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Month: May 2009

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Current Events, Perspective, Political,

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss

From The Christian Science Monitor: Soldier rampage hints at stress of repeated deployments

Sgt. John Russell was charged with murder Tuesday. He was finishing his third tour in Iraq.

WASHINGTON – Military police on Tuesday charged Sgt. John Russell, a soldier on a 15-month tour to Iraq —“ his third deployment to the country —“ with murder in the shooting deaths of five soldiers at an American base.

Details about Sergeant Russell are beginning to emerge. In an interview with a local television station in Sherman, Texas, Russell’s father said his son was facing financial difficulty and feared he was about to be discharged from the Army. The case has focused further attention on the effect that multiple, extended deployments are having on soldiers.

Fifteen-month tours and repeated deployments are increasing the rate of suicide, divorce, and psychological problems, according to Pentagon data. The shootings at Camp Liberty in Iraq speak to the need “to redouble our efforts … in terms of dealing with the stress,” said Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a Pentagon press conference Monday.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is requesting to “institutionalize and properly fund” programs to help wounded troops, including those with psychological disorders. Roughly 300,000 veterans have been diagnosed with some form of post-traumatic stress disorder.

But a main source of the problem —“ the repeated, extended deployments —“ will probably continue. President Obama is drawing troops down in Iraq, but he is also sending more to Afghanistan, minimizing the impact that the drawdown from Iraq will have on the health of the force…

I saw a bumper sticker the other day, actually two. The left side of the car sported a huge Obama sticker. On the right side there was a sticker that read: Got War — blame a Republican. My first thought was one of sympathy for the poor deluded person who thought things would change. My next thought was to market an updated sticker:

“Got War – blame a Republican
Still have war – blame a Democrat”

obama-cartoon-711310The sad fact is the all of this could be over; we could disengage from our foreign adventures. Unfortunately, the escapades of the Bush neocons are being continued by the social engineers of the Obama administration.

A word to those who think we are getting something out of this: What are we getting exactly? Are we getting plunder? Cheap oil? Security? Labensraum? A resounding no! When these damaged souls return they will be on the street. They will be homeless Vietnam Vets Part 2. They will be the homeless Vietnam Vet but with twice the anger and triple the skills (see the DHS report: Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment [pdf] or the everyday experience documented in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette’s article: Iraq vets’ troubles appear long after return). They’ll know how to construct lovely roadside bombs, how to kill without remorse, how to weaponize and disguise until — boom. Your neocon/socially engineered plunder and security will go up in smoke like the cities those Vets will occupy.

From the Washington Post:

“There is no front line in Iraq,” said Col. Charles W. Hoge of the division of psychiatry and neuroscience at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, the lead author of the report published yesterday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. “Individuals who are patrolling the streets will be at higher risk of being involved in combat, but folks who are largely located at one base are also targets of mortar and artillery, and everyone in convoys is a target.”

In other words, these Vets will have faced years in situations where the enemy is all around, where danger lurks around every corner. That makes for a wonderful stew of psychological problems.

On top of all this consider the lack of funding the VA receives for veterans health care (especially mental health treatment), the bureaucratic mismanagement of the military discharge process, the social cost associated with caring for those who won’t be on the street because they’re too crippled and too sick to do anything, and the overall economic impact these wars have had (think debt, lots and lots and lots of debt — about 10,000 years worth of debt). Those impacts will last long after the last soldier comes home (which won’t happen anyway as there will always be another ‘engagement’).

What to do? First: pray – really pray because it does work. Next, advocate for better veterans healthcare, wiser policies, peace, and most of all — vote differently. Voting for the same two parties is no different than voting for the same corrupt politician, excepting that the faces change.

