Empowerment

By Jeffery Odell Korgen

The book’s theme: transform social structures so that they promote human dignity

The U.S.  Catholic Bishops founded Catholic Campaign for Human Development, CCHD to help “people who are poor speak and act for themselves.”  Empowerment is one tool CCHD promotes toward that end, but empowerment is a word that many people define differently.  Empowerment is beyond a simple interpretation of giving power.   It is enabling people a means to find dignity in their lives.    In many ways, Catholic social teaching principles expressed in the popular catechetical tool follow this principle: “The Two Feet of Love in Action.”  One foot represents “social justice and the other stands for charitable works.  Both feet are needed to move toward the Kingdom of God and their relationship is complementary.  Before I lose a large percentage of readers that were able to get beyond the word catholic at the beginning of this review, let me share my view of the three words, “Kingdom of God.”  In one word: reality.  Expanded: ‘things as there are by themselves by themselves.’  Metaphorically, ‘a rose is itself by itself, it just wants to bloom.   So let it bloom.’

This book sets out six different stories spanning various scenarios where a group of people have climbed out of systematic social injustice brought upon them.  The process is largely the same that begins with a solidarity around common cause.  Band as a group, identify the social injustice and the root causes, and more than anything else; set a strategy to climb your way out ON YOUR OWN.   This is a brand solidarity that does more than achieve a fair arrangement on a social ladder that allows for improved living conditions.  It brings a sustainable solution that is founded in human dignity which is the bedrock for world peace.  No man of dignity would find it in his conscious to wage war against another man, but would rather look at his fellow man and ask, “How can I help you?”

The social groups written about in this book begin with people on the fringe in the Bayou, who are simply seeking a place at the table.  The folks there are from many social reasons not endeared with the same skills as a person from say suburban Midwest America.   In Meat Linderesesas: Women’s Justice Circles you read about women who endure situations of exclusion, mistreatment and violence, since they are frequently less able to defend their rights.   In Voices of Solidarity:  Workers Centers and Social Enterprises; you read about systematic injustices stemmed from employment law loopholes that socially corrupt entrepreneurs exploit.  In Who’s Got the Tickets”: Progress Center for Independent Living; you read about activism in Chicago focused on people who overcome physical disabilities, and the social disentrancement that comes with them.   In the Power of Himdag; you read about an Arizona Indian tribe suffering from poverty and obesity at the hands of the U. S. government, reclaim along with their dignity and empowerment, their heritage.  And finally in Jobs not Jails: you read about how ex cons  have organized to change a system that does nothing to move past their crime and punishment.

Himdag is my favorite chapter because it speaks to a phrase that goes like this ‘be careful how you help as you may make the problem worse.’  In this chapter the O’odham tribe had been living on the dole of the U.S. government in retribution for their relegation to a reservation.  This U.S. crime is not to be taken lightly.  The O’odam reclaimed their heritage by reconnecting to their tribal food source.  They turned away the government supply line of processed food that did not fit with their DNA base metabolism.  In the process they found their health in body, and soul.  They also organized an economic revival based on their reclaimed food source that was in tune with their desert environment.  The theme here is through ever so small investment from CCHD and coaching through the process, the O’odham charted their way back to who they once were.  They did this just in time, because while the movement required the energy of the youth, they were able to reach back to their elders the last remaining generation for council before they became mere legends.  I encourage the readers of this review to spend time to read and dwell on my bibliography notes on this chapter.  If you don’t read the book, at least you have a ‘cliff notes’  synopsis (beginning  at location 1736), of a lesson on taking responsibility for taking back what is yours………dignity.

Bibliography Notes:

1.       Location  74:  Who are the excluded among us in the United States?  Some are hidden, some hidden in plain sight.  Maybe they are disabled; maybe they live in a Native American Indian nation.  Perhaps they were raised in a “no-parent” family, or they are unauthorized migrants or ex-prisoners.  Pope Francis calls us to be a church of and for these excluded people.  Isn’t it time we got to know them better?

2.      

      Location  76:  This book is a faith journey with the excluded, guided by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), which funds economic development and organizing among the poorest communities in the United States.

3.      

