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The Georgia Bulletin
June 17,1982
It Is The Mistakes
We Most Fear
Rich Man, Poor Man, Pac Man - Thief
Dolores Curran
A serious mistake took place last
week at the U.N. The mistake
damaged no one. It brought the blush
of embarrassment to the U.S.
government, but no one got hurt.
Ambassador Kirkpatrick
unnecessarily vetoed a position taken
by the U.N. Security Council
demanding a ceasefire in the South
Atlantic. It was unnecessary simply
because Great Britain had first of all
pronounced the veto in no uncertain
terms.
Having followed the mistaken
command of her government,
Ambassador Kirkpatrick immediately,
upon clarification, asked to have her
vote changed to “abstain”. The
request, as the world now knows,
came too late.
Three quarters of a million ordinary
fearful people went to New York last
weekend and stood together in a
memorable moment of thunderous
witness. They brought one message to
the nuclear stockpilers. It was this:
“We have become so fearful of each
other and so sophisticated in
delivering nuclear death, mistakes can
take place. We want life on this planet
to continue.”
It is the mistakes, above all else,
that we must fear. One mistake in
communicating a command, like the
one made at the U.N., and life on
Planet Earth is over. It is estimated
that a nuclear attack on Moscow,
delivered from the arsenal in West
Germany, would take six minutes to
target. Those missiles, fired by
possible computer error, could not be
recalled nor could Russia be
forewarned of the mistake in time to
To the Editor:
I read with interest your report in the
June 3 issue of the Georgia Bulletin of the
Peace Pentecost Services held both
nationally and locally on May 30.
Your report seemed to focus on the
national service, with no direct coverage of
the content of the local program.
Sister Lorraine Masucci spoke of the daily
choice between the cross and the bomb,
between pro-life and anti-life.' Father
Thomas Fidelis reflected on the contrast of
current national support of abortion and
nuclear weaponry and “In God we trust” on
our dollar bills.
Their messages of peace and the effect
each one of us can have on the world around
us made a great impact on me personally and
I wish it could have been more completely
covered by your excellent reporters.
Sheila Flannery
Atlanta
Castro’s Reputation
To the Editor:
I would like to take Monsignor
Burtenshaw to task for calling Fidel Castro
“famous.” I saw it in the Georgia Bulletin of
May 13, in his article on Father Hoffman.
To quote, “Father Hoffman has some
comments on the famous Cuban dictator.”
I would like to ask Monsignor Burtenshaw
what Fidel Castro is famous for? For sending
us the boat people? For driving many
Cubans from their homeland to start a new
life elsewhere? For interfering and hurting
the Catholic Church in Cuba? For interfering
with the clergy in Cuba? For helping Russia
to cause disturbances in our world?
Is it for these things, Monsignor
Burtenshaw, that you call Fidel famous? In
my books these things are evil and anyone
eliminate retaliation.
Last year, alone, over 100 minor
emergency mistakes were made by our
computer warning system. That
system is known to be much more
sophisticated than any possessed by
the Eastern Bloc. Even the most
hawkish experts on both sides are
fearful. We are walking on eggs. The
odds are getting tighter.
As Americans said it more
peacefully than ever before in the
streets, Pope John Paul said it loud
and dear in Argentina. The margin is
now very thin. We appreciate the
President’s message that a show of
might will maintain the certainty of
peace. He may well be right. But who
will defend us or who will defend the
Russian people when the machine,
receiving human, erroneous
commands, initiates the final
holocaust.
We need nuclear free zones as a
beginning. We need constant top level
communications. We need minor
squabbles settled. We need all these
maneuvers and we expect our
representatives to hear us. When we
were dealing with repeater rifles and
dog-fights in the sky, we were blessed
with time to reevaluate decisions.
That era is gone. And with it went the
absolution given to human error.
When the public servants we place
in high positions forget the power of
office and the luxurious trappings of
office and sweat under the collar,
fearful as those who peacefully
marched in New York were, we will
begin to seek solutions.
And that time now is near.
who propagates them 1 would have to call
infamous. If this cap fits Fidel, then let him
wear it. If I must stare truth in the face, then
I would have to say that up until now Castro
has been an infamous dictator. I hope the
error you made was a slip of the pen . . .
Father Denis Dullea
St. Elizabeth Seton Church
Manchester
Rebutting Dolores Curran
To the Editor:
Dolores Curran’s column of June 3,
“Whither Altar Society?” calls for a
response. Mrs. Curran has a right to her ideas
for improving women’s organizations in the
parishes, but she goes too far when she
makes statements such as “With the
abundance of information available today on
what women really need and want...” and
“refusal to acknowledge the needs of today’s
women ...” She should have stated SOME
women. I don’t remember being polled.
