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Current Events, Perspective, Political

The favored complaining against favoritism

From the Buffalo News: Bills’ new parking plan raises discrimination concern

Officials see handicapped parking in one lot convenient; disability advocates see injustice

The Buffalo Bills put up an —iron curtain— for people with disabilities by creating a separate parking lot for fans with handicapped-parking permits, a local advocacy group for the disabled charged Monday.

The Bills’ new parking plan, unveiled at Friday night’s preseason opener, moves all vehicles with handicapped permits into Lot B —” between the press box and Abbott Road —” rather than providing limited spaces for handicapped vehicles in several lots.

That change didn’t sit well with the Western New York Independent Living Project.

—If you took any other minority population in Erie County, and I said in order to provide better services for Irish or African-American people, we’re going to designate a special lot for you to park in, you wouldn’t even think of doing that,— said Todd Vaarwerk, disability rights advocate for the project. —We would find that offensive.—

In a news release announcing the project’s opposition to the parking plan, Douglas Usiak, executive director, cited a saying often echoed by Independent Living Center officials:

—If you insert the word ‘black,’ ‘Jew’ or ‘female’ into a statement and it doesn’t sound right, it most likely isn’t,— Usiak stated…

I don’t know, but to me, this complaining is just plain wrong. I am also very much opposed to the ‘well you wouldn’t do it to [insert ethnic/gender label here]’ sort of reasoning that people fall back on. It indicates a weak mind and a weak argument. People who believe in something should be able to provide a reasoned statement about why something is important to them. Instead, they rely on emotion which just makes them look petty and childish.

Doug Usiak, long time director of the Independent Living Center (going back about 25+ years now) must need publicity or something. It comes down to complaining about the favored status he has always wanted.

‘I told you I wanted my soup hot, how dare you serve it to me when it is this hot!!!’

The law requires specially designated handicapped parking spaces, that is, favored status (because we have to legislate common courtesy, and even today some folks still don’t get it – but some never will).

Using Mr. Usiak’s analogy, lets change the name of all those existing parking spots to some ethnic/gender label. How does it look, how does it sound? Does it pass the “sounds right” test. And, by-the-way, sounds right to whom? The keepers of what public sentiment should be?

It seems that the ILC is complaining that the favored status being granted (by the Buffalo Bills – and, I am not a fan) is not the way in which the group would like their favored status served. Therefore it is bad, very bad.

Perhaps, the whole idea of corralling people and pointing them out by an act of law is just plain wrong.

What would happen if the general public (save for a few who just don’t get it) left the first row of parking spots open, just becauseEver see those reserved for employee-of-the-month, reserved for families with children signs. They are not legislated. I’ve never seen people ignoring those signs – again, except for a few who don’t get it.?

What would happen if we asked people to be good neighbors and to exercise compassion? What would happen if we began to act like good citizens and believers in whichever ‘golden rule’ we each claim to follow? Would there be a wholesale run on those blue spots?

Perspective

Confusion amongst the faithful

A funny coincidence today.

I finally turned over the page in one of my wall calendars. It’s one of those typical Catholic art calendars you find in the backs of churches just prior to the new year.

This calendar, published by J.S. Paluch Company, Inc. is the 2007 Religious Art Calendar.

Each month features a painting and a brief prayer for vocations.

This was the prayer I read today:

Jesus, our brother, you entrusted to us the mission of your Church: to transform society through the power of your truth and love. Help us know how to encourage men and women to lead us through the ministries of priesthood, diaconate, religious life, and lay ministry. Amen.

Help us know how indeed… Or rather, brother Jesus, grant us forgiveness for our poor use of language and our political agenda.

By the way, the attribution for the prayer is the “Secretariat for Vocations and Priestly Formation of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops”.

The folks in Australia must be praying this one fervently. Per The Age: Catholic bid for married and women priests

A GROUP of nuns, priests and Catholic activists has revived the thorny issue of married and women priests, circulating a petition calling on Australian bishops to reverse the church’s opposition to a more inclusive priesthood and warning there are not enough priests to run local churches…

You can see how people can be easily led astray when the hierarchy of the Roman Church, particularly in the U.S., uses such lazy language. I can just hear little old Mrs. Smith saying one Sunday: “Did you see, the bishops asked us to pray for women priests. It’s in my calendar.”