“Got War – blame a Republican
Still have war – blame a Democrat”

LifeStream

Daily Digest for May 12th

twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: Fifth Sunday of Easter – B http://bit.ly/suNhY [#]
— 6:40pm via Twitter
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: Monday humor http://bit.ly/ZtDVU [#]
— 8:48pm via Twitter
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: May 11 – A Prayer That Will Be Answered by Anna Kamieńska http://bit.ly/QkXl5 [#]
— 9:18pm via Twitter
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: May 12 – Spring by Maironis http://bit.ly/AkGJo [#]
— 9:40pm via Twitter
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: Nothing and no one should be forgotten http://bit.ly/XybZC [#]
— 8:54am via Twitter
twitter (feed #4)
New blog post: Columbia University establishes Endowed Chair in Polish Studies http://bit.ly/2QPO8 [#]
— 9:04am via Twitter
lastfm (feed #3)
Listened to 22 songs.
— 9:34am via Last.fm
Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , ,

Columbia University establishes Endowed Chair in Polish Studies

From Columbia University: Professorship will focus on research and education within university’s East Central European Center

Columbia University recently completed a $3 million fundraising effort to establish its first endowed chair in its Polish studies program at the university’s East Central European Center.

—The new chair in Polish studies reflects not only Poland’s historical contributions to art, literature and the sciences as the birthplace of such notable figures as Czeslaw Milosz, Frederick Chopin, Marie Curie and Pope John Paul II, but also recognizes its current prominent position as a member of the European Union,— said Nicholas Dirks, Columbia’s vice president and dean of the faculty of arts and sciences. —Students will benefit from the wide array of studies we offer that pay tribute to the remarkable achievements that Poland has realized culturally, economically and politically.—

Following an international search to fill the professorship, a scholar specializing in one of the social sciences as it pertains to Poland and its neighbors will join Columbia’s faculty.

The announcement of the endowed chair took place in Warsaw on Wednesday, March 25. A formal ceremony was organized by Poland’s Consulate General in New York and the Foundation for Polish Science. It was attended by Radoslaw Sikorski, Poland’s minister of foreign affairs, Bogdan Zdrojewski, minister of culture and national heritage, and Aleksander Grad, minister of state treasury, among others.

During the ceremony, Foreign Minister Sikorski thanked the institutional and individual donors and emphasized that he was personally —touched and proud— that a project that was so important for Poland was successfully completed.

—The Polish studies chair provides a marvelous and timely opportunity to engage our Polish and central European colleagues in the university’s planned worldwide network of Columbia Global Centers, which are designed to mobilize scholarship around the globe to address the multiple challenges facing us all,— said Kenneth Prewitt, vice president for Global Centers at Columbia.

John S. Micgiel, director of the Columbia’s East Central European Center, led the five-year fundraising program that culminated in a final transfer of funds last month.

—Our ability to reach out successfully to Polish business was the direct result of the engagement of Consul General Krzysztof W. Kasprzyk of the Polish Consulate General in New York, Professor Wlodzimierz Bolecki of the Foundation for Polish Science in Warsaw, and especially Polish Consul Dr. Ewa Ger,— said Micgiel. —Their connections and determination to make links between Poland and Columbia built on our earlier efforts to establish a Polish studies professorship among Polish-American institutions and individual donors.—

The Kosciuszko Foundation, which promotes Polish culture, education and history in the United States, was one of the original proponents of the Polish studies chair at Columbia and helped facilitate fundraising, along with Warsaw’s Semper Polonia Foundation.

The Brooklyn-based Polish Slavic Federal Credit Union, headed by Bogdan Chmielewski, was the first corporate donor to the project, contributing more than $500,000. The credit union capped off the effort with an additional check for $181,000.

—This is a truly historic and prideful day for Polonians and all Polish-Americans,— said Chmielewski, who attended the ceremony in Warsaw. —Poland’s visibility within the hallowed halls of U.S. academia will increase greatly. Furthermore, there will be heightened awareness of Poland’s vast contributions to world culture.—

Other major donors include the Warsaw Stock Exchange, led by Ludwik Sobolewski; The National Depository for Securities, headed by Elzbieta Pustola; ENEA, an energy conglomerate led by Pawel Mortas; Poland Energy Group, led by Tomasz Zadroga; the Special Economic Zones of Katowice, Warmia and Mazury, Pomorska and Kostrzyn-Strubicka, and the Malopolska Agency for Regional Development, with Piotr Wojaczek, acting on behalf of the regional zones; and the Bogdan Fiszer Silesia Capital Fund, led by Bogdan Fiszer.Antoni Chroscielewski coordinated fundraising efforts on behalf of the Polish Army Veterans Association.

