Papa Francesco Writes

Pope Francis: A Crisis Reveals What Is in Our Hearts

To come out of this pandemic better than we went in, we must let ourselves be touched by others’ pain.

By Pope Francis
Pope Francis is the head of the Catholic Church and the bishop of Rome.

November 26, 2020
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/26/opinion/pope-francis-covid.html

In this past year of change, my mind and heart have overflowed with people. People I think of and pray for, and sometimes cry with, people with names and faces, people who died without saying goodbye to those they loved, families in difficulty, even going hungry, because there’s no work.

Sometimes, when you think globally, you can be paralyzed: There are so many places of apparently ceaseless conflict; there’s so much suffering and need. I find it helps to focus on concrete situations: You see faces looking for life and love in the reality of each person, of each people. You see hope written in the story of every nation, glorious because it’s a story of daily struggle, of lives broken in self-sacrifice. So rather than overwhelm you, it invites you to ponder and to respond with hope.

Papa Francesco (It.), Pope Francis

These are moments in life that can be ripe for change and conversion. Each of us has had our own “stoppage,” or if we haven’t yet, we will someday: illness, the failure of a marriage or a business, some great disappointment or betrayal. As in the Covid-19 lockdown, those moments generate a tension, a crisis that reveals what is in our hearts.

In every personal “Covid,” so to speak, in every “stoppage,” what is revealed is what needs to change: our lack of internal freedom, the idols we have been serving, the ideologies we have tried to live by, the relationships we have neglected.

When I got really sick at the age of 21, I had my first experience of limit, of pain and loneliness. It changed the way I saw life. For months, I didn’t know who I was or whether I would live or die. The doctors had no idea whether I’d make it either. I remember hugging my mother and saying, “Just tell me if I’m going to die.” I was in the second year of training for the priesthood in the diocesan seminary of Buenos Aires.

I remember the date: Aug. 13, 1957. I got taken to a hospital by

Poll: Americans Think Wall Keeps Out Coronavirus

Today’s NPR leading headline “Americans Back Trump On Immigration — But Only To Stop COVID-19, Poll Finds” took me by surprise.

Why?

Because frankly, it’s practically too late for any of that.

That is to say, it’s too late for any effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19 by limiting travel, or immigration.

We’ve had our opportunity, and like many other opportunities, it was handed to us on a proverbial silver platter.

Now, we’ve the POTUS and his minions have squandered it.

Consider that as much as President Trump blows his own horn on the matter (as he does on almost everything, which according to him, he’s the best, the smartest, the greatest, the _insert_your_superlative_of_choice_here_ on anything and everything), claiming that his actions to limit its spread to the United States by limiting travelers from certain nations were effective, and helped prevent further spread of the infection, in light of what has happened in the days since as we all watched in horror at what unfolded.

They were not!

On January 22, while attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, POTUS was asked by CNBC Squawk Box host Joe Kernan if he was worried about a pandemic. Here’s the pertinent exchange.

JOE KERNEN: It was a couple of years ago. Before we get started– with- we’re going talk about the economy and a lot of other things–the CDC– has identified a case of coronavirus– in Washington state. The Wuhan strain of this. If you remember SARS, that affected GDP. Travel-related effects. Do you– have you been briefed by the CDC? And–

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I have, and–

JOE KERNEN: –are there worries about a pandemic at this point?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No. Not at all. And– we’re– we have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s—going to be just fine.
ref: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/22/davos-2020-cnbcs-full-interview-with-president-trump.html

But let’s go back even further, to November 2019.

In a secret intelligence report prepared (yet denied) by the Army’s National Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI) located on Fort Detrick, in Frederick, Maryland, which was based upon analysis of wire and computer intercepts, and satellite images, concerns that

“Do Something!” About Gun Sickness and Disease

Within a period of 7 days, 35 people were killed, and 64 were injured in 3 mass shootings in our nation.

July 28, 2019 – 5:48 PM PDT Garlic Festival – Gilroy, CA – 3 Killed, 13 Injured

August 3, 2019 – 10:39 AM CDT Wal-Mart – El Paso, TX – 22 Killed, 24 Injured

August 4, 2019 – 1:05 AM EDT – Historic Oregon District, Downtown Dayton, OH – 10 Killed, 27 Injured

Authorities have identified the assailants and weapons used. In each case, the weapons used were military-grade assault style rifles designed for military use, modeled after the Russian AK-47, and the American AR-15. The exclusive purpose of such firearms as weapons of mass destruction is to kill human beings with great ease, and efficiency – to inflict as much carnage and damage upon as many people as possible, in a short period of time. They are ONLY weapons of war, and nothing else. They were NOT designed for any other purpose than to kill human beings with great ease, and efficiency.

The assailants were:
• Connor Stephen Betts, 24, of Bellbrook, OH (Dayton) – deceased;
• Santino William Legan, 19, of Gilroy, CA and Walker Lake, NV (Gilroy) – deceased, and;
• Patrick Wood Crusius, 21, of Allen, TX (El Paso) – captured.

In none of those cases neither “a good guy with a gun,” nor a border wall was effective to either deter, prevent, or stop the deaths and injuries of 127 people.

But those three tragedies were not the only ones.

Ohio’s Republican Governor Mike Dewine addresses Ohioans about the Dayton mass shooting.

Just today – August 5, 2019 – in Brooklyn, the most populous borough in NYC, there was a mass shooting at 216 Buffalo Avenue where 4 people were injured, with no deaths in which “Police confirm a man was shot in the chest, and two women have also been found with gunshots wounds.”
-and-
A shooting with 4 injuries occurred at 5691 Suitland Road, in Suitland, MD.