Current Events, Media, Perspective, PNCC, Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political,

Of comments, heat, and the Rev. Rydzyk

My recent posting on the possibility of an Indian National Catholic Church (INCC) elicited a few comments.

It seems that when I post something slightly provocative I get a few comments.

I’ve often wondered if my homilies are too staid. They don’t tend to obtain comments or criticism to any extent (by-the-way, I appreciate Fr. Martin Fox’s and Deacon Dan Wright’s occasional comments on my homilies). I’m thinking that my homilies should be more provocative, contain more heat, ne pas?

Now obviously my commentary on the possibility of an INCC was slightly tongue-in-cheek.

The real point was an exhibition of issues faith communities face when dealing with an administrative bureaucracy that evolves into a roadblock to faith and a detriment to communal interaction – for the faith.

That bureaucracy is the self-same faced by the founders of the PNCC so many years ago. It is the same bureaucracy Luther faced down. The same bureaucracy that any genuine reformer has had to deal with (and remember Bishop Hodur tried to work from the inside on reasonable reform).

Now the Rev. Tadeusz Rydzyk, CSsR is another case-in-point.

This priest has built an enormous empire that is centered around his media outlet, primarily Radio Maryja. With down-to-earth appeals (the Holy Mass, Rosary, children calling in to recite prayers), he has appealed to working class and rural listenersThe MSM characterization of those who follow Radio Maryja as poor and uneducated Poles (read dumb Pollacks) is deeply insulting and incorrect. I’ve personally seen children come from these villages, enter an American High School, and come out a year later as valedictorians. I hope that the MSM gets a clue someday about the people they put down so willingly. who have a strong grounding in their faith. I say, nothing wrong with that.

Rather than focus on those core themes, and activating people through prayer, self-sacrifice, and charity, he has corrupted his empire into a money making political machine. He has not activated Catholics, he has activated politicos.

He holds sway over a large sector of “conservativeAs the Young Fogey would point out, not at all like real conservatives” voters; and much in the same manner as Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson, etc., he has ushered in political leaders, from whom he expects allegiance.

The threat of censure has been hung over his head by the Polish Bishops, but in reality they do nothing.

This, like the INCC issue, is meant to point to the weaknesses in a bureaucracy that is in need of reform. Maybe you would call it another stop, a sign post in the Twilight Zone of reform.

As to the Rev. Rydzyk, in my opinion he is in need of strong medicine, so that he might recall who and what he is, a priest, a member of the Redemptorists, and a servant of Jesus Christ and His Church. The Roman Church, being true to what She represents, would do well to have the Superior General of the Redemptorists call him to repentance, and remove him from his empire. A good priest would walk away, sic transit gloria mundi. Should he refuse, suspend him. Should he further refuse, excommunicate him.

But, all that is dependent upon the action of a bureaucracy.

A story on the Rev. Rydzyk’s most recent foray into identity politics and his reach into the political arena follows:

From the AP via the UJF of Tidewater: Israel urges Poland, Catholic church to condemn priest over anti-Semitic comments

WARSAW, Poland – Israel is urging Polish and Roman Catholic authorities to condemn a prominent priest over reported anti-Jewish comments, which its ambassador described Monday as the worst case of anti-Semitic speech in Poland in decades.

The Rev. Tadeusz Rydzyk, who runs a conservative media empire that includes the Catholic station Radio Maryja, was allegedly caught on tape suggesting that Jews are greedy and Polish President Lech Kaczynski is subservient to Jewish lobbies.

The remarks allegedly were made in the spring, but they only surfaced this month in the weekly magazine Wprost. Rydzyk himself has rejected accusations of anti-Semitism and said he “didn’t intend to offend anyone.”

Israel’s ambassador to Poland, David Peleg, said the statements mark a setback in the progress Poland has made toward Jewish-Catholic reconciliation and in fighting anti-Semitism since Communism fell, and said extensive diplomatic efforts were under way to persuade Warsaw to condemn the priest.

…

“I hope to see a condemnation from the Catholic Church of Poland,” Peleg said.

So far, Poland’s leaders have withheld comment, saying they were waiting to see if the tapes were authentic.

