INNOCENCE SACRIFICED TO WAR—BLESSED FRANZ JAGERSTATTER, PRAY FOR US

Today I open with this request:
Please pray for 9 days starting Aug. 1st, this prayer for Blessed Franz Jagerstatter's intercession, to help finally end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and for an increase in peacemaking.
[His story [my writing] is now published on the K of C national website. Just Google "Fathers for the Good" and click on Franz' picture in upper right corner.]


Lord Jesus Christ, You filled your servant Franz Jagerstatter with a deep love for you, his family, and all people. During a time of contempt for God and humankind, you bestowed on him unerring discernment and integrity.
In Faith he followed his conscience and said a decisive NO to National Socialism (the Nazi regime) and unjust war. Thus he sacrificed his life. We pray that you may glorify your servant Franz, so that many people may be encouraged by him and grow in love for you and all people. May his example shine out in our time and may you grant all people the strength to stand up for justice, peace and human dignity.
For yours is the glory and honor with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.

(Prayer courtesy of the Diocese of Linz, Austria)



There will be a novena of prayer for this intention between Aug.1st and Aug. 9th [the date of Franz' martyrdom in 1943], at Holy Trinity Parish, Port Huron.
Again as last year, the parish is invited to pray at all its gatherings, and in personal prayer, these nine days, for an end to these wars, and an increase in courageous peacemaking.

Blessed Franz Jagerstatter, died Aug. 9, 1943--beheaded by Nazi regime for refusing to fight in Hitler's unjust wars.

The surprising question that opened our parish "stump the staff" fun night last week, was a war stopper. "A country can morally justify the direct killing of innocent people in order to shorten the conflict with its enemy." "True or False?" To our staff's credit the correct answer given was, "False." The opposing parishioners' panel, and audience concurred. We knew the answer, and the game [loosely in the Jeopardy style, and based on the Divinity Board Game—the New Catholic Catechism Learning System] went on, indeed in good spirit.

We all seem to know the answer, but what are the implications for our modern wars? One innocent directly killed is morally unjustifiable. This is true for both abortion, and war. Yet in modern war the calculation is routinely made of how many innocents will be tolerated casualties of a guided bomb's "taking out" an important insurgent on our enemies list. About the Iraq invasion, a former targeting expert who'd worked for the Pentagon in the initial "Shock and Awe" campaign said, the threshold ratio not to be exceeded was 30 civilians to be killed, to execute one high value enemy.1 There you have it--the morally callous thinking that is prohibited by the principles of our faith. Decapitate the leadership to end the war sooner, despite "taking out" innocents at the same time. The concept of "collateral damage" has been invented to obfuscate the fact of the certain unavoidable deaths of great numbers of civilians in all of these wars fought in population centers, large and small.

Since the time of Abraham it is clear that God does not want the violent sacrifice of our children, our young men, our young women.

In Afghanistan / Pakistan this has been one of the major issues in the conduct of the war, with many innocents killed in bombings and raids. Our armed forces are given woefully insufficient information on who is friend and who is foe, and more enemies are being created daily as more civilians die in Predator drone attacks and special forces missions. We might sometimes "get our man" but the local community is more deeply turned against us.

American soldiers near Kandahar carry a wounded comrade [and wounded Afghani?] to a helicopter for evacuation on 6-28-10 --wsj

" [Classified] documents were posted by WikiLeaks, an organization dedicated to public disclosure, shortly before the Afghan government said Monday [7-26-10] that "up to" 52 Afghan civilians have been killed in a coalition rocket attack on a village in southern Helmand province [last week]." 2 The Afghan government is using the 90,000 pages to further their persistent demands, over the past 9 years of U.S. occupation, that civilians be protected.

The ratio of 30 innocents that can be sacrificed for 1 bad insurgent, has not changed to my knowledge, since instituted by the Rumsfeld Dept. of Defense--no public report of any alteration in these rules of engagement. Contrast these numbers with the dialogue between Abraham and God in last Sunday's Old Testament reading. [Gen 18:20-32] Abraham bargains for mercy with God – Sodom & Gomorrah are to be destroyed because of their tremendous evil. But will God destroy the innocent with the guilty? Would God spare the whole evil city if only 50 just individuals are found? The bargaining continues by tens down to 10, and God agrees. If only 10 innocent are found then a whole city of evil-doers survives.

