Truth or Consequences

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We seek truth in our lives. As human beings we innately know that our search for God includes a search for truth. In this search, our ability to think and speak truthfully says a lot about who we are as persons and how we value integrity.

Truthfulness is important. It is the foundation of embarking on the spiritual journey. We begin with a willingness to confront the truth of our lives, our families, our culture and our world.

A refusal to acknowledge, in ourselves or others, the destruction of addiction, the inability to confront controlling, self-centered behavior or the desire to keep family secrets can all have tragic consequences. A consistent refusal to look at the truth inevitably results in unnecessary pain and suffering.

I have noticed that, as a culture, we are not very truthful. We speak about things in ways that are not true, are not clear or are meant to give the impression of something else.

As the work of Paul Ricoeur demonstrated, language forms how we think and view the world. To be able to see reality clearly, it is critical that we speak about what we experience truthfully and honestly. This means we must take care in how we speak about things.

One of the things we do so frequently that we don’t even notice it anymore, is not using gender inclusive language. Although this is slowly changing. We use “men” when we really mean “women and men,” “human beings” or “humanity.” To insist on using “men” only implies that most humans are men (which is incorrect and untruthful) or that “men” is normative – also incorrect.

Similarly, as last month’s Mary’s Pence letter reminded me, “women’s rights” are actually “human rights.”

Another common occurrence in our culture is the use of violent language. I am often guilty of this. Violent language gives the impression that violence is OK, when it is not. Why not use peaceful language instead? So “bullet points” could easily be “main points” or “key points.” “Target marketing” could be “focused marketing.” You can think of many more examples.

Here’s another example. We shouldn’t speak about “health care reform” when what we are really discussing is “health insurance reform.”  The focus should be on health insurance companies, not health care providers. But our untruthful way of speaking clouds this issue.

There are many other ways that we speak untruthfully about things and this makes it difficult for us to see clearly, or to respond in appropriate ways. My husband has an article about this called “The Great Language Barrier Beef” you can read Part 1 here. If you like you can continue reading Part 2 here.

In his classic book, The Four Agreements, Miguel Ruiz maintains that one of the highest virtues we can work toward is to “use impeccable speech” or always speak clearly and truthfully.

“Say what you mean and mean what you say” is wise advice – or as Jesus said, “Let your ‘yes’ mean ‘yes’, and your ‘no’ mean ‘no'” (Matt 5:37). This doesn’t mean that we should speak about things in a way that will intentionally hurt or offend. Rather, we should convey the truth with honesty, love and integrity. We can be truth tellers and truthful speakers.

“Then you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free” (John 8:32).

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Ugly Truth About School Funding

As the school year comes to a close I think it is important to remember that good schools and poor schools are no accident.

Often people will say to me “I was blessed to grow up in a neighborhood with good schools.” Actually, this was not a blessing from God at all, rather it was the result of a system WE have set up.

We pay for schools through property taxes. Therefore, if you live in a high income or higher cost property community you will pay more in property taxes and your schools will have more property tax dollars to spend. By the same token, if your neighborhood is poor or low income the schools will have far fewer dollars available.

The long term effect is that this system we have created keeps most poor people from having a better education – thus they are more likely to remain poor. They face other daily challenges as well, by virtue of being poor, but a good education will not likely be available to them.

So – I benefit from a short-sighted system that is designed to benefit some at the expense of others. This is systemic injustice. Overall of course, when people are poorly educated, everyone suffers. We are all connected. A well educated society benefits everyone in the long term.

Some things may actually be blessings, but more often than not they aren’t. They are the result of systems we have created. It’s time we start speaking about things truthfully, as they really are.

We set this system up and we can change it. Use your voice. Educate, vote and volunteer.

$$$$ Government Shutdown?

It’s appalling that both Republican and Democratic elites are focused on balancing the budget on the backs of the poor – mostly women and children.

As an American citizen do they really expect me to be upset that we are running a deficit of a mere $300 billion after loaning predatory banks trillions of dollars???? Further, no regulatory changes of any substance were enacted to prevent another financial industry crisis in the future. It’s back to greedy business as usual.

Meanwhile, a government shutdown will stop paychecks to thousands of struggling families.

What kind of moral values are these? Appalling.

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Fresh, the Movie

Here’s another Lenten idea. Want to see an uplifting movie about improving the world while we enjoy the food we eat? Watch Fresh! It’s just 90 minutes. You can watch it with your book club or anywhere that thoughtful people gather.

Unlike Food Inc., the film Fresh focuses on a vision of how things can be different, how much power we have as consumers and how we vote with each dollar we spend.

Envision the kind of healthy food you would like to eat every day. Envision the kind of world you would like to live in. Both are possible.

Thanks to my friend L. I can recommend another excellent short film about food, “The Dark Side of Chocolate.” This film documents how much of the chocolate we eat (Nestle, Kraft, Cargill, ADM) is harvested using child slave labor. These corporations refuse to enforce the laws against child slave labor with their cocoa growers.

