The Sequester kills: a note from the Reservation

Our good friend the Rev Margaret Watson, who serves on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota,  has posted a heart-felt letter to Congress on her blog. 

The "Sequester" cuts have cut to the bone here on the Reservation. ...they have received no monies since the beginning of March. They are coming to my door asking for heating fuel, food, clothes, diapers. Children are at risk. There are no Tribal programs that can assist these folks, they are mostly disabled, elderly with grandchildren in the home, or are desperate for work.... 

I cannot afford to feed all the people who come to my door asking for help. I have emptied my own freezer, my own cupboard in order to help these desperate folks.
....
In the last six months, I have done 40 funerals --six infants, two teen suicides, and many, many folks under the age 40.

And food, shelter and heat are not the only problems here --the Indian Health Services were also part of the Sequester cuts. And the cuts are affecting the Head Start programs.... 

Have you all become so twisted up in your political lives that you have forgotten the people you have been called to serve?

Go, read the whole thing.  Weep for the suffering people, in the heartland of the "greatest country", at the hands of  Congress.  Share this story widely (this should go viral, people). Send it to your Congress members.  And send  prayers and maybe some material help towards  the Cheyenne River Episcopal Mission in South Dakota.

Cheyenne River Episcopal Mission
c/o Episcopal Diocese of South Dakota
500 S. Main Avenue
Sioux Falls, SD 57104-6814

Prophetic voices, prophetic faces

You may not be following the kerfuffle around the repeal of the Don't Ask, Don't tell (DADT) in the current defense bill. Here are a few facts.

1) President Obama (the Fierce Advocate) said in his State of the Union address that DADT should be repealed.
2) General Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, agrees.
3) So do 70% of Americans
4) Republicans in Congress are upset, and instead of repeal, put a statement in the Defense Appropriations Bill that says there should be a study. The Defense Appropriations bill has a not-quite-repeal provision that calls for a study.
5) The Pentagon had a study, and finds that (surprise!) 70% of military folk agree with repeal. (Aside: this agrees with our experience. My stepdaughter has dated a number of young men in the Marines or in the Navy who have said to a one that yes, they have gay comrades, and who cares?)
6) Sen John McCain promises to filibuster to prevent the Defense Appropriations Bill and its not-quite-repeal, and Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services committee, might eliminate this provision from the bill

Yesterday, a group of activists including veterans Dan Choi and Autumn Sandeen, chained themselves to the White House fence in protest of the lack of Fierce Advocating.

I want to point out to you Fr Geoff Farrow, who was relieved of his duties as an RC priest in California when he refused to "toe the line" supporting Prop8. Fr Geoff was arrested too. Look at that picture.

Prophetic voice?

H/T my cousin Julie who posted this on FB and this site for this amazing photo

Hero of the Day

Hat tip to Nancy P on this one!

Let's raise a toast to the Rev. Louis Braxton for standing up for the rights of another human being!

Four Queens thugs beat priest from the DailyNews by BY PAUL McNAMARA, NICOLE BODE and ETHAN ROUEN DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Wednesday, July 9th 2008, 12:54 AM

Four punks spewing hateful language at a transgender woman outside a shelter for gay and transgender young people in Queens beat up a priest who attempted to thwart their tirade, police said.

The teens started harassing Alessandra-Michelle Carver, 21, as she was dancing in front of Carmen's Place in Astoria about 10:30 p.m. on Monday.

"One of them hit me with a garbage can," she said. "Then his friends started joining in."

With the help of other shelter residents and the Rev. Louis Braxton, who runs the shelter, Carver was able to scare them off.

But minutes later, the boys came back armed with metal poles, empty paint cans, belts and a miter saw. "Father was trying to make peace with them, but then one of them hit him in the back of the head with a paint can," Carver said. "He fell to the ground, and they kept hitting him."

The other residents fended off the attackers, and when the teens finally fled, they ran past Metropolitan Transportation Authority police officers, who nabbed them and charged all four with assault as a hate crime, gang assault, weapon possession and harassment.

"This is a place where we come to regroup and get away from that abuse," Carver said of Carmen's Place, which houses eight people ages 17 to 24.

Those arrested were Tyreek Childs, 17; Trevaugn Payne, 16; Shara Mozie, 17, and a 15-year-old whose name was not released because of his age.

Braxton, who shrugged off the attack after being treated for cuts and bruises at Mount Sinai Hospital of Queens, said men are often threatened by transgender women. "I think that young men see these striking girls, and they're attracted," he said. "And when they find out they are male, they don't know how to handle it and act out in rage."