gangs, and other measures to create an unproductive year for this Nicaraguan administration.

State Department Secretary, Mike Pompeo, has met with the opposition in Costa Rica several times to get them to unite behind one candidate and to quit arguing, but to focus on the upcoming November elections. 

Mike Pompeo 2021 - Shutterstock licensed photo

The leaked State Department paper, RAIN, also lays out how, if the current Pres. Daniel Ortega wins again, there are plans to overthrow him and his administration through gangs, NGOs, and any means possible.

Nicaragua has increased its GDP by 35% over the last 11 years. It is one of the safest countries in Latin America, but the U.S. government, used to being in control, HATES its success and its socialism. It ABHORS the reality that the Nicaraguan government is determined not to be a U.S. puppet in the region, but to be its own sovereign nation.

Let me remind you that Nicaragua is a democracy. Their supreme court did away with term limits and Pres. Daniel Ortega has been elected three times, and is poised to be elected a fourth time.

Doing away with term limits do not negate democracy. Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was in office for 11 ½ years.

Trying to limit the overthrow of a government does not negate democracy. Nicaragua has just passed laws that mirror those in the U.S. regarding consequences for acts of violence, the attempt to overthrow the government, and sedition... some of those who just violently attacked the Capitol may face those charges.

Pres. Daniel Ortega will win because HE has, through his leadership, made Nicaragua safe and increased its GDP by 35% over 11 years. 

This government has also made education free and accessible…not only providing tuition for all, but also books and supplies, housing and food and toiletries for university students too poor to provide their own.

They have expanded electricity access, now reaching 98% of the nation, up from 54% under previous administrations...and have made 77%  of the electricity renewable. 

Wind turbines - photo elnuevodiario.com.ni

They respond quickly and efficiently in times of natural disasters as they did with two category 4 hurricanes that hit Nicaragua just this past November in 2020 in just two weeks.

They have provided health care and have built 24 hospitals and dozens of health clinics as well as increased the number of doctors and nurses educated. They have established new testing facilities and equipment, more dialysis stations and machines, cancer treatment centers, and have decreased by 68% maternal and 61% infant mortality by establishing houses where pregnant moms can come for care and to be closer to hospitals. They have established new chemical labs for making medicines here in Nicaragua instead of importing all medications. They have established a lab for making vaccines. They have a robust vaccination program that is free.   And they have started alternative healings like acupuncture, herbal treatments, and massage.

Hospital Fernando Vélez Paiz

They have acted to get potable water into 91.8% homes, up from 65% in 2006. 

They have rebuilt the infrastructure of the nation and have greatly improved electricity, sewage treatment plants, and roads.  They have paved 600% more roads than were paved before.

They have created more parks and improved the already existing ones. Internet is free in the parks and other places. 

Renovated playground in Managua - photo el19digital.com

Remember Nicaragua is poor and yet, all the above has happened. The second poorest nation in the hemisphere and yet… 

So of course, Pres. Ortega will win! Really, how could he not? Unless someone interferes.

The opposition has never stooped to involve the poor in their decisions, but instead has run to the U.S. State Department and Congress to ask for interference. They exclude those living in poverty while the current administration does not. And when those who are living in poverty or on the edge of poverty vote, who do you think they will vote for? And since they make up the majority, who do you think will win?

Unless someone interferes.

Nicaragua grows bananas. It is true. But its current government identifies itself as a Christian, Socialist Democracy. “Banana Republics” is a racist term and like all racist terms simplifies and demonizes the societies and people with whom we disagree, allowing us the self-given authority to interfere.

This has got to stop.

-Kathleen

NOTE: If you are reading this blog using the mobile version,click on "web version" to see the full blog with all the features including "subscribe to blog by email".  

Please join us and also share on your social media.

Donate here to the ongoing work of the CDCA with the poor in Nicaragua:

https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/jhc-cdca 

 

Assembly of People Into Giving a Sh*t: What is Truth?

In the United States, when someone goes before a court to give testimony they have swear “to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.” But what is the truth? Surely when people give testimony, they are only giving testimony to what THEY and only THEY know as the truth, because as an eye witness, it has been proven over and over…when we see something or someone it goes into our brain and our brain interprets what we see using all the experiences we have had during our lifetime.

It is the job of the lawyers to try to get at the truth with questions, and for the jury to try and pick out appropriate data.

Truth is elusive.

It took humans thousands of years, until the ancient Greeks learned that the earth was an orb, not a flat disc.

It was only in 1543, when Nicolaus Copernicus laid out his radical theory that the earth and other planets rotated around the sun…that some realized the sun did not rotate around the earth. It still took over 100 years before it was widely accepted.

When all you can see is flat or a sun that rises in the east and sets in the west…when you don’t go very far from your home, your truth is that the earth is flat and the sun does the moving around the earth, but we have learned a different reality with the help of many.

With telescopes we see nebulas, novae, stars and even other galaxies thousands of light years away. We are just beginning to see and adapt our minds to the greatness of the universe. The fact that our lives are brief and tiny amidst the enormity of the universe is frightening, unsettling, but it is also freeing.

You will know the truth and the truth will set you free. (John 8)

Many of us hide from the truth and we do not want to see reality.

In my lifetime, lesbians and gays hid their sexual preferences…and some still do in open societies... while in closed societies, like Russia, these people must hide or be tormented and jailed. But when gays and lesbians started coming out and being truthful about who they were, those of us, straight, saw that they were our sons and daughters, our sisters and brothers, our parents, our friends, and our leaders. What we might have thought before in our ignorance was sinful or unhealthy; we now begin to see the truth…the normality.

