I want to invite you to two events this Saturday, January 12. The first is the Annual Meeting of Interfaith Worker Justice Kansas, which is an organization that I am affiliated with. We will meet in Dugan Convention Center on the campus of Newman University. The meeting will begin with a welcome and gathering at 8:30 and end before noon. The second event is the showing of “The House I Live In” at the Murdock Theater, 536 N. Broadway. The movie begins at 2:00. PVCC is listed as one of the sponsors of this film. The film addresses the war on drugs, incarceration and the impact of the prison system on communities and families. In our PVCC Human Rights Manifesto we say, “We will defend victims of injustice and work in their behalf when we see their basic human rights denied or threatened.” Both of these events are expressions of faith consistent with our Manifesto.
While you have your calendar out, mark Friday, January 25th. PVCC is hosting an evening program on the School of the Americas (SOA). Every year on the weekend before Thanksgiving peace advocates from around the country travel to Fort Benning, Georgia, where SOA is located, to participate in an annual call to action to close this School, which trains paramilitary, police and military forces from countries in Central and South America in civilian pacification programs. On Friday, January 25th at 7:00 p.m. people from Wichita who participated in the SOA Watch in 2012 will share their stories. I thank members of the Wichita Peace and Justice Center for sponsoring this annual pilgrimage, and for making this evening program possible. Mark the date and invite a friend.
David Hansen