Her crude remark, “Yet most altar
societies remain locked into bazaars, altar
care and Mariology,” was quite unnecessary.
How many pastors have deeply appreciated
and will continue to appreciate the support
and assistance given in these apostolates?
And no one knows how many graces have
been obtained for altar society members and
parishioners from the praying of the rosary
and other devotions directed to the Mother
of God. Indeed, how much more of this is
needed in our era of nuclear concern?
Mrs. Curran claims workshops on the
Pilgrim Statue, the Shroud of Turin and
Pro-Life “don’t touch the daily experience
of women.” Most women I know are trying
to do God’s will and practice the Golden
Rule. These programs fit right in.
Teresa Gemazian
Atlanta
I suppose it’s a given fact that every time
our young people discover something new
and pleasurable, there will be detractors,
whether it’s pool, like in “The Music Man,”
comic books, or roller skating. I don’t want
to be guilty of this in talking about video
games, but I’ve had enough cautious
questions from parents on them that I think
we need to look at them and their effect on
kids and families.
Obviously, they are immensely attractive
to youths today who plunk a couple of
dollars’ worth of quarters into them in the
same amount of time it takes their parents
to drink a cup of coffee. They’re showing up
in movie lobbies, service stations and
airports. And in the family room.
Commercially, they’re a bonanza to any
establishment willing to give them space. A
Seven-Eleven manager confided that three
Pac Man and Defender machines pay his
monthly rent. I can see why. The copy
machine in my supermarket sits next to one
and since I spend almost as much on copies
as on milk, I’ve had a good opportunity to
observe and eavesdrop on youthful players.
I’ve learned that a good number spend
their lunch money on the machines without
parental knowledge. I’ve also seen older
siblings strong-arm younger ones for money,
Why is it that any attempt to limit all-out
abortion on demand over the whole nine
months of pregnancy is labelled right-wing
and reactionary by Carole Ashkinaze and the
Atlanta newspapers?
The thousands upon thousands of names
sent to senators recently in support of the
Hatch Amendment are anything but an
indication of a right-wing reactionary
mentality. They represent people from every
political point of view and every kind of
economic background.
Perhaps it is difficult for Carole Ashkinaze
“to take seriously” the proposals of Senators
Hatch, Helms and Hatfield, but obviously it
is not difficult for senators and congressmen,
who have received thousands of letters from
pro-life constituents demanding their
support of pro-life legislation, to support
these proposals.
Ms. Ashkinaze states that the Hatch
Amendment, “will reverse the 1973
Supreme Court ruling with no exceptions
provided for victims of rape or incest.” In
fact, she knows that the Hatch Amendment
is far from the “ultimate” amendment most
pro-life people would prefer. Almost
certainly there will be exceptions for rape,
incest and life of mother, and perhaps even
others. But like most of the pro-abortion
folks, Ms. Ashkinaze likes to ring that scary
“rape-incest” bell.
The more than 1,500,000 abortions
performed in this country each year are not
performed for rape, incest or life of mother.
Abortions are not even a back-up to
contraception any longer. They ARE
“contraception.”
Huge numbers of babies are being
destroyed in the second and third trimesters
of pregnancy and certainly not for the
reasons of rape or incest. In Georgia alone in
1979 there were 1,153 abortions in the 17th
to 20th week of pregnancy, (the fourth and
fifth month) - 1,211 were performed in the
21st to the 24th week of pregnancy (the
fifth and sixth month) - and there were 48
abortions in the 25th to 36th week of
pregnancy (the seventh to the ninth month).
The reasons for approximately 95% of all
abortions range from social inconvenience,
unmarried pregnancy and economic
problems to the sex of the child. Into the
other five percent fall rape, incest, life of
mother and genetic defects.
We have had nearly a decade of
unrestrained, legal destruction of human life,
and hopefully some of the above statistics
will cause some of the women Carole
Ashkinaze refers to to “squirm
uncomfortably in their post-graduate
seminars and middle-management jobs.”
threatening them with bodily extinction if
they tell parents, certainly a time-honored
tradition not limited to video machines.
The money issue aside, should we be
concerned about the attraction of these
machines? Only if the time spent on them
gets out of balance with other activities.
Publicly, I don’t think they’re a concern.
They sure beat the old pool hall for
environment and companionship. Kids
playing in the supermarket probably have
more collective parental supervision than
any other place.
Privately, in the home, kids can become
addicted to the point that they aren’t
interested in anything else - sports, friends,
chores, reading, and hobbies. A mother
shared that her six year-old suffered
migraine headaches after spring vaction. The
probing pediatrician laid the cause on home
video games which her son had played most
of vacation.
