Better Together at Ohio University

Worthiness (Community)

2012-02-22T22:42:00.001-08:00

This week's post is by Free Meal's Intern and Better Together Committee Member Shea Daniels

I believe community is perpetuated when the worthiness of individual members is perpetuated. So often in spaces that are not the free meals program, I encounter humans disvaluing other humans and it makes me sad. I encounter humans saying mean things. I encounter poets asking engineers to write poems and engineers asking poets to build rocket ships. OK. Not really. But I do encounter a lot of people who haven’t taken the time to see the gifts and talents of the folks around them, and end up frustrated because the folks around them aren’t meeting some pre-set list of expectations. It’s a matter of worthiness, folks, but it’s also a matter of humanity. Some people are great listeners, some people are great organizers, some people will reliably volunteer to eat the last piece of cake. These are all fabulous skills, worthwhile skills, and skills that, once accessed, impact the entire community in real and positive ways. People thrive when their skills are recognized and accessed.

I also believe in greeting people warmly. I believe in hugging. I believe in waving. I believe in eye contact. I believe in high fives and I believe in grinning when someone walks in the door. Did I mention that I believe in hugging? Fellow humans, everyone everywhere needs to know that their presence is appreciated. That they are valued, that they are missed. Communities thrive when members know their presence matters.

Communities like ours thrive because of our members. We’re radically inclusive. Everyone, literally everyone, is welcome. We’re not big on judgment and we’re not comfortable assigning social worth based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, native language, religion, or ability levels. Our basement is a bit Real-World Exempt and, alas, the Basement Economy is also a bit Real-World Exempt. Because you see, loyal reader, here in UCM’s cellar we don’t really believe in a physical economy, even though we know it exists and we know it is useful. Here in the basement we run on a Spiritual Economy. On a non-tangible economy.

Here in the basement we work not only to provide warm, yummy, nutritious food, but also to create a sense of community. We believe people need food as much as they need community, maybe moreso, and we believe community comes when everyone who walks through our doors is treated as a person of value. As a person of worth.

Washing Chairs and Waiting

2012-02-15T17:59:00.000-08:00

This week's post is from Better Together Committee Member and Free Meals Intern, Shea Daniels.

As Free Meals Interns Samantha, Michael and myself learned the economy was tanking long before any news broadcast told us. We have gone from feeding 50 on Thursdays this time last year, to 80+ each Thursday currently. On Saturdays we serve about thirty. Times are tough. Donations aren’t going up. We aren’t like the fancy free meals programs who have the luxury of planning ahead; we run as close to 100% donations as possible. We walk in, see what food has showed up, and within three hours have compiled a meal from whatever is available.

We believe there will always be food. Sometimes, on foodless days when it’s quiet, you can find me sitting patiently in the basement where our kitchen is located. If you were to ask "what are you doing Shea?" I would tell you, “I am waiting for the food.” I sit and wait and sit and wait and sometimes, when the waiting stretches long, I turn on music and wash chairs to pass my time. I wash chairs and I wait for food.

It always comes. Someone always walks in with a box or a bag and in that box or bag will be cabbage or carrots or rice or corn. We wait for the food that is going to arrive, and always in the nick of time, it arrives

Here in UCM’s kitchen we believe in the loaves in the fishes. "What is that," you ask? Well, dear reader, the fishes and the loaves is a Christian story. Jesus, in his attempt to feed the masses, doesn’t have enough food. In fact he has far from enough food. I’ve heard this called the miracle of the multitude or the miracle of the five loaves and two fish. This miracle fed 5000.

None of us in the kitchen particularly identify as Christian. I identify as something closer to Christian but not necessarily as Christian. Michael was raised in the Eastern Orthodox church and is a wanna-be Buddhist. Samantha was raised Jewish. But we all believe in the fishes and the loaves. Because we’re pretty sure that when you want to feed people, the food will always come. In fact, on quiet foodless days, you can find me listening to music, washing chairs, and waiting.

