Sports and Hebron

“Sports is one of the least effective resisters to the machine” wrote cultural critic Lewis Mumford 50 years ago. Spectator sports drains people’s attention from  society’s great questions, substitutes an ersatz identification with “our team” and genuinely arrests our personalities at an adolescent level. Who really cares how Leafs are faring when the climate is burning down?

Last week I attended a Leaf game and had to endure another tribute to soldiers.What pray tell has this got to do with the game? This is how much Don Cherry our national philosopher has infiltrated our Canadian consciousness. When not bashing Europeans he’s plugging an immoral war.

If I wanted this nonsense I’d go to the Moss Park Armouries not the ACC.

The premier American sports writer Dave Zirin, a man who never gives a free pass to the bloated pro athletes, their infrastructure and their depoliticized fans brings this sick item  to our attention.

The New York Mets are allowing the Hebron Fund, a Brooklyn-based non-profit supporting violent and racist Israeli settlers living in the West Bank City of Hebron, to hold a fundraiser at Citi Field on November 21st. The Mets have to date refused to cancel the Hebron Fund dinner despite a letter from 11 US, Palestinian and Israeli organizations documenting that the Hebron Fund, by supporting Israeli settlements in Hebron, violates international law and the Obama administration’s call for a freeze in Israeli settlement construction in Occupied Palestinian Territory. The letter also demonstrates that the Hebron Fund actively promotes racial discrimination against Palestinians, and it supports, at least indirectly, violence and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homes in Hebron.

In a tragic irony, the Hebron Fund dinner is being held directly above the Jackie Robinson Rotunda at Citi Field. Jackie Robinson broke the barrier of racial discrimination in baseball and his legacy is actively promoted by the New York Mets and Major League Baseball.

 

A faux Remembrance Day

Remembrance Day is to end all wars. Hard to take Stephen Harper and his poppy seriously when he keeps sending kids to die in Afghanistan, Paul Martin’s sop to the Americans. Hard to take Remembrance Day seriously when we have a war budget—$20 billion over the next 15 years. That buys a lot of infrastructure and health care and who pray tell is going to attack Canada?We’ll never be a serious warrior culture.We were an excellent peacekeeping brigade. We could have been in in Haiti rather than that historical trap

Eamonn McCann recently wrote:

And it should be remembered, too, that the vast majority of the fallen are Afghanis. But pride? Ought they not rather be remembered with anger? Just as we should recall the unnumbered dead of World War One not with reverence but with rage? Then, as now, young people fresh-faced from school were flung to their death like fistfuls of chaff for no cause that any working-class person had an interest in. The millions died so a tiny elite could rule the waves and rob the world.

The purpose of the poppy is to sentimentalize this slaughter, to conceal a crime against humanity under a cloak of soft emotion.

Wilfrid Owen’s reminder:

DULCE ET DECORUM EST₁

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares² we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest³ began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas!⁷ Gas! Quick, boys! –  An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets⁸ just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime⁹ . . .
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud¹²
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest¹³
To children ardent¹⁴ for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.

8 October 1917 – March, 1918

Ft. Hood

Russell Longcore writes:

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Part of PTSD is the mental anguish military personnel experience when they have done unspeakable things in war that conflicts with their moral code. How do you live with yourself when your actions caused the deaths of women and children who never did anything to deserve death? How do you cope with seeing thousands of people bombed out of their homes and turned into refugees? How do you cope with seeing your buddies blown to bits by IEDs? How do you deal with the disease, displacement and death that your very presence in a foreign country delivers? Most military personnel live through it, albeit mentally tortured.

Suicide rates in the military. News stories about alarmingly high suicide rates in the military have been surfacing since 2001 when the US began its military adventures in Iraq. The fact that military personnel have been deployed multiple times is a giant factor. The fact that National Guard and Reservists have also been deployed to “the sandbox” multiple times is another suicide factor. Finally, soldiers see…and cause…thousands of civilian deaths in both countries. The military personnel ask “what are we doing here?” and find no answer. They can’t escape their service, can’t desert their post and hop a plane for home, find themselves 5,000 miles from home with no solutions, or are scheduled for a mandatory deployment that they cannot avoid without court martial. So, in hopelessness and despair, many kill themselves.”

Yes —and their names are never  GW Bush, the war shirker who started this mess. His daddy got him out of Vietnam—though he did show up in miltary gear proclaiming “mission accomplished”. Thousands of needless deaths followed because this manchild playing at war put so many innocents at risk—mostly Iraqi citizens.

