On Pilgrimage in Oklahoma City
A Catholic Worker blog.
By Robert Waldrop, Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House
See also my Oklahoma Food blog, "Gettin' the Right Eats" at http://www.oklahomafood.coop/bobsblog/ .
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May 1, 2008, Feast of St. Joseph the Worker and the 75th Anniversary of the Founding of the Catholic Worker Movement
March 26, 2008 An open letter to His Eminence Francis Cardinal George, OMI, Archbishop of Chicago
March 9, 2008 Dear Mayor Mick Cornett
November 7, 2007 Mukasey recommendation a sign of a declining, decadent, United States
October 15, 2007 , Memorial of St. Teresa of Avila, A report from NW 21st Street.
September 28, 2007 , NCR and the Iraq War
September 17, 2007 , Wars and rumors of wars.
July 12, 2007, A dark day for the Church in the U.S.
June 26, 2007, The Letter from Osama to the US Bishops
April 17, 2007, A Dark Day for Oklahoma
March 19, 2007, Bishops destroy the church's witness to life.
February 20, 2007, Fat Tuesday, On Pilgrimage in Canada
The Feast of the Epiphany, January 7, 2007, And the Glory of the Lord shall be revealed.
July 11, 2006, on Liturgy and War and the US Catholic Bishops
May 2, 2006, A new plot against the poor in Oklahoma City.
March 24, 2006 The Martyrdom of Romero
February 28, 2006 An open letter to Senator Coburn
January 29, 2006 An un-Catholic Workerish thing?
November 24, 2005 Thanksgiving 2005
November 22, 2005 A message to GM workers from the Oklahoma City Catholic Workers
August 22, 2005, The Extreme Green Makeover of the Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House
July 25, 2005, It's a GREAT DAY for the American Labor movement
July 15, 2005, Taking the bus to work.
July 12, 2005 Construction begins on Dorothy Day Social Ministry building at St. Charles Borromeo parish in Oklahoma City!
June 23, 2005 Depraved US Supreme Court declares OPEN SEASON on poor and working class neighborhoods
April 8, 2005, 6 AM CDT, a prayer following the funeral of Pope John Paul the Great
Palm Sunday 2005, March 20, 2005
St. Joseph's Day 2005, March 19, 2005
A Prayer to Dorothy Day for the People of Iraq, January 26, 2005
Do you hear the angels speaking to you tonight, December 18, 2004, Christmas deliveries
December 10, 2004, in memory of Thomas Merton
December 2, 2004, Letter to all the Catholic Worker houses
November 25, 2004, Thoughts on Thanksgiving Day, preparation of the feast, and the "Letter of Paul the Apostle to the Agrarians", a new redaction from the epistles of Paul
November 20, 2004, Thanksgiving Deliveries
November 9, 2004, Feast of the Dedication of St. John Lateran Church, "Free Camilo Day" in Lawton
November 3, 2004, Picketing St. Peter's
October 12, 2004, Against the support of objective evil in the voting booth, an essay on the eve of the 2004 presidential election
October 9, 2004, TEAR DOWN THE GARAGE DAY
October 4, 2004, Our Annual Appeal
September 4. 2004, We pray for the people of Beslan in Russia.
August 24, 2004 , The monks of Clear Creek: Finding the "monk within".
June 19, 2004, Juneteenth, "We ask ourselves "What would Jesus do?," but the idea of living next door to Jesus fills us with dread, fear, and loathing."
June 6, 2004 Letter to Malcolm Berko, executive summary: "The rich who oppress the poor are going to hell."
May 17, 2004 "My advice to Catholics is to flee the Sodom and Gomorrah of the Democratic and Republican political parties."
Labor Day 2003 | Feast of St. Vincent de Paul 2003 | All Saints and All Souls XXXIII Sunday (November 2003) | Ash Wednesday 2004 HOME
The Feast of St. Joseph the Worker, May Day, and the 75th Anniversary of the Founding of the Catholic Worker Movement
On this day, 75 years ago, Dorothy Day and the other early Catholic Workers distributed the first edition of the Catholic Worker newspaper at May Day rallies in New York City, thereby causing scandal to both the Church AND the Communists. And I think that has been pretty much true of us ever since.
On one hand, people always say "nice things" about the Catholic Worker solidarity with the poor and devotion to the corporal works of mercy. But on the other hand, when we begin to ask why these people are hungry in the first place - or why the bishops are "praising with faint condemnation" an unjust war - some of those same people are a bit uncomfortable. I've been told that our support for immigrants and labor unions and our opposition to the war was "costing us donations". Maybe so, but for going on nine years now, in our own little community, we have nearly always had enough food on hand to meet the requests we receive for food assistance. We don't publish our paper or almanac as often as I'd like, but that is more of a matter of time than it is money. We give thanks to God and all the saints for the providence which gives us the bread we have to share with the hungry.
This understanding of the connection between word and deed, justice and charity, has always been an essential aspect of our charism. I can't speak for any other Catholic Workers, only myself, and I know in my own life I have only made the barest beginning of understanding the depths of the Catholic Worker charism. I keep wanting to find more time to reflect on that, but it seems that another one of the essential aspects of the Catholic Worker charism is busy-ness. I took the day off from work today, and my intentions were to go to Mass and write this essay early in the AM, and finish planting the garden. But today was also the opening of the May order for the Oklahoma Food Cooperative, and I bet 30 people phoned me today. So here I sit, nearly 10 PM, I didn't make it to Mass, I did get some planting done, but not as much as I had hoped.
One of those calls was pretty interesting, however, it was from a member of the Teamster's Union down in Lawton who found us on the internet and called us up and maybe I'll go down there and speak and he'll come up here and volunteer and who knows where this little seed will end up. Lawton is the home of Ft. Sill, and I saw James Branum at Rev. Lance Schmitz's ordination as a Nazarene minister last Monday, and he said he was thinking about starting a house of hospitality in Lawton for the many soldiers that are coming to him for legal assistance in establishing their conscientious objector status. I told him we'd help.
This of course is the on-going narrative of the Catholic Worker movement. In a hierarchal church, we are conspicuous by our lack of hierarchy. I remember calling Brother Louis at the Holy Family Catholic Worker House in Kansas City, and asking him, "Who do I ask permission from to start a Catholic Worker house?" He said, "God." I said, "No, I mean, is there someone in the Catholic Worker movement in charge of authorizing new houses?" He said, "No. Every house is autonomous and thus responsible for its own work. If I give you permission, then I am responsible. But our way is that you are responsible. We will of course pray for you."
No one could plan all this. The charism of the Catholic Worker could be called "spontaneous order", except that the fact of this matter is an up-swelling of the Holy Spirit into life, a supernatural reality as vivid as the birth of a new baby. It is an outbreak of Beauty, Wisdom, Justice, and Truth. It is sacramental grace in the midst of daily reality. It is the Shekinah - the fiery glory of God that led the Children of Israel through the desert and rested upon the Tabernacle and the Temple.
The charism of the Catholic Worker is the Epiphany of the Lord Jesus Christ in daily life, where water is changed into wine, the blind see, the deaf hear, and the lame walk. Sometimes it is unutterably sad, and it is a sadness that penetrates your being and seems for a moment to suffuse all of Creation, the tears flow without ceasing. But it is also Joy, and it is an "Alleluia" that can also fill all of Creation -- the hills clapping and the valleys leaping, the trees and bushes singing, and all creatures praising.
The charism of the Catholic Worker is zeal that fills all with a desire for justice and peace that burns with impatience in the very core of your soul. And it is the patient understanding of the farmer, who knows that seedtime and cultivation must come before the harvest. It is the wisdom of mothers -- giving birth in pain, empowered with strength, loving and hoping, at all times and in all circumstances giving thanks to God.. And it is the understanding of fathers -- patient, protective, persistent. The charism of the Catholic Worker is solidarity - not as some kind of a pious item to be checked off a list -- but as an actual lived reality, where the spiritual and corporal works of mercy are daily opportunities to meet and minister to Christ, even if He happens to be wearing one of his more distressing disguises..
It's a lot of hard work and manual labor and the occasional personal drama too, but all the rest of it makes the manual labor and personal dramas go easier.
I guess the words on Dorothy Day's tombstone describe it better than anything I can say - Deo Gratias!
Let us all give thanks today and tomorrow and all the days thereafter for the 75 years of ministry of the Catholic Worker movement. Let us pray that we will stay strong in this work, and will always listen to the Word of God which calls and guides us on this pilgrimage. Let us pray for peace, justice, and hope, and also that we will finish building the new structures that will be needed before the old ones come crashing down around us.
Almighty God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we give thanks and praise to you for the 75 years of ministry of the Catholic Worker movement. Help us to remain strong in this work. Open our hearts and minds and souls so that we will always listen to your Word which calls us and guides us on this pilgrimage. We pray for peace, justice and hope; prudence, fortitude and mercy; love, joy, and beauty. Help us walk with authenticity and wisdom through the tumultuous days which are upon us. These blessings we ask through the intercession of Mary the Most Holy Mother of God, in the name of your Son our Lord, Amen.
St Joseph the Worker, Help us to finish building all these new structures that will be needed, before the old ones come crashing down around our heads. Amen.
St. Dorothy Day and St. Peter Maurin, Here we are, 75 years later, your spiritual children, the Catholic Workers. Thank you for setting us on this path and for the authenticity of your lives and ministry. In our time of need, walk with us every step of the way. When we feel weak and want to quit, give us your strength. Keep us focused on the inherent dignity of every human being. May our houses always be places of hospitality, justice, mercy, and solidarity. Help us to save the world with Beauty, Cult, Culture, and Cultivation. Amen.
An Open Letter to
His Eminence Francis Cardinal George, OMI,
Archbishop of Chicago
P.O. Box 1979
Chicago, IL 60690-1979
Dear Cardinal George:
I have read the news reports and the Archdiocesan statement concerning the disruption of an Easter mass that you celebrated at your Cathedral. Your official statement says, in part. . . "This is a profoundly disturbing action. . . It is a sacrilege that should be condemned by all people of faith and good will."
Although I actively oppose the unjust war the United States is waging on the people of Iraq, I agree that the demonstrators action was disturbing and sacrilegious.
However, theirs was not the first sacrilegious act of that day. The sacrilege commenced when you ascended to the Altar of God and began to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with your hands dripping with the blood of the innocent in Iraq whom you and most of the other United States Catholic Bishops have so callously abandoned to their grisly and violent fates. Like the rest of the US Bishops save one, you issued no canonical declaration forbidding Catholics of the Archdiocese of Chicago from participation in the unjust war on the people of Iraq. A review of your website finds no pastoral letter instructing the souls entrusted to your care about the Church's teachings on unjust war and condemning the war on the people of Iraq as unjust. Like nearly all of your confreres in the U.S. hierarchy, you have preached a gospel of moral relativism and moral laxism that makes a mockery of the Church's teachings on life. You claim you want "peace", but you have done nothing to actually support peace other than to offer pious platitudes and hypocritical rhetoric from your position of safety in your palatial Chicago residence.
