Back to School with Justice

It's been almost 20 years since I had to shop for back-to-school clothes. Where do I even begin, especially if I want to live justly?

Ashlee is at that weird in-between stage—outgrowing girls clothing, but not really a junior size. I remember those days from my childhood. For more than a year, the only place I could shop was Sears' "Lemon Frog" shop (but at least the clothes were groovy).

I've tried the reusit shop, the yard sale and the hand-me-down route, and it works pretty well for tops, but pants, shorts and skirts are a disaster! Way too much energy expended for little or no return.

Ashlee and I have begun making the rounds of stores, trying on all sorts of sizes from both the girls and juniors. A JC Penney the girls-plus 16 1/2 fits, but at Old Navy she's a ladies size 6 if anything fits at all. At Justice for Girls she's a 14 or 16. Other places, nothing fits. There's no buying without trying it on.

I know from reading Green America's Guide for Ending Sweatshops (download your own here) that most traditional retailers are still contracting with producers operating in sweatshop conditions. Most use practices that harm the environment. Few pay fair wages.

A decade ago, I stopped shopping at WalMart and KMart because of their unfair trade practices, sending them letters telling them why. After a few years, as I began to read that every major clothing retailer has similar practices, I succumbed to the lure of the cheap: If they all contributed to the problem, why pay more? 

I was a buyer for Macy's, and I know that retailers all use the same factories. Let me say that I have been in some factories in the Orient, and they seemed fine to me. I've since learned, however, that many producers have "showcase" factories, where they take visitors, and other factories, or subcontractors, where working conditions are deplorable.

So if Justice for Girls offers no justice, and neither do other retailers, how do you responsibly outfit a preteen for school?

I went on worldofgood.com, which offers goods only by "eco-positive, people-positive" sellers, but there are no pants a self-conscious preteen would wear (little I would wear either). And since kids keep growing, and you need to regularly replace almost entire wardrobes, I can't afford to be spending big bucks for each item.

So what's the solution? I don't have one. I'm guessing we'll be shopping where all other preteen girls shop. If you have a more just solution, feel free to let me know. I'm certainly open to it!

Minding Micah

Micah 6:8 says, "What does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." I love that verse. It's underlined in my Bible. I have it memorized. There's a cross-stitch sampler of it hanging on my wall. 


Now if I can only live it. I say I want to, but then my own selfishness intervenes. Last week I signed a petition (which I then posted on Facebook) asking big chocolate to stop using child labor, to become fair trade. It appalls me that so much chocolate is produced under conditions that amount to slavery. And yet on Sunday I was offering my friend Cyndi some chocolate-covered pretzel clusters (made with Lancaster County Hammond pretzels and Wilbur dark chocolate—a potent combination). Her reply: "No thank you. I try to eat only fair trade chocolate." 


Ouch! Why don't I? It's not that I don't believe in it, but Wilbur doesn't produce fair trade chocolate (it's part of Cargill now), and I love Wilbur chocolate. And that's the only way my pretzel clusters are produced. So it comes down to my convenience, my wants, my (let's be frank) selfishness.


If I am going to "act justly," I need reminders from friends like Cyndi. I need the reminder of my values.


That's why I am so excited about the new Faith and Justice Coalition of Lancaster County. The group "exists to serve as a site of encouragement to all . . . to live out the daily call to be the hands and feet of Christ to everyone we encounter through issues of justice, fair trade, alternative gift giving, and the like . . ." (Feel free to join the coalition.) I need friends like these who will encourage me, remind me, spur me on and help me not feel like a freak if I actually pursue living justly. It's so much easier to walk with others, especially on the narrow road.


Who are your friends like Cyndi or the Faith and Justice Coalition who help you make the hard—but joyous—choices required in Micah 6:8?

What Can Social Media Do?

I have loved catching up with old friends on Facebook (maybe you!). I've also blogged for five years because I wanted to share social action ideas with others, another use for social media.

But I wanted to know what else I could do with it. Could it help me in my speaking or writing ministry? Through a Facebook post, I found out about a free seminar on social media for small business. The best thing at the seminar was not winning a free book (and if you know me, you know I love free books) but connecting to Ken Mueller (the speaker) and his Inkling Media. Inkling Media's blog provides great resources, but Fridays are special. "Others First" Friday shares a need, a way to put others first.

Here's a link to today's blog about a little girl named Reagan with tough medical problems that have left her parents with big bills. There are ways to help (want to donate an item for an auction?) and I would add that we can certainly pray.

