Will latest Muslim atrocity force Europe to face reality?

Another Muslim atrocity in Europe. Will the Europeans wake up? The Europeans, if they will survive, if they want to survive, must lose their utopian universalist world view. That utopianism is a corruption of Christianity, as many writers have pointed out. To be fair to the average European, the poison (as in the U.S.) is mostly the work of elites who see themselves as internationalists. Many high ranking clergy have traded Christianity for this heresy, too. But the people are awakening: we see that with UKIP in Great Britain, with the National Front and the Manif demonstrations for the family and marriage in France, with Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, with the PEGIDA demonstrations in Germany.

The people in Europe, as in the United States want an end to the immigration policies that destroy their cultures and harm both the economic and family formation prospects of the poorest members of the host societies. May it happen before too much more blood is shed!

May today's victims rest in peace.

Hundreds of thousands march for marriage and family in France

Wow! Check out these pictures, as the French stand for the rights of children. Marches took place today in Paris and Bordeaux.

And very interesting commentary at English Manif.

Archbishop Cordileone at March for Marriage June 19!

On June 19 the March for Marriage will take place in Washington D.C. Our good Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone will lead a stellar group of speakers, including Brian Brown, President of the National Organization for Marriage, former Arkansas Governor Tim Huckabee, Doug Mainwaring, a same-sex attracted man who supports natural marriage, Ludovine de la Rochere, the co-founder and President of France's La Manif Pour Tous (A March for All) who have brought millionsn of French people to the streets in support of natural marriage and more.

Brian Brown writes:

"We’re in a historic battle, a fight for one of the great truths of civilization – that marriage as one man and one woman is an essential element of a thriving society based on strong families. It’s not only God’s design for humankind, it’s been proven throughout history to be the most beneficial relationship for men and women, for any children born of their union, and for society as a whole. How fortunate we are to be able to demonstrate our support for preserving marriage in the law!"

If you can't go to Washington, you can be part of the Virtual March by going to the March website: www.marriagemarch.org. Check out this video from the March organizers:

Europeans Continue Massive Demonstrations in Support of the Family!

The "Manif pour tous" began in France, against the imposition of same-sex "marriage" on the culture, but it is arising in other counties as well--and not only in Europe! On February 2 there were enormous demonstrations in support of the family in Paris and Lyon in France, amd also in Rome. French Police said there were 80,000 at the Paris Manif, so you know there were far more. Check out the photos below! You did not see that in the U.S. News, did you? According to Galliawatch, the proximate cause was the latest anti-family legislation, which the government has now modified.

The Galliawatch author translates an article posted on Le salon Beige:

"From the tsunami of articles and commentary on the astounding capitulation of the French government to the irresistible counter-revolutionary movement in the streets of Paris and France I am hastily translating only this excerpt from a longer piece at Le Salon Beige. Written by a blogger named Autheuil, about whom I know very little, except that he identifies neither with the left nor the right, and therefore at times sounds uncommitted and indecisive, it nonetheless contains some good points that stress the potential consequences of the government's sudden change of direction. Note that the figure of 80,000 is highly debatable and proves that the author has confidence in police statistics (organizers placed attendance at the Paris Manif as closer to 500,000) :

"I(t) didn't take twenty-four hours for the government to beat a retreat. After the success of another demonstration by the reactionary right (after all, 80,000 persons), the government announced the postponement of a law that should have already been submitted. It renounced also the commitment it had made in January 2013 to insert into the body of the law on the Family the question of medically assisted procreation, which is probably now a dead issue. After such a backing-off, it isn't even worth the effort to hope for the slightest societal reform before the end of his term in office…That the movement is still able, one year after the great demonstrations against "marriage for everyone", to mobilize 80,000 thanks to a threat as unlikely as "gender theory", is an important sign. The reactionary right is back in France, and it isn't an epiphenomenon, it's a groundswell, begun no doubt years ago, that will last a little while longer....This movement is a violent opposition to the eradication of the difference between genders in Western culture. It is the anthropological protest in favor of maintaining a social structure based on the difference between masculine and feminine, implying differentiated roles, hence a different place for men and women.

