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Posted At : March 17, 2009 1:00 AM
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Philosophy
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Taken from "'Just War' or is it just a war?" by Susan B. Thistlethwaite in the Chicago Tribune, October 15, 2002 and Pope John Paul II's Centesimus Annus.
Contributed by both Paul Maguire and Chris Reichman. Read by Chris (on the right in the photo).
Christine was born in 1950 in Chicago. She loves music more than
anything, and thinks there are plenty of worthy heroes. Chris admires
the organization Christian Peacemaker Teams very much.
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Susan B. Thistlethwaite, former president of the Chicago Theological Seminary, writes:
"St. Augustine looked at the horrors barbarian invaders were inflicting on the Roman citizens and he asked himself if a Christian could ever justify going to war. He answered a very qualified 'yes.' A Christian can go to war if it is to 'defend the vulnerable other.' His version didn't even include self-defense."
More than 1500 years later, in 1991, Pope John Paul II issued his encyclical letter in which he declared: "I myself, on the occasion of the recent tragic war in the Persian Gulf, repeated the cry: "Never again war!" No, never again war, which destroys the lives of innocent people, teaches how to kill, throws into upheaval even the lives of those who do the killing and leaves behind a trail of resentment and hatred, thus making it all the more difficult to find a just solution of the very problems which provoked the war."
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Posted At : March 16, 2009 1:00 AM
Related Categories:
History
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Taken from The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, published by Doubleday.
Contributed by Carol Simonetti. Read by the Rev. Beatrice Hitchcock, Interim Minister of the Anchorage Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. As a U.U., she appreciates the search for "the belief that helps you most."
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From Anne Frank's diary entry of July 15, 1944:
"Anyone who claims that the older ones have a more difficult time here certainly doesn't realize to what extent our problems weigh down on us, problems for which we are probably much too young, but which thrust themselves upon us continually.... That's the difficulty in these times: ideals, dreams, and cherished hopes rise within us, only to meet the horrible truth and be shattered.
It's a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart."
Anne was to have only two more entries before the Gestapo found the Annex on August 4, 1944 and sent her to Auschwitz, then Bergen-Belsen, where she died in March 1945. She was not yet sixteen.
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Taken from "Gathering Berries" by Aleria Jensen, published in the September/October 2007 issue of Orion magazine.
Contributed by Laura Hoopes of Claremont, California. Read by Aleesha Towns-Bain: "In winter, I find myself dreaming of fruit. New to Alaska, I've done my picking in Colorado. Now, I wonder what summer and fall will bring me in my new home." Aleesha recently arrived in Alaska, pursuing a passion for mountains, the outdoors and exploring diverse cultures. A recovering small-town newspaper editor, she is now a program associate at the Rasmuson Foundation.
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In "Gathering Berries," biologist Aleria Jensen describes picking tart, Alaskan berries.
Gathering Berries
"All we do is show up. Wake up, drink our coffee, jump in the car, head for these boggy slopes. Expect the land to provide. And it does. Despite the soggy ones, there are plenty of good berries. Plenty for us, for bears and birds and insect larvae. Plenty for muffins, pancakes, and smoothies. ...
I find myself feeling a huge gratitude, not only for what the land shares, but what it endures. ...
Within it, each fruit holds what I hold: an accumulation of place. The tangy explosion of these northern berries on the tongue is the landscape communicating itself, an expression of its essential wild character. Taste me -- here is your peat moss, your snowmelt, your glacial till. Here is your hemlock root, your jack pine, your overwintering bee. Taste me."
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Posted At : March 12, 2009 1:00 AM
Related Categories:
Poetry
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The poem "Pledge" by Gretchen Diemer, appearing in the collection Between Fire and Water, Ice and Sky, published by NorthShore Press.
Read by Gretchen Diemer: "I've been asked to read this poem, "Pledge," which I wrote after reflecting on the meaning of patriotism and the love of country." Gretchen came to Alaska in 1994 to teach school in the Inupiaq village of Noorvik. She currently teaches special education in the Mat-Su Borough School District.
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"Pledge" by Gretchen Diemer
"Here is the flag I can
salute, hand
on my heart, I
pledge to honor the great branch
of aspen, leaves beating
in the September wind, to hold dear
twisted limbs and white
bark, the red and yellow
leaves suspended above the water and
silt of the Matanuska, of any
meandering river, I
pledge to honor the bear, the harmful
and harmless, the ravens
circling the spawned out salmon beds, I
pledge to scatter the fallen leaves
as if they were the ashes
of soldiers cremated and
tossed about by an arbitrary wind."
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Taken from The Book of Qualities by J. Ruth Gendler, published by Turquoise Mountain Publications.
Read by Sherri Douglas: "The full moon often stimulates a sense of urgency." Originally from the
Land of Lincoln, Sherri is a 25-year resident of
Anchorage, where she lives with her husband, daughter and dog, Rosie.
She spends her days working with youth in the Anchorage Public Library
and her nights mostly reading. Sherri would like you to look at Charity Navigator.
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In The Book of Qualities by J. Ruth Gendler, 74 human attributes are described with a story. In this one, Urgency is the main character:
"Urgency has the beard of a Hebrew prophet and the eyes of a medieval alchemist. He reads history books in the middle of the night. He stands behind me when I am at the typewriter. He is brilliant, and his thoughts leap across great startling distances, but he expects me to go back and fill in the missing pieces. He is impatient with my tendency to avoid strenuous exercise.
Urgency hates to be late. He runs up the stairs racing the escalator. He works for a messenger service on weekends. He is always on the lookout for allies. If Urgency thinks you may be able to help him, he will sit you down and ask for your life story. First, he wants to find out what motivates you, and then, he listens for what fascinates you."
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