Category Archives: Blog
Flashback: Savage (Separate and Unequal) Inequalities
Over a year ago, Jonathan Kozol came out with a new book, Still Separate, Still Unequal. I had read his previous book, Savage Inequalities and posted this brief intro to the two:
In the summer of 2003, in preparation for working in the public school system, I read the book, Savage Inequalities, by Jonathan Kozol. To say that the book changed my view of the public school system would be an understatement. Initially it shocked me that inequalities like this still existed even 30+ years after the Brown Ruling and that I had not heard about these recent (copyright 1990) inequalities. He opened my eyes to this injustice and made me forever an advocate of just public schools. In 1990 Kozol wrote revealing decrepit schools, out of date textbooks, segregated schools, and basically little of the change we thought had come from Brown vs. Board of Education on May 17, 1954.
Kozol has recently published a new book that gives a current account of the public school system, and the picture is not pretty. The Shame of the Nation, with a subtitle that speaks volumes: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America.
To get more of a taste of Kozol before you go and check this book out of the library you can read an article pulled from the first chapter of the book.
What If We All Did Small Things?
As we talked about a couple days ago, there is definitely a difference between “small things” and “big things” in the lifestyle choices that we make. Yesterday, we talked about, on a practical level, what the day in and day out lifestyle of an ethical person might look like. Today, it’s time to contemplate and consider if all those “small things” really do make a difference. We’ll talk about reducing energy, buying sweatshop-free clothing and fair trade coffee.
What if we all reduced our energy consumption (like turning down our heat)? Instead of using 80% of the world’s resources we take only our fair share? Maybe global warming is true and we save ourselves from utter destruction. Maybe it’s not true and we simply take a step down from our high pedestal and join the rest of the world.
What if we all bought sweatshop-free clothing?
If everyone made a small decision to change the brand of clothing they bought from Hanes to say, Alternative Apparel, it would have a huge impact. Yes, it is true that many pocketbooks would be a a bit thinner, but not that much. Almost overnight millions of once sub-living wage, oppressive jobs and corporations would be lost and other just and fair jobs would fill their places. Communities in the third world would begin to thrive off of fair wages rather then suffer under practical slave wages.
What if we all purchased Fair Trade Coffee?
The impact would be similar to that of the clothing industry, lighter pockets in the USA, thriving communities in the rest of the world. And everyone lives happily ever after.
Ethical Living: Trendy Guy vs. Hippie Gal
A Day in the Life of Trendy Guy
- B-fast: Double Mocha from Starbucks
- Transportation: Ford Excursion
- Day Job: Corporate Elite for Walmart
- Home: High rise Condo in recently gentrified neighborhood.
- Dinner: Fancy Steakhouse
- Nightlife: Regularly volunteers at a soup kitchen.
- Summer: Missions trip in the 3rd world.
A Day in the life of Hippie Gal
- B-fast: Free-range eggs from local CSA
- Transportation: Bike and Public Transit
- Day Job: Barista for local fair trade coffee shop
- Home: Commune in the city.
- Dinner: Potluck with Community Garden.
- Nightlife: Late night concerts, anti-corporate protest, and other leisure activities.
- Summer: Road Trips, Music Festivals, and wild parties.
What I would suggest is, a healthy combination of the two. Basically, I would suggest that everything from Breakfast to Summers be made from a thoughtful and ethical standpoint. Below is a brief combination that I think might be ethical (certainly subject to further discussion).
A Day in the life of a World Changer
- Breakfast: Dumpstered and purchased from a local CSA.
- Transportation: Biking, Public Transit, Carpooling, and driving less.
- Day Job: A job that does not contradict your ethics and values.
- Home: Modest living, shared if possible.
- Dinner: Community Garden shared with friends and neighbors.
- Nightlife: Community movie nights, craft nights, scrabble, soup kitchen, playing with the neighborhood kids.
- Summer: Ethical summer ventures.
Now, it’s time for discussion. Does your life line up with Trendy Guy, Hippie Gal or World Changer? If so were and if not, what areas do you need to change? Or, what areas do you think I’m way off base on. Let the discussion begin.
Small Things Do Not Replace Big Things
This is my response to the comment below that was made on my blog a while back:
My point is that people of faith who ache for a lost, dying, and hungry world ought to spend less time worrying about what soda or coffee to drink, or whether to put on a (“fair trade” wool) sweater or turn up the heat, and saying things like “heres to you” to pizza donating murderers, and more time doing things with a little more substance to help alleviate or solve the problems they lament.
