A country where 8 out of 10 people live in poverty, Haiti does not have the resources to help repatriate its citizens deported from neighboring Dominican Republic, where work can be found. Even for citizens of the DR  who are of Hatian descent, deportation occurs due to racist attitudes. The U.N. refugee agency is not working here, but Jesuit Refugee Services — and sisters — are.

I am always amazed at the way the mothers care for their special children. Many of them never receive the positive reinforcement of even a smile of recognition or a spontaneous hug. Their children do not cuddle or coo. But with extreme fidelity these mothers attend to the unspoken needs of their daughters and sons.

"We have in our mind the deepest felt demands of the entire human race, when we strive for peaceful co-existence and the preservation of the environment. The struggle we fight purifies and shapes the future."

"We pray your healing upon this sad and sick place. We pray wisdom and courage and transparency for all those who must work together to prevent the great harms that this place portend."

My second full week as a community organizer, I had a conference call with Rich, the immigration policy director of our national network, People Improving Communities through Organizing (PICO). New to the legal jargon around immigration and the professional role of an organizer in general, I waded my way clumsily into unknown territory with lots of questions.

See for Yourself - Hearing a voice close to me jars me out of a book I'm reading on a park bench. I look up at the speaker — a middle-aged fellow who had sat down on the other end of the bench. "Do you mind if I smoke?" he repeats.

"Life is found in the cracks moving us beyond our boxed visions and breaking our limitations."

For almost 40 years, the United States has had some of the strongest regulations in the world for managing waste storage and disposal, but people are still affected by and dealing with consequences of past actions. In the case of radioactive waste from nuclear weapons development and nuclear power plants, the problems are ongoing.

A summer rain on an early Saturday morning invited me into the poetry of Thomas Merton. This Midwestern mystic and Trappist monk offers an invitation to enter into solitude and tend to the cry of our Mother Earth simply by listening to the rain. I watch the dance of the raindrops and hear the energy of life. It is a Merton moment calling me to a deeper integrity.