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labourpress · 7 years

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Author Naomi Klein speech to Labour Party Conference

Author Naomi Klein, speaking at Labour Party Conference, said:

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Thank you Kate for that lovely introduction and all the work that you do to put social justice on the world agenda.

It’s been such a privilege to be part of this historic convention. To feel its energy and optimism.

Because friends, it’s bleak out there. How do I begin to describe a world upside down? From heads of state tweeting threats of nuclear annihilation, to whole regions rocked by climate chaos, to thousands of migrants drowning off the coasts of Europe, to openly racist parties gaining ground, most recently and alarmingly in Germany.

Most days there is simply too much to take in. So I want to start with an example that might seem small against such a vast backdrop. The Caribbean and Southern United States are in the midst of an unprecedented hurricane season: pounded by storm after record-breaking storm.

As we meet, Puerto Rico - hit by Irma, then Maria - is without power and could be for months. It’s water and communication systems are also severely compromised. Three and half million US citizens on that island are in desperate need of their government’s help.

But just like during Hurricane Katrina, the cavalry is missing in action. Donald Trump is too busy trying to get Black athletes fired - smearing them for daring to shine a spotlight on racist violence.

Amazingly a real federal aid package for Puerto Rico has not yet been announced.

By some reports, more money has been spent securing presidential trips to Mar-a-Lago.

As if all this weren’t enough, the vultures are now buzzing. The business press is filled with articles about how the only way for Puerto Rico to get the lights back on is to sell off its electricity utility. Maybe its roads and bridges too.

This is a phenomenon I have called The Shock Doctrine - the exploitation of wrenching crises to smuggle through policies that devour the public sphere and further enrich a small elite.

We see this dismal cycle repeat again and again. We saw it after the 2008 financial crash. We are already seeing it in how the Tories are planning to exploit Brexit to push through disastrous pro-corporate trade deals without debate.

The reason I am highlighting Puerto Rico is because the situation is so urgent. But also because it’s a microcosm of a much larger global crisis, one that contains many of the same overlapping elements: accelerating climate chaos; militarism; histories of colonialism; a weak and neglected public sphere; a totally dysfunctional democracy.

And overlaying it all: the seemingly bottomless capacity to discount the lives of huge numbers of Black and brown people.

Ours is an age when it is impossible to pry one crisis apart from all the others. They have all merged, reinforcing and deepening each other..... like one shambling, multi-headed beast.

I think it’s helpful to think of the current US president in much the same way.

It’s tough to know how to adequately sum him up. So let me try a local example.

You know that horrible thing currently clogging up the London sewers. I believe you call it the fatberg?

Well Trump, he’s the political equivalent of that.

A merger of all that is noxious in the culture, economy and body politic, all kind of glommed together in a self-adhesive mass. And we’re finding it very, very hard to dislodge.

It gets so grim that we have to laugh. But make no mistake: whether it’s climate change or the nuclear threat, Trump represents a crisis that could echo through geologic time.

But here is my message to you today:

Moments of crisis do not have to go the Shock Doctrine route - they do not need to become opportunities for the already obscenely wealthy to grab still more.

They can also go the opposite way.

They can be moments when we find our best selves..... when we locate reserves of strength and focus we never knew we had.

We see it at the grassroots level every time disaster strikes.

We all witnessed it in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower catastrophe.

When the people responsible were MIA....... the community came together...... Held one another in their care, organized the donations and advocated for the living -- and for the dead.

And they are doing it still, more than 100 days after the fire.

When there is still no justice and, scandalously, only a handful of survivors have been rehoused.

And it’s not only at the grassroots level that we see disaster awaken something remarkable in us.

There is also a long and proud history of crises sparking progressive transformation on a society-wide scale.

Think of the victories won by working people for social housing and old age pensions during the Great Depression..... Or for the NHS after the horrors of the Second World War.

This should remind us that moments of great crisis and peril do not necessarily need to knock us backwards.

They can also catapult us forward.

Our progressive ancestors achieved that at key moments in history, in your country and in mine.

And we can do it again - in this moment when everything is on the line.

But what we know from the Great Depression and the post-war period, is that we never win these transformative victories by simply resisting..... by simply saying “no” to the latest outrage.

To win in a moment of true crisis, we also need a bold and forward-looking “yes”

- a plan for how to rebuild and respond to the underlying causes.

And that plan needs to be convincing, credible and, most of all, captivating.

We have to help a weary and wary public to imagine itself into that better world.

And that is why I am so honoured to be standing with you today.

With the transformed Labour Party in 2017.

And with the next Prime Minister of Britain,

Jeremy Corbyn.

Because in the last election, that’s exactly what you did.

Theresa May ran a cynical campaign based on exploiting fear and shock to grab more power for herself - first the fear of a bad Brexit deal, then the fear following the horrific terror attacks in Manchester and London.

Your party and your leader responded by focusing on root causes: a failed “war on terror”.... economic inequality and weakened democracy.

But you did more than that.

You presented voters with a bold and detailed Manifesto.

One that laid out a plan for millions of people to have tangibly better lives:

free tuition,

fully funded health care,

aggressive climate action.

After decades of lowered expectations and asphyxiated political imagination, finally voters had something hopeful and exciting to say “yes” to.

And so many of them did just that, upending the projections of the entire expert class.

You proved that the era of triangulation and tinkering is over.

The public is hungry for deep change - they are crying out for it.

The trouble is, in far too many countries, it’s only the far right that is offering it, or seeming to, with that toxic combination of fake economic populism and very real racism.

You showed us another way.

One that speaks the language of decency and fairness, that names the true forces most responsible for this mess - no matter how powerful.

And that is unafraid of some of the ideas we were told were gone for good.

Like wealth redistribution.

And nationalising essential public services.

Now, thanks to all of your boldness, we know that this isn’t just a moral strategy.

It’s a winning strategy.

It fires up the base, and it activates constituencies that long ago stopped voting altogether.

If you can keep doing that between now and the next election, you will be unbeatable.

You showed us something else in the last election too, and it’s just as important.

You showed that political parties don’t need to fear the creativity and independence of social movements - and social movements, likewise, have a huge amount to gain from engaging with electoral politics.

That’s a very big deal.

Because let’s be honest: political parties tend to be a bit freakish about control.

And real grassroots movements..... we cherish our independence - and we're pretty much impossible to control.

But what we are seeing with the remarkable relationship between Labour and Momentum, and with other wonderful campaign organizations, is that it is possible to

combine the best of both worlds.

If we listen and learn from each other, we can create a force that is both stronger and more nimble than anything either parties or movements can pull off on their own.

I want you to know that what you have done here is reverberating around the world - so many of us are watching your ongoing experiment in this new kind of politics with rapt attention.

And of course what happened here is itself part of a global phenomenon.

It’s a wave led by young people who came into adulthood just as the global financial system was collapsing and just as climate disruption was banging down the door.

Many come out of social movements like Occupy Wall Street, and Spain’s Indignados.

They began by saying no - to austerity,

to bank bailouts,

to fracking and pipelines.

But they came to understand that the biggest challenge is overcoming the way neoliberalism has waged war on our collective imagination, on our ability to truly believe in anything outside of its bleak borders.

And so these movements started to dream together, laying out bold and different visions of the future.... and credible pathways out of crisis.

And most importantly they began engaging with political parties, to try to win power.

We saw it in Bernie Sanders’ historic campaign in the US primaries.... which was powered by millennials who know that safe centrist politics offers them no kind of safe future.

By the way.... Bernie, is the most popular politician in the United States today.

We see something similar with Spain’s still-young Podemos party, which built in the power of mass movements from Day One.

In all of these cases, electoral campaigns caught fire with stunning speed.

And they got close to taking power - closer than any genuinely transformative political program has in either Europe or North America in my lifetime.

But still, in each case, not close enough.

So in this time between elections, it’s worth thinking about how to make absolutely sure that next time, all of our movements go all the way.

A big part of the answer is: Keeping it up.

Keep building that yes.

But take it even further.

Outside the heat of a campaign, there is more time to deepen the relationships between issues and movements, so that our solutions address multiple crises at once.

In all of our countries, we can and must do more to connect the dots between economic injustice, racial injustice and gender injustice.

We need to understand and explain how all of those ugly systems that place one group in a position of dominance over another - based on skin colour, religious faith, gender and sexual orientation - consistently serve the interests of power and money and always have.

They do it by keeping us divided.

And keeping themselves protected.

And we have to do more to keep it front of mind.... that we are in a state of climate emergency.... the roots of which are found in the same system of bottomless greed that underlies our economic emergency.

But states of emergency, let’s recall, can be catalysts for deep progressive victories.

So let’s draw out the connections between the gig economy - that treats human beings like a raw resource from which to extract wealth and then discard - and the dig economy, in which the extractive companies treats the Earth in precisely the same careless way.

And let’s show exactly how we can move from that gig and dig economy to a society based on principles of care - caring for the planet and for one another. Where the work of our caregivers and of our land and water protectors, is respected and valued. A world where no one and nowhere is thrown away - whether in fire-trap housing estates or on hurricane-ravaged islands.

I applaud the clear stand Labour has taken against fracking and for clean energy. Now we need to up our ambition and show exactly how battling climate change is a once-in-a-century chance to build a fairer and more democratic economy.

Because as we rapidly transition off fossil fuels, we cannot replicate the wealth concentration and the injustices of the oil and coal economy, in which hundreds of billions in profits have been privatized and the tremendous risks are socialized.

We can and must design a system in which the polluters pay a very large share of the cost of transitioning off fossil fuels. And where we keep green energy in public and community hands. That way revenues stay in your communities, to pay for childcare and firefighters and other crucial services. And it’s the only way to make sure that the green jobs that are created are union jobs that pay a living wage.

The motto needs to be: leave the oil and gas in the ground, but leave no worker behind. And the best part, you don’t need to wait until you get to Westminster to start this great transition. You can use the levers you have right now.

You can take a page from Barcelona and turn your Labour-controlled cities into beacons for the world transformed.

A good start would be divesting your pensions from fossil fuels and investing that money in low carbon social housing and green energy cooperatives.

That way people can begin to experience the benefits of the next economy before the next election - and know in their bones that yes, there is, and always has been, an alternative.

In closing.....

I want to stress, as your international speaker, that none of this can be about turning any one nation into a progressive museum.

In wealthy countries like yours and mine, we need migration policies and levels of international financing that reflect what we owe to the global south - our historic role in destabilizing the economies and ecologies of poorer nations for a great many years.

For instance, during this epic hurricane season, we’ve heard a lot of talk of “the British Virgin Islands,” the “French Virgin Islands” and so on.

Rarely was it seen as relevant to observe that these are not reflections of where Europeans like to holiday.

They are reflections of the fact that so much of the vast wealth of empire was extracted from these Islands in bonded human flesh.

Wealth that supercharged Europe’s and North America’s industrial revolution, positioning us as the super-polluters we are today.

And that is intimately connected to the fact that the future and security of island nations are now at grave risk from superstorms storms, sea level rise, and dying coral reefs.

What should this painful history mean to us today?

It means welcoming migrants and refugees.

And it means paying our fair share to help many more countries ramp up justice-based green transitions of their own.

Trump going rogue is no excuse to demand less of ourselves in the UK and Canada or anywhere else for that matter.

It means the opposite -that we have to demand more of ourselves.

To pick up the slack until the United States manages to get its sewer system unclogged.

I firmly believe that all of this work, challenging as it is, is a crucial part of the path to victory.

That the more ambitious, consistent and holistic you can be in painting a picture of the world transformed, the more credible a Labour government will become.

Because you went and showed us all that you can win.

Now you have to win.

We all do.

Winning is a moral imperative.

The stakes are too high, and time is too short, to settle for anything less.

Thank you

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upshotre · 5 years

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Sanwo-Olu Must Be Bold to Lay Solid Foundation- Obasa

