Blog Entry for the GCORR People

So, I think I am going to be a bit lazy right now and just repost a blog that I just sent to the General Commission on Race and Religion about what we have been up to in regards to our work on immigration. Some of it (like my name) is slightly redundant, but always good to have a reminder, eh? So here goes.

 

I, Marjorie Hurder, am a US-2 Young Adult Missionary with the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church at Crossroads Urban Center, a National Mission Institution in Salt Lake City. Part of my job is working in the food pantry and meeting all sorts of people from all sorts of places and providing them with the basics of food, some hygiene items, bus passes and the like. We help everyone from senior citizens on fixed incomes to homeless people on no income to families of ten struggling to get by from paycheck to paycheck. We also work on issues of social justice, such as immigration.

 

This past December, we joined with churches in the downtown Salt Lake City area to celebrate Las Posadas, the commemoration of the Holy Family’s search for room at the inn. In the brisk weather, we processed around downtown Salt Lake City reenacting Mary and Joseph’s search for room at the inn, cantankerous donkey included. While on our brief journey, we recalled Mary and Joseph’s being turned away from shelter, and in so doing, remembered those in our community, such as undocumented immigrants or the homeless population, who search for shelter but who are turned away.

 

We used this event to kick-start the “Drop the I Word” campaign here in Utah. We brought this discussion to Utah as a response to divisive and derogatory discourse by political candidates who went as far as to call children of immigrants born in the United States “anchor babies” as if having children was some sort of covert strategy to avoid being deported.

 

We continued our push towards the elimination of such dehumanizing language by encouraging boards and church councils in the area to consider the pledge to Drop the I Word. So far, the boards at Crossroads Urban Center and First United Methodist Church in Salt Lake City have signed on.

 

This prompted the Salt Lake Tribune to start a discussion of their policies of how to refer to undocumented immigrants, starting with this article http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/53756205-90/alien-church-correct-illegal.html.csp about First United Methodist in Salt Lake City’s pledge to Drop the I-word. They also interviewed those who believe that illegal immigrant or illegal alien are the legally correct terms for someone who is undocumented (even if said person has not been proven to be here through unauthorized means). A group of advocates from Crossroads Urban Center, the ACLU, and the Catholic Diocese met with the editorial board to discuss their newsroom policy. They said that they follow the Associated Press style guide and wanted to be accurate in who they deemed “illegal” versus “undocumented”.

 

I think we need to have more of these sorts of conversations about language and how the words we use affect other people. We might not like the responses that we get. For instance, in the comments section of the article in the Tribune about First United Methodist’s stance, there were some vitriolic comments about immigration and the language I saw was appalling. But there were also those who applauded First United Methodist Salt Lake and were glad to see that people were taking a stand.

 

The Drop the I Word message got a more enthusiastic response this past Saturday at the Utah Sub-District Meeting of the United Methodist Churches in the area. There was also a presentation about starting a Justice for our Neighbors clinic here in Salt Lake City to work with our neighbors who need help navigating the profusion of immigration law. This is, of course, only the beginning of creating a more welcoming Salt Lake City for all of our neighbors, but it is a beginning nonetheless. Hopefully this conversation will continue to evolve into positive action. I pray that some day, the difficult conversations we need to have about immigration can happen without either side throwing stones at each other.

 

 

 

Legislature Legislature Legislature

So, to my surprise this morning, I woke up and it was March! In addition, there is now only one week left in the Utah State Legislative Session, for which I am thankful.

So here are some observations I have had about this particular State Legislature (since I came into it having only taken political science classes and listening to NPR and reading the New York TImes and listening to my Dad talk about the news).

Yes, there are some legislators and lobbyists who are kind of unpleasant and don’t really care about the 99%, but there are definitely some who do. And they are really wonderful.

The people who work at the Capitol make my day. Interns, maintenance people, the security guys in the green coats who pass in notes to the legislators, cafeteria workers. Seriously the best group of people.

Standing waiting for legislators to come from the House/Senate floor to talk to you is really dull, but great for getting to know the people around you.

People have some goofy ties! Loony Toons, polka dot, musical instruments. Fun to keep an eye out for!

The cafeteria food really is not bad.