Your holidays and festivals I detest, they weigh me down, I tire of the load. When you spread out your hands, I close my eyes to you; though you pray the more, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood! Wash yourselves clean! Put away your misdeeds before my eyes; cease doing evil, learn to do good. Make justice your aim, redress the wronged, hear the orphan's plea, defend the widow. Isaiah 1
I am obviously just an obscure Catholic Worker. You and all the other bishops have consistently ignored everything I have had to say to you since I started writing bishops on the Feast of the Holy Innocents in 2001. Which is fine with me, I am not interested in collecting letters of denial from bishops and cardinals making excuses for their moral cowardice. The charism of the Catholic Worker movement is faithfulness to the Gospel of Justice and Peace - even when all of the United States bishops save a small handful choose Nationalism over Catholicism. So once more I write again these words of inconvenient faithfulness, to remind you that God is watching every moment of your reign as Archbishop and Cardinal and you will one day be accountable for these actions.
God was watching when you refused to properly catechize your people about unjust war.
God was watching when you refused to forbid Chicago Catholics from participating in an unjust war.
God was watching when you dined with the Tyrant-Emperor George Bush, and you did not condemn him as a murderer and prosecutor of an unjust war.
A reading from the book of the Prophet Micah. . .
And I said, Listen you leaders of Jacob, house of Israel! Is it not your duty to know what is right, you who hate what is good, and love evil? You who tear their skin from them and their flesh from their bones? They eat the flesh of my people and flay their skin from them, and break their bones. They chop them in pieces like flesh in a kettle, and like meat in a caldron. When they cry to the Lord, he shall not answer them, rather shall God hide from them at that time, because of the evil they have done.
Thus says the LORD regarding the prophets who lead my people astray; Who, when their teeth have something to bite, announce peace, But when one fails to put something in their mouth, proclaim war against him.
Therefore you shall have night, not vision, darkness, not divination; The sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day shall be dark for them.
Then shall the seers be put to shame, and the diviners confounded; They shall cover their lips, all of them, because there is no answer from God. . . .
Therefore, because of you, Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem reduced to rubble, And the mount of the temple to a forest ridge.
So as it turns out, when you condemn these young people, you condemn yourself.
Which is worse? A prince of the church who by any objective judgment is a moral coward who has preached a false gospel of moral laxism and relativism regarding an unjust war? Or a few young people, who hear the cries of the victims, and in despair act out in such a public manner? Is it not true that your own abject failure as a Cardinal Archbishop provoked these young people to such a rash action? Are you not, then, a "secondary disrupter" of your own Mass, and thus have a significant share in the responsibility for their deeds? Have not your actions -- or rather, inactions -- violated the inalienable rights of the people of Iraq to life? Who, then, is really at fault in this matter? These young protestors? Or a cowardly Cardinal Archbishop, who shuts his eyes, ears, and heart to the cries of the people of Iraq for justice and peace and is a scandal before the entire world?
I write these words to you, in remembrance of the hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians and soldiers who have died in this unjust war on the people of Iraq. One day you will meet them and they will tell you of their terror, pain, and fear and they will ask you, "Why, in the name of God, did you not do something serious to stop this from happening?"
I pray that God has mercy on your soul and brings you to an understanding of the grave evil and moral disorders that you and the other United States Catholic Bishops foster and encourage by your moral cowardice in the face of this unjust war on the people of Iraq
Sincerely,
/sig/
Bob Waldrop
Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House
1524 NW 21st
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73106
www.justpeace.org
A Prayer to Our Lady of Sorrows for Those Who Will Die Today in War
Our Lady of Sorrows,
we pray for all those who will die
today because of war and economic chaos,
especially the children.
Prepare them for the agony, despair,
and terror of the violence that is upon them.
Comfort them and
hold them close to the bosom of
thy most Immaculate Heart
as they drink deeply of the bitter cup
which is forced upon them.
Wipe their tears, calm their fears,
welcome them to peace and safety.
Eternal rest grant to them,
and may perpetual light shine upon them.
Our Most Holy Lady of Sorrows,
Overturn the thrones of tyranny, scatter the unjust,
give us your grace and strength to
stand against the demonic powers
which prowl about the world
seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.
Dear Mayor Cornett,
It is said that during a Roman Triumph, a slave was assigned to ride in the chariot with the victorious general, and continually whisper in his ear, "Remember, you are only mortal."
So at this moment of your triumph, here are some things I want to whisper in your ear.
Some things that I think bode ill for the future of Oklahoma City were continually illuminated in the recent MAPS for Millionaires campaign.
1. Denial. I was astonished to hear that you denied that hunger was a problem in Oklahoma City, when asked about that by a reporter from a Seattle newspaper. Mayor, you need to get out more. You should follow my friend Marcus Evans and me around some time. Since 1999, we and a few others have been delivering food to people in need who don't have transportation to get to a regular food distribution site. . . to the tune of several tens of thousands of pounds of food every year.
2. Demonization of your opponents. I am proud to be one of "those kind of people", as you and others often described those opposed to the MAPS for Millionaires welfare check handout to some of the richest families in the state. Frugal? Yes I am. Conservative? Amazingly so, more so than you are, despite your many claims to being the "most conservative mayor in America". It speaks very poorly of who you are as a person and as our mayor that you found it necessary to demonize your opponents in this way. I guess you feel the end justifies the means, which is always a temptation for politicians.
3. Class warfare. The map in the Sunday Oklahoman showing the election results was very illuminating. I know many of the neighborhoods colored bright orange indicating the lowest "yes" votes. We deliver food there all the time. They knew exactly what this was about -- you are taking from the poor and working classes and giving lavishly to the gluttonous rich. Any claims to the contrary are merely discussions of the naked emperor's clothes. Tell them to your rich friends, I'm sure they'll be impressed. But don't try it with anyone making the minimum wage.
This isn't the first time this has happened.
Oklahoma City has a long history of class warfare against the poor. Let us recall one example -- the ethnic cleansing of the Deep Deuce via a racist "due process riot" using the subterfuge of "redevelopment". I've spoken with people who have been forced to move as many as three times in their life by Oklahoma City, and all of them said to me, "Each time we ended up worse off than before."
Therefore, as a Christian, I feel it is my duty to warn you that God sees all of this.
+ God was watching every time the Oklahoma City council has slashed bus service while lavishing money on golf courses.
+ God is watching as you delay -- for years! while gasoline prices move steadily towards $4 and $5/gallon!! -- improvements to the transit system that would help the working poor so you can build a fancy downtown playground. God will see every abortion that happens because of the increased economic desperation of low income households who can't get to work without a car and expensive gasoline because there is no bus service that goes where they need to go. God will know whose hands are stained with the blood of those innocent babies whose lives are cut short before birth so we could become a "Big League City."
+ God will see every penny you take from the widows and the fatherless for your sales tax that you will spend building luxury accommodations for the mega rich. He will see every bite of food they cannot buy because they pay your tax. Those who have the least in Oklahoma City will have even less thanks to your tax. You may deny it, but God sees it happening.
+ God was watching as Oklahoma City let conditions deteriorate and crime increase in the Walnut Grove and Riverside neighborhoods, in order to drive down property values and make people less inclined to oppose ODOT and Oklahoma City's preferred route for the I-40 Crosstown Freeway relocation project. It's not an accident that crack houses were allowed to proliferate in those areas just before announcement of the ODOT/OKC route selection.
+ God was watching as ODOT broke its promise to the people of the Riverside neighborhood and Oklahoma City did absolutely nothing to protect the people of the Riverside neighborhood from ODOT's treachery.
+ God sees your plan to drive out the rest of the poor from the Riverside neighborhood so it can be gentrified.
+ God is watching as Oklahoma City uses its regulatory powers to suppress economic entrepreneurship among the poor and keep low income people from repairing their homes.
+ God sees how the government takes money from the poor inner city areas to be spent on the wealthy suburbs.
+ God sees every time that Oklahoma City takes land from the poor and gives it to the rich.
+ God is watching when Oklahoma City uses community block development grants as corporate welfare.
+ God hears your denials of the reality of poverty in Oklahoma City. Tell yourself whatever lies you want to ease your conscience, but the reality is that Oklahoma City is grinding the face of the poor into the dust in its quest to be a Big League City.
In the battle between God and the demonic forces which prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls, there is no neutrality. You are either for God and His Kingdom, or you do the work of demons.
And if there is anything that is clear from the Holy Bible, God is not on the side of the rich, the powerful, and the arrogant.
But you, Mick Cornett, Mayor of Oklahoma City, have publicly taken your stand with the rich and the powerful and the arrogant. Your solution to poverty is apparently "Steal what little they have, kill their kids in abortuaries, and then leave them behind for the wolves to devour."
How can I say this? I judge your works, and the consequences of those works, and do not listen to your words. With politicians, this is the only way to make a moral judgment.
So in the battle between good and evil, I have to ask -- whose side are you on anyway?
The fact of this matter is simple. In the end, you will not be judged by what you did for the rich and powerful. Jesus Christ is going to look at you and judge you by the standards detailed in the 25th chapter of the Gospel of St. Matthew.
Did you feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, and visit those in jail?
Or did you drive the poor from their homes "for economic redevelopment purposes"?
Did you take the money of the poor to build lavish palaces for the rich? (Herod did that in an earlier time.)
Did you take money from poor neighborhoods and give it as bribes to a big corporation?
Did you demonize those who object to your lavish excess for political purposes?
"Those who shut their ears to the cry of the poor will themselves also call and not be heard. (Prov. 21:13)
"Those who oppress the poor blaspheme their Maker, but the one who is kind to the needy glorifies God. (Prov. 14:31)
"Woe to those who enact unjust statutes and who write oppressive decrees, depriving the needy of judgment and robbing my people's poor of their rights, making widows their plunder, and the fatherless their prey! " Isaiah 10:1-2
Bob Waldrop
Mukasey recommendation a sign of a declining, decadent, United States
If Judge Michael Mukasey doesn't know that water-boarding is torture, he is either too dumb or too morally deficient to be the Attorney General of the United States. Perhaps he could undergo the procedure himself to help his decision process.
