TMO Remembers and Celebrates the Life of Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee consistently fought for the common good, especially to assure that people on the margins were treated with dignity.
Whether it was legislating for a just and humane immigration system; shepherding federal grant funds to much needed Houston area projects; or working on the front lines to help working people recover from our all-too-frequent disasters, Sheila was always there and ready to work. She also willingly participated in TMO’s Candidate Accountability Sessions in 2022 for US Congress and 2023 for Houston Mayor.
Thank you Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee!!!
TMO wants to express our sincere condolences and our appreciation to her family for her life well lived for the common good. Please take some time next to remember and reflect on her contributions and attend any of these celebrations of her life next week.
Monday: Jackson Lee will lie in state from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Houston City Hall, making the late congresswoman the second person to receive this honor. The first was Dr. Michael DeBakey, a heart surgeon, who died in 2008. Jackson Lee’s family will be at City Hall for a brief ceremony with Mayor John Whitmire and City Council members.
Tuesday: A viewing and remembrance event at God’s Grace Community Church, 9944 W. Montgomery Rd., Houston, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Wednesday: A viewing event at Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, 3826 Wheeler Ave., Houston, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and a community farewell and appreciation service, from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Thursday: A celebration of life service at Fallbrook Church, 12512 Walters Rd, Houston, at 11 a.m.
All events will be live-streamed, according to her Congressional Office announcement:
Updated Beryl Resources
[Click on image or links below to access updated resources list]
Priority Zip Codes for Beryl Recovery Fund
PREVIOUS RESOURCES
Press Conference Coverage:
In Wake of Beryl Outage, TMO Demands Action for Most Vulnerable
TMO clergy and local leaders were joined by Patricia Darnauer, executive vice president and administrator of LBJ Hospital, at a press conference held at St. Francis de Assisi Catholic Church.
[Photo Credit: Aswad Walker, Houston Defender]
TMO Leaders Demand Action, Accountability on Slow Hurricane Beryl Response, Houston Defender [pdf]
Religious Leaders Demand Action for Remaining Powerless Homes, Houston Chronicle [pdf]
Survey Shows More Than Half of Families Still Struggling After Beryl, CW39 Houston [pdf]
6:31am Newscast, July 16th , Houston Public Media
Post Beryl Hurricane Resources
See latest press:
In Wake of Beryl Outage, TMO Demands Action for Most Vulnerable
TMO clergy and local leaders were joined by Patricia Darnauer, executive vice president and administrator of LBJ Hospital, at a press conference held at St. Francis de Assisi Catholic Church.
[Photo Credit: Aswad Walker, Houston Defender]
TMO Leaders Demand Action, Accountability on Slow Hurricane Beryl Response, Houston Defender [pdf]
Religious Leaders Demand Action for Remaining Powerless Homes, Houston Chronicle [pdf]
Survey Shows More Than Half of Families Still Struggling After Beryl, CW39 Houston [pdf]
6:31am Newscast, July 16th , Houston Public Media
Recursos Para Su Esfuerzo de Recuperación Después de Beryl
Ver última prensa:
TMO Exige Medidas Para Los Más Vulnerables
Patricia Darnauer, vicepresidenta ejecutiva y administradora del Hospital LBJ, se unió al clero de TMO y a los líderes locales en una conferencia de prensa celebrada en la Iglesia Católica San Francisco de Asís.
[Aswad Walker del Houston Defender tomó la foto de arriba.]
TMO Leaders Demand Action, Accountability on Slow Hurricane Beryl Response, Houston Defender [pdf]
Religious Leaders Demand Action for Remaining Powerless Homes, Houston Chronicle [pdf]
Survey Shows More Than Half of Families Still Struggling After Beryl, CW39 Houston [pdf]
6:31am Newscast, July 16th , Houston Public Media
In Wake of Beryl Outage, TMO Demands Action for Most Vulnerable
TMO clergy and local leaders were joined by Patricia Darnauer, executive vice president and administrator of LBJ Hospital, at a press conference held at St. Francis de Assisi Catholic Church.
[Excerpts]
TMO seeks accountability, more aggressive outreach, and transparency so the general public knows what’s going on and collaboration so Harris County residents aren’t running around like chickens with their heads cut off” seeking much-needed resources like food, water, and medicine....
Community and faith leaders joined North Houston residents under the banner of The Metropolitan Organization (TMO) announcing they are in the process of scheduling a meeting with Houston’s Mayor John Whitmire “to discuss the [power] outage, the response to the outage and to look at future activities that need to happen to be proactive so that we can prevent this [in the future].”
“Because we know this is just the first hurricane, early in the season, and we’ve got a long way to go,” said Linda Hollins a TMO leader and member of Trinity United Methodist Church.
But TMO members didn’t wait for the yet solidified meeting date with Whitmire to voice their frustrations over the slow, and in many cases still non-existent, restoration of power to the 180,000 citizens across Houston and Harris County still in the dark, and more specifically residents of the Kashmere Gardens/Fifth Ward community where their press conference convened at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church.