BY TAIWO OGUNMOLA-OMILANI The Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa has said Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu must be bold to a solid foundation to be built on by successive administrations. He disclosed this on Friday during the presentation of Y2020 budget by the State Governor, Sanwo-Olu. According to him, Mr Governor must be bold to lay a solid foundation to be built on by successive administrations. It is high time to come up with innovative ideas and strategies to bring about change to the state with the aim of taking it to the next level. It is common knowledge that doing things same way will yield same results. But when we desire new things, a marvelous and egalitarian society, we have to look inward and change the approach. " To indeed move Lagos forward, there is the need to focus more attention on rail to connect the entire Lagos. A rail from Ogun State boundary down to Lekki Epe side, a rail from Ikorodu to also same area should be urgently considered. And the ones under construction must be speedily completed. No amount of road patching, rehabilitations and constructions will really solve our transportation problem judging by the influx of people into Lagos on daily basis. With money or not, we have to start doing something. Below is the full speech . Full Remarks of Speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Mudashiru Obasa during the presentation of Y2020 budget by the Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu Ladies and Gentlemen, On behalf of my colleagues and our highly dedicated staff, it gives me a great pleasure to heartily welcome you all to this occasion of the formal presentation of the Year 2020 budget by Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the Executive Governor of Lagos State. Before anything at all, we give praise and adoration to the Almighty Allah, the giver and taker of life, the One who reverses the irreversible; for giving us the opportunity to witness this significant budget presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, we have all listened with rapt attention to how the wealth of our state will be utilized for our common good in Y2020 with the presentation of the budget size: N1,168,561,534,191 themed: BUDGET OF REAWAKENING TO A GREATER LAGOS. The responsibility is now on the members of this Honourable House to do the needful; and I assure you that we will meticulously perform our constitutional duty. Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, I commend you for being astute, courageous, insightful, forthright, thorough, and determined. You have really displayed, during your few months in office, that you are capable to maintain a track record of resourceful consistency in the state. Mr. Governor, your actions so far have shown the zeal, desire and passion in you to get things done, to fix what has been left undone and to move the state forward. Hence, we believe that the content of the budget will serve this purpose in making life worthy of living for our people in Lagos State. As is evident, the Y2020 Appropriation Bill is significant in that it is the first budget proposal to be presented by Mr Governor. This will give him the opportunity to encapsulate his vision and mission for us all as the budget will lay the foundation for this. For this singular reason, we are all hopeful and expectant that this coming year will witness more of democracy dividends for betterment of Lagos and Lagosians. However, permit me to remind this gathering that the matter of budget presentation is essential. Beyond its constitutional stipulation, it requires the backing of law to make it implementable and executable; without which it becomes an offence punishable under the law. Ladies and gentlemen, let me remind this gathering that of recent, Lagos State budget has become a topical issue vis-à-vis last administration where provision of the budget law was being viciously violated. It is worthy of note that the Nigeria 1999 Constitution recognizes the separation of power and empowers the State House of Assembly to dictate how the state fund is being expended and the manner of its presentation. Still on this, regarding the last administration, I have heard from different quarters about people asking why this House did not properly query the actions of the immediate former governor while in office. Alas, there is nothing of such. Let me take you down the memory lane that it was in this House that Vision Scape, a policy of the last administration, was openly condemned and tagged a ghost. Remember too that this House questioned the provision of the budget for this idea. But some people, like one Olu Fajana with his faceless group calling themselves the Legislative Probity and Accountability (LPA) led a protest to this House. They used the medium to blackmail the House instead of reasoning with us to join hands in moving the state forward, by avoiding the treasury of the state from being touched unconstitutionally. With this, it is common knowledge that the last administration employed blackmailing and harassment to witch-hunt and deprive the House from performing its duties appropriately. However, let me state here without any reservation or equivocation that this House will never be deterred from doing its work, and we are ready to collaborate and support this administration and to ensure that our electoral promises are achieved and delivered promptly. Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, it is worthy of note that Lagos State as it is today needs radical, aggressive and a holistic revamping. It requires an urgent economic and infrastructural turn around. Mr Governor must be bold to lay a solid foundation to be built on by successive administrations. It is high time to come up with innovative ideas and strategies to bring about change to the state with the aim of taking it to the next level. It is common knowledge that doing things same way will yield same results. But when we desire new things, a marvelous and egalitarian society, we have to look inward and change the approach. 14. To indeed move Lagos forward, there is the need to focus more attention on rail to connect the entire Lagos. A rail from Ogun State boundary down to Lekki Epe side, a rail from Ikorodu to also same area should be urgently considered. And the ones under construction must be speedily completed. No amount of road patching, rehabilitations and constructions will really solve our transportation problem judging by the influx of people into Lagos on daily basis. With money or not, we have to start doing something. 15. At the same time, more still need to be done about water transportation. Ilo rivers running from Sango links Alimosho, Ojo, Amuwo back to CMS. Also, Odo Iya Alaro runs up to Ikorodu. This might sound like a tall order. But we should start from somewhere. Dubai did not start in a day. They laid the foundation and continue building on it. Now, it is an envy of all. 16. Likewise, our education and health sectors need adequate attention. Year in, year out, provisions are being made for these sectors. But they have not been well sustained. It is our hope that this time, it will take a different and positive dimension. 17. Our Local Government Chairmen must also be on their toes and collaborate with the state government. Their efforts will definitely impact positively on the achievements of the state government. 18. Nevertheless, our dear Governor, I charge you to be visionary and have a huge dream of paradise for our people. I charge you to employ wisdom of Solomon and courage of Moses that will change the tone and system of government in Lagos State. I emphasise, it is time we shifted the paradigm. You can rest assured of the strong and constant support of the House. We are ever ready to walk the journey with you. But there must be total disclosure. 19. My colleagues, may I also use this medium calling you to discharge your responsibilities without expectation for compensation. Also, you should continue to relate with your constituents regularly. 20. Let me particularly thank our party leadership starting from our Governor Emeritus, Asiwaju of Nigeria, His Excellency, ASIWAJU BOLA AHMED TINUBU, a discerning, financially ingenious, reliable and able leader who has kept our state going in the right direction. His brilliance also has eventually made it possible for us to now continuously have a Federal Government that shares same progressive mind with us in this side of the country. 21. In this same vein, I congratulate members of the Governor Advisory Council (GAC), all party leaders and most especially our State Party Chairman, Alhaji Tunde Balogun for their efforts towards the landslide victory recorded by our party in the state during the last general elections. 22. Ladies and Gentlemen, we as your representatives in this Assembly will not relent in our agitation for quality governance and qualitative representation. As for me, I will never sit on the fence when the battle is to ensure that good governance works in the genuine interest of the people. 23. Let me therefore at this juncture assure Mr. Governor and all our people that my colleagues and I shall promptly and diligently commence work on the Y2020 budget just presented to this Honourable House. 24. We will ensure that Lagos State occupies the enviable position that has always been reserved for us. We will work diligently for the early passage of the budget so that developmental work can start in earnest in the state. In other words, our intention is to make this budget a special New Year gift to the people of this great state. I wish you all merry Christmas and happy new Year in advance. I thank you all for your listening pleasure. Igbega Ipinle Eko, Ajumose gbogbo wa ni. Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa Speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly Read the full article

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pope-francis-quotes · 8 years

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9th January >> Pope Francis’ prepared Address to the Corps of Diplomats Accredited to the Holy See.

