In this Issue:

All Saints Village: Executive Council endorses further exploration of concept

Blessing of teddy bears during Bishop's visit and Children's sabath

Part of the Heart of our Mission: News and pictures form around the diocese

Mission in Mississippi: Diocesan Team Works at 10 Locations in Pascagoula

From the National Front

From the Anglican World

2006 Diocesan Convention

Commentaries

From the Bishop: Thankful for how much we have

Reflection: Saints of the address book

X-ercizing: Community, solidarity and humanity (Part 2)

Diocesan Calendar

Past Issues

X-ercizing: Community, solidarity, and humanity (part 2)

I’m a news junkie.

A few weeks ago, I read in the Herald-Leader’s Faith and Values section that a UN expert on human rights was coming to the United States. If there was further information, I missed it, so I turned to the internet to learn more. Like a lot of people, my natural concerns for the under-served in our country has been peaked by recent disasters.

In the September issue of The Advocate, I wrote about Hurricane Katrina and the American people’s response to such a horrific event. I wrote “America has shown it has deep reserves of compassion and solidarity” by “giv[ing] money, time, and talents to the cause of supporting our own.”

Dr. Arjun Sengupta, Independent Expert of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, visited the United States from Oct. 23 to Nov. 8. His goal was to analyze some of the lessons learned in the U.S. in addressing the different components of extreme poverty, and to report to the Commission on Human Rights during its March/ April 2006 meeting in Geneva — the commission’s 62nd session. Sengupta, former ambassador of India to the European Union, visited New Orleans, New York, Mississippi, Florida, and Kentucky – among other locations. Sengupta spent Monday and Tuesday (Nov. 1 and 2) in Kentucky.

Dr. Arjun Sengupta says, “There is one country where there should be no poverty…The U.S. is the richest nation in the history of the word. Why cannot it restore electricity and water and help people rebuild their homes and neighborhoods?” After what Sengupta called a “shocking” tour of New Orleans he called for “social responsibility” of the federal, state, and local governments.

“Budget questions should be resolved. If the United States wasn’t the richest country in the world, I’d say international aid should come in. But I don’t have to say that for the U.S.”

Sengupta said what was more shocking than the damage of the hurricane was “that two months later, my impression is that New Orleans is untouched…relief work in New Orleans is not what I expected of the richest country in the world.”

The situation is a “gross violation of human rights,” Dr. Sengupta says.

“There are people who lack human rights in the United States, irrespective of the color, irrespective of creed, irrespective of religion. Not many, few, but they exist and there’s no reason why they should exist in a country like this.”

To my horror, one of those places is in the Episcopal Diocese of Lexington. Appalachia is one of those pockets of extreme poverty.

Appalachia is but one example of the way poverty erodes economic and social rights. The rights most of us take for granted; health (not only health care, but actual health), adequate housing, food and safe water, and the right to education. Civil and political rights are also denied; political participation being the largest.

Sengupta thinks “social exclusion” keeps people ensnared in poverty. “Racism is one part of it (speaking about New Orleans). But whites in Appalachia also suffer from it.”

Sengupta and his delegation want to understand what is being done to ensure that people in Appalachia and other parts of the country have access to government services, jobs, health care, education, information, and goods.

“Every individual has a right to live a life of dignity.”

Extreme poverty in America is a thought I cannot get off my mind. Since hearing about the UN independent expert’s tour I have been caught up in the questions of what it all means. How can this kind of poverty exist in the America I know – or in my Kentucky home?

Granted we are not talking about the kind of poverty that one associates with “world poverty.” We are not talking about towns literally starving to death. But we are talking about towns starving for more. Children are going to bed hungry. Children are, because of the place in which they are born, denied the education, health care, and “fullness of life” that most of us take for granted.

Poverty is real, and it is at our backdoor. Be that inner city or rural poverty and the unique circumstances that cause and facilitate each to fester. Both are real, and real close to home. It’s at my backdoor.

Isolation and exclusion, if not the roots to the problem, at least exacerbate the situation.

We must do all in our power to help bridge the abyss that separates the least of us from the most of us. I must be part of the solution.

“It is a problem that can be solved,” says Dr. Arjun Sengupta.

It will take shear will and active involvement on my part (on all of our parts) combined with my prayers (and our prayers combined) and the strength of God to end the abomination of poverty.

As a people of faith it is our responsibility to call for justice and be a voice in the darkness. I feel that if I do not actively help in the forwarding of human rights, I will be actively hindering them.

Request it, demand it, and/or beg it. Social justice, for all, must be had.

Steve Walton can be reached at xersizing@yahoo.com.

Advocate Online Staff:

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