Now the work begins…
It is Sunday afternoon as I write this. I leave after the Newman Center’s mass for my retreat, so I don’t know as of this writing who has won the presidential elections. Like many, I will not miss all the negative ads and campaign commercials. And like many, I will find the temptation to get back to ‘normalcy’ where every minute is not focused on politics as a desired option.
But the demands of justice do not support that option. Regardless of which party ‘won’ the White House, there is much work to be done in our country. In a race that focused (or tried to) almost exclusively on the economy, many issues took the back burner. I believe we ignore them to our peril as a country.
Front and fore, are always the LIFE issues. 54 million children (and counting) in the womb never had the chance to walk upon this planet, to see the beauty in a fall leaf, or behold the wonder of a mother’s love. Nearly 40 years after Roe vs. Wade, we still live in a culture where it is easier to end a life than it is to bring it to birth. And after nearly 40 years of political wrangling over the issue, I become more and more convinced that the most effective way to fight the battle for life is in the hearts of young men and women. How will we communicate our support of “Life” and our belief in its sanctity from the womb to the tomb – ending abortion on demand and the death penalty alike? And will we ever find a way to bring about peace without the wars that kill and wound so many innocent?
The deficit continues to loom large. More than eighty Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of leading companies in the United States urged the members of the Congress to reduce the federal deficit by spending cuts and tax reforms, and prevent the impending fiscal cliff from stifling our children and our children’s children.
What to do with the immigrant at our door? Or the burgeoning military budget? An op-ed piece in America magazine wondered at what point do we risk becoming morally bankrupt when as a country we spend 6 times more than any other nation proportionately upon our military, while our school infrastructures decline, and education becomes more and more the privilege of the elite.
There is much work to be done, indeed. And if you would like to work on the ‘structural end’ – AKA, the Works of Justice (as opposed to the Works of Mercy) then contact Barry Buchek or Holly Schieble to join our St. Ann Social Justice group. Or stop down to the fair trade extravaganza in the Assembly room this Sunday…