Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4
The Georgia Bulletin
September 4,1980
i
God’s Collaborators
A Letter To Santiago
The news this Labor Day brought
into special prominence the role of
the Church as a source of inspiration,
leadership and strength for workers.
While the holiday was celebrated
here, workers in Poland held attention
by refusing to work, and looked to
Catholic leaders, in Poland and Rome,
for support in their bold demands for
greater freedom and economic
security.
Like the pictures of Pope John
Paul II hanging on the shipyard gates,
the Church is tied to the needs of
workers everywhere by virtue of its
Gospel mission. The Pope spoke of
this last summer in Brazil, noting the
Church’s responsibility to proclaim
and sustain rights of workers,
“because men and their dignity are at
stake.”
“The Church does this,” he said,
“in the deep and ardent conviction
that a man who works becomes a
cooperator with God . . . Work really
makes you above all collaborators
with God in carrying forward the
work of His creation.”
This week we celebrated our work
which, however humble and fatiguing,
holds worth as a dignifier of man and
a party to creation. Let us also as
members of the Church celebrate and
pursue the mission of “proclaiming
and sustaining” the rights and needs
of workers and work-seekers
everywhere.
-GRK
Resound ... Resound
To the Editor:
The July 24 issue of The Georgia Bulletin
contained an article “U.S. Bishops, Reagan
Differ” which contains two examples of our
U.S. Bishop’s misunderstanding of basic
economic principles. I refer to our U.S.
Bishop’s advocacy of a National Health
Insurance program and the continuation of
an unbalanced federal budget, if it means
services will be cut. By advocating their two
viewpoints, our bishops are either woefully
ignorant of basic economic principles or else
they are deliberately showing a disregard for
our country’s current state of economic
affairs.
Our government spends more money than
it collects. It makes up the difference by
printing more worthless paper money which
is a direct cause of inflation. We all can
witness to the decline of our currency over
the past decade due, in large part, to deficit
spending. Inflation hurts the poor and
disadvantaged the hardest. Instead of
advocating an economic policy that will
arrest inflation, our bishops cpntinue to
support policies that fuel inflation.
National Health Insurance is another
program advocated by the U.S. Bishops.
How can we even discuss - another social
welfare program that will add tens of billions
of dollars to the federal budget when we
can’t even afford to pay for government
services we have now? The bishops did not
elaborate as to how National Health
Insurance will be funded.
As Christians I believe that we have the
responsibility to live our lives according to
Jesus’ teaching to love God and our
neighbors. I do not believe that the Lord
intended us to shift our responsibility to love-
and care for our neighbor to a government
body. I feel that if the Gospel really found a
home in our hearts we would need less and
less of government solutions to our social
ills.
In our bishops’ concern for social issues
they have advocated irresponsible economic
positions that indicate to me a basic
misunderstanding of a simple fact: you can’t
spend more money than you make.
David M. Goodrow
Stone Mountain
To the Editor:
The headline of the July 24 issue of the
Georgia Bulletin reads, “U.S. Bishops,
Reagan Differ.” One would assume from
such a headline that either the bishops or
Mr. Reagan have pronounced differences
with each other’s views. In fact, however,
the author of the article has taken upon
himself to compare the position of Mr.
Reagan on several issues with positions taken
some time ago by the National Council of
Bishops.
On some of the most pertinent issues of
the day for Christians: abortion, ERA, and
world hunger, both Mr. Reagan and the
bishops have expressed similar views. Since
these are to a large extent moral issues, a
comparison of these viewpoints is in order.
However, it is hard to understand why the
author did not say that President Carter
holds opposite viewpoints on these key
issues since Mr. Carter and Mr. Reagan are
the two major presidential candidates.
My most serious complaint about the
article has to do with the report of divergent
viewpoints by Mr. Reagan and the bishops
with respect to Salt II, National Health
Insurance and a balanced budget. It is of
little interest to me what the bishops think
about these issues, not because there isn’t
some aspect of morality to the issues, but
because the bishops are not qualified to
speak in these areas. An understanding of
these issues involves a highly sophisticated
technical background in business and
government which the bishops clearly don’t
have. Not having access to top secret
information concerning defense matters
makes their viewpoint on Salt II an
uneducated one and therefore of little
validity. I also find it difficult to believe that
the bishops have any particular insight into
the complex matters of balancing the many
highly technical issues with regard to
National Health Insurance and a balanced
budget. I consider their pronouncement in
these areas uneducated, naive, and divisive at
a time when the American people are badly
in need of unity.