Interfaith Dialogue

2012-02-05T20:47:00.000-08:00

This week's blog post is an article sent to us by Gokhan Egilmez, an OU Student, member of UCM's board, and sometimes-donator of yummy rice dishes to our free meals program.

Modern means of communication and transportation have transformed the world into a large, global village. So, those who expect that any radical changes in a country will be determined by that country alone and remain limited to it, are unaware of current realities. This time is a period of interactive relations. Nations and peoples are more in need of and dependent on each other, which causes closeness in mutual relations.

This network of relations, which has surpassed the period of brute colonialism and exists on the basis of mutual interest, provides some benefits to the weaker side. Moreover, owing to the advances in technology, especially digital electronic technology, the acquisition and exchange of information grows gradually. As a result, the individual comes to the fore, making it inevitable that democratic governments that respect personal rights will replace oppressive regimes.

As each individual is like a species with respect to other species, individual rights cannot be sacrificed for society, and social rights should depend on individual rights. This is why the basic human rights and freedoms found in the revealed religions, came to be considered by a war-weary West. They will enjoy priority in all relations. At the head of these rights is the right to life, which is granted and can solely be taken by God. To accentuate the importance of this right in Islam, a basic Qur'anic principle is that: "If one person kills another unjustly, it is the same as if he or she had killed all of humanity; if
one saves another, it is the same as if he or she has saved all of humanity."

Other rights are the freedom of religion and belief, thought and expression; the right to own property and the sanctity of one's home; to marry and have children; to communication and travel; and the right to and freedom of education. The principles of Islamic jurisprudence are based on these and other rights, all of which are accepted by modern legal systems, such as the protection of life, religion, property, reproduction, and intellect, as well as equality of people based on the fact that all people are human beings, and the rejection of all racial, color, and linguistic discriminations. All of these will be—and should be—indispensable essentials in the new millennium.

I believe and hope that the world of the new millennium will be a happier, more just, and more compassionate place, contrary to the fears of some people. Islam, Christianity, and Judaism all come from the same root, have almost the same essentials, and are nourished from the same source. Although they have lived as rival religions for centuries, the common points between them and their shared responsibility to build a happy world for all of the creatures of God, make interfaith dialogue among them necessary. This dialogue has now expanded to include the religions of Asia and other areas. The results have been positive.

Fethullah Gulen

…

This is a section from an Article by Fethullah Gulen, “The Necessity of Interfaith Dialogue: a Muslim Approach “ presented at The Parliament of the World's Religions, Capetown of the Rep. of S. Africa, 12.01.1999” Link: http://www.fethullahgulen.org/about-fethullah-gulen/messages/972-the-necessity-of-interfaith-dialogue-a-muslim-approach.html

Profiles in Radical Hospitality

2012-01-23T19:55:00.000-08:00

This week's post is by Michael Lupsa, one of our free meals interns and a member of OU's Better Together Steering Committee.

I could not have even imagined the magnitude of change and growth that I would encounter whence I embarked on the wonderful journey that is my college career. I was nothing more than a lost child. In that mindset, where I lacked vast amounts of self-worth and was experiencing serious ugly-duckling syndrome, I could not help but feel that I was solely going to college just so I could survive it. I could never have anticipated that I would one day take my college experience and use it to make a serious difference.

