Category: Social Justice


Employees Are Expenses

Filed under: Life Lessons, Social Justice
August 26, 2014

imageIf news reports prove accurate, Burger King will ‘whopper’ decisions from Canada to save taxes as Turner Network slashes jobs from increased NBA production costs.

If there’s one key lesson corporate America should learn from Ferguson, MO it’s that we tend not to think of employees as assets. Corporate leaders will profess an undying love for all, but this characterization is devoid of reality. In truth, corporate America will confirm employees cannot be owned, taxed, depreciated, or disposed of as machines or other tangible assets. Thus, employees are disposable.

Evidence of management stupidity has both surrounded and astounded me. Unbeknown to many, much corporate stupidity occurs in dimly lit board rooms by men of little integrity, courage or information.

While waiting patiently to speak to the Board of Directors of a major hospital system on governance controls, a hospital CEO stated he found an ingenious way to reduce payroll expenses. With a sense of arrogance and conceit, he announced:

“I had accounting summarize the number of hospital personnel by residential zip-code. I concluded that for every employee residing in a low income area, we can pay them less, for their cost of living is less. Thus, we should not pay them anymore than they need. They shouldn’t get rich off of us”

Horrified someone actually thought of this, my repugnancy grew as Board members unanimously confirmed this was a fantastic strategy.

Another moment occurred during a hospital takeover. An ignorant hospital CEO was meeting with his executive staff when he queried the Information Technology Director.

“You know,” the CEO stated. “When the buyout is complete, you’ll have two data analysts.”
“Yes,” the IT Director confirmed.
“Well, get rid one.”
“But…”
“Now.” the CEO interrupted.. “I want him gone today.”
“But,” the IT Director countered. “I don’t know what he does yet?”
“Now!” yelled the CEO.
“Yes sir.”

The lesson is clear – cut expenses, increase profit. If you don’t, management is likely to find someone who will. What’s strange is we’re willing to blow multimillion dollars on overhyped sports warriors. For instance, NBA players like LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Luol Deng signed two-year contracts in what is believed to be an effort to reach free agency just after the new NBA profit sharing deal comes to fruition. Rams management was stupid enough to pay Quarterback Sam Bradford over $60 million in signing bonus during the past four years – for what?

Being one of the thousands receiving pink slips, you’re no longer considered valuable, loved or part of the team. Employee morale parties and team building exercises are show and tell fodder. And should one presume such activities contribute to the moral fiber of work, I dare ask, “In accepting the multimillion dollar contracts, does anyone really believe sports gladiators really gives a spit for the working family of said town?”

Having been speared by corporate greed, this Buddhist heart says we spend far more time worrying and fretting about such fears than what’s required to confront and deal with them. To those on the corporate fast track, most of you are heading straight toward major car-wrecks. You may be a master of procedures or technology, but you need to learn the nuances of coverage, liability and valuing things with no price tags, like arms and legs, time and companionship.

All of us must do what leadership cannot – focus on eternal things, the things that matter to God, focus on love. That’s what has lasting value.

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Sound Bites

Filed under: Life Lessons, Social Justice
August 21, 2014

imageNote from journal:

“Rioting continues for third day, black residents with rioters, mostly young, directing fury at government and vehicles. The injury toll continues to mount as several hundred policemen moved to control riots. Only a small number of injured are white. There is widespread feeling that repercussions could be great. Police comdr, sees no end – i.e., the battle between police and rioters. As activists were repressed or saw friends beaten or killed, some took up arms and became insurgents.”

The diary entry noted is decades old and obviously not about Ferguson, Missouri.

What I witnessed decades ago is about the social history of how people built homes, education systems and a country. The streets upon which I walked are not unlike Ferguson, Missouri. Similarly, citizens believed in a fight for freedom. As such, newspaper articles will be written and awards won. But is that where all this ends?

Most Ferguson, MO rioters believe the establishment is maintaining control via “at all costs” mentality. In maintaining that form of social control, it’s necessary to arrest, even shoot, those who refuse the dictates of old white men. Thus, the resistance welling up from a lifetime of oppressive conditions is demonized.

In truth, my diary note was written in a hotel room near Soweto, South Africa, not Ferguson, MO. But what lessons can Soweto provide Ferguson?

