Detention Reform

Update

Last night, Emily, Catie, and I went to the Presbyterian Campus Ministry night at the University of Arizona to talk about the Young Adult Volunteer program in general and our experiences specifically.  It was wonderful to meet them and hear about their community engagement.  It was a bit foreign to me, though.  At Beloit, I was blessed to have the Spiritual Life Program as a faith community, which opened up so many doors for stories, religions, and experiences.  

Sunday was a busy day for Emily and me.  We went to church at Trinity Presbyterian which is right down the street from us.  They invited us to join in the Crop Walk, which is coming up soon.  I have so many good memories from doing that at Waverly, in Pittsburgh!  We also went to a wonderful cooperative called the Restoration Project for a showing of Traces of the Trade.  It was a provocative film which left me thinking a lot about issues of race, power, and privilege.  I recommend watching it, if you get a chance!  The Restoration Project has a wonderful mission statement: "Nourished and empowered by the Spirit, the Restoration Project seeks to live in right relationship with one another, the community, and the earth through hospitality, simple and sustainable living, playful spirituality, and peaceful, prophetic action."  It is full of excited and interesting people and I cannot wait to get more involved.

So, I am busy and excited about a lot of things, but missing "home" as well.  I put it in quotation marks, because home means many different things to me.

Home is my Pittsburgh family.  Home is my Waverly family.

Home is my Beloit Family.  Home is my boyfriend.

Home is the normal, the things that I am used to.  And I am still in a period of adjustment.  Just want to say that I think about everyone often and I appreciate all of the support.

Detention Reform

For the past three weeks, Emily and I have been attending the Monday night No More Deaths meetings at St. Mark's Presbyterian Church.  Each time we go, I learn more about desert activism and different events going on in the Tucson area.  One of the most interesting parts of the meeting was a discussion about immigration detention reform.  Secretary of Homeland Security and former Arizona governor Janet Napolitano,  has said that an overhaul on the immigration system will not happen until health care reform has passed.

Yesterday, however, the Obama administration/Janet Napolitano released a plan to reform the immigration detention system.  While it is not at all an overhaul of immigration, the detention system in place for immigration has been in trouble recently.  As one article says, "The whole point of detaining immigrants, after all, is to quickly figure out which ones should be deported and to deport them, not to let them languish and certainly not to inflict punishment or undue suffering," which is what the system has been doing recently.  While I am by no means an expert in this area, I wanted to put the information out there for people to learn more.  There is also an interesting website run by the Detention Watch Network, which has a map that shows where detention centers are located.  They are in more places than you would think. There is also a powerful movie out called The Least of These, which explores the "government rationale for family detention, conditions at the facility, collateral damage, and the role - and limits - of community activism in bringing change." If you are interested in learning more about these issues, the websites have great links and ways to get involved. Just some more food for thought!

More to come.  One love.  One heart.