Here are some pictures (click for larger sizes). The man in the foreground is the Italian Luca Volonte, former chair of Communion and Liberation, and now Group Chairman of the Popular Christian-Democrats to the Assembly of the Council of Europe.

Here is an excerpt of a speech he gave at Lyon (Google translation):

"No, the family is the fundamental unit that strengthens the pact between generations, which creates social cohesion and raise the future. Not all of us and all the children in the history of mankind had the right to have a father and a mother!

Our 'no' always come from more 'yes', the huge positive family for us, for our families, for our children, for the history and civilization of the world. This is our happy family experience that opposes the new tyranny and slavery of "atheistic humanism" described by (Cardinal Henri) De Lubac."

Another shot of the Paris Manif:

The shot below is in the French city of Lyon:

Polish demonstrators at the Lyon Manif:

Young people showing support for the family:

In Rome, pro family supporters lit up the Coliseum:

Vive La France! (cont.)

Here's an excerpt from an article posted at Gallia Watch. The Gallia Watch post links to an article in La Salon Beige (in French), about a mother who had received an award from the French Government. The award honors families. The mother returned the award following the French governement redefinition of the family through its legalization of counterfeit "marriage."

An interesting article posted at Le Salon Beige in May 2013 tells of one woman's decision to return the medal she received on June 6, 1993, during the presidency of François Mitterrand. In a long letter addressed to François Hollande, she explains that the Taubira law legalizing homosexual marriage denatures the institution she and her husband valued and dedicated their lives to, as they raised eleven children.

The Gallia Watch author then translates excerpts from the very well written and thoughtful letter:

"In the recognition that a nation grants to its families there is the consideration of a service. It is a simple service, natural but demanding, of a mother and a father who bring into the world the children born of their love. Because of this love, they raise them, not only for themselves and their right, but to build the civilization of tomorrow....

Here you have, Mr. President, a profound contradiction between the concept of the family advocated by the Republic until now, and what you are implementing in your policies. In truth, marriage and raising children, in your ideology, are nothing more than 'rights' that justify the modification of natural concepts in order to adapt to individual practices. But this individualistic vision that you place above all else is to the detriment of a truly socialist concept of our country. Through your reform, the family is no longer in the service of the nation, it is no longer the nation of tomorrow; it is the expression of individual rights and is subject to the forms that each person chooses.

Of course, we have always been aware of the life styles of some people. If we found them strange, we did not question their freedom. But what an absurd idea to try to group them under the name of the family: filiation is not a poker game where the one who cheats best wins! At the official website, I see that the law passed by your parliament reproduces the same identical provisions as the preceding law on the Medal of the Family. Will you decorate them when they have purchased a sufficient number of children on these new slave markets that already exist in certain foreign countries?..."

On Russia's New Law

I was working on a post on Russia's new law defending their culture from homosexualist propaganda, but Pat Buchanan beat me to it. Back in July 30, 2012 Matthew Franck wrote a piece at Public Interest called Truth and Lies, Nature and Convention: The Debate Over Same-Sex Marriage. Mr. Franck quoted same-sex “marriage” supporter Jon Corvino:

“Whichever side prevails in this debate, the other’s views will be marginalized. There’s no getting around that.” 

So it is a question of which side should be marginalized. One side has built civilizations, the other side has built nothing, and exists parasitically within the civilization built by its enemies. In concrete terms: who will be marginalized, Dan Savage or Baronelle Stutzman? Savage, an ill-mannered lout (caution: link has vile content), is invited to the White House, while Ms. Stutzman is being sued by the state of Washington for refusing to provide flowers for a counterfeit “wedding”--and she's not alone. We have been covering the events in France. On June 12, 2013 LifeSiteNews ran a story about the Mayor of a French town willing to go to prison rather than participate in the charade (his word) of counterfeit marriage:

“The mayor of a small town in France’s Basque region has announced his refusal to carry out a ‘marriage’ between two men who reside in his jurisdiction, becoming the first mayor to defy the country’s new law that applies the name and rights of “matrimony” to couples of the same sex. 

