Advocacy Day 2015

Lynne and I were in Austin Tuesday advocating for the Texas Catholic Conference legislative agenda. We and two other constituents were assigned to call on our State Senator, Van Taylor. There were enough participants from the Diocese of Dallas to form groups to call on all legislators representing districts in the diocese. Our group was not able to get an appointment on short notice but when we went to Senator Taylor's office he came out to greet us and we met with one of his aides. The aide was expecting us and assumed we were there to talk about abortion. We weren't. The TCC supports or opposes many bills and had given us a list of three issues they wanted us to bring up. One had to do with school choice, two with immigration. Groups calling on Representatives had a separate, overlapping list. We asked the Senator to support SB 642 which would establish a tax credit for corporations funding scholarships for economically eligible students. They can be used for tuition, transportation, textbooks, and other educational expenses. These tax credits have proven popular and successful in other states. We have been asking for them through several Texas legislative sessions now. Who knows? This may be the year. We oppose SB 185 which would ban local governments from adopting policies to prohibit law enforcement officials from inquiring into the immigration status of anyone they detain. Many Texas Sheriffs and Police Chiefs support these policies and for good reason. They don't want a sizable group of otherwise law abiding residents afraid to talk to the police. We also asked the Senator to support retaining current in-state tuition eligibility criteria for all Texas residents regardless of immigration status. We oppose the more than twenty bills currently pending in the legislature that would revoke this eligibility for many Texas students. These are students who came here as children, graduated from high school here, and though undocumented are essentially permanent residents. It is in the state's best interest to see these students go as far in their education as their drive and talent can take them. We left a packet of information on other issues pending in the Senate and since we were in the capital we also stopped by Representative Jeff Leach's office. He represents our district and I had met with the aide who runs his Plano office several months ago. I was asking for support on regulating payday and auto title lenders, also a big item for the TCC but not on our list for Senator Taylor. We didn't reiterate the talking points from the group assigned to call on Rep. Leach but at the time of the Plano meeting I didn't have a specific bill to reference and never got a commitment one way or the other. Now I do have a bill to support (HB 2808) and wanted to let him know I hadn't forgotten. Another issue that keeps coming up is end of life care. We are pro life but we also want people to be allowed to die with dignity. There are two house bills on advance directives (living wills) that we support. HB 2351 relates to participation of board members on ethics review committees at for profit hospitals. HB 3074 would require that food and water be considered ordinary care not to be withheld unless excessively burdensome on the patient or it cannot reasonably be expected to prolong life. Even food and water can be harmful when bodily functions begin shutting down. This was the third time Lynne and I had been to Austin for Advocacy day. We never get everything we ask for but we always get something. Someday we will abolish the death penalty.

The N Word

No, not that N word. It's the Arabic letter nun, for nasrani, a term for Christian often used as a slur. It is sometimes scrawled above the doors of Christian homes in the Middle East and is a centuries old symbol for religious persecution. ISIS revived the practice when they began their horrific campaign in Syria and Iraq. Christians around the world have begun adopting the letter on Facebook and Twitter as an expression of solidarity. If you see the symbol or the hashtag #WeAreN, that's what it means. Assyrian Christians dominated much of Persia and Mesopotamia from the early third century but began to decline after Arab conquest in the seventh. Distinct in language, liturgy, and Christology from the Roman Catholic Church, they like to say they accepted God when Jonah walked through Nineveh, and Jesus when Saint Thomas passed through on his way to India. They are not in full communion with Rome but in the sixteenth century a sizable group, the Chaldeans, split off and became Catholic. Under an agreement between Pope Paul II and Patriarch Mar Dinkha IV of the Assyrian Church of the East, in times of necessity Catholics may receive the sacraments at an Assyrian service, or Assyrians at a Catholic service. Necessity is generally defined as there being no alternative. There is no Assyrian Church is North Texas so the small community of 250 or so Assyrians living here commonly attend Catholic Mass. As often as they can, about twice a year, they fly in an Assyrian priest so they can celebrate their own liturgy, usually in a Catholic Church. The liturgy is celebrated in Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke. Assyrians speak a version of it at home. With more than four million refugees from Syria alone the current humanitarian crisis is the most serious in a generation. Normally the first and most energetic to respond to such events, the U.S. is strangely lethargic, particularly toward the Christians involved, and not just militarily. A house bill to expedite processing for religious minorities seeking asylum in the U. S. didn't even get a committee vote last year. Last August President Obama did sign off on legislation creating a special envoy to aid Christians and other minorities being targeted by the Islamic State but the position remains unfilled. The White House won't say when or even if they intend to fill it. Most of the refugees don't want io emigrate. They just want to go home. Who knows when that might be possible. It could be years, or never. Right now they need help and they aren't getting nearly enough. They need material assistance of course but they also need things like work permits and for that they need to be registered. That can take years. In Turkey there are so many refugees the administrative processes are overwhelmed to the point the backlog for initial registration interviews alone is two years or longer. A delegation from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops visited Turkey recently to assess the refugee crisis. They concluded the most urgent need is schools. Some of the children haven't been in school for four years. A U.S. special envoy could help with all of this if only in raising awareness. Part of the problem seems to be that most Americans aren't quite sure what an Assyrian Christian, a Chaldean, a Yazidi, or a Kurd even is. Most news reports distinguish between Kurds and Sunni Muslims though almost all Kurds are Sunni. I had never heard of Yazidis until thousands of them were trapped recently on a Mountain in Iraq. And I had to do some research to get the difference between an Assyrian Christian and a Chaldean. Maybe the increasing popularity of the N word will begin to change that.

