27 May

The Refugees: Fling Open Your Doors. Reclaiming The Ideas Of Jesus.

by Jon Katz
Reclaiming Jesus: Fling Open Your Doors. Hawah and Omranaso

The social justice preached by Jesus Christ has been forgotten by many of his followers, I see this every day in the cruel drama of the refugees, most of whom have seen the doors of our country slammed closed to them for the first time in our modern history.

In our time, Christianity – I am not a Christian, but an admirer of Christ’s writing and ideas – has become comfortably entwined itself with the rich, with consumer capitalism, with the very people Christ tried to run out of the Temple. Many have simply become an adjunct to a political party, hiding  behind Christ’s name.

They have simply taken the name and corrupted it,  promoting their own economic welfare at the expense of the poor and the vulnerable. The definition of sacrilege is the violation or profanation of something sacred or held  sacred.

In fact the early Christians passion for social justice might come as a shock to those of us shaking our heads in sorrow at the religious politicians of today, mostly identity thieves drunk on greed and power. On Memorial Day, I honor the lost ideals of Jesus Christ.

From the first days of Christianity, the duty to care for the poor and the vulnerable was at the center of the gospel – you can read St. Augustine, John Chrysostom, and Basil the Great, or the Apostles.

Jesus told his followers to live a life free of possessions, the very first Church in Jerusalem abolished private property, and the early apostles warned against privilege and wealth and the political manipulations of the rich.

“Fling wide your doors; give your wealth free passage everywhere,” wrote Saint Basil the Great (330-379 AD). “As a great river flows by a thousand channels through fertile country, so let your wealth run through many conduits to the homes of the poor.”

Can you imagine our political preachers all over the news today, dining with the powerful,  opening their wealth to the poor, or even acknowledging their needs?

This week, we hope to spend much of it opening the doors to Hawah and Omranaso, two refugees whose lives were shattered and who fled to American for refuge and safety.

So far, neither has found much of either. Last week, we opened the doors for Hawah, a refugee from the Libyan civil war with a dying husband and a desperate need for a home. She fled  her country with her husband Hassan to keep her sons from being drafted into the Libyan army. Today, she would not be permitted to come to America.

We found her an apartment that she and her children loves, we paid a deposit and the first month’s rent.

We are flinging open the doors for her, we will be helping her pay the shortfall she encountered when her monthly rent subsidy was cut by $150 by the county government because her husband was hospitalized and taken to a nursing home, where he is dying of spinal cancer.

She was quickly and ruthlessly evicted from her apartment, which was locked suddenly with all of her belongings inside and she then found herself in a homeless shelter she called “the filthiest place on the earth.”

She has a safe and comfortable home, she is secure there for the better part of a year.

We hope to do the same for Omranaso this coming week, her husband abandoned her in Syria to join ISIS, she was ordered to take a number of different husbands, she fled from her tormentors and was captured by the Syrian Army, which tortured her for months and brought in her mother to see her hanging naked from the ceiling of a torture cell and warned she would meet the same fate unless Omranaso confessed to crimes she did not commit.

Her mother’s bribes – gold jewelry – got her released, and she fled to Turkey where she nearly perished from exposure after her long walk over the mountains. The Turkish authorities contacted human rights workers who got her to a U.N. refugee camp where she spent five years before coming to the United States a year ago, something she could not do today.

She has been abandoned her by a government that is trying to close the doors shut, not to fling them open.

She lost everything, her family siblings, husband and mother and any money she once had. She is living in a hostile one-room apartment, we are contacting landlords to find her a one bedroom or studio apartment, she is alone now and wishes to stay alone for the near future.

We are close.

Omranaso has just gotten a job working in a dress shop folding clothes for the minimum wage.

She has a car for work that needs repairs and insurance payments. She also faces, like so many others,  the growing attacks on refugees and the politicizing of their blameless need.

This is not what Christianity was ever about. Just ask Pope Francis.

“When a man strips another of his clothes, he is called a thief,” preached Jesus. “Should not a man who has the power to clothe the naked but  does not do so be called the same?”

The founders of Christianity did not divide into a right and a left, and argue their purpose.

They were quite unified on the idea of social justice. They had no tolerance for people who neglect the poor.

“If a poor man comes to you asking for bread,” wrote Saint John Chrysostom, ” there is no  end of complaints and reproaches and charges of idleness; you upbraid him, insult him, jeer at him. You fail to realize that you too are idle and yet god grands you gifts. You charge the poor with idleness, I charge you with corrupt behavior.”

