Recent Posts

Most Used Categories

Category: Perspective

You are Here :
Perspective, Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political

When you just don’t have the time

I read with interest an article at LRC by Peter S. Rieth entitled Oh, Me! Me! Shoot Me! A Summary of Contemporary Polish Foreign Policy

I agree with Mr. Rieth’s key point, but wholeheartedly disagree with the method he uses to get there.

In the article he states:

Of course, when speaking of something as abstract as “national psychology” or “the character of a nation,” it must be remembered that we are speaking in generalities verging on stereotypes; that there is no such thing in fact as a “national psychology,” because a “nation” is a mere historical construct; like “ethnicity” itself. Nevertheless, it is often useful to engage the archetype of a “national psychology” to explain certain tendencies in popular thought and action; that is to say —“ in politics. What, then, is it, about Polish national psychology…

Politics is all about painting your enemy, whether a person or philosophy, in the worst possible light. This article simply bathes in the top propagandist models aimed at supporting Mr. Rieth’s arguments. After exposing a great basis for his argument Mr. Rieth seems to loose focus and makes a broad appeal to the Natavist leftovers still so much a part of the American culture. It is the appeal to the “all Poles, dumb Pollacks, they got it with their mother’s milk” way of thinking. The article paints Poles as a corporate unity – all thinking, acting, and believing in the same way. Of course that argument appeals to his target audience especially when it is couched in Mr. Rieth’s brief allusion to ‘well I don’t mean everybody’ and ‘hey I’m a Pole too so I know what I’m talking about.’

His disavowal of stereotyping in the excerpt above doesn’t cut it. Mr. Rieth relies far too heavily on the idea of national consciousness, nationalism, national mythology, with a quick cross-reference to National Socialism throughout his article. He lost his way in writing this article when he failed to grasp the key point he made in saying: “…there is no such thing as a homogeneous understanding of human history.”

I have experienced the broad spectrum of Poland. It is old and new Polonia, it is cities and villages, conservative, moderate, and liberal. It is far from singular in its aspirations and thoughts. Its people are diverse and represent the best and worst in humanity, and everything in-between. Even for all its touted Roman Catholic conservatism its pew dwellers perceive even those matters differently.

What we can understand, and what would have made a better argument, is that governments make good and bad choices and that there are wise and poor leaders. We see flag waving, baby kissing leaders who fail to set a vision for the future as well as those with their sights on the future (take a listen to Lech Wałęsa when he speaks on the interconnectedness of societies, or Jerzy Surdykowski when he speaks on European history – the long view). We see leaders who sell the well being of their country on the cheap as well as those that stand on core principals. We see leaders who take the lessons of history into account in building policy and those whose history is nothing more than chauvinistic fantasy. Each country has its own mixture of these and heaven knows the U.S. has been plagued of late.

Mr. Rieth may want to attempt this exercise and develop an article on the national consciousness of the United States. What leads us to making such bad choices in leaders? Are we an amalgam of “keeping up with the Jones'” and to heck with everything important? It cannot be done, or at least not without too broad of a brush stroke. Those too broad brush strokes destroy the soundness of many an argument.

For my part I would encourage Mr. Rieth to rely on patience in building out his articles. He should avoid painting peoples in such a homogeneous fashion. In taking that route he is not serving intellectual curiosity, good journalism, or a sound call to change. He is just hurting his point: Poland sells itself on the cheap to the United States for the air of safety, one which doesn’t exist (see the Young Fogey’s citation of this article) and in doing so lessens its soundness and security.

The street, and the people of Poland get it, or at least a percentage of the population does. The same street moved away from the destructive tendencies of the Kaczynski twins. You cannot fool the population, in Poland, the U.S., or elsewhere forever, because enough of them see through the disguise. Sound arguments help in achieving better ends, in achieving political change. Please reconstruct your argument.

Media, Perspective, Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political

On Poland’s missle defense agreement

You can read lots of stories on this. The Weekly Standard has a good analysis (ok – basically neo-cons, but even neo-cons can make sense from time-to-time) in Poland’s New Missile Defense.

The first few articles I read yesterday, primarily from the Press in the United States, were so horrible, both historically and factually, that I wanted to correct a few of the inaccuracies and further extend and clarify their statements.

