THE NEWS -- FROM THE POLITICS OF DIVERSION, TO FAITHFUL COMMITMENT

We are browbeat by a plethora of entertainments.  It hard to discern any facts, much less give them their structures, from the mountains of scintillating details.  How to discern truth, when diversion is the order of each and every newsday.

      One of many bomb ravaged neighborhoods in Damascus, Syria

Photo shown round the world this Sept. -- Body of refugee 3-year-old Aylan Kurdi

Submerged below dramatic tragic images that do sometimes appear [as with the current flood of refugees] is just the plain banality of war—its pain, sufferings, destruction, with no higher purpose other than perhaps the greed for oil and power.  Our conflicts in the Middle East, are not in defense of democracies; these nations don’t exist as democracies.  In this combative process, our own democracy is under threat of becoming a plutocracy, run by rich military industrialists.  This all to the delight of the evil one who roams about all nations and religions seeking the ruination of souls.

  

War is the brainstorm from Hell, masking rotten pride with glory.  Where did all these migrants, refugees come from, unprecedented since the worldwide disaster of WWII?  From our fears, a multiplicity of savage unnecessary wars propagated out of the toppling of our World Trade Towers.  How should we respond to this multitude, 14 million plus, displaced by these wars and their decimating economic effects?

he Gospel of Luke 16, the story of the rich man and Lazarus the beggar at his gate, has the crucial answer.  We must recognize them, welcome them, and try to meet their needs.  We must beware of this tendency to build walls to keep them out, and the gates we won’t open, or we shall march powerfully into eternity yearning for a drop of healing water to touch our own tired tongues, to moisten our parched souls—finding ourselves far across a chasm from the love of God.

Syria is at present the source of most of the world’s refugees.  A recent report from FAIR indicates how the U.S. has intervened there, only helping to further provoke a disastrous civil war.  Please take time to read this informative review.  http://fair.org/home/down-the-memory-hole-nyt-erases-cias-efforts-to-overthrow-syrias-government/

  

We have the words of St. James’ epistle [I’ve reversed paragraph order] from yesterday’s Sunday service, for further contemplation.   JAS 3:16—4:3

Where do the wars

and where do the conflicts among you come from?

Is it not from your passions

that make war within your members?

You covet but do not possess.

You kill and envy but you cannot obtain;

you fight and wage war.

You do not possess because you do not ask.

You ask but do not receive,

because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

Beloved:

Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist,

there is disorder and every foul practice.

But the wisdom from above is first of all pure,

then peaceable, gentle, compliant,

full of mercy and good fruits,

without inconstancy or insincerity.

And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace

for those who cultivate peace.

This is today!  That more may celebrate, let us pray.

 http://www.un.org/en/events/peaceday/

 We welcome the words of Pope Francis as he comes to visit the USA tomorrow.

9-11, THE TIDAL WAVE OF VIOLENCE

As we drift pass another week in which we commemorate the tragedy of our 3000 plus citizens who died Sept. 11, 2001, now 14 years ago, is it possible we can begin to examine more deeply why that happened, and awaken to the fact that more than a million, mostly Muslims, have met a war-on-terror death since?  Were we just asleep at the wheel when mostly Saudi teams [our best Arab-state friends] commandeered four super-jets to point them at four of the most important buildings in America?  Why then, did we shift so swiftly from a hasty Afghanistan invasion, to a massive shock and awe attack on Iraq, which had nothing at all to do with wounding us on 9-11?  It’s impossible for me to believe as some do, that our government planned to kill its own people, but the manipulation of these events has had terrible effects.

“CBS News has learned that barely five hours after American Airlines Flight 77 plowed into the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was telling his aides to come up with plans for striking Iraq — even though there was no evidence linking Saddam Hussein to the attacks.”  Sept 4, 2002

The answers to these questions are crucial to our future as a nation, yet will be difficult, and slow in coming.  But already the consequences of our war-on-terror-anywhere response to 9-11, are unrelenting and tragic.  Together with the power elites committed to warfare in many countries and factions [Russia, China, France, Israel, Iran, Saudi Arabia, India, England...to name a few] we are helping plunge the world into ever widening violent disasters:  the first one post 9-11 = Afghanistan; then Iraq, then Libya, then Syria, then Ukraine, now Yemen [with Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria as constant sad baselines].   None of these are even close to peaceful resolution, but instead pervasive magnets for weapons and warriors, provided by almost every nation with a robust military industry, ours being the most powerful.

