Real People

When I read Abebe Feyissa’s personal recollection of life in a refugee camp in northern Kenya (“The Camp: A Report from Limbo,” Spring 2008), I was struck by two thoughts.

The first, how poignant and powerful is his testimony about the real lives of real people. Don’t lump these folks into the category of “refugees.” They are like any of us. Yes, God willing, we will never be in that position—unless of course we happen to be poor and from New Orleans, or, more recently, from Iowa’s flooded lands.

My second thought: Thousands of Iraqis who worked for our government, translated for our soldiers, or bailed our diplomats out of trouble are sitting in Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. They have had to flee for their lives, much like Mr. Feyissa. Are we going to leave them there to become disoriented, depressed, and bitter, their kids turning confused and angry?

If we start viewing everyone as hostile—even the people who worked for us—we are creating a tragic and dangerous situation.

Ken Hackett ’68
Baltimore, Maryland

Mr. Hackett is president of Catholic Relief Services.

The plight of the refugee as described by Mr. Feyissa is a tale of silence: silence from the refugees themselves, who are stripped of the opportunity to show they are not without humanity; and silence from an international community that seems to feel the emergency is over.

Providing protection for refugees is of utmost importance. Yet as Mr. Feyissa shows us, protection is only the tip of the iceberg. Refugees must have the opportunity to utilize their skills and rebuild their lives. They have the potential to benefit not only themselves and their families, but also the community that hosts them and the community they still call home.

I was heartened to see Mr. Feyissa’s story featured in Boston College Magazine. As an institution that is rooted in a Jesuit and Catholic heritage, Boston College is called to serve those whom the world has forgotten.

Philip Amaral, MSW’07
Brussels, Belgium

Mr. Amaral works as a policy and advocacy officer for the European regional office of the Jesuit Refugee Service.

I know Kakuma Camp. I know Abebe Feyissa. The life of camp-confined refugees that he describes is real. It’s remarkable that Abebe has managed to keep sane. It’s this kind of account that we need in the midst of mind-boggling statistics on refugees and internally displaced persons. Refugees are people with names, faces, and stories—people like Abebe, Yayeh, Sara, Mohamed.

I believe quite strongly that with regard to refugee issues as well as other global crises those who are most affected should have the strongest voice. They should have a say in how rights denied and violated are to be restored and respected. Let Abebe’s account be a call to the United Nations and the rest of the international community to improve the conditions of life in refugee camps and address the crises that create refugees in Africa and elsewhere.

A. E. Orobator, SJ
Nairobi, Kenya

Fr.Orobator teaches theology and is the rector at the Hekima College Jesuit School of Theology and Peace Studies.

The Jesuit Refugee Service accompanies, serves, and advocates for refugees in 50 countries worldwide. We are pleased when our services prepare refugees to return home in dignity or start anew elsewhere; we are frustrated when refugees are forced to live in desperate conditions, without hope of a future. It is the denial of a future that hurts the most.

I am continually amazed by the ability of human beings to overcome terrible suffering. Yet, it is not material assistance that gives them the strength to survive; it is a belief in something better. Seventeen years in Kakuma—with residents prevented from leaving the camp or working to support their families—is too much. The international community, particularly the goverment of Kenya and Western governments, needs to give these refugees a future.

Peter Balleis, SJ
Rome, Italy

Fr. Balleis is international director of the Jesuit Refugee Service.

At its recently concluded 35th General Congregation, the Society of Jesus re-affirmed that “Africa” and “migration and refugees” should remain as two of the five special apostolic preferences for Jesuits and Jesuit institutions worldwide. Academic centers like Boston College’s Center for Human Rights and International Justice can and do contribute to these efforts.

Through their scholarly publications and sponsored conferences, such centers provide leaders of the Jesuit Refugee Service and other NGOs with rigorous interdisciplinary analysis and opportunities for in-depth discussion that can assist them in addressing the complex realities they and their staffs must confront on the ground each day. They also play a crucial role in drawing public awareness to an ongoing crisis that many in the political and economic sectors of our society would rather ignore.

