Shawnee Chief Glenna Wallace delivered the keynote address at the ceremony in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The designation puts the 2,000-year-old ceremonial mounds scattered around Ohio on par with other sites such as the Taj Mahal, Stonehenge, Machu Picchu, the Coliseum in Rome, and the Pyramids in Egypt.

World Heritage Sites History

In 1978 the United National Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designated Galápagos Islands as the first World Heritage Site. That same year, UNESCO designated Mesa Verde and Yellowstone National Parks as the first World Heritage Sites in the United States. As of April of this year, 1,199 sites in 168 countries have been designated World Heritage Sites. Natural wonders account for 127 of them, with an additional 933 being designated for their cultural significance and 39 as a mix of both cultural and natural significance deemed important to preserve for future generations.

Sarah Hinkelman, the Historic Site Manager at the Newark Earthworks, said one of the most exciting outcomes of this project was that the planning team included representatives from five of the Indigenous nations that once roamed freely in the areas where the mounds are located. Chief Wallace was among them.

Appling for UNESCO Status

Earning a World Heritage designation requires that a site meet at least one of ten UNESCO criteria. The Ohio team had to verify that the mounds they listed in their application were already recognized for their historical significance and are being protected.

Additionally, the team demonstrated that the mounds have universal value. Though Ohio has more mounds than those included in the WHS designation, only eight met the UNESCO criteria. Two of the mound clusters are in Licking County, a short drive from the over 1.3 million people who live in nearby Columbus. Serpent Mound in Southern Ohio, is well worth the drive, but is in a more rural portion of the state. This mound represents the pinnacle of prehistoric effigy mounds found anywhere in the world. The mound, easily recognized as a serpent, aligns with astronomic passages of the season.

Adding Ohio Mounds to the List

Effort to get Ohio mounds listed as World Heritage Sites started with Dr. Richard Shiels, now retired, but formerly an Ohio State University professor at the Newark campus. Brad Leaper, a senior world Heritage Site archeologist and recognized authority on precontact (with Europeans) archaeology, was also instrumental in seeing the project through to completion. Others on the team included  Talon Silverhorn, a citizen of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe and director of Great Council State Park near Xenia, Ohio, and Logan York, the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma.

The term “Hopewell Mounds” is deceiving as that is not the name of the Indigenous people who built the mounds. Archeologist Warren K. Moorehead made the name Hopewell popular. In the early 1890s he excavated ancient mounds located on property owned by Mordecai Hopewell.

Logan York is a citizen of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma. He is the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer (THPO) for the Miami Tribe. He is also super knowledgeable about the history of his tribe AND was there during the inception of the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks on the World Heritage list.

Previous Uses of the Mounds

The mounds have not always enjoyed the respect afforded them today. The Great Circle Mound in Newark is a perfect circle, encompassing 30 acres of undeveloped land. It was the perfect site for the annual Licking County Fair from 1854 until 1933. Then it became the property of the Ohio Historical Society  (recently renamed Ohio History Connections). That usage likely saved the mounds from the plow and bulldozer, as today the mounds are surrounded by commercial businesses. In the late 1800s, James Lingafelter, a local businessman, announced plans to make the Great Circle a selling point for Idlewilde Park. He claimed the park would be a premier amusement park with rides, entertainment, a race track, four ponds for swimming and boating, and even a hotel. When the Ohio Historical Society obtained the property in 1933 the Civilian Conservation Corps dismantled the park.

Other ancient mounds gave way to urbanization, modern highways and other plans of private individuals who acquired them. Once upon a time, the Licking County Mound area covered nearly four square miles. Today, all that remains open to the public are the Great Circle Park and another set of mounds a few miles away. That site includes a circle and an octagon — and the Moundbuilders Country Club and golf course.

Reclaiming the Past

In 1910 Licking County leased the property to the golf club, The lease stipulated that people could visit the mounds when golfers were not using the course. In 2018, as part of preparations to achieve the World Heritage designation, the Ohio Historical Society took legal action to rescind the Moundbuilders Country Club’s lease. It was set to expire in 2078. The country club filed a motion to stop OHS from taking over the property through eminent domain. In December 2022 the Ohio Supreme Court declined to hear the case.

Embracing the Future

A World Heritage designation contributes to the local economy. Park manager Hinkelman reports 478 people visited the site in May 2023, before the park was approved as a WHS site. In May 2024,  1,336 people visited, partly because of the mounds new status.

On the day I toured, our group included a family from Utah and another from Tennessee. Hinkelman reports they’ve already hosted international visitors. These are people who will likely stay to dine, and maybe sleep in the area. Equally important, sites sacred to the people whose ancestors built these feats of geometry, astronomy, and engineering, are now protected in perpetuity

Thank you for reading along. I learned most of the content of this article while doing research for the upcoming historical novel about the Ohio Valley before and after settlers started moving into the region. My ancestors were part of that migration. You can follow along on Substack.

I write about a variety of topics, but focus on how history influences our present and informs our future.

Mary Brewster’s Love Life and Mayflower Chronicles: The Tale of Two Cultures: available wherever books are sold. Bookshop.org/Mayflower; Mary BrewsterAmazon.com/Mary Brewster’s Love Life
Amazon.com/Mayflower-Chronicles
BarnesandNoble.com/w/mayflower-chronicles
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Autographed copies are available on my website.

The post UNESCO World Heritage Sites appeared first on How Wise Then.

Now that I do know, I can’t unknow it. What do we do when things we thought were true turn out to not to be? How shall we respond when things we’ve managed to not know come knocking on our conscience demanding to be acknowledged.

Acknowledging events of the past seems to be a good starting place. With that in mind, I offer this land acknowledgment statement:

As I prepare these words for you to read, I acknowledge the sacred lands on which I now live, giving thanks to those Indigenous Peoples who nourished this place, and who are still among us today, in spite of the many broken promises that I mourn. As I know more, may I do more to help pave a path forward, working together to nourish this land for the benefit of all people.

Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890

Ever hear of the Morrill Acts? I did not until I was trying to figure what was located on the land currently occupied by the Ohio State University Newark Campus. It turns out that campus is not the result of these acts. However, The Ohio State University main campus, sprawling over 1,700 acres of Columbus, is one of two land grant institutions in this state. The other one is Central Ohio State University. Curious to know more, I read several articles about land grant colleges.