Social media is all about community, Ken says. Here's a way we can be community for a family in need.

Stuck in Afghanistan

Not literally, of course. At least not me (maybe our military).

I figure I must be the last person on the planet to read Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson, which is mostly about his building schools in Pakistan, not Afghanistan. But reading it made me immediately read his second book, Stones into Schools, which is about Afghanistan. Then because the foreward to that was written by Khaled Hosseini, the author of The Kite Runner (another book I must be the last to read) and A Thousand Splendid Suns, I got those two to read. 

I'm still reading the first and haven't started the second, but I'm already thinking I want to buy Jeanette Windle's book Veiled Freedom, which is also set in Afghanistan and was a finalist for both 2010 ECPA Christian Book Award in fiction and the Christy Award. I've heard great things about it, but I originally thought I wouldn't be interested in a book on Afghanistan. Obviously I was wrong.

Mortenson's charity, Central Asia Institute, builds schools, primarily for girls, in some of the hardest to reach places in Pakistan and Afghanistan. His miracle producing team of rogue agents accomplish amazing things on minimal resources and are worthy of support, or at least prayers.

Then I read about the following way to help Afghanistan in Shelf Awareness:  "Penguin Group's Riverhead Trade Paperbacks is launching the Picture a Book Changing Lives campaign to raise money for the Khaled Hosseini Foundation, which was founded by the author to aid the people of Afghanistan. The Foundation supports projects that provide shelter to refugee families and economic and educational opportunities for women and children. The Foundation also awards scholarships to students who have migrated to the U.S. under refugee status and women pursuing higher education in Afghanistan.


Under the Picture a Book Changing Lives campaign, people may submit one or two still photos of themselves reading or holding a copy of Hosseini's The Kite Runner or A Thousand Splendid Suns. For each such photo uploaded to the Hosseini group page of Penguin, Riverhead is donating $2 to the Foundation, up to $25,000. The campaign runs through August 31.

Geoffrey Kloske, v-p and publisher of Riverhead, commented, 'Khaled Hosseini's books have changed the way many around the world picture Afghanistan, so it's a great opportunity to give his readers a way to help raise money that will benefit the people of that country.'"

Here are the photos I posted, one for each book:

(And yes, that's what I currently look like; the professional shot was taken a few years ago with my hair was done by a professional.)


You don't have to own the books to upload your photos. So borrow them from the library or a friend and  make a difference in Afghanistan. More schools and help for the people there contributes to a more stable country and just might mean our soldiers can come home sooner. And that would make everyone happy.

Birthin' Babies

Even if you've never seen all four hours of Gone With the Wind, you probably know the line: "I don't know nothin' about birthin' babies."

I can say that with conviction. I've never had a baby. I've never been in a delivery room with someone who has. (And here's a piece of Carol trivia that has nothing to do with where this post is going: I have changed only one diaper in my life.)

But I do know that the birth of a child is supposed to be a joyous time, in spite of the pain. That makes this TIME magazine article even more distressing. If you wish, start with the video or the picture gallery of Mamma Sessay, an 18-year-old from Sierra Leone, married since age 14, which chronicals her death while giving birth to twins. It's not supposed to be like this, but it is. In Sierra Leone for every 100 women who give birth, one of them dies (1033 per 100,000 births).

In Lancaster County, where I live, there were 7229 births in 2008 (the latest statistics available). An equivalent maternal mortality rate would be 72 women, one every five days. In reality the U.S. ratio is 16.6 women per 100,000, meaning Lancaster County is likely to have one maternal death a year. And the U.S. rate is nowhere near the best (we rank 39th in maternal mortality rates, behind countries like Lithuania and Slovakia). And Sierra Leone isn't the very worst (Afghanistan holds that distinction, with 1575 maternal deaths per 100,000 births).

The Millennium Development Goals set a goal to lower maternal mortality in 2015 by 75% from 2000 rates, but, according to the article, "only 12% of countries are on track to meet that target." The solutions aren't complicated—education, transportation to hospitals, access to medical care (prenatal as well as delivery)—but they aren't simple to execute.

And for those of us who are pro-life, it can be difficult to determine what agencies to support as some include access to abortion in their agendas. But "World Relief’s Maternal and Child Health Programs presently serve over 3.8 million people in 9 countries." You can feel confident donating to them. If you know of other pro-life–compatible organizations working to reduce maternal mortality, please list them (and provide links) in the comments section.