Tuesday, October 24, 2017

I MAKE MY STAND ON THE SIDE OF PEACE AND AGAINST VIOLENCE

I MAKE MY STAND: A PERSONAL MANIFESTO AND CALL TO ACTION

Following are links to the earlier posts in this series:

I MAKE MY STAND ON THE SIDE OF PEACE
AND AGAINST VIOLENCE
In the light of recent events, when I think of violence here in the U.S., I think of the cowardly white minorities who, in the heritage of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, envision themselves as a master race, and call for violent uprising against government and for the destruction of the Jews and of all people of color.  I would be remiss if, in our current context I did not state clearly that I have nothing but disdain for such small, hate-filled, unfathomably ignorant disregard for the brotherhood/sisterhood of all humankind.

However, a more prominent and constant form of violence here in the U.S. is the violence carried out by the government against its citizens.  (A similar argument could be made concerning governments of other countries, but here I will focus on the country where I live and have my citizenship.) What do I mean when I refer to violence carried out by the U.S. government? I refer to neighborhoods and communities - especially of African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and other so-called “minorities” - that languish year after year, decade after decade in abject poverty.  In terms of the quality of education, access to basic services, availability of healthcare resources and even the availability of grocery stores, these communities are considered “deserts.” They exist in inner cities as well as in rural areas.  Add to this the fact that over the last 30+ years wealth in this country has been concentrated in the hands of a smaller and smaller group, called the “one percent,” and that this transfer of wealth is carried out on the backs of workers, the middle class, and the poor.  The failure to address or, until the last two or three years even acknowledge, the unharnessed reality of police brutality against communities of color, and the explosion in the number of Black and Latino young men, especially, who crowd the privatized prison system.  The failure in this country to own up to the racism at its historical and present core.  The evermore uninhibited and violent expressions of anti-immigrant, anti-Black, anti-LGBT, and anti-women sentiments that are allowed to grow, unchecked. The fact that we allowed water hoses, attack dogs, and rubber bullets to be used against Native Americans peacefully protesting once again an illegal infringement on their lands.  

THIS IS THE REALITY OF VIOLENCE IN THESE UNITED STATES, UN-NAMED
BY THE POWERS-THAT-BE AND AGAINST WHICH I MAKE MY STAND!

In the present moment, I must state clearly that while I stand on the side of peace, I do not consider myself a pacifist.  I am sure I have much to learn in this area from the great ones, like Martin Luther King, Ghandi, and Thomas Merton.  But I also resonate with revolutionary priests, like Fathers Camilo Torres of Colombia, and Rogelio Poncel in El Salvador, who believed that at times our faith calls us to join the people in armed revolt against the systemic violence suffered for too long.[1] They argue that the act of rebellion, of active resistance is, in fact, an act of love, justified as a response of standing with those who have suffered life-times and generations of violence.

Writing about the situation in Latin America – but words that I believe apply equally to the United States today – the Catholic Bishops meeting in Medellin, Colombia in 1968 declared that the lived experience of misery and exploitation of the people[2] is “a situation of injustice that can be called institutionalized violence [that is] responsible for the death of thousands of innocent victims.” “This view,” writes theologian Gustavo Gutierrez, “allows for a study of the complex problems of counterviolence without falling into the pitfalls of a double standard which assumes that violence is acceptable when the oppressor uses it to maintain ‘order’ [but] is bad when the oppressed invoke it to change this ‘order.’ Institutionalized violence violates fundamental rights so patently that the . . . bishops warn that ‘one should not abuse the patience of a people that for years has borne a situation that would not be acceptable to anyone with any degree of awareness of human rights.’”

“Let us by all means,” they continue, “avoid equating the unjust violence of the oppressors (who maintain this despicable system) with the just violence of the oppressed (who feel obliged to use it to achieve their liberation.”[3]

And so, it is in this area of gray – of standing against the unjust violence of the system
and on the side of those (myself included) seeking liberation –
that I make my stand
for peace.


[1] I have a great deal of respect for journalist, author and Presbyterian minister, Chris Hedges.  He wrote an article recently entitled “How Antifa Mirrors the Alt-right,” where he argues that armed insurrection on the left actually feeds into supporting the goals of the right.  I’ve read the article and because of my respect for Hedges over-all perspective and approach, I feel I need to ponder it carefully and perhaps look at some other sources that would challenge the stance I am expressing here.
[2] Think of the people of Puerto Rico who our President threatens to desert and forget; or the millions, mostly poor, who may lose their health insurance because of policy decisions being taken in the White House; or the unarmed African American men and women whose images and names we have seen on the news, who have been shot in cold blood by police officers; or the Native people and their supporters who, for engaging their right of protest, were hosed down in below-zero temperatures by private security personnel and officers of the law; or the DACA young people who, after living almost their entire lives in this country, may be deported; or the millions of men, women and children all across the Middle East,  made refugees and killed by bombings and conflict either waged directly by the U.S. or paid for with the tax dollars of U.S. citizens.  The list goes on, and on!!
[3] Gustavo Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation (15th Anniversary Edition) (Maryknoll, N.Y., Orbis Books), pp. 63-64.

Saturday, October 7, 2017

I MAKE MY STAND ON THE SIDE OF PEACE AND AGAINST WAR

I MAKE MY STAND: A PERSONAL MANIFESTO AND CALL TO ACTION

Following are links to the earlier posts in this series:

I MAKE MY STAND ON THE SIDE OF PEACE
AND AGAINST WAR
It seems that our political leaders (both parties in the U.S.) no longer believe in diplomacy and understanding, but only in the power of brute force.  The sale of armaments and the deployments involved in war make billions of dollars for a few, while devastating the lives of thousands, no, millions!  The devastation is not only in the lives lost, bodies maimed, destruction of entire countries, and those forced to flee, but also in the diversion of funds that could otherwise be spent on education, healthcare, general welfare, cultural celebration, protecting our environment, and a multitude of other endeavors aimed at building up the life of all humanity, the common good. I am sickened hearing the stories and seeing the images of what had been modern cities in the Middle East, literally leveled to the ground.  All of the things I take for granted in my life – a home, running water, electricity, a flushing toilet and functioning sewage system, the ability to buy food and the other material items I need, and the infrastructure of roads and services and stores are completely destroyed in modern warfare.  Families huddled in neighborhoods that are being bombed, praying and hoping that they do not become what, reflecting our collective psychosis, we allow to be euphemistically known as “collateral damage.” Or families - the elderly, women, children, men, girls and boys, being forced to flee their homes with only the minimal belongings that they can carry with them.  Those waiting in refugee camps hoping against hope that they may be able to go back home; wondering what will be left, if they ever are able to go back. Images of the young men and women – our nation’s children - those hired and sent out in the so-called interests of the nation, returning in body bags and coffins.  I am sickened to death!

The world I envision, the world I am called to join with others in creating,
is 
a world without war.

SALAM   PAZ   VREDE   PEACE   SHALOM   RO-WEDI   LAPÈ   HÒA BÌNH 

PAU   SÍOCHÁIN   FRIEDEN   KAPAYAPAAN   ALAFIA   PAIX  .  .  .