When we drive by the poor standing along the road we must remember that they are not there simply because of bad luck and poor choices, they are also there because of the system that has given us the car in which we pass them by. The underpaid masses are never far from catastrophe, and we must see the connection between their misery and our success. The same system which is so rewarding to those near the top, robs and exploits those lower down the hierarchy. To succeed in such a system comes at cost which is passed on to others, who then may fail. We do not solve this problem by simply giving them charity, although such stop gap measures may be necessary for a time. As Gutierrez says:
“…the poverty of the poor is not a call to generous relief action, but a demand that we go and build a different social order.”
We begin an inner revolution when we stop calling such people “the poor” and realize they are more often “the robbed.” They are not lazy, they are more often discouraged. And who would not be discouraged to have to work ten times as hard for a hundred times less?
(North Pole) Santa Claus, inc. and Northrop Grumman have announced a joint venture to replace traditional reindeer with Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles (UCAVs).
“So many people have forgotten the true meaning of Christmas,” Santa said puffing on his corncob pipe. “Once a year we come together to celebrate the birth of capitalism. But some people don’t understand that. They want to force us to share the wealth. As the divide between rich and poor grows, spy and killer drones have become a necessary evil to protect the true meaning of Christmas.”
“To be honest with you, the hardest part of my job is getting the good presents to the rich children and the crummy ones to the poor. When I pick up the toys from a sweatshop in Hong Kong and am taking them to a mansion in Los Angeles, I need a powerful computer to make sure the expensive toys don’t go to the wrong kind of children. Traditional reindeer just can’t pull that kind of weight. I need help these days just keeping my list of who’s naughty and who’s nice. And by “naughty,” of course, I mean “poor.”
Santa’s new sleigh will be led by the “Rudolph Drone” which has been designed especially for Santa. It comes equipped with a pinpoint red laser that will help the other drones draw a bead on any potential economic threat. “Class warfare has gotten so bad that I don’t feel safe flying over some parts of the world and in some neighborhoods where I have to take the really crappy toys,” Santa lamented. “The drones will be armed with retractable cannons and Hellfire Missiles to protect Christmas as we know it. I am having to practice with the new names,” said Mr. Claus, “On, Reaper; on, Predator; on, Shadow Hawk;” still doesn’t sound right to me,” the old elf said laughing and shaking his belly.
I suppose it was a matter of time.
NORAD (the North American Aerospace Defense Command) has been supplying satellite photos of Santa’s Christmas journey allowing delighted children and families to track the yuletide flight path. This year NORAD will include a fighter jet escort, with commentary like the following:
“An intelligence officer asserts that “intel can confirm that Jack Frost and the Abominable Snowman will not be a threat.” Ground forces then report that all rooftops have been checked to make sure Santa, whose call sign is “Big Red One,” and his reindeer can land safely. Could Santa’s navigation system be attacked by a a computer virus? Another officer in charge of cyber space chimes in that the “anti-Grinch-viral is up and will continue to monitor threats.”
So is there any scrap of the American consciousness left to militarize? Was the message of “peace on earth, good will to all,” just too pacifist and internationalist for us? Are children ever too young for the propaganda of empire?
Religion is a poem about who we are in the cosmos. Religion is not primarily science or ethics. It is a map of our subjective world -the world we live in but not on. The language we use to lay our foundation for living is very important. If we choose to use the symbol “God” we must be very careful that the image for God does not look more like some people than others. If we close our eyes and picture a powerful white male, we have projected that template upon every other experience we will have. Furthermore, when we speak of the tie that binds our subjectivities together, appeals to power yield a very different results from appeals to kinship.
One problem with any picture of the world which views God as a powerful ruler is that it plants the idea that domination is what holds the universe together. If God is a King, or Jesus is a Lord, then power is the tie that binds. From that beginning, it is natural to assume a given hierarchy with civil and religious leaders standing in between the people and the God who is everyone’s ultimate boss.
Contrast that imperial cosmology with the notion that all life is a family. Taoism teaches that the ocean is the ruler of waters because it takes the lowest place. Jesus said he came not to lead but to serve. A gentile who looks at Jewish scriptures in Hebrew is stunned to see the word “kesed” (steadfast love) as a thread weaving the whole narrative together. Only from such humble beginnings can we hope to draw a map for living that does not make it hard to share our world with those who see matters differently.
