Justice Jottings
December 2004 - #7
An Email Update from the Marianist Social Justice Collaborative (MSJC)


New on our website!! - (click on the links below)

  Call to Action - reflections from Marianist Family members who attended this annual conference in November. 
  Be a conscientious Christmas shopper - still time to order shopper cards from the National Labor Committee. 
                                                                               An easy way to help eliminate sweatshops.
  Just in time for Christmas - cloth bags from IMANI in Kenya - details below

Visit us at:  www.msjc.net

The website is now interactive.  All you have to do is get a password and you can enter into discussions with other MSJC members about social justice issues. 
NOTE - if you are using the AOL browser, you can view the website but cannot enter any of the discussions with that browser.


Scroll down to read over the following items:

Issue Team Updates - see the website for more details

• Ecology & Environment
  
  • Order for Christmas.  We have teamed with IMANI, a Marianist ministry in Kenya to offer handmade, reusable shopping bags. (Click here to see a picture.)  Sewn and printed by IMANI's Job Creation Program clients at Maria House and the Chaminade Training Center in Nairobi, the bags are made of durable canvas with a Marianist logo and are available for a donation of $10 plus shipping (payable to the Marianist Province USA).  Your donation supports the development of IMANI.  Your use of the bag also conserves valuable resources and reduces the amount of waste your family generates.  If  just 25 percent of U.S. families used 10 fewer plastic bags each month, we could save 2.5 BILLION bags each year.   To order a bag, email Tara Poling at tara.poling@notes.udayton.edu. 
     
• Death Penalty 
  
  • Celebrating success!!  Thomas Bowling, a mentally retarded death row inmate scheduled to die in Kentucky on Nov. 30, was granted a stay of execution. The team lobbied on this one.  Also, the number of death row inmates in US prisons has dropped to a 30 year low.
  • But not all are successes.   An effort in the Ohio legislature to pass a bill, supported by the team, authorizing a study of whether Ohio should continue the death penalty, failed.  Thanks to all Ohio MSJC members who contacted the state Senate about this bill.
  • Bro. Brian Halderman SM will be stepping down as team chair.  We are engaged in discernment about a new leader and future direction of the team. Thanks to Brian for 4 years of energetic leadership.
    

MSJC Steering Committee

The annual MSJC Steering Committee meeting is Jan. 14-16 in San Antonio.  Contact us if there is some issue of concern you think we ought to consider.  For those of you in that area, SAVE THE DATE: Sat. evening, Jan. 15 - social gathering with members of the Marianist Family in San Antonio. More details in next month's Justice Jottings.

Christmas gifts - NOT!

Considering a video game as a gift for a son or daughter, niece or nephew?  Here are some to avoid - the ten most violent video games:
             Doom 3                                                      Hitman: Blood Money
             Grand Theft Auto: San Adnreas                    Manhunt
             Gunslinger Girls 2                                       Mortal Half Life 2
             Half Life 2                                                   Postal 2
             Halo 2                                                        Shadow Heart
For more information, or to join in pressuring companies who make violent video games, visit the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility website.

Resources - know any good ones?  Share them with us

• The Institute for Peace and Justice in St. Louis offers a free monthly email resource - "Peace Pieces."  Different versions are geared to educators, families and family ministers, youth ministers, social justice ministers, and religious communities. 
  Sign up at http://www.ipj-ppj.org/e-resource.htm.
• Funds for justice work - The deadline for grant applications to the Marianist Sharing Fund is Jan. 7.  Focus is on social justice, with grants ranging from $500-$5000.  Guidelines and application forms at www.marianist.com/grants.
  
  

Twinning Project

No, it's not some new fertility treatment.  It's a vision of fostering linkages between Marianist Lay Communities in different countries. It would include various forms of on-going communication, possibly visits, and perhaps even some joint involvement in social justice efforts.  Interested in learning more?  Contact Isabella Moyer at moyerfam@mts.net

Sharing the Good News - let us know if you have some to share  

75 members of the U. of Dayton community (students, Marianists, faculty, staff) joined over 16,000 others on Nov. 19 to demand the closure of the School of the Americas at Ft. Benning, Georgia. The trip was organized by the UD Center for Social Concern and the Pax Christi service club.  For details about their trip, click here.  To learn more about the School of the Americas, visit www.soaw.org.  

A Thought to Ponder     

"When I gave food to the poor, they called me a saint.
When I asked why the poor were hungry, they called me a communist." 
                                                                             -Dom Helder Camara