As I continue posting repeatedly about the Komen-Planned Parenthood events, the HHS guidelines on contraceptive coverage, and the Catholic involvement with these issues, I'd like to write a quick thank-you note to several readers who have sent me very good suggestions for postings in the past several weeks. I always appreciate any and all such suggestions, and I want any readers who have sent these to me to know I'm not ignoring you. And that I value you and your interest in the blog.
I'm far behind with email acknowledgments, but as anyone who emails me will discover, I do try to acknowledge all emails--even if I may do so slowly. I'm running behind because of my work on a book, and I also hadn't intended to devote the amount of time I've ended up giving to the topics listed above.
My reason for doing so is, quite simply, that the story continues. It does so as late as this morning, as Karen Handel announces her resignation at Komen (something to which I just referred in my last posting).
And it's an important discussion for a variety of reasons. It's an important discussion because, as I keep stressing, the well-being of the entire planet hinges on what kind of leader we Americans choose to elect in our coming elections. Will we choose one of our lesser evils (since it appears we certainly don't have any bright and shining exemplars of outstanding virtue on the list now facing us), or one positioned to do major harm to the world? This is an important question, and I submit that more than Americans ought to care about how we answer it.
The discussion is important, as well, because for the first time in many years, I see some significant cracks in how conversation of Catholic issues is being handled in the media and online. For a long time, the bishops and their centrist commentators have had few challenges, as they purport to speak for all of us Catholics.
For the first time in a long time, I see growing numbers of us who live in and stand with the 99% speaking back--claiming our right to a place at the table and our right to a voice. And, as I've said a number of times lately, these cracks in the edifice of walls surrounding the official conversation make me determined to keep speaking all the louder.
I've long been moved by an old maxim of the Friends when they talk about finding where the inner light is leading us in life: as Parker Palmer's book Let Your Life Speak (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000) notes, the Quakers have long advised those seeking the light to "proceed as way opens." To my way of thinking, when power structures that appear to have been impervious to all change suddenly develop cracks, no matter how tiny, those of us who think that some walls which unjustly imprison folks deserve to fall need to do all we can to keep helping the cracks widen and the ways open.
And that's why I keep writing as I do.
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