These are institutions designated to receive funds from the Morrill acts. A total of 57 institutions of higher education benefitted from the 1862 act and another 19 from the 1890 act. In 1857 Congressman Justin Morrill of Vermont introduced a bill that eventually passed in 1862. It seems it’s always taken a long time for an idea to meander through the legislative process.

After the Civil War, Congress established a funding system to assist states in modernizing their higher educational systems. The 1862 Morrill Act gave federal land to states to establish colleges. The intended purpose was to teach agriculture, science, military science, and engineering, without eliminating other scientific and classical subjects. The goal was to expand higher education beyond Latin, Greek and mathematics.

The 1887 federal Hatch Act established an agricultural experiment station at these institutions to do research on best agricultural practices. The second Morrill Act in 1890 required former Confederate states to either provide access to land grant universities, regardless of race, or to provide separate educational options for white and black students. The result was the creation of nineteen additional HBCU – Historically black colleges and universities.

Expansion and Shifting Priorates

By 1914 these land grant institutions had strong political support, enabling them to expand the definition and scope of university course offerings. Over time most land grant institutions evolved into a network of large state universities. For example, the Ohio State student enrollment hovers between 45,000 to 50,000 every year. Today large state universities often dominate the news because their premier athletic events more than their focus on researching agricultural advances. Universities do what they can to attract and keep donors.

Revisiting the Past

According to an August 18, 2020  High Country News article, 52 of the Morrill Act institutions were funded with land stolen from Indigenous Peoples. The article includes the content of a letter preserved by the family of a Native American known as Captain Jim. He received the letter from a U. S. Indian Agent on Department of the Interior, Indian Service letterhead. Written from Fort Hall May 18, 1900, it reads, “Captain Jim, an Indian of this reservation, has permission to be absent for a period of ten days to visit Boise, Idaho. Captain Jim is a leading Indian and chief on this reservation and his tribe formerly roamed in the neighborhood of Boise. He is commended to all persons as being a good Indian, friendly to the whites and deserving of consideration.”

Wow. An adult man needed to carry a letter verifying he had permission to walk about the land that once belonged to his people. The article states that nearly 11 million acres of land was acquired, from an estimated 250 tribes, bands and Indigenous communities. Over 160 deals were brokered through violence, treaties made and later ignored, or pressured transfer of land ownership. The 1862 Morrill Act stipulated that those receiving the land sell it for the benefit of the new institutions. The plan raised close to $18 million for the initial 52 institutions by early in the 20^th century.

Doing Better

When I wrote Mayflower Chronicles: The Tale of Two Cultures I learned about a partnership between a university and the Pokanoket people in the area. Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island, is named for the 17^th Century minister who helped establish Rhode Island. Over the past few years university leaders have partnered with Pokanoket leaders to learn, retain, and disseminate the history of the area Indigenous people who once roamed freely where the university is now located.

For example, a group of students produced a booklet that documents the oral history Pokanoket people have passed down through a dozen generations, dating back to the 1600s and earlier. Massasoit Ousamequin called on the early English settlers in Cape Cod to work out the first treaty between Indigenous people and the English speaking people we know as the Pilgrims.

Historical facts don’t change, but how we preserve, record, and teach them does from generation by generation. Though some of what I learn is hard to accept, it also gives me hope that by learning more, together we can do more to partner more going forward.

Are there any historical discoveries that have influenced how you think about things? Click this link to check out land grant colleges in your state.

Thank you for reading along. If you’ve enjoyed this bit of history, you might also enjoy  my posts on Substack.

I write about a variety of topics, but focus on how history influences our present and informs our future.

Mary Brewster’s Love Life and Mayflower Chronicles: The Tale of Two Cultures: available wherever books are sold. Bookshop.org/Mayflower; Mary BrewsterAmazon.com/Mary Brewster’s Love Life
Amazon.com/Mayflower-Chronicles
BarnesandNoble.com/w/mayflower-chronicles
BarnesandNoble/MaryBrewster
Autographed copies are available on my website.

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History Doesn’t Change, But Interpretations Do

The post Columbus or Indigenous Peoples’ Day appeared first on How Wise Then.

Since last Monday was our annual Labor Day holiday, this seems a good time to reflect on some of the labor arrangements in the earliest days of what became the United States. Less than half, only 41 of the 102 passengers on the famous 1620 Mayflower voyage, were seeking a place to establish their own first-century style Christian community. These Separatist religious rebels had a vision and a plan, but lacked the funding to sail away to a new future. They sold what possessions they could and then sold themselves into indentured servanthood for a period of seven years.

The rest of the Mayflower passengers consisted of merchants, craftsmen, skilled workers, other indentured servants, and several orphaned children. The religious refugees referred to them as strangers, and strangers they were to the Separatists at the start of the voyage. The Investors from the Virginia Company had the financial wherewithal to finance the trip. Reluctantly, the Separatists agreed to a contract with them that secured financial backing in exchange for receiving the profits from their labor for a period of seven years. To boost their profits, the stockholders insisted the Separatists accept the strangers into their close-knit community as part of the deal.

Delayed Financial Gratification

Each adult male was granted a share in the joint-stock company. After seven years, the accumulated earnings were to be divided among the shareholders. During the seven-year indentured servant period, settlers were required to work in common, with each settler contributing everything to a typical store and withdrawing from it to meet their own needs and those of their families.  One-fifth – or about twenty – of the Mayflower passengers came as indentured servants. Most of the others were members of the Established Church of England (Anglican). Ironically, this was the very institution the Separatists had emigrated to Holland to escape a decade earlier.

When the Mayflower crew finally spotted land after two months at sea, they discovered they’d arrived north of the jurisdiction of the Virginia Company. Some among the group immediately decided their commitment as indentured servants was null and void. They believed they could now do as they pleased. To avoid chaos and conflicts before they even started establishing their new settlement, they worked out the details of the Mayflower Compact. Every adult male either signed it or had his mark, or “X,” witnessed on the document before anyone left the ship.

Those who came as indentured servants owed whatever they could grow, make, hunt, or fish to the community and the benefactors back in England. The labor was grueling, as were the living conditions. Half the indentured servants died within the first months in the new location. The other half of the non-indentured new arrivals were also in graves by the spring of 1621.