The rush of adrenaline running from seeing a bill you’ve been working on come up on the board and rushing to get your coworkers and sprinting up the stairs to the gallery to watch it is only matched by the sigh of annoyance when said bill is tabled and not going to be voted on then, rendering the rush of adrenaline rather pointless.

More to come at the end of the session which ends a week from today!

 

Onward to the Legislature!

I suppose I have been a bit lax in updating my blog the past month and a half or so. Oops. But I had a lovely visit home for Christmas seeing family and friends, and then a hectic few weeks at work. Most of what we have been up to has been preparing for the Utah state legislative session that starts tomorrow. (Tomorrow?? Aack!) This past week, I don’t think I spent more than maybe 2 hours at my desk. Just enough time to make sure I didn’t have really urgent emails or what have you to answer.

This past Tuesday was a lot of fun, mostly because my coworker and I went over to the soup kitchen to interview the line of folks about homelessness and employment (to promote and gather information for a bill we are supporting to have a tax credit for employers who hire homeless people), and I have to say, it was a very neat experience. Not to mention, talking to the people whom the bill could help if it were passed made it make all the more sense to me. Why not have an incentive for people to hire those who most need work but who might not appear to be prime candidates? And, ok, it might have been a bit of a boost for the old self-esteem when the first fellow I interviewed thanked me for gracing them with my beauty when I thanked him for participating in the survey.

Then, Tuesday evening, we had our Anti Hunger Action Committee meeting where we discussed our Super Schmoozer Contest that will be held this Tuesday. (Permit me to brag for a moment, but I did suggest the term Schmoozer. And then my coworker did the rest. I still giggle at it, though). The contest is both an individual contest and between groups (Anti-Hunger Action Committee, Homeless Opportunity and Rights Network, and the Disabled Rights Action Committee). I mean, who wouldn’t want the chance to win a Schmoozie? We have flyers that we will hand out with the rules and all of the legislators’ names and tiny pictures on them and point values assigned according to what committees they are on and various leadership positions. Hopefully this will prevent any instances of “It’s the committee chair! We’ll get seven points! Get him!!!” Also, it will be a lot of fun watching the legislators and the Average People meet each other. Especially since we had our Regular People Lobbyist Training the other day, and I have to say, a good time was had by all.

Anyways, that’s about it for now. It’s an exciting few weeks coming up. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate more than it did yesterday. “Winter Mix” is just plain nasty weather. But thank goodness the sun is back!

 

 

Christmas Craziness

Coming in to this week, I knew that it would be have its fair share of seasonal madness, but I think what I forgot was that all of this stuff is pretty darn fun! For instance, Monday, I went to a Presbyterian Bible study and had a little talk that I prepared for it about what social justice is why it is a good thing (in my opinion) and what we/they as a church can do to help further it. I was so worried about finishing my talk and I think I kind of psyched myself out a little, but at some point on the drive over, between admiring the mountains, fighting with the elderly Crossroads truck to stop drifting in the lanes and belting out Christmas tunes, I forgot about the nerves. So once I showed up to the church, they fed me and we talked and we just had the best time! They also were interested in what I had to say and we had good discussion about it so we did do more than eat cookies and giggle at the pastors’ kids’ antics and eat cookies left over from their cookie swap (although there was plenty of that)!

Yesterday during work, I was terribly antsy and infected with holiday cheer, which really just made me gaze out the window at the snow going “Ooooooo look at all that snow going by” and getting hypnotized. I am sure I did something productive, but I cannot remember exactly what. That evening, we had our Anti-Hunger Action Committee (AHAC) Holiday Potluck where we ate yummy food (these folks take fighting hunger seriously!), sang Christmas carols (with various levels of success) and made this video:

It is a montage of various AHAC members saying facts about the Utah Food Stamp program and how they have not used stamps in years, so isn’t it time to change the name? I, with my directing prowess, encouraged them to use their best game show host voices, which got a good chuckle out of most of them. Hopefully, the video gets a good chuckle out of most of you!

