September 2006 Archives

The Paulist Fathers, the religious order that stewards the University Catholic Center, has recently restated their mission.

Previously, they stated their mission in a long "Mission Directive Statement". The MDS, while fully inclusive, required someone to have some idea of what words like "evangelization" and "reconciliation" meant in their context. While good, it wasn't something that every lay person could read and could understand what it meant.

The new statement does not replace the MDS, only retools it to be more accessible. Personally, I like the poetic nature of it.

We give the Word of God a voice in pulpits and print, on radio and television, on the web and the wide screen. Our tradition is Catholic, our outreach is to all.

We labor in and with God’s Spirit to light the way to God with the fire of truth. We search out those who have no church home, and welcome home those who have been away. We share the passion of St. Paul for unity in faith and solidarity in mission among all the baptized in the body of Christ. We build bridges of respect and collaboration with people of other world religions. In our parish and campus worshipping communities, we welcome people of diverse racial and cultural backgrounds.

The gospel we preach calls for all the children of God to be treated with dignity and justice. We claim Isaac Hecker as our founder, the Holy Spirit as our primary guide, St. Paul as our patron, and laity as our valued partners in mission. We are Paulists. Missionaries to North America.

I'm reading a text about "Capitalism and the Erosion of Care" detailing how the capitalism model lowers the dignity of carework.

I'm very troubled by many of the texts I am being asked to read for this class. This article details the injustice given unto women who give carework- in this case, taking care of the kids at home, taking care of a sick parent, working at a non-profit for sub-market wages, etc.

My largest problem with this is I work for a non-profit for sub-market wages. Why is this literature very careful to detail the injustice as a feminist one? Honestly, I think there are many more reasons for non-profit employees not being paid at market value, the least of which is the gender of the employee.

Anytime anyone cares more about the mission of the company or organization than what they make, the potential of working for sub-market wages exists. This is not a woman's problem or a man's problem- it is simply a reality of the work. In business, the motivation to work is normally profits and so working for sub-market wages lead to the problem of why work for a company that is making money off of you. That's another debate.

With non-profit work, by definition, it is not about capitalism. It is about doing something for the good involved in doing it. Sure, we need money and so non-profits have paid employees. Do I protest because I am not paid what I am worth? No. Why? Because the mission is more important. It is not because I'm a woman (because I'm not) and I am not making more than others at my workplace because I'm a man. We're all underpaid for what we're worth- sex or gender doesn't matter.

If I can pay the bills and maintain the quality of life I'd like, then I'm happy with my pay. Again, nothing to do with being a man or a woman.

It annoys me when gender or race or religion or some class as such is seen as the only group that suffers from a problem that completely isn't dependent on that class.

It doesn't help that my professor is a self-proclaimed feminist that appears to think that my life will always be better than a female cohort because I have that XY genetic marker.

I'm in my STS 331 right now and we were given a long-term assignment: keep a blog.

Expect to see at least 14 entries over the next 21 days.

This is from today's edition of The Daily Texan

The Daily Texan Viewpoint "Questions for athletics" on Sept. 15 is right about the questions I raised in the official Questions to the President segment of the Faculty Council meeting for Monday.

My questions ask how our big-time sports programs affect the quality of the education UT students receive and how they affect our social values.

These issues are indeed a "tired horse." So, why do I care about them, and why should you care?

Here's why.

A national commission on higher education, headed by former chair of the UT Board of Regents Charles Miller, says we are in trouble.

The commission sees a clear correlation between income levels and success in obtaining college degrees. It says we need more educational resources and more scholarship funds.

So we should all care when money coming into our University is not going to these nationally vital purposes. Even the U.S. Congress is now investigating college athletics income and academics.

When UT alumni are appro-ached about donating to UT's academic mission, many tell our fundraisers that they already gave to the Longhorn Foundation. The money extorted from ticket-purchasers for the right to buy tickets in many cases would be given to the academic mission.

On the big donor level, the University Federal Credit Union has committed $750,000 per year for 15 years to stadium renovation. It gives $50,000 per year to the UT library. Yet, between 1990 and 2005, our library has gone from ninth nationally in journal holdings (electronic and hard-copy) to 43rd, and from eighth to 16th in serial holdings. About $750,000 per year would slow the attrition.

But baseball beats out books. And for $8 million, Godzillatron beat out Jumbotron.

Think how many $5,000 scholarships that $8 million could have funded. Instead it was used to replace a huge scoreboard with the hugest one.

We rent out 62 football sky-boxes (more are on the way) for shameful sums of money. Eighty percent of each rental is called a tax-deductible donation to our educational institution.

Yet less than 2 percent of our sports income (now more than $90 million) is transferred to our educational mission. Meanwhile, our science and research faculty have to pay 50 percent in direct costs on the revenues they generate. Let's stop this perfectly legal fraud.

Special admissions standards for NCAA athletes are a big problem. Some argue that they give a chance to young adults who would never otherwise be able to go to college. But if gifted athletes were not "tracked" toward NCAA sports from an early age, and if resources were channeled at the high school level to education rather than sports, many of these athletes would no longer need special exemptions.

