Today's Sermon

I feel lately that I'm running out of steam as far as criticism of Bush. Nobody who wants to hear it processes a thing, and I feel like I'm wasting my breath and typing in a lot of cases when it falls on deaf ears. I hope that America will survive this administration somehow, and that the pendulum will swing back in a few years to something more compassionate than the current "Compassionate Conservatism." Uh huh. I don't know where the kindly Republicans of my childhood disappeared to, and maybe they are still out there, but none of them have my e mail address. All I get from Bush supporters (and thanks to those of you who DON'T send me this stuff) is venom. Pure venom. Sorry to those of you who support this president, but this has been my experience of late.

So I'm throwing up my hands in disgust and moving on to what I think is a much more serious and sad issue, the current genocide in the Congo. 4 million people slaughtered in 6 years and you never hear a thing about it on the news. Women and children systematically raped every day, villages burned and plundered. If this ain't the holocaust of the 21st century, I don't know what would qualify. Why is the world doing nothing? Could it be that we have no economic interest in saving these lives? There is no oil there that I know of, so does govern the world response? Where is the UN and NATO? http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/monuc/background.html
Yes, I know there is rampant corruption in this part of the world, and that is as good an excuse as any to turn a blind eye.

Here are a couple of links to read about it all. It is not at all pretty.
http://www.worldpress.org/Africa/1561.cfm
http://www.oprah.com/omagazine/200502/omag_200502_congo.jhtml

One organization that is trying to help is Women for Women International. Please at least take a look. http://www.womenforwomen.org/