Following Your Dream

At some time in this service, you may think of a special dream that you have. We invite you to write it down on the 3 X 5 card provided this morning, and to keep it with you or share it with it us during the multilogue.

Ten years ago, while I was living in Silver Spring, Maryland, I had a dream which took a long time to be fulfilled. In 1989, immediately after the fall of the Berlin Wall, it was already clear that the cold war between the East and West was about to come to an end and coincidentally also the civil war in

El Salvador. Without doubt, the major challenge to be confronted immediately was the reconstruction of the country devastated by war. At that time I asked myself how we might begin to reconstruct a country whose economy had been set back 25 years and which had lost so many of its educated people during 10 years of war.

During the years 1984-90, I traveled to 26 states of the US in search of political allies to negotiate a settlement to the armed conflict in El Salvador. In the course of this effort I met many Central American refugees who had escaped the war and who were persecuted by immigration agents, because, according to the Reagan administration, there was no war in Central America. No fue si not until the recent visit of President Bill Clinton, who apologized to the Guatemalans for having aided a war which violated human rights. I said to myself, "Surely, if there were no war in Central America, even if there were the worst socio-economic conditions in these countries, these people would not need to be in the US doing the work that other people don't want to do, it is something like the exodus of the Jews from Egypt."

From this point of view my hope was that someday the war would end and I would return to El Salvador to implement an educational project in the vicinity of Guazapa Volcano, the place where I was born and raised. My vision was to mount a project that would have an impact on the northern part of the country to discourage migration to San Salvador, the capital, para despues migrar hacia hacia los paises del norte.

My vision was to invest in the brains of the new generation just as Japan and Germany did in their post war period. By this means these countries made a great qualitative leap forward to where they are today. In May of 1989 I went with Congressman Dave Nagle (D-Iowa) to El Salvador to explore for myself the possibility of returning to sink my roots once more in the soil of my native land. Upon returning from El Salvador to my home in Silver Spring, I said to my wife, "Barbara, lets go to El Salvador and found a university to help with the reconstruction of the northern part of the country." My wife looked at me and said, "You're crazy! We don't have the money or the know-how to found a university." I replied, "True, we don't have the resources and don't know how to organize a university, but one way or another we are going to secure the help to do it." Somehow I convinced my wife and her relatives [?] that it was a good idea to go to El Salvador.

As a result, two years before the end of the war, one fine day in late 1989 my wife and two children and I took the land route to El Salvador, a journey of 8 days. Upon arrival in El Salvador we began to explain the proposal for the new university to friends and politicians but at that time nobody paid any attention. People could think only of the events of the day, since the war was still going on. Whenever we presented the idea the response we got was like that of the rector of the biggest university in the country, who said, "Don't get mixed up in this. It is very difficult to establish a university." In spite of these discouraging words we decided to persevere. As the war continued we adopted the strategy of switching between

prudence and risk. Prudence was necessary because of the possibility of losing our lives or seeing ourselves involved in real problems si una persona civil en un momento dado se encont.

Frequently from my house in Santa Tecla we saw Salvadoran Air Force planes bombing the Guazapa Volcano 50 kilometers north of the capital. Not until January 1992 when the peace accord was signed under the auspices of the United Nations, and with the presence of officials of the Organization of United Nations, Unidad El Salvador, did we have any respite or sense of security. The first challenge at this time was to assemble a team of founders of the new university and to create the conditions to establish the university which would be located in one of the three poorest departments of El Salvador, the Department of Chalatenango, right near the frontiers of Honduras and Guatemala. Historically almost no one le apostaba invertir esfuersos in the north where the land is the least fertile of any in El Salvador, but our plan was to develop subsistence agriculture, because in this era of the revolution in communication computers don't need fertile land. What they need is brains to be used as instruments for human development. Little by little we gathered a group of leaders of the northern region who favored the idea of a new university. Soon we formed a founding group including the Bishop of the Diocese.

Now, the next most important steps were to obtain legalization of the university, to secure the financial resources to operate, and to find qualified personnel to run the new university. Fortunately, without major difficulties the university was approved by the government authorities of the ARENA party in spite of the fact that ARENA did not respect the name of Monsignor Romero. According to the Report of the Truth Commission (pg. 188), it was the ex-mayor, Roberto D'Aubuisson, founder of the ARENA party, who gave the order for the assassination of Archbishop Romero. But in this case the eyes of the world were on El Salvador and not to approve the existence of the University Romero would be seen at the international level as very bad

And now how could we acquire financial resources? Yes, this was a serious problem because the money for reconstruction which we were hoping for from the international community did not arrive. The expectation was that the aid from Washington for reconstruction would be at least at the same level as during the war, almost two million dollars a day. The little financial aid that arrived once the war was over was absorbed by the central government to half fulfill the compromises generated by the peace accord. The little money that arrived was a drop in the bucket. Nevertheless little by little we made various appeals. The first major donor was the Council of Bishops of Italy, and then other smaller donations came from other organizations in the USA. With such a small amount of money what we did was to resolve that all los puestos de direccion hari

And now how do we get a faculty? This was another challenge, given that most intellectuals and academics were killed during the war or emigrated to other countries, especially to universities in the US and Canada. In the search for qualified personnel using cuidadosa con lupa de la investigacion, we were able to build the first team of 20 professors within El Salvador. With the aid of these teachers, whose salaries were barely honoraria, we made a start for the university.