Today was another listen to Christmas tunes, giggle with coworkers, semi-productive day. Although I did have fun calling folks to remind them about one of our meetings tomorrow. Especially the lady named Marjorie because I get to say “Hello Marjorie? Yes, this is Marjorie!” and we both giggle like little schoolgirls. Also, it was the new social work student worker’s first day, so I am no longer the new kid! It’s also a plus to have another person to work with. Not to mention fun. And my coworker and I did some more planning of our Las Posadas procession. We have the donkey, the songs, the hot cocoa, the snacks, the candles, and Mary and Joseph lined up! Not to mention, the educational literature explaining why No Child of God is Illegal to discourage people calling other people Illegal. All in all, a fun day.

So I suppose, besides having a brief recount of what I have been up to, I am writing this to say that Christmas stuff can be rather enjoyable. Sure, the traffic may be bad and sure, you may have just worked for 8 hours, and sure, some of the folks might get on your nerves, but in the end, all of that nonsense doesn’t really matter. It’s that moment when you’re laughing at the rubber duck wearing sunglasses sitting on the phone or when you remember the words to the second verse of Joy to the World just in time to really belt them out so that everyone else can remember and sing along, too, or when your coworker’s kid comes up to you and says “Tag! You’re it!” and you spend a giggly few minutes racing around the downstairs after each other that are the moments that do matter. So go out and have fun this Christmas season! Have the really yummy food, even if it’s bad for you, drink peppermint flavored everything, suck on a peppermint until it’s really pointy and stab your neighbor with it, go to a Christmas concert, hum along to the Christmas songs playing at the grocery store (hey, if you can’t beat them, join them!), watch the Christmas classics (Christmas Vacation, anyone?), go to the midnight service on Christmas Eve, even if it is bad weather, but dadgum, just have fun! I hope everyone has an appropriately meaningful and solemn Christmas, but also an enjoyable one.

 

Quiet

Recently, I saw a video that the church I went to in college had up for their Advent series. I think their theme was “Enough”, but it started with some Christmas carol, then escalated to dinging and honking and chattering and all of this awful noise and finally ended with a dramatic black screen that said Enough! I thought it was a pretty darn good representation of the holiday season. Now granted, I am delighted this Christmas season to not have to study for finals or check out of my dorm, but still. I do not think many people have complained of having a December that was too slow or quiet.

Yesterday and today, two of my coworkers have been out of the office, and the others have been in and out, making for a quieter office than usual. At first, it was irksome, not having them around to ask “Which church in Bountiful do we need the email address for? And who the dickens is Hans?” but now that I think about it, it is quite nice to sometimes just hear the peaceful clacking of the keyboard as I check things off the to-do list and book my train home for Christmas. Especially as the building we are in rather reminds me of the house where I grew up in that if someone sneezes on the opposite side of the building and on a different floor, you can still hear it. Which is not a bad thing, though it is entertaining sometimes to drop in on conversations a few offices down! I mean, how often is this quiet time going to happen over the next couple of weeks as we all gear up for the celebration of the birth of Christ? So far, I have on my radar a UMW Tea this Saturday, Advent Bible studies with the Presbyterians, our Las Posadas procession remembering Mary and Joseph’s search for room at the inn that we are tying in to modern day immigrants and the homeless’s search for shelter and acceptance, and regular food drive deliveries that we are always excited to have!

Mostly, I just hope that there is the same sense our high school choir had when rehearsing every day for four hours leading up to our annual Christmas concert that yes, this is a ton of work and time and some of it is kind of unpleasant, but at the end we got a tangible reward in the beautiful music and sense of accomplishment and the magic of the evening (not to mention the traditional celebration with beignets and cafe au lait afterwards where we got powdered sugar all over our black dresses!). I got that feeling last Wednesday when we had our Epic Turkey Giveaway. It was near the end of the day, and I was sore and tired and cranky and I just wanted to go home to bed, but I was taking peoples’ numbers as they left and making sure they didn’t leave with 6 turkeys, etc. With most people going through the line, it was just the simple “Number please, thank you, happy Thanksgiving!” but at one point, I noticed that one woman told another who was about to walk down the stairs with a stroller and baby and turkey and trimmings “No, no! Let me help you with that!” and they headed on out, but I have to say that that was when I remembered “Oh, yeah. This is why we are running around like turkeys with our heads cut off unloading 18 wheelers of turkeys and bagging extras like mashed potatoes and corralling the line and the army of volunteers” which was, I think, important for me to remember.