Send More Workers

The remaining few dozen colonists were desperate for help to establish a stable, long-lasting Colony. Several previous attempts to establish English settlements along the East Coast had failed. To avoid becoming another failed colony, the settlers sent appeals back to England, Scotland, and Ireland, requesting more assistance.

In the ensuing years, hundreds of others joined them. For most, their passage was paid for by their future masters. Between the arrival of the Mayflower and the Revolutionary War, it is estimated that as many as four out of five new immigrants came initially as indentured servants. They came believing they’d get food, clothing, and shelter in exchange for their labor. For people in the British Isles contending with grinding poverty and few prospects for a better future, this was an appealing deal. Men who accepted the offer could anticipate finishing their term of service and then getting their own land and financial compensation for their work. There was also the hope they might participate in local government once they were freemen.

Managing Indentured Servants

Early Plymouth law governed the fate of these indentured servants. When still more labor was needed, the Natives were sometimes forced into slavery. Europeans intentionally destroyed Native crops and means of supporting themselves. According to numerous cases recorded in the Plymouth Court Records, governing these indentured servants was a complex process.

After their period of indentured work, they would become free citizens of the Plymouth Colony. Colonial officials sought to ensure that they would be law-abiding and God-fearing citizens who would contribute to the well-being of the Colony after completing their service.

The servant’s master was responsible for the servant until the term of the contract was completed, and the length of the agreement could not be shortened. Thus, servants typically became adjunct members of their master’s household. This protected the Colony from assuming responsibility for those who, for whatever reasons, could no longer be productive members of the master’s household. Occasionally, the Court ruled the community, not the master, was responsible for a servant who was sick or mistreated. That may have laid a foundation for a future welfare system in the Colonies.

Immigration Issues Are Ancient History

Migration has been a part of the human experience for as long as humans have existed. Clear back in Genesis, God instructs Abram (Abraham) to pack up all his belongings and head out to a place he’s never been before, to receive the blessing God has in store for him. Famine, floods, wars, droughts, persecution – all these factors motivate an individual or a whole population of people to strike out for a new place. People immigrate from and to every continent, sometimes fleeing trouble, and at other times migrating in search of a fresh start.

Most immigrants make incredible sacrifices for the chance of finding something better. In the early 1600s, immigrants sold themselves into bondage to get to the New World. It was a price they were willing to pay to establish their own community based on their understanding of what the earliest Christian communities were like. Today, immigrants come eager to scrub floors, clear tables, wash dishes, cut lawns, pick crops, and work long hours at hard labor for low wages – hoping to create a better world for themselves and their children.

We set aside one Monday a year to pay tribute to the people whose labor literally built this country. For nearly two centuries, the majority of these laborers came as indentured servants.

Some information for this blog came from Plymouth Colony Archive Project and the Constitutional Rights Foundation. If you enjoyed this blog, you may also enjoy reading about Child Labor.

Thank you for stopping by to read about some of the earliest days of labor in our country’s history. If you got this blog from a friend, you can get your own FREE subscription at HowWiseThen.

Mary Brewster’s Love Life and Mayflower Chronicles: The Tale of Two Cultures: available wherever books are sold. Bookshop.org/Mayflower; Mary Brewster
Amazon.com/Mary Brewster’s Love Life
Amazon.com/Mayflower-Chronicles
BarnesandNoble.com/w/mayflower-chronicles
BarnesandNoble/MaryBrewster
Autographed copies are available on my website.

The post Labor Day in 1620 appeared first on How Wise Then.

Learning the Lay of the Land

Before the Board of Elections assigned me a poll worker task, I attended a mandatory election class. We spent a couple of hours reviewing the roster judge portion of a 210-page Training Manual. I also attended a session to practice handling various kinds of challenges we might encounter on Election Day.

On Election Eve, a team of about (I never took time to count) fifteen people gathered at our assigned precinct to convert a school gymnasium into a voting site. We unpacked the sealed equipment units delivered earlier that day. They contained the voting machines, signs, tables for checking in voters, another table to handle special situations, and a designated VLM (Voting Location Manager) office, which was essentially an additional folding table. The VLM brought all the official documents we needed.

My Duties

For poll workers, Election Day began at 5:30 a.m. Six roster judges set up their work areas, two per table, each with a poll book containing the names, addresses, voter ID numbers, and signatures that looked like they came off driver’s licenses. Each poll book contained names from a specific part of the alphabet. Once the polls opened, we asked each voter to show a photo ID and verified that both what the voter showed us and what the voter stated out loud matched the information in the pre-printed poll book. They taught us the handy acronym O.P.E.N.: an Ohio driver’s license with a photo, that has not expired, with the name on the license matching the name the voter provided. I think 195 of the 200 people I checked in on Tuesday met that criteria. The few who did not, I sent to other people to process.

I then completed an ATV (Authority to Vote) slip of paper, writing in the precise information found in the poll book about where the voter is eligible to vote, before I had them sign the poll book. We also had to check off their names in another set of additional pre-printed rosters, which another poll worker posted on a wall so anyone could see who had shown up to vote so far.

Then I gave the voter the authority to vote form and a blank ballot. The voter took these to another worker, who collected the authority to vote form and showed the voter how to load the ballot in the voting machine to cast a vote. The last step was to walk over to a poll worker who helped the voter insert the ballot into a secure collection box. Someone monitored the collection boxes and the voting machines the entire time the voting site was open. They were never unattended and were located in plain sight of dozens of poll workers. They arrived in sealed containers and were returned in the same manner to the Election Board when the polls closed.

Checks and Balances

At the end of the day, the number of signatures in the poll books had to match the number of authority-to-vote papers, which also had to match the number of ballots in the secure ballot collection box. Multiple people confirmed the numbers several times, all working in an open area with other poll workers present.

Different workers cross-checked everyone’s work before the poll books were sealed with red stickers. All the equipment, including voting machines, poll books, authority-to-vote papers, ballots, and incident reports, was stored in locked and sealed containers. Two people, one from each political party, delivered everything back to the Board of Elections.

The VLM asked each of us to identify our party affiliation. I declared Independent, and my tablemate declared Republican. Over the course of the day, we became friends. We made plans to play Euchre at our local senior citizens center. Knowing our party affiliations is another check and balance procedure. When it is necessary to take a ballot outside to a curbside voter, two people, one from each party, handle that task,  preventing either from influencing the voter.

