When I was a kid my Grandfather used to send money to Boys Town, a Catholic mission project in Nebraska which worked as a kind of orphanage for homeless boys. l do not know why or why he connected up with Boys Town. Off and on I too have sent money to this project, along with Covenant House, St. Jude’s, and No More Deaths on the border. I know that Boys town is still thriving, even as Father Flannagan its founder hoped it would.
In the 1940s Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald starred in a movie about Boys Town. It was one of those tear-jerkers like “White Christmas” and “The Bells of St.
Mary’s”. Nevertheless, it had a profound affect on millions of American movie-goers, many of whom are still supporting the project. I was especially drawn to the Boys Town sports program. I remember that their football team won the Nebraska State High School Championship more than once.
At that time neither I nor anyone I knew was a Catholic and I had no idea where Nebraska was. In my adult lifer I have always thought it important to give money to charitable causes, and for many years Boys Town was on the top of my list. Also, it seems to me better to give to some causes on a regular basis, rather than doing so on an occasional basis. Giving to local programs and causes also seems more responsible.
My wife Mari and I worked for a number of years for a program here in Tucson called BorderLinks which sought to educate North Americans about the complex and very difficult lives of Mexican people who live and work on the US/Mexico border. In a very real sense it was we Americans doing this work who got educated and helped, as well as the Mexican people. Putting one’s body, and money, where the need is still seems to be a good motto.
The poster sponsored by Boys Town has always been close to my heart. It shows a young boy carrying his little brother on his back. His words are: “He Ain’t Heavy, Father. He’s my Brother”. Strictly speaking it makes no sense, the logic doesn’t follow. Being someone’s brother should have no effect on whether or not he is heavy. But from the point of view of those working in the Boys Town project, it makes all the difference.
Likewise, for those of us who want to be of genuine help to less advantaged people, the logic may seem backwards but its not. As the saying goes: “Pay it forward.” I’m sure Bing Crosby could have made up a song with that line as well. It all depends on what one means by “Heavy.”

Soon after moving to Arizona Mari and I got involved with the Borderlinks Border education program here in Tucson. It was founded and directed by Rick Ufford-Chase to educate North Americans about conditions on the US/Mexico border. BorderLinks ran day-long and week-long educational trips to and across the Border. The main concern was with the living and working conditions of the Mexican people. BorderLinks took United States people, mostly from churches, to the border to see for themselves the atrocious conditions of life there. As many as two or three church or college groups a month would spend a week traveling with BorderLinks on both sides of the Border.
After working with BorderLinks for a couple of years Mari was asked to direct its food program, which meant buying, growing, fixing, and serving meals to the various church and civic groups that came to Tucson to experience the border. I was asked to introduce a college-level “Semester on the Border” program to afford students the opportunity to get to know the conditions on the border in depth. Because of our experience with the Semester in Greece program we felt ready to rise to this new challenge.
The “Semester on the Border” was built around several college level courses offered by qualified college Professors and taught both in Tucson and at the BorderLinks Campus in Nogales, Mexico. I myself taught two college level courses, “Peace and Justice Studies” and “Liberation Theology”. A long-time BorderLinks supporter, Professor, Raquel Rubio Goldsmith, at the University of Arizona here in Tucson, taught “History of Mexico” and a third year graduate student at the University was chosen to teach both first and second year “Spanish”.
BorderLInks had recently acquired a large, fine campus building in downtown Tucson which served as both a College Program center and as the center for short-term visitor groups. This is where Mari focused her work as Food Co-Ordinator and where all the college students lived while they got their classroom work underway. The various short-term group visits were also housed in this large facility. The college students spent the first half of the semester in Tucson and then moved to the BorderLinks Center in Nogales, Mexico where they finished up the practical aspect of their course work. In my course on Liberation Theology we read Gustavo Gutierrez’ A Theology of Liberation and Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. In the Peace and Justice course we read Mohandas Gandhi: Essential Writings along with Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth. During the students’ time in Nogales I travelled, mostly back East, recruiting. On the West coast I was unable to recruit any students from that area. I was successful at Holy Cross and Boston College up East, as well as DePaul University ere eager to was most successful at three small colleges in North Carolina: Meridith in Raleigh, Warren Wilson just outside of Ashville, and Mars Hill just north of Ashville. I flew and drove to each of these schools every semester making presentations to the students. In each case I would visit as many classes as interested professors would allow, and set up a table just outside the cafeteria during lunchtime. In class I would give a ten-minute presentation and invite students to meet me at my table. We did have a small, attractive brochure to pass out among interested students. With all this effort we were lucky to register a dozen students each semester. Nonetheless, the program thrived and our reputation grew as a viable educational experience for knowledge of the border reality.
We ran this program for four years until Mari and I decided it was time to retire. Actually, at that time an opportunity to teach for a year in China presented itself and we became eager to explore that possibility. Rick Ufford-Chase retired from BorderLinks at about that time so it seemed timely for us to do the same. Being part of this program, learning about and from the people struggling on the Border, has had a lasting impact on our lives, on how we think and act concerning such issues. We are much richer for having participated with BorderLinks.