Below, please find a Vatican-provided English translation of Pope Francis’ prepared address to the Corps of Diplomats Accredited to the Holy See this morning in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace, during the course of his traditional exchange of New Year’s greetings with the diplomats: Your Excellencies, dear Ambassadors, Ladies and Gentlemen, I offer you a cordial welcome. I thank you for your presence in such numbers at this traditional gathering, which permits us to exchange greetings and good wishes that the year just beginning will be for everyone a time of joy, prosperity and peace. I express particular gratitude to the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, His Excellency Armindo Fernandes do Espírito Santo Vieira, the Ambassador of Angola, for his courteous greetings on behalf of the entire Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See, which has recently been enlarged following the establishment of diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic of Mauritania a month ago. I likewise express my gratitude to the many Ambassadors resident in Rome, whose number has grown this past year, and to the non-resident Ambassadors, whose presence today is a clear sign of the bonds of friendship uniting their peoples to the Holy See. At the same time, I would like to express heartfelt condolences to the Ambassador of Malaysia for the death of his predecessor, Dato’ Mohd Zulkephli Bin Mohd Noor, who passed away last February. In the course of the past year, relations between your countries and the Holy See were further consolidated, thanks to the welcome visit of many Heads of State and Government, also in conjunction with the numerous events of the recently concluded Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy. So too, a variety of bilateral Agreements were signed or ratified, both those of a general nature aimed at recognizing the Church’s juridical status, with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Benin and Timor East, and those of a more specific character, the Avenant signed with France, the Convention on fiscal matters with the Republic of Italy, recently entered into force, and the Memorandum of Understanding between the Secretariat of State and the Government of the United Arab Emirates. Furthermore, in the context of the Holy See’s commitment to the obligations assumed by the aforementioned Agreements, the Comprehensive Agreement with the State of Palestine, which took effect a year ago, was fully implemented. Dear Ambassadors, A century ago, we were in the midst of the First World War. A “useless slaughter”[1], in which new methods of warfare sowed death and caused immense suffering to the defenceless civil population. In 1917, the conflict changed profoundly, taking on increasingly global proportions, while those totalitarian regimes, which were long to be a cause of bitter divisions, began to appear on the horizon. A hundred years later, it can be said that many parts of the world have benefited from lengthy periods of peace, which have favoured opportunities for economic development and unprecedented prosperity. For many people today, peace appears as a blessing to be taken for granted, for all intents an acquired right to which not much thought is given. Yet, for all too many others, peace remains merely a distant dream. Millions of people still live in the midst of senseless conflicts. Even in places once considered secure, a general sense of fear is felt. We are frequently overwhelmed by images of death, by the pain of innocent men, women and children who plead for help and consolation, by the grief of those mourning the loss of a dear one due to hatred and violence, and by the drama of refugees fleeing war and migrants meeting tragic deaths. For this reason, I would like to devote today’s meeting to the theme of security and peace. In today’s climate of general apprehension for the present, and uncertainty and anxious concern for the future, I feel it is important to speak a word of hope, which can also indicate a path on which to embark. Just a few days ago, we celebrated the Fiftieth World Day of Peace, instituted by my blessed predecessor Paul VI “as a hope and as a promise, at the beginning of the calendar which measures and describes the path of human life in time, that peace with its just and beneficent equilibrium may dominate the development of events to come”.[2] For Christians, peace is a gift of the Lord, proclaimed in song by the Angels at the moment of Christ’s birth: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favours” (Lk 2:14). Peace is a positive good, “the fruit of the right ordering of things” with which God has invested human society;[3] it is “more than the absence of war”.[4] Nor can it be “reduced to the maintenance of a balance of power between opposing forces”.[5] Rather, it demands the commitment of those persons of good will who “thirst for an ever more perfect reign of justice”.[6] In this regard, I voice my firm conviction that every expression of religion is called to promote peace. I saw this clearly in the World Day of Prayer for Peace held in Assisi last September, during which the representatives of the different religions gathered to “give voice together to all those who suffer, to all those who have no voice and are not heard”,[7] as well as in my visits to the Synagogue of Rome and the Mosque in Baku. We know that there has been no shortage of acts of religiously motivated violence, beginning with Europe itself, where the historical divisions between Christians have endured all too long. In my recent visit to Sweden, I mentioned the urgent need for healing past wounds and journeying together towards common goals. The basis of that journey can only be authentic dialogue between different religious confessions. Such dialogue is possible and necessary, as I wished to show by my meeting in Cuba with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, as well as by my Apostolic Journeys to Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan, where I sensed the rightful aspiration of those peoples to resolve conflicts which for years have threatened social harmony and peace. At the same time, it is fitting that we not overlook the great number of religiously inspired works that contribute, at times with the sacrifice of martyrs, to the pursuit of the common good through education and social assistance, especially in areas of great poverty and in theatres of conflict. These efforts advance peace and testify that individuals of different nationalities, cultures and traditions can indeed live and work together, provided that the dignity of the human person is placed at the centre of their activities. Sadly, we are conscious that even today, religious experience, rather than fostering openness to others, can be used at times as a pretext for rejection, marginalization and violence. I think particularly of the fundamentalist-inspired terrorism that in the past year has also reaped numerous victims throughout the world: in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Belgium, Burkina Faso, Egypt, France, Germany, Jordan, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, the United States of America, Tunisia and Turkey. These are vile acts that use children to kill, as in Nigeria, or target people at prayer, as in the Coptic Cathedral of Cairo, or travellers or workers, as in Brussels, or passers-by in the streets of cities like Nice and Berlin, or simply people celebrating the arrival of the new year, as in Istanbul. We are dealing with a homicidal madness which misuses God’s name in order to disseminate death, in a play for domination and power. Hence I appeal to all religious authorities to join in reaffirming unequivocally that one can never kill in God’s name. Fundamentalist terrorism is the fruit of a profound spiritual poverty, and often is linked to significant social poverty. It can only be fully defeated with the joint contribution of religious and political leaders. The former are charged with transmitting those religious values which do not separate fear of God from love of neighbour. The latter are charged with guaranteeing in the public forum the right to religious freedom, while acknowledging religion’s positive and constructive contribution to the building of a civil society that sees no opposition between social belonging, sanctioned by the principle of citizenship, and the spiritual dimension of life. Government leaders are also responsible for ensuring that conditions do not exist that can serve as fertile terrain for the spread of forms of fundamentalism. This calls for suitable social policies aimed at combating poverty; such policies cannot prescind from a clear appreciation of the importance of the family as the privileged place for growth in human maturity, and from a major investment in the areas of education and culture. In this regard, I was interested to learn of the Council of Europe’s initiative on the religious dimension of intercultural dialogue, which in the past year discussed the role of education in preventing radicalization leading to terrorism and estremist violence. This represents an occasion for a better understanding of the role of religion and education in bringing about the authentic social harmony needed for coexistence in a multicultural society. Here I would express my conviction that political authorities must not limit themselves to ensuring the security of their own citizens – a concept which could easily be reduced to a mere “quiet life” – but are called also to work actively for the growth of peace. Peace is an “active virtue”, once that calls for the engagement and cooperation of each individual and society as a whole. As the Second Vatican Council observed, “peace will never be achieved once and for all, but must be built up continually”,[8] by safeguarding the good of persons and respecting their dignity. Peacemaking requires above all else renouncing violence in vindicating one’s rights.[9] To this very principle I devoted my Message for the 2017 World Day of Peace, with the title, “Nonviolence: a Style of Politics for Peace”. I wished primarily to reaffirm that nonviolence is a political style based on the rule of law and the dignity of each person. Peacemaking also demands that “those causes of discord which lead to wars be rooted out”,[10] beginning with acts of injustice. Indeed, justice and peace are intimately linked[11]. Yet, as Saint John Paul II observed, “because human justice is always fragile and imperfect, subject as it is to the limitations and egoism of individuals and groups, it must include and, as it were, be completed by the forgiveness that heals and rebuilds human relations from their foundations… Forgiveness is in no way opposed to justice. It is rather the fullness of justice, leading to that tranquillity of order” which involves “the deepest healing of the wounds which fester in human hearts. Justice and forgiveness are both essential to such healing”.[12] Those words remain most timely, and met with openness on the part of some Heads of State or Government to my request to make a gesture of clemency towards the incarcerated. To them, and to all those who promote dignified living conditions for prisoners and their reintegration into society, I would like to express my particular appreciation and gratitude. I am convinced that for many people the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy was an especially fruitful moment for rediscovering “mercy’s immense positive influence as a social value”.[13] In this way, everyone can help bring about “a culture of mercy, based on the rediscovery of encounter with others, a culture in which no one looks at another with indifference or turns away from the suffering of our brothers and sisters”.[14] Only thus will it be possible to build societies that are open and welcoming towards foreigners and at the same time internally secure and at peace. This is all the more needed at the present time, when massive waves of migration continue in various parts of the world. I think in a special way of the great numbers of displaced persons and refugees in some areas of Africa and Southeast Asia, and all those who are fleeing areas of conflict in the Middle East. Last year the international community gathered at two important events convened by the United Nations: the first World Humanitarian Summit and the Summit for Refugees and Migrants. With regard to migrants, displaced persons and refugees, a common commitment is needed, one focused on offering them a dignified welcome. This would involve respecting the right of “every human being… to emigrate to other countries and take up residence there”,[15] while at the same time ensuring that migrants can be integrated into the societies in which they are received without the latter sensing that their security, cultural identity and political-social stability are threatened. On the other hand, immigrants themselves must not forget that they have a duty to respect the laws, culture and traditions of the countries in which they are received. Prudence on the part of public authorities does not mean enacting policies of exclusion vis-à-vis migrants, but it does entail evaluating, with wisdom and foresight, the extent to which their country is in a position, without prejudice to the common good of citizens, to offer a decent life to migrants, especially those truly in need of protection. Above all, the current crisis should not be reduced to a simple matter of numbers. Migrants are persons, with their own names, stories and families. There can never be true peace as long as a single human being is violated in his or her personal identity and reduced to a mere statistic or an object of economic calculation. The issue of migration is not one that can leave some countries indifferent, while others are left with the burden of humanitarian assistance, often at the cost of notable strain and great hardship, in the face of an apparently unending emergency. All should feel responsible for jointly pursuing the international common good, also through concrete gestures of human solidarity; these are essential building-blocks of that peace and development which entire nations and millions of people still await. So I am grateful to the many countries which offer a generous welcome to those in need, beginning with various European nations, particularly Italy, Germany, Greece and Sweden. I vividly remember my visit to the island of Lesvos in the company of my brothers Patriarch Bartholomew and Archbishop Ieronymos. There I saw at first hand the dramatic situation of the refugee camps, but also the goodness and spirit of service shown by the many persons committed to assisting those living there. Nor should we overlook the welcome offered by other countries of Europe and the Middle East, such as Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, as well as the commitment of various African and Asian countries. In the course of my visit to Mexico, where I experienced the joy of the Mexican people, I likewise felt close to the thousands of migrants from Central America who, in their attempt to find a better future, endure terrible injustices and dangers, victims of extortion and objects of that deplorable trade – that horrible form of modern slavery – which is human trafficking. One enemy of peace is a “reductive vision” of the human person, which opens the way to the spread of injustice, social inequality and corruption. With regard to this last phenomenon, the Holy See has taken on new commitments with its formal adherence, on 19 September last, to the United Nations Convention against Corruption, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 31 October 2003. In his encyclical Populorum Progressio, issued fifty years ago, Blessed Paul VI noted how such situations of inequality provoke conflict. As he stated, “civil progress and economic development are the only road to peace”,[16] which public authorities have the duty to encourage and foster by creating conditions for a more equitable distribution of resources and by generating employment opportunities, especially for young people. In today’s world, all too many people, especially children, still suffer from endemic poverty and live in conditions of food insecurity – indeed, hunger – even as natural resources are the object of greedy exploitation by a few, and enormous amounts of food are wasted daily. Children and young people are the future; it is for them that we work and build. They cannot be selfishly overlooked or forgotten. As I stated recently in a letter addressed to all bishops, I consider it a priority to protect children, whose innocence is often violated by exploitation, clandestine and slave labour, prostitution or the abuse of adults, criminals and dealers in death.[17] During my visit to Poland for World Youth Day, I encountered thousands of young people full of life and enthusiasm. Yet in many of them I also saw pain and suffering. I think of the young people affected by the brutal conflict in Syria, deprived of the joys of childhood and youth, such as the ability to play games and to attend school. My constant thoughts are with them and the beloved Syrian people. I appeal to the international community to make every effort to encourage serious negotiations for an end to the conflict, which is causing a genuine human catastrophe. Each of the parties must give priority to international humanitarian law, and guarantee the protection of civilians and needed humanitarian aid for the populace. Our common aspiration is that the recently signed truce will be a sign of hope for the whole Syrian people, so greatly in need of it. This also means working for the elimination of the deplorable arms trade and the never-ending race to create and spread ever more sophisticated weaponry. Particularly disturbing are the experiments being conducted on the Korean Peninsula, which destabilize the entire region and raise troubling questions for the entire international community about the risk of a new nuclear arms race. The words of Saint John XXIII in Pacem in Terris continue to ring true: “Justice, right reason and the recognition of human dignity cry out insistently for a cessation to the arms race. The stockpiles of armaments which have been built up in various countries must be reduced all round by the parties concerned. Nuclear weapons must be banned”.[18] In the light of this, and in view of the forthcoming Conference on Disarmament, the Holy See seeks to promote an ethics of peace and security that goes beyond that fear and “closure” which condition the debate on nuclear weapons. Also with regard to conventional weapons, we need to acknowledge that easy access to the sale of arms, including those of small calibre, not only aggravates various conflicts, but also generates a widespread sense of insecurity and fear. This is all the more dangerous in times, like our own, of social uncertainty and epochal changes. Another enemy of peace is the ideology that exploits social unrest in order to foment contempt and hate, and views others as enemies to be eliminated. Sadly, new ideologies constantly appear on the horizon of humanity. Under the guise of promising great benefits, they instead leave a trail of poverty, division, social tensions, suffering and, not infrequently, death. Peace, on the other hand, triumphs through solidarity. It generates the desire for dialogue and cooperation which finds an essential instrument in diplomacy. Mercy and solidarity inspire the convinced efforts of the Holy See and the Catholic Church to avert conflicts and to accompany processes of peace, reconciliation and the search for negotiated solutions. It is heartening that some of these attempts have met with the good will of many people who, from a number of quarters, have actively and fruitfully worked for peace. I think of the efforts made in the last two years for rapprochement between Cuba and the United States. I think also of the persevering efforts made, albeit not without difficulty, to end years of conflict in Colombia. That approach aims at encouraging reciprocal trust, supporting processes of dialogue and emphasizing the need for courageous gestures. These are quite urgent in neighbouring Venezuela, where the effects of the political, social and economic crisis have long burdened the civil population. So too in other parts of the world, beginning with the Middle East, a similar approach is needed, not only to bring an end to the Syrian conflict, but also to foster fully reconciled societies in Iraq and in Yemen. The Holy See renews its urgent appeal for the resumption of dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians towards a stable and enduring solution that guarantees the peaceful coexistence of two states within internationally recognized borders. No conflict can become a habit impossible to break. Israelis and Palestinians need peace. The whole Middle East urgently needs peace! I also express my hope that there will be a full implementation of the agreements aimed at restoring peace in Libya, where it is imperative to reconcile the divisions of recent years. I likewise encourage every effort on the local and international level to renew peaceful civil coexistence in Sudan and South Sudan, and in the Central African Republic, all plagued by ongoing armed conflicts, massacres and destruction, as well as in other African nations marked by tensions and political and social instability. In particular, I express my hope that the recently-signed agreement in the Democratic Republic of Congo may help enable political leaders to work diligently to pursue reconciliation and dialogue between all elements of civil society. My thoughts also turn to Myanmar, that efforts will be made to foster peaceful co-existence and, with the support of the international community, to provide assistance to those in grave and pressing need. In Europe too, where tensions also exist, openness to dialogue is the only way to ensure the security and development of the continent. Consequently, I welcome those initiatives favouring the process of reunification in Cyprus, where negotiations resume today, and I express my hope that in Ukraine viable solutions will continue to be pursued with determination in order to fulfil the commitments undertaken by the parties involved and, above all, that a prompt response will be given to the humanitarian situation, which remains grave. Europe as a whole is experiencing a decisive moment in its history, one in which it is called to rediscover its proper identity. This requires recovering its roots in order to shape its future. In response to currents of divisiveness, it is all the more urgent to update “the idea of Europe”, so as to give birth to a new humanism based on the capacity to integrate, dialogue and generate[19] that made the “Old Continent” great. The process of European unification, begun after the Second World War, continues to be a unique opportunity for stability, peace and solidarity between peoples. On this occasion, I can only reaffirm the interest and concern of the Holy See for Europe and its future, conscious that the values that were the inspiration and basis of that project, which this year celebrates its sixtieth anniversary, are values common to the entire continent and transcend the borders of the European Union itself. Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, To build peace also means to work actively for the care of creation. The Paris Agreement on the climate, which recently took effect, is an important sign of the shared commitment to bequeath a more beautiful and livable world to those who will come after us. It is my hope that the efforts made in recent times to respond to climate change will meet with increased cooperation on the part of all, for the earth is our common home and we need to realize that the choices of each have consequences for all. Clearly, however, certain phenomena go beyond the possibilities of human intervention. I refer to the numerous earthquakes which have struck some areas of the world. I think especially of those in Ecuador, Italy and Indonesia, which has claimed numerous victims and left many others in conditions of great insecurity. I was able to visit personally some of the areas affected by the earthquake in central Italy. In addition to seeing the damage done to a land rich in art and culture, I shared the pain of many people, but I also witnessed their courage and their determination to rebuild what was destroyed. I pray that the solidarity which united the beloved Italian people in the days after the earthquake will continue to inspire the entire nation, particularly at this delicate time in its history. The Holy See and Italy are particularly close for obvious historical, cultural and geographical reasons. This relationship was evident in the Jubilee Year, and I thank all the Italian authorities for their help in organizing this event and ensuring the security of pilgrims from all over the world. Dear Ambassadors, Peace is a gift, a challenge and a commitment. It is a gift because it flows from the very heart of God. It is a challenge because it is a good that can never be taken for granted and must constantly be achieved. It is a commitment because it demands passionate effort on the part of all people of goodwill to seek and build it. For true peace can only come about on the basis of a vision of human beings capable of promoting an integral development respectful of their transcendent dignity. As Blessed Paul VI observed, “development is the new name for peace”.[20] This, then, is my prayerful hope for the year just begun: that our countries and their peoples may find increased opportunities to work together in building true peace. For its part, the Holy See, and the Secretariat of State in particular, will always be ready to cooperate with those committed to ending current conflicts and to offer support and hope to all who suffer. In the Church’s liturgy, we greet one another with the words: “Peace be with you”. With this same greeting, as a pledge of abundant divine blessings, I renew to each of you, distinguished members of the Diplomatic Corps, to your families and to the countries you represent, my heartfelt good wishes for the New Year. Thank you. [1] BENEDICT XV, Letter to the Leaders of the Peoples at War (1 August 1917): AAS 9 (1917), 423. [2] Message for the Celebration of the First World Day of Peace (1 January 1968). [3] SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes (7 December 1965), 78. [4] Ibid. [5] Ibid. [6] Ibid. [7] Address at the World Day of Prayer for Peace, Assisi, 20 September 2016. [8] Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 78. [9] Cf. ibid. [10] Ibid., 83. [11] Cf. Ps 85:11 and Is 32:17. [12] Message for the Thirty-fifth World Day of Peace: There is no Peace without Justice, There is no Justice without Forgiveness (1 January 2002), 3. [13] Apostolic Letter Misericordia et Misera (20 November 2016), 18. [14] Ibid., 20. [15] JOHN XXIII, Encyclical Letter Pacem in Terris (11 April 1963), 25. [16] Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio (26 March 1967), 83. [17] Cf. Letter to Bishops on the Feast of the Holy Innocents, 28 December 2016. [18] Encyclical Letter Pacem in Terris, 112. [19] Cf. Address at the Conferral of the Charlemagne Prize, 6 May 2016. [20] Cf. Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio, 87. ____________________

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Nancy Pelosi: Elijah Cummings was our North Star

By Nancy Pelosi | Published October 18 at 4:56 PM ET | Washington Post | Posted October 18, 2019 |

Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, is speaker of the House of Representatives.

This week, the people of Baltimore, the Congress and the United States lost a voice of unsurpassed moral clarity and truth: our beloved Chairman Elijah E. Cummings.

In the House, Elijah was our North Star. He was a leader of towering character and integrity, who pushed the Congress and country always to rise to a higher purpose, reminding us why we are here. As he said whenever he saw that we were not living up to our Founders’ vision for America and meeting the needs of our children for the future: “We are better than this.”

Elijah’s story was the story of the United States: A son of sharecroppers who became Baptist preachers, he dedicated his life to advancing justice, liberty, fairness and human dignity. He believed in the promise of America because he had lived it. As chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, he used his gavel to restore integrity, accountability and honesty to Washington so that government would be a force for good for working people, ensuring that all could experience the American Dream as he did.

Firm in his principles, Elijah was also a peacemaker and a bridge-builder: passionate about what he believed in, dispassionate in his judgments about how to proceed. His clarion voice would cut through conflict, calming the waters and reaching out across the aisle, no matter how rough-and-tumble the debate.

He was a generous leader. He always shared credit and took the time to mentor younger members, both on his committee and throughout our caucus. This year, during the first weeks of the new Congress, when members were being added to his highly coveted committee, he said to me, “Send me as many freshmen as you can.” He wanted to help them succeed — and he wanted to learn from them, too.

He was a fighter for U.S. families in many respects, including lowering health-care costs. That was why members decided on the day of his passing to name our prescription drug price legislation H.R. 3, the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act. He was always touched by the stories he heard in his community about the toll that high health-care costs took on families’ economic security and well-being. He also saw this challenge through the prism of his own personal health challenges. Elijah recognized that he had a responsibility to make a difference for others. He understood that to whom much is given, much is expected.

We all saw the great pride he took in representing the Baltimore area. He was truly of Baltimore. As a senior member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, he was always fighting for his district and the state of Maryland, and was a powerful voice for building the infrastructure of the United States to create good-paying jobs. As a member of the U.S. Naval Academy Board of Visitors, he took great pride in Maryland’s role in our national security.

Elijah knew that life was fleeting and precious; it was imperative for him to make the most of his time on Earth. Earlier this year, he proclaimed, “When we’re dancing with the angels, the question will be asked: In 2019, what did we do to make sure we kept our democracy intact?”

Elijah’s leadership truly strengthened America, and his life and legacy will continue to inspire us all to go forth in a way that is worthy of the oath of office that we take to the Constitution, worthy of the vision of our Founders and worthy of the aspirations of our children. For, as he often said, “Children are the living messengers we send to the future we will never see.”

In Congress, we will miss his wisdom, his warm friendship and his great humanity. In Baltimore, we will miss our champion. May it be a comfort to his wife, Maya, his three children and his entire family that so many mourn their loss and are praying for them at this sad time.

God truly blessed the United States with the life and leadership of Elijah Cummings.

