On June 29th, Meghan, Sr. Lee, Deaglan McKillop (summer 2016 intern) and I
had the opportunity to attend a panel discussion focusing on Rural America.
When I think about America I think about the
great Empire State Building, Beverly Hills or Hollywood. Most people today live
in big urban cities. We have lost contact with the earth and we don’t know
where our food comes from, or what we are eating. But we cannot ignore the fact that roughly 48
million Americans reside in rural areas, about 15 percent of the population.
Rural America supplies a lot of the food, energy and workforce that sustain our economy.
The Oblates have been pioneers in ministering
to people in rural America. One example is the Oblates in Texas who served many
of the local ranchers. As those rural areas transform they have moved to other
places. Now there are Oblates in rural areas in Missouri, Minnesota and New
York.
There are beautiful landscapes in rural
America and life's rhythm probably is a little bit slower. They don’t need to be
running all the time like we do in the city, trying to catch the metro or subway. But they
are facing many challenges and barriers when it comes to ensuring economic
opportunity.
The first part of the morning featured
panelists whose expertise lay in rural America and they spoke about the many
problems people are facing. They highlighted the fact that many people in
rural America live in poverty due to fewer investments and high unemployment
rates. People have great difficulty accessing medical help as there aren’t
enough hospitals and roads may be in terrible condition. Recently they have
been experiencing a lot of drug overdoses in small towns like Dixon, Illinois.
Often by time the ambulance reaches patients it is too late. In addition, local hospitals frequently do not
have the capacity to save patients.
Education is very deficient and families move to urban areas to look for
greater opportunities. As a consequence the population of rural America is
decreasing. It was mind-blowing to
listen to all these problems. The fact that one does not have proper access to
education, medical care or employment are issues that are similar to that of a
third world country - but it is happening right under our noses.
 |
| (From left to right): S. Nathanael Lee, Little Servants of the Holy Family, Korea; Mr. Deaglan McKillop, law student from Liverpool, England; Bro. Lester Antonio Zapata, OMI, Oblate School of Theology |
The second part of the conference focused on
some ideas to improve the quality of life for people in rural America. The panel spoke about improving the public
roads, education, health system and the importance of Wi-Fi in rural areas. The
big challenge at the beginning of 20th century was to make it possible for
every family in rural America to have access to electricity, whereas now the
big challenge is that everyone has access to Wi-Fi. The panelists informed us
how farmers now need to use Wi-Fi to connect to other farms for business, and
to also improve the technology on their own farm. In today’s society, Wi-Fi
also plays an important role in schools, as it is a crucial element in
providing children with a good education.
Discussions surrounding these issues will increase
as Congress begins to draft the new Farm Bill, likely as soon as next year. In
advance of the Farm Bill, many states are already trying to introduce measures
to bring Wi-Fi to rural areas. For example, some areas have implemented a “dig
once” policy, which adds installation of fiber optic cables to road
construction projects. Much remains to be done but it is encouraging to learn
about the progress that is being made already.
Bro. Lester Antonio Zapata, OMI, joined the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in 2010. He professed his first vows in 2015 and now is studying at Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas. He is spending this summer with the JPIC office in Washington, DC learning about justice and peace issues.
No comments:
Post a Comment