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Paul Rozycki, stay at home parent

... my thoughts.

Editors Note: Much has already and will be written about the events of September 11th, 2001. Sometimes the writing is as much for the writer's soul as for the reader. If any parishioners would like to submit their thoughts to the webmaster for publication, they will be seen on these pages. Submit to rhollj@bitstream.net.

President George Bush proclaims to the world that good will triumph over evil. I dearly hope this will happen, and believe that good surely has the capacity to triumph over evil; still, his speech worries me. Is President Bush willing to send bombs that will take the lives of children and other innocents? Will he in truth live up to his claim of being a representative of "good"?

In his recent response to the Palestinian - Israeli conflict, President Bush displayed a lack of a sense of justice and goodness. Through Vice President Cheney, the President over-rode Secretary of State Colin Powell's proclamation that Israel should not counter-attack Palestinian settlements in response to acts of terrorism. Israel was then, with the explicit blessing of the American Presidency, lobbing mortars into Palestinian settlements (and so killing innocents). Evil was now raining onto both peoples.

The problem there all along has been that evil visited upon a people has been interpreted as proof of the victims' absolute good. This has lead to righteous rage and evil responses to evil. And so on.

What's been missing in the Holy Land, and what's missing in the President's rhetoric, is a basic grasp of the simple truth that good is only good if it is, by it's actions, good. When the evil of terrorism has been visited upon a people, it is a natural reaction to see yourself and country in sharp contrast to evil: they acted evilly, they are evil, we therefore are good. But not being our tormentor doesn't make us good. Acting with the qualities of goodness is what makes us good. I urge all my fellow Americans to find goodness in our actions, by using compassion, justice, and love in response to this recent abomination that has been visited upon our land. If we do so then good will truly triumph over evil.

Paul Rozycki, stay at home parent