OPINION
6A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JUNE 30, 2015
‘He’s Jesus Christ,’ healing the sick
Founded in 1873
By NICHOLAS KRISTOF
New York Times News Service
IN THE NUBA MOUNTAINS, Su-
dan — If you subscribe to the caricatu-
reof devout religious believers as most-
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
ly sanctimonious hypocrites, the kind
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
who rake in cash and care about human
life only when it is unborn, come visit
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
the doctor here.
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
Dr. Tom Catena, 51, a Catholic
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
missionary from Amsterdam, N.Y., is
the only doctor at the 435-bed Mother
HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager
of Mercy Hospital nestled in the Nuba
Mountains in the far south of Sudan.
For that matter, he’s the only doctor per-
manently based in the Nuba Mountains
for a population
of more than half
a million people.
Just about
every day, the
Sudanese gov-
ernment drops
bombs or shells
on civilians in
or the second year in a row, a computer failure has caused a the Nuba Moun-
tains, part of a
farmworker shortage in the West.
scorched-earth
Nicholas
This renews legitimate com-
Though the hardware glitch- strategy to defeat
Kristof
plaints that the government’s sys- es are unfortunate, Fazio says an armed rebel-
tem for approving guestworker the problem does not lie with lion here. The United States and other
powers have averted their eyes,
visas is unnecessarily complex.
the State Department or its com- major
so it is left to “Dr. Tom,” as he is uni-
A hardware glitch prevented puters. The problem is that the versally known here, to pry out shrap-
the State Department from pro- system depends on the seamless QHOIURPZRPHQ¶VÀHVKDQGDPSXWDWH
cessing visas for H-2A guest- coordination of six separate gov- limbs of children, even as he also deliv-
ers babies and removes appendixes.
workers on the Mexican border ernment agencies.
He does all this off the electrical
for nine days, preventing workers
Five years ago the Obama grid, without running water, a telephone
already hired by fruit and vege- Administration made the H-2A or so much as an X-ray machine —
while under constant threat of bombing,
table growers from entering the program less user -friendly.
for Sudan has dropped 11 bombs on
United States and delaying the
The program requires em- KLVKRVSLWDOJURXQGV7KH¿UVWWLPH'U
picking of perishable crops.
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According to the State U.S. citizens, and to give pref- pit for an outhouse, but the hospital is
surrounded by foxholes in which
Department, a hardware fail- erence to any local applications now
patients and the staff crouch when mili-
ure in its Consular Consolidated that may come thereafter. Even tary aircraft approach.
“We’re in a place where the govern-
Database left it unable to process when unemployment is high, lo-
ment
is not trying to help us,” he says.
visas or passports at embassies cal workers seldom take to the
“It’s trying to kill us.”
and consulates worldwide.
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The problem left thousands of transportation and housing, and a Tom relies disproportionately on make-
shift treatments from decades ago.
foreign workers with jobs wait- guaranteed wage.
“This is a Civil War-era treatment,”
ing in the United States, but who
And even if a grower meets all
he said, pointing to a man with a broken
had not yet had their visas issued, the requirements, any number of leg, which he was treating with a meth-
STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher
*XHVWZRUNHULPSDVVH
shows need for reform
Congress must modernize immigration
F
stuck in Mexico. And it left grow-
ers in the U.S. scrambling to try,
largely unsuccessfully, to arrange
their legal crossing.
“We cannot bypass the le-
gal requirements necessary to
screen visa applicants before we
issue visas for travel,” the State
Department said. “Security mea-
VXUHV SUHYHQW FRQVXODU RI¿FHUV
from printing a passport, report of
birth abroad or visa until the case
completes the required national
security checks,
While many employers of-
fered to pay worker expenses
as they waited in Mexico, many
workers could not afford to wait
and returned home.
Dan Fazio, director of
the Washington Farm Labor
Association in Olympia, is more
than a little frustrated. A simi-
lar glitch last year caused delays
in getting legal workers into the
¿HOGVDQGRUFKDUGVRIWKH:HVW
glitches can keep workers on the
wrong side of the border.
