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Congressional candidate echoes voices from the past

To the editor:

The day after the deadly mass shooting of 17 school kids on Valentine’s Day, I began a self-imposed Hunger for Justice Lenten Fast, a combined spiritual discipline and political protest, during which no solid food was taken from sunrise to sunset for all of Lent, including Sundays.. The fast ends on Maundy Thursday, the day in Holy Week we Christians solemnly commemorate Christ’s Last Supper and celebrate the new commandment, the mandate, to love one another. Countless individuals and institutions, however, do not follow that commandment, and the devastating results are all around us.

Among those results are the seven social sins as articulated by Gandhi, a heroic proponent of fasting as political protest: politics without principle; wealth without work; pleasure without conscience; commerce without morality; science without humanity; and, worship without sacrifice. All these social sins are deeply institutionalized in the dominant vulture culture of our times and its embedded “giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism and militarism,” as Martin Luther King prophetically identified them by name exactly one year before his murder 50 years ago.

Since that American tragedy a half-century ago, there has been precious little progress toward bringing our great nation into full compliance with its noble ideals, let alone Christ’s new commandment. In fact, in many arenas just the opposite has happened. This year, however, can be a turning point. Because things are as they are, things cannot remain as they are. Our collective hunger for justice and progressive change can turn things around so that, in the words of another prophet, “justice rolls on like a river, and righteousness like an ever-lasting stream”. So be it.

WERNER LANGE,

Newton Falls,

Congressional candidate in the Democratic Party Primary for Ohio’s 6th Congressional District

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