When I think of the United Church of Christ I think of liberal religion. This assumption was certainly backed up by both the presentation and the readings. Even more liberal than the ELCA, this church's social teaching is very impressive.
The one part of the presentation that I disagreed with, based on the readings, was how they were mostly talk and not really action based. I remeber the part of the reading where there was the example given of the church standing up against the arms race. This shows how they are frequently involved in not only talking the talk but also walking the walk. In fact, it seems as if they are even more action based than the ELCA who, as I wrote about before, seems to not even know its positions and thus does not act upon them.
Getting to Dr. Waldmeir's point about why we see these as liberal, I want to reiterate what I said in class. For some reason we have defined caring for other people liberal. before that happened I had always defined caring for other people christian, but when the conservative, especially the neo-conservatiuve movement enforces policy that helps those who are very well off and ignores those who need the help, or at least could use the help it is easy to see why liberalism has become synonomis with Christian Social Teaching. The question has now become which social teaching is more liberal. In my opinion, this is not necessarily a bad thing because the more the conservative movement moves away fro Christian Social Teaching, the more likely it is that liberalism will rule the world. If the conservative movement wants to move back towards Christian Social Teaching then they should start thinking about how best to help tose in need rather than how best to help their colleagus who open up their wallets to make sure they will get favorable policis.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Lutheran Social Teaching
I thought Crystal and Kelli did a great job of explaining Lutheran Social Teaching. One major thing that I learned about was the fact that the ELCA, anyway, is as a whole very uneducate about their own Lutheran Social Teaching. This was not necessarily shown in the readings, but that fact that Pastor John himself was not exactly sure what LST was in the minds of the ELCA church nd instead forwarded many questions to the website shows this. I have experienced this same thing taking 8 years of Sunday School an 2 years of Confermation Classes and I do not recall ever learning about LST. Thus, when I wanted to look up what my own church beleved I had to look on the website as well. Now that the homosexuality is coming to the forefront of the church this may be slightly changing. This is very different than the Catholic church, especially St. Mary's. I would hypothesze that every Catholic parish iscusses CST from time to time, even if it is only during election time of Pro-Life (not to be confused with Anti-Abortion) month. The many homolies I have heard a St. Mary's have almost all been somewhat about CST. Everything from healthcare to welfare to peace and justice to gun conrtol, St. Mary's homolies emphasize the importance of human dignity and CST.
Another thing I learned about was the exact belief on the Sacraments. I ha a fairly good understanding of this belief an this is something that I know for a fact the ELCA church tries to inform its members about (They usually have a pamphlet on this in each church). However, the readings an presentation helped understand it even better. It seems as if they recognize the importance and divinity of all the Catholic Sacraments. However, they acknowldege that there are teo that are more important than the rest; baptism and ______. This again is very different than Catholicism where all sacraments are equally divine.
The most striking difference in LST and CST is, as Kelli put it, the "however, we live in a fallen world". This peaks its head in a few main issues. The obvious is homosexual rights, where you can either argue homosexuality is wrong, but we live in a fallen world, or you could argue that it is wrong to discriminate against any human being because we live in a fallen world. I think it is clear that in this case, LST has the upper hand in terms of human dignity and ethics. The other main issue is Life. For instance, you could argue that we should never sentence anyone to death, but we live in a fallen worl so sometimes we may hae to. I disagree with this and support CST in this case and believe it is wrong to kill regardless of how much it is deserve in order to PREVENT us from going deeper into this fallen world.
Ultimately there are many similarities and a few differences between LST and CST and from the readings and the presentation these have become more clear to me.
Another thing I learned about was the exact belief on the Sacraments. I ha a fairly good understanding of this belief an this is something that I know for a fact the ELCA church tries to inform its members about (They usually have a pamphlet on this in each church). However, the readings an presentation helped understand it even better. It seems as if they recognize the importance and divinity of all the Catholic Sacraments. However, they acknowldege that there are teo that are more important than the rest; baptism and ______. This again is very different than Catholicism where all sacraments are equally divine.
