tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-752148316555687502024-03-10T06:22:35.956-04:00McCarthy's Weekly - Pax VobiscumMichael J. McCarthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883623204335260738noreply@blogger.comBlogger329125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75214831655568750.post-27719180976052705492021-08-07T15:50:00.001-04:002021-08-07T15:50:41.081-04:00CANDLELIGHTS ON THE RIVER FOR PEACE AND DISARMAMENT<p> <span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">Friends,</span></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> We invite you to be part of a prayer vigil on anniversary of Nagasaki bombing with resuming our candlelights on the water, this coming Monday evening. Spread the word to those who may be able to come.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> In Christ's peace,</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> Mike & Ande McCarthy 810 9822870, 887 7000</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: center;"><br /></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: center;"> CANDLELIGHTS ON THE RIVER</b></div><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b>FOR PEACE AND DISARMAMENT</b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b>Monday Aug. 9th, 2021</b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">A prayer vigil in commemoration of all those who have died in war</p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">To commit ourselves to put an end to war</p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">On the 69th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima</p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">So that future generations may live in peace</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: bold; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">Come pray for conversion from the arms race, on the banks of the St. Clair River, at the new River Walk in Port Huron {midway down the walk at the reef barriers}</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: bold; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">{enter from the end of Griswold St. south of the YMCA, park and cross the field over to a small beach at water’s edge}</p><h1 style="background-color: white; break-after: avoid; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">At 9:15 PM, <a name="m_-5877766753246444478__Hlk78957029">Monday Aug. 9<sup>th</sup>, 2021 </a>-- <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;">For info--Mike McCarthy 982 2870</span></h1><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in;"> Have we yet listened to, or even heard, the voice of the U. S. Catholic Bishops, spoken in their “The Challenge of Peace” pastoral letter of <u>1983</u>?</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in;"> “<i>After the passage of nearly four decades and a concomitant growth in our understanding of the ever growing horror of nuclear war, we must shape the climate of opinion which will make it possible for our country to express profound sorrow over the atomic bombing in 1945. Without that sorrow, there is no possibility of finding a way to repudiate future use of nuclear weapons…”</i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in;">We found none invading Iraq, but we have more than 10,000 nuclear weapons here in our homeland, and plan on making new generations of them ourselves. We are by far the biggest arms supplier in the world. It’s time to follow the Gospel’s advice: “Take the plank out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take the splinter out of your brother’s eye.” Mt 7:5</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in;"> Unjust wars rage in Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza, Israel, Sudan, Ukraine, Libya, Syria, drug wars in Mexico, Central and Latin America … This tragic violence should touch our consciences--our choices of vocations, jobs, our uses of time and money. Do these support war or peace? Do these follow the way of Caesar, or the way of Jesus?</p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><b>Come, pray, help prepare the way of the Peaceable Kingdom.</b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"> <i>“Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people.” -- Martin Luther King</i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i>“War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.</i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtdC7u4-yiMPUXZzt3_p5WBr6XNwpW5qgUf7bMBV1g3hvIb519ykeEdOhxmY7v6MTetwUgJLAaQRKYJUR1bvrw1j44zI-Vstl4lEWk2fwqJuE8LZgpNajeu1LFKcW2PkilXYzD0pGbTug/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="227" data-original-width="167" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtdC7u4-yiMPUXZzt3_p5WBr6XNwpW5qgUf7bMBV1g3hvIb519ykeEdOhxmY7v6MTetwUgJLAaQRKYJUR1bvrw1j44zI-Vstl4lEWk2fwqJuE8LZgpNajeu1LFKcW2PkilXYzD0pGbTug/" width="177" /></a></div><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Blessed Franz Jagerstatter, family man who wouldn’t fight in Hitler’s Wars—executed 8-9-43</span></i><br /></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Pray for us, and help us renounce nuclear war forever</span></i></p><p></p>Michael J. McCarthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883623204335260738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75214831655568750.post-18336754948987289062021-07-28T12:27:00.004-04:002021-07-28T13:26:30.031-04:00JESUS PRESENT TO US IN THE EUCHARIST - AN INVITATION <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUvelP-xo-cuiduKzYrAII5FCkRMsZ4Bi2Wcj90ZGduQiy4tcocUFSal2QM4zcP14NYmp5Y1_Ly5rbeww05riaM2Hx2bOj8pacHZ3np3jDtZVxD3cPY53wxUM1orfMJxW5lKVAyOet9SM/s1024/9735a50e5db7605bff617a77cd9e924d.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="756" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUvelP-xo-cuiduKzYrAII5FCkRMsZ4Bi2Wcj90ZGduQiy4tcocUFSal2QM4zcP14NYmp5Y1_Ly5rbeww05riaM2Hx2bOj8pacHZ3np3jDtZVxD3cPY53wxUM1orfMJxW5lKVAyOet9SM/s320/9735a50e5db7605bff617a77cd9e924d.jpg" /></a></div><p> I go to daily mass frequently, because I believe we receive there the real presence of an all-merciful God. God becomes part of us in a special intimate and incarnate way, through His Word and the Eucharist. We all need to be unconditionally loved, and that is what is offered to us, and then expected of us in return, for us to share with each other and the wider community. What a blessing! </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4t56e0SeENz42gWkAZnqwM_u5WOoGp4NAbI5qiAskWYqAHr6G8leMLnUWN7Kmhvtm1E7j6MzTfFzyvh8eVvb6UuUgTEDrrxhz-uG0k3jBBmqqJycLb8qepAp9mWVrveTDCvxqWRgpUC0/s235/twithdove72041.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="235" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4t56e0SeENz42gWkAZnqwM_u5WOoGp4NAbI5qiAskWYqAHr6G8leMLnUWN7Kmhvtm1E7j6MzTfFzyvh8eVvb6UuUgTEDrrxhz-uG0k3jBBmqqJycLb8qepAp9mWVrveTDCvxqWRgpUC0/w200-h191/twithdove72041.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br />his past week something I wrote on this was published in Our Sunday Visitor, one of the three national Catholic weekly newspapers I know of. On the conservative/liberal continuum, it would be at center, with the National Catholic Reporter to the left, and the National Catholic Register to the right. The sacrifice of the Mass and the reception of Holy Communion are at the center of our faith. In a time of pandemic and political strife, they should be deep sources of our New Evangelization, spreading the Gospel outward to all in need.<p></p><p><br /></p><p>Is Jesus Really There? Yes!!!</p><p><br /></p><p><i>From the July 25-31, 2021 Our Sunday Visitor</i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgizLA3eZ8506CjDwINvCUFwFTkxHla25YVMT2gWjeTFo4vCYHg4KeZ5jr_Y3NHmTXu84OAiFYwTHkB1_v1Q2011ge3prSaq0I_6TyASO9TnBgabM0efxMdmP1Q2jAJF9l3o0lxul0rCo4/s2048/OSV+letter+on+Eucharist014.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1991" data-original-width="2048" height="622" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgizLA3eZ8506CjDwINvCUFwFTkxHla25YVMT2gWjeTFo4vCYHg4KeZ5jr_Y3NHmTXu84OAiFYwTHkB1_v1Q2011ge3prSaq0I_6TyASO9TnBgabM0efxMdmP1Q2jAJF9l3o0lxul0rCo4/w640-h622/OSV+letter+on+Eucharist014.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><i>Reference - <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/08/05/transubstantiation-eucharist-u-s-catholics/">https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/08/05/transubstantiation-eucharist-u-s-catholics/</a></i></p><div><i><br />Illumination by Kathy Brahney</i><p></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p></div>Michael J. McCarthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883623204335260738noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75214831655568750.post-13691900016244618512021-04-21T10:49:00.003-04:002021-04-21T11:02:56.965-04:00 To our editors ---Missing central fact to Fedex killings--the weapon of choice. <p><br /></p><div style="font-family: inherit;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><div class="ecm0bbzt hv4rvrfc ihqw7lf3 dati1w0a" data-ad-comet-preview="message" data-ad-preview="message" id="jsc_c_5n" style="font-family: inherit; padding: 4px 16px 16px;"><div class="j83agx80 cbu4d94t ew0dbk1b irj2b8pg" style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: -5px; margin-top: -5px;"><div class="qzhwtbm6 knvmm38d" style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-top: 5px;"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql lr9zc1uh a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d3f4x2em fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb iv3no6db jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m" color="var(--primary-text)" dir="auto" style="display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.3333; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;"><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">8 KILLED AT INDIANA FEDEX PLANT</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">So drones the headline on this 4-17-21 USA Today/Port Huron Times Herald article. Such headlines are becoming a murder mantra in the USA. </div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">What is glaringly absent in this AP article is the identity of the specific weapon in this mass killing. The 19 year old shooter had been reported to police by his mom as a threatened “suicide by cop,” a year earlier. He did his killing of 8 people super fast—“the slayings took place in a matter of minutes.” We are told first, police “seized a gun,” later in the story called a “rifle.” Please come clean America, and identify the weapon! Any chance it was a military style large magazined assault rifle? Give the agent of destruction a name, whatever the caliber. Until we all are able to face our fascination with violently lethal weaponry, and its power grab, we’ll continue to commit societal suicide.</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">We must not make guns a false idol. Jesus teaches us a totally different way to combat violent powers. To be wise as serpents yet gentle as doves—the strength of unconditional love. A small part of this love is to ban assault weapons in the community at large, and limit the use of guns in our wounded country.</div></div></span></div></div></div></div><div class="l9j0dhe7" id="jsc_c_5o" style="font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><div class="l9j0dhe7" style="font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><div style="font-family: inherit;"><a class="oajrlxb2 gs1a9yip g5ia77u1 mtkw9kbi tlpljxtp qensuy8j ppp5ayq2 goun2846 ccm00jje s44p3ltw mk2mc5f4 rt8b4zig n8ej3o3l agehan2d sk4xxmp2 rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 a8c37x1j mg4g778l btwxx1t3 pfnyh3mw p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x tgvbjcpo hpfvmrgz jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso l9j0dhe7 i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of du4w35lb lzcic4wl abiwlrkh p8dawk7l tm8avpzi" href="https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10209593055699551&set=a.1091728269751&__cft__[0]=AZXhWW088K2S71qnCCFY7pJq8oU-g1Y_1VJdoa7Tqefqt69Eb7w9BL8AReu6e6CmXhsw8JTBw_ywT9CGbOVXWiyrXvtoKILq0V1TGgXn5KoH0gRVMasJZGQj6r4FJU5C1N0&__tn__=EH-R" role="link" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; 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align-items: stretch; border-bottom-color: var(--always-dark-overlay); border-left-color: var(--always-dark-overlay); border-right-color: var(--always-dark-overlay); border-style: solid; border-top-color: var(--always-dark-overlay); border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #385898; cursor: pointer; display: block; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: row; flex-shrink: 0; font-family: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; user-select: none; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"></a><div style="font-family: inherit; max-width: 100%; min-width: 500px; width: calc((100vh + -325px) * 1.33333);"><a class="oajrlxb2 gs1a9yip g5ia77u1 mtkw9kbi tlpljxtp qensuy8j ppp5ayq2 goun2846 ccm00jje s44p3ltw mk2mc5f4 rt8b4zig n8ej3o3l agehan2d sk4xxmp2 rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 a8c37x1j mg4g778l btwxx1t3 pfnyh3mw p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x tgvbjcpo hpfvmrgz jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso l9j0dhe7 i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of du4w35lb lzcic4wl abiwlrkh p8dawk7l tm8avpzi" href="https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10209593055699551&set=a.1091728269751&__cft__[0]=AZXhWW088K2S71qnCCFY7pJq8oU-g1Y_1VJdoa7Tqefqt69Eb7w9BL8AReu6e6CmXhsw8JTBw_ywT9CGbOVXWiyrXvtoKILq0V1TGgXn5KoH0gRVMasJZGQj6r4FJU5C1N0&__tn__=EH-R" role="link" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; 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height: 375px; inset: 0px; object-fit: cover; position: absolute; width: 500px;" width="1000" /><b style="background-color: transparent; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.9375rem; text-align: inherit;">nd from Ju</b></a><b style="background-color: transparent; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.9375rem; text-align: inherit;"><a href="https://amp.indystar.com/amp/7294595002?fbclid=IwAR2Bp-kwwdFVWc6UPltpceV_KNkIEKmS6Yfd2X9s9aCx9qxs79-1Cfe-epI">https://amp.indystar.com/amp/7294595002?</a>fbclid=IwAR2Bp-kwwdFVWc6UPltpceV_KNkIEKmS6Yfd2X9s9aCx9qxs79-1Cfe-epI</b></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div><div class="stjgntxs ni8dbmo4 l82x9zwi uo3d90p7 h905i5nu monazrh9" data-visualcompletion="ignore-dynamic" style="border-radius: 0px 0px 8px 8px; overflow: hidden;"><div><div style="background-color: white;"><div><div class="l9j0dhe7" style="position: relative;"><div class="bp9cbjyn m9osqain j83agx80 jq4qci2q bkfpd7mw a3bd9o3v kvgmc6g5 wkznzc2l oygrvhab dhix69tm jktsbyx5 rz4wbd8a osnr6wyh a8nywdso s1tcr66n" style="align-items: center; border-bottom: 1px solid var(--divider); display: flex; justify-content: flex-end; line-height: 1.3333; margin: 0px 16px; padding: 10px 0px;"><div class="bp9cbjyn j83agx80 buofh1pr ni8dbmo4 stjgntxs" style="align-items: center; display: flex; flex-grow: 1; overflow: hidden;"><div class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 a8c37x1j p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl l9j0dhe7 abiwlrkh p8dawk7l gmql0nx0 ce9h75a5 ni8dbmo4 stjgntxs" role="button" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-height: 1.3333em; outline: none; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: inherit; touch-action: manipulation; user-select: none;" tabindex="0">The truth from Justin Cannon different newspaper -</div><div class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 a8c37x1j p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl l9j0dhe7 abiwlrkh p8dawk7l gmql0nx0 ce9h75a5 ni8dbmo4 stjgntxs" role="button" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; 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overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: inherit; touch-action: manipulation; user-select: none;" tabindex="0"><br /></div><div class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 a8c37x1j p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl l9j0dhe7 abiwlrkh p8dawk7l gmql0nx0 ce9h75a5 ni8dbmo4 stjgntxs" role="button" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-height: 1.3333em; outline: none; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: inherit; touch-action: manipulation; user-select: none;" tabindex="0"><br /></div><div class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 a8c37x1j p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl l9j0dhe7 abiwlrkh p8dawk7l gmql0nx0 ce9h75a5 ni8dbmo4 stjgntxs" role="button" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-height: 1.3333em; outline: none; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: inherit; touch-action: manipulation; user-select: none;" tabindex="0"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><a href="https://amp.indystar.com/amp/7294595002?fbclid=IwAR2Bp-">https://amp.indystar.com/amp/7294595002?fbclid=IwAR2Bp-</a>kwwdFVWc6UPltpceV_KNkIEKmS6Yfd2X9s9aCx9qxs79-1Cfe-e</span></div></div></div></div><div class="tvfksri0 ozuftl9m" style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; margin-left: 12px; margin-right: 12px;"><div class="rq0escxv l9j0dhe7 du4w35lb j83agx80 pfnyh3mw i1fnvgqd gs1a9yip owycx6da btwxx1t3 ph5uu5jm b3onmgus e5nlhep0 ecm0bbzt nkwizq5d roh60bw9 mysgfdmx hddg9phg" style="align-items: stretch; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-flow: row nowrap; flex-shrink: 0; font-family: inherit; 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font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 4px;"></div></div></div></div>Michael J. McCarthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883623204335260738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75214831655568750.post-19743875359570523032021-03-15T22:07:00.006-04:002021-03-27T14:28:08.114-04:00CAN TRUTH SAVE OUR STILL FRAGILE DEMOCRACY?<p><i>This article was something I wrote soon after the attack on our nation's capitol January 6th. The issues remain the same. A well-informed public is the absolute requirement for real democracy to survive. We need to know the truth, each voter individually and equally responsible, and that sets us free to choose a practical politics providing fundamental liberty and justice for all--inclusive, not exclusive. And then we must recognize and cultivate our interconnectedness with the rest of the world's peoples.</i></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1Fdh5h_3rYJEkeeOqAsDUucskNJOaAU1_7lxNkrlELZUY2T4zTSrr-2lNUwuLI-OWowQLaW8zrUPPfwuMhHesDeaFX5rFs3HK86qby1iJ2iNr-QVG9VsBPio5MDzjnrqEa51abeYZ7RU/s2000/reszied-AP_21007067368664.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1335" data-original-width="2000" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1Fdh5h_3rYJEkeeOqAsDUucskNJOaAU1_7lxNkrlELZUY2T4zTSrr-2lNUwuLI-OWowQLaW8zrUPPfwuMhHesDeaFX5rFs3HK86qby1iJ2iNr-QVG9VsBPio5MDzjnrqEa51abeYZ7RU/w640-h428/reszied-AP_21007067368664.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="http://www.bu.edu/articles/2021/is-the-attack-on-the-us-capitol-populism/">From Boston University article--Jan. 7, 2021</a></i></div><div><br /></div> <span style="color: #222222;">“Police Outnumber Protestors” was our local 1-18-21
Times Herald front page headline, with large frontpage photo of Army Humvees
out in force at our <u>Michigan state Capitol in Lansing</u>. Over a week before this, “Trump Backers
Storm Capitol” was the small format header with business card sized photo
squeezed in at the top of the 1-7-21</span><span style="color: #222222;"> Times
Herald. Small potatoes the day after a physical attack on our nation’s democracy and the
violent invasion of our <u>U.S. Capitol building.</u> There was no
frontpage story on this historic Capitol crisis. Instead, articles on
marijuana facilities, postponing of downtown’s Chilly Fest, and Family Video’s
closing.</span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 11.75pt;"><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: LAO; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The halls of Congress were under siege January 6th,
and then occupied for 5 hours by right wing rioters, spouting talk of
revolution and threatening our elected representatives, in the name of our
ex-president. People died and more were injured in this desecration of
the place where the work of a civil democracy should be conducted.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 11.75pt;"><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: LAO; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The serious nature of this violent act, encouraged by an
ego driven President Trump, rejecting the results of an election which has been
validated by all state and federal authorities *, must be recognized and
resoundingly repudiated. It deserves much more attention by local press,
and the politicians of every party. That 139 Representatives, and 8
Senators, all Republicans, still voted against accepting the decision of some
of the states’ electors for soon to be President Joe Biden, after such a
debacle, is a great shame. There are solid articles and editorials
appearing in the conservative Wall Street Journal that outline our problem—we
are a very divided nation in which too many pay very little attention to
verifiable facts in our political discussions. [see below for
references]. The Wall Street Journal, as well as the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce, among others, have called for President Trump to resign. Many
of the banks who’ve done business with him are now putting a stop to his
credit.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 11.75pt;"><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: LAO; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">What we saw on January 6, 2021 was an organized riot
meant to be chaotic and intimidating. Certainly only a segment of the
30,000 that came to protest were invaders, but all led credence to a lie—that
the 2020 election was stolen. We must all do better. Watch, listen
to and read respectable, verifiable sources of news, agencies which have editors
and producers who routinely check the facts, value and investigate their
stories and commentaries. Choose more than one or two news outlets, and
certainly ones with some contrasting general political perspectives. If
we are to preserve our democracy we must become better informed. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 11.75pt;"><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: LAO; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">[For good worldwide vision, I look to the New York Times
and the Wall Street Journal each with divergent editorial bent, but each
diligent in pursuit of facts. The Times Herald gives me local news and
perspective, with a USA Today focus on national and world news. The Drudge
Report is a composite of news sources, tending conservative. I watch and
listen to NPR, Public Televisions PBS News Hour, and surf the other major TV
networks news including Fox. CBS’s 60 Minutes has merit. Facebook
and other such story spreaders are rarely to be trusted, unless they provide
links to credible sources with fact checking content editors. Electronic
algorithms are no substitute for editors, providing only a bare minimum of
oversight.]<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 11.75pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiypf7s0LKQ2ysXBpIF4ytILoU6shSpqPqZEePKp0Fsskn2MDxNgBz8ROJ7z4M2bqXiMqEmehY2TBJG59eCS5QAEpRbN-jsQogorTH3Zlq1uQau1xUauqMwfvLhnCFlrTM_KyZnCq97CjA/s2000/Amid+storming+and+looting+the+Capitol+Building+on+January+6%252C+pro-Trump+rioters+also+attacked+the+press+pool+outside+the+building+and+destroyed+their+news+gear.+Photo+by+Michael+Nigro--Getty+Images.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1335" data-original-width="2000" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiypf7s0LKQ2ysXBpIF4ytILoU6shSpqPqZEePKp0Fsskn2MDxNgBz8ROJ7z4M2bqXiMqEmehY2TBJG59eCS5QAEpRbN-jsQogorTH3Zlq1uQau1xUauqMwfvLhnCFlrTM_KyZnCq97CjA/w640-h428/Amid+storming+and+looting+the+Capitol+Building+on+January+6%252C+pro-Trump+rioters+also+attacked+the+press+pool+outside+the+building+and+destroyed+their+news+gear.+Photo+by+Michael+Nigro--Getty+Images.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Amid storming and looting the Capitol Building on January 6, pro-Trump rioters also attacked the press pool outside the building and destroyed their news gear. Photo by Michael Nigro--Getty Images</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="http://www.bu.edu/articles/2021/what-does-the-attack-on-democracy-mean-for-journalists/"><span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222;">http://www.bu.edu/articles/2021/what-does-the-attack-on-democracy-mean-for-journalists/</span></span><span style="color: #222222;"> </span></a></i></div><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: LAO; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 11.75pt;"><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: LAO; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">In our Catholic Church Jan 6<sup>th</sup> is