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Elijah Cummings was the keeper of the nation’s conscience

By Colbert I. King | Published October 17 at 8:18 PM ET | Washington Post | Posted October 18, 2019 |

It’s hard to measure the enormity of the loss of Elijah Cummings to the nation, to his beloved Baltimore and to African Americans all across the country. His passing just breaks my heart.

The plaudits pouring in are correct. Democratic Rep. Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland’s 7th Congressional District was indeed, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said , “a leader of towering character and integrity.”

Touchstone phrases being tossed around about him — “a common touch,” “a calm but firm hand,” “a sense of duty and steady strength,” “commanding presence in a man with such a gentle spirit,” “principled leader,” “man of conviction,” “enormous political gravity and moral dignity” — are accurate.

But the Elijah Cummings I got to know was more than a dedicated and skilled public servant. He was, for me, the keeper of the nation’s conscience.

Cummings spoke what was on the minds of many: things on our minds that we either didn’t quite know how — or lacked the courage — to express.

He didn’t hesitate, not for a nanosecond, to call out injustices, to point out unfairness, to demand equality for his district, his state and his people. He stood up to a disgusting Trump administration as it strived to put down immigrants and denigrate people who don’t resemble President Trump’s overwhelmingly white White House staff.

My wife, Gwen, and I had the chance to observe Cummings in the act of empowering people, through his two years of service as holder of a chair in public policy that we are privileged to endow at Howard University, our alma mater and his.

To watch Cummings was to gain insight into how an exemplar of justice and protector of democracy went about his daily business when the cameras and microphones were busy elsewhere.

His passion for preparing future generations to carry the torch was on display from 2014 to 2016, during months of presentations, lectures and panels that he organized for the benefit of Howard students.

In an opening event aired by Howard’s television station, WHUT, he told students that “you don’t have a right not to be the best that you can be, because so many people have paid the price.” And he encouraged the audience to “go out there and get blessed, so that you can be a blessing.”

What a blessing he was.

In April 2015, Cummings assembled at Howard some key advocates of criminal-justice reform legislation that no one thought would see the light of day on Capitol Hill.

On the dais sat an unlikely alliance — liberal Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and libertarian Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), sharing a panel with now-former congressman and Freedom Caucus member Raúl R. Labrador (R-Idaho), in addition to a Koch Foundation representative — promoting an unprecedented progressive change in an unjust and corrosive justice system. Cummings, by all measures, helped steer that bill out of darkness into law.

Which galled some of us to see Trump shamelessly take credit for an initiative that was underway and advanced months before he took office.

Some of us gagged.

But not Cummings.

When I cited Trump’s behavior to the congressman before his appearance at an April 2019 lecture sponsored by current chair holder Donna Brazile — exactly four years after his criminal-justice reform initiative at Howard — he just shook his head and smiled wistfully.

The day stays with me.

A noticeably ailing Cummings, using a walker and aided by his daughter, took the stage with staff help. Asked by Brazile about the just-released Mueller report, Cummings warned students about the constitutionally dangerous behavior of the Trump administration, and the urgent need to prepare themselves academically and intellectually for what was to come.

Cummings, in hindsight, may have known the battle down the road would be fought without him.

Trump, an attack dog from Day One, wouldn’t leave Cummings alone.

Enraged at the way Cummings, as chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, had questioned an administration witness who deserved criticism, Trump tweeted that Cummings’ congressional district was “a rat and rodent infested mess.”

The president sneeringly asked: “Why is so much money sent to the Elijah Cummings district when it is considered the worst run and most dangerous anywhere in the United States. No human being would want to live there. Where is all this money going? How much is stolen? Investigate this corrupt mess immediately!”

Cummings wisely let Trump’s racism speak for itself, as hosts of people across the spectrum rose to the defense of Cummings and Baltimore.

But, Cummings, even with a declining body, took not one step back from his constitutional duty to conduct executive branch oversight or to fight for his constituents.

And it was a good fight.

His course is finished. Every step along the way, he kept the faith.

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Elijah Cummings did more than serve Baltimore. He gave hope to the hopeless.

By Joe Scarborough | Published

October 17 at 5:35 PM ET | Washington Post | Posted October 18, 2019 |

Elijah Cummings was a good man, a great leader and a dear friend of mine. We worked closely together in Congress, and my wife, Mika, and I were deeply honored when he agreed to officiate our wedding. And although I considered the Baltimore congressman a member of our extended family, there were parts of his remarkable life that I knew little about until President Trump attacked him and the city he loved.

The president called Baltimore “rat and rodent infested” and criticized Cummings for not spending more time at home. The former reality-TV host’s clumsy attempt at stirring racial divisions proved only how ignorant he was about the target of his attacks. Unlike other members of Congress, Cummings returned home to his district every night, working each day in the community he proudly served. While there, he worked tirelessly to empower minority-owned businesses, assist inner-city educators, partner with faith leaders and deliver life-sustaining services to seniors in need.

But Cummings, who died Thursday at the age of 68, did more than excel at constituent services; he provided hope to the hopeless. In May 2008, Cummings pulled up to a gas station where a botched robbery had left a man, who was taking his pregnant wife to the hospital, stabbed and struggling for life. Instead of fleeing danger, Cummings got down on his knees and aided that dying father in the last moments of his life.

Cummings held the man’s head in his arms and tried to stop the bleeding as the father-to-be struggled to make sure his wife and unborn son were safe. As they waited for the ambulances to arrive, Cummings prayed over the victim. He recalled that although the dying man did not speak English well, he gently squeezed his hand when he heard the name “Jesus.” Cummings would later say that while kneeling down in that gas station parking lot, he witnessed “a struggle for life so intense that I felt my own breath taken away.”

Cummings endured the pain of gun violence, too. His nephew was shot and killed by someone who broke into his house while the young man was attending college in 2011. But that tragedy only strengthened his resolve, as did the Baltimore riots following the death of Freddie Gray. He took to the streets with a bullhorn, bravely standing beside his constituents. It was yet another example of how the congressman never ran away from service; instead, he ran fearlessly toward it.

What a stark contrast from a president who avoided service in Vietnam to golf and play tennis at an Ivy League school and who now abandons allies to die on the battlefield without a second thought. Sadly, Cummings once confessed that he spent much of his time comforting citizens in his district who grew frightened of the increasingly racially charged atmosphere created by the president’s words and tweets.

In the final years of his life, Cummings dedicated himself to upholding this country’s enduring promise that in the United States, no man is above the law. He was among the first to demand answers surrounding the possible crimes of Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and as chairman of the House Oversight Committee, he conducted a series of significant hearings on the misdeeds committed by this corrupt White House.

Cummings led those inquiries with uncommon grace and compassion. At one point, he went out of his way to defend the honor of Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), leader of the conservative Freedom Caucus. At another, he delivered such a stirring message of mercy that former Trump fixer Michael Cohen was moved to tears.

As it was with John McCain’s passing, Elijah Cummings’s death leaves America with a void. We can only hope that others in his committee and throughout Congress will be moved to action by the example of Baltimore’s most powerful advocate and by the life of a man who provided a spiritual center to a city in desperate need of revival.

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As long as he had breath, Elijah Cummings spoke out

By Editorial Board | Published October 17 at 7:58 PM ET | Washington Post |

Posted October 18, 2019 |

REP. ELIJAH E. Cummings thought about running for the U.S. Senate in 2016 when fellow Democrat Barbara A. Mikulski decided to retire. Most politicians would jump at the chance for higher office, and Mr. Cummings — an enormously popular Maryland leader who was nationally known and respected — would have had a good chance of winning the open seat. But Mr. Cummings was not like most politicians. He decided that Baltimore, his beloved city that had been torn apart by riots after the 2015 death of Freddie Gray, still needed him. So he set ambition aside.

Putting the interests of the people first was the hallmark of this fine man and his extraordinary life. A 23-year veteran of the House and a key figure in the impeachment inquiry into President Trump, Mr. Cummings died early Thursday morning in a hospice center in Baltimore from what his office said were “complications concerning long-standing health challenges.” He was 68, and his death hit hard.

“An irreplaceable void,” said Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.). “People throughout the world have lost a powerful voice and one of the strongest and most gifted crusaders for social justice,” said Baltimore Mayor Bernard C. Young (D). “He lived the American dream and he wanted it for everyone else,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), calling him “the North Star” of the House. Praise and condolences also came from Republicans who had sparred politically with Mr. Cummings but held him in genuine and high regard. “My heart is broken,” former GOP congresswoman Mia Love of Utah wrote on Twitter. “One of the most powerful, beautiful & compelling voices in American politics,” wrote former congressman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), who famously battled with Mr. Cummings when he preceded him as chair of the House Oversight and Reform Committee.

Most heartfelt were the remembrances of Baltimore residents. They recalled how as a state representative he led the fight to remove alcohol and tobacco billboards, how he stood on street corners during anti-drug vigils, fearlessly took to the streets during the city’s riots to urge calm, and continued to make his home in the inner city. The son of a sharecropper who battled for civil rights and broke barriers — including integrating his childhood neighborhood pool and serving as the first African American speaker pro tem of the Maryland House of Delegates — Mr. Cummings couldn’t countenance those who stood by in the face of wrong.

“When we’re dancing with the angels,” he said during a congressional hearing involving former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, “the question will be asked, in 2019, what did we do to make sure we kept our democracy intact? Did we stand on the sidelines and say nothing?” As long as he had breath, Mr. Cummings spoke out. He will be sorely missed.

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Elijah Cummings was a giant among legislators

By Donna F. Edwards

October 17 at 4:52 PM ET

Few members of Congress command respect across the aisle and across the chambers. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) was one. In the House and Senate, he was a sought-after legislative partner — a seal of approval. Members refer to one another as gentlemen and gentlewomen, but Elijah Cummings was truly the Gentleman from Maryland.

When he spoke, you listened. He was a peacemaker; he put that into action by building friendships and relationships across untraditional lines. He could silence a critic with scripture and rev up a crowd with his booming voice. At get-out-the-vote rallies, he would remind us to “Bring Lottie, Dottie and everybody.” The crowd would roar.

When I was first elected to Congress in a special election, it was Elijah who welcomed me. As I sat in his office, I remember the moment when my nerves turned to gratitude. We didn’t talk about politics or about Congress. We talked about family, about roots and about community. He adored his mother, and he asked about mine. He let me know that I belonged.

Elijah will be remembered as a giant among legislators. But at his core, he never forgot for what and whom he fought and why. Families. The kid on the corner. Low-cost prescription drugs. Affordable housing. Children’s dental care. In almost every public speech or private conversation, he would remind us of our responsibility to be a voice for the voiceless. At the height of the foreclosure crisis that hit my district and Elijah’s harder than anywhere else in Maryland, Elijah and I forged a partnership on the bank bailout legislation known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). It was because of his leadership that we were able to hold out until concessions were made to guarantee some of that $700 billion would help homeowners who were harmed.

Maryland is a small state, but its regions can seem far apart. Elijah Cummings was Baltimore, but he was known, respected and beloved across our state. He lived in his community, and he was proud of his neighbors. In the aftermath of the tragic death of Freddie Gray, his words and presence in his community were what helped to bring calm to the streets.

I hope we can keep Elijah’s voice whispering to us that the work of public servants is for “generations yet unborn.”

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A white mob attacked Elijah Cummings for integrating a swimming pool. He was 11.

By Gillian Brockell | Published October 17 at 10:56 AM ET | Washington Post |

Posted October 18, 2019 |

“Miss Mitchell” told the boys there was a better pool they could swim in, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings remembered later.

He was 11 years old, and he and his friends were getting too big for the small, shallow public pool where they had been spending the summer of 1962.

“As a matter of fact, it was so small, we had to wait turns to get in,” the Maryland Democrat, who died Thursday at 68, told the Baltimore Sun in July.

But there was another pool, Miss Mitchell said. Riverside Park Pool in South Baltimore was Olympic-size, with a deep end. And it was open to the public — theoretically. In practice, it had yet to be integrated.

Over several days that August, Cummings and a group of two dozen African American boys marched to the swimming pool and jumped in.

Crowds of angry white residents, sometimes numbering 1,000, according to Sun coverage at the time, surrounded them. They held signs saying “Keep Our Pool Germ Free” and “White People Have Rights Too.”

“And these were adults,” Cummings remembered. They “called us every name you can imagine, everything but a child of God.”

They also shouted, “Go back to where you came from” — something Cummings recalled last summer as President Trump attacked him, attacked Baltimore and attacked freshman congresswomen of color with a similar “go back” expression.

The mob surrounded the pool, held back by a line of police with K-9 dogs, while the kids tried to splash and play. Then, over the police officers’ heads, the mob threw rocks and bottles. One of them hit Cummings in the face, cutting his eyebrow and leaving a scar he carried all his life.

“The injured child, who received a face cut during a brief scuffle at the Riverside Park pool, was driven from the scene in a police cruiser,” the Associated Press reported.

On another day of the swimming pool demonstration/playtime, the flying objects hit Miss Mitchell.

“Miss Mitchell was bleeding,” Cummings said. “And she grabbed all of us kids, and I remember the blood dripping on my face. I will never forget that as long as I live.”

After they had succeeded in integrating the pool, the young boy asked the others, “Who was that lady?”

She was Juanita Jackson Mitchell, a legendary civil rights lawyer with the NAACP.

“And at 11 years old, I declared in that moment that I was going to become a lawyer,” Cummings said.

Cummings was the son of South Carolina sharecroppers who had followed the Great Migration north to factory jobs in Baltimore. His parents struggled to feed their seven kids but still canned fruit for others in need. By the end of high school, the proprietor of a neighborhood drugstore paid the fee for Cummings’s application to Howard University. He was accepted and enrolled, later becoming student body president and earning his bachelor’s degree. A law degree from the University of Maryland followed.

Three decades after integrating the pool, when Cummings was campaigning for Congress, he recalled that a man came up to him after an event and apologized.

Cummings asked him why he was apologizing.

“ ‘I was one of them people back then in 1962 who was throwing the bottles and the rocks and the stones. And I’m sorry’ ” he said the man told him.

“And I said, ‘Apology accepted,’ ” Cummings said.

