--- Justice & Peace

Progressive political movements often speak about history as if it were a conscious agent. Marxists in particular personify history by making economics deterministic. But a materialistic viewpoint cannot really sustain a personified historical tendency because it cannot consistently attribute personal agency to what after all is simply transient conglomerations of material forces.

Those of us who are not materialists, however, can see an intelligent hand working in the midst of historical forces, bending the universe toward justice in the words of Martin Luther King. Those of us who continue to develop the insights of liberation theology use Moltmann's words as a guidepost, "...theological concepts do not limp after reality... They illuminate reality by displaying its future." And Gustavo Gutierrez, "...[Theology] is to penetrate the present reality, the movement of history, that which is driving history toward the future. To reflect on the basis of the historical praxis of liberation is to reflect in the light of the future which is believed in and hoped for. It is to reflect with a view to action which transforms the present. But it does not mean doing this from an armchair; rather it means sinking roots where the pulse of history is beating at this moment and illuminating history with the Word of the Lord of History, who irreversibly committed himself to the present moment of humankind to carry it to its fulfillment." - Gustavo Gutierrez, "A Theology of Liberation"

Jane Mayer has authored a new book called , ' The Dark Side ; The Inside Story of How The War On Terror Turned Into A War On American Ideals ' . This painstakingly researched study of the policy of ' Enhanced Interrogation ' and ' Extraordinary Rendition ' , could easily be used by interested parties to identify targets for war crimes trials. This noted New Yorker reporter has documented a program of disgusting behavior by our agents that betray the America I was taught to know and love. The back jacket of the book juxtaposes two illuminating quotes :

Milton Friedman, Nobel Economics Prize winner, has left a trail of death and destruction wherever he, his students or admirers advised countries to implement his plan that involved privatization, government deregulation and deep social spending cuts. Advocating a free market economy, he thought that an unregulated market would maximize freedom and prosperity. Although he wrote a book in 1962, Capitalism and Freedom, he found no democratically elected government, including President Richard Nixon’s administration, would implement his program. The Keynesian model including a safety net, unions, workers protections and government spending helped the United States and other countries recover from the Great Depression and continue prosperity after the Second World War. Milton Friedman and his Chicago Boys (former students at the University of Chicago economics department) found that they could only persuade dictatorships or democracies in crisis to adopt his planned misery program.

Author Barbara Enrenreich wondered what is was like to live on $7 an hour after the 1996 welfare reform. Her bestseller Nickel and Dimed On (Not) Getting By in America describes her work as a waitress, cleaning lady, and a Wal Mart employee in different cities. Her book reminded me of John Howard Griffin, a white man who changed his skin color for six weeks in the early 1960s to find out what it was like a black person. His book Black Like Me was a sensation.

About one year ago Fr. Andrew Greeley published an article questioning why we don't hold war crimes trials in the USA. I would like to apply the rationale that the Surveillance Policy supporters used to justify their activities. " If you haven't done anything wrong , what do you have to worry about ? " . Greeley posts another criticism of Phony Patriotism on his site. The Statue of Liberty was highlighted with great enthusiasm but with no mention of the great sonnet she holds on a tablet rejecting ' Storied Pomp ' and welcoming the wretched huddled masses.

Matthew Smucker’s article, “What Is to Be Done? Assessing the Antiwar Movement” in the June 26, 2008 edition of www.commondreams.org got my attention. I read the readers’ responses and shares the same frustrations. For all the work in getting Democrats elected to Congress in 2006, we have achieved little. Spineless Democrats, headed by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, engage in a foot race to see which one will cave into President Bush faster. After the Congress approved a bill on war spending with deadlines, Bush vetoed it. Then, instead of demanding that Bush approve a bill that they would approve, the spineless Democrats approved Bush’s war budget to “support the troops.”

The United States and the European Union have selfish reasons to abolish world poverty: combat terrorists and reduce illegal immigration flow.

A world wide anti-poverty program will diminish the terrorists’ recruiting pool. Well-fed people do not contribute to terrorists’ causes. Some point out that the 9/11 hijackers were not poor with the inference that poverty and injustice have no bearing on terrorism. In fact, middle class people have always organized social movements. In his classic work, Anatomy of Revolution, historian Crane Britton examined the English, American, French and Russian Revolutions and found that middle class and upper class people lead them all. Poor people became involved only at the fringes. Reducing poverty means reducing terrorist activity.

Fr. Andrew Greeley has posted a new article just in time for the Holiday Weekend at the Chicago Sun-Times , suntimes.com , and on his website , agreeley.com , which also hosts his new Blog. In this article he decries the exploitation of the desire for revenge by the Republicans to win elections. He compares this to the excesses of WWII in the Firebombing devastation of 50 Japanese cities, and the Nuclear Holocaust visited upon two more of them. WWII was a just war , but we tend to make ourselves no better than our opponents, as with the RAF firebombing of German cities right at the war's end. Our Phony Patriots lied about Iraqi weapons to enable them to justify the taking of Iraq for Western advantage in the region even though the attackers of 9/11 were of Saudi extraction whose leaders had excellent relations with US Oil Companies. This is what Greeley calls a lethal combination that the GOP continues to use to win elections. It looks like McCain's only hope for winning is an Iran invasion riding on the same formula of fear and revenge. What a sorry lot. Greeley also characterizes our President as an opportunist. He cheerfully embraced a war option to get minds off of the Florida voting situation and the Antonin Scalia theft of said election. Greeley has just published a collection of his articles about this war , ' A Stupid , Immoral and Unjust War '. It is available from his website trough a link to Amazon. I read them every week to sustain me through this period. He has some choice words for the Press too as they rolled over for the Phony Patriotism scam without the slightest professional curiosity.

Writing about the glory of war is easy because there isn’t any. See this quotation from Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman:

“I am sick and tired of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have never fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell.”

The idea that there is glory in war is a public relations job that disregards hideous death, mayhem and property destruction involved. The movies, parades, history textbooks and Memorial Day give the idea that war is unavoidable and that our cause has always been right and that our nation has usually been dealing with Absolute Evil. Our country always fights not just to defend our country but to free others from oppression.