January 12, 2007 - Issue #1
Local News | Opinion/Editorials | Letters to the Editor
Local News
Anchorage women and children’s shelter needs support
Mandy Premo can tell you first hand that it’s not easy staying in a shelter at Christmas time.
"The first day I got here I cried," said Premo, who arrived at Clare House at the end of October with her one-year-old son Zalen. "But it’s better than I thought it would be."
The young Anchorage mother lost her job when pregnancy complications forced her to miss work, and with "no other options" she sought help at Clare House, the shelter for women and children operated by Catholic Social Services in a big house near Arctic Boulevard.
Now Premo, who gave birth to a healthy baby boy Dec. 18, is moving into her own housing in January. There will be no more sleeping in a big dorm room with other women and kids, no more fearing that Zamir, her newborn, will keep the other residents awake when he cries at night, no more listening to the colicky cries of another infant recently brought "home" to the same room in the shelter.
Despite all that, Premo can tell you it was a very good Christmas for her family.
"My kids got blankets, outfits, all sorts of toys," she said. And she received gifts as well, including pots and pans and dishes for her new home.
The community rallies around Clare House at Christmas, and one of the biggest contributors this year was McKinley Capital, a locally owned investment advisory company which manages money for large institutions worldwide.
Rob Gillam is the director of global equities for the company and a member of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish.
"I work with a group of wonderful, bright people who also happen to be very generous," said Gillam.
This year, the company decided to target Clare House as an object of that generosity and employees agreed that when out doing their Christmas shopping, they would also pick up a gift for one of the shelter’s residents, both kids and women.
Lora O’Connor, program manager at Clare House, and Susan Bomalaski, Catholic Social Services’ executive director, came to the firm and spoke to the staff about Clare House. They elicited quite a response.
"We had a goal of about 65 gifts," said Gillam. "We ended up with 235 gifts as well as over $11,000 collected from our employees.
"It was the greatest thing to see an IT person marching in with a vacuum, or an investment person marching in with an iron."
O’Connor said the wonderful response by McKinley Capital is just part of a tremendous outpouring of help from the community during the holidays.
"I have about twenty pages of different donors," she said, including scouting groups, churches, elementary schools and civic organizations.
Donations included a decorated tree, paper products, and gifts from "giving trees." The Nerland Agency, the company where Gillam’s wife Stacia works, contributed pajamas for all the children. Someone even donated a used piano over the holidays.
This year, as never before, Clare House is dependent on community help, said Bomalaski.
Clare House operates on an annual budget of about $560,000, the executive director said. In a sense, this is a shoestring made possible by community contributions like the meals, which are provided 365 days of the year by volunteers. For example, Christmas evening dinner was brought in by Christ Our Savior Lutheran Church, a congregation in South Anchorage, and some local group repeats that largesse each evening.
Nevertheless, finding that $560,000 has become much tougher this past year after Clare House failed to received a Human Services Matching Grant from the city of Anchorage. Last year, Clare House received $137,000 from this source; this year they were hoping for more but received nothing.
Clare House is funded, said Bomalaski, by grants, events like the annual Clare House Garden Party and donations. The loss of the matching grant means the agency has to scramble to come up with a deficit of over $160,000, at a time when demand for the shelter’s services is growing.
"In October, 2005, we had no nights when we reached our capacity (of 45 individuals)," said Bomalaski by way of example. "This October, we had 14 nights at or above capacity."
An anonymous donation that was matched by the Rasmussen Foundation brought in a very helpful $40,000.
Beginning in February, Catholic Social Services will launch a fund drive to raise the rest. The agency hopes to tap into some of the community’s warm feelings towards the shelter, which is often the only option for women and children in dire need.
For more information about Clare House, people may call (907) 277-2554.
Church sets high bar for true and valid marriage contracts
The archdiocesan tribunal is the judicial branch of the archdiocese. While tribunals may be called on to make judgments on issues like the rights of people within the church or may have trials when someone is accused of breaking church laws, the fact is that about 98% of tribunal activity in the United States pertains to marriage issues, most often on the subject of marriage annulments.
