It is safe to report as true that the central mission of the Immigration & Naturalization Service (I.N.S.) is no longer “to help immigrants”. (Roger White, in “Criminalizing Immigrants”, in Fortune News, Spring 2002).

 

New Council?

According to a report from IMWAC that was received by email, a several bishops and a top Vatican official are supporting an initiative for a new ecumenical council. A website called the “International Initiative for a New Council in the Catholic Church” lists the signatories. For more info and/or to add your name, go to: www.proconcil.org .

Social Inventions

Did you know?  The British Statute of Cambridge of 1388 A.D. required all municipalities to care for citizens who are incapable of work.  (Over 600 years later, we still don’t get the idea.) Did you know? Amnesty International, the organization that supports human rights, was founded in 1961 by Peter Benenson, a British attorney, who began by writing an impassioned editorial after two Portuguese students were sentenced to prison for toasting freedom in a Lisbon café. (From “A Brief History of Thinking Outside the Box” in Utne Reader, March-April 2002).

                                    *   *   *   *   *

 

If money and effort is devoted by the people and government of the U.S. to Justice, then we shall have Peace. If we have Peace, we will have Security. If money and effort is devoted instead to aggressive military/defense activities, we will have “military victory”, but we will not have Justice, Peace or Security.

                                    *   *   *   *   *

In Silence, listen; in Faith, consider; in Conscience, act. (Motto of Earlham School of Religion, a Friends institution in Richmond, IN.)

                                    *   *   *   *   *

Peaceful Tomorrows is a nonprofit organization founded by family members of 9/11 victims, with a mission to seek effective alternatives to war. For more info, visit  www.peacefultomorrows.org .

 

New Woman Priest

By Milton Carrero Galarza

Giovanna M. Piazza was ordained the third woman priest in the diocese of Ecumenical Old Catholic Faith communities by bishop Peter Hickman. She is a member of the congregation of St. Matthew in Orange County. For some, Piazza’s ordination is a symbol of reformation at a time when the Catholic Church needs it most. (From a news article in The Los Angeles Times, 5/19/02)

 

A Statement on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

“The enemy is the war-making politicians [of both sides] who do not have the political will to achieve a settlement.” (From the mother of Rami Elhanan, a 14-year old girl who had been killed by a suicide bomber at a mall; as reported by F.O.R. Witness, May 2002).

                                    *   *   *   *   *

The Board of Directors of C.T.A. of San Diego for the fiscal year ending 11/30/02 is:
President: Janet Mansfield, (858) 277-0259, ejmans@pacbell.com

Vice-President: Al Rauckhorst, (619) 284-6451, lualrauc@lvcm.com 

Treasurer: Mike Magee, (760) 471-4305, Mmagee@utm.net
Secretary: Rich Nirschl, (858) 273-0213, richNMo@aol.com

Directors-at-large: Evi Quinn, (760) 434-3710, eviq@cs.com ;

            Al O’Brien, (619) 222-5676, obrien1@mail.sdsu.edu ;

            and Ed Mansfield, (858) 277-0259, ejmans@pacbell.com .          

(Visit our website:  www.dignitypacific.org/ctasandiego/)

Peter Kopkowski, editor, (858) 278-8800, ajpmk@san.rr.com .

 

Liturgical Dance Workshop

The Called to Dance Association, a program of the Ecumenical Council of San Diego, will hold a workshop from 10 A.M. to 3 P.M. on Saturday, July 27 at the Disciples Center, 201 Fir St.  Entitled “Dancing Christian Liturgy”, the workshop will feature presentations by several dance directors.  Lunch is included in the registration fee of $20. Contact the Disciples Center at (619) 232-6436 for more info.

 

 

Illusory Individual Separateness

By Albert Einstein

A human being is a part of the whole that we call the universe, a part limited in time and space.  Each person experiences themselves, their thoughts, and their feelings, as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical illusion in their consciousness. This illusion is a prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for only the few people nearest us.  Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living beings and all of nature. (As reported by Nelson W. Babb in a letter to Friends Journal, June 2002)

 

A Speck In the Eye - Updated Version

By Kate Clinton

Isn’t it ironic that, when we have nuclear weapons, they are called “deterrents”, but when someone else has them, we call them “weapons of mass destruction”? (From “Unplugged”, a regular column in The Progressive magazine, May 2002).

 

Palestinian Hope

By Mahmoud Darwish

The Palestinian people feel that they are living in the hours just before dawn. Their national will is stronger in reaction to the present challenge.  They do not have another option but to continue to carry the hope that they are [eventually] going to have a normal life. (From an interview with Nathalie Handal in The Progressive magazine, May 2002).

 

Comments

By Uri Avnery

When a whole people is seething with rage, it becomes a dangerous enemy, because the rage does not obey orders. When it exists in the hearts of millions of people, it cannot be cut off by pushing a button. (As quoted in an unsigned editorial in The Progressive magazine, May 2002).

 

A Peace Story

By Peter M. Kopkowski

Many Americans visualize the Native American “Indians” who lived here at the time that the Europeans arrived as “savages”, and violent ones at that.  Nothing could be further from the truth, as illustrated by the following story.  I don’t know the actual tribes that were involved, so we’ll just call them the “braves” and the “scouts”. According to the story, one day a brave came upon a patch of corn growing wild; apparently, someone had dropped a few ears accidentally, and the corn sprung up there.  To the brave and the rest of his tribe, corn was unknown; nevertheless, his curiosity led him to take some of it back to where the tribe lived, where, upon examination, it was found to be good!  They proceeded to begin cultivation of it. After a couple of crops, a brave returned who had been absent from the tribe for some time, on a trip. Upon seeing the corn, he exclaimed “That is the property of the ‘scouts’!  Where did you get it?”  After everything was explained, the elders of the tribe realized that inadvertently the braves had taken something that belonged to the scouts. Being not only peaceful but people of honor, they gathered up all the corn and all the seeds and sent a large delegation to the hunters to return it, with a full explanation of the circumstances under which it was acquired.  The scouts accepted the corn as well as the explanation, and had no negative intentions toward the braves.  In fact, being not only peaceful but honorable themselves, they turned around and gave the corn back to the braves, saying, “The corn is a gift of God, the Great Spirit; it should be shared by all of the people and animals that the Great Spirit has made. It is not the property just of the scouts.  We will share it in peace with the braves”.

(Source unknown).

 

Freedom

By Alexander Solzhenitsyn

After rejecting the Western ideal of “unlimited freedom”, and after rejecting the Marxist concept of freedom as acceptance of the yoke of necessity, here is the true Christian definition of freedom:  restricting oneself for the sake of others!  (As quoted by Joseph Pearce in “A Soul in Exile” [Plough, 2002]).

Insight

By Carl Parker

If you took all the fools out of the legislature, it wouldn’t be a representative body any longer.

