Pray and Fast and Give Alms for Peace

The Syrian crisis is as complex as anything one might imagine.  Here are some of the key points from the past four years alone.  Suffice it to say, 250,000 individuals have died and 11 million have been displaced from their homes.  Every once in a while we get worked up over a picture, because a picture as the saying goes, is worth 1000 words.  Nikki Haley held up pictures asking how many children have to die before Russia cares? I'd change the word Russia to world.

Seeing people dying in a horrible quick fashion that is frightening, that makes us want to take action.

This sort of horror, like the picture of the boy washed up on the shore, like the picture of the boy in the back of the ambulance, somehow gets us more invested than say, this picture:

or this one: 

Which makes us want to change the channel because we can't wrap our heads around it and don't have a symbolic action we could do which would let us go back to not paying attention. 

So remember folks, you can kill with indifference, denial of humanitarian aid, bullets and bombs all you like, but if you do a chemical weapon drop, we'll send missles.  Please, go back to killing and oppressing your people in less emotionally gripping and disturbing ways.  To avoid further strikes, only oppress and kill in ways which are approved by other civilized nations.

I'm sorry if that sounds too sharp to some ears. I'll concede it might deter Assad from authorizing further flights from airbases he contols to drop chemicals on civilians who do not favor his regime, but it also might draw us into a high stakes conflict with Russia, since Russia suspended an agreement of military cooperation between the US and Russia, since Russia is an ally of the existing Syrian regime. Additionally, while surgical strikes provide symbolic relief, no one even pleased with the US response, believes this limited action will result in the regime having a change of heart.

While I hope the missles got the places that hold chemical weapons, no one should feel comfortable that the US sends drones or missles into countries where we have not declared war or been given sanction to act in a military fashion or that Russia has promised to bolster Syrian air defense systems and is sending a frigate to monitor Syria's port to the Mediteranean.  It has the feel of brinkmanship, and not "the art of the deal." Military action, like all other things we do, ought to be the result of reflective, deliberate policy and thoughtful examination.  This act, (in contrast with the talk up until last week), is reflexive and reactive.  I didn't like it with the past presidents, I still don't like it.  

So what do we do as we watch powers and principalities play out a game of live chess with real people?

If we remember, back when war with Syria seemed inevitable in 2013, Pope Francis asked the Church to pray and fast for peace.  Somehow, the U.S. need to go to war which seemed unavoidable, evaporated...overnight.

Perhaps it is time to make that request again, and this time, add alms giving in the form of each parish taking on a family. If the Pope asks our fellow Christians and Muslim and Jewish brothers and sisters to each take on a family at each church, each mosque, each temple, we will be able to whittle that picture of endless despair down, and perhaps help prove there is another way to address "such relentless hate," by riding out to meet them.  Problems aren't intractable just because they're difficult to resolve. Problems remain intactable because people refuse to be moved or to move. What is required is embracing the cross.  Somehow, we have to know, if we are Catholic, everything always requires embracing the cross.   Somehow, we have to know, peace isn't the merely absence of conflict.  Anyone who ever had a silent fight knows how a house feels when two people aren't getting along.  On a global scale, we can't know peace when we wilfully ignore suffering so as to "get along."

What we keep forgetting, as individuals and whole peoples, is when we ignore a problem because it is hard, it gets bigger.  It's true with weight. It's true with debt.  It's true with education. It's true with politics.  It's true with everything that matters in life.  When we ignore problems because they are difficult, we eventually wind up ignoring people.    We need to take on this crisis we've ignored. 

How?

We can eliminate the humanitarian crisis by helping one family at a time, via one community at a time.  Risk is always involved when we reach out to a stranger, to an other, whenever we offer love but to do otherwise, is indifference (which is the simplest path and what we've done as a world whenever we thought we could).  We've tried indifference. It has lead to where we are now, with millions searching for room in the inn of the world, pictures of the dead and the dying and stories of suffering, waste and pain with no respite.

Here's some links to ways we can get involved.
Seven Ways to Help Syrian Refugees.

How to Get Congress to Act to provide relief to Syrian Refugees.

Here's one more, which has some of the same information but is still worth reading as I'm pleased it's from a secular source: How to Help.

Petition your bishop, your pastor, and your friends to encourage everyone to do the same.  As we prepare for Holy Week, we ought to ramp up our prayers, fasting and alms giving, storming Heaven, asking for the peace the world cannot give.   If we show we are not living as this world would have us, but as the next, perhaps we can have better pictures and better stories to tell.