*********

#elijah cummings #u. s. politics #u.s. news #u.s. politics #politics #us politics #politics and government #nancy pelosi #democrats #justice democrats #democratic party #in memoriam #house of representatives #In memorandum #rip #civil liberties #civil rights

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israel-jewish-news · 7 years

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COMMENT: Yerushalayim Is Happy, Yerushalayim Is Worried

New Post has been published on http://hamodia.com/2017/12/06/comment-yerushalayim-happy-yerushalayim-worried/

COMMENT: Yerushalayim Is Happy, Yerushalayim Is Worried

Not every day and not every year does a moving, dramatic, historic event take place in the public view.

Yesterday it happened.

The president of the United States proved that he keeps his word and officially declared Yerushalayim as the capital of the state of Israel. It is true that this is recognition of a practical situation that has already existed for 70 years, but until today, despite practical decisions by a large majority of Congress 20 years ago, no American president had dared to do what president Donald Trump did, with great courage and without recoiling.

Yerushalayim is the capital of Israel with or without international recognition. However, the president’s declaration yesterday has immense political and international importance, and there is hope that other countries will follow in Washington’s footsteps and recognize Yerushalayim as Israel’s capital as well.

This is a festive occasion from our point of view, as residents of Yerushalayim, and fr om the point of view of most Israeli citizens, but it is perceived as incendiary by our neighbors who are already threatening to escalate the reaction on the streets and to return to the era of terror. The happiness is mixed with anxiety. A state of alert has been declared in all army units and many army troops and police have been moved urgently to Yerushalayim, now officially recognized as the capital in the eyes of the Americans.

President Trump spoke in a calm tone and picked his words carefully. He included gifts to the Palestinians too. He promised them that the decision does not represent a political position. The final decisions will be taken in the peace agreement between the sides. He also strongly criticized his predecessors in the White House, who thought that if they did not recognize Yerushalayim, this would advance peace. In practice the opposite happened. Now, the president suggested, there is a better chance that the sides will progress to the agreed peace between them. If they want, he has no objection to two states, side by side. But he again emphasized that this depends on both sides, and the decisions of their leaders. He is prepared to assist, to help reach the objective. As an objective mediator and not as someone who dictates steps.

Yesterday President Trump entered himself in the annals of the history of Yerushalayim in a place where none of his predecessors had been prepared to reach. Now it must be hoped that the anomaly by which the embassy of a sovereign country is located not in the capital of the state will end.

President Trump, who has already showed courage and determination in other issues, was not deterred by the heavy pressure and the threats addressed to him in the last few days and he kept his promise to millions of his voters that he would declare Yerushalayim as the capital of Israel. He proved that those who are afraid invited acts of terror and those who are not afraid can lead to the next stage of a good peace between the sides.

The others failed, and the time has now come to try a different path. Peace is not immediate, but Mr. Trump’s decision creates an opening for peace. As he says, the time has come to follow a different path — a path that will give everyone a better chance.

The declaration is welcome news for every Jew everywhere. The recognition by the biggest and most important empire in the world of Yerushalayim as the capital of a Jewish state is a message to the entire world that, in the argument over the question of who has the greatest right to Yerushalayim, a clear victory has been gained for the Jewish people.

Too many Israelis, both the people and the leadership, in the media and in the army, feared the impending news and tried to cool things down, and to present the step as something that might bring with it “a severe Arab and international reaction,” and that the benefit of the declaration would not cover the damage and developments liable to result from it in the field of political and military conflicts on the ground. This is exactly how the Israeli leadership behaved in 1948 when they consciously relinquished the Old City. So also in 1967, when they went to war on Yerushalayim, and were only step away from a decision not to conquer the Old City.

And the Americans also absorbed the cool Israeli atmosphere, then and today. They cooled their president and in the end, yesterday, he gave a good and fitting declaration of intent, but with additions that were intended for the ears of the Arabs, and which do not cause Jewish hearts to rejoice.

It is to be hoped that the Arabs will not draw the conclusion from the wording of the declaration that their hope is not yet lost. And if they continue to apply pressure, to object, and particularly to threaten, and even if there is a temporary conflagration — there is a good chance that the White House will still retract the declaration, or in any case will not extend it, and will not enter content into it that will indeed prove to everyone that the entire length and breadth of Yerushalayim is the capital of a Jewish state, and particularly its east and west.

Are there no fears of escalation in the wake of the declaration? Certainly there are. But even without the declaration, and many years before it, Israel’s enemies tried to cause damage and spread terror. From this point of view nothing is new.

On the other hand, it was encouraging to listen to the declaration of the president of the United States. The man did a courageous act, and he deserves esteem for this. The world now needs to realize that policy cannot be dictated by threats and acts of terror.

And if the main concern about moving the embassy to Yerushalayim is that the step will lead to violence, just such a step as this is what is needed to prove to the world that this is definitely the right step to make at this time.

On December 13, 1949, the State of Israel already declared West Yerushalayim, an area that was under its control, as its capital. Until 1969, the United States held the view that Yerushalayim, at least partly and around the holy places, should be international. Following the Six-Day War, Israel implemented Israeli law in the east of the city by means of a government ordinance.

On July 30, 1980 the Knesset passed the Yerushalayim, Capital of Israel Law. The law states that the united Yerushalayim is the capital of Israel and the location of the president, the Knesset, the government and the High Court.

In response, the United Nations Security Council passed a decision defining the law as a violation of international law. The proposal was passed with the support of 14 member states, with no opposition, but with the abstention of the United States.

In 1995, the president reminded us, when the American Congress approved a law according to which “Yerushalayim should remain an undivided city that preserves the rights of all religions and ethnic groups. … The U.S. embassy should be relocated to Yerushalayim no later than May 1999.” However, in reality, America never implemented the decision.

Until Donald Trump proved that he is a mentch who knows how to keep promises.

For thousands of years, the Jewish people looked toward Yerushalayim, prayed toward it, and dreamed of it. Recognition of Yerushalayim as the capital of Israel and moving the embassy there is a milestone in the right of the Jewish people in its land. The president’s welcome step is engraved for the generations the stones of Yerushalayim and the stones of the Kosel, where he prayed on his last visit to Israel. This is a gift of the American people to the Jewish people, to the State of Israel that is marking the 70th year since its foundation and to Yerushalayim that is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its liberation and unification.

#Donald Trump #Yerushalayim

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cjonesdfw · 7 years

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Is The NFL Protest Wrongheaded?

It is Monday, September 25, 2017, and my Dallas Cowboys are preparing to take the field. Virtually nothing is on my mind—well, nothing except how badly we played last week. There they are: ‘Da Boys, America’s team, but wait, their arms are linked and the owner, Jerry Jones, is in the middle of them. They take a knee prior to the National Anthem. Then they stand with arms linked for the National Anthem.

The next day I watch Skip and Shannon: UNDISPUTED, hoping to hear something insightful, and wow, I observe just how differently two brilliant sports commentators view the moment. Yes, both acknowledge the mistreatment and senseless murder of African Americans like Michael Brown, Philando Castile, and Tamir Rice. Furthermore, there is an acknowledgment that the moment is not limited to African American males or even African Americans, but rather to any oppressed and neglect person or community. Shannon is extremely offended by the brief kneeling and finds it suspect that the players, owners, and coaches would stand with arms linked during the National Anthem rather than kneel, deeming it a pacifying, safer option. Skip perceives the event more positively, referring to it as a demonstration of unity, and asserting that it contains a major critique of President Trump. I find merit in both views and cannot wait until Thursday, September 28th, to see the next demonstration.

Thursday occurs, and sure enough, the teams link arms and Aaron Rodgers, the Green Bay Packers’ quarterback, makes an appeal well in advance for fans to join. Few fans join, and, I fear, even more were booing. I am quite sure I heard chants to the effect of put your hand over your heart. Rodgers speaks later, and the amount of disappointment in his voice is clear. He states that more work is necessary during a post-game press conference. He struggles with what this means but wants to make it clear that the linking of arms is not unity just for the sake of unity. Rather, it is a purposeful acknowledgment of inequality and a step in the direction of remedying age-old issues that continue to plague our society.

Something seems odd with this entire situation. Not only am I bothered by Colin Kaepernick’s seeming absence; the apparent replacing of the kneel with a standing-interlocking of arms; Trump’s decrying any kneeling, and later expressing pleasured that the players stood Thursday night; the assertion that a demonstration should be welcoming and non-offensive; or even being confounded by what is more disrespectful to the flag: a verbally silent kneel or shouts of expletives as the Star-Spangled Banner is performed? Or is it that I just heard someone scream to me Kaepernick hates the US because his girlfriend is Muslim? Or perhaps the bold assertion that Kaepernick hates whites and is racists, leaving me to wonder what his adopted parents, who are white, think of this purported racism flowing through his veins? Or just maybe the pinning of this movement solely on Kaepernick and using his own problematic remarks and actions against him and the cause, such as his remarks about Fidel Castro, and therefore discarding everything demonstrated as wrong-headed? Or is it the shift of focus from injustice to the rightness of the type of demonstration?

All of these experiences are disturbing, but what really brought me nearly to tears is that for five straight days I have heard someone say, “If you don’t like this country, get out!” This wrong-headed, asinine, “love it or leave it” assertion is enough for me to determine that what we are witnessing is more than a momentary controversy, but something that perhaps could be a catalyst for capturing our nation and making it clear just how urgently we need to pick up our efforts to strive for total freedom and justice for all. Moreover, it is a moment that, if ended too soon, could send a sense of victory for those who both knowingly and unknowingly wish to snuff out a pursuit for fully-inclusive justice. Furthermore, this moment offers a test of our Christianity, for what is occurring tears at the core of what I believe is the meaning of major Christian ethics. Likewise, this “love it or leave it” mindset undermines the very fabric of Americanness.

First, as a Christian I am obligated to take seriously Matthew 5:23-24: “So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift” (NRSV). This passage takes true reconciliation, a justice-oriented reconciliation, so seriously that it conveys that one cannot “get it right” with God without first “getting it right” with one’s fellow human. This is calling for true reconciliation, not a quasi-reconciliation that is a mere getting together or a token acknowledgment/apology after which virtually no true change occurs. True reconciliation implies that the offended is addressed, and the offender’s agency is somewhat arrested as it relates to devotion to God until he or she “gets it right” with the offended. Moreover, justice, which is defined as the concurrent realization of individual and collective good, does not have to be detrimental to anyone.

It is to be understood that those who take a knee, as well as those who stand with arms linked, are giving voice to those who have not had a voice against injustice. Moreover, these demonstrators tell the story of injustices that they themselves may have experienced. At once, they are loving their neighbor as themselves by identifying with them through the medium of a kneel/linking of arms as well as voicing their own grievances. They are asking for an acknowledgment and a remedy, both of which are at the heart of requesting a true, justice-oriented reconciliation. So, considering Matthew 5:23-24, the “get out” exclamation is tantamount to refusing both justice and reconciliation. Moreover, as a Christian, I should attend to striving for true reconciliation, and as a Christian, I should encourage others to learn from and hopefully participate in this ethic regardless of their faith or lack thereof. Yes, Christians believe many different things, but the need to pause and “get it right” is clear.

Second, what is more important, a symbol or a life? Clearly, a life, although we must wonder how many Americans believe this given what we are witnessing. I wish, however, that those who view the flag as being denigrated would ask if the flag is actually being redeemed by taking a knee? It is being remembered by standing with arms linked? I content that both demonstrations are signs of respect, for kneeling is showing humility and deference as well as remorse and grief, and the linking of arms conveys unity. Think about it: our flag represents America and its hopes, tenets, and dreams, such as equality and justice. In light of these values, perhaps it should no longer be said, “This has nothing to do with the flag,” but rather, this is both a defense of life and a defense of the flag since it requests for us to discern whether we are sufficiently attending to what the American flag: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all. The former, defense of life, is the chief aim, however. Let’s break this down.

Our flag is boldly waving 50 stars that represent 50 states, and within these 50 states are persons who do not receive equal protection under the law. Moreover, as these 50 stars wave overhead, they wave while at least one territory that is not represented by those 50 stars languishes, having been ravished by a hurricane. The outcry on behalf of blacks who have been gunned down is an outcry for equal protection. This outcry is morally equivalent to the outcry by Puerto Ricans who ingest the harsh realities of our government’s limited response to them in relation to its response to Floridians and Texans. When we recall that Puerto Ricans are US citizens, pay taxes, have sought statehood, and Puerto Rico currently sends more soldiers into our military per capita than any US state, we should ask whether it is conscionable to demand for a group of US citizens not to demonstrate when it is clear the American experience as it relates to equality and justice is very disparate for them. The African Americans are “on” the flag and are citizens and the Puerto Ricans are not “on” the flag but are still US citizens, but both have a similar struggle: garnering equal protection. Surely something is amiss. So as we look at the flag we should both celebrate our progress, but also grieve our failures and vow to keep striving. Is this not what the demonstrators are doing?

Our flag has red on it for the blood that was shed, blood shed by many peoples who migrated willingly and unwilling to the Americas. Among them were Europeans who migrated to the Americas to escape insensitive, exploitative, and oligarchic and monarchic regimes in hopes of securing a better future for themselves and their posterity. They sought a better life in a land that promised limitless potential, while we today close our hearts to those who desire to flee their country in pursuit of that same potential. The Europe that these Europeans sought to escape told the peasants and indentured servants to shut up or stay in their place. Today we hear these same words shared by Americans of many different walks of life and “colors.” How different is “love it or leave it” from “get in your place or else”? We must see that rooted in America is the constant need to purge itself of oppressive and restrictive thoughts and actions that seek to deny the equality of one in order to protect the “security” of another. If we do not, we are destined not only to continue in our own mistakes but also repeat the mistakes of other nations.

Our flag has white for purity of heart and purpose, a heart and vision that strive for equality, albeit openly not living up to that idea for all who stand under her. And perhaps most importantly for this topic, our flag has blue for bravery, a willingness to stand up to oppressive and insensitive governments and fellow citizens who would deny anyone life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The consequences for such bravery might be death or a loss of one’s job or another painful experience.

Not only these but those 13 bars, representing the original 13 colonies, sit next to those 50 stars. 13 became 50, forming a more perfect union; surviving a civil war, depressions and recessions; as well as grew to include states that were not predominately the majority group or even identify with the same political party as the states that preceded them. None of these feats/accomplishments was easy or comfortable. Moreover, many of these periods were filled with chants like “go back to Africa” for African Americans or “get in the house,” "go home,” “this is no place for a woman,” or "just submit” for women who sought equality.

