Blog #19

Chapter 23 (pp.1155-1171)

All the way back as far as history is recorded it seems as though religion and politics should not be mixed. This is probably the way the old saying:  don’t discuss religion and politics with people in a social setting came from. It is amazing to me how many countries and different religious affiliations thought their way was the only way and that everyone else was wrong. There were even people that belonged to a religion who broke away from their main affiliation, thinking they would have their own section of their Church that would be even better than what they were already practicing.  A few statements in this chapter really weighed on my mind as I read and reread them. In my opinion religion and politics should be two totally different and separate entities.  Government should be for ALL people.  People themselves can choose the religion of their liking, not as the one Islamic leaders stated, “to establish the Rule of God  in our own country first to make the word of God supreme and eliminate other political leaders and replace them with Islamic Order.”  What kind of religion speaks of providing great things for “their own people” and killing others?  Osama bin Laden created al-Queda and Americans were initially on the same side, both opposing the Soviet Union expanding into Afghanistan. However Osama bin Laden got irritated that his government was allowing the U.S. troops in Islam’s holy land after the war against Iraq.  He left with other al-Queda leaders and went to Afghanistan . Plans of the World Trade Center bombing as well as attacks on others were in the making. How can anyone think that any God would listen to what Osama bin Laden said after they passed down “the ruling to kill the Americans and their allies, civilians and military—is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country to which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and the holy mosque from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim.. This was told to be especially important because according to al-Queda any western modernism, imperialism or American led economic globalization was what the World Trade Center represented. How ironic that al-Queda was thought of to be a modern and globalization organization as well!  The very notion that a Muslim that may disagree with another Muslim was then deemed to be a non-Muslim; simply unbelievable.  This group did not even trust their own.  At least Turkey had a semi-refreshing idea (although still combining politics with religion) they were at least willing to try having their government faith-based but did not limit it to just their faith. There was a revelation.

 Back to 1890 when it was recorded that global industry had grown immensely, was a result of the population multiplying so quickly over periods of time. The environmental changes, numerous plants and animals endangered to become extinct, many more crops needed to be grown, dramatic numbers for erosion, building and more. The spread of modern industry created significant air pollution as well as other problems with hydroelectricity, natural gas and nuclear power added throughout the years and being used at higher and higher rates.  One of the situations created over time has been global warming and with technology being updated and new information being available, this is one area we hear about on a daily basis.

Blog #18

Chapter 22 (pp.1087-1119)+ Hallmarks of SND de Namur

India and South Africa had different struggles in trying to gain their independence.  All around the world different countries waited from close to a year to almost 70 or 80 years to get their freedom. Many relied on peaceful political pressure to achieve their independence. Some looked at new nations as religious while others viewed them as secular with some leaders trying to co-mingle everything together including religion. As always seemed to be the case, either religion or race played a role in what happened and how things were perceived. India’s conflict was religion based while in South Africa it was race, ethnicity that generated violence. Both Asia and Africa had a population explosion from 1950-2000 which made things more difficult on an economic scale. People became disappointed when freedom did not solve all of their problems, but at times actually added more problems for them to solve. Independence did not bring a better way of life for many and the Africans no longer showed support for their government because of this and also resented the well educated elites. Africa’s economic performance was bad in that they were supposed to be independent yet there were still millions of poor peasants. India initially drew support from all people and religions (Hindus and Muslims). However, the one of the biggest problems became the division between the Hindus and Muslims. When Britain allowed more Indian participation, the Muslims felt they were out numbered and demanded separate voting.  A common thought was stated “Muslims and Hindus belong to two different religious philosophies, social customs and literatures. They neither intermarry nor interdine (eat) together and inded, they belong to two different civilizations (p 1096)  Gandhi sought moral transformation of individuals and looked for villages to become self-sufficient and no more struggles for women.

All of this leads to what others have spoken in the past and goes hand in hand with the hallmarks of SND,  “To value life as an on-going spiritual journey of deepening relationships with self, others and God, respecting individual differences!, supporting individuals spiritual journey, not to discriminate against any diversity that is different than yourself.  Being open minded and not judgmental is the way everyone must be in order for there to be more peace and freedom in the world today.

Blog #17

CST Handout sections 5 and 6.

I think the very beginning paragraph in #5, Property Ownership had it right when it stated that “for the common good the material things necessary for a good life should be widely available for use by the whole human community but also testified to the benefits of individual ownership which not only encourages the most efficient and orderly of arrangements for material goods but also offers people an incentive to be productive and to care for the goods God has created.” That some people have more than others, does not mean that all people who have more, are uncaring about people who have less. There are plenty of people with a good deal of material goods who “spread the wealth” so to speak and give to charity, donate to causes and yes do so in large quantities. However from other matters mentioned in paragraph 5, yes, there are times when you see property sitting vacant, overgrown with weeds, not being utilized.  Or you come across a large piece of land, and someone decides they want to buy it and put a low-income housing project there. Wait and see what happens then.  The neighbors all fly into a rage that they do not want low income housing there. Well, which is it? You want to see the property gather garbage and debris like a mini dump or do some good with it and provide needed housing for the less fortunate?  Not everyone will ever be pleased with the outcome of every situation. I am hoping the Church just meant for there not to be waste when there are so many in need. Paragraph 6 deals with a totally different subject with regards to labor unions. I think that there has been a large decline in labor unions because a lot of companies take much better care of their employees than in the past. Labor unions may still be a good idea for some very large companies and corporations and/or certain professions. There are so many smaller companies and family businesses that really have no need for a labor union.  It is unfortunate that at one time, no matter how small a business was it seemed as though they had to belong to a labor union of one kind or another. Dues to pay, and more government rules to follow which did not really pertain to their business, just did not seem fair either, so that is one thing that lead to their decline. I do not think that is a bad thing, labor unions are good in some instances and not in others. I do not think that the Church should take such a stand when it comes to a lot of government issues.  Religion and politics do not always mix together very well.