  • If the eradication of economic injustices is not achieved within the lifetime of those that experienced it, Ferguson, MO as well as other cities will continue to be plagued by racial tensions;
  • African-Americans must somehow learn to respond as an organized political movement, not a mob;
  • If the lives of millions of the poorest aren’t improved, racial tension and violence will provide yet another example of a failed revolution; and
  • The American public doesn’t adjust to rapid changes, whether it be in accusation or outrage.

Al Sharpton provided an enlightening quote after his return from South Africa decades earlier:

“Because ultimately history is going to judge you by what you achieve. That’s what stimulated me there (South Africa): that it’s more important to affect the lives of people and their agendas than to be caught up with sound bites or style or any of that.”

Many, myself included, now consider Sharpton nothing more than an agitator.

As a Buddhist, the challenge is to tell a story that produces results. It’s about goals, not about the loudest way to vent. The worst error is talking about nonviolence while being violent, for violence surrounds us every day; the very violence in which I, you, we, are complicit.

Life is not a sound bite. Unfortunately, almost everything coming from Ferguson and Clayton are sound bites.

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Affording Rice the Same Opportunity

Filed under: Life Lessons, Social Justice
August 1, 2014

RiceDuring the second news conference, Ray Rice conducted appeared to get it right. Claiming he owns the situation, that he lives with the “… pain of having to explain that (videotape) to my daughter.“

Being a trained speaker, the first news conference nearly four months prior was a rerun of ‘The Poseidon Adventure.’ It was a disaster. While Rice didn’t punch any teammate or fan and unconsciously drag them off an elevator like airport luggage, he apologized to the world. Sad to say, he forgot the victim.

Subconsciously, Ray Rice is similar to us – that as a society, our apologies have become more mechanical.

Let’s face it, a bulk of our relationships is transactional and true authenticity is swept away by shards of information. The “I’m listening dear” and “I hear you” are buffered by once-a-week appointments of intimacy that veneers the window of love. Our inattention to life and love leaves most daydreaming of better times and spattered by prolific romanticized visions of sudden, passionate love. Look out the window folks … autumn’s leaves have fallen.

Real love is rare and we forget that seeds of love, once planted, must be nurtured. The field must be worked. By not tilling the field, love’s fertile soil succumbs to a mainstream of lists, of iPhone tasks, text messages and other accoutrements which on prima fascia value appear extremely urgent, but so unimportant.

But before we set off with torches and pitchforks in hand, let’s revisit another Baltimore Raven, Ray Lewis. On January 31, 2000, a fight broke out between Lewis, his companions and another group, resulting in the deaths of Jacinth Baker and Richard Lollar. Two weeks into the trial, Lewis’ attorneys’, negotiated a plea deal in which Lewis plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction in exchange for testimony.

The following year, Ray Lewis was named the Super Bowl most valuable player. The murders of both Baker and Lollar remain unsolved. At the end of the day, Lewis received the equivalency of a 15 yard penalty for unnecessary roughness and ‘first down.’

I’m not daring to compare the alleged infractions committed by either Lewis or Rice. And no woman should be beaten, period. But in the 13 years succeeding, Lewis was able to rehabilitate himself, while simultaneously becoming an iconic figure of leadership. While I feel Ray Rice walked away relatively easy, he has a tough road. But maybe, just maybe, his own personal failures will lead to something wonderful.

However, as USA Today writer Nina Mandell opined, it won’t change what he did, for what Rice did was horrendous.

All of us, Rice and Lewis included, need to surrender our ego, not for ourselves, but as a gift of protection to future generations. By allowing Rice grace and love, we create a profound opportunity to transform hatred into light. It’s something Rice, and society as a whole, could dedicate to all who’ve experienced such abuse.

Buddhists claim the health and happiness of the family is essential to societal happiness. Despite material and technological security many have, individuals and families suffer from a lack of true communication, resulting in anger, violence, loneliness and despair. So if Ray Rice can impact any of the 17,000 reported domestic violence cases just in Baltimore, then he deserves the chance. In essence, he deserves the chance for rehabilitation others receive.

Orthodox Rabbi Shmuley Boteach quoted that everyone who falls gets humiliated and dragged through the mud. “The Jewish religion says that a man’s most cherished possession is his good name … and everyone deserves the opportunity to reclaim his.” Whether or not Rice can live and atone to man he claims is up to Rice. But that forgiveness is grounded upon the level of grace his spouse and society offer.

Personally, I’m not neither a Raven nor Rice fan. But if we forgave Lewis – if we forgave Vick – then we must afford the same opportunity to Rice.

