LI'L VILLAGE

 

The late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Life's most urgent question is: What are you doing for others?” This Sunday, I felt honored and, really, quite lucky to join some of the Reformed Church of Highland Park and other visitors in a symbolic “passing of the torch” from the All Saints' Episcopal Church to the upcoming Veteran’s Housing project, “Bring Them Home to Homes.”

 

January 18th the Highland Park Human Relations Commission presented Lori Freedman with the Martin Luther King, Jr. Human Rights Award, before an assembly of more than 70 packing the borough Senior/Youth Center community room. The event celebrated the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and acknowledged Freedman’s dedication to social justice in the borough.

This year's ceremony theme was 'building a strong community,’ as Acting Mayor Elsie Foster-Dublin presented the King Award to a borough person “who exemplifies the work and teaching" of the late civil rights champion.

Religious groups have always provided guidance on a range of issues, but historically, the environment hasn’t been one of them. Global warming seems to have changed all that, as leaders and followers of faith traditions contemplate our impact on the planet and on ourselves, and how we might change it.

While the Reverend Billy and the Church of LIfe after Shopping have been taking their environmental campaigns to the streets, with guerrilla theater protesting consumer culture, Reverend Fletcher Harper, executive director of Green Faith, has taken it to the Internet. Early this winter, as Congress considered the American Clean Energy and Security Act and the world geared up for the Copenhagen summit, the national faith-based organization hosted a webcast on "Green Jobs, Climate Justice."

On November 11th guest speakers from Elijah's Promise took to the podium at Rutgers to outline the problem of hunger in New Jersey.

Organizers told the assembled students that something is "terribly wrong" with the way we feed people in NJ.  We live in one of the ten worst states when it comes to food stamps, school breakfast, and summer food sources for school-aged children, according to the agency's director, Rev. Lisanne Finston.

Local homeowners, AmeriCorps workers, and Rutgers members of the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) came together in the older neighborhoods of New Brunswick to spread the gospel of energy efficiency. Student volunteers performed free energy audits for three homes on Friday, October 16, and did a hands-on demo of home weatherization for their hosts.

With a Sustainable Jersey Small Grant, the Highland Park public schools have joined the wave of interest in community gardening that has taken root from Highland Park to the White House.

The concept of a network of “edible gardens” was initiated by the People’s Organization for Progress, Central Jersey Chapter (POP-CJ) in December 2008. Since then, individuals and organizations have signed on, including three local houses of worship, the Farmers Solidarity Project, Highland Park Community Food Pantry, the public library’s Green Teens group, and now the public school district.