recognized as the Feast of the Epiphany, when the Magi, kings of the world,
came to pay homage to the Savior born in a stable—a humble place for the
beginning of God’s birth into humanity. This Jesus came to save us from
our sins, teaching us that the truth, mercy, forgiveness, and loving our enemies is the
way to eternal life. The word epiphany means a revelation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 11.75pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig_U3Pv8iFr8sY6UwICmXd2mMJs2ZVKBxllVHOTtAlgEIZDZyFafM2KcPP1DDYddHenA-il4waN3mrRMErmQZOEQQVygLP7pfPyfiWomE0zaRly25eVPmow-wi2GJfK07SobseBRrhBLE/s620/1609981867-3184.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="464" data-original-width="620" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig_U3Pv8iFr8sY6UwICmXd2mMJs2ZVKBxllVHOTtAlgEIZDZyFafM2KcPP1DDYddHenA-il4waN3mrRMErmQZOEQQVygLP7pfPyfiWomE0zaRly25eVPmow-wi2GJfK07SobseBRrhBLE/w400-h299/1609981867-3184.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 11.75pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222;"><i></i></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222;"><i><a href="http://www.bu.edu/articles/2021/is-the-attack-on-the-us-capitol-populism/"><i style="color: #222222;"></i></a><i style="color: #222222;"><a href="http://www.bu.edu/articles/2021/is-the-attack-on-the-us-capitol-populism/">http://www.bu.edu/articles/2021/is-the-attack-on-the-us-capitol-populism/</a></i></i></span></div><p></p><span style="color: #222222;">This past Jan 6</span><sup style="color: #222222;">th</sup><span style="color: #222222;"> should also be a
revealed warning. If we continue to follow the leads of pride, greed,
self-righteous hatred, and uninformed arrogance, we will ignore and miss the
message of the newborn in the manger—that our true security and happiness comes
from reconciling our differences, loving each other as God loves us
unconditionally, despite the real difficulties of race, political party, or
social class. Blessed are the Peacemakers. God does not
discriminate, demands true justice, and is the healer of all pain. </span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 11.75pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxARph58tsyc-lH6YMJfjRodtlewAyH-4l5deu5UtciXoMzdmQhDlUYZjB8V-LXBLKwMelKW3erx9v6fKXdyt4mzPgIJMNaLrbcHD1PF1qNERhgWXdF-7I6H__c_TPLFnfg0AIjFSlGHE/s600/The_Feast_of_the_Epiphany_The_Three_Wise_Men_Three_Kings_Mary_Joseph_Jesus_Manger_Credit_interruptingsilencedotcom.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="454" data-original-width="600" height="484" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxARph58tsyc-lH6YMJfjRodtlewAyH-4l5deu5UtciXoMzdmQhDlUYZjB8V-LXBLKwMelKW3erx9v6fKXdyt4mzPgIJMNaLrbcHD1PF1qNERhgWXdF-7I6H__c_TPLFnfg0AIjFSlGHE/w640-h484/The_Feast_of_the_Epiphany_The_Three_Wise_Men_Three_Kings_Mary_Joseph_Jesus_Manger_Credit_interruptingsilencedotcom.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 11.75pt;"><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: LAO; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">It’s time to put away our swords of division, conquer
the pandemic, and share the good things we’ve been given with our neighbors,
and the rest of the world. Kings must bow before Truth, born in a stable.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 11.75pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNEA6dN2VX2WYOfrs7UktRHqiqUNyTW3qElvL_ck3qeYxjCnn1eyCTVwVNo75dLU_irN0kZxB9jLignReZPG1igOWWEPiaq79SO7gmPkU6D_7K575AIj3jzng8tEgDSXtUtjAYK49tpUY/s900/swords_into_plowshares__by_nuwer_arts_db08p44-fullview.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="600" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNEA6dN2VX2WYOfrs7UktRHqiqUNyTW3qElvL_ck3qeYxjCnn1eyCTVwVNo75dLU_irN0kZxB9jLignReZPG1igOWWEPiaq79SO7gmPkU6D_7K575AIj3jzng8tEgDSXtUtjAYK49tpUY/w426-h640/swords_into_plowshares__by_nuwer_arts_db08p44-fullview.jpg" width="426" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: LAO; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span><p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 11.75pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #222222;"><b><i>References </i></b></span></div><p></p></blockquote>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 11.75pt;"><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: LAO; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">* <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trumps-final-days-11610062773">https://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trumps-final-days-11610062773</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 11.75pt;"><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-erases-his-legacy-11610061766?mod=opinion_featst_pos1&mod=djemMER_h" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0563c1; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: LAO; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-erases-his-legacy-11610061766?mod=opinion_featst_pos1&mod=djemMER_h</span></a></span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: LAO; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 11.75pt;"><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-disgrace-on-capitol-hill-11609979276" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0563c1; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: LAO; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-disgrace-on-capitol-hill-11609979276</span></a></span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: LAO; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 11.75pt;"><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/bring-the-insurrectionists-to-justice-11610065179" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0563c1; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: LAO; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">https://www.wsj.com/articles/bring-the-insurrectionists-to-justice-11610065179</span></a></span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: LAO; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 11.75pt;"><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/all-donald-trumps-deplorables-11610406826?mod=djemMER_h" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0563c1; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: LAO; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">https://www.wsj.com/articles/all-donald-trumps-deplorables-11610406826?mod=djemMER_h</span></a></span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: LAO; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 11.75pt;"><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-and-his-allies-set-the-stage-for-riot-well-before-january-6-11610156283?mod=cxrecs_join#cxrecs_s" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0563c1; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: LAO; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-and-his-allies-set-the-stage-for-riot-well-before-january-6-11610156283?mod=cxrecs_join#cxrecs_s</span></a></span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: LAO; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 11.75pt;"><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/us/politics/trump-ethics-democracy-biden.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0563c1; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: LAO; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/us/politics/trump-ethics-democracy-biden.html</span></a></span><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: LAO; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 11.75pt;"><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: LAO; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 11.75pt;"><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: LAO; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 11.75pt;"><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: LAO; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 11.75pt;"><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: LAO; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 11.75pt;"><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: LAO; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 11.75pt;"><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: LAO; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 11.75pt;"><span style="color: #222222; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: LAO; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>Michael J. McCarthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883623204335260738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75214831655568750.post-7166926556999231922020-11-25T10:08:00.005-05:002020-11-25T10:59:39.903-05:00HEAL OUR DEMOCRACY--MEND THE ELECTION REJECTION<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="clear: left; float: left; font-size: xx-small; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="771" data-original-width="730" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvgLOrB7IhODwgkEQOvfL1utaOyGpovyffo2_V2iWzHyvIj4QBXNVWmUHULGXRAcNWIaKp19hfiYai9uc5-qXj8enhgW9leSLqErWuezMLDWVlWDA7ydBjQitOE3TFfFcHO0azFtJgU6U/w189-h200/s+with+gold.jpg" width="189" /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvgLOrB7IhODwgkEQOvfL1utaOyGpovyffo2_V2iWzHyvIj4QBXNVWmUHULGXRAcNWIaKp19hfiYai9uc5-qXj8enhgW9leSLqErWuezMLDWVlWDA7ydBjQitOE3TFfFcHO0azFtJgU6U/s771/s+with+gold.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div><br />ad, sad, that we have to watch President “in transition” Trump
star as the Bamboozler in Chief sore loser in the Make Me Great Again post-election
show.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God grant him the grace to exit to
become an ex-president with some charitable character, perhaps even volunteering
with Habitat for Humanity or at soup kitchens as others have done.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Use his billions to gainfully employ others in
creative projects making life better those in need.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>May his next national gig have as its theme
and mission, “You’re Hired” not fired or dead from Covid – hiring to put some Americans
to work for the common good, not personal profiteering forever padding one’s own
wealth. <o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We should know by now there is danger in making a man with a
mania for power and prestige our President.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>May Mr. Trump be touched by the Sermon on the Mount.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This Thanksgiving I’ll be thankful for the
arrival of a more presidential president—a man disposed to humility and truthfulness,
difficult vital virtues for the job.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>May
God bless Joe Biden and make him faithful to the task.<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDPUwygmeUGtDe5DXgHBFQxwq_YQRkcjJbS4wxRUbRUok6A0yUp4-xSLyEmTqH_qmvr4upByV1x3FXyu3mlwGMOpxJD-GEL4lw3TtYQL7IklCWodckDNSsCjBfzwDeXNISNAZ13cfKXeo/s1200/0054138_healing-the-blind-man-by-yongsung-kim-yk1010334.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDPUwygmeUGtDe5DXgHBFQxwq_YQRkcjJbS4wxRUbRUok6A0yUp4-xSLyEmTqH_qmvr4upByV1x3FXyu3mlwGMOpxJD-GEL4lw3TtYQL7IklCWodckDNSsCjBfzwDeXNISNAZ13cfKXeo/w400-h266/0054138_healing-the-blind-man-by-yongsung-kim-yk1010334.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">by <a href="https://www.foundationarts.com/yongsung-kim">Yongsung-Kim</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Jesus healing the man born blind from birth.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>May the blind no longer lead the blind</i></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>And the rest with vision have no excuse,</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>But to follow the lead of truth and justice, forgiveness and mercy.</i></div><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><i>Reference</i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal">From the conservative Wall Street Journal Nov. 25, 2020 <i><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/republicans-are-souring-on-trumps-antics-11606238991?mod=opinion_lead_pos9">https://www.wsj.com/articles/republicans-are-souring-on-trumps-antics-11606238991?mod=opinion_lead_pos9</a></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><i>Illumination by Kathy Brahney</i></b></p></div>Michael J. McCarthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883623204335260738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75214831655568750.post-8926389322005088132020-11-02T19:07:00.001-05:002020-11-02T19:15:31.866-05:00<p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidfPad0bK8iQWAarBWBTIbRZjRH_G5-ZGYsem3DXdfdHarovWcGLtns2Sq6oSYEOohYUHeSLG8kmYiDkGFKNIaKhnyWZW60BlYG63EDVSNaVYW2OGkQytREfyJUFgSQYEHiQXm_6j_ce0/s640/refugees+%2526+whale+-+Kathys-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="446" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidfPad0bK8iQWAarBWBTIbRZjRH_G5-ZGYsem3DXdfdHarovWcGLtns2Sq6oSYEOohYUHeSLG8kmYiDkGFKNIaKhnyWZW60BlYG63EDVSNaVYW2OGkQytREfyJUFgSQYEHiQXm_6j_ce0/w446-h640/refugees+%2526+whale+-+Kathys-2.jpg" width="446" /></a></div><i><div style="text-align: center;"><i>OUR SHIP OF STATE IN TROUBLE - illumination by Kathy Brahney</i></div></i><p><br /></p><p>My article, Who to Choose, to Truly Respect Life? - as appears in the online Times Herald.</p><p><a href="https://www.thetimesherald.com/story/opinion/2020/10/23/mccarthy-respect-each-other-despite-divisions-religion-class-race-politics/3741610001/">https://www.thetimesherald.com/story/opinion/2020/10/23/mccarthy-respect-each-other-despite-divisions-religion-class-race-politics/3741610001/</a></p>Michael J. McCarthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883623204335260738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75214831655568750.post-53296397081923832012020-08-24T17:11:00.003-04:002020-08-24T17:25:28.940-04:00THE ATTEMPT TO WALL OUT SUFFERING, WILL ONLY BRING MISERY TO OURSELVES<p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj14CrrXix_TEBp1duj3FfYUoORWdEM3ZKcqR__Lr23adRAccAKS_2TlyI50Q2Eqfj8G521CPSYcvc-n-3bKh1wWg1_B8OSv5rpq-6ScpiSUXwTcvk7UkVg99Est6JElUhFgXRD6262tNc/s1024/_106211927_tv053212918.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj14CrrXix_TEBp1duj3FfYUoORWdEM3ZKcqR__Lr23adRAccAKS_2TlyI50Q2Eqfj8G521CPSYcvc-n-3bKh1wWg1_B8OSv5rpq-6ScpiSUXwTcvk7UkVg99Est6JElUhFgXRD6262tNc/s640/_106211927_tv053212918.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"><i>Reuters photo from the El Paso border detentions</i></p><p>Today I post updates to the immigration situation at our border, and how the Statue of Liberty has been turned on her head. We close our gates and hearts to refugees at our own peril. A gated community dies from within. Joe Biden is not a perfect candidate, but read carefully the 8-24-20 Wall Street Journal article which contrasts his immigration stance against the current administration's policies that have appealed to racism and fear.</p><h1 class="wsj-article-headline" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: "escrow condensed"; line-height: 1em; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;">Joe Biden Would Likely Use a Familiar Tool—Executive Powers—to Reverse Trump Immigration Policies</span> <span style="font-size: medium;"> </span><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/joe-biden-would-likely-use-a-familiar-toolexecutive-powersto-reverse-trump-immigration-policies-11598108400?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=1"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://www.wsj.com/articles/joe-biden-would-likely-use-a-familiar-toolexecutive-powersto-reverse-trump-immigration-policies-11598108400?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=1</span></a></h1><p>And more links to articles with the details of the current immigration crisis --</p><p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/19/us/coronavirus-texas-rio-grande-valley.html">Vulnerable Border Community Battles Virus on ‘A Straight Up Trajectory’ - The New https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/19/us/coronavirus-texas-rio-grande-valley.htm</a>l</p><p>PBS video tells a difficult story.<a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/a-firsthand-report-of-inhumane-conditions-at-a-migrant-childrens-detention-facility?fbclid=IwAR15mz6MT6LsZ5yb0QMAQy6_I1VyPV81uHNwoX0aOEziJ3JxTh-DZtN0iLc"> https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/a-firsthand-report-of-inhumane-conditions-at-a-migrant-childrens-detention-facility?fbclid=IwAR15mz6MT6LsZ5yb0QMAQy6_I1VyPV81uHNwoX0aOEziJ3JxTh-DZtN0iLc</a></p><p>Failed policies, even in their quest to be impervious. <i> After a Lull, the Number of Migrants Trying to Enter the U.S. Has Soared - The New York Times </i> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/06/world/americas/mexico-immigration-usa.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/06/world/americas/mexico-immigration-usa.html</a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtdlWJ9Jvw1KbGy-1cZVO7Yu4HuEK5vtzxZvcvLNIJBLq1P2gzKiscLfqpLuX3YFffUIyNA6RI6qlNGt-chJ5zWUGeKJjGYpWWb0sp5MgGZ4F6GECUM_4x_QFPE3I4Y9KGtA03zM1N7oI/s2048/05mexico-migration2sub-superJumbo.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtdlWJ9Jvw1KbGy-1cZVO7Yu4HuEK5vtzxZvcvLNIJBLq1P2gzKiscLfqpLuX3YFffUIyNA6RI6qlNGt-chJ5zWUGeKJjGYpWWb0sp5MgGZ4F6GECUM_4x_QFPE3I4Y9KGtA03zM1N7oI/s640/05mexico-migration2sub-superJumbo.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p><i><span aria-hidden="true" class="css-16f3y1r e13ogyst0" face="" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #666666; font-size: 0.9375rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.25rem; margin: 0px 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; vertical-align: baseline;">The Mexico side of the border wall in Nogales. In remote areas, far from cities, the wall becomes a fence, or sometimes no barrier at all.</span><span class="css-cnj6d5 e1z0qqy90" face="" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #888888; display: inline; font-size: 0.8125rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.01em; line-height: 1.125rem; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0" style="border: 0px; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 1px; line-height: inherit; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-size-adjust: 100%; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px;">Credit...</span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; vertical-align: baseline;">Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times</span></span></i></p><p><b>Hovering the cursor on a link turns it blue, and ready to go to the article indicated.</b></p>Michael J. McCarthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883623204335260738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75214831655568750.post-63968344398861969832020-08-10T16:40:00.004-04:002020-08-10T18:10:07.596-04:00NUCLEAR WEAPONS--THE MOST DESTRUCTIVE TAR BABY OF ALL TIME<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju3akARrSTtzypxyKhYymcdPFE6XLzOstnHV3lcevZ-RF5Ezh3FOpXTM9_OYGQKhM2TdUcQC-8IatGG366E47nt69orOLDjOKzo2SlInxXNPoRGk0ne5kjman2pdJr4_9m7SxPkMol3Pc/s550/Bomb.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="396" data-original-width="550" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju3akARrSTtzypxyKhYymcdPFE6XLzOstnHV3lcevZ-RF5Ezh3FOpXTM9_OYGQKhM2TdUcQC-8IatGG366E47nt69orOLDjOKzo2SlInxXNPoRGk0ne5kjman2pdJr4_9m7SxPkMol3Pc/s0/Bomb.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><h3 style="background-color: #fed141; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #363636; font-family: roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 38px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"The (nuclear) arms race is an utterly treacherous trap for humanity, and one which ensnares the poor to an intolerable degree.” </h3><p style="background-color: #fed141; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #363636; font-family: roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.7; margin: 0px 0px 10px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">- Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes (The Church in the Modern World,) no. 81</p></div><div>Fr. Richard McSorley S.J., a respected Jesuit at Georgetown University, with whom my daughter Maura worked for a while there, wrote an article in 1977 Sojourners magazine, "<a href="https://sojo.net/magazine/february-1977/its-sin-build-nuclear-weapon">It is a Sin to Build a Nuclear Weapon."</a> Time is running out on our charge to heed his admonition, and free ourselves from these nuclear shackles, these occasions of mortal sin. There is renewed hope.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQnPKMh7RVTseLA7jmH6brGIjA1dvLT6h_ud79rWu9PbUnexps9W1tVz-GG_gmYwzuDlJGiP3BmN1jvKrJCdmLeZENiDqLE4ejDmHojYWXzCj1FREwOf3Qx8-G8IS7jpUAUfwNm-AZBFY/s2048/IMG_0120.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1535" data-original-width="2048" height="126" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQnPKMh7RVTseLA7jmH6brGIjA1dvLT6h_ud79rWu9PbUnexps9W1tVz-GG_gmYwzuDlJGiP3BmN1jvKrJCdmLeZENiDqLE4ejDmHojYWXzCj1FREwOf3Qx8-G8IS7jpUAUfwNm-AZBFY/w168-h126/IMG_0120.jpg" width="168" /></a></div>e've just past the 75<sup>th</sup> anniversary of the only,
and devastating, uses of nuclear weapons in our world’s history thus far—Aug 6<sup>th</sup>
and 9<sup>th</sup> in Japan. Thanks be
to God, and a good number of people’s common sense. How much longer will political power hunger
continue to subject us to the danger of mass self-destruction? I hope you will spend some time with these
references, and take action to support the initiatives that at minimum reinstate
the treaties that now help hold back Armageddon. and then further, to support the 2017
UN resolution [Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons] demands, ban all nuclear weapons, before resumed use ends life as
we know it. The Covid 19 pandemic is