CBS News report Jan 29, 2002

As in the Port Huron Times Herald - Sept. 8, 2015

 3-year-old Aylan Kurdi, one of the thousands that did not make it

Where do all of these waves of refugees come from?  Never since the cataclysm of WWII have so many been swept away homeless.  They come from the all these wars and destroyed economies we have been intimately involved in.   I do hope that when Pope Francis comes to visit soon, that he calls on our government and the faithful, as he has towards Europe, to open our hearts and borders to these millions who’ve lost their homes to war.   May we be called to heed the warning of Luke’s gospel, chapter 16, {the rich man and Lazarus at his gate} and tear down our walls, and gates – beating our swords into plowshares so all may have good work and be fed.

References

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/a-refugee-crisis-made-in-america/

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/07/world/europe/pope-calls-on-europeans-to-house-refugees.html?ref=world&_r=0

“Human rights groups say that, for the foreseeable future, there is every reason to expect migrants from Syria and other countries in crisis to descend on Europe in ever greater numbers. In Syria alone, 11 million people have been displaced by war, seven million within the country’s borders and four million outside, mostly to Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan.”

“Critics Push U.S. to Help Europe by Taking More Refugees”

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2015/09/06/world/middleeast/06reuters-europe-migrants-usa.html?ref=world

http://www.globalresearch.ca/global-war-on-terror-has-killed-4-million-muslims-or-more-do-the-math/5467349

CESAR CHAVEZ--LABOR DAY SHOULD BE A DAY OF GREAT HOPE FOR OUR COLLECTIVE FUTURE

March 31, 1927 – April 23, 1993

!Que viva la soledaridad!  !Long live our interconnectedness!  !Gracias a Dios!  Thank you Cesar Chavez for your years of labor to help the struggle for farm workers to be recognized as full members of society.   May we acknowledge many of our migrant workers as having been here long before there was a USA.  And may we welcome the most recent immigrants and refugees caused by our many years of rampant wars that have terrorized other nations’ shores.

Thus it began and so continues. -- After our CIA ups the ante to weaponize Arab Spring.  Syrian refugees fleeing the violence in their country make their way to a refugee camp in the Jordanian city of Mafraq July 31, 2012   

QUOTES OF CESAR CHAVEZ

"Do not romanticize the poor...We are all people, human beings subject to the same temptations and faults as all others. Our poverty damages our dignity."

"Our very lives are dependent, for sustenance, on the sweat and sacrifice of the campesinos. Children of farm workers should be as proud of their parents' professions as other children are of theirs."

"People who have lost their hunger for justice are not ultimately powerful. They are like sick people who have lost their appetite for what is truly nourishing. Such sick people should not frighten or discourage us. They should be prayed for along with the sick people who are in the hospital. "The love for justice that is in us is not only the best part of our being but it is also the most true to our nature."

"The first principle of non-violent action is that of non-cooperation with everything humiliating."

"The non-violent technique does not depend for its success on the goodwill of the oppressor, but rather on the unfailing assistance of God.

"It is not good enough to know why we are oppressed and by whom. We must join the struggle for what is right and just. Jesus does not promise that it will be an easy way to live life and His own life certainly points in a hard direction; but it does promise that we will be "satisfied" (not stuffed; but satisfied). He promises that by giving life we will find life - full, meaningful life as God meant it."

hese are some of the words of the nonviolent organizer of the United Farm Workers Union--Cesar Chavez.  His vision and hard work brought dignity and justice to the people of La Raza and latinos everywhere.   He fasted forty days two times as a witness to opponents, and to bring spiritual strength to the people of his movement.  He died alone in one of the farm houses he’d grown up in, after having a hard day in court with agribusiness lawyers who were trying to foreclose that small piece of property left to his family.