God's reasoning is in inverse proportion to the Pentagon's. Then with the gift of God's son Jesus, the whole calculus of war is subtracted. "Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you." Mt 5:44

1 At 21 minutes into Act 1, Mark Velasco tells his story of being a targeter for the Pentagon. Stream story at [This is the only place in the media I've seen this discussed--worth listening to whole program]:
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/300/Whats-In-A-Number

2 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704700404575391164167045700.html?mod=WSJ_newsreel_world

TRUTH BE TOLD--NATIONAL AUTHORITIES CAN’T BE TRUSTED TO TELL THE TRUTH

The New York Times of July 15, 2010 contained two articles that reminded me of why, during 45 years of following national media reports, I've developed a healthy suspicion of the stories told citizens by their governments.

he first one was titled, "Despite Settlement Freeze, Buildings Rise."1 On August 12 2009 Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu announced, with great fanfare, a freeze on settlement construction in the occupied West Bank territories, "It will enable us to show the world this simple truth: The Government of Israel wants to enter into negotiations with the Palestinians, is taking practical steps to enter into negotiations and is very serious in its intention to advance peace."2 Secretary Of State Hilary Clinton praised this as an "unprecedented" Israeli concession at the time.3 The reality has been the "freeze" was just a smokescreen for a continued building blitz.

"When the freeze was announced, it came with the assertion that some 3,000 units were grandfathered in and would proceed during the moratorium. David Ha'Ivri, spokesman for the [settlers] Shomron Regional Council in the northern West Bank, said the leader of the council, Gershon Mesika, knew a freeze was coming and so approved more than 1,600 units in 2009, nearly 10 times the number that had been approved the previous year for his area.
Data from the Central Bureau of Statistics for 2006 through 2008 show that on average about 3,000 West Bank settlement units were built in each of those years. So the 10-month freeze offered no fundamental change of pace. In addition, the statistics show, in the last quarter of 2009, more than 750 housing units were approved for West Bank settlements. That was double the number of each of the three previous quarters."1 The peace process in the Middle East has a sad history of "now you see it, now you don't" initiatives. The only constant is that Israel for sixty years has been the annual recipient of the most U.S. foreign aid and military weapons sales.

Then followed in the same NYT a story, "Records Show Doubts on '64 Vietnam Crisis."4 Documents released recently from a Senate subcommittee outline elements of their ongoing debates over the Tonkin Gulf Resolution in 1964. News stories on August 4, 1964 hit the papers and airways that one of our ships had been attacked by North Vietnamese vessels. "President Lyndon B. Johnson cited the attacks to persuade Congress to authorize broad military action in Vietnam, but historians in recent years have concluded that the Aug. 4 attack never happened."4 One of these historians was the National Security Agency's own, and it was their signal data that was misused as proof of attack.5

For more on this photo of later discredited Tonkin Gulf incident, see Naval Historical Center webpage at link 6 below

Misused intelligence data helps start a war? Remember Secretary of State Colin Powell's hyper–televised testimony before the U.N. February 2003, prelude to the Iraq invasion one month later? History certainly repeats itself all too quickly.

hese are two of a multitude of government-philandering-with-the-truth examples that could be cited. Call to mind and further investigate / publicize others which have impacted your lives. Truth is the first casualty of war, and not a day of my 62 years have I lived with my country not at war. If truth dies, so does democracy. Our country has basic need of a Truth Commission to get to the bottom of our recent history, to re-establish our values as a society. If South Africa and Guatemala have done this, so must we, but with much greater depth and breadth, as our country has impacted so many others.

Some other time I'll tell the story of my conversion from true believer in the system, to healthy skeptic of politics in the media. It happened during the 1960's in my MSU college years, when I was working in Capac, MI area migrant labor camps, part of a Catholic Church summer project. Volunteers in a parallel Quaker service group gave me a copy of "I.F. Stone's Weekly" [4 to 8 page Washington D.C. critical, insightful newsletter--died with its originator a couple decades back]. That Jewish investigative reporter opened my eyes about one instance of Vietnam War dysinformation. [You'd be right if you supposed that my "Weekly" pays some homage to his.]

