Faith without works is dead. A call for Quad City Churches to help the people of Ukraine

I went to Mass Sunday morning, and once again, during the Prayers of the Faithful, we were called upon to pray for the “suffering people of Ukraine.”

But to borrow a passage from the Epistle of St. James, “what good does it do to tell your neighbor, “Have a nice day,” if he is starving and naked? What good did praying do the Jewish people in Hitler’s concentration camps? Millions of them were murdered. If there was divine intervention, few noticed it.

In Luke 10: 25-37, Christ tells the story of the Good Samaritan and of a traveler (rather understood to be Jewish) who is stripped of clothing, beaten, and left for dead by the side the road. A priest and a Levite pass by the man and do nothing. Finally, he is rescued and cared for by a Samaritan — a “foreigner.” Christ tells the story to explicate “who our “neighbor” is.”

And In Matthew 25: 31-46, Christ explains what our duties are to the hungry, thirsty, naked, sick and to strangers, — and the consequence for doing nothing when we see them.

Sadly, talk is cheap. Again, in the words of St. James, “Faith without works is dead!”

So, what exactly is my parish doing to provide food, clothing and medical care to help the

Ukrainian people survive the mass murders being visited upon them by Vladimir Putin — the second-coming of Adolf Hitler and/or Joseph Stalin? What are the other churches of the Quad Cities doing?

Who among the clergy of the Quad Cities is organizing, coordinating and running a multi-faith, large-scale Quad Cities-wide relief and rescue operation to provide food, shelter, clothing and medicine to the Ukrainian people being slaughtered by Putin’s Russian military? To the refugees? To the neighboring countries trying to care for the refugees fleeing Putin’s artillery shells, bombs and cruise missiles?

I don’t suggest this will be easy. Any moneys donated would have to be put in the hands of a trustworthy charitable organization (or organizations) — one that knows what needs to be done, and has the capacity to ensure that all donated aid gets to where it is meant to go. A non-political organization which will make sure that our donations are not siphoned off by predators.

I do not believe that most churches have substantial sums “parked” in their bank accounts, but those that do should dig deep. Or are “bricks and mortar projects” more important that coming to the aid of our innocent Ukrainian neighbors in distress?

And for those churches that are poor themselves, they still can seek meaningful donations from their congregations.

I propose an immediate, widely-publicized, massive inter-faith campaign led all the churches of the Quad Cities who subscribe to the commandment that we must “Love our neighbor as ourself” to raise and provide large amounts of humanitarian aid the Ukrainian people who are losing everything they have to Putin’s Russian barbarism and terror.

I will donate. Will you?

Copyright 2022, John Donald O'Shea

First Published in the Moline Dispatch and Rock Island Argus on March 28, 2022

Will The Reich Press Law of 1933 Replace our First Amendment?

I can easily imagine a nation in which there is only one newspaper. Where only opinions favored by the political party in power get printed. Where a single newspaper is allowed to exist, and is the voice of the state. Where all other ideas, which in any manner, are "misleading to the public," or otherwise unacceptable to the state, are buried.

Impossible in America?

In January of 1933 Adolph Hitler became the German Chancellor. On October 4, 1933, he decreed a new Reich Press Law. William L. Shirer describes its operation.

"Section 14 of the Press Law ordered editors to 'keep out of the newspapers anything, which in any manner, is misleading to the public, mixes selfish aims with community aims, tends to weaken the strength of the German Reich or ... the common will of the German people, ... or offends the honor and dignity of German.' "

Shirer notes that had there been a comparable law before Hitler came to power, the law "would have led to the suppression of every Nazi editor and publication in the country. It now led to the ousting of those journals and journalists who were not Nazi, and declined bo become so."

In case you haven't noticed, small independent American newspapers run by small businesses or individuals are all but gone. Major newspapers, like the Chicago Tribune, are all owned by giant media companies. Today, even very large newspaper organization, like Lee Enterprises (77 markets in 26 states), are endanger of being devoured by even larger newspaper chains.


