“Are you dead yet”?

Recently we have been talking about how deeply rooted in the soil we are. The renewal of this back-to-earth movement, urban farming and gardening, is just in time as our culture becomes deeply rooted to the antithesis of healthy rich growing soil: violence, death and destruction. I was reminded of how deeply rooted we are in a culture of violence when driving around town with my grandchildren last week. One of my grandsons asked the other: “Are you dead yet?” Of course he was referring to the video game character in the game he was playing. In many video games, even lots of G-rated ones, you lose the game when your character is killed, and you win when you kill other characters. Video games are like the ‘toy guns’ of my generation; however, they are much more realistic and celebrate killing not in the Wild west of old but in the present time. In fact the military is one of the major developers of video games to be used in training soldiers and by the public.

My grandson’s question helps me understand why Marquette officials will not answer the question: “Is it moral or ethical for Marquette University to host departments of military science?” How can they answer? If they say yes they need to justify the teaching of values on campus contrary to the Catholic faith they profess. If they say no, how can they continue to host departments of the military for nine colleges and universities?

In my open letter to Marquette University officials I suggested an open and moral debate on this moral issue. Only one of the officials responded, saying such a debate (or ‘dialog’ as he preferred) might happen on campus but it was not a priority “since pretty much everyone agrees (for various reasons) that it’s really good that ROTC is on campus.” Sadly he is right. The culture of violence, represented in present-day military training, is deeply rooted in our culture and our universities. Even today news of soldiers allegedly torturing prisoners in Afghanistan does not come as a shock to us.

In my open letter besides a debate on this moral question my other suggestion was for Marquette University to host a “garden of resistance”, growing some of its own food as a symbol of resistance, like the spinning wheel was in India during Gandhi’s time. The same official, the only one with the respect to respond, said he was having some persons look into a ‘peace garden.’ A ‘garden of resistance’ is not a ‘peace garden’, any more than ignoring a major moral issue, like hosting a military training center on a Christian campus, will make it go away.

A garden without care will die and weeds will grow over it. A Catholic University without concern for morality will die but may not know it. I ask Marquette, you and myself: “Are we dead yet?”

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