Their names are never Dick Cheney who had 5 deferments in Vietnam because “he had better things to do.” Another depicable chicken hawk who cavalierly sent kids to an early graves while he played war games as a chess board.

Common good trashed

John and Doug wait almost 7 hours

There they go to the head of the line—the privileged, the powerful and those with little respect for that cardinal virtue of Catholic Social Teaching: the common good.

It was nice to see the media cover those “me- and my kids first” citizens who vaulted over the unwashed to get their H1N1—the power couple, Heather Reisman and Gerry Schwartz, Tannenbaum of the Raptors and Leafs and all those hockey players in the heart of capitalist Canada, the Calgary Flames the home of Stevie Harper.  The latter in his abysmal failure to prepare for this pandemic seems set on proving that governments, the only ones who can logically organize for  collective well being, is in fact a failure. Everybody look after themselves while we pour money down the military rat hole.

This of course gives rise to those  who wish to demonize our collectivity. Like Doc Robblen an Ottawa sawbones who wrote in this vein to the Globe and Mail (Nov.3) about “the lesson for all Canadians-Never let the government run anything of importance.” It was troglydytes like this that Tommy Douglas had to fight when he pioneered Medicare in Saskatchewan in 1944.You can bet that Robblen accepts his government cheque for his healing ministrations.

There they were, two of my grandsons with their dutiful dad standing in line last Saturday  from 7 AM to 1:30 while these selfish folks vaulted to the front.

The common good baby—that’s where it’s at.

The hidden costs

The great Canadian public affairs show the 5th Estate had a fascinating hour on Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome as experienced by  our Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. The victims were very articulate in their own way.

One returning soldier who was driven to near suicide talked about how difficult It was for a “warrior” to admit his weakness and undergo therapy.The army itself was just coming to terms with the number of these  victimns of this stupid war we Canadians got ourselves involved in. Promoted heavily by poster boy Rick Hillier who heavily championed it saying to Paul Martin it would give us more credibility with the USA.  And the Martinites bought it to our everlasting disgrace.

What were we thinking?

The piece de resistance  in the 5th Estate show  was Senator Romeo Dallaire speaking about his own 4  failed suicide attempts and his ongoing therapy.

And then the shocking statistic: Over 102,000  US vets had killed themselves after VIetnam. That is twice as many as US soldiers who died in that ungodly war, one which eventuated in the death of over 1 million Vietnamese civilians.

The old lie, as Wilfred Owen said after WW1,  Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori: How sweet it is to die for your country.

The poppy brigade

Frank Magazine justifiably mocked the “too early and trying too hard” earnest Canadians  to  wear the poppy as we moved to November 11. These guys—Preston Manning was always among the first—couldn’t wait to show how patriotic they were and voila, there was the poppy in October. Most of these uber-patriots of course did little to create peace.They were always boosting war expenditures and cutting aid to the Third World etc.

As Christians they were part of the “Pull yoyurself up by your bootstraps” crowd.

Harperites today.

“Patriotism—the last  refguge of the scoundrel” according to Dr Johnson. Ambrose Bierce was closer to the truth“” With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer, I beg to submit that it is the first,”

Well a group in England wishes to move beyond sentimentalism and give us a real Rememebrance Day. Read on Macduff.

London, UK - NOV 2, 2009 A new report ahead of Remembrance Day is recommending a deeper and more meaningful form of remembrance that encompasses both soldiers and civilians on all sides in all wars.

Released today by the thinktank Ekklesia, its suggestions include an honest acknowledgement that some did “die in vain”, an end to “selective remembrance” and making Armistice Day a bank holiday. It follows the death of the “last Tommy”, Harry Patch, who described Remembrance Day as “just show business”.

Remembrance has been ‘cheapened’ it says by a failure to back up words with action, particularly when it comes to successive Government’s care for war veterans, but also the lack of resources put into peacebuilding.

It traces the development of Britain’s remembrance tradition and makes a series of proposals about how Remembrance Day might be updated and made more accessible to future generations, making the way we remember war more truthful and inclusive.

Amen

Canada’s disgrace-no climate justice

“As for Canada, its record on reducing emissions is recognized internationally to have disgraced the country’s good name. It broke all its promises at Kyoto. Domestic emissions continue to rise. What is known about the Harper government’s intentions has the world believing that, once again, Canada will talk a much better game than it delivers. wrote Jeff Simpson in the Globe today.

Who can disagree?

Some young people can no longer take this disgusting inaction and disrupted parliament  with a raucous demonstration in the public gallery during Question Period on October 27.They numbered about 120.

“Green jobs now!” “Tar sands, shut it down!”

