Beauty in the midst of Challenge

 Beauty in a tree just outside our deck. Remembrance of a creating and recreating God in the midst of climate change crisis, justice inequality, a continuing pandemic, threats to our democracy and peaceful transfer of power. Courage, my friends for such a time as this!

Church as a Redemptive Community

Church as a Redemptive Community

(Fifth of six excerpts from an article I wrote in 1964)

As a Church we begin each week in repentance, and then having worshipped as the Body of Christ, we begin to be the Church, functioning as a redemptive community. . . to make the Body One.  Love is not easy, but it does not count costs. Tokenism, “middle-of-the roadism,” gradualism, and calculated love have no place. Wisdom does.

We begin each day, not fearing “What might happen”: “We might offend,” “Some might leave the church,” “The Negroes [African Americans] might take over,” “The value of my home might go down.” We begin each day, not despairing: “The White community might not accept me,” “There’s no hope, why ask for trouble?” “Things will never be better.”  

We begin in the most real pessimism, knowing how sinful our hearts are, which no program of social justice, no national tragedy will cure.  And yet we begin with the most real optimism, trusting confidently that Christ has conquered sin and Satan, and the power of the Holy Spirit in the “Sleeping Giant” of the Church can indeed do more than we could possibly dream.

"Unprecedented!" "Virtual," Yes, but Epidemics, No

Unprecedented! That word begins most newscasts these days. But yesterday I attended the virtual Commencement of 2020 Yale Divinity School graduates. (I’m class of 1976.) In the 319 years of its history, “virtual” was unprecedented.  However, the situation is not. Classes at YDS were suspended for six years during the Revolutionary War. During the global pandemic of 1917-18, over 700 citizens of New Haven died.

        Fevers and plagues seemed never unprecedented. Ezra Stiles, president of Yale University 1781-1795, wrote in his diary on Feb. 10, 1794, that “the town was alarmed by the danger of spreading Scarlet Fever.” On March 15 a student died. The next day: “four students sick with Scarletina fever.” On March 31 President Stiles wrote, “I myself and wife taken sick . . . released many scholars to go home. . .” On April 2 Stiles discontinued all college activities.

       Then, just 3 months later, Stiles diary: “The Yellow fever brought in by a vessel has been lurking about and proves dreadful. More mortal than small pox.” And Scarlet fever, “tho’ much abated” was “yet extant.” Only half the students returned for the next term. September 5^th Stiles wrote about what we today call, “social distancing” and “contact tracing”: “Hitherto I have believed that by the care and vigilance of the Authy [Authorities] it might be guarded & its progress checked, as we could hitherto trace all instances. . .I begin to give up the possibility of preventing its spreadg [spreading].”

     About 5 months before he himself would die of a “bilious fever,” Stiles wrote a “Bill of Morty for New Haven the Year 1794,” based on his notebook of daily statistics on the epidemics. The data collected by Stiles and New Haven County physicians led to the founding of the city’s first board of health in 1795. The data were also used by Noah Webster (Yale 1778) in his pioneering 1799 work, “A Brief History of Epidemic and Pestilential Diseases” which became a standard text in early medical schools.” (from an article by Judith Ann Schiff, chief research archivist at the Yale University Library, published in Yale Alumni magazine, May/June 2020)

          Des Moines Register news release this afternoon, May 19, 2020: Officials report 15,296 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Iowa with 367 deaths statewide.  

    

          What a Christ-centered Yale Divinity School virtual commencement it was! Current Yale Divinity School dean, Gregory Sterling, quoted St. Paul in Romans and 2 Corinthians.  “The one who rescued us from so deadly a peril will continue to rescue us; on God we have set our hope. . .” (2 Cor. 1:10)

God's Care is Communal

God’s Care is Communal

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Eph l:2)

Peace be to the whole community, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all who have an undying love for our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. (Ephesians 6:23)

I recently heard someone say, “I’m not afraid to go out during this COVID-19 scare. I trust God will take care of me.” Fear. Trust. Care. I admired her faith. God does care for every single one of us during times of fear. We can trust that. However, God’s care is communal. God’s care in Christ is not just for every “single” one of us, but for the whole community. God’s grace extends beyond my own personal “undying love” for Jesus to the whole world.

Living in Christ, I may not be afraid to die, but neither am I to neglect concern for the lives of everyone else, particularly the most vulnerable.

