By Kathy Kelly
published in the All Times Union

The first President Bush, at a 1992 energy conference in Rio de Janeiro, declared that the American way of life is nonnegotiable. Twelve years later, led by his son into unending war and unending impoverishment, an unwillingness to change a dangerously wasteful lifestyle has locked the people of the United States into a terrible conundrum.

Enormous talent, creativity and money are poured into military spending, ostensibly to defend us. And yet the luxurious way of life available to the majority of people in the United States is considered morally indefensible by people in lands held hostage by U.S. policies designed to control their resources. Meanwhile, Western culture continues an ongoing war against Mother Earth as we contaminate the water, land and air, ravage the soil and burn fossil fuels.

For faith-based people, a moral way forward might best be demonstrated by Muslims, who, during Ramadan, fast until sundown. They do this in order to better understand those who are bereft. Every evening, families and friends gather to break fast, enjoy leisure time, emphasize the worth of familial and friendly relationships, and orient themselves toward the tenets of their faith — simplicity, service, sharing, daily prayer and reverence for all of Allah’s creation.

As American Christians brace against the onslaught of commercialism surrounding celebrations of the prince of peace, Jesus, born into poverty in an occupied land, it is helpful to reflect on ways to depart from the depravity of Christmas shopping hype and seek ways to celebrate resistance to militarism and hypocrisy.

I recently read reflections from a reporter embedded with Marines who invaded Baghdad, who referred to many of those Marines as a group of people who were “socially maladjusted — an international liability.” That charge should be held up for consideration to every adult in the United States, not simply to those who have been sent to Iraq in an unprovoked war against innocent people.

If we’ve adjusted to possessing an arsenal of weapons that could destroy the planet, if we’ve adjusted to a lifestyle that pillages the Earth’s resources while we spend trillions of dollars on weapons that aren’t necessary to defend the United States, if we’ve acquiesced to a foreign policy based on the doctrine of “preventive war,” then we are ourselves a maladjusted, international liability.

Is now the time to nonviolently resist government and military actions that kill innocent civilians? The best way to counter terrorism is to build justice. During a season that ostensibly celebrates the birth of one who came to proclaim good news to the poor, liberty to captives and release for the oppressed, why not plan creative, nonviolent, holy obedience to the fundamental call enshrined by moral teachings in major faiths: Love your neighbor and love your enemy.

Kathy Kelly lives in Chicago and is a teacher and pacifist active in the Catholic Worker movement. She helped found Voices in the Wilderness to oppose sanctions against Iraq, which she has visited 20 times since 1996. She will speak at 7 p.m. Dec. 11 at Bethlehem Town Hall; at 2 p.m. Dec. 12 at Academy of the Holy Names, 1073 New Scotland Ave., Albany; and at 4 p.m. Dec. 13 at the Siena College Student Union.