Social good or Catholic bashing?
In a coincidental twist, right before coming across Editor Kristin Palpini’s article, “Catholic Church Shirks Duty to Aging Religious,” Aug. 6-12, 2015, I read that the Diocese of Springfield donated $1 million dollars to the Sisters of St. Joseph, explicitly because “the sisters lack adequate funds to care for their retired and infirmed members,” from Bishop Mitch Rozanski’s Facebook page. In addition, it seems odd that, while concern for these consecrated religious is the strident theme in your article, you have not included any interviews with these same consecrated religious — even those in our area, particularly the Sisters of St. Joseph.
As a Catholic whose aunt and several friends are in vowed religious life, reading your article makes me realize that citing statistics and figures is a far cry from what makes something true. The position of editor of an opinion publication is a good one to have — use it for justice and for the social good, not for something that comes off as mere Catholic-bashing. As everyone in my church could say: “Well, we’ve heard that before.” In any case, I did love her article on canning.
US has been bombing Iraq for 24 years
Recent news articles have revealed that the U.S. military is still bombing the sovereign nation of Iraq. In fact, the U.S. military has been bombing Iraq steadily since 1991. It is, however, alarming that the frequency of bombings has increased. The old adage says that “if you do things the same old way, you get the same results,” which in this case means more violence, more deaths and more bloodshed.
In 1991, Iraq suffered through 40,000 U.S. and allied airstrikes and over 265,000 U.S. bombs dropped. During the intervening years leading up to the “shock and awe” attack of 2003, Iraq suffered through nearly daily bombings totaling over 1.3 million tons of U.S. bombs. During the 2003 war, Iraq suffered through 29,200 airstrikes with over 65,000 U.S. bombs being dropped. In the following eight years, Iraq suffered through another 4,000 U.S. airstrikes.
Prior to U.S.-inflicted violence in Iraq, it was a country that had the best universities in western Asia, had a sophisticated aqueduct water system, was not dependent upon U.S. foreign aid, and its citizens enjoyed more rights than they do now.
Recently, over the past year, a U.S.-led coalition has perpetrated over 5,800 more airstrikes on Iraq and Syria. This is another alarming increase in U.S.-led violence against Iraq. In seven years, President Bush perpetrated over 24,000 airstrikes, or one airstrike every three hours. In just four years President Obama has perpetrated over 20,130 airstrikes, or approximately one airstrike every hour and a half.
Iraq is a country of 24 million people. U.S.-led violence has resulted in 1.4 million deaths, 4 million injured and 500,000 dead children since 2003. If we continue the bombings that have lasted nearly 24 years, this violence will continue to escalate and global warming may become the least of society’s worries.
My choice
Of the comments made by men and published in the Advocate regarding Kristin Palpini’s piece “Why I am Pro-Abortion,” only one has been positive and respectful. Men like Tim Grant, whose disrespectful anti-choice letter last week uses vocabulary like “the looney left” and “murder,” simply don’t get it. Let me spell it out: Mr. Grant, it doesn’t matter whether you think I should or should not be able to end a pregnancy when I choose. I don’t care what you think. I think differently from you. You are not closer to God than I am. You are not more intelligent or more rational either. My decision is my decision. My decision is not your decision. Have you and your buddies got it now?