The Epistle greetings and blessings are always plural. (“You” is a plural “you.”) I have seen it. Haven’t you? People really caring for each other. We will need to continue to take precautions, to really care, today, tomorrow, for all time to come.

Prayer:

Now to the one who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen (Ephesians 3:20)

Norma Cook Everist, DeacPost Devotion

Palm Sunday Procession from Coast to Coast

Palm Sunday. This year when we could not physically participate in a procession at church, I was privileged to walk with Jesus on a journey that began with an online service in Northwood Iowa, where husband Burton shares an interim call, to hearing the church bells ring at a Canadian Lutheran Church in Nova Scotia, back to Iowa, to the on-line service at our congregation here in Mason City. Then on to Wisconsin, hearing more about Jesus’ life from the preaching of a pastor/friend, a Wartburg graduate.  My journey-procession concluded at the end of this day with a Zoom conversation, where I talked on the road in San Francisco with a Jewish woman.  I am thankful for these profound events as I, with Christ, enter Holy Week.

"Until Iowa" Post 5 Cory Booker Really Listened

“Until Iowa” Post 5: I began to write this morning: “As I enter my Iowa caucus in 21 days, I’m in Cory Booker’s corner.” I’ve been meeting candidates for months now and had been most impressed with Cory. But at noon I received word from Booker, “It’s with a full heart that I share this news -- I’ve made the decision to suspend my campaign for president.”

He listened, really listened, and learned from us. He is deeply committed to bringing this country together. He is a man of faith, extraordinarily intelligent, street-smart, globally informed, and locally astute. I respect his collaborative leadership style. He lives his convictions, going home to his residence in Newark rather than “moving on up.”  He’s “in touch” with all economic groups, across color lines.

Cory gathered many of endorsements early in Iowa. He continues to be in the “second tier” of candidates in the polls, and actually went up in a poll 1 point today from yesterday. Yet he was rarely mentioned in the press, even his dropping out today. I would love to have seen him stay in through Iowa because this year the first round of votes will be reported out (whose corner you go to when you enter the room) as well as the second, realignment.  But lack of money, not qualifying for this debate and his responsibility in Trump’s impeachment trial made him make the decision today.

We will miss Cory. He has a deep understanding of farm issues and foreign affairs—and of their connection.   We need his aggressive plan on gun safety, his work on criminal justice reform, protection of reproductive rights, his advocacy for people with disabilities, and his standing up for people and communities that have been left out and left behind.

Race! It is still about race. It has been for decades and centuries. Cory would tell the story of how his parents tried to buy a home in a segregated neighborhood and how people of courage had to work together to challenge the system to make that happen during the Civil Rights Era. The Obama administration argued that to fulfill the Fair Housing Act of 1968 agencies still had to address disparities in housing, integrate neighborhoods and transform racially concentrated areas of poverty into areas of opportunity. This January The Trump administration plans to propose pulling back Obama-era efforts to desegregate housing, saying they were burdensome.

This January Corry Booker and other candidates of color have had to drop out of the primaries. We need them.  I’m still in Cory’s corner.

"Until Iowa" 28 Days: Civil and Civic Conversations

“Until Iowa” Post 3. We gathered at the Mason City Public Library Saturday morning with our State Senator Amanda Ragan and State Representative Sharon Steckman for a “legislative preview.” Never mind that next door at the Art Museum Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer also would be speaking Saturday and across the street in the other direction candidate Bernie Sanders would be speaking at Music Man Square Saturday evening. Those events also would be full.

However, decisions made by states matter too—greatly! At our meeting people of all age groups talked calmly, intelligently, and knowledgeably about a full range of topics facing us this legislative term. We began with the need for emergency services. Sometimes people have to wait 45 minutes for an ambulance. Volunteers work hard; the need grows.

Next the group delved into mental health issues, for youth and adults. We need more counselors in schools. This led to the important issue of public education. Iowa for decades has been known for excellent public schools for all children, but budget cuts are hurting. There is a need for child care and nursing home workers, and for raising the minimum wage.

Another big issue is water quality. For nearly two hours the conversation continued, people sharing knowledge and asking each other questions.  We ended with talking about the upcoming Iowa Caucus sites.  What I participated in Saturday WAS the kind of civil and civic conversation around issues that happens at an Iowa Caucus.

