The waiting and dread are over, and we have begun the war. And even if you believe that it is justified and moral, this is a time for mourning: for the soldiers and civilians who are dying, for the terrified Iraqis experiencing “Precision Shock” in Baghdad. For the people of Basra, where the Red Cross […]
Iraq
Posted inNews & Opinion
No war on our watch
Right now you may be thinking it’s over. The neo-cons who’ve long wanted the US to smash Iraq, only the first act in their global tragedy and domestic farce, have won the day. The Telepromptee, sounding like the Lyndon Johnson of “Come, let us reason together,” has uttered the fatal words. It doesn’t seem […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Reader feedback 3.19.03
Pleas for peace On a recent trip to Laos, it was with great shame that I saw the results of the US bombing during the Vietnam War. US pilots indiscriminately dropped more than 250 million cluster bombs, hitting schools, hospitals, and temples, killing thousands of innocent people. Historic sites are filled with bomb craters; ancient […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Reader Feedback 2.26.03
The Iraq war, people with guns, more Buddhist dialogue
Posted inNews & Opinion
The union under a radical president
Read more about The State We’re In in the Cover Story section The state of the union is one of rising unemployment and a growing number of people with little or no health insurance; of reckless energy use and the trashing of the environment. Of a growing disparity between rich and poor, encouraged by the […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Reader feedback 1.29.03
Luring 20-somethings, Israel and Palestine,
war and peace
Posted inNews & Opinion
Thou shalt not kill
Shortly after the September 11 attacks, a few figures in Rochester’s Christian community recognized a void in the local response to the tragedy. As the country cocked its collective fist and prepared to exact bloody revenge on a global scale, several secular organizations in the area had quickly released statements urging restraint. “Some of […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Reader Feedback 12.4.02
Preventing the war, Cobbs Hill views, the US and violence
Posted inNews & Opinion
Documented arrogance
On July 18, 1870 — the day before France declared war on Prussia — the First Vatican Council met for a vote on papal “primacy” and infallibility. There were “533 Fathers on hand, and all but two voted placet [yes],” writes Father Robert F. McNamara in his history of the Rochester diocese. Rochester Bishop Bernard […]