A group of religious leaders across many different theological lines are seeking to reclaim Jesus. You can read their powerful words here.

So this week, the mission is to fling open the doors of our country to Omranaso, to find her a safe and comfortable home for her to live in, her first home since she lost her own more than six years ago. The goal is for her to be secure while she starts her new life.

We also  hope to help a young Afghan woman whose husband was killed by the Taliban.

Her father and mother, following local religious law,  ordered to marry her dead husband’s father,  she was now his property, they said. Instead, she fled to America, looking for the freedom to marry whoever she wished.  Her life was in great danger, her parents refuse to speak with her.

She needs help. Today, she would no longer be permitted to flee to America, our doors would be closed to her..

I like the idea of flinging open doors, that is good work to have to do.

We appreciate your help in this work,  you can contribute  by sending a donation to The Gus Fund, Post Office Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or [email protected]. If you wish the money to help these women, please mark “refugee women” on your donation, or write “Hawah” Or “Omranaso” on your payment.

27 May

Official Refugee Aid Meeting: The Muslim And The Jew In Their Office

by Jon Katz
Ali In The Office

Ali had our weekly meeting in our “office,” a table at Stewart’s, a convenience store in the hamlet of Schagitcoke, N.Y.,  halfway between my farm and his home in Albany, N.Y.

We meet there weekly to plan our program to support the Albany Warriors, the soccer team he coaches and cares for, and the older refugees and immigrants who need help.

The sight of the tall Muslim and the Jew gathering for coffee turned a few heads for a while, but we are  regulars now, and are welcomed. The regulars joke with us.

Stewart’s is a tolerant and safe place.

Ali is tired, I could see it in his face. He is fasting during the days during Muslim Ramadan holiday, he has invited me to attend the final mosque service for Ramadan in three weeks, and I have accepted. I look forward to it.

Ali tired is more fun that most people awake, we had a good time.

He says he does easily tire during the day, but Ali is devout, he takes his faith seriously

This week, we agreed on the following:

– To help Hawah, the refugee mother and wife (her husband is dying of spinal cancer) move into her new three-bedroom apartment.

-To help Omranaso, the Syrian refugee who was tortured by the Syrian Army for months, find a one-bedroom or studio apartment of her own, her first home in six or seven years. We paid the desposit for Hawah, Omranaso will need a little more help than that.

-I wrote a check for $90 to help a young member of the soccer team get the Iphone has been saving up for for nearly three years. Ali found a special deal that offers the phone he wants for only $90 plus a trade-in. If you are a student in Albany High School, as he is, this is important.

-I wrote a check for $289 so the soccer team can go and see Spiderman 2 on Monday, and get some popcorn and soda. More than a year ago, I had the privilege of sponsoring their first trip to an American movie,  it is important they connect to the culture around them.

And, of course, they love the movies. So does Ali, who is the biggest child of the bunch.

-One of the refugees we are helping has requested $300 to pay off some debts she has incurred, including insurance for the very old and used car she bought so she can find and get to a good job and be self-sufficient.

Ali and I are debating this request, we would like to help her and have helped her, but giving out a loan for debts is something we have not generally done, outside of helping someone get into housing, and we are wary of starting to do.

We didn’t reach clarity about it, and will keep talking through the week. Ali and I work seamlessly together, it makes all the difference.

During the week, we are also meeting with a woman from Afghanistan who fled the country rather than be forced to marry her father-in-law after his husband was killed by terrorists. She needs some help.

If you wish to support our work, you can send a contribution to The Gus Fund, c/o Jon Katz, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or via Paypal, [email protected].

27 May

Knox The Father. Of Gus. And Of Our Next Dog? We Are Lucky.

by Jon Katz
Sir Romeo Knox

Saturday, Craig Worboys came over with Knox, an important dog in our life.

He was Gus’s father, and has just (we hope) been bred successfully once more with Hannah, Gus’s mother. Craig is a dog lover through and through, and  Know – his official name is Sir Romeo Knox is a wonderful dog – loving, calm, obedient, and with great poise.

Maria and I cannot think of a better pair to produce our next dog, a puppy, all to be bred under the supervision of Robin Gibbons, who did such a wonderful job breeding Gus and two other Boston Terrier puppies, both of whom are doing well.

Gus, as you know, died of megaesophagus, a rare disease that blocks  food from the digestive tract, and we put him down about two months ago.

Robin was traumatized by Gus’s death, she wasn’t sure she ever wanted to breed again. We are very glad she did, we would be very happy to get another puppy from her.