Poland - Polish - Polonia,

Nothing and no one should be forgotten

Robert Strybel, Warsaw Correspondent for Polish American World and other periodicals reported recently on the “Restoration of Forgotten History” project.

The project, the brainchild of Professor Andrzej S. Kaminski of Washington’s Georgetown University and Professor Daria Nałęcz, Rector of Warsaw’s Lazarski School of Commerce and Law, is aimed at correcting the omissions, misinformation, and inaccuracies about Poland as found in textbooks used in the United States.

“American textbooks are issued in millions of copies and used by all students in the U.S.. I have come to the conclusion that 29 years after the end of the cold war it’s high time for the information they contain to be truthful” Kaminski said.

The group has held a series of conferences attended by American authors, publishers and scholars, Their participants have included publishers and historians from Yale, Georgetown, and the University of California, among them British (Welsh) Professor Norman Davies, one of the most prolific non-Polish historians dealing with Polish affairs.

“Our meetings are fairly straightforward. We simply sit down and go through the relevant passages of textbooks page by page, pointing out their shortcomings and errors,” Kaminski explained.

“Corrections have already been introduced into a number of books, and others are being worked on. The program of each meeting also includes an excursion to places of historical interest in such cities as Kraków, Sandomierz or Gdańsk. Our guests are enchanted by our country which they hadn’t known before. One of the biggest impressions on Americans is made by the fact that Poland already had a parliamentary system at the turn of the 16th century, nearly 300 years before America declared its independence.”

A major reason for the present state of affairs has been the relatively low level of interest in Central and Eastern European history among English-speaking historians.

“l do not attribute this to ill-will or sloppy scholarship on the part of American authors,” said Professor Nałęcz. “They are simply unable to check every detail and have to rely on the research of others, preferably sources available in English. The works of Polish authors have not been translated into English that much.”

Professor Nałęcz advises: “We must read what others are writing and alert authors to errors so that new editions get corrected. They usually do. And we must do what other nations are doing: attend historical congresses and conferences as well as holding our own. Such personal contacts are the best way to convey one’s point of view. Unfortunately, we are not all that present at the world’s history salons.”

The title above is taken from a book published by the Czech National Archives: Nothing and Nobody Should Be Forgotten (Aby na nic a na nikoho nebylo zapomenuto).

Poetry

May 12 – Spring by Maironis

The bright sun of springtide rose up and from high
It smiles melting hearts with delight.
The larks have already ascended the sky
And merrily chant in their flight.

The earth has awakened! Away in the fields
The breeze roams caressing your breast.
Bright flowers have flooded the meadows and fields
And twine into garlands with zest.

With spring comes a hope lighting up every face.
The heart yearns for love and its bliss.
It tempts me to clasp all the world in embrace
And give it a rapturous kiss.

Translated by Lionginas PaŁ¾Ł«sis

Pavasaris (GÄ—lÄ—s) -- Spring (Flowers) by Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis

Pavasario saulÄ— praŁ¡vito meiliai
Ir juokiasi, Ł¡irdį vilioja;
IŁ¡kilo į dangŁ³ aukŁ¡tai vieversiai,
ÄŒirena, sparneliais plasnoja.

IŁ¡auŁ¡o! iŁ¡auŁ¡o! VÄ—jelis laukŁ³
Bučiuoja, gaivina krŁ«tinę;
Pabiro, pasklido Ł¾iedai ant lankŁ³ –
VainikŁ³ eilÄ— pirmutinÄ—.

Taip giedra ir linksma! Tiek Ł¡viečia vilties!
Vien meilę norÄ—tum dainuoti,
Apimti pasaulį, priglaust prie Ł¡irdies,
Su meile saldŁ¾iai pabučiuoti!