Executed and Not Guilty

Cameron Todd Willingham is back in the news. Willingham was accused of setting a Corsicana house fire that killed three of his young children in 1991. He was convicted in a three day trial in 1992 and executed in 2004. The case turned largely on whether the fire was arson. If so it was murder, if not a tragic accident. The Texas Fire Marshall who investigated the scene ruled arson. A jail house snitch testified that Willingham confessed. Willingham went to his death protesting his innocence. After the trial a nationally recognized arson scientist reviewed the evidence and concluded the Fire Marshall had ignored the most current science. That science did not support an arson claim. For procedural reasons appellate courts refused to consider new analysis. Governor Rick Perry also refused to consider it in a final appeal and allowed the execution to proceed. A series of forensic scientists reached the same conclusion, science used in securing Willingham's conviction was flawed. Better science does not point to arson. In 2010 a four person panel of the Texas Forensic Science Commission agreed. Science does not support an arson conclusion. The snitch, Johnny E. Webb recanted. He now says Willingham never confessed. Prosecutor John. H. Jackson threatened him with a life sentence for robbery if he didn't testify against Willingham, offered parole if he did. A previously undisclosed letter from Webb reminded Jackson of their agreement and threatened to go public if he didn't get his parole. Jackson intervened on Webb's behalf. Webb got his parole. There is enough in all of this corroborating Webb's new story that the Texas Bar Association is investigating Jackson. If the Bar Association charges Jackson with misconduct he will be entitled to a jury trial. That appears likely. Death penalty opponents across the country follow this closely because the case comes closer than any other in the modern era to proving that a man has been executed in the United States for a crime he did not commit. There are plenty of places to look for wrong doing. The panel from the Forensic Science Commission accused both the Texas Fire Marshall and the Corsicana Fire Chief of misconduct and mishandling of evidence at the scene. A more competent defense would have presented expert witnesses at trial to refute the Fire Marshall's testimony. Worst of all appellate courts and Governor Perry knew the evidence was questionable well before Willingham was executed. Anyone paying attention knew. It had been widely reported at the time but they all found reasons not to consider it. It looks bad. Precious few of us are comfortable putting anyone to death when there is reasonable doubt about guilt. There are plenty of people looking too. Johnny Webb's recant came to light through a 2014 interview with The Marshall Project, a non-profit devoted to criminal justice reform. The Innocence Project, another non profit committed to proving innocent people falsely accused of capital crimes, filed an Official Oppression lawsuit against the State of Texas in 2010. The proceedings were stayed on appeal. A 2011 documentary, Incendiary: The Willingham Case, won a number of awards including a '"critic's pick" from the Dallas Morning News. If the John Jackson case goes to trial it's a safe bet there will be a fresh round of high profile news coverage, investigative reporting, and maybe another lawsuit or two. Lynne and I will be in Austin on March 24 advocating for the Texas Catholic Conference Legislative Agenda. As always abolition of the death penalty will be a priority. We don't expect to get what we want, yet, but we will eventually. When we do the Cameron Todd Willingham case will be a big reason why,

Today's Boat People

An enduring image from the late 1970's is of overcrowded, rickety old fishing boats filled with refugees from Vietnam's war with Cambodia. No one knows how many drowned or were murdered by pirates but over a million eventually resettled in the West, some 860,000 in the U.S. Many of them live in North Texas today. Some of them are among the more active members of my parish in Plano. Americans felt some responsibility for their plight and communities and churches across the country came to their aid, offering financial assistance, housing, English lessons; whatever we could do to help. More than a few of their children became high school valedictorians. Something like the boat people exodus is happening now in Iraq and Syria, and now as then Americans bear a share of the responsibility. Today's imagery is more of barbaric executions but the refugees are there too, they are desperate, and there are a lot of them. Many are Christians who have been persecuted for centuries. Now with ISIS on the rampage they are crowding into towns and cities ill equipped to accommodate them. Hundreds, maybe more, have been taken captive and have met or can expect unspeakable fates. So what can we do about it? Their leaders are asking for air strikes and we have done some of that but they need more than air strikes. They need military supplies and equipment which we have been inexplicably unwilling to supply. Kurds most notably have proven willing and able to stand and fight. Kurds are not Christian but predominantly Sunni Muslims who differ from their Arab coreligionists in both language and culture. There are also Assyrian, Syriac, and Chaldean Christians, and others who have formed police and militia groups for defense but they need help. Not least they need humanitarian assistance; food, shelter, clothing, medical personnel supplies and facilities, and secure schools for their children. We famously provided some of that for trapped Yezidis but that was partial and temporary. Where refugee camps have been established relief services are overwhelmed and there are places, especially in Syria, where the need is dire and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees is nowhere to be found. Most of all they need prayer. One of my fellow parishioners is an Assyrian Christian and has asked for that. We will be meeting this week to organize a prayer vigil, most likely interfaith. To say our parishioner is distraught about what is happening in her native church is an understatement and we will be doing more than organizing prayer. We will also explore ways to increase awareness and to offer substantive help. I propose that one thing we can and should do is advocate for a resettlement program to bring some of those refugees here. We've done it before, not just with boat people and just as successfully. Under the Displaced Persons Act of 1948 we brought over 400,000 people to the United States, primarily Eastern Europeans who had no homes to return to. We even sent troop ships to fetch them. The experience affected later policies toward not only Vietnamese but Hungarians and Cubans. It's time we extended the same hospitality toward refugees from Iraq and Syria, especially since many of them find themselves displaced due at least in part to our own missteps. These prior large scale resettlements weren't all or necessarily primarily government efforts. They enjoyed the enthusiastic support of all sorts of religious and civic groups both local and national. These groups organized sponsors who assessed the needs of families and individuals, and met them, whatever they were. Not all of the stories had happy endings but an awful lot of them did. It can happen again.