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Just over 50 years ago, the earth as we know it came dangerously close to being engulfed in a nuclear fireball.
In October of 1962, the United States demanded that the Soviet Union’s nuclear missile sites in Cuba be dismantled and removed. After the Soviet Union refused, the U.S. established a Cuban naval blockade.
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What advice would America’s most renowned black man offer to America’s first black president? If he were alive today, what wisdom would the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., offer to President Barack Obama?
This question takes on added significance considering that this year the federal holiday honoring King, and Obama’s second public inauguration, fell on the same day — January 21.
In his January 1, 2013, World Day of Peace Message titled “Blessed are the Peacemakers,” Pope Benedict XVI immediately lays out for us the foundation upon which the Church’s ministry for world peace must be built.
Using a challenging proclamation from the Second Vatican Council, the pope teaches that Christians must be committed “to sharing humanity’s joys and hopes, grief and anguish.”
The Holy Father is reminding us that God’s peace is much more than the absence of war — it is the universal experience of justice and love.
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As the first Christmas of World War I approached, Pope Benedict XV on December 7, 1914, asked the leaders of all warring governments to agree to an official ceasefire. He begged “that the guns may fall silent at least upon the night the angels sang.”
Sadly, his plea was ignored by government leaders. But many of the soldiers in the trenches declared their own unofficial truce.
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Struggling to figure out which candidates would do the most good and the least harm — especially to the poor and vulnerable — and then showing up to vote, was the easy part.
Now the hard work begins!
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A friend of mine who is a nun and fellow journalist, asked me to write a column on civility. But my immediate response was that civility didn’t really apply to the social justice and peace theme of my column.
But then the obvious hit me.
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Imagine being very hungry nearly all the time. Imagine telling your children to wait until the end of the day to eat a very small meal. Imagine eating every other day. Imagine not eating at all.
Very sadly, over 18 million people in West Africa’s Sahel region — an area between the Sahara Desert and the African tropics — do not have to imagine severe hunger; they are either experiencing it, or getting very close to it.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, “Food and nutrition crises in the region have grown in frequency and severity in recent years, mostly driven by sporadic rainfall, insufficient local harvests, high food prices, and insecurity.
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Every person who has enough nutritious food to eat and cares about the one billion people who do not, should be paying attention to the 2012 Farm Bill.
At stake are deep, heartless congressional monetary cuts to national and international food assistance programs, environmentally protective farm and ranch conservation projects, and safety net programs designed to help struggling small and mid-sized family farmers and rural communities.
Bob Gronski, policy coordinator, for the National Catholic Rural Life Conference (www.ncrlc.com) explained to me that Congress is poised to cut between $23 billion and $34 billion from current funding levels of the Farm Bill.
