the speech<\/a>, after having seen a steady stream of opinion on it on facebook and twitter.<\/p>\nWhat was the speech about? \u00a0Here are my notes:<\/p>\n
He says he\u2019s addressing Congress, and the \u201centire people of the United States,\u201d the workers, the elderly, and the young people.<\/p>\n
He structures his speech around for Americans with key anniversaries: \u00a0Abraham (150th anniversary of his assination), Martin Luther King (50th anniversary of the Selma March), Dorothy Day (anniversary = ???), and Thomas Merton (100th anniversary of his birth).<\/p>\n
Lincoln represents freedom, but, he says, \u201cBuilding a future of freedom requires love of the common good and cooperation in a spirit of subsidiarity and solidarity,\u201d and then says that \u201cA delicate balance is required to combat violence perpetrated in the name of a religion, an ideology or an economic system, while also safeguarding religious freedom, intellectual freedom and individual freedoms.\u201d \u00a0He sounds a bit like a Jedi knight \u2014 even in the name of fighting evil, one must not become consumed by anger. \u00a0Or something like that, maybe.<\/span><\/p>\nThen he talks about King and his \u201cdream\u201d and segues into the dreams of immigrants, and speaks in vague terms about the fate of indigenous peoples, and then says we must not turn our backs on our \u201cneighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n
He references the refugee crisis in Europe, and the northward flow from Mexico to the U.S., and says, \u201cWe must not be taken aback by their numbers, but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best we can to their situation. To respond in a way which is always humane, just and fraternal.\u201d \u00a0Open immigration supporters will view this as a call for amnesty, but it feels too vague to label this a direct call for a legalization program. \u00a0In any case, it sounds much more directed at the much more immediate situation in Europe.<\/span><\/p>\nFrancis then pulls out the Golden Rule, and an incidental, obligatory, \u201cprotect and defend human life at every state of development,\u201d and a paragraph on death penalty opposition, and some words on rehabilitation (which feel out of place when we\u2019re talking about the worst of the worst, who will not be released in any case \u2014 unless he simply means the opportunity for said prisoner to repent?).<\/p>\n
He then mentions Dorothy Day, but, again, without any special anniversary connected with her. \u00a0(I could find nothing in her wikipedia entry, either.) \u00a0And referencing her poverty-fighting efforts, he says, \u201cHow much progress has been made in this area in so many parts of the world! How much has been done in these first years of the third millennium to raise people out of extreme poverty!\u201d and \u201cIt goes without saying that part of this great effort is the creation and distribution of wealth. The right use of natural resources, the proper application of technology and the harnessing of the spirit of enterprise are essential elements of an economy which seeks to be modern, inclusive and sustainable. \u201cBusiness is a noble vocation, directed to producing wealth and improving the world. It can be a fruitful source of prosperity for the area in which it operates, especially if it sees the creation of jobs as an essential part of its service to the common good\u201d (Laudato Si\u2019, 129).\u201d \u00a0Then he calls upon Americans to use technology to create \u201canother type of progress, one which is healthier, more human, more social, more integral.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nFrancis then moves on to Merton, \u201ca promoter of peace between peoples and religions,\u201d and says, \u201cI would like to recognize the efforts made in recent months to help overcome historic differences linked to painful episodes of the past.\u201d \u00a0He doesn\u2019t mention specifics, so I\u2019m guessing that he is referring to the Iran nuclear deal. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nHe then goes back to the arms trade, offering what appears to be a too-facile explanation of war as due to greedy arms dealers.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s now finished with his Four Americans, and moves on to the World Meeting of Families, making oblique reference to gay marriage, and perhaps the larger numbers of cohabitating couples and single parents. \u00a0 Of families themselves, he then focuses on \u201cthe young,\u201d many of whom \u201cseem disoriented and aimless, trapped in a hopeless maze of violence, abuse and despair.\u201d \u00a0Is he talking about children? \u00a0He seems more to be referring to young adults, which doesn\u2019t really fit with his theme of family, as this is the age group that doesn\u2019t participate in family life, neither as mothers and fathers, nor as dependent children. \u00a0And then he spends two sentences fretting that some young people are pressured not to start a family because they have no hope for the future, and others are having too much fun to start a family. \u00a0Where did this come from? \u00a0Has he spent too much time in Italy (fertility rate 1.42 children per woman)?<\/span><\/p>\nThen some few closing words, and a closing sentence, \u201c\u00a0It is my desire that this spirit continue to develop and grow, so that as many young people as possible can inherit and dwell in a land which has inspired so many people to dream.\u201d \u00a0What does this mean? \u00a0One would expect that last sentence to express the hope that the next generation may experience the fulfillment of those dreams. \u00a0But is he really talking simply about maximizing the population, that is, that we should admit as immigrants as many people as we possibly can without the country collapsing? \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSo all in all, it just didn\u2019t do anything for me. \u00a0It\u2019s not just about the wishy-washiness of the abortion reference. \u00a0There we too many cryptic, vague references. \u00a0His schema of the Four Americans didn\u2019t really work for me, and felt too disjointed. \u00a0His buzzwords of subsidiarity and solidarity don\u2019t resonate with me. \u00a0Was this supposed to rally his supporters to action? \u00a0To convert skeptics?<\/p>\n
But I\u2019ve now done my homework. \u00a0Good night!<\/p>\n
Morning update: \u00a0everyone\u2019s plucking sound bites to talk about. \u00a0But a speech like this is, or ought to be, about more than just ticking off boxes of topics and connecting together a series of grand statements. \u00a0Do you see something bigger? \u00a0Did it speak to you? \u00a0Help you to see something in a different light? \u00a0What did I miss?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I admit \u2014 this feels like homework. \u00a0Not in the sense that I feel obliged to write about the Pope, as a Patheos blogger, because I have gotten myself trapped in blogging, it\u2019s not fun anymore, whine, whine, whine. \u00a0Not really. \u00a0More in the sense that feel obliged, not as a blogger, but as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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