Tsar Vladimir

A brief review of Ukraine's special place in Russian history is in order. Russia was founded in the early ninth century by Vikings who explored the rivers and opened a trade route by barge from the North Sea to the Black Sea, with a short portage near what is now Moscow. Shorter by several thousand miles and much safer than the alternate route by sea, it expanded trade with the Romans enormously. A barge loaded with timber could float down to Constantinople, sell its cargo, and return with wine and slaves. A man could get rich on a single voyage. The Russians established their capitol at Kiev in what is now Ukraine. Legend has it when St. Cyril took Christianity to Russia he baptized the entire population of Kiev in the Dnieper on a single day. Kiev remained Russia's capitol until the middle of the thirteenth century when one of Gengis Kahn's grandsons came rampaging through with the Golden Horde. Russia was reduced to an insignificant rump state in the gloomy north. She slowly regained her footing under a series of Tsars until Peter the Great defeated a Swedish army, built his Capitol at St. Petersburg, and made Russia a major European power. Catherine became the Great by regaining control of Ukraine all the way down to the Crimea, building a fortress and naval base at Sevastopol, and establishing the Black Sea Fleet, still based in Sevastopol today. One of history's great royal processions occurred in 1787 when Catherine took her entire court by sleigh up the frozen Neva to Moscow, then down the Dnieper to Kiev where she waited for spring. When the ice melted she loaded them all onto barges and, with orchestras playing, floated down river to view her crown jewel. Her military commander, Prince Potemkin, had villages along the banks spruced up and peasant girls in traditional dress waving to the Tsarina. Cavalry could be seen exercising on the plain. It was quite a spectacle, and the origin of the term potemkin village. Catherine's ambitions weren't finished. She had visions of taking Constantinople from the Ottomans and installing one of her grandsons as a new Roman Emperor. She named him Constantine for the purpose. Only the British Navy stood in her way. The British said no. That's what the Crimean War was about in the next century, the war that gave us Florence Nightingale and The Charge of the Light Brigade. Ukraine and the Crimea remained part of the Russian Empire until the end of the Cold War. Of all the territory lost with the collapse of the Soviet Union they were the most strategically important, for the same reasons they were important in the eighteenth century, and in the ninth. Vladimir Putin wants them back. He has the Crimea. He wants Ukraine. It's a good bet he will get it. The river trade route shouldn't be under estimated though today there are alternates, most notably the Rhine and Danube. A route through a single jurisdiction has advantages but the real prize remains the one that eluded Catherine. If I were the Turkish Prime Minister I would be nervous. The British Navy thwarted Catherine. At the moment the U. S. Navy is probably an insurmountable obstacle for Putin. But things change. No one seriously expects us to intervene militarily to save Ukraine. Would we intervene to save Istanbul? If Russians controlled the Bosporus they would have a chokehold on trading routes that would make them a super power again at a stroke, impossible to ignore or isolate. Vladimir Putin is an ambitious man. I think he has visions of becoming Vladimir the Great. If he names a grandson Constantine hold on to your hats.