bad. Nuclear war would be so much worse. <div><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><i><b>A Pope Francis Holy Card</b></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjycjWjP8xZqbcgMY_FUCCyVsWY4pPdLCCi5d7c5rvIMUbgv7QdoXq46WJzshAo1zuthb4eC8Jf6yQMOl207PffUJ-qdM9fCM6zSpW5bJ-eDvv5NSScSlsgpxCxIeXvp9rQH1Lgit8tvrQ/s2048/Pope+Francis+Hiroshima+card019.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1378" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjycjWjP8xZqbcgMY_FUCCyVsWY4pPdLCCi5d7c5rvIMUbgv7QdoXq46WJzshAo1zuthb4eC8Jf6yQMOl207PffUJ-qdM9fCM6zSpW5bJ-eDvv5NSScSlsgpxCxIeXvp9rQH1Lgit8tvrQ/s640/Pope+Francis+Hiroshima+card019.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><b><br /></b></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><b>Pray and Act -- Ora et Labora</b></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>What we can do to make a more peace filled future</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: left;">The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, ICAN, won the Noble Peace Prize in 2017.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.icanw.org/">https://www.icanw.org/</a> -- Join them..</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #0000ee; text-decoration-line: underline;">A film to promote discussion - <a href=" https://youtu.be/qzWyYuYLxlM ">The Beginning of the End of Nuclear Weapons</a> - {submitted by Marty Habalewsky of our Blue Water Pax Christi group}</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><b><br /></b></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #0000ee; text-decoration-line: underline;"><h1 class="title style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" style="background: rgb(249, 249, 249); border: 0px; color: var(--ytd-video-primary-info-renderer-title-color, var(--yt-spec-text-primary)); font-family: roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: var(--ytd-video-primary-info-renderer-title-font-size, var(--yt-navbar-title-font-size, inherit)); line-height: var(--yt-navbar-title-line-height, 2.4rem); margin: 0px; max-height: calc(2 * var(--yt-navbar-title-line-height, 2.4rem)); overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; text-shadow: var(--ytd-video-primary-info-renderer-title-text-shadow, none); transform: var(--ytd-video-primary-info-renderer-title-transform, none);"><i>References</i></h1><h1 class="title style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" style="background: rgb(249, 249, 249); border: 0px; color: var(--ytd-video-primary-info-renderer-title-color, var(--yt-spec-text-primary)); font-family: roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: var(--ytd-video-primary-info-renderer-title-font-size, var(--yt-navbar-title-font-size, inherit)); font-weight: 400; line-height: var(--yt-navbar-title-line-height, 2.4rem); margin: 0px; max-height: calc(2 * var(--yt-navbar-title-line-height, 2.4rem)); overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; text-shadow: var(--ytd-video-primary-info-renderer-title-text-shadow, none); transform: var(--ytd-video-primary-info-renderer-title-transform, none);"><a href="https://www.ploughshares.org/issues-analysis/article/real-lessons-trinity-and-hiroshima" style="background-color: transparent;">https://www.ploughshares.org/issues-analysis/article/real-lessons-trinity-and-hiroshima</a></h1></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;">A book review on this spiritual problem - </span><a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/risk-cross-reckons-our-nuclear-danger" style="text-align: left;">https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/risk-cross-reckons-our-nuclear-danger</a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/05/world/asia/hiroshima-japan-75th-anniversary.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/05/world/asia/hiroshima-japan-75th-anniversary.html</a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/06/world/asia/hiroshima-japan-setsuko-thurlow.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/06/world/asia/hiroshima-japan-setsuko-thurlow.html</a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">A video of Pope Francis' message that needs to be taken to heart, esp. here in the USA</div><h1 class="title style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" style="background: rgb(249, 249, 249); border: 0px; color: var(--ytd-video-primary-info-renderer-title-color, var(--yt-spec-text-primary)); font-family: roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-weight: 400; line-height: var(--yt-navbar-title-line-height, 2.4rem); margin: 0px; max-height: calc(2 * var(--yt-navbar-title-line-height, 2.4rem)); overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; text-shadow: var(--ytd-video-primary-info-renderer-title-text-shadow, none); transform: var(--ytd-video-primary-info-renderer-title-transform, none);"><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" force-default-style="" style="word-break: break-word;">Pope in Hiroshima: nuclear weapons are immoral <span style="font-size: small;"> </span></yt-formatted-string><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pChlH2SH2gw&feature=emb_rel_end" style="background-color: transparent;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pChlH2SH2gw&feature=emb_rel_end</a></span></h1><h1 class="title style-scope ytd-video-primary-info-renderer" style="background: rgb(249, 249, 249); border: 0px; color: var(--ytd-video-primary-info-renderer-title-color, var(--yt-spec-text-primary)); font-family: roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-weight: 400; line-height: var(--yt-navbar-title-line-height, 2.4rem); margin: 0px; max-height: calc(2 * var(--yt-navbar-title-line-height, 2.4rem)); overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; text-shadow: var(--ytd-video-primary-info-renderer-title-text-shadow, none); transform: var(--ytd-video-primary-info-renderer-title-transform, none);"><br /></h1></div><div><a href="https://banmonitor.org/two-year-status#:~:text=Nuclear%20Ban%20Monitor%20%7C%20Global%20status%20of%20the%20TPNW&text=The%20TPNW%20was%20adopted%20on,favour%20of%20the%20Treaty's%20adoption.">Current global status of UN nations' support for the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons</a> --<b>two thirds</b>. -- counting yet none of the world's nuclear weapons possessors. </div><div><br /></div><div>Don't let the world backslide on nuclear disarmament as our current administration intends - From the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops - <a class="icon-link-ext" href="https://www.votervoice.net/USCCB/campaigns/75604/respond" style="border: 0px; box-shadow: none; box-sizing: inherit; color: #1a6aa9; font-family: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;">Action Alert: Tell Your Members of Congress to Extend New START and Reduce the Nuclear Threat!</a></div><div><a href="https://www.votervoice.net/USCCB/campaigns/75604/respond">https://www.votervoice.net/USCCB/campaigns/75604/res</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>Illumination by Kathy Brahney</i></b></div><div><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div><b><i>Hovering cursor on grey texts reveals links for click</i></b></div><div><br /></div><div><span face="" style="background-color: white; color: white; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 38px; font-weight: 700; text-align: center;">Commemorate the 75 Years Since Nuclear Attacks: Tell Congress to Support Nuclear Nonproliferation.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span face="" style="background-color: white; color: white; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 38px; font-weight: 700; text-align: center;">Commemorate the 75 Years Since Nuclear Attacks: Tell Congress to Support Nuclear Nonproliferation.</span></div>Michael J. McCarthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883623204335260738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75214831655568750.post-26830908765879798012020-08-04T18:02:00.005-04:002020-08-17T18:53:55.012-04:00FRENCH COUNTRY PRIEST--DESERTED WAR<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJdfeDfaalFLSFJijZOEUSm_nwP7Xe2VRgIHWg9DjeQo9QqaXXxREqkGO1yt9VJmu2q_xYv_1hOOJNhQOFquwFvMtS4fpzYas_thXBlh3ELfam2QyQO6IIYrBh20_i7irsE0zrFFPTkdc/s895/john-vianney-551cb385-427a-4134-8be3-cc39f10abbb-resize-750.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="895" data-original-width="605" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJdfeDfaalFLSFJijZOEUSm_nwP7Xe2VRgIHWg9DjeQo9QqaXXxREqkGO1yt9VJmu2q_xYv_1hOOJNhQOFquwFvMtS4fpzYas_thXBlh3ELfam2QyQO6IIYrBh20_i7irsE0zrFFPTkdc/s640/john-vianney-551cb385-427a-4134-8be3-cc39f10abbb-resize-750.png" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">When I was in 8<sup>th</sup> grade thinking of becoming a priest,
I read a short book on the life of St. John Vianney, the Cure of Ars.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was a simple parish priest in France, and
a child at the time of the French revolution, who was a mediocre preacher, yet sought out by a multitude of pilgrims to his remote parish, for his compassion and advice in
the confessional, and as a counselor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’d
spend 12-16 hours a day giving absolution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">That was all I knew of him, a good solid unassuming model for
the priesthood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today I’ve learned on
his feast day, that he was also a conscientious objector to war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This wasn’t mentioned in the book, or any of
the other articles I’ve read on him through the years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our Sunday Visitor [a national Catholic publication
I’ve come to respect for its balance] has a short note on him as their saint of
this week:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“<i>His studies were
interrupted when he was drafted into the army to fight in the Napoleonic Wars.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Deserting, he returned home and when to Lyons
seminary.</i>” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">There are so many saints who’ve chosen to follow the way of
Jesus out of the fog of war, “Put away the sword.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’re seldom told the full measure of their
stories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The duty of defending the
countries of the world is redeemed by our God who comes to earth saving us by
dying on a cross, rising <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>beyond all worldly
kingdoms, defeating death by loving and forgiving the enemy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Death is not the end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you believe?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A young man, who was to become a small town
priest in war torn France, visited by multitudes for his straight forward wisdom,
knew the answer.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> More recent conscientious objectors</o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/07/12/germfask-michigan-american-siberia-world-war-2/5168666002/"></a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2VulAaNATWbtth7bAmqVBRV4eirDNUS8ygB2eK6TmmXzwzG6MnpfKRMijaT3GAc14UdYlz7LCZfxGCz5S4xGMzN7v2xIH3cm6-ejRm7xRD4VZuYTuaY2XOBjHSSjkE0IRCN5MpMH-lY0/s540/Jane+Kopecky%252C+author--World+War+II+Conscientious+Objectors+Germfask%252C+Michigan%252C+The+Alcatraz+Camp--%252C+next+to+the+Camp+Germfask+CCC+camp+sign--Photo%252C+Susanne+Barr.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="349" data-original-width="540" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2VulAaNATWbtth7bAmqVBRV4eirDNUS8ygB2eK6TmmXzwzG6MnpfKRMijaT3GAc14UdYlz7LCZfxGCz5S4xGMzN7v2xIH3cm6-ejRm7xRD4VZuYTuaY2XOBjHSSjkE0IRCN5MpMH-lY0/s0/Jane+Kopecky%252C+author--World+War+II+Conscientious+Objectors+Germfask%252C+Michigan%252C+The+Alcatraz+Camp--%252C+next+to+the+Camp+Germfask+CCC+camp+sign--Photo%252C+Susanne+Barr.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #646464; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-weight: 700; text-align: start;">Jane Kopecky, author or "World War II Conscientious Objectors Germfask, Michigan, The Alcatraz Camp", next to the Camp Germfask CCC camp sign.</span><span style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #646464; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-weight: 700; text-align: start;"> </span><span class="credit" style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #646464; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; text-align: start;">(Photo: Susanne Barr</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>A
recent article in Times Herald, and Detroit Free Press tells of a little
known camp in the U.P. for conscientious objectors in WWII—and mentions there
were 151 of these work camps throughout the country, with some 12,000 C.O.s<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>interned. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPi6mhGYgGCzrRqW6XxJv5n3bOvNDFHP50S64bLSofOxS9hhfL5X5-O0181xLHiok5TMxIaHXT-GMHDtGN6ZfPZofAgwHp8f98et8UKozCo03XcWzCL28gzy3Rrz7QYYFaMjE4Vmr_Jyk/s540/Sol+Gadol%252C+New+York%252C+hauls+fuel+wood+into+one+of+the+buildings+at+the+camp-+Wood+cutting+was+one+of+the+important+jobs+at+the+camp-+Photo+Escanaba+Daily+Press+handout.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="540" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPi6mhGYgGCzrRqW6XxJv5n3bOvNDFHP50S64bLSofOxS9hhfL5X5-O0181xLHiok5TMxIaHXT-GMHDtGN6ZfPZofAgwHp8f98et8UKozCo03XcWzCL28gzy3Rrz7QYYFaMjE4Vmr_Jyk/s0/Sol+Gadol%252C+New+York%252C+hauls+fuel+wood+into+one+of+the+buildings+at+the+camp-+Wood+cutting+was+one+of+the+important+jobs+at+the+camp-+Photo+Escanaba+Daily+Press+handout.jpg" /></a></div><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><i>Sol Gadol, New York, hauls fuel wood into one of the buildings at the camp- Wood cutting was one of the important jobs at the camp- Photo Escanaba Daily Press handout.</i></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Because of good example and encouragement by many, including
a priest in a rural parish with farmers and migrant farmworkers, I became a C.O. during
the Vietnam War. <o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaWmvQ2kTu8BXak0tQ715e8DuizX-ColnzIY1fhSvDYLhH8iQIQnvuCOsoyB96eUQD6-QiU1txKqDF0FtGvTTpjFzIFxwsiQwFtk49v33ix-mQmR6tvxixuXPbPXQOwjixkfWW17TeUF8/s1729/my+draft+card003.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1391" data-original-width="1729" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaWmvQ2kTu8BXak0tQ715e8DuizX-ColnzIY1fhSvDYLhH8iQIQnvuCOsoyB96eUQD6-QiU1txKqDF0FtGvTTpjFzIFxwsiQwFtk49v33ix-mQmR6tvxixuXPbPXQOwjixkfWW17TeUF8/w410-h330/my+draft+card003.jpg" width="410" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><i>References</i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-john-vianney/"><span style="color: blue;">https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-john-vianney/</span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
is the usual biography, made more complete by the Our Sunday Visitor entry in their
Aug. 2-8, 2020 issue.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><a href="https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/07/12/germfask-michigan-american-siberia-world-war-2/5168666002/">https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/07/12/germfask-michigan-american-siberia-world-war-2/5168666002/</a><o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><o:p> </o:p></i></p><br />Michael J. McCarthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883623204335260738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75214831655568750.post-55736088636932850992020-07-19T17:55:00.001-04:002020-07-19T18:02:16.018-04:00DIALOGUE ON TRUTH, IN A TIME OF FAKE NEWS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i><a href="https://www.cjr.org/first_person/beyond-the-truth-o-meter.php">From Columbia Journalism Review</a></i></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b>A dialogue continued from my article two weeks ago on the
problems of discerning truth in the media, <a href="https://mccarthysweekly-paxvobiscum.blogspot.com/2020/07/fourth-of-july-advisorybeware-father-of.html">FOURTH
OF JULY ADVISORY—BEWARE THE FATHER OF ALL LIES.</a> It came from a long-time friend at our local
St. Mary parish who often takes the time to respond to my messages. Jim is a conservative, competent,
compassionate businessman who has travelled widely. Our viewpoints are often different, but our
discussions remain thoughtful and respectful.
That’s a blessing.</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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Mike,<o:p></o:p></div>
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I see you’ve started writing a bit of comedy.<o:p></o:p></div>
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“If good reliable sources of news can be regularly
discredited, then we are hostages to the political leadership.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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Haha, “good reliable sources of news”. Funny stuff.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Name one...<o:p></o:p></div>
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Your friend,<o:p></o:p></div>
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Jim<o:p></o:p></div>
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Jim,<o:p></o:p></div>
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WSJ, the AP, and NYT, and NPR on the airwaves. They
have journalistic standards and editors who guard the store in terms of
reliable, confirmed stories. Respectable journalism does exist in a
few national and local newspapers. None are absolutely infallible, but
these, and others like the San Jose Mercury News, have good editors, and a very
good record. These all contrast the liberal and conservative perspectives
in search of the truth. If we have no trustworthy news, we have no democracy.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Your friend,<o:p></o:p></div>
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Mike<o:p></o:p></div>
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Mike,<o:p></o:p></div>
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I do not trust much that comes from any of the
organizations you name, especially the NY Times (the “old gray lady” died
decades ago) , and I do not know the San Jose Mercury News. In fact, I don’t
trust much of anything that is reported in the media today, and that includes
Fox News if you’re wondering.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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They’re all in the same boat. It’s all entertainment and
sensationalism.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
They should not have to balance the liberal and
conservative views. In news reporting there should NOT be any liberal or conservative
views. It is news. It is facts. They should be reporting the facts. Facts and
truth do not have a liberal or conservative bent to it. It is what it is. Tell
us what happened and only tell us what happened. Nothing more and nothing less.
Show us the pictures and the video and let us decide what we want to do with
that information. Let the viewer decide what to think of it.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Do not try and tell me your opinion or your side of the
issue. Get rid of these so-called “panels of experts” (I love the word
“expert”. It tells me that the person is nothing more than an “ex-spurt” if you
know what I mean) and just tell us what is happening in the world without a
slant right or left.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Journalism is dead in this country and has been for
years. They all want to be the next Woodward and Bernstein. So called
journalists today are all about trying to catch someone doing something wrong
and to be the “first” to get the story told. Even if that story is untrue or
they don’t know all the facts. It is more important to be first than to be
correct. No one reports the news anymore, they try to invent it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It is unfortunate as the country does need a news source
(I agree with you there) and none exist at the moment. All of today’s media
outlets are nothing more than vendors selling a product. Every one of them. And
do you know what that product is? It is you and me. We are the product. We are
sold by the networks to advertisers when they show them their ratings. They
tell them they have “X” number of millions of viewers or listeners and that
they should advertise on their network. We are the product, the media is the
vendor, and the advertiser is the customer. So they try to make the news as
sensational as possible in order to raise their viewership numbers and sell
their air time to the advertisers.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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What a person has to do today is read and watch many
sources and decide for themselves what makes sense. Do not blindly listen and
believe. Be a skeptic and dig further. And use what is in such short supply
today…. common sense. If a story seems unreal or unlikely then it probably is.
I try to do that but at times I have to step back from any news before it
drives me crazy.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Your friend,</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Jim<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Jim,<o:p></o:p></div>
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I don't have quite the negative view
that you have on the character of many of our reporters and news agencies, but
agree with your premise and sentiment, and commitment to do our own diligent
search for the facts. I've read your note here just after having written
my latest web article which I think you'll appreciate. Would you agree to
my adding your words here to my article as a guest commentator of often
different opinions than my own?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Your friend,<o:p></o:p></div>
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Mike<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>Jim agrees to my publishing our back and forth on this
issue, and, after his read of my second article on the subject of the media, <a href="https://mccarthysweekly-paxvobiscum.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-truth-whole-truth-and-nothing-but.html">THE
TRUTH THE WHOLE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH?,</a> responded—<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Well written, Mike. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Jim<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>May all of us keep striving to reach some common ground
on the problems that confront our country and world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Grounded in the truth, firm yet forgiving, so
help us God.</b></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>Jesus before Pilate - "What is Truth?"</i></div>
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Michael J. McCarthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883623204335260738noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75214831655568750.post-59836224711548906182020-07-13T16:09:00.000-04:002020-07-13T16:09:51.463-04:00THE TRUTH THE WHOLE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1EV26oSLXd93LACz5x91lU6AwYoTo69kYSlaMPkJ4ug5wE7naVsFyjSSMR3gONIVRcljt9tqk9QvAqwTYzGhIRn5rJapOnKCGY99ASxMuhweb2PI6LFHC4Bd2M73Dm8R5JbC3T4nPIH4/s1600/PJ_2020.01.24_media-polarization_2-01.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="816" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1EV26oSLXd93LACz5x91lU6AwYoTo69kYSlaMPkJ4ug5wE7naVsFyjSSMR3gONIVRcljt9tqk9QvAqwTYzGhIRn5rJapOnKCGY99ASxMuhweb2PI6LFHC4Bd2M73Dm8R5JbC3T4nPIH4/s640/PJ_2020.01.24_media-polarization_2-01.png" width="326" /></a></div>
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<i><a href="https://www.journalism.org/2020/01/24/americans-are-divided-by-party-in-the-sources-they-turn-to-for-political-news/pj_2020-01-24_media-polarization_2-01/"><span style="color: blue;">From the Pew Research Center website - 1-17-20</span></a></i></div>
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Discerning truth in our times of prolific fragmented media
can be very difficult.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a drawn out
discussion with my nephew this past weekend, we went back and forth on whether
Fox News commentators, or NYT and WSJ editors, were to be trusted for the
facts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s a committed young evangelical
pastor in South Florida who believes very much in Jesus, and also that
President Trump is the best choice to lead our country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our faith in God is the same, the way in which
God would have us direct our political lives starkly different, as are our
sources of information. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx2kbm9KRfbESCNI5tVqknQ6jQ1wq0V2eW6hws8f1oeV9L5crDTdyY-oVXKTKQrE92J7mHY7gvWyQQqEvUMXLcoC_KAnwAzBFOSAFRk2zB8Kw4u-wbXPL_4SPDYuqXvx3o1uoLkNKqflk/s1600/IMG_0128.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1544" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx2kbm9KRfbESCNI5tVqknQ6jQ1wq0V2eW6hws8f1oeV9L5crDTdyY-oVXKTKQrE92J7mHY7gvWyQQqEvUMXLcoC_KAnwAzBFOSAFRk2zB8Kw4u-wbXPL_4SPDYuqXvx3o1uoLkNKqflk/s200/IMG_0128.jpg" width="192" /></a></div>
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t is problematic for us people of faith to confront parts
of our traditions, and secular histories, that are myth, or misdirections of
true faith in a merciful nonviolent God of unconditional love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God’s truth can open the way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The way of Jesus is not the way of the
world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are all caught between this world
or Jesus ways in countless little decisions we face each day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can help discover ever more of God’s love and
mercy in our lives, or we can try to conquer and overwhelm truth playing into
the hands of evil means because we think our goals, personal or as a country,
are so important.</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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The mass media, relying on seductive fleeting audiovisual messages
that you must follow at their speed with little time for reflection, has brought
us to a dangerous juncture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Print media
is being abandoned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet when you read,
you can much better compare and substantiate the opinion you are forming and its
factual basis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Words have to stay there in
front of you, ready while you determine their worth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXlDg3zmcM6a1F24HAjJ0n1_Re3uQRqFtj-JODFaoMwO7Yl6HLti-2gHHKSXZJwX4a-mlSNkMi6ZJf9-EDts0v7GQS-QTR43EKS3qRwqOr87MddWfPrVp14yElmN9J0m3zwPLy5-Mmy3c/s1600/fact.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="174" data-original-width="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXlDg3zmcM6a1F24HAjJ0n1_Re3uQRqFtj-JODFaoMwO7Yl6HLti-2gHHKSXZJwX4a-mlSNkMi6ZJf9-EDts0v7GQS-QTR43EKS3qRwqOr87MddWfPrVp14yElmN9J0m3zwPLy5-Mmy3c/s1600/fact.jpg" /></a></div>
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Video seeing and hearing on an electronic screen is not
believing. The truth required for belief
takes much deeper thought, work and prayer.
