wfn.org | Re: CEE Commentary

[Mennonite Central Committee Communications]

TOPIC:  CEE COMMENTARY:  REFLECTING ON THE LIFE AND DEATH OF CHINESE
LEADER DENG XIAOPING
DATE:   March 7, 1997
CONTACT:  Pearl Sensenig
V: 717/859-1151 F: 717/859-2171
E-MAIL ADDRESS:  mailbox@mcc.org

EDITOR'S NOTE:  China Educational Exchange is an
organization of Mennonite agencies and colleges participating in
North America/China exchanges.

HARRISONBURG, Va. -- The policies of Chinese leader Deng
Xiaoping, who died February 19, helped tens of millions of people
escape poverty.  Soon after Deng assumed power, Chinese Christians
were able to begin reopening their churches.  And in the early 1980s
because of the changes Deng brought to the world's most populous
country, North American Mennonites were able to return to live and
work in China 30 years after the last Mennonite missionaries had left
China. 

Deng dismantled a stagnant communal system, promoted agricultural
reform in the countryside and opened China to the outside world. 
These pragmatic policies led to China's tremendous economic growth.

Under Deng's more lenient policies, Christians could again meet
openly for worship.  A government document adopted in 1982
guaranteed citizens the right of religious belief and practice, although
this policy has been unevenly implemented.  The struggling and
persecuted Chinese church has grown from 1 million members in 1980
to at least 12 million presently, with some estimates considerably
higher.  While Christians continue to face problems due to close
government scrutiny, the government has assisted many churches in
reclaiming property and in rebuilding.  In 1980, two years after Deng
became China's paramount leader, Goshen (Ind.) College was able to
begin an exchange with an educational institution in China.  A year
later Mennonite mission agencies formed China Educational Exchange
(CEE) and began sending English teachers to China and receiving
Chinese visiting scholars at Mennonite colleges.  Since 1981 more than
160 persons have served in China through CEE, and some 200 Chinese
teachers and professors have been able to spend one year at a
Mennonite college.  

CEE exchange professor Gong Wei, currently at Hesston (Kan.)
College, says Deng's greatest contribution was to emphasize
production and not ideology, thus giving Chinese people a happier life
than before.  Deng brought an end to the turbulence and conflict of
China's "Cultural Revolution" period and helped usher in an era of
relative peace and stability.

 Deng could be ruthless in his policies, reflecting his desire to preserve
the communist party.  In Western eyes, Deng's contributions will
always be tainted by his decision in 1989 to call out troops to squelch
pro-democracy protests.  However, CEE teachers at several universities
in Sichuan, Deng's native province, report students there say that while
some persons in Beijing, China's capital, will want to have this
incident reviewed now that Deng is gone, generally most Chinese
people "don't care."

Public expressions of grief are quite different from those some 20
years ago when Mao Zedong's death prompted an outpouring of
national emotion and tears.  On February 20 CEE teachers Jeanette and
Todd Hanson reported a mass gathering in the center of Chengdu,
Sichuan province's capital, with many people laying wreaths under the
Chinese flag, which is flying at half-mast.  But the mood was more
festive than somber, with people jockeying for position to take pictures
with the flag and wreaths.

While Deng is appreciated because of the changes he helped bring,
several students in Sichuan clearly state that he was not of the same
stature and greatness as Mao, China's previous leader.  There will be
no mausoleum for Deng, his body parts have been donated to science
and his ashes will be scattered over the ocean.

For the past few years many have speculated about who will lead
China after Deng.  Although Deng had resigned from his official
positions, he remained active behind the scenes until his health
deteriorated the past few years.  Professor Gong Wei believes "for the
time being, there will be no major changes."  What will be different is
that no longer will there be one leader in China with the power,
authority and respect of a Mao or a Deng.  Communist Party Secretary
Jiang Zemin and Prime Minister Li Peng have consolidated their
leadership over the country's government and party, but even they
state that leadership is shared among a group of persons.  Solutions
these leaders apply to various challenges will indicate China's post-
Deng future.

One of Deng's greatest wishes was to be present at the handover of
Hong Kong to China on July 1 this year.  A foreign affairs official at a
CEE partner school expresses sadness that Deng will not be alive to
see this fulfilled.  The question of how Hong Kong's transition will be
handled in the next few years will present China's leaders with many
challenges.  With Deng off the scene, will pro-democracy supporters
be bolder and more confrontational?  Will the government feel secure
enough to permit opposition, or will it force its will on the people of
Hong Kong? 

