Monday, December 07, 2015

I would like (click here) to mention four of these Americans: Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton.

This year marks the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, the guardian of liberty, who labored tirelessly that "this nation, under God, [might] have a new birth of freedom". Building a future of freedom requires love of the common good and cooperation in a spirit of subsidiarity and solidarity....

I liked all of them. They were real. Not just in the physical sense, but, they understood life, it's value and it's tragedy.

They lived for the best outcomes of others. Each in their own way brought a message of tomorrow and promise. Regardless of their station in life they never saw themselves better off than anyone else in a way that would validate their egos. They were humble people.


Dorothy Day is the only woman in the group, but, she was incredible. She loved life, was honest to herself and commanded tomorrow to be better than yesterday. 

She always entertained worship. Even when she was estranged from the church  she still found solace in the pew of a Catholic church. 

Her father was anti-Catholic for awhile as a young man. Interestingly, the 'talk' about godlessness was open and easy in a social situation. It was not exclusively for meetings with friends or others that believed as one did. There was a clear understanding that being godless in a 'proper society' where politicians were anchored in open expressions of being faithful, was all part of it. Everyone was true to their ideas and why they believed what they discerned as the best path for them.

Pope Francis, in his speech to Congress, used the word dignity many times. Isn't all life suppose to have dignity? The dignity of life plagued those four Americans. They abhorred suffering and never saw justice in poverty. All the characteristics of greatness

Dorothy Day had a daughter and this was her obituary at the age of 82.

Tamar Teresa Batterham Hennessy, (click here) the only child of Catholic Worker co-foundress Dorothy Day, died subsequent to a stroke on Tuesday, 25 March 2008, in Lebanon, Hew Hampshire at the age of 82.

Born in Mahattan in 1926, she was baptized at Our Lady Help of Christians Roman Catholic Church in Tottenville later that same year. Tamar was witness to the inception of the Catholic Worker when she was eight years old and later conceded that this life can be difficult for any child"...


She was her mother's daughter. 

Dorothy Day's Eulogy on December 2, 1980 by Geoffrey B. Gneuhs, O.P. at Nativity Church, New York City. (click here)

In her book The Long Loneliness, Dorothy wrote, "All my life I have been haunted by God." And where did this haunting God lead her? To a life of simplicity and poverty with the poor, to solidarity with the outcasts—today in this city of New York there are more and more people homeless as mental hospitals close and social services are cut back, while at the same time this country spends $170 billion a year for armaments....


The Long Loneliness was published in 1952 and $170 billion a year for armaments. Does war for Americans ever get old? End Pre-emption.