Mother and Child in Milwaukee
The time between Christmas and New Years is a good time to be thankful for past, present and what may come. God’s giving of self to become a human person, the Word becoming Flesh, is the greatest gift of all time. The gift of Jesus showing us the Way is a wonderful gift. Family, friends, and people we know or do not know locally, nationally or internationally are great gifts. Sometimes when I see a person I see and feel the mystery of complexity and simplicity that is Life. When that gift is killed unnaturally we all lose something. When that gift is lit in a new human person we all gain.
Babies, be in the Christmas baby of Jesus or the New Year baby of the year to come, are great symbols of life. Babies are completely innocent and interdependent on other humans to live and grow. Blessed is the baby who is completely dependent on others for the baby will inherit the Kingdom of God.
Our nephew and his wife just had a baby born into their lives. They are grateful, as all in the family, for this new life. Friends write of new grandchildren being born. Babies are pictured in many of the Christmas cards we receive.
The city of Milwaukee has one of the highest mortality rants for infants in the USA. In the African American community which is largely local in North Central Milwaukee the infant mortality rate is three time higher than in the white populations. Sadly the same area that in our M.A.P.S. is the most segregated, poorest and criminalized area of Milwaukee is also the one with the most death of young babies.
The innocent, especially babies, are among the first victims of war, violence, poverty and racism. If the baby Jesus was born today in North Central Milwaukee he would be wrapped in used blankets, put on a mattress on the floor and the parents would be struggling to provide beds, stoves, refrigerator, clothes and food for the baby and themselves. If that baby grew and was a young adult preaching the downfall of the rich and the rise of the poor he might be ignored or put in jail or, if he persisted, killed.
There were over a hundred homicides in Milwaukee this year not counting all the babies that died from poor health care or co-sleeping. Most homicides were young adult African American males who were born as innocent babies into a world of violence, poverty and segregation.
It is hard to be grateful when thinking of the difficulties of babies born in poverty and racism in Milwaukee today. Yet, each baby, no matter how rich or poor, black or white is a bundle of joy and symbol of gratitude. Thank God for babies.
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