Starting about a decade ago, many U.S. tribunals tried to use the correct canonical language when it comes to annulments. That term carries a lot of baggage and is not the correct canonical term for the process of declaring a marriage invalid.
The definition of an annulment, as it is a statement by the church that a marriage did not exist, is not a helpful or accurate description. The church most often does recognize a marriage of a kind. We certainly recognize the civil law contract of a marriage in almost all cases.
Catholic teaching on marriage sets a high bar for what constitutes a true or valid marriage. The teaching is rooted in Sacred Scripture and in the Magisterial teaching of the church as was noted in the last edition of the Anchor.
When a marriage ends in a divorce, people have the right to ask the church if that attempt at marriage was valid or not. Essentially the trial to determine if the marriage was valid or not is a right’s trial; that is, everyone is born with a natural right to marry once well, or in another words, everyone has a right to one true or valid marriage in a lifetime (see Matthew 19: 1-12 and Mark 10: 1-12). The question presented to a tribunal is whether or not the parties exercised their right to marry once well in this particular marriage.
There are many myths and inaccuracies surrounding marriages that have been declared invalid; the children born of such marriages are not illegitimate; one cannot "buy" an declaration of invalidity; knowing someone in authority in the church does not help the outcome of a case. These are just a few of the various false assertions that are made about this procedure.
Cases are judged purely on the law and the facts of the matter.
Not every wedding translates into a valid marriage. Many people lack the necessary maturity or life experience to be as self-giving as successful marriages require. Some people fail to truly make one or more of the promises in marriage (permanence, fidelity, and openness to children). Some people have psychological problems that impede their ability to have a valid marriage.
On the other hand, many people are fully capable of making a valid marital bond and there are many excellent marriages. The job of the tribunal is to determine the truth. Did this attempt at marriage actually become a true and valid marriage according to the teachings of the church?
Longtime parishoner makes Homer church his personal handiwork
St. John’s Catholic Church in Homer has its own personal "saint" in the form of John Kirkpatrick.
Even at age 79 and struggling with cancer, the tireless workman wakes early each weekday and walks down Pioneer Avenue to St. John’s Catholic Church from his place at Senior Housing. People often offer a ride, but "that would spoil the point," Kirkpatrick said.
"The best thing I ever did was give up my Buick," he added.
Once at the church, Kirkpatrick sets his thoughts on projects that have busied his hands for the past 30 years. He started in the 1970s helping to build the present St. John’s, which overlooks a choppy oceanfront landscape.
Through the years, he built pews of mahogany and oak, fashioned special bathroom cabinets and tackled carpentry tasks so numerous it would take an itemized listing to mention them all.
These days, Kirkpatrick is painting the church interior and staining the trim inside the church. His volunteer commitment amounts to three to four hours a day, despite the physical toll he suffers from cancer.
Sister Carol Ann Aldrich, church administrator, says he seldom misses a day, five days a week, rain or storm.
"I have two speeds these days," Kirkpatrick likes to tell people. "Slow and slower."
Yet, he’s managed to get a lot done at St. John’s in the course of more than 30 years.
"I’m a painter-paper hanger by trade. In that trade, you have to learn to be a carpenter, too, because often you have to build something before you can paint it," he said, showing the floor design of the basement, which formed the original St. John’s before the upstairs was built.
Kirkpatrick’s fingerprints are all over the church – and will likely remain long after he is gone.
He installed the kitchen appliances and cabinets, deciding a huge island in the middle would best suit church functions. Oak and mahogany banisters are his handiwork, along with porches, entryways and the signs painted by his own steady hand in Bold Gothic font at various church buildings.
Once he set his hand to labeling the Reconciliation (confessional), but forgot one of the "I’s."
That struck him as a funny mistake – leaving an I out of reconciliation. So in his shop, that sign hangs on the wall along with other word puns. He also keeps a sturdy pine coffin in his tidy work shed.