Consider all the alternatives. Take
time to make up your mind and heart. Then
may we be given the courage to act positively on our decisions.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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We need to be well informed, researching and comparing
sources, listening to and contrasting information presented by the other sides
on issues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wise as serpents gentle as
doves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sheep of responsibility, following
the Good Shepherd, and not the blind purveyors of the latest powerful political
product line.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUAOzL1F9EB_U9NorApFZTyVCu6Xcj6eg5wAzBO80EB1KqIWza19Uk8m1JcvPFvIsQ42z48JqmrtcqlaxHK9rqdewTfudXUDDNkToRrF5_5TyTGj9-FVvuaGMAkk-Z99Th8y-dAwGEpo8/s1600/sheperds+voice.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUAOzL1F9EB_U9NorApFZTyVCu6Xcj6eg5wAzBO80EB1KqIWza19Uk8m1JcvPFvIsQ42z48JqmrtcqlaxHK9rqdewTfudXUDDNkToRrF5_5TyTGj9-FVvuaGMAkk-Z99Th8y-dAwGEpo8/s400/sheperds+voice.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq6yaWsoDKVTRw-WQHUYMDQZab9fXJdp3cYOycJCYtUjlQQTLfl1OUKh4JzcJG21p1F6IcLPCyl_pjDQ2rOGoXyewZJGH_k5X_28GV-4hrKCpbu5hHzc6X72F6P2gzMvUlPasPLyZVIHU/s1600/sheperds+voice+competition.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="195" data-original-width="260" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq6yaWsoDKVTRw-WQHUYMDQZab9fXJdp3cYOycJCYtUjlQQTLfl1OUKh4JzcJG21p1F6IcLPCyl_pjDQ2rOGoXyewZJGH_k5X_28GV-4hrKCpbu5hHzc6X72F6P2gzMvUlPasPLyZVIHU/s400/sheperds+voice+competition.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Op-ed on media bias by the Columbia Journalism Review</i></div>
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<a href="https://www.cjr.org/opinion/bias-journalism.php">https://www.cjr.org/opinion/bias-journalism.php</a></div>
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<i>From CJR also, article on TV commentator affiliation disclosure</i></div>
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<a href="https://www.cjr.org/analysis/state-of-the-union-commentators.php">https://www.cjr.org/analysis/state-of-the-union-commentators.php</a></div>
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<i><b><br /></b></i></div>
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<i><b>Illumination by Kathy Brahney</b></i></div>
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Michael J. McCarthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883623204335260738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75214831655568750.post-4492677160794033162020-07-07T16:27:00.000-04:002020-07-07T16:32:03.056-04:00FOURTH OF JULY ADVISORY—BEWARE THE FATHER OF ALL LIES<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE0fKGbFYpQb235coUiZVp2qjLzAj3619LqJ-O2RA5nOjAO5-8SH45cAypTXz65DqDXYZX2-sXrYqOsY_eFOJ6aeWjj-F53vqdFeoBMS086b9ABkrdEgWBU8vKrKKs7gKkzoNESa-30jM/s1600/download.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="265" data-original-width="190" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE0fKGbFYpQb235coUiZVp2qjLzAj3619LqJ-O2RA5nOjAO5-8SH45cAypTXz65DqDXYZX2-sXrYqOsY_eFOJ6aeWjj-F53vqdFeoBMS086b9ABkrdEgWBU8vKrKKs7gKkzoNESa-30jM/s400/download.png" width="285" /></a></div>
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<br />
Does anyone remember reading in George Orwell’s “1984” about
the memory holes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Out of print, shredded,
down a hole—it virtually never happened—out of sight out of mind erased from
the public consciousness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Modernize this
with current electronic media manipulation possibilities and the massive amount
of mind-diversion info flooding towards us daily, and you have an informed-democracy
destroying poison.<br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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This national administration’s outcry of “fake news”
whenever its script is challenged, has an eerie ring to it, often creating a
real fake news in its own crying wolf.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If
good reliable sources of news can be regularly discredited, then we are hostages
to the political leadership.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This tactic
has been employed all too often worldwide and in the land of the free.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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It was first made most obvious to me, and those paying attention,
in the Iran-Contra trials of the mid-1980’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Colonel Oliver North testified [paraphrased] -- I lied to serve my
country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He, and many others, promoted
the concept of disinformation as a common acceptable method for achieving
America’s valued objectives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Disinformation directed outwardly, and also towards our own nation’s
citizenry.<br />
<br /></div>
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But to quote Jesus, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.”<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"> </span>We must be on guard
against disinformation, another tool of the father of all lies. It’s a
free press, a balanced search for the facts, and a full gospel of justice and mercy faithfully lived, that can
make us a free people.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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A balanced bio on Oliver North</div>
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<a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-03-01-mn-7033-story.html">https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-03-01-mn-7033-story.html</a></div>
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More opinions - We all fail to some degree in living the truth [to be continued next week]</div>
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<a href="https://theintercept.com/2018/05/12/oliver-north-nra-iran-contra/">https://theintercept.com/2018/05/12/oliver-north-nra-iran-contra/</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/28/opinion/trump-russia-iran-contra.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/28/opinion/trump-russia-iran-contra.html</a></div>
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Michael J. McCarthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883623204335260738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75214831655568750.post-87047863154017209532020-06-30T22:42:00.000-04:002020-07-01T09:51:38.979-04:00MYSTICAL ETERNAL MOLECULES OF LOVE<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBHdvOEoBijEoZqFXPeSEFwMneHhx3kdt5102rmvNPKLveyPlPlLXEDecFE6dIzBe4lyO5QDFpo5VW3yNX6TPFZqne2d9qlJl-IrOBcbzpKImool4m4BpMIEzBfMJXdQ_S3BVzzsEnuJo/s1600/IMG-0862.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1097" data-original-width="1600" height="438" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBHdvOEoBijEoZqFXPeSEFwMneHhx3kdt5102rmvNPKLveyPlPlLXEDecFE6dIzBe4lyO5QDFpo5VW3yNX6TPFZqne2d9qlJl-IrOBcbzpKImool4m4BpMIEzBfMJXdQ_S3BVzzsEnuJo/s640/IMG-0862.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Painting by Ande Gaines McCarthy - from Hubble telescope photo</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></i></div>
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As we lose our friends and family through death, we must
keep in mind that we are a mystical communion, that surpasses our worldly
existence. This is our Christian faith
and promise. Ande and I sing at more
funerals as we grow older.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Riding past the cemetery this morning after daily mass I see
thousands of headstones. Where are their
souls now? -- miniscule spirit molecules
that have been distributed throughout eternity – important fragments of the
mystical body of Christ – completed personal particles of our common life in
God, forgiveness and love without end, no longer limited by our logic, time,
and space definitions.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCiiLzR0fsJufQFUZhZClwgWk6JsNc7G0l2nRXMxBF_2yFIO_RgIbeVqrs-yeV5_hnNKmdXxITuHC-tegqegxUEBsoTxsp1WilIN5XYFFAxiMd4NaLz_nEQwzOu5Aiefs_o_8BpauamvE/s1600/IMG_0116.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1599" data-original-width="1600" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCiiLzR0fsJufQFUZhZClwgWk6JsNc7G0l2nRXMxBF_2yFIO_RgIbeVqrs-yeV5_hnNKmdXxITuHC-tegqegxUEBsoTxsp1WilIN5XYFFAxiMd4NaLz_nEQwzOu5Aiefs_o_8BpauamvE/s200/IMG_0116.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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rayer for a church striving to live into its new
evangelization.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Lord, send us servant leaders. Priests and other faithful, according to the
Order of Melchizedek steeped in knowledge and tradition, yes. But let us not hitch our star to the hierarchical,
and lose that youthful inclusive closeness to Jesus. Because Our Savior is the servant leader merciful
God model for us all clergy or laity male and female, lowly <b><i>washer of the
feet</i></b> in John’s Gospel—John’s only way of describing the Last Supper Eucharist,
our communion with Jesus.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p><i> Illumination by Kathy Brahney</i></o:p></div>
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Michael J. McCarthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883623204335260738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75214831655568750.post-19530968039349381352020-06-23T08:12:00.000-04:002020-06-23T09:31:43.948-04:00BLESSINGS ON MAURA AND BILL'S WEDDING<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf6Atz1wZhhJfUVpe97bfAB6-kz03jTtphcIqy6vkY8aSe6C6ggTLMjiOn2u6PUdPIUV6PlGbXICyxVfbtTg5_PvnXC4whnFnUGQZWAhAr8uYbbzSL_vzE4izYj1CwSTwlAQIvG2UFHbQ/s1600/Mo+%2526+twins+-+at+wedding.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf6Atz1wZhhJfUVpe97bfAB6-kz03jTtphcIqy6vkY8aSe6C6ggTLMjiOn2u6PUdPIUV6PlGbXICyxVfbtTg5_PvnXC4whnFnUGQZWAhAr8uYbbzSL_vzE4izYj1CwSTwlAQIvG2UFHbQ/s640/Mo+%2526+twins+-+at+wedding.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photos by Graydon Allerton</span></i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiedxgXbCPm8E4J6iO2ncSMCvBNNswJucb9gTKNMZYA86viQGWEsxIRDfjGqjnC2-nCL6MQQOktwMy5y-uL_K4LLRLF7WAsPnA5D19Iml8zP5Z9q9brL6B6PmchLQSM9kWsF2V27torQGk/s1600/C0009_Moment.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiedxgXbCPm8E4J6iO2ncSMCvBNNswJucb9gTKNMZYA86viQGWEsxIRDfjGqjnC2-nCL6MQQOktwMy5y-uL_K4LLRLF7WAsPnA5D19Iml8zP5Z9q9brL6B6PmchLQSM9kWsF2V27torQGk/s640/C0009_Moment.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwc8CNPgAm7jve7QkuMzMxrJr-zmTbrCLJwdHZVOsKjCLm27bKCJXqK5lFbbXUKnIDpZIlMaZn4lDUDtkJFaQy1ym1PRX8m8g_M1IiSbFAsfjO6LteEFVB3x6ZnJLc-sKuE_CAsUzn8po/s1600/s-l640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="448" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwc8CNPgAm7jve7QkuMzMxrJr-zmTbrCLJwdHZVOsKjCLm27bKCJXqK5lFbbXUKnIDpZIlMaZn4lDUDtkJFaQy1ym1PRX8m8g_M1IiSbFAsfjO6LteEFVB3x6ZnJLc-sKuE_CAsUzn8po/s400/s-l640.jpg" width="280" /></a></div>
<br />
The father of the bride’s toast that wasn’t given at the open-air reception after the beautiful front doorstep wedding. A wedding full of sunshine more-so in the present
moment weathering the pandemic.<br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Maura and Bill,<o:p></o:p></div>
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Maura our firstborn:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>From early on we called you Momo, Momocito.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You were a small gift and began, as shot from
a cannon eager to learn and do everything in body mind and spirit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And you’ve come to do so much for so many, by
being inclusive, ingenious, and compassionate.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Bill, I know you certainly less well, but from what I know I
can imagine a wee one bristling with ideas, projects, and the perseverance to
complete them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And you’ve come to
benefit so many with your wealth of talents.<o:p></o:p></div>
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God bless you both now, in your promises, and keep you in
your love that is so generous, creating new possibilities for good innovative
jobs for others, and for more justice and truth in our troubled world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And may we your friends and family help give
life to your efforts.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigyJaTHgIV84CsnIaug31_699eC0h_pBLu8wvaynAls3BdgpwgFYr3scDPp-Uzr2zonvc2_7Xz5-Z1hnqy_ODRc7egWz1PblV-Jfr1TIaWBrjqfMx6NM6xvS3w1fyIJIJLTYo5Bf43Ktw/s1600/WEDDING+CROSS+WITH+RINGS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="434" data-original-width="360" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigyJaTHgIV84CsnIaug31_699eC0h_pBLu8wvaynAls3BdgpwgFYr3scDPp-Uzr2zonvc2_7Xz5-Z1hnqy_ODRc7egWz1PblV-Jfr1TIaWBrjqfMx6NM6xvS3w1fyIJIJLTYo5Bf43Ktw/s200/WEDDING+CROSS+WITH+RINGS.jpg" width="165" /></a></div>
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Some of what they've done thus far --<br />
<a href="https://www.bluhomes.com/">https://www.bluhomes.com/</a> </div>
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<a href="https://www.dragonflytx.com/">https://www.dragonflytx.com/</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.skyhawktx.com/">https://www.skyhawktx.com/</a> initiated by daughter Kathleen.<br />
<a href="https://www.worldconnect-us.org/">https://www.worldconnect-us.org/</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.uncommonproductions.com/">https://www.uncommonproductions.com/</a> plus a number of Bill's previous startups.</div>
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P.S. Ande and my 42nd wedding anniversary is tomorrow. I thank you Jesus, and Ande, for such overwhelming love.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI-O3Tload5lux_EE0qXw1pdE-ftbheq6i6qSquoLGtrMcG6UQYerBfiYjWl9Gc_5qH9gGD8gWJ1X9E6ZM9HXMo0T8anntpJRyN5nniMpfQPpXxnyVpf-hCuC6RzLCebnE0_XoXTVZDAA/s1600/%252527The%252BThree%252BCandels%252527%252Bby%252BMarc%252BChagall%252BPainting%252BPrint%252Bon%252BWrapped%252BCanvas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI-O3Tload5lux_EE0qXw1pdE-ftbheq6i6qSquoLGtrMcG6UQYerBfiYjWl9Gc_5qH9gGD8gWJ1X9E6ZM9HXMo0T8anntpJRyN5nniMpfQPpXxnyVpf-hCuC6RzLCebnE0_XoXTVZDAA/s400/%252527The%252BThree%252BCandels%252527%252Bby%252BMarc%252BChagall%252BPainting%252BPrint%252Bon%252BWrapped%252BCanvas.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Artwork</i></span></span><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> by Chagall</span></i></div>
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Michael J. McCarthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883623204335260738noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75214831655568750.post-61705723361935023392020-06-15T22:15:00.000-04:002020-06-16T20:04:47.597-04:00RIDING THROUGH THE PANDEMIC TO DAILY MASS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZTZl-L7Cve8l56PFJOqlWDdTzFo2EEJYYM9b-z0fZC55Yi7iDKjxq0r3cQxWLIO8g-k50yznd875HdAQ-ODyFAFaLIpKvFidM3WevcKjQBOuVlOb1rwoG6J2eW1FEqXf7buF4Md_dFuA/s1600/unnamed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZTZl-L7Cve8l56PFJOqlWDdTzFo2EEJYYM9b-z0fZC55Yi7iDKjxq0r3cQxWLIO8g-k50yznd875HdAQ-ODyFAFaLIpKvFidM3WevcKjQBOuVlOb1rwoG6J2eW1FEqXf7buF4Md_dFuA/s640/unnamed.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Photo by Michael McCarthy</span></i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ-pS5llN83RSHo7RdTtpxLlF_WkYSnKJxomodGhMkWBx2X-RPxmCFzWJYj2CxD-x7lJubHi8UlJbr_o1npaWBX1kF51egi3fq93FduGW4Z_T5i-864poukHvt_ZoVGE2zTBusPy26Wms/s1600/0_c2co0PkyeFXR7QL6.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="372" data-original-width="672" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ-pS5llN83RSHo7RdTtpxLlF_WkYSnKJxomodGhMkWBx2X-RPxmCFzWJYj2CxD-x7lJubHi8UlJbr_o1npaWBX1kF51egi3fq93FduGW4Z_T5i-864poukHvt_ZoVGE2zTBusPy26Wms/s400/0_c2co0PkyeFXR7QL6.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Riding up the highway to daily mass again this early
morning, the wind is neutral and bike shocks disengaged for easier miles on
main road blacktop shoulder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Five miles
to St. Eds and five miles back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It's one of about 3
different morning mass treks I try to do regularly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mass schedules are fluctuant with the
pandemic, and the priest shortages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Still
good exercise for body and soul.<br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Having been an episodic daily mass goer since early
childhood, I’ve been well blessed with health work and family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Looking about the other faithful attendees
I’ve always thought I was amongst the youngest there, so much grey hair about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now at age 72 I’m still pushing youngest, but
most all of us grey heading towards eternity.<o:p></o:p></div>
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As I pedal along Lake Huron shores I pass by a hundred long
little lanes leading to houses on the lake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These entries wind through the forest that borders the shore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bright green narrow passages each leading to
a sunburst lake household of individual lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Beautiful expensive and difficult to sustain.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhld4sfgRZlYEbAMFDLKWx8w-tHACjNXKsYIUoUWyKq43lbfpu2FpAmgzrtvnHFEjl7sNWMGrfZX1KI99auqJt3a6ck7H1Vp5A3g34ZbMDj6Ae3QiSdVfHPyArnLpo4adWyT_2jsbVAKwA/s1600/IMG_0117.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1497" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhld4sfgRZlYEbAMFDLKWx8w-tHACjNXKsYIUoUWyKq43lbfpu2FpAmgzrtvnHFEjl7sNWMGrfZX1KI99auqJt3a6ck7H1Vp5A3g34ZbMDj6Ae3QiSdVfHPyArnLpo4adWyT_2jsbVAKwA/s200/IMG_0117.JPG" width="186" /></a>n the highway’s other side I see, many less spectacular
dwellings, and two spacious nursing home complexes, open and communal, front
sides blazing in the morning sun, no tree canopy shading access. Many of us are on the route there, together
yet more isolated from the rest of society.<br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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At mass the sun pierces the stained glass, and ancient
scripture enlightens the current political darkness and our individual quandaries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Familiar faces now wear masks to protect each
other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is no sermon, but the
Gospel is from the Sermon on the Mount, my favorite.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God continues to confound, and inspire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this time our Catholic church launches a
New Evangelization to promote this Good News, we are all pummeled with the
pandemic.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In our local parishes a full year before this health crisis,
the intentions of the Prayers of the Faithful, which had invited the people to
voice their personal petitions, have now been sanitized to only the
pre-prepared list. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This verbal social
distancing discourages an evangelical spirit. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With the pandemic the congregation’s interaction
to greet each other with a sign of peace, has been dropped altogether.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The common handshake could have been
supplanted by an open-palmed acknowledgement of each other from our 6 feet
spacings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, we’ve quickly kissed
goodbye to the Kiss of Peace.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic5trl1hXLm-oaumK0bFoYcsC3n10h4YDoUGKjSu9Uvu7xNznRUosLCIDiev7Vcr2sfNFpCdSSFo-Cc6nBC-9gATRqK2oVSPZ0dwEcFteom9va-Xov39Lnchf1hvWBOFsmAf1eMJ1MwyY/s1600/VATICAN+HEART.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic5trl1hXLm-oaumK0bFoYcsC3n10h4YDoUGKjSu9Uvu7xNznRUosLCIDiev7Vcr2sfNFpCdSSFo-Cc6nBC-9gATRqK2oVSPZ0dwEcFteom9va-Xov39Lnchf1hvWBOFsmAf1eMJ1MwyY/s400/VATICAN+HEART.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Skywriting above St. Peters, Rome, Italy</i></span></div>
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So I’m missing some of the “open windows and doors” of
Vatican II inspired church celebrations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Riding the miles home the
wind is at my back, and I’m confident the all-merciful God will heal us all if
we’ll only listen to God’s Word, and live God’s socially unifying justice.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Full disclosure—I live on this lakeshore, in an old-school comfortable
home built in 1925. <i>[First photo above -- taken from our house]</i><o:p></o:p><br />
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<i><b>Illumination by Kathy Brahney</b></i></div>
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Michael J. McCarthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883623204335260738noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75214831655568750.post-54982136878126668112020-06-08T16:51:00.000-04:002020-06-10T14:25:06.194-04:00SAINTS FOR OUR TROUBLED TIMES<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie30RXsWrR6NQa51WZtzsvUhq_bJN8vzwKVRPLFozUXJog4FtoCv2RWBfNpPA43wvboyYvvd20igYf-EhjXqm4ch3M5t8SHD-myjlSvOp2bu2ph5iegu0MiN16gRV79u4nt4zMgLlTMMc/s1600/Franz+Jagerstatter+refused+to+support+the+Nazis%252C+despite+the+pressure+his+village+placed+on+him--Styria+Verlag..jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1038" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie30RXsWrR6NQa51WZtzsvUhq_bJN8vzwKVRPLFozUXJog4FtoCv2RWBfNpPA43wvboyYvvd20igYf-EhjXqm4ch3M5t8SHD-myjlSvOp2bu2ph5iegu0MiN16gRV79u4nt4zMgLlTMMc/s320/Franz+Jagerstatter+refused+to+support+the+Nazis%252C+despite+the+pressure+his+village+placed+on+him--Styria+Verlag..jpg" width="207" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMgpzCN84Eqyi_ZO3D4HWhNFkB7kEegQlQiZPtrJFHG23uXg5HChGkTnTlqaOGXQ5KSR3g1qllnKROqcRN85FgUD-TLzHxVgG6ijBAP_Z84gXxG12pthqoxIgNac2tfhGxPR2w2LtVwAw/s1600/27georgefloyd-articleLarge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="607" data-original-width="451" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMgpzCN84Eqyi_ZO3D4HWhNFkB7kEegQlQiZPtrJFHG23uXg5HChGkTnTlqaOGXQ5KSR3g1qllnKROqcRN85FgUD-TLzHxVgG6ijBAP_Z84gXxG12pthqoxIgNac2tfhGxPR2w2LtVwAw/s320/27georgefloyd-articleLarge.jpg" width="237" /></a><br />
