TO LAUGH OR CRY

          No matter where you are on the political spectrum, it’s disturbing to see what’s happening on the campaign trail.  As a lifelong Democrat and a strong Obama supporter, I should be cheering to see Governor Romney self- destruct.  But, as an American, it’s hard to take too much comfort in that because I can’t help but think:  What if Romney won?

          That’s a scary thought, but it’s not out of the question.  And Obama supporters who think it’s all over and they can rest on their oars haven’t been paying attention to the dynamics in politics.  There’s a large segment of America that likes the loony comments that Romney has been making, whether it’s in relation to the 47 percent of Americans who are allegedly dependent on Government handouts or his comments on the Middle East.  Both of these are sad and laughable on their face.  But talk to your neighbors or see what’s posted on Facebook.  Or just read the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal.  You’ll get a different perspective.

          Moreover, look at the polls.  The President is still nip and tuck in a head-to-head battle with arguably the weakest Presidential candidate in recent memory.  Pundits will say:  Given the state of the economy, the Republican candidate should be way ahead at this point in the campaign.  True, but I keep thinking:  With a clueless candidate like Romney, the President should be a shoo-in, regardless of the economy.  But he’s not and this race is going down to the wire.

          And, don’t ignore the racial factor in the Presidential race.  People go crazy when I bring this up, but to ignore it would be to ignore the obvious.  Case in point:  Check out the best sellers in Politics and Current Events on your Barnes and Noble or Amazon websites.  They are dominated by right-wing conspiracy folks writing entire books on how President Obama has destroyed America.   Not just the usual Right vs. Left or the role of Government in American lives – perfectly legitimate discussions – but the murkier stuff about how Obama really doesn’t understand America because he’s a “Kenyan anti-colonial.”   After all, how could he understand America?  He who may not even been born in America (that’s still out there in big numbers) and who spent a large part of his youth in Indonesia, with the largest Muslim population in the world.  That sort of stuff.  About as subtle as a train wreck.  But it works in that dark political demi-monde of racism and bigotry.

          And then, among other factors, you have Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu getting involved in the Presidential race in hopes of electing his friend Mitt Romney.  He is doing this by demanding that the President draw a “red-line” with respect to the Iranian nuclear buildup.  To his credit, the President is ignoring the demand for perfectly good reasons – good for Israel as well as for America.  And he won’t run up to New York to meet “Bibi” at the upcoming United Nation’s session either just to pander to Jewish-American voters.  Despite the fact that he may be the strongest Presidential supporter Israel has ever had, the President wants to be and to be seen as an honest broker in the Middle East.  Contrast this with what Romney has said about the Palestinians – that they really don’t want peace in the Middle East.

          So, given all these factors and more – including further uncontrollable problems in the Middle East and the huge amount of campaign money Romney has at his disposal to buy ads and television time in the waning weeks of the campaign – President Obama is anything but a shoo-in for re-election.

          But, if President Obama’s supporters need any further incentive to stay engaged and on point, I have two words for them:  President Romney. 

Gerald E. Lavey   

HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL

          The opening two days of the Democratic Convention went extremely well, with bravo performances by First Lady Michelle Obama on Tuesday and President Clinton on Wednesday.

Still, it struck me as sad and ironic that here we are in 2012, not 1912, where a major political party has to spend the opening day of its convention reassuring women, who comprise 51 percent of the electorate, that they count and that they should be equal to men. Of course, it was necessary to raise the issue to underscore the sharp contrast between the Democrats and the GOP on women's issues.  For some reason, though, this political women's issue made my mind drift from U.S. politics to reflecting on the status and role of women in society, particularly in organized religion, specifically Catholicism and Islam, and how much more needs to be done to ensure women's equal rights. 

 Let’s start with my own beloved Catholic Church, and I don’t use the term “beloved” cynically.  Sadly, women are officially not equal in our church.  There’s no way to sugarcoat that reality; the Vatican from time immemorial has not regarded women as equal to men.  Period.  Cardinal Carlo Martina, recently deceased Archbishop of Milan, said in his final interview before his death that “the Church is 200 years behind.”  With respect to women’s place in the Church, I would submit that is a modest estimate.

          By the way, Martini was not a renegade prelate on the brink of excommunication.  He was once considered a strong candidate to become Pope and, according to the BBC, he “commanded great respect from both Pope John Paul II and his successor Pope Benedict XVI.”  He just enunciated what most of us Catholics have felt for a long time.  So, it was encouraging to hear his message.  Long-time friend Dave Schultenover, a Jesuit priest, writes:  “Somewhere in all this I do believe that the Holy Spirit is preparing the Church for a conversion that gets us out of Medievalism … into the 21st century.”

Happily, there are other hopeful stirrings of change in the Church and U.S. Catholic nuns are leading the effort.  The fact that Sister Simone Campbell, “one of the Nuns on the Bus,” was a speaker at the Democratic National Convention was tremendously heartening.  Just the fact that she was there was huge.  And, of course, even better that she used the podium to denounce the Romney/Ryan budget plan because of its harmful impact on the poor and the disadvantaged.  But, that is only part of the story.

This is the same Sister Simone Campbell who earlier this year organized a nine-state bus tour to highlight the important service that nuns provide in poor communities across the country.  While the tour was used to critique the Ryan plan, it also was a brilliant response to the Vatican smack down of nuns earlier in the year.  In April, the Vatican sharply criticized the nuns for challenging church teaching on homosexuality and the male-only priesthood, and promoting “radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith.” 

Instead of bowing and scraping and retreating to the chapel to pray privately for these misguided Vatican apparatchiks, they let it be known publicly that enough was enough and that they were not going to back down.  Later, a major nuns’ organization underscored that message when it announced it was ready to sit down with Vatican representatives to discuss the charges, but made it clear that it wasn’t willing to compromise the nuns’ mission of serving the least among us.  It was a brilliant stroke.   Game on.

Before any Catholics get giddy with the prospect of fundamental change, however, they must remember that change in the Catholic Church usually moves at a glacial pace.  Still those of us old enough still remember the sudden impact that “the interim pope,” Pope John XXIII, had on the Church in the 1960’s and the difference that made in our lives to this day.

Likewise in Islam, women are leading the effort to provide equal rights for Muslim women and that is even a much steeper climb than it is for Catholic women.  Still, when you read a book like Isobel Coleman’s “PARADISE BENEATH HER FEET: How Women are Transforming the Middle East,” it gives one heart.  Women are working in communities in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan, to create educational and economic opportunities for women, write Coleman.

Like nuns in Catholicism, Muslim women are going about promoting change smartly – not by burning their hijabs or aping the ways of Western women.  In the process of improving women’s education, they are delivering the message that women’s subservience is not the result of the Prophet Mohammed’s teaching, but the result of ignorant patriarchy and tribalism.  And they are making inroads, even among some men.

That said, patriarchy and tribalism -- whether in Islam or Catholicism or in politics -- are strong, entrenched forces that die slowly and not without a fight. Still, there are stirrings of hope, and hope, as the saying goes, springs eternal.

Gerald E. Lavey