And now those of us gay and lesbian and those of us, straight, are moving freely in a dance of welcome and love. The truth will set you free.

With the Capitol breach and riot, we as white people in the American society now begin to see the truth in a stark bright light. White supremacy is alive and well and growing. For awhile the KKK, the neo-Nazis hid in the shadows of the shame of a free society; but now, we who are white can see for ourselves that while they stayed in the shadows, they grew. And many of us have been shocked. 

6 January 2021 - protestors breaking into the Capitol - shutterstock licensed photo 

It is good to see the truth…to see reality. We now see the rage of people afraid that they may be disenfranchised of their privilege… rage caused from fear stoked by so many of our leaders….rage caused by hearing lies about how they, the white people, are being oppressed.

Now, many of those people who ransacked the Capitol will say that my…Kathleen’s…truth is backwards. Gays and lesbians should hide. Their political bias is correct. So how could I…Kathleen…justify my truth?

It is a legitimate argument…because like I said above, we all interpret what we see and hear through our brains and our experiences.

I try to interpret truth through love and grace.  I know that it is easier for me because I have felt so much love and grace from so many and yet...despite that I fail constantly. 

My truth includes a Divine that spreads love and grace to all through our actions. I read the Hebrew and Christian scriptures with questions of how to better love and spread God’s grace, not the literal words written thousands of years ago.

I have had a wealth of experiences with people of color, with people of different sexual preferences, with people living in poverty, with refugees, and with people of different nationalities, religions and opinions. They tell me their truths and help me see with their eyes…and is that not what faith and humanity is all about?

Learning the truths of others with open minds and hearts. Hearing their painful experiences and trying to understand and eliminate their pain. These are ways to broaden our experiences so we see the truth.

We can listen to all sorts of people’s views of facts and news…it all comes down to how we listen to hopefully learn the truth.

Do we listen with only “us” as important… or do we listen with grace and generosity? Do we listen with fear… or do we listen with love?

The more we cling to ourselves and our fear, the more the “facts” and “realities” frighten us. The more we reach out and open up, the more we understand how the “facts” and “realties” affect others, not just us. And the more we practice love and grace instead of fear and selfishness, the easier it will be for our brains to interpret the facts and realities in ways for us to do good and heal our world. The truth indeed sets us free.

-Kathleen

NOTE: If you are reading this blog using the mobile version,click on "web version" to see the full blog with all the features including "subscribe to blog by email".  

Please join us and also share on your social media.

Donate here to the ongoing work of the CDCA with the poor in Nicaragua:

https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/jhc-cdca 

Assembly of People Into Giving a Sh*t: It's a New Year!

I’m the world’s worst at procrastination. “I’ll start that on Monday.” “Come the New Year, I’ll get right on that.”

Well, it is the New Year and as societies we have procrastinated long and hard on issues that needed our attention yesterday, last year, decades ago, and forever. 

We knew back in the 1950s that coal and industries polluted the air so horribly that people wore coverings over their faces when they went out. Hospitals dealt with lung disorders. In the 1960s Los Angeles was a city that was blanketed in smog. We knew. We did little bits and pieces depending on what administration was in state or national offices, but we never actually set our minds to addressing the problem.

Now we have an extinction-level climate crisis.

We have known for hundreds of years that keeping the poor in poverty and not addressing their issues can lead to pandemics and epidemics. We know that borders do not keep out pathogens…the Black Plague taught us that. Sanitation, good food, shelter are all the things needed to keep society as a whole healthy. But we ignore our brothers and sisters who are poor, who are homeless, who eat whatever is available, and who live in filth because sanitation is not available.

Now millions have died in a pandemic and scientists and health professionals say that pandemics will be more prevalent.

We just keep postponing and postponing.

I had a friend whose car was acting up. “What do the mechanics say is wrong?” I asked her.

“I don’t know. I’m hoping it will fix itself,” looking sheepishly she replied.

Not too long after that her car broke down completely and she had to buy a new one.

Well, when it comes to our climate and our health we cannot wait until it collapses completely and go buy new ones.

The prophets of the Hebrew scriptures called for the Israelites to address the problem of widows and orphans and the poor right away. They continually announced that Yahweh would judge them on how they treated the poor and would condemn them if they did not.

Jesus called for his followers to address the problems of society right then…heal the sick, touch the untouchables, free the imprisoned, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and befriend the outcast. And he did.

Those were millennia ago and still the poor are with us and growing in numbers with COVID-19 and climate change.

When will we stop procrastinating?

A friend of ours asked me if we tithed. I said yes. She shook her head and said, “I want to tithe but I don’t have enough money…but you have less than I do. I don’t know what to do?”

I told her what my mother taught me growing up, “If you wait until you have enough money, you will never have enough to tithe. Giving back to the poor 10% of what God has given you is easy as long as you remember it is what God has given to you.”

The Divine entrusted us with this planet. In Genesis, God told Adam and Eve “I give you dominion over the animals that move…” In other words, “I am trusting you…don’t f**k it up.”

Well, we have.

There was a great line on a TV series, True Blood, “We need to regroup and come back and unf**k this situation.”

And that is what we have to do now. We have to FIX IT!

We cannot wait until the pandemic is over and we are all vaccinated…the poor need us now. The climate needs to be addressed now.

It’s 2021, time to act.

-Kathleen

NOTE: If you are reading this blog using the mobile version,click on "web version" to see the full blog with all the features including "subscribe to blog by email".  

Please join us and also share on your social media.

Donate here to the ongoing work of the CDCA with the poor in Nicaragua:

https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/jhc-cdca