WCR Letters to the Editor

Dorothy Day would stand with Habitat

Glen Argan wondered, on the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Catholic Worker movement, whether Dorothy Day would be a thorn in our side today (WCR Editorial, April 21).

I think she would have been at the Edmonton city council zoning hearing on April 17 where Habitat for Humanity and a small delegation of prospective Habitat owners faced a large delegation of irate and fearful Bergman residents intent on preventing the "loss" of their neighbourhood and the inevitable increase of crime that would come from 47 Habitat families in 23 semi-detached houses on what was one of Edmonton's last homesteads on 123rd Avenue at 42nd Street.

Yes, Dorothy Day would have been there and she would be there also pounding nails side by side with the Habitat owners and volunteers when the project gets underway.

Yes, Dorothy Day would have met the pope in New York. She would have told the pope and the watching world about the sin of spending 42.2 per cent of every income tax dollar in the U.S. on the military - on the average, $2,700 per household, compared to $2,600 for social security, $330 for education.

She might even have mentioned the $1 billion a year Canada is now spending in Afghanistan.

Where did Dorothy Day get the strength to continue to prod us to be all encompassing in our devotion to the Gospel, which directly challenges our apathy and our NIMBY reactions?

In prayer.

As Edwina Gateley wrote: In prayer "we learn to be still and to listen not only to the needs of our brothers and sisters in the noise and action of today's world, but also to that silent movement of God's action within us which leads us to a deeper awareness of God's love for each of us and a greater sensitivity and caring for all God's people."

Cecily Mills
Edmonton

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