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Welcome to Friday. NCR columnist Mike Leach realizes he needs to forgive President Donald Trump, even if he doesn't deserve it. Jesuit Fr. Stephen Kelly, one of the Kings Bay Plowshares 7, has spent more than 11 years in jail. They are both Catholic, but Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her opponent, John Cummings, are a study in contrasts.
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"I need to forgive President Donald Trump," writes Mike Leach in the latest Soul Seeing column. "Not that he needs it. I need it."
Leach writes that even though Trump hasn't hurt him personally - he and his family are safe and happy - the president has hurt thousands of others.
"Especially the dead ones he may have saved by telling the truth. And their families. And all those children sleeping on cement in cages near the border. And their mothers who still don't know where they are. At best, Trump has devastated families, deepened division, ignited violence, made a mockery of decency, damaged our democracy, and now threatens our coming election. O, how that bothers me!"
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Four years ago about this time in October, Jesuit Fr. Stephen Kelly celebrated Mass for a national gathering of Catholic Workers that had just ended in Las Vegas. The celebration did not occur at a church, but on sacred land stolen from the Western Shoshone Nation 70 years ago by the U.S. government for the testing of nuclear weapons, now known as the Nevada National Security Site.
Nowhere else on Earth has suffered so many nuclear detonations. With the permission of the Western Shoshone National Council, the site has also been a place of worship, penance and of nonviolent resistance for many years. Kelly has spent more than 11 years wearing the khaki or orange habit of a prisoner, all for participating in communities of nonviolent resistance to war. Since April 4, 2018, the 50th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King's assassination, Kelly has been in the Glynn County Jail in Brunswick, Georgia, for a protest with six others at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, the Atlantic home port of the Trident submarine.
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More headlines
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Perrysburg, Ohio, physician Dr. Richard Paat and Baldemar Velasquez, founder of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, have been working together on behalf of northwest Ohio's migrant communities for the past dozen years.
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NCR political columnist Michael Sean Winters says Mark Shea's new book, The Church's Best-Kept Secret: A Primer on Catholic Social Teaching, is "a great book to help people realize the ways our politics and culture in the U.S. has distorted our self-understanding of Catholicism."
- At EarthBeat, Gary Gardner, consultant to GreenFaith, writes about "eco-anxiety," the unease that comes in the face of climate catastrophes, species extinctions, melting icecaps and other perils collectively labeled an "existential threat" to humanity.
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Watch our Facebook Live discussion with executive editor Heidi Schlumpf, columnist Michael Sean Winters and Ralph McCloud, director of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, about coronavirus, the Affordable Healthcare Act and the upcoming presidential election.
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Final thoughts
Also, a reminder that we are in the middle of our Fall Member Drive, in which we ask our loyal readers to consider joining our community of NCR Forward members. For just $5 a month, you can get a ton of benefits, such as special events, member polls, question and answer sessions and more. You can find out how to join here.
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Until Monday,
Stephanie Yeagle
NCR Production/Online Editor
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