Jean-Michel Colo, a conservative who heads the town of Arcangues in the southern Basque region of Pyrenees-Atlantiques, faces the possibility of a prison sentence of up to five years and a fine of 75,000 euros (100,000 USD), according to French media sources. However, he appears to be unafraid of the consequences of his stand, telling the media that he will ‘go all the way to the gallows’ to oppose the law.

‘I don’t give lessons, I’m not inciting other mayors to follow my example, but I won’t enforce an illegitimate law,’ says Colo. ‘My seven councilmen and I are completely in agreement in saying that we will not participate in this charade.’”

 

So Mayor Colo, too, has been “marginalized.”  That won’t be happening in Russia. Instead, homosexual activists are being marginalized. Mr. Buchanan's article was called "Post v. Putin--Whose Side Are You On?"

"The culture war has gone global.

And the divisions are not only between, but within nations.

“Suddenly, homosexuality is against the law,” wailed Jay Leno. “I mean, this seems like Germany. Let’s round up the Jews. Let’s round up the gays. ... I mean, it starts like that.”

Leno was speaking of Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Obama eagerly agreed:

“I have no patience for countries that treat gays or lesbians ... in ways that intimidate them or are harmful to them. ... Nobody is more offended than me by some of the antigay and lesbian legislation that you’ve been seeing in Russia.”

(Note: As a commentator to Buchanan's article observed, Obama has endless patience when it comes to Christians being slaughtered in Muslim countries, something which is immeasurably greater than any persecution suffered by homosexuals.) Buchanan continues:

Leno and Obama were referring to a new Russian law prohibiting “homosexual propaganda.” Moscow is also warning foreigners, including visitors to the winter Olympics in Sochi, that propagandizing for gay rights can get them two weeks in detention. No kiss-ins allowed.

“Medieval,” howled The Washington Post. “Mr. Putin’s war” on gays and lesbians is “part and parcel of his lapse into xenophobia, religious chauvinism and general intolerance....

What this reveals is the distance America has traveled, morally and culturally, in a few short years, and our amnesia about who we Americans once were, and what it is we once believed.

Only yesterday, homosexual sodomy, which Thomas Jefferson said should be treated like rape, was outlawed in many states and same-sex marriage was regarded as an absurdity.

Was that America we grew up in really like Nazi Germany?

In the Catholic schools this writer attended, pornography—let alone homosexual propaganda—would get one expelled.

Was this really just like Kristallnacht?..."

 

Pat's last points are important. What has happened to America? How did the moral vacuum come into being? President Putin is a Russian nationalist. That's why he cares about what happens to Russia. Makes sense. But what is President Obama? What about us? We've gone from Jefferson's "We hold these truths..." (an assertion which, as Willmoore Kendall taught, presupposes a belief in Truth with a capital "T") to Anthony Kennedy's "At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life..."

In his 1978 autobiography "In Search of History," the legendary liberal journalist Theodore H. White wrote of the changes he had seen:

"The old English political culture had lost control over … the polyglot peoples of America [who] had no common heritage but only ideas to bind them together… What would be really at issue was whether America would be transformed, in the name of Opportunity, simply into a Place, a gathering of discretely defined and entitled groups, interests and heritages; or whether it could continue to be a nation, where all heritages joined under the same roof—ideas of communities within government."

Well, the answer seems pretty clear. America has come to be "a gathering of discretely defined and entitled groups, interests and heritages" and the most politically powerful interest group wins. For now, that group has proved to be homosexual activists.

Vive la France...and now Estonia Stands for the Family, too!

As the French people continue their fight against th imposition of counterfeit marriage, they have inspired and are being joined by, the people of Estonia. From today's LifeSiteNews:

"The founder of Estonia’s pro-family movement said in an interview with a Polish Catholic television program that the country’s draft law on same-sex marriage will not go forward after his group presented the government with nearly 40,000 signatures defending traditional marriage. Law professor Varro Vooglaid (left) told Polonia Christiana that presentation of the petition from the Estonian Foundation for Defense of Tradition and Family will not allow the homosexualist ideologues to frame the issue in terms of “human rights”.

Last month, the group presented a petition of 38,000 signatures to Estonia’s parliament to oppose all plans that may be put forward to re-define marriage to include same-sex partnerings. This, Vooglaid said, has shown the homosexualist lobby that there is going to be serious and organised opposition to their plans. The petition form was delivered to 580,000 households, in a country with a total population of 1.2 million.