References
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/25/world/middleeast/arms-airlift-to-syrian-rebels-expands-with-cia-aid.html
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzbL3X68TEI

Illumination by Kathy Brahney

BEAUTIFUL WEDDING - PRAYER FOR CREATION

Our youngest daughter, beautiful Bridget, got married this past weekend, to Graydon, a young man of strong character and generous heart.   They were celebrated in church ceremony and reception hall by so many friends and family from so many diverse directions and backgrounds, it was wonderful overwhelming.  There were representatives from almost every job and school, neighborhood and family connection each of them had ever been part of.  Testimony to their welcoming natures.

Bridget and Graydon, we were all lifted up and blessed by your spirit and promise.   God continue to bless you and keep you close.

World Day of Prayer for Care of Creation is tomorrow, Sept. 1st

Photos by Twin Shutterbug Studios

PAKISTAN—YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR

“U.S. Threatens to Withhold Pakistan [Military] Aid,” states a headline in a recent WSJ article.  What is the world coming to?   They have been our allies in the Afghanistan region since well before the 911 terrorist attacks against us in 2001.   Pakistan was our supply route to fight the Russians by proxy supporting Mujahedeen terrorist extremists to help kick the Russians out of Afghanistan.  The Russians had invaded there in 1979, leading President Jimmy Carter to call a boycott of the Olympics to be held in Russia.  That was how outraged we were that Russia would invade a country that bordered them and was in chaos.  That chaos then engaged the Russian occupiers for almost a decade, depleting their national treasury, humiliating their army, and contributing to the breakup of the Soviet empire.

Now we have repeated their tragic mistake, trusting in our military might to conquer Afgahnistan, this third world nation that nurtured Osama Bin Laden, the Taliban, and many terrorist factions [that we armed in our proxy war with Russia].  Pakistan, the neighbor country we’ve used as a forward base & supply line for our army’s invasion of Afghanistan post 911, is no longer cooperating.  What will become of our current attempts to destroy these Taliban and other militant groups we once supported?  It would certainly compromise our army, Special Forces, and drones operations.

Drone activity in 2010

Pakistan was never enthusiastic, is friendly also to Taliban on its side of the border, and its courts are now pressing charges against U.S. CIA officials that have run the drones program secretly from their territory.  “American drone strikes are extremely unpopular in Pakistan, where they are viewed as a breach of the country’s sovereignty…”  They are also viewed by their common people as shameful, cowardly ways to fight by remote control.

Both Pakistan and Afghanistan are predominantly Muslim nations.  They are much closer to each other than to the United States.   After more than a decade of our Afghanistan invasion and occupation, and continued “pinpoint strikes” against insurgents, there is no end to the chaos.  The refugees and displaced number in the millions, billions of U.S. military dollars are spent, civilian casualties are at an all-time high, poppy-heroin production is at record levels, and the two countries at times even attack each other.

Another member of our U.S. arsenal

Our military aid to Pakistan will most likely continue, if they fight the enemies we direct them to [so intimates the WSJ article].  Recent history teaches that this only promises the bitter fruit of persistent war.  Better to invest in peacemaking, as in the attempts of President Eisenhower’s’ road and irrigation projects in Afghanistan, and Central Asia Institute’s school building in Pakistan.  You get what you pay for: terrible in war, never easy but positive in peace.

A better use of poppies--Ande's, on our garden path

Please visit our parish webpage for some of the true service opportunities that can help cultivate world peace.

References

http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-threatens-to-withhold-pakistan-aid-1440163925?tesla=y

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/08/world/asia/pakistani-court-orders-ex-cia-officials-charged-over-2009-drone-strike.html?ref=world&_r=0

http://www.wsj.com/articles/civilian-casualties-in-afghanistan-reach-record-high-1438754835

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/roads/2015/04/afghan_heroin_is_pouring_through_india_s_disputed_border_with_pakistan.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/05/world/asia/pakistans-pace-of-executions-alarms-rights-groups.html?ref=world&_r=0

http://www.wsj.com/articles/afghanistan-and-pakistan-trade-fire-in-deadly-border-clash-1435767452?tesla=y

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/16/world/a-surreal-day-on-afghans-eisenhower-highway.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Cups_of_Tea

VIOLENCE JUSTIFIED IS TRUE PEACE DENIED

Section of recent wall art by Ande Gaines McCarthy--from American indigenous theme

I have an ongoing dialogue with friends.  Is one obligated to take up violence as last resort in defense of friends, family, or country—or should one fully embrace pacifism, nonviolence?

