May 8, 2010
Young people take lead at Lobby Day
By Denise MacLachlan
Herald staff
Seventh grade teacher Patricia Guerra, from John Paul II School in Sacramento, leads her students from the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament to the state Capitol building on Catholic Lobby Day April 27. Luis Gris/Herald photo
The next generation is poised to take the reins of advocacy at the state Capitol.
Nearly 600 Catholics from across California met at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Sacramento on April 27 to influence lawmakers on funding priorities in the state budget and to advocate for the passage of bills that feed the hungry, give hope and the possibility of a productive life to incarcerated adolescents, and allow California high school graduates who are undocumented to receive financial aid to attend college.
Amid the speakers and participants at the 12th annual Catholic Lobby Day, sponsored by the California Catholic Conference, were knowledgeable young people committed to social justice. Featured speakers Feriel Aoun and Sruthi Ramaswami, students at Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose, urged the crowd of nearly 600 participants to take practical action on behalf of the hungry in California.
Noting that their understanding of poverty comes not from Internet research but from their first-hand witness as volunteers and advocates in their community, the students took a proactive stance on Assembly Bill 1642, which would simplify the CalWorks and Food Stamp Program process. Not only did the students travel to the Capitol to lobby for change, they brought with them immediate practical help: bilingual public service posters that explain the food stamp application process.
Aoun and Ramaswami asked Lobby Day participants to take home copies of the posters, modify them for the appropriate county, and distribute them at food closets and other venues where they might help guide hungry families to the resources available.
Ramaswami noted that if all of the people gathered at the cathedral disseminate the posters in their own dioceses, “we could spread this effort statewide and reach millions of people.”
Commenting on the “deteriorating condition of the state,” Aoun said, “as conditions seem to worsen, our church is galvanizing together — something that truly inspires me and all of you to advocate for those less fortunate.”
Students Ruby Santos and Casey Ferreirae of Christian Brothers High School in Sacramento recorded the day’s events for later broadcast on KBFT Morning News, the school’s Brothers Falcon Television. The students’ Lobby Day coverage will also be posted on the school’s news Web site, www.kbft.net.
Santos explained that she and Ferreirae, who edit the recorded footage and provide commentary as they present the news to their community, covered the event because so many of the students at Christian Brothers are politically involved and interested in issues of social justice.
“Kids really want to be informed,” noted Santos, who was able to take a day from classes to cover Lobby Day.
The entire seventh grade of John Paul II School in Sacramento, however, moved their classes to the state Capitol for the day, joining the crowd at the cathedral and later meeting with representatives from the Senate and Assembly. The students easily described Senate Bill 399, which would allow minors under 18 who had been sentenced to life in prison to be resentenced after serving 10 to 25 years of their life sentence.
The seventh-graders lobbied with particular animation for the Dream Act, Senate Bill 1460.
“It gives student financial aid to undocumented immigrants who want to go to college, so they can graduate and get a good job,” said student Nicolas Lopez of John Paul II. When asked why undocumented high school students should get help to go to college, John Paul II student Braian Duran replied, “Because they are people, just like everyone else.”
Bishop Jaime Soto, who presided at Mass during Lobby Day and delivered the homily in Spanish and English, also emphasized the dignity life for all.
Bishop Soto noted that the crowd gathered to represent those who are lost in the margins — children in the womb, the frail elderly, immigrants who can’t get into colleges and universities, young people floundering in prison — in short, “our brothers and sisters.”
“The life of California depends on recognizing the dignity of life for all Californians,” the bishop said. “This dignity is not defined by state government. This God-given dignity defines the purpose of state government. Our social covenant should enable the life and liberty of the human person, not eliminate or exclude those who don’t fit in.”
The truth for California is “found in recognizing what binds us together as one people,” he added. “The power and industry of this state is found by weaving together the sincere hopes and honest ambitions of our diverse communities. When we ignore or dismiss the truth of the human person, we deny the true goodness that can make California great. The way for California is discovered in recognizing the life and the truth that each person can bring to the table of hope.”
The state budget was also under discussion during Lobby Day. Bishop Stephen Blaire of Stockton exhorted the gathered Catholics to remind legislators that the California state budget itself “is a moral document.”
Taking up that argument, Ned Dolejsi, executive director of the California Catholic Conference, noted in his keynote address that current state budget priorities were to fund abortions yet cut funding to the blind and disabled.
“Do we really want to do that?” Dolejsi asked. The way funds are allocated in the state budget reveals how Californians treat people who need help, he said.
This familiar budget crisis is a crisis of vision, Dolejsi said, but it brings with it the opportunity to shape a new vision.
In the pews before him at the cathedral and in the hallways of the Capitol building, young people from schools across the state are already helping to shape that new vision.