This flag screams a call to grow and include others, for what was once 13 is now 50. It says include others who are not like you, using justice and equality as the standard that must be fulfilled to become these 50 United States of America. Today we see inclusion, but we do not see a justice and equality-centric inclusion. This flag tells the story of persons who preceded these professional athletes, persons who not too long ago would only agree to join this union if they saw how it could afford a better, more prosperous, dignified life. This flag, our flag has in its fabric the history of individuals that wished to deny equality to other persons for whatever economic, political, racial, cultural, and/or religious reasons. But, perhaps, more importantly, this flag has in its fabric how these “deniers” of equality were met by supporters of equality. These clashes to varying degrees have resulted in many strides to make America better. These clashes, however, are not over. They continue, even to today.

Third, what is wrong with standing at the gate? Throughout the Old Testament persons would stand at the gate for judgment regarding some unjust manner. This was a visible demonstration of displeasure and gave people an option for resolving grievances. People received protection from their abusers and redress from injustices. Is it possible that the demonstrations we are seeing are the contemporary equivalents of standing at the gate?

Fourth and finally, the temple scene in Mark 11:1-26, popularly known as the cleaning of the temple, addresses both how symbols can disappoint and that the true power of transformation lies in the people, not the symbol. This passage is a Markan Interpolation or Markan Sandwich. In Markan Sandwiches two items are next to each other not by chance, but rather one helps us interpret the other. In brief, the fig tree helps us interpret the temple. The fig tree is seen at a distance and appears to have some substance, some fruit, to nourish Jesus and the disciples. Upon closer examination, however, it just has leaves. It looks like it could nurture, nourish, and empower, getting everyone excited, if you will, for something that it did not deliver.

The temple promised a closer walk with God, and an ushering in of the kingdom of God, but was reduced to a mere exchanging of sacrifices for money so people could give a pure sacrifice. Again, something was promised that was not delivered.

The substance that could truly and radically make life better is not found in either, so Jesus curses the fig tree, closing it down forever, literally. And he closes the temple for normal business, closing it down forever, symbolically. Outside the temple (vs. 20-25), Jesus looks to his disciples and tells them that they can do what the temple cannot: move mountains. In other words, what seems impossible is possible with you, but remember, let there be no division among you, so forgive each other. To be sure, the Hebraic understanding of forgiveness was not a token apology or statement to “get over it.” It was an attending to the wrongs and a promise to go in the right direction in the future.

Let me make it clear: I am not equating the US flag with the second temple. I am not, period. What I am saying is that we can draw lessons from this biblical passage, one of which says inanimate objects, no matter how sacred or august, cannot replace the unity of people from different walks of life who are called to walk together for a greater purpose. Christ’s disciples were truly a varied bunch, and they did not always agree, but they were united for one purpose. This varied bunch, from fishermen to tax collectors, replaced the awe-inspiring temple as the object that God uses to do the good. The symbol can leave us empty, but the people must agree to move forward and do the good.

The lesson is this: just like people participated in a temple sacrifice system out of routine but did not really come out much better than they went in, we should ask ourselves are we coming out determined to pursue life, liberty, justice, equality, etc. when we participate in the National Anthem? I do not pretend to know the heart of women and men. I, however, will say that statements like “get out” when all someone is asking for are equality suggests that we are not really doing the work.

Observing this controversy in light of the temple/fig tree can help us in two additional ways. First, we can ensure that we do not worship the object and value it over the people it is supposed to serve. When Christ empties the temple, it is so offensive that the powers-to-be are emboldened even more to execute him. The people valued the temple, which is not a problem, but seem relatively unmoved that lives are neglected, which is a problem. Do we value a specific tribute to the flag and what it symbolizes in such a manner that we too could be perceived as being comfortable with continued and unnecessary suffering?

Second, we can ensure a positive legacy for the flag by holding ourselves as Americans accountable to the standards of equality and justice and opportunity for all, and not resting until we realize them and implement policies, traditions, memorial, and structures to ensure that we never forget our mixed legacy and never forget the call to be better than we currently are. Please hear me, I am not saying the National Anthem should be replaced or even the flag. Rather, I am saying dangerous things occur when we follow traditions without adequately attending to change. “Love it or leave it” mindsets suggest that things need not be changed or improved but are sufficient as they are. Since when were inequality and injustice experienced by anyone sufficient?

In light of these four points, as well as others that I simply do not have space for in a blog, I affirm the protest. Moreover, I hope that we do not do what is comfortable to those who experience greater protection and power, for such an action would continue the negative aspect of America’s legacy. Such an action is a continued undergirding of subjugation and reinforcing of privilege of some at the exclusion of true equality for all. Instead, let the protest come from the bottom up. The call for a true, justice-oriented reconciliation will not rest until we do so.

Since we are speaking about true patriotism here, I recommend for us to wear blue in honor of the bravery required to tackle these matters if we wish to wear something as a sense of solidarity. The flag is not under attack, so it is prudent for us to avoid actions like waving our flags “at” the protestors or holding our red, white, and blue hats high as if those kneeling or embracing arms are expressing that the US’s identity is being denigrated. I would discourage reacting by gathering around the school flag. It is not the flag that we need to see, for we all see it. Rather, it is each other that we should see, both seeing and asking critically if the promises that the flag reminds us of are being realized today by the person at whom we are looking.

I hope we cease saying “just play the game” and “keep politics out of sports.” The moment you have the National Anthem played in a sporting arena politics are in sports. The question, then, is not whether we are being political. Rather, it is whether the politics make ones feel comfortable or uncomfortable. Do I agree with the politics? To deny someone the right to call for justice and remedy by circumscribing how they can peaceably protest is simply wrong. Moreover, denying their justified reasons for protesting because it makes one “uncomfortable” is wrong. Efforts to circumscribe and deny are the epitome of fascism, a fascism that many of us either sought to escape or change or our ancestors sought to escape or change.

Moreover, saying “just play the game” to this Protestant runs counter to the concept of vocation. Our professions and careers are our vocations or calling. They involve demonstrating the kingdom’s being ushered in by God, and part of this ushering in is through our careers and hobbies. In essence, a Protestant understanding of vocations says that we should work in such a manner that we leave a positive mark, a godly mark.

Football is their career, so to expect them not to take a stance for something as core to the Gospel as justice, i.e., the concurrent realization of individual and collective good, is disturbing. Considering the Christianity of a number of these players, they have no choice but to be political. And for those who are not Christian, part of what is meant in Christian ethics and general revelation is that the work of God can be done and understood by people who do not share the Christian faith. Moreover, we, as believers, should celebrate this action because we can see God at work, ushering in a portion of the kingdom. In addition, when coupling the idea of vocation with Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assertion that our actions are viewed as “co-laboring” with God, we should strive to do more and realize that one of the reasons tension is so great is because time has exacerbated them somewhat since they have not been attended to sufficiently. As King states:

Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. (A Letter From A Birmingham Jail)

We are in a moment like none other in my lifetime. Let us seize the moment, realizing that concurrent with this matter is the concern of Confederate memorials, treatment of US territories, a president who clearly embodies many forms of bigotry, and a host of other matters. We must take a position for life.

Imagine decades later, a young girl asks her dad why many of the football players stand and others kneel. The dad responds: during my childhood our nation had a habit of injustice, period, including the devaluing of women, less affluent persons, and persons of color. A man named Kaepernick took a knee in protest, and a year passed and the movement was beginning to lose publicity on the large scale, although others besides Kaepernick were either kneeling or sitting. President Trump was incensed at the fact that some kneeled and sat during the National Anthem, and being Trump, tried to bully them in a speech to his base in Alabama. For varying reasons people were emboldened and took a stance. Some were resolute prior to Trump and demonstrated publicly. Some were resolute prior to Trump but chose not to demonstrate publicly. Others took a stance after Trump’ incendiary remarks. Regardless of when and why they protested, they eventually did so with an acknowledge that injustice was wrong. And for some, they added to the wrongness of injustice that they will resist Trump’s minimizing the value of certain Americans. So, they unite in different forms, but each form is equally visible. Some stand in unity as fellow humans and some stand in unity against racial injustice. Some stand for both reasons. Some kneel for the same reasons. And some stand with their hands over their heart for the same reasons. In the end, they seek a single, united humanity that is equally deserving of justice.

#takeaknee #protest #justice #nfl protests

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addcrazy-blog · 8 years

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New Post has been published on Add Crazy

New Post has been published on https://addcrazy.com/the-upward-push-of-esports-in-better-education/

The upward push of eSports in better education

For the reason that first online game opposition became hosted at Stanford University in 1972, the sector of gaming has come to an extended manner, with eSports gaming championships now attracting millions of fans and expert game enthusiasts being capable of the tour at the same visas as seasoned athletes.

Nowadays, 28 US universities realize eSports varsity programs. The University of California, Irvine, has these days opened a three,500 square feet eSports location, and a growing quantity of establishments are imparting gaming scholarships.

Victor Xin started setting up eSports competitions even as a pupil at the College of Toronto (“I wasn’t the excellent player, but I loved it…”), and nearly 10 years later set up Canada’s first eSports scholarship at the College. He hopes that his scholarship will show to gamers that their sports are valued, despite the fact that he recognizes that there is likely to be a grievance that it’s far paying students to play video games.

“This isn’t always simply an athletics scholarship where you may flunk out of college and nonetheless receives a commission,” he insisted, emphasizing that the candidate would be required to illustrate leadership and get proper grades to hold their scholarship.

Josh Williams, founding father of the United Kingdom’s Countrywide College eSports League – which pulls competition from extra than a hundred and twenty universities – defined putting in place the league as the “herbal issue” to do: “University offers you this allegiance to a particular team and the society structure and pupil union help offer mechanisms that allow us to play.”

In the United kingdom, representatives from the Countrywide Union of students have lobbied British Universities and Faculties Game (BUCS) – the Countrywide governing frame for collegiate Game – to request that eSports are known as a respectable Game, and similar discussions are taking place in North The united states. but complications preserve over eSports’ loss of institutionalization and it being “dependent upon a product this is owned with the aid of product publishers”, consistent with Michael Brooks, director of strategic partnerships for the Countrywide Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.

Meanwhile, eSports is also rising as a subject of the educational hobby.

The Communique University of China, Beijing, has these days announced an undergraduate fundamental in eSports control starting this 12 months. Inside the US, the College of South Carolina is supplying lessons at the eSports industry, and the College of California, Berkeley and the University of Florida have based quick guides round method in the game StarCraft.

“It’s difficult to attend a sports activities control [academic] convention without seeing as a minimum one eSports presentation on the agenda,” stated Seth Jenny, assistant professor In the branch of bodily schooling, Recreation and human performance at Winthrop College, South Carolina. He stated that extra lecturers are taking eSports severely, but many magazine editors continue to be “hesitant” to submit papers at the difficulty.

Besides attracting hobby Within the fields of fitness and sports control, the hyperconnected eSports community can also be taken into consideration a sociological spectacle.

Lovers interact at once, however distantly, with players via live streaming and throughout “The Worldwide” 2016 – a championship for the game Dota 2 – a $20 million (£sixteen.06 million) prize pool become raised completely via crowdfunding.

“The complete idea of internet-born sports, the groups, the attitude, the sociological thing of what’s going on, this is the form of paradigm as a way to define the following couple of many years and our generation,” stated Mr. Williams. “It’s a fascinating phenomenon and there are masses of different thrilling components to it.”

Ingo Froböse, a professor on the Germany sports College Cologne, who has spent years analyzing the body structure of eSports athletes, said the reaction of different lecturers to his work has been advantageous.

“In my experience, medical research can help to overcome certain prejudices and gain social attractiveness,” Professor Froböse said. “If a University commits to a subject like eSports, it needs to be greater than a short-term phenomenon.”

higher education and Society

institutions of education, and the system of which they are a part face a host of unheard of challenges from forces in society that affect and are stimulated via those very establishments and their communities of newcomers and educators. Among these forces are sweeping demographic modifications, shrinking provincial budgets, revolutionary advances in facts and telecommunication technologies, globalization, competition from new academic providers, marketplace pressures to form instructional and scholarly practices towards earnings-driven ends, and increasing demands and pressures for essential modifications in public coverage and public accountability relative to the role of higher education in addressing urgent troubles of communities and the society at big. Each person of these challenges could be great on their very own, however, collectively they increase the complexity and issue for training to preserve or develop the essential work of serving the general public appropriately.

through a forum on education, we can agree to Strengthening the connection among better education and society will require a huge-based effort that encompasses all of the schooling, now not just individual institutions, departments, and institutions.

Piecemeal answers can most effective go thus far; techniques for trade must be knowledgeable with the aid of a shared vision and a set of not unusual objectives. A “movement” approach for change holds extra promise for transforming instructional subculture than the winning “organizational” approach.

A mobilizing alternate would require strategic alliances, networks, and partnerships with an extensive range of stakeholders within and past training.

The commonplace agenda is mainly designed to guide a “movement” technique to alternate via encouraging the emergence of strategic alliances Amongst individuals and companies who care about the position of higher schooling in advancing the ideals of a various democratic machine thru education practices, relationships, and provides to society.

A common time table

The common schedule is intended to be a “residing” file and an open method that guides collective action and getting to know Among committed companions within and outside of better training. As a dwelling report, the not unusual agenda is a group of focused pastime aimed toward advancing civic, social, and cultural roles in society. This collaboratively created, carried out, and centered common time table respects the range of pastime and programmatic foci of individuals, establishments, and networks, in addition to acknowledges the commonplace interests of the entire. As an open process, the common schedule is a structure for connecting work and relationships around commonplace interests that specialize in the academic function in serving society. Various modes of aligning and amplifying the commonplace paintings inside and beyond education may be provided inside the commonplace schedule method.

