Friday, April 30, 2004
Name by name
In this country, we have a tradition of recognizing the deaths of soldiers, by name. If you drive anywhere where there was a battle in the past 200+ years, you will see roadside signs that tell who lived and died there, and a little of why. A lot of the deaths are in ones and twos; a few are larger, but most are fewer than a hundred people. The handful of men who died in Boston when the British fired on a crowd are remembered by name there. So are the people who died at Gettysburg in 1862. They are remembered by name on plaques and markers and statues. Chunks of marble sprout up across acres of battlefield to note which company was there, who died, when. The one civilian casualty, a woman baking bread for Union soldiers who was killed by a Confederate sniper's bullet that came through the walls of the house and hit her as she worked in her kitchen -- she is remembered. Confederate or Union dead, we remember them.
We remember them by name. They're not anonymous.
Nobody who dies while serving in the military is anonymous. They are not living private lives, but official ones; their deaths are public whether they occur at the point of a sabre during Pickett's Charge or under napalm or on a land mine in Vietnam or as a result of a British raid on a settlement in 1779. We remember them by name. We know them. Sometimes, for reasons of security, the circumstances of their deaths are secret and even the names are not made public, but they are still remembered and known by someone, and when it is possible their stories are told.
The Vietnam War memorial on the Mall names everyone who fell and everyone who disappeared and did not come back. People visit there quietly, looking for the names of people they knew, and leave tokens -- a letter, a child's toy, a Purple Heart or Silver Star. It is one of the two quietest places in that noisy city; the other is National Cathedral, where the dead who rest there are also known by name, every one of them. For many years, every time I went down to the Vietnam Wall, I looked through the book of names (located at either end of the wall) to check on one or another friend who went over but whom I couldn't remember coming back. Each time I remembered a different one. Each time I was fortunate; they were not listed. But when I go down to the Wall, I also look each time for the older brother of someone I went to school with, who went missing in action in 1966. He's still missing. I don't think he'll come back, and neither does anyone else, but until his death is accounted for he'll be listed there as missing, just in case.
We remember them by name, every one of them.
We don't recall them as perfect or sanctified, but human. Their deaths do not dwarf their lives, they just complete them. We remember the ones who didn't get home and the ones who are buried in other countries, beneath the poppies in Flanders, but we bring home whoever we can, because they're family. They're ours. Even if they have no relatives, they're ours. If our government had an ounce of conscience, it would do a hell of a lot better job taking care of veterans instead of cutting benefits; sometimes it seems that only the dead are treated well -- but at least what they've done is acknowledged, known. Remembered. Even the Unknown Soldiers from past wars are, actually, known to someone and remembered by someone, even if their names are not public. Their tombs are guarded, day and night, by someone who keeps watch, keeps them company so that they are not alone in the dark. It is a matter of keeping faith and respect, but it is also a matter of memory.
Remembering the dead by name is the purpose of history. Without memory, or names, we become lost, ahistorical, ignorant of who we are, how we came to be here and the cost of that movement from the past to the present. It matters that we remember who was here, what they did, how they lived. It matters.
Nightline is carrying on a tradition more than two centuries old tonight, as Ted Koppel reads aloud the names of those who have died in Iraq. It is remembering, with us, those who have died while serving the country. This is something that occurs outside of party affiliation, regardless of politics or protest. This is an American tradition. We are not an old country, as countries go. As an independent entity, only a couple of centuries; as a colonial entity, a couple more; before that, there are still memories and names and stories but few monuments. We are not borne down by the weight of our history yet, as older countries may be, but still new enough that every one of those names matters.
By pre-empting this broadcast, Sinclair Broadcasting is committing an act that is ahistorical, disrespectful to those who have died, and profoundly unAmerican.
4/30/2004 04:53:00 PM
Thursday, April 22, 2004
Less-than-universal health care
Hippocrates is rolling over in his grave enough to cause the San Andreas to shift.
The Michigan state House has passed, and sent on to the Michigan state Senate a bill "to allow certain health facilities to object to providing or participating in certain procedures under certain circumstances; and to provide for protection from certain liability."