(Parker is a Texas state senator; he was quoted by Molly Ivins in “The United States of Texas” in The Progressive, May 2002)

 

 

More Insight

By Stephen Lewis

You never despair, because despair is a paralyzing emotion. You simply grit your teeth and continue to fight the good fight. (Lewis is special U.N. envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa; he was quoted in an interview in World Vision Today, Summer 2002).

 

Less Insight

By Peter M. Kopkowski

On May 30, President Bush sent Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to Kashmir to urge non-violence on India and Pakistan in their conflict over this land.  It doesn’t take a very long memory to recall that the U.S. has also urged non-violent resolution of the conflict in Northern Ireland in years past, and that it continues to urge non-violence on Palestine, even though American policy has long been to support Israel politically, militarily and financially. NOTE however, what big hypocrites we Americans are; as soon as we are attacked, we reject not only non-violence, but even objective analysis of the problem.  All we do is militarily attack anyone whom we decide are our “enemies”.

 

Official Idiocy

A Federal judge in Norfolk, VA ordered the government to allow a U.S.-born prisoner who was captured in Afghanistan to meet with an attorney. The government maintained that the man could be held indefinitely, without access to an attorney, because he had not been charged with anything. “That sounds idiotic, doesn’t it?” said the judge.

(From “Yesterday’s Developments at a Glance”, in The San Diego Union Tribune, 5/30/02).

(Editor’s note: The government appealed the decision; see the next story)

 

 

Blind Hypocrites and Others Who Will Not See

By Peter M. Kopkowski

First the facts:  Y.E. Hamdi was born in Louisiana, making him a U.S. citizen.  He lived in Saudi Arabia, from whence his family came. He was taken into U.S. military custody in Afghanistan last Dece-ember. The Bush administration claims that it has the authority to hold Hamdi indefinitely as a terror suspect, without giving him access to a lawyer or to U.S. courts. The government has refused to allow him to make contact with anyone, and maintains that, since he hasn’t made contact with a lawyer, he is not entitled to be visited by one, even a public defender! Now, the conclusion: The 4^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the government, noting that it “should show some deference to a wartime president”.  I may be really out in left field, and I may be there all by myself, but I still maintain that the U.S. is NOT AT WAR!  The Constitution quite clearly states that only the Congress may declare war!  (and so far, it has not done so). (Based in part on a Hearst News Service article by Stewart M. Powell, in The San Diego Union Tribune, 6/27/02).

 

Revisions to History

By Ken Liebler

The assertion that the U.S. has never fought a war of conquest is dead wrong; how did we acquire Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Southern California? Do you think that, with U.S. troops occupying Mexico City, the Mexican government simply ceded these territories to us as a goodwill gesture? How do you think that we acquired the Great Plains, except by driving out the native Americans who were lead by Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Geronimo or Cochise? Even the Carolinas were acquired by driving out the Cherokees, on the orders of President Andrew Jackson, contrary to a ruling of the Supreme Court. Americans seem to prefer “revised” history to the facts. (From a letter to The San Diego Union Tribune, 6/2/02).

 

Who is My Neighbor?

By Richard E. Stearns

AIDS statistics today are staggering; more that 60 million people have been infected with the virus, for which there is no known cure. Some 22 million have already died, while 40 million live with a disease that will ravage their bodies and ultimately take their lives, leaving millions of widows, orphans and other loved ones to suffer grief, economic loss and social stigma. Most heart-breaking are the 13 million children who have lost parents; I have met many of them, and heard their stories and their despair. Yet, this can be a golden moment for Christians; who better to offer comfort to the dying, to care for the orphans & the widows? Who better to bring hope to the hopeless.  It is an opportunity to show the world what it means to love our neighbors and to demonstrate in real life that we understand Jesus parable of the Good Samaritan. What will our children think of us when they look back in 20 or 30 or 40 years? Will they be astonished that we sat silently while millions died and even more millions lived in poverty and despair? Will they be angry that we could have done so much more, but chose not to do so? Jesus’ words at the end of the parable are very are challenging: “Go and do likewise”.

(From World Vision Today, Summer 2002).

 

Big Sky Menorah

By Clare Hartsig

In December 1993, there were only a few dozen Jewish families living in Billings, Montana. One night, someone threw a brick through the window of five-year-old Isaac Schnitzer; the window had been stenciled with a menorah for Hanukkah. The advice from the investigating officer was to simply remove such religious signs.  However, when the story appeared in The Billings Gazette, another mother in town reacted differently. Recalling the incident during W.W. II when all the Danes wore the Star of David in response to the Nazi orders for Jews to so identify themselves, one woman called her pastor and asked him why the entire congrega- tion didn’t display menorahs. “Wouldn’t that be an effective way to combat bigotry?” she asked. It wasn’t long until almost 10,000 homes displayed menorahs, and the violence ended. The power of loving made a difference to little Isaac Schnitzer.

(From “Shine on in Montana”, in “Peace is the way: Writings on nonviolence”, edited by Walter Wink.)

 

The Power of Questions to Propel

By Joan Chittister

There is something quite frightening about looking at the truisms in our lives and wondering how true they really are. To examine what is and to find it wanting could threaten the sands on which we stand. The tidal wave of Truth could sweep in then, and wash it all away. What if I look and find that there are cracks in the systems on which I have staked my life? What if my country is not what I was told it was?  What if my church isn’t free of sin? What if the laws are immoral? What if my “truths” aren’t “true”? For example, there is no Santa Claus; the earth is not the center of the universe; people do not go to hell from eating meat on Friday; racial differences are not determinative; sexuality and gender neither enhance nor diminish a person. If that is so, what do I do to go on walking in the ruts of my road? What do I follow blindly to cure my own blindness?  What do I do to grapple my soul to the ground of my growing? What shall I believe in when only belief can save me?

The philosopher Plato wrote almost 2500 years ago, “The unexamined life is not worth living”. This statement recurs and recurs; it is, it seems, always on the edge of the mind, taunting us to ask the questions that will explain us to ourselves, tempting us to dare to answer.  Clearly, here is an insight that the world knows to be important; it carries a truth - a challenge - that clings to the human soul. Yet, it takes years to understand it completely.  The longer I live, the more convinced I become of the fundamental truth of it, and the more I wonder at the same time how many people, really, consciously, rummage around and search out the underpinnings of the lives they lead; after all, it’s a dangerous process. (You might have to change!)

(From the Afterword of “Spiritual Questions for the Twenty-First Century”, edited by Mary Hembrow Snyder [Orbis Books 2001]).

 

Friends/Enemies

The American Friends Service Committee disagrees with the Bush administration statement that Iraq, Iran, North Korea & Somalia are “our enemies”. The Committee believes that no one is our enemy. AFSC works in North Korea to combat hunger by working to improve the yield of the collective farms. AFSC co-sponsored the Campaign for Conscience for the People of Iraq, which works to end sanctions that lead to thousands of deaths every month from malnutrition and preventable diseases. AFSC works with the Iranian Red Crescent to provide ongoing relief to refugees in western Afghanistan. AFSC’s Rural Development Training Program works to improve farming in the villages of the Lower Shabelle Region of Somalia. (From Quaker Service Bulletin, Spring, 2002).