"In case someone needs it," he said. "You never know when someone might not be able to afford one."
Kirkpatrick’s work ethic motivates him to keep busy, he said. Not too long ago, his wife Aileen died. The two met and married in 1971 in Homer and built a home overlooking McNeil Canyon 12 miles out of town. Four or five years ago, they sold their home and moved to town for health reasons.
Kirkpatrick credits his wife for bringing him into the Catholic faith. Though he formally joined long ago, he still likes to tell people: "I’m not a Catholic, but I’m the next best thing. I married one."
Raised in the Minnesota-Wisconsin area Kirkpatrick came to Homer in 1960 and worked as a painting contractor for the next 40 years, including a 30-some year volunteer job at St. John’s.
Three decades of volunteer work in once spot might seem extraordinary to some, but Kirkpatrick said it was easy because "there’s always something that needs to be done here."
While Kirkpatrick has definitely left his mark on St. John’s, he readily admits working on the church has also rubbed off on him.
Kirkpatrick pointed to his favorite saint, St. Joseph, in the front of the church. It’s as if he’s studied the statue of the carpenter-saint during those countless hours fixing pews and painting walls.
"St. Joseph never aggravated anyone. He always got along. Yet he didn’t get much mention in the Bible," Kirkpatrick said. "After all, he was the husband of Mary. I just learned the other day that though he was supposed to be a carpenter, they didn’t have much in the way of wood. It was mostly stone."
Sister Aldrich, administrator at St. John’s where there is no resident priest, said she’s tried through the years to pay Kirkpatrick for some of the work. "But he won’t take a dime."
She calls him a perfectionist and said she doesn’t see how the parish could have made it without his helping hands and lifelong skills.
Despite radiation and chemotherapy treatments, Kirkpatrick has cancer that continues to spread in him but he refuses to let this stop him from walking down Pioneer Avenue each morning to St. John’s.
"Me and the man upstairs, we have an understanding. I like to stay active," he said, as he closed the door to the church.
Kirkpatrick’s care for the church continues to be part and parcel of his life, perhaps now more than ever.
Stepping outside to a porch he built, he instinctively glanced up to assess the roof.
"Look at that," he said, "There’s two light bulbs I’m going to have to replace."
Dead Sea Scrolls scholar Weston W. Fields visits Anchorage
Snow fell heavily on downtown Anchorage the Saturday before Christmas. Outside Cook Inlet Book Company, shoppers rushed up and down Fifth Avenue in search of last-minute gifts. Inside the bookstore, Kodiak-born Weston W. Fields, Th.D., Ph.D., sat at a folding table talking about the first time he saw the Dead Sea Scrolls.
"It was like a spiritual experience," said Fields, who first saw the scrolls as a graduate student at Hebrew University and is now the executive director of the Dead Sea Scrolls Foundation, an international organization devoted to ensuring the conservation, protection and publication of the artifacts.
Discovered in the mid-20th century in caves on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, the scrolls, which contain texts from the Hebrew Bible as well as early biblical commentaries, are the world’s oldest known biblical documents.
So how does a kid from Kodiak grow up to be one of the world’s leading experts on the Dead Sea Scrolls?
"That’s a long journey," Fields said. A onetime seminarian who intended to become a parish priest, Fields went instead into academia, teaching Greek, Hebrew and Bible at Grace Theological Seminary in Indiana, picking up a doctorate in theology along the way. After a decade of teaching, he went to Israel to begin a second doctorate at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. It was there that his relationship with the Dead Sea Scrolls began.
"I studied with a professor who was later to become editor-in-chief of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and another one of my professors was on the scrolls committee set up by the Israeli government," Fields said. "So in one way it was being in the right place at the right time, although the scrolls were a real interest of mine, and one of my specialties was textual studies, so it really fit in."