It began with people believing in me. Once upon a time I was a freshman, cruising through my first year of college on auto-pilot and completing only the bare minimum of what was expected of me. Then, one day somebody said, “Hey, you should apply to the Global Leadership Center…you would be perfect for it.” A rather prestigious program, I was humbled by that person’s observation and desire to support me. The next thing I knew, I was accepted. Then, spring quarter rolled around, and somebody else said, “Hey, you should be president of CIAO!” A group vote later and I was suddenly president of the student organization. It wasn’t long until my sophomore year rolled along, and the expectations came along with it. I was suddenly entrusted with making sure that a student organization runs smoothly and grows, and such intensive academic work that even graduate students were surprised at the projects I was working on. Pursuing my passion for languages, I was also simultaneously taking Arabic and Italian, both subjects in which the instructors gave me countless accolades and support. The academic and developmental explosion that was my sophomore year landed me in Vietnam that winter break for the GLC’s International Collaborative Consulting Project and in Jordan the following summer on a Critical Language Scholarship. Suddenly, I returned to Ohio University my junior year, high expectations from everybody around me and having the power to actually make a difference. I used my previous experiences to be a more effective leader as the second-year president of CIAO, and grow the organization. I became an RA, where I got to apply much of my communications experience and make a difference in my residents’ lives. I sought out a leadership role in the Arabic department, now exemplified by my presidency of ALSA (the Arabic Student Language Association). What I initially did not seek out though, was my involvement with Better Together and UCM. However, it just so turns out that it might be one of the best decisions I have made in my life.

It began with my friend Rue, the Better Together campus organizer from last year, who would invite me to her events and try to prompt my involvement with the organization. Ice Cream for Life was entertaining, but the real catch was a spring awareness event about water insecurity; a prelude to the first Monday Creek Stream Cleanup. I was very moved by their presentation, and desired to get more involved with the organization. The stream cleanup itself sealed the deal, as I had so much fun, and did so by also doing something positive for the environment. The months following would seal the deal regarding my involvement with Better Together, and its accommodating organization, UCM.

I can almost remember the day in GLC class when Rue and Melissa, another member of the Better Together campaign, were attempting to talk me into joining the campaign. We were discussing how much I enjoyed working at the stream clean-up, and I was even considering volunteering at the Thursday Suppers and Saturday Lunches. I however considered myself to be too busy at the time, and as much as I liked it, I kept convincing myself that I just simply did not have the time. As the summer drew nearer, however, it became apparent that I would spend the season in Athens, and thus I was granted more time to get involved.

Laziness set in as summer classes and living a healthy lifestyle were some of my only priorities this summer, but with the added incentive of gaining some community service hours, I attended my first Thursday Supper. I can even remember my first time awkwardly entering the basement, wondering what I needed to do, and meeting the wonderful Shea Daniels for the first time. Shannon Stewart, on the other hand, I have known for quite a while. Working alongside these ladies had become one of the most pleasurable experiences imaginable, and the fact that I love cooking did not help the situation when I no longer had the need for community service hours. Before I knew it, I began treating UCM meals as if they were a necessary part of my life, even though I had no requirement to participate in them. They gave me such purpose, and the relationships that I established were so positive. Ultimately, I went from being a volunteer to feeling like I was an integral part of the UCM community. Then, one day as we were being introduced to a new intern I was tempted to ask, “What do you have to do to be an intern?” At which I received the response, “Well…exactly what you’re doing.” This was the moment! “Then I can be an intern?!” I exclaimed. “Sure!” I can somewhat almost picture Melissa’s, the executive director of UCM, response, and in a somewhat jokingly manner she did the hand-motions as if she was swearing me into the organization with a magic wand. Let me tell you…..this memory will stay burned into my mind for a long time! I was very happy.

Living My Beliefs

2012-01-15T13:44:00.001-08:00

This week's post is from Rachel Hyden, OU's Better Together campus organizer.

There is not a single thing in my life that is not affected by my core set of beliefs. Every action, every thought, every word I speak is connected to my morals and my ethics, which I define as my religion. For some, religion is considered just one aspect of who they are, as if it were simply a title like “student” or “activist”. But for me, my beliefs define the person I am, because I live what I believe.

So what are these beliefs that so fiercely drive my every move? As cliché as this sounds, I believe in the power of co-existence, or inter-being. Not only co-existence between humans, but of all things, sentient or not. I believe in the value of non-harming, and that we should make it our utmost priority to ensure no being suffers. I believe in truth, love, and above all, equality.

