Wakefield

If you are part of a faith tradition that acknowledges the realities of immigration and pressures of assimilation, and yet still retains those identities, it is harder to fall into xenophobia and repeating history.

Catholic. 25+ years in Georgia and my family still gets comments about getting a “normal” last name, how important it is for people not to mistake us for Catholics because of it. They need to deaden your connection to your own family history to be seen as truly committed and true believers.

Nobody took issue with the cultural practices then, but when we moved to Georgia and attended more conservative evangelical churches then came the questioning from church leadership about the last name, telling my dad to stop engaging in cultural celebrations like Wigilia because they are too

My dad was raised Catholic in a Polish-speaking home that engaged in Polish traditions, my mom raised Lutheran in a home that still engaged in many Swedish and German cultural practices. My parents became more religiously active in the Reform Church and PCA Presbyterianism.

There’s immense tension among denominations that retain the history of their immigration to the US and cultural/language practices and those who want you to simply become “American”, ties to the past become pesky

We are all profoundly grateful to have you in our lives.

To my dear friend, your trust in me is a gift I will always cherish. Your bravery and resilience in navigating these complex systems for the sake of potential survivors across various courts and agencies is a testament to your extraordinary courage.

While a step in the right direction, the recent professional consequences for the perpetrator do not adequately address the pain and suffering endured by my dear friend to receive a sliver of justice from a law enforcement agency.

and nearly always require survivors and witnesses to be publicly silent to be seen as credible. s we pursued justice through multiple pathways in the last three years, my dear friend had to endure repeated re-traumatization.

as I was one of the last two people to be with my dear friend before she encountered the perpetrator. So much of the last three years has been about protecting the integrity of multiple investigations and legal processes. These systems, unfortunately, are not trauma-informed

Her story and several other survivors' stories are documented in the linked article below. From that moment my dear friend told me what she had endured, I began a journey where I took on whatever role I could in serving as a witness in the pursuit of justice,

Are you talking to EdFinancial? I couldn't get through to them and their weird messaging system makes it impossible to see if your documents are being processed.