SLO4Home - Answering the Call and Fulfilling the Promise - 016
Release Date: 02/24/2022
Braver Angels - Connecting Across the Partisan Divide - 027
People of Faith for Justice
Civic engagement in the U.S. has been on the decline for many decades. Citizens are participating in public affairs too infrequently, too unequally, and in too few venues to develop and sustain a robust democracy. What’s more, effective engagement is being seriously hampered by a partisan divide between people that seems to be growing. Our podcast this month takes a look at how these divisions are affecting our relationships, and what we can possibly do about it. There are groups currently working to facilitate interactions between people despite their political disparity. The non-profit...
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Weaving Our Garment of Destiny - A Pilgrimage - 026
People of Faith for Justice
“We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere… hatred and bitterness can never cure the disease of fear, only love can do that.” These words, written by Martin Luther King, beckon us to a search for truth and meaning in the quest for racial justice and human rights everywhere. Two of our guests today, Ken Hill and Gina Whitaker, spent three weeks traveling the U.S. Civil Rights Trail this past October through Mississippi and Alabama. Everywhere they went, everyone they met and all the...
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Climate Change - Global Challenges, Local Solutions - 025
People of Faith for Justice
Global climate change is on all our minds these days…or is it? Should it be? How can we ignore it? We live our lives, trying to maintain the status quo, but our status quo is leading to suffering and destruction. There is nothing that is in our lives that is not touched today by global climate change. The homes we build and live in, our transportation, the weather we experience every day, the clothes we wear, the trash we discard, the fuel that powers our heat, lights and automobiles, the food we choose to eat, how our cities, towns and buildings are designed…there is nothing that isn’t...
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How to Do Prison Time Successfully with Author Emanuel Bell - 024
People of Faith for Justice
None of us ever thinks that they, or anyone they know, will ever end up in jail or prison. But if life throws you a curveball and you find yourself, a family member, or friend incarcerated, wouldn't it be good to know all that awaits you behind those prison walls? During his 17 ½ years in prison, Emanuel Bell hit a lot of bumps in the road. It took him 14 years to understand how to successfully do prison time and stay out of trouble. Emanuel attended a creative writing class at Solano Prison, and learned how to successfully write a book; the result is the newly published How to Serve...
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2018 Paso High Grads - Still Dreaming Big - 023
People of Faith for Justice
We hope you were able to listen to last month’s conversation with Geoffrey Land, Social Studies teacher at Paso High, along with two of his current students who shared their process of becoming scholar activists, learning to speak out for justice and inclusion. We are excited this month to have Beatriz Lopez as our guest! Beatriz was also a student of Geof Land while at Paso Robles High School. In 2018 she participated in a community forum in which Beatriz and eight other undocumented students at PRHS came from the shadows to share their stories openly. Following the forum, Mr. Land...
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I Do It For the Kids - Geoffrey Land SLO County Teacher of the Year - 022
People of Faith for Justice
Our guests today are Geoffrey Land, a Social Studies teacher at Paso Robles High School who has just been named the SLO County Teacher of the Year, and two of his students, Israel Perez and Ana Lopez, both seniors at Paso High. A teacher and his students? What could be more ordinary, right? Not so…what makes this podcast special is the fact that Geoffrey Land is no ordinary teacher, and Ana and Israel are no ordinary high school seniors. Mr. Land has been busy teaching justice-making and activism at Paso Robles High School, and Israel and Ana have both been applying his lessons to real life...
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Rev. Dr. Caroline Hall - 2022 Woman of the Year - A Lifetime of Service - 021
People of Faith for Justice
Rev. Dr. Caroline Addington Hall, Rector of St. Benedict’s Episcopal Church in Los Osos, has been recognized this year by the office of Congressional Representative Salud Carbajal as an outstanding Women of the Year Award recipient. Caro has been our friend, colleague and partner in working for positive change in our Central Coast communities for decades. Rev. Hall has been described as tireless, fearless, and an incredible communicator. She is a published author, an advocate for the unhoused, for the LGBTQA+ community, for the environment, for social justice, for children, and for our furry...
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America’s Gun Problem - What Makes Us Different? - 020
People of Faith for Justice
There are too many guns in the United States of America! Four hundred million firearms are owned by civilians in America–400 million–more guns than the US population. Nationally, there are more than 45,000 deaths caused by guns every year; that’s nearly 125 Americans per day killed by firearms. As of this year, guns are now the leading cause of death for Americans ages 1-19. As horrifying as these statistics are, they are only a small part of the story. The real stories are told by the victims, their families, friends, teachers and all who loved them. The loss, trauma, pain, fear,...