 

Interfaith Teachings

Compare the nations of the world to the members of a family, a family in miniature. Simply enlarge the circle of the household and you have the nation. Enlarge the circle of nations and you have all of humanity. The conditions surrounding the family surround the nation, and the happenings in the family are the happenings in the life of the nation. Would it add to the progress and advancement of the family if, when dissensions arose in the family, it resulted in fighting, pillaging, jealousy, revenge and seeking selfish advantage?  No, this would cause the loss of progress and advancement. So it is in the great family of nations, for nations are but an aggregate of families. (From the teachings of the Baha’i Faith, as noted in Street Light, June 2002).

 

Monarchy in the Church

By Larry Boudreau

Nowhere in the New Testament or in the tradition of Christianity is Jesus quoted as promoting a monarchical structure in order to “safeguard” the Good News. Yet the Vatican, insisting that its structure in divinely mandated, still attempts to guide us through a top-heavy bureaucracy. Existing in a world of ornate dress and exalted titles, it still presumes to speak in the name of Jesus, a humble person who spoke among the people with whom he lived, while avoiding any sense of the grandeur of an imperial monarchy. The Vatican’s inability to respond maturely to the newest crisis of widespread clerical pedophilia only demonstrates how incapable this clerical structure is to deal with the real world. Having developed the custom of  paying only lip service to the ongoing debate of issues of the day, it is handcuffed in its efforts to police its own institution. (From a letter to N.C.R., 5/24/02).

 

Work vs. Results

By Parker J. Palmer

I remember talking with a friend who has worked for many years at the Catholic Worker, a ministry to the poor. Daily she tries to respond to the waves of human misery that are as ceaseless as surf in that community. Out of my deep “not-knowing”, I asked her how she could keep on doing a work that never showed any results, a work in which the problems keep getting worse instead of better.  I will never forget her enigmatic answer: “The thing that you don’t understand is that, just because something is impossible doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do it!”

(From “The Active Life”)

 

Ariel Sharon, G.W.B.’s “Man of Peace”

By Robert D. Novak

“We need many more Jews to come to Israel, a million more Jews”, Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon told the Senate Foreign Relations Commi-ttee in June. Here was something entirely new, even for well-informed Senators, who were surprised. Massive immigration to a country of 6 million signified no interest by Sharon in negotiating a settlement with the Palestinians. Indeed, Sharon pointed to no Israeli-Palestinian deal for at least 10 years, and talked of a century of struggle with the Arabs. Warning of Egyptian and Saudi duplicity, he informed the Senators that the removal of Saddam Hussein from Iraq would be the best way to deal with the Palestinians. (From “Sharon’s route to Middle East peace” in The Chicago Sun-Times, as published by The San Diego Union Tribune, 6/18/02).

 

Let us Offer Each Other Some Sign of Peace

The inaugural issue of The Sign of Peace announces and celebrates the revival of a distinguished group: the Catholic Peace Fellowship. For more information, and to see the inaugural issue, visit their web-site: www.catholicpeacefellowship.org

 

Perspective

By Jack Purcell

With regard to the question of women being ordained priests, I have a question: whom did God make first, women or priests?

(From a letter to N.C.R., 5/31/02)

 

 No Limits

By Cardinal Angelo Sodano

There are ethical obligations to welcome immig- grants; limits cannot be placed on these obligations solely by the defense of one’s own well-being.

(Sodano is Vatican secretary of state; the above statement was made to the foreign ministers of the Organization of American States.)

 

The Undeserving

By Dorothy Day

We take care of people by the thousands during the course of the year, and there is no time to stop and figure who are the “worthy” and who are the “unworthy”. We serve the most humiliated of people, the most despised, with the evidence of the sins of some of them evident, flagrant and ever-present. As to what brought them to this point, who can tell?  Why question? We must see Jesus everywhere, even in His most degraded disguise. We are each unprofitable servants of God; we are each guilty of sins and undeserving of God’s favor.

(From “Day After Day - April 1943”, published by The Catholic Worker.)

 

 

Perseverance

By Fyodor Dostoevsky

If the evil that people do moves you to indignation and distress, even to the desire for vengeance, shun that feeling; go at once and seek suffering yourself, as though you were guilty of their wrong-doing. Accept that suffering, and bear it, and your heart will find comfort; you will understand that you are indeed guilty.  For you might have been a light to the evil-doers, and you were not; if you had been, the evil-doers might have been saved from their sin by your light. Even if your light was shining, and people were not saved by it, hold firm to it, and doubt not the power of this light from God. Believe that, if they were not saved, they will be saved in the future; and if they are not saved hereafter, then their children will be saved. (From “The Brothers Karamazov”)

 

Solutions

By Rabbi Michael Lerner

As long as the advance industrial societies have so much more than the rest of the world, other people will want to immigrate. But the solution to that is obvious: If we do not wish to be overrun by immi- grants, we have to share. If we had devoted the last 50 years to building up the productive capacities of the third world countries, sharing and transforming the way that we produce, we would have a world in which the incentive to immigrate would dramati-cally decline. (From “Making the Stranger Welcome”, an excerpt from “Spirit Matters: Global Healing and the Wisdom of the Soul” as published in The San Diego Catholic Worker, 6/10/02).

 

Waves of Hurt

By Mary Jo Holzhaeuser

The waves of hurt from the pedophilia scandal travel ever outward. Think of the dioceses that paid millions of dollars to settle lawsuits, not to mention the millions yet to be paid. I wonder how many Catholic schoolchildren and/or religious education students had to do without supplies, or new text-books, or necessary building improvements due to lack of funds in those dioceses? How many schools or services were closed or terminated? How many dedicated teachers and parish workers, already woe- fully underpaid, had to do without raises, or even take pay cuts? And still, the hierarchy doesn’t get it.

(From a letter to N.C.R., 5/31/02).

 

G.W.B.’s Tyranny

By James O. Goldsborough

President Bush now has a “doctrine”, surely some-thing that no president should leave office without. The Bush Doctrine, which he announced at a G.O.P. fund-raiser, is that the U.S. will take “pre-emptive” military action against groups that “could” pose a threat to us. This is the first example in history of a democratic nation conferring on itself the right to attack those nations by whom it perceives itself to be threatened. Tyrannies have often done such things, but that is what makes them tyrannies.  (From The San Diego Union Tribune, 6/20/02).

