I’m in DC at the NALM conference, and have been thinking/praying the magnificat a lot in recent days, primarily because tomorrow is the feast of the visitation of the blessed Mary. Thus it was particularly appropriate to find this video link in a friend’s facebook stream:
(Hat tip to Jane)
This coming week Wisconsin residents will vote whether or not to recall their current Governor, Scott Walker. I sat on a plane today, on my way to DC for a conference, with a Wisconsin business man who was trying to convince me of all the benefits that Walker has brought to the state. I was not convinced. Unless you think about the ways in which Walker’s union-busting, anti-public actions have energized a wave of resistance — then, perhaps, I can say he brought something good to Wisconsin. Here’s the post I wrote back in February. And I’m repeating this video to remember what’s at stake this coming Tuesday. No matter what happens (and outside forces have spent millions trying to keep Walker in office), the brave and smart folk of Wisconsin have achieved something important simply by managing to make a recall vote happen.
Take a moment and watch this coverage of the protests against NATO in Chicago. I found the testimony of these Iraq and Afghanistan veterans very moving. I wish I could embed the video, but I couldn’t find a way to do that.
In the absence of that code, here’s a version of the song that ends the coverage (linked above). It’s a song called “Hero of the War” written by Rise Against.
Until we remember that the “budget crises” we’re in can be laid at the door of these illegal, unwarranted and obscene wars I don’t know if we’re ever going to be able to return to real prosperity in this country. We have a long road of healing and reconciliation ahead of us, and it has to begin in confession.
Many people have tried to explain what is to be Catholic. I like this attempt, in which Julia Smucker argues for at least six elements, including holding “the very long view,” living in the “both/and,” recognizing that “tradition is a living process,” and “so is conversion,” holding things “together by ritual,” and that “liturgy is plurality.”
But I also like my own very brief attempt, in which I include “a fierce commitment to social justice.”
I love this! It reminds me in some ways of the “… in plain English” videos. A great, brief introduction to an important concept. This one is on polls and how they work:
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