Craig has bred Knox twice, and while he doesn’t want to be a professional breeder – he doesn’t call himself a breeder – he is proud of Knox and I think he might consider breeding again. His e-mail is [email protected], for those who have asked  how to contact him. He knows his stuff.

Knox is an impressive dog, he handled Red and the excitable Fate, who snarled and barked at him then he walked around the yard, stayed far from the road, came when Craig called him softly, then lay down for a short nap after checking out every square inch of our yard.

It was very sad that Gus died, but ironically, as often happens with life and death, not only sad.

I get to choose a dog once again in precisely the way I want to choose a dog. I get to know the mother, the father, the breeder, the owner of the sire. I get to ask about temperament and health for several generations back and see their medical records

I get to talk training and health and learn everything there is to know about breed characteristics. Knox, for example, would make a wonderful therapy dog, he is calm and steady and loves being touched. He is affectionate. So would Hannah.

Craig and I share the same philosophy about training dogs – speak softly, stay calm and positive, be patient.

When he called Knox, Craig (who is also a horse trainer)  just said “Knox, come” quietly and Knox took a half second or so, as small dogs often do, and then came right over.There was a trust between them that is the hallmark of the good trainer and the well-trained dog. No shouting or drama.

Even thought he is not-neutered, Knox remains calm.

Fate challenged Knox, and so did Red, and he handled both of them with poise and confidence.  He was well-proportioned and in great shape.

You could see Gus’s confidence in him, and their faces were almost eerily similar. Gus, like many Boston Terriers, managed to look old and wise even though he was quite young.

Knox is five years old.

Knox And Craig

As many of you know, there are many good ways to get a dog. I never tell anyone  how to get a dog other than to say they should get the dog they want, from whatever source, not the dog other people say they should get.

Whenever somebody tells me how I must get a dog, I always think the same thing: arrogant jerk, I delight in telling them to mind their own business.

For me, the best way is to get the dog you want from people you trust, whether they be rescue people, shelter people, or ethical breeders who work to improve the health and temperament of their breeds. There are many good breeders, they are not hard to find, although they are often expensive.

Robin and Craig are conscientious and loving breeders. I want to know everything i can find out about my dogs before I bring them into my home and my life. For me, for them, for the sake of the people who meet them.

My dogs go everywhere with me, and are often the subjects of books and I look for dogs who can possibly do therapy work and also be trusted at readings and public appearances. Therapy work takes intensive training and thought, I see the potential in Knox, and thus, in our next dog if the process takes us that far.

To have a good therapy dog, he training begins in the litter.

Roughhousing and excitement can doom the prospects for a therapy dog, they must be calm and comfortable being touched, and not see humans as play toys to be jumped on and wrestled with. That might be fun at home, but not in a hospice setting or assisted care facility. Small dogs can make great therapy dogs because of their size and  lightness and ability to settle in small spaces.

As always, getting a dog is a practical, not a moral  decision for me. I have had plenty of rescue dogs and other animals, but it’s the dog, not the rescue that is the major factor for me. I do a lot of things with my dogs, including writing books about them, and I need to know absolutely what they are like and what they are capable of. For me, that is not a game of Russian Roulette or a matter of following hunches.

It is possible to know what dogs are like before they come into my home, and it is my responsibility, as a steward and dog over, and citizen of a community to do that. I want to do what’s best for the dog, not for my ego.

Know is a great dog, and so is Hannah, Gus’s mother. They are both sweet and calm and healthy and quite grounded. Can’t ask for much more than that, the rest is up to me. As always, life can happen, to me, to them. In America, we are polarized about everything, including good breeders. There are very good rescue groups, shelters and breeders around.  Hannah and Knox are dogs that should be bred, their lines should continue.

Gus’s life was interrupted, but he gave me the chance to love another dog, which I will be hopefully doing sometimes in mid-September.

Loved dogs are usually happy and healthy dogs, and Craig loved Gus dearly, but not too much, if you know what I mean. That combination seems to work. When we stop thinking of them as dogs, we lose the ability to guide them and train them, and dog and human suffer.

In a couple of weeks, we’ll know for sure if Hannah is pregnant, if she is, she will deliver the babies around mid-July. If that happens, and Robin wants us to have one of them, he or she will come home to Bedlam Farm in mid-September, just in time for the Open House in October (Columbus Day Weekend).

I’ll keep everyone posted. Wish us luck. That is always the X-factor, yes?

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