  • Poland will be a nuclear target (because of this new system). Sorry scary Russian General but that is just a fact and has been a fact for 50 plus years. Poland’s geographic position between the ill-named Warsaw Pact and NATO just made this so. Russia and the United States would have cleared Poland off the map in any conflict – and would do so today. Likely that Poland’s Warsaw Pact allies would have been the first to nuke it.
  • Poland is a Eastern European Country. It depends upon who you quote. The CIA Factbook puts Poland in Central Europe. The UN notes Poland as being in East Central Europe. Religiously Poland is Western European. Central European is a better term.
  • Poland has “traditionally [been] under Russian influence.” Only if your historical perspective is 200 years plus or minus, you believe that invasion is a welcome event, or you follow a Pan-Slavic philosophy. Poland fell under Russian “influence” several times, in the partitions of the late 18th century until World War I, during World War II when Russia and Nazi Germany cooperated in the invasion of Poland, and following World War II when Poland was involuntarily thrown under Russian control by its Allies (England and the United States). Influence is also a poor choice of words. Better to say control. Those Russian ‘influences’ were not welcome.
  • Poland was communist. Technically and historically correct but misleading. It’s like a reporter stopping at saying that the United States was an English Colony. Poland was more than that and wasn’t a communist country by its own choice. The statement is not reflective of what Poland was and is in a larger context.

Of course no Press outlet will take notice of my corrections and clarifications, but there you are.

Current Events, Perspective, Political,

We are them

Rod Watson, a columnist for the Buffalo News gets it. From his column: Never happen here? Guess what — it has

As one of its many shifting rationales for starting a war, the Bush administration constantly reminded Americans about the freedoms we take for granted.

That argument will be much less compelling next time for one simple reason: We won’t have nearly as many freedoms left once this bunch leaves office.

The outrageous new policy of seizing electronic devices at the Peace Bridge and other crossings purely on the whim of a border agent is just the latest example of our government doing to us what we’d fight to the death to prevent a foreign power from doing.

Think about it: No warrant. No probable cause. No judge.

Just a vague suspicion —” real or fabricated —” is pretext enough to seize your laptop, cell phone or iPod and all of the personal or business-related information in it. A local entrepreneur’s trade secrets, a journalist’s confidential information from a whistle-blower, your private medical records —” all fair game for any snooping government agent.

No appeal. No ability to challenge it. And no idea when, or if, you’ll ever get it back.

If you walked into a room in the midst of a discussion of this abuse, the reaction would be, —Wow, I’m sure glad I live in America, where nothing like that could happen.— It’s the kind of story that, when it occurs in other countries, prompts U.S. leaders to wag their fingers.

In the last few years, slowly, silently, we’ve become those other countries.

While there have been protests as the administration’s oil buddies rob consumers to rake in record profits, we’ve been robbed of something much more precious with hardly a whimper…

Read the rest. It’s worth time in reflection because look at the next step. From today’s Washington Post: U.S. May Ease Police Spy Rules. More Federal Intelligence Changes Planned

The Justice Department has proposed a new domestic spying measure that would make it easier for state and local police to collect intelligence about Americans, share the sensitive data with federal agencies and retain it for at least 10 years.

The proposed changes would revise the federal government’s rules for police intelligence-gathering for the first time since 1993 and would apply to any of the nation’s 18,000 state and local police agencies that receive roughly $1.6 billion each year in federal grants.

Quietly unveiled late last month, the proposal is part of a flurry of domestic intelligence changes issued and planned by the Bush administration in its waning months. They include a recent executive order that guides the reorganization of federal spy agencies and a pending Justice Department overhaul of FBI procedures for gathering intelligence and investigating terrorism cases within U.S. borders.

Taken together, critics in Congress and elsewhere say, the moves are intended to lock in policies for Bush’s successor and to enshrine controversial post-Sept. 11 approaches that some say have fed the greatest expansion of executive authority since the Watergate era…

Funny they should mention Watergate. Of course that’s scarry to a lot of folks because it stood their trust of government on its head. At the time of Watergate Congress and the Press stood against an abusive Executive. They stood to defend core principals. That doesn’t happen so much anymore. In fact, it is non-existent. This is far scarier and, in comparison, Watergate was limited to a proverbial “Keystone Kop” affair through checks-and-balances.

These measures are not just an abuse of “Executive” authority, but a steady movement toward the authority of dictators. It is simply a license to do whatever the person in charge pleases without accountability.

Christian Witness, Perspective, PNCC, Poland - Polish - Polonia, ,

Posting spree, life, and gifts

Notice today’s posting spree? I can start by saying that I would have loved to spread this out as background information arrived, but this past weekend was just a bit too physically challenging for me. I felt absolutely lousy all weekend. I actually missed Holy Mass on Sunday – the first time in years. Needless to say, posting to the blog wasn’t high on the priority list. I feel much better now and have a burst of energy. I guess I just needed rest, light eating, and as always, God’s blessing. A measure of my renewed energy comes from the inspiration for many of these posts.