The Senate Judiciary Committee's YES recommendation on the nomination, forwarded with bi-partisan support, is one more bit of evidence of the moral bankruptcy of the declining and decadent United States. Our national recourse to torturing prisoners of war is a scarlet mark of shame against the United States. The fact that torturing war prisoners finds support on both sides of the aisle is a sign of how far along we are on the road to collapse and national disintegration. When sadism becomes a respectable item of political debate, you know a nation is in deep trouble.
Memorial of St. Teresa of Avila
A report from NW 21st Street in Oklahoma City. . .
The trend in requests for help is up.
Food supply is adequate, but nothing to write anyone and brag about.
Powdered milk disappeared long ago.
Typically, the bag of groceries we distribute has cereal, 4-6 miscellaneous cans, beans, rice, pasta, tomato sauce, peanut butter, 2-4 miscelaneous boxed/bag foods (mac and cheese, ramen, etc.) 1 or 2 frozen meat items. Sometimes there is bread for all, sometimes bread for half, sometimes there is no bread.
If people want to bring extra food -- not canned green beans -- that would be fine too. We spend more money on peanut butter than we do any other item. We get 40-60 pounds of ground beef every month from members of the Oklahoma Food Cooperative.
Families of 4 or more get an extra bag filled with whatever we have the most of. Sometimes its families of 5 or more.
At Thanksgiving and Christmas, we would like to add flour, cooking oil, sugar, pumpkin, holiday candy, potatoes, celery, carrots, onions, and a turkey or ham. Realistically, that is $3,000 anyway, depending on the deals we can get.
We are doing grocery deliveries on Saturday Oct 20 and Oct 27. On the 20th, we will do deliveries to the public housing apartments. On the 27th, we will do deliveries on the various routes. (NE OKC 1, 2, 3; Near NW 1,2; Far NW 1,2; North NW; SW 1,2,3,4; SE 1,2,3; Far SE. People have their favorites and often ask for them and that's fine.)
We need more people on the 27th than we do on the 20th. On the 20th we mainly need help making up the grocery bags. It would be helpful to have three or four people go along with the deliveries to the apartments.
On the 27th, we need as many folks as can come. I won't be there, I am speaking in Aledo, Texas to a group of Texas farmers and ranchers interested in holistic agriculture, about the Oklahoma Food Cooperative. But Rev. Lance and Ashley Schmitz will be there and the job will get done. "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, the glory of the Father's only begotten Son, full of grace and truth."
Marcus Evans tells me that a gas grill is being installed at the Dorothy Day Center. So sometime we could make some food while we are sorting groceries and have a bit of a meal in the midst of the "run".
We appreciate everyone's support and prayers, and be assured of ours in return. We can use financial donations too, because all of this activity costs money. And we need volunteers, people who will come and share in the work of distributing 150,000 pounds of food to more than 9,000 people in 12 months.
If you think I personally am driving all this food around, you're wrong. There are a lot of people that help. If there weren't, there wouldn't be a way to deliver 150,000 pounds of food. If somebody didn't get up and go to the Dorothy Day Center and put out the groceries, our work would be more difficult. And then there's those willing to come back and clean up afterwards. Before anything happens, the food has to be ordered. And then paid for.
There's a back story to delivering 150,000 pounds of food to more than 9,000 people. It involves manual labor, so we know how popular it is. The people who do this are specially graced, though, I am confident of that. If you can help with that back story, talk to Marcus Evans at 740-0697. If you can help with the other back story -- retrieving help messages from our phone and entering the information into a spread sheet -- email me at robert@justpeace.org . One day a month? Two?
If you want to help with the delivery work, just show up.
You can call ahead if you want or must but it is fine to just show up.
I want to emphasize this: you don't need my permission to show up. Or, if you need my permission, I hereby give you my permission to show up.
We do not have the administrative ability to keep track of reservations or schedules. We can barely remember that the Creighton students always come during Spring Break. So we take the "very uncomplicated approach", and it persistently works.
Trust in the Holy Spirit's guidance that we need help and you should come and help us.
We meet at 9 AM at the Dorothy Day Center, 4909 N. State Street in Oklahoma City, which runs along the eastern boundary of St. Charles Borromeo parish. The Dorothy Day Center is the brick building just south of the parish's clinic.
Isn't that a wonderful example that the Catholic Church of St. Charles Borromeo shows for the whole archdiocese? A center for food distribution AND a clinic for low income folks. And a St. Vincent de Paul Conference. And their school. AND a policy against the use of sweat-shop sourced items in parish fundraising activities. Let your light so shine, Jesus said it. St. Charles Parish heard it. That settled it.
There's a lot of other people out there that make this possible. . . OKC First Church of the Nazarene members are there every delivery day. The St. Francis parish youth group has been there for us for years. . . ever since nobody knew about us and what we were doing. (St. Francis is the parish in which we live.) Epiphany Church, its organizations, pastoral staff, and member volunteers and benefactors, does its part. Sisters of Mercy from the hospital are there for us. Many people from labor unions, the Community Forum, Central Oklahoma Labor Council. All of these people heard the same call as St. Charles, and answer it in their own ways.
The only problem with making a list like this is forgetting someone. So let me also say that there are many others, not necessarily affiliated with a group or organization, who themselves come to the Dorothy Day Center to take personal responsibility for feeding the hungry and comforting the afflicted.
There are those who pray regularly for and with us.
Out there in the world, I couldn't even begin to describe the situation as viewed with Catholic Worker eyes. Where there is hatred, let us so love. Where there is conflict, peace. Where there is injustice, let us make it visible.
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.
Many thanks to all and may the God of grace and justice give you the peace which passes human understanding, in the midst of these collapsing ruins of the old.
Bob Waldrop
Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House
1524 NW 21
Oklahoma City, OK 73106
405-613-4688, 405-557-0436 (help line)
We also accept donations via PayPal, go to www.PayPal.com and send money to justpeace@yahoo.com .
Donations to the Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House are not tax deductible. But they will do some good for the least and forgotten of Oklahoma City and make our work go easier.
NCR and the Iraq War.
I guess its bad form to criticize someone just after they've devoted two full pages to a really nice story about one of our projects, the Oklahoma Food Cooperative, but "speaking truth" is one of the foundational axioms of our little Catholic Worker house. And we do that especially to those we love and care for.
Which is why I had to read it twice, to make sure I understood what was being said in the "Petraeus offers dose of reality", September 21, 2007 editorial from the National Catholic Reporter. . . "It is with great reluctance that we would argue against a precipitous withdrawal." But that's what they go on to do. "If a politically motivated Democratic call for immediate withdrawal were heeded, it would bring an end to our military presence in Iraq as misguided as its beginning." They don't address the moral issues but instead focus on the "real-politik" - and their editors speak from the viewpoint and class solidarity of the imperialists. The poor have no say in the matter.
I should not be so astonished.
The idea that moral law applies to the Iraq War is as marginal as it gets these days. It is held only by a few religious, the Catholic Worker movement, Pax Christi, the peace churches, the sectarian left, the libertarians, and Bishops Botean and Gumbleton. The Catholic media and commentariat, and the U.S Bishop's Conference, have all abandoned the truth of the Gospel of life as it applies to war in favor of allegiance to the imperialist cause..
It bears repeating again and again: the Iraq War is not a morally neutral affair. It has an objective moral reality. It is not a "both-and" situation, it is "either-or". It cannot be just and unjust at the same time. By the standards of the Catholic Church, the Iraq War was and is today an unjust war. Willing participation in that war is the moral equivalent of willing participation in an abortion. When we praise, cooperate with, and otherwise support such evil, when we refrain from speaking out against it, we gain some measure of responsibility for it. The evil of which we speak is the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, most of whom have been civilians, and the complete destruction of two nations..
Imperialism is a national delusion of superiority. It is the confidence that others cannot manage their affairs without our assistance. It cloaks tawdry grabs for resources in the language of "freedom". The victims don't matter - they are poor, non-white and therefore by definition, not-quite-human, so it is morally licit for us to kill them to prove our point and secure enough gasoline to keep our SUVs on the road. No one would admit this publicly, but in this situation, our actions speak louder than our words.
Our presence in Iraq daily marginalizes the responsibilities of the Iraqi people for their own situation. I want them to be free and safe, but the only way that that will happen is when they do it for themselves. Have we so quickly forgotten history? The United States gave Saddam chemical warfare technology, money and guns. We encouraged and gave material support for the Iraq-Iran war. We maintained a vicious embargo against the Iraqi civilian economy which killed a million people, half of them children! We invaded their country twice, and caused or contributed to a death toll that now numbers in the hundreds of thousands. Millions are now refugees. If we continue to help the Iraqi people in this way, in just a few years there won't be any more Iraqi people left alive.
Mary promised that the proud, the arrogant, and the rich would be thrown down, scattered, and humbled, and there is no one in the modern world who meets those qualifications better than the United States of America. Empire always ends in death and destruction for the imperials, and that will happen to us too. We are in denial if we think we can escape the consequences of our actions. "Sow not in furrows of injustice, lest you reap a seven-fold harvest."
Wars and Rumors of Wars
The article linked here, Red October, from the secular news source Stratfor.com , is troubling. The gist of the Stratfor analysis below is that Russia is making a move to oust the US from its present influence in the former Soviet Union countries like Georgia, Ukraine, and the Baltic republics. This would be in exchange for Russia not providing the Iranians with air defense and nuclear technology. Today's news also has articles about the French warning the Iranians that war may be coming their way. Stratfor.com of course is a "real-politik" news source. They don't ask or answer moral questions about our policy, they just report and comment. But as part of the "being wise as serpents and harmless as doves", I think we need to keep an eye on what they are saying.
And what they are saying is that we may be moving towards an old-fashioned super-power confrontation, US versus Russia, with Iran as a surrogate battlefield. "The more things change, the more they remain the same." See also "those who do not learn from the mistakes of history are doomed to repeat them."
If nothing else, read with "Catholic Worker" eyes, it seems to me that the American Empire's "last man standing" strategy seems to be moving to a new stage and may expand to include an "air war" in Iran.
I note that the US bishops haven't had much to say about Iran, and they remain fixated on their "responsible transition" newspeak, even though the whole idea of "transition" in the nationalist conversation about Iraq is passe, "last year's news". We are in Iraq to stay, and even if the Democrats sweep the nationalist elections in 2008, I think we will continue to stay until we are forced to leave (either military force or circumstances such as money/resource constraints). The Empire is "all in", as they say down at the Texas hold-em poker tables. Victory or bust.
It would be nice if the Catholic Church could play a heroic role in a movement for peace, but alas, that ain't happenin'.
Even so, we know which side the Lord Jesus Christ and his most blessed Mother are on. . .
Fecit potentiam in brachio suo, dispersit superbos mente cordis sui.