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Palin’s Impeachment Drumroll

Filed under: Right Speech, Social Justice
July 10, 2014

palin-impeach-obama-hannityAs you may know, a few political conservatives have called for President Obama’s impeachment. Former Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin indicated the spike in illegal border crossings was another reason to impeach Obama.

Palin, writing on the Brietbart website, stated:

“His unsecured border crisis is the last straw that makes the battered wife say, ‘no mas,’” she wrote. “President Obama’s rewarding of lawlessness, including his own, is the foundational problem here.”

First of all, trying to link illegal immigration to a battered wife is stupid. And I apologize to all those women who’ve suffered accordingly. The opening lines of Palin’s editorial are a gesture that all rational thought should be tossed aside.

As blogger Blackeyedbeaver noted on ‘Politico,’ “ … What’s frightening is someone “published” an op-ed by her [Palin] as if she has any credibility on ANY subject,” and “… some people may actually read it and change their previously held opinion …”

Palin posed two arguments for Obama’s impeachment:

  • Untold number of illegal immigrants will kick off their shoes and come on in, competing against Americans for our jobs and limited public services.
  • It’s the American worker who is forced to deal with Obama’s latest crisis with our hard-earned tax dollars while middle class wages decrease, sustainable jobs get more scarce, and communities become unrecognizable and bankrupted due to Obama’s flood of illegal immigration.

What she neglects to clarify is that during the 2000s, U.S. multinational companies cut their work forces in the U.S. by 2.9 million while increasing overseas employment by 2.4 million [Wall Street Journal, 4/19/11]. Republicans also voted against efforts preventing or discouraging of shipping American jobs overseas, cracking down on offshore tax havens and while simultaneously increasing pro-outsourcing measures. And Republicans fought to keep and expand corporate tax loopholes, rewarding outsourcing of American jobs (fully detailed here)

However, without learning a specialized skill, immigrants would never be able to move up the income ladder. As long as there are thousands of undocumented workers competing for low-end jobs, salaries are more likely to fall than to rise. Additionally, Of the 472 civilian occupations, only six are majority immigrant (legal and illegal). These six occupations account for 1 percent of the total U.S. workforce.

What’s scary is that Sarah Palin could have been President of the United States. We shouldn’t forget that. Remember, this is the same Palin who babbled, “… you can actually see Russia, from land, here in Alaska.”

Whether or not President Obama violated some oath of office worthy of impeachment is not my call. But Palin’s evidence for impeachment appear devoid of factual reality. And truthfully, we should never consider Palin’s opine worthy of anything.

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Hunger is Universal

Filed under: Life Lessons, Social Justice — 2 Comments
April 13, 2014

MoneyThe NCAA tournament makes my blood boil, especially with the disparity of money strewn around. Head NCAA basketball coaches, along with head football coaches, are usually the highest paid employees of a college or university. Terms of their employment are spelled out in great detail within complicated contracts that often span dozens of pages. For instance, when the University of Louisville beat Michigan State University, Coach Rick Pitino earned an additional $50,000 bonus on top of his salary of more than $3 million. Ohio State University Coach Thad Matta earned over $1.6 million a year. Yet he received $20,000 bonus when his team beat the University of Cincinnati.

So how about the college kids who made the shots, the free throws and performed the week-in week-out work? What kind of bonus did they receive? Zip. Zero. Zilch. In fact, University of Connecticut’s Shabazz Napier created quite an uproar when telling reporters he goes to bed “starving” because he can’t afford food.

In maybe the most absurd NCAA-related story you’ll ever read, the eligibility of three University of Oklahoma student-athletes was in jeopardy after they ate too much pasta at a graduation banquet, which apparently is some sort of infraction. In order to regain their eligibility, each player had to donate $3.83 (the cost of the serving) to charity. Today one of the players tweeted that he donated $5.00 because he feels like he ate more than $3.83 worth of pasta.

So let me remind you, the top ten NCAA college coaches made in excess of $35 million dollars last season. Let me remind you that in 2010 the NCAA signed a 14-year, $10.8-billion contract with CBS and Turner Broadcasting to televise its men’s basketball tournament. The vast majority of those dollars will go to elite programs while smaller athletics departments will have to continue to rely upon their tournament distribution to support the day-to-day activities that keep their programs afloat. Still, at the end of the day, many go hungry.