Historians note that a few days after the supposed [Tonkin Gulf] attack he [President LBJ] told George W. Ball, the under secretary of state, “Hell, those dumb, stupid sailors were just shooting at flying fish!” 4

"If you live according to my teaching...you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." Jn 8:32

Illuminations by Kathy Brahney

1 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/15/world/middleeast/15settlements.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=settlement%20construction&st=cse

2 http://www.haaretz.com/news/netanyahu-declares-10-month-settlement-freeze-to-restart-peace-talks-1.3435

3 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/26/world/middleeast/26israel.html

4 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/15/world/asia/15vietnam.html

5 For more on the contribution of the NSA historian, Robert J. Hanyok, to our greater understanding of the depth and complexity of dysinformation [terminology coined by Oliver North, conspirator in the Iran Contra affair], take some time with this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/02/politics/02tonkin.html

6 http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/OnlineLibrary/photos/images/g700000/g711524.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/OnlineLibrary/photos/images/g700000/g711524c.htm&usg=__looaZZThPmyF-33csrInHWWCcCM=&h=610&w=740&sz=145&hl=en&start=4&sig2=hQAGXIfQJtGToHnLeAd7EQ&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=rX-rEN5MTFyVfM:&tbnh=116&tbnw=141&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtonkin%2Bgulf%2Bincident%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=zX1ETJmGFsqwnAeIgpW_Cw

WET RED SANDSTONE 500 MILLION YEARS OLD

The Fox River [Hemmingway's the "Two Hearted"] near Seney, MI --Photo by M.M.



Last week Ande and I were in Michigan's Upper Peninsula camping in a tent, swimming in Lake Superior, and visiting old friends at a cabin built in the forest, and giant old growth white pines. So no writing, but renewed spirit of still being able to live outside, despite rains, and a decrepit tent, relic of many past expeditions when our four kids and we were much younger. We were surprisingly comfortable, dry and bug free, within faded yellow/maroon backpacker style nylon and patched mosquito netting.


The air was fresh clear pine scented. The water bracing translucent and 20 degrees warmer than usual for early July. We discovered a new favorite spot on the east shore of the Keweenaw Peninsula. A rock plate of Jacobsville red sandstone juts out of the sand beach into the water for a hundred feet and then slopes or forms a ledge dropping down six feet into the blue green beyond. You can wade out on it, a mixture of white sandstone and greenish copper oxides trapped in its brick-red flatness, like a hard beautiful intricate patterned marble cake. With small sea cliff variations of a couple feet, this rock and water tabletop extends along a half mile of shoreline.

To see and feel it you must be there*

Ande found many rock art treasures to add to the collection of more than 32 years of travels together—a geologic travelogue that dots the various corners and bends of our yard in Port Huron, giving definition to the flowers.

On the last night of our trip north, most of the six nights outside, when we both thought we'd settle for the backup of a motel room, we ended up in a municipal campground on Lake Superior shore west of Munising. We took the last tent campsite available. But the place didn't feel as crowded as it looked. Our site faced the great lake, forested islands, and burning crimson sunset.


As we sat a ways back from the soft waves, on the placid big lake, a family of mom, dad, and 3 young boys {maybe 10, 7, and 5} walked by on water's edge. The middle boy was making the most noise, and they all moved disjuncted, the parents punctuated by the kids—but yet all happy to be there. On return pass 15 minutes later, mom a bit more stretched out ahead, dad and kids trailing, we greeted them. The dad said, "It's a beautiful sunset." I answered, "Yes, and it's good of you to be bringing them here to see it."


From the chair next to me I felt the tears welling in Ande's eyes, as they do so often and passionately, when the right thing is done said or remembered. In her eyes were the memories of the two of us with our kids--many camping adventures. Love of the outdoors, and of each other, and blessed that we can still do these things, and see other families continue the trip back to nature.

