Inside
NCR
We dont have many options
right now, said Tayeb Djawad, an adviser to Afghanistans President
Hamid Karzai, in an interview with Claire Schaeffer-Duffy. We are like
being on the top of a bridge thats very shaky. We either get to the other
side or we dont make it.
For many Afghans, writes Schaeffer-Duffy in this
weeks cover story, the unspoken question is, Will America
shake or strengthen the bridge?
Schaeffer-Duffy, who lives with her husband, Scott, and their four
children -- Justin, 17, Grace, 14, Patrick, 10, and Aiden, 7 -- in the St.
Francis and Therese Catholic Worker House in Worcester, Mass., recently
traveled to Kabul with an interfaith delegation organized by Global Exchange, a
San Francisco-based human rights group.
Travel to Afghanistan being what it is, Global Exchange is one of
the best bets for getting in to take a look around. Catholics were
well-represented on the 19-member delegation that included Bishop Thomas
Gumbleton, auxiliary of Detroit; Pax Christi U.S.A. President David Robinson;
and Marie Dennis, director of global concerns for Maryknoll. Also on the tour
was United Methodist Bishop Joseph Sprague from the Chicago area and two family
members of 9/11 victims.
I complimented Schaeffer-Duffy on the first batch of stories that
she sent in, expressing admiration at the amount of preparation she had
obviously done while helping to run the Catholic Worker House, keeping track of
teenagers and toting kids to soccer matches. I didnt, she
said, in her honest-to-a-fault way. I crammed like hell on the
plane.
What was the most compelling impression that remains with her
following her six-day stay in Afghanistan? The place is just mired in
wars and full of people who, like us, want to live their lives without the
interruption of war.
Read her report beginning on Page 13. I think youll become
convinced, as I was, that dropping the bombs was the easy part.
Our next issue will contain her extensive report on the lingering
effects of U.S. cluster bombs and how they have affected efforts to get rid of
land mines in Afghanistan, one of the most heavily mined countries on
earth.
It is easy to feel helpless in the
face of the news out of Afghanistan, but there is a way to do something
to help alleviate the pain and suffering there. Global Exchange and a group of
family members who lost loved ones in the Sept. 11 attacks, Peaceful Tomorrows,
are calling on the government to create an Afghan Victims Fund.
Some 40 members of Congress signed a dear colleague letter last
May in support of a fund.
For more information on the fund campaign, see Global Exchange at
www.globalexchange.org or Peaceful Tomorrows at
www.peacefultomorrows.org
NCRs Vatican
correspondent, John Allen, writes in his column in NCR Online
(www.natcath.org) this week about a recent brief conversation with Pope
John Paul II. It was the second time in recent weeks that he met the pope. The
first occurred on the papal plane during the popes trip to Azerbaijan
under the watchful eyes of papal spokesman Juaquín Navarro-Vals, left,
and Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican secretary of state.
-- Tom Roberts
My e-mail address is troberts@natcath.org
National Catholic Reporter, July 19,
2002
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