THE NATIONAL CATHOLIC WEEKLY AUG. 15-22, 2011 $3.50 OF MANY THINGS PUBLISHED BY JESUITS OF THE UNITED STATES otting regional and national Gross as I read her book. bestseller lists in recent sea - And we are not alone. A total of 65.7 EDITOR IN CHIEF Dsons have been various mem - million Americans, the author notes, Drew Christiansen, S.J. oirs. Among this year’s notable entries serve as unpaid caregivers. Gross came EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT are: Reading My Father, by Alexandra to see that as her mother’s needs were MANAGING EDITOR Styron (Scribner), daughter of the changing during the latter phases of her Robert C. Collins, S.J. acclaimed novelist William Styron life, it was necessary to have reliable and EDITORIAL DIRECTOR (Sophie’s Choice et al.), who himself knowledgeable back-up—social work - Karen Sue Smith wrote a memoir about overcoming a ers, nurses and other professionals and, ONLINE EDITOR serious bout of depression at age 60; ultimately, round-the-clock care. She Maurice Timothy Reidy Joan Didion’s Blue Nights (due this fall applauds these helpmates for “caring CULTURE EDITOR from Knopf), on the the tragic death of about us as a family unit—[with] neu - James Martin, S.J. the author’s only daughter at the age of roses, nastiness, unresolved issues….” LITERARY EDITOR 39 (Didion’s memoir of the year follow - Gross emphasizes the importance of Patricia A. Kossmann ing her husband’s sudden death, The doing one’s homework as to what POETRY EDITOR Year of Magical Thinking, was published expenses are covered by Medicare, James S. Torrens, S.J. in 2005); Joyce Carol Oates’s A investigating nursing home conditions ASSOCIATE EDITORS Widow’s Story (Ecco); and The Long and in general assuming the role of Kevin Clarke Goodbye, by the poet and culture critic “advocates for their frail, elderly par - Kerry Weber Meghan O’Rourke, on losing her moth - ents,” especially once they are in an Raymond A. Schroth, S.J. Edward W. Schmidt , S.J. er to cancer at age 55 (Riverhead). institutional setting. She mentions I have just finished reading A reports by advocacy groups that indi - ART DIRECTOR Stephanie Ratcliffe Bittersweet Season: Caring for Our Aging cate, despite regulation and oversight, ASSISTANT EDITOR Parents—and Ourselves (Knopf), by the worsening conditions in homes, due in Francis W. Turnbull, S.J. award-winning New York Times jour - part to worker shortages and increased ASSISTANT LITERARY EDITOR nalist Jane Gross. It is not only an turnover, as Medicare and Medicaid Regina Nigro affecting memoir of her mother’s life reimbursements have gone down. and slow decline but an informed and “Nursing homes commonly, to my naïve GUEST EDITOR Francis X. Hezel , S.J. helpful resource. It is always engaging, astonishment,” she discovered, “physi - yet often brutally candid about the cally or chemically restrain patients, SUMMER INTERNS author’s relationship with her mother. generally those with Alzheimer’s dis - Michael Avery Timothy W. O’Brien, S.J. (Her brother shared in care-giving ease, because behavioral methods are so Kevin C. Spinale, S.J. responsibilities.) much more labor-intensive.” Gross’s mother originally lived on Ultimately, the author’s mother—a BUSINESS DEPARTMENT Long Island, then moved to Florida strong-willed, stubborn, frugal former CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER after her husband’s death. She managed nurse—voluntarily stopped eating and Lisa Pope well for seven years until back pain drinking. Death came a month later. revealed cancer of the spine. Her Feeling orphaned, as she put it, Gross 106 West 56th Street daughter and son brought her to the revisited a photo album and found com - New York, NY 10019-3803 Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer fort—just as I did and continue to do— Ph: 212-581-4640; Fax: 212-399-3596 Center in New York, followed by rehab, in celebrating special moments with her E-mail: [email protected]; relocation to assisted living and, finally, mother, “with me beside her, cheek to [email protected] a nursing home. The author freely cheek…smiling so hard [I thought] my Web site: www.americamagazine.org. shares the questions, frustrations, chal - face was going to break.” This is a sharp Customer Service: 1-800-627-9533 lenges and lessons learned as she chron - contrast, the author notes, to the “slack- © 2011 America Press, Inc. icles a waning life (not to mention jug - jawed, tilted-off-to-one-side broken gling her service tasks and responsibili - puppet in a wheelchair.” ties with work as a reporter for The Bittersweet, indeed, is this memoir. Times). Having been a part-time care - I’m glad I didn’t have to write it, but Cover: Men join hands during giver for my own mother during her grateful that