Deposuit potentes de sede et exaltavit humiles.
Esurientes implevit bonis et divites dimisit inanes,
He has shown strength with his arm and has scattered the proud in their conceit,
Casting down the mighty from their thrones and lifting up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.
Note that in this equation, the United States is not the "lowly" nor are we the "hungry". We are the mighty who will be cast down, the conceited proud who will be scattered, and the rich who are sent away empty.
Meanwhile, the price of oil hit another all-time high in trading earlier today, and in England, a major bank run continues that has seen $4 billion withdrawn from one banking institution in only 4 days. There are fears that the crisis of confidence in the banking system could spread.
We've spent over a trillion dollars on the Iraq war, as well as an additional trillion on other "war" expenditures since Sept 11, 2001.
So it comes to pass that the rich are getting richer, and everybody else is getting poorer. But note how the financial press regularly blames the mess on "sub-prime loans" made to lower income people with higher credit risks. We're not supposed to think about the 2 trillion dollars squandered on war and destruction. Nor should we focus on the hundreds of billions we pay for our petroleum gluttony. Everyone is clearly instructed to ignore the man behind the curtain. Where is Toto when we need him?
Well, possessed by the spirit of the intrepid Toto, in England, some bank depositors have decided they don't like the looks of the man behind the curtain and they are in "take the money and run" mode. I am not sure where they can run to with it, but they are certainly moving right along with it. They are being blamed by the "Establishment" for their "irrational fears about the banking system". "How dare you lose faith in one of our Fine Honest Banks!"
A bank run here, a few record high prices for oil over there, and a new "splendid little air war" as icing on the cake. This is what it looks like as a great empire edges towards the ash heap of history.
Please pray for peace on all military and economic battlefields.
Please continue to build new structures among these collapsing ruins of the old. The day is coming when we will desperately need them.
Bob Waldrop, picketing St. Joseph in Oklahoma City
A Dark Day for the Church in the United States
"Again I considered all the oppressions that take place under the sun: the tears of the victims with none to comfort them! From the hand of their oppressors comes violence, and there is none to comfort them! And those now dead, I declared more fortunate in death than are the living to be still alive. And better off than both is the yet unborn, who has not seen the wicked work that is done under the sun. Then I saw that all toil and skillful work is the rivalry of one man for another. This also is vanity and a chase after wind. . . Then I saw all those who are to live and move about under the sun with the heir apparent who will succeed to his place. There is no end to all these people, to all over whom he takes precedence; yet the later generations will not applaud him. This also is vanity and a chase after wind. Guard your step when you go to the house of God. Let your approach be obedience, rather than the fools' offering of sacrifice; for they know not how to keep from doing evil." Ecclesiastes 4:1-4, 15-17
Comes now the news that the Archbishop for Military Services, the Most Reverend Edwin O'Brien, has been appointed as the new Archbishop of Baltimore.
Is this a message from Rome to the Catholic peace movement: "Go to hell"?
O'Brien has been an key supporter of the unjust war on the people of Iraq from the beginning. He criticized Bishop Botean for his courageous statement that participation in the war on the people of Iraq was the moral equivalent of willing participation in an abortion.
As the Archbishop for Military Services, O'Brien preached a gospel of moral laxism and relativism, claiming that we should "trust" our leaders instead of judging the war by the criteria of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He gave tacit ecclesiastical permission for Catholic members of the armed forces to participate in a manifestly unjust war. To this day, he continues to call for a "responsible transition" and thus turns his back on the suffering people of Iraq, condemning them to more death, more suffering, more murder.
In his Memorial Day message this year (2007), Archbishop O'Brien says that "at no time has the Holy See or the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops cast doubt on the motives of our national leadership in the Executive or Congressional branches." This is undoubtedly true, but should we trust the opinions of our bishops on issues of such consequence, given the extent that they themselves have embraced the culture of death? Ask the victims of the clergy sexual abuse crisis about the "judgement" of the U.S. Catholic bishops. Plenty of other people have rightfully questioned the motives of President Bush and the members of Congress who voted for this unjust war. But those pro-life opinions don't count to the Archbishop of Baltimore.
In any event, hundreds of thousands of people are dead. Their blood is upon Archbishop O'Brien and upon all the other bishops who preached a false gospel of moral laxism and relativism and thus gave tacit permission to wage this unjust war. We should remember that unjust war is always and in every circumstance an objective evil.
The Catholic members of the Armed Forces of the United States of America, who are brave and generous in offering their lives in service to their country, deserved better than to be sold down the river with honeyed words of religious deceit from their own archbishop.
Now he has been seated upon the cathedra of the "mother church" of this country.
What a dark and dismal day this is for the Church in the United States.
"The road to hell is paved with the bones of priests and lined with the skulls of bishops." St. John Chrysostom, 4th Century AD
"Meanwhile I saw wicked men approach and enter; and as they left the sacred place, they were praised in the city for what they had done. This also is vanity. Because the sentence against evildoers is not promptly executed, therefore the hearts of men are filled with the desire to commit evil - because the sinner does evil a hundred times and survives. Though indeed I know that it shall be well with those who fear God, for their reverence toward him; and that it shall not be well with the wicked man, and he shall not prolong his shadowy days, for his lack of reverence toward God. This is a vanity which occurs on earth: there are just men treated as though they had done evil and wicked men treated as though they had done justly. This, too, I say is vanity." Ecclesiastes 8:10-14.
The Letter from Osama to the US Bishops
The most charitable thing I can say about this latest little "tilting at the windmills of episcopal indifference" essay of mine ( http://www.justpeace.org/osamatobishops.htm ) is that it is "inflammatory religious and political satire." And by "little" I do mean short, for me, this has to be a record of brevity - 240 words. It is available as an html page, plus I have pdf documents of postcard and flyer versions, so it will be easy for people to copy and print them for distribution or mailing. This follows on the heels of last week's "Letters from Osama", which relate more to energy conservation, and are published at http://www.energyconservationinfo.org/osamaletters.htm .
A Dark Day for Oklahoma
Yesterday the Oklahoma Senate passed HB 1804 - the "Oklahoma Citizens and Taxpayer Protection Act of 2007", which criminalizes the Works of Mercy in the State of Oklahoma when the recipient is an "illegal alien". The bill passed with "veto-proof" majorities in both houses and had strong support from both Democrats and Republicans, thus once again proving the old adage that there isn't a dime's worth of difference between the two major parties.
"A. It shall be unlawful for any person to transport, move, or attempt to transport within the United States any alien knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that the alien has come to, entered, or remained in the United States in violation of law, in furtherance of the illegal presence of the alien in the United States. "
"B. It shall be unlawful for any person to conceal, harbor, or shelter from detection any alien in any place, including any building or means of transportation, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that the alien has come to, entered, or remained in the United States in violation of law."
It's not unusual for me to get a request to give someone a ride - maybe to the hospital, maybe to a doctor's appointment, or to a store. When this law takes effect, that will become a crime if the person is someone the State would call an "illegal alien".
The bill's author, known anti-Catholic bigot Representative Terrill, says it doesn't apply to this kind of "illicit" activity, but the bill doesn't say that. It says "in furtherance of the illegal presence of the alien in the United States" and "in reckless disregard of the fact that the alien has come to, entered, or remained in the United States in violation of law" - these are loopholes big enough to drive a truckload of prosecutors through.
We never ask for ID, and we never will ask for ID, and we will never ever under any circumstances cooperate in any way, shape, manner or form with this wicked, demonic, and evil law - we have said this publicly in the past and we will continue to say this publicly. . . . and that certainly could be construed as "recklessly" disregarding the person's immigration status, and taking someone to the hospital could certainly be construed as "furtherance" of their "illegal presence" in the US of A.
Now that I think about it, I myself am an "illegal alien". I am a citizen of the United States of America, a constitutional republic which protects the rights of citizens to practice their religion. I am obviously not a citizen of whatever government would pass demonic legislation such as this. I guess I should be repatriated, but alas, it seems as though the US of A is no longer in existence, having been replaced by a vicious military empire that uses race to divide and conquer the electorate and thus secure its power and wealth.
I am a native, 4th generation Oklahoman. Oklahoma politics have always had a strong racist theme. Back in the 1920s, there was practically a civil war in this state as the Ku Klux Klan waged a terrorist campaign against Native Americans, African Americans, Catholics, and others it deemed "undesirable". They elected a governor and legislature. Oklahoma fought strongly against the Civil Rights movement. We were as slow as could be to integrate our schools. In revenge for the successes of the Civil Rights movement, Oklahoma City political and economic leaders waged a due process riot against African Americans, and destroyed the historic heart of that community, the Deep Deuce, using "eminent domain" and much bloated rhetoric about "urban renewal" to cover the essentially racist nature of their crusade.
In the 1980s and 1990s, it was no longer possible to be openly racist and get elected, so the targets of our racism were shifted. The demagogues ranted and raved about welfare mothers and trans-generational dependency. It was all dressed up in modern language, but it was the same vicious racism from the same vicious racists (or their kids) of twenty years previously.
Now we have a new scapegoat - "illegal immigrants" - and the white-sheet crowd is howling with joy at their success with criminalizing people by race. The essentially demonic nature of the crusade is self-evident. It makes the Works of Mercy, mandated by Christ in the 25th chapter of the book of Matthew, a crime if the Jesus we seek to help is a foreigner. We should recall his words to those who are condemned to hell - "I was a stranger" - that's XENOS in the original Greek, and it means foreigner - "and YOU DID NOT TAKE ME IN. Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his angels."
Jesus said it, I believe it, that settles it. But the Oklahoma Legislature obviously doesn't. Drunk with power, derelict in their duty, they ignore pressing and important problems and to cover up for their failures and incompetence, they pass laws like this and think they've done their job. They are blind guides leading the blind, and the only place they can lead us is to the ash heap of history.
God help the state of Oklahoma.
Bishops Destroy the Church's Witness to Life
The Catholic Church's doctrine and praxis regarding the "Gospel of Life" is based on the strict and consistent application of moral principles to all aspects of the human condition. In modern terms, the Catholic Church applies the precautionary principle to all life issues. This principle is usually used in debates about environmental issues, and means that in situations where an action or policy is proposed that may cause great harm but the scientific consensus remains in doubt, the burden of proof is on those advocating the action or policy to prove that no harm will result. Incorporating this principle into the life issues debate - we can say that in situations where we maybe aren't sure about life or the proper moral action, we must resolve the question in favor of life and not death. Fr. Emmanuel McCarthy makes this point, at much greater length and with more theological insight, in his essay on Moral Laxism elsewhere in this issue.
