Justice, Peace & the Integrity of Creation

Impelled by the spirit of Jesus Christ, the pursuit of justice, peace and integrity of creation is at the heart of what it means to be a School Sister of Notre Dame. Our charism reflects a call for social justice rooted in the Gospel message and Catholic social teaching.

We call ourselves and others to embody gospel values and live the social teachings of the church. Working toward the enablement of persons and the promotion of human dignity, we contribute to positive systemic change.

For more information about the Office of Peace and Justice, contact Sister Jeanne Wingenter.

Article of the month: Government of the People

By Jeanne Wingenter, SSND

As of April 1, there are only 217 more campaign days until the general election! That means 217 more days of rabble-rousing slogans and crowd-pleasing rhetoric … two hundred and seventeen more days of manipulation and misrepresentation of words and facts, of insinuations and meaningless accusations and even a few blatant lies. Too many people, including me, are getting tired of it all. And not only tired of the rhetoric but also totally frustrated and dismayed by the amount of money being poured into pounding that rhetoric into our heads.

According to the website Open Secrets, as of January 2008, the Obama campaign has spent over $113 million on campaign advertising; the Clinton campaign, over $105 million; the McCain campaign, over $48 million. Including candidates who have dropped out of the race, over $345 million has been spent so far on campaigns. That amount could build many schools, provide decent affordable housing, and affordable health care, food and childcare.

Too often, I’ve heard people say, “I can’t wait until elections are done and this will all be over.” That attitude in itself is part of the problem. Elections should be the beginning, not the end, of our involvement in government. Voting once every four years can hardly be called participating in government.

We claim to live in a democracy. By definition, democracy means government in which power is vested in the people and exercised by them. Contrary to what our President says, the greatest enemy to that democracy is not terrorism. It is indifference, apathy, and ignorance. According to Scott Ritter, former Marine Corps intelligence officer and UN weapons inspector in Iraq, “There is no greater breeding ground for the forces of tyranny than the surrender of civic responsibility on the part of those entrusted with the defense of liberty…the people of the United States, whose duly elected representatives constitute the Congress.

“I find that it is we the people who constitute the greatest threat to the future of America. It is not through the force of our actions, but rather the vacuum created by our inaction and apathy.” Harsh words, but definitely food for thought!

In her book, The Open Space of Democracy, Terry Tempest Williams says, “In the open space of democracy, we engage the qualities of inquiry, intuition and love as we become a dynamic citizenry, unafraid to exercise our shared knowledge and power…To not be engaged in the democratic process, to sit back and let others do the work for us, is to fall prey to bitterness and cynicism. It is the passivity of cynicism that has broken the back of our collective outrage. We succumb to our own depression believing there is nothing we can do.”

But some people say, “What can we do? We don’t have power.” I believe that we have as much power as we choose to exercise. The problem is that, most of the time, 60-70 percent of the American people don’t make that choice, don’t assume that responsibility. One-time presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson defined patriotism as “not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.” Short frenzied outbursts of emotion—that’s a fitting description for the kind of power that many Americans exercise.

Whether it’s pro- or anti-immigrant, pro- or anti-Muslim, pro- or anti-gay, pro- or anti-war, or even pro- or anti-abortion, what is needed is not frenzied outbursts of emotion, but tranquil and steady dedication to acquire the information necessary to meaningfully participate in our democratic process. And meaningfully participating in our democratic process means using the power you have to educate your elected representatives about the values you hold dear and how those values apply to issues facing our government today.

I would challenge those who say that politicians never listen to them by asking when they last made any serious effort to communicate with their senators or representatives. Regardless of who wins the election, I believe that it is the responsibility of all of us to hold those folks accountable for the promises they have made and to demand honesty, justice, and concern for the common good in all of their decisions.

In an article entitled, “What would Democracy look like?” found in the Winter 2003 issue of Yes! Magazine, Cecile Andrews writes, “To believe in democracy you need to believe in the power of people to find answers to the problems they’re facing … We want people to learn to trust their own judgments and speak out, to refuse to be silenced and intimidated by those who claim to be authorities and experts. We want people to think critically.”

At a time when scandal and corruption and partisanship and power struggles seem to permeate Congress, it’s very tempting to give up on the whole affair, to either bury our heads in the sand or resolve to throw out the whole bunch at the next election and start over. But what guarantees that starting over won’t be just a repetition of the current state of affairs? Unless the situation of lack of accountability is changed, the results will be the same. And accountability begins with each of us.

It is true that some House (and Senate) cleaning is necessary, but let’s be wary of throwing out the wheat with the chaff. Now, more than ever, we need to own our democracy, to get to know our senators and representatives on both the state and federal level, and to let them know us and where we stand. We need to hold ourselves as well as our elected representatives accountable for our roles in a true democracy. If we really believe that we live in a democracy, a government in which the people hold the power, then we must strive to be an informed, questioning, involved people. There can be no room or excuse for apathy, indifference, and ignorance.

We need to be citizens who continue to raise questions and demand honest answers and accountability from our elected officials. We need to be citizens who care about the common good, who identify and empathize with many of those whose rights are being ignored. We need to be citizens willing to take ownership and responsibility for our government.