There is nothing ‘moral‘ about the NCAA’s portrayal of vulnerable kids playing basketball and receiving a degree as to the betterment of the kid. That’s a national disgrace and tends to distort our humanity of life and living as something wonderful. The “poor kid gets a college degree” is so overused. Yet every March, this tried and true rule is used to disparage those who call for change.

In a broader context, many fail to see how life … imitates life. A hungry NCAA college player mirrors our own world. In truth, one in seven Americans uses food stamps—that’s more than twice 2000’s number. The fastest-growing groups of participants are people with jobs, who work all year round. Many of these workers are employed by big retail chains like Wal-Mart, whose operations that take in tens of billions of dollars in food stamps.

Yet, Fifty-nine (59) percent of the Wal-Mart PAC’s contributions to congressional House members who voted on the minimum wage increase went to candidates who opposed the increase, while 95 percent of individual Walton family member contributions went to candidates who opposed the increase. Micheal Duke made approximately $1000 for every $1 of an associate’s. This imbalance equates to about $23 million annually. Mike Krzyzewski receives approximately $7.2 million.

Here’s what strange, Warren E Buffett, as in the Warren Buffet of the Berkshire Hathaway fame, collected $490,000 million salary. This begs the question, “Why?” Why does Duke need $23 million? Why does Krzyzewski require $7.2 million?

It’s rare in all this dialogue that serious evidence offered for their assertions. Both the NCAA, businesses at large and congressional candidates don’t present statements of fact; they are declarations of faith. In truth, hunger is just as real whether you’re an NCAA player or live as a poor farmer in middle America. And in spite of all the rhetoric, there’s ample evidence that some Washington programs significantly reduce poverty.

Programs like Medicaid and food stamps are (brace yourself) “entitlements.” That means that when recession hits and more people need them, spending on these programs goes up. That may or not be good for the federal budget, but it’s good for the poor, who can see a doctor and afford food in good times as well as bad. With block grants, by contrast, Washington gives the states a fixed amount of money irrespective of fluctuations in need. When times are good, the block grant may be sufficient. When they aren’t, the states—most of which are legally barred from running deficits—generally cut benefits.

Alleviating stubborn poverty is difficult and expensive. Direct government aid — money, food stamps, Medicaid, housing assistance and the like — is not enough. Poor people need employment that offers a brighter future for themselves and their children. Which means they need job skills. Which means they need education. Which means they need good schools and safe streets.

Education and good schools mean little when you’re hungry. And to afford good schools, people need jobs.

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Arizona: Call to Legalized Racism

Filed under: Right Speech, Social Justice — 2 Comments
February 26, 2014

as_a_man_thinksApproximately 10,000 athletes came to 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi to compete, athlete against athlete. In doing so, we read of no physical fights, no reported athlete-to-athlete racism or outward hatred. In fact, outside of the former band “Pussy Riot” and a few others, little disparagement noted.

This does not mean Putin is a wonderful human being, for he isn’t. And this doesn’t mean Russia’s overall position against and gay lesbian members of the community can be legitimized, for it doesn’t. It simply means that in this world, there is a significant capability for the world’s global body to come together, harmonize, live and enjoy one another.

Contrast that with Arizona where the legislative body seemingly came together and forged legislative bill SB 1062, making it legal for businesses to discriminate against gay and lesbians on the grounds of promoting religious freedom. Reflecting upon SB 1062, I’m struck by several things:

  • First, some congressman actually thought of this idea;
  • Second, Arizona’s high-priced talent actually thought this was an idea of great worth to society; and
  • Third, it’s taken Arizona Governor Jan Brewer a long time to deny the bill’s merits.

In spite of Arizona’s pressing needs, legislative proponents say the bill protects religious liberty. Basically, extremely conservative members of Arizona’s congressional caucus believe this form of legalized racism is good for Arizona businesses.  Lacking hindsight, the return on investment for SB 1062 is significantly diminished when one ponders the counterarguments and issues raised by such legislation.