Tweet 3 of “Until Iowa” Besides Tom Steyer and Bernie Sanders being here Sat., we gathered with our State Senator and Representative about issues of mental health, public education, water quality and more. Calm, intelligent conversation. This IS like an Iowa Caucus

"Until Iowa" 31 days: Homelessness

How many days “Until Iowa”?  “Iowa is” already but writing this snowy February 3 it’s 31 days until the Iowa Caucuses. So, here’s my second post on the subject.

A national news commentator whom I trust and admire recently was in mid-America doing a story. I was surprised the commentator was surprised to discover homelessness in the Midwest, saying, “I thought homelessness was in the big cities of the East and West coasts, not in rural America.” First, we in Iowa, know that here many people—many of us-- are without houses, without shelter, without homes, in our cities, towns and rural areas. Second, these United States should not be divided into rural and urban, nor into red states and blue states. On Iowa license plates are silhouette images of city buildings and farm structures.

Third, most important for contemplation of “until Iowa,” is that the poverty which leads to homelessness is a major problem everywhere.  AND, people who are poor, who are without an address, deserve to vote. Such votes of real people are needed! Homelessness, joblessness and poverty need to be alleviated. That’s the challenge for “until Iowa” and beyond.

"Until Iowa" Thirty Four Days

How Many Days “Until Iowa”?  Writing this New Year’s Eve, it’s 34 days until the Iowa Caucuses, but “Iowa” has been a state since 1846, and indigenous tribes lived on this land centuries before. Democratic candidates have spent months here. We have had the privilege and responsibility of meeting and having conversations with many. Iowa is! However, during the “until” I have decided to post some of my observations. So, here goes for today! 

The perception remains among some that Iowa is “fly over country” where people don’t live in the 21^st century. For instance, I noticed that whoever prepared the current TV ad for Andrew Yang pictured a farm woman and child standing in front of an old fashioned windmill from 70 years ago. Missing in the picture are the wind turbines one sees driving (or flying over) this state. Iowa leads the nation in per capita wind power capacity. Iowa was the first state to generate more than 30% of its electricity with wind power. The climate crisis is real and we need to act now.  More on “Until Iowa” in posts to come.

Birthday Week Thanks and Thoughts

Surrounded by my loving husband, Burton, family, and friends, I give thanks for a community of care.

I was Born Nov 6, 1938.  A few days later that week, Nov 9-10, was Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Grass, the start of the Holocaust, when Nazis destroyed 250 synagogues throughout Germany, as well as Jewish hospitals, businesses, and schools, and 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and incarcerated. My birth week reminds me to pay attention to the rise of hate.

This year Nov. 4-9 we commemorate the 30^th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1989 Gethsemane Church in East Berlin became a center for the peaceful revolution for freedom. It was a sanctuary church and a place for public discussions. Within 5 days the non-violent protest grew to thousands and the Wall came down.  I continue to believe the local and global church is called to public theology and prophetic action.

Often Nov. 6 is Election Day. Some notables: In 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States. Presidents re-elected on Nov. 6^th include: 1940: Franklin Roosevelt; 1956: Dwight Eisenhower; 1984: Ronald Reagan; 2012: Barack Obama. My birthday has always urged me to commit to engage, participate, caucus, vote.

In thinking of my own heritage, Martin Luther was born the same week as I, November 10—just a few centuries earlier, 1483. I am grounded in the grace of Jesus Christ.

This week, the Lutheran Diaconal Association, of which I have been a part since my consecration as a deaconess in 1960, celebrates its 100^th anniversary.  This community of sisters, and now brothers, calls me forth again to ongoing faith and service in a complex world in need of healing and hope.

Fridays for the Future: Youth Lead in Climate Crisis

Greta Thunberg, 16-year-old Swedish climate activist, led a group of young people to the White House lawn this Friday insisting those inside act like grown-ups to do something about the global climate crisis. These past months Greta has been leading a global movement of school students to make a statement every Friday: “Fridays for the Future.” She has galvanized the world’s young people who know action must be taken now. She spoke this summer at the World Economics Forum in Switzerland and is looking forward to the United Nations General Assembly next week in NYC.

