“You must be the change
you wish to see in the world”

Life, as nature, is full of life and death issues. Life is full of change. I was awakened this morning by a reporter from a Catholic News Service. He wanted to confirm that Jim Harney, a member of the Milwaukee 14, had died. Jim is alive but on his deathbed, I told him. What happened was that I had sent an email about Jim’s condition to a person who passed it on to the Catholic Worker network, which this newsperson receives. The person passing on my message had not read it, and assumed that I was writing about Jim’s death since Jim has been facing death for a time. With time we were able to change the message of death to life.

Today I finally got onto the web, with a great thanks to Tegan of Emergency Digital, the Debate Forum on the www.nonviolentworm.org. The first question for debate is: “Is it moral or ethical for Marquette University to host military training?” For me this is also a life and death issue. For me it seems our culture of violence and death is such an everyday thing that even when a Christian University teaches military values that negate Christian values it is barely noticed and easily accepted. Checking over the revised Army Leadership Manual today, I found a new statement on the priority of Army values over other cultural and religious faith values. It states: “Soldiers and Army civilians enter the Army with personal values developed in childhood and nurtured over many years of personal experience. By taking an oath to serve the Nation and the institution, one also agrees to live and act by a new set of values — Army Values.” The Army value on taking life, be it in a just or unjust war, is not the Catholic Church’s value of the priority of conscience, and goes way beyond self-defense. Join the debate on this issue of life and death.


I watered my plants today, using some tea. This act was all about promoting life. Growing is all about life and death.

The Debate Forum will focus on life and death issues. I was inspired in creating this page by the Lincoln-Douglas debates, which were mainly about slavery — a life and death issue — and by discernment in Ignatian Spirituality. St. Ignatius was the founder of the Society of Jesus, Jesuits, group who founded Marquette University. He developed a way of discernment for major life and death choices in life. Discernment, individual or group, is a hallmark of Ignatian Spirituality.

I also did a little work on the “Pilgrimage of Peace: Walk in the Footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi”, some of us pilgrims will take at the end of the year. Gandhi was aware of the life and death implications of every little act. He made his whole life his message. He said: “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” Death is all around us. However, if we wish to change death into life we must be the change.

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