Dear Jasper John
Your comments on the pending health care legislation are based on widely spread misinformation.
I also note that the US Catholics Bishops are strongly behind heath reform of the kind proposed by President Obama. from below: The cardinal affirmed that the conference views health care “as a basic right belonging to all human beings, from conception to natural death” and therefore supports “universal health care reform.”
There are no “death panels” proposed under the bill nor is there any mention of rationing. It is the intention of the writers of the bill to make it “abortion neutral” People on both sides of the issue agree that it should be neutral regarding abortion and the exact wording is being negotiated.
Sincerely
Donald M Stebbins
BS 1961
[JR: Dear Jasper Stebbins: With all due respect, once again we have to agree to disagree agreeable. The esteemed cardinal is wrong there is no basic "right" to health care. A "right" implies that some one is OBLIGATED to provide it. And subsequently, when provided, I am OBLIGATED to pay for it. I may choose to contribute to the health care of the indigent as with Catholic Charities, or other such VOLUNTARY contributions. But I have no OBLIGATION! As far as "death panels", the UK and Oregon have demonstrated that effectively that this is what results when "boards" decide what they will and will not pay for. The bills are definitely NOT NEUTRAL with respect to abortion -- check out Oregon, Massachusetts, Canada, and the UK. Sorry, but I don't make deals with the devil. AND these "details" are morally offensive. You may choose to accept these folks at face value believing what they say is so, but I do not. Politicians' lips! My injineering classes always stressed measurement. And these don't measure up!]
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John,
It’s about time that the Catholic Church and it hierarchy start reading the words of Christ.
No abortion, no euthansia and no ‘death with dignity”.
We fought a war to stop the Nazis from doing the exact same thing. When and where did we stop seeing the teachings of Christ and start to belive in the beliefs of Hitler?
We, as Catholics, have to stand up before we are loaded on the trains.
Hi John,
You said it all in your response to the dissenting Jasper on healthcare. As for the cardinal, if he wants to play in the political arena like the rest of us, then maybe he should give up his tax free status like the rest of us. He seems to be fairly liberal on how the government should spend my ( not the Church’s) tax money. Finally, leaving the language loose and ambiguous leaves the pols loopholes big enough to drive trucks through to interpret the law in the worst way possible. I always follow the principal of law that voids something that is vague, because the real intent of the lawmakers cannot be clearly understood or interpreted. Thank goodness that you and I were awake in our Jasper theology classes where we were taught to think about moral issues instead of just following the party line like they taught the kids in the local parochial elementary schools.
Lou Apoldo
BCE ’63
Now, Jasper Lou63, I have been accused of many things in my life, but being awake in Father Ritter’s Theology class is CERTAINLY not one of them. I do remember that the answer to all his test questions was “Danny Lou and ‘God and the ways of loving’”; never knew the question, just that one answer. And I have solid set of D’s to prove I was a “barbarian on the hill”. :-) fjohn68
Jasper John,
Sorry if I inferred you stayed awake in theology, but I distinctly remember that my Jasper theology classes relied on reasoning more than dogma. I was one of the few in my class who came from a public high school so I was not intimidated by people wearing black coats like the rest of the class, and thus I often raised some questions in class that my classmates thought were impudent and for which I might risk having my knuckles rapped with a ruler. Actually the reverse was true and the teachers tried to encourage questioning and reasoning to the answers, as opposed to a Baltimore Catechism memorized answer. I remember once the late Brother Luke asked a question which one of my parochial school comrades answered with the standard dogmatic answer. Brother Luke told him “I’ll bet the nuns told you that in high school. Well they don’t know what the Hell they are talking about. In this class we will use reason not dogma to develop our answers.” I really liked the reason and logic used in my theology classes, because it seemed to be a logical way to look at the world for an injuneer like me.