“What we want is climate justice,” said Joe Cressy of the Polaris Institute, standing under the Peace Tower. “We want to see a fair, ambitious and binding treaty for Copenhagen. That’s what we’re here for.”

Mmmm.Young people on fire for the single most important issue which bedevils the human community today. Young people who are anything but apathetic about life and our future.Young people believing in direct democvracy.

Bravo.

I’ll bet few of them go to church either.

What is this saying to organized religion and youth ministries?

What is it saying to the Catholic church whose clerical leadership seems so disconnected from this precious world?

The reign of God is all about this world flourishing.These kids like the prophets of old are about a ministry of intervention. The church could sure learn something here.

How long O Lord?

Breathless? Incredulous?

Original sin in spades. Chutzpah or simply, capitalism.the following two statements  show us a bloated empire, a failed state with a somnolent citizenry.

Recession you said? Depression maybe. Check this out:

The US Military spends $1.9 million every minute

The Center for Defense Information notes that the 2008 official budget for military spending was drastically understated and that the real figure was over 900 billion dollars when all war expenses were included. Rounded off, what that means is that this nation, which cannot decide whether basic health care is a human right, is spending on kill-power:

77 billion dollars a month

19 billion dollars a week

Over 2 ½ billion dollars a day

Over 100 million dollars an hour

Almost 2 million dollars a minute

And over 31 thousand dollars a second.

Then look at the bonuses paid to the thieves at Goldman Sachs  in line for $20 billion this year an average o $630,000 each, rivaling their record bonus haul in 2007.

How long, O Lord, how long—will people put up with this?

Come on a my House

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican announced Tuesday it was making it easier for Anglicans to convert to Roman Catholicism – a surprise move designed to entice traditionalists opposed to women priests, openly gay clergy and the blessing of same-sex unions.

“Come on a My House” sang Rosie Clooney in 1954.Rosie offered “peaches, pears and a pomegrante too.” Holy mother Church has offered a landing pad to grumpy Anglicans who never got over women crossing the threshold to the altar. And those blasted gays-another story.

This move will along with Latin masses will positively thrill the 42% of Canadians who are Catholics. Not.

80% of us favour female ordination and now we are inviting the regressives into to further polarize us.Nice move, Rome.

Another downer wil be for the celibates who against their wills gave up families for priesthood. 20 years ago when the first crop of the disaffected reactionaries came over, a group of priests went to Toronto’s Cardinal Carter and said, “Thanks a lot.I gave up marriage and kids and now you bring these guys over—with their families. Makes us feel real good.” Carter never thought of that angle.

Well, it should plug a few parish holes but will not stop the bleeding and facing the inevitable: women as baptized have every right to become priests. And will. And we will look back at this as a sad chapter in the history of the church.

Israel as idolatry: Michael Lerner

In a sardonic but true comment Rabbi Michael Lerner opened his recent article on “Israel as idolatry “with these words:

Go into any synagogue in the US or Israel and you can tell people that you don’t believe in God, don’t observe the commands of Torah, don’t observe the Sabbath, or even that you plan to be eating a pig sandwich on Yom Kippur and the majority of people will shrug their shoulders, and welcome you in. But dare to say that you think that Israel is violating human rights or, worse, that it really is just a political entity like all other political entities and does not have any particular claim on your loyalties, and you will be treated as though you had just spoken the greatest of Jewish heresies.

Lamentabile dictu as we used to say in Latin…extremeley sad to speak like this.

Yet this truism, this Jewish fundamentalism has its analogues in the other Abrahamic faiths as well. We need not single out synagogues where in my city the signs proliferate outside: Time to stand for Israel.” Note not to stand for Torah and authentic Jewish universal values, the great gift of the ages to humanity but time to stand for Israel.

This would not be so bad if it meant to really stand for Israel: love her—unreservedly, even in he brokenness, even in this moment of her radical defensiveness and blindness. Even to turn the great Jewish gift of the prophets on the ugly state that Israel has become, a virtual pariah among nations, one which stands alone in vote after vote in the United Nations propped up by the United States.

If outside a Catholic church we saw signs “time to stand up for “The Vatican”or “the Curia”, we might say,”yes, but…” our first commitment is to the reign, the malkuth Yawweh, that Jesus proclaimed, the kingdom of peace and justice. Is the institution carrying it? Can we challenge it to model these values?

Lerner as a rabbi is duty bound to preach Torah…and that means prophecy.

Many great Jews of course have repeatedly warned against the loss of faith in Torah. Many years ago Alexander Schindler the then leader of American Reform Jewry put it powerfully ”We do ourselves irreparable harm when we make Israel our surrogate synagogue.”