Senator Kennedy's Letter to Pope Benedict

I haven't written much about the death of Senator Ted Kennedy. Today was his funeral in Boston and graveside service at Arlington Cemetery. We had a busy personal day with a whole series of activities that kept us away from the television for most of it.

But one moment we happened to see really captured my attention. It was the text of a letter Ted Kennedy wrote to Pope Benedict, just a few weeks before his death. Personally delivered by President Obama during his early-July audience with the Pope, it was read at the graveside by Cardinal McCarrick.

It seems worth passing along, precisely because of its honest and poignant reflection on life, death, politics, faith, and the desire of a dying man for some kind of closure.

You might like reading it too. The full text of Cardinal McCarrick's remarks are here. The portions of the letter he read are below.

To Pope Benedict XVI, from Senator Ted Kennedy:

"Most Holy Father, I asked President Obama to personally hand deliver this letter to you. As a man of deep faith himself, he understands how important my Roman Catholic faith is to me, and I am so deeply grateful to him.

"I hope this letter finds you in good health. I pray that you have all of God’s blessings as you lead our church and inspire our world during these challenging times.

"I am writing with deep humility to ask that you pray for me as my own health declines. I was diagnosed with brain cancer more than a year ago, and although I continue treatment, the disease is taking its toll on me. I am 77 years old, and preparing for the next passage of life.

"I have been blessed to be a part of a wonderful family, and both of my parents, particularly my mother, kept our Catholic faith at the center of our lives. That gift of faith has sustained, and nurtured, and provided solace to me in the darkest hours. I know that I have been an imperfect human being, but with the help of my faith, I have tried to right my path.

"I want you to know, Your Holiness, that in my nearly 50 years of elective office, I have done my best to champion the rights of the poor, and open doors of economic opportunity. I’ve worked to welcome the immigrant, to fight discrimination and expand access to health care and education. I have opposed the death penalty and fought to end war. Those are the issues that have motivated me and have been the focus of my work as a United States senator.

"I also want you to know that, even though I am ill, I am committed to do everything I can to achieve access to health care for everyone in my country. This has been the political cause of my life. I believe in a conscience protection for Catholics in the health field and I will continue to advocate for it as my colleagues in the senate and I work to develop an overall national health policy that guarantees health care for everyone.

"I have always tried to be a faithful Catholic, Your Holiness, and though I have fallen short through human failings, I have never failed to believe and respect the fundamental teachings of my faith. I continue to pray for God’s blessings, on you and on our church, and would be most thankful for your prayers for me."

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Health Care Blog

Since Health Care is in the news, and since some folks who commented on my blog yesterday seem hungry for a serious discussion of the issues, I remembered a blog I wrote last year on Health Care and the Federal Government.

You can find it here.

Why it took me two months of current national health care debate to remember this, I have no idea. But I just went back and re-read it, and it still reflects much of my thoughts and feelings on both the role of government and the issue of health care.

Actually, the first part of the blog is about the role of the Federal Government. Part of why our nation doesn't agree about the "solution" for Health Care, is that we no longer have basic agreement as to the role of the Federal Government.

As the blog suggests, for over forty years, we've lived with political leadership who are constantly denigrating the role of the government and even the work of decent, ordinary government workers. This cynical and fatalistic view, espoused best by Ronald Reagan's short quip that "government is the problem," must be confronted and overcome.

Without that basic agreement --that government has at least *some* positive role to play in society-- there can be no real health care "debate."

I put forward my thoughts on the issue, using my faith as the compass for my moral views.

The second part of the essay is from an ER doctor, and is a quite good description of what is wrong with health care today.

Hope you find it helpful.

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It Wasn't That Long Ago

Set aside your beliefs about health care for a moment.

Friends, things are getting out of hand with respect to respect for the President. Things are getting out of hand with respect to the things people are saying about Barack Obama. Things are getting out of hand with respect to their actions.

I have written about this before, now and then, and I write about it again today because I am genuinely concerned. And, as a pastor who believes in peace and nonviolence, as Jesus did, I am imploring everyone to do anything in their power to change the situation.

