(I happen to agree with all of Episcopal priest Harry Cook's ideas
here... What's wrong with me :-)???
*****
Working Up To It
By Harry T. Cook
On the last Sunday of October 2004 I went into the pulpit and did
something I had
never done in 40 years of preaching. I gave a pre-election sermon in
which I laid
out the issues before the electorate and what had occurred in our
national life
over the past four years.
Without ever once saying the words "Republican" or "Democrat," or the
names "George
W. Bush" or "John Kerry," I told out the facts of what had occurred
beginning with
the United States' pre-emptive invasion of a sovereign nation and the
resultant
war, of how much of the regulatory framework designed to protect the
environment
had been dismantled, of how a regime of tax cuts had swallowed a huge
federal budget
surplus and of how it appeared even then that the U.S. government, its
intelligence
apparatus and military had violated the Geneva Conventions in the
treatment of prisoners
of war.
I was careful to cite only the facts of the matter under discussion,
which were
indisputable. In the end, I did not advise or counsel members of my
congregation
to vote for one or another of the candidates. However, I did make it
clear how
the Bible's law, prophets and gospel spoke to and illuminated the
questions, issues
and arguments that had been set forth during the campaign. End of sermon.
At the earlier of two services, my lay assistant of the day stalked out
immediately
following the sermon, to be followed by a half dozen people from the
pews. At the
later service, there was sustained applause. A congregation with a split
personality,
I guess.
Members of one family that had not been present but read about the
sermon in a newspaper
article promptly left the parish - not angry that the sermon had been
given but
because they inferred (correctly) that it was critical of the
Administration of
George W. Bush.
As they exited through the revolving door, in came several other
families who read
the same article. Now they expect me to stand up one more time in
October and do
the same. I'm working up to it - and here is where I am six months out:
HEALTH CARE: We need a national, single-payer system that will relieve
corporations
from the killing burden of health care insurance for both active workers
and retired
persons. Yes, this sounds like "socialized medicine." So be it. We
cannot continue
on this trajectory of rising costs of medical and surgical care while
the economy
is paring people off health insurance plans right and left. Senators
Clinton and
Obama have similar ideas about how to begin to fix this untenable
situation.
THE #@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
WAR: Words fail a person at this point. It began as a war of
choice -
mostly of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and their
fellow neo-cons
who never got over the U.S. defeat in Vietnam and wanted to make America
stand tall
once more. How do they think that's working for them now? John McCain
insists that
the U.S. press on indefinitely to what could only be a Pyrrhic victory.
The junior
senators from New York and Illinois, respectively, say they will remove
U.S. troops
from Iraq sooner rather than later. Of course, there may ensue
internecine clan
war in what's left of that country, but the presence of U.S. troops on
Middle Eastern
soil is a huge impetus to terrorism. And, to cover all the bases, it is
both possible
and desirable for candidates and voters alike to honor of courage and
bravery of
those military men and women who did their best with honor in an
otherwise dishonorable
war. Meanwhile, what I haven't heard any candidate yet say is just how
much in reparations
the U.S. should pay Iraqis for wrecking Iraq, which leads us to . . .
TAXES: Sen. Obama has thus far been clear that he favors higher income
taxes on
the affluent and a higher threshold for payroll taxes. If he were to be
elected
and would make good on that offer, I say we use some of it to build up
what our
careless and criminal invasion of Iraq and clumsily mismanaged war there
have wrought.
In addition, maybe Social Security and Medicare can begin to be fixed -
especially
if the tilted-to-favor-the-affluent Bush tax cuts are not made permanent.
LIFE ISSUES: Be aware that there are sure to be two, maybe three,
vacancies on the
U.S. Supreme Court in the near- to mid-future. If women voters would
like the government
to keep its hands off their reproductive organs, it's fairly clear which
of the
candidates will help them in that regard. Sen. Obama has criticized the
court for
upholding the so-called partial-birth abortion ban. He would also
support a repeal
of the idiotic "Defense of Marriage Act," which is really just
institutionalized
homophobia. Sen. Clinton is a feminist.
GUNS AT THE OK CORRAL: A rugged Wild, Wild West mentality has got hold
of some candidates
and sectors of the electorate. Those so afflicted have come to believe
that it is
faintly un-American not to own a gun and absolutely un-American to want
even a minimally
sane level of gun control in this nation where almost every week it
seems as if
there is a report of a deranged gunman shooting up a school, mall or
public building.
Sen. Obama while in the Illinois Legislature sponsored banning the
manufacture,
sale and possession of handguns. Will he have what it takes to press
that point,
even now while the conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court work
overtime to parse
"a well-regulated militia" out of the 2nd Amendment?
THE ENVIRONMENT: Is Al Gore coming back, maybe as the head of the
Environmental
Protection Agency under a President Obama? Or in some other influential
position?
You can hear the groans of dismay from the editorial page department of
The Wall
Street Journal all the way out to Nebraska. What a statement bringing
back the
author of Earth In The Balance would make to the country and to the world.
FOREIGN POLICY AND NATIONAL SECURITY: Do a little research to find out
which of
the candidates voted to deny legal immunity to telecom companies that
cooperated
in the Bush government's warrantless wiretapping; which has continued
to hold out
for the right of habeas corpus for detainees at Guantanamo; which has
repeatedly
said that talking with a perceived enemy is better than going to war
with him.
These are only some of the pressing issues and concerns bearing upon the
coming
presidential election. Implicit in it all is the question of what kind
of nation
and people we want to be. Those who look through the eyes of reason to
the Jewish
and Christian scriptures for guidance in answering that question will,
with those
issues and concerns in mind, have no problem in deciding for whom to
vote in November.
© Copyright 2008, Harry T. Cook. All rights reserved. This article may
not be used
or reproduced without proper credit.
--
Shalom/Salaam/Pax! Rowland Croucher
http://jmm.aaa.net.au/
(20,000 articles 4000 humor)
Blogs - http://rowlandsblogs.blogspot.com/
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