The Republicans/Trump Situation in 2018
There is little evidence that Trump and the Republicans are attracting many voters with their efforts on Obamacare and tax reform, and much evidence that Americans are likely not to support Republicans in 2018. There is also little evidence that Republicans are prepared to reject Trump in order to save their own skins.
That all points to one strategy for Trump and Republicans to save themselves before the 2018 election, namely unite a majority of Americans around some new war effort. Trump did gain a lot of support when he bombed Syria; that support came form Democrats as well as Republicans. We also know from history that Americans often unite across party lines to purse a war. And, of course, we have a lot of potential places to engage in war.
World Day of Peace
January 1st is annually designed by the Vatican as World Day of Peace. A message is released in November for that day. Message_for_2018_world_day_of_peace_is_released Nothing much appears to be done on this day. My mass aide says that a bishop may authorize a Mass for Peace on this day or some other day in January. The Archdiocese of Cincinnati does have a Mass for Peace at the cathedral. Otherwise very little is done.I think we ought to replace the Marian Proper for this day (which replaced the Circumcision Proper) with the Mass for Peace and turn New Year's in a World Day of Peace celebration. I was very impressed when we welcomed in the year 2000 beginning with its occurrence out in the Pacific at Christmas Island. That gave me the idea of uniting the world in prayer for peace as the new year sweeps across the world.
This has some particular advantages for the East Coast, since the New Year starts early in the morning of December 31st and reaches Jerusalem at 5;00 pm and Rome at 6:00 pm. If one had a Mass at 5:00 pm one could ring in the New Year at Jerusalem at the beginning of Mass, and ring in Rome at the end of Mass.
Thinking really big we could transfer the entire January 1st celebration to December 31st. Have a Mass at 4;00pm which ends with ringing in Jerusalem at 5:00pm. Have a Mass at 6:00pm beginning with ringing in Rome, and also a Midnight Mass preceded by readings and songs for peace. This is essentially what is already happening to Christmas in most of the parishes around here.
The Midwest time zone starts Masses at 3pm and 5pm; the Western time zone at 1pm and 3pm. Not the usual times for Mass but not inconvenient times. Many people take New Year's Eve off from work. And of course everyone gets to party at Midnight if they want and to watch the parades and games on TV the next day.
Observing the World Day of Peace by Praying
for Each Time Zone as it Enters the New Year
|
|||||
New York
|
London
|
Rome
|
Jerusalem
|
UT
|
Sample places
|
31st 5:00am
|
10:00am
|
11:00am
|
12:00m
|
14
|
Christmas Island
|
31s 6:00am
|
11:00am
|
12:00m
|
1:00pm
|
13
|
Wellington, New Zealand,
|
31st 7
00am
|
12:00m
|
1:00pm
|
2:00pm
|
12
|
Eastern Siberia, Marshall Island
|
31st 8:00am
|
1:00pm
|
2:00pm
|
3:00pm
|
11
|
Sydney, Australia
|
31st 9:00am
|
2:00pm
|
3:00pm
|
4:00pm
|
10
|
Russia Vladivostok
|
31st10:00am
|
3:00pm
|
4:00pm
|
5:00pm
|
9
|
Tokyo, Japan , Indonesia; EastTimor
|
31st 11:00am
|
4:00pm
|
5:00pm
|
6:00pm
|
8
|
Beijing, China Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Philippines,
Malaysia
|
31st 12:00m
|
5:00pm
|
6:00pm
|
7:00pm
|
7
|
Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia,
|
31st 1:00pm
|
6:00pm
|
7:00pm
|
8:00pm
|
6
|
Bangladesh; New Delhi, Sri Lanka
|
31st 2:00pm
|
7:00pm
|
8:00pm
|
9:00pm
|
5
|
Pakistan
|
31st
2:30pm
|
7:30pm
|
8:30pm
|
9:30pm
|
4:30
|
Afghanistan
|
31st 3:00pm
|
8:00pm
|
9:00pm
|
10:00pm
|
4
|
Armenia; Iran- Tehran
|
31st 4:00pm
|
9:00pm
|
10:00pm
|
11:00pm
|
3
|
Moscow, Iraq, Kuwait, Yemen, Kenya,
Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, ...