Sovereignty issues affect China's border areas and minority groups;
Muslims in Xinjiang province and Tibetans voice strong pro-
independence sentiments.  China's emerging dominance in Asia is a
concern for its neighbors, and China is flexing its new-found power
and prestige in various international arenas.

How Beijing and Washington relate to each other will be critical not
only for the two powers themselves, but for Asia as well.  Recently
relations between China and the United States have thawed. 
Upcoming high-level visits will include the new U.S. secretary of state,
the vice-president and perhaps even President Clinton, heralding a
different approach from some of the strong rhetoric of past years.

However, hopes that China will quickly develop a more open,
Western-style democracy through continued interchange with the West
are likely to be disappointed.  Changes are happening but in a Chinese
fashion and according to the culture and dictates of the Chinese, not
the way of the West.

                                  -30-

Myrrl Byler, China Educational Exchange director

pls24february1997

MCC photo available:  Westerners pictured are (left to right) CEE
teacher Todd Hanson, CEE director Myrrl Byler and General
Conference Commission on Overseas missions (COM) Secretary for
Asia and northern Mexico Larry Kehler.  Chinese pictured are
Guangen Deputy Director of Social Welfare Huang Gexin and two
unidentified drivers.  The group is standing in front of the late Chinese
leader Deng Xiaoping's ancestral home in Sichuan province.  Deng
lived here until age 17.  (Photo supplied by CEE)TOPIC:  AS PEOPLE IN BURMA FACE CONTINUING REPRESS
CALL FOR "GLOBAL DAY OF PRAYER"
DATE:   March 7, 1997
CONTACT:  Pearl Sensenig
V: 717/859-1151 F: 717/859-2171
E-MAIL ADDRESS:  mailbox@mcc.org

AKRON, Pa. -- Tragic events close to the Thailand-Burma border in
February have added urgency to Thailand's churches' call for a "global
day of prayer for peace in Burma" on March 16.

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) workers in Thailand report that
in February thousands of people from Burma fled into Thailand as
Burma's government launched an offensive against Karen guerrilla
fighters.  (The Karen are one of Burma's 67 ethnic groups.)  These
new arrivals joined some 100,000 others who live in makeshift camps
in Thailand.

Because the Thai government does not officially recognize people
from Burma as refugees, those crossing the border receive no support
or protection from the United Nations.  On February 26 the Thai army
forced hundreds of refugees -- nearly all women and children -- onto
trucks and drove them back into Burma.  The women and children
were left in a war zone with no food, medicine, cooking supplies or
shelter.  Aid agencies were unable to reach them.

This is just the latest chapter in Burma's sad history.  Until the British
colonized the area in the mid-1800s, the country now known as Burma
was home to many independent ethnic groups.  The colonial
government drew the present boundaries of Burma and determined that
all the groups should live as one nation.  Misunderstandings and
unresolved conflicts among these groups simmered and when Burma
gained its independence in 1948, civil war broke out almost
immediately.

Burma is currently ruled by SLORC, a repressive military government
that refuses to give up power, despite having lost a peaceful,
democratic election in 1990.  SLORC has renamed the country
Myanmar, a name widely rejected because it was given by an
illegitimate government.    

"No one knows, or even can estimate, how many children, men and
women have already lost their lives in the civil war taking place far
from the cares and concerns of the world community," says MCC
worker Max Ediger.

Ediger, who helped initiate the call for a global day of prayer,
explains, "Christ, through his words and actions, instructed us to join
with poor and oppressed people."

Ediger suggests churches may want to hold a prayer vigil and
candlelight service to bring attention to the suffering in Burma. 
Prayers could be directed in the following way:         
  Pray for peaceful change in Burma and increased understanding
among ethnic groups.
  Pray for people who are suffering because of the war -- both those
still in Burma, and those who live as refugees in other countries.
  Pray that the church in Burma will be faithful in standing for love,
truth and justice. 

MCC has no workers in Burma.  Ediger and MCCer Chris Kennel
work in Thailand with Burma Issues, a group that documents human
rights abuses in Burma.  MCC is also assisting Karen schools in
Burma by supplying books and helping teachers develop curriculum.

