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People Before Profits
The article by Thomas J. Massaro, S.J., and Mary Jo Bane, Compassion in Action: A Letter to President Bush on Social Policy (3/12), was much needed. In recent weeks public dialogue has focused on across-the-board tax cuts and other proposals that do little to foster a just economic system in our country.
The electorate should impress upon President Bush and Congress the need for an economy that provides access to jobs and services that enable all people to support themselves and care for their families. We also need assurance that natural resources are protected for the universal common good in a sustainable and mutually beneficial way.
In short, we need an economic system that focuses on people before profits, a sustainable economy that addresses the needs of present and future generations. If people take up pen and paper now to demand this of their elected officials, we can all play a part in achieving this vision of economic justice.
Kathy Thornton, R.S.M.
Beacons of Hope
Your editorial Saying No to Israel (3/5) provides a beacon of hope for the many who have raised protests in this Holy Land against the Israeli occupation, protests that rarely surface in Western media. These protests have come from Israelis and Palestinians, from Jews, Muslims and Christians, and they deserve a hearing.
Israel Shamir, a Russian Israeli journalist, has pointed out that these are the darkest days for the people of Israel, because the worldwide silence of Jews indicates that the country’s policies are now rapidly undermining the long-term achievement of Jews in the struggle for democracy, human rights and equality.
The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah, has continuously appealed during these six months for justice and understanding. From the opening weeks of the intifada he pointed out that the Palestinian revolt should not be considered simply a public disorder that has to be quelled and punished. The issue that must be faced is that a people who have been kept hostage are struggling for their freedom. It is a struggle that must be carried out with love, not with hatred and vengeance. In his Lenten message he appealed to both Palestinian and Israeli to see God in one another. He called upon Israelis to see in Palestinians not the image of terrorists, of those who want to hate and kill, but rather the image of the poor and oppressed who are struggling for their liberty, their dignity and a right to the land. He called upon Palestinians to see in Israelis, who withhold liberty in the name of security, carriers of the image of God whom we approach with love, not with anger, and whom we ask with the full force of the Spirit to put an end to oppression and occupation.
In his long and distinguished career, Elie Wiesel has often mentioned that the vocation of the Jew is to teach the world how to be human. I fear that the policies of the State of Israel vis--vis the Palestinian people are a betrayal of this noble and ancient heritage of our Jewish sisters and brothers.
Donald J. Moore, S.J.