 

Incredible Arrogance

Bishop Robert Lynch of St. Petersburg has in the last 5 years awarded $27 million of construction jobs to a personal friend, even though diocesan policy specifies that multiple contractors be solicited before such awards. Lynch said that the projects were under his “personal control”, and were therefore exempt from diocesan policy

[i.e., policy is made for others, but not for me] . (From a news item in N.C.R., 5/31/02)

 

A Universal Vocation

By Bishop Thomas Gumbleton

Our world will be divided and will ultimately be destroyed, unless we, who are the members of God’s family, the people of God, take seriously the fact that we were sent into the world as Jesus was sent, to break down barriers, to heal divisions, to make of everyone one human family, to stop arming ourselves in a way that will bring about destruction and death, and to work for the coming of the time when all nations can live in peace without those weapons that are capable of destroying all of us.

(Gumbleton is auxiliary bishop of Detroit; the above is taken from his Pentecost Sunday homily).

 

Reorganization

(Commentary on the new Home Security Dept)

We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; it can be a wonderful method for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralization. (attributed to Petronius Arbiter, circa 210 B.C.; from a letter by G.R. Worthington to The San Diego Union Tribune, 6/3/02).

Forgiveness

By Una Higgins O’Malley

We may or may not have a peace process going, but unless we have a process of forgiveness in our hearts, it will only be paperwork. It is people who make agreements work, and if our agreement does not echo with a cry of forgiveness, if people do not extend forgiveness to each other both ways, then what we have has no more strength than a piece of paper. We will not achieve a society dedicated to equality, reconciliation, tolerance and mutual trust unless we have effected change in the minds and hearts of people. (From an article in Spirituality magazine, May/June 2002).

 

My Trip to Berlin

By Evi Quinn

“Memories are a paradise from which you can never be driven", my mother used to say. Once again they be- came a reality for me on a visit to my roots. The 125-year jubilee of my parish in Berlin was the occasion of my trip to my home-town. The 700-year-old city has almost been transformed to its former glory. The world press accounts of this phoenix having risen out of ashes are but a mere fraction of my impressions and experien-ces with its people, a people known for its sense of humor, indestructible will to survive, and superb taste in the arts. My 8 days were filled with outings to the sur- rounding province, with gems of restored royal palaces amidst lush forest (my hayfever was no joke), boat trips winding through the city on over 130 miles of waterways, featuring more bridges than Venice, and visits and reunions with friends from over half a century ago. It is these friendships that forged strong characters in time of war, persecution and destruction. We reminis-ced and agreed that those years laid the foundation of our faith commitment. It became obvious to me that this faith has to be the driving force today in the Roman Catholic Church in Germany. Dictatorial governance is rejected; vigilance, scrutiny, and participatory involve- ment with inclusivity and tolerance seem to be a given; social justice issues in church and society are ques-tioned by none; I was deeply impressed! I hope and pray that these inestimable encounters and happenings will be more than just rich memories, but continue to enable and energize me in all the tasks in which I participate.

(Quinn is former president of C.T.A. -San Diego)

 

Republican Hypocrisy

By Marie Jones

I thought that the Republicans wanted less govern-ment and more individual rights. It turns out that, in light of the actions of Messrs. Bush & Ashcroft, what they really wanted was their government.  Hypocrisy?  Yes, certainly, but the fault lies with the lazy & apathetic masses that are letting them get away with it. If we don’t fight to save our govern- ment, it will cease to be our government, along with all the rights guaranteed in the Constitution. Mama always told me that there were no guarantees in life, but I was hoping that the Constitution was one that I could always rely on. Maybe Mama was right. (From a letter to The San Diego Union Tribune, 6/3/02).

 

Symbol vs. Literalism

By Michael Morwood

Yves Congar believed that the pattern for the exer- cise of authority in the early church was this: we listen, I learn, I teach. Gradually it has changed to this: I teach, you listen, you obey. But the task of church leadership today continues to be the bring the story of Jesus to this age and to the questions and massive advances in knowledge in this age, not to repeat formulations defined in the context of questions & understanding that are no longer our questions & understandings. The hierarchy can hide behind the demand that assent be given “to what the church officially teaches”, but all that this does is protect them from the challenge that we all face, of articulating how, in our times, with what we know now, we are to shape a spirituality & a faith vision of life that is based on the life, teachings, death & resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.  The effect of their actions is that we continue to muddle through an atmosphere of extraordinary intellectual dishonesty, an unreal world of make-believe in which men with absolute power can (and do) silence the voices that disturb their “officially sanctioned” literalism. If the body of Christ is to be prepared for the major shifts in our thinking that confront us now, we must have open discussion and

sharing from our theologians. Instead, what do we find? We find episcopal leaders generally unable or unprepared to deal with the issue of how to speak about God and Jesus in the light of contemporary scriptural studies or knowledge about the develop- ment of life on earth, or any appreciation of the magnitude of our universe. They simply will not discuss these things nor promote open discussion. The issue that will soon explode in our faces is traditional Catholic belief about God and Jesus; we have to find new images, new ways, even new or different names to use to talk about God, to rescue us from the images & ideas of former times. We have to work at articulating a new and quite diffe-  rent understanding of how humans have been and are in relationship with God; we have to interpret Jesus of Nazareth in a context quite different from that in which the early church articulated its under-standing of who Jesus had to be in order to redeem us. (From “Another Time Bomb: Symbol vs. Literalism”, in N.C.R., 4/19/02).

 

Something on Which to Reflect

Some say that the U.S. Congress is just another one of the Israeli Occupied Territories. (Quoted by Julie A. Wortman, in The Witness magazine, June 2002).

 

Advice

Thanks to your lectures, I never change horses in the middle of a job worth doing; I know that the squeaky wheel gets the worm; and I never count my chickens until I have walked a mile in their shoes. (And you thought that I wasn’t listening!)

(From a Father’s Day card received by the editor).

 

More for Reflection

By William McGill

The value of persistence in prayer is not that God will eventually hear us, but that we will finally hear God! (From “God Can Handle It”, edited by Jim Gallery [Brighton Books, 1998].

 

More Advice

When you cannot sleep at night, don’t try counting sheep; try talking to the shepherd. (Author unknown; from “God Can Handle It”, edited by Jim Gallery [Brighton Books, 1998].

