Correspondence
CORRESPONDENCE To the Editors Life in all seasons Thank you for a profoundly thoughtful essay by Rand Richards Cooper [October 25] on the ultimate implications of assisted suicide. He reminds us...
...Judges aren't paid to be courageous...
...Some of them are honest attempts to find another approach to problems that have proved intractable for much too long and far too many people...
...Though, apart from this little skirmish, we refuse to take up arms in the cultural war in which Carlin seems to be a belligerent, we also decline to accept that we as homosexuals are destroying the values of Christian society...
...edward t. chase New York, N.Y...
...I'm not sure, however, that that alone will answer the needs of the "new urban poor...
...On the contrary, it focuses on the most important problem of our inner-city residents, the lack of jobs, because this above all else triggers the pathologies that are ruining millions of lives...
...I wear a gold band on the ring finger of my left hand...
...Is that his real concern, or is it rather a smokescreen covering his discontent with judicial decisions on certain key issues...
...Carlin's peeves & mine David R. Carlin, Jr., Commonweal's official voice of doom, is at it again, this time [October 25] bewailing the usurpation of legislative authority and the undermining of our democracy by liberal judges...
...The writer is executive director of Americans for Middle East Understanding...
...The headline given the review suggests that the book was, in general, off the mark...
...A change of heart Because I'm something of a soft touch when it comes to requests for help from people in need, I'm in a temporary budget crunch...
...Approximately 85 people were killed over the two-day period: 70 Palestinians and 15 Israelis...
...skip knoble Boalsburg, Pa...
...DAVID R. CARLIN, JR...
...ALEX KELLAHER MIKULICH Chicago, III...
...Together, we have pooled our meager resources and are paying monthly notes on a house in which upwards of twenty homeless folk in our town find hospitality, and where we have supper nightly with more than thirty poor men, women, and (!) children...
...Surely not as familiar as the policy proposals that are winning the day in this age of devolution, aimed more at punishing than at empowering the poor...
...If it turns out that heroic Christian charity is typical of gay couples, I'll be happy to change my mind about the social merits of homosexual marriage...
...What Wycliff missed In "What Wilson Misses" [November 8], your distinguished reviewer Don Wycliff missed the significance of William Julius Wilson's When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor...
...I am not persuaded that all the policy proposals that are "winning the day in this age of devolution" are indeed "aimed more at punishing than at empowering the poor...
...It remains true, I believe, that Wilson's work calls us, as a people, to reflect on how we treat the poorest among us and what that portends about the kind of people we are becoming...
...Wilson replied that, as a social scientist, he has purposely avoided moral argument...
...In contrast to social theorists like Charles Murray and Lawrence Mead, who find the causes of poverty in the poor themselves-either for not taking advantage of open opportunities for all to work (Murray), or for not adhering to the American work ethic (Mead)-Wilson has made a significant effort to measure the relative impact and interrelations among cultural, structural, and social-psychological factors contributing to the "mind-numbing, spirit-killing, community-destroying" poverty experienced predominantly by African-Americans in the inner cities...
...I suggested as well that his policy prescriptions imply a moral argument about the kind of people we want to be...
...Joseph g. Murray Quaker Hill, Conn...
...He reminds us that life has four seasons and that we will be the poorer for trying to reduce the number to three...
...Wilson's central point Among other achievements, the U.S...
...JOHN F. MAHONEY New York, N.Y...
...I think it was a wise constitutional decision...
...2. Would I complain if the Supreme Court invented constitutional principles that I approve of...
...One of mine is that every time Carlin writes about abortion and euthanasia he has to throw homosexuals into the mix...
...I have no objection to homosexuals...
...Of course I would...
...There is today a notorious absence of sufficient jobs in the private sector in the near future...
...Donahue and his partner are admirable...
...The approximations are necessary because different human-rights organizations use slightly different time frames for the intifada...
...My complaint has to do with both method and substance...
...During the six years of the intifada, December 1987 to September 1993, approximately 1,500 Palestinians were killed by Israelis and approximately 35 Israelis were killed by Palestinians...
...why should I? But I have a strong objection to the gay movement, which, along with the abortion and euthanasia movements, is part of the holy trinity of contemporary secularism...