      Location  120:  We are each made in the image and likeness of God and therefore possess an inherent dignity.  Dignity given by God

4.     
      Location  144:  Each November, in parishes throughout the United States, Catholics contribute to an annual collection supporting CCHD’s grant making to community organizing and economic development organizations led by people living in poverty.  Local bishops send three-fourths of the collection to the national CCHD office, and one-fourth stays in their diocese to be used for local poverty alleviation efforts.  In 2013, the CCHD national office received almost $10 million in contributions, distributing about $7million to 157 organizing projects and close to $2 million to 37economic ventures.

5.       Many in Louisiana….organizing themselves in Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD)-funded economic development and organizing projects, some of these leaders have responded not with bitterness or the language of victimhood .  They have instead called for a place at the table of public life where decisions are made.

a.       My Comment: this approach is exactly what I saw missing in the book ‘The Covenant’. 

6.      

      Location  220:  At Café Reconcile….all students take a drug test upon acceptance, but failing it does not disqualify them from participation; it is for diagnostic purposes – to assess their baseline issues.  When it comes time for their internships to begin, nine weeks later, they must be clean.

7.      

          Location  257:  Ernetts described some of the changes she made as result of the training – including how she spoke.  “I learned how to talk with inside people,” she said, “instead of how I talk to my friends.”  At Café Reconcile, this is called “code switching,” changing ones speech based on immediate social context.  Street slang is for the streets; polite standard English is for the workplace.  “Some  customers,” she said, “they’d be like, ‘How are you doing?’ And I’m like ‘Fine you? But to my friends, I’d say ,’Hey girl!”

8.       

 Location  550:  Preservation of the land, it is without question the greatest challenge the organization has ever faced.

9.       

       Location  951: at Workers Centers and Social Enterprises Esmeralda’s tirades:  “you guys are undocumented.  You come here to clean.  And you come to clean the mierda!”  She felt a familiar flush of anger.  “Yes.” She thought.  “I am undocumented.  Bt that didn’t give you the right to steal our wages.”

a.       My Comment: If she is undocumented both parties are at risk.  Esmeralda for employing undocumented immigrants.  The workers for being here illegally.  Under the law neither has rights.  There is a social justice question, but our legal system is designed for legal justice that is logical, where social justice comes from a place of compassion, the heart. If a person follows his heart, if all persons followed their hearts there would be little need for a legal system that is essentially blind to social justice.

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        Location  972:  “Because we taught our employer that even though we don’t have legal status, we do have rights.

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      Location  983:  In September 2009, a nationally recognized team of scholars working on behalf of three research organizations released the largest study ever undertaken on wage theft.  Over 4,300 low-wage workers were interviewed in 13 languages by 62 field staff, throughout New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.  1.) In all unauthorized migrants made up 38.8 percent of the workers, 2.) a representative sample of the urban low-wage work force revealed wide spread and systematic wage violations across many sectors of the low-wage urban economy.

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     Location  1029:   If you haven’t already guessed it, the WHD has a serious backlog of cases, which precludes initiating investigations within six months.  GAO investigators found backlogs of seven to eight months at one regional office and thirteen in another.  These backlogs are troubling because the federal statute of limitations to collect back wages under the Fair Labor Standards Act is “two years from the date of the employer’s failure to pay correct wages.  However unfair this provision may sound, given the backlog of cases, federal courts still enforce the statute of limitations

a.       My comment:  All this points to MORE failure of government programs.

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     Location  1195:  the NWAEJC has launched a campaign against the Obama Administration’ Department of Agriculture’s USDA proposed new “Poultry Modernization” rules.  These regulations would allow increased line speeds in poultry processing, raising the likelihood of worker injuries and inspectors missing more feces, bile, and scabs on chickens passing through the line.  The poultry industry, for its part, promises to treat chicken products with an additional antibacterial bleach solution to compensate.  Although the health risks to consumers have been noted by the industry, poultry companies have said relatively little about worker safety.

     Location  1199:  Modernization line speed changes dropped, NWAWJC leaders would like to see safety committees convened in each plant, to identify ways to prevent injuries and health problems.  If such committees existed, Mercedes Rodriguez might have found and exit sooner when an ammonia explosion rocked the Tyson Foods poultry plant in which she worked, there was no exist sign,” she explained, “and no trainings on how to evacuate the building whatsoever!”  Since her exposure, Mercedes has been diagnosed with asthma, and she suffers from chronic nasal congestion as well as acid reflux.  Her workers compensation case is proceeding, but her main interest is making sure other workers are not exposed to chemicals simply because they do not know the exit route.

