Monica Araya may not look like the prophet Isaish, but she truly speaks like him in her June 2016 TED Talk: A small country with big ideas to get rid of fossil fuels. According to Monica in 2015, Costa Rica produced 90% of their electricity from green renewable sources. She further tells how in 1949, Coast Rica abolished their army and because of that today, they are able to provide free education and health services to every citizen. WOW! Sounds like heaven on earth to me.
United States’ President, Dwight D. Eisenhower warned about the build up of the military industrial complex in his 1961 farewell address and Ronald Reagan in his 1987 address to the United Nations said:
“Cannot swords be turned to plowshares? Can we and all nations not live in peace? In our obsession with antagonisms of the moment, we often forget how much unites all the members of humanity.”
I think Presidents Eisenhower and Reagan’s words are as relevant as ever, if not more so, today than when first spoken. Many will laugh at me, when I say, it’s time for us, the US to stop investing in arms and start investing in people through universal education and healthcare for all, just like Costa Rica. They will call me naive. So they did Isaiah and I suspect Monica in her TED Talk about the small little country of Costa Rica who in 1949 abolished their army. I think I’m in good company.
Dan O’Donnell, a layman has covenanted with the Chicago Community. In addition to the standard covenant, Dan promises to work at connecting all partners known and unknown, to a conscious following the the way of Jesus, the way of the cross which Dan believes transforms all failure, democratizing the human journey
We are a community of laymen and laywomen who, with vowed Passionists, seek to share in the charism of St. Paul of the Cross through prayer, ongoing spiritual formation, and proclamation of the message of Christ Crucified.