And so it comes to pass that the Church makes heavy moral demands on people. The bishops don't hesitate to apply those principles strictly and consistently when it comes to abortion, contraception, and euthanasia. But when it comes to unjust war, strictness and consistency go out the window, and bishops publicly worry about "laying such heavy moral demands on the faithful."
We certainly agree that the Gospel's teachings on life should be strictly construed and consistently applied. Like Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin who went before us, we defend life from the moment of conception to the time of natural death - and also, all points "between". Thus, the inconsistency - the moral laxism - of the bishops regarding the unjust Iraq War is troubling. It is dangerous to the public witness of the Church to life. And it is a very grave scandal. In the debate on Iraq, the Church stands exposed as merely a member of the crowd. Instead of leading the moral debate, the bishops pander to the demands of the American Empire and provide moral comfort for its worst excesses.
It is my belief that the clergy sexual abuse crisis and the bishops' moral laxism regarding Iraq and Afghanistan, share a common foundation - the inability of the U.S. Catholic bishops to see the poor as human persons. The bishops protest that this is an outrageous accusation, and point to their many statements on solidarity and the charitable works of the Church as evidence of their good faith. While it is true that no person can look into their souls, it is certainly possible for us to judge their actions, and by that standard, it is evident that the bishops do not see the poor who are in the way of the American Empire as human persons. They refuse to use their canonical authority to hinder the Empire's war effort. They try to cover that refusal with florid rhetoric about their solidarity with the "brave Iraqi people", but words are a poor comfort for a people who have been slaughtered by the hundreds of thousands by the American Empire over the last two decades. They show little or no obedience to the call of Pope John Paul II to "ecological conversion", and thus they and their dioceses "take more, so that others - that is, the poor - have less."
The bishops are not leading us towards a civilization of life and love. No, like the rest of the American leadership, they urge us ever onwards towards the ash heap of history. Robert Waldrop
February 20, 2007, Fat Tuesday, On Pilgrimage in Canada. . .
I spent the weekend in Pembroke, Canada, at a workshop sponsored by the Marguerite Center http://margueritecentre.com/Welcome.html . The Marguerite Centre is located in the former Motherhouse of the Grey Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, whose foundress was St.Marguerite of Youville, the first Canadian saint to be canonized by Rome. She founded a series of institutions in service to the poor. More information about her life and ministry is online at http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15736c.htm and http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_19901209_youville_en.html where she is called "Mother of the Poor".
Some pictures of the weekend are at http://margueritecentre.com/Blog/Blog.html .
It seems to me that I started talking when I got there on Friday afternoon and didn't stop until the workshop was over Sunday afternoon. A great group of people came together for the event. We started on Friday evening with an overview of the present situation - the "New Horsemen of the Apocalypse", which I identified as resource exhaustion, environmental catastrophes, systemic collapse, and economic irrationality - and the importance of the little way of justice and peace, permaculture, and the acceptance of personal responsibility as ways to counter these threats.
On Saturday morning, we convened in the kitchen, where I taught them how to make Oklahoma-style bacon gravy (with milk), bacon and eggs, and then we made bread dough, enough for the entire weekend's meals. Their baker had made herbed biscuits for us, and they were very tasty with the gravy. The Centre's kitchen was a great facility, and the kitchen staff were wonderful to work with. They accepted our invasion of their territory with great grace and enthusiasm and were very helpful to us.
Our discussions that morning continued to look at permaculture design and how it could be applied to their task at hand, which was developing a more local food system for the Ottawa River valley. Paul Swartzentruber, the centre's director, made us a great lentil soup for lunch and we had the first batch of buns baked from our dough-making earlier that day.
One of the great things about that kitchen is that they have a baker on staff, and thus they make most of their baked goods. Throughout the weekend we had the most marvelous whole-wheat cookies, the best I have ever et, eh. Paul has promised me the recipe for these whole wheat "Motherhouse cookies", and I will pass it along when it arrives, eh.
In the afternoon we began to look at the specifics of the organizing campaign and operations of the Oklahoma Food Cooperative, and that was the focus for the rest of the weekend. Late that evening I did about an hour in the chapel, alternating between playing the piano and discussing the spirituality of the Catholic Worker movement and the little way of justice and peace, and telling something of my own journeys. I believe that Paul is going to make some of these sessions available as podcasts over the internet, and I will pass long word of that too.
I got to meet a couple of long-time subscribers to several of our listservs, Kathleen of Ottawa and Joy of Hamilton, also Ian who is a student in the online permaculture design course that I am taking. It was good to meet and put faces on these people that I have known in cyber-circles.
Saturday evening we prepared a chicken and dressing casserole, along with some wonderful hubbard squash grown in the area and harvested last fall. We baked it, and it was so sweet it didn't need any of the real maple syrup they had on hand. For our Sunday dinner we prepared a glorious prime rib roast, brought by the same farmer, who's herd is free-ranging and forage fed. At each meal we had more of the rolls made from dough made on the first morning. I sometimes keep dough (covered tightly) in the fridge for up to a week, by the end of the week the rolls have a slight sour-dough taste. Throughout the weekend, we connected the intellectual and spiritual concepts we spoke about with our work in the kitchen and the table fellowship we also shared.
We went to mass at the Pembroke Cathedral, and afterwards I got to meet their director of music and play their historic pipe organ.
Monday morning I spoke to about 60 students at the Catholic high school for the area, the school's principle also attended. Paul's wife is a teacher at the school. That afternoon we went back to Ottawa, where we had lunch in a great working-class Lebanese restaurant named Louie's, and then Kathleen and a friend of hers took we around town a bit. We spent about 45 minutes at the Cathedral of Notre Dame, and I did not see everything there was to see there. It is truly a marvelous church. An attendant kindly let us into the organ loft where I got a close-up look at the massive organ, but no one had a key to the organ itself so I will have to go back to Ottawa some time and make arrangements in advance. We had coffee and a donut at a Tim Horton's, which I was assured was a typical Canadian experience. The coffee at the Motherhouse, however, which was certified organic and fair trade, was better. Earlier, on Friday, after I arrived, Paul had taken me to the Green Door vegetarian restarant in Ottawa, which I would certainly assign a "five pork chop" rating except of course that as a vegetarian restaurant it would be inappropriate to award them pork chops. So maybe for them I will create a new food rating, 'five home-grown organic cherry tomatoes", eh.
Besides the Cathedral, we also visited the Shepherds of Good Hope urban ministry, http://www.shepherdsofgoodhope.com/ , which offers a food ministry that feeds about 1500 people a day, and a shelter for 100-200. They have a locally-painted version of the "Christ of the Breadline" painted over one of the entrances.
One of the persons attending the weekend asked me when i thought the US would invade Canada. Having seen a number of Mcdonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants in both Ottawa and Pembroke, my thought was that "the invasion had already begun". However, if they meant the military, that will probably wait until we are almost out of natural gas. When that happens, and that may be sooner than most folks think, Canadians should worry about the US government, driven by US consumers, casting covetous eyes on Canada's oil and gas wealth.
Even though the weekend was busy, for me it had aspects of a retreat, as I got to take a break from my typical day-to-day routine. It was very cold, -25 degrees F on Monday morning. When I stepped outside after taking a shower, my beard froze. Several people said that if I ever get kicked out of the US, I should come to Pembroke or Ottawa, they would offer me asylum. I've already had an email from Kathleen inquiring about when I could come and do some work at her Ottawa parish.
I had the opportunity to meet and visit with some of the Grey Sisters at their retirement home across the street from the Marguerite Centre, and played a few tunes on the piano for them. They have a shrine to St. Marguerite in the entrance way, and I stopped for a few moments of prayer there on my way out. She must have been a powerful and interesting woman to have gone against the tenor of her times and model such uncompromising love for the poor.
"St. Marguerite, Mother of the Poor, pray for us and all the poor in the hour of our grave need."
Here are our recipes for the weekend:
Our dough recipe for the weekend was:
1 cup warm water
1 cup milk
1 cup yogurt
2 tablespoons yeast
½ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup oil
1 egg
2 tablespoons brown sugar
white and whole wheat flour
We put the sugar in the warm water, and sprinkled the yeast on top and waited a few moments for it to bloom. We added everything but the flour and mixed it thoroughly. We added the flour, one cup at a time, mixing after each cup was added, and kneaded it. Then we let it rise. We made three batches of this, dividing the group into three groups, so everybody had a chance to learn how to do this.
Chicken and Dressing Casserole
Dried crumbled bread mixed with sage, thyme, parsley
cooked chicken
diced onions
shredded carrots
chicken broth
flour and milk to thicken the broth
Put a layer of the dried crumbled bread in the bottom of a casserole pan and then layer the carrots, onions, and cooked chicken. Put another layer of dried crumbled bread on top. Heat the broth and thicken it with a mixture of flour and milk (2 tablespoons flour per cup of milk), pour over the casserole until the breadcrumbs are all submerged. Sprinkle some more bread crumbs on top. Cook, uncovered, in a 350 degree oven, for 45 minutes.
January 7, 2007 - The Feast of the Epiphany
And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.
Today at the offertory at Epiphany of the Lord parish in Oklahoma City, my choir sang these words from Handel's Messiah. These words illuminate the mystery of Epiphany, the unveiling of the glory of God. The visit of the Magi. The descent of the Holy Spirit and the voice of God at the Baptism of the Lord. The miracle at Cana. The healing of the blind, the lame, and those possessed with demons. The Transfiguration.
Great stories, immortal, sacred, told from one generation to another. Though we "see through a glass darkly", every so often the glory of the Lord shines so bright that it breaks through the fog and confusion and illuminates all who behold it.
"And there were in the same country shepherds, abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid. The angel said to them, 'Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be for all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."
The narratives we hear at Mass are not all that has been or will be said about this glory.
"Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem! Your light has come, the glory of the LORD shines upon you. See, darkness covers the earth, and thick clouds cover the peoples, but upon you the LORD shines and over you appears his glory. Nations shall walk by your light and kings by your shining radiance. Raise your eyes and look about, they all gather and come to you. Your sons come from afar and your daughters in the arms of their nurses. " From Isaiah 60, the First Reading of Epiphany.
Darkness surely covers the earth in our time. There can be no doubt of that. These days of the death and destruction are not easy to behold or experience. But it is as Gandalf said to Frodo, who wished that he lived in another time. "So do I, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
The shepherds saw the glory of Lord, and they "came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the baby laying in a manger." And when they had seen it, what did they do? "They made known abroad the saying which was told to them concerning this child. All they that heard it wondered at those things which were told to them by the shepherds." As well they might -- why did God gave this manifestation of his glory to poor shepherds? Why didn't he tell the High Priest and the king? Or someone with wealth and credibility?