|
31st 5:00pm
|
10:00pm
|
11:00pm
|
12:00pm
|
2
|
Jerusalem ; Ukraine, Syria, Turkey, Libya, South Africa,
Zimbabwe
|
31st 6:00pm
|
11:00pm
|
12:00pm
|
1:00am
|
1
|
Rome; France-,
Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland
|
31st 7:00pm
|
12:00pm
|
1:00am
|
2:00am
|
0
|
London, Ghana Portugal, Iceland, Senegal, Guinea, Liberia
|
31st 8:00pm
|
1:00am
|
2:00am
|
3:00am
|
1
|
Cape Verde
|
31st 9:00pm
|
2:00am
|
3:00am
|
4:00am
|
2
|
Brazil,
|
31st 10:00pm
|
3:00am
|
4:00am
|
5:00am
|
3
|
Chile; Argentina- Paraguay, Uruguay
|
31st 11:00pm
|
4:00am
|
5:00am
|
6:00am
|
4
|
Nova Scotia, Bermuda, Puerto Rico
|
31st 12:00pm
|
5:00am
|
6:00am
|
7:00am
|
5
|
New York, Toronto, Cuba-Havana, Peru; Colombia, Ecuador,
Panama,
|
1st 1:00am
|
6:00am
|
7:00am
|
8:00am
|
6
|
Chicago, Mexico City, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador,
Nicaragua,
|
1st 2:00am
|
7:00am
|
8:00am
|
9:00am
|
7
|
Denver
|
1st 3:00am
|
8:00am
|
9:00am
|
10:00am
|
8
|
Los Angeles
|
1st 4:00am
|
9:00am
|
10:00am
|
11:00am
|
9
|
Anchorage
|
1st 5:00am
|
10:00am
|
11:00am
|
12:00m
|
10
|
Hawaii
|
1st 6:00am
|
11:00am
|
12:00m
|
1:00pm
|
11
|
American Samoa Midway Islands
|
A
Blessing Prayer for Peace
(the following are designed for use as antiphons for each psalm)
They may also be said as a concluding blessing for a service for peace.
All
too long have we been living with those who promote injustice, conflict and
war.
Help
us speak and work for peace. R. Shalom
Psalm 120(119)Be our Light, our Guide and our Guard on the path to peace. R. Shalom Psalm 121(120)
For
the well-being of global society, for our planet’s safety,
for love of our families and friends let us
pray: shalom R.
Shalom! Psalm 122(121)
From
the attitudes of the rich and powerful deliver us.
Let
us humbly lift up our eyes to the Giver of mercy and peace! R. Shalom
Psalm 123(122)
Blessed
by the God who overcomes the torrents and chaos of life.
From
anger and imprisonment let us escape to peace. R. Shalom Psalm 124(123)
Let us enter God’s city full of song, singing
shalom R. Shalom. Psalm 126(125)
God
build our families and communities! Keep watch over the global human endeavor!
Give
future generations peace! R. Shalom Psalm 127(126)
In
the depths of our hearts we cry for God’s coming, watching and waiting, eagerly
we expect the dawning of full and lasting peace. R. Shalom! Psalm 130(129)
Like
children in the arms of a mother, may we be free from ambition, restlessness
and concern. Let us savor peace. R. Shalom! Psalm 131(130)
R. Shalom Shalom Shalom Psalm 134(133)
These are the gradual psalms which were sung on the way to Jerusalem, the City of Peace.
Nothing scares me more than the idea of this incompetent baboon being a commander-in-chief during a war. I could only imagine him tweeting and telegraphing every tactical move. And pushing the most macho approach. If for any reason there should be cause for war, it should be postponed until this goofball is out. In the meantime, peace at any price.
ReplyDeleteDo you guys believe that praying for peace will make it more likely to happen, that God will answer that prayer? As I look around the world now and look back at history too, I can only imagine how many people must have wanted and prayed for peace, but that doesn't seem to have made any difference.
ReplyDeleteGod isn't obliged to act on our prayers. Looking back over the last century, I wonder how many people actually wanted and prayed for peace. The history books tell us there was a lot of enthusiasm at the beginning for WW!; not so much toward the end.
DeleteHow about this proposition: if people really paid attention to what was going on in the run-up to our many wars, eg. Iraq 2003, knew enough to detect the duplicity, and collectively prayed, marched, and demonstrated against war perhaps peace might break out.