Fields was at Cook Inlet in December to sign copies of his new book, "The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Short History," which was released a few weeks before Christmas. The paperback book, 128 pages long and packed with historic photographs, is a very abbreviated version of a two-volume set that will be published next year. Fields wrote the shorter book to accompany the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibitions currently traveling the United States.
"This fills a need for people who come to the exhibit knowing nothing particularly of the history of the scrolls or their importance, why there’s such a fuss about them, so much interest," Fields said. "What I tried to do was give a very concise but more detailed and up-to-date history … to tell people why the scrolls are important for understanding the relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament, why they’re important for helping us understand the relationship between Christianity and Judaism, and why they’re important for helping us understand the fidelity with which the Old Testament text was transmitted for 2000 years and so forth.
"It’s a way of popularizing what will be a little bit more complicated and maybe daunting kind of two-volume history," he added.
Fields began conducting interviews in 1999 with scholars and researchers who’ve worked with the Dead Sea scrolls, and since then he’s spoken with about 40 people in the Middle East, Europe and the United States — essentially every living person who has played a role in the scrolls’ modern life.
"That is, the guys who actually discovered the scrolls, who saw them first or first put them together or first deciphered them, the first translators — the actual guys," Fields said.
Most of the original Dead Sea Scrolls scholars, who were in their 20s and 30s when they began working with the scrolls, are now in their 70s and 80s, and six scrolls scholars have died since their interviews with Fields.
"These were all young people," Fields said. "One of the guys was only 24 years old when he came from Oxford, and the oldest was only, like, 45, and that was considered ancient at the time. Most of them were in their 30s — really young guys."
In the course of his research Fields came across seven undiscovered archives belonging to early Dead Sea Scrolls scholars, including an entire unpublished book manuscript written by William Brownlee, one of two post-doctoral fellows who first recognized the scrolls’ significance.
"He was one of the two first non-Arabs to see the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1948, but he died about 1976, I think, you know, very prematurely," Fields said. "I’ve got the letter that he wrote February 14, 1948, to his fiancée … the day that he first saw the Dead Sea Scrolls, and what his impressions were, and what’s amazing is that they understood instinctively from the first day how important these were going to be."
Fields can relate; he’s had his own firsthand encounters with the scrolls, experiences he said were beyond description.
"I’ve handled them, I’ve been in the vault, been in the scrollery," Fields said. "As a student at Hebrew University I worked on certain (portions) of the scrolls, you know — prepared them for publication, helped translate some of them. I wrote articles about some of them. I had total access in those days when I was a student."
Now, as a recognized authority on the scrolls, Fields has the opportunity to travel the world meeting with other scholars and researchers. A few days into the new year, Fields was already preparing to take off for Europe, where he will negotiate with the British Library and the national library of France to collaborate on projects with the scrolls. After that, it’s back to Jerusalem, where he and his wife, Diane, spend the winter. It’s a journey to which Fields seems to have grown accustomed; even his business cards, printed on one side in English and the other in Hebrew, indicate that this is a man who gets around.
It’s a career path that has allowed Fields to hold on to his Alaskan roots as well. Jerusalem is fine for the winter, but when the sun returns to Kodiak, so does Fields.
"In the summer, we come back for about five months to Kodiak," he said. "Our family has a government site over on the west side of Kodiak Island, so I come back and do what I’ve done all my life, and that is fish in the summer."
Not that fish camp is a vacation from his work, Fields admitted.
"At the same time, we keep the work with the Dead Sea Scrolls Foundation going," he said. "We put in a satellite dish a few years ago, so we have e-mail, and satellite telephone, so I can keep up with that as well."
"The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Short History" is available in Anchorage at Cook Inlet Book Company, 415 W. Fifth Avenue. Fields has also arranged to donate a copy of the book to the Holy Family Parish library.
News & Notes
Service for Roe v Wade anniversary
The Sixth Annual Knights of Columbus Interdenominational Prayer Service for the anniversary of Roe v. Wade will be held Saturday, Jan. 27, at the Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery, 535 East 9th Ave. The service begins at 2 p.m. For more information, contact Jim or Ann Curro, at 907-349-3772.