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Earth Eternity - Healing Our Mistakes - 019
People of Faith for Justice
Our guests today are three friends from the Central Coast of CA who share a mission: to make the Earth a better place for all their descendants. Earth Day, Earth Month, Earth Year–why not an Earth Eternity? We know that nothing lasts for eternity; one day, scientists say, our Sun will fail us and leave everything in darkness and cold, long after life on planet Earth no longer exists. But what about now? How do we celebrate our Earth’s longevity, long after a day in April, a month in Spring or a year from now? Spend the next hour with our guests June Cochran, Kelly Fisher and Grace...
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Slava Ukraini - A Nation of Survivors - 018
People of Faith for Justice
Our guests today are three women from the Central Coast of CA who share their Ukrainian heritage and the pain, fear and anger they are experiencing during the current, ongoing Russian invasion of their country of origin. Our interview was remarkable. You will hear strong emotions expressed; some of the stories and concerns will be troubling. There is death, famine, war and struggle in Ukraine’s history. But there is beauty, art, joy, resolve and strength as well. RELEVANT LINKS (Permanent Makeup Artistry site) (Fine Art site) (Santa Ynez Valley Star) (by Oksana Yakushko) (by...
info_outlineOur guests this month are Noha Kolkailah and Morgan Boyd, both volunteers with a brand new non-profit called SLO4HOME. Morgan and Noha are two of at least 100 other volunteers who have begun a long journey to create an organization and a plan to welcome and help settle several Afghan families in SLO County communities. The United States government made a promise to Afghan men and women who assisted us during our 20 year mission in their country. Now it’s time to honor our word, and through their involvement with SLO4HOME, Noha and Morgan are helping us do that very thing. We hope our listeners will be excited to learn about SLO4HOME, and perhaps be motivated to lend a hand in this community-wide journey to welcome our new neighbors.
RELEVANT LINKS
- PFJ
- Islamophobia
- SLO Diversity Coalition (Website and Episode 1/25/22 recording)
- Mosque of Nasreen (San Luis Obispo)
- Church World Service (Faith Based Resettlement Agency)
- SLO4HOME
- Cal Poly Farmer Experiential Education and Development Training Program (FEED)
MORE ABOUT OUR GUESTS
Noha Kolkailah
Noha Kolkailah was born in Cairo Egypt and raised in California. After starting a summer school for children in Hawaii at age sixteen, her love for children moved her in the direction of becoming a teacher. She attained a bachelor’s in Biochemistry, her teaching credentials, and a master’s in Educational Leadership and Administration from Cal Poly State University.
In 2015, Noha took on the role of Vice Principal at Mission College Prep Catholic High School and founded the Peace Academy of the Sciences and Arts shortly thereafter. With a group of diverse thinkers and a common language of core human values, the Peace Academy fosters an enriching culture and climate for children with a focus on self-awareness, global citizenship, social justice, and environmental stewardship.
On behalf of SLO’s Muslim community, Noha was awarded the David Conn Diversity Advancement award by the Jewish Community Center. She received this award for leading the efforts put forth towards intercultural exchange with the 2017 “Meet Your Muslim Neighbor” event attended by 800 people. Noha also served on SLO Coastal School District’s Common Ground Task Force. In 2020, Noha was one of the six women honored by Congressman Salud Carbajal as a Congressional Woman of the Year after which she took part in the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force to develop a set of recommendations for a more welcoming SLO community. Currently, Noha works for Santa Maria Bonita’s 21 schools as a Culture and Climate Coordinator, a new and innovative capacity to fulfill for the district.
Morgan Q. Boyd
Mr. Boyd is a native of the Central Coast where he grew up working on his family’s sustainable farm in Arroyo Grande. He is a Cal Poly graduate with a master’s degree in Public Policy where his primary research focused on the causality of Veteran unemployment and underemployment. During his tenure at Cal Poly as a Program Manager and Instructor, Mr. Boyd was responsible for the development of Cal Poly’s Farmer Experiential Education and Development Training Program (FEED), which focused on training Veterans in sustainable agricultural practices.
During his 12-year military career he obtained the rank of Captain, served as Platoon Leader, Company Commander and Regimental Assistant Intelligence Officer. He was deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan serving as a Cavalry Trooper conducting reconnaissance operations.
Mr. Boyd has served in the County’s Health Agency as the Administrative Services Officer of the County Jail Medical Clinic and most recently as a Program Manager for Adult Drug Court program and as a unit supervisor Drug & Alcohol Services’ drug testing program. Mr. Boyd currently serves his community as the San Luis Obispo County Veteran Services Officer and has been involved in the evacuation of Afghan refugees since the fall of Afghanistan last summer.
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People of Faith for Justice is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
CREDITS
The People of Faith for Justice Podcast is produced and edited by Jeff Manildi
Music for the People of Faith for Justice Podcast is provided by Andrew Gorman