The hope and enthusiasm of the people of the northern region was so great that the fathers of the families and the students begged us to start operation of the university as soon as possible. In the middle of 1994 we gave the first classes in a house in the countryside that had been abandoned by its owners during the war. Before the beginning of class the students, teachers, and fathers of the families cleaned and painted the place where the classes would take place. One important task before beginning to give classes was to get rid of the remnants of war abandoned around the provisional campus, fortunately 25% of the students had been guerrillas or soldiers during the war who knew how to handle the explosives.

With a group of enthusiastic teachers we began classes with some three hundred students enrolled in five fields of study: Education, Law, Agronomy, Veterinary Science, Agricultural Economy and Forestry. Simultaneously we continued our efforts toward the construction of our own campus for the university. We obtained a bank loan at 17% interest and began construction. Three years after beginning classes we dedicated our own campus. While we made the road to walk, last week during the commemoration of the nineteenth anniversary of the assassination of Monsignor Romero, the first group of 26 students of agronomy and veterinary science graduated. The new professionals soon will find work in the non-governmental organizations that operate in the northern region of El Salvador or else they will apply what they have learned on their family farms.

Recently someone showed me something written by Reinhold Niebuhr, which says: Nothing worth doing can be completed in one lifetime; therefore we must be saved through hope. Nothing that is true or beautiful or good has complete meaning in the immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved through faith. Nothing that we have, though it be full of virtue, can be accomplished by one person alone; therefore we must be saved through love."

This is the lesson that we have learned in the course of building the Monsignor Oscar Arnulfo Romero University.

So, all these dreams - personal dreams, dreams for our family, dreams for our community, dreams for the whole human race - what do they mean - why are they important? We sometimes say of a dreamer - he has his head in the clouds. Is that because dreamers' heads are full of vapor? No - that's beacause dreamers are giants among us. This is what makes us human beings the crowning achievement of life on this lovely planet - we have the potential, the power, to dream, the urge to ask, who am I? Why am I here? What will my life have meant when it is over? And the power to imagine, to imagine a glorious tomorrow, a tomorrow not just of survival, a tomorrow not just of comfort, a tomorrow not just of contentment, but a tomorrow on which the sun rises in glory and sets in splendor. I want to paraphrase Martin Luther King, and tell you what is my dream for this church.

I have a dream. I have a dream of this church in which we go beyond our intellect, we go beyond our cold logic, we go beyond our parliamentary caution, we go beyond our highly educated anlysis, and we say with passion, we say with conviction, this is the day the Lord has made, and we by God will seize it. We will say, this is our day. This is not the day of the religious right. This is not the day of the bigots. This is not the day of the haters and the ignorant and the closed-minded and the dogma-grinders. No. This is our day. This is our day. We will say, we have a fire in our bellies, we have a fire of peace, a fire of love, a fire of dignity, of compassion, of honor, of justice, a fire of joy in our human diversity, a fire of celebration of our glorious humanity. We have a fire which burns us up, we have a fire, and we can't hold it in, it's going to come out, and watch out, world, we're going to set you ablaze.

I have a dream that our fire will spread. I have a dream that all those people out there shivering in their thin, cold garments of prejudice and hatred will hear our voice and want to come in from the cold and warm themselves at our fire. All those people out there hungry on their meager diet of dogma and ignorance will hear our voice and want to come and share our feast of love and dignity. They will hear us if we speak with one voice. They will hear us. If the choir sang fifteen different songs at one time, could you bear to listen? If we all together speak with one voice, with the voice of our faith, it will be a mighty voice, a shout heard for miles around, heard on Capitol Hill, heard in Annapolis, heard in Takoma Park, heard in Greenbelt, heard in those fundamentalist churches, heard in the hearts and minds of hundreds of people, huddled masses yearning to be free of their dogmas of exclusion and hate.

I have a dream that this sanctuary will be so full that two services will not be enough - that we will need morning and evening services. I have a dream that our minister will be so overworked that we need to hire him or her an assistant minister. I have a dream that we can afford to give Andrew Kleine a paid vacation. I have a dream that we can afford to hire a gardener - two gardeners, so Daisy Grubbs can spend her time guiding the tourists around our magnificent gardens. I have a dream that board meetings will be spent deciding how to spend our money, not how to raise it. I have a dream of kids running all over the place and driving us crazy, knowing still that we treasure them. I have a dream of old folks feeling that here is a place where they are loved for their gentleness and their wisdom. I have a dream that here is a place where young adults feel that their energy can make a difference in the world, can make a better world for their children. I have dream that each and every one of us here today, will be able to look at UUCSS and say, this is our family, this is my home, this is where my heart is. And it is a good place.