The source of many of today’s posts comes from a benefactor whom I truly admire – a storehouse of knowledge on the PNCC and a person I see as a true lover of the PNCC. I came home today to discover several items that he mailed, a publication from the Orthodox Christian Mission Center and a brochure from the University of Michigan’s Copernicus Endowment. I am looking through both while writing these words. More to come after I reflect on what’s there.

I am truly grateful for these gifts – not because they are things, but because of the time one man, with more knowledge and grace then I will ever have, spends in being the giver of gifts.

Bardzo dziękuje i Bóg zapłać Pan Władysław!

Christian Witness, Perspective, PNCC,

A Synod on the Word

From America: Synod on the Word of God

More than 40 years after the Second Vatican Council, the Bible still does not figure at the center of Catholic life the way the Eucharist does. When they meet in synod at the Vatican in October, bishops from around the world will address one of the great unfinished works of the council—”namely, how Catholics can make the word of God their own. Even though the Catholic Lectionary for Sundays was re-designed in 1969 to use a three-year cycle of readings in order to promote greater familiarity with the whole of Scripture, Catholics do not yet own the Scriptures the way many Protestants, especially evangelicals, do. In assigning —The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church— as the topic for the coming 12th Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, Pope Benedict signaled his recognition not only of how important proclamation, prayer and study of the Scripture are to the church, but also of his awareness that the church has far to go to complete the council’s reforms…

I posted the following comment a few days ago. It hasn’t appeared yet as the magazine’s editors must review and approve every comment – something exceedingly difficult when otherwise busy running a magazine:

An interesting fact: The Polish National Catholic Church (of which I am a member) considers the Word of God to be a sacrament. The [Roman] Church found agreement with our understanding as noted in the joint publication: Journeying Together in Christ: The Report of the Polish National Catholic-Roman Catholic Dialogue (1984-1989).

We believe and state that the proclamation and preaching of the Word confers sacramental grace. The Church has recently published a pamphlet on this issue – available from the PNCC Bookstore for anyone interested.

What our understanding does in the practical sense is that it encourages due seriousness in the preparation and delivery of homilies. It also encourages the faithful to proactively participate in the Church’s understanding of the Word. More so, to understand that the sacrament brings about change – a growing closer to our Lord and Savior – and a life lived in accord with His way.

I wish you the best in your upcoming Synod and prayerfully hope that the Sacrament of the Word take its rightful place in the life of the [Roman] Church.

What I find so amazing is that the work and reforms of the PNCC (actually a re-claiming of Catholicism) are much in the same as the efforts undertaken by the Roman Church in Vatican II 60 years later. In my opinion the PNCC achieved those reforms without the damage that resulted from Vatican II (to me the things that Benedict, Bishop of Rome is trying to correct and re-reform). This may be due to the fact that the PNCC effort took place in a different time, that reforms that might have gone awry were kept in check by the inherent conservatism of the Polish diasporaSomething the Young Fogey has pointed to numerous times, or most likely that the Church’s understanding was simply in line with the faith of the first thousand years. I think this Synod is another step in the Roman Church’s process of finding the reforms of the PNCC as faithful and true to what the Church teaches.

Christian Witness, Perspective

Can the rich feel our pain?

From poet, writer, and correspondent John Guzlowski: Have You Ever Met a Rich Person?

A couple of days ago, my friend poet Christina Pacosz sent me an article entitled —Rich Begin Feeling the Pain in Down Economy.— It was written by Mark Jewell for the AP, and he got me thinking about rich people.

What always amazes me about rich people is how little contact they have with the rest of us.

I’m 60 years old, have lived in America most of my life, have been educated here in private and public schools, have a PhD from a major university, have taught in American universities for 35 years–and still I have never met a rich person, I mean a really rich person, somebody with a yacht or a jet and a personal assistant to manage his lunch dates.

Where do the rich keep themselves?

I’ve met unemployed people, farmers, doctors, artists, factory workers, peddlers, homeless folks, business people, writers, lower and middle class people by the thousands, but I have never met a rich person.

Where are they?

Read the rest of the post and the comments. Helps to put things in perspective. Who is the rich man? Who isn’t feeding Lazarus? (Luke 16:19-31) We each need to answer that and understand our place in the parable.