Dear Friend,
If people of Faith, and readers and author of this blog, were spending ALL of their time worrying about what to buy, regulating temperatures and toasting murderers, I too would have a problem with that. From what I can tell you see the above steps and actions to be “little things.” They are things that you see as not having any major significance in the world, effecting no major changes, impacting only a small portion of this “lost, dying and hungry world.” I think to some degree you are right. I am willing to admit my choices not to drink coffee and avoid certain brands of other products are “little things” in the overall impact they have on the world. I won’t disagree with you there. I will say, though, that I think these little things are hugely important and have a much bigger impact then you realize, but that’s a conversation for another time. Today I simply want to clarify that I am in no way suggesting that these “little things” take the place of what you consider “doing things with a little more substance to help” (I’ll consider these ‘big things’).
Little Things should take the place of Little Things
When I write a post about what soda to drink or what coffee brand to avoid, I am not suggesting that we take this up as our life cause, schmoozing in coffee shops and talking to corporate elites about avoiding certain products, while the needy remain hungry and poor. What I’m suggesting is that you replace the ‘little thing’ of your choice of soda (usually based on some brand preference and price) with a new ‘little thing’ of a choice of beverage based on a certain ethical or moral value. When I write about turning down the heat in your apartment, I’m not suggesting campaigning for the removal of all heating units in the USA or even quitting your job to have time to chop firewood. I was simply writing about my “little” experiment with turning down my heat, and considering a “little” lifestyle change as it relates to heat and energy consumption. These are little things, and they generally will remain so (I’ll talk about why they are extremely important in another post).
Big Things should take the place of Big Things
Here’s where I think the clarity needs to be made. Turning down your heat, buying one brand of soda or clothing rather then another, takes very, very little time on a day-to-day basis. Turning your heat down two degrees does not then exempt you from serving soup at the shelter for those that don’t have heat. Buying fair trade coffee does not then exempt you from providing drink for the thirsty in your neighborhood. I’ve never suggested, nor intended to suggest, that you can earn your indulgences with a few strategic ethical purchases. Here, though, is were it gets tricky, because the reverse is also true.
Helping out at a soup kitchen does not free you to oppress, or comply with oppressing, people in your city. Sponsoring a child does not allow for guilt-free purchasing of sweatshop clothing that forces communities into needing sponsors. Planting a tree for a community service project does not give you free reign to use as much energy as you want.
Hopefully this clarified things a bit.
Make way for the Nuns
I was walking to a training for work a while ago. As I was walking a car pulled down a driveway I was crossing and in it sat two Sisters dressed in traditional garb. Immediately, almost instinctively, I had this moment of reverence. I think I almost put my hand to my heart or up to salute, I’m not really sure, all I know is I felt this need to show some sort of respect or honor, as if a King was passing.
A couple days later Mindy and I were driving on the highway and passed another vehicle with four Sisters in it. Again, I felt this sense of reverence and need to show honor. Mindy and I talked about it for a little bit and she helped me decipher a little why we feel so much respect and admiration for nuns.
The commitment to their faith, is almost unrivaled in our culture. Even on my most devote day of religious commitment I seem half-hearted compared to the lifelong commitment these honorable women have put forth. Were does that commitment come from? Why are there so few examples of it in our culture? I really do feel a level of reverence for nuns and monks. I think it should be mandatory to salute them when they come by, or something of that nature.
Maybe I can glean some wisdom from some nuns who blog,
A Nun’s Life and Crossing,
Flashback: Ask Mindy, Abercrombie, Enemies and Radiant
For this week’s Flashback I thought I’d compile small collection of posts from January of ’06 that created some interesting conversation. Here they are.
A short lived, but extremely popular podcasting series called Ask Mindy:
That’s right folks, after much begging, appealing and convincing, Mindy has reluctantly agreed to give us a few minutes of her time each week.
ASK MINDY will feature a three minute podcast with Mindy where she will answer a question presented by her husband Ariah, or maybe even emailed in by a listener. She’ll share her brilliance with the rest of the world in bit size chunks for all to enjoy.
So, what are you waiting for? Check it out today.
Then I posted about yet another reason I don’t shop at the ever sexist and racist Abercrombie:
This quote from a recent interview of the CEO, Mike Jeffries, says pretty much everything:
Listen, do we go too far sometimes? Absolutely. But we push the envelope, and we try to be funny, and we try to stay authentic and relevant to our target customer. I really don’t care what anyone other than our target customer thinks.
This is his response to the many protest that Abercrombie has faced for it’s sexist and racist t-shirts.
We had an interesting discussion about Loving our Enemies:
It’s time to resurrect the “Thoughts on War” topic and address the passage that began my turn to pacifism.
I’d read it before, but not until the days after 9/11 did it hit me with such a radical challenge.But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.*
I was so challenged, and so struggled with what those words meant in our world and for us. I ran into the dilemma that no matter how I looked at it I couldn’t come to a conclusion that killing my enemy could be loving.
