Man of the Year

by Nazbanoo Pahlavi
Carnegie Mellon Today, July 2008


A few hundred Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents descend under the buzz of a helicopter. Nearby streets are blocked off. The target is a New Bedford textile factory that has federal contracts to produce camouflage uniforms for soldiers in Iraq. The agents expect to find about 400 undocumented immigrants, who will be questioned and detained. An hour after the raid begins, the local police chief tips off Marc Fallon (HS'92), a clergyman and advocate for the Mayan community.

Although Fallon considers his Spanish second rate despite the years he committed to his Hispanic ministry, he knows those seamstresses, and he knows their hearts. And he knows that many of the parishioners struggled through civil war in Guatemala and won't answer to any man in uniform who questions them about the whereabouts of their children.

The law-enforcement officials won't divulge names of those taken away, so Fallon and another pastor, Richard Wilson, figure out who didn’t come home. They determine that 121 children are left behind.

The pastors share their list with advocacy agencies, and a community-wide effort takes root. A temporary shelter is created in the basement of Wilson's church. Community college students volunteer to help. So do the YMCA and area lawyers. And an investment banker in Boston, Mass., even matches bail bonds for about 40 of the detained migrants. "People simply decided to trust one another," says Fallon.

Most of the detained caregivers were reunited with their children within two weeks. For their humanitarian work on behalf of the Mayan community and the 361 undocumented workers detained after the March 6, 2007, raid, Fallon and Wilson were co-selected as Man of the Year by The New Bedford Standard-Times.
—Nazbanoo Pahlavi (HNZ'03)

City Coucilwoman caught styrofoam-handed

City Councilwoman Wendy Greuel was caught by KTLA's news crew with a take out lunch in hand full of plastic and styrofoam - just after L.A. City Council has discussed the issue of banning such materials in an effort to curb excess waste and promote eco-friendly products. She was like a deer caught in headlights, but like any savvy politician, she blamed it on the lack of resources in place to promote eco-friendly alternatives. Really? Ever heard of bringing lunch from home in Pyrex or tupperware, Ms. Greuel?

Faithful blog readers will remember some months back when I "caught" Greuel speeding away from a Valley neighborhood council meeting in an SUV gas guzzler. Public transportation? Eco-friendly alternatives? Until politicans put in action what they preach, why should anyone else follow suit?

There is a serious chasm between eco-friendly lifestyles and styrofoam, plastic, private cars and other self-promoting tools by which we have grown accustomed to as a culture of personal convenience. I hear lots of eco-talk, but when I go to Peet's Coffee or Coffee Bean, I still see people buying coffee with disposable cups, rather than bringing their own reusable cups or thermos. Are people just too cheap to spend the $19.95 on a designer coffee cup?

Once politicans, celebrity "do-gooders" (cough, cough) and others start bridging the hole between what is convenient for them and what is sound for the community, we can not reconcile eco-friendly actions into our lifestyles.