What this is designed to do is to allow doctors, clinics and hospitals to refuse to treat anyone, for any reason. It's specifically aimed at abortion, but it could be cited by any medical provider who wanted to not treat someone who was gay, or lesbian, or black, or foreign or Islamic or anything else the provider didn't like. No, wait, ethnic discrimination is forbidden under a different law -- which means this is aimed squarely at people whose religious practices or sexual practices (or the religious or sexual practices that other people *believe them to be doing*) will govern whether health care is provided. Prejudices rule here, not compassion, not the ethics that have provided for centuries that doctors treat people regardless of anything other than their need for treatment.
Here is the full text.
Quoting:
Sec. 2. (1) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a health facility may withdraw or withhold from providing a health care service, or may refuse to provide or participate in a health care service, on [ ] ethical, moral, or religious grounds as reflected in its organizational documents, charter, bylaws, or an adopted mission statement.
(The space is in the original bill)
The only exceptions are if it's a public health emergency or if other immediate emergency (and that's carefully stated.) People refused health care are not allowed to sue under this statute.
Here's an article on the anti-gay aspects of the bill.
This is not a step forward in public health. It's a step backward, on a slippery slope.
4/22/2004 07:21:00 PM
Monday, April 19, 2004
You always wanted to know where to find these, right?
Thanks to infojunkies, miscellaneous useful and interesting links:
U.S. Embassies and other Diplomatic Missions
http://usinfo.state.gov/usinfo/US_Embassies.html
The President's Leadership in Combating Corporate Fraud
http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/corporateresponsibility/
Press Briefing Archives
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/briefings/
Proclamations Issued by President Bush
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/proclamations/
Executive Orders Issued by President Bush
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/orders/
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell - Interviews
http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/c11020.htm
... and daily appointments
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/appt/c11024.htm
Office of the Historian - Presidential Visits Abroad
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/trvl/pres/c7383.htm
... and other historical links
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/rlnks/
Supreme Court of the United States - Opinions
http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/opinions.html
CIA Briefings of Presidential Candidates
http://www.cia.gov/csi/books/briefing/index.htm
4/19/2004 07:28:00 PM
If you want a fair election, you have to be able to audit the votes cast, right?
A cross-partisan group of concerned Maryland voters will hold a news conference to discuss impending action to force the state of Maryland to decertify 16,000 new Diebold AccuVote-TS "touch screen" electronic voting machines until the state addresses the security vulnerabilities that can be exploited in the new machines and installs a voter-verified paper audit trail as required by state law.
The news conference will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday, April 21, in the Peter Zenger room at the National Press Club. Participants will include Linda Shade, Co-founder of the Campaign for Verifiable Voting in Maryland; Paul Suh, a security specialist for the Campaign for Verifiable Voting in Maryland; Joyce Thomann, a Maryland Election Judge for over twenty years; and attorneys from Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Tydings & Rosenberg LLP.
To listen to the press conference from remote locations, call 1-888-882-6397.
***
In other news concerning voting machines:
Paper backups sought for voting machines.
Too many votes go uncounted.
Paperless ballots threaten fair elections.
It was right to hold off on voting machines.
No vote, no power.
4/19/2004 07:00:00 PM
When academic discussion is viewed as political speech, watch out
Remember HR 3077, the International Studies in Higher Education Act of 2003? I mentioned it a while back, as I was concerned about its provision for a study to identify "foreign language heritage communities,particularly such communities that include speakers of languages that are critical to the national security of the United States." Another section of the Act is likely to cause even more trouble.
The right to freedom of speech on college and university campuses, guaranteed there as elsewhere by the First Amendment, has been trimmed back substantially in recent years in a number of areas, some due to legislation or court cases and some due to the sort of political correctness that does not allow anyone to raise opposing sides of certain issues. This opinion piece, written by a history professor at the University of California, points out the dangers to academic free speech inherent in HR 3077 through its establishment of an advisory board to monitor campus international studies centers "in order to ensure that they advance the national interest."
