Finding Our Way

Who do people say that we are, as Americans?  We used to know and be proud. 

We were a nation, welcoming

"... your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

We were the nation where anyone who worked hard and played by the rules could succeed and support themselves and their families.

Now corporate-designed globalization and outsourcing have removed the American Dream of prosperity from the reach of all but a few of the wealthiest, while workers’ pension funds are collapsing and stories of corporate and political corruption fill the media.  Our national budget shows us to be turning our backs on the poor and needy, handing more power and wealth to the already powerful and wealthy.  Ensuring that too many people never get a fair shot in life.

We were the most powerful and secure nation in the world, working for the peace and freedom of all nations. 

Now we launch, support and promise more preemptive wars, wars very costly in human lives, resources, and global reputation, wars that cannot be won by sheer military force.  As a nation, we invest vast amounts of resources in trying to dominate the world through “shock and awe” rather than win its friendship with generous, fair and mutually respectful policies of support and care.

We were a nation committed to human rights, support and opportunities for people in need, democratic values, generous neighborly relations with the rest of the world. 

Now we continue our human rights rhetoric while torturing prisoners held without charge and violating the civil rights protections of our own citizens. 

We were a religious nation, welcoming people of all faiths and nations to live in peace side by side with us as a witness to the world of the oneness of the human family. 

Now we send vigilantes to our borders and build walls instead of golden doors to keep out the tired and poor who are yearning to feed their families – because they don’t obey our laws.  If Jesus were to come as an immigrant from South of our border, he would have to wait years for a legal visa.

We are a nation headed in the wrong direction, and now the majority of us know it and are willing to say so.  We are a nation headed for an election, a chance to begin to shift direction. 

But we are also a nation deeply divided, and a nation plagued with too many leaders who see aggravating and manipulating the divisions as in their political advantage.  Sound-bite slogans, name-calling and negative campaigning are the strategies of choice over thoughtful dialogue seeking solutions that bridge our differences and serve higher community values.  If they are successful, as they have been for several years, they will win and we will all continue to lose.

How can we find our way again?  How can we find a path that embraces our best values? 

In complex societies, it is rare that a single leader can stand up and rally most of the people.  In a society as purposefully divided as ours, it is practically impossible.  We need to stop waiting and hoping for our Moses, our Jesus, our Muhammed, our Gandhi – even our Martin Luther King, Jr.  We need to bring to voice the Spirit given to each of us, and to us collectively, to shape the vision grounded in our best values that can guide our voting, our policies and our public life.

We, at the Center of Concern, hope this forum is one way to bring together diverse voices in a discussion on finding a new path toward a fair and prosperous future.  Please share your thoughts on current issues confronting our country.  We have some ideas on pressing issues, and those will be addressed in future postings, but we also want to hear your thoughts and ideas.  Together we can find our way.

Posted by Jim Hug, SJ - President, Center of Concern

Comments

[A.]

My question is this: how do we reconcile the needs for kindness and increasing awareness of the cross-border nature of a global society with the fact that the pool of resources seems to be shrinking not only for the poor but for everyone but the so-called "super rich?"

How to we, particularly in America, fight the constant messages of consumption we receive from our media and learn to dial back our idea of "enough" so that we may devote some of our resources to helping those who are much, much, much less well-off then we are?

[Armando]

I would like to know in what period of history was this really "... a nation committed to human rights, support and opportunities for people in need, democratic values, generous neighborly relations with the rest of the world"? When independence was declared over the statement that all men were created equal, but maintaining slavery and excluding women from political participation? Or later when the massive slaughter and stripping of Native Americans was carried out? Or when the Mexican territories north of today's borders were annexed after a war provoked by us? Or when a civil war was fought supposedly to free the black slaves, who nevertheless remained discriminated against for an additional 100 yrs.? Or when we invaded and/or toppled innumerable governments that were not pro-American business? Or when we dropped two atomic bombs within a week killing over 300,000 civilians? Or when we contribute 0.15% of our GNP for the poor of the world? Unfortunately we could continue with this litany.

Granted: not everything has been awful, and there have been tremendous positive contributions to mankind. And it is also true that the situation in terms of boldness, arrogance, and aggressivity has gotten worse in recent years.

But my point is that we really should abandon a lot of the mythology that surrounds our history, and face reality. Otherwise, how would we be able to truly answer those questions: "How can we find our way again? How can we find a path that embraces our best values?"

We need something akin to a gigantic examination of conscience, because we may have to follow a completely new way.

[PJ]

......fight the constant messages of consumption we receive from our media and learn to dial back our idea of "enough"...
Turn off the TV! Read, meditate or pray or just take a walk and enjoy nature. (Go as far away from billboards as possible.

[mariedhoff]

I believe the MOSt important issue facing the nation is securing the honesty and accuracy of our democratic election process and challenging the unfairness of the Electoral College system : right now we have the practical state that our last two elections may have been fraudulant, and that a minority elected the government of the United States. Without rectifying the democratic process in America, all the other specific issues are dead on arrival, as the will of the people cannot be carried out by a minority that may be fraudulantly elected.

[mariedhoff]

I believe the MOSt important issue facing the nation is securing the honesty and accuracy of our democratic election process and challenging the unfairness of the Electoral College system : right now we have the practical state that our last two elections may have been fraudulant, and that a minority elected the government of the United States. Without rectifying the democratic process in America, all the other specific issues are dead on arrival, as the will of the people cannot be carried out by a minority that may be fraudulantly elected.

[Ruth]

There is no way to reduce all of our problems to one.
I would start with trying to move the electoral process away from money by shortening the primary & electoral season, making the airwaves available to all candidates for brief messages, putting a dollar limit on campaign expenditures,having an election day holiday and holding true debates available to the public through the media.
With honest, honestly elected, officials we could then move forward on serious issues such as global warming, renewable fuels, universal healthcare, quality public education, immigration, renewing our sense of the "social contract," care for the earth and all creatures and support of the arts; in other words, becoming truly civilized rather than militarily powerful and socially intolerant.