Category: Social Justice


Missouri: “The Shoot Me State”

Filed under: Do No Harm, Life Lessons, Right Speech, Social Justice
September 11, 2013

Screen Shot 2013-09-11 at 7.07.54 PMWith a 109-49 count, the Missouri House voted to change Missouri’s motto to the “Shoot Me State.” In essence, the highly conservative Missouri State House overrode Democrat Governor Jay Nixon’s veto of house measure HB 436 (federal gun law nullification).

The latest Missouri measure would declare invalid any federal policies that “infringe on the people’s right to keep and bear arms.” Federal authorities who attempt to enforce those laws could face state misdemeanor charges punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine. Similar penalties would apply to anyone who publishes identifying information about gun owners.

In essence, the legislation:

  • Declares any federal policies that “infringe on the people’s right to keep and bear arms” shall be invalid in Missouri;
  • Allows state misdemeanor charges to be brought against federal authorities who attempt to enforce those laws;
  • Allows state misdemeanor charges against anyone who publishes the identity of a gun owner; and
  • Would lower Missouri’s concealed-gun permit age to 19 instead of 21 and allow specially trained teachers or administrators to serve as a “school protection officer” able to carry a concealed gun.

Does anyone really believe it’s a good idea for Missouri or any state for that matter to start declaring which federal laws it believes it has to follow and which ones it doesn’t? Do individual Missouri towns, for example, get to decide which Missouri laws it wants to follow, nullifying any state law it chooses to disagree?

The Missouri legislation goes on to specify some, but not all, of those federal acts which would be “rejected” by Missouri, and considered “null and void and of no effect:”

  • Such federal acts, laws, orders, rules, and regulations include, but are not limited to:
    • The provisions of the federal Gun Control Act of 1934;
    • The provisions of the federal Gun Control Act of 1968;
    • Any tax, levy, fee, or stamp imposed on firearms, firearm accessories, or ammunition not common to all other goods and services which could have a chilling effect on the purchase or ownership of those items by law-abiding citizens;
    • Any registering or tracking of firearms, firearm accessories, or ammunition which could have a chilling effect on the purchase or ownership of those items by law-abiding citizens;
    • Any registering or tracking of the owners of firearms, firearm accessories, or ammunition which could have a chilling effect on the purchase or ownership of those items by law-abiding citizens;
    • Any act forbidding the possession, ownership, or use or transfer of any type of firearm, firearm accessory, or ammunition by law-abiding citizens; and
    • Any act ordering the confiscation of firearms, firearm accessories, or ammunition from law-abiding citizens.

The main problem I see with Missouri legislators and the citizens who elect them is ignorance. Because of personal bias and ignorance, legislators project their fear and turn those who are different into enemies. Politicians know that once you demonize gun control advocates and federal law enforcement, they become less human, allowing one to inflict a certain amount of future pain without guilt or shame.

Politicians who seem to know what they’re doing as they spew contempt, consciously provoking their citizens with fear and hate are enthralled by conflict and power. From a Buddhist perspective, this level of ignorance appears to have a purpose, but ends only by leading to further suffering.

~ “When you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back into you.” ~

Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche

—————————————– 9:33 PM Update —————————————–

Missouri State Senate fell one vote short of approval.

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Child Re-Homing

Filed under: Do No Harm, Social Justice — 2 Comments
September 9, 2013

abuseIn a powerful expose, Reuters news reported on a relatively unknown, yet repugnant process called “private re-homing.”  Re-homing is an underground network of for adopted children. Often times, there are no attorneys or child welfare officials present. The current family simply signs a notarized statement declaring strangers to be the child’s new legal guardians. More often than not, it will be the first and the last time couples would meet.

In their series, Reuters reported upon a Tennessee woman who claimed her adoptive parents gave her away to new parents at age 14, she and 17 other adoptive kids in found her new home  “nightmarish” were sometimes forced to dig their own “graves” in the backyard and scrub the floor with toothbrushes.

My limited research revealed private re-homings often bypass the government, the only vetting of prospective families is done by parents who want to get rid of children. This practice increases the risk children could fall into the hands of dangerous people. For instance, Reuters found more than half of the children described as requiring some sort of special need. About 18 percent were said to have a history that included sexual or physical abuse, with some being re-homed into sexual predators.

Contrary to the conservative rosy view of adoption, the dark side of adoption is never mentioned.  In true adoption, there are many different players. And, like any other aspect of adoption, child welfare and placement is extremely complex, messy and a legal nightmare, not to mention the emotional and psychological fall-out. But re-homing children is abandonment. Unfortunately, re-homing remains largely unregulated and underreported. Also, it is not limited to international adoption, but permeates all forms of adoptive placement.

It is important to remember that we must “do no harm.” The Buddha’s advice to parents is clear – support your children to become generous, compassionate, virtuous, responsible, skilled and self-sufficient beings. Each moment presents us with an opportunity, and it is up to us, as individuals, to choose how we will think, speak, or act. Each of these actions will determine our happiness, not only in the moment but in the future. This is the basic teaching of karma, or cause and effect.

In these moments, we as a society, regardless of faith, must stand together to fight against such repugnant behavior.  Children, regardless of how good or bad they are, cannot be bartered among families.  We can and must do better than this. There must be a better way.

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“Burn Notice” Life Lessons

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Filed under: Life Lessons, Main, Right Speech, Social Justice — 1 Comment
September 7, 2013

51aKGSNmlOL._SX300_On September 12, Burn Notice closes its doors for good. In its wake, the characters will have to finally do what most of us have haven’t: move on. I seriously doubt the show’s creative genius, Matt Nix, intentionally made Burn Notice to mirror life, but from a Buddhist perspective, some of the show’s life lessons are spot on.

First of all, Burn Notice epitomizes the Buddhist theory of “attachment” and “suffering.”  The notion of knowing the truth would never bring redemption. Yet so many of us in the world today are attached to knowing every detail or delusionally lost that revenge will somehow bring redemption. In truth, a lot of people in Michael Weston’s life would be more adjusted had they simply learned to move on.  In truth, all of us have been there. