2018 Essay contest winners announced Saige Lind, a high school sophomore who attends Seattle Mennonite Church, has earned the grand prize of $1,000 in the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) U.S. Washington Office annual essay contest for her essay on mass incarceration that highlights the ways that people of color have been targeted by the war…
Addressing gun violence On February 14, a 19-year-old gunman killed seventeen students at a Florida high school with an AR-15 assault rifle. This tragedy, like many others, has led to renewed discussions about federal gun laws. President Trump and others have suggested arming teachers and school officials with weapons. After receiving a backlash from students at…
President Trump’s derogatory comments yesterday about Haiti, El Salvador and countries throughout Africa are deeply offensive and expose the racist undertones of anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States. His comments not only disparage and demean entire countries and an entire continent full of people, they also ignore the many contributions made by immigrants from those…
Sacrifice, bravery, survivor—these words kept running through my mind as I sat in migrant shelters in Mexico City and Tapachula, near Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala. Hearing the litany of dangers people faced as they crossed highways, forests, deserts and borders to find safety and security, I was struck most by their courage. I was…
During the tumultuous campaign season, the 24-hour news cycle of U.S. politics hardly reported on anything but the election. However, if you seek out international news, you likely heard about the volatile peace accord vote in Colombia one month ahead of U.S. elections. While many in Colombia do support an end to the conflict, a…
Six years after cholera was introduced into one of Haiti’s largest rivers due to negligent waste management at a United Nations Peacekeeper base, the UN publicly apologized to cholera victims. The United Nations deeply regrets the loss of life and suffering caused by the cholera outbreak in Haiti. On behalf of the United Nations, I want…
It has been six years since the disastrous January 2010 earthquake in Haiti which killed over 200,000 Haitians; it was also the year of the tragic outbreak of cholera that has now infected more than 785,000 people. Cholera is an acute diarrheal illness and there are an estimated 3-5 million cases around the world each…
MCC Washington Memo 