Children received medical care in the northern city of Dohuk after a suicide bombing on a school playground killed 13 in the Shiite village of Qabak, Iraq,- Safin Hamed Agence France-Presse-Getty Images
Every day in Iraq, Syria, so many places, the innocents die--weapons provided by international arms merchants--of whom the USA is # 1.
The coffins of the unborn and the war dead—unnecessary—are
draped around our every move as a country. We are a nation of violence
expediency. If it seems to work to our
gross benefit, we do it, damn the dead, especially if they’d lived offshore, or
in womb out-of-sight, and the millstones gather about our neck.
Violence does not stay in the confines of its designated spot, but spreads its bloody stain outward, a blot on all aspects of society. A sociopathic epidemic.
Our best efforts are doomed by chronic dis-respect for
life. Each individual life has become
superfluous in our grand realpolitik equations.
Life suffers in the economy where the scales of justice have been
replaced by a balance that always favors the profit to be made.
Why can’t we help stem the tide of death in
Syria? Because we dynamited the dam in
its neighbor Iraq, hoping only oil would overflow. Why can’t we give our children a college
education full of critical thinking possibility, not saddled with debt? [Because of wasted dollars blown on war.] Because first they must shoulder a gun in
defense of international corporations--as they become consumers of a casual
sexuality that provides for abortion disposal of any untoward children that
might be the natural result. Both
enterprises accept the death of innocents as legal tender. Our
young people are left holding bags of despair.
And powerful financial interests continue to laugh all the
way to the bank—with a record student debt {good graphs} in hand. More on what we can do about Big Banks next
week. See “move your money” for
starters.
Respect for life in the USA is only a PR campaign, unless it
becomes a deeply held conviction that lasts from conception, through full life,
till natural death. It’s all gift from
God, not to be tampered with. There
must be consistent rejection of violence in our embracing the right to
life. War will never end till abortion
ends. Abortion will never end till war
ends. Justified violence only
disembowels respect for life, and efforts for peace. Faith—belief in the living promise of Jesus, that eternal life conquers all death—is
the only healing remedy.
“Each of the issues I have identified today—abortion, war, hunger and human rights, euthanasia and capital punishment—is treated as a separate, self-contained topic in our public life. Each is distinct, but an ad hoc approach to each one fails to illustrate how our choices in one area can affect our decisions in other areas. There must be a public attitude of respect for all of life, if public actions are to respect it in concrete cases.” from lecture-- A Consistent Ethic of Life: Continuing the Dialogue, Cardinal Joseph Benardin, March 11, 1984 -- its a "seamless garment"
We owe our whole church, especially our young people, this consistency.
We owe our whole church, especially our young people, this consistency.
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Eileen Egan, who helped found Pax Christi USA, died on this day, Oct 7, 2000. She first talked of a seamless garment, as she was a leader, advocating for conscientious objection to war, nuclear disarmament, and right to life, within our church.
Link references in order --
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/somatic-psychology/201010/post-abortion-stress-syndrome-pass-does-it-exist acknowledgement even from the pro-choice
side
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