The most striking difference in LST and CST is, as Kelli put it, the "however, we live in a fallen world". This peaks its head in a few main issues. The obvious is homosexual rights, where you can either argue homosexuality is wrong, but we live in a fallen world, or you could argue that it is wrong to discriminate against any human being because we live in a fallen world. I think it is clear that in this case, LST has the upper hand in terms of human dignity and ethics. The other main issue is Life. For instance, you could argue that we should never sentence anyone to death, but we live in a fallen worl so sometimes we may hae to. I disagree with this and support CST in this case and believe it is wrong to kill regardless of how much it is deserve in order to PREVENT us from going deeper into this fallen world.
Ultimately there are many similarities and a few differences between LST and CST and from the readings and the presentation these have become more clear to me.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
New Learning Plan
My Learning Plan has definitely changed since I first started this class. I started off just wanting to do anything that was needed of me focussing on traditional, hands on service. I was not entirely sure what that would mean and I wasn't thinking to much into how I would connect it with the neighborhood. After multiple sessions in our class and meeting visiting the church I have moved farther away from the traditional service and more towards serving the neighborhood. Therefore my new, more focussed objectives are:
1. Find out what the community wants to see happen to the building upon its closure
2. Find out the options the building has for the future
3. Work with the Diocese to find a good way to move on with the Building
4. Participate in Direct, Traditional Service
I decided that these objectives would be a very good volunteer opportunity in which I am making a big difference in the community hopefully with the input of the community. I would accomplish Task #2 by talking to people in the City Planning department about the options with an eye toward turning it into a historical site. Then I would talk to Dubuque Restoration to find out how it could be done and get details like cost and time. I also might talk to the Community Foundation to see if there is money available for this project.
To accomplish task #1 I will get make a survey of options, probably after talking over the historical site idea. I might even talk to the psych department to see how a good survey looks and is distributed. I will then either go door to door and ask questions about the survey or put it in the mail to fill it out. The problem with this is that the church does not seem to excited about the idea. They may feel like it is irrelevant information, but I think it would be a good piece of data for the diocese to look at.
After completeing task #1 and #2 I will bring my findings to the church and then to the diocese to discuss what to do going forward. If one of the options seems like a good one I will focus on getting that done.
All the while I am doing this I wll probably put in some traditional service hours at the Maria House or the Lantern Center. This will fulfill my desire to do traditional, hands on service and may also give me a good place to talk to people about the future of the church.
Hopefully doing all of this will make a big difference in the community and in the church and bring the church closer to the community.
1. Find out what the community wants to see happen to the building upon its closure
2. Find out the options the building has for the future
3. Work with the Diocese to find a good way to move on with the Building
4. Participate in Direct, Traditional Service
I decided that these objectives would be a very good volunteer opportunity in which I am making a big difference in the community hopefully with the input of the community. I would accomplish Task #2 by talking to people in the City Planning department about the options with an eye toward turning it into a historical site. Then I would talk to Dubuque Restoration to find out how it could be done and get details like cost and time. I also might talk to the Community Foundation to see if there is money available for this project.
To accomplish task #1 I will get make a survey of options, probably after talking over the historical site idea. I might even talk to the psych department to see how a good survey looks and is distributed. I will then either go door to door and ask questions about the survey or put it in the mail to fill it out. The problem with this is that the church does not seem to excited about the idea. They may feel like it is irrelevant information, but I think it would be a good piece of data for the diocese to look at.
After completeing task #1 and #2 I will bring my findings to the church and then to the diocese to discuss what to do going forward. If one of the options seems like a good one I will focus on getting that done.
All the while I am doing this I wll probably put in some traditional service hours at the Maria House or the Lantern Center. This will fulfill my desire to do traditional, hands on service and may also give me a good place to talk to people about the future of the church.