This approach is understandable formidable and precise in its motive and application. In the long run, the not unusual timetable challenges the device of higher training, and people who view training as essential to addressing society’s pressing troubles, to behave deliberately, collectively, and virtually on an evolving and huge set of commitments to society. Currently, four broad trouble areas are shaping the focus of the not unusual schedule: 1) Building public knowledge and guide for our civic assignment and moves; 2) Cultivating networks and partnerships; three) Infusing and reinforcing the fee of civic responsibility into the subculture of better training institutions; and 4) Embedding civic engagement and social duty Within the shape of the training machine

vision We have a vision of higher education that nurtures person prosperity, institutional responsiveness and inclusivity, and societal health by means of promoting and practising getting to know, scholarship, and engagement that respects public desires. Our universities are proactive and aware of urgent social, ethical, and financial problems going through our groups and extra society. Our students are humans of integrity who embody variety and are socially responsible and with politeness engaged during their lives.

assignment The purpose of the common schedule is to provide a framework for organizing, guiding and speaking the values and practices of training relative to its civic, social and economic commitments to a numerous democratic gadget.

GUIDING Ideas

I believe social justice, ethics, educational equity, and societal change for positive results are fundamental to the paintings of better education. We do not forget the relationship among groups and schooling establishments to be based on the values of equally, appreciate and reciprocity, and the work in training to be interdependent with the opposite institutions and people in society.

We are able to are searching for and depend on enormous partnerships with all sorts of establishments and committed individuals inside and outside of higher education.

We recognize the interconnection of politics, electricity, and privilege. The common schedule isn’t always for higher training to self-serve, however, to “stroll the talk” relative to espoused public dreams. We understand the commonplace timetable as a dynamic residing document and count on the activities it encompasses to change over the years.

THE commonplace schedule FRAMEWORK The general framework for the commonplace agenda is represented In the following diagram. it’s far clear that even as desires and motion gadgets are organized and aligned inside positive issues areas, there may be giant overlap and complementarity the various problems, dreams and movement gadgets. Additionally, following each action object are names of those who devoted to function “point people” for that unique object. A listing of “point humans,” with their organizational association(s) is blanketed with the commonplace agenda.

https://addcrazy.com/

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uni-tierra-califas · 8 years

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Roads of Struggle and Hope

Gustavo Esteva La Jornada January 2, 2017

The year begins with a ray of hope. It came from San Cristóbal de Las Casas in one of the darkest and heartbreaking moments in the country’s history, under a storm of violence, plunder, impunity, and death. We will soon have an Indigenous Council of Government, whose voice will be expressed by an Indigenous woman that will be a candidate in the 2018 elections.

The decision of the National Indigenous Congress, taken after wide consultation and supported by the Zapatistas, will provoke a new racist reprimand by those that still pray at the altar of the dominant regime. They will pronounce their anathema against those that agreed to challenge them “from within.” Upon excommunicating them, some will accuse the Indigenous peoples of dividing what is still called “the left,” instead of surrendering before the leader or the party of those that still hang onto their illusions.

The decision puts forward immense challenges, the first of which consists of rapidly acquiring one of their principal proposals: providing visibility and incorporating into the public debate the war that is currently let loose against the original peoples. They are at the battlefront to defend lands and territories, native corns, Mother Earth. They often do it in isolation and obscurity. It is urgent to attract to their struggles general attention and active solidarity.

The main challenge consists of learning to organize ourselves for the immediate task of supporting the activities of the Council and for the more complex one of materializing local and regional forms of self-government and autonomy. From them it will be possible to pass on conceptions and practices that contradict prejudices very imbedded in the nature and characteristics of a democratic government.

The decision actualizes proposals that come from the National Indigenous Forum, convened by the Zapatistas in order to sustain in the will of the peoples the negotiations of San Andrés, realized from January 3 to 8, 1996 in San Cristóbal de Las Casas. The first point of their Plan of Action put forward giving the forum a permanent character, which led a few months later to the creation of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI), in Mexico City, in an act in which Comandanta Ramona represented the EZLN.

The final document of the forum contains proposals that hold all its validity. “We want,, they said then to the original peoples, “the establishment of an autonomous regime that will be the base of a new democratic society, truly inclusive (…) In the dream that we hope to share with Mexican men and women of all colors of skin and spirit, we will have a society in which we all fit, without any exclusion or discrimination; a society open to every hope, every impulse, all imagination; a society that recognizes the Indigenous peoples in a context of respect and equality, with the endless creativity of an entire, deserving society that has known to look in the mirror of its history without fear.” In the document it was also shown that “it is necessary to respect and make to respect the unalienable right of the Indigenous peoples to decide the ways to self-govern, as is stipulated in Article 39 of the Mexican Constitution.” What begins with the new year is the exercise of that right, under the conviction that to govern is not to administer corrupt, state apparatuses, inefficient and counterproductive, conceived and operated for plunder and oppression, apparatuses that we should dismantle to create authentic institutions of service. Instead of renouncing the very capacity of self-governance, sacrificing it with the foul procedures that constitute representative democracy, governing democratically means self-governing. It consists of arranging the general will by means of the devices like the Indigenous Council of Government and the mechanisms of coordination and service in which the principle of leading by obeying is practiced.

In the EZLN’s message that the late Subcomandante Marcos took to the Forum, he reminded us that two years before “Indigenous dignity awakened and awakened us” when bombs and soldiers tried “to turn off the brown Enough! that woke up the world.” He told a story of Old Antonio and showed: “Welcome the rainbow, welcome the bridge, welcome the step that comes and goes, welcome always the word that walks, yours, ours, the word of all those that we are.”

The founding Charter of the CNI, Never Again a Mexico without Us, declared that the people were walking lifted up, on the path of struggle and decided on everything, even death, but without bringing drums of war, rather flags of peace: “We want to join forces with all the men and women that upon recognizing us they recognize their own race.” It presented the diverse demands of the people and it proposed, among other things, “participating in the construction of a new social pact that is based on the recognition of our plurality, the diversity of our cultures and the richness of our differences.”

The agreements of the Action Plan of the Indigenous Forum have been partially fulfilled. But, we still need to do what we still need to do, as the Zapatistas insist on telling us; even the CNI resents the consequences of the war unleashed against the people. What has begun today is a great rainbow bridge that is our turn to walk across and back to build the first democratic government of the country, a government that will begin by dismantling the despotic regime that crumbles in a particularly destructive way. That’s why, amidst the reigning chaos and uncertainty, we can have and nourish our hopes; we nourish them to keep them flourishing, cultivating them with courage and organization.

Translated by Rebecca Gamez

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#Gustavo Esteva #La Jornada

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catholicwatertown · 8 years

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Pope Francis tells diplomats peace is a gift, challenge, and commitment

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Monday appealed to all religious authorities to join in “reaffirming unequivocally that one can never kill in God’s name,” saying the world is “dealing with a homicidal madness which misuses God’s name in order to disseminate death, in a play for domination and power.”

The Holy Father was giving his annual address to the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See. “Fundamentalist terrorism is the fruit of a profound spiritual poverty, and often is linked to significant social poverty,” – the Pope said – “It can only be fully defeated with the joint contribution of religious and political leaders.”

Pope Francis dedicated his remarks to the theme of security and peace.

“In today’s climate of general apprehension for the present, and uncertainty and anxious concern for the future, I feel it is important to speak a word of hope, which can also indicate a path on which to embark,” the Pope said.

The Holy Father pointed out some of the areas where conflict is affecting people’s lives.

“I think particularly of the fundamentalist-inspired terrorism that in the past year has also reaped numerous victims throughout the world: in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Belgium, Burkina Faso, Egypt, France, Germany, Jordan, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, the United States of America, Tunisia and Turkey,” – he said – “These are vile acts that use children to kill, as in Nigeria, or target people at prayer, as in the Coptic Cathedral of Cairo, or travellers or workers, as in Brussels, or passers-by in the streets of cities like Nice and Berlin, or simply people celebrating the arrival of the new year, as in Istanbul.”

He called on the international community to work for peace.

“Peace is a gift, a challenge and a commitment,” Pope Francis said.

It is a gift because it flows from the very heart of God. It is a challenge because it is a good that can never be taken for granted and must constantly be achieved. It is a commitment because it demands passionate effort on the part of all people of goodwill to seek and build it,” – the Holy Father explained – “For true peace can only come about on the basis of a vision of human beings capable of promoting an integral development respectful of their transcendent dignity.”

The full speech by Pope Francis to the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See is below

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE DIPLOMATIC CORPS

Monday, 9 January 2017

Your Excellencies, dear Ambassadors,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I offer you a cordial welcome. I thank you for your presence in such numbers at this traditional gathering, which permits us to exchange greetings and good wishes that the year just beginning will be for everyone a time of joy, prosperity and peace. I express particular gratitude to the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, His Excellency Armindo Fernandes do Espírito Santo Vieira, the Ambassador of Angola, for his courteous greetings on behalf of the entire Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See, which has recently been enlarged following the establishment of diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic of Mauritania a month ago. I likewise express my gratitude to the many Ambassadors resident in Rome, whose number has grown this past year, and to the non-resident Ambassadors, whose presence today is a clear sign of the bonds of friendship uniting their peoples to the Holy See. At the same time, I would like to express heartfelt condolences to the Ambassador of Malaysia for the death of his predecessor, Dato’ Mohd Zulkephli Bin Mohd Noor, who passed away last February.

In the course of the past year, relations between your countries and the Holy See were further consolidated, thanks to the welcome visit of many Heads of State and Government, also in conjunction with the numerous events of the recently concluded Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy. So too, a variety of bilateral Agreements were signed or ratified, both those of a general nature aimed at recognizing the Church’s juridical status, with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Benin and Timor East, and those of a more specific character, the Avenant signed with France, the Convention on fiscal matters with the Republic of Italy, recently entered into force, and the Memorandum of Understanding between the Secretariat of State and the Government of the United Arab Emirates. Furthermore, in the context of the Holy See’s commitment to the obligations assumed by the aforementioned Agreements, the Comprehensive Agreement with the State of Palestine, which took effect a year ago, was fully implemented.

Dear Ambassadors,

A century ago, we were in the midst of the First World War. A “useless slaughter”,[1] in which new methods of warfare sowed death and caused immense suffering to the defenceless civil population. In 1917, the conflict changed profoundly, taking on increasingly global proportions, while those totalitarian regimes, which were long to be a cause of bitter divisions, began to appear on the horizon. A hundred years later, it can be said that many parts of the world have benefited from lengthy periods of peace, which have favoured opportunities for economic development and unprecedented prosperity. For many people today, peace appears as a blessing to be taken for granted, for all intents an acquired right to which not much thought is given. Yet, for all too many others, peace remains merely a distant dream. Millions of people still live in the midst of senseless conflicts. Even in places once considered secure, a general sense of fear is felt. We are frequently overwhelmed by images of death, by the pain of innocent men, women and children who plead for help and consolation, by the grief of those mourning the loss of a dear one due to hatred and violence, and by the drama of refugees fleeing war and migrants meeting tragic deaths.

For this reason, I would like to devote today’s meeting to the theme of security and peace. In today’s climate of general apprehension for the present, and uncertainty and anxious concern for the future, I feel it is important to speak a word of hope, which can also indicate a path on which to embark.

Just a few days ago, we celebrated the Fiftieth World Day of Peace, instituted by my blessed predecessor Paul VI “as a hope and as a promise, at the beginning of the calendar which measures and describes the path of human life in time, that peace with its just and beneficent equilibrium may dominate the development of events to come”.[2] For Christians, peace is a gift of the Lord, proclaimed in song by the Angels at the moment of Christ’s birth: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favours” (Lk 2:14). Peace is a positive good, “the fruit of the right ordering of things” with which God has invested human society;[3] it is “more than the absence of war”.[4] Nor can it be “reduced to the maintenance of a balance of power between opposing forces”.[5] Rather, it demands the commitment of those persons of good will who “thirst for an ever more perfect reign of justice”.[6]

In this regard, I voice my firm conviction that every expression of religion is called to promote peace. I saw this clearly in the World Day of Prayer for Peace held in Assisi last September, during which the representatives of the different religions gathered to “give voice together to all those who suffer, to all those who have no voice and are not heard”,[7] as well as in my visits to the Synagogue of Rome and the Mosque in Baku.

We know that there has been no shortage of acts of religiously motivated violence, beginning with Europe itself, where the historical divisions between Christians have endured all too long. In my recent visit to Sweden, I mentioned the urgent need for healing past wounds and journeying together towards common goals. The basis of that journey can only be authentic dialogue between different religious confessions. Such dialogue is possible and necessary, as I wished to show by my meeting in Cuba with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, as well as by my Apostolic Journeys to Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan, where I sensed the rightful aspiration of those peoples to resolve conflicts which for years have threatened social harmony and peace.

At the same time, it is fitting that we not overlook the great number of religiously inspired works that contribute, at times with the sacrifice of martyrs, to the pursuit of the common good through education and social assistance, especially in areas of great poverty and in theatres of conflict. These efforts advance peace and testify that individuals of different nationalities, cultures and traditions can indeed live and work together, provided that the dignity of the human person is placed at the centre of their activities.

Sadly, we are conscious that even today, religious experience, rather than fostering openness to others, can be used at times as a pretext for rejection, marginalization and violence. I think particularly of the fundamentalist-inspired terrorism that in the past year has also reaped numerous victims throughout the world: in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Belgium, Burkina Faso, Egypt, France, Germany, Jordan, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, the United States of America, Tunisia and Turkey. These are vile acts that use children to kill, as in Nigeria, or target people at prayer, as in the Coptic Cathedral of Cairo, or travellers or workers, as in Brussels, or passers-by in the streets of cities like Nice and Berlin, or simply people celebrating the arrival of the new year, as in Istanbul.

We are dealing with a homicidal madness which misuses God’s name in order to disseminate death, in a play for domination and power. Hence I appeal to all religious authorities to join in reaffirming unequivocally that one can never kill in God’s name. Fundamentalist terrorism is the fruit of a profound spiritual poverty, and often is linked to significant social poverty. It can only be fully defeated with the joint contribution of religious and political leaders. The former are charged with transmitting those religious values which do not separate fear of God from love of neighbour. The latter are charged with guaranteeing in the public forum the right to religious freedom, while acknowledging religion’s positive and constructive contribution to the building of a civil society that sees no opposition between social belonging, sanctioned by the principle of citizenship, and the spiritual dimension of life. Government leaders are also responsible for ensuring that conditions do not exist that can serve as fertile terrain for the spread of forms of fundamentalism. This calls for suitable social policies aimed at combating poverty; such policies cannot prescind from a clear appreciation of the importance of the family as the privileged place for growth in human maturity, and from a major investment in the areas of education and culture.