But today print newspapers are endangered of going the way of the dinosaurs. Many adult Americans today are getting their news instead from the enormous social media platforms.

According to Pew, 31% of U.S. adults say they get news regularly on Facebook. 22% say they regularly get news on YouTube. 13% say the regularly get their news on Twitter. 11% on Instagram.

But besides getting their news on Facebook and Twitter, many American have used these platforms to put their political, religious, and medical ideas and opinions before the American people.

And more and more of those Americans are finding their opinions (and even their statements of facts) banned from Facebook, Google and Twitter, in some cases for life, because they "mislead the public," "because the are contrary to settled science," or because some fascist at Twitter or Facebook who disagrees with the opinions labels them "hate speech," etc. Among the banned are former President Trump, Republican Senators Rand Paul and Ron Johnson. The given reasons why they have been banned may differ, but they all come down to Facebook and Twitter claims that "they are
misleading the public."

In America, a newspaper or a TV station cannot be sued for not printing or not broadcasting the statements of another American. Our Bill of Rights, guaranteeing Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press, only protects our rights against Governmental interference. Twitter and Facebook are not "governments" or entities of government. They are private businesses.

But President Trump in July of 2021 sued Twitter for his being banned for life by Twitter. In his Complaint, he alleges:

"Twitter has increasingly engaged in impermissible censorship resulting from threatened legislative action, a misguided reliance upon Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, 47 U.S.C. § 230, and willful participation in joint activity with federal actors. Defendant Twitter’s status thus rises beyond that of a private company to that of a state actor, and as such, Defendant is constrained by the First Amendment right to free speech in the censorship decisions it makes.

The gist of Mr. Trump's allegation is that Twitter is no longer acting as just a mere private business. Twitter, he claims, is instead "willfully participating in joint activity with federal actor." Mr. Trump further spells out his claim, saying, 

"Twitter’s status thus rises beyond that of a private company to that of a state actor, and as such, Defendant is constrained by the First Amendment's guaranty of free speech and freedom from censorship in the decisions it makes."

Note also Mr. Trump's claim that Twitter has been coerced into its actions by "threatened legislative actions." The complaint names names.

Among his other arguments, Mr. Trump alleges that Twitter bases its censorship upon a misuse of §230, which was intended only to protect minors from the transmission of obscene materials on the Internet, is being misused to authorize censorship and prior restraint of Constitutionally protected speech.

Mr. Trump's complaint runs 34 pages and some 143 allegation, and cannot be discussed in detail here. But two allegations are of particular interest.

"Dorsey and Twitter acted to censor other medical opinions that did not uphold that narrative of Dr. Fauci and the CDC, which took on both a political and medical nature ....

"Congress cannot lawfully induce, encourage, or promote private persons to accomplish what [Congress] is constitutionally forbidden to accomplish.”

If the former President loses this law suit, the First Amendment is a dead letter, and its guaranty of free speech illusory. If only those who express opinions approved by the Government can use Twitter and Facebook, §14 of the Reich Press Law will replace our 1st Amendment.

The southern border and fentanyl's scourge

Last week, six men and a woman, including five West Point cadets on spring break, overdosed on fentanyl-laced cocaine powder. According to WebMD, "Four of the seven patients voluntarily ingested the cocaine, and the other three overdosed when they performed CPR."

In the years when I was on the bench as presiding judge of the Criminal Division in Rock Island County, I cannot ever recall a prosecution for fentanyl coming before me.

The drug prosecutions that I saw — and I saw many of them — were, in the main, prosecutions for cocaine, crack cocaine and marijuana.


So, what exactly is fentanyl? According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, physician-prescribed fentanyl can be a useful and beneficial drug.

"Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid typically used to treat patients with chronic severe pain or severe pain following surgery. Fentanyl is a Schedule II controlled substance that is similar to morphine but about 100 times more potent. Under the supervision of a licensed medical professional, fentanyl has a legitimate medical use. But patients prescribed fentanyl should be monitored for potential misuse or abuse."