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     Location  1373:  Henry approaches his advocacy work first with an attempt to establish rapport – with legislators, legislative staff, and consumers.  He has found public officials generally responsive to that style.  “But what we need is for them to respond to what we see the issues are and what we need, and to understand that we vote.  The vote is our power,” he said. “We are not asking for anything that everybody else is not getting.  We want to be able to go into a restaurant and sit down at the table with everybody else, and not have a table in the closet where people with disabilities eat.”

a.       My Comment:  The essential difference between this quote and the quotes coming from the book The Covenant, and the voice of protests like Black Lives Matter, is this person is simply asking government assistance that everybody else would want.  He doesn’t want anything special, but just to sit at the same table as the rest of the world

b.      I need to do a search on the demographics of the gay-v-disabled population and draw a measured comparison of the Issue/voice.  The question that needs to be addressed, is why to you hear so much from one group and not enough from the other?  Is it the press?   Or is the disabled working on the wrong strategy?

c.       Later in the book we read that disabled Americans are 20%, the largest minority with a very meek voice.  

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         Location  1388:  Saint John Paul II once observed’ “human works is a key, probably the essential key, to the whole social question.”  By extension, work is also the key to Integral Human Development.  Work helps people feel worthwhile; it is a creative outlet.  Work provides remuneration to attend a host of personal needs and to invest in one’s continued development.  John Paul didn’t stop there, noting that through work humans participate in God’s ongoing creation of the universe.  Helping disabled people find meaningful work is therefore an essential part of Progress Center’s mission, an element that brings staff like Horacio face-to-face with employment discrimination.

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      Location  1416:  In many ways, Progress Center embodies the Catholic social teaching principles expressed in the popular catechetical tool “The Two Feet of Love in Action.”  One foot represents “social justice (addressing systemic, root causes of problems that affect many people). And the other stands for charitable works. (Short-term, emergency assistance for individuals.  Bothe feet are needed to move toward the Kingdom of God and their relationship is complementary.

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     Location  1440:  Growing in confidence, Ernesto began to take long walks, simply for the fitness benefits.  Fluent in Braille, he studied to become a Braille instructor for undocumented immigrants ineligible for government services.  He distributes canes obtained by Progress Center to sight-impaired Latinos living in the shadows, “excluded” from the social safety net.  In a sense Ernesto became a volunteer emissary for Progress Center, helping Latinos move toward independence.

a.       Helping undocumented immigrants without government participation can only be done through NGO/NPOs.  This is as it should be and the conscious of ONE People under God should require no boarders and no One Nation Under God, but simply the Holy Spirit of mankind.

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      Location  1451:  As a group, people with disabilities now comprise over 54M people, almost 20 percent of the population.  “We are the biggest minority group in the country.

a.       And the quietest group in going about achieving their own social justice

2     Location  1456:  Today Progress Center seeks to increase disabled consumer’s ability to act, to bring power to the table of public life.

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     Location 1486:  NIMBY means “Not In My Back Yard.”  The term emerged in the 1970s withing the hazardous waste industry to describe residents who opposed local toxic waste disposal projects.  NIMBY has since become much more broadly used to describe groups of typically middle-class neighbors who band together to oppose any number of developments, such as affordable housing for people living in poverty, housing for people with disabilities, infrastructure development like airports, commuter rail lines… etc.

a.       My comment is this is the concept of zoning.  I see little wrong with zoning, however I take objection to those who make a living (typically government positions) off of serving the poor while in their private lives choose to live at a distance from those people they serve.  When they do this out of superiority it’s pungent as they are simply making a living off of the plight of the poor.

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L    Location  1491:  Reasons for opposition typically include fears of reduced property values, greater risk to the community members, increases in crime, loss of small town atmosphere, and disproportionate benefit to “outsiders.”  NIMBY often make fair points, but if every community took their approach, we would have no places to process waste, and nowhere for people with various challenges and disabilities to live.  Frequently, these developments end up being placed where poor and unorganized people live, itself an injustice.

