In the Chapel at the Divine Providence Hospital, San Salvador, March 24, 1980...
"This body broken and blood shed for human beings encourages us to give our body and blood up to suffering and pain, as Christ did – not for self, but to bring justice and peace to our people. Let us be intimately united in faith and hope at this moment."
That very moment's prayer of faith and hope was met with gunshots, shrieks, panic, and mayhem. A bullet pierced the heart of the future Saint, splattering his blood upon the altar of the defiled sanctuary. Monsignor Oscar Romero’s homily, and life, were, in an instant, ended by assassination.
On this Mothers Day, with Markos Moulitsas in El Salvador paying final respects to the matriarch of his family, and Democrats beginning the process of laying to rest the presidential campaign of the matriarch of their party, I think it is appropriate to remember Archbishop Oscar Romero’s quest for justice and message of hope.
The Democrats are a broken body politic.
Our party is in need of healing and refocusing on the goal of electing progressives at all levels of Government, and accepting the Bishop’s challenge to sacrifice, not out of self-interest, (and not unlike JFK's admonition to "ask not what your country can do for you"), but rather “to bring justice and peace to our people”.
Consider this quote from Oscar Romero, which I've repurposed for the Democratic party:
“The church (party) would betray its own love for God (country) and its fidelity to the gospel (constitution) if it stopped being…a defender of the rights of the poor…a humanizer of every legitimate struggle to achieve a more just society”
I am not proud of my country.
Our Government is at once a state sponsor of torture and imperial war, not trustworthy, and a denier of the principles of due process and habeas corpus.
Consider these words by Romero:
“There is no dichotomy between man and God’s image. Whoever tortures a human being, whoever abuses a human being, whoever outrages a human being, abuses God’s image”
And now Obama on the subject:
“Torture is how you set back America’s standing in the world, not how you strengthen it. It’s time to tell the world that America rejects torture without exception or equivocation. It’s time to stop telling the American people one thing in public while doing something else in the shadows. No more secret authorization of methods like simulated drowning. When I am president we won’t work in secret to avoid honoring our laws and Constitution, we will be straight with the American people and true to our values.”
I fear for the future of my children.
We must get past the bitterness and focus on the big picture. This country is in a freefall. Our world standing has dropped even further than the U.S. dollar. We are approaching bankruptcy as the baby boomers retire, our workforce shrinks, and the national debt speeds towards ten trillion dollars. We’ve exhausted our geo-political and diplomatic capital. We are mired in a war, seemingly like a Madame Zeroni curse, for "forever and all eternity". Our military and National Guard are unprepared for attack by enemy or mother nature. The environment sits precariously on the precipice of catastrophe. Our infrastructure is dilapited. We lag the rest of the industrialized world in metrics of education and health. Nearly 50 million are uninsured, and many with insurance still cannot afford health care due to the high cost of premiums, deductibles, and co-pays.
America is lacking in conscience.
How can we, myself especially, be so complacent about injustice? Oscar Romero simultaneously stood up to the U.S. and El Salvador governments on behalf of his people, knowing full well it would likely lead to his death. Consider this excerpt from his letter to President Carter regarding our material support for the Junta, a body which was, in all likelihood, ultimately responsible for Romero's assasination.
The brutal way in which the security forces recently evicted and assassinated the occupants of the headquarters of the Christian Democratic Party despite that the Junta and the government (it would appear) did not authorize that operation is evidence that the Junta and the Christian Democrats do not govern the country, but rather, the political power is in the hands of military men without scruples, who only know how to oppress the people and favor the interests of the Salvadoran oligarchy.
Why must we stubbornly persist in making the same mistakes over and over again? We've armed all factions in the Iraq civil war. In the long run, that can only turn out badly for both the United States and the Iraqis.
We need forgiveness within our party.
A few days before his murder, Archbishop Romero courageously said to a reporter:
“You can tell the people that if they succeed in killing me, that I forgive and bless those who do it.”
I ask forgiveness from Clinton supporters for the things I’ve said, written, and thought about her and the campaign. I likewise forgive the Clinton Campaign for their disparagements of Obama and his enthusiasts.
We need change, and to get it, Obama supporters are going to have to be gracious winners, and the Clinton supporters are going to have to swallow their pride and recognize the fact that the only substantive change likely to emerge from a McCain presidency is the overturn of Roe v. Wade.
It is not sufficient, however, to merely change presidents, as we have three branches of government, each in need of an upgrade.
Congress needs fresh blood.
House seats are two-year terms. The House of Representatives is designed to be a citizen run entity, not the permanent home of career politicians. One big advantage of an Obama candidacy is the down-line help for other idealistic Democratic candidates that have not yet been corrupted by power, or succumbed to cynicism or influence peddling.
At least 42 candidates have signed on to the "Responsible Plan to end the War in Iraq".
Obama has pledged to end the war. We need to get the vote out for Obama and his supporting cast in order to end the occupation, and once and for all put a stop the the Bush Administration's calamitous foreign policy.
For better or worse, the Supreme Court will change.
One or two Supreme Court justices will likely be selected during the next presidential term. Any Obama or Clinton supporter should be frightened by the prospect of those appointments being made by a President McCain.
Here's the rub:
“In exit polls of Democratic primary voters in Indiana and North Carolina by ABC, more than six in 10 said they would be satisfied with either Obama or Clinton as the nominee, leaving substantial numbers unsatisfied. In Clinton and Obama matchups against McCain, anywhere from a quarter to three in 10 Democrats said they wouldn’t vote, or would support McCain.”
So many have died in the pursuit of social justice, and not just in third world countries. How dare we let down the likes of JFK, RFK, MLK, and others with our petty squabbles? How dare we risk an overtime period of the Bush administration? How dare we risk a continuation of torture, extraordinary rendition, abuse of power, and corruption of the justice department? How dare we continue to compromise the future of our children with half-trillion dollar deficits created, to no small degree, by tax breaks for the largest corporations and wealthiest individuals? How dare we make possible the continued disregard for the environment, the poor, and the uninsured? How dare we pave the way for the preservation of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation? How dare we provide for even the faintest possibility of a 100 years in Iraq, or, worse still, more unnecessary wars?
The future is in ours hands.
Archbishop Romero's final, desperate plea, is my plea: “Let us be intimately united in faith and hope at this moment”. Faith in Barack Obama. Faith in the dozens of candidates dedicated to ending the war in Iraq. Hope for peace, justice, human rights, and the progressive ideals of the Democratic Party.