Then look at how we present ourselves symbolically. We have three statues of living human beings on campus: a former football coach, a former football player and a big-time sports donor. We have no statue of anyone, dead or alive, symbolizing nearly 125 years of teaching and research.

Finally, we had a memorial stadium to honor the courage and sacrifice of those who have died in our wars protecting our freedoms. It is now Royal-Memorial Stadium with Joe Jamail Field and Hicks entrance gate.

Let big-time donors with big egos and sports obsessionists put their names on other stadia, gates and high-dollar carpeting. Don't water down for pieces of silver the reverence we ought to have for our fallen war dead.

If UT's regents and sports directors were in charge of our national government, we would undoubtedly have in Washington the Wells Fargo Bank Vietnam Veterans' Memorial and the UFCU World War II Memorial.

If you see nothing wrong with that, more's the pity.

Palaima is a classics professor and has taught at UT Austin for more than 20 years.

I can't agree more. My tuition was doubled since I started at The University and so has the jumbotron in the stadium. The School of Social Work computer lab is, by far, the oldest computer lab that is reasonable for UT student usage. Even the University Catholic Center is not running machines designed for Windows 98 that will take 15 minutes just to check e-mail.

A few months ago, another Daily Texas opinion piece reflected that UT Athletics could pay for the entire RecSports budget with surplus funds and still have surplus left over. That is something like $9 million dollars.

We can do better.

Ed. Note: This marks my 500th post on this blog. I probably should figure out my organizational structure soon!

Discovering that they are loved by God, people come to understand their own transcendent dignity, they learn not to be satisfied with only themselves but to encounter their neighbour in a network of relationships that are ever more authentically human.

Men and women who are made “new” by the love of God are able to change the rules and the quality of relationships, transforming even social structures. They are people capable of bringing peace where there is conflict, of building and nurturing fraternal relationships where there is hatred, of seeking justice where there prevails the exploitation of man by man.

Only love is capable of radically transforming the relationships that men maintain among themselves. This is the perspective that allows every person of good will to perceive the broad horizons of justice and human development in truth and goodness.

From the opening of the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church. You can buy it from Amazon.com or view it online.

I'm not here to voice support for Pope Benedict XVI's statements in Germany that has caused the uproar in the Muslim community. Nor am I here to dictate to the Pontiff that he should apologize or do anything else.

The point of his speech was to focus on God and violence as being incompatible. Violence and the spreading of faith are not things that go hand in hand.

In response to the statement, which included a quote detesting Mulism use of violence to spread their faith, was violence.

From the International Hearld Tribuine:

In West Bank attacks on four churches, Palestinians used guns, firebombs and lighter fluid, leaving church doors charred and walls scorched by flames and pocked with bullet holes. No one was reported injured. Two Catholic churches, an Anglican one and a Greek Orthodox one were hit. A Greek Orthodox church was also attacked in Gaza City.

I don't care what anyone says about anything or what pictures are drawn in a cartoon: reacting to injustice or abuse or oppression or valid difference of thought or simple disagreement or whatnot (whatever the case is) through violence is unjustified and wrong.

It is simply wrong.

Violence should be used only when it must and only to preserve life, that is legitimate defense.

Protests, a valid form of social expression, are no longer valid once violence against people or against property exists.

When protesting how a person says that God and violence not being compatible, using violence to vent your anger toward how he said it is simply wrong.

Can you be upset? Sure. Can you disagree with his premise? Yup. Can you call on him to apologize and take back his comments? Without a doubt. Can you set things on fire? No. Can you shoot at churches? No. Can you firebomb a place of worship? No.

I think the Muslims that are protesting in such violent ways should stop and I ask their leaders remind them that the call of peace is universal, no matter who is wronged.

PARKING LOT 108, 1500 Block

Assault by Contact: An unknown subject wearing Ohio State shirt entered into the parking lot. When told that the parking lot was full, the subject drove past the parking attendant and entered the lot yelling "I have a pass." After parking his vehicle, the subject walked past the attendant and bumped into her back with his shoulder and forearm. Occurred on: 9-09-06, at 5:57 PM.

This was the only incident reported over the weekend by UTPD that mentioned a problem with Ohio State fans. Despite those who were jerks, to only have one actual criminal act is not too bad.

According to the Catholic News Agency, Pope Benedict XVI's parents met through a singles ad in a Catholic publication. Perhaps, more interesting, he didn't know it himself until recently discovered.

London, Sep. 11, 2006 (CNA) - Pope Benedict XVI and his brother, Fr. Georg Ratzinger, 82, were surprised to learn this week that their parents, Joseph and Maria, met through a singles ad their father had placed in local Catholic weekly, Liebfraubote.

The disclosure came at the outset of the Pope’s return to his native Bavaria, where he intends to visit his parents’ grave and the village of Marktl am Inn, where he was born, reported the London Times.