Interfaith Dialog

Last night I attended the breaking of the fast at the Islamic Association of Collin County. It's Ramadan and Muslims observe a strict fasting regimen for the month; nothing by mouth from sunrise to sunset, not even water. I don't see how they do it. Ramadan is governed by the lunar calendar and falls a few days earlier every solar year, so right now the days are very long. But once the sun set we ate and it was quite a repast, all delicious though I didn't know what everything was. It was the second year I have gone and it was an honor to be invited. I'm not sure how many guests were there. I would estimate upwards of 200 from churches, civic groups, charities, hospitals, and I'm not sure what else. There was prayer, in Arabic, a recitation from the Koran, also in Arabic but with translations, and several short talks including one from Plano Mayor Harry LaRosiliere. Several charitable contributions were announced including a whopping $25,000 to the North Texas Food Bank for the Food 4 Kids program. Hospitality was extraordinary. I couldn't take two steps without someone asking me if I was comfortable, did I need anything, making me feel welcome. And I did feel welcome. It's been a unique experience for me and I'm glad I went. I was invited because last year Lynne and I participated in a small interfaith discussion group, five Catholics and five Muslims. Lynne was invited too and went last year, but this year she was out of town looking after one of her grandchildren. You can't compete with that. We intentionally kept the group small to encourage open discussion. We met four times, alternating between our parish and the Masjid (one of the things I learned was they don't call it a mosque.) Meetings were spaced a month apart and limited to ninety minutes. The host chose the topic. Each group gave a short presentation and we ended with group discussion. Rule #1 was no proselytizing and I think we both tried to follow that. We were there to understand each other better, not to reconcile differences. We avoided inflammatory subjects. We talked about culture as much as faith and we do have some dramatic differences. All five Muslims had arranged marriages. They were careful to point out they were not forced. They could have said no. Their rules of courtship are nothing like ours. They were particularly interested in the extent and limits of authority from Popes and Bishops. We tried to explain the role of the Magisterium. We talked about the five pillars of Islam. We were surprised that they are quite knowledgable of our scriptures. We also have a lot in common. We share many of the same concerns. Their divorce rate is as high as ours and, like ours, is rising. They worry that their children will have trouble keeping the faith with all the distractions in modern society. Two of the Muslims are soccer moms and, as we met on Saturday mornings, one of them missed a meeting. Their children are comfortably enrolled in Plano schools and we were pleased to hear that PISD accommodates their special needs where they can, like dress code and an aversion to communal showers at athletic events. Their one complaint was girls in short skirts. They tell their sons to avert their eyes but that can be hard. The Muslims we met are well educated, have strong family lives, and are committed to the community, both their faith community and the civil community. They view their faith as a peaceful one and are deeply disturbed that so much of the world sees them through the lens of extreme thuggery. Our brief interfaith dialog isn't going to change that but it does help me to see them a little more clearly. I hope we can continue it.

Underage Refugees

What are we going to do with all these children? President Obama says he wants to expedite processing by giving Border Control Agents authority to determine whether they are eligible for refugee status. He apparently can't do that under current law, they are entitled to a hearing in immigration court. Neither he nor the congress seem inclined to work out a mutually agreeable alternative In any case are we really going to deport them? Thousands of them? How would we even do that? Fly them to Tegucigalpa and drop them off on the airport tarmac? No, they would have to be reunited with families who may be hard to find. It would take time and in the interim they would remain in our charge. I don't think we even know how to take care of them for more than a few days. We can't just warehouse them indefinitely in storm shelter style dormitories. Even if we had the shelters and staff to operate them, which we don't, the imagery is appalling I don't see that we have much choice but to let them go and assist in their resettlement. What else can we do? If I can believe what I read, and much of it I don't believe, many of them, maybe most, have friends and family already here who can take them in. Despite denials, the rumors circulating in Central America appear to be correct. Once here the children will most likely be allowed to stay, never to be deported. They will grow up here, attend school, and marry. Their own children will be citizens by right of birth. We would do well to acknowledge it and enlist the aid of churches and civic organizations to smooth the process. We've done that before. Remember the Vietnamese Boat People? In the late 70s over a million people fled the chaos of war in Vietnam, China, and Cambodia, mostly by boat. Many of them were unaccompanied minors. Many of their stories had tragic endings. No one could describe it as anything but a humanitarian catastrophe. The U.S. accepted and resettled 823,000 of them. Today some of them are members of my parish in Plano. They have harrowing childhood tales to tell but they tell them without bitterness. They are glad to be here. We are glad to have them. Differences are as striking as parallels with the current crisis along our southern border. Polarized as we were in the closing days of the Carter administration, for whatever reason a national consensus developed thirty five years ago that seems unattainable today. Maybe it was all those horrific pictures of overcrowded fishing boats. Google Boat People. You'll see them. We don't have those now and without them we don't seem to be able to have a coherent discussion. We can't even agree on whether to call them refugees. Resettling the boat people was no simple task, it will likely be even more difficult this time around. So far there are fewer of them. As the numbers grow the difficulty will grow. We have been caught off guard, unprepared to deal with the influx. Until now we have been trying to treat it as an immigration issue but there is no way the Border Patrol or ICE can cope. This is more like Katrina than a wave of immigrants to be stopped at the Rio Grande. They are here, ours to deal with, and options are limited. Refugees or not we will have to treat them as though they were. Churches have to get involved, and relief agencies, and communities, and not just communities in border states. Differences not withstanding, something like a Boat People style resettlement program is called for.