Leadership
The Power to Choose by Fr . Richard Bayuk , c . pp . s ., Vice-provincial Director
Christopher de Vinck in his book , The Power of the Powerless , tells the following story . He writes :
One spring afternoon my five-year-old son David and I were planting raspberry bushes along the side of the garage . A neighbor joined us for a few moments . David pointed to ground . “ Look , Daddy ! What ’ s that ?” I stopped talking with my neighbor and looked down . “ A beetle ,” I said . David was impressed and pleased with the discovery of this fancy , colorful creature . My neighbor lifted his foot and stepped on the insect , giving his shoe an extra twist in the dirt . “ That ought to do it ,” he laughed . David looked up at me , waiting for an explanation , a reason . That night , just before I turned off the light in his bedroom , David whispered , “ I liked that beetle , Daddy .” “ I did too ,” I whispered back .
De Vinck concludes the story by saying , “ We have the power to choose .”
Yes , we do . In the first reading for Thursday after Ash Wednesday , we heard Moses speaking to his people : “ Today I have set before you life and prosperity , death and doom .… I have set before you life and death , the blessing and the curse . Choose life , then , that you and your descendants may live , by loving the Lord , your God , heeding his voice , and holding fast to him .”
Just three months ago I wrote the following words , referring to comments made by someone after the Las Vegas shooting in which he called those deaths the price of freedom : “ I fear it has become the freedom to not give a darn . A few tweets about prayers for the victims and then on with life . Really caring about this would require a commitment to solve the problem . A very serious problem we have with gun violence .… More than 33,000 people die from gun violence in this county each year . This will continue . As will the hand-wringing and the unwillingness to address the problem .… I don ’ t expect anything to happen soon , if ever . Until it does , we will witness more of the same carnage . And tweets about ‘ thoughts and prayers ’ and the ‘ price of freedom .’”
Universal background checks ( not yet a reality ) were then and are now supported by a huge majority of Americans ( 97 % in Quinnipiac poll on 2-20-18 ; the same poll showed 66 % support for stricter gun laws , the highest ever ). The nra is no longer an organization that advocates and educates for responsible gun ownership and use . It is instead primarily a powerful lobbying group for the companies that manufacture weapons , giving millions of dollars to help elect ( and control ) politicians . ( An aside :
2 • The New Wine Press • March 2018