Letters to the Editor

Disability awareness

I was pleased to see the article in the February WCG News on disability awareness. I have a lifelong disability and have been associated with the WCG for a long time. I was pleased to see that the congregation that sponsored the event had presenters on this topic who work at an independent living center.

I have been working at an independent living center near my home for 11 years and was on their board of directors before that. Disability awareness is a big issue for all of us. This type of article helps us all learn that it is OK to have a disability.

People with disabilities have a lot to offer their communities and churches. From my own experience, in the past, the unspoken reality was that people with disabilities were not asked to participate much in the WCG. I am glad to see attitudes are changing.

Stewart Holman
Washburn, Wisconsin

‘Who Cares What Happens to Haiti?’

I read your (Barbara Edward’s) article on Haiti (April WCG News), and I couldn’t help but think about our conversation in Tucson, Arizona. You were going over in your mind things that you wanted to add or thought you should have remembered to put in your article.

I thought about that as I was reading it. I could read your love and compassion for the people of Haiti through your writing. I loved how you used the history to not only show the struggle that these people have gone through but the courage with which they fought for their independence.

You showed the beauty of the place (talking about what Columbus wrote when he arrived there), you showed the struggle and the feeling of hopelessness, but with the gift of letting us know that these are noble people who are struggling with a bad situation.

People tend to write Haiti off, as you said, because they have nothing to offer (i.e., we can’t make money off of them). Your writing showed a dignity to these struggling people. Haiti is a place most people take for granted, and what most people know (or care to know) is these are the people who arrive here by boat.

I think your article will open a lot of eyes and hearts as your readers get to know a little more about their brothers and sisters in Christ. Thank you for writing such a beautiful article, though sad. Through prayer we know that God does bring hope to the hopeless.

Lela Duncan
Riverside, California

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