First, it was the presidential campaign and the outrageous claims that Barack Obama was a foreigner and a Muslim.

Remember that?
Remember how talk show hosts on the right wing fanned those flames?
Remember how Hillary Clinton did too? (when she answered the question "Is Barack Obama a Muslim?" with "Not that I know of.")
Remember how, as the presidential campaign went further into the Fall, the "Town Hall" the McCain/Palin campaign fanned the flames of such paranoia and hate? Remember how it boiled over outside town halls?

Here's a reminder, a short clip of the scene outside a McCain/Palin townhall in Denver Colorado last Fall:



Note the little girl, probably very near my own daughter's age, who pantomimes monkey gestures, in clear reference to an Obama cut-out that someone off camera is holding. She later walks by the cutout, saying "Look...the monkey from Tarzan!"
What kind of parent allows that?!

Watch how another man punches the cut out. Watch how others scream: "Communist!" "Terrorist!" "Where's his turban?" and "He's got a rag on his head!" and finally "God may not be on my side, but Satan is on your side."

Maybe you didn't see this video when if first came out.

But, friends, it wasn't that long ago.

Remember when finally John McCain had the courage to stand up at one of these meetings and say "no more?"
Here is the video of McCain showing real courage:



Friends, it wasn't that long ago.

Then, it was how people didn't believe that Obama was an American.

Remember that?
Remember how right wing talk shows again fanned the flames, including nationally syndicated shows, like Lou Dobbs and Glenn Beck?
Remember how members of congress, even when shown copies of his legitimate birth certificate, would not admit on national television that he was a citizen?

It culminated just a little more than two weeks ago, when Republican members of congress were attacked by angry constituents, waving their own birth certificates and claiming Obama was not a citizen. Here's the video, in case you've forgotten:



It wasn't that long ago.

Then, it was the lie that Obama wants to kill old people. This was coupled, of course, by outright vitriolic and rude reactions in town hall after town hall meeting. Watch Sean Hannity gleefully "go to the tape" to show the reaction against health care at one town hall:



Note how, nowhere does he reject the rude, angry, heckling behavior. Even if he opposes health care reform, one would expect him to reject that kind of behavior.

It wasn't that long ago.

Now? Yesterday? In the wake of all this vitriol spewed at Obama *personally,* we read that no less that TWELVE armed citizens brought guns to a town hall meeting featuring the President yesterday.

Watch footage from Chris Matthews interviewing a Rep. Gringrey (Rep) about why folks are bringing their guns:



A few observations:

1) These folks are wearing their guns (and even semi-automatic weapons) openly. They are TRYING to be provocative, and TRYING to make a statement. I know and respect gun owners greatly. And I know that many of the gun owners I know would be horrified to see these men waving their firearms around in public.

2) Matthew's question is salient: Why bring a firearm to a town hall with the President? You're not going to be able to bring it in. I can tell you from watching presidential motorcades in previous times, the President is the most heavily guarded human on the planet. HE doesn't need the protection. Why do it?

When you string all the previous together, the only reason I can see is that somebody is attempting to provoke the lunatic fringe. Talk Radio, certain elected officials, and many other silent co-conspirators, are attempting to speak code to the lunatic fringe. They are secretly hopeful that somebody WILL use their gun, and WILL kill President Obama.

Don't believe me? Remember this from Fox News some months back:



Again, notice how the host does not immediately challenge Liz Trotta for saying this highly offensive joke. (Full disclosure: she did later apologize. on air...)

Remember that?

It wasn't that long ago.

Don't believe me? Might you believe Frank Schaeffer? He is the son of one of America's most prominent fundamentalist ministers. He absolutely believes that all of this mounts up to a "coded message." Take a look:



Why am I bringing this up?

Because if there IS a "coded message" here, the only way to speak against it is to speak up loudly and forcefully against it. Because I've been saying this over and over again.

Because some of us remember John Kennedy. Members of the church I serve remember the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination and how the pastor of Northaven at the time, Bill Holmes, preached a sermon decrying the culture that pervaded Dallas at the time. He cited tangible examples of how Dallas had become an intolerant place and suggested that, while Dallas didn't "kill Kennedy," the culpability for that intolerant society did rest on all who lived here then.