Instead, it seems to me that the National
Council of Bishops and the leadership of the
Roman Catholic Church (and the Georgia
Bulletin) should be much more interested in
the charges given to the church by Jesus
involving the spreading of the Gospel rather
than making pronouncements in areas in
which they clearly are not qualified. The
lack of organized Bible study and the lack of
true Christian community in the Catholic
Church violate probably the two most
important commandments that Jesus left to
the church: to spread the good news and to
love one another. The Catholic Church,
compared to many non-Catholic
denominations, has done poorly along both
lines.
The Georgia Bulletin has followed every
step of the Pope’s visit to Brazil and has told
a heart rending story of the Pope’s gift of a
ring to a destitute village. The story was
presented in a way that I believe the reader
was supposed to be impressed with this
charitable act. If Pope John Paul II wishes to
have real credibility in the world, he needs
to sell the Vatican jewels, art treasures,
stocks, banks, and land holdings and make a
real effort to minister to the poor with the
proceeds. Scripture leads me to believe that
Jesus would say the same thing. If the
church would trust its Heavenly Father, it
would have no need to store treasures on
earth, for God will certainly take care of the
needs of the church, His own bride. I would
not want to be an individual with stored up
treasures while the destitute starve or be
responsible for teaching the word of God
and not doing it, on that day when Jesus
comes again!
Gene Ashby
Atlanta
To the Editor:
Several weeks ago you published a letter
from Police Officer Thomas Stanley
Zaworski in regard to your June 19 editorial
that described your interest, compassion and
concern for convicted criminals.
Your editorial was noble, but Officer
Zaworski lives in the real world and his
eloquent letter was hardly published when
yet another police officer, Jimmy E.
Richardson, was gunned to his death
protecting the law abiding citizens of
Atlanta.
Who mourns for the widow Richardson
and his six-year-old daughter?
On a related matter - the death penalty -
who has decreed that it is a deterrent to
crime? Though I believe it is, I submit that it
is just punishment for these atrocious crimes
of people you feel compelled to defend.
I will be forever flabbergasted at your
lack of concern for the Officer Zaworskis,
the widow Richardsons, the victims of Jack
Potts and the numerous others who suffer at
the hands of criminals.
R.A. McDonald
North Atlanta
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Tom Lennon
By now, Santiago, you must be an adult,
probably living in Lima, Peru, perhaps a
husband and father, and, I hope, maybe not
quite as poor as when I knew you.
You were only a young boy when the
mailman brought you to my living room.
The postmark on the thick envelope was
Chimbote, Peru.
Inside the envelope were several
documents from the Foster Parents Plan
agency that was, so to speak, sponsoring our
temporary friendship. Your picture was
enclosed and I saw a child looking very
serious, standing stiffly at attention, dressed
in his best but poor clothes.
The agency told me all about you,
Santiago. Your family was poor. Your father
had deserted you. Your mother worked hard
12 hours a day washing clothes for people.
You had one sister, and all of you lived in a
clay hut that I found hard to visualize.
I’ve saved all your letters, Santiago. In
your first letter, you introduced yourself
very formally, or at least the translator of
your Spanish made it sound formal. “My
name is Santiago. I will like to write to you
very much every month, and I hope you like
writing to me. I am 10 years old, but I am
not very good in arithmetic.”
Your fourth letter shocked me with news
that I had already heard on television. “A
terrible earthquake came here. It made me
very nervous. We are afraid another one will
come. Our clay house was completely
destroyed. I also lost my copybook in the
earthquake. It was my best copybook.”
At the time I had some extra green stuff
and so, in addition to the regular monthly
support donation, I sent your family $100.
You wrote back, “With your wonderful gift
we have built a new house of reeds. But it is
near a river and lots of times the mosquitoes
keep me awake at night and it is hard to pay
attention the next day in school. Thank you
for your gift and for writing to me every
month. ”
Later the river flooded and destroyed
your house again. I wondered how you all
kept on going.