Poetry

May 11 – A Prayer That Will Be Answered by Anna Kamieńska

Lord let me suffer much
and then die

Let me walk through silence
and leave nothing behind not even fear

Make the world continue
let the ocean kiss the sand just as before

Let the grass stay green
so that the frogs can hide in it
so that someone can bury his face in it
and sob out his love

Make the day rise brightly
as if there were no more pain

And let my poem stand clear as a windowpane
bumped by a bumblebee’s head

Translated by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanaugh

Bóg daj mi cierpieć wiele
a potem daj mi umrzeć

Pozwól mi iść przez ciszę
niech nie zostanie po mnie nawet lęk

Spraw niech dalej dzieje się świat
niech morze całuje brzegi

Niech trawa będzie nadal zielona
aby mogła się w niej ukryć żabka
i aby ktoś mógł w niej zanurzyć twarz
i wypłakać miłość

Spraw niech wzejdzie dzień tak jasny
jakby już nie było cierpienia

A mój wiersz niech stoi przezroczysty jak szyba
o którą tłucze główką zbłąkana pszczoła

Homilies

Fifth Sunday of Easter – B

First reading: Acts 9:26-31
Psalm: Ps 22:26-28,30-32
Epistle: 1 John 3:18-24
Gospel: John 15:1-8

When Saul arrived in Jerusalem he tried to join the disciples,
but they were all afraid of him,
not believing that he was a disciple.

Christ is risen! Alleluia!
He is truly risen! Alleluia!

Fear!

Here comes Paul – and he was on fire for the Lord. He appears in Jerusalem and the Church was afraid of him. Paul left Jerusalem on a mission to destroy the nascent Church. Returning, he was one of them, baptized, and filled with the Holy Spirit.

Remember that Paul sat in Damascus for three days, blind, filled with wonder. Ananias came to him and cured him of his blindness. As soon as he was cured he set out to learn and boldly proclaim the gospel. The Church in Jerusalem hadn’t heard of Paul’s conversion, yet there he is, on their doorstep. They were more than a little afraid.

What do Paul’s conversion and the Church’s reaction to Paul teach us in light of Jesus’ instruction on the vine and branches?

Can I be a Christian?

Paul’s conversion and the Church’s reaction offer an answer to the question: Can I be a Christian?

Paul never whitewashed the things he had done. He told the Galatians (Galatians 1:13):

For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it

Paul spoke to the Galatians concerning his former life. He told them that he had done horrible things, deadly things, in persecuting the Church. Then he goes on to say (Galatians 1:15-16):

But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and had called me through his grace,
was pleased to reveal his Son to me

Paul reminds us that regardless of the severity of his sinfulness, his denial, even his hatred, God called him. God called him to do what St. John says we are to do:

believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ,
and love one another just as he commanded us.

Like Paul every person is called to be a Christian, to proclaim Jesus Christ, and to love. Jesus opened every possibility; making it so that every closed door, every closed mind, every closed heart, could lay claim to God. The Holy Spirit offers the Christian life —“ and it is for all. All can be Christian, without barrier, without cost. You and I can really be Christians.

Can I proclaim the Gospel?

Paul’s conversion and the Church’s reaction offer an answer to the question: Can I proclaim the gospel?

Now Paul was an educated man. He didn’t arrive at his position among the Pharisees by being foolish, but look what happened. Paul became foolish for Christ and proclaimed the gospel through that foolishness. St. Paul tells the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 4:9-10):

For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men.
We are fools for Christ’s sake

Paul — educated, astute — saw himself as a fool for Christ. That’s the way it is with Jesus. Regardless of background, the past, college degree or no degree, we are all called to proclaim the gospel. Jesus calls us to proclaim, to give witness to the truth of the gospel. No one can sit on their hands and say, ‘no, not for me, not my job, I’m not qualified.’

You and I, we have to be shameless in our proclamation of the gospel; in proclaiming the truth:

believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ,
and love one another just as he commanded us.

Can we proclaim that? Yes indeed!

Must I work for the Church?

Paul’s conversion and the Church’s reaction offer an answer to the question: Must I work for the Church?