As an environmental activist, these beliefs fuel my fire in protecting this planet. To exist we depend on all things for life. The water we drink, the air we breathe, the soil to plant our crops. If we continue to exploit the earth as we have for so long, we will lose our access to these vital components that make our existence possible. Therefore, we must exist in harmony with all things, because our survival depends on the survival of everything else.

My belief in non-harming goes beyond the harming of just “beings”. We should protect all things from harm; trees, water, animals, and of course humans. When we harm our planet and all things on it, we harm ourselves. We degrade our waterways, our air, our soil, and our quality of life, and in turn, we suffer. We must protect our planet if we want to protect ourselves.

The value of truth plays a major role in my activism. I work tirelessly on environmental issues to unveil the truth to the public. If major corporations are going to devastate the earth for financial gain, the public deserves to know. My love for this earth and all things is what keeps my chin up when the going gets tough. There are times when I want to give up, when I truly believe the battle is lost. But it is always the love for the beautiful things this world has to offer that mends my many wounds.

But despite the mending, I am still scarred from the injustices I see in my work—the deliberate taking of private land for oil and gas extraction; the stealing of public waters to taint with chemicals to fracture shale; the poisoning of our drinking water; the deforestation and destruction of ecosystems; the greed of those at the top, and the exploitation of those at the bottom. These injustices must be stopped.

We are all equal. Without one, the other can’t exist.

Welcome to Winter Quarter at Ohio University!

2012-01-10T20:27:00.000-08:00

Hi again! *Waving.* Shea here.

This quarter our Better Together blog is going to feature profiles of volunteers, as well as continued blog posts by myself and other White House Challenge organizer Rachel Hyden. Other folks, such as Michael Lupsa, a member of OU’s Better Together Steering Committee and one of our free meals program coordinators, will be writing about their experiences with interfaith work.

From workshops and raising enough money to build a well in Africa to an interfaith valentine’s dance, from a day of poverty awareness to our free meals continuing to feed 100ish people a week, we’re busy here in Athens Ohio promoting interfaith cooperation. But to mark the start of OU’s Winter Quarter and the flurry of Better Together activity, I thought a prayer might be appropriate. So I’ll leave you with this indigenous prayer for interfaith harmony.

See you next week!

Peace,

Shea

- - - - - - -

True Path Walkers

To bring back the natural harmony that humans once enjoyed.

To save the planet from present practices of destruction.

To find and re-employ real truth.

To promote true balance between both genders.

To share and be less materialistic.

To become rid of prejudice.

To learn to be related.

To be kind to animals and take no more than we need.

To play with one's children and love each equally and fairly.

To be brave and courageous, enough so,

to take a stand and make a commitment.

To understand what Generations Unborn really means.

To accept the Great Mystery

in order to end foolish argument over religion.

Profiles in Radical Hospitality

2011-11-10T23:01:00.000-08:00

Hi! Shea here. *Waving.* Here's another Profile in Radical Hospitality, this one written by Allison Schoeppner. Allison is a regular at Thursday Supper and Interfaith Impact, and is on our White House Interfaith Challenge Steering Committee as well.

- - - - -

I grew up in Athens and as a freshman I had a difficult time meeting people I could relate to and feeling a sense of belonging, which is why stumbling across UCM this year has been such a blessing. I first found out about UCM through the Better Together campaign and from that I began attending Thursday Supper and Interfaith Impact every week. What I love most about all of these activities is the openness of the people involved, everyone is friendly and easy to talk to. Not to mention, UCM focuses around the idea of being radically inclusive which exposes you to so many different types of people. The great thing about all of these people coming together at UCM is that although we may come from different backgrounds and have different opinions we can relate around the belief that all people/religions should be accepted. I feel that I have found a certain sense of belonging at UCM mainly because I feel like I will be accepted no matter what which is a fantastic feeling I can only describe is as being similar to belonging to a family.

