Deacon’s Blog

The Ychtis (from the Greek word for fish) Girls Choir, made up of girls from the Katowice area in Poland, will visit Buffalo next week Thursday and Friday.

The group will perform on Friday, July 25 at 7pm in Corpus Christi Church. They will also sing at the Polish Mass at 11:30 am on Thursday.

Admission is free, and free will offerings to benefit the choir will be welcome and appreciated.

The girls of the Ychtis Choir are chosen from families that are not very well to do and are provided an opportunity for professional song and dance training.

Dziewczęcy Zespół Wokalno-Taneczny Ychtis z Katowic wystąpi w kościele Bożego Ciała w Buffalo 25 lipca o godz. 7 wiecz.

Zespół zaśpiewa piosenki oparte na wierszach ks. Jana Twardowskiego

Wstęp wolny

Grupa również zaśpiewa podczas Polskiej mszy św. o 11:30 rano w czwartek 24 lipca

po dalsze informacje, proszę dzwonić do o. Anzelma Chałupki na numer tel. (716) 896-1050.

Remember the lives affected by one nuclear accident. April 26th marks the 22nd anniversary of the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl.

Of your charity at the Chernobyl Children’s Project International.

Greetings from Iraq

My name is Chaplain Stan Jasiurkowski, and I’m endorsed to the Army Chaplaincy by the Polish National Catholic Church.

As you know, I spent a year with my Battalion in Taji, just north of Baghdad in 2005.

Now, I’ve been in Mosul for 5 months , the second largest city in Iraq. During this time I have seen a lot misfortune, for instance, the homeless, the sick, the poor, the helpless and the hopeless.

Many people in the US are not aware, but the average Iraqi child of 8, looks as if he is a child of 6. Nurses tell me this is due to the malnutrition. I myself, have seen children on the streets of Baghdad and Mosul during school hours selling things to help the family survive. I have seen empty school rooms, because there are not enough students or teachers. Piled garbage seemed to be on maximized on every intersection street corner. These children walk in the garbage and sewage, many times without shoes at all.

Therefore, along with my Battalion we would like to organize a humanitarian mission to one of the schools in our neighborhood. In order to do that, we need some help form our fellow Americans. I pray that my friends will open up their hearts and support this very important charity mission.

I am asking your help in turning this goal into a reality, and play a vital role in bringing comfort to the local Iraqi children in striking a victory against a cold and murderous insurgency. Given the unique nature of the conflict we are embroiled in, sending something as simple as shoes, clothes, or school supplies to local children will aid your Soldiers in this fight. I feel I must warn you that these people will probably never know who you are, or recognize the role you played, but I can assure you that little boys and girls like the one pictured in this letter will be profoundly grateful for even the smallest bit of help from you. Please take a moment to clean out a closet or visit a store and do your part for our cause. A single pair of shoes, a T-shirt, a toy, a notebook, or a pencil may not win a war, but the difference it will make to the one child who receives them just might help push us in that direction. Feel free to forward this information to any family, friend, classroom, or civic group who might have asked you how they can help a Soldier in Iraq. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me by E-mail.

Any and all donations are welcome. Please send them to:

CH (CPT) Stan Jasiurkowski
HHC, 87 CSSB
FOB East Marez
APO AE 09334

It appears that Michael Vick is the victim of ‘da man - at least according to the Director of the NAACP of Atlanta (you know, the folks who used to work with Dr. King - non-violence and all that).

Here’s part of the statement:

“We further ask the NFL, Falcons, and the sponsors not to permanently ban Mr. Vick from his ability to bring hours of enjoyment to fans all over this country.”

Let’s hear a rousing chorus of Let Me Entertain You…

For a recap of the foolish statements the under brained and overpaid are making check out this story from the San Jose Mercury News: Marbury and NAACP: Did we really say what we said about Vick? (Um, yes)

As an aside, Stephon Marbury was selling his Starbury/Doonsbury/Foolsbury sneakers to folks (little white kids from well-to-do families who eat up this drivel - as long as it comes from the mouth of a “”star”") right here in Colonie, NY - at the Colonie Center Mall when he made his statement.

Now we hear from Mr. Vick’s estranged father as well.

So to the title of this post - is Michael Vick the victim of ‘da man?

Yes.

Here’s why.

Mr. Vick grew up surrounded by violence, was trained in violence, and profits off violence on a regular basis.

If anyone is deluded enough to think that people watch football for the ’skill’ involved, well have I got a bridge for you.

What he did - while abhorrent, is what he was brought up and trained to do. He lives by violence, and like other entertaining stars, he does what he does for the benefit of ‘da man.

He makes a salary of $130 million per year!

We are supposed to be amazed and shocked, envious. Can’t I have a large house, fancy cars, a few dogs, some friends, and women who throw themselves at me?

If we were smart and wise we would look at these poor misguided folks as the victims of ‘da man.

Rather, paid a sum that seems hefty to Joe and Jane blue/white collar slave, we are flabbergasted by their shallowness.

