From the March-April 1979 Memo: The United States has had two traditions in immigration policy. One tradition welcomes the stranger, holding out the promise of a better, richer life in America…The second notable tradition has been one that in times of crisis uses the foreign-born as a scapegoat for unsolved social problems in the U.S.
From the July- Aug 1990 Memo: The U.S. has the 3rd highest incarceration rate in the world, following only the Soviet Union and South Africa. The state and federal prison population has nearly doubled since 1981 reaching 673,565 incarcerated individuals as of June 1989. The sharp rise in the cost of maintaining such a large…
From the May-June 1989 Memo: In January of this year, an emotionally disturbed individual entered a schoolyard in Stockton, California and repeatedly fired an AK47 semiautomatic rifle at the children playing there. Five children were killed. The tragedy in Stockton and the growing number of drug-related murders have brought the issue of gun control into…
Before we know it, summer routines will end and children will return to school. But for more than 500,000 Palestinian children throughout the Middle East, schools may not be able to open in the fall. It has been five months since the U.S. announced it would be withholding most of its funding from the U.N.…
From the May-June 1987 Memo: History and the biblical record suggest that when the legitimate processes of government–the processes of law and the orderly procedures of justice–are subverted or exploited in the interest of the few to the detriment of the many, God’s intention for his people and the social order has been violated. The…
Read more What has the Meeting House to do with the White House?
From the Jan-Feb 1971 Memo: Even in an age of instantaneous news coverage…the degree of public knowledge about world affairs is treacherously thin. Even with the avalanche of communication invention of the last two decades, the mass media…have provided very inadequate coverage and interpretation of world news and trends. Often the events which are covered by…
From the Spring-Summer 2018 Washington Memo: A baby birthed the idea for one of the most memorable advocacy projects during my years in the MCC Washington Office. MCC Iraq service worker Wanda Kraybill visited Capitol Hill in January 1999 to talk about the devastating humanitarian impact of U.S.-promoted sanctions on ordinary Iraqis. Wanda showed pictures…