Vooglaid called the petition, the largest in the country’s history since emancipation from the Soviet Union, an 'historic event in Estonian politics'. Homosexualists had become used to having the only voice heard in public, but now, he said, 'We have really managed to change the rules of the game.'”

Vive la France V: "Common sense has woken from a deep sleep"

Nice post at The Thinking Housewife today about the French people's refusal to accept the imposition of counterfeit marriage on La Belle France:

"These photos of Sunday’s Manif Pour Tous demonstration in Paris are exhilarating. It’s not just the huge crowds or the fact that all different ages are represented or the regional flags and patriotic colors or the Parisian buildings and streets. It’s the signs people are carrying: “Everyone is born of a mother and father,” “No, to the destruction of civilization,” “One mother and one father: It’s hereditary,” “Yes to human dignity,” “I am not for sale” and many more.

Common sense has woken from a deep sleep. That’s how it seems when reading these banners. Or as Tugdual Derville, a leader of Manif Pour Tous and a father of six children, recently said, ”It is the soul of France that is waking up.”

Homosexual “marriage” is now legal in France, but it never will be a settled or accepted institution there. Such is the power of truth, once it is embraced by large numbers of people.

By the way, notice the absence of Muslims in these pictures despite the large Muslim presence in Paris and the absolute Islamic prohibition against homosexuality. Why aren’t they here? The answer is simple. They do not see themselves as Frenchmen."

The last point is significant, and I think gives a hint as to why there is so much more of a popular uprising in France against the imposition of counterfeit marriage than there has been so far in America. I'll post on this when I get my thoughts in the proper order.

Vive la France IV! French Mass Movement for Marriage Continues

Hundreds of thousands of French men and women continue to show their opposition to the imposition of counterfeit marriage on La Belle France. Police said 150,000 attended Sunday's rally in Paris, organizers said 1,000,000, disinterested parties said 400,000. There are many stories on this all over the world and all over web--the text below, at random, is from National Turk, the photo is from Reuters.

"Several hundred thousand opponents of same-sex marriage took to the streets of the French capital to demonstrate against the reform, which was signed into law by President Francois Hollande last week.

While the rally was peaceful throughout much of the day, police said they arrested 96 hardline opponents to the gay marriage law.

Police said those arrested were detained for refusing to disperse or for occupying private property.

Large park grounds around the Les Invalides monument were full of protesters waving pink and blue flags, while far-right activists hung a banner on the ruling Socialist Party headquarters urging Mr Hollande to quit.

The protests, which began as a grassroots campaign strongly backed by the Roman Catholic Church, have morphed into a wider movement with opposition politicians and far-right militants airing their discontent with Mr Hollande.

Although they have failed to block gay marriage, the protesters hope their renewed show of force will help stop or slow down further laws some socialists want allowing assisted procreation and surrogate motherhood for gay couples.

Jean-Francois Cope, leader of the opposition UMP party, marched in the demonstration and urged young protesters to join his party to keep up pressure on the left-wing government.

'The next rendezvous should be at the ballot boxes for the municipal elections,” he said, referring to local polls due next year where conservatives hope to profit from the protest movement’s unexpectedly strong mobilisation.'"

"Why France's gay marriage debate has started to look like a revolution"

Excellent article by John Laughland at the Spectator about the momentous events in France.

"Paris: Revolutions are often sparked by an unexpected shock to an already weakened regime. As commentators in France remark not only on the crisis engulfing François Hollande’s government but also on the apparent death-rattle of the country’s entire political system, it could be that his flagship policy of legalising gay marriage — or rather, the gigantic public reaction against it, unique in Europe — will be the last straw that breaks the Fifth -Republic’s back.

Opposition to the bill has electrified the middle classes, the young and much of provincial France. On Sunday 24 March, in the freezing cold, the 4km stretch from the Arche de la Défense to the Arc de Triomphe was full of people protesting against the bill. On 13 January, also chilly, the Champ de Mars was similarly crammed. When Johnny Hallyday or the World Cup got crowds like that, people talked of two million. But the police, evidently acting under political orders, have claimed that both demonstrations — which are without doubt the largest public movements in French history — garnered a few hundred thousand at most. Credible accusations surfaced in Le Figaro on Monday night that the film taken from police helicopters on 24 March and released by the Prefecture has been manipulated to reduce the apparent numbers of demonstrators.