Blog #16

Chapter 21(pp.1018-1033) +documents

What appears to have started off as combination of imperial and social revolution lead directly into what later became communism.Communism made all kinds of promises that sounded so good to people, thinking they would be reaping some of the benefits themselves; more equality for everyone, freedom from oppression and exploitation and things would move forward into the future. It was later they were to find out that only the elite got any benefits from communism and the common people were worse off than before communism was a way of life. Russia was the first country to experience a communist revolution. It was definitely shocking tome that by the 1970's approximately one-third of the world lived in communist government-run countries. In order of size China, with the largest population took second place in communism, running a few years behind the Soviet Union.  The ‘70’s were pretty much in the middle of the cold war, with World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War all have taken place prior. During the cold war the big rivalry was between the United States and the Soviet Union. This rivalry had hundreds of thousands of people worried about nuclear weapons in what was referred to as the arms races while scientists talked about the possibility of human life becoming extinct if there was ever a major war between the USA and the USSR. The Soviet Union and China more or less banded together gathering other countries to join forces with them, while others wanted no part of it. The two main countries China and Russia had very different outcomes from their communistic governmental control of their countries. When World War II ended, the Soviet military forces occupied much of Eastern Europe and Stalin was sure no more threats of invasion would happen if they surrounded themselves with friendly governments of like thinking. Both of these countries had leaders that thought they could change the way things were being done, only to have things redone by someone at a later time; much of the time going back “to the way things used to be”. Feminism and women’s rights were somethings that communism supposedly supported. It just depended who was in charge at the time.  Under communism China’s population appeared to have made huge progressive steps for the betterment of their country and individuals as well. Russia on the other hand did not.  They struggled and their economy got worse. America and Britain wanted a democratic society while the USSR still wanted communism. However there was still a big nuclear weapons problem between Russia and Cuba.The President at the time, John F. Kennedy and Stalin’s successor Khrushchev compromised that the Soviets would remove their missiles from Cuba and the USA would not invade the island. Russia and China became involved in their own disagreements with regards to territories and communist leaders  Once China and the Soviet Union had decided to “back off” a lot of communistic ways it became apparent that China would rejoin the international world of economy with great prosperity for future generations to build on. The Soviet Union on the other hand collapsed and that was basically the end of communism.One of the main reasons China and Russia differed so much with regards to how they treated protesters and others was the fact that Gorbachev would not crush his protesters unlike the disaster which occurred  by China’s protesters where thousands were killed. In 1991 a breath of relief was sighed when the Soviet Union was no longer a force to be reckoned with as their communistic ways no longer existed. I will take the democratic way of living in my country and try not to take for granted some of the simple things we are allowed to do while having the freedom of living here in the United States. State by State have their own rules, and I don’t necessarily agree with all of them, but at least I do not have the government breathing down my neck, telling me what I can and cannot do every single day.  I also thank God for our military forces that are working to keep out country as safe as possible.

Blog #15

Chapter 20 (pp.973-1017) + documents

With respect to history, so much has happened in the last 100 years, it is truly amazing. European empires have dissolved, the United States and Russia have become the world “superpowers”, the world population has quadrupled, and now more than ever humans are paying attention to the how the ecosystems are holding up to all of these changes.  The larger European entities were divided in their allegiance.  On one side there was the triple alliance of Germany, Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire while on the other side it was the triple coalition of Russia, France and Britain. These two rival groups were at war with each other starting in August of 1914, competing against each other for colonies and to be the superior winner. It appears that when war erupts it brings a sense of patriotism to all countries as many more people “sign up” for the military to help their country. As time moved forward so did the arms race and new military technology and weapons led to yet another competition between rivals so as to not be outdone by the others. As weapon technology increased so did the amount of deaths and wounded.  The United States had initially tried to stay “neutral” and uninvolved in the war between the Europeans, however when Americans felt as though their shipping was being threatened by German submarines, they took military action helping France and Britain. The Treaty of Versailles which ended World War I and made Germany take the blame for the war actually led to World War II only 20 years later.  In between the wards the Great Depression had long lasting effects on the whole world. The most blaring was the unemployment rates due to the lack of exports needed pushing millions out of work, and countries seeking out ways to generate their own industries.  During this time President Roosevelt came up with “the new deal” which was the start of reforms, the social security system, minimum wage and welfare programs.  None of these ended the depression. Fascists condemned feminism, democracy and individualism however were all for violence against enemies to try and “purify” their nations.  Some of the most horrendous things known to humanity such as Hitler and the Nazi regime which got support from Germany because he helped get them out of the depression, were the most awful things ever witnessed.  The greed of conquest by Germany, Italy and Japan made way for World War II. Germany was unsure of their standings in the global perspective.  When they attacked Poland it triggered WW II in Europe. There was an American oil embargo on Japan in July 1941  Japan felt war was a better choice than being “bumped” down the power ladder. In December 1941 Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and in 1945 the United States entered the war using atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Whole towns, cities and villages were destroyed, and World War II left over 60 million dead.  Besides that number the Holocaust is probably the most horrific outcome of WW II, and even though there was a universal condemnation of the Holocaust, it did not help mass slaughtering stop world-wide. I feel more of a connection to this part of history, the “current” part being the past 100 years, probably because there are still people around that talk about things that have happened over the last 100 years. There is more of a connection, hearing about how individuals were affected and what they remember from their own lives.