Hopefully doing all of this will make a big difference in the community and in the church and bring the church closer to the community.
Monday, October 5, 2009
My Catholic Social Teaching
As I stated before in class, I think that Catholic Social Teaching (CST) is amazing. The strong belief in the good of all people, the respect for lives at all stages, and the understanding of the necessity making personal sacrifices to help those in need all contribute to what I believe is Catholicism’s best attribute. This is way it is astounding to me how little it is taught and publicized. Before coming to Loras I had never heard of CST and I know plenty of Catholics here who would say the same thing. When I thought of the Catholic Church’s political stances all I could think of was abortion, stem cell research and maybe the death penalty. Now knowing about CST, to say this is the extent to which the Church engages in politics would be a complete lie. I would love to moderate a discussion on CST. If I did I would definitely start off with a general discussion of the issue, then get into a specific topic/topics and I would conclude with looking at how CST should affect how Catholics change their governments and also their own lives.
General Discussion including passages to read.
Once we etched out a good basis for what CST was, I would try and apply it to certain current events topics. The obvious ones would be Afghanistan war or Healthcare, but I think I would chose something a little different; something that Pope John touched on in Mater et Magistrate. I would look at Wal-Mart. I think Wal-Mart is a good case study because it allows people to apply their understanding of CST differently. This is especially true for what the government should do and even more so for what people should do. I would introduce the issues that somebody who believed strongly in CST would have with Wal-Mart. Obviously these would include sweat shop labor and human rights violations. But some of the more unique things about Wal-Mart is its desire to flush out other businesses, the pressure it puts on companies to lower quality, the horrid treatment of American workers, the anti-union propaganda it has, the outsourcing of jobs, the huge CEO profits and the list goes on and on. These are all things that someone who believes strongly in CST would take issue with. However, most people do very little about it. Here are some specific examples of what Wal-Mart does that CST does not believe in.
First, Wal-Mart has a known business practice of trying to make sure that every American has a Wal-Mart within 10 miles of each other. The reason for this is they want NO small businesses to be able to exist. Because people can get everything from Wal-Mart, they believe if there is one within 10 miles of you that you will go there and thus Wal-Mart won’t have any competition. This is a solid business practice, but it is very anti-CST because it is not looking out for the common good, rather the good of Wal-Mart.
Second, one infamous story about Wal-Mart’s massaive power is when it contracted with Rubbermaid, who before contracting with Wal-Mart was said to have the best quality products in its line. However, Wal-Mart became such a big percentage of Rubbermaid’s contracts that Wal-Mart basically forced them to lower quality. They told Rubbermaid what price they would seel their product for or else Wal-Mart would not buy from them. Rubbermaid had to adhere to Wal-Mart’s demands and made the product cheaper by lowering quality. Now it is one of the worst quality products in its line. Again, great for Wal-Mart bad for the common good of people.
Third, Wal-Mart has had to settle tens if not hundreds of worker’s complaints; from forcing to work in warehouses or not paying people overtime, not treating women equally and even disability discrimination. This is obviously not in adherence to CST.
Fourth, Pope John wrote about how workers need to have some say in their business. One way to do this is unionizing. For obvious reasons Wal-Mart does not want unions in their business, however they took it o an extreme. When the fresh meat department of Wal-Mart unionized in Texas they just got rid of the department worldwide.