The July 1920 ad was found in the Bavarian state archives by a researcher for the tabloid Bild. According to the report, the ad read: “Middle-ranking civil servant, single, Catholic, 43, immaculate past, from the country, is looking for a good Catholic, pure girl who can cook well, tackle all household chores, with a talent for sewing and homemaking with a view to marriage as soon as possible. Fortune desirable but not a precondition.”

Maria Peintner, 36, an illegitimate baker’s daughter and a trained cook, replied. She did not have a fortune, but they married four months later.

The Pope said he remembers his father as “strict but fair” and his mother as warm and open-hearted,” reported the Times.

Four months! Amazing how things change over time. Now, the time period between your engagement and your wedding is at least six months per rule.

Today in the blogosphere every website seems to be posting reflections upon the events that took place five years ago today.

When the planes hit the two towers of the World Trade Center, I was outside in the parking lot of Hirschi High School practicing the marching set in band. We finished our practice and moved ahead to our next classes as normal.

My next class happened to be Studio Band, so I didn't need to move to another class. Mr. Smith, one of the assistant band directors, entered the main hall and turned on the television. Both towers had been hit. As we watch, the news broke that a plane hit the Pentagon.

The first tower fell. We switched classes.

I was in Mr. Novak's health class. For whatever reason, Mr. Novak was one of those teachers that felt their subject was the most important subject anyone could learn. Perhaps it was because it was a required class so he wanted to ensure that we took the material seriously. In either case, he pushed through while having the the TV on mute behind him.

The second tower fell. We tried to stop his lecture and point out that the second tower fell. He replied that they must have been just replaying the fall of the first tower. I think we all wish he was right.

The rest of the day was simply a blur. Classes continued as normal, although the material discussed changed to current events.

This morning I woke up and watched the reply via CNN's Pipeline of the live telecast from that morning. I'm still in awe of everything. News reports were very wrong in some cases: the AP reported carbombs outside of the State Department, a fire on the Washington Mall. In other cases, they were very right. The concept of terrorism was mentioned moments after it was clear that it was a plane that hit the second tower.

The sound of amazement in the anchor's voice when he announced that the FAA grounded all traffic still strikes me. I'm still amazed and impressed with how quickly the FAA responded to this attack.

I read a couple of stories about life today, including an article about the kids born after 9/11 to fathers who were killed on that day. One family has the son let go of a balloon on every September 11 and when it flies up into the clouds out of sight, the son responds that the doorway of heaven opened; "Daddy got my balloon".

Let us pray that peace finds us- in our hearts, in our neighborhood and in our world.

Have you all seen the new Facebook. It is rather freaky. The format points out everything that changes with your friends.

I read that two people ended their relationship and a little while later, one of them changed their relationship status from "In a relationship..." to "Single".

I can now know when two people become friends with each other. When someone writes on someone else's wall.

It is pretty unreal.

I'm in class so that's all I can comment for now.

I'm currently in my Sociology of Work course. Today, we're looking at Marx's rant on alienated labor. One particular interesting quote:

The worker becomes poorer the richer is his production, the more it increaes in power and scope. The worker becomes a commodity that is all the cheaper the more commodities he creates. The depreciation of the human world progresses in direct proportion to the increase in value of the world of things. Labour does not only produce commodities; it produces itself and the labourer as a commodity and that to the extent to which produces commodities in general.

300 BLOCK EAST 21st STREET

Driving While Intoxicated / Public Intoxication: A silver Chevy truck was observed disregarding several stop signs. The right front tire of the vehicle was flat and the driver was driving the vehicle on its rim. When the vehicle finally stopped, the officer detected a very strong odor of alcohol and vomit inside the truck. The officer asked the driver to exit the truck. During a conversation with the driver, the officer detected a strong odor of alcohol on the driver's breath. The officer asked the driver if he was aware that he was driving on a flat tire. The driver informed the officer, through slurred words, that he did not know that the tire was flat and wanted to know which one. During the investigation the driver attempted to conduct several Standardized Field Sobriety tests. After several failed attempts the driver was taken into custody for Driving While Intoxicated and transported to Central Booking. An additional officer arrived and interviewed the two passengers inside the vehicle. The officer observed that the back seat passenger was sitting in a pool of liquids that was being absorbed into the seat and was wiping partially digested food stuffs off of his lap. The officer observed that the subject was sweating profusely and was disorientated and confused. Aside from the aroma of vomit the officer detected a strong odor of alcohol inside the vehicle. During the investigation, the officer determined the back seat passenger was a danger to himself and took him into custody for Public Intoxication. The subject was transported to Central Booking. Officers interviewed the front seat passenger and determined that he had also been consuming alcohol but was not intoxicated and was of legal age. He was allowed to walk to his dormitory room. Occurred on: 9-01-06, at 1:00 AM.

Notice that Officers interviewed the front seat passenger and determined that he had also been consuming alcohol but was not intoxicated and was of legal age. So, why didn't he drive? I don't understand.

The driver was obviously really drunk, as was the backseat passenger. Did the quasi-sober person just sit back thinking nothing was amiss?

::shakes head::