Mat-Su Schools Committee to host public meetings
In an effort to update Mat-Su residents on plans to bring a Catholic School to the area, three town hall-style meeting are slated for January. The meetings, hosted by members of the Mat-Su Catholic School Committee, aim to give parishioners and other members of the Mat-Su area an opportunity to hear an overview of plans to date and to ask questions that remain unanswered. Meeting dates are scheduled as follows: Sunday, Jan. 14, at Sacred Heart Church at 3 p.m., Monday, Jan. 15, at Our Lady of the Lake at 7 p.m. and Tuesday, Jan. 16, at St. Michael Parish at 7 p.m.
Masculinity defined
Have you ever wondered what qualifies for a masculine man?
Drew Nelson, a recent graduate from the John Paul II Institute, plans to take up the subject at the next Theology on Tap meeting, Jan. 18, 7 p.m. at the Snow Goose Restaurant.
Nelson will look at Catholic teaching about the masculine nature of men and how it relates to the feminine.
"I will also look at how modern society has attempted to dissolve these differences and obscure the fundamental relationship between men and women, and ultimately their Creator," Nelson said in an email to the Anchor.
"Actually the real problem, the problem at the heart of the matter, is a misunderstanding of what it means to be a man or a woman made in the image of God," Nelson added. "Being male, I felt most comfortable addressing the problem of masculinity."
Nelson graduated from the JPII Institute in May with a master’s degree in Theological Studies in Marriage and the Family. For more information about upcoming Theology on Tap speakers, people may call Arthur Roraff at (907) 360-2323 or roraff@alaska.net.
Archbishop's Column
National Vocations Awareness Week is a chance to consider one’s calling
In most years the feast of the Baptism of the Lord is celebrated on the Sunday after Epiphany. This year, however, it was almost lost, falling on January 8, the Monday after Epiphany. Still, it is an important feast in which we reflect on Jesus entering the waters of the Jordan to be baptized by John as a prefiguring of the baptism in Christ to which each of us has been called. Further, as Pope Benedict XVI wrote while he was still a cardinal: "The opening of heaven is a sign that this descent into our night is the dawning of a new day, that the barrier between God and man is being broken down by this identification of the Son with us: God is no longer inaccessible; in the depths of our sins, and even of death, he searches for us and brings us into the light again."
The Church in the U.S. has chosen this significant feast to annually inaugurate National Vocations Awareness Week. It is a time to reflect on the fact that it is through baptism that each Christian has received a call—a vocation. That call is to first of all, serve God faithfully and to serve our sisters and brothers out of the love of God.
This general call, however, is lived out in specific ways in our Catholic context. The categories of vocations that we generally talk about are: the single life in the world, married life, consecrated life, and ordained life. As one grows into adulthood, the challenge is to discern, with the help of God’s grace, to which of these vocations one is being called by God. For we believe God puts each of us on earth for a purpose, has a dream for us, as it were. God does not abandon us if we do not follow our call, but we probably will not experience the peace and sense of fulfillment that God intends for us.
The single life in the world enables a person to focus on work or a profession with particular dedication. It also gives a person the freedom to take on demanding ways of helping those in need.
Those called to marriage give their lives to a spouse and to the fruitfulness of family life. The challenges of dividing oneself between spouse, children and work are not easy, but the graces of the sacrament of Matrimony are there to assist.
The people in the two above vocations are referred to as "Laity" and it is to these that the Church entrusts the task of bringing Christ to the world, to the work place. They have a unique opportunity to make the Kingdom of God more present in the world. Strictly speaking non-ordained in Religious Life are also laity.
