Social Justice Corner

Meeting

There will be a meeting of the Social Justice Commission on Wednesday, March 17, from 7 to 8 in the parish center.  We will discuss the upcoming visit of   Greg Hitzhusen, the executive director of Ohio Interfaith Power and Light.  We will also plan our Offering of Letters in conjunction with Bread for the World.  This year’s letters revolve around “Bridging the Gap for Working Families.”  We will also form a group to plan, plant, and harvest this year’s community garden.  Last year we were able to take a lot of fresh produce to the food pantry grown right here at St Mary.  If you are interested in any of these or have another Social Justice issue you would like to discuss please come at 7:00 on March 17th.

GREEN SCREEN Environmental Film Series
  Sponsored by the Oxford Interfaith Climate Change Work Group (ICCWG)
                                           Presents

"Coming Home: E.F. Schumacher & the Reinvention of the Local Economy"
                                7:00 PM, March 10, 2010
                     Oxford Community Arts Center, 10 S. College Ave.
                                Free and open to the public

     In 1973, British economist E.F. Schumacher wrote Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered" -- a book that offered a vision of an economy driven by a desire for harmony, not greed; an economy based on community and ecological values, not global financial derivatives.  In the 1970s, Small Is Beautiful helped launch a back to-the-land movement that is the ancestor to the Local Food Revolution of today.
     For the last three decades, the E.F. Schumacher Society has transformed Schumacher's ideas into a series of practical innovations reinventing much of the local economy of Great Barrinton, Massachusetts, and southern Berkshire County in the process.
     COMING HOME tells the story of the Society's remarkable work that includes founding of the nation's first CSA, economic development based on Community Land Trusts, and the creation of the nation's most successful local currency--BerkShares. (37 min.)

The Edward B. Brueggeman Center for Dialogue (at Xavier University)
                                           Presents

                         Discover Africa's Longest War
             "Invisible Children: The Story of Child Soldiers"
                            7:30 PM, March 9, 2010
                   Duff Banquet Center in the Cintas Center
                            Xavier University, Cincinnati
                             Free and open to the public

In 2003, three young American filmmakers traveled to Africa and discovered a tragedy that disturbed and inspired them--the 24-year-long war in Uganda that employs children as both weapons and victims.  More than 66,000 children have been abducted and converted into soldiers.  Many others have been abused and violated by the Lord's Resistance Army, and millions more have been displaced due to the violence.  One such child soldier, originally chronicled in the documentary Invisible Children, Boni, is speaking of his experiences of war and rehabilitation.  He is accompanied by staff from the organization Invisible Children, which seeks to bring to our attention the stories of those affected by the longest running war in Africa.

For more information, please call 610-348-4590 or e-mail kieberemmonsa@xavier.edu