Dear Peacemakers,
So the torch has passed and no one can deny that today is truly an historic occasion. I wish for a moment I could accept the hope that a new day has dawned and the national nightmare is truly over. The decades of working for the common good that Barb and I have traveled actually began in Chicago influenced by many of the same circles that helped shape Barak Obama. The Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education (SCUPE) trained many of us who became pastors, educators, and community organizers in the neighborhoods of Chicago. We went about our work with the understanding, in the words of a former professor of ours, "that we can't know God unless we are doing justice." That phrase and the class in which it was spoken (The Biblical View of Oppression) absolutely shaped who Barb and I have become over the years. While it is a long way from the neighborhoods of Chicago to promoting nonviolence, community, and sustainable living in the wilds of northern Wisconsin our mission has never altered. If we can abandon fear and learn to share the common wealth, the world can truly learn to live as one. This is where I retreat from the celebration on the television in our sun room to the bidding of my cyber task master in the cave of an office we have on the north side of the house. The facts on the ground require an ongoing reality check so we don't get blinded by our wishful thinking.
As I watch the pomp and circumstance I cannot get Gaza out of my mind. My visit there in 2003 haunts me as does my trips to Iraq during the sanctions period. My dear friends and fellow travelers Kathy Kelly, Barbara Lubin, and Caoimhe (Kwee va) Butterly are in Gaza now distributing aid, lending support, and filing almost daily reports. My experience of both Gaza and Iraq was that of siege warfare where the attackers surround the besieged, cutting off supply lines so poverty and lack of essential services (medical, sanitation, fuel, electricity) slowly kill the targeted population in an attempt to force capitulation. It is not uncommon to hear people in this situation exclaim how they would rather be bombed and get it over with than to go on watching the suffering and death of the most vulnerable among them-namely children and the elderly. While the House and Senate almost unanimously back Israel's disproportionate assault on people living in one of the most broken, densely populated locations on the planet they fail to see that decisions they have been making for decades have broken the US economy creating conditions that the head of the IMF warns may provoke massive, global unrest even in the "advanced economies". Here in the US local municipalities are preparing military solutions to deal with the chaos of collapse from within. It is all too reminiscent of the decline of so many historic empires.
The popular misconception is that turning over the calendar gives us a new start. We can heave a sigh of relief, set 2008 squarely behind us, and proclaim, "we're not going to do that again!!" In the meantime corporate bankruptcies; housing foreclosures; collapse in non-residential construction, global shipping, and exports; black hole bailouts, and unemployment figures continue to accelerate. The news from Great Britain is even worse because they don't have the luxury of owning the world's reserve currency to give them an unfair advantage. And you seriously don't even want to hear about Zimbabwe. The markets cannot be trusted because of the lack of transparency by the Fed and the US unemployment rate may be as high as 17.5% which makes the military the employer of last resort for many young (and older) Americans. If you get tired of hearing this stuff from your favorite pessimist consider this report from Fortune Magazine from eight of the markets "sharpest thinkers" President Obama can't even begin to level with the American people about what they are facing because the markets demand confidence to be able to work and if people really faced up to the truth of it all they may start rioting in the streets.
I guess I would feel better about the euphoria of the millions who see this as the dawning of a new age if President Obama hadn't deferred to Dick Cheney's comments about 9/11. If you will remember, Cheney's response after the attacks was, "the American way of life is not negotiable." Obama's take on the theme was,"we will not apologize for our way of life." It is precisely our "way of life" that must change if we are to rejoin the global community and become one of many nations looking to a common future instead of the dominant nation consuming more than our fair share of everything under the sun. It is our "way of life" that has looted the past of stored (fossil fuels) primary productivity ( the sum total of energy that strikes the earth on a given day captured by plants during photosynthesis) and equally robbed the future by running up debts that our children and grandchildren will NEVER be able to pay back. All so we can have more stuff than anyone could ever have imagined they would have. This is what must change. And this is what will change whether we like it or not. The only promise I am looking for from the new Administration and Congress is honesty about how our "way of life" is about to become more in line with what the rest of the world experiences. That is the challenge that US citizens must begin to acknowledge. It is not a call to deprivation as much as it is a call to modesty and sustainability. Hope is not wishful thinking for happy endings. Hope is rolling up ones sleeves and getting down to the hard work of building a new tomorrow in spite of the odds that we may not succeed. Our first grandchild arrives next spring so despair or retreat is not an option. It doesn't get any more personal than that. Our hope is that we are up to the task of change regardless of the outcome.
Best regards,
Mike and Barb
anathoth@lakeland.ws
Northwoods Peace Initiative
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3 comments:
Mike:
Thanks for your excellent analysis. There's so much to digest in this report, and so much of the news is discouraging, but I like to think of the opportunities for popular organizing that this crisis represents. Just today, protesters in Iceland have caused the fall of the government that led the country into bankruptcy. In times like these, there's an opportunity to break through the political apathy that plagues us during "better" economic times.
Before the birth of U.S.there was much violence in the world. The U.S. was made possible by violent struggle, the U.S. built its international power based on violence. You enjoy an easy life and travel around the world looking to displace your guilt. Do you think Hamas cares about your peace and sustainabilty. You can choose non-violence because it has yet to come knocking on your door! But I suspect deep down you would fight if faced with genocide.
Do you think Hamas cares about your peace and sustainabilty.
Actually, Hamas has offered Israel a truce in return for a withdrawal to the '67 borders - the same condition set by the U.N. as the basis for a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. Israel rejected this offer, as it has rejected all offers of peace that would require Israel to return the occupied territories to the Palestinian people.
And if you've read our website you'll know that WNPJ is extremely critical of violence perpetrated by our own government - not just foreign governments.
Finally, you seem to be presenting yourself as a tough-minded advocate of violence, who "knows how the world really works", in contrast to the "naive" people of WNPJ who supposedly don't understand the need for violence. I'll just direct you to reread the post below, "Bombing had the opposite effect", which clearly shows that it's the advocates of violence who don't understand "how the world really works." Nonviolence isn't just the right moral choice, it's the only practical solution to our problems.
Thanks for commenting.
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