Fig Tree writer joins Nuns on the Bus

 

By Catherine Ferguson SNJM

On September 30, as a nun and a member of the NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice's Advocates Board, I joined a bus crew of four other nuns, three friends and nine staff members to begin a two-and-a-half-week Vote Our Future Tour with Nuns on the Bus and Friends.

The tour hit the road visiting 20 cities in 11 states with a goal of motivating Catholics and others in the communities we visited to Vote Our Future: So everyone thrives, no exceptions!

NETWORK is an inclusive, national, Catholic advocacy organization open to all who share similar values. Founded by Catholic Sisters 52 years ago, it has educated, organized and lobbied for federal policies that serve the common good, honor the dignity of all and foster an inclusive, multiracial, multifaith democracy.

In choosing to go on its ninth national bus tour, its first in-person tour since 2018, NETWORK acknowledges the critical nature of this presidential election. The purpose of the tour was to encourage people to become informed, and be multi-issue voters, deciding who to support based on their values and the candidates' positions.

My leg of the tour was the first week. We traveled from our launch site at Love Park in Philadelphia, stopping at Allentown and Scranton in Pennsylvania, at Brentwood, Baldwin and Ithaca in New York, New Haven in Connecticut and then heading to Pittsburgh back in Pennsylvania.

At each stop in the tour, we had one or more of four kinds of events: a rally, a press conference, a site visit or a town hall.

On my leg, we had rallies in Philadelphia and New Haven where speakers from the bus were joined by local politicians whose beliefs and actions promote the six freedoms that form the core of NETWORK's message.

Rally speakers encouraged voters to find and support candidates who promote the following values and teachings of Catholic Social Justice: 1) the freedom to be healthy, 2) the freedom to live on a healthy planet, 3) the freedom to participate in a vibrant democracy, 4) the freedom to care for ourselves and our families, 5) the freedom to be free from harm and 6) the freedom to live in a welcoming country that values dignity and human rights.

In Philadelphia, the closing rally speaker was a friend on the bus, Cassandra Gould, an ordained elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, working for the Faith in Action Network. She roused the crowd with a metaphor to emphasize the importance of voting for candidates who support the common good for our multi-issue lives.

"Do you know the story of David in the Bible?" she asked. "What did he do? He used a rock to stop Goliath who was harming the people." Then she made the connection, "Your vote is a rock. If you don't use it, it sits there and does nothing. So go vote. Use the rock to vote your values for the common good. Ensure everyone has the freedoms they need to thrive. No exceptions!" 

On our journey, we had site visits to learn of the successes of folks working in collaboration with local politicians for the common good.

The first was on day two of our journey in Allentown. The Nuns on the Bus & Friends met with Gregory Edwards, pastor, and the staff of the Resurrected Life Community Church United Church of Christ. In 2011, they established the Resurrected Community Development Corporation. Their leadership is accomplishing amazing things in the community through the Resurrected Life Children's Academy, Pre-K Counts program, the James Lawson Freedom School and the Pennsylvania Family Counts Initiative.

Sister Quincy Howard, OP, another nun on the bus, explained: "We were floored by the phenomenal work that their leadership is accomplishing in the community. Their leaders are tirelessly confronting resource scarcity and systemic racism to literally resurrect their community, beginning with educating their children.

"Their work has 1) cut the high murder rate of children to ZERO for two years in a row, 2) taken ownership and put to use iconic downtown church properties for worship and robust services to the community, 3) secured $9 million to plan a school "directly in the hood" and build centrally located affordable housing, and 4) decreased the dropout rate of high school students to 2 percent."

Gregory passionately described the need for these programs.

"If our children are not well educated, they become invisible and disposable," and the Resurrected Life Community is not going to let this happen, he said

The town halls—held on four of six evenings on my leg of the journey at universities and church campuses—brought out committed local folks to learn about Catholic social teaching and Pope Francis' equally sacred multi-issues, used by NETWORK in its education and its advocacy. They were opportunities for those of us on the bus to learn about issues of importance in regions we visited.

At the First Presbyterian Church of Baldwin, Pastor Russ Roth, wearing a clergy tartan, and partners at Service Employees International Union (SEIU) welcomed us for a town hall. They set up a table, registered prople to vote and encouraged participants to make voting plans.

To visualize a town hall, picture a traditional church building where, along the front of the sanctuary, six panels depicted a world deprived of NETWORK's six freedoms.

A crowd of about 150 people sat in the pews. Coming with energy and commitment, they joined us in chanting our town hall mantra: Vote so "everyone can thrive, no exceptions!"

They listened to six of our bus team illuminate the freedoms of NETWORK's Equally Sacred Checklist, telling stories of their experiences of pro-democracy advocacy in Wisconsin and of violence on the border near El Paso, and sharing why it doesn't make sense for hunters (or anyone else) to use assault weapons because it tears apart an animal. Freedom from harm particularly resonated with the folks in Baldwin, many of whom are acting to stem gun violence and other violence on the street and in schools.

When asked to envision what the region would be like if the key freedoms were actualized, one participant said: "If we were free from harm, I could get on the subway day or night and feel safe."

Another connected with the freedom to be healthy: "I would get all the health care I need and have no worries about paying high prices for it."

At the end of this event—and all events—everyone was invited to take a magic marker and sign the bus. As I left in Pittsburgh, we had hundreds of signatures, good wishes and messages for politicians on the bus. I imagine by the time the tour ended in San Francisco, it was difficult for people to find a space to sign.

Nuns on the Bus and Friends Vote our Future continued until Oct. 18 with different nuns and friends for its next two legs. Leg two visited Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, Gary, Milwaukee, and Chicago. The highlight for this leg was a reunion of all who had ever ridden on any bus tour to come and celebrate.

From there, the bus drove without its crew to Tucson, where it picked up again on Oct. 13, with a new crew and visited Nogales and Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Bakersfield, San Jose, Redwood City and San Francisco.

Participants marked each step along the way with their mantra, "Vote so everyone thrives, NO EXCEPTIONS!"

For information, visit nunsonthebus.org.