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Franz Jagerstatter -- Born June 7, 1907 -- Executed 1943 refused to support the Nazis, despite the pressure his village placed on him--Styria Verlag.<br />
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George Floyd -- Born 1973</div>
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Died 2020 of police brutality, for passing alleged counterfeit $20 bill. Ex-con, was in Christian ministry, known as "gentle giant."</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2U040EpBMfs68EC7Qtywk4ui2xOO8Q7GeeNFZtACjv3Qz7NNRKnzYfQuqFZXJM9eukinTwkMCexqHf6M35P_5nDG4sEa7tiz6CCmZK0AIO9h-LWNxHMhqewIdV2Q8lqv5C_fFTuGBUvo/s1600/IMG_0128.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1572" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2U040EpBMfs68EC7Qtywk4ui2xOO8Q7GeeNFZtACjv3Qz7NNRKnzYfQuqFZXJM9eukinTwkMCexqHf6M35P_5nDG4sEa7tiz6CCmZK0AIO9h-LWNxHMhqewIdV2Q8lqv5C_fFTuGBUvo/s200/IMG_0128.jpg" width="196" /></a><br />
<br />
<br />
n the world of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_J%C3%A4gerst%C3%A4tter">Franz Jagerstatter</a> it was lethally
dangerous to be resolutely against war. An
Austrian farmer and family man, he was beheaded for refusing to swear the oath
to Hitler during WWII. There’s hope in
his faithful courage. During our present
time it’s dangerous to be black in areas of our country where police authority
is on militarized steroids. Most
recently, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Floyd">George Floyd</a> choked to death, a police knee on his neck. There’s hope in the many overwhelmingly peaceful
demonstrations of outrage, in the USA and elsewhere, with black and white multi-racial
groups demanding significant change of racist policies and hardened autocratic
hearts. Much more needs doing to achieve
a real democracy, with liberty and justice for <u>all.</u></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<u><br /></u></div>
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The feast day of Blessed Franz Jagerstatter is commemorated by the
Franciscans as yesterday June 7.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>[There are <a href="https://acatholiclife.blogspot.com/2005/09/catholic-feast-days.html">multiple Catholic calendars of the saints</a>, Mar. 21 being also listed for Franz.]<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Please see
their <a href="https://www.franciscanmedia.org/blessed-franz-jagerstatter/">summary of his life and death</a>--and return to previous entries of my
own, for further information. There are 52 saints listed on the date of Mar. 21.<o:p></o:p></div>
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There is now an inspiring contemporary full-length film
on Franz, <i><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5827916/">A Hidden Life</a></i>, to complement the more accurately faith-based, 1971
film, <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDvW42iSeVs">The Refusal</a></i>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The poet musician Leonard Cohen sang of the challenge now
brewing for our democracy before his death in 2016.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lyrics below, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU-RuR-qO4Y">song here</a>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>Democracy</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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It's coming through a hole in the air<br />
From those nights in Tiananmen Square<br />
It's coming from the feel<br />
That this ain't exactly real<br />
Or it's real, but it ain't exactly there<br />
From the wars against disorder<br />
From the sirens night and day<br />
From the fires of the homeless<br />
From the ashes of the gay<br />
Democracy is coming to the USA<br />
It's coming through a crack in the wall<br />
On a visionary flood of alcohol<br />
From the staggering account<br />
Of the Sermon on the Mount<br />
Which I don't pretend to understand at all<br />
It's coming from the silence<br />
On the dock of the bay,<br />
From the brave, the bold, the battered<br />
Heart of Chevrolet<br />
Democracy is coming to the USA<o:p></o:p></div>
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It's coming from the sorrow in the street<br />
The holy places where the races meet<br />
From the homicidal bitchin'<br />
That goes down in every kitchen<br />
To determine who will serve and who will eat<br />
From the wells of disappointment<br />
Where the women kneel to pray<br />
For the grace of God in the desert here<br />
And the desert far away:<br />
Democracy is coming to the USA<o:p></o:p></div>
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Sail on, sail on<br />
O mighty Ship of State<br />
To the Shores of Need<br />
Past the Reefs of Greed<br />
Through the Squalls of Hate<br />
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on<o:p></o:p></div>
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It's coming to America first<br />
The cradle of the best and of the worst<br />
It's here they got the range<br />
And the machinery for change<br />
And it's here they got the spiritual thirst<br />
It's here the family's broken<br />
And it's here the lonely say<br />
That the heart has got to open<br />
In a fundamental way<br />
Democracy is coming to the USA<o:p></o:p></div>
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It's coming from the women and the men<br />
O baby, we'll be making love again<br />
We'll be going down so deep<br />
The river's going to weep,<br />
And the mountain's going to shout Amen<br />
It's coming like the tidal flood<br />
Beneath the lunar sway<br />
Imperial, mysterious<br />
In amorous array<br />
Democracy is coming to the USA<o:p></o:p></div>
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Sail on, sail on<o:p></o:p></div>
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I'm sentimental, if you know what I mean<br />
I love the country but I can't stand the scene<br />
And I'm neither left or right<br />
I'm just staying home tonight<br />
Getting lost in that hopeless little screen<br />
But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags<br />
That Time cannot decay<br />
I'm junk but I'm still holding up<br />
This little wild bouquet<br />
Democracy is coming to the USA<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b><i>Previous entries on Franz<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
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<a href="http://mccarthysweekly-paxvobiscum.blogspot.com/2011/07/blessed-franz-jaggerstatter-family-man.html"><span style="color: blue;">http://mccarthysweekly-paxvobiscum.blogspot.com/2011/07/blessed-franz-jaggerstatter-family-man.html</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://mccarthysweekly-paxvobiscum.blogspot.com/2012/06/2012-blessed-franz-jagerstatter-novena.html"><span style="color: blue;">http://mccarthysweekly-paxvobiscum.blogspot.com/2012/06/2012-blessed-franz-jagerstatter-novena.html</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://mccarthysweekly-paxvobiscum.blogspot.com/2014/07/blessed-franz-help-us-stop-trusting-war.html"><span style="color: blue;">http://mccarthysweekly-paxvobiscum.blogspot.com/2014/07/blessed-franz-help-us-stop-trusting-war.html</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://mccarthysweekly-paxvobiscum.blogspot.com/2010/07/innocence-sacrificed-to-warblessed.html">http://mccarthysweekly-paxvobiscum.blogspot.com/2010/07/innocence-sacrificed-to-warblessed.html</a></span><o:p></o:p><br />
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<b><i>References<o:p></o:p></i></b><br />
<a href="https://www.franciscanmedia.org/blessed-franz-jagerstatter/">https://www.franciscanmedia.org/blessed-franz-jagerstatter/</a><br />
<u>"A Hidden Life",</u> film by Terrence Malik <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5827916/">https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5827916/</a><br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDvW42iSeVs"><span style="color: #663366; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">"The
Refusal"</span></a><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> a story of Franz Jägerstätter, a
semi-documentary filmed in black-and-white in German with English subtitles
alternating dramatizations with actual interviews with Jägerstätter's wife,
priest, and other villagers, </span><span style="color: #663366; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067082/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_22">Der Fall
Jägerstätter (1971</a></span></div>
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Democracy, by Leonard Cohen - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU-RuR-qO4Y">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU-RuR-qO4Y</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://acatholiclife.blogspot.com/2005/09/catholic-feast-days.html">https://acatholiclife.blogspot.com/2005/09/catholic-feast-days.html</a><o:p></o:p><br />
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_J%C3%A4gerst%C3%A4tter">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_J%C3%A4gerst%C3%A4tter</a><br />
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Floyd">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Floyd</a></div>
<br />
<b><i>Illumination by Kathy Brahney</i></b></div>
Michael J. McCarthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883623204335260738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75214831655568750.post-4807038282264806122020-06-02T15:54:00.000-04:002020-06-03T11:27:29.868-04:00BLACK LIVES MATTER, OR NONE OF OURS DO<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBOavN1WNphuZNgfHDGAwGheVskDaubtp9hvwHV3KF3p_nSqQ97cCeEERGnUt9L9Awav3f7uMLZBbXPZFhtbD_iNlJ-U9laPWPVOJcHRH6fzODXWCSypeqRsUeVl5gPmLnDUklAWT2gXA/s1600/us-race-riots-detroit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBOavN1WNphuZNgfHDGAwGheVskDaubtp9hvwHV3KF3p_nSqQ97cCeEERGnUt9L9Awav3f7uMLZBbXPZFhtbD_iNlJ-U9laPWPVOJcHRH6fzODXWCSypeqRsUeVl5gPmLnDUklAWT2gXA/s640/us-race-riots-detroit.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Good update on this terrible Detroit 1967 time of police & army over-reaction to be found <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/1968-kerner-commission-got-it-right-nobody-listened-180968318/">here</a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0pKm1IophT6LUNxTZcTMK3wNOFD_InctscqMZK0ayJEp1dZxc-_vHkwJ1TJMICk5y3ueN9ou6sFxjO7JJadAj_7WxvHCYxA5m1jAEq6CoT_ZAoD2loHwHJYVA-JEOOV3XaJqh2ZwkLiM/s1600/detroit-guns.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="715" data-original-width="900" height="317" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0pKm1IophT6LUNxTZcTMK3wNOFD_InctscqMZK0ayJEp1dZxc-_vHkwJ1TJMICk5y3ueN9ou6sFxjO7JJadAj_7WxvHCYxA5m1jAEq6CoT_ZAoD2loHwHJYVA-JEOOV3XaJqh2ZwkLiM/s400/detroit-guns.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2bkZqvkYeJToMgWT5oUkOZOAW0_966zYqfOHGj3_EOgdyeDJDFknMrXI31x753bRKFwTL4OzpOD_N_CQk2d6o0s_MQ5zbY3R7IndivRhxyKEEmz0mJEc_DgyZSCsT8smMEfmya6zZE-s/s1600/detroit_riot_1967-1.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="261" data-original-width="387" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2bkZqvkYeJToMgWT5oUkOZOAW0_966zYqfOHGj3_EOgdyeDJDFknMrXI31x753bRKFwTL4OzpOD_N_CQk2d6o0s_MQ5zbY3R7IndivRhxyKEEmz0mJEc_DgyZSCsT8smMEfmya6zZE-s/s320/detroit_riot_1967-1.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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I remember the riots in Detroit summer of 1967.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Having attended Sacred Heart Seminary at
Chicago & Linwood near the center of the clash between inner city residents
and police/national guard, I returned at the end of that summer to help a
couple of days at a child care center in the area.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The rage and distress of some of these young black
children shocked me—the white caregiver.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The gulf between their life and mine all too evident.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An extensive Kerner Commission Report was
written in 1968 for Congress, trying to explain the roots of this explosion of
violence breaking forth from the suffocation of society’s racism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But very little has changed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Governmental, economic, & political abuse
of power is a virtual jailor for a major portion of the black community,
especially those most poor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And few of
us who live on the other side have family or real personal relationship with
people of color.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDSNPIDuJWZuNbqp3byorNxWGJ2IhGu92leyH1VXqMfW0DHINDAPaQ5NM96DtwfYoKr4Q8vAoxjmahRPb5i2fxEnuRuEj8Tso_ht59K2gOW4h7wAK7OtxsMXyrvsGPvRPoVnpi9H5vou0/s1600/100822101_559823541634850_5617669184235241472_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="547" data-original-width="319" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDSNPIDuJWZuNbqp3byorNxWGJ2IhGu92leyH1VXqMfW0DHINDAPaQ5NM96DtwfYoKr4Q8vAoxjmahRPb5i2fxEnuRuEj8Tso_ht59K2gOW4h7wAK7OtxsMXyrvsGPvRPoVnpi9H5vou0/s320/100822101_559823541634850_5617669184235241472_n.jpg" width="186" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">From footage of 9 minutes of a police asphyxiating George Floyd--from Fox News</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Full video can be seen <a href="https://video.foxnews.com/v/6159291724001?fbclid=IwAR0rl6RtPnwxTYbdW5sybH5BWd6ek5BkvdPnWqrSX9WIJy1cU2CHYmKzO-A#sp=show-clips">here</a>--tragic & disturbing</span></i></div>
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One terrible recent result: the death of George Floyd with a
white policeman kneeling relentlessly remorselessly on his neck.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the death of countless others down
through back alleys of current American history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are a divided country founded to a
significant degree on the backs of African slaves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There has been a brief period of recognition
brought to us by African Americans in the Civil Rights Movement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The danger now is that we become ever again
more divided in a resurgent economic and social racism.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4t56e0SeENz42gWkAZnqwM_u5WOoGp4NAbI5qiAskWYqAHr6G8leMLnUWN7Kmhvtm1E7j6MzTfFzyvh8eVvb6UuUgTEDrrxhz-uG0k3jBBmqqJycLb8qepAp9mWVrveTDCvxqWRgpUC0/s1600/twithdove72041.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="235" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4t56e0SeENz42gWkAZnqwM_u5WOoGp4NAbI5qiAskWYqAHr6G8leMLnUWN7Kmhvtm1E7j6MzTfFzyvh8eVvb6UuUgTEDrrxhz-uG0k3jBBmqqJycLb8qepAp9mWVrveTDCvxqWRgpUC0/s200/twithdove72041.jpg" width="200" /></a>here is much to do for people of faith, and for the whole
country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Sermon on the Mount is not
a sermon of law & order, to the victor go the spoils, might makes
right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must all reach out in ways
that go way beyond the offer of a handout.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Firm personal and societal connections must be made which bridge the
gulf and persist, providing paths to true justice and mercy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus is a person of color.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Praise the Lord, all brothers and sisters,
whites too, are invited to the heavenly banquet!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<b><i>Sources & references</i></b></div>
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<a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/1968-kerner-commission-got-it-right-nobody-listened-180968318/">https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/1968-kerner-commission-got-it-right-nobody-listened-180968318/</a></div>
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<a href="https://video.foxnews.com/v/6159291724001?fbclid=IwAR0rl6RtPnwxTYbdW5sybH5BWd6ek5BkvdPnWqrSX9WIJy1cU2CHYmKzO-A#sp=show-clips">https://video.foxnews.com/v/6159291724001?fbclid=IwAR0rl6RtPnwxTYbdW5sybH5BWd6ek5BkvdPnWqrSX9WIJy1cU2CHYmKzO-A#sp=show-clips</a></div>
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More info on how this happened</div>
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<a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/05/29/why-george-floyd-was-arrested-and-what-happened-in-the-minutes-following/">https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/05/29/why-george-floyd-was-arrested-and-what-happened-in-the-minutes-following/</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/derek-chauvin-george-floyd-worked-security-el-nuevo-rodeo-nightclub-shifts/">https://www.cbsnews.com/news/derek-chauvin-george-floyd-worked-security-el-nuevo-rodeo-nightclub-shifts/</a></div>
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<i><b>The U.S. in these violent times faces a violent challenge to family values. Some personal reaction</b></i><o:p></o:p></div>
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Living Abroad Is My Way of Prolonging My Black Son’s Life
- The New York Times</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/29/parenting/black-child-safety-america.html?action=click&algo=als_engaged2_desk_filter&block=editors_picks_recirc&fellback=false&imp_id=333502436&impression_id=845739131&index=2&pgtype=Article&region=ccolumn&action=click&module=editorContent&pgtype=Article&region=CompanionColumn&contentCollection=Trending">https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/29/parenting/black-child-safety-america.html?action=click&algo=als_engaged2_desk_filter&block=editors_picks_recirc&fellback=false&imp_id=333502436&impression_id=845739131&index=2&pgtype=Article&region=ccolumn&action=click&module=editorContent&pgtype=Article&region=CompanionColumn&contentCollection=Trending</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<i><b>Illumination by Kathy Brahney</b></i><br />
<br /></div>
Michael J. McCarthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883623204335260738noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75214831655568750.post-55724667819307960942020-05-25T14:52:00.000-04:002020-05-25T15:28:54.581-04:00PANDEMIC PERFIDY – MIGRANT CHILDREN ABUSED BY OUR SYSTEM<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXPrKB0O_HaYl5kOPMitH-PPH7r1pXSLWcpigU_5Ko13PNf6wW-s6mg_f1AsnmKlzPN4ksC5WVZmBkSXzLb3blGOc-PC533SykQ2IU5nZlxlhUK1gMzSCtEgWE9nYzfOuiKk9fb18VxJI/s1600/Border+Patrol+agents+detaining+immigrants+near+Mission%252C+Texas%252C+on+12-11-19+-+The+government+has+put+a+halt+to+most+immigration+since+the+pandemic+began.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="840" data-original-width="1260" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXPrKB0O_HaYl5kOPMitH-PPH7r1pXSLWcpigU_5Ko13PNf6wW-s6mg_f1AsnmKlzPN4ksC5WVZmBkSXzLb3blGOc-PC533SykQ2IU5nZlxlhUK1gMzSCtEgWE9nYzfOuiKk9fb18VxJI/s640/Border+Patrol+agents+detaining+immigrants+near+Mission%252C+Texas%252C+on+12-11-19+-+The+government+has+put+a+halt+to+most+immigration+since+the+pandemic+began.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"> Border Patrol agents detaining immigrants near
Mission, Texas, on 12-11-19 - The government has put a halt to most immigration
since the pandemic began. </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span class="wsj-article-credit-tag" style="background: rgb(255 , 255 , 255); border: 0px; color: #666666; font-family: "retina"; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">PHOTO: </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "retina"; text-align: left; text-transform: uppercase;">JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #757474; font-family: "arial" , "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: center;">Veterans for Peace, Northwest Michigan Chapter 50 publicly honors fallen Michigan service men and women with flags and crosses on Memorial Day and Veterans Day.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #757474; font-family: "arial" , "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: center;">Photo Special to the Insider – Photo credit: VFP</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #757474; font-family: "arial" , "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: center;"><br /></span></div>
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Do we remember this Memorial Day the values that so many
died in war for?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Will the spirit of welcome,
liberty and justice <u>for all</u>, die with an ever-increasing tendency to
shutter our borders to those who seek our shelter?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are we becoming Fortress America?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Walls do a prison make, on both sides of the
wall.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">From LIfeZette</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-administration-changes-rules-for-migrant-children-during-pandemic-11590141601?mod=hp_lead_pos6&mod=djemCapitalJournalDaybreak">https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-administration-changes-rules-for-migrant-children-during-pandemic-11590141601?mod=hp_lead_pos6&mod=djemCapitalJournalDaybreak</a></div>
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<i>“The Trump administration is reversing longstanding
policies on the treatment of children and families who come into the U.S.
