680 - Peace & Life: CLE on the border / News from Herb - September 15, 2023
New Wave Feminists Consistent Life Ethic Center
Also called the Stellar Center, this project of our member group New Wave Feminists, which started February 6 in Juarez, Mexico, is featured in an article in several outlets: Border shelter for pregnant migrants is consistent pro-life effort, co-founder says. It’s served over a hundred women so far.
The group had already gotten coverage in 2019 for Bottles to the Border, which collected material aid in that location: I called the pro-lifers silent. Then I heard them roar.
Director Destiny Herndon-De la Rosa said it well: "A big part of our work is giving them faces and names and showing what they've been through; telling their stories and platforming their experiences, so that people realize these aren't just nameless, faceless masses . . . You know, just like our humanity doesn't begin at the birth canal, it doesn't end at a border. We're all still human beings and the unborn child in a migrant mother's womb is just as human as an unborn child in an American mother's womb.”
News from Herb
Herb Geraghty, currently on leave from our member group Rehumanize International due to being in jail for civil disobedience, is reported to be in good spirits, and says
"They still aren't giving me the vegetarian meals yet that I've requested but thus far every meal has had at least one side that was vegan and yesterday someone even gave me their apple in exchange for the mystery meat I was given. :) Please don't worry about me. I've quickly developed the skill of 'looking on the bright side' to potentially a delusional degree where despite the circumstances I really do feel at peace.”
Meanwhile, Rehumanize is using the occasion to remind people to be educated on the problems of the prison system from a consistent-life perspective. Here are a few of their writings:
Restore the Heart: Healing the Communal Trauma of Abortion through a Restorative Justice System (a white paper)
October 6-8, Dallas Texas
Though they’re not a member group, CLN vice president Rachel MacNair has attended Sidewalk Advocates for Life's conference several times. They focus on nonviolent presence and. They have a lot of experience about what works, and so offer good training. Those interested in this kind of activism, wanting to be more effective and to hobnob with others doing it, are encouraged to attend.
November 11, online only
This member group holds this conference every year and always has excellent sessions on various aspects of the consistent life ethic. They offer a sliding scale for registration, and are still looking for sponsors. Several of us have attended their annual conferences for many years, and they always have engaging content and a good chance to network with others.
Our Latest Blog Post
John Whitehead has noticed several people on the Left who normally oppose war deciding not to oppose the war fought by Ukrainians on the grounds that they’re opposing an imperialist invasion. And of course we oppose imperialism. Asking how well war addresses that problem, John offers: Looking Beyond Anti-Imperialism: A Response to Some Arguments about the Ukraine War.
Quotation of the Week
Destiny Herndon-de la Rosa
I refuse to accept that violence has a place in any movement striving for true liberation. When violence is a part of the solution, it’s merely oppression redistributed.
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