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Year: 2006

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The Common Man (Do prostego człowieka)

The Common Man
by Julian Tuwim, 1929

When plastered billboards scream with slogans
‘fight for your country, go to battle’
When media’s print assaults your senses,
‘Support our leaders’ shrieks and rattles…
And fools who don’t know any better
Believe the old, eternal lie
That we must march and shoot and kill
Murder, and burn, and bomb, and grill…

When press begins the battle-cry
That nation needs to unify
And for your country you must die…
Dear brainwashed friend, my neighbor dear
Brother from this, or other nation
Know that the cries of anger, fear,
Are nothing but manipulation
by fat-cats, kings who covet riches,
And feed off your sweat and blood – the leeches!
When call to arms engulfs the land
It means that somewhere oil was found,
Shooting ‘blackgold’ from underground!
It means they found a sneaky way
To make more money, grab more gold
But this is not what you are told!

Don’t spill your blood for bucks or oil
Break, burn your rifle, shout: ‘NO DEAL!’
Let the rich scoundrels, kings, and bankers
Send their own children to get killed!
May your loud voice be amplified
By roar of other common men
The battle-weary of all nations:
WE WON’T BE CONNED TO WAR AGAIN!

Here is the original:

Do prostego człowieka

Gdy znów do murów klajstrem świeżym
Przylepiać zaczną obwieszczenia,
Gdy “do ludności”, “do żołnierzy”
Na alarm czarny druk uderzy
I byle drab, i byle szczeniak
W odwieczne kłamstwo ich uwierzy,
Że trzeba iść i z armat walić,
Mordować, grabić, truć i palić;
Gdy zaczną na tysięczną modłę
Ojczyznę szarpać deklinacją
I łudzić kolorowym godłem,
I judzić “historyczną racją”,
O piędzi, chwale i rubieży,
O ojcach, dziadach i sztandarach,
O bohaterach i ofiarach;
Gdy wyjdzie biskup, pastor, rabin
Pobłogosławić twój karabin,
Bo mu sam Pan Bóg szepnął z nieba,
Że za ojczyznę – bić się trzeba;
Kiedy rozścierwi się, rozchami
Wrzask liter pierwszych stron dzienników,
A stado dzikich bab – kwiatami
Obrzucać zacznie “żołnierzyków”. –
– O, przyjacielu nieuczony,
Mój bliźni z tej czy innej ziemi!
Wiedz, że na trwogę biją w dzwony
Króle z pannami brzuchatemi;
Wiedz, że to bujda, granda zwykła,
Gdy ci wołają: “Broń na ramię!”,
Że im gdzieś nafta z ziemi sikła
I obrodziła dolarami;
Że coś im w bankach nie sztymuje,
Że gdzieś zwęszyli kasy pełne
Lub upatrzyły tłuste szuje
Cło jakieś grubsze na bawełnę.
Rżnij karabinem w bruk ulicy!
Twoja jest krew, a ich jest nafta!
I od stolicy do stolicy
Zawołaj broniąc swej krwawicy:
“Bujać – to my, panowie szlachta!”

More information on Tuwim is available from The World of English in Poetry for the Street

Everything Else

Happy New Year

I wish all my Orthodox readers a happy Ecclesiastical New Year.

He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the Sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”

Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.

He said to them, “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Christian Witness, Current Events, Perspective

To whom are we bound —“ Part 3

Today’s Albany Times Union features an article on the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese’s attempts to overturn a New York State law requiring that they provide contraceptive coverage as part of their health care package. They object of course based on the R.C. Church’s stand against artificial birth control.

Some pertinent excerpts from Voices of faith argue against Wellness Act follow with my perspective at the end.

Albany Diocese charity goes to court to fight state’s birth control coverage mandate

ALBANY — Lawyers for the charitable arm of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany are set to argue next week before the state’s highest court that a mandate to provide birth control coverage in its health plan violates freedom of religion, speech and association.

Catholic Charities and two Baptist churches are challenging the constitutionality of the Women’s Health and Wellness Act of 2003, which requires employers that provide group insurance coverage for prescription drugs to include coverage for prescription contraceptives.

…

Legal experts say the range of state and federal constitutional issues at hand — particularly the freedom to express religion — makes the case fascinating to watch. The Court of Appeals will be looking at which, if any, protections have been violated. While Catholic Charities argues the religious exemption is drawn too narrowly to be constitutional, court watchers point to the length of time it took the Legislature to approve and enact the WHWA, intimating it was thoughtfully and carefully created.

…

In court papers, lawyer for Catholic Charities stated: “The WHWA coerces church entities to subsidize private conduct that the churches teach is morally wrong. Government in this country has historically respected the right of organized religions to ‘practice what they preach’ and to refrain from financing private conduct that they condemn.”

