Dollars, Sense, and Dignity

Text 1: "Integrating low-income seniors and disabled adults into the society as respected contributing members is our major goal. We work to bring back an environment where the elderly can continue to age in place with dignity and in good health. Our model includes changing lifestyles to a more healthy and active one."

Response 1: I really like the ideas presented in this passage. I have done a lot of work with people with development disabilities. I have volunteered at an organization in Chicago called Misericordia, which is an assisted living community for adults with development disabilities. What I like most about the work is how at Misericordia, the residents work real jobs and become functioning members of society. This particular topic of helping people, specifically adults, with disabilities is because I have personal experience with it and very much enjoy the work I do. Right when I started reading this passage I thought of Misericordia and I liked that I could make a connection between the two.

Text 2: "At age 14, I was flown to Miami as one of the 14,000 unaccompanied children who came into the United States from Cuba during the first years of the 1960s. This exodus of children was the result of a pronouncement made the the new military government that children should be taken away from their families and put into collective schools and communities. My parents were terrified of the possibility that my brother and I would be taken to one of these schools, which they believed were effectively military camps where children were being indoctrinated and brainwashed."

Response 2: I was shocked when I read this paragraph. Initially I thought, how inhumane can a government be to take away children from their families and send them off somewhere? However, after I read this, I did a little research of my own on the topic. According to an excerpt written by Maria Vizcanio called Postcards of Cuba, this was "The largest exodus of underage children in this hemisphere is known as Operation Pedro Pan. From December of 1960 to October of 1962, 14,048 children and adolescents up to 18 years of age were sent by their parents to the United States to safeguard them from the Communist system". I cannot fathom the idea such terror that would cause families to be forced to send their children off to another country. I am glad I looked further into Operation Peter Pan because I had previously never heard of it.

More blog posts in this category Common

• The Wound & the Blessing/The Economy of Communion Project Post
• The Crest- Jewel of Wisdom & Work as a Spiritual Practice Post
• "What Money Can't Buy" Blog Post
• Blog Post Ni: FTRN Booklet & Arithmetic of Passion
• Work as a Spiritual Practice (The Transformation of Work)