"I'm a Human Being"

Every city in the world has its share of the urban homeless. Like many people, I am sometimes guilty of assuming that all urban homelessness is self-inflicted. "They just don’t want to work", "He must be on drugs", "She should go find a shelter."

In this gut-wrenching video, Ronald Davis, a homeless man in Chicago, forces us to rethink our assumptions about the homeless. He says: “It's really humiliating to be shaking a cup 24 hours a day, and people just look at you're like some kind of little bum,” Davis goes on to tell stories of how passers-by call him a bum and yell at him to "get a job." He also tells of his struggles to get a job and leave the streets.

"I'm not a bum," Davis says, "I'm a human being."

Come to think of it, if Jesus lived in any urban city today, he would be labelled a bum. He was itinerant, had no visible means of livelihood and relied on the charity and good will of others. He also had "no place to lay his head."

Luke 9:58: "And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head."

Lesson: We must strive to be less judgement of others and see the above all else, our collective humanity.

"I'm a Human Being"

4/28/2013 11:16:00 PM human rights, reflections, world

Knowledge Mobilization: Enriching our Comunities

Academics are constantly being asked to produce knowledge that enrich their communities and serve the greater common good. Lately, in Canada, the preferred term for this is "Knowledge Mobilization." There have been varied and sometime conflicting interpretations of what exactly this means. In this workshop, we hope to raise critical questions about the meaning and practice of "knowledge mobilization" as defined by scholars, practitioners and funding agencies. Join us. Registration required.

Knowledge Mobilization: Enriching our Comunities

4/26/2013 01:30:00 PM education

Letter to a Christian friend on the subject of Gay Marriage

I sent the letter below to a good friend who I have known since childhood. He is one of the most decent people I know. A morally upright and devout Christian, a hard-working professional and a devoted father and husband, he has been an inspiration to me and many others over the years.

Lately however, I have been concerned, even disturbed, by some of his tweeter rants and Facebook postings on the subject of gays and gay marriage. Yesterday, I felt compelled to send him the message below:

Dear xxxxxx

I have followed your comments on gays and gay marriage on twitter and Facebook. They have not taken the usually measured tone that I have come to expect of you. I understand that as a Christian, you have a right to express the values of your faith. I feel that need too. However, we must do so with caution, tolerance and sensitivity.

The line between homophobia and professing one's faith can be a thin one. The language I hear today from you is eerily similar to the language of a bygone era. As a friend with whom I share the Christian faith, I feel compelled to send you the quote below as a reminder of the need for us to tread cautiously. The more things change, it seems, the more they remain the same:

"Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that He separated the races show that he did not intend for the races to mix."  -- Judge Leon Bazile, an “upright Christian” judge in a judgement upholding Virginia’s segregation law against interracial marriage in the case of Loving v. Virginia (United States, 1959).

History has not been kind to those who spoke like this. Let's learn from the judgement of history.

Your friend,

Bonny

Letter to a Christian friend on the subject of Gay Marriage

4/23/2013 09:31:00 PM human rights, reflections