The Gadfly “To persuade and reproach” - Socrates, The Apology
Vol. XII, Iss. V April 1, 2010
Catholicism and American Healthcare Reform It only takes a brief look back at American history to realize that Roman Catholics have long supported the Democratic Party. The reasons for this are historically many, however, centering on the fact that most Catholics in America were European immigrants and the Democratic Party, was then, and is now largely the party of immigrants. Additionally the Democratic Party has a long history of protecting the rights and dignity of the worker, which is central tenant of Catholic Social Teaching. However, in recent American history there exists a clear distinction between authentic Catholicism and an active participation in the Democratic Party. This rift centers on the Democratic Party’s support of both abortion and of gay marriage, two things that the Catholic Church has
always opposed. This leads into the issue of the current healthcare system in America and the healthcare reform proposed by President Obama. (I am not saying that the current plan in the Congress is the right plan. Obviously if there is public funding for abortion in the final proposal then a Catholic cannot in good moral conscience support the bill.) Now it is important to recognize that the United States is the only industrialized nation in the world without a system of universal healthcare. Additionally, I for one, find it rather surprising that here on campus I have heard such vehement opposition to any notion of universal healthcare in America. Initially I was very taken aback by this. It is a fact that the universal
healthcare systems in Western Europe are generally well accepted by the people there. Another note of interest is that if there were any major moral problems with the system then wouldn’t one expect the Roman Catholic Church to warn against the evils of universal healthcare? In fact, however, the Catholic Church has a long history of supporting affordable healthcare for all. From Pope John XIII’s Encyclical Peace on Earth: But first we must speak of man's rights. Man has the right to live. He has the right to bodily integrity and to the means necessary for the proper development of life, particularly food, clothing, shelter, medical care, rest, and, finally, the necessary Continued on page 4
To Cuss Or Not To Cuss F***, P***, TW**, SH**, WA****, C***, CR**, M*****F*****, CO**SU****, PU***, A**. If you know all these terms, I am sorry for you. If you regularly use all these terms, I am ashamed for you. If you only use these terms to illustrate how “serious” you are, you are an idiot. Why? Because the use of profanities is a uniformly stupid practice and it really
irritates me when otherwise intelligent people feel the need to litter their otherwise banal vocabulary with low-grade, overused obscenities in order to prove a point. Now, first off, I feel the need to tell you that the geniuses at Scientific American (motto: We point out the obvious) conducted one of their usual mind-blowing studies and discovered that when someone is under a great deal of physical stress, nothing makes them
feel better than to let loose a really blue word. So if a Wile E. Coyotesize anvil slams on your foot in the middle of the J.C., I give you full permission to shout the Fword really loudly. But if you are having a slightly passionate discussion with your roommate about healthcare and you decide to drop the F-bomb a couple of times just to let people know you’re angry about it, you are a moron. Because A) using Continued on page 5
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St. Clare, pray for us!
Staff: Michael J. Ruszala (M.J.R.) Amanda LaMuro (A.L.) Tony Leccece (T.L.) Emilyn Haremza (E.H.) Daniel Romeyn Davis (D.R.D.) Maria Cecilia Rocha (M.C.R.) Charles Pobee-Mensah (C.P.M.) Olivia Dvorjak (O.D.) Copy Editor Caitlin Garrett (C.G.) Layout Editor: Rosalie Doudna (R.D.) Business Manager: Anna Tang (A.T.) Editor in Chief: Gillian LaMuro (G.L.)
** Please note that the views held in the individual articles do not necessarily express the views of the whole staff. ** Interested in joining our staff? Email us at notestothegadfly@gmail.com
~Mission Statement~ The Gadfly is an attempt to “bite the sleeping horse” in the spirit of Socrates. It is a student publication whose purpose is to facilitate discussion concerning campus and cultural issues as they pertain to students of Franciscan University. It aims to be a forum for open, well-thought out, and honest discussion towards the end of knowing and loving truth in its most robust sense.