Let’s sample some legal issues. If SB 1062 is signed into law:

  • Can gay and lesbian business owners deny service to a Catholic, Protestant, or any other member of faith? Or is the law only valid for Christian business owners denying service toward members of other faiths or social class?
  • Can a Catholic business owner deny services to members of the Protestant faith?
  • Can a conservative Christian bus driver deny entry to Muslim onto a city bus?
  • Is it legally justifiable for religiously affiliated hospitals to deny emergency healthcare on the basis of faith? Can a member of faith deny a pregnant woman out-of-wedlock any type of medical service? Can I deny someone welfare services and benefits based upon faith or any other social position?
  • Can I deny a mortgage application to someone of another faith on the basis of faith?
  • Can Arizona prosecute an Atheist, Buddhist, Muslim, Jews or any member of another faith differently? Can we hold them to different standard because of their faith?
  • As a Christian grocer, can I deny members of other faiths the ability to buy food for their family?
  • Is there a difference between a Christian owner’s dog and Muslim owner’s dog? Or can I just shoot the Muslim owner’s dog on the basis of faith alone?
  • Can I rape and intimidate a female coworker because she’s Taoist?
  • Could a Muslim gas station owner who believes women shouldn’t allowed to drive alone refuse to sell gas to a woman driver?
  • Could a Muslim refuse to work with women or women who didn’t wear a burka?
  • Could a Jewish short order cook sue his employer for forcing him to cook bacon?
  • As Christian business owner, would I be able to pay a non-Christian Mexican immigrant less than a Christian Mexican Immigrant?
  • I can legally deny service to a gay man, but is it ok to serve a former child rapist? Rapist? Drug dealer? Murderer? Wife beater?

The list goes on and on.

In reality, in most of Arizona, and most states in the U.S., businesses don’t need a license to discriminate against gays: It’s already legal. If you reside outside of Tucson, Phoenix or Flagstaff, there is no federal law that consistently protects LGBT individuals from employment discrimination, and most states lack laws that explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. Unlike race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, and other such classes, sexual orientation is not covered in the federal anti-discrimination law. The only thing this legislation would do is confirm Arizona is a nut case and opens up a Pandora’s Box of questions resulting in a flood of litigation against business owners from those willing to test the limits.

The broader question resides within our minds. If we have already allowed a habit to form in our thought, then the thought lives and it becomes extremely difficult to change the path of our thoughts. The aphorism, “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he,” not only embraces the whole of a man’s being, but is so comprehensive as to reach out to every condition and circumstance of life. A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.

Should Governor Jan Brewer sign SB 1062 into law, would we really be any different from Russian President Vladimir Putin or Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni?

———————————————————–

Late Update: Gov. Jan Brewer on Wednesday vetoed SB 1062.  “My agenda is to sign into law legislation that advances Arizona,” Brewer said at a news conference. “I call them like I seem them despite the tears or the boos from the crowd.“

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The Moral Imperative

Filed under: Social Justice
February 12, 2014

Moral ImperativeIn all of its infinite wisdom, our government passed the farm bill. The new farm bill’s budget guarantees direct payments to farmers regardless of their harvest quality or crop prices, an insurance policy that equates to $7 billion. The farm and insurance lobbies spent at least $52 million influencing lawmakers in the 2012 election cycle. And rather than thin the most expensive program in the nation’s farm safety net, Congress has agreed to funnel billions more to individuals who already are more prosperous than the typical American.

However, the 1,000-page mega-bill also cuts approximately about $9 million from food stamps. The cuts are said to trim an average of $90 a month in benefits from some 850,000 Americans who rely on the program. As Representative Marlin Stutzman, Republican of Indiana exclaimed, “This bill eliminates loopholes, ensures work requirements, and puts us on a fiscally responsible path. In the real world, we measure success by results. It’s time for Washington to measure success by how many families are lifted out of poverty and helped back on their feet, not by how much Washington bureaucrats spend year after year.”

In truth, the number of conservatives presuming constituents accepting public benefits are trying to pull a fast one over honest working Americans is stunning. In 2010, more than half of counties with high numbers of people struggling to feed themselves were in rural counties. Rural America is one of the GOP’s strongest geographic bases. Even with that, the Congressional Budget Office estimates nearly four million people would be removed from the food stamp program under the House bill starting next year, with an additional three million per year thereafter.  Republicans called food stamps “welfare” and cutting food stamps psuedo renames the Farm Bill as the “Work Opportunity Act.”

So after five years of recession and with 11.3 million people unemployed — 4.3 million out of work for 27 weeks or more — along with 7.9 million people working part-time but looking for full-time and another 2.3 million “marginally attached,” what the country needs is even more hungry people. On face value, my presumption is that if the rural poor had $52 million dollars to influence the conservative caucus, the Farm Bill would look radically different.

With that being said, working in poorer urban and rural areas for the Affordable Care Act has led to several conclusions.

