THE POWER OF CRISIS

 Ian Bremmer is both an insightful thinker and a great writer. His most recent book, The Power of Crisis, focuses on the major crises impacting not just the United States, but all nations throughout the world. The ultimate issue is that none can be addressed adequately by any one nation. Without the cooperative behavior of all nations, our world is indeed threatened. We realize that the United States has a problem addressing national issues, e.g., gun control, because our our national dichotomy. Even members of Congress cannot agree on much and it has been a long time since our Supreme Court rendered a unanimous verdict. 

 

Bremmer focuses global health emergencies and international conflicts. He clearly identifies the international crises that cannot be resolved by any one nation: global health emergencies, e.g., Covid, climate change, and the revolution resulting from Artificial Intelligence (AI). 

 

Without the cooperation of all nations, even the best efforts by any one nation will be futile.

 

Franklin Delano: 7 Dec 2000-16 June 2011

Would we all could enjoy our lives to such an extent as Franklin! Until the last 4 1/2 hours of his life, he enjoyed life with us. Since signs of age were quite apparent in recent months, we were preparing ourselves for a future without Franklin. We had hoped that his departure would be relatively quick and painless and, in fact, it was. He has cancer (spleen, most likely) that ultimately caused a rupture of a vessel and bleeding into his abdomen. He could not walk any longer and we had to carry him to the auto to travel to the hospital.

While we treasured all of our dogs, Franklin was special in ways new to us. Most particularly was his ability to love little children, permitting them to do virtually anything with him. He wanted to be with them whenever they were around, including sleeping in their room when they stayed at our house.

In addition, he was specially fond of us and made us feel treasured. His needs were met and he was always with one of us, except for the few times he needed a kennel.

His appetite for life epitomized the many stories about dogs. Like others, he attended to the moment and, if the moment was good, life was beautiful!

He was a special friend of ours. He will be missed, but the memories will surely remain.

CLERGY ABUSE

David French writes a weekly column in the Atlantic which has been a joy for me since he writes so well. His column today took on a more personal interest. He writes about clerical sexual among southern Baptists clergy. My experience as a Catholic Priest from 1963-1969 prompts me to elaborate on this problem.

When I was ordained, I was totally unaware of this problem. During the eight years of education, we have studied foreign languages, memorized the Webster Dictionary, read all sorts of theologians, e.g., Thomas Aquinas, but there was never a reference to sexual abuse by the clergy. We were not “educated” about the issue.

It did not take long before several of my priest contemporaries made the “news”. Even some of my classmates of eight years were cited. One of the priests, ordained a year before me, with a history of being moved from one parish to another because of his sexual behavior (mostly with minors) ended up in Walpole Prison where he was killed by another prison inmate. 

Over the years, I noticed that I did not read about such behavior among the Protestant clergy or clergy of other religions. I assumed that their being married explained the difference  

In recent months, I have read more and more about such behavior throughout the clerical world. I admit that my understanding of such behavior among Catholic clergy was that they saw a source of esteemed employment that rewarded their disinterest or fear of sexual activity associated with marriage. But once in a situation of being with a female who openly wanted some advice or information, they started to experience desires that they could not control.

But, now reading about such behavior among Protestant Clergy requires my thinking more about the subject. My latest theory is that being a religious leader gives a woman a degree of openness with a pastor because they never considered that they would be an object of sexual desire by the clerical leader. They thought that they would be safe!

It seems that women who have done so much to make the world great have to be aware of such clerical behavior.  

 https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/05/southern-baptist-evangelical-allegations-cover-up/629954/

LESSONS FROM PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN

John Avalon’s book, LINCOLN and the FIGHT for PEACE, on President Abraham Lincoln was a scholarly approach to multiple sources of documented literature. I was absorbed by John’s focus on the basic human understanding of Lincoln that we are all equals. It made Lincoln clearly famous, but I would have thought that his approach to others, including those he conquered, would have persevered. However, we know that our differences are now even more stringent with such bitterness that it is bonafide amazing that we could be so ignorant. But, again, I think of the likes of Jesus whose many identified followers, including some Christian churches (How Politics Poisoned the Church: The Atlantic June 2022), have no problem in hating or killing those who differ by color, sexual identification, or whatever makes them the “other”. 

From John’s Book, I submit the following that characterizes the epitome of Lincoln’s love on others.

“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan — to do all which may achieve and cherish a jet, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.

On April 4, 1865, President Lincoln walked with his son, Tad, among a crowd of liberated slaves who grabbed at this clothes and fell at his feet. “Don’t knell to me, he said. That is not right. You must kneel to God only and thank Him for the liberty you will afterward enjoy”

When he was asked how he should treat the traitorous rebels and scared citizens now under his command, he offered this advice: “We must extinguish our resentments if we expect harmony and union. If I were in your place, I’d let ‘em up easy, let ‘em up easy.”

Lincoln’s essential insight was that winning the war on the battle field was not enough. After civil war in a democracy, fighting citizens would need to learn to live with one another again. Lincoln understood that if you do not win the peace, you do not really win the war.

Lincoln embodied the politics of the Golden Rule — treating others as he would like to be treated. He did not demonize people he disagreed with, understanding that empathy is a pathway to persuasion.

PRESIDENT BIDEN, THE PROBLEM IS NOT SEEING THE DIVINE IN ALL!

 President Joseph Biden,

I watched your news conference (17 May) which you so eloquently captured so much of the underlying issues precipitating this horrible attack in Buffalo, NY and, for sure, so many other places, e.g., Laguna Woods, CA. However, I urge you to look even deeper into your analysis. Our experience surfaces all over the earth, with the possible exception of Switzerland which does not permit anyone becoming a citizen, unless their lineage was in Switzerland.  Hungary is trying to avoid internal violence by attempting to limit citizenship to native born and, it seems, being Catholic. Acquiring citizenship in Japan or China requires being born of natives. The historical violence by Protestants in Northern Ireland towards the Catholics mimics the tendency of violence towards the minority. 

It surely is mystifying that such hatred exists among humans who all owe their very existence to the same God. Even atheists have to deal with the ultimate question of how the universe was created and how humans emerged 2+ billion years ago. One may be reluctant to recognize the Divine, but it surely is hard to understand how the cosmos originated and eons of evolution that ultimately enabled humans to appear. 

If we could recognize that we are all gifts of the Divine (God), we could look at each other with a desire to help, not kill.

Edward J Toomey

45 Glades Rd

Scituate, MA 02066

THE ROOT OF VIOLENCE

 “I will not tire of declaring that if we really want an effective end to violence we must remove the violence that lies at the root of all violence: structural violence, social injustice, exclusion of citizens from the management of the country, repression. All this is what constitutes the primal cause, from which the rest flows naturally. [2]

When the church decries revolutionary violence, it cannot forget that institutionalized violence also exists, and that the desperate violence of oppressed persons is not overcome with one-sided laws, with weapons, or with superior force. . . . As long as there is not greater justice among us, there will always be outbreaks of revolution.”

Archbishop’s Romero (Archbishop of El Salvador (1917-1980)