[Photo Credit: Aswad Walker, Houston Defender]
TMO Leaders Demand Action, Accountability on Slow Hurricane Beryl Response, Houston Defender [pdf]
Religious Leaders Demand Action for Remaining Powerless Homes, Houston Chronicle [pdf]
Survey Shows More Than Half of Families Still Struggling After Beryl, CW39 Houston [pdf]
6:31am Newscast, July 16th , Houston Public Media
President of Harris Health Recognizes TMO's Strong Support for LBJ Hospital
During a May 9 groundbreaking, Dr. Esmaeil Porsa, President and CEO of Harris Health, cited the great need for the new facilities to be built in Northeast Houston. Harris Health will build a Level One Trauma Center, a new hospital with double the capacity, and offer much needed in-patient and out-patient mental health services at the site. He said these facilities are greatly needed by “the underserved, the poor, the uninsured, the underinsured that LBJ hospital serves.”
Read moreRev. John D. Ogletree Recognized for Work in the Community
Long considered a "champion for God's people and justice" by his peers, Pastor John D. Ogletree received some well-deserved coverage by South Texas College of Law in Houston. As the founding pastor of First Metropolitan Church, his leadership with TMO, Texas IAF and the regional network of the West/Southwest IAF has been catalytic.
[Photo Credit: South Texas College of Law - Houston]
Community Icon, STCL Houston Alumnus Forges Pathway to Justice and Redemption, South Texas College of Law - Houston [pdf]
TMO Asks Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick & TCEQ to Overturn Permit for Concrete Plant in Houston
Just this week, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick wrote to TCEQ Chairman Jon Niermann to voice his opposition to the construction of a concrete batch plant in Grayson County - a largely rural county located 60 miles north of Dallas.
"There is simply too much risk to the county and its citizens," Patrick said while requesting an immediate pause to the permitting process until the legislature can weigh in. Patrick wrote “[b]usiness leaders, clergy, elected officials, community leaders, and an overwhelming majority of the public have all voiced their objections to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) granting a permit…”
This is exactly the same situation in Harris County where over 2,600 people have opposed a proposed concrete crushing plant to be built next to the LBJ Hospital campus in Northeast Houston in the Kashmere Gardens neighborhood.
Last fall, 72% of Harris County voters voted to invest over $2 Billion to build a new hospital, an in-patient mental health facility and level 1 Trauma Center at the LBJ campus. And, just like the business community in Grayson County, we're equally concerned with how a plant like this will affect our investment and the health and well-being of the surrounding community.
Letter to Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Lt. Governor of Texas Dan Patrick
So why are pollutant-heavy plants like these okay for Harris County but not okay for Grayson County?
Call or email Lt Governor Patrick with a message like this:
Lt. Governor Patrick, thank you for asking TCEQ to stop issuing permits to build concrete plants until after the Legislature reviews the permissive standards TCEQ uses to grant these permits in our communities. A few days before you wrote them, TCEQ granted a permit to build a concrete crusher plant next to the LBJ Hospital campus. Please tell TCEQ to retract that permit and take a long look at the valid concerns raised by dozens of organizations and thousands of residents.
You went to Grayson County and heard that community's strong opposition to a plant. Now come to Harris County and hear ours. Ask TCEQ to reverse their decision until the Legislature can develop better standards that protect our churches, schools, hospitals and businesses.
EMAIL: https://www.ltgov.texas.gov/contact/contact-general/
CALL: (512) 463-0001
TMO, Texas IAF Featured in National Catholic Reporter
[Excerpt]
"Catholic social teaching isn't ideological," [Bob] Fleming said. "It says, 'Go out to the people, talk with them, understand them, let them tell you what's going on.' "
....[Sr. Pearl] Ceasar shares Fleming's sentiment about the compatibility of Texas IAF's work and Catholic social teaching. In the 1960s, she studied the documents of the Second Vatican Council, which she said greatly impacted her outlook on the responsibilities of individual Catholics and the Catholic Church.
"Vatican II didn't address the doctrines of the church; it addressed the relationships in the church and who we are to be as Catholics," Ceasar said. "Meaning that we are to be engaged with people, we are to be engaged in the community."
For 50 years, Texas IAF Organizing Group Has Drawn on Catholic Roots, National Catholic Reporter [pdf]
Catholic Herald: 'People of God' Should Thrive in Environment 'That Promotes Common Good'
In photo: Sister Maureen O’Connell, OP, Archdiocesan Director of Social Concerns, speaks at the podium in front of St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Houston with other congregational and community leaders, including Auxiliary Bishop Italo Dell’Oro, CRS.
[Excerpts]
The historically African-American neighborhood inside Houston’s northern 610 Loop has held townhall meetings and protests since last year to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). But its Director approved a permit this past January for Texas Coastal Materials to build a concrete and rock crusher across the street mere yards away from the busy public hospital.
Now residents, state representatives and Church leaders hope a letter-writing campaign gathering thousands of signatures to Gov. Greg Abbott will help him to overturn the Standard Air Quality Permit 173296 given to the company.
Father Martin Eke, pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in that neighborhood, said, “The company tells us it will not be a problem. But my parishioners and I live here in the community. The crushed gravel with its particulates will only add to the air pollution here.”
....[Sister Maureen O’Connell] added, “The letters reflect the commitment of the people of God and their desire to live and thrive in an environment that promotes the common good.”
Kashmere Gardens Community, Churches Protest Another Polluting Company, The Catholic Herald [pdf]
[Update: TCEQ's own Office of Public Interest Counsel (OPIC) finds that "good cause to overturn the ED’s decision exists, based on substantial evidence provided by the Movants that the entirety of the facility will not be located further than 440 yards from a school or place of worship."]