Blog archive
May 2024
An Apparently Normal Person Author Presentation and Book-signing
05/01/2024
Flintridge Center: Pasadena Village’s Neighbor That Changes Lives
05/01/2024
Resource Fair Preview
05/01/2024
The 2024 Pasadena Village Volunteer Appreciation Lunch
05/01/2024
Woman of the Year: Katy Townsend
05/01/2024
April 2024
Rumor of Humor #2410
04/28/2024
Rumor of Humor #2411
04/28/2024
Rumor of Humor #2412
04/28/2024
Rumor of Humor #2413
04/28/2024
Rumor of Humor #2414
04/28/2024
Rumor of Humor #2415
04/28/2024
Rumor of Humor #2416
04/28/2024
Stimulated by "Caste"
04/22/2024
Tulsa reparations, Religion and Politics
04/09/2024
March 2024
Trumps War with Black Women
03/31/2024
Addressing The Needs of Older Adults Through Pasadena Village
03/25/2024
Coming Soon: More Resources for Older Americans, Online and in Person
03/25/2024
Community Building Locally and Nationally
03/25/2024
Preparing for the Future with Ready or Not
03/25/2024
Volunteering is at The Heart of the Village
03/25/2024
Women's Liberation: Then and Now
03/25/2024
Writing Memoirs Together
03/25/2024
Current Views on Current Events
03/20/2024
Unchained
03/18/2024
Rumr of Humor issue # 2409
03/10/2024
Blacks Portrayed by European Artists
03/03/2024
Rumor of Humor #2408
03/03/2024
February 2024
Caring for Ourselves and Each Other
02/27/2024
Doug Colliflower Honored
02/27/2024
Great Decisions Connects Us to the Worldwide Community
02/27/2024
Letter from the President
02/27/2024
Pasadena Village's Impact
02/27/2024
The Power of Touch
02/27/2024
Villages as a New Approach to Aging
02/27/2024
Addressing Gang Violence in Pasadena-Altadena
02/21/2024
Rumor of Humor Issue 2407
02/19/2024
Thank You For Caring.
02/12/2024
Rumor of Humor 2405
02/11/2024
Curve Balls
02/10/2024
Sylvan Lane
02/10/2024
Rumor of Humor 2404
02/09/2024
Larry Duplechan, Blacks in Film
02/03/2024
January 2024
Pasadena Village Joins Community Partners in Vaccination Campaign
01/29/2024
Rumor of Humor #2403
01/28/2024
Pasadena Village Joins Two Healthy Aging Resource Projects
01/25/2024
Decluttering: Do It Now
01/24/2024
Village Volunteers Contribute to the Huntington Magic
01/24/2024
Villagers Creating Community
01/24/2024
Villagers Reflect on Black History Month
01/24/2024
Walk With Ease, 2024
01/24/2024
Wide Ranging Discussion on Current Issues
01/22/2024
Wide Ranging Discussion on Current Issues
01/22/2024
Rumor of Humor # 2402
01/21/2024
Rumor of Humor # 2401
01/15/2024
Re- Entry Programs, a Personal Experience
01/08/2024
MORAL VALUES & CIVIC LIFE
By John TuitePosted: 09/30/2020
What are your/my core moral values? Have You ever written them down? Have You shared them and explained them to my//your family? I have not. When I ask myself whether I live up to my core values, I get a little shaky when it comes to giving full respect to others as I expect for myself. When you google core values you get some differences, but Honesty generally comes in first. And that is a slippery rock in the USA right now. Truth seems to have become a policy matter rather than a value!
Because I grew up a Catholic and participated as a priest in the life of the Church for the first half of my life, I follow with great interest the role of the Church and Catholics in the civil life of the United States. I’m fascinated at the number of Supreme Court Justices
in the modern era who have been Catholics. I’m interested that the current Attorney
General is a practicing Catholic. And the nominee for SCOTUS also. And the
Democratic Presidential nominee. It surprises me that the Church is identified as part of the “evangelical” coalition. And I am taken (as I observe political motivation, mainly in media) that the core, sole driving political identifier for evangelicals is abortion. I ask myself where is a position, equally as burning and absolute, to war, capital punishment, counter-terrorism killings, and government assassinations. Or other moral values.
In my early life it seemed that American Catholics made up a significant block of the working class. The Popes wrote many letters on the importance of social principles and practice. The Church strongly supported labor unions. Labor Day was celebrated by the Church. I was raised to feel a responsibility for the poor and outcast. I spent many evenings on Chicago’s Skid Row, under orders of my mentor, ladling soup. Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement were common parlance and matters of not infrequent mention. Civic life in Chicago was a matter of more than passing interest to the Church. Civic life had to do with the welfare of the citizens. Catholics were Democrats.
Somehow or other, even in the era of the “machine politics” that I knew, there was an expectation, however naive, that moral values were present and honored in Civic Life.
I’m reminded of this time when I watch “Blue Bloods”. Truth, Honesty, Respect, Justice, Tolerance. I swallow hard as I speak these words because of the cynicism that has
invaded society. I try to guard my family dinner table from inroads of that cynicism.
Somewhere there’s got to be hope and idealism, even if it’s waning in civic life, at least at the national level. That’s why I ask you to tell me about you and you