Four Corners will be closed on the 26th and will return to normal hours on Tuesday, the 29th. Many thanks for supporting Fair Trade  during your Holiday Shopping.

Did you know that Four Corners has an Education Committee with speakers on Fair Trade, Sustainability, Immigration and Sweatshops? Please check out the list of speakers at our web site. Also note the upcoming series on Voluntary Simplicity organized by one of our volunteers described below. The Committee also has purchased a number of excellent and challenging videos for the use of teachers and families. Email the store if you would like to borrow one.

Films Available from the Four Corners Fair Trade Store

Black Gold ( a documentary that shows the cost behind the cost of our 2^nd largest import, coffee)

Blue Gold (a film about future world water wars)

Chocolate Country (a documentary about a group of cacao farmers who have a plan to turn the global economic system on its head)

Flow (a film about the global water crisis; about the war between public health and private interests)

Fresh (a documentary about people who are re-inventing our food system—features local farmer Will Allen)

King Korn (an entertaining documentary about how the corn kernel conquered America)

Mardi Gras (a documentary critique of globalization that looks at conditions in a Chinese factory)

Matamoros (a documentary by Sierra Club about the pollution and miserable living conditions of the workers and their families who live in the Mexican border town named Matamoros)

Mt. Meru (an explanation of how the Lutheran churches of Southeastern Wisconsin came to join coffee farmers in Tanzania to market Fair Trade coffee)

Not for Sale (a documentary on the 27 million people who are enslaved today)

Playing for Change (10 songs performed by musicians from around the world)

Stolen Childhoods (a documentary about the exploitation of children as laborers, narrated by Meryl Streep and the children and adults who are concerned about them and their futures)

The Story of Stuff (an entertaining and fast-paced explanation of American consumers and their insatiable appetite for goods: how it came to be and how it is affecting our planet and the quality of our lives)

Voluntary Simplicity Series

Several years ago, when I was a Parish Councilor, Bill Lange asked us Councilors to join him in protesting poor wages for Mexicans working in sweatshops producing jeans.  It was during Advent and there was already too much on my plate, so I didn’t go; but I couldn’t stop thinking about Bill’s concern for the working poor.

With that on my mind, and some subsequent reading in the Milwaukee Journal and the National Geographic about the harvesting of cacao and the mining of diamonds, I created a research unit for my students at Menomonee Falls High School.  With help from our school’s librarian, my students began researching the stories behind products marketed in the U.S.  The products included GAP jeans, chocolate, diamonds, coffee, bananas and more.  I asked my students to do their best to get at the truth of the costs and benefits of producing and consuming these products.  

This unit turned into an eye-opening experience for my students and for me.  We learned about the widespread exploitation of humans: young women working 14-20 hour days, six to seven days per week, in sweatshops in Haiti; boy slaves harvesting cacao beans on the Ivory Coast; amputations and killings resulting from wars paid for by slaves mining diamonds in Sierra Leone; coffee farmers starving in Tanzania, and the beatings of striking banana workers by soldiers in Honduras. We also learned about the degradation of our environment; such as, the loss of 3 million acres of Latin American rainforests (the cost of sun-grown coffee) and the explosion of toxic chemicals contaminating our ground water as consumers dump old cell phones and computers.  In short, we learned that free trade, as it’s being practiced, is not a sustainable practice. We learned that we were actively contributing to suffering and death through our purchase of everyday products.

When you learn the kinds of things we learned, you just have to do something.  That’s how I got involved with Fair Trade.  I learned about Fair trade through my students first and then through Fair Trade volunteers.  Fair Trade is a sustainable practice.  It promises workers humane working conditions, fair wages, the right to unionize, and more. Fair Trade also calls for improved care of our earth.  When you purchase a bag of Fair Trade coffee, for instance, you can be sure that the workers receive not only sustainable wages but also that the coffee has been produced without exposure to chemical pesticides.  Furthermore, the beans are shade grown and that means precious animals and insects are not being destroyed in its production.  You can be sure of all this because Fair Trade business practices are available for public review.

I believe I have taken a step toward building peace in our world by purchasing and promoting the purchase of Fair Trade goods when possible.  Even though I don’t get the satisfaction of seeing how I’m contributing to life-sustaining measures, I know I am doing the right thing.  A lot of Blessed Trinity parishioners are also making this commitment in solidarity with the poor.  I am grateful (and proud!) to be part of this parish that truly does follow its Mission Statement of reaching out to all.

LIZ DIXON