Social Justice is My Passion

I thought that I should let you know more about me beyond weight loss. I have done many things in my life that I am very proud about. My job as a Letter Carrier helped me to see that there is poverty close to where I live. I help in ways to alleviate this by bringing produce to a family shelter in Framingham that my church collects on Sunday along with other members of our commission. I brought food and clothing over to a food pantry in Natick for many years from our church. We have collected for Thanksgiving baskets through an inner city church and bring food for food pantries around our area. Yes, food poverty is one thing that I can help alleviate.

But there are more to my passions than food. I care for other people. I care for people of color, of different sexual persuasions and for the downtrodden that are hurt by the loss due to homelessness, mental issues and teenage angst. Yes, we have people here in this country who are losing out on their best life because they are not getting sufficient nutrients, medical care and education.

Violence seems to be a way that some communicate their hurt and fear. I hope we have a significant curb to the gun violence in our country where young people have access to weapons to express their hurt and pain. Please take the time to read these two passages that I found on Facebook today. It lead me to want to blog about my passions today.



Alex Fraser wrote this and I found it on Facebook.


Dear George Zimmerman,

For the rest of your life you are now going to feel what its like to be a black man in America.

You will feel people stare at you. Judging you for what you think are unfair reasons. You will lose out on getting jobs for something you feel is outside of your control. You will believe yourself to be an upstanding citizen and wonder why people choose to not see that.

People will cross the street when they see you coming. They will call you hurtful names. It will drive you so insane some days that you'll want to scream at the top of your lungs. But you will have to wake up the next day, put on firm look and push through life.

I bet you never thought that by shooting a black male you'd end up inheriting all of his struggles.

Enjoy your "freedom."

Sincerely,

A black male who could've been Trayvon Martin




Here is another's thoughts help move me to strive for justice

Conflict transformation sometimes means starting the conversation about a conflict that is simmering in the darkness, out of view of many. So we are called to shine a light on hidden or tolerated injustice. As Jesus says in John 3:20, "Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed." And Matthew 5:14: "You are the Light of the world." So faithful discipleship means we raise awareness about issues that are hard to hear, especially because they are hard to hear- and always in a spirit of Love.





The passions that I have for social justice causes makes me a better person. I work for social justice in my church. I have been on many work teams to build strong community with people of other cultures, as well as doing all that is possible to keep up an inner city church through attending their services and homecoming events, and building a home for someone who lost their home to Hurricane Hugo years ago. Now, I hope that I encourage those who are in the weight loss community by my actions, my words and my support on the many social media from Youtube, Facebook, ObesityHelp and Sparkpeople.

I took courses to learn how I could learn where I did not know how to show tolerance for other people. I did not realize some of the privileges that I expect and therefore the prejudices that I had. I expect to go into a store and not be followed. I do not expect others to judge me by my color. When I was obese, I experienced being ignored by sales people. I lost about 100 pounds when I went to look for a tv stand that would hold new tv. A woman came right over to me when I entered the store. It was an eyeopening moment for me. Was that the store policy or just my perception of how I was treated more often than not?

What are your passions? What makes you go the extra mile? Where do you go that shows you want to expand community with others? Is your community small or growing?


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