If any voter’s information does not match the poll book, they will receive a Provisional Voter Form. A different team of poll workers deals with the details required to let those voters cast provisional ballots. Poll workers set aside those ballots in what appears to be an oversized, locked bank bag. Election officials check them later to ensure those people did not vote previously with a mail-in ballot.

Voting is a Privilege and a Responsibility

Voting is the primary tool we citizens have to organize the societies in which we live. That is why those who wish to dominate society, regardless of what the majority of us want, work so hard to control who gets to vote. When the founders of this great country declared that we would be a nation with liberty and justice for all, they established a system that allowed us to choose our own leaders.

Being the mere mortal men they were, they established a system to guarantee certain inalienable rights for themselves, which did not necessarily include their mothers, sisters, wives, daughters, or less wealthy men who kept the economy moving. I suspect they had a condition I consider the “first-born-male syndrome.” It is fairly common for families to bestow large privileges and responsibilities on their first son, presuming he will take care of the rest of his siblings. That being the case, why would sisters and younger brothers want to be involved in the tedious details required to manage a family or a country?

Voting is the Great Equalizer

Ohio’s August special election was a prime example of using the ballot to shape the culture. When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the people of Ohio collected enough signatures to get the issue on the November ballot. Next fall, the people will decide what they want to do about the issue.

Last December, the state legislature eliminated August special elections, declaring them too expensive and having too little voter participation. They reversed that decision when it became apparent that the wave of protesters might succeed in getting the issue before the people. Thus, they changed course and called for a special election, held last Tuesday, with one issue. Change the Constitution or keep it the way it’s been for a century.

On the last day of early voting, people waited in the hot August sun for over two hours to vote.  An astonishing 700,000 voters turned out for early voting, far exceeding expectations. On Election Day, I personally processed 200 people out of an estimated 3 million voters. The people have spoken, rejecting the proposed amendment to change the rules. From my vantage point, I am confident our votes are safe, handled with great respect, secure, and matter.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article. Share it with a friend or sign up for your own free subscription at HowWiseThen. I will not sell your information. Select a monthly newsletter and/or weekly articles about whatever’s on my mind that week.

Mary Brewster’s Love Life and Mayflower Chronicles: The Tale of Two Cultures: available wherever books are sold. Bookshop.org/Mayflower; Mary Brewster
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Angela Burgess is on a mission to help families escape the poverty trap and find hope for their futures. I met this exuberant carrier of hope through the Houston non-profit RaiseUp Families organization. After being a long-time donor, she became the executive director in 2020. In that role, she combines her Christian values with over twenty years of experience in the field of wealth management, insurance, and nonprofit development.

She is passionate about guiding families out of the poverty maze, which has been the agency’s focus since 1994. RaiseUp Families has successfully stabilized hundreds of families struggling with the tough times that can overwhelm anyone. The COVID-19 pandemic, medical bills, car repairs, and other problems stretch a tight budget to the breaking point. That starts a chain reaction that compounds problems until the family is desperate and destitute, often resulting in evictions. That leads to children changing schools or missing school altogether, which impairs the child’s education and social development as relationships with teachers and peers are disrupted.

Lack of Cash Leads to Frequent Moves

Cash-deficient families often move, sometimes to take advantage of an apartment move-in promotion that gives them a break on utilities; other times, they are evicted for failure to pay the rent. RaiseUp Families works with clients to catch up on overdue rent and utility payments, to avert eviction, so that the children continue attending their current schools. Maintaining a consistent school routine maximizes the child’s chances of thriving, which is a key component in overcoming generational poverty.

Angela’s enthusiasm is contagious and inspiring. “I’m convinced that money comes from unexpected sources when you focus on the work,” she said while discussing the funding required to help client families. The results of the agency’s virtual April 2020 spring fundraiser illustrate her point. By the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic was spreading, and the agency decided to cancel its annual in-person spring fund-raising luncheon.

Over the next four days, Angela pulled together a virtual replacement event. “We raised the same amount of money as the previous year, without having to spend money for a venue and food, so really, we came out ahead in the budget game.”

Forced to Rethink the Program

The COVID pandemic also put a crimp in how the agency interacts with clients who could no longer come to the office, where staff helped them increase their income while decreasing their expenses. Angela explained, “Because of privacy policies, schools and apartment complex owners were unable to make referrals. I called the Houston Apartment Association and asked, ‘How can we help each other?’ Soon, we were able to expand our mission to all of the Houston area and began working with clients face-to-face via Zoom.

Their creative workaround for the COVID challenge got picked up by reporter Amy Davis at KHOU, which generated 800 calls for information. All this attracted the attention of an anonymous donor who liked what the agency does. His first check for $75 was followed by another for $3,000 and then by a note inquiring about what RaiseUp Families needed most. “He gravitates towards places that help children and animals. I believe that if you do the right thing, God will provide.”

The anonymous donor then gave another $250,000, enabling the agency to expand its services to around seventy families by the summer of 2021. By 2022, that number grew to eighty-five families. Nearly a hundred percent of those families managed to keep their children in the same school system. Equally significant, families that completed the program experienced an average income increase of sixty-one percent and stay in stable housing after completing the program.

Family and Career Training

Angela grew up in Iowa City, Iowa, and attended college in Pella, IA (home to Pella Windows), with thirty-four churches and four bars. In college, she majored in Spanish and Communications. She spent a semester in Washington, D.C., working as a lobbyist for farm workers and cranberry farmers. There she honed her persuasion skills. She puts past experiences to good use in Houston, where being bilingual is definitely an asset. Her training in financial management and generosity started at home, where banking runs in the family. Her father and grandfather were bankers, and her mother worked in a savings and loan firm.

Eventually, she went to work for Smith Barney (now Morgan Stanley) in Chicago, where she said, “I kept encouraging people to restructure their portfolios to include donations to charity. I wanted to help people connect their money with their mission, to know what’s best for the donor, the family, and the charity. I love talking finance.”

Spreading Hope

She said she learned her first financial management skills from her parents. “I came to realize that my parents were disciplined in exactly one thing: deciding whether something was a need or a want, and not giving in to the temptation of wants. Growing up in a middle-class family, my parents repeated these words to me time and time again: ‘It’s not how much you make, but how much you spend.’