The answer is meaningful
immigration reform, passed by
Congress and not by administra-
WLYH¿DW
We continue to believe the an-
swer is to offer illegal immigrants
temporary legal status and a path
to permanent residency after 10
years if they meet strict require-
ments — no prior felony convic-
tions, no violations while await-
ing residency, learning to speak
(QJOLVKDQGSD\D¿QHDQGEDFN
taxes. We think the border should
be secured. Employers must ver-
ify the work status of their em-
ployees.
And of course, a viable guest-
worker program must be estab-
lished without the politics and the
nonsensical requirements.
Whether taken piecemeal or
in a comprehensive measure, it’s
time Congress moved forward.
Africa, and this is not the best place to
date (although hospital staff members
are plotting to introduce him to eligible
Nuban women as a strategy to keep him
from ever leaving).
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earns $350 a month — with no retire-
ment plan or regular health insurance.
(For those who want to support his
work, I’ve posted how to help on my
blog at http://nyti.ms/1NqIXP6.)
He is driven, he says, by his Catho-
OLFIDLWK³,¶YHEHHQJLYHQEHQH¿WVIURP
the day I was born,” he says. “A loving
family. A great education. So I see it as
an obligation, as a Christian and as a hu-
man being, to help.”
There also are many, many secular
aid workers doing heroic work. But the
people I’ve encountered over the years
Dr. Tom Catena
in the most impossible places — like
Nuba, where anyone reasonable has
od known as Buck’s traction, using a ÀHG²DUHGLVSURSRUWLRQDWHO\XQUHDVRQ
able because of their faith.
bag of sand as a weight.
I’ve often criticized the Vatican’s
“Sometimes these actually work,”
Dr. Tom said. “You use what you have.” hostility to condoms, even as a tool to
Pope Francis seems to be revital- ¿JKW$,'6 DQG ZH VKRXOGQ¶W WROHUDWH
izing the Vatican and focusing on the religious bigotry against gays (which
needy, and I have a dream — OK, an the latest Supreme Court ruling may
implausible one — that he’ll journey chip away at). But we also shouldn’t
to this Catholic hospital in the Nuba tolerate another kind of narrow-mind-
Mountains as a way of galvanizing edness, irreligious bigotry against peo-
opposition to the evil of Sudan’s bomb- ple of faith. Diversity is a virtue, in faith
as well as race.
ings.
Certainly the Nubans (who include
One reason I’m so impressed by Dr.
Tom is that most of the world, including Muslims and Christians alike) seem to
world leaders and humanitarians, have revere Dr. Tom.
“People in the Nuba
pretty much abandoned the
Mountains will never for-
people of the Nuba Moun-
He is
get his name,” said Lt. Col.
tains. President Barack
Albino Kuku of
Obama and other global
driven, Aburass
the rebel military force.
leaders have been too silent
“People are praying that he
about the reign of terror he says,
never dies.”
here, too reluctant to pres-
A Muslim paramount
sure Sudan to ease it.
by his
chief named Hussein Nalu-
That’s the context in
kuri Cuppi offered an even
which Dr. Tom stands out Catholic
more unusual tribute.
for his principled commit-
faith.
“He’s Jesus Christ,” he
ment. Dr. Tom has worked
said.
in the Nuba Mountains for
Er, pardon?
eight years, living in the hospital and
The chief explained that Jesus
remaining on call 24/7 (the only excep-
tion: when he’s unconscious with ma- healed the sick, made the blind see and
helped the lame walk — and that is
laria, once a year or so).
Dr. Tom acknowledges missing what Dr. Tom does every day.
You needn’t be a conservative Cath-
pretzels and ice cream, and, more se-
riously, a family. He parted from his olic or evangelical Christian to celebrate
serious girlfriend when he moved to WKDWNLQGRIVHOÀHVVQHVV-XVWKXPDQ
Gay conservatism, straight liberation
less binding than the gay left
derstood, and from wedlock
once feared.
and family, period.
