Home Sweet Home

   Gaston Hall at Georgetown University has a special place in my heart, soul and memory because of some service held there in conjunction with my law school graduation over 25 years ago so whenever I get an invitation to go back to listen to any lecture or for any event I am honored,  humbled and can't believe such a magnificent place exists each time I go there.

   Today was a particularly beautiful day because Georgetown has launched  with a lecture a Global Initiative cross -disciplinary series in which they will address through study, research, and lectures the pressing issues of the day on Development, Governance, Security and Environment/Global Climate Change/Warming.

Georgetown was founded of course originally by a Bishop and staffed with a bunch of French Jesuits,  things I am extremely fond of- Jesuits and French people. Staring at the wall in the front waiting for the World Bank Group President to address the collection of academicians, community leaders and supporters and students, I noticed for the first time the words painted at the top of the wall spelled "WISDOM" and painted just below that "Ad Majorim Dei Gloriam."   The later phrase is the Jesuit mantra meaning all for the greater glory of God. The two phrases go together- the greatest wisdom is found in action, contemplation, study, and all activity done for the greater glory of God. That was nowhere more evident than today when the President of Georgetown Jack DeGoia presented the President of the World Bank Group, Dr. Jim Kim, who spoke without notes for a solid long stretch on how the Bank is combatting global pandemics (Ebola, Aids, etc.)  and poverty. Here is where practical real world "Kingdom Come" work meets the wisdom of two college Presidents (the World Bank President was President of Dartmouth prior to coming to DC).  Georgetown has a mission to make the love of God real for the whole world which in a real practical sense involves saving it. And here was the gauntlet laid down for all listening, attending, blogging from afar and watching on c-span or wherever those cameras were from: THIS IS THE GENERATION THAT CAN ERADICATE POVERTY IN THEIR LIFETIME. It is possible. And the World Bank President dares everyone to coordinate in a cross disciplinary way to do it.  Dr. Jim Kim spoke about how much health efforts in Africa keeping people alive in the face of global pandemics have helped the economies of countries affected by Aids and Ebola outbreaks.

     The World Bank President has an American accent, and was  raised in Iowa (where my grandparents were from).  Its probably my (admitted) American bias that I assumed he wouldn't have an American accent but a Korean one just from photos I saw of him. I recognize that form of perhaps not so subtle bias, but Dr. Jim Kim wants us to recognize a far more insidious form of unsubtle bias, a mind-mold that says we can't do anything to save millions of Africans, so why try. It's Africa after all. He is brilliant, also an infectious disease medical doctor and he noted that it was possible to successfully treat people if you asked basic questions like are the drugs that cure or manage this on or off patent, can they be made generically cheaply (In India??) rather than be resigned to not treating people because of the cost of western drugs. He isn't a man who takes 'can't' for an answer.

    Georgetown is a beautiful place. Not just because of the softly falling snow on the lawn that will sprout rose bushes in the Spring, but because of the Spirit of the people there who involve the best and the brightest around Washington to challenge people to think what is possible, what is worthy and what can we do together to change the world to bring His Kingdom on Earth as it is in Heaven.

  Someone pinch me. World Bank Group President meets Georgetown President under a wall painted "WISDOM" .  God must be smiling.

 

Outfoxed • Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism • FULL DOCUMENTARY • BRAVE...

#JeSuisCharlie - JB Bullet

Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes

Freedom of the Press and people who can't take a joke.

   The French equivalent of masked gunmen storming with bombs and rifles Comedy Central headquarters and assassinating John Stewart, Stephen Colbert and John Oliver happened in Paris.
The Charlie Hebdo cartoonists were the French national heroes of political satire sacred cow lampooning.
An entire press office was blasted off the earth. This has been called France's 9-11.

Whoever did this heinous disgusting atrocity regardless of motive are the lowest life form that ever existed. As Satire is essential in and to democracy it seems an assault on democracy itself.

Former French Justice Minister Robert Badinter has called the editorial cartoonists France's 'soldiers of liberty.' Massive crowds have gathered all over Paris intoning "Je Suis Charlie" in solidarity. Candles are lit, banner waiving and chanting is heard around Paris' classic landmarks in protest.

Tomorrow France has declared a National Day of Mourning.

The Washington Post will publish some of Charlie Hebdos cartoons in solidarity.

Statements of condemnation of the acts have issued from no less than the Pope, French Imams,
President Hollande, Obama, NY Governor Cuomo and many other dignitaries who appreciate the gravity of the act.

We don't know the motives of these gunmen for certain or whether they acted on their own or were put up to it by someone or thing. But we do know what happened which is enough to say how very sad
and sorry that Paris and France experienced such a nightmare.

