It’s been nearly six years since the Bush Administration initiated their politics of fear and you aren’t really any safer than you were in 2001. They’ve used this fear tactic to persuade us that we ought to surrender basic freedoms that Americans have traditionally enjoyed.
contemplative
Conscientious objector
Thirty-five years ago I volunteered for the United States Navy. I volunteered for the Hospital Corps because like this man I didn’t think I could kill people. It ain’t in me. No amount of training can overcome my most basic instincts and core values. Agustin Aguayo deserves a medal, but he’ll likely get jail time … Read more
Benevolent blends
I got an advertisement from the Monks of Our Lady of Spring Bank in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.
Bell of mindfulness
One of my goals this summer has been to live mindfully. To enjoy each day and each moment as it comes. Life is really in the present moment. It is not in what we project nor in the past we have already lived. Only the present moment is what matters. We live and die in the present moment.
Endless war
As a veteran of the Vietnam era and a dedicated peace worker I’m always skeptical of the government’s rationale for war. War’s only profiteers are the workers and owners of the military armaments production facilities.
Ohio
This song became the anthem of a generation that opposed the war in Vietnam. There is no question that Iraq is not quite as bad as Vietnam, but if you’re the relative of someone serving there numbers are not important. The life and health of your family member is the only important thing. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iPBm_cES94] Working … Read more
Last Supper
I use my cell phone camera quite often and this weekend while at St. Francis Inn I spotted a print hanging on the wall in the dining room that I liked a great deal. Often Christ is depicted as a Caucasian male and usually a Western European or American male at that. Not often is … Read more
No Room at the Inn
This short video clip chronicles some of the unbelievable devastation of the Kensington area of Philadelphia. We should have a new war on terror that focuses on the terror that our nation’s poor and homeless face each day.
The Lord hears the cry of the poor..
I just got home from a few days at St. Francis Inn in Philadelphia. I went there to help and I was helped. St. Francis of Assisi said, “it is in giving that we receive,” and that is what happened. I have never witnessed such poverty nor ever lived among its victims and I am deeply touched by what I have witnessed. I don’t have the words yet for all that has happened in the last few days. There are not words adequate to explain what I have seen and heard.
St. Francis Inn
Tonight while attending an Evening of Re-Creation at Mt. Irenaeus a fellow Secular Franciscan asked if I’d like to accompany a group of seculars to St. Francis Inn in Philadelphia, PA. I really wasn’t sure, but after asking my wife I consented to go.