Circle of Protection

Barack Obama talks about poverty as a moral issue. As a leader he doesn't want to stand by, as Christian calling, he wants to act in works of justice and charity. As far as budget wants to not take from poor and middle class because he thinks it is morally wrong. Rather he promotes sharing the wealth. He also believes education is a huge gateway to community improvement. He also says, which I LOVE, we are one people one American family, one nation. We must each do our part and work as a dear neighbor, to better the generation to come.

Mitt Romney wants to take a different approach. He wants to improve the economy and get out of this economic recession. He believes in coming to aid of those in need and lift each other up, but he wants to do this by reducing the national debt. He thinks creating jobs will help those in poverty. He also wants to support other catholic programs for helping with this national issue.

I think both of these are good approaches to the issue. Romney takes more of government efforts will trickle down and long term help to poor. He thinks by making the whole nation a better place those in need to reap the benefits. Whereas, Obama's approach is more for the community and community improvement. He sees this as more of a moral issue, and will help with government action, but believes this is a "caring for the dear neighbor" issue.

Charity and Justice

Project H.O.M.E. defiantly works for justice. It helps people in the community by not giving a short term solution, but rather giving a long term solution for those in need. Though they do acts of charity, the main objective is to give long term solutions to the community problems at hand. After all, the name says it all H for housing, O for opportunities, M for medical care, and E for education. H.O.M.E. is all about bettering people's lives not only right now, but for the future. This is one of the many ways that project home differs from other homeless shelters. Homeless shelters are a great idea and they give people shelter for the night, which is most needed. However, homeless shelters only offer "housing" for a short period of time. They cannot accommodate everyone at one time, for long periods of time. Project home tries to give people permanent homes and many more opportunities. The similarity between the two is that they are both working to help people and get people off of the streets. They are just taking different approaches project home form a justice platform and homeless shelters from a charity platform. Though project home is more complicated, I believe it will have a greater impact on the community and better long term effects.

 Every program will have flaws and room to improve. I also am not very educated on the ideal as far as charity and justice. But from what I have seen project H.O.M.E. does seem like the best. It seems to me that the best way to solve, not just poverty, but all problems are to work on a long term solution. These people are trying to better people not for today but for generations that will fallow. This program seems to be taking the best approach to the issue, in my opinion. However, I must point out the expression that you can lead it to the water but that does not mean it will drink. I think the best part of this program is the individual responsibility that must be taken. They offer all these things but the people themselves actually have to use the programs offered to their fullest. That is why this program seems most important to me.

It's About... forgiveness?

Are we supposed to forgive Osama Bin Laden? The obvious answer to this question is for all of us to forgive him. After all, isn’t the center of Jesus' teaching, to forgive? Forgiveness is one of the most important concepts in Christian teachings. However, Bin Laden changed a country forever. He uprooted peoples lives, destroyed families, and killed huge numbers of people. He left a huge hole in American history, that has to go in textbooks and we have to remember every year. The devastation this small group of men can leave behind is incredible. So forgiving is what we are supposed to do but it is not quite that easy. Forgiveness, to me, is recognizing what happened, letting go (of grudges), and moving forward. However, moving forward doesn’t mean forgetting. Personally, I find it very easy to forgive. My thought process is that it happened, its time to move on, people make mistakes, the world keeps on going. But with an event like 9/11 it is not that easy. Even as eleven years went by that day is still heavy in American’s hearts across the country. Though I wasn’t “personally” affected by 9/11 it still has affected me. It affected everyone across the U.S.. That’s how widespread 9/11 was (and still is today). Yet, we have to forgive such devastation. We need to move on as a country, move forward with forgiveness. After all, ever since we were little kids we were taught that God would forgive our sins, if we repented, we have to work on forgiving others like God forgives us. There are many instances in the bible were forgiveness is seen. In Matthew’s gospel, he talks about loving your enemies and praying for those who persecute you. We have to forgive all of those who have wronged us. Matthew also shows Jesus as an example of forgiveness at the last supper when the disciples drag his blood so their sins would be forgiven. We still today see the act of forgiveness at Sunday mass. The huge example of forgiveness is when Jesus was being crucified he said to the lord, “forgive them father for the know not what they are doing.” That was the ultimate act of forgiveness, as they were killing him, Jesus was forgiving the people. If Jesus can forgive us our sins, we should forgive other’s sins.