Many of the families we serve were never taught that principle. Combine a lack of basic money management tools with one large unanticipated expense or loss of a job, and suddenly a family drops from barely getting along to extreme hardship.”

After Angela moved to Houston in 2014 with her husband, Gary Burgess, for his position with the Houston Morgan Stanley office, she launched Broad Oaks Consulting. At that time, in 2018,  she was a donor for RaiseUp Families and worked with victims of assault and rape, which she found gratifying. She says, “I’m good in a crisis.”

Angela has applied her boundless energy to mentor girls through Big Brothers-Big Sisters, serves as a guardian ad litem with Child Advocates, and maintains a prison ministry through Order Malta, a Catholic lay religious order. She says, “My motto is everyone has time to save a life or change a life.”

Inspired by Faith

Although Catholic now, she was raised in the Presbyterian church by her parents, a grandmother, and a great-grandmother who were all people of strong faith, and they did a wonderful job enriching her life with Jesus’ teachings and love.

“When I left home, I began seeking a church home that provided the same grounding my childhood church had and, after many years of searching, found the Catholic Church. At age twenty-four, I became a Catholic, finally finding a community in which I felt I belonged.”

A significant part of her work with RaiseUp Families consists of nurturing current donors and expanding the organization’s impact on the community. Houston earned the dubious honor of being the city with the most evictions once the onset of the pandemic set in. Apartment managers were eager to partner with people who could help them keep their tenants and still collect the rent.

She knows what it’s like not to have the funds for rent. “I’ve sat at my kitchen table at two o’clock in the morning, calling my credit card company to ask for a cash advance so I could pay my rent that month. I know how tough things can get.”

Expanding Hope and Help

Today, Angela and her staff continue to dispense hope by ending poverty one family at a time. Thanks to support from donors, community partners, and a wonderful, forward-thinking Board of Directors, RaiseUp Families has doubled the size of staff under Angela’s leadership. The agency has restructured its HandUp program to help clients achieve even better outcomes. The agency anticipates that by June 2023, they will have served TWICE the number of families as in  2021 and 2022, with client incomes also increasing.

Angela’s new goal?  “I want to see 60% of our families reach the income “happiness index” of $70,000 in household income within three years of entering our HandUp program.  To date, about 10% of our clients are achieving or exceeding that mark within 12-18 months, so we have our work cut out for us, but we’re on the right track!”

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Labor Day Today

As we head into the beloved Labor Day weekend and transition from summer to fall and another academic year, let’s pause and consider the ancient tensions between those who do the manual work that keeps society going and those who finance that work. Labor Day today is more about boats, beaches, and best sales than labor-management disputes. But Labor Day today is still a struggle over who will do the work and how much they get paid for it.

We are experiencing the lowest unemployment rate I can remember; somewhere around 3.5. “Help Wanted” signs are everywhere. I frequently see signs that read, “In a world where you can be anything, be kind.” This is usually followed by a plea to be patient with the staff as the place is short-staffed.

A Classic Apples and Oranges Dispute

And yet, it is virtually impossible to support even oneself on minimal wage income, which has not gone up significantly in decades. We’ve become very good at instantly taking sides on any issue that comes along. One of the current great divides is over the recently implemented policy to forgive sums of student loan debt. Shouting matches have erupted all over social and broadcast media between the “About time!” and “Thank you!” response versus the “Not Fair!” “I paid mine. You pay yours!” response.

A New York Times article this week by David Leonhardt runs the numbers. He graduated in 1994 with about $26,000 of student loan debt (in today’s dollars). Had the Biden debt-relief plan been available then, he would have qualified for it. He was abler to pay off his loan without the Biden plan. But that was then.

Today the combination of household income versus cost of living, combined with usury style interest on student loans, has made it extremely difficult to ever get out from under crushing debt. Young adults in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, have fewer economic resources than their peers of three decades ago did. It is fairly common to head of situations in which the borrower has paid back two and three times the original loan and still is not clear of the debt.

What is Fair?

What is fair? Is fair treating everyone the same without factoring in different circumstances for different people? Should fair be expecting a five-year-old to compete with a fifteen-year-old in a race? That is what we often do. We expect today’s standards to apply to lives lived centuries ago. Or we expect the economics of a century ago to apply to the reality of today’s economy. Is this even the right question to ask? Don’t want today’s just-starting-adult-life people to do well?

We once thought it was perfectly acceptable to send children barely out of diapers to work to do work that was detrimental to their health and safety. Up until the mid-1800s, we accepted that it was appropriate that some should be enslaved to work for the benefit of others.

History Matters

On Labor Day today, few will remember the oppressive, dangerous, work conditions that led to protests demanding improvements for worker conditions. Prior to the reforms, a typical work day was twelve plus hours in hazardous work environments for low pay. Children were a regular part of the workforce.

Oppressive work conditions led to strikes and protests that eventually resulted in better hours and pay. Ten thousand workers took a day off without pay on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, to parade from City Hall to Union Square in New York City to pay tribute to American workers. That was the first, unofficial, Labor Day parade.

Social change rarely happens without a fight. Some of the ensuing rallies turned violent. In 1894 workers who built Pullman train cars in the Southside of Chicago went on strike when 4,000 workers had their wages reduced. Their strike, coupled with a massive boycott against trains, led to a national transportation crisis. The strike involved a quarter million workers in twenty-five states, with riots in many cities. President Grover Cleveland called out Army troops and twelve were killed in the riots. When the situation was finally resolved, President Cleveland urged Congress to designate the first Monday in September as a national holiday.

Competing Agendas

Tensions between employers and employees escalated in the Industrial Revolution. Employers wanted to maximin profits. Employees want to maximin wages. Factory owners realized children, who could be paid less than adults, could operate some of the new machines, thus increasing productivity while reducing costs. By the mid-1800’s child labor was a major problem. Children sometimes worked twelve to eighteen hours a day, six days a week, for a dollar ($31 today) a week.

The United States started outlawing child labor in the late 1800s. In 1918 and 1922, Congress passed laws banning or limiting child labor, but the Supreme Court declared those laws unconstitutional. Congress tried again in 1924, but the states failed to ratify it. In 1938 Congress finally passed a Fair Labor Standards Act that set the minimum work age at 16 during school hours, 14 for some after-school jobs, and 18 for work deemed dangerous.

