Sunday Night Journal 2006
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Poetry and Politics: Guernica with Graffiti Patti Smith (famous in the late ‘70s as a sort of beat-punk poet singing rock-and-roll) has made available a song, “Qana,” about the civilians killed by Israeli air strikes in the Lebanese city of Qana. (You can download the song here.) It’s a powerful piece, a Guernica in words…
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Masters of War The week was saturated with news of the war in Lebanon, featuring the civilian body count and terrible photographs, and with furious argumentation, on the Internet and elsewhere, as to which side is more right or more wrong. The division emerges clearly once again between those who see Israel and the United…
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What Are They Among So Many? There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what are they among so many? —John 6:9 War between Israel and Hezbollah, with a particularly heart-rending incident yesterday, as Hezbollah continues its evil but shrewd practice of placing its weapons among civilians; the savage…
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Resentment Studies When I was in my mid-20s (quite some time ago) I started down the path that would have led to a PhD in English literature and then, after what would probably have been a lengthy job search, to an academic position. Circumstances at the time caused me to change my mind, and I…
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The Laughter of Contempt I’m writing this on Monday night, having thought better of publishing what I wrote last night, a somewhat dark meditation on the subject of accidents and the problem of evil. Maybe some other time. Instead, I’ll say something brief on a question I’ve been thinking about for a while: the meanness…
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The Round-Earth Conspiracy I had an unexpectedly hectic weekend that left little time for reflection, but I did manage to write the following letter to the local archdiocesan weekly in response to a rather peculiar letter that recently appeared there: To the Editor: I have not read The DaVinci Code or seen the movie, but…
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If I Could Just Touch the Hem of His Garment That’s a line from an old country hymn, alluding to an incident in Matthew 9, which was part of today’s Gospel reading, and which of course I heard in the New American translation, but include here in the King James, partly because I love this…
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No Complaint, No Problem One of my daughters just graduated from high school, and a few months ago we were visiting colleges. One large state school had invited her to enter a program advertised as providing, within the context of the big school, a sort of intensified liberal arts program like the one offered by…
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Blood and Sapphire It will come as no surprise to any non-Catholic reading this that we Catholics believe some pretty strange things. Catholics, on the other hand, are in some danger of losing sight, by force of habit, of this strangeness. I thought of it as I listened to today's readings for the feast of…
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One Cheer for Roy Moore Roy Moore, running for the Republican nomination for the Alabama governership, was easily defeated last week by incumbent Governor Bob Riley. All the polls had predicted this, so if those were correct then the majority of the state’s citizens were pleased by the defeat. Although he continues to refer to…
Light On Dark Water 