Sometimes I wasn’t sure what to write to
you, Santiago. So I wrote to you mostly
about what my life was like when I was 10,
about some of the big snows, and the
trouble I had with arithmetic, and how I was
sick too often. I tried to encourage you, for
in almost every letter you said you were not
a good enough student. I suspected your
teacher told you that, and I suspected she
was wrong.
One day, Santiago, I had a bad time at
work; everything went wrong. When I came
home that night, I felt like cursing the whole
world. But, in my mailbox was your
monthly letter. Without a great deal of
enthusiasm I opened it and read it. I shall
never forget this part:
“Mr. Lennon, you have told me that your
father died when you were very young, and
it made you sad. You know that my father
left us and never came back, and so I feel
very sad like you did. But, Mr. Lennon, now
I think of you as my father. You have
helped me so much and I love you and will
never forget you. You will always be my
father.”
Your letter made me cry that night,
Santiago. You did so much more for me
than I ever did for you.
(Tom Lennon writes for the National
Catholic News Service.)
I Could Never Out-Spit Giselda
Dave McGill
I have a wonderful cousin named Giselda.
Her name sounds a little like one of
Cinderella’s awful step-sisters, but if my
cousin had been in the story, the author
would have written it differently. The Prince
would have tried the glass slipper on Giselda,
it would have been a perfect fit, and they
would have married and lived happily ever
after. And no one would ever have heard of
Cinderella, who would still be mopping
floors in the background to this very day.
Giselda grew up in a big city, and I in a
small town not far away. But the city girl
and the small-town boy got along great. We
played every board and card game that was
ever invented, and we traded comic books.
Giselda had the world’s best collection of
Little Lulu’s. I know that is a true statement
because she had them ALL. A roomful. She
taught me to play jacks, a talent I retained
to the amazement of my oldest daughter
Gayle, who is Giselda’s Godchild.
Giselda is about to turn 40 now, and shg
continues to amaze me. She teaches school
by day, is the best of moms to three great
kids in the late afternoon and early evening,
and is a nurse at night. Her husband has one
kidney, which is failing, and Giselda runs a
dialysis machine to filter his blood in the
evenings. She doesn’t have time for very
many games anymore.
Once a year, our families get together in
Louisiana at my parents’ house, and we go
out for a seafood lunch at Vera’s Rat’s Nest.
Vera’s is the only restaurant in my
hometown that is rated with four gold stars
in those “Best Places In And Around The
Crescent City To Dine” books. That outing
has become one of the highlights of my year
- seeing the faith of Giselda and her
husband, and how much her children have
grown.
Back in the late forties, the game Giselda
and I played the most was called Spit. We
must have played thousands of games of
Spit; and if we played 5,000 times, the score
was Giselda 5,000; Dave Zip. I NEVER
WON ONE LOUSY TIME. NOT ONCE. She
out-spit me from the day she taught me the
game until we grew up. Somehow, I never
got tired of trying, though; I think that was
because the game is so much fun whether
you win or not.
If you’ve never heard of “Spit,” then
you’re probably thinking that my cousin was
sort of gross and that she grew up into some
sort of lady tobacco-chewer. However, I’m
not talking about the expectorating kind of
spit, but rather about a card game.
I’m going to tell you how to play Spit in
case you have little kids. It is an exciting,
fun-filled game that any age can play and
enjoy:
Shuffle and cut the deck in two (it takes
too long to deal them all out), and each
player takes half the cards. Each turns up
four cards in front of him. (As you play, you
keep turning up cards so that you always
have four cards in front of you.)
Either player calls “SPIT!”, at which time
each one turns up a card in the center. You
begin to play cards from your piles onto
either of these two “Spit Piles.” The way
you play is either up or down; for example,
if a six is on top of one of the piles, a five or
a seven can be played on top of it, and so
on. (The ace may be played on either the
deuce or the king.)
The winner is the first player to run out
of cards. If at the end both players have
unplayable cards left in front of them, and
no more in their hands to “spit,” then the
winner is the one with the fewest cards left;
if they’re the same number, it’s a tie.
My nine-year-old came up to me the
other night, and just as she always does, she
asked, “What’ll we play tonight, Daddy?”
Usually I say, “Something short, Meg, I’m
real busy.” But that night I had a little time
on my hands.
“Anything, Meg. You name it.”
“O.K., Dad, you asked for it! I want to
play spit with all those old cards in the den.”
“ALL those old cards? ALL OF THEJVI? ”
“Yep. And you promised, Dad.”