Such lies are the sign of a rotten regime....

The immediate cause of the crisis lies in the dramatic alienation of sections of the electorate who voted for Hollande in May. The overseas populations of the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean, and regions like Brittany where the left is as deeply entrenched as in Scotland, are in revolt over gay marriage: the largest French daily, Ouest-France, based in Rennes, has turned against Hollande on the issue.

Read the whole thing.

The mainstream media is not covering this, as the author of the Telegraph piece notes. The reason is that the truth anywhere is a challenge to a lie everywhere. And because counterfeit "marriage" is a lie, it can't allow truth to have a voice.

As we've been saying "Vive la France!"

Vive la France! III: "Les veilleurs" (The Watchers)

More amazing video from France. Thousands of people, mostly young, continue to hold vigil against the imposition of counterfeit "marriage" upon their country. This bodes well for the future. Via The Thinking Housewife.

 
La nuit des Veilleurs au ministère de la Famille by ktvideo1

Vive la France II: Counterfeit "Marriage" Has Real Consequences

On April 21, we reported on the statement of 15,000 French Mayors that they will not perform same-sex "marriages." It looks like that is just the beginning.

Here is video (embedding disabled) of a demonstration on April 19 of French young people standing for the family and protest the imposition of counterfeit "marriage" in Paris. I love them singing Le Marseillaise.

And here is a video from April 23:

 

And go here for a video of "Frigide Bardot," the best known of the French defenders of marriage, as she is heckled and attacked by same-sex "marriage" supporters while attempting to speak to the press.

Vive la France! 15,000 French Mayors Refuse to Perform Counterfeit "Marriages"

From Catholic News Agency:

"A group of at least 14,900 French mayors has said it will not perform 'gay marriages,' even if the government moves ahead with plans to legalize the practice.

The administration of French President Francois Hollande has put forth a measure that would legalize 'gay marriage,' allow gay couples to receive medical treatment for artificial procreation and to adopt children.

'It is foolish to think that the mobilization of the elected mayors would stop if the law is passed,' said Franck Meyer, spokesman for the association Mayors for Children.

'As citizens, we elected officials will not give up,' he emphasized in statements to the media."

And how come (some of) their homosexuals are so much smarter than (some of) our homosexuals?

"Nathalie de Williencourt, a French lesbian and founder of one of the largest homosexual associations in France, said in January that most homosexual individuals in the country do not want 'gay marriage' or the right to adopt children.

'I am French, I am homosexual. The majority of homosexuals do not want either marriage or adoption, and we especially don’t want to be treated the same as heterosexuals because we are different,' she said. 'We don’t want equality but we do want justice.'"

That's good--the understanding that inequality does not automatically mean injustice. We need more of that.

Amazing Video of Puerto Rico Pro-Family Pro-Marriage Rally

God bless the good people of Puerto Rico! Like most people everywhere they know what marriage is, and what it is for, and what it is not. Check it out:




Laura Wood at the Thinking Housewife has commented on the importance of these rallies, and how they doom same-sex "marriage." The people simply will not recognize it:

"I said before that the recent Manif Pour Tous demonstration in Paris doomed homosexual “marriage” and adoption in France. I still believe that this prediction will prove true even if the law passes. There is no turning back, in my opinion, from the mass resistance that has emerged in France. Opponents of homosexual marriage, including Frigide Barjot, have succeeded in broadcasting the message that homosexual unions will detrimentally affect the lives of children. There is a competing script to the claims of radical equality. The resistance is likely to grow and to become highly offended if marriage laws are changed despite it."

Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney

Marching For Marriage and the Family in Paris!

This year, our friends over at the Marche Pour le Respect de la Vie, the Parisian sister march to the Walk for Life West Coast, will become part of the enormous event in Paris called the Grande Marche Nationale et Unitare. The Grand Marche is held this Sunday in protest of the French government's attempt to impose counterfeit marriage on society.

