Fr. Don's Daily Reflection - October 30, 2024
Photo by Cathy Lampert
Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from You.”
The term racism is misleading insofar as there is only one human race. For lack of another vocabulary we use “racism” to mean promoting hateful attitudes and speech and harmful behavior toward a group of people singled out for their skin color, religion and/or language. Such racism was evident in the August 3, 2019 mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, United States. (A city on the US side of the Mexican-US border.) A gunman shot and killed 22 people and injured 24 others. In court he confessed to targeting Mexicans. In 2019 Bishop Mark J Seitz of El Paso published a pastoral letter on racism, "Night Will Be No More." (Look it up with the help of a search machine; it is well worth it!) This “reflection” will quote his letter.
"Latinos now tell me that for the first time in their lives they feel unsafe, even in El Paso. They feel that they have targets on their backs because of their skin color and language. They feel that they are being made to live in their own home as a 'stranger in a foreign land.'" --- "Our highest elected officials have used the word 'invasion' and 'killer' over 500 times to refer to migrants, treated migrant children as pawns on a crass political chessboard, insinuated that judges and legislators of color are un-American, and have made wall-building a core political project." -- "The wall deepens racially charged perceptions of how we understand the border as well as Mexicans and migrants. It extends racist talk of an 'invasion'. It perpetuates the racist myth that the area south of the border is dangerous and that we are merely passive observers in the growth of narco-violence and the trafficking of human beings and drugs." -- The wall is a symbol of racism and "a monument of hate." --- “It is not just a tool of national security. More than that, the wall is a symbol of exclusion, especially when allied to an overt politics of xenophobia. It is an open wound through the middle of our sister cities of El Paso and Ciudad Juárez.”
“If we are honest, racism is really about advancing, shoring up, and failing to oppose a system of white privilege and advantage based on skin color. When this system begins to shape our public choices, structure our common life together and becomes a tool of class, this is rightly called institutionalized racism. Action to build this system of hate and inaction to oppose its dismantling are what we rightly call white supremacy. This is the evil one and the 'father of lies' (John 8, 44) incarnate in our everyday choices and lifestyles, and our laws and institutions.”
The Bishop’s positive suggestions: “Pass immigration reform, eradicate discrimination, guarantee universal access to health care, ensure the protection of all human life, end the scourge of gun violence, improve wages on both sides of the border, offer just and sustainable development opportunities, defend the environment and honor the dignity of every person."
Psalm 27: “I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness / in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord; be strong; / be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord!”