illegally, citing laws and court rulings related to the coronavirus pandemic as
reasons for changes it has long sought.”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/the-trump-administration-is-rushing-deportations-of-migrant-children-during-coronavirus">https://www.propublica.org/article/the-trump-administration-is-rushing-deportations-of-migrant-children-during-coronavirus</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>“As the nation remains focused on COVID-19, the U.S.
government has aggressively begun to rush the deportations of some of the most
vulnerable migrant children in its care to countries where they have been
raped, beaten or had a parent killed, according to attorneys, court filings and
congressional staff.”(<a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/the-trump-administration-is-rushing-deportations-of-migrant-children-during-coronavirus">ProPublica
and Texas Tribune</a>) </i>Read this full article for a better personal understanding
of this governmental attack on family values<i>.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE6-VtYhyphenhyphenO5j_OfU6gtVUJyffITRr9rnQG5UlpfCS_8dxEQendoVh9VD-LBCTEYRrOJB6d9cXFSuaie_LYP2uZmURTU737aeOLf6BoWyulEGyFeRTD3-w3JI2Fy3m9i66XC9xh_sge084/s1600/H+gold.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="327" data-original-width="339" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE6-VtYhyphenhyphenO5j_OfU6gtVUJyffITRr9rnQG5UlpfCS_8dxEQendoVh9VD-LBCTEYRrOJB6d9cXFSuaie_LYP2uZmURTU737aeOLf6BoWyulEGyFeRTD3-w3JI2Fy3m9i66XC9xh_sge084/s200/H+gold.jpg" width="200" /></span></a>ave faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There
is hope to bring our country to a new appreciation of welcoming the alien,
since we are almost all historically immigrants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For a deeper understanding of what we face as
we come to grips with the continued violent results of our past wars in
Central America and the Middle East, please visit the site Interfaith
Immigration Coalition - <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“People of Faith
to Trump Administration- Stop Abuse of Migrant Children” <a href="http://www.interfaithimmigration.org/2020/05/20/people-of-faith-to-trump-administration-stop-abuse-of-migrant-children/">http://www.interfaithimmigration.org/2020/05/20/people-of-faith-to-trump-administration-stop-abuse-of-migrant-children/</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have resources for continued prayer, study,
action. <o:p></o:p></div>
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May we be part of a solution to these refugee families’ struggle
to build a renewed life, despite the double jeopardy of pandemic and political stumbling
blocks.<o:p></o:p></div>
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More personal stories from the New York Times, <i><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/20/us/coronavirus-migrant-children-unaccompanied-minors.html">10
Years Old, Tearful and Confused After a Sudden Deportation</a> .<o:p></o:p></i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #001320; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><i>"When Jesus saw this, he became angry and said, "Let the children come to me! Don't try to stop them. People who are like these little children belong to the kingdom of God." Mark 10:14</i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #001320; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<o:p><i><b> Illumination by Kathy Brahney</b></i></o:p><br />
<o:p><i><b><br /></b></i></o:p>
<o:p><i><b>Click on images to enlarge, links to access complete articles</b></i></o:p></div>
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Michael J. McCarthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883623204335260738noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75214831655568750.post-75891430184205866442020-05-18T18:46:00.002-04:002020-05-18T19:51:55.748-04:00INTERNATIONAL CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR DAY MAY 15 - UNNOTICED <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2efPuJgOX-CT0faxW-SgmNwUpqAhUaFnP78OWLqTbi4DmPb83mgW1uKsPtqHNRZ8oHYJXn7yVnaXWAgMrCP0dymwRCwByGSaI3-vPFRyB6D30v0TaqWvDzFIubOPFBMiLoo18J4CNSM8/s1600/I+DIDNT+RAISE+MY+BOY+TO+BE+A+SOLDIER--SONG+SHEET.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1214" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2efPuJgOX-CT0faxW-SgmNwUpqAhUaFnP78OWLqTbi4DmPb83mgW1uKsPtqHNRZ8oHYJXn7yVnaXWAgMrCP0dymwRCwByGSaI3-vPFRyB6D30v0TaqWvDzFIubOPFBMiLoo18J4CNSM8/s640/I+DIDNT+RAISE+MY+BOY+TO+BE+A+SOLDIER--SONG+SHEET.jpg" width="483" /></a></div>
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<i>Songsheet cover</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx7b1U3jNzjlQ0nr_0wVVlQP7L68A3nS4tg4rsMqeZfZfuDNZ2M5MEYa75CE7KfWvuv6a66s99AueigqLryjTRReoBgLbYVlZWhZUSm3fw1cyB0bImnl7kat30X_qBV_8__QWgBTWROJQ/s1600/Jesus_in_Gethsemane_350.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="401" data-original-width="350" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx7b1U3jNzjlQ0nr_0wVVlQP7L68A3nS4tg4rsMqeZfZfuDNZ2M5MEYa75CE7KfWvuv6a66s99AueigqLryjTRReoBgLbYVlZWhZUSm3fw1cyB0bImnl7kat30X_qBV_8__QWgBTWROJQ/s320/Jesus_in_Gethsemane_350.jpg" width="279" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Jesus at Gethsemane - "Put away the sword"</span></i></div>
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This past Friday the world celebrated, with little fanfare,
International Conscientious Objector Day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’ve been a C. O. since 1969 and had never heard of the event. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This day of recognition was first declared in
1985, by a group named the International Conscientious Objector Meeting, and had
members from 20 countries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They met
yearly from 1981 till 1997, and not since, but International War Resistors and
the Peace Pledge Union, strongest in the U.K., maintain support for the Day
that promotes peace—nonparticipation in war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Pax Christi USA, Hallelujah, sent me an email last week announcing the
Day, and in the U.S., War Resisters League, Fellowship of Reconciliation, and
other peace organizations have been part of some efforts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbFNh03ZSXdw5d7_EyYCq-FCbSnwC3qF7tTtE00iqtziM09p8hZc3rR48wkyBS-xwFhfbAhmEgD0IumeDlfindJzsZkLVdKUVAk5lOVl6j_w09EpIM2lqG2BlELEKqW1Acfpr0h99VHkA/s1600/International+CO+Day+in+Columbia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="975" data-original-width="1300" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbFNh03ZSXdw5d7_EyYCq-FCbSnwC3qF7tTtE00iqtziM09p8hZc3rR48wkyBS-xwFhfbAhmEgD0IumeDlfindJzsZkLVdKUVAk5lOVl6j_w09EpIM2lqG2BlELEKqW1Acfpr0h99VHkA/s640/International+CO+Day+in+Columbia.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><i>International CO Day in Columbia - no pictures found for USA {except for Berkeley, CA}</i></span></div>
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In the U.S. it’s difficult to get people to pay attention to
something that many think unpatriotic, against the national interest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even the churches in the main consider
conscientious objection a stumbling block.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>War is hell, yet no nation’s church,
and certainly no nation, has ever directly declared a war unjust—so all war
sides justified?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is then up to a
person, and all of us people in all countries, to claim war itself unjust,
immoral, and stop preparing for it, as best we can, with the grace of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For those of the Christian faith, who follow Jesus,
“put away the sword” “love your enemy” -- the way towards peace should be clear,
though the details bedeviled and politics most unpopular.<o:p></o:p></div>
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one of this is easy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We have many examples of saintly objectors/peacemakers to help guide us
[see below]. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To be a loving local citizen,
yet engaged with worldwide problems, committed not to kill, is very difficult,
especially in the day to day present moment decisions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lord teach us to pray and live your Sermon on
the Mount, your Good News.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Help us to be
C.O.s transcending all national boundaries.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Convert to the love of Jesus, and therefore each other--family,
friend, and enemy.<o:p></o:p></div>
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From the War Resistors International website--History of International Conscientious Objector Meeting</div>
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<a href="https://wri-irg.org/en/co/icodhist.htm">https://wri-irg.org/en/co/icodhist.htm</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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National gatherings “held in the Netherlands, Spain,
France, Slovenia, Austria, Hungary, Turkey, Colombia, and Chad, among others.” These meetings not held since 1997.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Focus areas: “Greece (1986), Yugoslavia (1987),
Poland (1988), South Africa (1989), Spain (1990), Turkey (1992), former
Yugoslavia (1993), Colombia (1995). There were thematic focuses too: forced
service for women (1991), and asylum for women and men who refused military
service or deserted from the army (1993). In 2001, the War Resisters'
International Council Meeting decided to focus on the situation of
conscientious objectors and deserters in Angola. The focus for 2002 will be the
Balkans region.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p> For a video of the most recent International Conscientious Objector Day celebration - with Covid 19 restrictions. </o:p><a href="https://www.ppu.org.uk/international-conscientious-objectors-day">https://www.ppu.org.uk/international-conscientious-objectors-day</a> Video U.K. celebration</div>
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<b><i>A very short list of those who've lead lives of conscientious objection </i></b></div>
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Martin Luther King<br />
Muhammad Ali<br />
Las Madres de Los Desaparecidos<br />
<a href="https://rachelcorriefoundation.org/">Rachel Corrie</a><br />
<a href="https://detroitcatholic.com/news/guest-writer/the-seldom-told-story-of-otto-schimek-a-faithful-witness-to-peace-for-poland">Otto Schimek</a><br />
Sophie Scholl<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0PAoEFeXLo">Desmond Doss</a> + <a href="https://www.npr.org/2016/11/04/500548745/the-real-hacksaw-ridge-soldier-saved-75-souls-without-ever-carrying-a-gun">https://www.npr.org/2016/11/04/500548745/the-real-hacksaw-ridge-soldier-saved-75-souls-without-ever-carrying-a-gun</a><br />
<a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=nMtrwfz6p5M">Franz Jagerstatter</a> + Most recent film on Franz Jaggerstatter – A Hidden Life -
recommended<br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5827916/">https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5827916/</a> + <o:p></o:p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA9XUTuGjlE">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA9XUTuGjlE</a></div>
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<b><i>And from earlier times --</i></b></div>
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St. Maximillian, d. 295
<a href="https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-maximilian/">https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-maximilian/</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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St. Martin of Tours, d. 397 <a href="https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-martin-of-tours/">https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-martin-of-tours/</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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Saints Nerius & Achillus, d. ? Roman soldiers <a href="https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saints-nereus-and-achilleus/">https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saints-nereus-and-achilleus/</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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St. Enda of Ireland, d. 530 <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-enda-700">https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-enda-700</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%;">St. Telemachus, d. 404? <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Telemachus">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Telemachus</a></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgapgu606YLuwFfnsR4zgczRdM5C7lQQbuMzFSuQsARvT1miDm5kcOY4A_ehw3DWPCCzNIG50jg7P0X0RC8RjAYptlM4lqGJDzx_PK-cCqwJG_6_-DxMHSq-7J2GcmA5CwJvFRI6pfrAK8/s1600/desmond+dos+at+hacksaw+ridge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1155" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgapgu606YLuwFfnsR4zgczRdM5C7lQQbuMzFSuQsARvT1miDm5kcOY4A_ehw3DWPCCzNIG50jg7P0X0RC8RjAYptlM4lqGJDzx_PK-cCqwJG_6_-DxMHSq-7J2GcmA5CwJvFRI6pfrAK8/s320/desmond+dos+at+hacksaw+ridge.jpg" width="231" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">During the battle, Doss (a Seventh Day Adventist) (seen
here at the top of Hacksaw Ridge) dragged severely injured men to the edge of
the ridge and lowered them down to other medics below.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Courtesy of the Desmond Doss Council </span><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><b>Illumination by Kathy Brahney</b></i><br />
Some references<br />
<a href="https://rachelcorriefoundation.org/">https://rachelcorriefoundation.org/</a><br />
<a href="https://detroitcatholic.com/news/guest-writer/the-seldom-told-story-of-otto-schimek-a-faithful-witness-to-peace-for-poland">https://detroitcatholic.com/news/guest-writer/the-seldom-told-story-of-otto-schimek-a-faithful-witness-to-peace-for-poland</a><br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPrt8DEl1RbXjKxDjQD7hWfR8nnuaRiecseNAA4rCm92GbgHTG9RWohmNH-qrYU8ueqxozClJHV-Nl1tSGb-IX8dnPi4L_D8bffD0DS_QYGTk02OIFScXMv9eI3BnHDd5OxOGCiLV_z48/s1600/my+1-O035.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1305" data-original-width="1600" height="326" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPrt8DEl1RbXjKxDjQD7hWfR8nnuaRiecseNAA4rCm92GbgHTG9RWohmNH-qrYU8ueqxozClJHV-Nl1tSGb-IX8dnPi4L_D8bffD0DS_QYGTk02OIFScXMv9eI3BnHDd5OxOGCiLV_z48/s400/my+1-O035.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">My service during the Vietnam War was alternative service at
a Catholic parish Cristo Rey Community Center in Lansing, MI, which was also a
social service center for the Mexican American community and welcome center for
immigrants & migrant workers. Part
of my job was to organize for Cesar Chavez’ United Farm Workers union. Much more still needs to be done, and I try
to keep working on these justice issues.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.0pt;">"Conscientious Objector" Poem from 1929<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.0pt;">I shall die, but<br />
that is all that I shall do for Death.<br />
I hear him leading his horse out of the stall;</span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "inherit" , serif; font-size: 9.0pt;"><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">I hear the clatter on the barn-floor.</span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">He is in haste; he has business in Cuba,</span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">business in the Balkans, many calls to make this
morning.</span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">But I will not hold the bridle</span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">while he clinches the girth.</span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">And he may mount by himself:</span><br />
<span class="textexposedshow">I will not give him a leg up.</span></span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "inherit" , serif; font-size: 9.0pt;">Though he flick my shoulders with
his whip,<br />
I will not tell him which way the fox ran.<br />
With his hoof on my breast, I will not tell him where<br />
the black boy hides in the swamp.<br />
I shall die, but that is all that I shall do for Death;<br />
I am not on his pay-roll.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "inherit" , serif; font-size: 9.0pt;">I will not tell him the
whereabout of my friends<br />
nor of my enemies either.<br />
Though he promise me much,<br />
I will not map him the route to any man's door.<br />
Am I a spy in the land of the living,<br />
that I should deliver men to Death?<br />
Brother, the password and the plans of our city<br />
are safe with me; never through me Shall you be overcome.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "inherit" , serif; font-size: 9.0pt;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edna_St._Vincent_Millay">~Edna
St. Vincent Millay</a></span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "inherit" , serif; font-size: 9.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
This was written after the Spanish influenza of 1918-19
killed millions riding in on the hoofs of WWI.
Today we live in a more well-fed, healthcare-modernized world. But we’ve courted needless death in throwing
piles of our national treasure at the feet of our massive military killing
machinery, leaving us defenseless against microbes we could otherwise master. <br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/society/reopening-coronavirus-needless-deaths/">https://www.thenation.com/article/society/reopening-coronavirus-needless-deaths/</a> - current problem.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p>
</o:p></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "inherit" , serif; font-size: 9.0pt;">Even
the arts sometimes conspire against unpopular vision. </span><a href="https://d.docs.live.net/048a39c98dfcebe0/Documents/edna-st-vincent-millay.html"><span style="font-family: "inherit" , serif; font-size: 9.0pt;">poets.org</span></a><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "inherit" , serif; font-size: 9.0pt;"> does not list this poem in it’s extensive list of Millay's works.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 12px;">Albrecht Durer_king_death_on_horseback</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit , serif; font-size: large;">We believe death is not the end.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUiRnLmwghGXRcHcTpRqI_6Uk2FS1-NVvAx7QBk_ewpTmHDDKNy-cF9X4evuuy2BBGlwncLcX5MXvx2CGzCu5-pDSFgI7Kl2ILMR6VWhLE25hmLXlWc1HFFHT97FOOu1IcS4um716taoU/s1600/DSC_0045.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1063" data-original-width="1600" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUiRnLmwghGXRcHcTpRqI_6Uk2FS1-NVvAx7QBk_ewpTmHDDKNy-cF9X4evuuy2BBGlwncLcX5MXvx2CGzCu5-pDSFgI7Kl2ILMR6VWhLE25hmLXlWc1HFFHT97FOOu1IcS4um716taoU/s400/DSC_0045.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="color: blue; font-size: x-small;"><i>Ande's poppy - my photo</i></span></div>
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Michael J. McCarthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883623204335260738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75214831655568750.post-18700559073888997282020-05-12T11:52:00.000-04:002020-05-12T15:20:58.367-04:00THE NUKE MADNESS YET AMONGST US<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2wdkifxeK8uh2Sck95EGFSiUWc6Hx7pV6HZt7pHjdgqi26p-cUIi3VmOVhhDUkwQE_OGFlM4hsYdF-K_AXxTZFEAJv-uH7-MmqzdyYoXt-U8eowLRHGVDRAG9quO2V8fN9kqZ8C_vEts/s1600/20200512_090433.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2wdkifxeK8uh2Sck95EGFSiUWc6Hx7pV6HZt7pHjdgqi26p-cUIi3VmOVhhDUkwQE_OGFlM4hsYdF-K_AXxTZFEAJv-uH7-MmqzdyYoXt-U8eowLRHGVDRAG9quO2V8fN9kqZ8C_vEts/s640/20200512_090433.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSfTfwtA7zWgbQvwBfCs5-KwD4BvsiNhkOogfrbKI3mJA5Ij4pLrhz58MYPYbZVS7Ba05Q93WRPrp5q_EN8fw_UeNNivHgg_bspFsrxyacL1D8IZfjGCg7HiInZCbF7vb2d8otV2cEcGg/s1600/20200512_090345.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSfTfwtA7zWgbQvwBfCs5-KwD4BvsiNhkOogfrbKI3mJA5Ij4pLrhz58MYPYbZVS7Ba05Q93WRPrp5q_EN8fw_UeNNivHgg_bspFsrxyacL1D8IZfjGCg7HiInZCbF7vb2d8otV2cEcGg/s640/20200512_090345.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">A flip chart [1980 ]from same organization as the exhibit - also part of our activism -</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">the single dot of WWII in center square</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></i></div>
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In moving away from our house of 25 years I brought the
Nuclear Freeze movement out of my upstairs office room—the set of 16 exhibit
sized, plywood-mounted posters that describe the devastation that nuclear
weapons can bring to humanity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’ve had
them since the early 80’s, and displayed them a couple of times back then, but
their warning cries out to us in the present moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’ve been donated to the Peace Center in
Lansing, MI with the hope that they can be more prominently seen again.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghoL6P3DE3AGc1wSpcTjViEmtRrF7DfAjM7KtHbOcpX17pTegJ-WJXlYRBTILuIV_0wa-O_xtKQqrYqEzCRaBdOppHxxlHTsbHFr5Mw7PZVAgQIEVL3AMtqxWSVhFqo8q9d4RJYSgFezU/s1600/IfToday72046.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="488" data-original-width="344" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghoL6P3DE3AGc1wSpcTjViEmtRrF7DfAjM7KtHbOcpX17pTegJ-WJXlYRBTILuIV_0wa-O_xtKQqrYqEzCRaBdOppHxxlHTsbHFr5Mw7PZVAgQIEVL3AMtqxWSVhFqo8q9d4RJYSgFezU/s200/IfToday72046.jpg" width="140" /></a>n these times of pandemic, of an unseen virus, we have to
remember that our country still prepares a more devastating means for worldwide
destruction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are investing as a
country $100 billion to totally renovate our nuclear arsenal, already the most
powerful on earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We want to modernize
our own megadeath potential because we still fear the mega enemy, even though
the only real external threats we can manufacture are bands of mini-terrorists
in faraway lands.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Lord God promised Noah after the Flood that He would
never again destroy the world by water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This time it would be by fire thermonuclear and by our own hand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It would take only 100 of our thousands of
nukes at the ready, if actually exploded, to create the <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/when-carl-sagan-warned-world-about-nuclear-winter-180967198/">“nuclear winter”</a> postulated
by scientist Carl Sagan, to end human life on our planet.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Yet we the most powerful continue to tinker with these
massively destructive machines in the interests of our own purported
safety.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We dedicate the first financial
fruits of our government to this crazy quest for security, while outside our
borders the the world suffers from many ongoing wars—mostly maintained in
search of this illusion of our “Homeland Security.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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This monstrous golden fatted calf can never deliver.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a shameless idol that robs us and the
rest of the nations of the resources and creativity that could bring us
solution to the poverty, injustice, and disease that plague all countries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These weapons are a terrible backdrop of
institutionalized mass suicide that are a constant factor in our political
inability to be truly pro-life.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6oox8IWbVl3qDEMF-cNmp11mWhb7YlWGRuKjp8F0qSGLruvIc0mYLq4POZ4fTyfu1ZhR8THoTvpZjDRqqukkU3ifwGcBA-6G13Wx4Xd5q_8Ouv88cz6cZGZ93wopo78mKxcHjII3FGdM/s1600/spiral+nuke+from+sub+launch+-+Netflix+movie+The+Bomb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1233" data-original-width="1600" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6oox8IWbVl3qDEMF-cNmp11mWhb7YlWGRuKjp8F0qSGLruvIc0mYLq4POZ4fTyfu1ZhR8THoTvpZjDRqqukkU3ifwGcBA-6G13Wx4Xd5q_8Ouv88cz6cZGZ93wopo78mKxcHjII3FGdM/s320/spiral+nuke+from+sub+launch+-+Netflix+movie+The+Bomb.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i> Nuke failure of submarine launch - From Netflix movie "The Bomb."</i></div>
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Their continued existence looms over all our discussions,
though they are rarely spoken or thought about now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’d rather fuss over North Korea’s possible
half-dozen, or Iran’s potential to make it’s first nuke.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But our mass destruction monsters are a real
presence, tall somber metal guardian watchers, jailors of our better
intentions.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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We must put away this nuclear sword, before we self
immolate, and take most of God’s creation with us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://sojo.net/magazine/february-1977/its-sin-build-nuclear-weapon">“It is a Sin to Build a Nuclear Weapon”</a> wrote
Jesuit Fr. Richard McSorley in the1980's.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
persists as a mega-mortal sin with preposterous immorality inherent in its design.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their use would be an anti-Christ disaster, a
pro-bad choice of radical evil.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Yet we still build them, perfect them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They surround and hem in our search for a
good, healthy life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their existence with
our reliance on them, is a fundamental disrespect for life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> <i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></i></span><i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #001320; text-align: justify;">I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live</span>.</span></i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Deut 30:19 </span></i> </span>It’s time before it’s too
late to completely dismantle our nuclear weapons leading the rest of the world
in this effort, as we are the originators and have made the most of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There should be no more government funds for
constructing these amoral giants, only for their full retirement and
disassembly. May they rest in peace buried in history’s graveyard, so that they
never become the tombstone over human existence. <o:p></o:p><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj13ez7WSe0QfoCD6_KTfM4Djc2zQQ0ApZ5i4_TuLaWG8hyphenhyphenuv4Kg6J9F8O7lC6cXP4HduSQ9QiJnb6JuozreXcjBCdjEepF7AohUD8wEE5R7jEZ53aLUSZFwxv_zzJksK9b4Wz1LxXMQoc/s1600/Gothic+A+026.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj13ez7WSe0QfoCD6_KTfM4Djc2zQQ0ApZ5i4_TuLaWG8hyphenhyphenuv4Kg6J9F8O7lC6cXP4HduSQ9QiJnb6JuozreXcjBCdjEepF7AohUD8wEE5R7jEZ53aLUSZFwxv_zzJksK9b4Wz1LxXMQoc/s1600/Gothic+A+026.jpg" /></a><span style="font-size: x-large;">men</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><a href="https://paxchristiusa.org/backfromthebrink/">Hope from Pax Christi USA - visit site</a></i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzPwkZQt8OJJF-2ZEbisTpcizfMUSMm1xATwI9EioMPXsre7-QDfh1j5I12di3P3HRzaqApkP9Oqi4-PpFjcyIbXDD17AB-9KTSHibWtUC3EA3sH4M1_Ysy0C1-AfTFPHJGKFpvXwAzk4/s1600/join-the-back-from-the-brink-campaign.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="446" data-original-width="559" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzPwkZQt8OJJF-2ZEbisTpcizfMUSMm1xATwI9EioMPXsre7-QDfh1j5I12di3P3HRzaqApkP9Oqi4-PpFjcyIbXDD17AB-9KTSHibWtUC3EA3sH4M1_Ysy0C1-AfTFPHJGKFpvXwAzk4/s320/join-the-back-from-the-brink-campaign.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span id="goog_1774415890"></span><span id="goog_1774415891"></span><br />
<br /></div>
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<i><b>References</b></i><br />
<a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/when-carl-sagan-warned-world-about-nuclear-winter-180967198/">https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/when-carl-sagan-warned-world-about-nuclear-winter-180967198/</a><br />
<a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/222/4630/1283">https://science.sciencemag.org/content/222/4630/128</a><br />
<a href="https://paxchristiusa.org/backfromthebrink">https://paxchristiusa.org/backfromthebrink</a>/<br />
<br />
<a href="https://sojo.net/magazine/february-1977/its-sin-build-nuclear-weapon">https://sojo.net/magazine/february-1977/its-sin-build-nuclear-weapon</a></div>
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<i><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">The Reverend Richard
McSorley, S.J. (1914 - 2002), was professor of peace studies at Georgetown
University and writer of eight books on pacifism and social justice. As a
Jesuit priest ordained in 1946, he completed his studies for his Ph.D. at
Ottawa University. In 1970, he co-founded St. Francis Catholic Worker in
Washington, D.C. He served as a board member of the National Interreligious
Board for Conscientious Objectors for 15 years and was a National Council
member of Pax Christi, U.S.A. from 1983 to 1989. He has written five other
books and is a nationally recognized newspaper columnist.</span></i><br />
<i><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Illuminations by Kathy Brahney</b></span></i><br />
<i><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b><br /></b></span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"><b><i>Addendum to our pandemic problem --</i></b></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Exchange",serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">200505-WSJ – U of Wash. Covid death numbers
double<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Exchange",serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The reopening plans came as projections show
deaths in the U.S. could nearly double in the coming months. Deaths in the U.S.
