The Jesuit Philosophy

Recently, the Archdiocese of Indianapolis issued a command, telling its institutions of education to fire any employee who was a member of the LGBT community.

A high school complied, to the disappointment of many in the Indianapolis Catholic community.  A prep school, established and run by Jesuits, did not.

Jesuit tradition focuses on the education of the person as a whole, emphasizing these virtues:

1. openness to growth
2. intellectual competence\
3. compassion
4. religious belief and practice
5. committment to promoting justice

In my opinion, what's most admirable about this list is that it can be applied to, and supported by, a number of belief systems.  Ecumenism at its best ...

MAGA on the Mall

It appears that the Republican Party has indeed become the Trump Party.

When  Justin Amash , Republican member of the House of Representatives from Michigan, announced yesterday that he was leaving the Republican Party, Mr. Trump reached into his kitbag of insults and came up with two golden oldies - stupid and loser.

When the Republican National Committee handed out tickets for choice seats at Mr. Trump's Independence Dy address, they appeared to give the great majority of them to folks in MAGA hats.

When Mr. Trump wanted to punctuate his efforts at poetic rhetoric, we were presented with a male military chorus singing a variety of military themes, or wit a flyover by a variety of airborne military vehicles.

When the pageant wrapped up, it did so, almost sacrilegiously in my opinion, with The Battle Hymn of the Republic.

I'm left to wonder how Mr. Trump can reconcile his bone-spur deferments with his apparent love affair with the American military.

The High Price of Pageantry

The Lincoln Memorial was closed to the public today.  in order to allow it to be made secure for Donald Trump's speech to the nation.  The revered site will remain shuttered until Friday, July 5.

It's expected that Mr. Trump will speak for 20 minutes, dividing his talk into four five-minute units, each devoted to a specific branch of our military. Then we can anticipate fly-overs by the Blue Angels, and perhaps the same from Air Force One, before the traditional fireworks display.

Sounds like your usual 4th of July celebration?  Not really.  Behemoths like Bradley armored vehicles , in my opinion more appropriate to science fiction than to the reality of a democracy, will be placed on the National Mall.  The nearly 30 tons each of them carries can certainly be expected to wreak havoc with the streets and even the general environment of DC.  Which of course would add to the estimated cost of tomorrow's burlesque - about $2.5 million.

Which cost will be covered in part  by re-purposing funds intended for maintenance of and improvements to National Parks.

So Mr. Trump gets his extravaganza, and Smokey the Bear gets shafted.

Antithesis

Merriam-Webster defines antithesis as a direct opposite.  That's one image in my mind at the moment - Donald Trump addressing the nation from the Lincoln Memorial on Thursday.

Despite his claim to have been consecrated the greatest President since Lincoln, Trump has, in my opinion, absolutely nothing in common with our 18th Chief Executive.  Lincoln sought to reconcile disparate groups of Americans; Trump tries to tear us apart from pone another, and from our own humanity.  Lincoln wanted us to follow the better angels of our nature; Trump delights in insults and in stoking the flames of fear.

Don't be drawn into the reality show Donald Trump has planned for the 4th.  Not his 20 minutes of  inane partisan rhetoric at the Lincoln Memorial, nor tanks rumbling onto the National Mall, nor Air Force One flying low over the Capitol, nor any other of the events that will cost taxpayers millions of dollars, in any way adequately celebrate our democracy.

For that, I'd recommend you read  Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence  by Garry Wills.  It's available from Amazon, and through the Library System of Delaware County PA.

Eight of Twenty-Three

8.  That's how many of the existing 23 declared Democratic Presidential candidates have begun to qualify for the round of debates to be held in September.

Those hanging in?  In this order, from highest to lowest rank:

• Joe Biden
• Pete Buttigieg
• Kamala Harris
• Bernie Sanders
• Elizabeth Warren
• Cory Booker
• Amy Klobuchar
• Beto O'Rourke 

Single-Payer Health Care, Canada Style

Having spent a year living in Halifax, Nova Scotia (teaching at Mount Saint Vincent University), I can attest to the accuracy of this report on Canadian health care, and of this summary as well.