letter to mp

Hon. Brian Jean, Member of Parliament
House of Commons, Ottawa, Ont.K1A 0A6
5101 - 50th Ave. Athabasca, Ab. T9S 1T2

Dear Brian Jean;
I write as a clergy within the United Church of Canada who is shocked and dismayed by recent news of Israeli actions against Palestinians in the West Bank. A previously secret Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) Order took effect in the third week of April 2010. It classifies Palestinians in the West Bank who do not have documentation issued by the local Israel Defence Forces commander as “infiltrators” in their own land.
It will also confine Palestinians to their villages and further sever them from vital economic, health, education, and social centres. Palestinians found in contravention of the order could be subject to almost immediate deportation or jail terms of up to seven years. Israel is party to the United Nations' fourth Geneva Convention that prohibits "individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country....regardless of their motive."
I would urge you and your caucus to have Prime Minister Stephen Harper formally denounce this action in a protest to the government of Israel. Human rights apply to all citizens, and failure to speak out speaks volumes of your actual lived values concerning human rights. The culture of fear and intimidation that is currently being demonstrated as hosts of the G8 and G20 is an inane response reflecting values I as a Canadian neither hold or appreciate. Integrity requires symmetry between what you say and what you do. I appreciate the freedom of expression in Canada that allows us to respectfully point out to each other what we see and interpret of our actions and statements. I believe Canada's reputation is in jeopardy and others respect for Canada in the eyes world citizens will not be seen in a positive light.
Peace is not the absence of war and requires more dialogue, education and processes to bring people together. A violent military aggressive approach traumatizes generations for decades and teaches only war and not peace. Gandhi once wrote '' There are moments in your life when you must act even though you cannot carry your best friends with you. The still small voice within you must always be the final arbiter when there is a conflict of duty''. I urge you to listen to the voices of those who are not represented by the ''Official Statements'' that ignore basic human rights issued by those who consider themselves leaders. Tyrants come in many persuasions. As I may have mentioned before; power and politics are the steroids of arrogance that continue to build strong images of 'mighty men' meanwhile enhancing life threatening breakdown of the human families condition.
I would appreciate the opportunity, to meet with you to discuss this issue and other pressing and important concerns our community faces.
Respectfully

Are we living the sacred myths

Pondering here in the hills; are we living the sacred myths. Why did President Obama decide to ride into Afghanistan as a messiah of peace on "palm sunday" as in the christian story of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on his counter protest to the Romans and elite "taliban and rulers of what we want believe as the oppressors"?
In Canada the RCMP used the Easter long weekend to apologize to the mother of the innocent man killed by taser at the Vancouver Airport. Is this an example of the Roman soldier at the foot of the cross proclaiming they had killed an innocent man?
The unveiling events in Russia and Poland - have connections of which story of the Polish people will be allowed to be told. When someone comes along and trys to restate or reframe the actual story - the result often is termed 'tragic irony' and somewhere the truth is lost or changed for either the powerful or the underdog.
The one truth that I encountered this weekend was the statement "war is a lot simpler than life!" Are we only taking the easy way out of our "existential pain" by continuing a societal suicide?
As the holy fool I see strangely in the darkness. May we find ways to live in peace which is harder and lonelier but the right work of all.