But the Rome-based Redemptorists – the missionary order to which Rydzyk belongs – supported him in a statement published last week in Nasz Dziennik, a daily newspaper that belongs to Rydzyk’s media empire.

“Concerning the content of the ‘tapes,’ which bear signs of compilation, Father Tadeusz Rydzyk does not confirm the anti-Semitic attitude ascribed to him. And as his brothers who know him, we know that such an attitude is alien to him,” the order’s chief representative in Poland, the Rev. Zdzislaw Klafka, wrote in a statement printed on the front page of Nasz Dziennik.

Klafka also called Wprost’s scoop a “serious provocation” and “media manipulation” and said Wprost has a history of offending Catholics.

Rydzyk himself has suggested the tapes were doctored.

The tapes allegedly caught Rydzyk accusing President Kaczynski of subservience to Jewish lobbies. He also allegedly called the nation’s first lady, Maria Kaczynska, a “witch” for supporting abortion rights and said she should be euthanized for that.

Oh, and bring on the heat…

Current Events, Perspective, PNCC

Seeds of the INCC?

From The Hindu: Call to democratise Catholic Church

KLCA rejects pastoral letter by Archbishop

Says the clergy interested only in amassing wealth, maintaining power

Alleges inaction on the part of church in matters concerning the laity

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Latin Catholic Association (KLCA) has called for radical reforms to democratise the [Roman] Catholic Church and check the amassment of wealth by a section of the clergy.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, KLCA president Anto Marcelene and leader of the women’s wing Cordial Stephen rejected the pastoral letter issued by the Thiruvananthapuram Archbishop on Sunday.

—It is only when the leadership of the Church senses a crisis in the education sector that it issues a pastoral letter. They remain inert when it comes to offering assistance to fishermen families reeling under the impact of coastal erosion and contagious diseases or to ensure reservation for the Latin community,— they said.

Mr. Marcelene said the clergy had appropriated minority rights for their own benefit. —They are only interested in amassing wealth and maintaining power and authority. The laity does not benefit by the stand adopted by the Church. Believers have no say in the management and administration of institutions under the Church. Yet, they are expected to participate in agitations for minority rights.—

Mr. Marcelene accused the Archbishop of shedding crocodile tears for the deprived sections of the laity. —Poor fishermen families have to shell out hefty donations to get their children admitted to educational institutions under the Church. It is this craze for money that has driven the Church to set up shopping complexes. Foreign funds and revenue from commercial activities are not properly accounted.—

The association accused the Church leadership of commercialising both education and faith…

It seems that these same themes appear and reappear throughout history. I can imagine Bishop Hodur saying the same things in 1897, speaking to the Poles of Scranton, the poor coal miners who were told to pray, pay, and obey.

Power, authority, money, control, ties to the political machine. It is not the Church per se, but her administrators.

When you think yourself the possessor of the keys, you must keep your ego and your lusts in check. Otherwise the faithful will leave in tears once again – this time to form the Indian National Catholic Church.

Of course, we would welcome them as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Current Events, Perspective, Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political

Nouveau Neighbors

This is typical of the things that happen when people move into a neighborhood thinking that all must change because they’ve arrived.

It happens in Upstate New York quite a bit. People move into rural areas expecting picket fences and the scent of roses. What they get is electric fences and the scent of cows and horses.

Then they decide to do the neighborly thing – they bring complaints and lawsuits against the farmers, who have been there since the 1800’s.

Jackie Briguglio of the Chicago area moved in across from a PNA youth camp that’s been active for 72 years and suddenly she’s owed peace and quiet 24/7. Alice May who has lived in the area for 43 years gets it. Ms. Briguglio only understand litigation and the police state.

From The Chicago Tribune: Community clash puts damper on Polish camp

Upset neighbors cite rising crowds, noise

Everyone seems to agree that the Polish camp near Yorkville is a quiet neighbor most of the summer, with kids splashing in the swimming pool and families attending Sunday mass in an open-air chapel, then picnicking under the trees.

But the dances and special events grated on some nerves. Polka beats thumped, cars crowded River Road and, one weekend last summer, 7,000 visitors came for a glimpse of the World’s Strongest Man, a stubble-headed Pole capable of carrying a refrigerator.