By departing from that historical practice, the WHWA has placed New York in opposition to the most fundamental values that underlie both state and federal constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion, freedom of speech and freedom of association, documents said.

…

Now here’s the key fact:

More than $28 million of Catholic Charities’ $32 million annual operating budget comes from the government.

Jared Leland, a spokesman and lawyer with the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, supports Catholic Charities’ position.

The group’s credo is “that freedom of religion is a basic human right that no government may lawfully deny; it is not a gift of the state, but instead is rooted in the inherent dignity of the human person.”

With contraception and abortion, Leland said, “There is no ambiguity there. Contraceptive care runs afoul of the very tenets of that faith.”

An organization shouldn’t be forced to choose between its identity and its mission, he said: “There should be an exception to the rule.”

The WHWA does contain an exemption clause for religious employers, like seminaries, but state Assistant Solicitor General Shaifali Puri is expected to argue on Wednesday it doesn’t apply to Catholic Charities.

Two courts, including the local appellate panel, ruled that Catholic Charities does not qualify as a religious employer since it provides health care, food and clothing, domestic violence shelters, drug counseling and other services to people in need, regardless of their religious beliefs.

…

The New York State Catholic Conference has said that the legislation is really intended to mandate coverage for abortion, in an attempt to destroy the church’s network of social services, hospitals, nursing homes and schools.

Albany Attorney Michael Costello will argue the Catholic organization’s case that religious beliefs prevent Catholic Charities from paying for something they believe is sinful.

More than 1,100 Catholic Charities staff members in the 14-county diocese — along with 2,100 volunteers — work at more than 100 sites, serving nearly 100,000 families and individuals annually from all faiths and walks of life.

Statewide, the Roman Catholic Church operates more than 700 schools serving some 300,000 students, 36 hospitals with more than 380,000 inpatient admissions, 57 nursing homes with 11,615 beds, and hundreds of social services agencies that serve more than 1.3 million people every year.

It is the largest nonpublic provider of education, health care and human services in the state. Services are not limited to Catholics.

Nearly 88% of their money comes from the government. Now they do many positive things with that money as the article explains. But, if an organization receives about 88% of its funding from the government, and provides services to all (without proselytizing them), can it still call itself a religious organization?

It appears that the lower courts don’t think so. So the question remains, Who do you serve and to whom are you bound?

The outcome will be interesting. Will the Church eek by or will they have to start acting like the Church in all their endeavors.

Everything Else

Troubleshooting

I decided to do a little more troubleshooting in regard to the 500 Server errors that were coming up on my blog’s homepage. I turned off all the plug-ins and reactivated them one-by-one. It looks like BAStats was causing the issue. I don’t know why because it worked fine before. I guess it is time to change stats packages.

It appears that all is back to normal. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Everything Else

Server errors

Some readers may be receiving intermittent server errors (500 Internal Server Error) when trying to connect to my blog’s homepage. I’ve contacted Yahoo hosting about the issue and am waiting to hear back. Your patience is appreciated.

Christian Witness

The Jerusalem Declaration on Christian Zionism

A statement by the Patriarch and Local Heads of Churches In Jerusalem:

“Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.” (Matthew 5:9)

Christian Zionism is a modern theological and political movement that embraces the most extreme ideological positions of Zionism, thereby becoming detrimental to a just peace within Palestine and Israel. The Christian Zionist programme provides a worldview where the Gospel is identified with the ideology of empire, colonialism and militarism. In its extreme form, it laces an emphasis on apocalyptic events leading to the end of history rather than living Christ’s love and justice today.
We categorically reject Christian Zionist doctrines as false teaching that corrupts the biblical message of love, justice and reconciliation.

We further reject the contemporary alliance of Christian Zionist leaders and organizations with elements in the governments of Israel and the United States that are presently imposing their unilateral pre-emptive borders and domination over Palestine. This inevitably leads to unending cycles of violence that undermine the security of all peoples of the Middle East and the rest of the world.

We reject the teachings of Christian Zionism that facilitate and support these policies as they advance racial exclusivity and perpetual war rather than the gospel of universal love, redemption and reconciliation taught by Jesus Christ. Rather than condemn the world to the doom of Armageddon we call upon everyone to liberate themselves from the ideologies of militarism and occupation. Instead, let them pursue the healing of the nations!

We call upon Christians in Churches on every continent to pray for the Palestinian and Israeli people, both of whom are suffering as victims of occupation and militarism. These discriminative actions are turning Palestine into impoverished ghettos surrounded by exclusive Israeli settlements. The establishment of the illegal settlements and the construction of the Separation Wall on confiscated Palestinian land undermines the viability of a Palestinian state as well as peace and security in the entire region.

We call upon all Churches that remain silent, to break their silence and speak for reconciliation with justice in the Holy Land.

Therefore, we commit ourselves to the following principles as an alternative way:

We affirm that all people are created in the image of God. In turn they are called to honor the dignity of every human being and to respect their inalienable rights.

