Journal of daily reflections on the progress of my home-based agriculture experiments, mixed with observations about life, peace, justice, faith, family, community and friends.
NCRI WorkshopToday I went to a conference center near Chicago to be a part of 17th TANA Conference. TANA, Telugu Association of North American “is an organization formed to perpetuate, integrate, and assimilate the cultural heritage of the Telugu-speaking people of the North American continent into the mainstream of the cultural heritage of North America.” Teluga is the language spoken by the persons in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. My friends Prasad and Kranthi had invited me to join them in a workshop for their work in the National Council of Rural Institutes (NCRI). Prasad is coordinator of a program called The Wheel - Centre for Gandhian Thought and Action. The Center is involved in all types of projects including one working with prisoners with a study of Gandhi’s writings and action.
Taking it all in, including the delicious Indian Food, I was there with another pilgrim from the Pilgrim of Peace to give some reflections on our pilgrimage. Since the NCRI workshop was hastily called there were not many in attendance. When it was my turn to speak I found myself comparing the thoughts and actions of Gandhi with the thoughts of and actions of Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesuit. For years I have been connecting Creative Nonviolence and Ignatian Spirituality but only recently have I seen the connection in word and experience between Gandhi and Ignatius.
See the full list of articles in the Diary of a Worm.
Quotes
Various quotes
History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people. Martin Luther King Jr.
If there were no God, there would be no Atheists.
— G. K. Chesterton
“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.” Elie Wiesel
“Don’t fight forces, use them.” — Buckminster Fuller
“I am not trying to abolish conflict. There is great value in healthy conflict. And the dangers of group-think are real. Conflict can inspire creative leadership. Where there are fundamental conflicts over values, they should not be ignored in a sentimental yearning for consensus. The problem in our communities today is not that we have conflict, but that we manufacture conflict and exaggerate differences to the point where it is very difficult to make meaningful change. Too often we abandon basic civility and cannot disagree without questioning the motives of our adversaries. Our standard as we debate should be similar to doctors’ Hippocratic Oath: “Do no harm.” Disagree, but don’t tear the community apart as you do.” Frederick Douglas in a speech in 1857
“There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is.”-Albert Einstein
“We live in a deranged age, more deranged than usual, because in spite of great scientific and technological advances, man has not the faintest idea of who he is or what he is doing.” — Walker Percy
“Everyone believes the Theory, except the man that makes it. No one believes the Data, except the man who takes it.” —from a friend David Kruschke
“The trouble with Eichmann was precisely that so many were like him, and that the many were neither perverted nor sadistic, that they were, and still are, terribly and terrifyingly normal. This new type of criminal … commits his crimes under circumstances that make it well-nigh impossible for him to know or to feel that he is doing wrong.” — Hannah Arendt
“Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.” — Feodor Dostoevsky
I find it strange that the last place I can really quote Jesus these days is in American churches. They don’t want to hear ‘overcome evil with good.’ They don’t want to hear ‘those who live by the sword die by the sword.’ They don’t want to hear ‘if your enemy hurts you, do good, feed, clothe, minister to him.’ They don’t want to hear ‘blessed are the merciful.’ They don’t want to hear ‘love your enemies’.”- Tony Campolo quoted in Christian Week magazine
“If we don’t change direction soon, we’ll end up where we’re going.” — Irwin Corey (Corey is an American comic and actor who is perhaps best known as “The World’s Foremost Authority.”)
Jokes
Retirement
I wish this were true.
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Nonviolence
Marquette University, A Jesuit Catholic University, Hosts Four Departments of Military Science That Teach War to Students from Fourteen Local Colleges and Universities.
Marquette University is Host for Military Training for 14 local colleges and universities.
See MU Air Force ROTC site.
How much money does Marquette gain from hosting military departments on campus?
by Archbishop Dr. Robert M. Bowman, Lt. Col., USAF, ret. National Commander, “The Patriots” & Primate, United Catholic Church
by Katie Millar in Sign Of Peace ~ Journal of The Catholic Peace Fellowship EASTER 2003, Vol. 2.2 Explains Moral Or Money Questions for Catholic University
MU Students Take Action
On Dec. 7, 2008 a group of about 10 MU students, during the peak study time for exams, handed out in the Marquette Library over 1000 small pieces of paper with “What Would Jesus Join?” on one side and the link to the Debate Forum on the other side: Debate Forum
Committee on Values and the ROTC
In Sept. 1982 the President of St. John’s University in Collegeville, MN., Father Hilary Thimmesh, O.S.B., commissioned an ad hoc “Committee on Values and the ROTC” to answer the question: “Does the sponsorship of ROTC at Saint John’s University constitute endorsement of values opposed to the Christian and Benedictine character of the University?”
In their May 1983 final report the Values Committee by a 6 to 2 majority answered affirmative to the original question put to them. A copy of the full report is available. (Editor’s note: Despite an extensive 2 year campaign by members of the Ant-ROTC community using this report ROTC remains at ST. John’s.)
Debate Forum Is it moral or ethical for Marquette University to host military training on campus?
Kathy Kelly’s talks and articles have really moved me. Here is a report from Pakistan that deepens my conviction of the militarization of our society and the death and tragedy it causes.
by Kathy Kelly
http://www.truthout.org/061009R
In Jayne Anne Phillips’s “Lark and Termite,” the skies over Korea, in 1950, are described in this way:
“The planes always come … like planets on rotation. A timed bloodletting, with different excuses.”
The most recent plane to attack the Pakistani village of Khaisor (according to a Waziristan resident who asked me to withhold his name) came 20 days ago, on May 20, 2009. A US drone airplane fired a missile at the village at 4:30 AM, killing 14 women and children and two elders, wounding 11.
The previous day, some travelers had come to Khaisor, and the villagers had served them a meal. “This is our custom,” my friend relates. “It is our traditional way.” But these travelers were members of the Taliban, and their visit was noted by US forces. It is possible they were identified through pictures taken by unmanned US drones. Although the visitors had left right after their meal, the US responded to this act of hospitality by bombing the homes of the hosts early the following morning.
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