[Oe List ...] Another Time article

Wed Aug 17 18:52:52 EDT 2011

We encountered the Armas' family when we returned from Japan to open the HDP
in Asherton.  We were not well equipped to understand their context, nor
able to deal helpfully with their journey.  So many assumptions, so little
sense we had.

Bill Schlesinger

Project Vida

3607 Rivera Avenue

El Paso, TX 79905

(915) 533-7057 x 207

(915) 533-7158 FAX

 <mailto:pvida at whc.net> pvida at whc.net

www.projectvidaelpaso.org

  _____  

From: oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net [mailto:oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf
Of Jaime R Vergara
Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2011 4:43 PM
To: oe at wedgeblade.net
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Another Time article

Len et al, 

Just posted an OpEd piece that was printed today in the Saipan Tribune on
"Blue in Uptown Chicago", which one of our colleagues dubbed as nostalgic
and tended to romanticize my time with the Order.

I mean to do a separate reflection as a 'report to the Order in diaspora'
but am heading towards the Realistic Living symposium in 24 hours and might
do a report on the long haul back to Saipan and onward to China.

Elsa's response (and there is no reason to think beyond the objective level)
triggered memory of the Armas' family who joined the Order in Manila when I
was there.  Bob Fishel's explanation of our corporate support system when I
joined the House was that on health and education of our families, it would
be dealt through corporate assets.  One of the Armas' children qualified to
go to Med school then but was unable to matriculate because we could not
give her the go-signal on the (my understanding) assumption that the family
owned family land that can be sold to support the educational venture, and
the Manila House was (as the case with most Houses) had cash flow issues.

I wanted to say "Yes, let us send her to school" then, and work out the
details of transferring the Armas' family asset to the Order ledger, but I
was a newbie to the Order and was not perceived to have a full view of the
organizational policies.

This is not to revive painful memories (although I told Terry, with more
than a touch of humor, that there was an element of exorcising whatever
vestiges of resentments I harbored against the Blue in my overnight stay at
4750) but I would be curious if any of our non-US personnel ever benefited
from the College trust fund.  This is not an implication of overt racial
contradiction, though we were/are not blind to the 'national' issues that
bedeviled ICA's relationship to INS.

When I contracted malaria around Lake Lagos while trying to run an HDTS, the
Order and the Oylers did not hesitate to send me to the best medical service
available in Abeokuta.  So, no complaints here.

However, when we pointed the obvious re SS contributions that some were
"more equal" than others in the Order, we were accused of "organizing 3rd
World sentiments against Kemper".

Again, this should not be perceived as accusatory, although objective
questions should be allowed to surface in this listserv in case there are
those who can provide factual answers.

We are delighted to hear that Order funds benefited many.

As to SS, Terry revealed that he kept paying his contribution as a
consultant while living outside the US.  I was a member of the Philippine
UMC where the Order was supposed to be contributing to their retirement
fund, which we did not do.  Mary Lou did not have SS coverage, as well,
though she caught that glitch early enough to rectify it.  Again, this is
not to fault anyone. Nor shrink from our own responsibility to take care of
our own affairs.

The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (in Saipan) government
collected five years of retirement contributions. I cashed out my
contribution when I found out I had cervical spondylosis on C5-C6 and
decided to deal with it sans the recommended scalpel procedure.  Neither
here nor there since it did not affect SS either way, but at 66, I am 10
quarters short of SS contribution and other than coming back to work for
McDonalds for two+ years, Terry suggested that I look into the individual
consultant route and pay SS contribution while teaching in China.

Sorry for this longish-ICAish (like it ever stopped me before!) rejoinder.

Should anyone chose to respond to this, you may direct it to
SVESjaime at aol.com.

J'aime la vie

-----Original Message-----
From: Len Hockley <lenh at efn.org>
To: Order Ecumenical Community <oe at wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Wed, Aug 17, 2011 11:52 am
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Another Time article

Hi Elsa,
Our family benefited from the college fund.  Matt attended Purdue and
received a monthly stipend of I don't know how much from the fund.  With
this and help from working and colleagues in Lafayette amazing as it may
seem he got out with a degree and no debt. 

Len

On 8/10/2011 5:31 AM, E B wrote: 

or did any of our children benefited from the "college fund"?
Elsa Batica

--- On Tue, 8/9/11, Elizabeth Caperton  <mailto:ecaperton at bellsouth.net>
<ecaperton at bellsouth.net> wrote:

From: Elizabeth Caperton  <mailto:ecaperton at bellsouth.net>
<ecaperton at bellsouth.net>
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Another Time article
To: "Order Ecumenical Community"  <mailto:oe at wedgeblade.net>
<oe at wedgeblade.net>
Date: Tuesday, August 9, 2011, 11:05 AM

So what happened to that "travel fund, which enables two couples to travel
abroad for three months each year" by the time I arrived? 

Read more:
<http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,836839,00.html#ixzz1UY3fMv
bP>
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,836839,00.html#ixzz1UY3fMvb
P"  

On Aug 8, 2011, at 11:14 PM, Lynda Cock wrote:

This is the Time article that caught our attention in 1967 when John was
minister of education at Central UMC in Asheville, NC.  

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,836839-1,00.html

The next year we took a PLC and then helped set up a RS-I.  After that pitch
by Marilyn Miller Oyler  and Phil Townley, we sold our house and car and
journeyed to Chicago in March 1969.  

Lynda and John Cock 

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