Tuesday, July 11, 2023


It’s going to be a very, very warm day here in the East but not as hot as it will be in the Southwest where migrants, in spite of new programs to stop the drift of people trying to cross the desert, will probably still try to cross into the fabled land of possibility. And although groups like No More Deaths put out water, people will still die from the heat.

 

Across the southern border, migrants die one by one, not like the enormous loss of life from rickety boats and small trawlers trying to cross the Mediterranean. What kind of lives are people fleeing from in Africa that they would think they could cross a sea? it must be dreadful beyond belief.

 

The desperation that anyone has to risk one’s life is really beyond the comprehension of most of us.  We figure there must be another way, but the fear of starvation or murder is a driving force, to be sure. We keep thinking there must be a better way to deal with the grinding poverty and terror of gangs that drive people to take such desperate measures; in the meantime, jugs of water can save some.

 

Prayer for the Day

 

Healing God, you know our inmost thoughts and fears,
    As we create boundaries to shield ourselves from others;
Push us beyond the security of the center into the margins;
    So we see beyond our familiar blindness into the light.
Grant that we look outward without fear of losing what we have
      Rather than inward lacking the courage to share our wealth.
In the name of the One who has no boundaries,
      Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.

 

Thoughts for the Day

 

Poverty ennobles no one; it brutalizes common people and makes them hungry and old.       

      - Luis Alberto Urrea, Across the Wire: Life and Hard Times on the Mexican Border

 

There is a significant moral difference between a person who commits a violent crime and a person who tries to cross a border illegally in order to put food on the family table. Such migrants may violate our laws against illicit entry, but if that's all they do they are trespassers, not criminals. They deserve to have their dignity respected.
      - Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of State (1937-2022)

 

When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them.
   The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born.
Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.
   I am the Lord your God.
    Leviticus 19: 33-34