Image by Kathy Brahney

*For more info on this stone formation see--http://www.minsocam.org/MSA/collectors_corner/vft/mi2b1.htm

MEDIA MANAGED FOR THE BENFIT OF WAR

We have a now you see it now you don't military machine, brought out in the media in times of war promotion, retired from view in the long slog of war country occupation campaigns. Our media, the dominant share, is bought and paid for by war investors. They don't want war and preparation for war to end—ever. It makes them too much money.

f one looks back in our own Port Huron Times Herald [controlled by owner Gannett News--so the pattern of local coverage expands through their network across the country], the period of the year and a half between 9-11 in 2001, and our invasion of Iraq in March 2003, featured a daily one page section titled at the top "War on Terrorism." Once the Iraq invasion began there were of course full front page and multipage sections on that war for weeks, and then the title at the top of the ongoing war page became "Disarming Iraq." This was certainly misleading, as the implied nuclear weapons were never present in Iraq, and 7 years later Iraq is far from "conventional weapons" disarmed.

The titled war page on Iraq lasted less than a year, and by 12-24-05 the Times Herald was covering Iraq in its one-paragraph-sized "World News in Brief "mini column. A front page story about a Florida high school student of Iraqi background, "Teen runs off to Iraq to see struggle" did appear on 12-30-05, but substantive Iraq war coverage was disappearing. There have been occasional surges of war stories since, now morphing to Afghanistan, but the pattern of media management of public war effort continues. We are currently in the "Don't pay any attention to that man {those wars} behind the curtain," Wizard of Oz media mode.

It is difficult to focus on the ongoing conduct of these wars, but focus we must, to extricate ourselves completely from these unjust wars. We pray in this way also, for the intercession of Blessed Franz Jagerstatter, the Austrian who was executed August 9, 1943 because he would not fight in Hitler's wars. A photo appears below of his three daughters' Easter wish months before he died, "Dear Father come home."

Christ our Lord did not come to bring peace to the world as a kind of spiritual tranquilizer. He brought to his disciples a vocation and a task--to struggle in the world of violence to establish his peace not only in their own hearts but in society itself.
--Thomas Merton

Illumination by Kathy Brahney

BOOSTING THE BUSINESS OF WAR—LITHIUM REPLACES “BINLADIUM”*

Boy in Marja, Afghanistan [model campaign of March 2010 yet unsettled], through barbed wire fence of Marines camp enclosure, NYT photo

The war in Afghanistan is now the longest war, nearly ten years, ever fought by the USA. The first reason for going to war was to counter-attack al Qaida's base there, as a response to 911. There was to be no "nation building." No staying around to help out. The Taliban was deposed as the country's central government, but remains powerful, and al Qaida's leader Osama bin Laden escaped our clutches. Opium production skyrocketed, thousands of civilians killed, and hundreds of thousands made refugees—collateral damage of war. We abandoned our initial limited goals, put it all on hold to go to Iraq where we thought war more profitable, and now we re-develop our Afghan interest, in a surge of $1,000,000 per U.S. soldier deployed.

U.S. citizens are finally becoming disenchanted with this war. A Washington Post / ABC News poll June 3-6, 2010 indicated 53% No, and 47% Yes, to the question, "Is the War {Afghan} Worth the Costs?" The Pentagon's response to this bad news in the war marketplace was swift. Two weeks later we have the New York Times article, "U.S. Identifies Vast Mineral Riches in Afghanistan."** A supposed $1 trillion dollars worth.

MIDAS & HIS GOLD TOUCH

The hot trail of evidence for the story goes back to a Defense Department / U.S. Geological Survey study began in 2004, renewed in 2006, and based on documents that had been left in a heap by the Soviets when they fled Afghanistan after 9 years of fruitless war in 1989. Apparently the war industry felt that our flagging war fever needed a shot in the arm. "There's gold in them thar hills!" And lithium, to which everyone with a laptop battery can relate.

e have embarked upon a path of endless preemptive wars, where the reasons for the war, are less important than the need for continued progress in the war industry. War and Homeland Security have become our predominant national products. The profit margin is always better for a Bradley Fighting Vehicle than for a Cadillac. And while you might not sell the Cadillac, the government purchase is always assured for the Bradley, as long as the politics of fear can be maintained.

The U.S. public needs not a new war motivation, but a serious examination of conscience. The gleam of greed for power and money, in the guise of self-protection, must be cast out of the public eye. Military manufacturing and services are not listed categories in the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis annual tables of our Gross Domestic Product***, but they most certainly comprise our number one export to the rest of the world.