  • First, 80 percent of the people come from some sort of dysfunctional family.
  • Secondly, a majority poor single mothers were exposed to the juvenile justice system or required social service intervention.
  • Third, there are places in their lives when our society could’ve intervened in their lives and nudged them off of their path. But we as a society simply didn’t give a shit.
  • Fourth, we could be providing early childhood care for economically disadvantaged and otherwise troubled kids, and we could be doing it for free. But we don’t.
  • Fifth, we could be providing special schools, at both the high school level and the middle school level, but even in K-5, that target economically and otherwise disadvantaged kids. There are a handful of states that do that; but states like Texas doesn’t.
  • Sixth, we could be intervening much more aggressively into dangerously dysfunctional homes, and getting kids out of them before their moms pick up butcher knives and threaten to kill them. If we really honor the sacrament of life that God gives us, we need a place to put them.

Strangely, conservatives always talk about a return on investment. Perhaps conservatives failed math class. But for every 15,000 dollars spent intervening in the lives of economically and otherwise disadvantaged, society can save 80,000 dollars in crime-related costs. Certainly our world is imperfect. Buddhism recognizes the need of certain minimum material conditions are favorable to spiritual success – even that of a monk engaged in meditation in some solitary place. But even if you don’t agree that there’s a moral imperative that we do it, it just makes economic sense.

Well, at least we saved farmer Fincher.  Representative Fincher, a farmer elected with Tea Party support, owns a farm and collected $3.5 million in farm subsidies from 1999 to 2012 (about $269,000 yearly).

How’s your moral imperative now?

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Throwing Stones

Filed under: Do No Harm, Social Justice — 2 Comments
February 2, 2014

India-Gang-Rape_full_600Outside the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi in mid December, demonstrators raged over what they considered to be humiliating treatment of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade. Protesters carried signs bemoaning U.S. handling. “If USA will not respect Indians, then Americans will not be respected in India also.” The problem much of the world has is that India cannot seem to even respect their own.

Annu Devi, 22, and her baby girl were set afire in their village home in India’s Dumka district. Ms. Devi’s child died instantly while she later succumbed to injuries in a hospital. Devi’s family was harassed for money and other things.  CNN reported that in 2012 alone, India police registered 8,233 murders of women as “dowry deaths.”

In another news report, a headman ordered a 20-year-old woman to be untied from a tree in an remote Indian village, taken to a thatched shed and raped repeatedly over a period of about six hours. Among her alleged attackers was the headman himself. Her crime: she was a Hindu who’d had a relationship with a married Muslim outsider.

This is the latest Indian rape case to reverberate around the world and reveals the workings of an informal justice system that sets rules and imposes sanctions for many living in rural India. In further public stupidity, Asha Mirje, a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader in western Maharashtra state, questioned why a 23-year-old physiotherapy student who was gang-raped on a bus in Delhi in 2012 was out late at night. Ms. Mirje suggested the gang-rape victim whose death sparked outrage was partly to blame because she went to the cinema at 11pm.

In truth, I have no idea if Devyani Khobragade’s case is solid. But I do know this, Ms. Khobragade was not tied to a tree and gang raped. Ms. Khobragade was not burned alive. Ms. Khobragade was not like assaulted like a 21-year-old Indian woman, apparently raped by two unrelated groups of men this past Christmas Eve. Lastly, Ms. Khobragade’s complaint against Federal prosecutors was taken and registered. The same could not be said for the woman listed above, as two police officers were suspended for initially refusing to register the 21-year-old victim’s complaint.

Media exposé of India doctors providing sex-selection services and offering to abort girls are commonplace, but they have little overall impact because demand is too strong.  Sex-selection doesn’t paint a complete representation. Many India women are missing because poorer families simply murder infant daughters at birth. In reality, there are increasing stories of women being kidnapped or trafficked to be forced into marriages because India men cannot find brides. Until recently, there was a tremendous unwillingness by India media and justice to become engaged.

Buddhist or Christian, we need to talk more often about the treatment of women within our countries and communities. Transforming violence against women is part of Buddhist teachings. We need to make that message heard loud and clear, regardless of boundary.  Societies as a whole must demand concrete steps ensure women’s safety, starting with norms of equality between genders.

Until then, I concur America has issues. But one shouldn’t throw stones in glass houses.