could approach 135,000 by early August, according to the University of Washington’s
Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which produces a forecast
sometimes cited by the White House. The model is one of several that
researchers have developed to chart the potential path of the disease, with
some predicting more dire scenarios than others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/coronavirus-latest-news-05-05-2020-11588669450?mod=djemHL_t&tesla=y">https://www.wsj.com/articles/coronavirus-latest-news-05-05-2020-11588669450?mod=djemHL_t&tesla=y</a><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<br /></div>
Michael J. McCarthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883623204335260738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75214831655568750.post-18282852254312926132020-05-05T08:03:00.002-04:002020-05-05T15:05:28.203-04:00THREATENED DEATH OF OPINION PAGE<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWP62O9cUDw1F-U0au48gYOhnOJZaVlBJiA-cQe2wjyVL_jqXRTqyVXyu770j2PnhCfGnMSDdTLwMQBVvn93G_jx_BbBomTZA9byiZK27e8AmbeAkTEPm3dyu0H7GW-TObTd2hpMGBeqQ/s1600/Zeitungssterber_Header_V1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="753" data-original-width="1274" height="377" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWP62O9cUDw1F-U0au48gYOhnOJZaVlBJiA-cQe2wjyVL_jqXRTqyVXyu770j2PnhCfGnMSDdTLwMQBVvn93G_jx_BbBomTZA9byiZK27e8AmbeAkTEPm3dyu0H7GW-TObTd2hpMGBeqQ/s640/Zeitungssterber_Header_V1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcl8n-JQCN9LnOWuWnG_lcO1bWQAp5iiHkKgxWifLMjyB_OTJl5-4sbS9hHummjPiIHbbwavCbH4WWUB88dC_zMN_Rsi9z-zu_ReJ33hQ5NDmSScG1QQnwv6iWgdY7dMTqihRn_Bd4AoE/s1600/Number_of_newspaper_firms.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="370" data-original-width="600" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcl8n-JQCN9LnOWuWnG_lcO1bWQAp5iiHkKgxWifLMjyB_OTJl5-4sbS9hHummjPiIHbbwavCbH4WWUB88dC_zMN_Rsi9z-zu_ReJ33hQ5NDmSScG1QQnwv6iWgdY7dMTqihRn_Bd4AoE/s400/Number_of_newspaper_firms.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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Have you noticed the death of the opinion page in many
newspapers nationwide? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our local Port
Huron area Times Herald let go a couple of good editors, and dropped the page
with its editorial, letters to the editor, op-eds, and award winning “Talkback”
column over a year ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
restructuring, after our paper years ago being subsumed by Gannett News, is
part of a further downsizing at behest of new giant owners “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/business/media/gannett-acquired-gatehouse-media.html">New
Media Investment Group</a>.“<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivTvNP0Z8OHt6WuboNKf6h58UCfGfhy919C14c0wvLv3x9pKBFwx1I1ZDnu8kOgb8N-jc8eOh1xqqLT84JkCo0-cmhyphenhyphenwWDiuBcjdu5XRDpOEgnHbplFtmp0B75iE_kMpCwPt2_aSbDwr0/s1600/k%2527s+A+bright.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="515" data-original-width="604" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivTvNP0Z8OHt6WuboNKf6h58UCfGfhy919C14c0wvLv3x9pKBFwx1I1ZDnu8kOgb8N-jc8eOh1xqqLT84JkCo0-cmhyphenhyphenwWDiuBcjdu5XRDpOEgnHbplFtmp0B75iE_kMpCwPt2_aSbDwr0/s200/k%2527s+A+bright.jpg" width="200" /></a>nd now with the pandemic upon us, its foreseen that with this
blow to the economy, many local newspapers across the land will fold or be
further diminished.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were already
under pressure from personal device delivered media.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is lost in this demise?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The freedom of the press to express our
opinions in the press, distributed to a wide circulation of people of divergent
views.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our newspapers have contained one
of the last public forums designed to invite diverse discussions, respectfully
refereed by hopefully impartial editors.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The new newspaper business model has no place for citizens
to make public response to the problems and politics of our society. What the
powerful willingly or unwittingly want is no talkback from the common folk—just
let their thoughts diffuse impatiently among Facebook friends, without impact
on those with whom you disagree, impotent to make change. No dialogue, no
editor to keep the issues balanced and the discussion civil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No compromise—more stupidity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The threatened death of the newspaper opinion
page, and local papers themselves, is warning sign that our system of democracy,
dependent on a vibrant public forum, faces extinction as well.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9dEjr5A9s-5MeSgVVL6SL_WbLsvKexfrwOfFIXld8shRx20t-B16vNEy3SYOyun30rUIlVtoJ3R5IcLtjziKVwaMcM6ECKUgvMop1B05IgENLxWctRUFh2sZzN7QcXFN-YMNX8OdAIvM/s1600/nonewswebcover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="898" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9dEjr5A9s-5MeSgVVL6SL_WbLsvKexfrwOfFIXld8shRx20t-B16vNEy3SYOyun30rUIlVtoJ3R5IcLtjziKVwaMcM6ECKUgvMop1B05IgENLxWctRUFh2sZzN7QcXFN-YMNX8OdAIvM/s320/nonewswebcover.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i>Reference </i></b></div>
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<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/business/media/gannett-acquired-gatehouse-media.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/business/media/gannett-acquired-gatehouse-media.html</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<b><i>Illumination by Kathy Brahney</i></b><br />
<b><i><br /></i></b>
<b><i>Update on refugees & Covid 19 [last week's subject]</i></b><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Exchange; font-size: 17px;">"Based on the 995 tests it has conducted, ICE has confirmed 449 Covid cases among detainees. As of April 25, the agency had 29,675 detainees nationwide, most of whom are waiting for asylum cases to be resolved or for deportation proceedings to conclude. There have also been 36 positive tests of detention workers." For full article </span><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/inside-the-largest-coronavirus-outbreak-in-immigration-detention-11588239002?mod=djemwhatsnews">https://www.wsj.com/articles/inside-the-largest-coronavirus-outbreak-in-immigration-detention-11588239002?mod=djemwhatsnews</a><br />
And then there are tens of thousands denied entry, awaiting review of their cases in Mexican border city encampments.</div>
</div>
Michael J. McCarthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883623204335260738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75214831655568750.post-19294891698007271032020-04-27T21:51:00.000-04:002020-04-30T15:46:22.455-04:00AND OUR ADMINISTRATION SAYS, THEY ARE JUST DEPORTEES<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
From Fresno Bee, 1-28-1948</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht0XlufbrFKvk_7gI89gV3pFBCjP17skAFDjEn4CQ10KW_-hTv79hGdPKsvjE5JHt0dzhDLCk38pqBC5wnTU41mAmrBqYj6AzkvRTtn5uJMTKYAJ_GzNu4VcQCT4GXdkask2-RzI3I5_o/s1600/deportee+crach.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht0XlufbrFKvk_7gI89gV3pFBCjP17skAFDjEn4CQ10KW_-hTv79hGdPKsvjE5JHt0dzhDLCk38pqBC5wnTU41mAmrBqYj6AzkvRTtn5uJMTKYAJ_GzNu4VcQCT4GXdkask2-RzI3I5_o/s640/deportee+crach.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
Woody Guthrie’s song
“Deportees” sung by his son Arlo<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
A 1948 plane crash
killed farmworkers being deported back across the border<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
Too little has
changed -- <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2eO65BqxBE">Click on this link</a> for song<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh51gZy2DOWbOU8CLOeE9k1P3iUvNYa4VYfozkNw1AOJRouB3KcFuQrOkxLkr98vq7fzipg9QMdn8QcHLNrVm-MOAeypVAp6oloFxCwRRqFjfESgRl8yCP-KCYRylooyp3PG1x3nfkWCaM/s1600/27057032-0-image-a-22_1586550882663.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="185" data-original-width="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh51gZy2DOWbOU8CLOeE9k1P3iUvNYa4VYfozkNw1AOJRouB3KcFuQrOkxLkr98vq7fzipg9QMdn8QcHLNrVm-MOAeypVAp6oloFxCwRRqFjfESgRl8yCP-KCYRylooyp3PG1x3nfkWCaM/s1600/27057032-0-image-a-22_1586550882663.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "graphik" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: -0.14px; text-align: left;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "graphik" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; letter-spacing: -0.14px; text-align: left;">Deported migrants, and soldiers, at an Air Force base in Guatemala City, March 12 and March 19</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photos from UK's Daily Mail 4-27-20</span></div>
<br />
<br />
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As the nation grapples with the Covid 19 pandemic, staying
home and stocking up on groceries, those who harvest our food face terrible
double jeopardies—disease and deportation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>CBS news reports that 50% of our migrant farm laborers are
undocumented.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They still are <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/02/trump-immigrant-workers-coronavirus-162177?mod=djemCapitalJournalDaybreak">considered
essential workers</a>, keep the food on our tables, but are not given any
government pandemic economic supports, or medical care, and many have been put
in detention facilities where the coronavirus further afflicts them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those that have documents {H2A program} are
also in trouble, with government barely letting them in the door, and then, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/white-house-seeks-to-cut-wages-smooth-migrant-labor-hiring-for-farms-squeezed-by-coronavirus-11587123000?mod=article_inline">by
a directive of the Trump administration</a>, all farm laborers’ minimum wage is
slashed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the reverse of
hazardous pay benefits given other essential workers.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So as farm laborers work in often crowded conditions, with
historically poor work protections, they are threatened with the dragnet of
government ICE detention & deportation, which has been the hallmark of our
current administration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We absolutely
need you, but we’ll kick you out as soon as we can.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh9_KEgcyhSnTkon6KBJR2wA-Yt1xZ9nB1udWVLxnlVRHwoVi1cD-1agan1kd8l1B4Enjra7QBlaSemjBQ4eZziNt27AZewFTFQI53k-xLeC6rdG1MWpE0awv_AgBJZQOnRbm1ud47lcY/s1600/red+w+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="660" data-original-width="960" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh9_KEgcyhSnTkon6KBJR2wA-Yt1xZ9nB1udWVLxnlVRHwoVi1cD-1agan1kd8l1B4Enjra7QBlaSemjBQ4eZziNt27AZewFTFQI53k-xLeC6rdG1MWpE0awv_AgBJZQOnRbm1ud47lcY/s200/red+w+%25282%2529.jpg" width="200" /></a>hen they are picked up and placed in detention, these immigrant workers have
faced the increased risk of inadequate jail facilities spreading the infection,
which has then led to them being deported back home, ejected infected back to
their home countries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Guatemala has
finally refused [<u><span style="color: #2e75b6; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #2E75B6; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent5; mso-themecolor: accent5; mso-themeshade: 191;">see below <b>*</b></span></u>], after a deportee flight from the
U.S. had a group positive for Covid 19.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Give us your tired, your homeless, those yearning to work freely, and we
will use you, then infect you and reject you?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And we export our trouble, as the world’s richest but most Coronavirus
ravaged country, to a third world country, more greatly exposing poorer
countries to pandemic risk?</div>
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<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCMOmOio35PctrR2KQVXx0khlrIqVIx4EiscVP-Lo9dLYaHdMOyNsU0m7vTPDssL-Ol_fJ8xAWuz10cCqt-OKHVavih6x0TGr2jrkdwaTn3aTrw7EpXgFnFFMNzoHGMpv_Oc0OXX3LRxM/s1600/fhe+summons+360+dpi070.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1060" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCMOmOio35PctrR2KQVXx0khlrIqVIx4EiscVP-Lo9dLYaHdMOyNsU0m7vTPDssL-Ol_fJ8xAWuz10cCqt-OKHVavih6x0TGr2jrkdwaTn3aTrw7EpXgFnFFMNzoHGMpv_Oc0OXX3LRxM/s320/fhe+summons+360+dpi070.jpg" width="209" /></a></div>
Our farmers as well as farm workers are big losers in our
current viral plague situation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>See the
recent WSJ article, <span style="color: blue;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/coronavirus-forces-farmers-to-destroy-their-crops-11587909600?mod=djemHL_t">Coronavirus
Forces Farmers to Destroy Their Crops</a>.</i></span><o:p></o:p><br />
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We may emerge from this pandemic a hungrier country—at the least
having to import more of our produce and staples. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many of our own farms and their workers could
be set back towards dustbowl times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
a good portion of those who might have come to our country for refuge, work,
and a better way of life, will be much more reluctant to do so.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<i><span style="color: #4472c4; font-family: "exchange" , serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">* </span></i><b><i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "exchange" , serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Excerpt from the Wall Street Journal--<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<i><span style="font-family: "exchange" , serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/latin-america-wary-of-exported-coronavirus-voices-concern-over-u-s-deportations-11587736679"><span style="color: blue;">https://www.wsj.com/articles/latin-america-wary-of-exported-coronavirus-voices-concern-over-u-s-deportations-11587736679</span></a><u style="color: #333333;"><o:p></o:p></u></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "exchange" , serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">“Guatemala </span></i><i><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/guatemala-asks-u-s-government-to-ensure-that-deportees-are-free-from-covid-19-11587249371?mod=article_inline"><span style="color: #0274b6; font-family: "exchange" , serif;">suspended nearly all
deportation flights</span></a></span></i><i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "exchange" , serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"> last week after President
Alejandro Giammattei said “a large part” of a flight with 76 repatriated
Guatemalans was infected. The country </span></i><i><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/guatemala-asks-u-s-government-to-ensure-that-deportees-are-free-from-covid-19-11587249371?mod=article_inline"><span style="color: #0274b6; font-family: "exchange" , serif;">is in talks with the U.S.</span></a></span></i><i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "exchange" , serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"> to
restart flights once American authorities can certify all deportees have tested
negative for the disease, Guatemalan officials said.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "exchange" , serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">On Friday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed it
would begin acquiring 2,000 coronavirus test kits a month to test immigrants it
plans to deport, though the agency acknowledged it wouldn’t be able to test
every deportee with that number of kits.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "exchange" , serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">The governments worry that returned migrants could spark new
waves of infections that overwhelm ill-equipped health-care systems. The U.S.,
in turn, has threatened these governments with </span></i><i><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-threatens-to-deny-visas-to-countries-refusing-deported-citizens-11586577586?mod=article_inline"><span style="color: #0274b6; font-family: "exchange" , serif;">visa sanctions and potential
aid cutoffs</span></a></span></i><i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "exchange" , serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"> should they refuse to continue taking
back their repatriated citizens, say U.S. officials familiar with the
discussions.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "exchange" , serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">Across ICE detention centers, the agency has tested just 425 of
the 32,000 immigrants in its custody as of Tuesday [4-21-20], and 253—about
60%—tested positive for the virus.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
And the other reference links <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>--<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/white-house-seeks-to-cut-wages-smooth-migrant-labor-hiring-for-farms-squeezed-by-coronavirus-11587123000?mod=article_inline"><i><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10.0pt;">https://www.wsj.com/articles/white-house-seeks-to-cut-wages-smooth-migrant-labor-hiring-for-farms-squeezed-by-coronavirus-11587123000?mod=article_inline</span></i></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/coronavirus-forces-farmers-to-destroy-their-crops-11587909600?mod=djemHL_t"><span style="color: blue;">https://www.wsj.com/articles/coronavirus-forces-farmers-to-destroy-their-crops-11587909600?mod=djemHL_t</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/02/trump-immigrant-workers-coronavirus-162177?mod=djemCapitalJournalDaybreak"><span style="color: blue;">https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/02/trump-immigrant-workers-coronavirus-162177?mod=djemCapitalJournalDaybreak</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>Latest news 4-27-20 from UK paper--Guatemala agrees to receive renewed deportations</i></div>
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<i><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-small;"><o:p> </o:p><a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8202339/Guatemala-resume-deportation-flights-US-week.html">https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8202339/Guatemala-resume-deportation-flights-US-week.html</a></span></i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">A good report in the midst
of this pandemic, reminded us of the time we spent at a motel refugee center in
El Paso a year ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Generosity to the stranger,
refugee, homeless, outcasts—can save us all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<i><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="https://www.wsj.com/video/doctor-treats-chicagos-homeless-at-hotel-during-coronavirus-crisis/027C53BA-AECD-49BF-8FFD-649AD3CC6BFB.html"><span style="color: blue;">https://www.wsj.com/video/doctor-treats-chicagos-homeless-at-hotel-during-coronavirus-crisis/027C53BA-AECD-49BF-8FFD-649AD3CC6BFB.html</span></a><span style="color: #4472c4;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<br />
NEW UNIVERSITY BASED STUDY ESTIMATES 70% OF ICE DETAINEES COULD BECOME INFECTED WITH COVID 19 -- April 27, 2020 <a href="https://whistleblower.org/press/study-projects-significant-impact-on-immigrants-and-local-health-care-if-ice-detention-populations-are-not-decreased/">https://whistleblower.org/press/study-projects-significant-impact-on-immigrants-and-local-health-care-if-ice-detention-populations-are-not-decreased/</a><br />
<i><b>Illumination and artwork by Kathy Brahney</b></i></div>
Michael J. McCarthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883623204335260738noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75214831655568750.post-56495254140345978582020-04-21T11:32:00.005-04:002020-04-21T11:44:06.984-04:00CHOOSE LIFE—ALL OF US –BOTH SIDES OF THE POLITICAL COIN<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivxEds5eMyg2QlTemDgc330HVZAzhS5G37diXOR285jAEpkzhTAwySlMHM1wIVheHh_bzeH7JIBnJNGLnKAEc-AF9ZerQjsV_6DrobXeJ-mHU2tKKQ9L6vU97HLq-mQOkDoW35ULbfdlQ/s1600/Last_Judgement_%2528Michelangelo%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1410" data-original-width="1280" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivxEds5eMyg2QlTemDgc330HVZAzhS5G37diXOR285jAEpkzhTAwySlMHM1wIVheHh_bzeH7JIBnJNGLnKAEc-AF9ZerQjsV_6DrobXeJ-mHU2tKKQ9L6vU97HLq-mQOkDoW35ULbfdlQ/s640/Last_Judgement_%2528Michelangelo%2529.jpg" width="580" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i> The Last Judgement - </i></span></b><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b><i>Michelangelo</i></b></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i><br /></i></span></b></div>
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When we get to the pearly gates, and at my personal last
judgment, Jesus will not ask me, nor 50% of my Catholic faith community, ”Did
you have an abortion?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This will certainly
not be my personal litmus test for salvation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He will ask me, and my male Catholic brethren, and all of us, “Did you