When asked in a television interview aired Friday night on Public television why she thinks there is so much inaction on the climate crisis, she said she thinks that human beings often are of two minds morally, saying they are concerned about an issue, but they “go along” with society which they see is not doing anything to change.  When asked what has led her to step forward, she replied that she believes it is due in part to her being on the autism spectrum. “I don’t usually follow society coding, but go my own way.”  She speaks in a very intelligent, sophisticated manner about the need for both individual action and systemic policy change.  Her passionate, persistent activism is inspiring youth around the world and adults as well to become more aware of and feel the urgency of the climate change crisis.

I Love a Parade

I love a parade. Watching a parade. Being inside a parade. This morning the 81st annual North Iowa Band Festival Parade units—116 of them—lined up on the streets all around our blocks.

 I remember this parade from my teenage years here in Mason City, Iowa. Yes, this is Music Man’s River City, 76 trombones and all.

Son and Daughter-in-law Joel and Rachel and their children Jennaya and Jackson were IN the parade announcing the high school summer musical.

We were first on our condo deck watching the line-up, and then, of course, on State Street AT the parade.

I love the Mason City Band Festival, 4 days of civic celebration, everyone outside together. This morning, no cars on our blocks, just people walking. And bands and floats, even a few horses, and varieties of people all in a line. No carrier boats lined up for a war with no reason, no guns piled up for sale.

It was safe to be outside together. We did not fear being outside. We did not fear or hate each other. We celebrated one another.  I loved this parade.

Should We Encourage People to Bring Their Guns to Worship? Or What Should We Do?

Faith communities are asking how to safely gather for worship in the wake of increasing shootings and bombings. Do we encourage our people to bring guns to worship? Do we hire security teams to guard us? Do we work for peace and justice in the world? Are we called to become places of “sanctuary”?

While some congregations may deny the issue exists, e.g. “That couldn’t happen here in our nice community,” others are becoming preoccupied with security plans: “We have a robust group working with law enforcement, including a fence and cameras.”

We want people--all people--Jews, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and more, to come to their holy places of worship feeling safe and secure. The challenge: Can we be safe inside by daring to go outside? The Gospel for the 2^nd Sunday of Easter showed us the disciples met behind locked doors in fear. Jesus came, stood among them, and said, “Peace be with you.”  This coming week we hear the disciples went out. Jesus: “Feed my sheep.” “Follow me.”

Motive Yes, we need our worshipers’ eyes and ears used for precaution, but also to see the troubled one. How can we know who will enter a house of worship with a gun or bomb? So often we hear, “The motive is unclear.” I think the “motive” will always be unclear. The issues are complex. The person is complex. There are traits and signs, even profiles of a person who commits a shooting, but not just one type of person, or shall we say, stereotype. Each of us has the capacity to hurt, harm, even kill another. There are not “good people with guns” and “bad people with guns.” However, we can have caring concern for those who seem lonely, frustrated, angry, and as a community, reach out to them, not just after a tragedy, but every day. 

Mental Illness  Likewise so often we use the phrase, “A ‘crazed’ person.”  Mental illness is a broad and serious issue in our society to which we need to give much more attention. However, not every person who kills people in a house of worship is mentally ill, nor are all people who are mentally ill dangerous.  Many of us are mentally ill as are our family members and people who are strangers to us. People of faith have a calling to care about everyone with mental illness and to provide more care facilities and health workers.

It Can’t Happen Here  So what about the issue of  “I never thought it could happen here.”? Then where?  I live in a small city in the upper Midwest. After returning from almost every trip to a large city or to a coastal region, someone asks me, “Weren’t you afraid?” I respond, “No.” There are murders in my state, in my town. There is abuse in the homes on my block. We fear “those people” We are plagued with homophobia, anyone not “like me.” I also am capable of fearing and and hating people very near to me who look just like me. So, yes, HERE.

For 12 years our family lived among “others,” in terms of race and economic class. As we became acquainted, as we lived through stressful, and yes, even difficult times, we learned to care and depend upon and love each other. I often felt the most safe among those most different from myself.  Likewise, when traveling in some (even dangerous) places on other continents, I have had experiences of feeling far from home, but the most safe.

Violence and Guns  All of that is not to say danger from shooting and bombings in houses of worship is not real.  It is. I wrote twenty years ago about the rise of terrorism. One lone shooter can kill dozens. One mass shooting can multiply fear a hundredfold. So what should we do? We need welcoming places not to become armed camps. Yes, we need to take reasonable precautions and use safety measures. In this nation of ours we have become wedded to implements of violence as a way to stop violence. Arming parishioners is not the answer.  Encouraging parishioners to bring their guns with them to worship, and, even worse, to encourage them to purchase weapons so they have one to bring, will not make houses of worship more safe. All kinds of studies show how many people are killed in this country on purpose or accidentally with the proliferation of guns. Martin Luther King showed that nonviolence and nonviolent responses are most helpful in the long run in creating a “beloved community.”