Football, basketball, hockey players who do violent things - oh, the horror. Hollywood eye candy who degrade themselves, sell themselves, and methodically kill themselves in the fast lane - oh, the loss…

Mr. Vick will never be the man - only a play actor. Paris and company will never catch the man - they will only be his puerile fantasy.

‘da man is the one who is a step above the franchise owner and the Hollywood producer. He or she is the financier, the one you will never meet. Mr. X. They don’t touch down or show their face. They simply get rich.

Yes, Michael Vick and all of us are victims of ‘da man.

The thing is, we have the power to say no more. All we have to do is put down those tickets, turn off the TV, and buy plain ‘ole Keds.

Oh, and by-the-way, I know redemption/rehabilitation is overplayed. But being Christians we know of one sure way - a call to true repentance.

Perhaps repentance for Mr. Vick would be his voluntary rejection of football, and all other violence. True repentance can happen - and leads to reconciliation. Pray for Michael Vick, and that we all be granted the grace of not buying-in.

When I lived in Buffalo the place was still segregated into little ethnic communities. There wasn’t much sharing that went on - each group remained isolated, and kept its treasures hidden under the bushel basket - accessible only to fellow travelers.

As the city breaks down, and anyone who can leaves (see the City’s very own population trends and estimates at Buffalo’s Comprehensive Plan), those neighborhood enclaves aren’t as sacrosanct as they once were.

The breakdown of a community reveals some of the nastier characters¹ ethic enclaving creates.

Two examples from today’s Buffalo News:

Former state employee wins $150,000 in reverse discrimination case

Mark Pasternak said he lost his state job helping troubled youths because he couldn’t stand working under a black boss who called him racist names like “cracker,” “polack” and “stupid white boy.”

Pasternak was dismissed from his position as a youth worker with the state Office of Children and Family Services in 1999. But today, he feels some relief and vindication.

After a rare reverse racial discrimination trial in Buffalo’s federal court, a jury Tuesday awarded Pasternak $150,000. Jurors found that his former boss, Tommy E. Baines, discriminated against him racially and created a hostile working environment.

…

Pasternak was subjected to three years of cruel abuse from Baines, a veteran supervisor with the agency formerly known as the state Division for Youth, according to Pasternak’s attorney, David J. Seeger.

The abuse came in the form of race-based slurs, job sabotage and crude insults that Baines made about Pasternak in front of co-workers, according to court papers and testimony…

Enough said on this one. Let’s go on - to a State Senator…

Volker apologizes for using ethnic term

[State] Sen. Dale M. Volker issued an apology Wednesday for uttering a rarely used, offensive ethnic term Monday.

Volker, R-Depew, had dropped in on a meeting in the Lancaster Opera House to discuss Lancaster’s deteriorating Cemetery Road bridge. In his comments to the audience, Volker made disparaging remarks about a Rochester Institute of Technology engineering professor who had criticized the bridge’s condition in the media.

He called Abi Aghayere a “bohunk,” a disparaging term for a person of central European descent, especially a laborer. Aghayere is from Nigeria, according to the RIT Web site.

Volker issued a statement Wednesday saying the word “may have been misinterpreted, misunderstood and a poor choice for which I am sincerely apologetic and one which I regret.”

Craig Miller, Volker’s spokesman, said Wednesday that Volker did not mean the term in a derogatory or malicious way, even though it might have sounded that way.

“I think he looked at the word ‘bohunk’ as ‘an outsider,’ someone from the outside looking in,” Miller said. “I, myself, have never heard of the term…”

So, the Senator desires that we break people down into two camps - insiders and outsiders. I wonder, what would the better choice of words been?

Very good Senator. I can just about guess where you learned that insider/outsider distinction - from mom or dad, grandma or grandpa calling those stupid polacks that invaded their neighborhood bohunks.

‘Be careful young Dale, those pretty bohunk girls are gonna get you. We wouldn’t want that in our nice German bloodlines now would we…’

It always seems to be about us and them, insiders and outsiders. Somehow, the face of Christ disappears when we look into the eyes of those mysterious (oh, and aren’t they dangerous) outsiders.

Who said Natavist idealogy was dead?

From the Buffalo News: Bills’ new parking plan raises discrimination concern

Officials see handicapped parking in one lot convenient; disability advocates see injustice

The Buffalo Bills put up an “iron curtain” for people with disabilities by creating a separate parking lot for fans with handicapped-parking permits, a local advocacy group for the disabled charged Monday.

The Bills’ new parking plan, unveiled at Friday night’s preseason opener, moves all vehicles with handicapped permits into Lot B — between the press box and Abbott Road — rather than providing limited spaces for handicapped vehicles in several lots.

That change didn’t sit well with the Western New York Independent Living Project.

“If you took any other minority population in Erie County, and I said in order to provide better services for Irish or African-American people, we’re going to designate a special lot for you to park in, you wouldn’t even think of doing that,” said Todd Vaarwerk, disability rights advocate for the project. “We would find that offensive.”

