The issues discussed in the general session were
Spiritual consequences of response to the war
Withholding taxes, civil disobedience
Iran
US foreign policy toward Israel
On the first point, it will be interesting to see if they get around to bringing up Hell. They better hurry while there's still anyone alive who remembers hearing about it. On the last, here's a possible preview.
I notice they advocate
Pressure legislators to stop the violence now, get US out, create a space for diplomacy, ask UN to establish/keep the peace.
yet three paragraphs later say
We cannot entirely predict the consequences of pulling our troops out of Iraq.
Despite that, along the way they assert that views contrary to theirs come from evil motives and are advanced by deceit. The plug the web site JSonLying, which makes various allegations about the local paper's coverage of Iraq and other issues.
The "Breakout Group – 'Connecting to and with others'" includes in suggestions regarding the Youth "Restore the draft". I'm so old I can remember when the self-proclaimed peace advocates wanted the draft abolished because they were sure that would make it too difficult for the U.S. to again mount a long and substantial military operation overseas. It's odd that this experience is forgotten at CPJ, what with "Child of the Sixties" Fr. Jack Kern among this group's members.
The "Breakout Group: Truth in Media, Loss of Freedoms, Torture and Human Rights, Exporting Democracy and American Ideology" observed that the "Group struggled to find the commonality amongst these issues". The possibility that CPJ needs to be more narrowly focused to be effective doesn't appear to occur to them. Mark Peters volunteered to "possibly assist with media issues". Since CPJ seems to regard the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as an insidious organization, and the wife of the paper's editorial cartoonist is on CPJ's board, wouldn't she be the logical person for this job?
The "Poverty" group's observations included "We should disseminate the Bishop’s statement on poverty." Careful, then people might be looking for CPJ to cite actual specific references to social encyclicals, rather than talking points, in support of it's various assertions. And why should they have to deal with Church teaching in detail if homilists and DREs don't?
Speaking of focus, the "Death Penalty Group" discussion included
6. Ordination of women in the Church
In the strategies,
Art can often do what politics can’t – public performance or play as opposed to preach
I suggest skits and poems written by members, and giant protest puppets.
The summary of themes from the discussion included
4. Present a fair and balanced explanation and way of looking at issues from multiple perspectives
Here's some examples from earlier in the notes: "Government sees war as in its best interest..."; "We know we are being strung along by the administration, by fear and manipulation, by spin on the events and spin about motivations." "It was noted that shameful acts are being covered up by the media"; "Address corporate greed..."; "Educate people about a war for oil..."; "Mean spirited politics: for example bringing the troops home turned into surrender rhetoric". Makes me wonder what they'd say if their goal was express advocacy from a single perspective.
Update: CPJ's October prayer service continues that Sixties theme,
Casa Romero Renewal Center and Catholics for Peace and Justice invite you to a vigil of prayer, information and friendship to seek “Peace NOW”. The October Prayer Service will focus on the long term impact that our country’s foreign policy has had in leading us into this current conflict in Iraq. Please join us at on Wednesday, October 10th at 7 PM.
The Center adjoins Our Lady of Guadalupe Church [stats D14 14th 24%].
Special guests...
We are fortunate to have long-time activists, George Mische and Tom Melville (members of the Vietnam era “Catonsville 9”), who will share their reflections within the context of our prayer gathering.
Was everyone from the Milwaukee 14 booked? Or don't they have the Catonsville Nine's cachet?
No comments:
Post a Comment