So this summer, Kendall County in effect exercised a pocket veto of the Polish National Alliance Youth Camp’s special events, failing to approve permits until it was too late to schedule, camp spokesmen said.

The county said it takes time to work out conflicts between the camp and some neighbors.

Either way, the result has been a summer without the four or five fundraisers that usually keep the camp in business, and a sense that times are changing for the 72-year-old camp and the Polish community that sustains it.

As Kendall county has grown — it was the nation’s second-fastest growing county from 2000 to 2006, according to the U.S. Census Bureau — it has gone from rural to more suburban, leaving camp
officials feeling unwelcome.

“We were there before everybody else,” said Chicago attorney Chris Nowotarski, who represents the organization, “and now we’re being pushed out.”

There’s even talk of selling the property and moving elsewhere.

But some neighbors said big-draw weekends bring in rowdy crowds, and the county had to deal with the problem.

The camp is affiliated with the alliance, a Polish fraternal organization. Jointly established by the alliance’s North Side and South Side districts in Chicago, it is a place where generations of
immigrants could escape the city and celebrate their culture in the country.

…

Jackie Briguglio, who lives across the street from the camp, said the music at dances is too loud, though the camp insists it doesn’t exceed county decibel limits. And special events, particularly the
visit of the strongman, have become a nuisance for the neighborhood, with reports of people urinating in Yorkville yards.

…

Some neighbors shrug off the occasional crowds. Alice May, a retired businesswoman who has lived across the street for 43 years, said she charges people to park in her yard during special events. Her children learned to swim there, and she recalls an old-country naivete among some visitors.

…

But Briguglio, the neighbor, has saved a newspaper story that invites the public to attend. So she’s not taking any chances.

“I already called the police,” she said, “and I’m going to be out of town that weekend.”

Christian Witness, Current Events, Perspective, PNCC,

Congratulations, on your documents

A hearty congratulations, and welcome back:

I would like to begin by offering a hearty congratulations to my Roman Catholic brothers and sisters on the occasion of the issuance of Benedict XVI’s Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum.

The Bishop of Rome has taken steps to reclaim something very precious, something that was lost for the vast majority of Roman Catholics, especially in the United States. That is, a spirit of deep and abiding reverence and Godwardness in the Liturgies of the Church.

I pray that your reclaiming of the Church’s patrimony will enrich your faith, deepen it, and strengthen it. I pray that this small seed will grow, and in its growth that it will support and nourish all the Rites of the Church.

A note on language:

SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM cura ad hoc tempus usque semper fuit, ut Christi Ecclesia Divinae Maiestati cultum dignum offerret, "ad laudem et gloriam nominis Sui» et "ad utilitatem totius Ecclesiae Suae sanctae».

Ummm, ok.

Mean much to you?

Me neither.

Many have posited that the Tridentine Mass is not about Latin. They continually repeat, ‘it is not about Latin.’

I understand the point. It is about focusing the congregation, the entire Church, on God.

Our relationship with God, as members of the Church, is completely interwoven with the Liturgy, most especially the Holy Mass. The Holy Mass, performed properly and devoutly, changes our perspective and enriches us.

That being said, based on my personal experience, rambling on in Latin, while quaint, will cause many of the pew dwellers to draw away, leaving behind geeky church types. The intended lesson will be wasted.

While still a Roman Catholic I attended indult Masses in Buffalo (at St. Vincent de Paul parish, since closed). I remembered it fairly well, because my very traditional Polish parish kept the old Mass alive up to 1974. I had my old missal and I was psyched for the experience.

They were very nice Masses, reverent and all, but they left me cold. I followed along, tried to be prayerful, understood what I was supposed to experience, but eh… I was looking for the glory, honor, and praise of God, and I got eh… Nice Mass, but I don’t get it…

Reading in silence is a great activity for evenings at home. It’s wonderful when you can delve into the experience of words, but it doesn’t quite work when reading distracts from focus, and focus is useless without the fullness of the context (that is culturally, linguistically, and aurally made present).

Another example.

I love Gorzkie Żale devotions during Lent. I grew up with them.

