All posts by ariah

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Where I do My Grocery Shopping

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This is actually a repost of something I wrote last year, but I figured it fit appropriately on a Monday (CRM). This has changed a little since we live in a community and I don’t actually do much of the shopping, but I think it’s still pertinent to most people. I’ll probably elaborate on CSA’s and other things more at some point soon. From February of 2006:

When it comes to most of my purchasing, price is a major factor. In the same way that I wouldn’t go pick the most expensive designer jeans and assume they are the best, ethically and quality, I don’t go for the most expensive groceries and consider it ethical. Currently, we (my wife and I) do our main shopping at ALDI. I’ve tried as much as possible to find out more about the ethics of ALDI’s and compare it to other grocer’s but never with much luck. I did recently find out that ALDI’s is owned by the same company that owns Trader Joe’s from whom there is a little more information. I also occasionally shop at Kroger. Kroger as a company has done some fairly unethical stuff in the past, as far as worker right’s in their stores, and for about 6 months we joined in a boycott of their stores. From what I know the strike and boycott was a victory and some good agreements where made. ALDI’s is Extremely reasonably priced, but the savings are mostly in how they run the store, not in short changing their workers and producers (From what I can tell).
If you shop at a place like Kroger or other major retail chain you’ll also encounter having to choose what brand products to buy. It’ll take you a little while to read through, but I’d highly recommend reading the notes at ResponsibleShopper.org about FOOD brands. The goal is not for you to read all the bad stuff and lament ever eating again, but rather for you to become more aware and educated about some of the situations stores have been in. Like I suggested in a Fair Trade article I wrote, I would suggest picking one product (coffee, chocolate, tea) and choosing to buy it ONLY Fair Trade.
In addition, I personally know I want to shop at the local Farmer’s Market more. Nashville has a year-round Farmer’s market that carries plenty of produce, and I would recommend anyone I know to shop there first. Also, if you could become part of a CSA (Community Shared Agriculture) I would encourage you doing that. We were part of a local CSA in the fall and plan to continue come spring time. Basically each week we would get a bin of food. Always a dozen eggs and a whole chicken, and then an assortment of fruits and vegetables. We had to learn how to cook new items and discovered many different peppers and squashes. I would HIGHLY recommend you get involved in a CSA if you can find one.
Last but not least, for you radical few out there, I would recommend you find a local Food Not Bombs group, hang out, and learn a little bit about the art of dumpster diving.

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What Is Essential to the Gospel?

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This is more question time for the readers then me giving answers.

In a discussion at the house the other day, and a couple email conversations with some readers, I’ve started to rethink what topics, facts, concepts, etc. are essential to the Gospel.

There’s all kinds of cliches and sayings about the gospel: “Preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words.” There’s all kinds of things we spend far too much time talking about and others we simply neglect. So, take a minute to think about this. I’m wondering, if someone were to come up to you and ask you write now, “What is the Gospel of Jesus Christ?”

What would you say?

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Flash Back: Why I don’t Shop At Walmart

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Below, in it’s entirety, is something I wrote a while back about why I don’t shop at Walmart. With all the CRM posts and everything I felt this was probably a pretty appropriate time to post this up again and hopefully garner further discussion on it. If your going to link to the article, please link to the original, Why I don’t Shop At Walmart:

This topic always draws a lot of feedback. The thing is from the moment someone starts to talk, or write, you usually have a good idea what side of the fence they are on (it’s the same as when you listen to someone talk about Kanye West’s statements and racism). I fear-and I’m speaking about myself too-that too often we are choosing what side of the fence we want to be on, and then just finding evidence to back it up. Maybe it’s cause you had a bunch of liberal friends, or you hung out with the grunge crowd, some external pressure just decided for you that you hated Walmart, and since then you’ve found all kinds of reasons why this is true. For others it’s their republican upbringing, their support of “Christian” values, or their love of low prices that swayed their decision and now they’ve found all kinds of reasons to support that choice. Honestly, I probably fall into one of those categories, but give me a minute to share with you why I personally avoid Walmart.

At some point in my movement towards maturity, I recognized the significance of personal responsibility. I realized that with any situation, regardless of the reasons behind it or circumstances concerning it, my involvement (or passive silence) would show my support for it. If something is against the rules, and I say nothing about it, I show my support for it. If my government, of which I am a part, makes a decision and I say nothing about it, I support it. I need to take responsibility for those things. If I am ever confronted on those things (and I have this strange feeling I might be), I will not be able to pass blame like Adam did, I will be held accountable for my decisions.

