May, 2009

Nicaragua is on my mind, as several SLU students prepare to work there this summer. Recently, I’ve been reading a lot of the works of Brazilian bishop Pedro Casaldáliga, who visited Nicaragua in 1985 during the terrorist contra war. There, he engaged in what he called the ministries of the border and of consolation. His reflection on these ministries: “The visits and the contact are a comfort to all of us and make us like brothers and sisters. I’ve always thought informal visits, with a little faith and human affection, are the most effective kind of pastoral activity.” He kept a journal of his experiences, which included the following poem.

To Reagan

Pedro Casaldáliga

You are being excommunicated by me and the poets, the children, the poor of the land:
Pay attention!
We’ve got to see the world in human terms.
Don’t play Nero.
This isn’t a movie, you screen monkey:
You’re the leader of a great nation!
(I will tell your people to clean off forever
The shit your cowboy boot has tracked over your flag.
And I will tell them, when they vote,
To realize that they may be selling much blood and their own honor!)
You may have inebriated the world with Coca-Cola,
But there is still someone lucid enough to tell you “No!”
The profits and power of your weapons
Cannot be valued above
The feverish wail
Of a little black child.

Empires no longer suit the race of human beings.
Listen, Reagan: the sun
Rises as sun for everyone
And the same God rains
Over every life God has invited to the celebration.

No people is the greatest.
Stay in your own backyard.
Respect us.

Rachel has found you out, Herod,
And you will have to answer for her desolation.

Sandino’s star
Is waiting for you in the hills
And in the volcano a single heart awakes:
Like a sea of indignation little girl Nicaragua
Will smash your aggression.

The blood of the martyrs holds up our arms
And becomes song and fountains in our mouths.
You have never seen the hills, Reagan,
Nor have you heard in their birds the voice of the voiceless.
You know nothing of life,
And do not understand the song.

Don’t come to us with your hypocritical morality,
You mass murderer, you’re aborting a whole people and its revolution.
The lie you try to pass off to the world (and to the pope)
Is the worst drug.
You are showing Freedom (in an exclusive screening)
While you block the way to Liberation.

“The United States is powerful and mighty.”

All right! “We trust… in God.”

You may think you’re the owners, you may have everything,
Even god, your god
–the bloodstained idol of your dollars,
The mechanical Moloch—
But you don’t have the God of Jesus Christ,
The Humanity of God!
I swear by the blood of his Son,
Killed by another empire,
And I swear by the blood of Latin America
–now ready to give birth to new tomorrows—
That you
Will be the last
(grotesque)
emperor!

–from Prophets in Combat: The Nicaraguan Journal of Bishop Pedro Casaldáliga [1986]

Pedro’s comment: “In Nicaragua someone even doubted that this poem was mine. It’s mine, all right. The Bible has much harsher words for kings and lords who murdered the poor and sought to take over the world.”

For another perspective on Reagan, see former Nicaraguan foreign minister Miguel d’Escoto, “Reagan was the Butcher of My People,” at http://www.counterpunch.org/descoto06092004.html

For more on Pedro, see Mev Puleo’s interview with him in her book ,The Struggle is One: Voices and Visions of Liberation (1994).

The Jesuits clearly influenced me with their strict organization, their discipline, and their values. [p. 118]

I believe that Christ was a great revolutionary. That’s what I believe. His entire doctrine was devoted to the humble, the poor; his doctrine was devoted to fighting against abuse, injustice, and the degradation of human beings. I’d say there’s a lot in common between the spirit and essence of his teaching and socialism. [p. 17]

Well, Christ multiplied the fish and loaves to feed the people. That is precisely what we want to do with the revolution and socialism: multiply the fish and the loaves to feed the people: multiply the schools, teachers, hospitals, and doctors; multiply the factories, the fields under cultivation, and the jobs; multiply industrial and agricultural productivity; and multiply the research centers and the number of scientific research projects for the same purpose. [p.249]

–Fidel Castro, from Fidel and Religion: Conversations with Frei Betto on Marxism and Liberation Theology (2006 edition)

1.

pros·e·cute (pròs¹î-ky¡t´) verb pros·e·cut·ed, pros·e·cut·ing, pros·e·cutes verb, transitive 1. Law. a. To initiate civil or criminal court action against. b. To seek to obtain or enforce by legal action. 2.a. To pursue (an undertaking, for example) until completion; follow to the very end. b. To chase or pursue (a vessel): “He held a dispatch saying that [they] had prosecuted and probably killed an Echo-class missile submarine” (Tom Clancy). 3. To carry on, engage in, or practice.

–American Heritage Dictionary

2.

“This whole thing about punishing people in past administrations reminds me more of a banana republic than the United States of America.

We don’t criminally prosecute people we disagree with when we change office.

There are lots of questions that could have been asked of the Clinton administration failing to recognize the war on terror. They did not. The Bush administration went forward and that’s the way our country should.

The president said he was going to be forward looking.  Now he has opened up a stab in the back.

I am saying that those who want to have public hearings and show trials in the United States Congress, such as may be in the House, would be following tactics that are more appropriate for a banana republic.

I don’t think the Obama administration wants to say the next time the Republicans get in control they will have show hearings-trials and try to institute criminal prosecutions against people who carried out orders of the Obama administration.

So I don’t think that the president or anybody in the administration wants to be caught in that action, and I think there must be a number of leaders and former leaders of Congress who are pretty nervous about having their authorizations and appropriations questioned as violating the law.”

–Missouri Senator Kit Bond, in an interview with Andrea Mitchell, 4.23.2009

3.

The above response by Senator Bond is remarkable for its impromptu bluntness.

We don’t criminally prosecute people with whom we disagree; however, we have a responsibility to prosecute people who have committed crimes. For instance, torturing human beings.

Like any student of 20th century European history, Senator Bond surely must know that stating one was following orders constitutes no justification for committing crimes.

Bond’s rhetoric is a case study in defensiveness: “banana republic,” “stab in the back,” and “show trials.” Like “a number of leaders and former leaders of Congress,” Bond appears nervous about where all this could lead. This is worth noting.

4.

“I have to turn down your summons to duty. I won’t come along to squeeze the trigger on your behalf. Of course, I have no illusions. To you I am a buzzing gnat that you will swat and try to crush before striding on. You’ll find yourself another gunner, more obedient and gifted than me. There’s no shortage. Your tank will rumble on. One single gnat can’t halt a tank, certainly not a column of tanks, certainly not the entire march of folly. But the gnat can buzz, irritate, infuriate, occasionally even sting. Ultimately, more and more gunners, drivers and commanders, who will see more and more aimless killing, will also start thinking and buzzing. There are already many hundreds of us. Ultimately our buzzing will ascend into a deafening outcry that will echo in your years and the ears of your children, and on the pages of history for many generations.”

–Israeli Yigal Bronner, from his letter to an Israeli general on his refusal to serve in the occupied Palestinian territories

5.

President Obama said, “No one is above the law.” Those are easy words in the abstract. But one must apply those words to our particular context. Thus, to be specific, former president Bush is not above the law.

What does it say to our own youth as well as people around the world, that because a person is powerful, he or she need not be accountable when they violate the law?

For any American who believes in justice, Senator Bond has alerted us to the task ahead. We, the people, must push for prosecution of those high officials who instigated a policy of torture.

One or two gnats won’t bother Senator Bond and his past and present colleagues.

But it could be hard to ignore a hundred that “buzz, irritate, infuriate, occasionally even sting.”

A thousand could “ascend into a deafening outcry.”