Gorzkie Żale are sung bitter lamentations reflecting on the suffering and death of Jesus Christ, as seen though Mary’s eyes and emotions, and as seen by us, in our complicity in what occurred.

The context for these Lamentations was explained to me by my mother. I was young, but I understood. I would serve at these devotions. I would reflect on the context, listen to the beautiful singing, and was often moved to tears. I didn’t understand a word… they were sung in Polish.

When I joined the PNCC, which still actively promotes these devotions, I was overjoyed. I went to Gorzkie Żale one Wednesday evening, and it was sung in English.

I was crushed. Not because it was in English, but because I understood every word and every nuance. I was guilty, He bore my sins. It hit me full force and I will never forget it.

A third example.

While I was dating the future Mrs., she was still an Episcopalian. She took me to St. Boniface in Guilderland, NY. It was the first time I had ever been in an Episcopal church.

I didn’t know what to expect. My limited knowledge of Protestants left me thinking that I was in for long winded sermonizing and happy-clappy music.

The Albany Episcopal Diocese is very High Church (didn’t know what that meant at the time), and I got the Mass. I think my jaw hit the floor. The Tridentine Rite in English?

Again, the experience was enriched by my ability to understand.

So, it is about Latin in a very big way. Latin will be the disconnect for all but a few, most particularly in the United States where education in the classics, and a wider view of world history, is lacking.

As the Young Fogey rightly points out, Godward and understandable work. That will move the pew dwellers, and ease a more thorough integration.

Documents, we don’t need no … documents:

A Motu on the election of the Bishop of Rome, a Motu re-integrating the old mass, and a forthcoming document cited at Reuters and elsewhere:

The Vatican will issue another text on Tuesday [July 10, 2007] expected to declare Roman Catholicism the only true church of Jesus Christ

Quite a few documents in a three week period (by the by – I was wrong here).

The problem with documents is that they do not replace discipline. How do the Orthodox or the PNCC retain Church discipline and the faith once handed down?

To be sure, we have documents, but besides our shared heritage built upon Sacred Scripture, the Fathers, and the commonly held Councils, how do we all do it?

With the forthcoming document stating that the rest of Catholicism (not to mention Christianity) is a conglomeration of schismatics, heretics, and other such bad/misguided people, I’d wonder if it would not be so, if we had documents ❓

On a more serious note, everyone is entitled to his self declaration (why I don’t buy into the whole – oooh, the Tridentine Rite will offend the Jews – as if they have a right to define another’s core beliefs).

The Roman Church is entitled to Her own declaration and to further clarify that declaration.

That defining is not for us, nor against us. It is Her own.

A final thought:

In all, faith is the key element. It is the binding and the salve that joins the Catholic faithful.

I have found the fullness of Catholic expression in the PNCC. Godward, faithful to tradition, understood by the people. In the end I am thankful to be part of Christ’s one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. May I be granted the grace that it ever be so. As we pray before communion:

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God,
by the will of the Father
and the work of the Holy Spirit
Your death brought life to the world.
By Your holy Body and Blood free me
from all my sins and from every evil.
Keep me faithful to Your teaching and
never let me be parted from You.

Current Events, Perspective, Political

…and our economy is based on

From the Christian Science Monitor: Why teens have a tough time finding summer work

Many are enrolling in summer classes or doing community service while others are squeezed out by adults competing for the same entry-level jobs.

Boston – This summer is shaping up as a tough one for many of America’s youngest job seekers.

Camps still need counselors. Ice cream shops still need young arms with a knack for alternating between a scoop and a cash register. And the nation’s job market is strong.

Yet teen employment rates haven’t rebounded from the recession of 2001. Instead, these numbers are at historic lows.

The reasons include positive forces, such as the rise of new opportunities for summer education and community service. But the trend also reflects more competition from older workers for a shrinking pool of entry-level jobs…

While many are cheering the American economic dynamo, others ask, what, when, why, where, and how about me.

As the article points out, entry level jobs provide a training ground for young people entering the job market. In part, the share of jobs available to young people is decreasing as older, experienced workers compete for those jobs.

I’d ask why? Are older workers interested in shuffling hamburgers, cashing out sales to pre-teens, and doing janitorial work at the mall? Is this their motivation/career path, or is it simply their way of paying the bills?

