Fall has crept in while we were sleeping! All of a sudden I am saying “good-bye” to our dear friends who live in warmer places in the winter. It makes me sad to see them go. It’s a bitter sweet time for me. I love the change of seasons and fall is probably my favorite time of year as I look forward to cozy fires in the fireplace and hunkering down with cats in my lap and a good book and yet fall is clearly the hardest season for me since it was autumn when my beautiful daughter died. The rhythms of life that have always been so comforting take on a different sorrowful meaning. I live in the tension of both wonderful and deeply painful memories, as I am sure many of you do as well.
Every time I watch Jim Lehrer’s News Hour as they close the show in a ritual of respectful silence while the young faces of American soldiers that have died in Iraq fill up the screen, I am stopped in my tracks. It never fails to bring tears to my eyes as I am reminded of the excruciating pain of losing a child. I can’t help but think about the poor parents and family and friends left behind and about the tragic waste of a promising young life. Over 3,387 Americans have died in Iraq since the start of the war, not to mention the Iraqis who have died, and some people are asking, “Where is the rage?”
The Social Action Committee of People’s Church committed recently to join the “Where is the Rage?” campaign that is being sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee, Veterans for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, United for Peace and Justice, Military Families Speak Out, Gold Star Families for Peace, American Friends Service Committee, the Unitarian Universalist Association, the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, National Priorities Project, No More Victims, and Code Pink.
No one is saying we shouldn’t support our soldiers in Iraq, quite the opposite.The goal is to bring them home safely. It is possible to separate the “warriors from the war.” I am a pacifist, though I wish I had the courage to live my life with such strong conviction. I believed Gandhi when he said, “Violence begets violence.” I listened to Sister Helen Prejean when she told me that until the United States gives up state-sanctioned murder as its ultimate form of punishment we will never stop the violence that pervades our society. Martin Luther King broke the silence of clergy during the Vietnam War and was criticized heavily at first. King said, “A time comes when silence is a betrayal.” Turns out, he was right and he lived and died for what he believed in.
This month, I will wrestle with the tension of wanting the war to stop and with the real consequences of the deep hope for peace in my life, and for peace and justice in every person’s life all over the world. I am an idealist. Some of you have different views about the war and I respect your views. I invite your thoughts as we devote the month of October to the cause of peace in the world. Please write down your thoughts and send me emails or letters, or call me. I want to hear from you.
The Hebrew prophet Micah asks what is required of us? His answer is that we are called, ”to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God.” How we “do justice” is what we will wrestle with. I invite you to participate fully in this conversation. With our covenant in place we can safely delve deeply into the places where we might disagree with the deep conviction that “we don’t have to think alike to love alike.”
In faith and love,
Cathy