Thomas J. Regan, SJ, ’76
Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts

Fr. Regan is the provincial of the Society of Jesus of New England.

Xavier U. and Sacred Heart

Re “The People’s Business” by James O’Toole (Spring 2008): If you ever need a reminder of the value of a Catholic education, visit Xavier University in New Orleans. I had the good fortune to be associated with Xavier from 1989 to 1997. Xavier is the only historically black and Catholic college in our country. It is first in the nation in graduating African-American students in the biological sciences, the life sciences, and physics, and first in sending African-American graduates on to medical schools.

Albert L. Hyland ’60
Wayland, Massachusetts

On page 19 of your spring issue, the caption next to the poster announcing an “Inter-Racial Sunday” event for Catholic college students identifies “Sacred Heart” as the Academy of the Sacred Heart. Would that the Academy in New Orleans in 1955 had been that forward.

Actually, the poster refers to the College of the Sacred Heart in Grand Coteau, in south central Louisiana. It was founded in 1914 as a two-year normal school to train rural teachers. When a four-year degree became a requirement for teachers in Louisiana, the school became the College of the Sacred Heart, in 1937. As the years passed, recruiting students and teachers to that remote location became increasingly difficult, and the school closed in 1956. The poster represents an interesting development in its history. A small number of black students enrolled in the college just two or three years before it closed. Even before that, there was a strong social justice group in the student body.

Mary Blish, RSCJ
New Orleans, Louisiana

Cartoonist hero

I want to thank you heartily for Todd DePastino’s article on World War II cartoonist Bill Mauldin (“Behind the Lines,” Spring 2008). The incessant small and healthily subversive acts of American soldiers are a common theme of World War II historians, including Stephen Ambrose and Paul Fussell. These acts helped our citizen-soldiers maintain some sense of humanity amid the inhumanity of total war. Mauldin certainly embodied a healthy subversion through his cartoons and, it seems after reading this article, through his personality.

Kerry J. Byrne ’92
Quincy, Massachusetts

I left Boston College’s Class of 1944 in my second semester of sophomore year, and served as a combat infantryman, private first-class, living in foxholes in Belgium, Holland, and Germany, from September to May. The cartoons of Bill Mauldin were a delight to all of us GIs. In our misery we looked forward to his words. Thank you for bringing back the laughs.

Hugh F. Daly ’48, GSSW’50
Park Hills, Kentucky

Zero sum

Re “National Debt” by David Reich (Spring 2008): What do we owe Iraq? A “fare thee well” and a hasty exit and nothing more. I want to reduce our casualties to zero. Not one more drop of blood.
As a Vietnam veteran (3rd Marine Division), I can remember generously throwing candy and c-rations to smiling children from our trucks when we first got there. The same Vietnamese kids cursed us and threw these offerings back at us when our pullback became obvious to them. I’m for disappearing altogether from Iraq overnight—soldiers, construction crews, and all.

Phil Borden ’74, MBA’76
Charleston, South Carolina

Puckish pride

The kids deserve the cover! A national title, three years in the national championship game—if this hockey team doesn’t represent “Ever to Excel,” I don’t know who does.

Jeff Mathias ’00
Norwalk, Connecticut

Into the mystic

Re Colleen Griffith’s article on Evelyn Underhill (“Foremothers: The Communicator,” Spring 2008): When I was studying theology some years ago, Underhill was always there on the horizon, though I’m not sure how many read her. Mystical theology and mysticism were much neglected in favor of systematic and dogmatic theology. Now with respect to the mystical side of Christ’s message and making his presence felt in this world, Griffith delivers Underhill’s essence well: “Any authentic deepening in spiritual life should signal a widening of the heart . . . and more inclusive ways of thinking and being and loving.”

John J. Hollohan
Naples, Florida

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