“Words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity. We can choose to use this force constructively with words of encouragement, or destructively using words of despair. Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate, and to humble.” – Yehuda Berg Everyday human beings[continue reading]
Migration
Trauma and Trafficking
“Human trafficking is one of the darkest and most revolting realities in the world today, ensnaring 41 million men and women, boys and girls.” – Father David Charters, second secretary of the Vatican’s permanent observer mission to the United Nations. Those who are trafficked are daughters and sons, mothers, brothers, fathers and sisters. Most often,[continue reading]
Update from the Border & Beyond
The problems at the border now go far beyond the family separations of last summer. Children who are separated from their families are supposed to be protected under the Flores Agreement that “requires that children be speedily moved from Department of Homeland Security custody to the care of a purportedly more suitable agency,” and to[continue reading]
Blessed: A Reflection on the Border Experience
When walking the halls of Providence Hospital in Washington, D.C., I made it a point to speak or make eye contact with those I met. I would pass many people, presumably patients, who could barely navigate. When I would inquire how someone was, I often received the answer: “I’m blessed.” This is my predominant thought[continue reading]
What would it be like to walk in their shoes?
I stepped into their story briefly after they had traveled a long journey from many distant places – Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Cuba, and more. They were seeking a better life, a safer place, somewhere to get work, to have enough to put food on the table, and to raise their children. I arrived in[continue reading]