“Happiness, not in another place but this place…not for another hour, but this hour…” – Walt Whitman.

Tomorrow,  another chapter in my life begins one of the most important and meaningful in my life. Our work with the refugee children resumes more urgently and significantly than ever. And our chance for the first small act of great kindness.

(Good News: Sue has first requested help in her new job at Bishop Gibbons. She wants to restore the abandoned garden at Bishop Gibbons and raise $300 to buy bulbs to plant enough flowers for the Spring and bring them daily to the Nursing Home that sits almost next to the school.

I said I would be proud to take on that first act of good at the new school. The kids will plant, nurture, water, and deliver them as a community service project, a part of Sue’s teaching. If you wish, you can help by donating to the Bulb Fund, Jon Katz via Paypal, [email protected], or via Venmo, Jon-Katz@Jon-Katz-13, or by check, Jon Katz, Bulb Fund,  P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816. Jon Rieger at Country Power Products will give us a great price on the bulbs, and I’ll bring them to the school. I’m seeking between $300 and $400. This will be Sue’s first Community Service project for refugee students.)

Maria and I are going to Schenectady, New York, to meet Sue Silverstein, the refugee students who are coming to see us, and their new principal, Kiante Jones, who is still in shock from the $40,000 we raised for him to pay for the refugee kids tuition.

He says nothing like that has ever happened at his school, Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons High School. I will tell him this is just the beginning, even in challenging and difficult times.

This is the heart of the country we are talking about and its future. This is my heart and my soul. This work is one of the most meaningful and essential things in my life, and I am committed to it.

The refugee speaks not only to me and my own life but to millions of Americans and their lives. It speaks to the very heart of the American Dream, our compassion and integrity as a nation, and our moral obligation to support these wonderful children and give them every opportunity to share in this dream.

“God defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.”- The Bible.

The descendants of the prophet Jesus betrayed his will and wishes when they abandoned needy foreigners, but the refugees are here, and they test our charity, humanity, faith, and souls.

I consider this the most meaningful work I will ever be called to do. I can’t wait to get back to it when school starts.

I am the children of immigrants, and this, and welcoming them and supporting them and loving them is, to me, God’s work.

We are already planning our first step to support these children in their new environment. In a week or so, Sue Silverstein will post an Amazon Bishop Gibbons Wish List asking for help buying art supplies for her unique and much-enlarged art program.

I hope this is a chance to shock Principal Jones again with our generosity and flood his lobby with Amazon packages full of art supplies. And we can help with the bulbs.

Bishop Gibbon is 90 percent minority and refugee; this is where we can do the best, where small acts of great kindness are desperately needed.

Tomorrow is my first time at Bishop Gibbons, where all of the refugee kids from Bishop Maginn and others from Afghanistan and Ukraine will be waiting for us. Sue is excited to show off her expansive new art suite; she says she will no longer have to stuff anything in a closet. She is full of ideas.

She’s invited all of the refugee kids to come to see us and see the new art room.

What is our country about, if not this?

I’m excited about Sue’s plan to plant bulbs in the fall for next Spring to bring to the residents of the nursing home next door to the school. They just got lucky. I’m seeking $300. You can contribute via Paypal, [email protected] or Venmo, Jon-Katz@Jon-Katz-13, or by check, Bulb Fund, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.

I know these are challenging times; we can only do the best we can for as long as we can.

This would be an excellent introduction to the Army Of Good.

In 2016, my heart was broken when our government turned against the refugees and immigrants, blocked them, denied them the support they desperately needed, and tried to drive them away. Our once kind and occasionally gentle country seemed to turn on the refugees again – it has happened before – and our world turned hard and cruel.

This helped birth the Army Of Good, and this group saved my sanity, hope, love for this country, and faith in it. People want to do well given a chance. We are offering a chance to do well again. This is selfish as well as selfless. Nothing feels better than going suitable for these children and watching them grasp the promise of life in America.

It feels good to do good; it is grounding and uplifting.

We have met our personal, moral, and sacred obligation to support these children in every way we can. We have been successful beyond my imagination, providing clothes, food, school supplies, computer equipment, tuition support, and safety equipment during Covid.

We have kept our faith and done excellent and good and reasonable.

Bishop Maginn closed in July, a victim of falling enrollment and tuition. Bishop Gibbons is picking up the flag. The wonderful Sue Silverstein, every refugee student who wants to go, me, Maria, Zinnia, we’ll all be there.

I am not weary or cynical or bigger. I’m full of hope and excitement upon resuming this work; we aren’t done.

Tomorrow we will meet some of these children,  tour the remarkable new art space Sue will have to work with, and see the school we’ll be visiting regularly starting in September. I am excited about the bulb project; it’s perfect for us, via Paypal, [email protected], via Venmo, Jon-Katz@Jon-Katz-13, or by check, Bulb Fund, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.