someone did. prayers in Tahrir Square in Cairo on decline, I felt a strong kinship with PATRICIA A. KOSSMANN Feb. 8, 2011. Reuters/Suhaib Salem CONTENTS www.americamagazine.org Vol. 205 No. 4, Whole No. 4941 August 15-22, 2011 ARTICLES 13 THE PEACE FRONT Religious groups stake out a wider role in violent conflicts. William Bole COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS 4 Editorials Out of Afghanistan Ahead of the Story 6 Signs of the Times 13 10 Column Attention: Deficit Disorder Kyle T. Kramer 26 Letters 30 The Word Who Do You Say You Are? Findin g Your Self Barbara E. Reid BOOKS & CULTURE 20 20 MUSIC Lady Gaga’s fascination with Christian imagery BOOKS Convicting the Innocent; Peculiar Institution ON THE WEB ON THE WEB Margot Patterson reports on the worsening crisis in Syria . Plus, America ’s Book Club discusses the novel Faith, and Bryan McCarthy reviews the film “ Terri. ” All at americamagazine.org. 21 EDITORIALS Out of Afghanistan ongressman Walter Jones Jr., of North Carolina, Qaeda again, the United States has not “won” in has undergone a thorough conversion. A Democrat, Afghanistan because the goals of “nation-building” were C he became a conservative Republican; a Baptist, he too broad and U.S. troops are laboring in inhospitable ter - became a Catholic. He supported the Iraq and Afghanistan rain and a closed culture. wars; now he sends hand-written letters of condolence to Meanwhile, the damage at home has been significant. the American families who have lost a son or daughter. He According to a Brown University study, the war will cost $4 told George C. Wilson in The Nation (6/13) that he deals trillion. Much of that money could have been used to create with the guilt over having voted for both wars because he jobs, rebuild this country’s roads, bridges, schools, health was “not strong enough to vote my conscience as a man of care system and parks. The greater cost has been in human faith.” Mr. Jones and his 13-member Out-of-Afghanistan life, both American and Afghan. There have been 1,574 caucus plan to push the war to the forefront in the presi - U.S. casualties in Afghanistan. Add to that number the dential primaries. Public support for the war has fallen. 6,670 severely wounded by improvised explosive devices, Only 43 percent of Americans feel it is worth fighting, including amputees. These numbers do not account for the according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll (6/7). A emotionally wounded, suicides, fractured families, victims Pew survey on June 21 found that 56 percent wanted troops of alcohol and drug abuse, accidents and sleepless nights. out as soon as possible and only 39 percent supported stay - The question of civilian deaths—estimated at 11,700 to ing until the situation stabilized. 13,900—is not resolved by saying that the insurgents have In June, 40 religious leaders from all faiths wrote to killed more people than NATO troops have killed. The President Obama that it is time to bring the war in Afghan people blame NATO more because it represents Afghanistan to an end. What began as a response to the ter - the intrusion of a foreign power. rorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, they contended, has become Negotiations with the Taliban have not borne fruit. In an open-ended war against a Taliban insurgency. the long run, only the Afghan people can determine their Since then President Hamid Karzai has replaced his own fate. The 40 U.S. religious leaders urge that the mili - assassinated half-brother, the Kandahar tribal leader, with tary be replaced by civilian organizations with relief and another brother. U.S. investigators have uncovered a truck - development aid experience. Al Qaeda no longer lurks in a ing scandal in which at least $3.3 million paid to eight compound in Pakistan but is spread throughout the Middle Afghan contractors has gone through middlemen to East in cells. Whatever the future, the “global war on terror” Taliban insurgents as bribes in the form of weapons, explo - is no longer the appropriate term for dealing with the com - sives and cash. Night raids, now 300 a month, have killed plex challenges introduced by the Arab Spring. If the both Taliban men and their wives in the same bed. Central Intelligence Agency, now led by Gen. David H. President Obama’s address in June tried to placate Petraeus, imagines it can base a foreign policy in this volatile both political critics weary of the 10-year war and military part of the world on the failed strategies of the last 10 years, leaders who wanted more time to form a well-trained it is misguided. Afghan army, despite its overwhelming illiteracy and high As the United States withdraws, it must accept turnover, and a stable government, in spite of its corruption.