These are just a few examples. The question then becomes, in order to maintain my beliefs that are based on CST what must I do in regards to Wal-Mart. Governmentally, there is much debate. And even Pope John does not make it clear how much government interference should be called for. However, when Germany took a stand against Wal-Mart and forced them to play on the same playing field as all the other store Wal-Mart decided not to try and no longer exists in Germany. Is this something Catholics and CST believing people should call for in America? I think so, but it is certainly up for debate. Where I think a great discussion of CST would come from this topic is personal changes. Since I found out about the injustices of Wal-Mart 5 years ago, I have not made on purchase from the store or jpintly owned stores Lowe’s and Sam’s Club. When I get gift card I go buy something and return it for cash so I can buy things from elsewhere. I do this not out of a hope that my action will ruin Wal-Mart but out my conviction that they are fundamentally against. I consider immoral to shop there. I have talked about this with many Catholics, and almost all of them agree that Wal-Mart is an awful business; however most think I am crazy for taking this action. However, can I say I believe in CST if I do not change the way I act when things are counter to it. Some people argue that by me shopping at Target or drinking Coca-Cola I am going against my beliefs as well. And to be honest, I agree. However, it would be very hard to only buy Union made or free trade in today’s world and at least I am making a stand against what I see as the worst corporation. This part of CST is where I think the discussion gets interesting. Once you have figured out what is moral and what isn’t how do you change your behavior to match your beliefs? If you don’t, can you really say you have beliefs? There is an obvious motivation to how I would teach CST, and to how I write this blog. I want to show people how amazing this belief system is but at the same time showing that if you have it and don’t act based on it, then you are a hypocrite. There are many issues that this could be done with but I think Wal-Mart is especially good because people don’t have to shop there and yet they do because it is good for them even though it is so bad for the common good. Just imagine what a workd a people acting solely based on their ethics rather than on their mind would be like. Or even what kind of a person I would be if I could get to a point where every decision was based solely on ethics and nothing else. To me, that is the goal, albeit probably an unreachable one, that CST sets out to rea
As I stated before in class, I think that Catholic Social Teaching (CST) is amazing. The strong belief in the good of all people, the respect for lives at all stages, and the understanding of the necessity making personal sacrifices to help those in need all contribute to what I believe is Catholicism’s best attribute. This is way it is astounding to me how little it is taught and publicized. Before coming to Loras I had never heard of CST and I know plenty of Catholics here who would say the same thing. When I thought of the Catholic Church’s political stances all I could think of was abortion, stem cell research and maybe the death penalty. Now knowing about CST, to say this is the extent to which the Church engages in politics would be a complete lie. I would love to moderate a discussion on CST. If I did I would definitely start off with a general discussion of the issue, then get into a specific topic/topics and I would conclude with looking at how CST should affect how Catholics change their governments and also their own lives.
General Discussion including passages to read.
Once we etched out a good basis for what CST was, I would try and apply it to certain current events topics. The obvious ones would be Afghanistan war or Healthcare, but I think I would chose something a little different; something that Pope John touched on in Mater et Magistrate. I would look at Wal-Mart. I think Wal-Mart is a good case study because it allows people to apply their understanding of CST differently. This is especially true for what the government should do and even more so for what people should do. I would introduce the issues that somebody who believed strongly in CST would have with Wal-Mart. Obviously these would include sweat shop labor and human rights violations. But some of the more unique things about Wal-Mart is its desire to flush out other businesses, the pressure it puts on companies to lower quality, the horrid treatment of American workers, the anti-union propaganda it has, the outsourcing of jobs, the huge CEO profits and the list goes on and on. These are all things that someone who believes strongly in CST would take issue with. However, most people do very little about it. Here are some specific examples of what Wal-Mart does that CST does not believe in.
First, Wal-Mart has a known business practice of trying to make sure that every American has a Wal-Mart within 10 miles of each other. The reason for this is they want NO small businesses to be able to exist. Because people can get everything from Wal-Mart, they believe if there is one within 10 miles of you that you will go there and thus Wal-Mart won’t have any competition. This is a solid business practice, but it is very anti-CST because it is not looking out for the common good, rather the good of Wal-Mart.