--Allison

Profiles in Radical Hospitality

2011-11-06T19:03:00.000-08:00

Hi all! Shea here. *Waving.* This week's post is a continuation of our Profiles in Radical Hospitality written by Alice Ragland, an OU student and another regular volunteer at UCM's Free Meal's program.

- - - - -

The world is a circle

Continuous and connective;

The whole thing will malfunction

If one part is ineffective.

Nobody can eat

If somebody is famished;

No justice can exist

If in one place it has vanished.

No one can be warm

If somebody is cold;

Nothing can glitter

If ALL of it is not gold.

If one school is in shambles,

Another cannot be effective;

If the top is corrupt,

The whole structure is defective.

No river can be clean

If one is polluted;

These problems must be solved,

They cannot be diluted.

The world is not a series of disconnected points

But a continuous place, where each of its joints

Connects with another, no matter how far apart.

What appears at the end re-appears at the start.

For the world is a circle,

Continuous and connective.

The whole thing will malfunction

If one part is ineffective.

--Alice Ragland

Profiles in Radical Hospitality

2011-10-27T20:33:00.000-07:00

Hi there! Shea here. *Waving.* As part of our Better Together at OU blog, we're going to be posting pieces written by folks who spend time at UCM programming related to the White House Interfaith Challenge. UCM runs on the idea of Radical Hospitality, which means we accept everyone who walks through our doors no questions asked. In large part because of the vibe this creates there's lots of interesting people at UCM involved in lots of interesting things. I thought you might like to meet some of them and learn about their views of UCM, faith, life, and other stuff. I've been asking around for blog posts, so here's the first one I received. Today's post is by Kavin Shah, an OU student and regular volunteer at Thursday Supper and Saturday Lunch and participant at Interfaith Impact.

- - - - -

Hello. My name is Kavin Shah and I am a lifetime member of the Clean Plate Club. This is my first year being involved with UCM and I’ve already had some of the best times of my 4 years here. I love the opportunities it provides for me to become a bigger part of what I now define as my community. Athens is no longer just a transient residence where my college is, it has become a home. I am currently a senior studying psychology and women’s studies at OU and there is no better place where I can apply what I learn in school to form closer relationships with my community members than at UCM. Sometimes I like to clean and wash dishes but my favorite duties so far include: taking Wanda home, hugging Richard, Gerry’s stories, and listening to Frances say the word “honey”. I also enjoy pulling knotweed, petting dogs, and interfaith impact. I plan on spending as much time here as I can so if you haven’t been by this year come say hi Thursday 5:30 or Saturday 1:00 and we can share a meal!

Shalom.

-Kavin.

Why I Am Occupying

2011-10-20T19:56:00.000-07:00

Hi again! Shea here. *Waving.*

United Campus Ministries has been incredibly supportive of the Occupy Ohio University movement. After all, when a group of students works with administration to hold a non-violent, substance free, radically inclusive, social justice demonstration for the purpose of educating college students about civil disobedience, what's there to say besides "Awe-some!"?

On that note, I thought it would be pertinent to share why I am occupying. I have a lovely post written by a frequent volunteer at UCM's Free Meals Program, but I thought perhaps talking about Occupy this week would be timely. But keep in mind, this is personal. I'm not speaking for anyone else, for the occupy movement here or anywhere else, or for UCM. I'm Shea and I'm speaking for me, as someone who values humans and religion and things like mountains and love. And it's a bit long, for exactly the same reason it's a bit personal.

So, I am occupying because basic human rights are being violated. Even here, even now, even though we’ve seen human rights violated before and been sickened by what we’ve seen. And these human rights are beyond basic, or at least the way I think about them is. They include the right to be safe. The right to have a place to live that is conducive to healthy human life. These human rights, in my view, include the right to be not hungry. The right to love and be loved. The right to be educated. To live without fear of oppression based on power binaries and differences. The right to religious diversity and freedom of expression. And because the UN says it’s so, and because I respect the UN, the right to internet access.