So Pray the Rosary for peace.
Fast as penance for all the pain we've created via neglect, indifference and not being willing to act,
and give alms, so they will know who we are.

It may seem unreasonable to pray for peace in such a wartorn and conflicted country. How could it possibly happen? That's okay. God loves unreasonably.  We can be unreasonable with God in our prayers, and God wants peace for these people, for all of us, even more than we do. It may seem crazy to give alms when there are so many in need. How could our little be sufficient?  That's okay. Give what you can. God will do the multiplying. He's done it before.   It may even seem scary to take on caring for people of a different faith, people we don't know, and to invite them into our lives. Again, that's okay. 

Love is always unreasonable, generous and courageous.  So be unreasonable, generous and courageous.  This week, this about to be Holy Week, be love.  

The Real UnFake Super Serious Threat to the US that is US

So this weekend, the President made writing humor easy when he mentioned the uptick in crime to Sweden, and pundits and newspapers and countries pounced on his mischaracterization of the increase as a form of terrorism.

However, researchers here at Chocolate for Your Brain dug beneath the easy headlines to discover a true national security threat: a threat we've refused to acknowledge despite the danger, a threat we have in our homes, a threat we wear, we drive, we eat, and which is as insidious as an earworm from Momma Mia.

That's right.  we're talking about imports from Sweden.

Now the ambassador has offered to brief the President on how things stand in Sweden, but honestly, what else is the ambassador from Sweden going to say?  They won't acknowledge the danger their export culture brings to our shores, so Chocolate For Your Brain will.  (Being patriotic and all that).

For those who don't know how much hails from that land of Bjorn Borg, we present to you, the top ten threats which must be stopped before further infesting American culture. I also never knew about a site called Highsnobiety, which gets points for the name alone. 

10) H&M clothing.  Designed for people who cannot float because they ski cross country to work, and have less than .002% body fat.  Even the mannequins are sucking in to look good.  For the sake of not shaming all of us Americans who now have the luxury of three different types of Big Macs to choose from on the dollar menu, this particular shop and all its ilk must be stopped at the border. 

9) Swedish Meatballs.  I know, it's in Babylon 5 and the nerd in me wants to give it a pass for that reason alone, but really, I'll put it this way.  Even the Country Buffet which has everything (my daughter's favorite restaurant), doesn't have this on the menu.  So if you're hosting any Narns, you'll have to make your own.  However, again, in the interest of keeping Earth Narn free, it would be best to nix any bringing of this dish onto Yankee soil. 

8) Stockholm Syndrome.  Why?  Because there is no vaccine and so before we catch it maybe we can get the current administration to ban it. He might if we told him, there's no vaccine, or maybe if we told him there was one.

7) ABBA Covers.  There is only one ABBA, and all others are just profiteering. 
Cue music! 

6) IKEA.  I know bringing this up is like shooting Swedish fish in a barrel, because everyone's got an Ikea story.  Nothing ever looks like it does in the store, and no one can ever build them properly.  I suspect there is always a missing instruction which would be available if anyone read Swedish or Norwegian or Danish (which are reportedly similar according to PopSweden.com).  For the sake of our already overtasked, overwhelmed brains, we need less hassle, ergo, this has got to go.

5) This guy may already be in trouble (baring continued intervention by the courts), since the Muppet revamp didn't take and there doesn't seem to be a high demand for his type of cuisine, not even by visiting Narns. 

Stereotyping is bad, so he should be Robert Borked Borked Borked Borked.

4) Besides, I suspect he is the original creator of these.  They are my daughter's favorite candy.  Somehow, I find this disturbing. They look like they should not be edible.

In the interest of fairness, the website is entertaining.

3) If anyone based on class and national origin should be banned, it's this guy.  He comes armed.  He comes with full intent to pillage, and he hasn't been funny in years.  Also, as a preventative measure, it's vital he be sent back to his native land, lest the mentally bankrupt genius types in Hollywood decide we need a CGI generated version of Hagar and the Lost Tribe for our summertime entertainment.   So for the safety of our people and the good of humanity in general, let's say "Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, Hey...Hej da."

2) Volvos and SAABS.  Why?  First, they're Swedish and the whole issue is to isolate the threat brought by particular countries correct?  That's the plan, so why not?   Second, Volvos and Saabs do not follow the American Car product model of planned obsolescence. They last.  That's...UnAmerican, not getting a new car every three to six years.  Think of the jobs in finance, in retail, in sales, in repairs, which go unfilled because the Swedes have the audacity to create machines which don't break down.   Besides, I'm running out of ideas that aren't universal enough to exploit for humor's sake.