 

A Bigger Crime

By Kathi Spittel

A recent news item detailed the trauma of a men- tally ill man, suffering from bipolar disorder, who has been noncompliant in taking his medication. He became involved in a family argument, and the police were called. In his psychotic state, he lunged at the police, and was arrested. Result:  he is now going to prison for the rest of his life (!!!) because judge John L. Davidson thinks, “It would be an abuse of this court’s discretion” if he wasn’t sen- tenced to a term of 56 years to life. To penalize someone for the rest of their life because they “might” injure someone or because they suffer from a brain disorder, is a bigger crime than what this man committed. Mental illness can be frightening only to those who are uneducated; illness should require compassion, not incarceration. (From a letter to The San Diego Union Tribune, 6/26/02)

 

World Food Security

By Martin M. McLaughlin

The global food system today is dominated by cor- porate agribusiness, by wealthy people in both industrialized and developing countries, and by the financial institutions and governments that guide and support them. They control the system, they reap most of its benefits, and they make & enforce the rules for its operation.  They exercise this power in their own interest with practically no accounta-bility. This must be challenged and changed. Amid abundant harvests in the world, one-seventh of the people on this planet face starvation every day. Why?  Because of the present system.   Whose be- havior has to change to correct this situation? (From the author’s book of the same name) Editor’s com- ments: Well, we cannot expect those facing star- vation to “change their behavior”. Further, it is not likely that those in control of the system will change it willingly. It seems logical to assume then that it is WE who must change and bring pressure on those in control until it is more equitable.

 

Still More Advice

Prepare ye the way of the Lord.

(John the Baptiser, c. 30 A.D.)

 

Environmental Introspection

By Paul Schell & Denis Hayes

If the U.S. is leading the way, it is leading in the wrong direction. With less than 5 percent of the world’s population, we produce almost a third of the greenhouse-gas emission; we consume nearly a third of the world’s electricity (mostly from coal) and 43 percent of its gasoline. (From The Seattle Times, 12/29/99). Editor’s note: It seems to me that the problem can be divided into three classifica- tions, namely, (1) the third of the people who say, “It’s not my fault”; (2) the third of the people who say, “Nothing can be done about it”; and (3) the third who are actually doing the damage. If (1) and (2) would get together, they could control (3).

 

Variation on the Golden Rule

Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves. (Attributed to J.M. Barrie by Vonda White in her column in Network for Women’s Spirituality, June/July/August 2002).

Just Around the Corner

By Marion Pargamin

As I approach a bus stop at the Jaffa gate, an agitated elderly Arab man is exchanging insults with an elderly religious Jew; both are extremely angry. I stand beside the Arab and speak to him calmly; I ask him to sit down and not react to the provocation of the other man. The bus arrives, and the Jewish man boards it; the situation seems to be settling. Then, a Jewish woman starts insulting the Arab, and he reacts immediately. I try to reason with her but with no success. A Palestinian woman comes on the scene; she assumes that the old Arab is under attack, and rushes in a frenzy to rescue him. She yells insults at the Jewish woman who had started to calm down, and the situation heats up again. I now focus all my attention on the Arab woman, trying to explain what is going on, but she is furious, screaming out her hatred, despair and pain; she is Palestine accusing Israel. She shouts her anger about the military incursions into towns; she calls the soldiers war criminals, convinced that they want to kill all Palestinians. She demands to know “Why do the Jews hate us so much?”  She tells me about the refugees and their constant suffering, for which she holds Israel responsible.

As she shouts her hatred for Israel at me, I don’t argue with her at all; I don’t show any re- action. Instead, I feel deep compassion, and an intense need to just listen to her. Behind her hatred is a pain that must express itself before it can heal. I am ready to listen without reaction to the worst accusation. Though I know that the pain and suf- fering of the Israeli people is no less real and legi- timate, I know that the issue is not who is right and who is wrong; I am sorry for the tragedies on both sides. I let her shout for a long time, convinced that the peace that I feel inside is the only way to calm her. After a while, I tell her that she doesn’t have to speak so loudly, because I am giving her all my attention. I find myself touch her arm gently. She lets me do it, and slowly she lowers her voice while continuing to let her despair flow. She says, “Do you understand why some of us commit suicide? The Jews kill us anyway, so why not kill some of them at the same time? Maybe I will do the same; what else is there?” I tell her softly that I don’t want her to die, that no one should face such a decision, that both sides suffer. She continues, saying that the Zionists only want to get rid of the Palestinians. “I am a Zionist,” I say,” and I don’t want to get rid of you; I wish that we could live together as good neighbors”. I realize now that she is listening to me; she tells me about the demonstration that took place, and all the Jewish organizations that took part, her voice is normal; she is almost calm.

Down the street, a line of people slowly rounds the corner; it is the peace walk that I had come here to join. There is about 100 people, single-file, silent, meditative, each step creating an atmos-phere of peace & safety. I tell the woman about the walk, that it is both Jews & Palestinians, that it began 8 days ago in Tel-Aviv, that the message is co-existence, here and now. I suggest that she join me in the line; she hesitates, then declines. The line continues; I can see that she is moved by the atmos-phere that it radiates. She grows increasingly cal- mer, not at all like the furious woman I met only minutes earlier. As the end of the line approaches us, I move to join it, and I invite her again; again she declines.  I tell her, “I am sure that some day we will succeed in building peace between us”; she smiles and says, “Me too”. Then she comes close and kisses my cheeks; it is a miracle! I sense that an immense reconciliation has just taken place; the burden of hatred and death has slipped from her heart, and in its place a fragile seed of peace has been sown. For a while, she trails alongside, telling me how the walk makes her feel relieved, much better than before. After a bit, she drifts away; I am overwhelmed by this encounter, especially its unexpected ending. Peace was just around the corner, and I didn’t miss it! (From The Other Side, July& August 2002)

 

Editorial

By Peter M. Kopkowski

Suppose you went to a restaurant for a meal and the server told you that you would be served what the restaurant decided it would serve you; in response to your suggestion that you would eat someplace else, where you had a choice, you were told that ALL the restaurants had adopted that poli-cy, and whether the public liked it or not, and whe- ther or not it was in the best interests of the commu-ty, did not matter. Not a realistic scenario you say?  Hmmm. Let’s try again.

Suppose you went to an auto dealer to buy a car, and the salesperson told you that you would be sold the car that the dealer decided to sell you; in response to your suggestion that you would buy a car someplace else, where you had a choice, you were told that ALL the dealers had adopted that policy, and whether or not the public liked it or not, and whether or not it was in the best interests of the community, did not matter.  Again, not a realistic scenario you say?  Hmmm. Let me try again.

Here is a real live true story that is just the same. Recently, the San Diego City Council has been considering measures to encourage builders to change the mix of housing that is being constructed, in favor of units that are more affordable by people of moderate means. In April, the San Diego Asso-ciation of Realtors, after thoughtful consideration, put forth a specific proposal that was seen as a reasonable, middle-course plan by most observers. In stunning counter action, 2 large builders sent letters to the Realtors Association, saying that, in view of their proposal, the builders would unilate-rally and immediately cease paying fees to the brokers for the sales of new homes! (The amount of money involved is estimated to be more than $3 million per year.) And how did the Realtor’s Asso- ciation react? They held an emergency meeting and rescinded their proposal!!!  The position of the builders seems clear: they will decide what to build, and the needs of the public be damned!!! All that remains to be seen now is whether the San Diego City Council members will also bow to the pressure of the money of the builders. A hearing has been scheduled for 8/6/02. (Extracted in part from “S.D. Builders Aim to Quash Affordable-Housing Plan” by Lori Weisberg, in The San Diego Union Tribune, 6/26/02).  MEANWHILE, on the same page of the same edition, a report by SANDAG found that, in comparison to 20 other metropolitan areas in their survey, San Diego placed near the bottom in terms of “equity”; i.e., housing affordability, income dist-ribution and % of children attending pre-school. (From “Study Calls Skewed Distribution of Wealth a Drag on S.D. Economy” by Thomas Kupper).