Swinging Pendulums

It seems to me today’s debate about providing some debt-relief assistance is a continuum of ancient competing values. How can we make the most profit for some while keeping the compensation for others as low as possible? It is also a competition between individual rights and community obligations. Do we lean into the “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul?” philosophy penned by William Ernest Henley in Invictus? Or do we lean toward John Donne’s theory that “No man is an island?”

Do we go with the “I had to do it, you should too” attitude? Or might we go with the “I had to endure it but no one should have to go through that” approach? Competition or collaboration? As for me and my family, which includes six young adults with student loan debts, I would much prefer my tax dollars go to helping them retire them as quickly as possible than finance more war weapons.

Meanwhile, for Labor Day today, I’m thankful for people who do the work that keeps society going.

Some information for this blog comes from “Child Labor.” Reviewed by Milton Fried. The New Book of Knowledge. Grolier Online, 2014. Web. 04 June 2018.

Thank you for beginning your Labor Day weekend by dropping by.  Consider sharing this with a friend, or sign up to receive your own blogs at HowWiseThen. and join our growing on-line community.

Read about how some of the folks on the Mayflower paid their way by entering into indentured servants for seven long years. Mayflower Chronicles: The Tale or Two Cultures is available in libraries or wherever you get books in electronic, print, and audio format, including these places:
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In the 1600 and 1700s European countries, especially England launched hundreds of ships full of immigrants who eventually established what became the United States of America. By the mid-1700s those immigrants concluded the oppression from the British Empire was intolerable. Patrick Henry’s cry, “Give me liberty or give me death,” resonated with enough people that we eventually did gain our independence from Mother England.

You’d think that experience, along with the waves of other immigrants in the 1800s and 1900s, would make us sympathetic to the plight of immigrants today and better at welcoming the stranger. Desperate people today seek freedom from violent, oppressive, and abusive situations in their home countries. Unless we descend from Native Americans or Africans brought here on slave ships, we carry within us the DNA of immigrants.

One Human Race, Many Nations

There is only one human race, but we have organized into diverse nations for thousands and thousands of years. One way we define ourselves is by what country and ethnic group nurtured our ancestors. For me, that is about equal amounts of English and German influence. Ancestors on my mother’s side left England in the 1600s to get away from the reign of King James. My father’s parents left Germany in the 1800s because there was no future for them there in the late 1800s. Strangers helped them get settled into their new country because welcoming the stranger was part of their attitude toward immigrants.

Thousands of years ago humans put walls around cities and established borders to define geographic regions. Clear borders make for good neighboring countries, though it isn’t always that obvious where one country ends and the other begins. People have been migrating from country to country for as long as there have been people. Today President Zelensky and his people are either fighting valiantly to preserve the borders of Ukraine or fleeing in droves to escape the assault on their country. I watch in horror at the intentional carnage to a people that want only to be their own free, independent nation.

Open and Closed Borders

Borders are neither good nor bad, merely a way to know where one country ends and another begins. It is how the border crossings are regulated that either creates good relationships or conflicts and wars. Ideally, all borders would be open. Realistically, borders need to be regulated to protect people from invasion by those who would do them harm. Desperate people fleeing violence are not among those who are a threat. They are the threatened, and that is often why they are migrating.

A border official who tears a terrified toddler away from people the child knows and trusts inflicts a catastrophic trauma on that child. It does not matter why the stranger took the child. Nor does it matter how kind the stranger is. The situation creates trauma the child may never overcome. We know from brain research that trauma in young children actually changes the way the child processes the world. We are literally creating future mental health problems by inflicting such trauma on small children.

Desperate Parents

Desperate parents do desperate things. If they stay in their home country they face the all too real possibility that gangs will snatch their children from them. Even if that does not happen, the chances their children can find adequate, legitimate work are limited. So they migrate. They travel to a place they’ve been told all their lives is the land of liberty and justice for all,  arriving to encounter strangers who take their children from them.

Borders are human designations. From space, borders are invisible; which is perhaps the way God views our global community. From space, Earth is one beautiful blue and green planet, populated with people of many skin tones, languages, customs, and traditions.

Borders are useful for organizing the current estimated 7.6 billion residents of Planet Earth into 195 countries. Countries oversee the collective needs of the citizens within each country. When governments rule with justice and compassion, things run fairly smoothly. When they do not, chaos, calamity, and carnage soon take over. When that happens, people leave in search of a better place to live.

More Bridges, Fewer Barriers

I wonder if we aren’t too quick to put up barriers and too slow to build bridges. Every single person who is now a significant part of my life was once a stranger I had to get to know. The only exceptions are my parents and my brothers. Strangers are friends we haven’t yet gotten to know. If we talk to someone long enough, we’ll discover we have things in common. Abraham Lincoln is credited with saying; “I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.”

As we celebrate our Independence from England, I hope we can also acknowledge the plight of so many today who are seeking their own independence from oppression. I hope we can make their arrival at our borders one of hope and encouragement for the future. I pray we will find ways to turn strangers into new friends.

         Let freedom ring – everywhere, for all people.

Mayflower Chronicles: The Tale of Two Cultures covers the Pilgrim’s escape from England and much more of the interaction between them and the Pokanoket people. Available wherever books are sold in paperback, eBook, and audio.
Bookshop.org (Supporting local Indie Bookshops)
Amazon.com/Mayflower-Chronicles-Tale-Two-Cultures/
BarnesandNoble.com/w/mayflower-chronicles-kathryn-haueisen/
Autographed copies available from BlueWillowBookShop.com/book/

The post Welcoming the Stranger appeared first on How Wise Then.

 Can’t We All Just Get Along?

This question is a paraphrase of what Rodney King asked in 1992 when riots spread destruction, death, and terror across Los Angeles. In 1991 four police officers brutally beat King, a man of African descent, after a high-speed chase. A witness recorded the violence and gave the recording to a local news channel. In 1992 a predominately Caucasian jury failed to convict the officers and an outburst of pent-up frustration, anger, and resentment erupted into lethal riots that lasted nearly a week. In a public appearance, King said, “People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along?” King was eventually compensated over $3 Million in damages and died at age forty-seven. It was a sad end to a tragic event that has been repeated too many times in too many cities since.