Advisor: Dr. John White Advisor Extraordinaire
Young People Today When I was a freshman, I was completely invisible. And I am not talking self-absorbed teenager invisible. I mean people used to break up in front of me invisible. There I was eating my sandwich (peanut butter and jelly, if memory serves) and reading Jude the Obscure (quite apt, now that I think about it) and this couple just kind of wandered over in front of me. They were having a very intense conversation and I tried to cough a couple of times. I think I even tried closing my book loudly. They took absolutely no notice and they were also blocking my exit. So I was trapped into experiencing the entire thing, her crying desperately and he telling her that he had prayed about it, but it was just not to be, he patting her on the back and suggesting they go to Mass, the wimp. Just awful! Anyway, that was a really awkward side of my invisibility, but the good thing was I knew what was going down everywhere. I overheard conversations about llama
meat, Sodexo’s epic chicken nugget decision, (it seemed epic at the time, anyway) household plans, crushes, painful ask outs, and even the building plans of the university. It was slightly creepy, but awesome! But then I got a job and made friends and people started to recognize me more and I couldn’t even sit down in the comfy chairs of C&D without someone blowing my cover. It was rather like the position of Claudius in I, Claudius. When I was nobody, I knew everything; when I was somebody, I knew nothing. I guess it’s a fair exchange, friends for knowledge. Anyway, be careful of those little freshmen. They know more than they say. Enjoy!
Letters to the Editor To the Editor, Last month's article on black Role Models was very good. In response to the general question of honoring Nelson Mandela in the bagel line, I suggest that it may have been intentional. Maybe this "Passionately Catholic" school
is making the subtle point that Nelson's Mandela's contributions to the free world is as beneficial as stale bread, that leaves you with a lasting ache in the stomach? Justin Harper
St. Martha, pray for us!
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Hi, I’m them. Those people. That problem.. Throw money at me so I can succeed? No. You’re not fulfilling my real need! Accept me to college Fill my head with knowledge But the first thing we will all acknowledge: I am a them. Part of the they. I hear that stuff every day. “Do you speak Mexican?” “Oh, I love tortillas!” “You’re name is probably Maria!”
Tell us what you think!
Email notestothegadfly @gmail.com
So maybe it is Maria... But until you try and cure my so called ignorance, Cure yours. While you demand that foreigners learn what is it to be American Learn what it is to be Mexican, Chinese, African, or Puerto Rican. Educate yourself. Beyond the library bookshelf! Try learning about me Instead of dealing with my race. Know we all have our place. Look me in the face. Misconceptions? Those I’ll be happy to erase. ~M.C.R.
The quintessence of love is sacrifice and suffering. Truth wears a crown of thorns. Prayer involves the intellect, the will, and the emotions. Diary of St. Faustina, paragraph 1103
Professor Quotes of the Week:
Reading Machiavelli is like reading the phonebook.
~Dr. Benjamin Alexander
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St. Etheldreda, pray for us!
October 8, 2009, sent a letter to every member of Congress stating: quence, he has the right to be … We are writing to express looked after in the event of our disappointment that proill-health; disability stemming gress has not been made on the from his work; widowhood; three priority criteria for health old age; enforced unemploycare reform that we have conment; or whenever through veyed previously to Conno fault of his own he is degress. … Adopt measures prived of the means of livelithat protect and improve peohood. ple’s health care. Reform I do not believe that the pope was should make quality health joking about the intrinsic right of all care affordable and accessible men to medical care and the right to to everyone, particularly those be looked after in the case of ill who are vulnerable and those health. However, currently in Amerwho live at or near the poverty ica there are 45,657,000 million peolevel. ple uninsured (35.9 million of which The USCCB is the main Catholic are American citizens). These nummoral authority in America second bers are taken from the US Census only to the Pope in Rome. Again, if bureau. This means that for the ma- there was something overtly immoral jority of that 45 million people about universal healthcare one wouldn’t proper medical treatment and access have expected such a response from the to healthcare is not an option in case American bishops. of illness. Here I am not challenging However, there are those on this the notion of subsidiary that stipucampus who claim that the American lates that things should be dealt with bishops have gone soft and are not on the most basic level possible, but right in this support of healthcare rerather I am highlighting the fact that form in America. To those who say if one is ill then it is generally a good the above, I must respond by saying policy to go to the doctor than to that the USCCB can be described as stay at home. However, for those 45 being politically “liberal” on certain million people living in America that issues (primarily in regards to immigrais not an option. tion), however, that is not at all conIt is not just Pope John XIII trary to being Catholic. Another note, from the Vatican who upheld the if the USCCB was so misguided in importance of healthcare for all, but showing support for healthcare reform, also the United States Conference of wouldn’t one have expected a correcCatholic Bishops (USCCB) who, on tion and/or reprimand from the VatiContinued from page 1
