Writer, retired history teacher, lecturer for Knights of Columbus--Bremerton WA (c. 1379), author of new & as yet unpublished book, "Rekindling the Spirit of 1776: Insurrectionary Solutions for Postmodern Maladies."
During their brief existence, the Occupy movement has already yielded some benefits on the economic front. As Fr. Thomas Massaro of Boston College puts it: My gratitude to the Occupy movement grows directly out of my identification with Catholic social teaching…. In these years of high unemployment, blocked opportunity, crushing debt, anxieties about future economic […]
Provocation does carry consequences: First the Seattle government sent its riot police to drive Occupy Seattle out of its campsite at a downtown park, Westlake Center, and subsequently from its campsite at Central Seattle Community College. Adapting imaginatively to the new situation, Occupy Seattle took the initiative. On December 12th, hundreds of marchers barricaded entrances […]
Our decadent society is, alas, now forcing us to look full in the face of yet another moral abomination, namely pedophilia. Child abuse, says Pope Benedict, “affects every level of society.” In a speech to a delegation of American Bishops on November 26th, the Pope addressed the issue of pedophilia, expressing his hope that the […]
Coach Jerry Sandusky, the now notorious pedophile, and his boss, coach Joe Paterno, have some Catholic background. Paterno played football for a Catholic high school in New York. The New York Times states that Paterno is a “practicing Catholic.” The most I could ascertain about Sandusky is that his paternal grandparents emigrated from Poland. To […]
What does Occupy Wall Street want? Last week GOP Presidential candidate, Herman Cain stated, “nobody knows what their cause is. How are you going to assist them with a cause when you don’t know what the cause is?” Well, I’m not sure about the representativeness of the signs carried at camp-outs and marches during Occupy […]
The Occupy Wall Street movement has yet to define itself, and remains in a state of flux and complexity. Commentators attempting to stereotype OWS, and reduce it to a simple formula, might consider Albert Einstein’s maxim that “politics is more complicated than physics.” Our local chapter of OWS is called Occupy Seattle. Let me offer […]
A memorable moment in the Occupy Wall Street movement this month took place in Atlanta, when Congressman John Lewis (D, GA) showed up and expressed a desire to address the assembly. Rep. Lewis has a busy schedule, and when asked to wait his turn he walked out. Elitist types on both ends of the political […]
In the tradition of Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, cross-cultural comparisons can sometimes provide insights to which we, as citizens, might be blind. A recent visitor to our parish in metropolitan Seattle, Father Kiiza Justus of Uganda, granted me an interview.[i] . Uganda — “the pearl of Africa” — has the youngest population in the […]
The ancient idol on the island of Rhodes Stood grimly astride the strait. But here we suffer a colossus of toads, Our country to desecrate. Salvage my soiled nation – long …..uncleaned, Proudly in thrall to sin and war. Release her from the postmodern fiend. Let her radiance shine once more By Robert Struble, Jr.
Libyan rebels take heed. Since relatively little remains left over from the Gaddafi regime, the transition process provides the first chance in the Arab Spring for national replanting in newly plowed soil. Neither Egypt nor Tunisia enjoys such an opportunity. Lest your opportune moment be let slip, cautions and recommendations carry more urgency. Invariably the […]
Does an armed plebiscite constitute an ethical tool of democracy? The victory of the rebels in Libya (August 2011) calls to mind the old controversy about revolution, and whether citizens can rightly rebel against their long established government. Insofar as the revolt against Muammar Gaddafi escalated into six months of civil war, Libya (as distinguished […]
“So while there’s nothing wrong with our country, there is something wrong with our politics, and that’s what we’ve got to fix.” Thus proclaimed President Obama in his first official trip outside the beltway in a month, having been confined to Washington, D.C. to deal with the debt crisis. Two days after Obama’s speech, Texas […]
Never can fast be the same as slow, Nor is an ebb tide at all like flow. Though both of these pairs come from ….motion, Although each might share common ocean. Freedom likewise has opposing poles, One dreadful with bergs and many shoals. Liberty, though, is hopeful and clear, And, under God, gives our souls […]
Ours is not a God of desperation. The Almighty has no need to bless the terrorism perpetrated by Anders Breivik of Norway for the purpose of provoking a restoration of piety and Judeo-Christian civilization in Europe. However idealistic Mr. Breivik’s motives may have been, he adopted methods more akin to King Herod’s than to the […]
Acrimonious and bitter is the fight in America about giving legal approval to gay and lesbian sexual activity. Polarization about putting same-sex unions on a par with traditional marriage pits members of New York City’s elite against one another. Catholic Archbishop Timothy Dolan said he was “very disappointed, very saddened and very worried” by the […]
Since January this year, the world has been watching the Middle East with anticipation and hope. A cascading series of uprisings in the Arab world began in Tunisia with the overthrow of President Ben Ali. In one country after another, populist insurgents were pitted against autocratic dictators. Some – like Mubarak of Egypt, Gaddafi of […]
“As Maine goes, so goes the nation.” On election day, November 2009, the Pine Tree State harkened back to its old bellwether status — at least on the issue of same sex marriage. Defying the governor, the legislature, and the other powers-that-be (except the churches), stalwart citizens upheld the historical definition of marriage. By a […]
Bobby Kennedy often noted the inscription chiseled by a conscripted worker into one of the building blocks of the Great Pyramid, “none had the courage to stand up and speak out.” Recently, it seems, a salutary change has taken place in the Egyptian character. No longer are they afraid to defy unjust decrees and egocentric, […]