1) Actors with names involving more than six vowels or who have an umlaut or krouzek. We have enough trouble with just how many consonants these Swedes employ.    Americans struggle with the schwa.  We don't cope well with things that make our English look less processed than our cheese.  This shouldn't be too much of a problem since Hollywood is threatening a strike.   We'd name them but we can't because we don't know how to spell names with an umlaut or a krouzek and we wouldn't want to give them publicity anyway.

*As a final editor's note, sure, you could find alternative sources of information which say none of these things should be banned, but that would require research, critical thinking and above all, judgment.  We're making it easy and digestible for you here.   Why?  Because we love you and we're patriots.

All that other stuff that says nothing is rotten in Sweden, that's all just fake news.  You shouldn't listen to it really.  

Questions

For all who cannot discuss the current resident of the White House without taking blood pressure medication, I have a few questions.  Not to worry, I have some for those who feel it necessary to be defenders as well.   I will probably zero out my followers, my statistics, and eliminate all friends and possibly family when I'm finished.   President Trump seems to have a gift for creating a wall in a metaphorical and philosophical sense, if not in reality.   No one is luke warm.

Question #1:  Regarding the election.  Why would Trump claim election fraud if he was aided by the Russians in securing the office?  Why would he even bring it up?  Caveat, you can't claim he's sly like a fox  and dumber than a bag of hammers in the same breath.

Question #2:  How would targeting the DNC and hacking into their system, affect the election?   I get that the CIA and FBI and Obama administration and members of congress briefed on the matter all agree, Russia backed Trump and attempted to hack into the DNC and gather information from said emails to support him.  I can't say leading up to the election, that I saw any public/media based information to indicate Trump would win.  Here's the best and most complete discussion I've found on the issue. 

Question #3: If through harrassment, public social media trashing, and extreme vetting as it were, all individuals tapped for the task of leading a cabinet are destroyed, as are their families, only the unscrupulious and the lone wolves will be left, those who need not worry or care about public opinion.   How do we attract people of good character to the administration, if their character even solely by association with President Trump, regardless of their own personal faults or history, becomes instantly the social and moral equivalent of slime, putriousness and muck?  How do we preserve our government if as a people, we think it is okay to destroy people when we disagree?How do we get anyone to be willing to serve, if the cost is all peace all the time?

Question #4:  I know people who are convinced, the President should be impeached. On what grounds?  Here's a reasoned discussion, and here's a fact check of what's happened thus far, and here's what keeps people I think feeling keyed up...a quick google reveals nearly an article a week from a major media outlet, Politico, Huffington Post, Salon, Independent, and Chicago Tribune since the election, either advocating it happen or declaring it's a slam dunk certainty.  As I recall, there was a great anger over the use of impeachment on the President (Bill Clinton) as it could be used to weaken the executive branch and should not be engaged for mere political points.  This goes back to the real question, why should he be impeached?  On what grounds?  Most people are willing to say yes, I will take the consequences when there is no sacrifice on their side.  My question is, what are the consequences if this tool is used in this manner?


Question 5:# What would be the principle which would break the social contract between the government and the people?  If we chaffed (and many of us have) at executive orders under Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, and Obama, we ought to still be agitated now.  We ought to recognize, if conservative principles mean anything, they can't be abandoned when it is convenient.  (See article I cited above).

Here's one of the better articles I've read recently discussing the issue of how necessary priciples are before politics or politicians. 

Question #6: What are the principles we're going to cling to regardless of party?  Regarless of power?  What will we stand for?  If we're going to be a good people, and not merely prosperous, we can't let parties determine our moral values.  Parties have only one objective, power.   Principles are the first thing to go when the option is principle or power.  

Question #7: Are we only talking and not listening?  Are we only saying, "It's our turn now?"  The goal of checks and balances, of divided government, of a democracy, is to create the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people and to be as universal as possible, as fair as possible, as ideal as possible.   Are we?   If not, why not?

It will require of us a higher level of vigilance with respect to this and every subsequent executive who takes power.  We can't only listening to those who agree with us or presume those who disagree are either ignorant or willingly deceptive.  We also have to not go nuts everytime something is said which seems outrageous.  In other words, "Verify, then trust."   That goes for the executive, legislative and judicial branch and media.