Each year about this time, as the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday approaches, I recall with pride and gratitude the opportunity I had some 45 years ago to see and hear Dr. King speak up close and personal.
It was in 1964 or 1965 when I was teaching at Campion Jesuit High School in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. Fr. Jim O’Connor, a friend and fellow Jesuit, mentioned that Dr. King was speaking the next evening in Davenport, a 50-60 mile trip across the Mississippi River into Iowa. He wanted to know if I wanted to go with him and, of course, I jumped at the chance.
The setting was one of those typical church-sponsored rubber chicken and mashed potato affairs attended by two to three hundred people. After dinner, when it came time for Dr. King to speak, I remember having to push my chair back and twist my body so I could get a better view of him. He spoke for probably 15 minutes, and at the end when I stood up with the others to applaud, my back seized up because I had not moved a muscle the whole time he was speaking. He was that mesmerizing.
Since I worked in Washington for more than 40 years, I had the opportunity to see and hear six or seven Presidents at various different occasions — ribbon cuttings, swearing-in ceremonies for Cabinet members, White House south lawn ceremonies, and one White House press conference — but none is nearly as memorable or cherished as the Dr. King speech. I count that experience as one of the great moments of my life because he was clearly one of the most important public figures of the 20th century. Not only did he champion the cause of civil rights, but he did it through non-violence, in a way that summoned the better angels of our nature and helped America own up to one of its most solemn pledges.
Most know Dr. King only for his work on behalf of African-Americans, but it went beyond that. As Taylor Branch, author of the trilogy on King, noted in a WPFW radio interview this week, King also fought for a more balanced immigration policy, among other causes, and was deeply involved in promoting the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. This law established a more level playing field, away from a bias tilted heavily in favor of Western Europeans to allow more immigrants from Asia, Latin America, and other parts of the world.
Earlier this week, after listening to President Obama deliver his extraordinary speech in Tucson calling us back from the dark side and once again appealing to the better angels of our nature, I couldn’t help but think of Dr. King. He would have been proud.
Gerald E. Lavey
Friday, January 14, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
America, We Have a Problem
This morning, even before the birds were up but not before my wife drove away to school at 5:00 a.m., I sat in the kitchen with a cup of coffee reading the Washington Post, whose front and editorial sections are still heavily focused on the Tucson shootings. There was a déjà vu quality to the reporting, like I had been there before. And, I had – and so have you.
So, I put the paper down and began to list from memory the number of major political figures I can recall in the last 150 years or so of American history who have been killed, injured, or shot at …. Undoubtedly, with a Google search, the list would be even greater. But here is my top-of-the-head list.
•Presidents assassinated: Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William&; McKinley,and John F. Kennedy.
•Presidents injured by gunfire: Former President Theodore Roosevelt running as Bull Moose candidate in the 1912 campaign; and President Ronald Reagan.
•Presidents who were the targets of overt failed assassination attempts:President-elect Franklin Roosevelt (Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak took the bullet instead); President Harry Truman, the target of Puerto Rican terrorists at the Blair House where the President was living while the White House was being renovated; and President Gerald Ford.
•Presidential candidates or hopefuls who were killed or seriously injured by gunmen: Governor Huey Long of Louisiana; Senator Robert F. Kennedy; and former Alabama Governor George C. Wallace.
•Major political and/or religious leaders who were killed: Martin Luther King, Jr. And, now U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords is struggling for her life in a Tucson hospital after being shot in the head, and a U.S. District Court judge and a 9-year old girl lie dead.
•On top of this, in a 2009 book IN THE PRESIDENT’S SECRET SERVICE, author Ronald Kessler says that threats against President Obama had increased 400 percent from the 3,000 or so per year under President George W. Bush.
Frankly, I cannot think of any other major country that has had nearly that many political assassinations or attempted assassinations over roughly this same period. Can you? For the sake of argument, let’s go through a partial list: England, France, Germany, Spain, Greece, Portugal, the Netherlands, the Scandinavian countries….