What do you say to a country when such an event takes place. Our thoughts and prayers are with you. Be Brave. Do not be Afraid. We are with you. Yes, all of that. Transatlantic hugs, wish we were with you now, prayers for your safety and peace.

Most of all we wish to say however awkwardly diplomatically, We Love You Still and Always Will.

Je Suis Charlie Comme Toi.

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The Fix Is In

Cried the Public

   at the apparent outrage of a number of white police officers trying to subdue a large black man (african-american, dark skinned american, whatever term is now descriptive and non-perjorative) in New York on Staten Island with one officer gripping him in a 'choke-hold' while another sat on him as he gasped 'I can't breath' over and over again.

     While it was difficult to believe in the Ferguson matter that a 12 person grand jury reviewing for months facts that made it look like a self-defense or fleeing felon causing danger claim could be valid, in this case, even the most hardened of conservatives are speechless. Its on video. And the only person who is being prosecuted is the videographer! Even the holy trinity of blonde talking heads, Ingram, Kelly and Sustern must be scratching their dark roots going "how do we spin this one!!" John Stewart says tragedy and time makes humor and bemoans "I need more time" to process something so wrong.

  New York is no stranger to questionable police profiling. Only recently have they started amending under Court order the 'stop and frisk' abuses that had many innocent blacks saddled with records for 'walking while black' in the wrong street at the wrong time. Blacks were stopped, rudely questioned and roughed up so the police could make their chits while stunned families saw their family members randomly picked on just to inspire terror it seems in the community. Legal battles (and an iphone recording creating evidence of one smart kid) made people look at it differently and forced change. Perhaps better community policing entails building trust not terror. A new paradigm.

   The recent no-bill return on indictment for the white cop with his tatooed buddies thrusting to the ground with his neck in a vice grip chokehold (a violation of police policy apparently) has more people on the street shouting "I Can't Breathe!" And suddenly it looks like modern day lynch mobs dressed in badges.

   The facebook post that got a lot of attention last night seemed to say it all: "America, You Are Broken." When its open season on black guys standing on the street because they are black guys standing on the street who may or may not be engaging in petty crimes-to be either shot dead, or choked to death or otherwise bullied into an early grave, what kind of country is this? The whole world watches us and shakes their head. How can a people so great, so innovative, so industrious, so creative, not fix this. Where is the political will? Why is this situation tolerated? Who are you people!

   One of my favorite Jesuit priests, Fr. James Martin, who has a family member in law enforcement, penned something poignant worth sharing here that I agree with one thousand percent:

You can support our country's police officers, as I do. I know a few police officers (as well as a former police officers) and I deeply admire them for putting their lives on the lines every day, something that I do not do. (Remember the police officers who sacrificed their lives, or who were ready to sacrifice their lives, on 9/11.) You can believe that the vast majority of law-enforcement officials are trying to do their best in often extremely complicated situations. I see that almost every day in New York. You can appreciate sometimes nearly impossible challenges of dealing with the volatile and dangerous people they must encounter. I see that too almost every day in New York. And you can understand that many of their decisions must be made in a split second, under the kind of pressure that few of us will know.

You can think all those things and still be appalled by the death of Eric Garner, who died after being subdued by police officers on Staten Island. His confrontation with police was captured on video and has been widely viewed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1ka4oKu1jo

At the beginning of the video, Mr. Garner seems belligerent. On the other hand he had, according to witnesss, just broken up a fight on the street. He was also under suspicion for selling "loosies," loose cigarettes, which is illegal. But Mr. Garner was also unarmed, and the chokehold or "vascular neck restraint" (or whatever one calls the maneuver shown in the video) and other subduing techniques led to his death. "The compression of his chest and prone positioning during physical restraint by police," read the coroner's cause of death. (Chokeholds, by the way, are banned by the NYPD.)

As the video clearly shows, Mr. Garner, on the sidewalk, gasping for breath, chokes out the words, over and over, and calmly, "I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I can't breathe." And then he dies.

You can admire police officers and still admit that they made a tragic mistake. You can support the justice system and still feel that justice has not been done . You can uphold the rule of law and still feel that the law is not being applied justly.

And if Mr. Garner had indeed just broken up a fight--being a peacemaker, as Jesus calls us to be--then it is an even more brutal tragedy.

I'm not a police officer, so I don't know what that life is like. I'm not an African-American, so I don't know what that life is like either.

But when a man says, "I can't breathe," you should let him breathe. And if he dies after saying it, then you should have let him breathe.