Where did Paul go? Being blinded Paul stayed put, and the Church came to him through Ananias. Ananias healed Paul as the Lord directed. Being healed of his blindness Paul went to the Church, to the Apostles in Jerusalem.

Now remember that Paul was educated in the law and in scripture. Paul knew a lot, and he could have winged it, could have relied on himself. Paul could have run off, proclaiming his version of Jesus, his version of the gospel; but Paul knew better. Paul went to the Church, to seek its commission and its mandate. He came to the Church so that he might take up the true gospel, the gospel our Lord and Savior left to the Church.

Like paul we must work with and for the Church. Paul came to Jerusalem with a boatload of humility. Paul was patient, waiting for Barnabas who: took charge of him and brought him to the apostles. Like Paul we must commit ourselves to working for the Church. We must come to the Church in humility, recognizing the difference between humanity’s self serving excuses and the infallible truth of the Gospel. The unchanging Gospel is taught by the Church. The Church’s teaching and the Church’s path is the totality of unchanging truth. We cannot wing faith; we cannot do a truth makeover, interjecting our personal likes and dislikes, man made dictates and excuses into the gospel message or the Church. We must work for the gospel left to the Church. Like Paul, we must work for the truth, for the Church.

Do I have to learn?

Paul’s conversion and the Church’s reaction offer an answer to the question: Do I have to learn?

After the Hellenists (the Greek speaking Jews) tried to kill Paul the Church sent him off to Tarsus. Ten years passed between Paul’s initial zeal to preach and his first missionary journey. He dedicated those years to learning the gospel —“ first hand from the apostles and disciples who were witnesses to all Jesus said and did (Acts 10:39). Those were years of preparation for the ministry that would be entrusted to him. Paul’s experience points to the value of preparation for the work of the Church.

Like Paul we must combine our zeal to be of service to the Lord with the need for preparation and testing. We are blessed because of the great graces we receive in the sacrament of the Word. The teaching we receive in our Holy Polish National Catholic Church prepares us to proclaim the gospel. The things we do among our brothers and sisters test and mold our abilities. When we face the world we are well equipped to do the work of the Church.

Can I be fearless?

Ananias and Barnabas are interesting. They went to Paul, to help him, even though they were afraid. Remember that Paul carried a mandate that would have allowed him to arrest a Christian. While getting arrested is unpleasant in this day and age, it was downright deadly in Paul’s time. Ananias and Barnabas wouldn’t have feared the lock-up, they would have feared for their lives.

That fear is natural. We want to preserve our lives. We want to live —“- and live a good long time. Ananias and Barnabas naturally feared, but their faith in Jesus Christ, in His promise, overcame that fear.

If we see life as defined set of years, beginning to end, full stop, then we have every right to fear. We would fear because death would mean the loss of everything. One who is dead would be gone forever. Is that what we believe? Of course not! Jesus told us that life passes in an instant, like flowers that are here one day and gone the next. But, Jesus didn’t leave it at that. He told us and He showed us that life is forever.

If we are Christians, if we proclaim the gospel, if we work for the truth taught by the Holy Church, and if we have studied and learned, then our natural fear is overcome. Our natural fear is really un-natural. Our true call is to be courageous, like Ananias, Barnabas, and Paul. We hear Paul tell us (Romans 8:38-39)

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

God’s love which is Christ’s promise makes us fearless. We will preserve our lives through the fearless proclamation of the gospel. The life we preserve is eternal life —“ life that lasts forever.

We are grafted on to live, not die.

Jesus’ instruction on the vine and branches teaches that all who are part of Him, who remain in Him, will bear much fruit. We have been grafted onto the vine, grafted on to live, not to die. As Paul was brought into the Church our Lord and Savior brought us into the fold. He brought us in so that, like Paul, we might be Christians, that we might proclaim the gospel, work for His Holy Church, study and learn the gospel, and be fearless in our proclamation.

Jesus told us:

I am the vine, you are the branches.
Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit

The fruit we bear is in relation to the life of Christ that is in us. By living the Christian life we will bear fruit. Like Paul, our lives will bear fruit in deed and truth. Let no one say of us, ‘We never thought that he was a disciple.’ Amen.

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