We affirm that Israelis and Palestinians are capable of living together within peace, justice and security.

We affirm that Palestinians are one people, both Muslim and Christian. We reject all attempts to subvert and fragment their unity.

We call upon all people to reject the narrow world view of Christian Zionism and other ideologies that privilege one people at the expense of others.

We are committed to non-violent resistance as the most effective means to end the illegal occupation in order to attain a just and lasting peace.

With urgency we warn that Christian Zionism and its alliances are justifying colonization, apartheid and empire-building.

God demands that justice be done. No enduring peace, security or reconciliation is possible without the foundation of justice. The demands of justice will not disappear. The struggle for justice must be pursued diligently and persistently but non-violently.

“What does the Lord require of you, to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)

This is where we take our stand. We stand for justice. We can do no other. Justice alone guarantees a peace that will lead to reconciliation with a life of security and prosperity for all the peoples of our Land. By standing on the side of justice, we open ourselves to the work of peace – and working for peace makes us children of God.

“God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.” (2 Cor 5:19)

His Beattitude Patriarch Michel Sabbah
Latin Patriarchate, Jerusalem

Archbishop Swerios Malki Mourad,
Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate, Jerusalem

Bishop Riah Abu El-Assal,
Episcopal Church of Jerusalem and the Middle East

Bishop Munib Younan,
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land

To which I say Amen.

Tip ‘o the biretta to Fr. Jim Tucker.

Current Events, Perspective, Political

About moral or intellectual confusion

Last night Keith Olbermann of MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann delivered a masterful retort to Donald Rumsfeld’s diatribe against the vast majority of Americans who do not agree with this administration’s pursuit of war.

A transcript of his remarks is available at Crooks and Liars. See Keith Olbermann Delivers One Hell of a Commentary on Rumsfeld where in part he says:

Sadly, we have no Winston Churchills evident among us this evening. We have only Donald Rumsfelds, demonizing disagreement, the way Neville Chamberlain demonized Winston Churchill.

History – and 163 million pounds of Luftwaffe bombs over England – had taught us that all Mr. Chamberlain had was his certainty – and his own confusion. A confusion that suggested that the office can not only make the man, but that the office can also make the facts.

You can also view his comments in a better format at TMP Café in Olberman Our New Murrow.

What shocked me about Rumsfeld’s speech was the following (from a transcript of his remarks at Stars and Stripes):

And in every army, there are occasional bad actors, the ones who dominate the headlines today, who don’t live up to the standards of the oath and of our country. But you also know that they are a very, very small percentage of the literally hundreds of thousands of honorable men and women in all theaters in this struggle who are serving our country with humanity, with decency, with professionalism, and with courage in the face of continuous provocation.

And that is important in any long struggle or long war, where any kind of moral or intellectual confusion about who and what is right or wrong, can weaken the ability of free societies to persevere.

So Mr. Rumsfeld is stating that former military leaders and servicepeople who have come out against this war are traitors to their oath and to their country? Wow!!! I wonder what he thinks of his boss when he uses the Constitution as toilet paper.

Mr. Rumsfeld then he goes on to call the rest of us morally and intellectually confused? Cool, because if we were we wouldn’t see, nor would we care about, the loss of our freedoms and the high cost of our misadventures.

WSJV in Bush Sounds Off Against War Critics reports that President Bush’s speech in front of the American Legion’s national convention included the following:

The president said years of pursuing stability in the Middle East was proven a mirage after Sept. 11, 2001. Now, only a nation that commits itself to freedom can help itself and the rest of the world to defeat terror.

I take it that means that those who have pursued peace are idiots and that peace can only be obtained at the end of a gun?

Who knew? Now that I am aware of my moral and intellectual ineptitude, as well as the fact that I am an idiot, I can go out and buy some guns and give peace a chance.

For my part I will pray that our dear Lord grant the light of wisdom to our leaders. I will pray that their moral and intellectual darkness be eliminated, and that they see the truth. I will pray that they cease calling evil good and good evil and that they see that war is not peace.

God have mercy on us all.

Christian Witness

To whom are we bound – part 2

…and Derek the Ænglican states while commenting on “The Liturgical Spectrum”:

One of the ironies of the modern world, of course, is that nobody can remember exactly why we ordain with a red stole (though it’s white in some places). Yes, red is for Pentecost…which means the new deacon/priest has an expensive bit of liturgical formalwear to be worn exactly one day out of the year… It makes a lot more sense in an establishments [sic] that celebrates the martyrs. Not only is it handy and frequently used, but it gives a slightly different cast to the notion of ordination and the priesthood; you are reminded, through color, of the martyrs and your place in their ranks. It is incumbent upon you to hold true to the witness for which they died and to remind people not only of their sacrifice but why the faith is something worth dying for…

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