protect innocent life?” “Did you choose life, compassion, and mercy?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Did you see Me in the third world Muslim
child in the war zone, as equally innocent, precious, and present to Me--as in
the developing child in the first world womb?”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>“</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxJN1mBY5_c0r5IGD8SbpgcbTPokzdhl414hP-j5rWsA93bSKiIM8i4eYpZt4W5VCrdOwsDqNMULInii6kIg9VxjQl4rZpZUWv4uXkIoaOFivGsTFOanefzHpt3z9vy4BRHbpG0F5Z2j0/s1600/kathy%2527s+small+d.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="149" data-original-width="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxJN1mBY5_c0r5IGD8SbpgcbTPokzdhl414hP-j5rWsA93bSKiIM8i4eYpZt4W5VCrdOwsDqNMULInii6kIg9VxjQl4rZpZUWv4uXkIoaOFivGsTFOanefzHpt3z9vy4BRHbpG0F5Z2j0/s1600/kathy%2527s+small+d.jpg" /></a>id you recognize that the mind justifying killing the
enemy and enemy’s children to save the country, is the same mind that justifies
killing the unborn child to protect the lifestyle of the parents?<br />
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Why do you think I said to love your enemy, and to put
away the sword?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was to teach that you
are all children of the same God our Father, and that all justified violence
and killing is against my new commandment, ‘Love one another as I have loved
you.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you not understand my death &
resurrection?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did I act and teach in a
way that authorizes my followers to kill, in order to win a worldly kingdom, or
a smaller more prosperous family unit?<b>" </b><o:p></o:p></div>
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“Did you aid and abet an abortion?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or on the other hand, did you expend massive effort to anti-abortion legislate the other’s personal morality?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did either of these help anyone to truly
choose a better life?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did you aid and
abet the large part of the U.S economy that has created the most lethal military
machine in recorded history?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did that
make the world more open to My love?”<o:p></o:p></div>
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May we choose life, and health, and charity, over the hardness
of heart which invests in war weapons and luxury, while others starve, and
pandemic crushes us all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this time,
Easter, spring, we hopefully begin to make our society one, in which it is
easier to be good, right or left rich or poor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p> </o:p> </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhguegIHQGYegyhmotMgm9qlvU9OOpZfoyi6M9MkPiACxXrq6as8ihPjY-LFvdbzSmWjsbQ9BzmbZEPYq0HJHwg-RSzJYSFStcD5cqkqonW8h-X7RteiTZ1eyFKnP10YTaOLabdxcRxaVs/s1600/landscape-1502315162-badass-plane-f-22.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><i><img border="0" data-original-height="490" data-original-width="980" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhguegIHQGYegyhmotMgm9qlvU9OOpZfoyi6M9MkPiACxXrq6as8ihPjY-LFvdbzSmWjsbQ9BzmbZEPYq0HJHwg-RSzJYSFStcD5cqkqonW8h-X7RteiTZ1eyFKnP10YTaOLabdxcRxaVs/s400/landscape-1502315162-badass-plane-f-22.jpg" width="400" /></i></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Photo from Popular Mechanics</i></span></div>
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<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
<div>
<b><i>Illumination by Kathy Brahney</i></b></div>
</div>
Michael J. McCarthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883623204335260738noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75214831655568750.post-70174376671337084182020-04-14T15:01:00.002-04:002020-04-14T15:38:28.343-04:00GOD OF THE PROSPEROUS, OR GOD OF MERCY & TRUTH<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Do as I say not as I do. Social distancing 6 feet apart</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-crowded-coronavirus-press-conferences-photos-2020-3"><span style="font-size: x-small;">https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-crowded-coronavirus-press-conferences-photos-2020-3</span></a></i></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/us/politics/coronavirus-trump-response.html">From the New York Times 4-11-20</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>By the third week in February, the administration’s
top public health experts concluded they should recommend to Mr. Trump a new
approach that would include warning the American people of the risks and urging
steps like social distancing and staying home from work. But the White House
focused instead on messaging and crucial additional weeks went by before their
views were reluctantly accepted by the president — time when the virus spread
largely unimpeded.</i></div>
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<i>When Mr. Trump finally agreed in mid-March to
recommend social distancing across the country, effectively bringing much of
the economy to a halt, he seemed shellshocked and deflated to some of his
closest associates. One described him as “subdued” and “baffled” by how the
crisis had played out. An economy that he had wagered his re-election on was
suddenly in shambles.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>He only regained his swagger, the associate said, from
conducting his daily White House briefings, at which he often seeks to rewrite
the history of the past several months.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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We live in a time when truth is under assault from
powerful political and financial interests. It’s not just a problem
for Presidents, but for a whole society which has become full of itself,
triaging to the dustbin those who don’t measure up. Jesus said to power,
confronting death, <b><i>“In fact, the reason I was born and came into the
world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to
me.” <sup> </sup>“What is truth?” retorted Pilate. Jn 13:37-38</i></b> Jesus
conquered death, holding fast to truth no matter the consequences.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Just before Lent this year my wife Ande and I were in El
Paso a second time to be of some help to refugees from death & violence in
Central America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was little to do
this time as the U.S. administration was in process of shutting the door hard to
keep those seeking mercy out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At mass in
the Cathedral there, I was blessed with a bright moment, a golden vision of the
altar crucifix reflecting sun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Holy
Communion received, I’m right there at the beginning and end of all things, alpha
and omega, Jesus head and foot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then
right back to the growl of my stomach, and grounded on the kneeler—while remembering,
still lifted up, a gift. We are helped to stay faithful to the truth, and to do what's right, by staying in communion with the Truth who embraces all humanity.<br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4t56e0SeENz42gWkAZnqwM_u5WOoGp4NAbI5qiAskWYqAHr6G8leMLnUWN7Kmhvtm1E7j6MzTfFzyvh8eVvb6UuUgTEDrrxhz-uG0k3jBBmqqJycLb8qepAp9mWVrveTDCvxqWRgpUC0/s1600/twithdove72041.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="235" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4t56e0SeENz42gWkAZnqwM_u5WOoGp4NAbI5qiAskWYqAHr6G8leMLnUWN7Kmhvtm1E7j6MzTfFzyvh8eVvb6UuUgTEDrrxhz-uG0k3jBBmqqJycLb8qepAp9mWVrveTDCvxqWRgpUC0/s200/twithdove72041.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
here is hope for the immigrants, and the rest of us too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the midst of Coronavirus and political
arrogance--Jesus is in all current events.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The God amongst us is intrinsic to every situation at all times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus is the present moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are not alone facing evil, mired in the
mundane, or when resplendently within the joyful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Suffering and triumphant alike we are God’s
companions, wayfaring but no strangers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If we believe in an omnipotent creator God, this One is omnipresent.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jesus is the <u>personal</u> higher power—all the more
credible because God comes down deeper mucking it up just like the rest of us, so
much lower into it---To blast death’s door away, Risen, for us, with us, everyone.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicl_e_RN1Da0AX0TdTRvw5SemBPAJ5QeeetqpKRNVxTwf8EI4_UbJEkUza_PakV47HGHEub6pFUSFFuhyphenhyphen52pZMgggG50wG8Cs7wdeaTE1lhqH15dn4dIKvAGbQM2Jod6ZnzGFsFXtkmc8/s1600/rose+amarylis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="342" data-original-width="357" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicl_e_RN1Da0AX0TdTRvw5SemBPAJ5QeeetqpKRNVxTwf8EI4_UbJEkUza_PakV47HGHEub6pFUSFFuhyphenhyphen52pZMgggG50wG8Cs7wdeaTE1lhqH15dn4dIKvAGbQM2Jod6ZnzGFsFXtkmc8/s320/rose+amarylis.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<b><i>Illuminations by Kathy Brahney</i></b><br />
<b><i><br /></i></b>
<b><i>Sources</i></b><br />
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/us/politics/coronavirus-trump-response.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/us/politics/coronavirus-trump-response.html</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/after-icu-coronavirus-patients-ordeal-is-far-from-over-11586356850?mod=djem10point">https://www.wsj.com/articles/after-icu-coronavirus-patients-ordeal-is-far-from-over-11586356850?mod=djem10point</a><br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/goog_17224717"><br /></a>
<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/ice-releases-160-migrants-over-coronavirus-risk-11586304725">https://www.wsj.com/articles/ice-releases-160-migrants-over-coronavirus-risk-11586304725</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/01/world/australia/coronavirus-new-york-expats.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/01/world/australia/coronavirus-new-york-expats.html</a></div>
Michael J. McCarthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883623204335260738noreply@blogger.com0Atlantic Ocean22.263656490059464 -49.360860978256817-7.7528110099405367 -90.669454978256823 52.280123990059465 -8.0522669782568173tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75214831655568750.post-28457655467830011322020-04-06T21:19:00.000-04:002020-04-07T20:01:26.347-04:00TO INFINITY, THE INFINITESIMAL, AND BEYOND, WE HOPE<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The Apollo Missions</div>
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Supplanted by</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The Mission to police the world with </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Stealth Jet nuclear bombs, and </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">the most advanced nuclear missiles ever land & sea</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Y</span>et still completely vulnerable to the world's smallest invaders, destroyers of health & home</i><br />
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<span style="color: red;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "alianza" , serif; font-size: 11.5714px; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: 1px; text-align: right;">This scanning electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2 (round blue objects) emerging from the surface of cells cultured in the lab. SARS-CoV-2, also known as 2019-nCoV, is the virus that causes COVID-19. The virus shown was isolated from a patient in the U.S. Credit: NIAID-RML</span> </span><br />
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We squandered our post WWII potential peacetime inheritance,
and every possible peace dividend since, on massive doomsday machine weaponries,
leaving ourselves incapable of even a fair fight, or mustering any effective fight,
against a tiny microbe.<o:p></o:p></div>
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My wife and I have traveled down to Cincinnati to help our
daughter Bridget pregnant 6<sup>th</sup> month, and her husband who are both
working from home under Covid 19 precautions, while they also care for 1 year
old Bruce at home due to daycare closure. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With our medical backgrounds we reviewed our
absence of carrier risk, and decided we could with good practices be safe help for
them.<o:p></o:p></div>
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On the trip the freeway road sign states, “Wapakoneta: First
on the Moon,” commemorating the success of one of this town’s own, Astronaut Neil
Armstrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His “one small step for man,
one giant leap for mankind,” lives in our national consciousness.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSHQtehBBrd5xZLuhgrVspAXkFnuOx4l0zHKYiv7LX5hGZ0H2GavKqnt0yAPSQXLkW-5VZZ0rskbVONt0mIL2_GP2zENQpjUMpBYitd8vvU6R7ObnsNchMil_J6sv6P7GtKFhVTxf2S8Q/s1600/rose+T.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="568" data-original-width="535" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSHQtehBBrd5xZLuhgrVspAXkFnuOx4l0zHKYiv7LX5hGZ0H2GavKqnt0yAPSQXLkW-5VZZ0rskbVONt0mIL2_GP2zENQpjUMpBYitd8vvU6R7ObnsNchMil_J6sv6P7GtKFhVTxf2S8Q/s200/rose+T.jpg" width="188" /></a>hose Apollo missions lasted from 1969 till
1972, and 11 other U. S. men landed on the moon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many have been the NASA plans since, but they’re
been no further such expeditions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since
1972 the U.S. has pivoted from exploring the heavens, to trampling down the people
of S. E. Asia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>plodded through their rice
paddies with some 2 million of their dead in the wake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For ourselves, 50,000 U.S. soldiers dead
there, and 500,000 of veteran lives eventually destroyed back in our homeland.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nonstop wars entangle us somewhere on earth
ever since.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We exchanged a major triumph of inquisitive science, for the
glitter of hi-tech military power grabs—ongoing hot & cold wars snuffing out those
days of peaceful aspirations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remember
the hope, having a young president who wanted a better world, worldwide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who coupled a mission to land on the moon,
with a patriotic invitation to join the Peace Corps, and was trying to pull us out of Vietnam, before he was shot down dead in Dallas. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-C52FWiv4YzsBiYHah33d9aBveV7w4EAdCIQD4wP003deNYZdQqF8DsDUJtTZJi1rm9JMqF5pq8VSIJ3EY4ulYq8XSaLs4qRVXFjfAv68Rgtv-tJfAlMV20hXDQmbmWXHPX37wMlitE8/s1600/IfToday72046.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="488" data-original-width="344" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-C52FWiv4YzsBiYHah33d9aBveV7w4EAdCIQD4wP003deNYZdQqF8DsDUJtTZJi1rm9JMqF5pq8VSIJ3EY4ulYq8XSaLs4qRVXFjfAv68Rgtv-tJfAlMV20hXDQmbmWXHPX37wMlitE8/s200/IfToday72046.jpg" width="140" /></a> was in high school at that time, and felt the world
starting to shift {after its brief “cold” spell post WWII} into hotter &
hotter scattered but unrelenting war gear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The U.S. had then decided to be the very best at war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we’ve become the world’s most profitable prolific
war machine. <o:p></o:p></div>
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And now the world has the chance to turn again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The U.S. can become great again, leading the
nations towards a peace economy that helps provide for everyone’s needs, that
conquers the terrible scourges of wars, pandemic, and poverty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/news/un-chief-calls-for-immediate-global-ceasefire-amid-covid-19-pandemic/" style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">A call to cease all the world's armed conflicts</span></a> has been made by the head of the United Nations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Invest the world’s intelligence and efforts
into beating a common enemy health destroyer, for the benefit of all—learning how
to settle conflict without the bloodshed of the battlefield in the bargain.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In sixth grade my juvenile aspirations were to be a priest-scientist-astronaut. It was the era of Sputnik then Telstar—they could
be seen in the night sky over our Minneapolis neighborhood’s schoolyard. I soon armed myself with a slide-rule, eager
to learn every lesson solve every math problem.
And now my daughter Kathleen has put into <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/ca/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgxwHMjmHbNRSmmZQPvlQJdWVwflZ?projector=1&messagePartId=0.1">significant practical bioscience accomplishment</a>*</span></span> on the ground, what I only had in vague outer-space imagination. In addition to awards and publications, she’s
today in the growing group of those working to target the coronavirus cell
structure. </div>
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Another daughter Maura, and all our extended family have
been so supportive doing their parts in Kathleen’s success, and each in their
own way on the front-line against this viral threat, and for positive equitable
progress in this world—having faith in each other, and in a merciful loving God.
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQNtpi4hcv6TviL68d5quhQfgKXcC0SELmNqoWXk0tDUCPpwOaykV6AFpIYLp1IgrCxqFOlVH0DyVtD3lCiXKhi8sv_DDFT3uHSB1tJZzswIRrQB5Q9u_P-45WrD0H3tTHSFsxnLKAwwk/s1600/image002.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="610" data-original-width="494" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQNtpi4hcv6TviL68d5quhQfgKXcC0SELmNqoWXk0tDUCPpwOaykV6AFpIYLp1IgrCxqFOlVH0DyVtD3lCiXKhi8sv_DDFT3uHSB1tJZzswIRrQB5Q9u_P-45WrD0H3tTHSFsxnLKAwwk/s200/image002.png" width="161" /></a></div>
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<i><b>Sources</b></i><br />
<i><b><br /></b></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "calibri light" , sans-serif;"><b>* "The 20 under 40: Inside the next generation of biopharma leaders"-- from Endpoints News, 4-6-2020</b></span></span><br />
Please contact me at mccpax@gmail.com, if you want to read the "Endpoints" article on Kathleen McCarthy's achievements. Also -- <span style="background-color: #f0f2f5; color: #050505; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">A pdf of article is in a 2nd email I've sent. Or--To read the article on Kathleen's achievement, you have to google "The 20 under 40: Inside the next</span><br />
<div dir="auto" style="background-color: #f0f2f5; color: #050505; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">
generation of biopharma leaders" and free subscribe to the professional emagazine, "Endpoints." Scroll down to the article section on her success with Skyhawk, a genetics medicine company she co-founded.</div>
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<i><a href="https://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/news/un-chief-calls-for-immediate-global-ceasefire-amid-covid-19-pandemic/">https://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/news/un-chief-calls-for-immediate-global-ceasefire-amid-covid-19-pandemic/</a></i><br />
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One disaster alters another<br />
<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-stops-separating-immigrant-children-at-border-under-coronavirus-emergency-powers-11585701887?cx_testId=3&cx_testVariant=cx_2&cx_artPos=0#cxrecs_s">https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-stops-separating-immigrant-children-at-border-under-coronavirus-emergency-powers-11585701887?cx_testId=3&cx_testVariant=cx_2&cx_artPos=0#cxrecs_s</a><br />
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Not a serious pandemic?<br />
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/03/world/asia/coronavirus-china-grief-deaths.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/03/world/asia/coronavirus-china-grief-deaths.ht</a><br />
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Bill Gates - on real threat: 2015, and today<br />
<u><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Af6b_wyiwI&feature=emb_rel_end">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Af6b_wyiwI&feature=emb_rel_end</a></u><br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyFT8qXcOrM">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyFT8qXcOrM</a><br />
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<b><i>Illumination art by Kathy Brahney</i></b><br />
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Michael J. McCarthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883623204335260738noreply@blogger.com0