Published: March 17, 2008 02:50 pm            

In Your View — 03/18/08

Demand an end to occupation of Iraq

Ironically, the fifth anniversary of our invasion of Iraq falls within Christianity’s most sacred week — right between Palm Sunday and Easter. It’s ironic because Iraq, once known as Mesopotamia, is the cradle of our faith, and Palestine is the site of its fruition; now, both are cradles of carnage and sites of despair, largely thanks to us.

Palestine is especially precious to Christians because Christ lived and walked there. Palestinian Christians used to freely and openly observe all their holy days, even during the 300-year Ottoman rule, before the 1948 establishment of Israel. In fact, Christians, Moslems, and Jews of Palestine used to celebrate their feasts — Easter, Nabi Musa and Passover — at the same time.

Today things are different. While Christian tourists can freely visit the Holy Sepulchre Church during Holy Week and walk Jesus’ last walk on the Via Dolorosa, Christian Palestinians who live outside Jerusalem in the West Bank or Gaza need to get permits from Israel to do so. Sometimes, the Israeli Authorities grant permits and sometimes they don’t. It’s the same during the Christmas season in Bethlehem.

How can we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord knowing that we have been directly or indirectly responsible, through our presence and misconceived policies, for the death or displacement of millions of people and devastating destruction in Iraq and Palestine?

It’s time that American Christians stand together and demand an end to the occupation of Iraq by our forces and the occupation of what remains of Palestine by forces we blindly support and arm, i.e. Israel.

Christ taught us to love our neighbors, not destroy them, and to show our faith through our deeds. I wonder what He would have to say about his followers if He walked the world today.

Elaine Washburn Shiber Van Lear



Personality doesn’t a president make

A personality does not a president make.

When the last dollar has been spent and the last promise made, someone will claim victory, but we may have lost more than we won.

In a way, we have already decided that. If you look at the candidates left standing, a president will come out of them. Will it be the one we need — or the one we deserve?

The time for choosing the right one may have already passed, and the ship of state sails on through the stormy seas without a moral rudder and with another politician at the wheel.

That brings to mind these words about the mighty Titanic written in song: “It was sad when the great ship went down . ...”

Earl H. Stewart, Grayson

        

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