I have always rejected Chris Hedge's idea and book title "War Is the Force that Gives Us Meaning, but the longer I live and the more wars I've seen, I begin to wonder if he isn't onto something. But what?
I do think demonstrations for peace help. That made a difference in the Vietnam war.
ReplyDeleteCrystal, How do you know the demonstrations made a difference but the prayers didn't? ISTM you are making an act of faith as much as "you guys" are. Or is it just post hoc, propter hoc?
DeleteThe point of prayers for peace isn't that they will make God do something, that if heaven is stormed with prayers God's defenses will fall and He will have to do our will. The point of prayer is to alert us to what God would have us do. And I think MOS makes a good point when she notes that not everybody who prays "peace, peace" really wants it. Even the psalms are full of "Grant us peace, but first beat the hell out of our enemies." So we pray that we will mean it when we pray for peace.
I've been reading about the Vietnam war lately. Three books I've just read that touched on it were "Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power" by Rachel Maddow, "Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam" by Mark Bowden, and "Playing with Fire: The 1968 Election and the Transformation of American Politics" by Lawrence O'Donnell. It's because of what I read that I think the demonstrations helped end the war. Also a big factor was the draft and the number of soldiers called up. Now in Afghanistan there are like 15,000 troops, but in 1968 there were half a million US troops in Vietnam and that meant that almost everyone knew someone who was there.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'm the only one, but I do pray because I want God to help with the things I am praying for. if I thought praying had no effect on God or on the issue I was praying about, I wouldn't bother.
Yes the draft was a big factor. I don't want a draft, but one thing it did was concentrate people's attention. I wasn't just that everyone knew someone who was there. It was that every young man between 18 and 25 had the possibility, of going there. It wasn't a question of will they be a conscientious objector (which by the way was not an easy status to get recognized), or will they be a gung-ho warrior. A lot of men had mixed feelings. They didn't want to fight but knew that if they refused to go someone else would have to go in their place. And many of them felt that they would be letting their country down if they refused service. It was a time of national angst the like of which we haven't seen since.
DeleteWell I was there. I demonstrated. Kennedy fought the war until he was assassinated. LBJ fought the war until he lost Walter Cronkite (not Tom Hayden). Richard M. Nixon managed to fight the war through years 4 through 7 of the protests. The war ended the same way Russia's excellent adventure in Afghanistan ended: Despite not having a Pentagon or a gazillion dollar budget or the latest military toys, the backwards enemy wore out the Big Boys who had all the Stuff. Demonstrations were good for the souls of the Demonstrators. For ending the war, not so much.
ReplyDeleteI was there too, I was a teen during the war, knew people who served, my boyfriend was a conscientious objector. I do believe the demonstrations had an effect - that was why guys like RFK and McGovern and McCarthy considered running against Johnson - to end the war. The fact that we were losing the war, that the North Vietnamese were actually so good, of course made the difference.
ReplyDeleteCrystal, I don't want to beat this point to death because Jack has raised a good issue for us, But I can't let you get way with "proving" demonstrations stopped the war by citing two guys who ran against Johnson but didn't win! You are promoting a myth of liberal greatness. It reminds me of the story about how the black Navy cook grabbed a 50 caliber machine gun at Pearl Harbor and, firing from the hip, brought down dozens of Zeros, which caused MacArthur and Eisenhower to integrate the armed services. That was a Reagan story, and a nice one. But it had no basis s reality either.
DeletePre-emptive prayer may be a better strategy than protests. Francis has made a strong case that we are already in WWIII fought piecemeal, so we don't have to wait for specific new wars to establish the case for peace.
ReplyDeletePrayer for peace offers important occasions to conduct a catechesis about war, especially its ineffectiveness, and its costs both here and abroad.
It also can de-politicalize the case against war because so often in the past war has drawn bipartisan support.
Jack, I agree with you that "Pre-emptive prayer may be a better strategy than protests." I also agree with Tom above that "Demonstrations were good for the souls of the Demonstrators. For ending the war, not so much." I am skeptical about how much good protests really do.
DeleteIt interesting that Pope Francis has said that we are already in WWIII fought piecemeal. I can't argue that we aren't. I am remembering a Time Magazine cover back in the 1990's about how we were going to spend our "peace dividend". Because now that we weren't fighting any wars (for, oh, about 5 minutes) we had all this money that we were saving. I thought to myself at the time, "Don't hold your breath, we'll figure out a way to blow both the money and the peace." Didn't take long.
