The Other GERMAN Marx

CARDINAL MARX The German Cardinal from Munich, Cardinal Marx spoke this week at Georgetown's Berkeley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs. click for article on his call for a social market economy.He's a large humble man who said surprising things like "The image of God is in the electors of Obama" as if to scold the religious right who deem anything Democratic on the other side of morality. His message was straight out of the Gospel. We have to make the world better- a simple notion- and one that does what Christ told us to do- take care of the poor all around the word for in that we will find our redemption. Basically, he noted that it is not a satisfactory solution to let Greece go to the dogs and evict them from the European Union noting then other worse catastrophes with other European states will follow. Italy is not in much better shape in their debt profile and Spain and Portugal are on life support. It is easy to see why this man was one of the youngest to be appointed a Cardinal- a very kind, thoughtful German intellectual with a human warmth that made you want to go knock down a few big fat German beers with him at the Tombs. When were you hungry, thirsty, in prison, ill, naked? The disciples asked Jesus- And he replied as we all know- in as much as you do to the least of these my brothers, you do it to me. Jesus expressed total solidarity with the totally down and out. So that is our task. And it is in keeping with that task that Obama is trying to provide medical help via insurance reform to the most poor. Most destitute. That percentage whose medical bills bankrupt a family. Those who don't get cancer treatment because they wait too long until it is too late because they fear the medical bills. I may disagree with the actual individual mandate on Constitutional Commerce Clause grounds, but I don't disagree with the general mandate to provide health care for the poorest. When I went to law school Georgetown cost a quarter what it does now. I knew people who took out student loans then and worked jobs while in law school to pay for their books before everyone had a laptop. You could say there were two classes of students-the ones so wealthy from families so wealthy that their dads bought them condos while in school, they dressed like a party every day, they ate out all the time, vacationed in St. Moritz over Christmas and they drove their Mercedes and parked it in the school building. Then there were the students who lived like graduate students, in group houses on the Hill who counted every penny, took unpaid internships or worked while in law school and lived off the Raaman noodles special at a three pack for a dollar all week wearing the same jeans four days a week. I imagine that the Chancellor of Washington, DC was in the first category because she actually thinks and regularly says that because you can get contraception at $9.00 a month that challenging the freebie deal doesn't affect accessibility. She has clearly never been poor or hungry or had a job where her choices were buy a newspaper that day or get yogurt for lunch. $9.00 a month does work out to with tax about $120 a year, which is more than a week's summer salary for some law student stipend internships. So Sandra Fluke was actually correct in the economy of the situation if that is all it costs and I challenge the premise. If you are making zero income because you are in school, (might even have a student loan over  your head) and your choices are $9.00 a month on contraception and $9.00 on a box of Raisin Bran and milk, chances are you are going to chance it on the contraception and prefer to eat in the morning. $9.00 a month gets you 27 Raaman noodles which is basically a month of dinner. Do you buy contraception or eat for a month? If your income is Zero while in school, you look at $9.00 differently than you do if you are Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Washington making six figures off contributions for what? This is something that I don't think the Chancellor or any of the American Cardinals who have never wanted for a meal actually appreciate. The church pays very well its clerics. Better than a lot of the congregations actually live these days given the unemployment rates and decimation of the middle classes across the country. Obama is trying to live the Gospel the way he understands it. Hence, his appeal.

  Catholic clerics in America have to have some bennies to make it palatable for all else they give up- so they often live like yuppies with i-phones, cars, have housing paid for on top of salaries, full medical and dental coverage use laptops and any electronic gadgetry they need, and get invited to dine with families so regularly they don't even really need to buy their own groceries often. They don't have solidarity with the poor even in poor communities in America. Cardinals in America live in luxury. They run multimillion dollar tax free budgets.  They have no empathy whatsoever with young student women involved in relationships where they fear pregnancy. It is why people feel free to dismiss their moral objections so easily. No Cardinal knows the anxiety of a late missed period.  The lawsuits are an insult.