Civilian casualties of war--womens' graves in Gardez, Afghanistan

The most recent accounting****of total war costs {Iraq & Afghanistan} done in early 2008 found $3 trillion expended at that time. Costs to the people and infrastructures in the countries of the wars, was not included. War has become job one in the USA. At what price? Ask a returning combat soldier what they have seen of suffering--their comrades, and civilians, in those countries become battlefields.

Where our treasure is our hearts will be. Lord God, make us instruments of Your peace.

*Mineral type coined by comedian commentator Stephan Colbert

**http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/world/asia/14minerals.html

****"The Three Trillion Dollar War" book by Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize winning economist at Columbia University

***http://www.bea.gov/industry/gpotables/gpo_action.cfm?anon=508767&table_id=25696&format_type=0

Illumination {inverted by editor} by Kathy Brahney

FIXING A SLOW LEAK IN ACCRA, GHANA

GHANA'S COAT OF ARMS

Visiting my brother Dan in Africa last week I thought I'd make some small, long-needed repairs at his compound apartment, while he did his day's work at the embassy. Fixing the leak in his bicycle tire was ideal, because tasks that get you out in the community are the best. Dan had been carrying a full size metal pump in his backpack to refill the failing tire every 20 minutes of ride. I scotch-taped the pump to the crossbar and went into the afternoon heat of the city streets looking for the repair person.


The first two young men I met on bicycles I asked, "Where would you go to fix a leak in your tire?" They look at each other a moment. "A petrol station?" I ask. "Maybe--- Ah, try Wyeliss school." "How do I get there?" They point down the road. "Everybody knows where it is and I just ask as I go?" "Yes" "Thank you" and I'm on my way, five street vendor inquiries later turning into a 20 flagpole-lined [no flags] driveway towards an upscale gated community. But going past the turn-in gate you're dumped into an area of fields bordered by piles of red clay rubble, with a cluster of low-lying dust brown home-made cement block and stick houses, well beyond that, stretching out along the horizon.

That's where I'm headed, the well appointed gatekeepers tell me. Going slow on my bike down a narrow clay path strewn and lined with garbage out six feet on each side, I'm making my way through a much larger field of beautiful healthy corn. Planted green and random, not in Midwestern rows, it's up about 3 feet now, and contrasts with the somewhat unpleasant smell of the throw-as-you-go dump that winds through it. Approaching Nicholas [he gives me his name] from behind, I decide to walk with him, and yes he knows Wyeliss school, they do fix bikes, and he'll show me the place.

Into the dirt streets we go crowded with cars people vendors and animals mostly chickens. "Its not far down on the left he points. You'll see it." And he leaves with one of the picture postcards-- ice dominates freighter under the Blue Water Bridge—that I've brought as touchstone gifts from the far north.

here is no apparent school [it was down a little further perhaps] but I come upon a packed clay front yard chock full of repair needy mopeds—maybe twenty of them, with parts strewn about. Picking my way though them to the cement block house entrance, I meet Patience in her mid-forties. " My husband is out, can you wait? Can you give me your cell phone, units are up on mine?" "I don't have a cell phone, and can't wait an hour—would rather ride about--but if he'll be back I will return. It is just a slow leak, easy to fix on the front tire. I do them often myself but don't have the tools."

She goes inside for a moment, then across the street and finds a 10 year old neighbor boy who will do the job. "Will you use water to check for the leak?" "Yes." "How much will it cost?" He looks lost. I throw out, in the presence of Patience, "How about three cedis [~ $1.80]?" A flicker of smile and light pass quickly over the boy's face, and I know this is a good price. He starts in efficiently removing the tube from the tire, then takes care to show me the bubbles leaking from a spot near the stem, with tube immersed in a couple inches of water in a plastic pail. "Are we going to check the rest of the tube?" He responds by offering a most deliberate joint in water inspection along the whole length.

Postcard photo by Terry Ernest

Soon Julius, in his mid teens, and a friend appear. "You gotta have heart to ride a bike, some have to stop after only a couple blocks." They don't--they ride everywhere all the time. "I ride a lot in Port Huron too, if it's not a time when there's deep snow, and that's not often because they plow and salt the roads." "You put salt on to melt the ice," they say. "Yes." "And do you go with skis when you can't ride your bike?" "Sometimes, but we can't go on the roads, so it's more for exercise than to get around. The corn that I saw growing around your neighborhood, how do you use it?" "We soak it for 2 days, and then wet grind it for pancakes to eat as is, or to fold around meat pies." "That's like what I saw in Chiapas Mexico, except they re-dry it, and then dry grind." "Do young people in the U.S. get together to talk, like we are now, or are they just stuck by themselves talking on cell phones and computers all the time?" "They do still get together." "You're welcome to come here anytime."