Quoting the article:
While the law would apply to all federally funded institutes with an international focus, the target is clearly the nation's 17 centers for Middle East studies. The driving force behind this provision is the same group of conservative ideologues who have long promoted the war on Iraq and who support the extreme right-wing politics of the Sharon government in Israel. Their aim is to defend the foreign policy of this administration by stifling critical and informed discussion on U.S. campuses....
Be careful what books you buy or check out from the library. You could be monitored under the terms of the U.S. Patriot Act. A further provision of that law threatens criminal prosecution of anyone alerting you to government inspection of your selections.
Be careful what readings you assign. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was sued by the American Family Association Center for Law and Policy for assigning a book on Islam for incoming freshman students. The university held firm, and, fortunately, the court of appeals dismissed the suit.
Be careful what you say in or out of class. Campus Watch and other hawkish, pro-Israeli right-wing organizations have launched campaigns to pressure and discredit professors judged to be un-American for questioning U.S. policy in the Middle East. Some organizations openly recruit students to inform on their teachers.
Students and faculty connected academically or culturally to Muslim and Middle Eastern countries have been especially targeted. Some have been subjected to hate mail blitzes and their institutions pressured to short-circuit their careers. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Penn., announced his intent last April to introduce legislation cutting federal funding to institutions of higher learning where students or faculty criticize Israel, labeling such criticism -- regardless of its content or basis in fact -- as anti-Semitic.
All of this will seem like child's play, though, if the attempt to stifle academic freedom is formalized through Congress.
If the legislation before the Senate passes, an advisory board would monitor area studies programs that receive money from the U.S. government under the Title VI program. The Association of American University Professors, the ACLU and most professional organizations have raised alarms about this unprecedented government invasion of the classroom. Among their concerns are the board's sweeping investigative powers, lack of accountability and makeup, which would be composed in part from two agencies with national security responsibilities.
Should such a government-appointed board be allowed to police the classroom by deciding what constitutes a diverse or balanced lecture or if a teacher's research is in the national interest? Yes, if HR 3077 is passed, because it will replace the professional standards of the academy with arbitrary political standards....
Currently, HR 3077 has passed the House; it was referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Peter Hoekstra, Michigan, 2nd District. Cosponsors include:
Rep. John A. Boehner, Ohio, 8th District
Rep. John R. Carter, Texas, 31st District
Rep. Tom Cole, Oklahoma, 4th District
Rep. James C. Greenwood, Pennsylvania, 8th District
Rep. Howard P. (Buck) McKeon, California, 25th District
Rep. Patrick J. Tiberi, Ohio, 12th District
Rep. Joe Wilson, South Carolina, 2nd District.
These representatives agree with the restrictions on freedom of speech and the other provisions of the bill. Do they represent your views, if you are their constituents? If they don't, you might want to write and tell them so.
If you want to look at the bill, to know what else it contains, search on HR 3077 at http://thomas.loc.gov and look at the summary and the Congressional Record links.
If you want to write someone to change the provisions of the bill, or to express your concerns about its effects on academic freedom of speech, academic inquiry and critical thinking:
The home page of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions is here, at health.senate.gov. Members of the committee are here, with links to their websites. They include:
Republicans:
Sen. Bill Frist, Tennessee
Sen. Mike Enzi, Wyoming
Sen. Lamar Alexander, Tennessee
Sen. Christopher Bond, Missouri
Sen. Mike DeWine, Ohio
Sen. Pat Roberts, Kansas
Sen. Jeff Sessions, Alabama
Sen. John Ensign, Nevada
Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina
Sen. John Warner, Virginia
And Democrats:
Sen. Edward Kennedy, Massachusetts, ranking member
Sen. Christopher Dodd, Connecticut
Sen. Tom Harkin, Iowa
Sen. Barbara Mikulski, Maryland
Sen. James Jeffords, Vermont
Sen. Jeff Bingaman, New Mexico
Sen. Patty Murray, Washington
Sen. Jack Reed, Rhode Island
Sen. John Edwards, North Carolina
Sen. Hilary Clinton, New York.