I’ve definitely made poor decisions in the past. I remember being in high school and seeing a sign posted above a drinking fountain in the hallway. Walmart and Sweatshops was the topic, and I passed it by without a second thought. Interesting that I can remember that now, but it had no bearing on me then. For a number of years I had been aware of this, and I did nothing.

At some point later, maybe after I had been exposed to some facts, seen some video, and been confronted a few more times, I realized that important lesson on personal responsibility. Suddenly, the weight of the responsibility was heavy on me. I never went through a research project of weighing the Pros and Cons of Walmart. To be honest most of this debate about whether Walmart is good or bad seems to miss the point for me. I’m not saying it doesn’t have significance, but it gets us into a balance game, and I’m not interested in that.

This is the one fact that disturbs me. Close your eyes. Think about the shirt you are wearing. Trace it back through the store you bought it from, back past being packaged, past being shipped, and to the place it was stitched and sewn together. I’m terrified when I do that and I see a small child, dirty and weary from 18 hours a day of labor, looking into my eyes and awaiting an explanation. What will I say to that little girl? What does taking responsibility mean for me there?

I cannot in good conscience buy from a store where I am aware that that is where the items came from. Does Walmart employ sweatshops? I’m not sure, but I’ve heard evidence of it, and the mere possibility scares me. Do other Stores employ sweatshops? Probably many other stores do, and as I become aware of them, my purchasing decisions and opportunities will become more and more difficult; But that in NO way allows me to disregard my responsibility. Do ALL stores employ sweatshops? I do not believe so. I know of a number of fair trade clothing stores whose goal and focus is to be sweatshop free.

I’m not advocating a boycott; I don’t know enough about economics, etc to make a strong decision on that. I do think that when a company like Walmart is in the news for bad practices, it should affect our spending habits. When Martha Stewart goes to jail our continued purchases send the message that we don’t care about her breaking the law. When we read that Coca-Cola has been polluting the water in India, our continued purchasing sends the message that we do not care. I long for someone with much more brilliance then I to come along and give me a plan for making choices and organizing in a way that will affect change for the good. Are you that person?

I leave you with this. As a friend, I want to admonish you. I am aware of some facts that might or might not be true about Walmart. Please stop shopping there until you have examined the facts.

Link to Original

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Shane Claiborne on NPR: The New Monastics

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I like to say Shane is my friend, though he’s becoming quite the name and face in the big media, he’s very personable and committed to the faith. His story is a wonderful one and he explains well a lot of the values and truths I hold in my faith. I haven’t even listened to the whole podcast above (it’s 53 minutes) but I promise you it will be worth your while.

Shane.

I also have a couple copies of his book, Irresistible Revolution, if anyone is looking for one. It’ll change your life. Three of the guys I currently live with were so impacted by Shane’s story and convictions that they ended up moving in with us (a little nuts I know). Anyways, be ready for your life to be changed if you take the time to read or listen.

And before you think I’m too much of a Shane fan, I wanted to point out a couple quick things. I think what Shane has to say is valuable for the masses to hear, and since he does it better then I do I’m gonna pass his writing and speaking on. However, I’m not a fan of Shane and I don’t see him as a ‘guru,’ but I see the danger of that being the case. Mark, addresses this quite well in a recent post over at Jesus Manifesto so I thought I’d give you a quick excerpt:

In fact, Jesus (while he certainly accepts our worship) seemed WAY more interested in having people follow him than he was in people worshiping him. I don’t think Jesus is pleased with our worship, given the atrocious state of our discipleship. And he certainly doesn’t like it when we elevate people like Shane Claiborne as exemplars, but fail to follow their example. Shane has gotten a lot of attention, and for some good reasons. He is living out a radically Christ-centered life that is worthy of imitation. But he’s gotten WAY more fans than imitators. And the way the “machine” has gotten a hold of him has saddened me, because it is turning him into a saint instead of into an “ordinary radical.” I know so many people who love what he has to say but feel like he’s in a special class of holy person.

Read the rest here.

Blog

Bottled Water Is a Scam

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Okay, I don’t know for sure that bottled water is a scam, but I had to come out strong. My dad sent me the Ideal Bite Tip from the other day that suggested using home filters to clean your water rather then bottled water. It made me think about how ridiculous I think the bottled water industry is.

I haven’t been alive that long, but I clearly remember when there was no such thing as bottled water and I didn’t think twice before drinking my water straight from the tap. Now a days kids I work with think having to drink water from the tap is disgusting. Here’s an anecdotal experiment: I am not more sick or had diarrhea or any other ailments now then I was ten and fifteen years ago when I was also drinking tap water. In the meantime, I can’t go to a meeting at work now were a pitch of water is available, it’s either bottles or soda.