What does this list say about us as a people, as a country? Scholars and pundits — of which I am neither — are struggling with this same question. But, when you couple these political shootings with the high-profile incidents at Columbine, Virginia Tech, the Holocaust Museum, the shootings at the Capitol, and the more recent rampage at a Millard, Nebraska, high school, it suggests to me — at a minimum — that WE have a serious problem, and eventually WE have to do something about it.
And, I would suggest, we should start by SERIOUSLY discussing the ready availability of hand guns and automatic weapons, and the climate of political hatred from both Right and Left that makes the use of these weapons more likely. Neither of these is a fresh or novel recommendation, to belabor the obvious, but entrenched political positions on all sides, touting free speech and the 2nd Amendment, ultimately prevent us from doing anything about them. In fact, it seems this country has a problem these days having a serious, civil discussion of almost ANY major issue.
This latest shooting is another wake-up call, but I fear the current political climate is anything but favorable for effective follow-up. So, we’ll probably keep kicking this can down the road until the next shooting, the one after that, and the one after that….
Meantime, any country that considers itself the greatest nation in the world and fashions itself a shining city on the hill while ignoring this issue is deluding itself.
Gerald E. Lavey
So, I put the paper down and began to list from memory the number of major political figures I can recall in the last 150 years or so of American history who have been killed, injured, or shot at …. Undoubtedly, with a Google search, the list would be even greater. But here is my top-of-the-head list.
•Presidents assassinated: Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William&; McKinley,and John F. Kennedy.
•Presidents injured by gunfire: Former President Theodore Roosevelt running as Bull Moose candidate in the 1912 campaign; and President Ronald Reagan.
•Presidents who were the targets of overt failed assassination attempts:President-elect Franklin Roosevelt (Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak took the bullet instead); President Harry Truman, the target of Puerto Rican terrorists at the Blair House where the President was living while the White House was being renovated; and President Gerald Ford.
•Presidential candidates or hopefuls who were killed or seriously injured by gunmen: Governor Huey Long of Louisiana; Senator Robert F. Kennedy; and former Alabama Governor George C. Wallace.
•Major political and/or religious leaders who were killed: Martin Luther King, Jr. And, now U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords is struggling for her life in a Tucson hospital after being shot in the head, and a U.S. District Court judge and a 9-year old girl lie dead.
•On top of this, in a 2009 book IN THE PRESIDENT’S SECRET SERVICE, author Ronald Kessler says that threats against President Obama had increased 400 percent from the 3,000 or so per year under President George W. Bush.
Frankly, I cannot think of any other major country that has had nearly that many political assassinations or attempted assassinations over roughly this same period. Can you? For the sake of argument, let’s go through a partial list: England, France, Germany, Spain, Greece, Portugal, the Netherlands, the Scandinavian countries….
What does this list say about us as a people, as a country? Scholars and pundits — of which I am neither — are struggling with this same question. But, when you couple these political shootings with the high-profile incidents at Columbine, Virginia Tech, the Holocaust Museum, the shootings at the Capitol, and the more recent rampage at a Millard, Nebraska, high school, it suggests to me — at a minimum — that WE have a serious problem, and eventually WE have to do something about it.
And, I would suggest, we should start by SERIOUSLY discussing the ready availability of hand guns and automatic weapons, and the climate of political hatred from both Right and Left that makes the use of these weapons more likely. Neither of these is a fresh or novel recommendation, to belabor the obvious, but entrenched political positions on all sides, touting free speech and the 2nd Amendment, ultimately prevent us from doing anything about them. In fact, it seems this country has a problem these days having a serious, civil discussion of almost ANY major issue.
This latest shooting is another wake-up call, but I fear the current political climate is anything but favorable for effective follow-up. So, we’ll probably keep kicking this can down the road until the next shooting, the one after that, and the one after that….
Meantime, any country that considers itself the greatest nation in the world and fashions itself a shining city on the hill while ignoring this issue is deluding itself.