"Do you have email?" "Yes," pointing to the address on the back of the picture postcard [river freighter surrounded by chunks of ice], and I pass three of these around for Patience and the boys. Patience at the start of my visit had brought out to show me her U.S. embassy photo ID badge, proud of having a permanent cleaning job there, being from a neighborhood of few jobs. "We will email you." I hope so, but even my brother at his private embassy apartment, hasn't been able to set up adequate internet connection in his 2 years here. Internet connection is very spotty, even in the multimillion dollar brand new walled and securitized U.S. embassy office compound.

Patience says, "I wish I could come to the U.S. someday. It is very expensive." "Yes, it is very expensive [thinking of the $2,000 it cost Dan & me, just for air ticket and visa hassles, and Dan working for the embassy]." To the boys I say, "My brother does interviews for those caught in troubles and wars, those needing to get out. He leaves back for the U.S. in one month."

The 10 year old neighbor boy doing the work has come up to me and shown me job complete with a hard thumb press on firm re-inflated tire. "Did you retest with the water after you put the patch on?" A moment of slight embarrassment, recovered by the boys saying, "There should be no problem. You know where we are now, and you can come back anytime if there's a problem with the tire." To the ten year old I say, "You are right. This repair most always works. And you have done a very good job. Now what is the price?" Older boys answering, "There is no charge. You are our friend." "Since I mentioned 3 cedis at the start, I think I should keep the agreement." For a second I was going to give the cedis one to each boy, then gave them to the 10 year old who'd done the job. "Here's 3 cedis, that you can share with your friends as you like. And one more [I passed to Patience], for having made the arrangement." That seemed to satisfy everyone. They would have gladly gifted me with the favor—but the money helps.

There was no further leak in the tire, and I rode it many places in Accra those next five days. Even up [strapped to the back of a tro-tro—people's mini bus] and down the mountain hiways to the Aburi gardens of huge tropical trees. It was often in some of the most downtrodden places that I gained the best viewpoint. When you're not afraid to come to their place, they're less afraid of you.

Africa has a long history of terrible deprivations.

Illumination by Kathy Brahney.

Unfortunately, my camera was stolen out of Delta baggage {first time that's happened in years of travel} either in New York or Accra, so no direct visit pictures, unless Dan can find a method to download from his European style, U.S. embassy issue cell phone camera.

A thousand thank you's to my brother Dan, for introducing me to Africa.

STILL TRYING TO SLAY THE DRAGON--EXHORBITANT BUDGETS FOR BULLETS & BOMBS

St. George and the Dragon [artist unknown]



This the week after the celebration of Pentecost, day of inspiration, I'm typing out the only homily in my life delivered at Sunday mass-- Pentecost 1984. Twenty six years later, we still wrestle with the same dragon, inordinate funds offered up to the carnage of war, by all sides. It's a hard monster to subdue, especially as we keep in mind the admonition of Thomas Merton: "As St. Augustine would say, 'the weapon with which we would attempt to destroy the enemy would pass through our own heart to reach him.'" We must then choose
our tools for change very carefully, put away all swords.

Homily, Pentecost 1984, St Denis Church, Lexington, MI

"Peace be with you." "Peace be with you," He said again. "As the Father has sent me, so I send you." "Receive the Holy Spirit." These are the words of the Gospel for Pentecost, fifty days after Christ rose from the Dead. But they were spoken by Jesus, as a commission to His apostles huddled in the Upper Room, at the very time of His Resurrection. Where are the disciples fifty days later?

In the Act's account of the Pentecost event—they're still in the Upper Room. Then came the strong wind of the Holy Spirit coming down on them as tongues of fire—and they finally did go forth speaking in foreign tongues and making bold proclamation. It had taken awhile for the apostles to get moving. They stayed in the Upper Room afraid to go out, until almost physically blown out by the Holy Spirit, out of their protective walls, into the world to preach Christ's gospel of peace, to their own countrymen, and to all the nations, even to the enemies.