I could be wrong, but here’s a brief collection of facts on the bottled water industry…

From Ideal Bite on the benefits of filtering rather then bottling:

  • Save the 1.5 million tons of plastic expended in the bottling of 89 billion liters of water each year.
  • Get rid of contaminants normally found in tap water such as chlorine, cryptosporidium, Giardia, lead and pesticide runoff.
  • Save money – Pitcher or faucet filters cost about $600 over 5 years. Bottled water services or bottles cost nearly $2000 in that same timeframe!
  • Filters are a safer bet – up to 40% of all bottled water comes from a city water system, just like tap water.

Not that I’m advertising filters either, but I think we need to consider we’ve really been advertised into this bottle water craving. Here are a few more links:

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SOA Watch Update: Costa Rica Says Goodbye

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From the SOA Watch website:

Costa Rican President Oscar Arias vowed on Wednesday to stop sending police to train at a U.S. facility criticized for a history of producing soldiers who went on to violate human rights.

Arias, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, made the promise after talks with Rev. Roy Bourgeois, a U.S. activist priest who has campaigned since 1990 for the closure of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, formerly known as the School for the Americas, at Fort Benning, Georgia.

Though U.S. defense officials closed the original school, a Latin American military training facility, in 2000 and reopened it a year later under the new name and with a new curriculum, critics say the change was purely cosmetic.

For those who don’t know about the School of the Americas, here is a brief intro:

The US Army School of Americas (SOA), based in Fort Benning, Georgia, trains Latin American security personnel in combat, counter-insurgency, and counter-narcotics. SOA graduates are responsible for some of the worst human rights abuses in Latin America. In 1996 the Pentagon was forced to release training manuals used at the school that advocated torture, extortion and execution. Among the SOA’s nearly 60,000 graduates are notorious dictators Manuel Noriega and Omar Torrijos of Panama, Leopoldo Galtieri and Roberto Viola of Argentina, Juan Velasco Alvarado of Peru, Guillermo Rodriguez of Ecuador, and Hugo Banzer Suarez of Bolivia. Lower-level SOA graduates have participated in human rights abuses that include the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero and the El Mozote Massacre of 900 civilians. (See Grads in the News).

You can take action today to help shut the place down. At the least take your new awareness and be sure to share with others as the opportunity arises.

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The Big Day Approaches: You Can Expect Changes.

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This is clearly a personal blog of my thoughts, but details of the ins and outs of my days don’t really show up here. For example, you might not have known that the school year is almost over for most of the kids I work with, my brother just graduated college, my sisters gonna get her license in a few months, I live in a house full of people (not just my wife), I bike to work, and in about a month or less I’m going to be a father.

That last one is the Big Day I’m thinking about. With it so close on the horizon priorities and time management is being shifted around. I still love to write, so I’m not saying the blog will disappear, but it is likely to change forms. For example, I might just start posting links to things I find interesting each day. I’m not really sure at this point, but I just wanted to give you for warning. I love the consistency of a daily post, but if it’s too much work that might be gone as well.

No need to make this long and drawn out, just wanted to leave you with a little something. Who knows, as inspiration strikes me right now I might write enough posts to fill up the month of June. If you want to be on the immediate notification about the baby list your probably going to have to get in touch with me.

So, I guess the only thing left to do is get some predictions on the birth time. Dates are boring, I want to know what time (hour and minute) you think the baby is coming…

Money & Stewardship

Fidelity Out of Sudan

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I can’t remember if I blogged about this a while back or if I just mentioned it to Josh for a CRM post. Well, I just wanted to add to what Josh had mentioned about why Fidelity is no a good company to invest with. I’m just going to include a couple excerpts from the Fidelity Out of Sudan website:

The government of Sudan continues to pursue genocide in Darfur, drawing on its oil revenue to provide arms and funding for the genocide, rather than economic development for the poor people of Sudan. Despite the mass atrocities in Darfur, Fidelity, through its mutual funds, not only has been a major investor in oil companies operating in Sudan, but, until recently, had been significantly increasing its holdings. In its February SEC filing, Fidelity’s global holdings of PetroChina topped $1.3 billion and it was the largest holder of PetroChina (PTR) on the NYSE. Fidelity has significantly reduced its holdings in PetroChina and Sinopec on the NYSE, but continues to be a very large holder of these stocks. Join us and tell Fidelity to stop investing our money in companies helping to fund the genocide in Darfur.

