The Catholic Worker Movement understands we do not rely on ourselves alone but we are beholden to better the lives of the less fortunate. It brings a message of compassion and justice. The Movement has always sought a “new society in the shell of the old”- peace, less disparity of wealth, and end to economic exploitation, violence and racism.

May 1 marks the 79^th anniversary of the founding of the Catholic Worker Movement, Dorothy Day’s great achievement.

It is a refreshing in your face slap at the Vatican’s recent demand that nuns pay less attention to the poor and hungry and spend more time teaching against abortion and same-sex marriage.

Reflections on Money:

Give to get. The more love you give, the more love you get back.  When you hold back your loving, you get little loving back. The more money you give away, the more you will get back. When I was a rector I had a discretionary fund. The more money I gave away to help people the more money I got back to give away again.

We all will benefit if we all are willing to make other people rich. If we don’t want to make other people rich, we won’t prosper.

Prosperity Consciousness means we look at our money and we feel rich. No matter how much or how little we have we can see that we are prosperous.  Compare our money with the Appalachian poor, the Indian poor, and the Ugandan poor. We are all rich compared to the poor in other places.  We are grateful for what we have been given.

It is more blessed to give than to receive.

Joseph Heller, author of Catch 22 and other novels was at a party of a fabulously rich hedge fund entrepreneur. Another guest said to him, “How does it make you feel that this guy makes in one day more than you have made from the sale of all your books?”

Heller said, “I have one thing that our host does not have.”

What is that”?

Heller replied. “Enough.”

Dear Friend,

I have received a number of emails from you criticizing President Obama’s birth certificate and spending on family vacations.

I am sure you remember from classes in Logic and Philosophy the Ad Hominem argument. In Latin it means to the man or in today’s term an argument criticizing a person rather than the issues under discussion. 

For instance I might say,

I won’t vote for Mitt Romney because:

1. He is a Mormon.

2. He is very rich.

3. He won’t reveal his taxes.

4. He is white.

5. He straight.

These are Ad Hominem arguments. They have nothing to do with the issues facing our country.

Logical and sensible arguments on why I won’t vote for him are these issues. They are taken from what he has said:

He is a Republican and favors free market capitalism.

He will dismantle Obamacare.

He will not raise taxes on the wealthy.

He is inexperienced in foreign affairs.

He is opposed to LGBT marriage.

Democrats and Republicans resort to the Ad Hominem argument regularly.  They are irrelevant.  The issues are what count.

Regards,

Robert

Inspect Israel’s Nuclear Arms

Monday, April 9, 2012

We should inspect Israel’s suspected nuclear armaments. The Netanyahu lead government is a bigger threat to Middle East peace than Iran’s leadership. Israel is threatening to go to war, not Iran. American policy is to force inspections of Iran’s nuclear capability. We did that in Iraq and went to war over nothing. Our government wants to make North Korea to open up for inspections.

I hear no one demanding Israel reveal its nuclear capabilities. American leaders are content to say Israel is reported to have nuclear armaments. No one is demanding Israel be accountable for its weapons. American inspectors are not seeking Israeli programs or installations. Yet we demand to know about Iran and North Korea.

If Israel decides to attack Iran, our government’s unqualified support of that country means that again American soldiers will be called upon to go there and fight. American politicians are so threatened by AIPAC, American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the wealthy and powerful American Jewish organization supporting Israel, that we will be again forced to fight another expensive war.

Mitt Romney has criticized President Obama’s moderate stance on Mr. Netanyahu’s war mongering Israel. Leaders on the right want more aggressive action supporting Israel against Iran.

The President and Romney will protect the peace of the world if they push for inspections of all suspected nuclear build-ups including Israel’s.

I wonder also how much racism is involved? Asians, Arabs and Persians are suspect. Mostly white Israelis are not. We Americans trust white people more than people of color, yellow, tan and black. We see color as a threat. Many want to defeat the President because he is Black not because of his policies.

Israel is not to hold American policy hostage because of our leadership’s blind support of that country. If Israel causes war in the Mid-East, the American people will not support the foolish pro-Israel stances of our politicians. The American people will stand up to the leadership and cry, “War No More.” The occupy movement has shown the way for massive American resistance to war mongering and more killing in order to bring peace.