Write both to your own senators and to one of the senators from this committee (if your own senators are not on this committee), to tell them that you are concerned about the restrictions on freedom of speech that this bill would create. If your own Senators are among the Republicans who would favor restrictions, write one or more of the committee's Democrats, and tell them that your Senator does not represent you on this matter and that you want the Democrats to speak for you and for freedom of speech. If your Republican Senator is on the committee, inform him/her that you want freedom of speech on campus to continue to be unrestricted by political issues and that you oppose this provision of this bill ( or other provisions as well -- read it and make sure.)
Each Senator's page should include a fax number, probably at the bottom. Because of the problems with Ricin and anthrax powder, it is more effective nowadays to send a fax instead of a letter through snailmail, as there's no way to know if something will come up that will prevent it being delivered. You can always send email as well, but email can languish without being seen if people get busy in the office, while faxes are paper, physical, take up space, get noticed and have to be dealt with. As the Senate has just come back from a break, and some members who do not have immediate business may still be on break for some days, a phone call would probably only reach an answering machine -- but phone calls are good, too.
In any case, when you contact your Senator, be sure to provide your name, address, phone number and email so you can be contacted in return with their reply and their statement on the matter. If you have personal experience with the effects of speech restriction on campus, or have written a study or article about it, let them know. The more information that can be used to oppose this, the better. Nine times out of ten the extra information will go into the record; the tenth time you might be asked to help by providing more or by talking to the Senator or one of his/her assistants to make sure their understanding is more complete. It never hurts to offer to help.
Each Senator's individual homepage should include a link to the Senate Calendar, which lists when bills come up for consideration in the Senate as a whole. Since a Senate version of the bill hasn't been introduced, it's not on the calendar yet, but this is where to look to find out when it will be acted upon. I suspect it will come up again within the next few months, definitely before the election, because of the international character of the bill. I also suspect (without evidence other than a political hunch) that it will get onto the calendar either at the beginning of June, just after colleges have let out, so that the academic online information system (formal and informal) would be less able to contact people to marshall opposition to the bill, or just before the Senate's summer recess in August. I don't think it will be left until September or October, because that would be too close to the elections and the public might remember the bill's contents too accurately. Congressmen and Senators would love for their constituents to be able to recall that they passed helpful legislation aimed at furthering international understanding -- but would probably rather not have those same constituents recall the restrictions on First Amendment rights in that same legislation.
4/19/2004 02:46:00 PM
Monday, April 12, 2004
Moonstruck.
Would you believe that Sun Myung Moon and his wife were apparently *crowned* at a ceremony in the Ronald Reagan Federal Building two months ago, attended by a goodly number of US government officials?. (It was originally scheduled for the Dirksen (Senate) Office Building but was moved because of the ricin scare.) The photos are on a Unification website, Family Federation for World Peace and Unification of USA. The event took place on Feb. 4, 2004.
According to Atrios, Moon proclaimed himself the Messiah. during an "Ambassadors for Peace" award ceremony at which Moon was keynote speaker. The event was sponsored by the Interreligious and International Peace Council, and presumably included awards for peacemaking and international cooperation. This is the program. and this is the host committee.
But it's a little more complicated than that.
The Interreligious and International Peace Council was founded by Sun Myung Moon and his wife. And at this page on the Unification website, there's another story to the crowns:
Also in the event the Ambassadors for Peace throughout America were honored for Leadership in Reconciliation and Peacemaking. They all received "Crowns of Peace" as peacemakers. Many of the Ambassadors for Peace had gone with us on one of the Pilgrimages to the Holy Land including the Gaza strip risking their lives for reconciliation. 40 Congressman and 2 U.S. Senators and representatives from the Bush Administration attended the event.
Here's the version of the story that ran in the Washington Times, Moon's newspaper. They don't mention that Moon founded the organization that was giving out the honors -- or the self-serving nature of his being crowned there, aside from anything else.
I've found quite a bit more detail on who's who and what seems to be going on, or not going on -- and how they may be connected.
For reference, here's a profile on Moon and his church, from an Adventist site that tracks cults and that verifies its information.
