Creative Nonviolence

 

              VIOLENT RHETORIC

https://paxchristiusa.org/2023/09/20/vow-of-nonviolence-now-available-in-prayer-card-format/

     I know that I am very sensitive to violent rhetoric.  I am very disturbed by a recent article in the New York Times.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/03/us/politics/trump-indictments-shoplifters-violence.html 

Mr. Trump suggested that General Milley should be executed https://www.reuters.com/fact-check/us-army-general-mark-milley-was-not-arrested-treason-2023-09-28/

He also stated shoplifters should be shot on the spot when found to be committing a crime.  https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2023/10/01/trump-police-shoot-shoplifters-california/71021289007/  

I feel the need to 'do something'.  Violence is being normalized and these comments encourage people to act violently.  I first encountered the VOW OF NONVIOLENCE in 2009 when we were faced with massive postelection violence in Kenya.  This pledge has been around for a lot longer than that and I was late to the game.  But better late than never.

Pax Christi has just finished the Catholic Nonviolence Days of Action on October 2, the birthday of Ghandi.  It's a good time to recommit ourselves to nonviolent actions.  My brother and I disagree on most things political.  But I asked him one day if we could agree that in all we do we would commit to being peaceful and he agreed.  That is a beginning.

There are lots of groups committed to peaceful processes and creative nonviolence.  Find one that you can join and commit to 

1. Strive for peace within yourself

2. Persevere in nonviolence in word and deed

3. Creatively resist evil by working nonviolently.

Malaria and HIV

 

                     HALLELUJAH!!!

     The World Health Organization has approved a second vaccine for preventing malaria as of today, the second of October 2023.  Oxford University has called their new vaccine R21 and it is similar in efficacy to the RTS,S vaccine which was approved a couple of years ago.  However, only 18 million doses have been produced of the first vaccine.

     This new vaccine is easier to produce and will cost only $2-4 per dose; half the cost of the RTS,S vaccine.  More importantly, the Serum Institute of India is prepared to produce 100 million doses of R21 annually with plans to scale up to 200 millions doses per year.  The vaccination protocol requires four doses of the R21 vaccine to insure adequate protection.

     This is exciting news for the continent of Africa which is burdened by 95% of all cases of malaria worldwide.  In 2021 approximately 250 million people were infected and over 600,000 died, most of whom were children under age five.

     Malaria could have been eradicated in the 1960s if the nations of the world had made a commitment to continue working together to combat this formidable disease spread by the Anopheles mosquito.  Laurie Garret narrates the sordid tale in chapter two of her masterpiece entitled The Coming Plaque.  Thankfully, we have another opportunity which is exciting and hopeful.

     Sadly, the world is still lacking a vaccine for HIV despite decades of research.  Equally concerning is the failure of Congress to reauthorize PEPFAR, the President's Emergency Program for AIDS Relief, for another five years when the funding ended on September 30th, 2023.  This  program, initiated by President Bush in 2003, has saved over 25 million lives.  I personally saw the benefits while working in health care in Kenya beginning in 2003.  More detail is documented in an opinion editorial written by Fr. Rick Bauer, MM and can be found at the following link...

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/05/opinion/abortion-pepfar.html

I can see history repeating itself.  If we pull back from leadership and funding for HIV/AIDS now we may very well see a resurgence similar to the resurgence of malaria when the same thing happened in the 1960s.  Now that a government shutdown has been delayed, Congress needs to do its job and appropriate long term funding for an additional five years to continue the progress already made in the HIV pandemic.