In this regard, I was interested to learn of the Council of Europe’s initiative on the religious dimension of intercultural dialogue, which in the past year discussed the role of education in preventing radicalization leading to terrorism and extremist violence. This represents an occasion for a better understanding of the role of religion and education in bringing about the authentic social harmony needed for coexistence in a multicultural society.

Here I would express my conviction that political authorities must not limit themselves to ensuring the security of their own citizens – a concept which could easily be reduced to a mere “quiet life” – but are called also to work actively for the growth of peace. Peace is an “active virtue”, once that calls for the engagement and cooperation of each individual and society as a whole. As the Second Vatican Council observed, “peace will never be achieved once and for all, but must be built up continually”,[8] by safeguarding the good of persons and respecting their dignity. Peacemaking requires above all else renouncing violence in vindicating one’s rights.[9] To this very principle I devoted my Message for the 2017 World Day of Peace, with the title, “Nonviolence: a Style of Politics for Peace”. I wished primarily to reaffirm that nonviolence is a political style based on the rule of law and the dignity of each person.

Peacemaking also demands that “those causes of discord which lead to wars be rooted out”,[10] beginning with acts of injustice. Indeed, justice and peace are intimately linked[11]. Yet, as Saint John Paul II observed, “because human justice is always fragile and imperfect, subject as it is to the limitations and egoism of individuals and groups, it must include and, as it were, be completed by the forgiveness that heals and rebuilds human relations from their foundations… Forgiveness is in no way opposed to justice. It is rather the fullness of justice, leading to that tranquillity of order” which involves “the deepest healing of the wounds which fester in human hearts. Justice and forgiveness are both essential to such healing”.[12] Those words remain most timely, and met with openness on the part of some Heads of State or Government to my request to make a gesture of clemency towards the incarcerated. To them, and to all those who promote dignified living conditions for prisoners and their reintegration into society, I would like to express my particular appreciation and gratitude.

I am convinced that for many people the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy was an especially fruitful moment for rediscovering “mercy’s immense positive influence as a social value”.[13] In this way, everyone can help bring about “a culture of mercy, based on the rediscovery of encounter with others, a culture in which no one looks at another with indifference or turns away from the suffering of our brothers and sisters”.[14] Only thus will it be possible to build societies that are open and welcoming towards foreigners and at the same time internally secure and at peace. This is all the more needed at the present time, when massive waves of migration continue in various parts of the world. I think in a special way of the great numbers of displaced persons and refugees in some areas of Africa and Southeast Asia, and all those who are fleeing areas of conflict in the Middle East.

Last year the international community gathered at two important events convened by the United Nations: the first World Humanitarian Summit and the Summit for Refugees and Migrants. With regard to migrants, displaced persons and refugees, a common commitment is needed, one focused on offering them a dignified welcome. This would involve respecting the right of “every human being… to emigrate to other countries and take up residence there”,[15] while at the same time ensuring that migrants can be integrated into the societies in which they are received without the latter sensing that their security, cultural identity and political-social stability are threatened. On the other hand, immigrants themselves must not forget that they have a duty to respect the laws, culture and traditions of the countries in which they are received.

Prudence on the part of public authorities does not mean enacting policies of exclusion vis-à-vis migrants, but it does entail evaluating, with wisdom and foresight, the extent to which their country is in a position, without prejudice to the common good of citizens, to offer a decent life to migrants, especially those truly in need of protection. Above all, the current crisis should not be reduced to a simple matter of numbers. Migrants are persons, with their own names, stories and families. There can never be true peace as long as a single human being is violated in his or her personal identity and reduced to a mere statistic or an object of economic calculation.

The issue of migration is not one that can leave some countries indifferent, while others are left with the burden of humanitarian assistance, often at the cost of notable strain and great hardship, in the face of an apparently unending emergency. All should feel responsible for jointly pursuing the international common good, also through concrete gestures of human solidarity; these are essential building-blocks of that peace and development which entire nations and millions of people still await. So I am grateful to the many countries which offer a generous welcome to those in need, beginning with various European nations, particularly Italy, Germany, Greece and Sweden.

I vividly remember my visit to the island of Lesvos in the company of my brothers Patriarch Bartholomew and Archbishop Ieronymos. There I saw at first hand the dramatic situation of the refugee camps, but also the goodness and spirit of service shown by the many persons committed to assisting those living there. Nor should we overlook the welcome offered by other countries of Europe and the Middle East, such as Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, as well as the commitment of various African and Asian countries. In the course of my visit to Mexico, where I experienced the joy of the Mexican people, I likewise felt close to the thousands of migrants from Central America who, in their attempt to find a better future, endure terrible injustices and dangers, victims of extortion and objects of that deplorable trade – that horrible form of modern slavery – which is human trafficking.

One enemy of peace is a “reductive vision” of the human person, which opens the way to the spread of injustice, social inequality and corruption. With regard to this last phenomenon, the Holy See has taken on new commitments with its formal adherence, on 19 September last, to the United Nations Convention against Corruption, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 31 October 2003.

In his encyclical Populorum Progressio, issued fifty years ago, Blessed Paul VI noted how such situations of inequality provoke conflict. As he stated, “civil progress and economic development are the only road to peace”,[16] which public authorities have the duty to encourage and foster by creating conditions for a more equitable distribution of resources and by generating employment opportunities, especially for young people. In today’s world, all too many people, especially children, still suffer from endemic poverty and live in conditions of food insecurity – indeed, hunger – even as natural resources are the object of greedy exploitation by a few, and enormous amounts of food are wasted daily.

Children and young people are the future; it is for them that we work and build. They cannot be selfishly overlooked or forgotten. As I stated recently in a letter addressed to all bishops, I consider it a priority to protect children, whose innocence is often violated by exploitation, clandestine and slave labour, prostitution or the abuse of adults, criminals and dealers in death.[17]

During my visit to Poland for World Youth Day, I encountered thousands of young people full of life and enthusiasm. Yet in many of them I also saw pain and suffering. I think of the young people affected by the brutal conflict in Syria, deprived of the joys of childhood and youth, such as the ability to play games and to attend school. My constant thoughts are with them and the beloved Syrian people. I appeal to the international community to make every effort to encourage serious negotiations for an end to the conflict, which is causing a genuine human catastrophe. Each of the parties must give priority to international humanitarian law, and guarantee the protection of civilians and needed humanitarian aid for the populace. Our common aspiration is that the recently signed truce will be a sign of hope for the whole Syrian people, so greatly in need of it.

This also means working for the elimination of the deplorable arms trade and the never-ending race to create and spread ever more sophisticated weaponry. Particularly disturbing are the experiments being conducted on the Korean Peninsula, which destabilize the entire region and raise troubling questions for the entire international community about the risk of a new nuclear arms race. The words of Saint John XXIII in Pacem in Terris continue to ring true: “Justice, right reason and the recognition of human dignity cry out insistently for a cessation to the arms race. The stockpiles of armaments which have been built up in various countries must be reduced all round by the parties concerned. Nuclear weapons must be banned”.[18] In the light of this, and in view of the forthcoming Conference on Disarmament, the Holy See seeks to promote an ethics of peace and security that goes beyond that fear and “closure” which condition the debate on nuclear weapons.

Also with regard to conventional weapons, we need to acknowledge that easy access to the sale of arms, including those of small calibre, not only aggravates various conflicts, but also generates a widespread sense of insecurity and fear. This is all the more dangerous in times, like our own, of social uncertainty and epochal changes.

Another enemy of peace is the ideology that exploits social unrest in order to foment contempt and hate, and views others as enemies to be eliminated. Sadly, new ideologies constantly appear on the horizon of humanity. Under the guise of promising great benefits, they instead leave a trail of poverty, division, social tensions, suffering and, not infrequently, death. Peace, on the other hand, triumphs through solidarity. It generates the desire for dialogue and cooperation which finds an essential instrument in diplomacy. Mercy and solidarity inspire the convinced efforts of the Holy See and the Catholic Church to avert conflicts and to accompany processes of peace, reconciliation and the search for negotiated solutions. It is heartening that some of these attempts have met with the good will of many people who, from a number of quarters, have actively and fruitfully worked for peace. I think of the efforts made in the last two years for rapprochement between Cuba and the United States. I think also of the persevering efforts made, albeit not without difficulty, to end years of conflict in Colombia.

That approach aims at encouraging reciprocal trust, supporting processes of dialogue and emphasizing the need for courageous gestures. These are quite urgent in neighbouring Venezuela, where the effects of the political, social and economic crisis have long burdened the civil population. So too in other parts of the world, beginning with the Middle East, a similar approach is needed, not only to bring an end to the Syrian conflict, but also to foster fully reconciled societies in Iraq and in Yemen. The Holy See renews its urgent appeal for the resumption of dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians towards a stable and enduring solution that guarantees the peaceful coexistence of two states within internationally recognized borders. No conflict can become a habit impossible to break. Israelis and Palestinians need peace. The whole Middle East urgently needs peace!

I also express my hope that there will be a full implementation of the agreements aimed at restoring peace in Libya, where it is imperative to reconcile the divisions of recent years. I likewise encourage every effort on the local and international level to renew peaceful civil coexistence in Sudan and South Sudan, and in the Central African Republic, all plagued by ongoing armed conflicts, massacres and destruction, as well as in other African nations marked by tensions and political and social instability. In particular, I express my hope that the recently-signed agreement in the Democratic Republic of Congo may help enable political leaders to work diligently to pursue reconciliation and dialogue between all elements of civil society. My thoughts also turn to Myanmar, that efforts will be made to foster peaceful co-existence and, with the support of the international community, to provide assistance to those in grave and pressing need.

In Europe too, where tensions also exist, openness to dialogue is the only way to ensure the security and development of the continent. Consequently, I welcome those initiatives favouring the process of reunification in Cyprus, where negotiations resume today, and I express my hope that in Ukraine viable solutions will continue to be pursued with determination in order to fulfil the commitments undertaken by the parties involved and, above all, that a prompt response will be given to the humanitarian situation, which remains grave.

Europe as a whole is experiencing a decisive moment in its history, one in which it is called to rediscover its proper identity. This requires recovering its roots in order to shape its future. In response to currents of divisiveness, it is all the more urgent to update “the idea of Europe”, so as to give birth to a new humanism based on the capacity to integrate, dialogue and generate[19] that made the “Old Continent” great. The process of European unification, begun after the Second World War, continues to be a unique opportunity for stability, peace and solidarity between peoples. On this occasion, I can only reaffirm the interest and concern of the Holy See for Europe and its future, conscious that the values that were the inspiration and basis of that project, which this year celebrates its sixtieth anniversary, are values common to the entire continent and transcend the borders of the European Union itself.

Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

To build peace also means to work actively for the care of creation. The Paris Agreement on the climate, which recently took effect, is an important sign of the shared commitment to bequeath a more beautiful and livable world to those who will come after us. It is my hope that the efforts made in recent times to respond to climate change will meet with increased cooperation on the part of all, for the earth is our common home and we need to realize that the choices of each have consequences for all.

Clearly, however, certain phenomena go beyond the possibilities of human intervention. I refer to the numerous earthquakes which have struck some areas of the world. I think especially of those in Ecuador, Italy and Indonesia, which has claimed numerous victims and left many others in conditions of great insecurity. I was able to visit personally some of the areas affected by the earthquake in central Italy. In addition to seeing the damage done to a land rich in art and culture, I shared the pain of many people, but I also witnessed their courage and their determination to rebuild what was destroyed. I pray that the solidarity which united the beloved Italian people in the days after the earthquake will continue to inspire the entire nation, particularly at this delicate time in its history. The Holy See and Italy are particularly close for obvious historical, cultural and geographical reasons. This relationship was evident in the Jubilee Year, and I thank all the Italian authorities for their help in organizing this event and ensuring the security of pilgrims from all over the world.

Dear Ambassadors,

Peace is a gift, a challenge and a commitment. It is a gift because it flows from the very heart of God. It is a challenge because it is a good that can never be taken for granted and must constantly be achieved. It is a commitment because it demands passionate effort on the part of all people of goodwill to seek and build it. For true peace can only come about on the basis of a vision of human beings capable of promoting an integral development respectful of their transcendent dignity. As Blessed Paul VI observed, “development is the new name for peace”.[20]

This, then, is my prayerful hope for the year just begun: that our countries and their peoples may find increased opportunities to work together in building true peace. For its part, the Holy See, and the Secretariat of State in particular, will always be ready to cooperate with those committed to ending current conflicts and to offer support and hope to all who suffer.

In the Church’s liturgy, we greet one another with the words: “Peace be with you”. With this same greeting, as a pledge of abundant divine blessings, I renew to each of you, distinguished members of the Diplomatic Corps, to your families and to the countries you represent, my heartfelt good wishes for the New Year.

Thank you.

[1] BENEDICT XV, Letter to the Leaders of the Peoples at War (1 August 1917): AAS 9 (1917), 421.

[2] Message for the Celebration of the First World Day of Peace (1 January 1968).

[3] SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes (7 December 1965), 78.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Address at the World Day of Prayer for Peace, Assisi, 20 September 2016.

[8] Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 78.

[9] Cf. ibid.

[10] Ibid., 83.

[11] Cf. Ps 85:11 and Is 32:17.

[12] Message for the Thirty-fifth World Day of Peace: There is no Peace without Justice, There is no Justice without Forgiveness (1 January 2002), 3.

[13] Apostolic Letter Misericordia et Misera (20 November 2016), 18.

[14] Ibid., 20.

[15] JOHN XXIII, Encyclical Letter Pacem in Terris (11 April 1963), 25.

[16] Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio (26 March 1967), 83.

[17] Cf. Letter to Bishops on the Feast of the Holy Innocents, 28 December 2016.

[18] Encyclical Letter Pacem in Terris, 112.

[19] Cf. Address at the Conferral of the Charlemagne Prize, 6 May 2016.

[20] Cf. Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio, 87.

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