Gee, is it because we are both from the
cloisters and not out in the real world that I agree with this lady?
REH
Published on Thursday, May 29,
2003 by the National Catholic Reporter
<http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/>
Is there
anything left that matters?
by Joan Chittister, OSB
This is what
I don't understand: All of a sudden nothing seems to matter.
First,
they said they wanted Bin Laden "dead or alive." But they didn't get him. So
now they tell us that it doesn't matter. Our mission is greater than one
man.
Then they said they wanted Saddam Hussein, "dead or alive."
He's apparently alive but we haven't got him yet, either. However, President
Bush told reporters recently, "It doesn't matter. Our mission is greater
than one man."
Finally, they told us that we were invading Iraq to
destroy their weapons of mass destruction. Now they say those weapons
probably don't exist. Maybe never existed. Apparently that doesn't matter
either.
Except that it does matter.
I know we're not
supposed to say that. I know it's called "unpatriotic."
But it's
also called honesty. And dishonesty matters.
It matters that the
infrastructure of a foreign nation that couldn't defend itself against us
has been destroyed on the grounds that it was a military threat to the
world.
It matters that it was destroyed by us under a new doctrine
of "pre-emptive war" when there was apparently nothing worth pre-empting.
It surely matters to the families here whose sons went to war to
make the world safe from weapons of mass destruction and will never come
home.
It matters to families in the United States whose life support
programs were ended, whose medical insurance ran out, whose food stamps were
cut off, whose day care programs were eliminated so we could spend the money
on sending an army to do what did not need to be done.
It matters to
the Iraqi girl whose face was burned by a lamp that toppled over as a result
of a U.S. bombing run.
It matters to Ali, the Iraqi boy who lost his
family - and both his arms - in a U.S. air attack.
It matters to the
people in Baghdad whose water supply is now fetid, whose electricity is
gone, whose streets are unsafe, whose 158 government ministries' buildings
and all their records have been destroyed, whose cultural heritage and
social system has been looted and whose cities teem with anti-American
protests.
It matters that the people we say we "liberated" do not
feel liberated in the midst of the lawlessness, destruction and wholesale
social suffering that so-called liberation created.
It matters to
the United Nations whose integrity was impugned, whose authority was denied,
whose inspection teams are even now still being overlooked in the process of
technical evaluation and disarmament.
It matters to the reputation
of the United States in the eyes of the world, both now and for decades to
come, perhaps.
And surely it matters to the integrity of this nation
whether or not its intelligence gathering agencies have any real
intelligence or not before we launch a military armada on its say-so.
And it should matter whether or not our government is either
incompetent and didn't know what they were doing or were dishonest and
refused to say. The unspoken truth is that either as a people we were
misled, or we were lied to, about the real reason for this war. Either we
made a huge - and unforgivable - mistake, an arrogant or ignorant mistake,
or we are swaggering around the world like a blind giant, flailing in all
directions while the rest of the world watches in horror or in ridicule.
If Bill Clinton's definition of "is" matters, surely this matters.
If a president's sex life matters, surely a president's use of global force
against some of the weakest people in the world matters. If a president's
word in a court of law about a private indiscretion matters, surely a
president's word to the community of nations and the security of millions of
people matters.
And if not, why not? If not, surely there is
something as wrong with us as citizens, as thinkers, as Christians as there
must be with some facet of the government. If wars that the public says are
wrong yesterday - as over 70% of U.S. citizens did before the attack on Iraq
- suddenly become "right" the minute the first bombs drop, what kind of
national morality is that?
Of what are we really capable as a nation
if the considered judgment of politicians and people around the world means
nothing to us as a people?
What is the depth of the American soul if
we can allow destruction to be done in our name and the name of "liberation"
and never even demand an accounting of its costs, both personal and public,
when it is over?
We like to take comfort in the notion that people
make a distinction between our government and ourselves. We like to say that
the people of the world love Americans, they simply mistrust our government.
But excoriating a distant and anonymous "government" for wreaking rubble on
a nation in pretense of good requires very little of either character or
intelligence.
What may count most, however, is that we may well be
the ones Proverbs warns when it reminds us: "Kings take pleasure in honest
lips; they value the one who speaks the truth." The point is clear: If the
people speak and the king doesn't listen, there is something wrong with the
king. If the king acts precipitously and the people say nothing, something
is wrong with the people.
It may be time for us to realize that in a
country that prides itself on being democratic, we are our government. And
the rest of the world is figuring that out very quickly.
>From
where I stand, that matters.
A Benedictine Sister of Erie, Sister
Joan is a best-selling author and well- known international lecturer. She is
founder and executive director of Benetvision: A Resource and Research
Center for Contemporary Spirituality <http://www.benetvision.org/> ,
and past president of the Conference of American Benedictine Prioresses and
the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. Sister Joan has been
recognized by universities and national organizations for her work for
justice, peace and equality for women in the Church and society. She is an
active member of the International Peace Council.
