Thread: Mexicans pray for peace as election tension mounts

Mexicans pray for peace as election tension mounts
By Greg Brosnan
2 hours, 6 minutes ago



MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican Catholics flocked to a shrine on Saturday to pray for a peaceful election, but not even pious pilgrims were immune to the rising political tension gripping a divided nation before next week's vote.


With leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador holding only a slight poll advantage over conservative ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon in a bitter campaign of tit-for-tat barbs, some fear electoral violence around the July 2 vote.

Carrying banners reading "Unity for Peace," thousands of the faithful clutched icons of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico's revered patron saint, walking past reams of campaign posters on their way to her shrine in a working-class northern Mexico City neighborhood.

President Vicente Fox's party has roots in Catholicism, Mexico's dominant religion. While former welfare officer Lopez Obrador says little about his religious beliefs, Calderon is from a devout Catholic family and opposes legalizing abortion, which is banned except in certain cases such as rape.

Some Catholic community groups say the church may be using such hot-button issues to sway voters in favor of Calderon.

As traffic parted for the marchers, the din of car horns was replaced by the soft voices of hundreds of hymn-singing schoolgirls.

Vendors ducked in and out of the procession hawking religious medals and Virgin of Guadalupe souvenirs.

"We want people to vote in peace," said organizer Guadalupe Bustamante. "We are not mixing politics with religion."

But for Monica Benitez, a 43-year-old marketing specialist proudly wearing a rubber bracelet bearing Felipe Calderon's name and the orange, blue and white colors of the ruling National Action Party, the two were inseparable.

Shading herself under an orange parasol, she said Lopez Obrador was a danger to the faith who could trigger political strife and even impose a harsh leftist doctrine banning religion and worship of the Virgin of Guadalupe herself.

"We don't want war, we don't want disturbances ... he wants to take our virgin away," she said. "He's going to do it; Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is crazy."

ABORTION AN ISSUE

A man handed out leaflets saying it was a sin to vote for a candidate who favored abortion -- another apparent plug for Calderon, even though Lopez Obrador has not said he backs legalizing it.

While not all the pilgrims wore their allegiances so openly, few appeared to be fans of Lopez Obrador.

When a group of middle-aged women began giving out leaflets urging people to vote for Calderon, many gladly accepted them until organizers politely asked them to stop.

But when an old man offered yellow flyers bearing Lopez Obrador's smiling face, he was immediately engulfed by a crowd shrieking "Away! Away!."

Scuttling away after narrowly escaping a beating, he shouted back: "What happened to 'Love thy neighbor?"'

Not everyone was concerned about politics.

As priests said Mass from a balcony in the Virgin of Guadalupe basilica, Mazahua indigenous women wearing pink embroidered dresses sang a prayer for peace and harmony.

Listening in the shade with his wife and grandchildren, Jose Casildo, a 66-year-old cleaner who had come from a poor parish on the northern edge of the city, said Lopez Obrador had his vote, but he had not come to pray for his victory.

"I want a clean, peaceful election, whoever wins," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060624/wl_ ... tholics_dc

We don't want war, we don't want disturbances ... he wants to take our virgin away," she said. "

maybe they are praying for the wrong things.

I'm praying with them....they are in our thoughts.

Lets hope and pray that who ever is elected will see the need to do his best to run an honest government. To do his best to work toward making life more desirable and comfortable for his fellow countryman.

Originally Posted by Charlesoakisland

Lets hope and pray that who ever is elected will see the need to do his best to run an honest government. To do his best to work toward making life more desirable and comfortable for his fellow countryman.

Let's hope the "right wing" candidate will win. Fox / Bush helped Mexico to become more westernized......more capitalistic. We need a Mexican President who will continue that uphill battle.

It is my hope to organize a group that will teach the Mexicano's how to be more entrepreneurial.......so they don't feel like they have to escape their corrupt gov't.

The answer to this problem is to extend a hand over there and sacrifice our time and energy through love in helping them.

Same with the Cubano's......let's pray that Fidel expires soon. He's a commy that needs to go.....several Cubano's die in the seas, trying to escape his iron fist.

Love will win this battle......then "karma" will take effect.

That's what I believe.

Originally Posted by DD

Originally Posted by Charlesoakisland

Lets hope and pray that who ever is elected will see the need to do his best to run an honest government. To do his best to work toward making life more desirable and comfortable for his fellow countryman.

Let's hope the "right wing" candidate will win. Fox / Bush helped Mexico to become more westernized......more capitalistic. We need a Mexican President who will continue that uphill battle.

It is my hope to organize a group that will teach the Mexicano's how to be more entrepreneurial.......so they don't feel like they have to escape their corrupt gov't.

The answer to this problem is to extend a hand over there and sacrifice our time and energy through love in helping them.

Same with the Cubano's......let's pray that Fidel expires soon. He's a commy that needs to go.....several Cubano's die in the seas, trying to escape his iron fist.

Love will win this battle......then "karma" will take effect.

That's what I believe.

DD, I am sure I speak for most of the members of ALIPAC wishing you success in the endeavor to "teach the Mexicano's how to be more entrepreneurial.......so they don't feel like they have to escape their corrupt gov't." It is a worthy cause that will benefit both Nations.

by the way the center of the US:

The geographic center of the forty-eight conterminous states was determined by the Coast & Geodetic Survey in 1918 by the method described. This geographic center is approximately at latitude 39 degrees 50'N, longitude 98 degrees 35'W, near Lebanon, Kansas. When Alaska was admitted to the Union, the geographic center of the forty-nine states shifted about 439 miles northwest to a point at approximately latitude 44 degrees 59'N, longitude 103 degrees 38'W, about eleven miles west of Castle Rock, Butte County, South Dakota. In arriving at this determination the geographic center of Alaska was determined by the method described and was found to be at latitude 63 degrees 50'N, longitude 152 degrees 00'W, with an uncertainty of about 15 or 20 miles in any direction. The geographic center of the combination of Alaska and the forty-eight conterminous states is considered to be on the great circle connecting their geographic centers at a point where the two areas would "balance"; i.e., considering each having a weight, proportional to its area, concentrated at the corresponding geographic center.

LOL!

I know Lebanon is the Center of the United States! loL! There is a marker there and they had to move it away from personal property.


I'm from Kansas......the state is in the middle of the U.S.


Back to the 'entrepreneurial vision' I have.......more of us are concerned about ourselves only.

Many of us choose not to sacrifice our time/resources to 'help thy neighbor'. It's quite frustrating to me......but I continue my path to network with those who have FULL HEARTS and who have dedicated their lives to help those who cannot help themselves.

The want and desire " to help thy neighbor'" is an honorable trait that seems to be of a vanishing breed. It is best served when one dose it for self satisfaction rather than profit.

Originally Posted by Charlesoakisland

The want and desire " to help thy neighbor'" is an honorable trait that seems to be of a vanishing breed. It is best served when one dose it for self satisfaction rather than profit.

To my knowledge.....people want to work for some sort of 'profit'. It's a hell of a better way than the socialistic/equal distribution crap.

Yea, whatever DD.