On January 12, before the Marche there will be a vigil for marriage and the family at the church of St. Francois-Xavier in Paris. They have received a letter of support from the Holy Father!

We send our love and prayers to our French comrades as they fight for the marriage and the family!

UPDATE: Same-sex Attracted Frenchman Gets the Issue

Today, the National Organization for Marriage blog posts quotes from same-sex attracted Frenchmen who have come out in opposition to same-sex "marriage." These men are good citizens: they put the common good of their society first. Here is one, from a man named Jean Pier:

"I am a documentary author for TV and I'm homosexual.

I have to wonder, "who's this law for?" I say to myself, "Is it made for homosexuals?" I live in Provence and I work in Paris. I know very few homosexuals who wish to marry beyond the PACS (civil unions) they already have. In fact, the number of people in PACS unions in France, couples of the same sex, is minimal. Therefore, who's this law for? If it's for the 5,000 people who live in the district of Le Marrais, then it's just a militant act. But behind it all, it must be a question of the child.

I've had this business of freedom and equality. Then I pose this question: What of the freedom and equality of the child? The child won't have its equality vis-a-vis its friends in school. Its peers may have divorced and blended families, but they have, at least, a father and mother."

Forget Mother and Father

France is set to ban the words "mother" and "father" from all official documents under controversial plans to legalise gay marriage.

The move, which has outraged Catholics, means only the word "parents" would be used in identical marriage ceremonies for all heterosexual and same-sex couples.

The draft law states that "marriage is a union of two people, of different or the same gender".

It says all references to "mothers and fathers" in the civil code – which enshrines French law – will be swapped for simply "parents".

The law would also give equal adoption rights to homosexual and heterosexual couples.

Justice Minister Christiane Taubira told France's Catholic newspaper La Croix: "Who is to say that a heterosexual couple will bring a child up better than a homosexual couple, that they will guarantee the best conditions for the child's development?"

The Telegraph

Corporate Giant General Mills Comes Out Against Family in Minnesota

From LifeSiteNews:

"ST. PAUL, Minnesota, June 15, 2012 - Minnesota-based food giant General Mills has publicly come out in opposition to a proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage in Minnesota."

You can show your support for those in Minnesota who are defending marriage and the family by clicking on the Minnesota for Marriage button on the right banner.

And you can show your displeasure with General Mills by boycotting their products. Here is a list of General Mills products to be avoided--substitutes are easy to find.

Betty Crocker

Big G Cereals

Bisquick

Bugles

Cascadian Farms

Cheerios

Chex

Cinnamon Toast Crunch

Diablitos Underwood

Fiber One

Food Should Taste Good

Gardetto’s

Gold Medal

Good Earth

Green Giant

Haagen-Dazs

Hamburger Helper

Jus-Rol

Kix

Knack & Back

La Santena

Larabar

Latina

Liberte

Lucky Charms

Macaroni Grill

Monsters

Mountain High

Muir Glen

Nature Valley

Old El Paso

Pillsbury

Pillsbury Atta

Progresso

Total

Totisno’s/Jeno’s

Trix

V.Pearl

Wanchai Ferry

Wheaties

Yoplait

Yoplait France

Who Are the Poor?

Robert Rector of The Heritage Foundation is a national authority on poverty and the U.S. welfare system. Specializing in welfare reform and family breakdown, Rector has done extensive research on the economic and social costs of welfare.

This post reflects some of his comments on this burning issue:

John Edwards and others lament that 37 million Americans struggle with incredible poverty every day.When such a statement is made the average citizen is led to believe that one in eight do not have enough money for adequate, food or shelter or clothing.

With presidential candidates of a certain hue decrying the suffering of the 37 million Americans who have been officially classified as poor by the U.S. Census Bureau, Rector was asked if these poor people are really as poverty-stricken as we have been led to believe:

Q: You say it is not so simple or accurate to think of them as truly poor. What do you mean?

A, When you look at the people John Edwards and others insist are poor, what you find is that the overwhelming majority of them have cable television, have air conditioning, have microwaves, have two color TVs; 45 percent of them own their own homes, which are typically three-bedroom homes with 1{1/2} baths in very good recondition. On average, poor people who live in either apartments or in houses are not crowded and actually have more living space than the average person living in European countries, such as France, Italy or England.