In vain, social conser-
The traditional under-
vatives have argued that
efore there was a national de- standing, which rested on sex
this combination isn’t a
bate about same-sex marriage, difference, procreation, and
coincidence, that support
real permanence, went into
there was a debate within the gay crisis in the 1960s and 1970s.
for same-sex marriage and
community about whether it was a But in the 1990s, when The
the decline of straight mar-
ital norms exist in a kind
Atlantic informed readers
worthwhile goal to chase at all.
of feedback loop, that an
that
“Dan
Quayle
Was
Right”
This debate was tactical (since the
idea can have conservative
about unwed motherhood
Ross
cause once seemed quixotic) but also and today’s Democratic
consequences for one com-
Douthat
philosophical.
munity and revolutionary
front-runner fretted about
One current of thought saw the insti- the costs of no-fault divorce,
implications overall.
tution of marriage as inherently oppres- there were reasons to think that a kind of
This argument was ruled out, irra-
sive, patriarchal or heteronormative, bet- neo traditionalism might still have pur- tionally, as irrational, but it probably
ter rejected or radically transformed than chase in America.
wouldn’t have mattered if the courts
simply joined.
Not so today. Since the ’90s, approv- were willing to consider it. Too many
This liberationist perspective en- al of divorce, premarital sex, and out- Americans clearly just like the more
dured in academia, but mostly lost the of-wedlock childbearing have climbed relaxed view of marriage’s importance,
SROLWLFDO DUJXPHQW *D\ FRXSOHV ZDQW steadily, and the belief that children are and the fact that this relaxation makes
ed the chance for normalcy, straight “very important” to marriage has col- room for our gay friends and neighbors
Americans were surprisingly receptive, lapsed. Kennedy’s ruling argues that is only part of its appeal. Straight Amer-
and so a conservative case for same-sex the right to marry is essential, in part, ica has its own reasons for seeking liber-
marriage — the argument that marriage because the institution “safeguards chil- ation from the old rules, its own hopes of
LVHVVHQWLDOWRKXPDQGLJQLW\DQGÀRXU dren and families.” But the changing joy and happiness to chase.
Unfortunately I see little evidence
ishing — became the public case for gay cultural attitudes that justify his jurispru-
equality.
dence increasingly treat this safeguard as that people are actually happier in the
And now that case rings from every inessential, a potentially nice but hardly emerging dispensation, or that their
children are better off, or that the cause
paragraph of Anthony
necessary thing.
Kennedy’s marriage
And the same is of social justice is well-served, or that
UXOLQJ IURP WKH ¿UVW The case for
true of marriage itself. declining marriage rates and thinning
lines to the “no union
America is not quite so family trees (plus legal pressure on reli-
same-sex
is more profound than
“advanced” as certain gious communities that are exceptions to
marriage” peroration.
European societies, this rule) promise anything save greater
marriage
But in one of the
but our marriage rate loneliness for the majority, and stagna-
ironies in which the arc
is at historic lows, with tion overall.
has been
The case for same-sex marriage has
of history specializes,
the millennial genera-
pressed in
while the conserva-
tion, the vanguard of been pressed in the name of the future.
support for same-sex But the vision of marriage and family
ith a new Miss Oregon be- helped the nation in its healing in tive case for same-sex
the
name
of
marriage
triumphed
marriage, leading the that made its victory possible is deeply
ginning her reign, it’s time the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001,
in politics, the liber-
retreat. Millennials present-oriented, rejecting not only les-
the future.
to say goodbye and thanks to its terrorist attacks.
ationist case against
may agree with Ken- sons of a long human past but also many
PRVWVLJQL¿FDQWZLQQHU
:KLOH ¿WQHVV SRLVH DQG WDO marriage’s centrality
nedy’s ruling, but of the moral claims that inspire adults to
The North Coast should thank ent count, contestants promote a WRKXPDQÀRXULVKLQJZDVZLQQLQJLQWKH they’re making his view of marriage as privilege the interests of their children, or
culture.