The program only gave names and titles; I'm looking a bit more closely at the members of Congress who were there, including their districts, their Christian Coalition ratings (as a measure of conservatism, with 100% indicating complete agreement with the Religious Right's priorities), and the committees they serve on in Congress, as some of these might be relevant to why they were at this function:
Rep. Danny K. Davis, Illinois, 7th District, Democrat, 4th term. Christian Coalition rating: 0. -- Davis has been involved in Unification-sponsored events including a 2003 interfaith peace rally organized by Moon and an Interfaith Inaugural Prayer Luncheon hosted by Moon's Washington Times foundation (Be aware that the last site has fairly hostile language, as it's run by an atheist group.) He was also a speaker at the 20th anniversary celebration of the Washington Times newspaper, which Moon owns Davis was also a speaker at
the Lasting Love Conference, June 2, 2000, at the New Yorker Hotel, according to the note at the bottom of this sermon by Moon. Davis is on the House Education and the Workforce, Government Reform and Small Business committees.
Rep. Harold Ford Jr., Tennessee, 9th District, Democrat, 4th term, CC 33. -- Ford is on the House Budget Committee and the House Financial Services Committee, on which he also serves on the subcommittee on capital markets, insurance and government-sponsored enterprises.
Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, Maryland, 6th District, Republican, 6th term, CC 100 -- Bartlett was mentioned in the October. 2002 Unification News in connection with a twelve-city North American tour by Moon's wife, Hak Ja Han Moon. He is a member of the House Armed Services, Science and Small Business committees.
Rep. Curt Weldon, Pennsylvania, 7th District, Republican, 9th term, CC 75 -- Weldon spoke on international affairs at the IWFP Good Governance Assembly 2002, World Culture and Sports Festival in Seoul, Korea A book of conference speeches is here.
Weldon also spoke at the US-DPRK Next Steps Workshop, sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a day-long workshop on American-Korean relations on January 27th, 2003. He is on the House Armed Services and Science committees and the Select Committee on Homeland Security.
Rep. Chris Cannon, Utah, 3rd District, Republican, 4th term, CC 100 -- The only possible connection I can find, and it is indirect, is that several Korean-American organizations supported Cannon's proposed H.R. 3142 and S. 1645, the Agricultural Job, Opportunity, Benefits and Security Act.which would reform the agricultural guest-worker program to allow farms unable to find American workers to hire immigrant farmworkers. He is on the Government Reform, Judiciary and Resources committees.
Rep. Sanford Bishop, Georgia, 2nd District, Democrat, 6th term, CC 50 -- Bishop is on the House Appropriations Committee and its subcommittee on military construction, which would govern construction of military bases in Korea.
Rep. Philip M. Crane, Illinois, 8th District, Republican, 17th term, CC 100 -- Crane is on the House Ways and Means Committee and serves as chairman of the subcommittee on trade. He is also on the Joint Committee on Taxation.
Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, (listed as Tom Davis in the Almanac),Virginia, 11th district, Republican, 5th term, CC 75 -- As a member of the Government Reform Subcommittee, Davis abolished the District of Columbia subcommittee, which was responsible for overseeing laws passed in D.C. Instead, he put himself in charge of overseeing new legislation. (D.C. is officially a federal city, not independent of the federal government and not part of any state.)
Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, Texas, 30th District, Democrat, 6th term, CC 0 -- She is on the Science Committee and its research subcommittee; the Transportation and Infrastructure committee and its subcommittees on aviation, transit, highways and pipelines, water resources and the environment.
Rep. Senator Lindsey Graham, South Carolina, Republican, first term, CC 83 -- His committees include Armed Services, with the emerging threats and capabilities, seapower, and strategic forces subcommittees; Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, wiht the children and families subcommittee; Judiciary, with the antitrust, competition policy and consumer rights, Constitution, civil rights and property rights, crime, corrections and victim's rights subcommittees (the last of which he chairs); and the Veterans' Affaiars committee.