Perspective, Political,

Information access overload

From the how much is too much category, the “conservative” Manhattan Institute for Policy Research (see their Wikipedia entry) under the guise of the “Empire Center For New York State PolicyAs the Young Fogey might say – not really conservative at all and just as interventionist as their “liberal” equals. These people are almost wholly interventionists of the neo-con G.W. Bush advising variety which makes things even worse” has published SeeThroughNY.

You can go there and faithfully study every public employee’s pay. You can search by name or by agency. This is a trend among people posing as open government/good government types. Ohio went so far as to publish every public employee’s pay and home address until they were stopped.

You probably should avoid the site for awhile since their servers are getting bombarded. When I checked their site earlier today I found that their web programmers left a few of the pages, including the one for searching public payrolls, completely unsecured. Anyone could have deleted large chunks of the site through a simple to use interface at the top of the page. It is one of those really stupid things people do when they are in a hurry.

Of course most of the State’s citizenry could care less. They’re worried about larger more personal matters. This stuff generally appeals to government workers (especially those with a grudge against the boss), political hacks, folks with a ax to grind, and those wanting to track down people who have seized their assets because of tax evasion, who have arrested them, who have audited them, or who have evaded them only by obtaining a restraining order (the ex-spouses and stalkers).

Now, all this information is public and a state’s citizens have a right to that information. Prior to publishing this site any citizen could get the very same data by making a FOIL request. For those with bad intent that at least left a paper trail and was self policing. Now those folks can do it from the comfort of their home computer.

By the way, the Manhattan Institute (see the People for the American Way report on these folks) publishes the salaries of their highest paid employees and directors via their IRS filings. Here’s a copy of their 2006 Form 990. You will note that their Chairman, Lawrence J. Mone pulled down a little over $400,000 in salary and deferred compensation in 2006. Since 1998 he’s received approximately $200,000 per year! Of course they don’t publish their entire payroll. I wonder what their lowest paid secretary, receptionist, or bathroom cleaner makes?

Perspective, Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political,

A candid look at Poles attitudes toward the United States

From the article Bye-Bye, America! as published in Transitions Online, originally from Polityka:

Not so long ago, Poland was said to be America’s Trojan horse in Europe and its 51st state. Indeed, America was our shield and our unattainable ideal. Did we suddenly stop liking it? Did the American dream recede in the minds of the Poles?

Studies of the Polish public’s favorable attitudes toward foreign countries show that America has lost 20 percentage points over the last four years. It is not fully clear when this happened, but let us recall two warning bells. In October 2006, [Foreign Minister] Radoslaw Sikorski, who was then defense minister in the Law and Justice [PiS] cabinet, wrote two surprising comments on a confidential memo about a U.S. diplomat’s visit to the prime minister’s chancellery. One —“ “we can do without it” —“ referred to a proposal related to the missile defense shield. The other —“ “traditionally cheeky” —“ referred to a person who represented Washington. These notes, even if they were made in self-defense as an alibi for the opinion of “the biggest American” in our [ruling] establishment, signaled that Warsaw’s love of Washington was no longer passionate.

Shortly after that, during an international seminar in Warsaw, Sikorski made the audience realize the shocking proportion between U.S. assistance and European support for Poland: $30 million from the United States and 90 billion (not million) euros (not dollars) from the EU. This comparison may have been stretched a little because it does not refer to the same things, but it does put the previous irritating question of whether Poland is more attached to America or to Europe in a different light. (Do you remember it? It was said to be as problematic as the question of who we love more, mom or dad.)

…Today, Prime Minister Donald Tusk is better at sensing the Polish likes. His compatriots understood and supported him when he announced on 4 July (which was not very clever, since this was a U.S. national holiday) that the missile defense shield served only the purpose of U.S. security and, in a word, hinted that the Bush administration had not cared about Poland’s security in the talks so far.

There is widespread conviction that we make bad deals out of business with the United States. Tusk reiterated that the Poles had so far never said “no” to their most important ally, but America had to try harder to win the Poles’ favor. And this assessment overlaps with a new street wisdom. Apparently, the Poles think that the Americans, who are indeed “traditionally cheeky,” took what they wanted from us, sold what they had, and gave us nothing in exchange…

Absolutely true. For all the promises to Poland none of its aspirations have have come to fruition. For all of Poland’s assistance in pursing the United States cause in Iraq and Afghanistan, and perhaps even in housing black sites, the only thanks has been an over-the-shoulder nod, ‘Nice going kid, now get lost.’ Case in point – U.S. aid to Poland is far less than U.S. aid to Turkey and dozens of other less than helpful countries.