Yesterday, there were FOUR mass shootings at:
1800 S Kildare Ave in Chicago, one killed, and 7 wounded;
443 E Shelby Dr in Memphis, one killed, 3 wounded;
2900 block of W Roosevelt Rd in Chicago, 7 wounded;
419 E 5th St in Dayton, OH, 10 killed, 26 wounded.

On July 28, the date of the Gilroy, CA Garlic Festival shooting, there were a total of SIX mass shootings throughout the nation.

In the days since, there have been 15 mass shootings, inclusive, in which 47 people were killed, with 115 injured. For details, see: https://www.GunViolenceArchive.org/reports/mass-shooting

According to data from the Gun Violence Archive website, this year to date, there have been 255 mass shootings, resulting in 275 deaths, and 1069 injuries.

No one is happy about this.

No one.

Kentucky Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell proudly displaying the Made-in-China Nike brand athletic shoes which he blames for his fall which ironically, injured his LEFT shoulder. As a child born in Alabama, McConnell also had polio.

The paralytic gridlocked Congress is in summer recess, as GOP Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) is

11 Year Study Finds Opioid Deaths Down In Medical #Marijuana States

In an article entitled “Medical Cannabis Laws and Opioid Analgesic Overdose Mortality in the United States, 1999-2010” published August 25, 2014 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researcher and primary author, Dr. Marcus A. Bachhuber, MD, with the Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion, Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center, 423 Guardian Dr, 1303-A Blockley Hall, Philadelphia, PA 19104 (marcus.bachhuber@gmail.com), and others concluded that, “The present study provides evidence that medical cannabis laws are associated with

A Few Thoughts on #Suicide Following Robin Williams’ Death

The very fact that people care enough to attempt to prevent others’ suicide is evidence enough that 1.) People care, and; 2.) Life is worth saving.

So let’s talk about it.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2011 (the most recent year for which data are available), 39,518 suicides were reported, which makes suicide the 10th leading cause of death for Americans. That year, someone in the United States died by suicide every 13.3 minutes.

Expressed another way, 790 people in each of the 50 states died from suicide in 2011. That’s 2 per day, per state… every day, all year long.

And because of rounding to the closest whole number, 3018 are completely overlooked.

In 2005, there were more deaths by suicide than homicide.

In 2010, there were more deaths by suicide than those involving automobile wrecks.

In 2009, the United States Army identified that deaths from suicide by military veterans of the Iraq War and War in Afghanistan were

On the Importance of Human Dignity (wherein I attempt an explanation of why we’re in this mess)

It’s 2011 – very nearly 2012 – and the world seems in an uproar.

The Greek/Euro banking/debt crisis looms. The American banking/debt crisis looms larger yet.

Unemployment is at an all-time high in the United States and abroad. The Arab Spring uprising has deposed dictators in Egypt, Libya and the Middle East. Terror and anti-terror wars in Pakistan, Afghanistan & Iraq have gone on for very nearly a decade.

And the stateside Occupy Wall Street movement has become an international phenomenon with sit-ins/camp-outs/protests/demonstrations in Canada, and other nations, while general labor strikes in London have been, or will be ongoing amidst riotous demonstrations and worldwide unrest which have the potential to destroy any nation’s status quo.

Climatological changes never before witnessed have the scientific community hotly debating whether such changes are cyclical, or whether they’re induced. All the while, the polar ice caps continue a highly-documented and steady erosion by melting directly underneath an ever-increasing hole in the ozone layer – which layer protects the Earth from harmful solar radiation.

Earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan and Southeast Asia – brought about by deep sub-oceanic earthquakes – have destroyed nations’ shore lines and cities in the Far East and elsewhere. Meanwhile, the intensity and frequency of hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and droughts have wreaked havoc at home in the U.S. and abroad.

And fracking – the geological practice of rupturing the Earth very deeply to force out petroleum – is rapidly becoming a commonplace practice in oil exploration efforts in the United States – which practice will doubtlessly spread worldwide.

The increasing democratization of the world enabled by the Internet and social networking tools – among them the almost ubiquitous smartphone – have brought

A Greece Fire; Thoughtful Commentary on Unthoughtful Commentary

A Greece Fire; Thoughtful Commentary on Unthoughtful Commentary

Having read Mr. Alex Tokarev’s commentary “My big fat Greek bonus” published online May 11, 12:49 PM at http://online.worldmag.com/2010/05/11/my-big-fat-greek-bonus/, I must admit that some of his concerns are, in part, well taken… however poorly expressed. Though he does not adequately support the case for fiscal prudence, the complaints he makes in general terms about fiscal prudence are well-deserved.

Though his straw man argument is inadequately defended, placing exclusive responsibility and blame upon Greek national officials for that nation’s crisis is insufficient, and certainly short sighted. However, his rambling, miasmatic complaints have not fallen upon deaf ears – although they may have fallen upon spirited ones. Excitement, however, must be directed toward a long-term objective, and it is the more broad scope which I think he ignores. While having the ability to direct the nation toward a long-term goal is laudable, he neither cites any governmental mandate. On the whole, after having read his opinion, one might wonder if he were doing little more than expressing infantile frustration, for he certainly offers no potential solution.

The Grecian debt crisis is not due exclusively to what he calls “the bursting of the statist bubble,” “welfare pyramids” or other descriptive pejoratives to describe Grecian governmental services and activities.

Though he decries “irresponsible lenders and borrowers” whom perpetuate “bankrupt political practices,” he attempts to correlate and demean both, describing what he calls a “strong culture of entitlement” as “a beast,” though he never specifically mentions any program, plan, office, group or person.

As colorful and passionate as he may feel about Greece’s problems, he failed to