I also hope that everyone gets a few moments of quiet to think about that evening in Bethlehem with the peaceful sounds of cows mooing and horses eating hay and cute little baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes and laying in a manger and what that meant and still means for all of us. Perhaps it is at a coffee shop sipping a peppermint flavored beverage, or at a church service or musical event of some sort, or perhaps it is in those last few moments before going to sleep.

 

Thanksgiving

Unless I miss my guess, 95% of people will be vaguely thinking about what they are thankful for the next week. Until, of course, Black Friday, when deranged hordes of crazed shoppers stampede the poor employees at stores nationwide. There has also been the Facebook…thing the past couple of weeks of going through and listing one thing per day you are thankful for. I thought of doing that, but remembered I would probably forget four days in. So I figure I may as well fill up this blog with a list of things I am thankful for!

1. I am thankful that I am alive and healthy and that my immediate family is alive and healthy

2. I am thankful that I have an incredible job that keeps me busy and learning all the dadgum time and that I get to work with and meet some fantastic people.

3. I get to do things like move across the country and be a do-gooder for two years and not live at home and have a job where I would have to work on Black Friday.

4. Once I leave work, I’m done til the next morning. You know what that means? No homework! I get to read fun fantasy books the day they arrive and not feel guilty about neglected homework!

E. I am in an incredible (if separated by a lot of distance) community of fellow young adult missionaries.

F. The friends I made in college are pretty dang wonderful people. I just loved college.

G. I am supported by wonderful church families in Baton Rouge and Hattiesburg. I definitely would not be here without you!

8. Jesus. And yes, I fully admit that is a 3rd grade Sunday School answer, but that doesn’t make it any less true! We can learn a lot from the guy.

9. Baton Rouge Magnet High School. From people I have talked to, I learned we had it easy there. Socially speaking, not academically.

10. Parents who taught me how to cook, clean and do laundry (though the cooking I picked up on my own because it’s fun!) so that moving to The Real World was rather pleasant and not a nightmare of stained clothing, smelly kitchens and germ-ridden bathrooms!

11. The people who just donated four carloads of food and are sending more after Thanksgiving

L. That my sisters chose very well for their husbands and that I get along well with them.

M. That I get along well with all of my extended family. They are a pretty nifty bunch

N. Modern technology. Sure, sometimes it’s a real pain, but I just cannot picture my life without it. Even with more recent additions like the cell phone

O. Mountains. They are lovely to look at on my walk home from work and I still marvel at them! God sure did some good work when he got to Utah!

P. People who have the imagination and dedication to write the books that I read.  Seriously, I could not do life without them

17. All of my teachers from pre-school to senior year of college. That is another job I admire but could not do. So thank you thank you thank you to all teachers!

18. Coffee and all of the work that goes into the caffeinated goodness that gets me going in the morning (and sometimes afternoon)

19. England. I so want to go back! But I am thankful I got to visit it and cross a lot of things off my bucket list

Nineteen is a good place to stop. Much more and I would start grasping at straws and…er…saying how grateful I am for the person who invented straws and wheels and indoor plumbing (which I am. But still). But I do think it is important to  regularly remember how good you or I or whoever has it, even when you might feel like whining. Because writing, I realized I am kind of spoiled, which I do not mind in the least!

In any case, here at Crossroads, we are gearing up for the holidays and our ginormous turkey giveaway the day before Thanksgiving. We are planning for hundreds of volunteers and thousands of clients to show up, which I still cannot fathom. But I know that the day of, I will be trebly thankful for coffee!

This week, I told one of my sisters that I had gone to the Legislature three times (Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday) and had two meetings in different cities the same day (Thursday) and she informed me that I was a jetsetter! I thought it sounded pretty neat, too.

 

Community Organizing

Yesterday, as a sort of social experiment, I posed the question “When you see the term Community Organizing/Organizer, what do you think?” and got responses from the fairly predictable hippy/communist/doesn’t like to shower to references to Obama to really great descriptions like “walking the talk” “people from all community sectors working together for a common vision/mission” and “a good way to stay young”. I had only asked out of idle curiosity, but the answers I got definitely got me thinking. Community Organizing has as many definitions as there are organizers. What works with one city or block or group will not work with another. I am definitely starting to learn that here at Crossroads Urban Center. There are different tactics to working with the Coalition of Religious Communities than there are with the Homeless Opportunities and Rights Network or the Anti-Hunger Action Committee. All of the groups work for social justice and work out of the same building, but where CORC organizes religious groups to lobby their legislators all over the state on economic justice issues like regulating the payday lending and recruits mostly from churches or involvement fairs, AHAC and HORN work more with the food pantry clients and the homeless population in Salt Lake City on justice issues such as camping ordinances or food stamp accessibility on a more local level.

