Day 2 East Coast Tour

I'm one day behind in the blogs. Sorry about that! I'm hoping to catch up this afternoon. Yesterday morning was a very interesting, sad, difficult morning. We arrived at Christopher Dock High School, in Souderton, PA, for the morning chapel. Darryl, Abe and I were given about 20 minutes to speak and sing about the Generations program. When we arrived in the chapel we were met by one of the administrators of the school, who was clearly shaken up. She told us that earlier that morning, as they arrived at school, they came across racist graffiti on the front sidewalk leading up to the school, as well as on the school building. The graffiti was threatening and targeted African Americans, Latino's, and Christians. The reaction of the student body ranged from fear (several students went home), to anger, frustration, and some clearly not knowing how to respond appropriately or helpfully. We offered to pull out of the chapel and allow them to work with the students in whatever way they believed was best. They wanted us to stay, and while it was difficult to know how to speak to students, some of whom were clearly traumatized, we spoke and sang about the marginalization of people with AIDS, about AIDS victims being seen as the lepers of the 21st century. Some feedback was good, positive, one student expressed publically his discomfort with the school going ahead with a presentation about AIDS, when there was an issue right there that needed to be dealt with. It was a healthy and difficult exchange. How do we get to a place in our society where the richness of our differences is embraced, and where the similarity of our humanity is embraced? In the afternoon we spent time with MCC East Coast Philadelphia staff. What an energizing and inspiring group of people to be with and learn from. They are working in the community with anti-poverty initiatives, housing programs, and anti-violence/guns issues, along with Material Resources, Relief Sales, etc. In 2010, Winnipeg, MB, was named murder capitol of the year a few years back...at approximately 30 murders/year. In 2010, Philadelphia dealt with a total of 300 gun related deaths.