Second, one infamous story about Wal-Mart’s massaive power is when it contracted with Rubbermaid, who before contracting with Wal-Mart was said to have the best quality products in its line. However, Wal-Mart became such a big percentage of Rubbermaid’s contracts that Wal-Mart basically forced them to lower quality. They told Rubbermaid what price they would seel their product for or else Wal-Mart would not buy from them. Rubbermaid had to adhere to Wal-Mart’s demands and made the product cheaper by lowering quality. Now it is one of the worst quality products in its line. Again, great for Wal-Mart bad for the common good of people.
Third, Wal-Mart has had to settle tens if not hundreds of worker’s complaints; from forcing to work in warehouses or not paying people overtime, not treating women equally and even disability discrimination. This is obviously not in adherence to CST.
Fourth, Pope John wrote about how workers need to have some say in their business. One way to do this is unionizing. For obvious reasons Wal-Mart does not want unions in their business, however they took it o an extreme. When the fresh meat department of Wal-Mart unionized in Texas they just got rid of the department worldwide.
These are just a few examples. The question then becomes, in order to maintain my beliefs that are based on CST what must I do in regards to Wal-Mart. Governmentally, there is much debate. And even Pope John does not make it clear how much government interference should be called for. However, when Germany took a stand against Wal-Mart and forced them to play on the same playing field as all the other store Wal-Mart decided not to try and no longer exists in Germany. Is this something Catholics and CST believing people should call for in America? I think so, but it is certainly up for debate. Where I think a great discussion of CST would come from this topic is personal changes. Since I found out about the injustices of Wal-Mart 5 years ago, I have not made on purchase from the store or jpintly owned stores Lowe’s and Sam’s Club. When I get gift card I go buy something and return it for cash so I can buy things from elsewhere. I do this not out of a hope that my action will ruin Wal-Mart but out my conviction that they are fundamentally against. I consider immoral to shop there. I have talked about this with many Catholics, and almost all of them agree that Wal-Mart is an awful business; however most think I am crazy for taking this action. However, can I say I believe in CST if I do not change the way I act when things are counter to it. Some people argue that by me shopping at Target or drinking Coca-Cola I am going against my beliefs as well. And to be honest, I agree. However, it would be very hard to only buy Union made or free trade in today’s world and at least I am making a stand against what I see as the worst corporation. This part of CST is where I think the discussion gets interesting. Once you have figured out what is moral and what isn’t how do you change your behavior to match your beliefs? If you don’t, can you really say you have beliefs? There is an obvious motivation to how I would teach CST, and to how I write this blog. I want to show people how amazing this belief system is but at the same time showing that if you have it and don’t act based on it, then you are a hypocrite. There are many issues that this could be done with but I think Wal-Mart is especially good because people don’t have to shop there and yet they do because it is good for them even though it is so bad for the common good. Just imagine what a workd a people acting solely based on their ethics rather than on their mind would be like. Or even what kind of a person I would be if I could get to a point where every decision was based solely on ethics and nothing else. To me, that is the goal, albeit probably an unreachable one, that CST sets out to rea
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Local History
I love history! I think learning about something by looking at how it was or where it came from is so exciting. When picking something to do a "local history" on I would defintely stay in Dubuque. I think this city is rich in beautiful for its landscape and how in tune it is with its history. The same goes for Loras College. Being the oldest college west of the Mississippi River, Loras has a lot of history to be "in tune" with. With so many things to chose from I was not sure what to do. However, as I looked around the city and around campus I decided that I think it would be really cool to learn more about the Fieldhouse.
The reasons I think this building would be great to take a look at are many. First off, it looks almost exactly like the gym in the movie Hoosiers; I wonder if this is coincidence, planned, or simply culturally common. Second, the building has played part to many historical figures, from the worst Vice-President ever, Dick Cheney, to the first black President, Barack Obama. And I know that John F. Kennedy was at Loras but I am not sure if it was in that building. Also, there have been really cool events there like the mock conventions and the competitively important sporting events. Finally, though currently empty-ish, this is a very active building with changes to it in the works. Rumors from IVA lab to bowling ally have circulated campus making it the perfect place to study.