Feminist theologians invented the word “Kindom” as a replacement for the world “Kingdom” to speak of the tie that binds life together. In addition to removing the male association with the word “king,” kindom also replaces the idea of benevolent domination with that of kinship. Whatever map we draw in our minds, whether we think of it as religious or not, is perhaps the most important art work we will do. Countless unconscious choices will be made based on that forgotten foundation.
“Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him (or her) live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.” -CARL SAGAN
I do not agree with those who say that one needs to believe in God in order to be ethical. History is too filled with kindly atheists and cruel theists to find that tenet credible. Still, I do believe that, to be fully human, one needs that reverence to which the symbol “God” should refer, a wonderment, an awe before the universe. It is that wonder at existence itself that gives us a sense that each of us is somehow of infinite worth. For mystics, the symbol God is a multiplier. It takes the small love we understand and makes that love applicable to every human, every animal and every plant. It is quite clear from the quote above that Carl Sagan, while a devout atheist, had the essence of everything a mystic would mean by the symbol, “God.”
If “God” is a symbol of our reverence before mystery then it is surely beyond the definitions of theism or atheism.
Bitterness is a strange poison. It does nothing to my enemy, but is fatal to me. Forgiveness is the only way to remain in control of my own soul. If I cannot let go the burdens of the past, I must carry them today. In the course of time, yesterday’s burdens collectively become unbearable.
The mind is the only ship that can be sunk by yesterday storms.
Vinnie was one of the homeless men who lived on our church porch for several years. Vinnie was the one who always worried about everyone else. He would buy garbage bags to go clean up other people’s camp sites so they could feel good about themselves. He protected the weak and elderly homeless. This Saturday at 1pm we will have a funeral service at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church on Wells Branch Parkway to celebrate the life of a wonderful man. All are welcome.
We all know that, in general, women earn 77 cents to every dollar men earns. While most accept this unfairness as a fact of life, the city of Boston is considering a measure to close that gap. Companies will be asked to take three steps:
1. Companies must open their books to access their own wage data.
2. They will then choose one of three strategies to improve wage equity.
3. Then they will share their wage data anonymously so the city can measure progress.
The entire program is voluntary, so, all in all, it is a tepid response to a gross inequity; but when other cities are doing little if anything to address the issue, at least it is a start.
http://www.npr.org/2013/11/30/247940815/boston-says-it-has-a-plan-to-erase-the-gender-wage-gap?sc=17&f=1001
“There’s a professor…a liberal professor named Noel Ignatiev, and he is actually teaching—and I am not making this up—he is actually teaching and telling white male students to commit suicide to benefit society.” -Rush Limbaugh
It isn’t uncommon for busy news shows to grab a false headline. So when Rush was told mid-show that he was reporting on a fake story from the Onion, I’m sure his listeners were willing to forgive him. The problem is that, over time, he has a clear pattern of reporting questionable stories of white victimhood. What is it that attracts Rush’s audience to that theme?
Ian Reifowitz has an opinion piece in the Daily Kos (see link below) discussing the history of what he calls “race baiting” on the Rush Limbaugh show.
“The days of them not having any power are over, and they are angry. And they want to use their power as a means of retribution. That’s what Obama’s about, gang. He’s angry, he’s gonna cut this country down to size, he’s gonna make it pay for all the multicultural mistakes that it has made, its mistreatment of minorities.” -Rush Limbaugh, on the election of Barack Obama
It is much to the interest of the rich to channel the resentments of the poor against other poor people and not against the people who are really exploiting them. Reifowitz argues that the purpose of such tactics is to divide and conquer America’s poor. He concludes the article with what he thinks is the real fear behind such rhetoric:
“What the right-wing elites really fear is a multiethnic coalition of all Americans built around the notion of the common good, the idea that a society should operate for the benefit of the great majority of people, not the thin sliver at the top.”
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/12/01/1258736/-Rush-Limbaugh-and-the-long-sordid-history-of-pitting-whites-against-blacks-in-America?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos%29#