Library Forum Tuesday August 12, 2008 7-8:30

Where is the Moral Outrage in our Church Community Today?

Who is the prophetic voice for peace and justice?

A forum led by Henry Idema III, PhD

Pastoral Assistant Grace Episcopal Church Holland, MI

Tuesday, August 12

7-8:30 PM

Herrick District Library

Auditorium, Lower Level

July Library Series

Resettling Iraqi Refugees in West Michigan:
"I Didn't Know How You Would Receive Me"

July 8th (7pm) Herrick Public Library series meeting

presented by the Lakeshore Women for Peace

The speaker is Elizabeth Smith, the sponsor developer of a refugee settlement program of Bethany Christian Services in Grand Rapids, MI. Ms. Smith also serves as the refugee and immigrations ministries coordinator for the Western Michigan annual conference of the United Methodist Church. She works to train recruit and empower church groups to serve alongside newly arrived refugee families. PARA (Programs Assisting Refugee Acculturation) has resettled over 1,000 refugees in the West Michigan area from Cuba, Sudan, Burma, Bhutan, Liberia, Congo, and now Iraq.

Churches and other groups in the Holland/Zeeland area are invited to send representatives, to learn how they can become involved in supporting the settlement of Iraqi refugees and the special concerns and issues experienced by people coming from the war zone.

June Library Series

The Impact of War on Children and Families
was presented at the Herrick District Library in Holland on June 11, 2008 by Professor Jean McFadden of Grand Valley State University.

Mobilization of troops for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan was correlated with increases in rates of child maltreatment and domestic violence. The impact of deployment and multiple deployments heightened stress on families. Children become traumatized by the war by seeing images on TV, observing parental anxiety, reading newspapers or magazines, and hearing adults or other children talking about the war. It is difficult, if not impossible, to protect children from hearing details about the war. The trauma of military personnel who've seen combat was related to trauma symptoms in children including nightmares, bedwetting, school difficulties, and anxieties about separation.
To date over 4000 US military personnel have lost their lives in Afghanistan and Iraq. 700,000 children in the US have at least one parent deployed overseas. Of these children 90,000 to 100,000 have special needs.

The suicide rate of Iraq veterans is twice that of non veterans according to a CBS investigation. Over 100,000 veterans suffer from post traumatic stress syndrom. The impact of military service on women includes difficulties with attachment when separated from their children, loss of custody in some cases, and a greater risk of returning with complicated emotional issues due to rape or sexual abuse by their military colleagues.

While there are 1200 uniformed social workers and other mental health professionals working with military and their families, professional support is not adequet or enough. Support is needed from a concerned community that reaches out to veterans, children and their families. For example, many severely injured veterans are cared for by their elderly parents who exhaust their retirement savings to provide the help needed.

Peace to the nations

"Finlandia" Music by Jean Sibelius (1899) / Words by Lloyd Stone (1934)

Memorial Day/ Peace Memorial

Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts,
whether our baptism be that of water or of fears!

Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by
irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking
with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be
taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach
them of charity, mercy and patience.

We women of one country will be too tender of those of another
country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. From
the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says "Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance
of justice."

Blood does not wipe our dishonor nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons
of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a
great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women,
to bewail and commemorate the dead.

Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the
means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each
bearing after their own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
but of God.

In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a
general congress of women without limit of nationality may be
appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at
the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the
alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement
of international questions, the great and general interests of
peace.

Julia Ward Howe
Boston
1870

Event sponsored by Bill Freeman of The Journey church in Holland:

Picketing For Peace in downtown Holland every Wednesday from 4:30-5:30 p.m. beginning next Wednesday, May 21, 2008 We'll start at Skiles Pizza, on 8th and Columbia, and walk on the sidewalk down to the police station and back. (Bring your own sign.)

Let Bill Freeman <bill.freeman@thejourneyholland.org know if you can join along. (Bill says:"I feel like we should do something to remind people the war in Iraq is still killing our troops and other human beings.")

Bill Freeman
Pastor
The Journey
Holland, MI 49423
(616) 894-0020
www.thejourneyholland.org

Mother's Day for Peace

The original intention for the concept of "Mother's Day" was introduced by Julia Ward Howe in 1870. She was inspired to write a proclamation; a call for peace and disarmament after our nation's Civil War.