Well, actually, he did tell some with wealth, but they were foreigners. Maybe they had the proper visa, maybe they didn't. Even so, the Magi saw the glory of the Lord shining as a star in the sky. They followed that glory, and brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Simeon and Anna recognized the holy Child instantly when brought to the Temple - "A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel."
It's easy to become somewhat complacent about these stories. They happened a very long time ago. We don't think this kind of thing happens anymore. Indeed, angels flying through the sky would hardly fit into the modern world. Someone might shoot at them with anti-aircraft missiles. NORAD would certainly sound the alert if squadrons of angels came flying over the borders. In reality, few would admit to seeing something as extraordinary as an angel in full flight, singing "Gloria in excelsis Deo!"
Well, actually, I have a confession to make. I see these angels all the time, and yes, they are in full flight and singing "Gloria in excelsis Deo!" and no, I am not on drugs nor am I drunk. I see them on our Catholic Worker delivery days, when they show up and in an amazing burst of celestial energy, prepare hundreds of bags of groceries to share with the poor. And then they fly them out the door and deliver them personally. Of course, they are disguised as people and they are driving cars, but they don't fool me.
Curiously, they chant the Nicene Creed when they do this. At least it seems that way. The words seem to come alive or something. . . "He came down from heaven, by the power of the Holy Spirit, he was born of the Virgin Mary and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered, died, and was buried. On the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures. . . He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his Kingdom will have no end."
So it comes to pass that I see angels shining with the Glory of God everywhere I go. Random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty. Works of mercy, justice and peace. Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, comforting the afflicted and yes, also afflicting the comfortable. Making injustice visible, protecting the poor and the powerless, speaking truth to power - celebrating life, goodness, beauty, virtue, and joy - practicing peace, non-violence, servant leadership, harmony, community, voluntary cooperation, and the proper stewardship of God's creation. They pray without ceasing and do what they can to ensure fair distribution, subsidiarity, economic opportunity, justice, and food security for everyone everywhere.
Yes, the world is dark and the news is grim. Turn on any television set and you can see the work of demons on a hundred channels, in technicolor and stereo surround sound. It was just as dark 2,000 years ago, but even so the shepherds went and told all what they had seen and heard. The shepherds found hope in the Epiphany of the Lord that came to them so long ago, a light so bright that it illumines us today, 2000 years and more later, and continues to manifest the glory of God in the lives of men and women across the planet.
"And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them, until it came and stopped over the place where the child was. They were overjoyed at seeing that star, and on entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage."
In this year of grace two thousand and seven, let us be shepherds and Magi, Simeon and Anna, Mary and Joseph for all who cross our paths. Let us announce in word and deed that the Messiah indeed has come, and his glory shines for all to see. Let us help those who are blind to this glory to open their eyes so they can see, and open their ears so they can hear, the angelic vision unveiled for all. Where there is darkness, we will bring the glory of the Lord, and all flesh shall indeed see it, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.
July 11, 2006, the Feast of St. Benedict
I have finally finished and published to the internet today my essay, Liturgy and War and the US Catholic Bishops. I have been wrestling with this document for quite some time, but it finally came together over the last week. It is at http://www.justpeace.org/liturgyandwar.htm ..
A New Plot Against the Poor in Oklahoma City.
Wealthy medical corporations are casting covetous eyes on the low income neighborhood south and east of the hospital/medical research complex in northeastern Oklahoma City. Below is a comment I sent today to the officers of the Presbyterian Health Foundation in Oklahoma City, as well as to the politicians responsible for approving this injustice. RMW
To whom it may concern at the Presbyterian Health Foundation in Oklahoma City:
The proposal to destroy the neighborhood around the hospital district in northeast Oklahoma City using eminent domain and TIF funding is the latest "reverse Robin Hood" scheme of the rich and politically well connected to steal from the poor and give to the powerful. The constant destruction of housing by government for a wide variety of economic development schemes leads to higher rents and that causes serious economic problems for low income people, who are already suffering because of high energy costs. Economic stress is a well-documented driver of violence against women and children, drug and alcohol abuse, divorce, crime, and abortion. None of these costs will be accounted for by the medical research corporations that will profit from this expansion at the expense of low income housing, but the externalized costs will nevertheless be paid in full, the price will not be cheap, and it will be paid by the weakest and most vulnerable among us.
We are told that the glorious end of medical research justifies this unsavory means. These poor people that have to get out of the way of the medical research expansion are just, you know, collateral damage. It's sad but somebody has to suffer so that the glorious end of big profits through industrialized corporation medicine can prosper. (Notice how it is always poor people who are the collateral damage in these economic development schemes, it is never the wealthy and the prosperous.) In any event, rich white doctors and their medical corporations have a long history of stealing land from the poor (and from African Americans in particular) in Oklahoma City, so we shouldn't be surprised that the best idea they could come up with involved destroying even more low income housing.
Some people believe that economic development trumps all considerations of morality, but if that is true, perhaps we should legalize child prostitution and promote Oklahoma City as the pedophile tour capital of the world! That is a shocking and scandalous thought, but there is no moral difference between promoting sex "for economic development purposes" and destroying the neighborhoods of low income people "for economic development purposes". Both actions are morally wrong, but we destroy low income neighborhoods all the time and don''t even think twice about the consequences. That moral carelessness is a measure of the demonic strength of the culture of death here in central Oklahoma.
The Martyrdom of Romero
The Oscar Romero Catholic Worker Community Opposes the Wicked Immigration Laws!
In recent months, laws have been introduced into the United States Congress and the Oklahoma Legislature that would treat immigrants and refugees with great harshness and cruelty. These laws would make it a crime to offer help to the poor if they are not legal residents.
The Oscar Romero Catholic Worker community condemns these laws. We call upon all people of goodwill to stand together in solidarity against these wicked and evil laws that are based in racism and hatred of other cultures. We encourage everybody to contact their representatives in Congress and the Oklahoma Legislature to show their opposition.
We welcome the migrant and the refugee to our city and state. Our city and state will be better places to live if we offer hope and hospitality to immigrants.
If these laws are passed by Congress and the Legislature, we will meet this culture of death evil with civil disobedience. We will continue to offer hospitality and help to immigrants, even if this becomes a crime. There is no moral obligation to obey an evil and wicked law. There is nothing in the Bible that commands us to obey the government when the government does evil. We will not damn our souls to hell to satisfy corrupt politicians. We will continue to feed the hungry at every opportunity we find. We will never ask anyone to prove that they are a legal resident before offering them help and hope.
We warn all who support these wicked and evil laws that the condemnation of God is upon people who oppress and persecute the poor. Their sins against the poor may send them to hell if they do not repent and seek God's forgiveness for the evil they work at the highest levels of government.
We call upon all the saints of social justice, in particular Our Lady of Guadalupe, Saint Dorothy Day of New York, Saint Peter Maurin of New York, and Saint Oscar Romero of El Salvador, to witness this evil and to stand with us in opposition. Give us strength to resist Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Bob Waldrop, Sean Kay, Susan Lee, Marcus and Tresa Evans, Lance and Ashley Schmitz
Senator Tom Coburn
172 Russell Senate Office Building
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
Fax: 202-224-6008
100 North Broadway Suite 1820
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73102
405-231-5051
Dear Senator Coburn:
I read with utter horror this morning in the Daily Oklahoman that you had put a procedural hold on the emergency appropriation of funds to assist low income people with high heating bills.
Your spokesperson seemed to think this was not a big deal and that these funds were an appropriate target for the point you wish to make.
With all due respect, Senator, you are not qualified to judge how badly low income people need this assistance money. You are a wealthy man. You have no worries about paying your winter heating bills.
We deliver food to people in need who don't have transportation to get to a regular food bank. We make such deliveries to thousands of people every year in the Oklahoma City area. We know many people are having troubles paying their utility bills this winter. Sure, it has been milder than expected, but the price of energy has been much higher than expected.
Many people who are not low income have this idea that there is a lot of money out there from private charities to help poor people pay their utility bills. Well, that is nothing more than a fantasy. There isn't anywhere near enough money in the private and religious charities of Oklahoma to make up the present shortfall. By delaying these government funds, you are doing nothing but making the lives of low income people more miserable and more harsh and there are no good outcomes that come from such political cruelty.
It is a demonic evil to play these kinds of political games with the lives of poor people. Are you not aware that one of the primary drivers of abortion decisions is the economic desperation of the mother? By putting this additional economic stress on low income households in Oklahoma City, you are encouraging abortion just as surely as if you were out there advertising the locations of abortuaries and giving women rides to the nearest "clinic" for the "procedure".
The question you must answer is this: How many Oklahoma children are you willing to kill by abortion in order to make this political point? You are the one grinding the faces of the poor into the dust by delaying these funds. Their blood is upon your head.
On behalf of the people we serve, I beg you for mercy. And I expect that based on God's Word, you yourself will one day be judged with the judgement you judge these poor people. "Those who shut their ears to the cry of the poor will themselves also call and not be heard." (Proverbs 21, 13)
The Bible clearly teaches that the rich who oppress the poor are going to hell. If you don't believe this, read the 25th chapter of the book of Matthew.
" Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.' Then they will answer and say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?' Jesus will answer them, 'Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.' And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life." (Matthew 25)
Your brother in Christ,
Bob Waldrop
Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House
I am about to do a very un-Catholic Worker-ish thing. I am going to run for Mayor of Oklahoma City this year. I will file tomorrow (January 30th). Well, I say this is an "un-Catholic Workerish" thing to do, but I don't know that for sure. Dorothy Day did not leave a "Rule" behind for Catholic Workers to follow. She was a personalist, and I think of myself as that too, but politics is also an inescapable fact of modern life. I doubt pretty seriously that I will actually be elected, but by filing I will have an opportunity to "speak truth to power" in a very public way about important issues like social justice and environmental stewardship.. I have a campaign website at http://www.bobwaldrop.net , which has my platform. Municipal elections in Oklahoma are non-partisan, so I am not running on any party's ticket.
As it so happens, January 30th is the feast day of St. Adelelmus, who lived during the 11th century in France. He was a soldier who became a Benedictine monk, and later an abbot. The story is told that one dark and stormy night, he and another monk were on a journey. It was so dark and stormy that they could hardly see their way through the rain. So St. Adelelmus ordered the other monk to light a candle. And behold, not only were they able to light the candle in the pouring rain, but it stayed lit throughout the rest of their journey until they arrived to safety. I pray that my candidacy for mayor of Oklahoma City will be a small but bright candle that will give light in the darkness of modern politics.