 

Jingoism

Definition, provided courtesy of Webster’s New American Dictionary: extreme chauvinism or nationalism marked especially by belligerent foreign policy. Example, provided courtesy of the Bush administration: As the International Criminal Court comes into existence on July 1, the U.S., which has not signed the agreement to become part of it, has instead decided to pick a fight with it. In the U.N. Security Council, the U.S. has said that it will not vote for the renewal of the NATO peace-keeping force in Bosnia unless the Security Council gives solemn assurance that U.S. peacekeeping forces will never be prosecuted for war crimes (regardless of what an individual soldier may do sometime in the future!) This hostility will heavily cloud the opening ceremonies of the Court. (News report by Jonathan Power in The San Diego Union Tribune, 6/27/02). Editor’s note: Fr. Robert F. Drinan, in his regular N.C.R. column of 5/27/02 noted the extremes to which some people will go. An unnamed person introduced the American Servicemen’s Protection Act in Congress, but it was defeated. It would have allowed the President to invade the Hague to release U.S. citizens and allies from the custody of the court!!!

 

Cardinals Miss the Point - Again

By Geraldine Ferraro

Every Catholic faces a crisis of confidence in the church and the men who run it today. To me, this is personal. Before running for Congress in 1978, I spent 3 years as chief of the Special Victims Bureau in the Queens District Attorney's Office. We handled all of the county's sex crimes, including the sexual abuse of children. In that role, I heard stories, straight from the mouths of the victims, which haunt me to this day. If the tragedies that I encountered taught me one thing, it is that sexual abuse is not about the perpetrator, it's about the victim - boys and girls, men and women who have to live with it forever. If their stories still haunt me today, I can only imagine what it must be like for them. I don't like to think about it. That's why it outrages me that the voices of the victims seem not to have reached the hierarchy. We hear about the institutional impact on the church, about the financial costs, about the harm to congregations and about the impact on the vast majority of innocent priests. I don't hear about the children except when we are told that many of these cases don't really involve pedophilia, because the victims were teenagers. That's a distinction that makes no difference. In fact, to make the distinction at all is to shamefully dismiss the trauma inflicted on teens by priests whom they trusted. True, the vast majority of priests are good men who lead devout lives of service, but that isn't the point. People are not saying that all priests are pedophiles - they're condemning the church's history of defending all priests at all costs, even molesters who don't deserve the church's shield. Every person in the hierarchy who was involved in covering up allegations of abuse should resign his position. What they have done is beyond poor judgment. Each one, by actions and inaction alike, has endangered the welfare of a child. This is a crime and, while they will not be prosecuted, they should step down. As Catholics and as parents, we are entitled to a leadership we can trust.

(Received by email via csulb).

 

 

Institutionalizing Corruption

By Maureen Dowd

People used to be shocked when a member of an administration said that what’s good for General Motors is good for the U.S. But with the Bush administration, the sinful syncronicity of business and government is just all in a day’s work, and no one is reacting to it in the least! (From “All of the bad dreams of the 60’s are coming true” in The New York Times, as published in The San Diego Union Tribune, 6/27/02).

 

Housing & Poverty

The June/July 2002 issue of Habitat World is devoted to “The Cost of Living in Poverty: 5 Urgent Issues”. Persons not already familiar with this pub-lication may read a copy online or obtain more info at their website, www.habitat.org .

 

The Good Samaritan

By Rev. William Sloane Coffin

Had I but one wish today for the Christian Churches of the U.S., it would be that they come to see the difference between charity and justice. Charity is a matter of personal attributes, and justice is a matter of public policy. Charity seeks to alleviate the effects of injustice, and justice seeks to eliminate the causes of it. Charity in no way affects the status quo, while justice inevitably leads to confrontation. I would hope especially that Christians would see that the compassion that moved the Good Sama-ritan to act, is the same compassion that prompted the prophets to confront injustice, to speak truth to power, as Jesus did. More recently, leaders like Desmond Tutu and Martin Luther King, Jr. have seen that compassion frequently demands confron-tation. Christians are called to live so “that in everything God may be glorified” Clearly then, religion & politics, although distinct, do mix; to claim other wise is to misunderstand both. I note this for the sake of our presently tormented and endangered planet; to survive, it will require a politically committed spirituality of far more reli-gious leaders. President Bush has spoken of an “axis of evil”, but it is not Iran, Iraq & North Korea. A more likely trio calling for defeat is environmen-tal degradation, pandemic poverty and a world awash with weapons. A politically committed spiri-tuality contends against wrong without becoming wrongly contentious; it confronts national self-righteousness without personal self-righteousness. It cherishes God’s creation; it serves the poor; it is not interested in the might of a nation but in the good- ness of its people. A politically committed spiri-tuality makes church leaders confront injustice with the Samaritan’s compassion; it makes them heralds of reconciliation, mindful that Jesus reconciled the entire world to himself, and entrusted to us the ministry of reconciliation here on earth. (Provided by the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, D.C., from “Consecration Sermon”, given at the consec-ration of John Chane as bishop)

 

Status in Colombia

By Michael T. Klare

The U.S. has increasingly involved itself in Colombia’s civil war, on the pretext of fighting the “war on drugs”. Both the leftwing guerillas and the rightwing paramilitaries are involved in the drug trade, but the U.S. doesn’t concern itself with the paramilitaries. Instead, the Bush administration is seeking to aid the Colombian military directly against the guerilla groups, now referring to them as “terrorists”. In its latest effort, the U.S. will help protect a pipeline that delivers oil from the field to refineries and terminals on the coast, all of which, not coincidentally, belong to the U.S.’ Occidental Petroleum Co. (From “Oil Moves the War Machine” in The Progressive, June 2002).

 

Law & Order

By Fr. Frank Cordero

It always amazes me how so many people and churches in the U.S. consider themselves “Chris-  tian” but are gung-ho about “law & order”. Accor-ding to the scriptures, so much of what Jesus did and taught was outlawed and counter-cultural behavior. In almost every chapter of the 4 gospels, Jesus is breaking some kind of law or ritual, be it social, legal or religious. Most people who attend Easter service are not aware that the very act of resurrection was an act of civil disobedience. When the state executes a person, they are supposed to stay dead!  If they rise from the dead, they are breaking the law!  (From “Life Does Not End in Death” in Catholic Agitator, June 2002).

