Photo by: Jaylen Hodge/WGAL
This essay was published in the Lancaster, PA newspaper (LNP) on Wednesday June 18, 2025.
I had the opportunity to participate in a recent benefit concert for Church World Service Lancaster, planned and implemented by Barry Kornhauser of Millersville University’s Office of Visual and Performing Arts and hosted by the Ware Center. In my capacity as founder of Music For Everyone, my role was to tell the story of what has been one of the most meaningful collaborations in MFE’s 19-year history.
Songs For Justice is a convergence of music, spoken word, visual art, poetry, historical analysis, current commentary and discussion questions compiled into a vinyl record and information booklet. Our goal in this ongoing initiative is to stimulate dialogue and, hopefully, change around issues relating to human rights and social justice.
Each record also highlights a Community Benefit Organization doing good work on the featured issue. When we decided to dedicate a volume to highlight issues related to immigration and refugees, we naturally turned to Church World Service Lancaster as our partner. It resettles and works to protect the rights of refugees, immigrants and asylum-seekers in Central Pennsylvania.
Church World Service Lancaster is a major reason why Lancaster has the largest per capita refugee population in the United States. We should be extremely thankful for the work they do. These refugees add immeasurable vibrancy, wonderful diversity and significant economic impact to our community. It’s one of the reasons Lancaster is such a unique place to live.
Church World Service Lancaster is an effective, influential and important “weaver” of the fabric of our community. But it’s not simply a result of the refugees they resettle but rather the values and principles that drive the organization’s work.
Church World Service Lancaster is a two-way mirror. Its work both reflects and influences what we, as Lancaster County residents, believe to be our values. We are kind, empathetic, generous and welcoming. We care for our neighbors with compassion regardless of whether they grew up next door or arrived from the other side of the planet.
At its core, Church World Service, like Music For Everyone, builds community.
Church World Service Lancaster has been particularly hard hit by the actions of the Trump administration. But Church World Service Lancaster is not alone. Federal cuts in programs relating to health care, the environment, the arts, housing, education, food security and scientific research – all to fund tax breaks for the wealthy – are beginning trickle down to impact a wide array of programs and services throughout our county.
The result has been chaos, confusion and division. Sadly, much of it by design.
Such cuts are particularly cruel because they are designed to impact the very programs and services, big and small, that build and hold our communities together. And that is precisely the point – to destabilize communities by instigating chaos leading to confusion, frustration, hopelessness and a weakening of the will to fight back.
In other words, these are anti-community building efforts designed to destroy the spirit and fabric of a community by overwhelming it with an environment of cruelty, fear and division.
Given what we’ve witnessed so far, the chances of community benefit organizations working on these critical community building efforts getting much help from the federal government are slim. Nor will the state be able to cover shortfalls, as it often simply passes through funds received from the federal government.
In other words, we are on an island. It’s just us, fellow Lancaster County residents.
In such an environment, our individual and community values will be tested as never before. We will be challenged to live up to those values, both privately, and perhaps more importantly, publicly.
While there was great satisfaction and hope backstage among the 20 or so musicians who volunteered their time and talent to support Church World Service Lancaster, there was also a palpable sense of confusion, frustration and angst. Like so many of us, they feel the need to do more. The endless onslaught of these community-breaking federal actions has left many feeling helpless and unsure of what to do.
It is a lot to absorb. The challenges are daunting.
But I am confident that we will meet the moment. I believe we will pull together to help each other to weather this onslaught of forces designed to create chaos and erode our sense of community.
It starts with our values. Our fundamental values must lead the way.
While we should continue to think globally, we must act locally. Whether a neighbor or a stranger, we must acknowledge them. We can connect and collaborate with fellow citizens and organizations. We can dig into our pockets a little deeper to support those organizations that create, build and strengthen our community. We can speak up, speak out, volunteer, organize, rally and march.
All peacefully. But with purpose.
Despite the difficult challenges ahead, we will whether this onslaught precisely because of the values we, as a community, believe in and are willing to fight for. It will take courage and conviction.
Last Saturday’s “No Kings” rally of 4,000 attendees in Binns Park was a great example of the power of collective community activism. That said, we’ve got so much more work ahead of us. But we are not afraid of hard work. We will overcome because ultimately our Lancaster values of love, compassion, tolerance and community will trump those of hate, cruelty, and division.
Let’s get to work.