Obtaining information about the fieldhouse would be very easy. Looking at former papers, both regional and just campus wide. I would even look at the "non-official" newspapers like the Aardvark. Along with this information I could go interview people involved in sustaining the building, planning the events that have gone on in the building, and those participating in the events. The biggest obstacle in obtaining the information would be how scattered it is. I would have to collect information from one source and then jump to another one, and another one. Also, I would have to make sure not to miss anything. My slection of sources and quantity of sources will be key to how thorough a "local history" I would be able to make.
My writing would certainly be very factual and very formal. this is because I would need to maintain a sense of non-biased fact based analysis. This would certainly be key to overcome the obstacles I mentioned. If I would write it more informally, readers would doubt that I took everything into account and that I would have picked what to throuw in a what to leave out. This would be an awesome place to write a local history on and I almost want to do it just for fun (that was a joke).
The reasons I think this building would be great to take a look at are many. First off, it looks almost exactly like the gym in the movie Hoosiers; I wonder if this is coincidence, planned, or simply culturally common. Second, the building has played part to many historical figures, from the worst Vice-President ever, Dick Cheney, to the first black President, Barack Obama. And I know that John F. Kennedy was at Loras but I am not sure if it was in that building. Also, there have been really cool events there like the mock conventions and the competitively important sporting events. Finally, though currently empty-ish, this is a very active building with changes to it in the works. Rumors from IVA lab to bowling ally have circulated campus making it the perfect place to study.
Obtaining information about the fieldhouse would be very easy. Looking at former papers, both regional and just campus wide. I would even look at the "non-official" newspapers like the Aardvark. Along with this information I could go interview people involved in sustaining the building, planning the events that have gone on in the building, and those participating in the events. The biggest obstacle in obtaining the information would be how scattered it is. I would have to collect information from one source and then jump to another one, and another one. Also, I would have to make sure not to miss anything. My slection of sources and quantity of sources will be key to how thorough a "local history" I would be able to make.
My writing would certainly be very factual and very formal. this is because I would need to maintain a sense of non-biased fact based analysis. This would certainly be key to overcome the obstacles I mentioned. If I would write it more informally, readers would doubt that I took everything into account and that I would have picked what to throuw in a what to leave out. This would be an awesome place to write a local history on and I almost want to do it just for fun (that was a joke).
Monday, September 7, 2009
Service: Past, Present, Future
When I think of service, I think of convictions; a belief system that I live my life by. In order to live up to my own moral code I need to serve these convictions. In that manner I believe that I need to dedicate some of my time to volunteering and helping others, especially those who are less fortunate. My service experience includes a wide variety of things from free meals to protesting unethical events and I believe that they are all equally important.
My experiences with what many seem as the more "conventional" means of service has definitely played a role in my development into the person I am today. I grew up in a suburb of Milwaukee. Not the wealthiest of suburbs, and there are some VERY wealthy suburbs of Milwaukee, but certainly wealthy. I never had to worry about anything; from basic needs like food and clothing to childish desire like N64 or basketball hoops. However, my parents taught e to be aware of these privileges and tried to inform me about how little other people had. In doing so, I would try to participate in helping the poor of Milwaukee. I would go with my church down to a Lutheran church in the heart of the inner city and serve taco dinners. Every time I went down there I loved the experience but at the same time realized how little I was actually doing. Sure, it made me feel good about myself for an hour and I met some amazing people, but the next time I went to a Bucks game and passed a homeless person I would not even take notice of his or her existence, and even if I did I really could not help him or her to the extent they needed. This led to my desire to participate in my other experiences with service; political action.
Now by all means, this was not the only way I participated in "conventional" service. I also helped pick-up trash many times in our neighborhood (once so much so I got my picture in the Milwaukee paper) and I have continued that service in college; helping on Dubuque day of Caring and at the Irish Hooley. Also, I have a great desire to go on the Loras Service trip to McKee Kentucky and help what many call the poorest people in the country. However, I feel like the most meaningful service I have participated in has been political action.
