Tag Archives: jim wallis

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Who needs Archbishop Romero in their textbook?

Jimmy McCarty wrote a post on the God’s Politics blog by Jim Wallis about his impressions of Romero. In this post, you’ll see an imbedded video from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart detailing how a board of education in Texas decided whether or not to include Romero in the textbook. As McCarty writes, skip to 2:29 if you want to miss adult humor and go straight to the subject at hand.

I cried when I watched this. It’s yet another way I’ve found it difficult to control my emotions in the last 48 hours since returning home. It’s the “disappeared” comment that really got me. But I must say, it’s for good reason, as that video aired the night before we left on our trip and this woman truly lives in her willful ignorance. It really makes me sad.

If you don’t want to read McCarty’s article, here’s the link to the video directly.

What do you think?

-nm

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Pre-Trip Reading: Globalization at What Price?

Students going to El Salvador have been assigned a handful of books to read before the trip and after the trip, each requiring a brief written reaction piece. Here’s one of mine:

Globalization at What Price? by Pamela K. Brubaker

We live in a global market and just when we thought the recession was hitting the U.S. hard, Pamela Brubaker posits others around the world have suffered for the U.S. consumer’s benefit for a long, long time. This is a topic which is coming more and more to the forefront for today’s recession-immersed society. As we reflect on how we got here and ask ourselves where we go from here, not only in terms of the current state of the US economy but in our relations to the global market, this book states the case for giving developing countries a break in terms of distribution of work and wealth.

The two items Brubaker focuses on which I found most harrowing were food and clothing. Pointing out how globalization affects my daily life is a great way to get me to think about this more. She uses the term “McDonaldization” to describe how the food industry and service industries uses labor practices which prey on the weak and “maquilization” to describe many of the same practices in agriculture (Brubaker, 55-56). Pointing out how my one-dollar McDouble is making other people’s lives miserable is enough to make me think twice about buying one (as if the health concerns weren’t enough already). Continue reading →