Those called to consecrated life take vows or promises to live in imitation of the life of Jesus in a radical way. Most make these vows or promises publicly, but some make them privately. There is a huge variety of ways in which consecrated life is lived out, usually reflecting the charism or special gifts possessed by the founders. The general types of consecrated life are: monastic life, apostolic Religious life, and the new movements of consecrated secularity (Secular Institutes). In discerning whether one is called to consecrated life it is important to get acquainted with the various ways it is lived out in order to make an informed decision. We pray in a special way for those called to consecrated life on the Sunday closest to February 2nd, the feast of the Presentation of Mary.
A deacon, priest or bishop carries out ordained ministry. The final step in the discernment process for this vocation is when the person is called by the bishop at his ordination. Priests who belong to a diocese are called diocesan priests, and they generally do not move to another diocese. They, as well as deacons, are incardinated in or attached to a particular diocese or archdiocese.
Other priests, and a few deacons, belong to religious orders and are commonly referred to as "a religious" and they move regularly to various parts of the country or to missionary areas of the world under the authority of their religious superiors. Those called to ordained ministry are prayed for in a special way on Good Shepherd Sunday during the Easter Season.
This brief sketch of vocations in the Church indicates the richness and variety of ways in which our baptismal call can be lived out. It is important, while discerning, to look at each with courage and openness. I also ask parents to be open to every possibility for their children as they support them in their search for God’s will in their lives. This is the way to insure their ultimate happiness.
The writer is Archishop of the Anchorage Archdiocese.
Columns
Writing as a Catholic offers insight to the human conditon
Each year around this time my friend Brian Doyle, editor of Portland Magazine, house organ for the University of Portland, graciously sends me a copy of the current edition of The Best Catholic Writing. Actually, Brian himself is the editor of that yearly edition and he knows and does good writing. Indeed, to my mind he is one of the most talented Catholic writers in the United States today. In his great modesty, of course, he will scold me for saying so and he might also remind me that being Catholic doesn’t automatically make you a good writer. I would still insist, however, that being Catholic and being a writer can give you insights on the human experience that may not be readily available to others.
Brian and his work comes to my attention because whenever I happen to read something that he writes, I am always astonished at the way he chooses and crafts his words to say exactly the right thing. I say to myself, why can’t I come up with phrases that describe the human condition like he does? Well, obviously, some of us have the gift and others of us do not. Simple as that.
The history of civilization, of course, has produced some marvelously insightful writers and speakers, individuals who have changed and enhanced the way we look at life in this world. I think, for instance, of Martin Luther King’s great sermon: "I have a dream..." or any of Shakespeare’s plays, or Thomas Merton’s Journals, to name only a few. In short, words, well chosen, can change the way we perceive life and the way it is lived from day to day in our world. Words have the power to create or destroy, to make us laugh, make us cry, make us think, reflect and mull over great mysteries. In short once a word of ours is out there floating around in the atmosphere, there’s no retracting it.
Two of our scripture readings for this forthcoming Sunday give us a graphic insight into the power of words. A passage from the book of Nehemiah describes how the Jewish people reacted when they heard the Torah read for the first time after their return from exile. The text says that they all wept for joy, so precious to them were these sacred words.
We are not aware from the gospels that Jesus took any courses in public speaking, but we do know that people were willing to listen to him speak even at the risk of missing dinner. They also said that his words were gracious, lovely and beautiful.
On one particular Saturday morning, for example, in his hometown synagogue, he was called on to "say a few words" on a text from the prophet Isaiah. He read the text, sat down and gave an eight-word homily, perhaps the shortest in history! "Today this reading is fulfilled in your hearing." Many a Sunday Catholic, I should imagine, has hoped for such homiletic brevity occasionally. Alas, it rarely happens!
The reason why Jesus’ homily was so brief was because Isaiah had already said everything he might have wanted to say: "God has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind and release to prisoners." In other words, Isaiah’s words had already described Jesus’ future vocation. He did not need to elaborate.
I imagine it could also be said that our words, if carefully chosen, should describe our vocation. Surely, if nothing else, they should describe what we stand for, what we would be willing to die for, what we hold dear, what it is that makes a difference to our life. In short, we are what our words say we are.