social service. In conse-
can? This in fact did not happen. It did not happen because the Catholic Church has long upheld the importance of healthcare for all and the simple fact that over 45.5 million people living in America are uninsured is morally unacceptable. In conclusion I reiterate that American Catholics can very well in good conscience support healthcare reform in the United States. In addition, the Roman Catholic Church has a long history of supporting the rights of the uninsured and universal access to healthcare. To say otherwise would be in direct contradiction to both the teaching of the popes and of the USCCB (the main Catholic moral authority in the United States). Universal access to healthcare should be a moral crusade of similar importance to the pro-life movement. In reality, one cannot be pro-life without supporting equal access to healthcare for all, regardless of the ability to pay for care. As John XIII so aptly pointed out, following directly from the right to life are the rights to medical care and to be looked after in the case of ill health. The fact that any American, that any brother or sister in Christ, is denied access to medical care because of a lack of insurance coverage or an inability to pay for health care is morally unacceptable and must change. This is but another front on the Catholic campaign for life. ~D.R.D.
The Classics?! "You Banburry cheese!" The Merry Wives of Windsor, William Shakespeare
St. John, pray for us!
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prison grade language isn’t really going to make people assume you know a lot about this topic B) using bad language in an argument has been known (Scientific American, what would we do without you!) to cause people to become irrationally angry so you are not helping yourself there and C) why is using a bastardized German slang term for a rather sordid form of copulation considered getting “serious?” Let’s think about obscenities for a minute here. Most obscenities, except for the truly creative ones which hopefully none of you know, are terms for copulation, feces, or unseemly parts of the body. So, why does saying poop in a really offensive way make you feel cool? In the movies, usually nasty criminal types (or the British middle class; how things have changed!) use this type of language, but who wants to be like them? Yeah, they are tough, but they are criminals! You are students at Franciscan University of Steubenville. The only way you will become tough is if someone cooks you for too long. You may be able to take your pasty, philosophy student self seriously using obscenities, but nobody else will, especially if they can bench press you. I mean you do have a college education; hopefully you can argue with someone without having to borrow terms from someone who spent his highschool years in juvenile detention and whose sad education
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has led him to a life of crime. Yes, I know, the seed from which I sprung, the military, is known for using very bad language, but that is because they are under the Wile E. Coyote scenario of possibly dying at any minute, so obscenities ease their tension. Besides, they have also been known to race cockroaches and set their flatulence on fire when they are under stress. They are admirable, but let’s not copy all of their behavior. Moreover, from a Christian point of view, most obscenities are ad hominem attacks. (Yes, I just called people idiots, but I take the Walt Whitman stand on consistency.) So, your opponent may be aptly termed an obscenity, but should you really call him that? Does that make you feel better or prove your point? Does calling him a female organ make him any less of one? When one steps back from the glamour of obscenity, all you are really doing is calling him the prison equivalent of the grade school, “dookiehead,” and that doesn’t make you feel so sophisticated, does it? Likewise, you should know that obscenities become addictive. Because you got that little dopamine thrill of, “ooh, I’m doing something naughty!” when you first accidentally completed the phrase, “that Shaft is one mean mother…” no other word will ever quite satisfy you as much. Let’s face it, you don’t say, “illtempered rogue” with the same relish unless you are the Scarlet
Pimpernel and that’s because obscenities have the exhilarating, satanic high of doing something slightly wrong. You will forever struggle to expand your vocabulary because your little junkie brain wants you to say more and more shocking dopamine releasing obscenities. Which is why my boss at the HAZMAT pharmacy was known to say that it was as “cold as f***” as well as the more understandable “hot as f***” causing the F-word to become like that proverbial man who blew both hot and cold. I hate to sound like Henry Higgins, but the English language has one of the largest vocabularies of any language. There are absolutely thousands upon thousands (some created by Shakespeare and Milton, for heaven’s sake) of other words to use that will not only impress your opponents, but send them rushing to the dictionary to see how badly they were toasted. I know it’s easy to be seduced by bad language and I have been at times, but its use is not an admirable practice. When you use an obscenity instead of using a truly sophisticated phrase, you are just being like that snobby nobleman who told Cyrano de Bergerac he had a big nose: you are simply showing the limits of your poor imagination. So pick up a dictionary and if you must argue with someone, remember your position as a pasty college student and do so with eloquence and respect. ~G.L.
