Thursday, June 20
Today was the final day of our seminar
at the General Board of Church and Society. We spent most of the
morning preparing for our congressional visits. Then we headed off
to meet with Rep. Adrian Smith. Rep. Smith took time between votes
to meet with the group and answer our questions about various social
justice issues. Next we met with a staffer from Sen. Deb Fischer’s
office. Unfortunately, she was not able to address most of our
questions, as they weren’t in her area of expertise. Even so, we
learned the importance of voicing our concerns and opinions and how
to do so in the most effective manner.
We spent the afternoon debriefing on
the week. A poet, Quique Aviles, helped us write our reflections on
the week. It was a powerful and moving experience. We ended the
seminar with goal setting: How would we take back and continue on
with all that we learned this week?
In the evening, we ventured back out to
see the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, the Franklin Delano
Roosevelt Memorial, and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. As I read the
quotes at each memorial, what most stood out to me was that all of
these great men stood up for justice. They did not put restrictions
on who deserved justice. There is no “IF” – if you are the
right religion, if you speak the right language, if you are the right
color. They encompassed Micah 6:8. “He has shown you, O mortal,
what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?
To act
justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
I have the audacity to believe that
peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies,
education and culture for their minds, equality, and freedom for
their spirits. – MLK Memorial
In these days of difficulty, we
Americans everywhere must and shall choose the path of social
justice… the path of faith, the path of hope, and the path of love
toward our fellow man. – FDR Memorial
We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed
by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these
are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. – Jefferson
Memorial
<>< Micole Harms-Brazell
Micah Corps Shepherdess
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