 

Let Suffering Stop Here

By Susan Corson-Finnerty

The U.S. has neither eliminated the enemy in Afghanistan nor have we ended the resistance of enraged and determined fighters who are driven by their own particular vision of justice & freedom, as far from our own vision as that may be. It may be that before the Bush administration is done with its self-proclaimed mission, backed by approval ratings born out of deep mourning, anger and fear, the en- tire Muslim world, embracing many of the world’s ancient cultures, will be mobilized to view the U.S. as its spiritual and worldly enemy. It is very sober-ing to hear seasoned Quaker peace workers express deep concern that we have never been in a more dangerous situation. In a world that has long grappled with the evil, the pain and the suffering that humans can inflict on one another, we are called to nothing less than an inner transformation and conversion to radical love. Without transformed hearts, our political strategies will falter and our courage may fail. If we hope to offer something of lasting value to our suffering world, we must refuse to return hatred for hatred, refuse the impulse to retaliate, and extend forgiveness even when to do so is painful. When we are able to let the pain stop on our doorstep, and to let others see that this is our choice, then genuine transformation becomes possible. (From Friends Journal, June 2002).

 

Government Logic

By Mark Sherman

The Federal government spent $62 million for a building to store & treat low-level radioactive waste and then decided that the structure wasn’t “secure” enough. So where is the waste being kept?  Under tents!!! Hundreds of 55-gallon drums of the waste are stored under the tents at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Ellen Tauscher, the area’s congresswoman, is incredulous. “You’re trying to tell me that between a building and a tent, a tent wins?” she asked. Initially, she was told that the new building was not used because it could not withstand a direct hit from a plane. (Editor’s note: And the tent could???) (From an Associated Press article in The San Diego Union Tribune, 6/7/02).

 

Stomping Labor

In January, President Bush decided to ban the presence of unions in the Department of Justice, “out of concern that union contracts could restrict the ability of workers there to protect Americans and national security”. This was a clear symbol that the administration was seizing the 9/11 tragedy to advance one of its priorities, namely, to crush unions. Lots of the Justice Department workers were members of unions for 20 years, without even an allegation of a problem. The action is seen as a very cynical use of the 9/11 tragedy by an anti-union administration. (From an editorial in The Progressive, June 2002).

 

Mindfulness

By Thich Nhat Hanh

(Being known for his teachings on mindfulness, Hanh responded as follows when asked to share his thoughts on talking to terrorists about their attacks):

I would try to understand all of the suffering that leads to this violence. It might not be easy to listen in that way; I would have to remain calm & lucid. I would need several friends with me that were strong in the practice of deep listening, listening without reacting, without judging, without blaming. In this way, an atmosphere of support would be created, so that they could share completely, and trust that they are really being heard. Only when we felt calm and lucid would we respond, point by point, to what had been said. We would respond gently but firmly in a manner that would help them discover their own misunderstandings, so that they would stop their violent acts. We have to tell our Christian friends, “The first thing we need to do is to cool the flames of anger and hatred that are so strong within us. You are children of God and followers of Jesus; you have to look deeply into yourselves and find out why this violence happened” Compassionate listen- ing is a tool that can be used to heal on a national level as well as in families. (From an interview in Friends of Peace Pilgrim Newsletter, Winter 2002).

 

Education for Globalization

By Paul L. Locatelli

Speaking at Santa Clara U in October 2000, Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, superior general of the Jesuits, could have been anticipating the shift that occurred after 9/11 when he gave a new challenge to Jesuit colleges & universities. The new standard is to “educate the whole person of solidarity for the real world”. This new perspective expands the tradi-tional moral question of education from “How should I live in this world?” to “How should all of us live together in this time & place?” For the world of the new century, it is no longer enough to make education a personal, individual quest; we have to understand how our lives are vitally linked to Earth and to all who live on it. We must understand our-selves as citizens of a global community whose decisions shape the world for better or worse. This calls for a commitment to solidarity within new emerging global realities. Solidarity is the virtue, the habit of the heart, which binds us emotionally and practically to the world. Solidarity combines a sense of justice with active compassion. It makes us aware that the quality of our lives is intrinsically linked with the quality of the lives of others, espe-cially those who are most threatened or left out. Solidarity does not mean bleeding-heart sentimenta-lism; it combines rigorous intellectual inquiry with personal contact and commitment. This means that educating the whole person necessarily includes educating for social justice, because none of us can truly flourish while others are being shattered or excluded. This is the ethical bottom line: I cannot be whole if most of the world is broken. (From an article in America, 5/20/02).

 

Editorial

By Peter M. Kopkowski

Based on my observations, almost every reader of Connections is above the U.S. average in income; the problem with that statement is that not enough of us are really concerned about the fact that over half of the U.S. population is worse off than we are, and that almost the entire population of the rest of the world is worse off than we are. What can move us to action?  How about some juicy financial data? In the 10 years from 1991 to 2001, the pay of the average worker in San Diego rose only 49%, or less than 5% per year, and certainly less than the inc- crease in the cost of living during that period. At the same time, the pay of the average CEO in San Diego rose 78%. More importantly, the average CEO earned 12 times the average worker in 1991, and so the relationship became even worse during the next decade. Even more importantly, this data is completely distorted by the fact that 90% of the pay of the top 25 San Diego CEO’s comes from stock options exercised, and those amounts are not inclu-ded in the data above!  A little math shows us that, if stock option compensation is included for these 25 CEO’s, they earned about 160 times the amount earned by the average worker. Can this be just? How can we be so unconcerned about this? (Data from The San Diego Union Tribune, 7/1/02, which cited The Department of Commerce and Securities & Exchange Commission as sources)

 

The Future (We Hope)

By Eduardo Galeano

In the streets, cars shall be run over by dogs; the TV set shall no longer be the most important member of the family; those who want to make war will go to jail, not those who refuse to go to war; cooks shall not believe that lobsters love to be boiled alive; historians shall not believe that countries love to be invaded; politicians shall not believe that the poor love to eat promises; no one shall be considered a hero or a fool for doing what they believe is right, rather than what best serves their interest; no one shall be taken seriously who can’t make fun of themselves.(From the book “Upside Down”).

 

Dr. Virchow’s Cure

By Jeremiah Creedon

A 19^th century doctor showed that poverty breeds disease; how could we forget? In 1848, Prussian officials sent a young doctor to an outlying province to study the spread of a deadly fever. Stung by criti-cism and fearing unrest, they told Rudolf Virchow,  26, to find a way to prevent such outbreaks, which earlier efforts had failed to do. He returned with a shocking plan:  Set the people free! Give them poli-tical freedom! Give them better schools! It wasn’t the famine that was killing them; it was the oppres- sion!  Virchow’s report begins with a multidisci-plinary look at local life, underscoring how even what the people ate and drank bore the mark of reli- gious and political domination. Only then did he introduce his medical findings on disease. He also explored the psychology of oppression - how it strips the people of the tools and the will to help themselves. He ended with a modern blueprint for nation-building, based on democratic freedom, new schools, businesses and coop farm methods. “The earth produces much more food than we need,” he stated, noting that it was folly to argue that the greater good is served by funneling profits into the hands of a few. Workers deserve wages, but they also deserve self-fulfillment and pleasure. Nearly all that Virchow said applies to the plight of embattled people all over the world today, from Afghanistan to countless rural villages suffering from the worst effects of “globalization”. How could we forget? (From Utne Reader, May-June 2002).