But when I was reading a book on community organizing the other week and talking to my friend who works at a church and was recruiting volunteers to teach Sunday School, it occurred to me that working at a church and being a community organizer have a lot in common: both have to constantly recruit new members and then cultivate those members into more active volunteers, both generally have to provide cookies and coffee at any events they host, both have members who will be rather cantankerous if said meetings run over time and can do things like install a clock within eyesight of the pulpit (I actually heard of this happening at a church. Ha!) and have to work toward making their community better, whether by promoting Jesus, justice, or both!

More general updates, I am making more friends here and even had some over for chicken tortilla soup the other day, I found out my dog that we’ve had since I was in elementary school got put to sleep, which made for a rough weekend, I went to a concert by the very cool Emma’s Revolution, I found out the grant my coworker and I worked on went through and we will get financial contributions toward our efforts to raise compassion for undocumented workers in Utah, and the holiday season is looming ever closer and, while stressful, will be positively delightful without finals! Currently, I am waiting on tenterhooks to read the final installment in the Inheritance Cycle, what addictive books!

 

Busyness

My high school choir director always warned us in dramatic, foreboding tones about the dangers of getting too caught up in busyness that goes nowhere, whether in musical passages that he wanted us to make less funereal or in our outside-of-choir lives. And I have to say, I think I stumbled into a job that keeps me quite busy, but it all goes somewhere.

For instance, this past weekend, I was at a United Methodist Women annual meeting and met some of the most incredible women. Granted, more than one of them wanted to set me up with their grandsons, but that’s just semantics. I was blown away at how long they had dedicated themselves to ministering with low income and marginalized populations, whether it was making prayer shawls or UMCOR buckets or volunteering at Crossroads Urban Center or any number of causes they dedicated themselves to from the environment to domestic violence to undocumented workers. I very much want to be like these ladies when I grow up! I confess before I left I was sort of afraid it would be a few days of listening to talk about bunions or dentures but that was most certainly not the case! Though I did rather feel like I was about twelve years old when they would keep talking about “the young people” which did make me giggle!

I also had my first experience preaching. Before, it had been a general spiel where I outlined what the US-2 program is and what Crossroads is and what all I was doing. In the one on Sunday, I used Bible verses and told more of my personal decision-making process which led to being a US-2. I was horribly nervous, but I think it went well overall. I did not perpetrate any of my personal pet peeves for public speaking/sermon-making like apologizing for saying what you are about to say, going on for far too long with no real reason, telling irrelevant stories, shouting about how angry God is at people for doing something, or grinning while talking about a serious topic. Not to mention, people seemed to like what I had to say, though of course I have a long way to go before I become a smooth public speaker. The most surprising thing, (other than meeting a man who went to the exact same elementary school I did) was talking to a girl my age afterwards who told me I made her feel guilty because I was doing all this mission work and she was not. That was definitely not my point! But we had a good conversation about all of it so it all ended up right. Still can’t believe it, though.

Going to advocacy staff meeting today at Crossroads really made me feel like I have a lot of catching up to do in terms of city politics here in Salt Lake City. I didn’t know three fourths of what they were talking about, and the things I did recognize, I didn’t know all that much about. So I really need to get to reading up on local issues not only so these meetings make sense, but so I can know who to talk to on what issues and how they might respond. Thankfully, I have a lot of help with that here, I just need to take advantage of it. I am also taking advantage of living in a larger city because tomorrow, I am going to the City Library to hear Kathy Reichs (the lady who wrote Bones!) and this weekend, I am going to the Scottish Ceilidh at the Presbyterian Church near where I live. I am extremely excited about both of these events. I mean what could be cooler than forensic anthropology and tartan in the same week, no less!