I believe in the second, and to be precise, active confrontational prophetic (inspired) pacifism is not passive.  It’s not from that root word, but from Pace – “Peace be with you.”  An opposite sense to all that is apathetic and complacent.  It strikes at the root of the lie that is violent activism.

The New Evangelization we talk about in our church now will prosper only if we return to the full Gospel message of Jesus, how he taught and lives an unconditional nonviolent merciful love for all of us.  As the scriptural scholar {whose text was our guide in the scripture class I took as a seminarian in 1965} has said, “If we cannot know from the New Testament that Christ totally rejects violence, then we can know nothing of His person or message.  It is the clearest of teachings.”  -- Fr. John L. McKenzie S.J.

We must be about teaching and ministering to God’s merciful nonviolent love of friends, and yes, enemies.  We should be working and praying for our young people to never be involved in war, in the military science of killing people.   Instead, well-prepared national and international and mission service should be a requirement for all faithful citizens, but we must begin to put away the sword as Jesus told us when He took up His cross.  Out-violencing the enemy never brings peace.

There is a craziness, anti-god inside every person on earth’s brain, ready to take over.  Its name is fear.  Feed it, and it will.  Feed mercy, and the true God is always with you.

Christian heroism is to not engage in the violent fight, but to create and offer healing remedy of the conflict.  Undeniably there is often great physical risk in not seeking instead the most powerful weapons.  Yet this is the spiritual path promised, to the salvation that conquers death. 

From Ande's backyard garden

Jesus never justified violence as His way.  In recent gospel readings He is Eucharist with us, the sustaining bread of life.  He walks body and soul with us.  Incorporating Him moment to moment we can meet all life’s conflicts and challenges without resorting to that ultimate human tragedy—killing another.  Neither war, nor abortion, will end, nor evangelization succeed until we, with our Savior, renounce justified violence.

The Last Supper- by Bohdan Piasecki

CALL FOR SUB SUPPORT & HIROSHIMA CANDLELIGHTS ON WATER

Second Biannual Request for Support Subscriptions –-- Rather than monetizing the space with disruptive ads, this is a request for support subscriptions of $10 per year made by check sent to this address—Michael McCarthy, Faith Perspective on War & Peace, 2714 Stone St., Port Huron, MI  48060 [checks to my name with FPWP in the memo].   Thank you.

Working independently and without staff since inception on Faith Perspective on War & Peace these past five plus years leads me to attempt a new business model. Writing and working for peace should have some hope of making a small profit in our society. But incomes have thus far been significantly smaller than expenses. I’d like to now merge an old technology with this new one.  Money by mail, for these messages by internet.

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At seventy years since these exploded into our world, its time to banish these demons.  They generate total disrespect for all life.   We nations that have them, possess many times over the number sufficient to end all the biologically advanced life on this planet.  What a blasphemy against our creator God, and a violation of the First Commandment, as they are certainly "strange gods" we entrust our lives to.

Instead---

Candle lantern commemoration of ancestors, and the first atomic bombing--Hiroshima

photo by Kim Kung Hoon, Reuters

From a Pax Christi Austin, TX 2007 ceremony

From an earlier Port Huron ceremony

An invitation, during our parish Franz Jagerstatter Prayer Novena for the End of War

CANDLELIGHTS ON THE RIVER

FOR PEACE AND DISARMAMENT

Thursday, August 6th, Year 2015

A prayer vigil in commemoration of all those who have died in all wars

For our ancestors, our children, and even our enemies

To commit ourselves to put an end to war

On the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima

So that future generations may live in peace

Come down to the river to 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 sturgeon sculpture reef barriers}

At 9:15 PM, Thursday, August 6, 2015

 “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of is scientists, the hopes of its children…This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.”

--President Dwight D. Eisenhower

"After the passage of nearly four [now seven] 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…"
The U. S. Catholic Bishops, "The Challenge of Peace" pastoral letter of 1983 [Sec 302]