When I came to college I helped re-create the Loras College Democrats. By meeting people through this organization I learned about how rewarding making a stand for your beliefs can be. I volunteered 16 hours on the election days of 2006 and 2008 and also many hours leading up to these elections. It did seem like this service was making a difference. I truly believe that liberal politics help everyone, especially those who need the help and deserve the help. With the service of people like me liberal politicians and liberal politics have swept the country and real change and real help is happening. However, even this could not match going out and standing up for your convictions.
Because of my liberal political view, I took a strong interest in Catholic Social Teaching (side bar: and want to learn about this foreign concept to me Lutheran Social Teaching). I heard about the Loras Service trips to Washington DC and School of the Americas. I jumped at the opportunity to stand up for what is right. When I went to DC, we helped furnish a halfway house and did yard work for a Catholic Worker house, but the real rewarding service came when we marched for our beliefs. First, we stood on the corner of an intersection right next to a prison where executions take place. We held signs, sang songs and chanted trying to demonstrate how immoral the death sentence is. Nothing is better than the adrenalin rush of somebody flipping you off because they don't like your sign or the warm feeling of a 'thumbs up'. And though we did not change the law that day, we made a lot of people think about their own moral stance on the issue. Next we marched to the IRS building in protest of the funding of the Iraq War. Again, people take notice when hundreds of people unite for a cause, and doubly so when eight 70 year olds wearing pink lie down in the middle of the road and hold up traffic. Those people are so admirable to believe in something that strongly. A protest at a hotel where weapons of mass murder were being sold put us in a situation where you came face to face with the people you disagree with. We also did a Good Friday Vigil at the Pentagon where we prayed and sang all while have 5 snipers pointing at us making sure a group of pacifists didn't overthrow the government. Service to yourself, to your beliefs and to the public in the best way you know how made the DC trip amazing.
I also went on the CST trip to end the School of the Americas; a US military base that teaches countries the guerilla warfare tactics we all know are immoral. In fact, we taught them so well they went out and murdered 8 nuns and a priest (sparking the protest). Here thousands of people join together to show how unethical this base is and try to get the government to take notice. It has started to work, bills in the House have almost passed trying to stop the schools funding and President Obama seems to be on our side. Hopefully, the School will be closed soon.
These service opportunities were the best for me and I learned so much from them. However, I acknowledge that just as much can be learned from the more "conventional" service. That is why I have mixed the two together for my learning plan (NOTE: I have not spoken to my site adviser so this could change drastically). First, I want to learn more about the Washington neighborhood and the problems they are having and how they are trying to fix these problems. For instance, I have heard that the community has organized together to try and stop the decline of it. This is something I would like to learn more about and hopefully help with. Second, I want to help the people of the neighborhood who need it most by doing some sort of "conventional" service. Be it meals or shelters or prayer services, I want to bring my service back to the realm of serving people directly. Third, I want to get a sense of what people's beliefs on current issues are, i.e. Health care, Human rights, Economics. Finally, I want to learn where these people go to church, if the go to church and why the churches in the area do not draw from the area. This is something I would love to work on. Overall I know my service experience is going to be a great thing for me.
My experiences with what many seem as the more "conventional" means of service has definitely played a role in my development into the person I am today. I grew up in a suburb of Milwaukee. Not the wealthiest of suburbs, and there are some VERY wealthy suburbs of Milwaukee, but certainly wealthy. I never had to worry about anything; from basic needs like food and clothing to childish desire like N64 or basketball hoops. However, my parents taught e to be aware of these privileges and tried to inform me about how little other people had. In doing so, I would try to participate in helping the poor of Milwaukee. I would go with my church down to a Lutheran church in the heart of the inner city and serve taco dinners. Every time I went down there I loved the experience but at the same time realized how little I was actually doing. Sure, it made me feel good about myself for an hour and I met some amazing people, but the next time I went to a Bucks game and passed a homeless person I would not even take notice of his or her existence, and even if I did I really could not help him or her to the extent they needed. This led to my desire to participate in my other experiences with service; political action.
