Spotlight On Abuse!

I went to see the film Spotlight yesterday.
It deals with the Boston Archdiocese's cover-up and mishandling of the sexual abuse of children by its priests in the late 20th century, and the Boston Globe newspaper's exposure of the affair.

It was a masterful film, and everything was superb.

Except for the fact that the story was more like a report, like journalism than a story.

I suppose it suffered from the fact that we had seen Brooklyn just two days before, and that was a story about a young Irish girl who emigrated to the USA. That was a story that was filled with characters, love, tension, conflict, suffering, and achievement.
It was the stuff of enchantment.
When it was over, I looked at She-who-must-be-obeyed and said I could not believe how fast the time went by.

During Spotlight, however, in the far reaches of the film, I was often aware of my wallet... which being in the general area of meiner toches, began to frequently remind me of how Harry Cohn of Columbia Pictures used to rate movies: if his toches began to go numb and he moved around in his seat, the film was a loser.
Towards the end, I was moving around a bit and began to pray for closure.


I regretted that the intensity of the film tends to focus on one class of events and ignore others. By watching this film, we probably forget that it is open season on children everywhere in the world. Within the orchard of youth there are fruits for every abusive taste: sexual, verbal, spiritual, physical... Everything.

We forgot children killed in present wars.
We forgot children enslaved in present poverty.
Why we even forgot the tear-jerking photos of drowned children from Syria washing ashore upon the golden sands of the Mediterranean. We forgot the soon to be dead children behind barbed-razor-wire fences on the verges of Europe...

WE FORGOT  the Governors of our own United States saying,

"We don't want them Syrian refugees here!"

In Spotlight, the question was frequently asked,

"Why did we not do anything? Why did we not take a stand?"

Well?
Why do we not do anything?

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Refugee Road-Kill

It won't be long before an Ohio State Senator wants to change the name of Refugee Road to Operation Desert Storm Avenue -  or worse -  to commemorate the ongoing effort to change the Middle East for the better since 1990.

If you have lived around Columbus, Ohio, you will know Refugee Road runs east from Poplar Creek to Reynoldsburg - where it is called Chatterton Road, Reynoldsburg having gotten the road-name-changing bug much earlier than the rest of us - then continues west to Alum Creek, where it joins with highway 104 and bridges the creek, then resumes on the west bank of Alum Creek before finally ending at Lockbourne Avenue.

(Actually, it has been pointed out that the Frank Expressway sort of piggy-backs the exhausted Refugee Road - it has come all the way from Poplar Creek... or Popular Creek as many in the area pronounce it.
The Frank Expressway picks up Refugee Road, takes the name "Frank-Refugee Xway" and goes a couple miles over the Scioto River , where is dumps old Refugee Road at Father Phineas MacAdam's house for homeless roadways.

"He ain't heavy," says Ex-way Frank. "He's ma brother... 'n a refugee , to boot!"

 Big Frank Xway Road and Little Refugee Road... Brothers of the Scioto!

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Fear Of Muslims And Refugees

There is a great deal of noise and chatter on the web between cells of differing world views about Muslims: what do we do with the Muslims fleeing the Middle East once we have opened the flood gates of destruction to inundate their homelands?

Tough question.

I have prayed in a mosque, and I have watched basketball being played in a madrasa.
At one time I did.

I only fear the darkness of the human soul, and even then I expect God to be there.

Governor Snyder of Michigan was the first to suspend immigration of Syrian refugees.

However, Governor Snyder, for all my disagreements with him, is the true Anti-Trump, and it is unfortunate that others following his lead choose to make things ugly.

NPR
Governor Who Started Stampede Against Refugees Says He Only Wants Answers
Updated November 20, 20152:45 PM ET
http://www.npr.org/2015/11/20/456713306/governor-who-started-stampede-on-refugees-says-he-only-wants-answers

...In an interview with NPR on Thursday, Governor Snyder suggested he didn't mean to create a partisan issue. He insisted he's still willing to accept more Syrians in Michigan and said he merely wants a little reassurance that the federal screening process for refugees is sound. He said a call from the president assuring him of the process would be "helpful."

According to Snyder's office, he did join a call with the White House earlier this week that included senior staff, FBI, State, Homeland Security and counterterrorism officials but the governor still wants a detailed response to a letter he sent to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Secretary of State John Kerry outlining his concerns. Snyder told NPR he wants those officials to make the review and to "please respond to my letter that you're confident that we have the appropriate response in place."

Interview Highlights

On 'pausing' immigration from Syrian refugees

I'm very much in favor of immigration. If you look at what's happened in our country, what made our country great was immigration. And in particular, you have people around the world that their lives have been shattered ... We've always been good about accepting people, having come to our country to rebuild their lives. So, in a general sense I've been very much in favor of being proactive with Middle Eastern refugees, along with refugees across the world.

The issue that I said we should hit the pause button for is, one, these horrific terrorist events that have sort of coincided. We have Paris, we have Lebanon, we have the Egyptian airline bombing. Again, I have not criticized the federal system at all. What I said was, it'd be great if we had more transparency and awareness of the review processes. ... When you have terrible events like these in other countries, isn't it appropriate that you just pause to make sure that you do an appropriate review and look at what lessons-learned you can see from these other events to see if processes should be improved and enhanced in some fashion? ...

I find it interesting that Governor Snyder mentioned Lebanon, which is an event mostly ignored by the Media.

I also find it interesting how easily voices of reason are tsunamied by panic and hatred.

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The Empire Of The Sun

More refugeees...Jeeeeez!

They could be from the war in Iraq. They could be Palestinian. They may even be from New Orleans...still. Guess where they are not from. That may be informative.