Gerald E. Lavey
Saturday, January 8, 2011
The Continuing Embarrassment of Uncle Harry
Every family has one — let’s call him Uncle Harry: A family member whom everyone wants to see go away, but he shows up at every family gathering, loud, full of himself, and usually drunk. Although largely irrelevant for years, he is the only one who doesn’t know it. He’s one of those know-it-alls who won’t change his mind and won’t change the subject. A major family embarrassment, whom the family puts up with because … well, he’s family.
This image occurred to me as I picked up the latest issue of the National Catholic Reporter and saw where Bishop Thomas Olmstead of Phoenix is back in the news. You may recall, as reported here (“Power Corrupts; Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely”), the bishop declared Sister Margaret Mary McBride automatically excommunicated when she and other Catholics at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix assented to terminating an 11-week pregnancy. The decision was made when it was determined the woman’s life was in mortal danger if she continued the pregnancy
Bishop Olmstead is having none of this. He is now demanding the hospital agree with him in writing that the procedure was an abortion and comply with other demands. If the hospital doesn’t fully comply, he says, he will strip the hospital of its Catholic status. There is no “tie in this debate,” the National Catholic Reporter reports the bishop as saying. “Until this point in time, you have not acknowledged my authority to settle the question.” He says his action is necessary “to repair the grave scandal to the Christian faithful that has resulted from this procedure.”
The only scandal, in my mind, is the rock-headed authoritarianism of the bishop who is a continuing affront and embarrassment to many Catholics around the country, including this one. To her credit, Sister Mary Margaret McBride is maintaining her silence. She doesn’t need to say anything. He’s said it all.
Once again the Catholic Church is made to look foolish, and that is not the Catholic Church many of us still believe in despite the continuing idiocies of many of the hierarchy. The Catholic Church I choose to focus on is the one recently touted in a USA Today article (“Why Catholicism is Good for America”) by non-Catholic Tom Krattenmaker, a Portland based writer who specializes in religion in public life.
“Under the weight of these problems and others, some are probably more convinced than ever that it's time for the Catholic Church to fade into history. But as a non-Catholic paying attention to the church's travails, I am struck, too, by the steadfast faith of the Catholics I know, and the principled public witness of the Catholics on the ground — the nuns, community activists, volunteers and everyday parishioners who keep on keeping on in the face of adversity.”
Gerald E. Lavey
This image occurred to me as I picked up the latest issue of the National Catholic Reporter and saw where Bishop Thomas Olmstead of Phoenix is back in the news. You may recall, as reported here (“Power Corrupts; Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely”), the bishop declared Sister Margaret Mary McBride automatically excommunicated when she and other Catholics at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix assented to terminating an 11-week pregnancy. The decision was made when it was determined the woman’s life was in mortal danger if she continued the pregnancy
Bishop Olmstead is having none of this. He is now demanding the hospital agree with him in writing that the procedure was an abortion and comply with other demands. If the hospital doesn’t fully comply, he says, he will strip the hospital of its Catholic status. There is no “tie in this debate,” the National Catholic Reporter reports the bishop as saying. “Until this point in time, you have not acknowledged my authority to settle the question.” He says his action is necessary “to repair the grave scandal to the Christian faithful that has resulted from this procedure.”
The only scandal, in my mind, is the rock-headed authoritarianism of the bishop who is a continuing affront and embarrassment to many Catholics around the country, including this one. To her credit, Sister Mary Margaret McBride is maintaining her silence. She doesn’t need to say anything. He’s said it all.
Once again the Catholic Church is made to look foolish, and that is not the Catholic Church many of us still believe in despite the continuing idiocies of many of the hierarchy. The Catholic Church I choose to focus on is the one recently touted in a USA Today article (“Why Catholicism is Good for America”) by non-Catholic Tom Krattenmaker, a Portland based writer who specializes in religion in public life.
“Under the weight of these problems and others, some are probably more convinced than ever that it's time for the Catholic Church to fade into history. But as a non-Catholic paying attention to the church's travails, I am struck, too, by the steadfast faith of the Catholics I know, and the principled public witness of the Catholics on the ground — the nuns, community activists, volunteers and everyday parishioners who keep on keeping on in the face of adversity.”
Gerald E. Lavey
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