Also, a lot of people believe that poor people are malnourished. But in fact when you look at the average nutriment intake of poor children, it is virtually indistinguishable from upper-middle-class children. In fact, poor kids by the time they reach age 18 or 19 are taller and heavier than the average middle-class teenagers in the 1950s at the time of Elvis. And the boys, when they reach 18, are a full one inch taller and 10 pounds heavier than the GIs storming the beaches of Normandy. It’s pretty hard to accomplish that if you are facing chronic food shortages throughout your life.

If you are looking at people who do not have adequate warm, dry apartments that are in good repair, and don’t have enough food to feed their kids, you’re probably looking at one family in 100, not one family in eight.

Since the beginning of the War on Poverty we have now spent over 11 trillion dollars.

Q: Where did that money go -- and who got it?

A: Basically, we have spent a lot of money but we spent money in such a way that we displaced the work effort of the poor, so that we did not get very much net increase in income. Rather than bringing people’s incomes up, what we’ve done is supplanted work with welfare. What you need to do in order to truly get improvements is to create a welfare system that requires work and encourages marriage so that the recipient is moving toward self-sufficiency while receiving aid, rather than receiving aid in lieu of his own work efforts.

Q: Who are these “truly poor” and where do they live?

A: Generally, they will be families that have a whole lot of behavioral issues in addition to mere economic issues -- possibly drug problems, mental problems, certainly very low work effort, probably unmarried mothers and so forth. They would be spread around the country. Very few of them are elderly. Even though the elderly appear to have low incomes, they are not likely to lack food or to have a hole in their roof or things like that.

Q: Is there any single reason why the “official poor” are poor?

A: If you look at the official poor, particularly at children who are officially in poverty, there are two main reasons for that. One is that their parents don’t work much. Typically in a year, poor families with children will have about 16 hours of adult work per week in the household. If you raised that so that you had just one adult working full time, 75 percent of those kids would immediately be raised out of poverty.

The second major reason that children are poor is a single parenthood in the absence of marriage. Close to two-thirds of all poor children live in single-parent families. What we find is that if a never-married mother married the father of her children, again, about 70 percent of them would immediately be raised out of poverty. Most of these men who are fathers without being married in fact have jobs and have a fairly good capacity to support a family.

Where are the Aces?

I read with great disappointment the letter that 7 Bishops’ Conferences sent to the G8 Leaders on May 31st. The letter was signed by the leaders of conferences in Germany, France, England, Japan, the Russian Federation, Canada, and United States. (Italy did not sign.)

The thousand word letter touched on many important issues, all politically correct, with a careful avoidance, it seemed to me, of anything that might be controversial:. “As you prepare to attend the G8 Summit in Germany, we write on behalf of the Bishops’ Conferences of our respective countries to urge you to take bold action on global poverty, health care, climate change and peace and security. We also urge you to work towards greater access to quality education for all.”

A fine beginning as a first statement!

More than one fourth of the letter went on to speak of Africa: education, HIV/AIDS prevention; and healthcare. Proper reference was made, of course, to global climate change and our concern thereof. Then special mention followed concerning Darfur and Sudan; the need to control arms dealing; the illegal exploitation of natural resources.

But as the cards were dealt, where were the Aces: life, marriage, family, and religious liberty?

No mention was made of abortion, same-sex marriages, and immigration problems.

“We urge you to take bold action on healthcare, global poverty, climate change…” say these bishops. Should they not have been more specific?

Peace and justice will come into our world when we all stand up for it in word and action, but it has to begin with respect for life and family.

I quote from John Henry Weston’s article in LifeSite of June 5th:

“What is not said to the G8, what our religious leaders need to stand up and tell them, is that the smallest, weakest, and most discriminated class of humanity - pre-born children - are being slaughtered in your countries and this crime against humanity must stop!

“When people speak out on the environment, poverty, health care, peace and security they are applauded and highly regarded. Raise the spectre of rights of the unborn and protection for the traditional family and you are regarded as a pariah and a simpleton.”