 |
Add to My Group
I hear dead people talking
By Eileen Fleming (about the author) Page 1 of 7 page(s)
For OpEdNews: Eileen Fleming - Writer
"And, in the end, the love you take; is equal to the love you make." -The End by The Beatles
Physical
work is hard. Mental work is harder. Spiritual work is the hardest of
all for it is a solitary suffering that requires an endurance that can
only be fueled by a burning love for God and God is within All.
Dorothy
Day lived a diverse 83 years that culminated in 1980. She spent her
youth amongst anarchists, communists and bohemians, in bars, on picket
lines, in jail cells and through many unhappy love affairs. She ended
life with a mile high FBI file and a paper trail that testifies that
what she wrote, she believed, she did and lived.
When Dorothy
Day was a child she dreamed of writing "such books that thousands upon
thousands of readers would be convinced of the injustice of things as
they were."
She accomplished that and in the end; much more.
As
an unwed mother she shocked her progressive friends when she entered
the Roman Catholic Church, and from the inside, she began to critique
it. She called herself a journalist, but she was also a spiritual
writer and a St. Francis of Assisi-a lone prophetic voice of wisdom
that challenged church-and state-and illuminated their corruption of
the gospel/good news that Jesus said was non-negotiable for his
follower's; to be NONVIOLENT, to forgive in order to be forgiven and to
love even those who do not love back.
In a 1994 issue of The Progressive,
Erwin Knoll reported "the day after the Japanese attack on the U.S.
naval base at Pearl Harbor [was] a day when even the most committed
pacifist might have been forgiven for maintaining a discreet
silence"There was nothing discreet about Dorothy Day."[1]
On
the Sunday after Pearl Harbor, Day spoke out, "There is now all this
patriotic indignation about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and
Japanese expansionism in Asia. Yet not a word about American and
European colonialism in this same area. We, the British, the French,
and others set up spheres of influence"control national states-against
the expressed will of these states-and represent imperialism"We dictate
to [all] "to where they can expand economically and politically, and we
declare what policy they must observe. From our nationalistic and
imperialistic point of view, we have every right to concentrate
American military forces [Everywhere we chose]"But I waste rhetoric on
international politics-the breeding grounds of war over the centuries.
The balance of power and other empty slogans inspired by a false and
flamboyant nationalism have bred conflict throughout 'civilized'
history.
"And it has become too late in human history to
tolerate wars which none can win. Nor dare we quibble about just
wars"All wars are, by their very nature, evil and destructive. It has
become too late for civilized people to accept this evil. We must take
a stand. We must renounce war as an instrument of policy"Evil enough
when the finest of our youth perish in conflict and even the causes of
these conflicts were soon lost to memory. Even more horrible today when
cities go up in flames and brilliant scientific minds are searching out
ultimate weapons.
"War must cease. There are no victories. The
world can bear the burden no longer. Yes, we must make a stand. Even as
I speak to you, I may be guilty of what some men call treason. But we
must reject war: Yes, we must now make a stand. War is murder, rape,
ruin, death; war can end our civilization. I tell you that within a
decade we will have weapons capable of ending this world as we have
known it." [IBID]
In the pages of the all volunteer The Catholic Worker,
which Dorothy Day founded, she advocated nonpayment of federal income
tax as a protest against war and nuclear weapons. She stood her ground
against Big Brother and corporate interests girded by her love for the
NONVIOLENT Christ and under conviction that if the gospel that Jesus
actually preached was practiced, it would transform the world.
In
the 1950's an IRS employee asked Day to estimate her personal income
tax for the previous ten years. She quipped, "You estimate my income
for the past ten years, and you estimate what I owe. And how about, I
won't pay that?"
Not until 1972 did the IRS bring another
suit against Day's newspaper and also issued a threat to put it out of
business. Dorothy responded:
"One of the most costly protests
against war, in terms of long-enduring personal sacrifice, is to refuse
to pay federal income taxes which go for war"Wars will cease when we
refuse to pay for them"Our lives are open books-our work is
obvious"Christ commanded His followers to perform what Christians have
come to call the works of Mercy: feeding the hungry"visiting
prisoners"And how opposite that is to the works of war which starve
people by embargoes, lay waste the land, destroy homes, wipe out
populations, mutilate and condemn millions more to confinement"Here in
the Western Hemisphere, we went for precision bombing [reference to
Hiroshima and Nagasaki] we went for obliteration bombing.
http://www.wearewideawake.org/
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
 Contact Author |
Contact Editor |
 View Authors' Articles |
by Kevin Gillan
$80.00
Lowest New Price $74.49
Number of pages: 256
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
by Danny Duncan Collum
$5.95
Number of pages: 3
Publisher: Sojourners
by Dave Hann
$15.50
Lowest New Price $2.67
Number of pages: 283
Publisher: Milo Books
by David Helvarg
$16.00
Lowest New Price $15.82
Number of pages: 512
Publisher: Sierra Club Books for Children
| 1 comments |
Want to post your own comment on this Article? 
|
||||
|
||||||||||||||
Must Read (0) 
Well Said (0) 
News (0) 
Touching (0) 
Funny (0) 
Supported (0) 
Interesting (0) 
Inspiring (0) 
Valuable (0) Tell a Friend:
|
Copyright © 2002-2009, OpEdNews |