Ediger and Kennel helped edit and produce "A day without fear; A life
without fear," a seven-session meditation booklet about Burma for use
by churches.  To obtain a copy, write to Burma Issues, P.O. Box 1076,
Silom Post Office, Bangkok 10504, Thailand.

Ediger of Turpin, Okla., is a member of Turpin Mennonite Church. 
Kennel of Harrisonburg, Va., is a member of Park View Mennonite
Church in Harrisonburg.  Kennel serves through MCC's SALT Int., a
one-year program for young adults.  

In North America, MCC staff are urging government officials to do
what they can to promote peace talks between Burma's military
government and opposition groups, and to advocate that Thailand
follow international humanitarian conventions regarding refugees.

                                  -30-

pls7march1997TOPIC:  AMID POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC TURMOIL, ZAIRIAN MENNONITES TALK
PEACE
DATE:   March 7, 1997
CONTACT:  Pearl Sensenig
V: 717/859-1151 F: 717/859-2171
E-MAIL ADDRESS:  mailbox@mcc.org

AKRON, Pa. --  As their country was torn by civil war, and economic
and political turmoil, 27 Zairian Mennonite church leaders met for a
peace seminar in Kinshasa, Zaire's capital, February 5 to 8.

Some discussion centered on Zaire's current unstable political and
economic situation.  Zaire's dictatorial president is in ill health and
elections are scheduled for later this year.  Rampant inflation means
many people in Kinshasa can afford only one daily meal; some not
even that.  Participants also discussed current Zairian church issues,
including some similar to those North American churches face, such as
ordination of women, divorce and conflict in the church.

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) arranged for Juan Jose Romero,
director of the Brussels, Belgium, Mennonite Peace Center, and Neal
Blough, a Mennonite Board of Missions missionary in Paris, to travel
to Zaire to conduct the seminar.

"Juan described mediation, the functions of a mediator and the steps in
a mediation process," reported Roussel Kumakamba, the seminar
organizer.  "Neal emphasized that, for Mennonites, power must be
exercised in accordance with the spirit of Christ with truth, justice and
peace as the guiding principles."       Kumakamba is interim
executive secretary of CONIN, an inter-Mennonite committee that
represents the three Zairian Mennonite church groups.

At the close of the seminar, Kumakamba urged participants to share
what they had learned in their communities and churches.

Romero and Blough then spent a week teaching conflict mediation and
theology courses at the International Center for Missiology in
Kinshasa.  The center was founded several years ago by Nzash
Lumeya of the Zairian Mennonite Brethren church; about 40 students
are currently enrolled, studying to be pastors or missionaries.  The two
also participated in several radio broadcasts, another ministry of the
center.

"The growth and vitality of Mennonite, and other churches, in Zaire
are signs that we have entered a new era in what people usually call
`missions,'" reported Blough.  "These churches took care of us from
beginning to end.  We did not have the impression of being
`missionaries,' visiting a `mission church,' but of being Christians
from Europe visiting the church in Zaire and therefore participating in
the larger reality of the international church." 

Zairians expressed interest in building closer ties to churches and peace
groups in other French-speaking countries. 
                                  -30-
pls7march1997TOPIC:  ON BEING A BLESSING IN CALCUTTA, INDIA
DATE:   March 7, 1997
CONTACT:  Pearl Sensenig
V: 717/859-1151 F: 717/859-2171
E-MAIL ADDRESS:  mailbox@mcc.org

CALCUTTA, India -- The day after Christmas Irfan Sayeed and his
father, Ahmed, were at the mosque for their daily prayers.  They were
called home as fire swept through their apartment house.  Irfan's
mother and sister had to be rescued from their one-room apartment. 
Ahmed says God protected his wife and daughters so they could
escape.

Irfan and his older brother, Ghufran, had received educational
assistance from Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) for tuition,
books, and uniforms throughout their elementary and secondary school
years.  Ghufran is now a trained engineer working in Bombay.  Irfan
is working on a degree in business.