(According to this article, Cannon, Bartlett, Bishop and Johnson were given Good Governance Awards at the event, though they're listed in the program as sponsors of the event itself. The website it's on is run by the Family Foundation for World Peace and Unification, which is another offshoot of Moon's Unification Church.)
Other Congressmen and Senators attending, according to this UPI wire story include:
Rep. John Sweeney, New York, 20th District, Republican, 3rd term, CC 75. -- Sweeney is on the House Appropriations Committee, with subcomittees on commerce, justice, state & judiciary, homeland security, transportation, treasury and independent agencies; the Select Committee on Homeland Security, with the subcommittees on infrastructure, and border security, intelligence and counterterrorism (the last of which he serves as vice-chairman.)
Rep. John Conyers, Michigan, 14th District, Democrat, 20th term, CC 0.-- Conyers is the ranking majority member of the House Judiciary Committee, and serves on subcommittees on courts, the internet and intellectual property, immigration, border security and claims, and the Constitution.
Rep. Tim Holden, Pennsylvania, 17th District, Democrat, 6th term, CC 50. -- Holden has generally voted against immigration, specifically allowing entrance of foreign workers, re this site on his voting record.. He serves on the Agriculture committee, with subcommittees on conservation, credit, rural development and research, department operations oversight, nutrition and forestry; and the Transportation and Infrastructure committee, with subcommittees on aviation, highways, transit and pipelines.
Sen. Norman Coleman, Minnesota, first term, newly elected, so unrated -- He is on the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry committee, with subcommittees in forestry, conservation and rural revitalization, production and price competitiveness; Senate Foreign Relations committee, with subcommittees in African affairs, international economic policy, export and trade promotion, Near Eastern and South Asian affairs, Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps, and narcotics affairs (the last one he chairs); Senate Governmental Affairs committee, with subcommittees on the federal workforce and the District of Columbia, and investigations (which he chairs); and the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
Also sponsoring the event were retired Senator Larry Pressler, Arizona State Senator Mark Anderson, Utah State Senator Howard Stephenson, New Mexico State Senator Mark Boitano, retired Georgia State Senator Donzella James; Charles Ballard, founder and CEO of the Institute for Responsible Fatherhood; Charles Black, chairman of BKSH & Associates; Dr. Stephen Covey, co-founder of Franklin Covey Company; Dr. C. Delores Tucker, national chair of the National Congress of Black Women; Archbishop G. Augustus Stallings, chairman of the American Clergy Leadership Conference Executive Committee; Robert Woodson of the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise; the Rev. Dr. T.L. Barrett Jr,, pastor, Life Center of Church of God in Christ; and Ambassador Phillip Sanchez, publisher of Noticias de Manila.
I haven't been able to find information on all of them, but according to my research:
Stephen Covey wrote The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People; his company, Franklin Covey supplies organizational office products. Covey was also a speaker during Moon's 2001 speaking tour of the US.
Archibishop G. Augustus Stallings, who was formerly Roman Catholic and left that church to start his own denomination, Imani Temple, has apparently adopted some non-standard theology, including the idea that everyone is a god , according to this article by someone who attended a meeting he spoke at; the link is to a Jehovah's Witness site that also alleges that Moon had been courting black clergy in particular.
Charles Black, chairman of BKSH, has advised Bush and Reagan, and his firm has represented Ahmed Chalabi, of the Iraqi National Congress, according to this link in John Gorenfeld's weblog. BKSH describes itself as a public affairs and governmental relations firm, which appears to be another name for lobbying-for-hire.
Robert Woodson was a speaker in Moon's 2001 US tour. His organization,The National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, provides training and technical assistance to community and faith-based organizations.
Charles Ballard was a speaker at
"Reviving the Family," a 1988 conference at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, DC, sponsored by the American Constitutional Committee (a conservative organization that includes only Unification Church members) and the Washington Times Foundation (another Moon organization.)
The National Institute for Responsible Fatherhood appears to have a problem with their website; the only direct information I could find was this page on the Father &Family LInk site and an operating funds grant for 1994-95.