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St. Thomas Aquinas, pray for us!
St. Teresa of Avila, pray for us!
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j|Çx? j|à tÇw jtzzxÜç A Man For Others This article is a response to Mr. Cerrato’s article “The Sexism That Dares Not Speak Its Name,” from the last issue of the Gadfly.
While I must begin by saying that I agree with most of Mr. Cerrato’s points, particularly his critique of the general lack of positive formation for men (I must insert a shameless plug here for “The Man Event” – check the flyers!), I was a bit disturbed by what seemed to be his concluding point. I quote from his final 2 paragraphs: “[Ladies,] when men act chivalrously, we do so out of kindness, not obligation or duty. Stop assuming you are owed that, and start thanking God some of us still do it. We are all made to be servants… service, submission, and humility are things we all must do. Stop demanding it of men, and start doing it yourself.” First off, I must point out an apparent inconsistency here: If in fact “we are all made to be servants,” how can it be that men are only chivalrous “out of kindness, not [out of] obligation or duty”? It seems to me that if men really are made to be servants, then it really does fall upon them to be chivalrous as a duty. Deciding to be nice has got nothing to do with it. The idea of the duty of chivalry is the major issue I want to address here. Men: First of all, if you want to be truly chivalrous in the fully Christian understanding of the term, that doesn’t mean being nice. It means being warriors. True chivalry requires continual conversion to Christ, passionate pursuit of virtue, and an iron dedication to serve the truth and others. This is what the old Jesuit phrase “being a man for others” is all about. Furthermore, you had better realize that you are in fact called, obliged, and duty-bound to serve woman with everything you’ve got. She doesn’t need to earn this right from you or anyone else. And even if your service goes unthanked, refused, abused, or even presumptuously expected, that doesn’t change the fact that you’re called to it. Get over yourself. Look at Our Lord. Jesus Christ deserves our adoration and devotion
more than anyone, but how often do we presume upon his love, fail in offering him our heartfelt thanksgiving, and even reject him utterly by our willful disobedience? Yet even though he "was despised and rejected of men," "he opened not his mouth” (Isa 53:3, 7). He didn't whine about it. He took it. In the same way, man is called to approach woman with reverence and honor for her own sake, come what may. He comes before her in the holy fear and trembling that priceless treasure demands, and freely offers to serve her. She freely decides what her response will be. And here’s the clincher: Men, you may go your whole lives in radical service to women, being strong, powerful, and upright in your pursuit of Truth and the honor that you pay your sisters… and you may never be repaid for it. You may never be thanked for it. You may never be noticed at all. But for God’s sake, you’re a man! Men don’t demand thankfulness or reward when they do good for another – Christ has already left us that example. Like Our Lord, a man comes “not to be served but to serve” (Mt 20:28). Man is made to be utterly spent and offered up for others, dying in greater and lesser ways every day for others. Not for himself. Not for rewards. St. Therese would call this “The Little Way.” Ultimately, sacrifice is the name of the game. Very Lenten. From holding the door to mounting the Cross, men are offered opportunities each day to serve others (particularly women) without hope of being rewarded or even thanked for it. What should a man say to this high calling? He must embrace it, saying something like St. Paul: “I rejoice in my sufferings for the sake of others, for though death is at work in me, life is at work in them. Yes, all this is for others” (see Col 1:24, 2 Cor 4:12-15). I conclude with a call to my sisters in Christ. Ladies, don’t settle for less than this kind of true, sacrificial service. Continue to (lovingly!) demand this excellence of us men, and help us to strive for it by your purity and example of beautiful Christian living. Virgo Veneranda, Ora Pro Nobis! ~ Aaron Seng