Friday, May 31, 2002

Sacrifice during wartime With the White House seeking to reduce student loans for tax reasons in the same breath as it makes tax cuts for millionaires. What the war on terrorism has not brought is an emphasis on raising federal revenues from those who can best pay. There is to be sacrifice for students, not speculators. He also wants to make permanent the end of the inheritance tax for millionaires, the only ones left paying it. Previous wars saw inheritance taxes imposed or raised, not eliminated. All this from Kevin Phillips, a conservative commentator. Leaders have enough strength of vision and security in their abilities to call for sacrifice in times of crisis. As Phillips piece nicely points out, there is sacrifice all right, but it’s not for those who can most afford it (and who most benefit from the freedoms our way of life affords) but rather from those who can least afford it. This is compassionate?     9:25:13 AM     Junior Year "Out" But when they turn 16, Amish teenagers are allowed the freedom to explore the customs of the outside "English" world -- including alcohol, drugs and sex -- before deciding whether to join the Amish church for life or leave the community altogether. What a great idea, and it speaks volumes about the inherent security that the Amish feel about their beliefs and way of life. They recognize the churning metaphysical, and very physical, quandries of adolescence, and let their young loose to explore those -- free to choose to come back to the foild or not. Obviously, the theory is that those who come back will have a better sense of themselves, what other choices are out there in the real world, and will have (at least somewhat) freely chosen to follow the path. I wonder how this would change the Catholic church? Obviously the problem is that we as asociety and the catholic church in particular demonize homosexuality -- so some homosexuals, fearing their inclinations, race off in the other direction, to the pious protection of priesthood. Desire will out, however, and eventually their inclinations -- as they should be expected to -- surface and take their toll. And despite the freedom to experiment, Walker is amazed that 85 to 90 percent of the teens do decide to return to the Amish ways and join the church. 9:10:23 AM

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