Despite struggles, life still glimmers with hope

Next month What: Claude Allouez Forum, sponsored by the Green Bay Diocese and the St. Norbert College Theological Institute; it is open to the public. When: 7:15 a.m. Dec. 15. Where: Bemis International Center, St. Norbert College. Who: Fr. Dave Pleier, pastor of St. Bernard Parish, Green Bay. Topic: Glancing Ahead: Glimmers of Hope as a Pastor. Cost: $8, includes breakfast. Reservations: (920)437-7531 or (toll-free) 1-877-500-3580, ext. 8173.

DE PERE - Despite the continuing struggle in Florida over the presidential election results and other disagreements in daily life, we can still see glimmers of hope around us, the Allouez Forum was reassured Nov. 17.

Sharon Schmeling, a public policy analyst at Marquette University in Milwaukee, said she sees glimmers of hope whenever people do good, such as the Republican governor of Illinois, George Ryan, who called for a moratorium on use of the death penalty despite objections from his party.

Schmeling, who researches private school voucher issues for Dr. Howard Fuller, said the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program also has shown her many glimmers of hope, including pro-voucher editorials from the Washington Post and USA Today.

She told of Darnita Berry, whose father was killed for his athletic shoes when she was six, forcing her mother to work two jobs so she could send her daughter to a Catholic school. That meant long hours at work and little time with her daughter, but she did it "just so Darnita could get a quality education," said Schmeling, who for several years was a lobbyist for the Wisconsin Catholic Conference.

Now, Darnita has nearly a 4.0 grade average, is senior class president and is applying for college. People like her mother are glimmers of hope because they "don't have a lot of money or education," Schmeling said. "But they have a passion for fighting for what their children need to escape the poverty and crime of the neighborhoods in which they live."

She said Dr. Fuller, former superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools, "advocates school choice and charter schools because he believes the current educational system is leaving behind too many low-income and black students."

Schmeling, who researches, writes and answers questions from journalists and lawmakers on vouchers, noted that "The Milwaukee choice program is the oldest in the country and provides 10,000 students with a voucher to attend the school of their choice, including religious schools. The program has been upheld by the State Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal by opponents of the program."

She said the push for the program came from "black, low-income mothers in the inner city of Milwaukee who were tired of busing their children to schools across town. They wanted their children to attend schools in their neighborhoods and schools that provided a good education while also promoting the values of the family."

In addition to glimmers of hope, Schmeling said she sees less encouraging signs, such as 175 Marquette students who claimed they voted more than once in the last election; political in-fighting in the State Assembly; bickering over minor matters in county government.

She also cited attempts by foes, particularly the national teachers' union, the NEA, and its allies, to kill vouchers through strict regulation and pointed out that vouchers are an issue on which people of good will can disagree.

Our lives, she said, are caught in a struggle between good and evil that occurs not only all around us, but in our own lives too. Thus, as St. Paul said, "The good that I would do, I do not" (Rom 7:15). These do not have to be major evils, they include daily temptations and vices, such as envy, jealousy, gossip.

"But the glimmer of hope," Schmeling said, "is that in the final analysis, God does not judge us only by the separate incidents of our lives or the mistakes we make, but by the total bent of our lives."

God requires that our hearts are right, which entails loving God with our whole heart, soul and mind and our neighbor as ourselves (Mk 12:29-31).

Schmeling said she responds to these two commandments by trying to keep her inner light burning. She said she does that by praying constantly, thanking God for the small blessings she receives every day, by how she is raising her children, by serving the community, by reading Scripture, by attending Mass and receiving the sacraments, by going on retreats.

"If each of us can keep our inner lights burning, we will be glimmers of hope for one another as we move through the daily work of living with our hearts right, today, this week and throughout our lives."