Memorial Day Political Platform: A few ideas
May 29, 2011
A Catholic political platform for Memorial Day.
Among the many misconceptions about the Crusades; that they were solely wars against Islam, or the veiled intent of scions of European nobility to possess Palestine, or attempts at Western economic domination, the most egregious is the view that the Crusades were an aberration from Christian teaching. The four-century long quest to “liberate the Church of God” in Jerusalem, as Pope Urban II asked of Christendom in 1095 in Clermont, France, marked the violent and durable birth of the romantic soul of Christian Europe. During the Crusades, a term only coined in the 18th Century - the chevaliers were crucesignati (cross-signed) often vowed to chastity, poverty and obedience- the absent palaces of Provence swelled with the strains of courtly love and a system of courtship that balanced the private codes of love with the making of law. The Crusades as such forged quixotic hopefulness into the DNA of Western law. They made Francis bold enough to sail to Alexandria to meet with the Sultan to effectively appeal for peace and fired the imagination of Ignatius to discover the pilgrim pathways to Jerusalem in his mind, stumbling onto the scientific method. The Crusades were indeed scored with boondoggle and failures as well as evils such as anti-semitism. Perhaps because of the futility of many of the actual Crusades the better legacy is a hopeful measure of playfulness as a sign of health in the political life of democracy in the West.
On this Memorial Day in the United States I would like to offer a playful Catholic political platform recalling Urban II’s edict that “whoever for devotion alone, not for gain, honor or money goes to Jerusalem to liberate the Church of God can substitute this journey for all penance.” I am not interested in stoking the fires of a new crusade. Another meaning of “liberating the Church of God” strikes me. So much of our political energy in foreign policy revolves around Jerusalem and our experience of standing in the breach of intractable factions to do penance for our colonial sins. The Acts of the Apostles reading for today, the Sixth Sunday of Easter- coinciding with Memorial Day, has Philip preaching successfully in Samaria and Jerusalem rejoicing to hear the news. Some modern-day Philip may be toiling in a Bethlehem bakery. Is there a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict lurking in the diminished Christian minority in Jerusalem and elsewhere? The hallmark of the Constitution that generations of Americans have fought and died for is the genius of our founding fathers at solving the issue of factionalism, a genius perhaps traceable to Montesqieu and a provençal tradition from the era of the crusades to solve conflict in a courtly manner.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ovations this past week in Congress in the face of his scorched refusal to negotiate the borders of Israel with President Obama would be justly muted if the voice of Philip were properly heard. US funded research and preparation for Philip might win him a voice both here and abroad. How about the addition of a funded system of advocacy to pare aid to Israel or to the Palestinian State with the rights of the Christian minority? I suggest that we extend a similar of privilege of visas and US support through the State Department for similar numbers of Christian minorities living in trouble spots from Egypt to the Sudan to India and to the Far East that often have a Christian minority. These diminishing and beleaguered minorities are potential peace brokers, cheaper than an army is an educated man on a familiar plane.
A few other items for the political platform:
Immigration policy that allows guest workers transit to country of origin, allowing them payment of Social Security benefits in a lump sum.
Employment of Columbian military forces in the fight against narco-trafficking in Mexico and Central America.
Open US-Mexican Border to interstate trucking.
Include Ascension Thursday, the Assumption and Easter Monday as Federal Holidays.
Offer two year paid service to high school graduates in the trades for charity.
Restrict shopping on Sundays to essentials, as per US legal tradition.
(local to NYC) make street parking free again on Sundays
Close banks and government offices during siesta hours in summer months.
Hire ticket monitors on buses to check fares so that all doors of the bus can open for ingress and exit.