The growing problem, however, is that illegal drug dealers are flooding the U.S. across our southern border with illicitly-made fentanyl, according to the DEA.

"Illicit fentanyl, primarily manufactured in foreign clandestine labs and smuggled into the United States through Mexico, is being distributed across the country and sold on the illegal drug market. Fentanyl is being mixed in with other illicit drugs to increase the potency of the drug, sold as powders and nasal sprays, and increasingly pressed into pills made to look like legitimate prescription opioids. Because there is no official oversight or quality control, these counterfeit pills often contain lethal doses of fentanyl."


"Producing illicit fentanyl is not an exact science. Two milligrams of fentanyl can be lethal depending on a person’s body size, tolerance and past usage. DEA analysis has found counterfeit pills ranging from .02 to 5.1 milligrams (more than twice the lethal dose) of fentanyl per tablet.

• 42% of pills tested for fentanyl contained at least 2 mg of fentanyl, considered a potentially lethal dose.

• Drug trafficking organizations typically distribute fentanyl by the kilogram. One kilogram of fentanyl has the potential to kill 500,000 people.

"It is possible for someone to take a pill without knowing it contains fentanyl. It is also possible to take a pill knowing it contains fentanyl, but with no way of knowing if it contains a lethal dose."

According to a Fox 10 News report in Phoenix on Dec. 16, 2021: "Fentanyl overdoses [have] become No. 1 cause of death among US adults, ages 18-45: 'A national emergency.'"

The Fox report said, "Between 2020 and 2021, nearly 79,000 people between 18 and 45 years old — 37,208 in 2020 and 41,587 in 2021 — died of fentanyl overdoses, the data analysis from opioid awareness organization Families Against Fentanyl shows."

President Biden is not unaware of the problem.

"I find that international drug trafficking — including the ... global sale and widespread distribution ... of extremely potent drugs such as fentanyl ... constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy and economy of the United States."

But how many Americans have to die before Biden does something more than talk and issue meaningless executive orders? While Biden blathers, "Customs and Border Patrol agents have seized more than 11,000 pounds [5000 kilograms] of fentanyl so far in fiscal year 2021 … dwarfing the 4,776 pounds seized in fiscal 2020," according to the previously mentioned news report.

A cynical citizen might ask if the smuggling of fentanyl into the U.S. "constitutes and unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy and economy of the United States," why Biden reversed President Trump's efforts to build a border wall to secure the border?

According to CBP, January 2022 saw 153,941 individuals illegally crossing or attempting to cross our border with Mexico. That is nearly double the number of 78,414 encounters in January of 2021, and quadruple the 36,585 that attempted to enter in January of 2020.

Our southern border is wide open to illegal immigrants, as well as fentanyl drug runners. And what is the result? If you care, just Google "fentanyl" and up will pop "top stories."

Today's "top stories" are:

• KDVR: 4-month-old's parents among fentanyl overdose victims.

• Denver Post: Five dead in Commerce City apartment likely overdosed on fentanyl.

So, what's more important? Harvesting possible votes from south of the border, or preventing 45,000 American deaths in a 12-month period?

If one kilogram of fentanyl can kill 500,000 Americans, 5,000 kilograms can kill every American — eight times over.

As long as Biden keeps the border open to illegal immigration, he keeps it open to the drug cartels pouring deadly fentanyl into the U.S. 

So does Biden really care?

Copyright 2022, John Donald O'Shea

First Published in the Moline Dispatch and Rock Island Argus on March 17, 2022

Shut off Putin's Oil Revenues

In 2021, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the U.S. imported more than 245 million barrels of Russian crude oil and other petroleum products.

At just $50 per barrel, our purchases supplied Russia — and Putin's Russian war machine — with more than $12 billion. Oil prices are higher now, and at $100 per barrel, the U.S. would provide more than $24 billion to Putin and Russia to slaughter Ukrainian men, women and children.