And then of course there is the official patron of politicians, St. Thomas More, who was beheaded in the Tower of London because of his refusal to agree to the divorce of the infamous King Henry VIII and to the establishment of the King as head of the church in England. I pray that I will always follow his example and never sacrifice truth for the sake of expediency.
January 2, 2006
I have linked this page to an international blog finder. Never know who might wander in as a result.
Technorati ProfileThanksgiving on NW 21st Street. . .
Cooking the traditional Thanksgiving dinner was a little more complicated than usual this year, being as how our kitchen is still in disarray from our Extreme Green Makeover adventures, and in particular, we are very limited on electrical power and have no stove. At the beginning of those adventures last August the kitchen was packed in a hurry and much of it remains in boxes carefully hidden where I can't find them. But even so we managed turkey with all the trimmings - dressing, hot rolls, pumpkin pie, cooked greens, deviled eggs, cream cheese rollups, mashed potatoes and gravy. Since we had no stove, to prepare our feast we used small electrical appliances: hot plate, skillet, pan roaster, and convection toaster oven. The pan roaster was one of those old fashioned roasters you find in thrift stores. The convection toaster oven was big enough to cook one pie, or a tray of 16 rolls, at a time. The cooking process proceeded through the day assisted by several cups of mulled wine (equal parts wine and apple juice, a dollop of honey, and cinnamon sticks, whole cloves and allspice berries, simmered over a low heat for at least an hour before serving).
I started yesterday by baking the pumpkin (you didn't think we would use canned pumpkin, did you?), making the biscuits for the sage dressing, and boiling the eggs for the deviled egg delights. We got several pie pumpkins from McLemore Farms in October, and they are keeping nicely in a box on the porch lo these many weeks later. One pie pumpkin equals about 3 cups pureed pumpkin which makes 2 ten inch pies (your mileage may vary, depending on your pumpkin). You cut it in half, scoop out the seeds (saving them for roasting later of course) and then cut it in slices. I baked mine at 350 degrees for about an hour in the little convection oven, you want it cooked to the point where it is soft, ovens vary, and a convection oven tends to cook faster than a regular oven. Cut off the rind (it pretty much peels off if the pumpkin is cooked enough) and then use the mixer or a food processor to puree it. Actually, I primarily used a pastry cutter, and then gave it a final finish with the mixer. Add the fresh pumpkin in place of any typical pumpkin pie recipe for two pies.
This Thanksgiving was special in that I finally "after all these years" hit a home run with the pie crust. Long-time readers of my Thanksgiving columns will remember that I have often lamented my inability to make a good pie crust. However, I trusted my grandmother's advice ("Bobby Max, the reason you can't make a good pie crust is because you haven't made enough pies"), and kept at it. Finding "Dorothy's Never Fail Pie Crust" recipe helped, but still my pie crusts lacked that perfect flakiness that my grandmothers' pie crusts possessed. (See http://www.bettertimesinfo.org/2004index.htm for that recipe, on the page for pies, cakes, and desserts.)
Someone sent me a note a year or so ago recommending that I try lard, as that is likely what my grandmothers' used, at least in their early years of baking. Well, that was interesting advice but there was a bit of a problem in that all the lard in the stores reads "hydrogenated", and I am not fond of that, not to mention the fact that lard comes from pigs raised in Confined Animal Feeding Operations and I have made it a point for several years now to avoid CAFO products as much as possible. The pigs we've been getting from Bud Feland of 5F Farms are so lean there isn't much fat left for making lard after the sausage is mixed. After I bemoaned that fact in public, David and Michelle Worley of Paradise Valley Organic Farm out in Adair County took pity on this poor benighted soul stuck in the middle of Oklahoma City without any decent lard to make a pie crust, and sent me a whole pail of lard from the pigs raised on their certified organic farm. It arrived in late August, which isn't really a pie-making time and I didn't have a stove anyway (we had just started the Extreme Green Makeover), so today was my first time to make pie crust with lard and thus it came to pass that Bobby Max finally made a decent pie crust worthy to serve to company. (I had to sample both pies of course to make sure the first one wasn't just a fluke.)
As usual, Sean was in charge of making deviled eggs and cream cheese rollups. First thing this morning he roasted some garlic, and used that plus some of our infamous habanero salsa to make the rollups, also making some with chopped green olives. Some of the roasted garlic also ended up in the deviled eggs. If the Oklahoma Food Cooperative ever opens a store with a certified kitchen, Sean should sell deviled eggs. The eggs were from Charles Horn Organic Farm in Cordell. The rolls were half white flour and half certified organic whole wheat flour from Springhill Farms in Kiowa county. Gravy was made with drippings from the turkey, and also I simmered the gizzard, heart, and neck all day in a crock pot to make a flavorful broth for gravy. The dogs got those treats when the simmering was done and we got great gravy makings.
The turkey came from Walters Hatchery, also in Adair County, via the Oklahoma Food Cooperative and at 17 pounds it was almost too big for the pan roaster. I was thinking "oops", but managed to get the lid to close. I sauteed celery, onions, garlic, sage, rosemary, parsley, and thyme and mixed that with crumbled biscuits and stuffed the turkey with it.
We had no fresh green beans, only canned, so we decided to skip the green bean casserole in favor of cooked greens from our garden. The chard is still doing great, growing new leaves faster than I can pick them. I cooked it with sliced onions, garlic, rosemary, sage, oregano, and chipotle peppers, and used a bit of buffalo stock from the freezer. Oven time was also an issue in that decision, as the convection oven was big enough for one pie, or one tray of rolls, at a time. Usually getting towards the end of the cooking for Thanksgiving Day our oven is stuffed with a trays of dressing, green bean casserole, and hot rolls, but today called for a different way of bringing things together at the right time.
Speaking of chipotle peppers, we got a great last harvest of hot peppers just before our first freeze, lots of beautiful bright red jalapeno and scotch bonnet peppers and a few cayennes (our cayennes this year were not very hot, must do better next year). So we have been working our clay pot smoker overtime to turn them into flavorful chipotle peppers. We had the smoker going all day today. It's amazing to me how much flavor and character (not to mention heat) one of these little chipotle scotch bonnet peppers can add to a dish of food. Here again we find a simple, traditional peasant food, that rivals the best haute cuisine.
At first I thought this feast preparing was going to be a hassle, I had never attempted Thanksgiving dinner without a stove, but it was actually surprisingly easy once I had thought about it a bit and did some planning. Note that this is a good idea in general whenever you are preparing a big feast -- make a list of everything that needs to be done and then stage your process, taking into account the ingredients and tools you have available.
One of the criticisms of "slow food for the poor" is that the poor often lack stoves. Thus, bringing today's Thanksgiving dinner to the table without using a stove shows what can be done even with limited cooking facilities, and suggests ideas for building capacities in households and communities where people are in need of assistance. It shows how we can do more with less. The connection between cooking meals with basic ingredients, obtained from local producers, and social justice may not be clear to everyone, but there is no doubt in our minds that this is one of the basic aspects of the little way of justice and peace we aim to follow. If those who have more would take less, there would be more available for others who have less.
Early this morning I built a small fire in the wood burning stove with two logs and some bark, this heated up two kettles of water, so we had hot or warm water to wash dishes with all morning, and long after the fire died there was residual heat from the stove and the brick hearth that helped the dough for the rolls to rise. And yes, scraps from the cooking process were collected all day and have already gone to the compost piles. Waste not, want not. Nothing should go to waste in the kitchen, if not eaten by the humans or the animals, then all food waste should go to compost piles or worm bins. God did not create the bounty of the earth to be wrapped up in black plastic and buried deep in the ground. There is a natural process established by God whereby organic materials are recycled -- from death comes life, over and over. The presently popular madness and delusion of crowds that wraps useful organic materials in black plastic and buries them in land fills is contrary to God's will for Creation. It is an artifact of cultural arrogance and ignorance that feeds the culture of death and its demonic desire to frustrate God's will in every way possible.
There wasn't much sun today to fill our sunspace with extra BTUs, but the cooking produced enough heat to keep the house warm now into the night. We really like our superinsulated walls, and know that things will be even better when the electricians complete their work and we can finish insulating the attic. As near as I can tell, the official local recommendations for wall insulation are based on how much insulation you can get into a standard 2 x 4 wall. Additional insulation for attics is justified with the phrase, "heat rises". Heat does rise, but heat will move in all directions where there is cold. So if R-whatever is recommended for attics, it is good for walls too. For retrofits of existing housing, most people would have to do as we did and put up a new interior frame 5.5" inside of the existing exterior walls, to create a second wall cavity for insulation. (We are using cellulose.)
Another thing that's helped is extensive caulking and using foam to seal off air leaks. We thought we were in good shape with that, we've been using caulk for several years, but since beginning this Extreme Green Makeover we have used 3 cases of caulk (30 tubes per case) and a dozen cans of foam. We'll use another four cans of foam before we finish the attic. We hadn't done any attic caulking, and after reading up on the subject, I realized our seemingly solid ceiling was actually a sieve leaking heat upwards through all kinds of places that I hadn't even thought about. A good resource is Insulate and Weatherize, by Bruce Harley, part of the Build it Like a Pro series from Taunton Press, possibly available at your local library, http://www.taunton.com/store/pages/070649.asp or by inter-library loan.)
Thus it comes to pass that we haven't used one BTU of natural gas or electricity for heat this year thus far and we don't anticipate using any for the rest of the winter. In fact, we don't have natural gas service anymore, and even though we are cooking with electricity, our most recent electrical bill was the smallest kilowatt hour usage since we came to this place. Long time readers of my columns will know how I feel about Oklahoma Natural Gas company, newcomers can check out these pages at Justpeace: http://www.justpeace.org/ongletters.htm and http://www.justpeace.org/ongupdate.htm . So I am very thankful tonight that I was able to tell them "good riddance and come get your meter".
We have many things to be thankful for here at NW 21st and McKinley, but that can't be said for everybody tonight, and so that has to put a certain coloration on the emotions of the day for all who love justice and strive to practice mercy. I bet the thousands of GM workers who are losing their jobs are having a more somber holiday. And then there are the hundreds of millions of people out there who will go to bed hungry tonight; there are too many throughout the world who are at risk of war and violence. Before morning comes they may be forced to drink of a bitter and sorrowful cup.
Last Sunday, Fr. Bird at Epiphany Church asked us to remember the song from the musical Camelot, "I wonder what the king is doing tonight." He said, I'll tell you what the King is doing tonight, he is dying of starvation in the Sudan. He is wandering homeless and hungry and experiencing abuse and abandonment. He is born under a viaduct, with a chill wind blowing, and lays his head to rest on a mattress of newspapers and trash bags. He is an illegal immigrant being cheated of his wages and a factory worker who has just lost his job. He is the one who comes to us in distressing disguises, and at inconvenient times.
