www.thepeoplesvoice.org

War is always a source of misery for many that stand in its path but sometimes one cannot avoid a war.  After 9/11 it was clear we must address the source of this attack on US soil.  And the source of the attack on 9/11 and was in Afghanistan.  When the US launched its forces to attack positions of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, shortly after 9/11/2001, there was almost unanimous support worldwide. The Taliban had provided a safe haven for Al Qaeda and its leader Osama bin Laden. And they were a danger not just to us.  Unfortunately from the beginning the war in Afghanistan was not done properly.  We never committed even 1/5th the number of troops to Afghanistan compared to those sent to Iraq. If we had put in place the resources that later were committed for Iraq we would have gotten rid of Al Qaeda and Osama…

www.pastemagazine.com

Everyday we are faced with decisions that require us to make ethical choices. And there are times when we as a community or as a nation make decisions that involve ethical choices. Going to war is certainly a very big moral/ethical choice and our faith is dictating our choice.  Now, we can make mistakes but to not learn from our mistakes only means we are likely to repeat the mistake.

War is very destructive and there is loss of life and memory of it haunts the soldiers who fight in it. This is especially true where the war is not between two armies but in a urban setting with potential of harm and casualties to civilians, something that is true of all modern wars. We asked hundreds of thousands of our men and women to go fight this war Iraq. Most of them are simple honest ordinary citizens who found themselves…

Every major faith tradition encourages those who have the means to help those who do not. So the question that keeps coming up is the following: Is it a moral issue that in the richest nation in the history of mankind more than 1 out of 8 people have no health coverage? That is the question that single payer addresses. Simply put health coverage for everyone. It is similar to what is the situation in countries with the best health coverage, who are spending much less than us on their per person health coverage. So, if done properly, single payer should not cost more than what we are collectively paying but less.These are social decisions but they are also moral ones. Single payer has strong support among physicians as well as in the population at large. The sad part is that it isn’t even on the table in the current health…

Bountiful harvest www.partnerone.biz

OK admittedly the title is a bit tongue in cheek. But we should ask the question: Why did the Creator create Sin? (this is a bit of a diversion but I prefer the attribute Creator instead of the word God, (although in some cases language dictates using God) in that it is a bit more gender neutral. The word Allah would be even more preferable (if it did not connotate so many misunderstanding in so many people) because it is not only gender neutral but plurality neutral, i.e., there is no Allahs form of this word. The ‘Al’ is the ‘The’ in Arabic :) (four the’s in a row eh). ‘La’ in Arabic means ‘no’ but I haven’t been able to find what ‘lah’ would mean although it has to be close to ‘la’. Etymology suggests the meaning ‘The Undefinable’ for ‘Al Lah’ which does capture the deepest sense…