A Community of Communities  But what about those most vulnerable? Muslims?  And also Jews?  (The religious right claims there is a war on Christians and encourages the sale of guns.) Rather than increasing this nation’s high rate of gun sales and ownership, we have the opportunity to increase our image in being a community of faith communities.  

Much happened after 9/11 in terms of Christian/Jewish/Muslim dialogues, real efforts to learn about our neighbors’ faith.  But in the recent escalation in the climate of hate, we have grown more dangerous to one another in our speech and in our actions.  We dare not continue on this path or we will simply fear going outside at all. We do not want to fear gathering together with those of our common faith, nor to gather as a pluralistic people. Rather we want to both worship in our sanctuaries and provide sanctuary. More on how to have safe sanctuaries and provide sanctuary in the public world in a blog coming soon.

Blessings for the Entire Easter Season

For the entire Easter Season Christ brings reconciliation, gives us life now and forever, creates community,  and calls us to vocations of justice and peace-making.  

"Snow Shut-Down" Brings Constant State of Uncertainty

There he was at 5:00 a.m. plowing out the parking lot across the street.  Faithful, he’s plowing now so people can use the government services building even though the man will have to plow again because the storm is predicted to not stop until evening.

The upper Midwest has been living in “snow shut down” for weeks.  National media shows storms as they move to the East Coast. They report airport delays and difficulties for “commuters.” Well, in small cities most of us don’t “commute.” We simply live and work here.

 And by now, school students aren’t rejoicing in having a “day off.”  They haven’t had a full week of school since the beginning of the 2019 term. They value education and are concerned how far behind their sessions are.

We live in a constant state of uncertainty. To cancel or not cancel.  And will the rescheduled date for our activity be cancelled again? I know, I know, a day snowed in means I have the time to clean closets, but the sneaky depression of snow shut-down does not provide incentive for closet cleaning. 

However,  we are thankful people: for a warm place to live and enough food.  And we are careful and aware of road accidents and heart attacks while shoveling. We worry about and reach out to care for those who don’t know where they will sleep in this snowy cold. 

The CEO of the Health Care Center around the block is also out. He and a few others with four-wheel drives are picking up their staff who can’t make it through the storm. Good Shepherd doesn’t have “snow days.”  They are needed to serve.  Thanks be to God for them.

WHY THERE’S NO NEED FOR A HONEYMOON PERIOD IN MINISTRY: Beyond Valentine's Day

God’s Love goes beyond Valentine’s Day. God’s love is more sustaining than any “honeymoon” period in ministry.   It’s not just about flowers, candy, one short day. God’s love is sustaining and unconditional.   

But that “Honeymoon” advice lingers: “Get as much done as you can right away before the normal life sets in with all the complaints and difficulties of really living together.” They loved your paperwork and were impressed with the interview. And you liked the looks of them. They loved the former pastor and will love you, too. Or, maybe they didn’t, so this will be a better “fit.” If we all put on our best behavior for a while, Valentine’s Day can last for a few months. Ah, beware of the “honeymoon” period in ministry and trust that God’s love endures beyond Valentine’s Day. 

Creation:  Before we came, God had created the congregation.  God is still creating—putting us together. Build on those foundations.  Rather than giving in to the temptation to change things quick before people notice, we need to ask and listen and give Valentine-like thanks to the faithful saints at work through the years. Then, together, we can create with the Creating God.  Oh, there will be suspicions that we are going to rip up everything and plant our new ideas. We can bring fresh ideas without totally ripping out what may simply be slow to grow. Creation involves change, but God didn’t rip things up each month and completely start all over.

Beyond favoring those who might seek our favor with Valentine-like flowers or candy, we need to seek out those less known people, those less appreciated.  We can walk around the neighborhood, and as a congregation build new relationships all over the place among those thought to be “outsiders.” We can give valentines to those who don’t usually receive them. God’s love multiplies.  