For this, he got death threats and had to go into hiding. No kidding.

BTW, sort of proves the point of his "Dallas in an intolerant city" claim, doncha think?

Some folks I see regularly remember that time. And they see eerie and frightening parallels to what's happening around America right now. Step back from the past year, and ask yourself where this is all going. Where, if not directly to an assassination attempt, or militant uprising, does anybody think this is going?

Enough is enough.

Once again, as I have before, I call on all persons to stop the hate-mongering. If somebody brings a side arm to a Presidential rally, denounce it. If somebody calls the President a Nazi, a Socialist, a Muslim, a Foreigner, a Monkey, denounce it. If somebody lies about the facts of a policy decision (such as the lie about "Death Panels") denounce it. If somebody refuses to stop telling those lies on national media: boycott them. If somebody seems to condone violence against the President, or behaviors that could lead others to take up violence, reject them.

Because this is getting out of hand. Seriously.

And some of us remember that in another time when conservatives could not control their lunatic fringe, a lone crazy --acting on his own, but living in the stew of cultural venom that pervaded this city as the time-- killed an American president right here in our city.

It wasn't that long ago.

(As always, if you like this post, then "like it"  or "share it" on Facebook by clicking the box below, or send it to your friends...so others can see too...and leave a comment...EF)  
 

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Disorganization: My Savior

While I was in Colorado on vacation last week, I stumbled on this short Facebook essay by Sofia Echegaray. There was something about it I found absolutely lovely; something about that beautiful combination of creative accident, preparation, and (as Sofia says here) paying attention.
As they say in Zen, "Don't just do something, stand there."

There's something to taking "time off" and "time away" that sometimes can make all the difference. For example, why, when you're learning a new song, can you struggle one night and then find it's a breeze the next morning? (Actually, Radio Lab answered this sometime back. I'll see if I can find it...)

We all desperately need to not just be in fifth gear all the time. Sometimes, we need to coast. Sometimes, we need to turn off the engine entirely.

Anyway, something about being in Colorado, spending a week away from TV, and most of a week offline, really touched me in these words.

So, what follows is Sofia's essay. Thanks to her for writing it!

EF


Disorganization: My Savior
by Sofia Echegaray
(Borrowed from this original source)

I was all set to write a post praising the heroes who helped to make my treatment and health possible: Louis Pasteur, one of the fathers of germ theory and vaccines, and Alexander Fleming, who first isolated penicillin. People often wistfully long for the olden days, but as someone who has had scarlet fever, strep throat, impacted wisdom teeth, and lyme disease (and who has *not* had: whooping cough, measles, mumps, polio, etc.), I am thrilled to be living in the age of germ theory, antibiotics, novocaine, and childhood vaccinations.

At any rate: I was going to write about these Great Geniuses who helped to save my bacon. But, as much as I owe to them, I seem to owe as much to the August vacation. Louis Pasteur went away for vacation in August, told his assistant to infect some chickens with cholera, his assistant flaked out and went on vacation too, and a month later they infected the chickens with the now-decrepit bacteria. The chickens didn't die: that's how they figured out that a weakened form of bacteria could provide immunity against the real thing.

Decades later, Alexander Fleming went away on his August vacation. When he returned, he saw that one of his staph samples had been contaminated with some sort of fungus, and the fungus had killed the staph. From this, and from other peoples' research: penicillin.

These are both filed under the heading "Happy Accident," and it appears that much of the world's progress in science, arts and so forth have happened because something somewhere went a little screwy. Actually, it's a combination of A) something going a little screwy and B) someone being alert enough to recognize an opportunity. ("Chance favors the prepared mind," is the well-known phrase.)

Another example of this: the chocolate chip cookie. Not a lifesaving miracle drug, but certainly next in line for praise and adulation. According to legend, Ruth Wakefield invented the chocolate chip cookie by accident -- she had thought the chips would melt completely and make chocolate cookies. Because of her botched experiment, we are all happier people.

Anyways: All Hail the discoveries of the world .... and August vacations...and screwing things up a little from time to time!

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