Unity vs Diversity?

Sunday is Trinity Sunday in many Protestant Churches. Once again pastors will try to explain how God can be three entities one being and one being in three distinct entities. It is a discussion that fascinates theologians, and in earlier times literally so divided people with differing views that they killed one another over the issue. Today the dilemma is probably so far removed from most people’s minds that they wouldn’t know where to begin to render an opinion on the matter, let alone fight with anyone about it.

But it does raise a very real issue that we are going to war about and are killing one another other. And that is whether or not the human community can sustain both unity and diversity. Can we have extreme differences of opinions about hot-button topics such as gun regulations, Red or Blue political views, the legality of abortion, climate change issues, etc? Can we be divided in opinion and united in a common cause?

Lessons from the Mayflower

I find some insights from the story of the Mayflower voyage. From July through December of 1620 the Mayflower became a floating village. Counting the 102 passengers and another perhaps 25 crew, it was a floating community of approximately 125 men, women, and children. Plus the two dogs we know about and perhaps also a few poultry, goats, and pigs for food along the way and after arrival.

There are numerous ways to divvy up the community. Passengers vs crew. Men vs. women. Adults vs. children. English exiles starting from Leiden vs. English subjects starting from England. Separatists vs. non-separatists, all probably part of the Established Church of England the exiled Separatists emigrated to get away from. Bottom line, there were plenty of differences among the members of this village.

Many Differences, One Huge Goal

The residents of this floating village did not all like, respect, or want to associate with all the others. Yet, they had one huge common goal: get safely from England to the New World. Along the way, they encountered numerous challenges, including nearly capsizing mid-crossing. They had to work together to stay afloat.

Within hours of sighting land after their 66-day crossing, trouble erupted. The non-Separatists saw a chance to strike out on their own. They had arrived 400 miles north of the area previously claimed by the Virginia Company that financed their voyage. They assumed they had no further obligation to the terms of the trip.

We Need Each Other

The one village was about to splinter into two factions. The more rational and clear thinking passengers realized that if they did not come together as one, they would likely all die in a matter of months. Out of this situation was born the Mayflower Compact.

Every adult man in the floating village (with the exception of the crew who were headed back to England as soon as possible) signed or placed their “X” to indicate their commitment to the survival of the village. The plan worked. Today that small community has approximately 35 million descendants around the world.

We Need One Huge Goal

The common denominator between the D-Day and the Mayflower is that both groups had one gigantic goal that kept them together when differences could have torn them apart. What happened to Rodney King, and the resulting violence that erupted, is a symptom of our lack of a common goal as a country.

We slice and dice the modern United States into all sorts of sub-categories and then pit groups against one another like some deranged dog fight. Some seem to thrive on fighting and bloodshed and blood and violence make more profits than tranquility and harmony. Humans have been at war with one another since the beginning of time. Conflicts erupt in families all the time. Workplace battles are commonplace.

But does it have to be this way? Can’t we set aside our differences to work together on solutions to common problems? I don’t know if we can or not. But I am hopeful we will, because I think the stakes are too high not to find ways to come back together.

Causes of Conflict

Most conflicts are the result of two or more people equally determined to have their own way. They disagree on the best way forward and won’t consider the option of cooperation and compromise. However, our history records times when people of different cultures collaborated for the mutual benefit of all. Antarctica is one example. The International Space Station is another. We hear little about these cooperative efforts and much about times when countries and cultures collide over land use and resources. “If it bleeds, it leads.” What we learn from the news is not all there is to know.

Community Cures

Actor Matthew McConaughey grew up in Uvalde and owns guns. He made a statement earlier this week from the Rose Garden in response to the massacre in his home town May 24. “I promise you, America—you and me, —we are not as divided as we’re being told we are…. How about we get inspired? Give ourselves just cause to revere our future again. Maybe set an example for our children, give us reason to tell them, ‘Hey, listen and watch these men and women. These are great American leaders right here. Hope you grow up to be like them.’”

Conflict in Cyber Space

Today we often do battle with strangers via Social Media. My beloved ELCA is currently embroiled in a sticky personnel issue that has gone viral with people piling on their assessments, conclusions, and judgments, while those charged with trying to calm some very troubled waters do what they can to learn the facts and determine the next best steps.

Social media was originally intended as a place for people to share information, stories about themselves, and things they found amusing or amazing. Back in the 90’s a friend enthusiastically extolled the virtues of this new way of communicating. To prove his point, he told me how the Internet enabled a Texas agriculture professor to help an African farmer get more produce for his efforts. Anything that can be created can also be corrupted.

It is far easier to make a mess than clean up after one. We appear to be in one giant, global mess these days. Yet, we are not powerless pawns in some sadistic plot to destroy the global village. We many have good examples from throughout history of how a single person changed the course of history for the good of all. We have plenty stories of good people doing great things.

Each One, One Part of the Solution

There is truth in the philosophy “It has to quit getting worse before it can start getting better.” Or, “When you’re in a hole, quit digging.” Perhaps a good response to where we find ourselves these days is to adopt the motto, “First, do no harm.” Refuse to add more fuel to the fires burning, literally and figuratively, out of control everywhere.

• Take a time out. Don’t storm out, but do leave the situation and let it cool down. You might need a few minutes or a good night’s sleep to see things differently.
• Determine who owns the problem. Is it something I’ve done or said that set it off? Then an apology is in order. Often the presenting issue is not the issue at all, but rather a symptom of it. What is the problem? And whose problem is it?
• Don’t match volume for volume. When the other raises the volume, lower yours and talk more slowly and softly.
• Refrain from exchanging insults. Though this negative behavior is often modeled on social media and in movies and television shows, it can quickly destroy the harmony of a village. Eleanor Roosevelt was absolutely right when she said no one could insult her without her permission. Same goes for us.
• Put an end to conversations that are clearly headed toward conflict with a positive, but firm ending statement such as, “I guess we aren’t going to agree on this.” Or “I care about you too much to let this disagreement get between us.” Then gently, but firmly end the conversation or change the subject. The same principle applies to comment chains on social media. Quit digging.
• Pray, meditate, journal, go for a long walk, bake something, plant something, and spend time with a friend or pet dog or cat. Do something that has nothing to do with the conflict to give time a chance to heal the wound.