Christ: God’s love incarnate is among and between us.  Not that we need to fall in love with each other in Valentine-card ways. We are called to love before we even know each other. We are already the body of Christ, now being joined together, even when old congregational wounds need to be healed by the wounded One, Jesus. This will not be just a one-day celebration of being nice, or until the  liking-each-other period runs down.  Christ’s forgiving, reconciling love, which won’t let us down, even when we let each other down, is the forever kind.  

The Holy Spirit:  When I was called to serve a congregation years ago, I had to remind them I was not the coming Messiah. God had not sent me to “save” them. However, we could expect to be surprised by the Spirit. How would God be growing us? By pruning? By transformation? By numerical growth or some other kind of growth? By listening to each other and hearing everyone’s voice? By reaching out in radical hospitality without fear? (Grafting strangers on to the tree?) By building trust and trying new healthier patterns of making decisions? By really incorporating new people (corpus of Christ), and building more trust?

Happy Valentine’s Day all year long, my beloved sisters and brothers, as we live together in the trustworthy, unconditional love of God.

(based on a conversation with Rev. Christopher deForest)

Now as the Year Turns Again, Give us Peace Beyond our Fear

There we were! Don Weber and I happened to be kneeling beside each other at the altar rail as hundreds came forward for healing yesterday at Trinity Lutheran Church in Mason City. Years ago I  turned 18 and he 30 when I worked in his family’s carpet business while attending my first two years of college.

 Now I am 80 and he is 92. The years have turned. How many times each of us has heard the Gospel and received communion since then.  I have gathered in churches all over the world. I felt the presence of all those saints as the sign of the cross was made with oil on our heads Sunday.

 Pastor Dan Gerrietts had invited us to come for healing for ourselves, for others, for our nation, our world. Now as the year turns again,  “Healer of our every ill, light of each tomorrow, give us peace beyond our fear . . . Teach us all your way of healing.”

Advent and Slain and Imprisoned Journalists

Saturday is Bill of Rights Day.  The first Amendment to the U.S. Constitution includes the free exercise of religion and the freedom of the press.

This week TIME Magazine named its 2018 Person of the year: “Guardians and the War on Truth”: slain and imprisoned journalists.

On Sunday we light the third Advent candle. Little might the world notice unless we Christians ourselves pay attention. We have lit two. We still can light the third, and the fourth. Most of us will not be imprisoned for doing so.

We, like the shepherds, can “go now” and “see this thing that has taken place,” seeking out the truth, finding the Christ who is the center of all truth and making it known. We will need to be as astute as the wise men in searching diligently for the child born king, worshiping, and then choosing “another road” rather than playing into Herod’s wicked plans.

Our advent journey is a time to pay close attention, to reflect, repent, and focus on the Truth so that we might tell publicly the news which prevails.

Voting Matters. Every Single Person Matters

We voted yesterday! First day polls are open at our County Court House for absentee ballot voting. Our neighbors, new to Iowa, voted, too. It was a friendly, welcoming process. No voter I.D. required. All was in order, carefully done. Now we are free on November 6th to help others go to the polls! Democracy means that we all work to make sure everyone is able to vote!

Commentators wonder which way the final vote on the Supreme Court nomination will swing in the Mid-terms.  Will the Republicans be more fired up? Will the Democrats' determination to change things hold? We cannot know, of course. But I do know these things: We absolutely have to make sure that those people whom others want to keep away from voting are supported.  How many names are being erased? What can I do? Who needs an I.D.? What can I do?  Whose polling place has been changed without someone knowing about it? How can I let them know?

What can I do locally to make sure that information is correct and widely known?  Whom can I tell that their vote matters and that they matter? That they really matter? 

Misusing a Murder: Remember Mollie!

Blessed are they who mourn . . . . Blessed are the merciful . . . .

After University of Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts’ body was found buried beneath cornstalks in an Iowa field, the Mexican national man who confessed to murdering her was said to be in the country illegally, working on a farm. An immigration detainer was placed on him. The company owning the farm at first said it had used the federal E-Verify to check on its employee.

         Some national statements turned immediately to the dangers of illegal Mexican aliens. A state leader asked how a broken immigration system could allow a predator to live in “our community.” A local announcer warned U. of Iowa students to be alert and fearful of “others” out there.

        However, Mollie’s aunt, Billie Jo Calderwood, posted this: “Please remember, evil comes in EVERY color. Our family has been blessed to be surrounded by love, friendship and support throughout this entire ordeal by friends for all different nations and races. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.”