The Good news is the campaign seems to be having an effect. From a recent email update:

Our collective efforts are paying off. Fidelity’s May 15 filing with the SEC showed that as of March 31, Fidelity had sold 91% percent of its PetroChina shares and 99% of its Sinopec shares that trade on the New York Stock Exchange. This action by Fidelity is a significant step in the right direction and evidence that your voice and those of thousands of others are being heard.

And now SaveDarfur is joining in with some TV ad campaigns:

“Fidelity portfolio managers make their investment decisions based on business and financial considerations, and take into account other issues only if they materially impact these considerations or conflict with applicable legal standards.”
– Fidelity letter of October 5, 2006

So, as if Playboy wasn’t enough to keep you from investing in Fidelity, maybe genocide is.

Devotional thoughts

Murderers! And The Lives They Live

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There was quite a bit of conversation last week after I posted about the benevolent act of Philip Workman, a man executed in Tennessee last week for murder. The initial comments put me deep in thought and I’ve been trying to think through my values and ethics and trying to make sure I’m not holding double standards. This is not a direct response to those comments, but it was provoked by those thoughts. Today, I simply wanted to write a brief devotional thoughts post about some of the heroes of the Christian faith.

Moses seemed to often be in the right place at the right time. As a baby, when his fellow Hebrew tots were being killed off, Moses managed to get in with Pharaoh’s family and grow up as royalty. Then he grew up, learned a bit about his history, and in a moment of zeal kills a guy. He lives as a fugitive in the desert for about forty years and then goes on to lead one of the greatest freedom movements of ancient times, the exodus of the Jewish people out of Egypt. Moses was a murderer, though never captured and convicted, and he then went on to be a famous leader and a pillar of the Jewish and Christian faith.

David is the original Cinderalla-story: Shepard boy becomes Israel’s great King. Every kid in a church grows up hearing about how David slays Goliath. And we don’t really see it as murder, it’s the epic good vs. evil story, redemptive violence at its finest. So, most wouldn’t agree that David qualifies as a murderer for that. But the other story we don’t teach many kids in church, is about David committing adultery and then having a man killed to protect his crime. And as repentant as David might have been, David was a murderer. David even recommended the death penalty for a person who committed a crime such as his, but the sentence was never carried out. David is remembered as one of Israel’s Greatest Kings, which seems to overshadow his death-deserving crime.

Paul is, next to Jesus, probably the most influential forefather of the Christian faith. The guy wrote half the New Testament, established churches all over the Roman Empire and was a martyr for the faith. Paul was so special, Jesus even paid him a special visit after he’d already ascended to heaven. By his own admission Paul was a murderer of Christian’s prior to becoming one himself. The fact that Paul’s murderous campaigns were one of the greatest original threats to Christianity does not seem to phase us now as we lift him up as one of the founding pillars of our faith.

Jesus himself was more or less a fugitive for part of his three years of ministry. He constantly avoided certain areas and had to duck away from persecuting crowds (how he managed that is a mystery to me). And Jesus, who maintained his innocence until the very end received the death penalty.

The point of this short run down of Biblical figures was not to make a statement that murder is okay, by no means do I think killing someone is ever a good idea. It was a chance however to reflect on how four of the greatest figures in the Bible were or were treated as criminals, and yet we are able to look through that, around it, in spite of it and see the great good that was accomplished through them as well. I have the great honor to work with many youth who in their own moments have made grave mistakes and they are paying a price for that. However, I would hope I, and no one else, ever stamps a permanent label on them that keeps them from having a second chance and keeps others from recognizing each benevolent act that they make. Here’s to every murderer who has turned their life around and contributed to the well being of humanity, I applaud you.

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Flash Back: Writing for RelevantMagazine.com

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In 2005 I had the opportunity (multiple ones) to write articles for Relevantmagazine.com. I really enjoyed it and it was a chance to see what writing on deadlines and for a professional media company was like. I enjoyed the discussion that came from the articles and the audience that had the chance to read them.

I’ve had problems with Relevant magazine, but I feel like the audience they are reaching is the same audience I would like to reach, so as they gave me opportunity I wrote. Below is links to the images of each article, and below that are the links to the actual articles. If you want feel free to take some time to read the articles. Hopefully you find they stay true to my passions and not just me catering to the Relevant crowd.

Getting published

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In Order: What Would it Take, Poor College Students, Remembering 9/10, Crisis in Darfur, Earthquake in Pakistan, Fair Trade at the Supermarket, New Year’s Resolutions. (click on the image for an image of the page, they are no longer available on the relevant website).

The year concluded with another exciting development, my article (edited by Jesse Carey) about New Year’s Resolutions was the featured article on the email newsletter, 850 words of Relevant.