Peace Prayers

The Week Before Christmas

Sunday, December 18th: Stay up till 4am writing a paper at Butler Library on campus for my class "Theories of Peace."

Monday, December 19th: First day of the NYC Transit Union Strike. Stay home all day writing the paper for my class. 7pm - There's a fire in my apartment building. My sister, her dog and I run out of the building knocking on doors to get people out. When the firemen come they can't get the fire hydrant to work. I think I'm going to lose everything. But thankfully, some guys upstairs form a water line and pass buckets to the burning apartment and put it out. The fire was started by a drug addict, high on weed, who flicked his doobie into a trash can and started the fire ... Ironically, my sister and brother and law saw him later that night. His feet, hands and face were still smudged black from all the soot in his apartment when he came out into the hall with an unlit joint in his mouth and asked them, "Got a match?" Dumbstruck, they both said, "No, we don't smoke." I continue working on paper till ...

Tuesday, December 20th: Day 2 of the NYC Transit Union Strike. 5am - I send my paper "A Theory of Balkan Peace," to my professor. 8am - I hear from one of my contacts in Serbia that they would rather be quoted anonymously in my paper. So, I work on it and resend the paper to my professor. Along with my professor, I send the paper to a few friends and another person I quoted in the paper, Jim Forest (Secretary, Orthodox Peace Fellowship). 4pm - Jim Forest writes back to let me know he read the paper and immediately contacted the General Secretary of the European Council of Churches to recommend that they resume their role of pressing for inter-religious dialog in the Balkans (one of the strategies for peace proposed in my paper). He then asked if he could send a copy of the paper to the General Secretary guy! I was totally overwhelmed. I responded, "Well, ... yeah." -- only a little more formal -- "I'm honored by your request. Yes, you have my permission to send him the paper. 7pm - Start second big final paper for my class, "History and Reconciliation".

Wednesday, December 21st: Day 3 of the NYC Transit Union Strike. 10amish - A gathering of all the NYC Unions holds a news conference informing the NYC public that they stand with the TUW. The reason the workers went on strike is the MTA tried to pull an illegal move by putting the issue of pensions on the table when dealing with an individual union. By traditional law, when the city makes deals like that they must deal with all the unions - not just one. 3pm - I continue to work on my paper, in between a bunch of emails from good friends ;p. 12:08am - I finish the paper, "Balkan Historical Commissions: The Role of Religion in Reparations Politics," and send it to my professor, Elazar Barkan.

Thursday, December 22nd: TUW announces the end of the Transit Strike! The Subway will be up and running tomorrow! Yay! I can leave Washington Heights and go Christmas Shopping! 12pmish - Work on lesson plan write up of curriculum for "Encounter Point," (a documentary about Palestinian and Israeli Peacemakers in Israel). 2am - finish and send it in to the Curriculum team leader.

Friday, December 23rd: Ride the 1 line, go shopping, go to Starbucks ;p, go to campus and take pictures, listen to the general sounds of New York, like a guy talking to a car going by saying "Hey, I got your parking spot right here! It's just 30 million dollars! 6pm - Write sketches for InterVarsity Christian Fellowships' Atlanta '05 Conference. 11pm - get picked up by family, drive down to Absecon for Christmas holidays.

Christmas is the celebration of the day GOD BROKE THROUGH SPACE AND TIME TO reverse the curse of the Fall. Christmas is about God taking a world spinning out of control and saying "Peace, be still and know that I am God."

Saturday, December 24th (Christmas Eve): I'm sitting in my parent's family room, surrounded by family. My nephew-in-law is home from two tours of duty in Iraq and we're so happy to be together. I look back on my life... on the last year and I'm so grateful for God's redemption. He is good... very good.

May you Jesus give you a strong sense of his presence, his goodness, his works of redemption in your life and in our world this Christmas.
Peace & Joy This Christmas,
Lisa

(pictured: Sister Renee' and Brother-in-law Andy, their daughter Allanah, My dad, me and my mom. More family came later in the evening.)

Allanah close up. I couldn't resist ;p.

posted by Lisa Sharon Harper @ 11:23 PM 1 comments

My Senator's Response to Genocide Letter

November 28, 2005

Dear Ms. Harper:

Thank you for sharing with me your concerns regarding the situation in Darfur. It is important to me to know the issues that are foremost in the minds of my constituents and I appreciate that you took the time to write to me about this issue that is of importance to you and to many New Yorkers. I take this situation very seriously.

We cannot stand by and let atrocities continue. The people of Darfur have been subject to a genocidal campaign of vicious attacks conducted by the armed militias of the Janjaweed, with the backing of the Sudanese government. The concerted acts of these groups have created a humanitarian crisis of astonishing proportions. We have an obligation to work with our allies and others to help protect the people of Darfur.