 

Simplicity

I am currently struggling to write a sermon to deliver this coming Sunday about Risk Taking Mission and Service. I have the lectionary passage and the topic and my previous spiel about myself and the US-2 program to start with. Beyond that, I haven’t the foggiest idea about what to say. On the plus side, I quite like both of the lectionary passages (1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 and Matthew 22: 34-46, in case you were wondering) so I think I can work those in and have it make sense. I am just struggling with the fact that I am going to preach. To actual people. About Risk Taking Mission and Service. In less than a week.

Alright, I got the nervousness out for now. Now on to what I was actually going to talk about in this blog. Although it does sort of tie in, I suppose. I’ve started to realize that a lot of issues that seem extremely convoluted do not necessarily need to be. For instance, housing and homelessness. If governments have such a problem with homeless people sleeping in the parks, then how come they don’t provide viable alternatives to prevent the sort of desperation that leads to sleeping on park benches? If they want everyone to be gainfully employed, how come they support policies that ship jobs overseas and leave fewer opportunities for those seeking jobs? Maybe I am naive and do not know the ways of the world and maybe my political knowledge comes from watching Law and Order, but I do think these questions need to be asked until they are answered with sustainable action and homelessness is not just invisible but solved.

In addition, religion is another that is needlessly complicated. As the lectionary passage for this Sunday states, “Jesus replied: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” That is what Jesus tells us to do. Two sentences. All of the hundreds of commandments and books of law compressed into two almost terrifyingly simple sentences. So all we can do is…do. Go forth and love.

Well I covered politics and religion. Enough controversy for today. This has been a busy week or so and will continue to be busy until noonish Sunday when church is over. I went to my cousin’s wonderful wedding this past weekend in Ohio and had a marvelous time hanging out with my family and enjoying landscape that is not remotely desert-esque. I also worked the food pantry Monday morning and have been planning the monthly Coalition of Religious Communities meeting this Thursday. I am also going to the Rocky Mountain Annual Meeting of the United Methodist Women this weekend in Grand Junction, CO, which I think will be great. I just kind of hope that I won’t be the only under-thirty person there. We will just have to see. Well, I have meeting to get to now, so I will leave this here and continue my montage next week.

 

Learning Experiences

Since moving to Salt Lake City and coming to work at Crossroads, I have had more that one learning experience. Hopefully, I actually learn lessons from these experiences and don’t just file them away in the old brain box for future reference but never actually, you know, use them.

One example would be the couple of public speaking experiences I have done here. The first, I made exactly three notes on the church bulletin, did not practice, and gave a fairly mediocre talk during which I know I forgot at least three things to mention. The second talk I gave, I prepared a reasonably thorough outline of what I was going to say, ran through the talk before going, did not forget anything of note, and they laughed at my jokes and fed me lasagna. All in all, a successful outing.

Another learning experience would have to be the fairly in-depth tour my supervisor gave me of Salt Lake City last week. Everything I had heard of Salt Lake City before coming here tended to be along the lines of “it’s clean, the people are nice, the mountains are gorgeous, and there sure are a lot of Mormons out there.” Nothing to really indicate high levels of poverty. But I saw what are called inner courts: tiny streets cut into the center of the large city blocks that hold more houses than you could possibly imagine in these narrow strips of concrete than can barely hold one car at a time, much less two. As my supervisor said, you have to feel bad for pizza delivery guys who have to try and find these places. So I suppose I learned that poverty is definitely a reality in Salt Lake City, if perhaps a better-hidden one than in the Deep South.

I’m also learning a little bit as I go along about Community Organizing.  And yes, I am currently reading a book about it, but I am also attending meetings and listening and learning quite  lot of overlapping advice like :it’s all about relationships. Things that seem like no-brainers but that are absolutely crucial. As the guy who wrote the book I’m reading about it (Building Powerful Community Organizations by Michael Jacoby Brown for those curious enough to check it out) said, we are not selling toothpaste. To make an impact, face to face contact makes a much bigger and more lasting impression than fliers or even skywriting ever will (though I do wonder about the skywriting…). That is also something I definitely need to remember because I must say, emails are a lot quicker and easier than actually talking to people. But emails are also quicker and easier to delete.

Well, this is some of what I have learned so far and hopefully some of it will stick!