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Ubuntu

Filed under: About Love, Life Lessons, Social Justice
December 31, 2013

1052_catg8931As we constantly deny opportunities to love, the guardian of the mind fails to yield toward connection, to that sense of deep love that could significantly impact our life.  Thus, the values and voice of Christ lay silent, losing touch with the very creator who resides within. Simply put, the impulse to change the world rests helplessly and doesn’t create a sense of empowerment.

Our hectic life places undue emphasis on technical mastery and our lifestyle is toxic to those in need and pursuing the vital connections between the personal and public good. It’s not inaction that has the biggest impact on those surrounding us. It’s all the secondary issues — the lack of healthcare, the economic issues, unemployment and disruption of community that strips the soul.

As the voices of our lives diminish, what will we say when asked, ‘Where were you?‘ As a Buddhist, there are no excuses. But how doe we embrace priorities those that enable the public good? Will we remain a threat to the environment? Will inequities in the distribution of wealth, lack of a sustainable energy policy remain only ideological dreams? Will our society continue to violate personal privacy and savor the predilection for excessive use of force?

Truth told, most of us give, not out of a genuine place of hope to help and of generosity but rather via some transactional exchange, some sort of trade, as if we procured the right to go on with the day and not necessarily be bothered by bad news.

An engaged Buddhist rests upon the insight that we must begin to change ourselves before we can help to change the world.  The stories we tell about each other matter very much. The stories we tell ourselves about our own lives matter. And most of all, I think the way that we participate in one another life stories is of deep importance.

Nelson Mandela said that the gift of prison was an ability to go within and to think, to create in himself the things he most wanted: peace, reconciliation, and harmony. Through this act of immense tenderheartedness, he became the embodiment of what South Africans call “Ubuntu.” Ubuntu: I am because of you.

Each of us gets to experience the deepest parts of our own humanity through our interactions with others. In 2014 we must realize our own well-being is deeply tied to those surrounding us. Danger is shared. Pain is shared. Joy is shared. Laughter is shared. Achievement is shared. Houses are shared. Food is shared. Ubuntu asks us to personally open our hearts and to share, and live with empathetic action in every moment.

All of us are in the cathedral of life, we get to see the most beautiful parts of ourselves reflected back at us. All creatures (human or otherwise) share our best and brightest moments. If I have a gift to share, it’s a gift that provides more of me to society. Thus, I carry the very nature of love that God and Buddha profoundly proclaimed.

We so often hear, “It’s only me, I can’t make a difference“, but great leaders of history showed that this is not true. Everybody can make a difference if committed.

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Short Term 12

Filed under: About Love, Do No Harm, Life Lessons, Social Justice
December 18, 2013

thAttending a recent holiday party, I met a young therapist who confessed she had a fear of heights, a fear of crossing highway overpasses, a fear of crossing bridges. She also taught counseling, but because of a fear of being attacked, a guard dog accompanies her to ensure protection. In essence, she attempts to heal herself by healing others. And while I ponder the premise of such a world, this whole tale reminded me of Short Term 12.

The film Short Term 12 is about Grace (Brie Larson), a damaged caretaker caring for damaged children. While her own traumatic childhood experiences make Grace such an amazingly empathetic staff member, the experiences of those in her care are also triggering. The emotional traumas of adolescents bleed into her own; causing her otherwise perfect relationship with her boyfriend is to unravel under the weight of her own dysfunction.

In one scene, Grace explains to a new worker the kids “shelf-life” has passed and thus they remain at the home, waiting in a world where time appears to stand still, yet one in which everything continually moves. Each of the kids submit to the love of caretakers who aren’t much older themselves. In essence, kids are taking care of kids.

These kids are fractured representations of our own human condition, beaten, battered and consistently disappointed by the flaky world of adults. There’s a hug distance between the so-called “normal home” with love and wanted children and a short-term care facility designed to provide a place to live — but little else. These kids are nearing eighteen years old and remain ill-equipped to navigate life’s changing moments.

While we never see the abuse, we are witness to consequence. The movie is blunt, honest and filled with harsh truths. No sugarcoating. Everything digs deep. This is a film about the riskiness involved in both caring for another human being and having someone else care for you. Every moment is witness against the conservative naivity that every child can be equally cared and equally loved.

In truth, the government’s social systems are a quagmire, but instead of critiquing the system, Short Term 12 creates a small world where love, law, and brokenness operate freely.

Maybe all need such a world, where love and acceptance remain free to operate.

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