For many years Ahmed has prayed daily for MCC, its staff and its
work.  MCC, he says, is "a blessing from Allah;" the MCC office is "a
holy place like a mosque or temple."  After the fire, Chinese pastor
T.T. Chiu at the nearby Ling Liang church urged Ahmed to contact
Donald Kessop and Ayesha Kadar of the MCC India staff.  It was a
natural response for Ahmed to come to the MCC Calcutta office to ask
for assistance in restoring the apartment.      MCC responded by
giving the family the equivalent of $400 Cdn./$300 U.S. from its
emergency account.  The family has minimal resources but will find
additional money, perhaps from other community groups, to repair the
building and replace their furniture.  Reconstruction may take much of
this year as the family plans to do the work themselves.  They are
currently surviving without windows, doors, tables or chairs, but they
thank Allah for safety and MCC for being a blessing from God.

After our visit, I thanked God and the local MCC staff for being
instruments of blessing for these people in their need.
                                  -30-
John A. Lapp, MCC India

pls7march1997

John A. Lapp of Akron, Pa., formerly served as MCC executive
director.  He is currently teaching at Bishop's College in Calcutta,
India.
TOPIC:  NEW PROGRAM IN SOUTH AFRICA BRINGS TOGETHER SURVIVORS AND
OFFENDERS OF APARTHEID'S CARNAGE
DATE:   March 7, 1997
CONTACT:  Pearl Sensenig
V: 717/859-1151 F: 717/859-2171
E-MAIL ADDRESS:  mailbox@mcc.org

MCC worker helps develop VORP-like process to "put a face on
the past" 

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- During the late 1980s three white
South African security police went undercover into the township of
Mamelodi, near Pretoria.  Their purpose was to weed out some of the
youth activists who had been involved in opposition movements
against the white apartheid government.

The police told a group of young men that they were recruiting for a
soccer team.  Enroute to a soccer camp the young men were allegedly
murdered by the undercover police.

Ten years later, in a new South Africa, the parents, relatives and
friends of those youths are asking for the truth.  Who committed this
crime and why?  The answer to those questions and a multitude of
others concerning political violence under apartheid are being painfully
revealed through the efforts of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation
Commission (TRC).  The task of the TRC, established by the South
African Parliament in the hope of bringing national healing and
reconciliation, is to find the truth about the past.

But simply uncovering the truth may not be enough.  The survivors,
victims and offenders of political violence are asking for ways to find
peace about these wrongs.  They are seeking ways to begin a journey
that will lead toward recovery, forgiveness and rehabilitation.

While the TRC has a limited lifespan, the commission is establishing
programs that will help the survivors, victims and offenders to find
some peace.  One program, the Survivor-Offender Mediation (SOM)
program, intends to put "a face on the past" through face-to-face
mediation.

The SOM program, which was initiated by Mennonite Central
Committee (MCC) worker Carl Stauffer of the Wilgespruit Fellowship
Centre, and Brandon Hamber of the Centre for the Study of Violence
and Reconciliation, along with 20 other participating groups, intends to
bring together the survivors and offenders of apartheid's carnage. 
Much like the victim/offender mediation program (VORP) used for
situations of crime in North America, this program would allow for an
impartial mediator to help the survivor and offender come to a
resolution together.

SOM carries with it an important component of the VORP programs,
the idea of restorative justice -- examining the harm done to a person
and the resulting needs.  Like VORP, SOM also seeks ways to make
things right for the victim and places obligations on the offender to
work toward that end.

"You start to understand what you did not understand before," Stauffer
said.  "That understanding will come for both sides through various
interactions, such as group meetings where entire communities come
together to work through the pain."

Stauffer wants to be careful that the process includes traditional
African customs of conflict resolution, healing and reparations.  "We
don't want to prescribe to South Africans," said Stauffer. "Good
conflict intervention has the interveners in the background."  Prior to
coming to South Africa in 1994 Stauffer directed the Capital Area
VORP program in Richmond, Va.  Stauffer was a member of the
former Jubilee Christian Fellowship in Richmond.

But more important is that within the black South African ethos are
tools from traditional African mediation, many of which tend to be
communal and consensus building.  "There is a restorative effort
utilized in dealing with those who get out of line," Stauffer said of
some African techniques. "But there is also a great willingness to
forgive."

Whether the families of the Mamelodi youths will forgive is yet to be
seen. They have been meeting together for over a year and are now
ready to move the process forward.

As Stauffer and his colleagues work with the case, their first task will
be to bring both parties together.  The survivors are ready.     As for
the former police officers, one has stated his remorse, another refuses
to meet with the families and the third said he was only doing what
the government asked him to do at the time.