2     Location  1515:  Over time, Loree has developed what she calls a an “intuitive gift, to look into a person, see their gifts, and then encourage them past any hesitancy, to let those gifts come right out.”

2     Location  1567:  Gerardo continued, identifying the personal cost of this intersection of exclusions.  “There’s adaptive technology that Progress Center has, like computer screen readers,” he said.  “But in my case, I’m not a resident alien or a citizen.   I don’t have access to that.  Agencies have the programs, the services, bit we’re not eligible.”  Later, I mention Gerado’s point to Horacio.  He is horrified.

a.       My Comment: If they are aliens, they should pursue the NGO/NPO route of which there are plenty.  I struggle to see where the government should come to the aid of aliens when there are suitable alternatives.  All organizations have their missions and roles and there is no reason to mix them up.

2    Location  1659: In 2006, Cook County Commissioner Bob Simon ordered the deportation of any unauthorized immigrants in the long-term care facility as a means of cost cutting.  The move alarmed both the disability community and politically active Latinos.  Artemio organized a group of protesters within the hospital.  The Progress Center sent leaders to protest throughout Cook county. Robert Maldonado took up the cause and became the barer of Progress Center leader’s stories to fellow commissioners.

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      Location  1736:  The Power of Himdag:  Early on in TOCA leaders who researched these programs discovered that the foundation of the meals provided was simply put a heap of sugar.  On a school cafeteria tour, they saw the day’s breakfast: pancakes with syrup, fruit cocktail I syrup, and chocolate milk.  “Sugar upon sugar,” Tristan described.  If, as many nutritional scientists suggest, Native American, in general have a genetic predisposition to diabetes, this government-sponsored menu is nothing short of smallpox blankets, however well intended.  Scientists suggest that ten thousand years of foraging, hunting and farming in the desert switched various O’dham genes for metabolism on and off until their bodies became particularly at tuning calories into fat.  As a cactus conserves water, their bodies conserve fat, which worked well as long as they consumed traditional high –fiber, slow digesting foods, like tepary beans, prickly pear, and ciolim (pronounced CHO luhm, cactus buds).

      Location  1750:  Families began to center their diets around highly processed foods purchased at stores with the men’s wages and processed commodity foods paid for by the U.S. government and distributed through various welfare programs.

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      Location  1759:  Of the Tohono O’odham Indian nation:  But how sovereign is a nation if it is entirely dependant on outsiders for its food supply? [the result of being conquered and then ‘compensated’] By the same token, if a large portion of its population is unemployed and dependent on outside welfare programs, how sovereign is that nation?

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     Location  1762:   Of those employed in the formal economy, three fourth hold public sector positions.

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     Location  1765:  Terrol observed many basket weavers supplementing their income through the sale of handicrafts, but they were exploited by outside traders who offered minimal payment, then steeply marked up prices for resale.

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     Location  1779:  No support from tribal government was forthcoming, but Terrol and Tristan nevertheless raise enough donations and grant money, including $15,000 from Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), to launch TOCA.

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     Location  1782:  the need for cultural revitalization, economic development, the rebuilding of food systems, empowerment of youth, and the promotion of health and wellness among all of the Tohono O’odham

     Location  1826:  When his family moved to Sells, he signed up for a fifteen-month TOCA youth internship.  A dozen youth aged fourteen to twenty-five participated, learning abouth O’odham foods; traditional stories and songs, and games

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     Location  1835:  Juki and Jesse reflected on their Project Oidag experience, they displayed an interest in growing produce, but and even greater passion for the cultural dimensions of the traditional O’odham farming, learning concepts like s-wa:gima (pronounced SWAG eh meh), which means to be industrious and hardworking.

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     Location  1839: Project Oidag endeared Oidag gardeners to their grandparents, the O’odham elders, who recall a time when the Tohono Nation produced much of its own food and now play a vital role in TOCA, teaching youth and yound adults how to prepare the traditional foods.

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      Location  1844:  Each family had their own fields that they managed.  It’s pretty cool to be able to talk to him, and they are pretty excited to hear that we’re trying to get the youth back into it.  That’s where it all lies, with them.

