At our next meeting (date to be determined) we will be discussing a book that will help us to understand what it is like to be in this country as an undocumented person, neither black nor white nor Latino. Jose was sent by his mother from the Philippines when he was 12 to live with his grandparents. He doesn't know he is undocumented until age 16. When DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) was created he had just passed his 30th birthday and therefore did not qualify.
The book is Dear America, Notes of an Undocumented Citizen by Jose Antonio Vargas. From the author, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist in this country: “This is not a book about the politics of immigration. This book––at its core––is not about immigration at all. This book is about homelessness, not in a traditional sense, but in the unsettled, unmoored psychological state that undocumented immigrants like myself find ourselves in."
Facilitator's Biographies:
Rev. Barbara Benton:
Barbara Benton has been with All Souls since 2013 and ordained as a minister here in 2017. She is most interested in leading interfaith services that illustrate the commonality of many faith traditions. She is personally most aligned with earth-based spirituality as well as Taoism and Buddhism. She also follows liberal Christian and Jewish thinkers and is currently learning more about Islam. Barbara has a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology from Antioch New England Graduate School and is a psychotherapist. She is most interested in the intersection of spirituality and psychotherapy to cultivate a deep experience of wholeness
John Howe:
John lives in the rural southeast corner of Charlotte with his wife, Mary Lou Kete, and their cat Saphron. Lately, he enjoys painting portraits and landscapes in oils as he navigates his first year relative freedom, having retired from a career in human services. John has been coming to All Souls since 2015. For several years he served on the All Souls Board as well as leading Sunday meditation. John is the Steering Committee Coordinator for Sustainable Charlotte Vermont a non-profit organization whose mission is to support people in making changes that reduce and eliminate their carbon footprints. He has been active in Vermont’s labor movement since the early 2010s, a proud union member. He has been a supporter of the Vermont Workers Center in the Heath Care is a Human Right movement. More recently he has been engaged with congregants at All Souls in developing and sustaining a social justice action orientation to our community, seeing social justice as a key component in all the major world religions. This commitment has brought him closer to the early Christian narratives in the four Gospels, and the activism of MLK Jr. He is please to re-read Isabel Wilkerson”s “Caste” especially in how is informs the recent Supreme Court decision, Louisiana v. Callais, in that is overturns the main provisions of the Voters Rights Act.