The Rev. T.L. Barrett was involved with the Million Man March, and "has been a supporter of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon and the Catholic Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, who took a wife and was ostracized by the Catholic Church." According to this site Milingo was married to Maria Sung with the assistance of Moon; their current situation appears unclear, as a statement by her on that site talks about wanting children but the next statement above it (they're in reverse chronological order) speaks of their farewell meeting. According to Catholic doctrine and practice, archbishops are not supposed to marry. Both Stallings and Barrett have been part of a Unification speaking tour in Korea.
Phillip Sanchez was the U.S. ambassador to Honduras from 1973-76 and to Colombia from 1976-79; he is the publisher of the newspaper Noticias del Mundo. He has also written an introduction to a book about the Unification Church by one of its ministers, Bo Hi Pak.
Here's the text of Moon's speech. I'm quoting the last four paragraphs:
The time has come for you as well to open your hearts and receive the secrets that Heaven is disclosing in this age through me. In one sense, I am a human being living with a physical body like each of you. But in the context of Heaven's providence, I am God's ambassador, sent to earth with His full authority. I am sent to accomplish His command to save the world's six billion people, restoring them to Heaven with the original goodness in which they were created.
The five great saints and many other leaders in the spirit world, including even Communist leaders such as Marx and Lenin, who committed all manner of barbarity and murders on earth, and dictators such as Hitler and Stalin, have found strength in my teachings, mended their ways and been reborn as new persons. Emperors, kings and presidents who enjoyed opulence and power on earth, and even journalists who had worldwide fame, have now placed themselves at the forefront of the column of the true love revolution. Together they have sent to earth a resolution expressing their determination in the light of my teaching of the true family ideal. They have declared to all Heaven and Earth that Reverend Sun Myung Moon is none other than humanity's Savior, Messiah, Returning Lord and True Parent. This resolution has been announced on every corner of the globe.
Respected guests, it is now only a matter of time. Look at the world. Do you see anything that gives you real hope for the future? Sooner or later, we have to give what we have to our descendants and leave this world. What gift could be more precious than that of completing the family ideal in your family, so as to guarantee eternal peace and happiness for your children? Surely no one who has such an opportunity should hesitate to take up the task of building the peace kingdom on earth, for which God has waited thousands of years.
I have reached the advanced age of eighty-five, by the Korean way of counting. But I will continue to work harder than anyone else until the day the Earth overflows with God's true families, guns in the Middle East fall silent and give way to fireworks of peace and joy, and shouts of mansei [eternal victory] celebrating the unification of my homeland Korea echo across the Pacific to be heard in America. I hope that you leaders representing the world's six billion people in this ceremony will join hands with me. I call you to take the lead in building what is God's original ideal and the desire of all humanity, the peace kingdom on the Earth.
Messiah. Hmm.
I have to wonder how this declaration fits in with his admiration for Stalin and Hitler, at an event attended by elected US senators and representatives in a public building paid for by American taxes. I don't care who paid for the event itself; I am not pleased that an official US government building was used -- especially as it gave Moon the ability to say he was crowned "in Congress" when that wasn't where he was and the entire Congress weren't in the audience. I also have to wonder how many of the constituents of some of these congressmen know about their elected representatives going on speaking junkets or to Korea with him.
This is an article about the cult activities of the Unification Church, Moon's organization, written by someone who left. It includes eight criteria for brainwashing techniques, which were used by the Unification Church. Quoting:
The Unification Church is still very much in existence, but for some 20 years has been focusing on a strategy of garnering influence by holding conferences for ministers, politicians, religious figures and even media personalities, instead of following the strategy that made it notorious in the 1970s and early 1980s of trying to recruit people directly into the group. I believe that Sun Myung Moon decided to change his strategy following his incarceration. Moon decided to work behind the scenes. Besides founding the Washington Times newspaper, he is now the owner of the UPI news service.
These comments about Moon and the Unification Church are from an independent-conservative website called usasurvival.org.:
Moon's bizarre religious speech at the Washington Times 20th anniversary celebration has rekindled interest in what he represents and what he wants to do. "The Washington Times is responsible to let the American people know about God," said Moon. What did this mean? America was founded by people who believed in God and this belief is reflected in our founding documents. A large majority of Americans continue to believe in God.