I know the fear they must have had. It is so hard to leave the relatively safe confines of our own concerns. We all have enough troubles of our own in our families, our jobs, in our parish and local communities, to say nothing of among nations. Yet in each of these areas, we are called to live and preach Jesus' Gospel of Peace, even unto all nations, to the point of loving enemies. Pentecost sends each one of us to do this, each according to our different gifts of the Spirit. We received the sacrament of Confirmation for this task--gospel peacemaking.

The early disciples' reluctance is something I can understand. It has taken a long time for me to speak out publicly in my church on this issue. My wife Andrea and I have decided that one of the ways we should work for peace is in not paying our federal income tax. We've done this for a number of years, and the money, which would go to support war technology, goes into an account for peacemaking efforts. There is risk in doing this. The IRS will audit us next month.

It was a hard decision to make as a family. Support has come from the witness of the Catholic Archbishop of Seattle Washington, Rev. Raymond Hunthausen, who is not paying 50% of his federal income tax as a moral statement against nuclear weapons. There is an attachment in the bulletin, in which the Archbishop explains his position. [At a time the Reagan administration was ratcheting up our reliance on nuclear weapons he said, "Our nuclear war preparations are the global crucifixion of Jesus."]

I love my country, and believe it to be most blessed with riches and freedom of faith. We are 4% of the world's population and command 40% of the world's resources. With this comes great responsibility, but what are we doing? As stated by the Pope and bishops of the: Second Vatican Council: "The arms race is one of the greatest curses on the human race and the harm it inflicts on the poor is more than can be endured. And there is every reason to fear that if it continues, it will bring forth those lethal disasters which are already in preparation." The lion's share of our income tax money goes to support this arms race.

Pope John XXIII has said, "The true and sold peace of nations can be found not in equality of arms, but solely in mutual trust." I believe that our nation's blessings obligate us to work for peace all the more—even in the face of real treachery on the part of the Russians and other enemies. Walls of nuclear weapons defense will not win the rest of the world to the Christian way of peace. This only serves to isolate us and sap our true strengths.

Our

ishops in their recent pastoral letter, The Challenge of Peace [1983], have called for a complete halt to the making of nuclear weapons by the U.S. and Soviets. What a positive challenge of peacemaking if our government would say to the Russians, "We are stopping for six months, let us see if you will follow this real step towards peace." There are many less dramatic works for peace that can be done by each of us. It starts, as our bishops have urged us, with study and reflection on the issue of peacemaking in the light of the gospel, and praying for our individual gifts of the Spirit.

None of us can be, on our own, the peacemakers we are called to be by Jesus this Pentecost. We need each other, and to call on the grace of the Holy Spirit, to fill us, and send us forth. Thank you [and Fr. Jim Carlson formerly of St. Denis parish, Lexington, MI] for the privilege of speaking to you from the altar.

Footnote. The IRS audit shortly after this sermon, we experienced in Mt. Clemens, conducted by a Vietnam vet, resulted in us having to pay back about $840. He was somewhat sympathetic to our views, and the fact that we'd used refused taxes for peace efforts, not just kept the money in our pockets. Undeterred at that point we went on to continue re-directing federal taxes for another 7 years. Working at higher California wages, migrant clinic [Mike] and hospital OB ward [Ande], our peace tax with-holding from IRS surged to over $13,000 [$5000 of this we'd sent to Catholic Relief Services during the first Gulf War in Iraq, to help mitigate damages].

Long story short in 1993, after 15 years plus, both of us successfully making war tax money into peace tax, we settled accounts with the IRS. Family fatigue, and the need to remove liens, for our first mortgage, a house in the city of Port Huron [after 2 homes built with community help and small personal loans at rural KY and MI sites]. Yet, in a real sense over time, we'd made thousands of dollars do the work of peace, even though eventually we'd had to pay that sum again, back to the IRS. Now, in the same house, we're renewing effort to make peace tax a more common cause, with the hope of many joining in to vote with their tax dollars, making more money available for peace, not war.

May God inspire everyone's work of hands and heart, give us courage and strength, for plowshares of gospel peacemaking.




Illumination by Kathy Brahney