In addition, the Iraqi intervention and the manner of managing Iraq have undermined the Poles’ unwavering belief that America —“ the world’s most powerful country, supported by the wisdom of the world’s best universities and renowned government analytical centers —“ plans all its steps perfectly and knows what it is doing. Meanwhile, it is visible to the naked eye that it was instead France and the West’s Arab allies that were right when they insisted, although to no avail, on pushing and isolating Saddam Hussein, but without opening up the Iraqi Pandora’s box.

[In] an important survey carried out by CBOS [publicly-funded opinion research center] in March 2007 [t]he Poles were asked which among the most powerful international organizations and countries had in their opinion a “mainly positive” or a “mainly negative” influence over changes in the world. The findings revealed a revolution that had taken place in the public’s opinions. In the case of the EU, 70 percent pointed to a positive influence and 3 percent to a negative impact. For the United States, only 38 percent replied in the positive, with as much as 24 percent of answers on the negative side. To put this into perspective, 10 percent pointed to a positive influence on the part of Russia, 49 percent to a negative one. When these results are compared with the findings of surveys taken in 2006, they show what can even be called a breakdown in favorable opinions about America, because in the preceding year the United States was 24 percentage points higher in terms of positive influence.

Dr. Elzbieta Skotnicka-Illasiewicz from the Polish Academy of Sciences has been studying the Poles’ attitudes towards European integration on a regular basis for 17 years… She points out the reasons for a decline in favorable attitudes toward America. These are not the only reasons, but they are important from the perspective of commonly held opinions. Almost all countries lifted visa requirements imposed on the Poles. However, the Americans did not. In this way, they showed lack of interest and sympathy. To put it simply, this can be summarized in a complaint that is repeatedly made in Poland: they could accept the support of Polish soldiers in Iraq, but they could not accept the same soldier as a tourist or even as a candidate for illegal work. Moreover, the very stories about visa procedures, about standing in lines, paying in advance regardless of the result of efforts, and questioning applicants in an aggressive manner reinforced the unfavorable image of the United States. …

Beyond the Iraq debacle, and Poles illusory love for Amerika, these are the sorts of bread and butter issues felt by the “man on the street.” In a way it is reminiscent of the communist era: ‘I work hard, and do what you ask, and I am treated worse?’

Likewise, the 9-million-strong Polish community in the United States, an important part of the American myth in Poland, has also shrunk or dwindled somehow. Wealthier Poles suddenly noticed that the Polish community in the United States is composed not of hordes of American millionaires, but —“ with all due respect —“ of descendants of the plebeian masses from Podhale and Podlasie, who failed to pursue the kinds of financial or political careers that the descendants of the Irish, Italian, German, or Jewish diasporas did. Apart from this, what power do they have?

If the Polish government had any influence with the Poles in the United States and their votes in America and if these votes formed a package, then everything really could be agreed with Washington.

But these are just pipe dreams. The old Polish community in the United States suddenly paled in comparison not with the old Polish independence-minded soldiers in London or the Parisian “culture,” but with the masses of young people who set off for England.

We suddenly saw that these are different worlds. The Poles in the United States voted for the PiS under the Kaczynski brothers, while those in Britain stood in lines to cast their votes in favor of Civic Platform. In Chicago, orchestras composed of the inhabitants of the Polish mountains played for we know who. Guided by his instinct, [Civic Platform leader] Donald Tusk promised tax breaks to emigrants at a rally in London, encouraging them to come back to Poland.

In other words what remains of American Polonia is disconnected from day-to-day life in Poland and Poland’s leadership has caught onto that. Most of what remains of activist Polonia is comprised of the Solidarity diaspora. The remainder is three or more generations removed from their Polonian ancestors. As the Young Fogey frequently points out, these ethnics (and by instance mostly Catholics) rarely if ever vote as a block. The last person ever widely supported by Polonia, as a block, was Edmund Muskie.

A relative decline in America’s significance is not merely a game of what are, after all, changing moods, but an obvious outcome of Poland’s historic accession to the EU. Europe is closer, and there are no borders. According to a recent poll, asked about their willingness and ability to take on work abroad, 48 percent of the Poles responded that they would go to Germany while —“ pay attention —“ 6.2 percent indicated the United States. Today, the inhabitants of the Polish mountains more frequently go to Israel as construction workers than to the United States, while Lomza and Mlawa have Brussels addresses.

