The Elephants Around Us
By Fr. Dan McKean,
St. Patrick Parish, Brighton

Are you the kind of person who eats your least favorite food first, or do you save it till the end? My least favorite food is cooked carrots. As a child I learned 101 ways to avoid eating my carrots. I would scatter them around the plate, or try and hide them under my napkin. As much as I tried to avoid them, they were still there -- out of sight, but not out of mind. It’s the same way with work on my desk; the things I don’t like to do manage to get put at the bottom of the stack. Most efficiency experts tell you that our least favorite tasks should be the ones that you do first. Avoidance only serves to prolong the pain and discomfort of doing what you know must be done.

Unfortunately, we are all pretty good at avoidance and distractions when it comes to something we do not want to face. It’s like the story of the family that is ignoring their problems. Whether they are in denial, procrastinating or just being stubborn, no one admits that there is a great BIG gray elephant in the middle of the room. We can find all kinds of ways to go around it, but to admit that it is there would mean that we have to do something about our problems.

Strangely enough, this is an even greater problem during an election year. You would think that we would talk about those deep issues that are affecting our nation, but we manage to only hear little sound bites, or simplistic answers that are more designed to get our vote than answer our questions.

Chief among the issues that have seemingly begun to escape our notice and our concern is the issue of war. Despite the declaration that major conflict has ended in Afghanistan and Iraq, more military personnel have died than the active phase of the campaign. Military families in our parish are beginning to think that the general public is forgetting about the fact that their loved ones are serving long terms of duty overseas. Even my nephew, who just returned from a year in Cuba, is being called back to active duty. Not only are their lives in danger, their families and careers are suffering. This war is quickly becoming the Vietnam of our century. When I think about the number of prisoners that we will be housing for live, and the nearly unlikely event of our pulling out any time soon, I get very frustrated. I don’t know about you, but I only tolerated the hard sell of going to war based on what has now proven to be inaccurate. I was duped and I let myself be duped. Many of us didn’t want to listen to the pope or our nation’s bishops, but in my opinion they called this one right. There was, and is no justification strong enough to have led us to take this kind of aggressive action.

How about unemployment? It seems that every day I listen to some radio talk show host defend the fact that our nation has not lost jobs. It’s almost every day that I encounter another parishioner who has lost their job. If there is an economic upswing it is leaving many of our citizens behind. Precious few safety nets are out there for those who have been hard hit by this past recession. Please remember to pray for those who are unemployed, or underemployed. This is a very expensive community to live in.

Healthcare should be one of our nation’s biggest concerns. Along with the privilege of living in a nation with such quality of care, comes the responsibility of making that care accessible to all of its citizens. Many families are suffering under the weight of enormous prescription drug costs. This is a concern not only of the poor, but those elderly and fixed income people whose lives depend upon accessible medications.

Our Rice Bowl program this year is trying to raise awareness about the plight of people around the world. In a specific way they are highlighting the devastating effects of AIDS in Africa and other nations. AIDS became something we though that we could quickly ignore because it became an issue of moral behavior. Now, it is a pandemic that is claiming millions of lives; devastating entire nations; and, leaving millions of children orphans.

These elephants around us may not be as fun to talk about those issues that are just distractions, but our Lenten journey should include an awareness of the real social sins of our day.