The writer is Anchorage Archdiocese director of Pastoral Education. He also serves as canonical pastor and coordinator of parishes without resident pastors.
Improving one’s life can begin in a single moment
It was New Year’s Day, and I was feeling rather aimless.
I’d been to Mass and heard a nice rendition of "Ave Maria." I was relieved when my husband did not say, "Let’s take down the Christmas tree," because I have a tough time saying good-bye to the tree, especially the day after I said good-bye to my daughter who lives in Philadelphia and had been home for the holidays.
So, I was happy when a bookstore employee called to say my order was in. I’m enrolled in Seattle University’s Master of Arts in Pastoral Studies program, which is being offered right here in Anchorage, and there’s reading to be done for the upcoming, "Ministry in a Multicultural Context" course.
Of course, I can’t simply breeze into a bookstore, pay for my preorders and leave, especially on a chilly, idle holiday.
So armed with coffee, I browsed. I examined all the pricey, hip Christmas cards now marked down 50 percent.
I found a copy of "The Red Badge of Courage" which one of my kids needs for American history. I wandered into the magazine section, grabbed a few issues and found a bench tucked away in the foreign languages section.
All of January’s magazines have one theme: bettering your life in the New Year. Actually, one of them said just about that: "How to have the best year ever."
I was intrigued. Who would have guessed that at my age my best year beckoned?
Oprah’s magazine promised I could get organized, something I’d love. By way of example, the magazine presented a "before" and "after" study. A beautiful room, with built-in hardwood bookcases, looked like it had been hit by Katrina, minus water damage, "before."
Even in my worst state of disorganization, I have never had a room that looked that bad. That was designed to make me feel hopeful. If this room can become organized, so can I.
I moved on to the diet and fitness magazines. A cover with a gorgeous blond, probably about twenty-years-old, promised me I could look like that in a few months. Really? "Flatten your tummy in four weeks." Right.
And what vitamins are a must in your medicine cabinet? D is really big this year – C has fallen from favor. And betacarotene? Apparently, you get enough of that from all those carrots you eat trying to look like the blond on the other cover.
I’m really jazzed, I announced only half-jokingly when I got home. I think I’ll start improving my life right now by cleaning the filing cabinet.
Well. . . maybe first I’ll finish reading this novel I got for Christmas.
Later, I thought about a quote from Anne Frank that I had read recently.
"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."
I wonder why the New Year’s magazines don’t put quotes like that on their covers? I wonder why we live in a culture that overwhelmingly encourages us to be so darn narcissistic, so concerned about appearances, so "me, me, me?"
Among my bookstore purchases was "The Call to Discernment in Troubled Times: New Perspectives on the Transformative Wisdom of Ignatius of Loyola," by Jesuit Father Dean Brackley.
After I finished my novel, I picked up Brackley’s book and was intrigued by the time I finished the forward, in which a copy editor explained how the book was a conversion experience for her.
"These turbulent times disclose our need for a discipline of the spirit," begins Brackley.
I was on chapter seven before the filing cabinet even crossed my mind again.
The writer is a freelance writer, preschool teacher and mother of three. She lives in Anchorage.
Editorial
Same-sex benefits debate may shed light
The debate is building over whether homosexual partners of state employees should receive the same state benefits as partners of married couples.
To be sure, both sides of this so-called "same-sex benefits" dispute will kick into high gear in the months ahead. In the midst of this debate, it will be important to distinguish empty rhetoric from well-reasoned arguments.
To briefly recap, in December, Gov. Sarah Palin drew a double-edged sword that cut into deeply held beliefs from both sides of this issue.
With one signature, the newly-minted governor vetoed the State Legislators attempt to block a 2005 ruling by the Alaska Supreme Court, which requires state employers to provide benefits for homosexual partners of state employees. The legislature hoped the governor would defy the state’s high court and refuse to provide the benefits by the Jan. 1, 2007 deadline. Fearing contempt of court, however, Palin refused to block the order and benefits are now in effect.