Any data you care to name show that America is not competitive for the Poles in comparison with Europe. The map of the Poles’ (tourist) visits abroad in 2007 is as follows: Germany, 1.55 million people; Great Britain, 850,000; France and Slovakia, 450,000 each; the Netherlands, 400,000; Italy and Austria, 300,000 each, while fewer than 100,000 visited the United States. In 2007, remittances from Poles earning money abroad were as follows (according to National Bank of Poland estimates): Great Britain and Ireland, 4 billion zlotys [$2 billion] each; Germany, 1.5 billion and the United States, 450 million. Transfers from the United States, which accounted for as much as 13 percent of all financial transfers to Poland in 2004, fell to 4 percent last year. Among the students who went on scholarships abroad (for a period of no longer than one year) and somehow made it into the official statistics, 1,590 went to Europe and 61 to the United States. According to data from 2006, the Americans invested relatively little in Poland. The top spot was occupied by Luxembourg with 3.6 billion euros (probably pure capital), followed by Germany with 2.7 billion euros. Italy and the Netherlands ranked third at about 1.3 billion euros each. For the United States, the amount was 407 million euros…

Immigration is an economic engine. Attracting talent and labor are just as important as importing raw materials. The United States misses the mark here and Europe gains for our loss. Interestingly Poland is one of Europe’s economic engines while the U.S. engine is running out of gas.

Unfortunately, this [—divergence protocol—] has been extended considerably under the Bush administration: the Europeans are more critical about the president himself than about the United States, with the war in Iraq and the president considered the main reasons behind the worsening relations between the United States and Europe. Surveys demonstrate that if the Europeans had the right to vote in the upcoming U.S. elections, they would vote for Barack Obama. In any case, they expect better relations with the United States after Bush leaves office.

These divergence protocols have long demonstrated that the two sides of the Atlantic are inhabited by somewhat different races. “The Americans are more from Mars, the Europeans from Venus.” The Americans rely more on military power, the Europeans on democracy. They believe in individualism and liberal competition; we are more likely to talk about the quality of life and the need for social solidarity. In essence, the threats are the same, but the Americans are more afraid than the Europeans of excessive reliance on foreign energy resources, a serious economic crisis, and international terrorism, a situation in which Iran obtains nuclear weapons, and immigrants from Europe. The only thing that the Europeans fear more than the Americans do is the effects of global warming. With their opinions, the Poles are now closer to Western Europe than they were before. In this sense, we have joined the mainstream.

For a long time, America has been reopening wounds in relations with foreigners, sometimes complaining loudly that “they love us” or “they hate us.” Unfortunately, this country is not in the habit of making special efforts to win allies (especially under Bush’s tenure as president). If it reckons with anyone, this must be someone big. The Americans themselves know that they have wasted a large portion of the sympathy they have enjoyed since the 9/11 attacks, when Le Monde expressed the European mood by saying, “We are all Americans.”

Absolutely right. A wasted seven years, wasted good will, wasted relationships, wasted opportunities, and a wasting away of the U.S. social contract which was a key point of admiration especially in Poland. Sure we can delude ourselves in proclamations of self-love but eventually I hope we wake up and do our level best to reclaim what we were not too many years ago — in our own eyes and the eyes of the world.

Current Events, Perspective, Political,

Dissent: Voices of Conscience

From Albany Catholic: Col. (ret.) Ann Wright, author of Dissent: Voices of Conscience

Tuesday, August 12, 7:00 – 9:00 pm
Albany Public Library
161 Washington Avenue, Albany

Ann Wright will speak at the Albany Public Library while she is in the Capital Region for the Kateri Tekakwitha Peace Conference. Ann Wright’s new book, Dissent: Voices of Conscience, profiles of those in government and active-duty military who have spoken out, leaked documents, resigned, or refused to deploy to protest the war in Iraq. The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression named Dissent their book of the month for February 2008.

Daniel Ellsberg wrote the foreword. “This … illuminating and remarkably impressive … book should be leaked into the government. … This book could awaken … officials to withdraw their complicity and … tell the truth to [the public]. This country will not escape further human, legal, and moral catastrophes, or preserve itself as a democratic, constitutional republic, if that does not happen. If you’re at all like me, you will have a whole set of new heroes when you finish reading this. …Dissent: Voices of Conscience could change your life.“

Which in my opinion is the correct course. Those who protest should not do so by running away but by standing up. Of course you have to be prepared to suffer the consequences of standing up. Not something unfamiliar to those who understand the Christian way of life.

All Right Reserved © 2005 - 2023