Monks Against Bush
A contingent of the St. Vincent College faculty is protesting against the upcoming speech by George Bush on campus. Their President invited Dubya — he used to work for Bush as head of Faith based initiatives. Perhaps that will be the subject of Bush’s talk, but members of the St. Vincent community, faculty [...]
A contingent of the St. Vincent College faculty is protesting against the upcoming speech by George Bush on campus. Their President invited Dubya — he used to work for Bush as head of Faith based initiatives. Perhaps that will be the subject of Bush’s talk, but members of the St. Vincent community, faculty and monks, are upset with the unjust war in Iraq. Heck, I’m going to put up the whole post from beliefnet. Surely they’ll forgive me, since I am spreading the good word.
Latrobe, Pennsylvania - Faculty members at St. Vincent College criticized President George W. Bush’s international and domestic policies in an open letter released the week before the president’s commencement address at the Roman Catholic liberal arts school.
The letter was signed by 29 current and former faculty members, including several department heads and monks at the school. The college about 40 miles (64 kilometers) east of Pittsburgh is run by a Benedictine archabbey.
Bush is scheduled to deliver the commencement address on May 11.
The letter, sent to the news media on Thursday, said the Iraq war runs afoul of Catholic “just war” teachings.
Bush’s social policies “protect the privileges of rich and powerful Americans” at the expense of the poor, the letter said.
“(Y)our pre-emptive, unprovoked war in Iraq has lead to the deaths of thousands of American service personnel and tens of thousands of Iraqi children, women, and men. It threatens to spread beyond Iraq’s borders and endanger others as well,” the letter said.
The letter criticizes Bush’s environmental policies and accuses him of stifling debate on various issues through “fear mongering and threats.”
The letter said Bush will be welcomed, but that the faculty hope those who want to protest that visit will be welcomed to campus, too.
“We honor their witnessing to that sacred Catholic heritage of peace and justice, and hope that the college will not turn them away on May 11th as they too knock at our door,” the letter said.
Monks speaking up! Hey, that’s a good thing. Hmm, I just can’t remember the name of that monk who posts comments on Atrios. Anyone else remember his name? Eldrick? Man, this sieve of a memory for names that I have is going to mean I’m going to Hell, huh? I mean, I’ve met the guy three times. Sheesh!
On c-span a couple of weeks ago they covered the students at the college taking turns and giving their opinions about bush’s visit. The ones who spoke against it gave me great hope that the students are paying attention to what is going on in the world. Those who were in favor of it mostly gave the same reason over and over. They said it was an honor to have the president of the United States speak at their school. Some who spoke against it said they wanted the graduation to be theirs, the one they had worked for, not a photo op for bush. Sadly they had to deal with him being there. From what one student understood, bush would speak and then leave without actually talkiing to any of the students. I imagine that was the way it was planned. I wonder if the grads were even in the hall when bush spoke.