Now by all means, this was not the only way I participated in "conventional" service. I also helped pick-up trash many times in our neighborhood (once so much so I got my picture in the Milwaukee paper) and I have continued that service in college; helping on Dubuque day of Caring and at the Irish Hooley. Also, I have a great desire to go on the Loras Service trip to McKee Kentucky and help what many call the poorest people in the country. However, I feel like the most meaningful service I have participated in has been political action.
When I came to college I helped re-create the Loras College Democrats. By meeting people through this organization I learned about how rewarding making a stand for your beliefs can be. I volunteered 16 hours on the election days of 2006 and 2008 and also many hours leading up to these elections. It did seem like this service was making a difference. I truly believe that liberal politics help everyone, especially those who need the help and deserve the help. With the service of people like me liberal politicians and liberal politics have swept the country and real change and real help is happening. However, even this could not match going out and standing up for your convictions.
Because of my liberal political view, I took a strong interest in Catholic Social Teaching (side bar: and want to learn about this foreign concept to me Lutheran Social Teaching). I heard about the Loras Service trips to Washington DC and School of the Americas. I jumped at the opportunity to stand up for what is right. When I went to DC, we helped furnish a halfway house and did yard work for a Catholic Worker house, but the real rewarding service came when we marched for our beliefs. First, we stood on the corner of an intersection right next to a prison where executions take place. We held signs, sang songs and chanted trying to demonstrate how immoral the death sentence is. Nothing is better than the adrenalin rush of somebody flipping you off because they don't like your sign or the warm feeling of a 'thumbs up'. And though we did not change the law that day, we made a lot of people think about their own moral stance on the issue. Next we marched to the IRS building in protest of the funding of the Iraq War. Again, people take notice when hundreds of people unite for a cause, and doubly so when eight 70 year olds wearing pink lie down in the middle of the road and hold up traffic. Those people are so admirable to believe in something that strongly. A protest at a hotel where weapons of mass murder were being sold put us in a situation where you came face to face with the people you disagree with. We also did a Good Friday Vigil at the Pentagon where we prayed and sang all while have 5 snipers pointing at us making sure a group of pacifists didn't overthrow the government. Service to yourself, to your beliefs and to the public in the best way you know how made the DC trip amazing.
I also went on the CST trip to end the School of the Americas; a US military base that teaches countries the guerilla warfare tactics we all know are immoral. In fact, we taught them so well they went out and murdered 8 nuns and a priest (sparking the protest). Here thousands of people join together to show how unethical this base is and try to get the government to take notice. It has started to work, bills in the House have almost passed trying to stop the schools funding and President Obama seems to be on our side. Hopefully, the School will be closed soon.
These service opportunities were the best for me and I learned so much from them. However, I acknowledge that just as much can be learned from the more "conventional" service. That is why I have mixed the two together for my learning plan (NOTE: I have not spoken to my site adviser so this could change drastically). First, I want to learn more about the Washington neighborhood and the problems they are having and how they are trying to fix these problems. For instance, I have heard that the community has organized together to try and stop the decline of it. This is something I would like to learn more about and hopefully help with. Second, I want to help the people of the neighborhood who need it most by doing some sort of "conventional" service. Be it meals or shelters or prayer services, I want to bring my service back to the realm of serving people directly. Third, I want to get a sense of what people's beliefs on current issues are, i.e. Health care, Human rights, Economics. Finally, I want to learn where these people go to church, if the go to church and why the churches in the area do not draw from the area. This is something I would love to work on. Overall I know my service experience is going to be a great thing for me.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
What a way to start a class!
Wow, instead of going to the first calss of the year.... I went to a BAR! That is not a good first impression!
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