Is there anything left that matters?

This came to me today, in my email inbox. I post it without comment, although you might do so and pass it on.

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IS THERE ANYTHING LEFT THAT MATTERS?
by Sister Joan Chittister, OSB
A Benedictine Sister of Erie

This is what I don't understand: All of a sudden nothing
seems to matter. First, they said they wanted Bin Laden
"dead or alive." But they didn't get him. So now they tell
us that it doesn't matter. Our mission is greater than one
man.

Then they said they wanted Saddam Hussein, "dead or alive."
He's apparently alive but we haven't got him yet, either.
However, President Bush told reporters recently, "It doesn't
matter. Our mission is greater than one man."

Finally, they told us that we were invading Iraq to destroy
their weapons of mass destruction. Now they say those
weapons probably don't exist. Maybe never existed.
Apparently that doesn't matter either.

Except that it does matter.

I know we're not supposed to say that. I know it's called
"unpatriotic."

But it's also called honesty. And dishonesty matters. It
matters that the infrastructure of a foreign nation that
couldn't defend itself against us has been destroyed on the
grounds that it was a military threat to the world.

It matters that we destroyed it under a new doctrine of
"pre-emptive war" when there was apparently nothing worth
pre-empting. It surely matters to the families here whose
sons went to war to make the world safe from weapons of mass
destruction and will never come home.

It matters to families in the United States whose life
support programs were ended, whose medical insurance ran
out, whose food stamps were cut off, whose day care programs
were eliminated so we could spend the money on sending an
army to do what did not need to be done.

It matters to the Iraqi girl whose face was burned by a lamp
that toppled over as a result of a U.S. bombing run.

It matters to Ali, the Iraqi boy who lost his family - and
both his arms - in a U.S. air attack.

It matters to the people in Baghdad whose water supply is
now fetid, whose electricity is gone, whose streets are
unsafe, whose 158 government ministries' buildings and all
their records have been destroyed, whose cultural heritage
and social system has been looted and whose cities teem with
anti-American protests.

It matters that the people we say we "liberated" do not feel
liberated in the midst of the lawlessness, destruction and
wholesale social suffering that so-called liberation
created.

It matters to the United Nations whose integrity was
impugned, whose authority was denied, whose inspection teams
are even now still being overlooked in the process of
technical evaluation and disarmament.

It matters to the reputation of the United States in the
eyes of the world, both now and for decades to come,
perhaps.

And surely it matters to the integrity of this nation
whether or not its intelligence gathering agencies have any
real intelligence or not before we launch a military armada
on its say-so.

And it should matter whether or not our government is either
incompetent and didn't know what they were doing or were
dishonest and refused to say. The unspoken truth is that
either as a people we were misled, or we were lied to, about
the real reason for this war.

Either we made a huge -- and unforgivable -- mistake, an
arrogant or ignorant mistake, or we are swaggering around
the world like a blind giant, flailing in all directions
while the rest of the world watches in horror or in
ridicule.

If Bill Clinton's definition of "is" matters, surely this
matters. If a president's sex life matters, surely a
president's use of global force against some of the weakest
people in the world matters. If a president's word in a
court of law about a private indiscretion matters, surely a
president's word to the community of nations and the
security of millions of people matters.

And if not, why not? If not, surely there is something as
wrong with us as citizens, as thinkers, as Christians as
there must be with some facet of the government. If wars
that the public says are wrong yesterday - as over 70% of
U.S. citizens did before the attack on Iraq - suddenly
become "right" the minute the first bombs drop, what kind of
national morality is that?

Of what are we really capable as a nation if the considered
judgment of politicians and people around the world means
nothing to us as a people?

What is the depth of the American soul if we can allow
destruction to be done in our name and the name of
"liberation" and never even demand an accounting of its
costs, both personal and public, when it is over?

We like to take comfort in the notion that people make a
distinction between our government and ourselves. We like to
say that the people of the world love Americans, they simply
mistrust our government. But excoriating a distant and
anonymous "government" for wreaking rubble on a nation in
pretense of good requires very little of either character or
intelligence.

What may count most, however, is that we may well be the
ones Proverbs warns when it reminds us: "Kings take pleasure
in honest lips; they value the one who speaks the truth."
The point is clear: If the people speak and the king doesn't
listen, there is something wrong with the king. If the king
acts precipitously and the people say nothing, something is
wrong with the people.

It may be time for us to realize that in a country that
prides itself on being democratic, we are our government.
And the rest of the world is figuring that out very quickly.

From where I stand, that matters.

for saying everything that we all are thinking.

good post. In a democracy there is an element of responsibility involved here.....

She'll either find herself locked up with those other fiesty nuns out west or Newsmax will put her face on a deck of playing cards.

Over and out. Bye.

She said it all.

It matters to me , and a whole lot of friends of mine .

Gratuitous and self-indulgent, but hey, what forum is this? ;-)