What Moon is saying is that the Washington Times has to let people know that he, Moon, is God. This is something new indeed. He believes that Korea is God's chosen nation, Korea is the new Israel, and Korean is spoken in Heaven. In 1992, Moon set in motion a plan for the "cosmic unification" of North and South Korea. He calls this "The Unification of the Fatherland." Moon believes that Armageddon, the final battle between good and evil, will take place along the 38th parallel dividing communist North Korea from the south. In a speech about nuclear weapons in the possession of North Korea and other countries, Moon said, "America's future is greatly in question." At the same time, Moon believes he can save America and the world from Armageddon. That puts him in the convenient position of saving us from a holocaust that he or North Korea could threaten.
Moon's statements may be dismissed as the ravings of a crackpot. Yet, Christian supporters of Israel have been attacked by some commentators because their support of the Jewish state is believed to stem from their biblical belief that Armageddon will take place in the Middle East and that Christ will return to save Israel from its enemies. This view is said to welcome more upheaval and bloodshed on the ground that we can't do anything about it anyway and that God's intervention is the only salvation for Israel and the world. Moon believes the same thing - except that he is the true Christ and that Korea is the battleground for the final conflict. There are reports that a Moon-connected Japanese company bought 40 Russian submarines that were going to be sent to North Korea.
While Moon's statements at the anniversary dinner were bizarre and provocative, he did not go as far as he has on some previous occasions. On December 10, 2000, he said:
"Some people may oppose me, but they will go down the drain after a while and end up in hell…. I came with the teaching that the world and religions should become one… Soon, the American president will have to visit me to seek advice."
Steve Hassan, who was Assistant Director of Moon's Unification Church at its national headquarters, says Moon's objective is to control the world and establish a global theocracy. Hassan, who says that he was asked what country he wanted to run when the mission was accomplished, defected from the organization and now runs the Freedom of Mind Resource Center to help people escape cults.
Like Ted Turner and other billionaires, Moon has the money to manipulate global events. But Moon is unique in that he has been perceived as conservative or anti-communist. Most if not all of the one-third of the U.S. Senate and one-third of the U.S. House who were listed on the "Host Committee" for the Washington Times event undoubtedly thought they were honoring the paper, not Moon. The overwhelming majority were conservative Republicans. But Moon dominated the evening's festivities, getting a standing ovation. The controversy surrounding Moon prompted some Christian conservatives to declare that they were going to leave the affair before he spoke, and would not under any circumstances be photographed with him. But they didn't want to be quoted publicly to that effect because it might affect how they are treated by the Times.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State takes a longer view: but the organization continues to keep an eye on Moon, especially in relation to funding for faith-based organizations as Moon has repeatedly used the "faith-based" initiative as a means to recruit support among local clergy, especially African-American ministers." In addition:
Moon's influence with the Bush administration may only continue to escalate. In December, Bush appointed a Moon operative, David Caprara, to head AmeriCorps VISTA, the national community service organization.
Caprara formerly ran the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development and also worked at a Moon front group called the American Family Coalition. He frequently appears at Moon events, most recently speaking at an Oct. 29 ministers' workshop in Ocean City, Md., that was sponsored by yet another Moon-related group, the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.
In recent years Moon, his family and their organizations have been contributing to the religious right and conservative or Republican groups. This page, on the Consortium for Independent Journalism site, examines Moon's ties with George Bush the ex-president. This page, from the same site, looks at connections betwen Rumsfeld, George W. Bush and Moon concerning a series of clandestine payments from Sun Myung Moon's organization to the North Korean communist leaders who were overseeing the country's military strategies.
More Consortium links about Moon are here.
As for the Congressmen? If I were in their districts, I'd be asking plenty of questions about what their connections are with a known tax-fraud felon. I'm fortunate that my local congressman isn't one of them, but given the opportunity I would like to ask some pointed questions of a few others. Feel free to do the same with yours.
4/12/2004 06:14:00 PM
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