“a keystone of the nation’s social order” indeed to bring children into existence at
Dana Phillips, who is stepping platform that enhances awareness wider
You would not know this from Ken- look antique. In their views and (lack of) all.
down as executive director of the of key social issues. The annual nedy’s opinion, which is relentlessly vows, they’re taking a more relaxed per-
Perhaps, with same-sex marriage an
annual scholarship program, a post event focuses statewide attention upbeat about how “new insights have spective, in which wedlock is malleable accomplished fact, there will be cultur-
she has held since 1986.
on Seaside, whose merchants are strengthened, not weakened” marriage, and optional, one way among many to al space to consider these lessons and
claims anew. Perhaps.
bringing “new dimensions of freedom” love, live, rear kids — or not.
Her dedication to the program among its foremost longtime sup- to society.
But seeing little such space, and lit-
In this sense, the gay rights move-
over more than three decades has porters. But the entire North Coast
But the central “new dimension of ment has won twice over. Its conserva- tle recognition that anything might have
been exemplary. Scores of young HFRQRP\EHQH¿WVIURPWKHLQÀX[ freedom” being claimed by straight tive wing won the right to normalcy for been lost along the road we’ve taken to
ZRPHQ KDYH JDLQHG FRQ¿GHQFH of visitors during pageant week America is a freedom from marriage — gay couples, while rapid cultural change this ruling, in the name of the past and
from the institution as traditionally un- KDV PDGH WKH GH¿QLWLRQ RI QRUPDOF\ the future I respectfully dissent.
By ROSS DOUTHAT
New York Times News Service
B
She made
the pageant
Dana Phillips has gone the extra mile
W
and earned an astonishing $2 mil-
lion for college scholarships while
competing in the program.
Phillips won’t be bowing out
entirely, At 65, she plans to work
through the Oregon Scholarship
Foundation to increase the mone-
tary awards given to contestants.
The program highlights tomor-
row’s leaders who represent the
best of America. Katie Harman,
the only Miss Oregon to win the
0LVV$PHULFDFURZQVLJQL¿FDQWO\
every summer.
Now new leaders taking over
the program, April Robinson,
Nichole (Mead) Lahner and
Stephanie (Steers) West. We wish
them well. All are former Miss
Oregon title holders, which will
give them inside expertise to con-
tinue the high standards of the
program. We note with some wry
amusement that it will take three
people to replace the dynamic
Phillips.
Where to write
• U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici
(D): 2338 Rayburn HOB, Washing-
ton, D.C., 20515. Phone: 202- 225-
0855. Fax 202-225-9497. District
RI¿FH 6: 0LOOLNDQ :D\
Suite 220, Beaverton, OR 97005.
Phone: 503-469-6010. Fax 503-
326-5066. Web: bonamici.house.
gov/
• U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D): 313
+DUW 6HQDWH 2I¿FH %XLOGLQJ :DVK
ington, D.C. 20510. Phone: 202-224-
3753. Web: www.merkley.senate.gov
• U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D): 221
'LUNVHQ6HQDWH2I¿FH%XLOGLQJ:DVK
ington, D.C., 20510. Phone: 202-224-
5244. Web: www.wyden.senate.gov
• State Rep. Brad Witt (D): State
Capitol, 900 Court Street N.E., H-373,
Salem, OR 97301. Phone: 503-986-
1431. Web: www.leg.state.or.us/witt/
Email: rep.bradwitt@state.or.us
• State Rep. Deborah Boone (D):
900 Court St. N.E., H-481, Salem,
OR 97301. Phone: 503-986-1432.
Email: rep.deborah boone@state.or.us
'LVWULFW RI¿FH 32 %R[ &DQ
non Beach, OR 97110. Phone: 503-
986-1432. Web: www.leg.state.or.us/
boone/
• State Sen. Betsy Johnson (D):
State Capitol, 900 Court St. N.E.,
S-314, Salem, OR 97301. Telephone:
503-986-1716. Email: sen.betsy john-
son@state.or.us Web: www.betsyjohn-
VRQFRP 'LVWULFW 2I¿FH 32 %R[ 5
Scappoose, OR 97056. Phone: 503-
543-4046. Fax: 503-543-5296. Astoria
RI¿FHSKRQH