"We realize the complexity of it," Stauffer said. "But we think that
justice will come full circle in the future."
                                  -30-
Mark Beach, MCC Communications
pls7march1997

Mark Beach is an MCC photographer and free-lance writer from
Lancaster, Pa.  He visited South Africa in January 1997.

MCC photo available:  Members of the Wilgespruit Fellowship Centre
mediation team in Roodepoort, South Africa, include, left to right,
Khosana Tladi, MCC worker Carl Stauffer, Ouma Maswabi, Bongani
Mtshali and Nombulelo (Joyce) Khumalo.  The Wilgespruit Fellowship
Centre, founded in 1948 as an ecumenical witness against apartheid,
currently works in conflict mediation, development, community
organizing and education.  (MCC photo by Mark Beach)
TOPIC:  MCC COMMENTARY:  SOUTH AFRICA'S TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION
COMMISSION IS AN UNPRECEDENTED EXPERIMENT OF BREATHTAKING STAKES
DATE:   March 7, 1997
CONTACT:  Pearl Sensenig
V: 717/859-1151 F: 717/859-2171
E-MAIL ADDRESS:  mailbox@mcc.org

Cape Town, South Africa -- "You must be a TRC journalist if ... you
wake up at night, screaming."  The exercise -- complete the sentence --
was intended as a light-hearted opening to a workshop for journalists
covering South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)
earlier this year. But for these journalists the reality is too grim.  The
task of absorbing the daily outpouring of horrors, sifting through them,
deciding what and how to report them, becomes almost too much to
bear.

Reporter Antje Krog writes in a recent issue of the South African
newspaper Mail and Guardian:  "In the second week of hearings, I do
a question and answer with [a radio] programme.  I stammer.  I freeze. 
I am without language.  I put the receiver down and think:  resign. 
You are clearly incompetent. ... I am shocked to be a textbook case
within a mere 10 days."

The TRC hearings have been going on nearly a year, with yet another
year to go, and many in South Africa are overwhelmed.  This nation
has embarked on an unprecedented experiment of breathtaking stakes. 
Attempting to steer a course between denial of the past and the
revenge that can result from uncovering it, Nelson Mandela's
government has committed itself to facing the truth of the past as a
precondition to healing and reconciliation.

The TRC was established to investigate the wrongs committed on all
sides during the apartheid years, to allow victims to tell their stories
and receive some form of reparation, and to decide in individual cases
who should get amnesty from prosecution for past deeds.  After
decades of violent, state-sponsored repression, the truth is not pretty. 
Even liberal white South Africans who opposed apartheid say the
systematic brutality goes beyond anything they imagined.

Can the truth -- or, perhaps more accurately, truths -- really be known
within the two-year life the TRC has been given?  Will such truth
really lead to reconciliation?  Will reconciliation -- or the facade of it -
- be forced on individuals and the nation?

Can the process move quickly enough to cool decades of boiling
anger, fuelled now by the inevitable disillusionment of impossibly high
expectations?  The latter question is urgent now that the amnesty
process has begun.  Survivors of unspeakable atrocities are seeing
some perpetrators walk free, spending time with their families and
continuing jobs, while their own lives are permanently distorted, their
loved ones dead.

Victims' stories are often incompletely acknowledged and no
reparation has yet been offered; the Reparations and Rehabilitation
Committee is mandated to make its recommendations only after the
overall picture has been drawn, and then it is unclear whether
compensation will be individual or collective.

The TRC represents a substantial advance over earlier truth
commissions in Latin America and elsewhere, but problems are
inherent in its mandate and structure.  Most obvious, perhaps, is the
amnesty provision.  The apartheid regime refused to hand over power
unless provision was made for those who had committed wrongs to
apply for amnesty.  Unlike some earlier commissions, these amnesties
are to be individual, not blanket, and require full disclosure of wrongs
as part of the application.  As was hoped, the provision is helping pry
open some awful secrets.  Recently, for example, the killers of anti-
apartheid activist Steve Biko have confessed.  Biko's family has
consistently opposed the amnesty provision, however, and if the
perpetrators are granted immunity from prosecution, it will be hard to
take.  

The TRC process sacrifices justice for the sake of reconciliation and
learning the truth, writes reporter David Goodman in the Mail and
Guardian (Jan. 31-Feb 6, 1997).  This is true only if one equates
justice with the retributive justice of the criminal law process, which
assumes justice is primarily about blaming and then punishing
offenders.  From a restorative justice perspective (and the TRC has
begun to use this term), the TRC does represent an attempt to do
justice, but an incomplete one.