“But, Meg, there must be twelve old
decks in that box, with anywhere from 35 to
51 cards in each one.”
“Right-o, Dad, that’s the idea - This
game’s gonna take a lo-o-o-o-o-o-o-n-n-ng
time! Hahahahaha.”
Now Spit is ordinarily a lightning fast
game, but with 500 cards it took a while. We
even had an intermission in the middle.
When it was finally over, guess who had lost
again!
Working Women
Sheila Mallon
“Good things come in small packages”
would be an apt description of Sister Janet
Valente. Tiny and dynamic, she has an
energetic intellect and dark flashing eyes.
I first met Sister Valente a few years ago
when she was secretary of the Archdiocesan
Pastoral Council. My respect for her has
increased steadily over the years.
Always an activist, she was for some time
program director of the Archdiocesan Office
of Urban Affairs. While there she
spearheaded “Project Rehab”, a program
designed to assist low-income elderly in the
repair and upkeep of their homes.
While still working for the Urban Affairs
office, she was appointed by the Archbishop
to serve on a committee which was studying
the state Chaplaincy Program in the prison
system.
Later, while working with then head of
the state Department of Corrections Ellis
McDougald, she became interested in the
female offender program. She served as part
of a task force which was designed to
improve the environmental and
rehabilitation programs for female offenders.
Interestingly enough, it was at this time that
the National Conference of Catholic Bishops
published its far reaching document on
offender rehabilitation.
This was the beginning of Sister Valente’s
deep and abiding interest in the criminal
justice system in Georgia. Shortly thereafter
she resigned from the Archdiocese to go
back to school. She attended Catholic
Theological Union and received a certificate
in social ethics. Returning to Atlanta she
began to pursue a degree in criminal justice
at Georgia State.
It was while she was at Georgia State that
she was offered the job of Director of
Women’s Services in the Department of
Offender Rehabilitation. It is this office
which directs the Female Offender Program
for the state.
Originally the job was to last for only six
months. In those six months, however, the
job changed drastically. There was a bed
space crisis, a new facility designed and a
new community center opened.
The Commission asked Sister Valente to
stay on. In the past three years, the office
has opened the first probation center, moved
a community center, opened a drug and
alcohol abuse center, and developed a
comprehensive long-range female offender
program as well as architectural plans for a
new 500-bed facility.
The job has its frustrations and Sister
Valente, with eyes flashing, discusses the
difficulty of opening community centers and
developing community programs because of
citizen opposition.
Money becomes tighter each year as the
basic cost of food, clothing and shelter gets
higher and eats into the already slender
rehabilitation budget.
Sister Valente suggests that society needs
to make up its mind about where it stands
on prison reform. Our prisons really serve a
dual purpose: the protection of society and
the rehabilitation of the prisoners.
Society has to a large extent abandoned
the prisoner; there are so many human needs
to be met today, but often we turn our
backs on rehabilitation as a goal.
We have seen in recent years a trend that
has our citizens rejecting housing not just for
prisoners but housing for the elderly and
retarded as well.
She points out that it took her office two
years just to locate one community center
for young women. These centers are
designed for women whose crimes against
society are not such that they need to be
locked up in a high security prison with
hardened criminals.
The centers allow these women to work
outside and make restitution to the victims
of their crimes as well as save some money
against the day when they will be released to
pick up the threads of a normal life.
More normal, perhaps, because they have
had this opportunity to learn a skill, live in a
disciplined situation, develop a sense of
responsibility and put aside a small nest egg
with which to start a new life.
As concerned citizens we need to bring
pressure on our legislators to vote for
programs like this and for necessary new
prison facilities.
Volunteers are needed to write, visit
community centers, offer jobs, offer
remedial tutoring and clothing for women
who are released.
In the initial weeks or months after
release, churches need to be involved with
assistance to these people to help them
stabilize in the community. The clergy needs
to be as responsive to those in the jails in
their areas as they are to those in hospitals.
There is much that we as caring, Christian
citizens can do to make sure that these
people are not forced to return to a life of
crime because there was no one to reach out
a helping hand.
Anyone interested in volunteering to
work with these women can call the Office
of Volunteer Services, Department of
Offender Rehabilitation at 894-5356.
“Am I being good? Are you kidding?
I’m so good, my parents think I have a
problem!”