On the other hand, Palin (a personal opponent of same-sex partner benefits) did sign another legislative bill to convene a special election in April in order to ask Alaskans whether they want a constitutional amendment to negate the Supreme Court’s decision. The proposed amendment would prohibit public employers from granting same-sex partner benefits throughout the state.
Neither side is completely satisfied with the governor’s recent moves.
Certain members of the legislature accuse Palin of buckling under a Supreme Court that they claim overstepped its constitutional limits. They argue that same-sex partners are not legally recognized in Alaska thanks to a 1998 amendment to the state’s constitution in which nearly 70 percent of Alaska voters opted to define a legal marriage as between one woman and one man. Opponents to same-sex partner benefits say the state’s high court went over the head of the legislature to effectively create legally recognized homosexual relationships where there were none before.
Advocates of the new benefits, however, side with the Supreme Court in claiming that same-sex partners, despite their inability to legally marry, still have a right to equal protection under the state’s constitution. The high court’s argument that homosexual partners should be treated as equals to married heterosexual partners when it comes to state employment benefits is the question that Alaskans will grapple with in the coming months.
For several reasons, this is an important question that Alaskans should pay attention to.
In one instance this is a question about state-provided health care. Should the state only extend benefits to the spouses of married couples or should those benefits be extended to others in non-marital relationships?
If health benefits should extend beyond married couples then it seems dubious to limit that extension to homosexual partners. Why not long-standing roommates, widowed sisters and other household arrangements? Simply engaging in a homosexual relationship with another person should not bestow a special right to state benefits that other non-marital relationships are excluded from.
Of course, Alaskans will need to weigh the costs of providing state health benefits for many more people. Do we want (and can we afford) something akin to socialized medicine?
Finally, it will be important to remember that our state’s constitution does not mandate state employment benefits. Until the high court’s recent order, these benefits were created through the legislative process. In arguments before the Supreme Court, the state said the benefits were originally intended to entice qualified individuals to work for the state as well as to promote the institute of marriage in Alaska.
By mandating same-sex partner benefits the high court has taken away the state’s discretion on when to extend benefits, which are not required by the constitution. In a key way, this has effectively put homosexual partners on par with married couples despite the 1998 constitutional amendment to the contrary.
For all these reasons, Alaskans should stay informed on this issue, read the court’s decision and keep abreast of the ongoing dialogue.
Letters to the Editor
Holy Rosary teens are great!
We recently spent several hours with a group of local teenagers, and we want all their parents to know how wonderful these kids are!! Our son’s 16th birthday was celebrated December 15 with close to 20 teenagers, most of whom are our son’s high school classmates from Holy Rosary Academy. We attended a movie together, then gathered at a local pizza establishment (Guido’s) for dinner. Before the movie, most of the children had spent all day at school together, rode to the theater in a big van together, and then we had about an hour to kill before our movie began. Despite the idle time, every one of these children was a perfect lady or gentleman the entire evening. A large group of teenagers like that can be scary, but these children completely impressed me with their gentle kindness to us and to one another. Parents, you should be proud!!
Chugiak, AK
Many women helped church
Rosanne Curran's letter (December), about how Jesus chose only men as his apostles, made me grin. Often forgotten in the burble and bable of gender politics and ordination oratory and historical wrangle is the cold hard scriptural fact that Jesus' road trips were financed by women, his hosts were women, and I would bet a buck or a beer that all the arrangements for his travel and accommodations were made by women too. By Ms. Curran's reasoning then the current all-male priesthood should be utterly dependent on the financial largesse of female Catholics, and the priesthood completely subject for travel, residence, and room and board on the kindness of the women among us. Perhaps this is not such a bad idea — in a church where women do a heroic amount of the work (see the past several centuries of nuns, for example, or your mom) without access to the towers of power and the ability to preside over sacramental moments, maybe holding the purse strings would help create a church with, for example, no more children being raped. One wonders.
Portland, Oregon