General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMerry X-mas
One Christmas Eve, in the early 1980s, two of my associates and I handed out a flier to people coming out of various houses of worship. It was at a time when the US was directly involved in the terrible violence in Central America. Although Reagan was, at the time, the public face of the administration, his VP -- Bush the Elder -- was running that show.
Death squads in El Salvador, under the leadership of sociopaths trained in the US, had raped and killed four American nuns, and murdered Archbishop Oscar Romero as he said mass. Romero was, in my opinion, one of a small percentage of Christians who channeled the spirit that is often called Christ or God.
Our flier quoted the lyrics to John Lennons classis, Merry X-Mas -- War Is Over. In between the verses, we put a message about the extremely anti-christian US involvement in the wars in that region of the world.
99% of the people we greeted with the flier were polite, and interested in what our message was. Looking back, I can sum the message up this way: that community was home to a defense industry plant that was making the weapons used to savage the communities of innocent people in Central America. Among the victims were children. On the eve of a holiday that celebrates the birth of Jesus, it makes sense to consider what he had to say, both about children, and those who do harm to children.
One person was outraged by the flier. A former military chaplain, he now was served as the priest of the communitys Catholic Church. He ordered us to leave the area where we were handing out the fliers, or he would call the police. By chance, a town cop was coming out of the church; he told the priest that we were well within our rights. A few older women told the priest he needed to read the flier carefully, for it delivered a christian message.
The following week, I had a couple phone calls from the angry priest. He asked what I would do if he handed out pornography from (my) porch? I asked if he had a collection of pornography?
The next time I saw him was a few years later. I was investigating the suspected (eventually confirmed) sexual abuse of a vulnerable teenager. The bishop from Albany would step in, and save the priest from facing legal consequences.
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
The texts from various world religions speak of the value of children. Prophets from Jesus to Gandhi noted their natural enlightenment. King used children to rouse the conscience of the nation. Only the harshest of cultures could condone the cruel treatment of children.
We have thousands of children crossing into the United States in the southwest. The majority of them are coming from the very countries that the Reagan-Bush (the Elder) devastated in the 1980s. The violent conditions that causes these children to seek safety in the US are direct results of the USs corporate/military policies.
US citizens with social consciences recognize that this is a serious crisis. They want to offer safety and comfort to these children. Those suffering from moral rabies have identified these same children as the enemy. In their paranoid thinking, these children pose a threat to what they demand is a christian nation. Their misplaced rage is being directed at little children.
In the 1980s, as older D.U.ers will recall, many of the churches across the USA began offering sanctuary to the people fleeing the violence in Central America. The media today rarely, if ever, makes mention of this today. Yet it stopped much of the Ronald Herod Reagan administrations attempt to deport those human beings they called illegal aliens.
In my opinion, it is important that all people of good will take a stance on this issue. We must confront the shadowy tide of hatred that is infecting people today. I believe this is especially true for those who identify themselves as Christians. For, if Jesus was serious in what he said, each of these innocent children is, in fact, Jesus. I believe that.
Please write/call/e-mail your elected representatives. Write letters to your newspapers. If you belong to a church, advocate that it take a stance on this issue.
Thank you for your consideration.
Peace,
H2O Man
malaise
(269,157 posts)I was wondering if the likes of Negroponte are still involved.
US policy in Central America tends to be ignored by the media; hence, citizens don't have a clue. For example, in the Obama v Romney debates, there wasn't a single question or comment about Central America.
The only US presidents in my lifetime that attempted to treat that region with the respect it deserves were Kennedy and Carter. Other than that, it's been business as usual.
Hekate
(90,793 posts)I hope you will receive a more enlightened response than my short OP requesting a change in terminology did.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025213503
Terminology affects attitude and behavior both.
Busses full of "illegals" get greeted by large moronic apes screaming "USA! USA! USA!" Call children "illegals" and it brings out the police. Call them "refugees" and it brings out the Red Cross. Call them "unaccompanied minors" and social services shows up.
Louisiana1976
(3,962 posts)H2O Man
(73,605 posts)Our culture dehumanizes people with words like "illegals." How in the hell can people turn their back on children?
The coldness of the hearts of these "patriots" is an accurate measure of our social pathology.
scarletwoman
(31,893 posts)I have not forgotten who was responsible and what they wrought. I am glad you brought this reminder.
Thank you.
Louisiana1976
(3,962 posts)El Salvador and the rest of Central America either. What gets me was how Reagan was so popular when he shouldn't have been.
scarletwoman
(31,893 posts)Because it was so very easy to not know what was really going on. It always takes extra effort to get at the truth - and very few want to know it.
H2O Man
(73,605 posts)Reagan's numbers sank pretty low, especially as the Iran-Contra affair(s) were being exposed. Today, too many people are under the impression that he was far more popular than he really was.
scarletwoman
(31,893 posts)how it really was.
Obviously the corporate media is the major offender here, in a nation of people hypnotized by their TVs. If it's not on TV, it didn't happen.
H2O Man
(73,605 posts)His whole being was a small-screen image that was projected onto an audience that remembered him as a b-minus grade actor, and spokesman/host.
To a large extent, he knew that that. But George W. Bush believed he was the embodiment of the role he played. Terrible human beings, both.
scarletwoman
(31,893 posts)"20 Mule Team Borax" commercials. Nice, harmless guy, right? Wore a cowboy hat. I watched that show faithfully when I was a kid.
Of course, by 1980 I was 30 years old, and knew it was all phony.
By 2000 I was 50 and utterly appalled by bush*.
But people are apparently suckers for cowboy hats.
babylonsister
(171,090 posts)will help. I think I'll share this, if that's okay.
H2O Man
(73,605 posts)It's nice that you asked, though we've been friends so long that you really don't need to.
Thanks!
babylonsister
(171,090 posts)H2O Man
(73,605 posts)WillyT
(72,631 posts)H2O Man
(73,605 posts)Much appreciated.
Uncle Joe
(58,417 posts)Thanks for the thread, H2O Man.
H2O Man
(73,605 posts)niyad
(113,552 posts)I remember that my favorite newspaper from that period -- "Overthrow," published by the Youth International Party -- had an edition with a photograph of children and youth's heads on a table in El Salvador. I had considered bringing that to show the priest, to see if he thought it was pornographic.
locks
(2,012 posts)I had good friends, progressive Christians, who went to Central America in those days and came back to tell us what was happening in the civil wars there and what a disaster the Reagan Doctrine was. We backed the bad guys just as we have done so many times because they were fighting "communists." It was a terrible, dangerous time for the children then; now the violence is rampant again and we seem to have no answer except to send them back to it. I hope Christians will ask What would Jesus have us do?
The September 1987 edition of National Geographic includes a photo and information about when a delegation of chiefs from the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy went to Central America, to advocate for the Native Peoples being victimized by the Reagan-Bush policies. It was a tense time.