American Views Abroad


Thursday, October 14, 2004
 
Several times a week I get political emails from Patricia down in Munich. Today she sent out a newsletter written by a friend who had attended the fourth annual Women and Power conference in NYC. It was a high energy meeting of 1500 women committed to creating a global future more compassionate, humane and just and attended by many larger-than-life celebrities as well. However for her, the real star of the conference is a Benedictine Prioress, an author and international lecturer, Sr. Joan Chittister.

'...Sr. Joan spoke to us of the real cost of the war, the fact that over 90% of the victims are women and children. She spoke of rape camps, starvation, and the fact that the women of Iraq are much worse off now than they were before the US invaded. The propaganda about how women are being freed is just that. She spoke of political lies and the reprehensible use of religion as a platform to grab power. She also spoke of the shadown side of religion, and how it can promote violence rather than compassion. When she finished the entire crowd was swept as one into a standing ovation.'

She urges us to google up Joan Chittister's September 30 column in the National Catholic Reporter, entitled 'An Appeal for America to be American.' One point Sr. Joan makes, and backs up with facts, is that 30 out of 35 major countries are solidly pro-Kerry. 'We are viewed in the world as a radically transformed US whose aim is no longer benign. Instead, we are seen as seeking domination of the world and in the process, making the world far less safe than it was before, ironically using the fear of terrorism to unleash a potentially deadly global arms race.'

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