Restorative justice emphasizes harms done to people and the resulting
needs.  The TRC emphasizes validating and vindicating victims by
allowing them to tell their stories and by investigating what happened. 
Still, given the scope of the wrongs and the mandated time frame, the
TRC process will be partial at best.  Also, if victims feel pressure to
forgive and reconcile prematurely, healing will be incomplete. 
Restorative justice also requires that we find ways to make things right
to victims in so far as possible; through its Rehabilitation and
Reparations Committee, the TRC will address this principle, although
belatedly and incompletely.

However, restorative justice also emphasizes obligations that follow
from violations.  While the amnesty provision was politically
unavoidable, it breaks the crucial link between violation and
obligation.  Offenders have no obligation to confront consequences of
the harm they have caused, to apologize and or to make even symbolic
restitution.  State-paid compensation may give some satisfaction to
victims, but it is likely to be financially limited and symbolically less
satisfying than direct action by offenders.  Consequently, the
experience of justice is likely to feel inadequate.

Opportunities for dialogue, perhaps even mediated encounters, between
perpetrators and survivors might help to address this deficiency.  At
the initiative of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) volunteer Carl
Stauffer who works with Wilgespruit Fellowship Centre and other
South African non-profit organizations, the TRC has approved a
"survivor-offender mediation" option for those who are willing. 
Several high-profile cases are now in process.  Whether the amnesty
process will get in the way of participation and full disclosure by
offenders has yet to be seen, but such a dialogue could increase
opportunities for accountability and healing.  

This troubled nation is making a bold effort at peacemaking, often
articulated in specifically Christian terms by TRC head Archbishop
Desmond Tutu and many others involved.  South Africans need and
deserve our steadfast 
prayers and support in the difficult months and years to come.  

                                  -30-
Howard Zehr
pls7march1997 
Howard Zehr directs the MCC U.S. Office of Criminal Justice and
works with MCC's Overseas Peace Office.  He also teaches sociology
and restorative justice at Eastern Mennonite University in
Harrisonburg, Va.  He was in South Africa and Swaziland from
January 20 to February 12 on a lecturing and consulting trip.TOPIC:  MCC U.S. COMMENTARY:  HEALTH C
DATE:   March 7, 1997
CONTACT:  Emily Will
V: 717/859-1151 F: 717/859-2171
E-MAIL ADDRESS:  mailbox@mcc.org

WASHINGTON -- Imagine this scenario: every child in Maine, New
Hampshire, Vermont, Delaware, West Virginia, Kentucky, Arkansas,
Oklahoma, Missouri, the Dakotas, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, New
Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Oregon and Alaska is without health
insurance.

Latest Census Bureau figures reveal that 10 million children  -- equal
to the number of children in those 20 states -- lacked health coverage
in 1994.  That's 14.2 percent of all U.S. children.  Children without
health insurance are much less likely than insured children to see a
doctor when sick or to obtain basic preventive health care.  The result
is not only more human misery but also a more costly health care
system.  National surveys show that when children have regular care,
overall health costs drop by 25 percent.

The problem of uninsured children is growing.  Since 1989, an average
of 1 million children a year have lost private health insurance.  This is
due in large part to the dismantling of the historic pact between
employers and their workers: many private employers no longer
provide health coverage for dependents.

The good news is that Congress may do something.  With opinion
polls documenting widespread concern about health care, President
Clinton and members of Congress are expressing a desire to expand
coverage for people who are uninsured, particularly children.

There are numerous proposals for how to accomplish this, including
one to expand Medicaid coverage, on a sliding scale, to the
children of the working poor.  Medicaid currently provides health
insurance to many people in poverty, but nearly 90 percent of
uninsured children have a parent who is employed -- earning too much
to qualify for Medicaid but too little to afford insurance.  In fact, the
prospect of losing health insurance is a key disincentive to leaving
welfare.

The Mennonite vision for health care, as set forth in denominational
resolutions, is of a system that provides basic health care for everyone,
everywhere in the United States.  Providing coverage for all children
would be a good first step.      

                                  -30-

Karl S. Shelly, legislative advocate, MCC U.S. Washington Office

esw7march1997