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      Location  1870:  As Noland immersed himself in the work of mentoring farmers, a change began to set in.  He recalled, “I’m more patient now.  I can step back and let ideas flow.  I’m not yelling like I use to.  I’m also more outspoken.  In school, I was the quiet kid in the back.  Now I’m on the district council for the area around Cowlic and serve on several committees.”  The quiet kid in the back” became Sterling’s professor.

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      Location  1881:  But Sterling’s development did not end there.  Aftera few months he came to view his internship less as a job than a “sacred practice”

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    Location  1884:  He also began to take better care of his body and relationships, achieving a purer mind-set as he approached his work.  “You have to be pure of mind and let go of whatever might be blocking you, so you can focus that energy within you on prayer,” he said.

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     Location  1887:  But just as important, we’ve got to teach why we value food through the stories and legends about why these foods were given to us.”

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     Location  1924:  With that joyful discussion of “good food.” We continued our interview.  Since 2002, opening a native foods café had been one of Terrol’s dreams.

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     Location  1937:  bit the next step, TOCA staff believe, is changing the practices of the major institutional food providers.  These businesses provide meals for reservation schools, in the HIS hospital, and tribe’s Early Childhood Education program.

      Location  1971:  Healthy Schools Campaign and National Farm to School Network with its tepary bean quesadilla recipe no served in the reservation schools.

a.       My comment replacing twinkies and ho ho’s

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     Location  1987:  TOCA is not waiting for national reform of the school lunch programs.  With two farms up and running, new farmers in training, the café doing brisk business and drawing increased catering work, TOCA is poised to take the next step – a fully operative food production and distribution system.  To that end TOCA founded Desert Rain Food Services, led by Brooklyn native Stephanie Lip, a Food Crops volunteer who, like so many others, opted to stick around after her term of service ended working with the Bureau.

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       Location  2011:  Before TOCA founded the Tohono O’odham Basket Weaver’s Organization (TOBO).  Rose used to sell small baskets for $20.  Now, she brings in percent  an average of $60 per item, via the Association’s Desert Rain Gallery.  Weavers get paid 85 percent of a basket’s sale price, with 15 percent earmarked for the gallery’s rent and management.  TOBO launched with a$7500CCHD startup grant.

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     Location  2027:  to support this pan-tribal vision TOCA published the first issue of Native Foodways magazine in 2013, through funding from the US  Department of Agriculture’s Office of Outreach and Advocacy for the Socially Disadvantaged Farmers.  A quarterly, the  magazine features articles on various tribes’ efforts to preserve traditional foodways and preservation diets.

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      Location   2034:  Profiles of award-winning Native  American chefs,  several of whom bring traditional foods to tribal casinos, add personal narratives to the metastory of various tribes and their centuries-long relationship to local foods.   Additional commentary explains the notion of food sovereignty and provides the nutritional and  cultural rationale for adopting preservation  diets.  Recipes abound throughout each issue along with  “serving suggestions” photography that will make the reader want to  try the foods immediately

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     Location  2054: …many O’odham lacked “the ability to act.”  Today, they have power to respond, but also so much more: they are reclaiming their ‘himdag.’    In addition, the tribe as a whole is inching toward greater sovereignty as the traditional foods portion of the reservation economy grows.

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     Location  2129:  Refusing to hire applicants with criminal records has become de facto means of racial discrimination.  Because African Americans account for 28.3 percent of all arrests in the United States while comprising 12.9 percent of the population, ruling out such applicants means ruling out African Americans disproportionately.  That is why it is illegal to refuse to hire someone solely on the basis of a criminal record, when the conviction bears no relevance to the job in question

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     Location  2228:  If Jobs Not Jails is to succeed, EPOCA will need to bring in even more faith-based and community partners.  A crowd of ten thousand is not enough to move legislation so transformative.  EPOCA’s nascent partnership with the Society of St Vincent de Paul offers some encouragement.  Nationally, the Society seeks to return with returning citizens to meet basic needs but also to partner with them to transform social structures that promote recidivism and the ongoing cycle of poverty

5      Location  2232:  statewide chapters who have partnered with CCHD funded organizations to work to dismantle the Scarlet “X”. 

a.       Obama signed this into law with bipartisan endorsement of Congress.