I recently joined with a bipartisan group of more than 30 senators in writing to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to reiterate the need to take action regarding the continuing violence in Darfur. The letter discusses a number of important issues, including how to strengthen our work with the African Union to assist it in deploying more troops effectively; how to give force to United Nations resolutions; how to ensure that health and other needs of women and children are taken care of; and how to assure accountability for human rights violations and genocide. The letter also urges the appointment of a new envoy for Sudan.

Also in June 2004, to respond to the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan and in Chad, I co-sponsored a bipartisan amendment to the Fiscal Year 2005 Department of Defense Appropriations Act that added millions in funding for international disaster and famine assistance, and migration and refugee assistance in the region. I am pleased to let you know that the amendment was adopted by the Senate and this funding was retained in the legislation that was signed into law.

Most recently, I urged the international community to do more when I addressed a Vital Voices Global Partnership Forum at New York University to help commemorate the 10th anniversary of the UN Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. During my February visit to the Munich Conference on Security, I also urged that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) use its logistical and other capabilities to assist the African Union's efforts. I also raised the issue of NATO's involvement at a recent hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee and was assured that NATO has humanitarian capabilities that could be utilized.







The United Nations Security Council has adopted resolutions addressing the situation in Darfur. The United States government should work to ensure these resolutions have force, and continue its work with our allies to help bring security and peace to the region and end the suffering of the people of Darfur.

Please be assured that I will continue to work in the Senate to help the people of Darfur overcome the dire challenges they face. Thank you again for contacting me. Please check my website at http://clinton.senate.gov for updates on this and other important matters being discussed before the United States Senate.

Sincerely yours,
Hillary Rodham Clinton


http://clinton.senate.gov

posted by Lisa Sharon Harper @ 10:01 PM 2 comments

Ugh. Oh, Beauty! Ahhhh...

"This is 137th street!"

I watched ER, my absolute favorite show, last week. On the show, Gallant comes home from serving in Iraq and proposes to Neela on the train on the way to work. They embrace, her head cradled in his arms. And you can just hear all the homes in America go "Ahhhhhh."

Well tonight, I grab my bag of Chinese food from "Ollies" and head out into the cold. Luckily, I only have to walk across the street before the subway shelters me from the near freezing, about to snow weather. I slide my Metrocard and slip though the turnstile. When I reach the platform and the train is coming. "Great!" I think.

It's been a long day with homework early in the morning, work in the afternoon, class in the evening, library studies after class... Now, I'm running home to get more work done during crunch-week (the last week of the semester). I'm tired, I'm cold and I'm not thinking about Christmas... or anything else nice.

I take my seat on the train and look up and...




ugh...




I keep my eyes down. Stare at my lap, then the floor, then I glance up at the goateed guy across the ailse. He slouches in his seat with athletic jacket and hooded sweatshirt pulled up over his head. He stares blankly at the ground... annoyed.

In the center of the car. Right in front of both of us. A young couple stands with locked arms and locked lips as they vacuum the other's insides clean. They kiss for two subway stops. They giggled in between kisses and never let go.

"This is 137th street!" The loud speaker cut the silence. They continue to lock lips, then one looks up and realizes their about to miss their stop. They rush off the train... and the whole car exhales.

When I come up from the subway it's snowing outside and it's beautiful. I'm reminded - "Oh, that's right! It's Christmas season!"

It's funny how we can get so into our selves that we forget the season. We forget there's something to be thankful for. We forget to appreciate beauty.

It's easy to appreciate Neela and Gallant's kiss on the subway in Chicago. It was lit perfectly and staged beautifully. It was all romance and on T.V. And I sat down and chose to watch it. And it's just funny to me now that I couldn't appreciate the beauty when it was 1/2 a foot from me... in person. Instead, it was -- ugh!

I round the corner onto my street. It's starting to snow harder now. I look up and Christmas lights, wrapped around a bicycle wheel, form the shape of a peace-sign and float overhead attached to the fire escape across the street. It is Christmas and they've got the right idea.

I push the doors to my building open and enter the looby where Mr. Senge, a chunky, middle-aged Trinidadian man, guards the door while playing Solitaire. He cracks me up every night. I walk in and give a quick shout out, "Hi!". He says "Yeah, okay!" then turns back to his card game. In the background, is always the most unexpected music. One time it was Jon Mayer. Another time it was Jessica Simpson. Once it was the Backstreet Boys. He sit's playing Solitaire while mouthing the words.

Tonight when I walk in, Mr. Senge is listening to Christmas music by Lawrence Welk.

Shalom.
May you take in the reason for this season and the beauty of God's world.

posted by Lisa Sharon Harper @ 11:48 PM 0 comments