YOU can make a difference by resisting chocolate ingredients from these companies and buying Fair Trade chocolate like Divine Chocolate or Fair Exchange Chocolate brands. As a consumer you have power. You vote for the kind of world you want to live in with every food dollar you spend!

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Poverty is a Luxury We CanNOT Afford

In this time of the Great Recession, if we are cutting budgets, saving more and using our brains, we should be realizing that poverty is expensive. In fact it’s way too expensive! We just can’t afford it anymore.

I have been reading about the poverty that our economic system creates – within our country and around the globe. Most of the poverty we have in the world is caused by human beings. Even hunger from natural disasters, such as famines, can be remedied with insurance for farmers, as we do in this country. Poverty is caused by our imperfect economic systems, laws, international laws, apathy and lack of political will.

I’ve also been thinking about the side effects poverty including growing up without good nutrition, without access to preventive health care, without stable income and within environments of violence and abuse – frequently from those who fear the poor.

Growing up hungry, or in a home where parents work numerous jobs, or where meals aren’t served regularly, makes it difficult for children to concentrate in school. It makes it difficult or impossible to do homework. It makes children more susceptible to illness and it takes longer to recover. While there are always those who are exceptions to these kinds of circumstances, they are exceptions.

Eating nutritious food costs more. Our country’s farm policies subsidize highly processed and prepared food high in corn sugar and fat (corn oil). By extension we subsidize corporations (Cargill, ADM, Kraft, McDonald’s, Coca Cola, etc.) who use these ingredients. We do not subsidize nutritious fruits and vegetables, but we could.

Owning a car is expensive and many of the poor can’t afford it. But, as a nation, we do not promote public transportation. This makes taking the bus time consuming and arduous for those who use public transport to get to work, buy groceries, do laundry or take children to school or the doctor. Imagine having to do all of your errands using the bus. Many do.

On the other hand imagine a city where buses have the right of way, can change stop lights and move people quickly. Cities in South America have just such a system. A subway above ground – if you will. Read Bill McKibben’s Deep Economy to see how efficiently and inexpensively it works using what we already have.

With regard to housing, more than one expert has observed that the banking industry could make far more money betting that sub-prime mortgage securities would fail than in the actual income from mortgages and servicing them (read here and here). The existence of the working poor and lack of affordable housing made it a strong probability that greedy elites drove the sub-prime mortgage securities market boom, short & crash and the resulting bank bail-out costing taxpayers trillions.

Living on a planet where so many are hungry certainly isn’t good for me as a person with wealth – and we are all rich, by two thirds of the world’s standards, if we live on more than $2 a day. Living in a different part of the city I experience an “unreal” reality. I do not see life as it really is for most human beings. My focus stays in my small world, acquiring things for my small life. My gifts remain useless to the larger community – since I do not connect there. I am separated in many ways from the larger human family. My heart is thus, hardened. My life and relationships are less full and rich than they are meant to be. Therefore, I become less human than I am meant to be. I become more self-centered and self-focused, the opposite of what it means to be a truly human person.

We simply can’t afford the luxury of poverty anymore. The costs are too high; the costs in human talents lost from both the poor and rich, the costs in emergency room health care and disease, and the costs in human physical, mental and spiritual disabilities of both poor and rich alike.

Paying a fair wage is the first step in eliminating poverty. There is something morally and ethically wrong with an economic system that allows some to accumulate great wealth when so many children go hungry – especially in this country. Accumulating wealth is fine – once the basic needs of everyone have been met. Life is risky. People get sick, encounter tragedies, have accidents. We need adequate social safety nets, including health insurance, affordable housing and education, for everyone.

Eliminating poverty brings advantages to everyone. Health care costs are reduced for all. The level of education of our entire population improves benefitting everyone. Consequently the skill level of workers improves along with entrpreneurism and employment. Crime perpetrated by both rich and poor declines. Abuse, drug use and human slavery by both rich and poor decline. Self-determination and autonomy through democracy increase. Political and corporate terrorism and despotism no longer appeal with their promise of providing food.

Watch the movie Made in L.A. to see a true, but powerful story about how three young women changed the apparel industry. We each can make a difference.

Eliminating poverty is not just a religious imperative – although it is that. It is a human imperative. Even avowed atheists like philosopher Peter Singer promote the importance of caring for everyone and the impact it has on the whole of human society. Read his book The Life You Can Save for an eye-opening yet entertaining discussion.

We’ve created our economic system. We change the way it works by adjusting laws, regulating it and measuring what we think is important.

Our economy exists to care for the needs of human beings – not the other way around. This economic system can be an engine for growth with values that promote the good of all. Inhuman values of greed and selfishness can be replaced with values of concern and cooperation. Standards of fair trade, fair wages, health insurance for all and care of the environment can be implemented. These are not mutually exclusive interests. In fact they work together.

We are all interconnected and interdependent. When the poorest among us do well – we ALL do better. For the health and well being of all of us, poverty is a luxury we can no longer afford.

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