Just War?

I think that in certain situations war is just.  When a group of people or area is in great destruction because of violence and dictatorship, I think it is other countries' obligation to step in and help the suffering people.  If the countries on the allied powers did not intervene in World War II, I could not even imagine what our world would be like.  For one, there would probably be no Jewish people.  When a group of people are violating another person's life, we should feel obligated to help that person and to fight for what is right and for what we believe in.  I think we could and should move toward more nonviolent resolution to conflict because we could still fight for human rights and for the protection of persecuted people without killing even more people.  I think sometimes being nonviolent is more powerful then killing a bunch of people.  When the world sees the United States being nonviolent in an issue where they think violence would be best, but we are still fighting for what is right , they are more likely to be taken back by our actions of nonviolence because that shows great strength in people.  In an ideal world nonviolent resolution to conflict would work, but because our world is composed of some many different kinds of people it would be close to impossible to sway everyone to be nonviolent.  Moving towards nonviolent ways to solve tragic issues would be moving toward a culture of life.  We would being respecting all forms of life even the people who have wronged which for some people is and would be hard to do.  Since being completely nonviolent in military affairs would be hard, we can start with abortion and the death penalty.  If we got people to start thinking about all forms of life and show a consistency of life ethics we could maybe in time change the way people think about life and human rights and then get them thinking about military violence.  We can begin to change the way we think and urge the people we love to think about all forms of life and human rights and maybe we can start a chain reaction! Lets see how far the wave can reach!

Silence begets violence?

Friday's shooting in Connecticut sadly was nothing that Sandy Hook Elementary could every prepare for.  No one anywhere could prepare for the horrors that took place on that day.  It is scary to think that any day anything like that could happen to us, but it comes to a point when we cannot have fear overrun our lives.  I think because there were so many victims of the shooting and the majority were 6 and 7 years old, this tragic event is a lot harder to deal with and it makes it so much more important to make sure something like this never happens again.  Because it happened in a cute little town where probably everyone knows each other makes it more real for us because we see that things like that can literally happen ANYWHERE.  With this shooting we must make ourselves more aware and not act so naive about horrible events.  As a society everyone should want to make a change for the better an if that feeling of change is not there respect for human life has been lost.  Wether or not the change will work we should want to change because those kids did not in anyway deserve to die and each day when I begin to forget about it, a thought pops into my head: what if that were my mom who was the principal, what if it were my sister who was a teacher there, what if it were my baby brother or sister there as a student, or what if it were my baby child killed while supposedly is a safe place.  I could not fathom losing anyone in that way and it breaks my heart everyday they now live with one less family member present in their lives.  We should as a society want to have stricter gun laws and want to make sure guns do not end up in the wrong people's hands.  Catholic Social Teaching compels us to forgive the ones responsible for they deserve equal amounts of respect.  It compels us to seek for protection of human rights for all people.  From this time on hopefully there is no where else to go but up.  Hopefully from this we can learn as a society how to prevent something this big and tragic from ever happening again.  We must continue to look for the light among the darkness that currently fills our world and we must want to make that light shine through and completely dispel the dark times that are non-avoidable in our furute.

Factory Fire

What happened in that factory is horrific. The fact that the workers were locked in the building after the fire started breaks my heart. No one, no matter their background or race, should be treated in such a way and I think that the people of the US are unaware of what happens in those types of factories. Some factory owners are all about making the biggest profit and becoming very wealthy that they will knock down anyone or anything in their way. Power and wealth lead them down the wrong path to justice. As people of the US I think we should be more educated in where our products are made. The government should take a stand against the factory owners not allow them to treat people in other countries in a bad way. With the government allowing them to do these injustices they are indirectly denying people of human rights. All people are created equal and should be treated as equals.

Dorothy Day

Saints should be determined by their sacred intercessions through human life. As miracles are performed, that man/woman should be credited for their work done through humans. The person had to have lived a life as Jesus's follower. And strive for the common good of all human life. They should have influenced others to want to live a life according to Jesus's word wether they physically could or not. It makes sense that Archbishop Dolan would support Day's journey to canonization. She lived such an influential life and was like any other person. She made real human mistakes and her conversion was what led her to live a better Christian life. This aspect of Day is most touching because it shows that just because you make really bad immoral decisions God will continue to love you and continue to live through you and your work. She allowed money and power lead the first part of her life which is directly opposite of what the Church teaches. But then she had a revelation and had a 'coming to Jesus' moment. Right then she decided that God would lead her life and she loved him and his creations with her whole self. For me to be a Catholic saint is so honoring. To know that you lived a life that people revered, but to you it was just what you believed and thought was the right thing to do. People look up to you and ask for your guidance and protection through lives because they believed you, out of millions, was a person who lived a life closest to Jesus'. As a saint you sit at the right hand of God and try to guide us to live out the message and beliefs of God our savior.

Circle of Protection

The circle of protection strives to better the lives of the poor and reduce the number of struggling people in the world. They urge people in charge to keep the poor an vulnerable in mind while making decisions and budgets. They support the creation of good jobs with good wages to help the poor get back on their feet and rise out from the depths of poverty. Both Obama and Romney discussed these issues well and presented their views clearly. First they both acknowledge the increasing struggle of the lower class and impoverished people in society. They also hope to create jobs with good wages so people can get another start and begin to obtain things that are theirs. Obama god in depth a bit more of the moral side of our decisions. How we must keep the poor in our minds and hearts when making decisions for the future of our country. This problem can be solved. It may take a while, but it begins with us to take the initiative to help our dear neighbor and create a ripple effect.

NIKE

What Jim did was amazing. He is making huge steps for human rights. The people of NIKE in Indonesia live and work in horrific conditions while people of NIKE in America live in luxurious conditions. He lived in those horrific conditions of low pay and gross housing to get hands on experience of what it is like to be a NIKE worker. The girl he was with actually got sick there and had to decide whether to buy medicine or food. These decisions should not have to be made by people. All people have basic rights and the people of NIKE Indonesia are not getting them. They are hard working and love to work, but they are being treated horribly. When Jim tried to report back to NIKE in America, the CEO did not want to hear it. He did not seem to care about the people in Indonesia as long as his company was making as big of a profit as possible. It is horrifying to see people think this way; to completely disregard the human rights of others for money. Money guides the thoughts of some people in the world and when it does it leads to horrible events.

God's Plan

God's plan for humanity makes so much sense! Examples throughout the bible support his plan. He gave human beings a share of his divine life, human beings are religious beings, and he created human beings to live in loving communion with one another. When he created the first humans, they shared in God's divine life but then the fall occurred when they committed the first sin. They invited sin into our life which will forever be tempting humans. With sin God gave humans a chance with his several covenants to give people a second chance. This preparation was for Christ himself. With Jesus walking on the earth and sharing in our human life is out of this world. He came in order to save every human and give them a chance to be free from sin. With his death and resurrection he freed us all from sin. The church is a great place for us to experience these beliefs. We are able to receive God's grace through the sacraments and the church is a great place for us to experience the reality of sin among members. My favorite line from the reading says 'thus the church on earth is an imperfect taste of the perfect communion that awaits us in the kingdom of God.' With all o the sin in the church we are able to see that sin is a real thing and everything isn't perfect in the world, but as we are accepted into the kingdom of god we will enjoy the perfectness of God's love.