...I suggest, however, that it will be the voices of humanists like Cooper (and poets like Jim Kacian, in his poem "Mortality" that accompanied the Cooper piece) that will finally move us as a nation to rethink the true meaning of life and death...
...they're paid to be wise...
...3. Do I think Brown was (a) "an example of judicial overreach" or (b) "a courageous defense of racial justice...
...It's the gay movement I throw into the mix...
...We are members of the Seamless Garment Network and are known for our activism on behalf of protecting all life from womb to tomb...
...In this instance he predicts a "judge-made homosexual revolution," through which gay marriage will thrive along with euthanasia and abortion, while democracy will be dying...
...It's too bad that the review did not stress this aspect of the situation that Wilson's book addresses so centrally and so cogently...
...I listened hard but heard not a single complaint from the "judges-have-too-much-power" crowd...
...Catholic bishops' recent (November 11) condensed restatement of their earlier pastoral letter on the economy should help put in perspective Don Wycliff's unfortunate depreciation [November 11] of William Julius Wilson's new book, When Work Disappears...
...Until then, I remain convinced that extending marriage to gays will further delegitimize the institution of marriage-thus aggravating the enormous damage we have already done to children by treating marriage lightly...
...Winter is not a time of death but of a special and valuable kind of life-a life that speaks to fragility and support, love and remembrance, loneliness and friendship, and mortality itself...
...Keep up the good work...
...We pray and try like heck to live the gospel in a practical manner...
...they agreed with the ruling...
...As for Alex Mikulich, I suspect we agree on the need for a moral awakening...
...Did the 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education seem to him an example of judicial overreach, or a courageous defense of racial justice...
...The reviewer replies: Edward Chase's quarrel would seem to be with the headline of my review (Continued on page 4) (Continued from page 2) ("What Wilson Misses") rather than with its substance...
...Wilson's book demonstrates that there simply is no open-opportunity structure for the poor, and that most poor people do share the dominant social value of the desire to work...
...Wycliff says that Wilson's policy prescriptions having to do with job creation are "familiar...
...Carlin writes about his pet peeves...
...I might add that it will be interesting to see in the months and years ahead how many employers are willing to take on the burden of employing people-welfare mothers, most notably-who frequently are so socially and educationally crippled that they simply cannot be productive workers...
...Here in Louisiana a panel of federal judges overrode the legislature by redrawing the lines of an election district that favored the election of African-Americans...
...STEPHEN DONAHUE Baton Rouge, La...
...5. To judge from his final paragraph, it seems Mr...
...Your issue of October 25 has led me to reconsider and make my sacrifice in other directions...
...In recent times we have heard all the cogent arguments against assisted suicide from ethicists, legal scholars, moral theologians, physicians...
...4.I don't "throw homosexuals into the mix" when I write about abortion and euthanasia...
...The bishops' new statement embraces this point, giving priority to the absolute necessity of jobs that pay just wages and provide decent benefits...
...So I was going to sacrifice my Commonweal subscription...
...Wilson's book comes to us just as 4 million mothers who support themselves and some 9.6 million children by a combination of cash grants, food stamps, housing allowances, and free medical service will find these benefits terminated, thanks to "time limits" for welfare...
...If judges consistently decided cases in accord with Carlin's world view, would he complain about their power...
...Neither...
...All would concur, however, that more people were killed in the intifada than in the two days following the tunnel opening: approximately 1,800 percent more...
...I certainly have no quarrel with his main point: that "[t]here is today a notorious absence of sufficient jobs in the private sector in the near future...
...But, he added, "if you are talking about a moral awakening, yes, I think we are in need of a moral awakening, but I will leave that job to you and others...
...In a recent conversation I asked Wilson whether our society's failure to acknowledge the reality of systemic social inequality and marginalization comes about because the society lacks a moral center...
...don wycliff Middle East math For the record, the assertion in your editorial of October 11 ["Undermining the Peace"] that more people were killed during the two days following the recent tunnel opening in Jerusalem than during the whole six years of the intifada is incorrect...
...It represents my lifelong commitment to my spouse, who like me is a man...
...Snuff it out prematurely and there will be no spring...
...The writer replies: 1. What need do I have for a "smokescreen," since I make no attempt to conceal my unhappiness with the substance of certain Supreme Court decisions...
Vol. 123 • December 1996 • No. 21
