Can one survive on minimum wage?

McDonald's CEO, Donald Thompson, ought to try living for a month on the budget that his company proposes for its employees.  (Hopefully he lives in a very warm climate because zero dollars are budgeted for heat.)

CLICK HERE to read the article by Robyn Pennacchia :  "McDonald's suggested budget for employees shows just how impossible it is to get by on minimum wage"

CLICK HERE to read the article by Laura Clawson in Daily Kos Labor:  "New York City  fast food workers kick off seven-city week of walkouts"

DRONES: What are drones doing to us?

What kind of people are we becoming by using armed drones??

an armed drone

While much has been written on the legality, morality, and effects of the U.S. armed drone program, little attention has been given to its effects on us. 

Eli S. McCarthy, a professor at Georgetown University, Director of Justice and Peace for the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, and a member of Pax Christi Metro DC-Baltimore, has written an insightful article on this topic.

CLICK HERE to read McCarthy's article: What are drones doing to us?

Prayers for an end to drone warfare and to the violence in our hearts and in our world

Pax Christi Metro D.C.-Baltimore has published a statement calling for an immediate end to the use of lethal drones and praying for all victims of U.S. drone strikes.  The statement also gives thanks for "groups of peacemakers who have been arrested, tried, and jailed for their acts of nonviolent resistance to these murderous weapons ... our American death squads of the skies."

CLICK HERE for the Pax Christi Metro D.C.-Baltimore STATEMENT and for their LITANY OF REPENTANCE AND CONVERSION.

LCWR Resolution to Action: Immigration Reform and Life and Death on the Border

"Because of the increased use of sophisticated surveillance systems, the arming of more tan 21,000 border gurards and the erecting of amost 700 miles of Steel 25-foot-high fencing, more than 5000 lives have been lost since the late 1990s."
LCWR Resolution to Action, Summer 2013

The Senate recently passed S.744:  The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act.  This bill is a "mixed bag" with both positive aspects as well as other measures which threaten border communities.

Attention now is on the House of Representatives as they debate immigration reform

CLICK HERE for LCWR's Resolution to Action.   

The Resolution provides helpful links and suggestions to:
1. LEARN more about life on the border and SUPPORT those ministering there.
2. FOLLOW THE DEBATE in the House.
3. TAKE ACTION.

Immigration Reform and Catholic Social Teaching

"Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good" is currently providing both analysis and talking points that can be very helpful during this time when our legislators are working on immigration reform.

CLICK HERE to read "Reframing immigration reform in the light of Catholic Social Teaching" by Kristin E. Heyer, Santa Clara University 
 
CLICK HERE to read "FACT SHEET:  Why Catholics Support Comprehensive Immigration Reform
 

NETWORK: Nuns on the Bus Focus on Immigration

From www.networklobby.org

NETWORK Nuns on the Bus recently toured across country again, this time with a message on immigration reform:

We need common sense immigration policies that reflect our true American values.  Laws should reflect OUR VALUES, not our fears.  CLICK HERE to read more.

CLICK HERE for the history of immigration policies in the U.S.

CLICK HERE for the response from the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a member of the Interfaith Immigration Coalition, to the immigration bill that passed in the Senate.
 

UPDATE: Reality of Zambia in 2013

Many thanks to Christina Vargas for sending in an updated report on the Reality of Zambia in 2013 and the Reality of Mongu.

CLICK HERE to read the report.

Tribute to Rosa Parks

Front row seat on a San Antonio, TX bus

In 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, AL bus.  That refusal was a key element in the Civil Right Movement which changed the course of history.  A number of cities in the U.S. have been honoring Rosa Parks by dedicating a front row seat in her honor.

20 Years After "Dead Man Walking"

"The ten southern states that practiced slavery do 80% of all the executions
in this country."
Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ

Sister Helen Prejean is well known for being the author of the best-selling book, Dead Man Walking:  An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States.  On this 20th anniversary of the publication of the book, it has been published again with an introduction by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and with a new subtitle:  The Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty that Sparked a National Debate.

CLICK HERE to see Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!, democracynow.org interview Sister Helen Prejean on her decades of death penalty activism.

Apartheid and the Death Penalty: Making the Connections

"As we held our national 'Truth and Reconciliation Commission' hearings and worked to rebuild our country, people around the world were making the same connections about the death penalty -- how racist, unfair, and broken it is -- and slowly a new global movement for the abolition of the death penalty began."

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, introduction to the newly published book, Dead Man Walking:  The Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty that Sparked a National Debate.