Chinese Philosophy

By Tao Te Ching

If you want to be a leader, stop trying to control; let go of fixed plans and concepts, and the world will govern itself. The more prohibitions you have, the less virtuous people will be; the more weapons you have, the less secure people will be; the more subsi-dies you have, the less self-reliant people will be. Therefore the wise leader says: “I let go of the law, and people become human; I let go of economics, and people become prosperous; I let go of religion, and people become serene; I let go all personal desire for the common good, and the good becomes as common as grass.” (Written about 600 B.C.; translated by Stephen Mitchell and published in The Witness magazine, June 2002).

                        *   *   *   *   *

Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people. (Eleanor Roosevelt).

                        *   *   *   *   *

Why Susan Davis Should Have

Opposed Fast Track

Fast track would remove the checks & balances of governance; Fast track would limit public debate on trade issues; Fast track would help corporations write the rules for trade, not the people or the government; Fast track takes us in the wrong direc- tion, as the existing WTO and NAFTA agreements are a disaster for working families, the environment and the protection of human rights; Fast track is an obstacle to making trade clean, green and fair; Fast track is outdated, since the earlier ideas of it dealt only with very narrow topics.  Resistance to Fast track is building, and there IS a better way. (For more information about the battle against Fast track, contact San Diego WTO Alert at (619) 463-0721 or contact Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch at www.tradewatch.org .

 

Easter

By Sr. Joan Chittister

In June of 2001 I sat in the home of a traumatized Arab family on the West Bank. Years before, the father, having been denied work in his homeland, went to the Saudi oil fields to earn enough to build a home for his family. He returned with the money, and applied repeatedly over the years for a permit to build on his own land; the applications were simply ignored. In desperation, he gave up on the permit and built the home without it. It was barely finished when the Israeli army bulldozed it to the ground. A group called Rabbis for Peace joined the man and his Arab neighbors and rebuilt the house.  Again, the Israeli army bulldozed it. Then, the rabbis sur- rounded the property while it was rebuilt. Now, the rabbis, the Arab family and I, plus other members of the International InterReligious Peace Council were sitting in the bare little house; together; all of one heart. I knew then without a doubt that I was seeing resurrection, that I was in fact part of it, and that no headline would ever make me forget the rabbis who had risen above politics to the stature of the God of the Exodus. (From N.C.R., 3/29/02).

 

Food With Strings Attached

Anuradha Mittal, codirector of the Institute for Food and Development Policy, used the recent experience of her native India to explain the problem with “food aid” in an interview. “Of the 830 million hun- gry people in the world, a third of them live in India. Yet, in 1999, the Indian government had 10 million tons of surplus food grains (rice, wheat, etc). In the year 2000, the surplus increased to 60 million tons, most of it left in granaries to rot. Ins- tead of giving the surplus food to the hungry, the government hoped to export the grain and make money. In view of the surplus, the government also stopped buying grain from Indian farmers, leaving them destitute. Having gone into debt to purchase expensive chemicals on the advice of the govern- ment, they were now forced to burn their own crops. At the same time, the government was buying grain from American corporations, because the World Bank aid to India stipulates that it do so. This means that India is the largest importer of the same grain that it exports! It doesn’t make sense, econo- mic or other wise. But the situation is not unique to India; in 1985 Indonesia received an award for being food-sufficient; by 1998 it had become the largest recipient of food aid in the world. Had the rains stopped?  Were there no more crops there?  No; the cause of the food insecurity was the Asian financial crisis. There was no shortage of food, but people were too poor to buy it. So what did the U.S. and other countries do? Smelling an opportunity to unload some of their own surplus in the name of “food aid”, they gave a loan to Indonesia on the condition that it buy the wheat from them. (And Indonesians don’t even eat wheat!) (From “Short Takes” in The Witness magazine, April 2002).

 

Regular meetings are held at  Roetter Hall at Good Samaritan Episcopal Church, 4321 Eastgate Mall at Genesee.  See Coming Events for current schedule.                        

 

House Church is usually held on the third Saturday of each month; see Coming Events for current schedule.

  

 

Feckless F.E.C.

Historian Richard Hofstadter once lamented that no sooner is a major reform enacted in this country than the very objects of the reform figure out a way to evade it. The most recent confirmation of his cynical maxim can be seen in the Federal Election Commission’s evisceration of the recently enacted ban on so-called “soft-money”. At a June meeting, in the process of approving regulations to implement the law, four of the six panel members voted to create semantic loopholes wide enough to allow political parties to keep accepting soft-money contributions with impunity. Campaign finance reform has been gutted. (From an editorial in The San Diego Union Tribune, 6/25/02)

 

Greed and Energy

By Chris Ney

In her recent book, “Power Politics”, Arundhati Roy does not limit her critical comments to Indian politicians. She unravels the rhetoric of globalization’s apologists, from Bill Clinton to Kofi Annan. At every opportunity, these leaders have argued that a global economy will work for the common good, IF “we have the right institu-tions of governance in place - effective courts, fair laws, honest politicians, participatory democracy, a transpa-rent administration that respects human rights and gives people a say in the decisions that affect their lives.”

She exposes this big lie with satiric wit: “The point is, if all this were in place, almost anything would succeed, from socialism to capitalism; in paradise, everything works, from a communist state to a military dictatorship”.

(From a review of Roy’s book [South End Press, 2001] in The Nonviolent Activist, May-June 2002).

 

HOT ITEMS

 

July 21 (Sunday); Mary of Magdala Celebration; 6:00 P.M. liturgy followed by pot-luck at First Unitarian Universalist Church in Hillcrest.  Co-sponsored by C.T.A., Dignity, Catholic Worker, WomenChurch and Corpus. Call Rich (858) 273-0213 for more info.

                                                            *   *   *   *   *

October 19 (Saturday) C.T.A. Presentation; 9:30 A.M. to 3:30 P.M. Robert Blair Kaiser of Newsweek and John L. Allen of N.C.R. will speak at Christ Lutheran Church in Pacific Beach (more info to come; mark your calendar).

                                                            *   *   *   *   *

November 6 (Wednesday); Visit with author Michael Morwood; 7 to 9 P.M.; co-sponsored by Open Door Books; at Christ Lutheran Church in Pacific Beach (more info to come; mark your calendar). (See also Morwood’s article on page 8).