I don’t think these rights comprise an especially large request. I am not occupying, after all, in demand of diamonds or high-quality cowboy boots (the prices on these things are outrageous, for the non-Appalachians in my midst). I am not occupying in demand that everybody love everybody or because I demand personal beliefs be sacrificed in order to create a more human-friendly world. I am occupying because now, in this place, people don’t always have access to very basic human needs. When we’re discussing Psychology, and maybe it’s a good idea to visit Psychology-World right about now, people need their basic needs met in order to advance to higher levels of being. When folks don’t feel safe, when they don’t have a place to live that is conducive to healthy human life or enough food to eat, they most generally lack the ability to advance into higher, more actualized states of being. And because everyone secretly wants to be actualized, I occupy.

I occupy because I am an Appalachian woman and these hills, this loam under your muddy rain boots, have been disrespected more ways than an 18^th century sailor knew how to semantically disvalue a woman. Coal mining is dangerous work, for people and for mountains. Now entire mountain tops are being removed and, frankly, every time one of these mountains loses its top my heart breaks. It’s not ok to take a mountain’s top. Mountains are bigger than we are, they’re important, and I think we’re being just a bit greedy by taking the tops of very old mountains with no intention of returning them. Didn’t our mother’s teach us manners? Or, for those folks not lucky enough to have good mothers, don’t you know they were supposed to? And living around these mountains are PEOPLE. Bad stuff cycles unless we choose to actively break cycles of bad stuff. Because Appalachian children, and everyone else who lives in this region, have faced what I would view to be basic human rights violations, I occupy.

I occupy because I think people deserve to have rule over their lives. To love and be loved. This includes the right to marry whomever one loves, so long as the relationship is healthy (I’m not occupying in the name of non-healthiness, after all). This also includes the right to raise children in a functional household, the right to be a child who feels safe at home, and the right to speak whatever language in that home one feels comfortable speaking without fear of being devalued for speaking that language. I think both women and men should have the right to decide when they want children and access to birth control and I strongly feel that women should have access to medically safe abortions. I think people deserve healthcare—mental and physical—that is accessible and which comes without stigma. To copy and paste this paragraph’s thesis sentence, because I think it works well here as well, I occupy because I think people deserve to have rule over their lives.

I’m occupying because these things are not happening. Because there’s been a power binary created that’s a bit like a see-saw: a few folks are up in the air while the rest of us, and we’re a very worthwhile rest of us, are in the economic mud. I like mud as much as the next gal but this version of living—whether we blame corporations, taxes, or whatever political party we are not—isn’t ok with me. I think people deserve these basic rights, and I don’t think we live in a society that provides individuals with the ability to access these rights. And no matter whose fault that is, it’s not acceptable.

I’m not naive. I don’t think the world is a perfect place and I don’t think that any turn of events or handful of decades could dramatically re-fashion human life in America to be hunky-dory for every single person in this nation. I don’t believe in utopia. Like Ursula K. Le Guin, I believe we all have our dark sides, and since society was fashioned by humans with dark sides it has a dark side as well. But I believe that the way we treat the least among us—the poor, the disempowered and those with unequal rights—is a gauge of our society, and I think that perhaps our society isn’t acing reality right now. I think our society is capable of doing better.

This is why I occupy.

Peace,

--Shea

No Label Required

2011-10-13T20:28:00.000-07:00

Today's post is from Rachel Hyden, Campus Organizer for Ohio University's Better Together Campaign.

For the majority of my life I have had no religious identity. As a child my parents never took me to church, and through high school I never much spoke of religion. It wasn’t until college that I really started questioning my beliefs– not only the basic questions like where I came from, what my purpose is, and if there is a God, but questioning where I fit in. I knew I was a moral person- I believed in equity, I believed in peace, and I believed in doing what was best for this planet and the people on it. But I didn’t know where I fit in. Was there a religious community out there for somebody like me? Someone who doesn’t identify with a religion, but instead lives a life based on the common morals and ethics you would find in most religious codes? What do you call somebody like me?

