Tag Archive | current-events

Sheep and Goats on Sunday Morning

Apr29

On ABCs This Week with George Stephanopoulos, an “all-star panel of experts” gathered at the Miller Center at the University of Virginia to discuss economic recovery in the US.  The six-member panel assessed the efforts that have been made thus far, and offered their opinions on what needs to happen to restore the economy.

As the discussion turned to the disparity in wealth acquisition, Stephanopoulos posed a question.  “We know this whole debate about income inequality is going to be at the center of this campaign as well…How worried should we be about inequality?”

In response, Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google spoke quite well about education, growing the middle class and youth unemployment, but it was his own personal feeling that stood out.

“From my perspective, there’s a fairness argument.  I personally believe that the top 1% need to share more.”

Remember sharing?  In the well-known excerpt from Robert Fulgham‘s All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, the first lesson is “share everything”.  Our parents and teachers told us this over and over.  The lesson did not seem to take.

Our country has become much too concerned with possession.  David Walker, former Comptroller General and another member of the Miller Center Panel, summed it up.  “We are not discharging our stewardship responsibility.”

People of faith know that we will be judged by how we treated “the least of these” (Matthew 25:31-46).  Do we feed the hungry or clothe the naked?  Do our economic policies?  We ought to keep that in mind when we go the ballot box.  Because just in case you are wondering, “Are we our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers?” (ref. Genesis 4:13), the answer is yes.  Yes, we are.

I Pledge Allegiance to the Fight

Mar17

When the characters in Avenue Q sing, “Everyone’s a little bit racist”, it’s cute and funny, and a little uncomfortable. They point to the elephant in the room, forcing us to admit it’s there so that we can deal with it. We cannot pretend that we don’t see color. Color, race and ethnicity are parts of who we are. When we acknowledge that, we realize that these things determine how people deal with each other.

Last month, a 17-year-old black man was shot while visiting his father. George Zimmerman claimed he shot Trayvon Martin in self-defense, but the 911 recording tells a different story. Yet, the police department “stands by its investigation”. The story has garnered international attention, and people everywhere are asking, would Zimmerman still be free if Martin had been white?

I want to know why this kind of thing is still happening.

In October 1987, both apartments in my building were robbed. The thief broke in through the basement door and made his way upstairs, taking anything with apparent street value. As a safety measure, our landlord who lived in the first floor apartment, installed brackets on either side of the door and slid a two-by-four through them. Five months later, it happened again. I was the first one home, and had to deal with the police. The officers took one look at the two-by-four, now lying next to the door, and told me that obviously I had a had a boy over and was afraid to tell my mom. They concluded that I had staged a robbery. That was the end of their investigation. They didn’t notice that one of the brackets was bent, or that there were dents in the two-by-four; so they didn’t think that maybe the thief had pushed the door open a little and used some sort of tool to slide the wood out of the brackets. I figured that out, in just a few minutes. Twenty-four years later, I wonder what would have happened if my landlords, the only white residents on our block, had been the ones to talk to the police.

Crimes with minority victims are notoriously mishandled. Similarly, minority prison populations are disproportionately high.  

What happened to “…liberty and justice for all”?

In pre-exilic Israel, the prophets adamantly denounced the injustices in their society. “And what the Lord requires of you: only to do justice and to love goodness, and to walk modestly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)  They warned repeatedly that God would bring destruction upon them as punishment. They didn’t listen. Will we?

Justice may indeed be blind.  We, however, cannot afford to be.

Stay informed. Get involved.

Applied Research Center – Racial Justice Through Media, Research and Activism

Amnesty International – working to repeal the death penalty

The Sentencing Project – Research and Advocacy for Reform

Black and Missing – Providing an Equal Opportunity for All Missing