And we touched on the Radiant Magazine Advertisement controversy, with some nice comments from Radiant’s editorial staff:
From what I can see they decided to remove the ad with “It’s Our Turn Now” across the top. I’d like to think it has something to do with the discussion that was started here regarding the sexist implications of that statement.
Nashville’s Mayoral Candidates Homeless For a Night
I’ve mentioned before that I’m a big fan of the Nashville Homeless Power Project. I think they are one of the best organization’s for Christian’s in Nashville to be involved in. What I love about it is that it’s an organization that’s run by homeless and formerly homeless it’s those who need help advocating for themselves, and it’s an opportunity for you to come behind and support them.
NHPP encouraged this year’s mayoral candidates to take an Urban Plunge and the story was picked up by many bloggers as well aslocal and national news:
The candidates promised advocates for the homeless that they would spend one night on the streets before the Aug. 2 election. The Nashville Homeless Power Project hopes the experience makes them more sensitive to the hundreds of people in the city with no place to live.
“I was struck by the number of people I saw sleeping in downtown Nashville,” said candidate Karl Dean, the city’s former law director. “There’s no simple answer, but we’ve got to do something.”
The National Coalition for the Homeless has been organizing similar experiences for college students and others for the past 25 years. But the group’s executive director, Michael Stoops, said it was the first time political candidates agreed to take part.
“I think all people who run for office should be in touch with people living in poverty,” Stoops said. “I think it should be a requirement.”
The participants, chaperoned by current and former homeless people, were supposed to find a legal place to stay the night, spend at least 20 minutes sleeping on a park bench and ask strangers for spare change.
Much of that was more than the candidates could handle. Dean and David Briley, a city council member, didn’t panhandle, and all four men wandered the streets until Wednesday morning rather than attempt to find a shelter.
“I never really got a chance to rest,” said Buck Dozier, another council member. He tried sleeping on a slab of concrete.
Homeless people got a chance to ask the candidates questions about the experience Wednesday. The first question caught them a bit off guard: Where did you use the bathroom?
The main reason I wanted to post about this is to say that I think it’s a good idea. When I read about what other bloggers were writing I came across this blogger who thought the idea of an urban plunge was “stupidity from the left.” I think everyone’s entitled to their opinion, but I’d have to disagree on this one.
Certainly, something like the Urban Plunge isn’t going to immediately wipe homelessness from the map. Nor, is this event intended to free the homeless from their responsibility for their actions and their role in making a way for themselves. However, I do think this opportunity for the Nashville Mayor’s will help them to see some of the injustices and ways that our city neglects some of it’s citizens. And this was not some liberal propaganda or publicity stunt; It was Nashville citizen’s (specifically homeless citizens and those who support them) gathering together and asking their possible future mayor to take a minute to better understand them and the Nashville that they live in.
Thank you Mayoral Candidates for trying to understand (even if you had wrong motives).
May Comment Love: Kiva Loan to Westland Academy
Below is the women and the academy that we helped provide a loan for, from your comments!
The donation for this month is up to you as well! I’m planning on donating to an organization that work’s with children, as I’ll have one of my own soon, and it’s important to remember there are those who might not have the same opportunities if we don’t spread our resources. Read about Margaret and feel free to subscribe to updates from her! Then don’t forget to vote on were this month’s donation should go.
Margaret Juma is a 55-year-old entrepreneur who lives with her husband and six children in Rongo, Kenya. She trained as a community health worker to provide home-based care to people living with HIV/AIDS in her area.
Margaret (pictured with the children) is a proprietor of Westland Academy, initially started in 1998 as a nursery school with 40 children. Since then, the school has grown to 156 children. The school takes children from nursery level to primary level (now in class 6). Out of the 156 children, 63 are orphans, some of whom Margaret has taken into her home.
Owing to increased enrollment in her school, Margaret requires US $ 1200 to renovate classrooms that are in poor shape.
Subscribe to Updates from Margaret!
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Home At Last: Homes for the Homeless
Following up on the idea that: What the Homeless need is a home, there is a great video over at PBS that you should really check out.
The synopsis of Home At Last from PBS:
What will most help homeless people reenter the fabric of society? Some say the answer is right there in the question: a home. This week, NOW investigates a program that secures apartments for the long-term homeless, even if they haven’t kicked their bad habits. If you think that sounds crazy, think again. Advocates say this approach reduces costs, encourages self-help and counseling participation, and restores self-esteem.
It’s an interesting take, especially when you consider how much even the government spends on caring for the emergencies for people without a home (see Million-Dollar Murray).
I’ve spoken about this before, actually podcasted about basic rights in the world. I didn’t reference it but a source worth noting is the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, Article 25:
Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services,