What I’ve come to realize through my interfaith organizing is this– I don’t need a label to fit in. My morals and my values are my religion, and I am finally comfortable with the lack of title. It wasn’t easy getting to this point– for so long I craved to believe in a recognized religion. But I don’t need the label to fit into this community, this interfaith community. And here at Ohio University, this interfaith community is really starting to grow.

On September 11, over 350 OU and Athens community members gathered for an Interfaith Peace Walk. With so many faith traditions represented, it was utterly breathtaking to see the diversity intertwining through the crowd. Labels and no labels, we were a community walking as one. And despite our differences, we stood side by side for our shared belief in peace. There are few words that can truly describe the moment when I felt the sense of belonging that I had been yearning for. It was incredible.

While the Peace Walk was a moment that will stay with me for a lifetime, I know there are many more to come. Better Together at Ohio University will be working this year to raise $5,000 to build a well in a developing nation. If that goal is reached and we can successfully give a community access to clean and safe drinking water, I know that moment will change me forever. With just one year of interfaith organizing, we have the potential to save someone’s life. Imagine what we could do with ten?

The White House Interfaith Challenge

2011-10-10T12:53:00.000-07:00

Hi! *Waving.* My name is Shea Daniels. Welcome to the Better Together at Ohio University Blog! This week I'd like to tell you about the White House Interfaith Challenge, mostly because I'm really really excited about it. Hopefully by the end of this post you'll be excited about it, too!

The White House Interfaith Challenge is a super-cool initiative that Ohio University is part of. It's a service based challenge focused on interfaith cooperation. Let's break those sentences down a little bit further, because it seems to me that there's two really important ideas being communicated, and I want to make sure you end up just as excited about them as I am.

Idea 1: The White House Interfaith Challenge is service based. Colleges who are part of the challenge, like Ohio University in Athens, choose two issues to focus that service around, one domestic and one international. Here at Ohio University we've chosen Domestic Poverty and Food Insecurity (this is what I'm working on) as well as International Water Security (initiative run by Rachel Hyden). Students and community members are banning together to serve hot, yummy, healthy free meals twice a week (domestic poverty / food insecurity) while raising money to build at least one well in Africa (international water security). And we're having a blast!

Idea 2: This is an Interfaith challenge. What does Interfaith mean? Semantically, let's visit our good friend Webster. According to Webster, Interfaith means "involving persons of different religious faiths." This is a really good definition but I would like to challenge Mr. Webster on one point...Interfaith work is for folks of all and no faith traditions, so folks who are atheists, agnostic, or don't know what they are, are as welcome as folks who are Jewish, Catholic, Muslim, or Wiccan. Lots of people involved in our Interfaith challenge don't claim any religious tradition. Lots of people involved in our Interfaith challenge are devout followers of a religion. And we're all working together, because that's the point. Even if we don't agree on everything we agree it is more productive to build a well in Africa than to argue about religious differences.

So, that's the White House Interfaith Service Challenge in a nutshell. Interested in getting involved? Yay! Email Rachel at rh148407@ohio.edu for more informational about the International Water Security initiative, or if you want to join our Steering Committee. If you're interested in Domestic Poverty and Food Insecurity you can email me, Shea, at ss298506@ohio.edu, or just show up at UCM's Free Meals Program (Thursday 5:30, Saturday 1PM).

So, once again, I'm Shea. *Waving.* Welcome to Better Together at Ohio University's blog. Stay tuned in coming weeks for all kinds of interesting posts from all kinds of people. We'll be talking about Interfaith work, about the service we're doing, and about what it means to us. Because we're pretty sure that we're better together than we are divided, and we're pretty sure we can positively impact the world through the service we're doing.