In a news release announcing the project’s opposition to the parking plan, Douglas Usiak, executive director, cited a saying often echoed by Independent Living Center officials:

“If you insert the word ‘black,’ ‘Jew’ or ‘female’ into a statement and it doesn’t sound right, it most likely isn’t,” Usiak stated…

I don’t know, but to me, this complaining is just plain wrong. I am also very much opposed to the ‘well you wouldn’t do it to [insert ethnic/gender label here]‘ sort of reasoning that people fall back on. It indicates a weak mind and a weak argument. People who believe in something should be able to provide a reasoned statement about why something is important to them. Instead, they rely on emotion which just makes them look petty and childish.

Doug Usiak, long time director of the Independent Living Center (going back about 25+ years now) must need publicity or something. It comes down to complaining about the favored status he has always wanted.

‘I told you I wanted my soup hot, how dare you serve it to me when it is this hot!!!’

The law requires specially designated handicapped parking spaces, that is, favored status (because we have to legislate common courtesy, and even today some folks still don’t get it - but some never will).

Using Mr. Usiak’s analogy, lets change the name of all those existing parking spots to some ethnic/gender label. How does it look, how does it sound? Does it pass the “sounds right” test. And, by-the-way, sounds right to whom? The keepers of what public sentiment should be?

It seems that the ILC is complaining that the favored status being granted (by the Buffalo Bills - and, I am not a fan) is not the way in which the group would like their favored status served. Therefore it is bad, very bad.

Perhaps, the whole idea of corralling people and pointing them out by an act of law is just plain wrong.

What would happen if the general public (save for a few who just don’t get it) left the first row of parking spots open, just because¹?

What would happen if we asked people to be good neighbors and to exercise compassion? What would happen if we began to act like good citizens and believers in whichever ‘golden rule’ we each claim to follow? Would there be a wholesale run on those blue spots?

Bishop Hodur, the founder and first Prime Bishop of the Polish National Catholic Church said¹

When a person travels across the wide world he notices pratically everywhere, especially in large cities, splendid churches erected to the glory of Jesus Christ. Some are in the Greek style or basilicas, others are Gothic or Baroque.

These churches claim that they believe in God and Jesus Christ, that Christ the Lord is their master and Savior, but nevertheless they hate each other…

Are all of these priests, all these votaries, truly worshipers of the same God, adherents and disciples of the same Master, Jesus Christ?

If Christ should find Himself once again on earth, He would deny those who have hatred, who turn away from a brother only because he folds his hands differently in prayer or prays from a different book.

When Christ gathered His disciples before the bloody Passion, He said to them these memorable words: A new commandment I give you, that you love one another …. By this will all men know you are My disciples, if you have love [for] one another.

Already the prophet Malachi called: Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? And St. John in the thought of Christ says, that God is love and whosoever loves his brother, humanity, is a child of God, and anyone who says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar.

It is necessary to love not only those who are of the same political, social, religious conviction. We have proof in the parable of Christ about the Samaritan, a person hated by Jews, but who brings help to his neighbor attacked by robbers.

And today?

Today it is not love that characterizes the various Churches and the people of the various Churches, but hatred and contempt…

In Bishop Hodur’s words I see both a condemnation of our weakness and our sinfulness, and at the same time a call to rise above that weakness.

Many are condemning the Roman Church’s recent proclamation (really just a restatement of what it has always believed), that it is the one, true Church, all others beginning either defective or not Churches at all².

The condemnation is uncalled for. Condemnation cannot affect change, and even greater charity is called for. The Roman Church can declare what it pleases without affecting one hair upon anyone else’s head.

Imagine (hehe…) I condemn them, they condemn me, we condemn those over there. Then we bring John Lennon’s silly song to reality.

What we must do is continue to witness the fact that Christ lives in His Church in the manner the Spirit provides for. We must witness our faith, not in documents and pronouncements, but in a life lived in accordance with the teachings of Christ.

We do that by dialog, we do it by immense charity, we do it by lives lived in, for, and with Jesus.

May it ever be so.
May the Lord have mercy on us, for we are weak.
Lord send forth Your Spirit and renew the face of the earth.

My sister forwarded a link to a CHF International project that helps to protect the women and children of Darfur.

I have found CHF to be a worthy organization. At one time I had considered working in one of their housing development projects in Poland, and I have kept up with their efforts in some of the poorest areas of the world.

As you may well know, recent stories have circulated concerning gang rapes of women who must hunt down scarce firewood. These women must forage for firewood that is used for cooking.

Women must leave the (relative) safety of their refugee camps, and their husbands and children, often traveling tens of miles to find wood. The men cannot leave the camps as they would most likely be killed, or forcefully conscripted.

CHF is trying to supply special stoves that require less fuel and that use fuels readily available in the camps. I ask that you consider supporting this project.

More information and an on-line donation option is available at: Building Stoves and Saving Lives in Darfur, Sudan - The Fuel-Efficient Stoves Project.