It is regrettable in that our talent pool and experience are being wasted. It is regretable that our economic model relies on low paid service jobs. It is regretable that the division between rich and poor grows as uncle Bob and aunt Mary, formerly employed in their profession of choice, serve dinner at Red Lobster.

Current Events, Perspective, Political,

He just doesn’t get it…

Some statements from President Bush on Independence Day, 2007From the Washington Post in: President Defends War on July 4th: Bush Compares Iraq To Revolutionary War.

“We give thanks for all the brave citizen-soldiers of our Continental Army who dropped pitchforks and took up muskets to fight for our freedom and liberty and independence,” Bush said. He added: “You’re the successors of those brave men. . . . Like those early patriots, you’re fighting a new and unprecedented war.”

New and unprecedented because it was created in the mind of Mr. Bush’s neo-con advisers, those who push the commander-in-chief’s buttons. New and unprecedented because we are fighting against people who did nothing to precipitate our invasion, did not seek our help, and perfectly well don’t want us there. They want us less than the Colonists wanted their King George.

You cover your abuse of our citizen soldiers, who you are using as your personal hamburger, with faí§ades of glory. To the extent that we are involved in foreign adventures in Iraq, Kosovo, Korea, or elsewhere, our soldiers bear no resemblance to the resolute ideals of our Founding Fathers. Our founders fought for hearth, home, and self-determination… kind of like the folks in Iraq, fighting against our ill conceived venture.

Perhaps our citizen soldiers would be better successors if they were home, protecting our borders, or helping us in natural disasters.

Now for the fear mongering:

“If we were to quit Iraq before the job is done, the terrorists we are fighting would not declare victory and lay down their arms. They would follow us here, home”

All of them? Now how many Iraqis are there? Perhaps a few, perhaps one or two (I’m sounding like Dr. Seuss).

Of course they have no right to be ticked, our supporting Israel above all things (even ourselves) and our little jaunt through Iraq, leaving the country poor, in debt, with its infrastructure destroyed, its Christian population killed-off, with neighbor against neighbor, a puppet regime in place, and, and, and…

No Mr. Bush. No freedom for the Iraqis, no illusions, no allusions to our experience. No Mr. Bush, just criminal incompetence seeped in blood.

You cannot compare yourself or your adventures to anything the Founding Fathers did on that day in Philadelphia. At best you can compare yourself to a drunken and abusive father.

Current Events, Media, Perspective, Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political

Please – fear your physician next

You would think that Michael Moore’s Sicko would have instilled a fear of American medicine in everyone’s mind, but no.

Now we have to ramp up the fear mongering – fear of all those overtly foreign physicians that staff our hospitals. You know, the ones you see to get your Lipitor or Viagra… They are poisoning you and they are going to blow you up.

From the Washington Post: Bomb Plot Suspects Are Foreign Physicians

LONDON, July 3 — Police investigating last weekend’s failed bomb attacks in London and Glasgow on Tuesday questioned foreign-born doctors who are suspected of plotting the attacks, while a suspicious piece of luggage at Heathrow Airport forced the evacuation of thousands of travelers and the cancellation of more than 100 flights.

All eight suspects now in custody are believed to have worked for Britain’s National Health Service, seven as doctors or medical students and one as a laboratory technician, according to officials and British media reports. One of the eight is being held in Australia. The suspects are said to have earned their medical degrees in Iraq, Jordan, India and other countries before immigrating to Britain…

Of course folks here in the U.S. of A. never overgeneralize. We are never led by the media into painting anyone who is foreign born with broad brush strokes, lets say í  la today’s articles regarding the Simpson’s movie promo…

For instance, from the San Francisco Chronicle: Please to be enjoying a promotional gimmick.

We laugh at foreigners when its easy, fear them when we need a scapegoat. It is easier to fear the Arabs, Indians, and Pakistanis then it is to know them.

It’s easier to ask, ‘Why are they here?’ then to ask our President: “Why are we there?”

Of course the Rev. Andrew Greeley pegs it in Ethnic biases stronger than ever.

It’s all about nativism. We never threw out that bigotry. We exercise it with every ethnic joke and by our mimicry.