I added to the original post an outline for praying the Gradual Psalms as a prayer for peace. Each phrase serves as an antiphon for a particular psalm which can be said either before and after the psalm, or interweaved with the psalm as we do at Mass.
ReplyDeleteThe phrases can be used at the end as a blessing with the response Shalom!
Jack, thank you for adding the outline and the antiphon phrases.
DeleteJack, I'd suggest reposting (which is way beyond my pay grade) the basic plan plus antiphons over at Pray Tell where they have people who actually plan liturgies. As you said, Jan. 1 is already a World Day of Prayer for Peace, so this is not a reinvention out of left field, but practical proposals within the mainstream.
DeleteI never thought the circumcision or yet another Marian feast was a very good excuse to attach a holy day of obligation to a secular feast anyway. Peace is a very attractive subject.
Peace is no longer a pie-in-the-sky impossibility. It is a necessity. The carnage from the weaponry of WWI horrified everyone but we still had WWII, ending with two atomic explosions. By some miracle, we avoided nuclear war during the cold war. Nuclear standoff still exists complicated by nuclear proliferation. There are other weapons that exploit the vulnerabilities of the human body.
ReplyDeleteNow, we are entering the next age of the autonomous AI robot. We must not do this. We MUST find a way to peace.
Check out
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/XuL05SuLCv8
This is scary.
The demonstrations against the Vietnam war did have effects. That was the first time there had been protests of that magnitude by young people against a war and it was during this time that (1971 I think) the voting age was lowered to 18.
ReplyDeleteStill at it? For impact, check out the New York draft protests (usually labeled "riots"). Of the Civil War, which, as I recall, was fought to a finish.
DeleteSorry I was still engaged in the subject. I'll go away now and leave the rest of you alone.
ReplyDeleteI don't know that the Vietnam War protests had no effect on the war or our leaders, but this strikes me as a hard thing to quantify.
ReplyDeleteI am sad that the lessons of the war had no lasting effect on our national foreign policy or our national identity.
About 1970 onward, I was involved with a local churchwomen's group that held prayers for peace. It was the first time that other faiths had reached out to the Unitarians, and I attended with my boyfriend, a member of the Brethren who, like Crystal's boyfriend, had CO status.
The lasting effect of that effort for me was the search for Christian principles that would guide my own decisions and give me some basis on which to judge our national decisions.
Tom said quite eloquently above: "The point of prayers for peace isn't that they will make God do something, that if heaven is stormed with prayers God's defenses will fall and He will have to do our will. The point of prayer is to alert us to what God would have us do."
That we didn't all nuke ourselves during the thirty year Cold War seems to me a miracle. Seriously. Keep praying, however it works.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIf any good is to come out of Trump's presidency, perhaps it would be to cause American citizens to reflect more deeply on Constitutional checks and balances and how it out of whack some of them have become. The ability to declare war is supposed to reside with Congress, but we've invested the executive branch with so much unbridled discretion that Congress can be irrelevant to the war-declaration proceedings, at least until money needs to be appropriated for the military (and Congress's traditional adjective for that particular exercise is "supine").
ReplyDeletePerhaps, with non-Trumps in the White House, most Americans haven't felt the need to reflect on the dangers of an Executive Branch that has arrogated too much power to itself. Now that there is an actual Trump, perhaps we could start a national conversation about rectifying this particular dysfunction. It seems to me that the Congressional war-declaration check on the Executive Branch of was put in place for this very danger.
A couple of other thoughts on the possibility of Trump starting a war for political purposes:
ReplyDelete1. Most of what Trump does as president is to cater to his political base, which consists of older white men without a college education, who tend to reside in exurban, small town and rural areas. The families of this same demographic are among those who provide volunteer recruits to the military. My sense is that Trump's base isn't looking for an occasion to send its sons and daughters to die, certainly not so the GOP Establishment can win a bunch of Congressional elections.
2. An interesting aspect of Trump as president is that he seems to have a lot of respect for generals. That can have its dangers, too. But when it comes to decisions on whether or not to go to war, the generals frequently are skeptics. They aren't given to rushing forward pell-mell without a strategy and a plan. It's possible that they would serve as a brake on Trump's impetuosity.
Bacevich on Ellberg.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Commonweal.
https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/madness-their-method