MARP PAGES Winter 2007

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Editorial, Winter 2007 issue of PAGES: "Looking Around Me" Oscar Hammerstein wrote in a lyric for "South Pacific": "You've got to be taught to hate and fear. You've got to be taught from year to year. It's got to be drummed in your dear little ear. You've got to be carefully taught. You've got to be taught to be afraid Of people whose eyes are oddly made, And people whose skin is a different shade, You've got to be carefully taught. You've got to be taught before it's too late, Before you are six or seven or eight, To hate all the people your relatives hate, You've got to be carefully taught!" This poem/song is an upside-down plea for love and hope and peace and justice. Do we come into the world hating and fearing others? No, but we learn it quickly as we look around and see and hear it patterned by imperfect teachers. I was stretching, pushing, pulling, flexing at the fitness center of the near-our-new-home local Mennonite high school. I know better than to think everyone there jogging on the treadmills, working out on the variety of muscle-strengthening machines, racking up mileage on the stationery bikes are "people of peace." But today I really knew this! I could not escape the low-level discussion going on next to me about "the war in Iraq." Two men had paused in their fitness routine to grumble/mumble about "the mess we are in - I don't see it getting any better even with more troops - what they need is a Patton! Yeah, Patton - he was a thorn in Eisenhower's side, but he got the job done." A few more mumbles - only the names were clear, "Nixon - Johnson" and then "Pelosi." Finally and clearly: "The liberals certainly don't have any answers." Patton would "get the job done"! I know enough history to know he wanted to wipe the enemy off the face of the map. I considered dropping in a tiny thought, one tiny seed: But what about Jesus teaching us to love our enemies? I decided this was not fertile soil - so I did not open my mouth. Apostle Paul would surely have found a way to plant that seed. How else to begin the unlearning of hate and fear? Is it my job to teach two grown men? If so, I failed to even try last night. Lord, please help us spread the good news of grace. Help us teach and to show the children in our lives - those big and small - this mystery of grace: "Jesus loves the little children - ALL the children of the world." — Helen L. Lapp Get the whole issue! (You'll need the FREE Adobe Reader software to open it.) Editorial Archives Fall 2006 Summer 2006 Spring 2006 Winter 2006 Fall 2005 Summer 2005 Spring 2005 Winter 2005 Fall 2004 Summer 2004 Spring 2004 Winter 2004 Fall 2003 Summer 2003 Spring 2003 Winter 2003 Fall 2002 Summer 2002 Spring 2002 Fall 2001 Summer 2001 Spring 2001 Winter 2001 Fall 2000 Spring 2000 Winter 2000 top Mennonite Association for Retired Persons 717-201-8391 ~ E-mail