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Lansing - Town Hall
Town Hall in Lansing
By Sister Linda Werthman, RSM
September 26, 2014
Our first event
in Lansing, Michigan, was so energizing and inspiring. We listened to people’s
hopes, seen:
in
the actions of mothers and grandmothers paying it forward to their children and
grandchildren through teaching and practicing respect and care for all
in
the baby-steps that individuals take that have the potential for being the foundation
for the next giant leap forward in how we interpret "promoting the general
welfare" in the Preamble of the Constitution for the 21st Century
in
the memory of the reality of what was accomplished in the 20th century that created opportunities for many in
the 21st century, realities such as civil rights, women's movement
in
the sense of solidarity with others that allows one to keep on keeping on.
When
sitting with persons who were sharing around how we can move forward, I heard
practical ideas from people who were already walking the talk. Ideas such as:
when
we work to register and enable people to participate in the democratic process of voting we need to understand that the effort is
a spiral process of persons
understanding. Not everyone can or will hear why voting is important the first time. We need to be in the effort for the long haul. If
Scotland can have an 80%
turnout for their last election about whether to separate from England, can we
not increase our turnout to at least 60%? Do we really believe that we have a
crisis in our capitalistic democracy?
make
it easier to vote by universal early voting, mailing ballots to all, assistance to
those with limited literacy competence.
A couple
of lines that will stay with me for some time:
Hope is a communal activity
We
need to re-ignite the fire for the common good which for me is the Catholic language
for "promoting the general welfare."