As the 19th century turned into the 20th, Americans began to worry about the stability of their society and its culture. Strange languages were spoken on the streets, strange-looking people in strange clothes were shopping in our stores. Strange smells percolated in certain neighborhoods. Strange customs were appearing on strange holidays. These strangers were pouring into our country. They threatened our democracy, our way of life, our culture, our religious beliefs, our economy, our blood stock. Why didn’t they stay in their own countries?

The answer is they were caught in a demographic transition — the birth rate had increased and the death rate had fallen. A population explosion was driving people out of eastern and southern Europe.

In the decade before the beginning of the Great War, the government established a commission, presided over by Sen. William P. Dillingham of Vermont, to recommend restrictions of immigration from Europe. Many of the immigrants were of inferior races, as 19th century ”scientific” racialism defined inferior. It was evident to explorers that Asian and African races were inferior to the ”white” races. However, all one had to do was to observe eastern and southern Europeans to realize that they were inferior too. Indeed, the most successful of the races were the white Anglo-Saxon Protestants. Surely they represented, along perhaps with the Germans, the greatest progress in human civilization.

Therefore, the Dillingham Commission informed the country that it was patent that Italians were an innately criminal race, that the Poles had very limited intelligence, that Jews were incapable of honest business dealings and that the Irish were shiftless, superstitious and incapable of ambition. Such individuals could never become good Americans. On the basis of ”science” like this, the commission recommended draconian limitations on immigration. The country sighed with relief.

These ”racial” stereotypes persist — not as vehement as they once were, but still part of the national unconscious. ”The Godfather” and ”The Sopranos” fit perfectly. So does the film ”The Break-up,” in which Vince Vaughn plays an insensitive oaf. He is subtly labeled “Pole” by the huge Polish flag, complete with the Polish eagle, on the wall of his office. The lazy, alcoholic Irish laugh all the way to their hedge-fund manager.

A Mexican-American high school sophomore sent me an e-mail asking why other Americans hate them so much and tell so many lies about them. My answer is that Dillingham is alive and well. They don’t want more people with somewhat darker skin who can never become good Americans.

Harvard Professor Samuel Huntington has argued that Mexicans do not want to acculturate into our Protestant political and social system. Don’t tell me, kid, that you can refute all the “facts” they propound to establish your inferiority (you’re second generation, but you have no right to the educated prose of your e-mail). The bigots (less than a third of the country) who hate you know in the depths of their souls that you and your kind are an inferior people who are trying to take over their country and ruin it. We don’t need no more Mexican flags at soccer matches and certainly no more statues of Guadalupe parading down our streets…

Current Events, Perspective, Political,

Pardon thy iniquities Mr. Bush

The Young Fogey links to: Bush lets Libby off the hook and posits:

What’s really disturbing is Libby’s bosses will get away with what they did.

To me it’s kind of like reflecting on the Paris Hilton story (thank you, thank you Mika Brzezinski), but reflect I do.

Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney will never face a war crimes tribunal or be held to account – getting away with it. But conscience is not so easily satisfied.

I know that it is easy to paint people black and white. Mr. Bush and his cohort are certainly in the black end of the scale – fear mongering, do whatever it takes to get what we want, who cares who dies types. At the same time, I do not think that those caught in the grips of perversion are without humanity and souls.

Unless they are truly mentally ill (I don’t think so) and devoid of humanity, like a fictional serial killer, the pangs of guilt eat away.

Mr. Bush may ask himself: ‘Can I let the Scoot man (I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby) suffer for what I and my people have done?’

Certainly not! Mr. Bush has shown remarkable loyalty to those who do his bidding.

Other Presidents would have cut Rumsfeld loose long before Mr. Bush did. Messrs. Gonzalez and Cheney would have been long gone as well.

But, in Mr. Bush’s world, he is the decision maker. He holds on to a fading illusion like a drowning man gripping sand. All he has, and will have left, are those glimmers of conscience for the dead servicemen and women he has refused to honor, the neo-con fascists he remains loyal to, and those whose sentences he will commute (and later pardon).

Know for a certainty, however, that whatever your hands or the hands of the infidels have wrought will never, as they never did of old, change the Cause of God or alter His ways. — Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, CXIII, 12

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