As I write this, I am struck by the word "inconvenient", because it is so true. There is never a convenient time for the poor to come before us and claim our help and mercy and justice. We are all busy, we are all doing stuff that is important to us, and very few of us write in on our day planners "Help a poor person at 3 PM". So any time the poor come to us, it forces us to break from our normal daily bidness. And if we don't break from our normal daily bidness to hear the cry of the poor, then we are in danger of becoming like Pharaoh of old -- men and women with hard, stone cold hearts and ears that are deaf to anything other than the special pleadings and sour singings of those who feed our lusts and gluttonies and greeds. From this grave evil, good Lord deliver us we pray.
Jesus calls us for help all the time, and one thing I am grateful for is all of the work, energy, creativity, and resources that came together this month to answer His holy call for help. Between St. Charles parish and Catholic Worker volunteers this month, a total of 16,795 pounds of food was delivered to 397 households, serving 1229 people (697 adults, 532 children). This brings the total amount of food delivered in this year of grace 2005 to 81,837 pounds, 2638 deliveries involving 6,384 people(4015 adults, 2369 children).
May God bless us this night with a full and complete thanksgiving that flows from hearts that are open and anxious to hear the cry of the poor and then to respond with mercy and a willingness to walk the little way of justice and peace into the future, whatever it may bring.
Robert Waldrop
Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House in Oklahoma City
PS . Here's some Catholic trivia. Thanksgiving is often associated with the rather stern Protestant Pilgrims of Massachusetts. But actually, the first Thanksgiving in the Americas predates the Pilgrims by 55 years, and it was a Catholic feast, in St. Augustine. Following a Mass of Thanksgiving, a communal meal was shared between the Spanish and the Native Americans of the area. The menu that day likely included cocido,a stew made from salted pork and garbanzo beans laced with garlic seasoning, hard sea biscuits, and red wine. wild turkey, venison, gopher-tortoise, mullet, corn, beans, and squash.
November 22, 2005
A MESSAGE TO GM WORKERS FROM THE OKLAHOMA CITY CATHOLIC
WORKERS
We at the Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House share in solidarity the grief and concern y'all are experiencing now because of the announced shut-down of the General Motors plant where your members work. We promise to do whatever we can to help you in this time of economic catastrophe.
Grave times should be met with nothing less than boldness and courage in the face of adversity. When I read the newspaper, I see politicians and business leaders talk about enticing another industry to come here and take over the GM plant. We Catholic Workers wish to say to you that we think a better idea would be for the workers at the GM plant to organize a worker-owned cooperative to take over the plant and manufacture a new line of fuel efficient vehicles designed to meet the realities of the 21st century marketplace.
There can be no doubt that considerable assistance in such an endeavor would be forthcoming from local and state government, and you can count on the solidarity and assistance of the people of Oklahoma too. Bonds to provide financing could be sold directly to the public. There could be a variable interest rate on the bonds depending on the financial performance of the cooperative. Tax concessions would likely be forthcoming from government and maybe even some actual cash to help buy the plant. Oklahoma City has provided capital and benefits for many other industries that opened or relocated here. The workers would be more secure in their jobs -- worker-owned jobs are not exported to foreign countries. A strong negotiating team may be able to get the plant from GM under very favorable terms.
In Europe, there is considerable precedent for worker-owned cooperatives operating large industrial enterprises. The Mondragon cooperatives of Spain have tens of thousands of worker owners in more than 100 different enterprises, doing everything from manufacturing heavy industrial machinery to selling newspapers in street kiosks. Since the world-wide cooperative movement believes in and practices solidarity, you could expect considerable technical expertise from European sources in the organization phase.
The labor movement in this country went through hell to build a more secure economic future for American workers. Now is the time for a logical next step in that on-going crusade for workers' rights -- actual ownership of the enterprise by the workers.
Please consider this as a bold step to preserve your members' economic future. You can count on us for support, I am also president of the Oklahoma Food Cooperative, and am more than willing and able to help you connect with the world-wide cooperative movement for assistance and technical advice. We are members of the National Cooperative Business Association, and they have programs to help workers organize cooperatives. In this time of need, you do not stand alone.
Be assured also of our constant and continuous prayers for your members and their families.
Your brother in solidarity,
Robert Waldrop
Founder, Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House
St. Joseph, Ora pro nobis!
www.justpeace.org
405-613-4688
A PRAYER TO ST. JOSEPH THE WORKER ON BEHALF OF THE GENERAL MOTORS EMPLOYEES AND THEIR FAMILIES
St. Joseph,
Patron of Workers,
Guardian of Justice,
Comfort of the Afflicted,
Deserted lies the city, once so full of people,
We cry out in grief at the desolation of this house,
Our hearts are filled with sorrow and worry,
Remember what has happened to us,
Look, and see our despair.
As you protected Mary and the baby Jesus,
Stand by us in solidarity at this time of our grave need.
Show us the way to protect and provide for our families this day.
Give us strength to face this uncertain future.
We ask this prayer through the infinite mercy of the eternal Son of God,
Who took our nature upon himself and was born into this world of sorrow. Amen.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Help the helpless,
Strengthen the fearful,
Comfort the sorrowful,
Bring justice to the poor and peace to all nations.
O Christ our God, Lord of Glory,
Who gave us joy and blessing from your Mother's womb,
Have mercy on us and save us.
The Extreme Green Makeover of the Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House
August 22, 2005
If you are wondering why there has been so little email from us lately, well, we have embarked on an "extreme green makeover" of our house. Roof, electricity, plumbing, doors, windows, insulation, chimney, kitchen, plus converting our utility room into a passive solar sunspace/heat collector/greenhouse and putting a solar hot water heater on the roof. And also a series of minor repairs (tuckpointing some brick where the mortar is deteriorating, closing up the drafty holes where the floor furnaces used to be, installing soffit vents under the eaves to help ventilate the attic, and doing a bit of repair to those eaves).
Right now everything is pretty much a wreck. We moved a lot of stuff out into the food pantry house next door, gutted the kitchen, I can hardly find anything (I am washing the same 3 shirts and 1 pair of pants and 1 pair of shorts every couple of days because the rest of the clothes are buried somewhere. Hopefully I'll find them when we're finished. Fortunately, washing them is easy because I picked up a "Wonder Clean" hand washer, which does a really good job.
We are doing a lot of work ourselves, Marcus and friends are doing the roof, we've had to look for contractors for re-wiring, the chimney, the windows, and the plumbing. A good friend Tom Temple is helping design the solar sunspace. The utility room has a 120 sq ft wall that faces south and gets good sun in the winter, but is nicely shaded in the summer. We will be putting about 106 sq ft (at least) of glass into that wall, Tom who does this sort of thing for a living is making sure we don't collapse the south end of the house as part of the project. Another solar designer, who lives in Colorado, has calculated that with our size house, our climate, and the amount of insulation we are installing, we should be able to get most of our winter heat from the sun with at least 106 sq ft of windows. It will be a bit of an experiment as it is one thing to have the heat in the sunspace and another thing to move it through the house. We figure we will need to put some vents in at various places, but we will see how that develops as winter comes on.
Plumbing includes re-doing the bathrooms -- one of the things people always complain about here are how scary our bathrooms are. Hehehe, well, wait until we install a COMPOSTING TOILET!!!!!!!!! Actually, one bathroom does have a big hole in the floor. So we're replacing that floor. That's the bathroom that will get the composting toilet. To keep the code folks happy we will put a flush toilet in the other bathroom.
Regarding insulation, we are installing about R-33 in the walls and R 50 in the attic. To get that much insulation in the walls has required that we build a new frame around the inside of the exterior walls. We will fill the cavities in the existing walls with cellulose insulation, then put up sheetrock and fill the new cavities.
Right now we are waiting for the electricians to finish doing their thing. Our wiring is original to our 1929 era house, and we are glad to be able to update it. Sean has finished building the new interior frame, so they are installing the new wiring to that. We've put in four new doors, nicely weatherstripped and sealed. One can of foam per door frame, generally, to seal all the air leaks. Tomorrow we are going to put on storm doors (they have screens and the glass opens, so we can use the doors as ventilation openings in the summer, since we don't use air conditioning, ventilation is really important) and if it isn't raining we'll do the soffit vents. We've already done most of the repair to the eaves. The windows are supposed to be here later this month, the plumber is coming tomorrow to look at everything and develop a plan. I found a great deal on a used solar water heater, it is sitting out back waiting for the roof to get finished. The roof should be done next week. The new chimney liner has been installed, so we can use our wood stove for backup heat. The contractor extended the height of the chimney by leaving a couple of extra feet of liner up top, we need to brick around it (we'll use brick we remove from the utility room/sunspace wall for that). We are also thinking about using the rest of the brick on the floor in the kitchen.
We've got a door roughed out between the kitchen and the new utility room (a former bedroom turned storage space), figured out where to move the stove in the kitchen (our kitchen used to be two kitchens in this duplex, and the stove was right in the middle which was where the natural gas pipeline was), and where to put the refrigerator. Our refrigerator, btw, will be as unconventional as everything else around here. We are converting a chest freezer to run as a refrigerator, using an external thermostat with a sensor wire that runs into the chest to keep the unit at refrigerator temps rather than freezer temps. This creates a super efficient refrigerator at a fraction of the cost of new super efficient fridges.
We have intensely studied the issue of retrofitting older existing dwellings to be more energy efficient for going on five years now and have discussed ideas endlessly in many online forums. Many many people have contributed ideas and expertise and it will be interesting to see how all this works together. One little spinoff is that we seem to have come up with a design for a low thermal mass passive solar heater that can be made out of rolls of plastic, 2 x 4 lumber, and shade cloth, it could be installed on a southern exposure of any dwelling, as long as it encloses a window or a door that can open and let the heat into the house. As if there weren't enough things to do around here, I am thinking we should start a project to build some of these for people this fall, also of course write up the instructions on how to do it and publish it extensively, both online and here at home. It really is as simple as building a box out of 2 x 4s and enclosing it with rolls of plastic, and then hanging the dark colored shade cloth close to the house wall. In this climate, depending on the size we are able to make these, people can get a useful amount of heat out of it, and with the prices we are expecting for natural gas this winter, the poor will need all the extra heat they can get.
Which leads me to some thoughts about why we are doing this project. We have prayed a lot to St. Joseph about this, and over the last year the importance of completing all the "grand plans" has weighed increasingly heavy on me, so much so that I actually went out and borrowed money to do this. Even though we are doing a lot of work ourselves, and have tried to scrounge materials wherever possible, and have s