On the drive back from San Antonio, the conversation took many twists and turns--from the software demo we'd seen to solving problems on campus to the conditions in the colonias where a number of Pan Am students live.
My supervisor said that the house where our two work study students live didn't have doors, windows, indoor plumbing or electricity when she first met their family fifteen years ago. They still don't have heat or air conditioning and many dwellings in their neighborhood are still without services or amenities most of us take for granted.
I have a hard time wrapping my head around this.
My supervisor's church group adopted the colonia where our work study students live and she talked about the service projects they did. Parties for all the kids who graduated high school. Christmas presents every year for every kid enrolled in school from kindergarten to college. Groups from the church would work on various homes in the neighborhood doing wiring, putting in plumbing, roofing, siding, windows, etc.
Last weekend, I spoke with some people whose church also organizes work groups to send to colonias around the Valley. I'm planning on going along on a construction trip for a Valley Girl column.
A few weeks ago at General Conference, the new RS president exhorted LDS women to be the BEST at things like keeping house. Makes me wonder, why aren't we as a church the BEST at addressing social issues, peace and justice, environmental issues, hunger or poverty?
I've never heard anyone in my ward or stake mention colonias. Our big ward service project was for one of our own and the project made a major difference in her life. But when we have neighbors who have dirt floors and don't have ELECTRICITY, AC or heat in this beastly climate, shouldn't we be doing something MORE?
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5 comments:
If you have any of your limited time and resources left after you've missionary hair-cutted your perfectly business-suited, white-ironed-shirted little boy, and your curled, be-ribboned, ironed-dressed little girl, and made your own home into a Heaven on Earth (including, presumably, having BEST ever Mormon missionary-style sex with the hubby so he won't be deprived of your limited time and resources), then yeah, you could, like, bake some BEST Mormon Homemaker cookies and take them to those poor people, who, as you know, aren't best at anything. Or even Mormon. But it's totally not a priority or anything.
That talk was a pretty useless piece of crap. Just sayin. Also, it might have rankled me a wee bit. With all apologies to my lovely, lovely friends, who don't hold my rants against me. Thank goodness.
Grr.
Wow, run-on sentence of the year from the angry woman in comment #1. If she still went to church, she'd have better (or BEST!) grammar.
Thanks to #2, I'm turning off anonymous comments. I'm not interested in having anonymous people scold my friends. You can do that someplace else.
ME: There's actually a group of progressive Mormons that have banded together out here to start addressing issues like the one you wrote about here. They believe that to be truly faithful Mormons and Christians, you have to live a life that exemplifies what Christ really taught: to serve the poor, treat the earth and its resources responsibly, speak out against the war, etc. I'll see if I can find an email from them and will forward it to you. Also, Peggy Fletcher Stack mentioned "fringe" groups in a recent article. I just sent a link to Peter Ashcroft. I'll send it to you, as well.
P.S. (It's just possible that second, seemingly anonymous comment was actually Di being self-deprecating, but I could be wrong. If it isn't, then same on the idiot who left it.)
D'oh, it was me. I thought it behooved me to mock myself a bit, since I got a wee bit soapboxy.
Ahem.
:-)
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