He told her that the intense concentration
and noise inherent in playing these games
can overload a person’s stress level to
alarming proportions, especially a young
child’s. He didn’t forbid playing for his
young patient but prescribed a half hour of
activity after every fifteen minutes of play.
As in so many areas of parenting, balance
Many Americans are NOT aware of the
true facts about abortion in this country. As
they learn the truth, they will be as appalled
as we are at what Ms. Ashkinaze and Planned
Parenthood’s Hallenborg tout as “advances.”
Who, in God’s name, would consider an
“advance” the destruction of one and a half
million helpless unborn each year? Perhaps
an “advance” might be an upsurge in
“reproductive responsibility” instead of
“reproductive freedom.”
HARVARD SPEAKER - With
rosary beads in hand, Mother Teresa
of Calcutta tells graduating students at
Harvard University in Cambridge,
Mass., that virginity is something to be
treasured by unmarried people and
abortion is the “greatest evil.” Mother
is the answer. While it may be convenient for
parents to permit their children
uninterrupted hours in front of TV because
they aren’t then begging, fighting or asking
what there is to do, it isn’t healthy. Children
need exercise. They need to play with others
to learn to live with them, not to interact
solely with robots.
They need to become engrossed in a book
they can’t put down. They need to work in
the garden so they can experience being part
of a responsible family. Family therapists
today are concerned about the number of
activities that take individuals away from
relationships and attract them to machines
or activities that limit human interaction.
Computerized football games, TV, video
games and the like are becoming more
prolific and more sophisticated. Each year
we can expect more.
All of these are good in that they hone
skills and teach but they aren’t good if they
become a child’s primary companion.
Eventually children may become jaded with
video and computer games and turn to
human companionship but parents shouldn’t
wait for this surfeit to set in. For some
children, it may not. Common sense
guidance is still the best role we can assume
as parents.
We have become so civilized and advanced
that we have made his mother’s womb the
most unsafe place for a baby to reside.
As Carole Ashkinaze pointed out in her
column, “it’s not too late to be heard.”
Write to Senators Sam Nunn and Mack
Mattingly, c/o the Senate Office Building,
Washington D.C. 20510, and ask them to
stand up for life and support the Hatch
Amendment.
Teresa became only the second
woman ever to deliver a Class Day
speech at the nation’s oldest
university. She was awarded a Doctor
of Laws honorary degree at
commencement exercises the
following day. (NC Photo from UP1)
--NCB
Resound ... Resound ...
Pentecost Message
Choose Life
Sheila Mallon
V Georgia
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Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Most Rev. Thomas A Donncllan Publisher
Rev. Monsignor Noel C . Burtenshaw Editor
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12 Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)
June 20, 1982
THE WORD
THIS W EEKEND
Paul Karnowski
Job 38: 1,8-11
2 Corinthians 5: 14-17
Mark 4: 35-41
I have a suspicion that, nestled among the
lobes of the brain, each of us has a tiny
weather station. The PMC (personal
meteorological center) is equipped with its
own unique brand of thermometers and
barometers. And unlike other weather
centers we may possess, (arthritic elbows or
knees) the little weather outpost in our head
couldrTt care less if it’s going to rain
tomorrow.
For, its function is to take measure of the
weather inside. Inside of us, that is. It
records cold fronts when we approach
someone we dislike. The mercury in its
barometer rises in proportion to the level of
stress in our lives, indicating another high
pressure center. When we are suffering
through a dry spell, be it a lack of faith,
hope or love, the PMC takes note. Our
personal weather station even comes
equipped with radar, enabling us to track the
approach of a storm, whether it be an
eventual showdown with the boss or a
potential conflict with a family member.
As is the case with the weather outside,
we often feel powerless in the face of the
data issued from our personal weather
station - as powerless as the disciples in
today’s gospel.
The evangelist Mark tells us that the
disciples were out on a boat with the Lord.
Suddenly, a bad storm blew up and the boat
was in danger of sinking. Jesus was sound
asleep on a cushion in the stern. Fearing for
their lives, the disciples awoke Jesus saying,
“Teacher, doesn’t it matter to you that we
are going to drown?” The Lord rebuked the
wind and said to the sea, “Be still.” Jesus
reprimands them for their lack of faith.
“Why are you so terrified?” He says.
We’re a lot like the apostles in the boat.
As long as the skies are clear and our
personal weather station is predicting sunny
skies, we prefer to go it alone, and we’re full
of courage. But let our souls darken with a
few clouds, let the winds of adversity blow,
and we cry out to our God. A God, by the
way, who only SEEMS to be sleeping.