Putin's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, a peaceful democracy — which has never shown an iota of intent to make war on Russia — is something straight out of Adolf Hitler's playbook.

Hitler started small:

• March 16, 1935, Hitler introduced conscription.

• March 7, 1936, Hitler occupied the Rhineland.

• March 12, 1938, Hitler invaded and annexed Austria.

• October 15, 1938, Hitler seized the Czech Sudetenland.

• March 15, 1939, Hitler invaded and occupied the remainder of Czechoslovakia.

• September 1, 1939, Hitler invaded Poland, and World War II begins.

Hitler's excuse was always the same. He had a duty to protect Germans wherever they lived. He had to annex Austria to protect a small German country. The Czechs were "persecuting" Sudeten Germans. The Poles were mistreating "helpless" Germans in the Polish corridor.

Putin, too, began small. In August 2008, Putin won a short war with Georgia, which lost two of its provinces to Russia. In February, 2014, Russian troops seized the Crimean from Ukraine. Then pro-Russian separatists, with Putin’s support, staged an uprising in eastern Ukraine to restore the territory to Russia and to give Putin a pretext for invasion.

In February 2022, Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In all cases, his bogus justification was that these were former Russian provinces where Russian minorities were being persecuted.

In case it isn't clear to you yet, Putin is the second-coming of Adolf Hitler. Now he’s put his nuclear forces on high alert.

Like Hitler before World War II, Putin threatens anybody who would dare oppose his war crimes, but Putin threatens with nuclear annihilation.

So, what is President Biden's response to Putin's atrocities in Ukraine? Has Biden discontinued the U.S. purchases of Russian oil that are financing Putin's aggression?

Absolutely not.

The argument will be made that the U.S. also purchased oil when Trump was president. True. But if you look at the price of oil during the last year of the Trump presidency, published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, you will find that crude was selling between January 2020, and January 2021 at about $38 per barrel. Now, with oil selling at more than $100 per barrel, the U.S. is providing Russia with the barrels of money it needs to finance its atrocities in Ukraine. If Putin could buy one tank when oil was at $38, he can buy 2.5 tanks now.

Biden boasts that to date, he has imposed crippling sanctions on Russia. He has cut off Russian banks and companies from the west, targeted the Russian defense industry by restricting certain technology exports, frozen the assets of the Russian elite — as well as Putin's personal assets — and cut Russian access to the SWIFT international banking system.

It is a dog-and-pony show, designed to convince gullible American's that he is doing something meaningful that will force Putin to forgo his aggression. But Biden has not imposed the one sanction, if any, that would be truly meaningful. Shut of Putin’s oil revenues, without which Russia is broke.

Making war is expensive. In 1935, the League of Nations sanctioned Italy for invading Abyssinia. Those sanctions did not include oil. They proved feckless. Benito Mussolini snarled and continued his aggression. Putin will do likewise.

Biden, John Kerry and the other Green New Deal types have insisted on shutting down the Keystone XL pipeline here and curtailing the domestic drilling, production and distribution of oil within the United States that made us self-sufficient in natural gas and oil production, and which had the world price of oil at about $40 per barrel. And what is the result? Rather than burning our own domestic oil in the U.S., we are burning Russian oil. But instead of paying $40 a barrel for oil, Americans now pay more than $100 per barrel. The extra money is going to the likes of Russia, Iran, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia.

Russia uses its revenues to launch ballistic missiles into Ukraine’s cities to indiscriminately kill women and children. Iran uses its revenues to finance the building of a nuclear arsenal. Venezuela hires mercenaries to keep Nicolas Maduro in power.

So, is the air cleaner in the U.S. because we are using Russian oil? Are Putin's explosions and fires making Ukraine air less polluted there?

If Biden doesn't destroy Putin's oil revenues, Biden is complicit in Putin’s war crimes.

Copyright 2022, John Donald O'Shea

First Published in the Moline Dispatch and Rock Island Argus on March 8, 2022