Give Civility A Chance

Humans seem hard-wired to lash out, retaliate, cut off, and resort to physical or mental violence. I would love to see the day when we could answer Rodney King’s famous question with a resounding, “Yes, we can all get along!” Until then, we must decide when is the time to show up with D-Day strength to yell, “ENOUGH!” and when is the time to put forth a new covenant and insist no one leaves the ship (room, meeting) until everyone agrees to the terms. Meanwhile, can we at least be civil toward one another?  Especially toward those with whom we disagree? Can we do that?

Our global village depends on us rising to the challenge.

Thanks for stopping by today. If you’ve found this helpful, pass it along to a friend. If you got it from a friend, you can get your own blogs about good people doing great things in our global village at my website. We need each other. Let’s stay in touch.

Mayflower Chronicles: The Tale of Two Cultures covers the Pilgrim’s escape from England and much more of the interaction between them and the Pokanoket people. Available wherever books are sold in paperback, eBook, and audio.
Bookshop.org (Supporting local Indie Bookshops)
Amazon.com/Mayflower-Chronicles-Tale-Two-Cultures/
BarnesandNoble.com/w/mayflower-chronicles-kathryn-haueisen/
Autographed copies available from BlueWillowBookShop.com/book/

The post It Takes a Village appeared first on How Wise Then.

I met author Russ Smith on an Ancestry.com cruise a few years ago when he was speaking about one of his books. He has recently published The Pointe System. I liked the premise of the book and invited him to write this guest blog about it. Thank you Russ for your book and this blog.

The Pointe System

What actions do we as individuals and a society take to include or exclude people? How do we make people feel either welcome or unwelcome? I began to ask myself these questions when I did research for my recently published murder mystery, The Pointe System. In some cases, actions to include or exclude people are taken by the community or even the state or nation, while in other cases, actions are taken by individuals or small groups of people.

The Pointe System is not only the title of my book, but also the name of the system that was used for over thirty years to keep certain people for moving to Grosse Pointe, the suburb of Detroit where I grew up. I knew Grosse Pointe had a history of not embracing diversity, but it was a revelation to me of how systematic the efforts were to keep it restricted to a very limited number of ethnic groups. When the pointe system was in place, the local property owners association partnered with Realtors to investigate home buyers before the sale of a home was allowed to progress. They used a scoring system to assign points for various characteristics of potential residents.

Deciding Who’s Allowed In

Points were given for lack of a foreign accent, lightness of skin color, occupation, religion, club memberships, profession, and various other traits. People with Western European heritage needed fewer points than people whose ancestors came from Southern or Eastern Europe. Jewish people needed an even higher score and were rarely allowed to buy a house. African Americans or people with Asian heritage were always rejected. The system, which was once upheld by the Michigan Supreme Court, was finally eliminated by federal civil rights legislation in the late 1960s.

The Pointe System is an example of how a community or state can support division and exclusion. Since it can take years for demonstrations, lawsuits, and lobbying of legislators to drive change at the community, state, or nation level, what can we do today, as individuals, to include or exclude people? How can we make people feel welcome? What actions do we and others take to exclude people?

Gossip Kills Reputations

Gossip is one of the tools often used to damage the reputation of others and exclude them. I create characters who gossip in all of my murder mysteries to spread fear, hatred, and anxiety. Personally, I become concerned when I hear someone start a sentence with something like “I’m not one to gossip, but did you hear…?” People who tell tales about other people don’t always realize the damage they may be causing. They won’t stop, unless they are challenged and told that such behavior is not acceptable.

Gossip has taken on a whole new dimension with the emergence of social media on the Internet. We no longer just have one on one discussions with individuals but now make comments that can go global and instantly destroy the reputation of an individual, an organization, or a business. Comments on blogs can create fear, distrust, and divide people. Websites thrive and make millions of dollars by providing forums for gossip and disinformation. We can decide to stop reading or posting hurtful material on such sites.

Less Talking, More Listening

Other than challenging people who gossip and being selective using social media, what else can we as individuals do to promote inclusion and acceptance? Actively and genuinely listening is a tool to make another person feel welcome and respected. The less you talk when having a conversation with someone who has something to share, the more you hear. After listening, asking clarifying and intelligent questions shows that you want to understand their point of view.

Another way to improve your ability to understand people and include them is to find opportunities to meet and work with people from different backgrounds than your own. When you do so, you may be invited to be included in their group and you might be inclined to invite them into your social or work group. I’ve been lucky to have had jobs with work assignments in many different countries, each with a different culture and ways of doing business. I was only successful in those assignments when I learned to work in those cultures and adapt to them.

Look for Opportunities

You could volunteer. I seek out opportunities to work with people with different life experiences than my own. In the past few years, I’ve helped people recently released from prison write resumes, refugees from Syria settle into their new homes, recent immigrants learn English, and students from low-income families prepare for college exams and apply to universities. Each person I’ve worked with has had different perspectives than mine. Working with them helped me to understand them and helped them to understand me and where I come from.

Many of the legal barriers to inclusivity have been eliminated over the past fifty or sixty years, but are we more inclusive? Do we listen to other people? Do we actively engage with people who are different than ourselves and make efforts to include them, or do we just tolerate people who are different and actively try to avoid them and stay with people who make us comfortable? Ask yourself these questions?

Russ Smith is the author of 4 murder mysteries. The Pointe System, Murder at Beulah Crest, The Carinthia Secret, and Table 29. Examples of inclusion and exclusion are found in all of his books. You can learn about his books at www.crimemysteryauthor.com.

Thanks for stopping by. When have you felt included? Excluded? How would you advocate for someone who’s been excluded?  If you got this from a friend, sign up for your own free subscription to my weekly articles and/or monthly newsletter at HowWiseThen. I focus on good people doing great things in our global village.

Mayflower Chronicles: The Tale of Two Cultures covers the Pilgrim’s escape from England and much more of the interaction between them and the Pokanoket people. Available wherever books are sold in paperback, eBook, and audio.
Bookshop.org (Supporting local Indie Bookshops)
Amazon.com/Mayflower-Chronicles-Tale-Two-Cultures/
BarnesandNoble.com/w/mayflower-chronicles-kathryn-haueisen/
Autographed copies available from BlueWillowBookShop.com/book/

The post Who Sits at the Table? appeared first on How Wise Then.