Re: What Matters?

[Guest guest]

Wow. Thanks, Bobbi, for sharing.

-----Original Message-----

From: Bobbi Ryder [mailto:ryder@...]

Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2003 11:13 AM

Subject: [ ] What Matters?

I thought I would share this very insightful article with you all. I

hope that you are well Bobbi

by Joan Chittister, OSB

National Catholic Reporter [29 May 2003]

This is what I don't understand: All of a sudden nothing seems to

matter.

First, they said they wanted Bin Laden " dead or alive. " But they

didn't get him. So now they tell us that it doesn't matter. Our

mission is greater than one man.

Then they said they wanted Saddam Hussein, " dead or alive. " He's

apparently alive but we haven't got him yet, either. However,

President Bush told reporters recently, " It doesn't matter. Our

mission is greater than one man. "

Finally, they told us that we were invading Iraq to destroy their

weapons of mass destruction. Now they say those weapons probably

don't exist. Maybe never existed. Apparently that doesn't matter

either.

Except that it does matter.

I know we're not supposed to say that. I know it's

called " unpatriotic. "

But it's also called honesty. And dishonesty matters.

It matters that the infrastructure of a foreign nation that

couldn't defend itself against us has been destroyed on the

grounds that it was a military threat to the world.

It matters that it was destroyed by us under a new doctrine

of " pre-emptive war " when there was apparently nothing worth pre-

empting.

It surely matters to the families here whose sons went to war to

make the world safe from weapons of mass destruction and will

never come home.

It matters to families in the United States whose life support

programs were ended, whose medical insurance ran out, whose food

stamps were cut off, whose day care programs were eliminated so we

could spend the money on sending an army to do what did not need

to be done.

It matters to the Iraqi girl whose face was burned by a lamp that

toppled over as a result of a U.S. bombing run.

It matters to Ali, the Iraqi boy who lost his family - and both

his arms - in a U.S. air attack.

It matters to the people in Baghdad whose water supply is now

fetid, whose electricity is gone, whose streets are unsafe, whose

158 government ministries' buildings and all their records have

been destroyed, whose cultural heritage and social system has been

looted and whose cities teem with anti-American protests.

It matters that the people we say we " liberated " do not feel

liberated in the midst of the lawlessness, destruction and

wholesale social suffering that so-called liberation created.

It matters to the United Nations whose integrity was impugned,

whose authority was denied, whose inspection teams are even now

still being overlooked in the process of technical evaluation and

disarmament.

It matters to the reputation of the United States in the eyes of

the world, both now and for decades to come, perhaps.

And surely it matters to the integrity of this nation whether or

not its intelligence gathering agencies have any real intelligence

or not before we launch a military armada on its say-so.

And it should matter whether or not our government is either

incompetent and didn't know what they were doing or were dishonest

and refused to say. The unspoken truth is that either as a people

we were misled, or we were lied to, about the real reason for this

war. Either we made a huge - and unforgivable - mistake, an

arrogant or ignorant mistake, or we are swaggering around the

world like a blind giant, flailing in all directions while the

rest of the world watches in horror or in ridicule.

If Bill Clinton's definition of " is " matters, surely this matters.

If a president's sex life matters, surely a president's use of

global force against some of the weakest people in the world

matters. If a president's word in a court of law about a private

indiscretion matters, surely a president's word to the community

of nations and the security of millions of people matters.

And if not, why not? If not, surely there is something as wrong

with us as citizens, as thinkers, as Christians as there must be

with some facet of the government. If wars that the public says

are wrong yesterday - as over 70% of U.S. citizens did before the

attack on Iraq - suddenly become " right " the minute the first

bombs drop, what kind of national morality is that?

Of what are we really capable as a nation if the considered

judgment of politicians and people around the world means nothing

to us as a people?

What is the depth of the American soul if we can allow destruction

to be done in our name and the name of " liberation " and never even

demand an accounting of its costs, both personal and public, when

it is over?

We like to take comfort in the notion that people make a

distinction between our government and ourselves. We like to say

that the people of the world love Americans, they simply mistrust

our government. But excoriating a distant and

anonymous " government " for wreaking rubble on a nation in pretense

of good requires very little of either character or intelligence.

What may count most, however, is that we may well be the ones

Proverbs warns when it reminds us: " Kings take pleasure in honest

lips; they value the one who speaks the truth. " The point is

clear: If the people speak and the king doesn't listen, there is

something wrong with the king. If the king acts precipitously and

the people say nothing, something is wrong with the people.

It may be time for us to realize that in a country that prides

itself on being democratic, we are our government. And the rest of

the world is figuring that out very quickly.

" This is a time for a loud voice, open speech and fearless

thinking. I rejoice that I live in such a splendidly disturbing

time. " Helen Keller

*******************************************************************

" We must support the strong, we must give courage to the timid, we

must remind the indifferent and we must warn the opposed. "

-Whitney Young

--

Bobbi Ryder

CEO

National Center for Farmworker Health

1770 FM 967

Buda, TX 78610

512-312-5453 (direct)

512-312-5451 (Assistant, Carolyn Love)

512.312.2600 (fax)

http://www.ncfh.org

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[Guest guest]

Hi, Bobbie,

Thanks for sending me the article on " What Matters. "

Celine Caufield

Catholic Migrant Farmworker Network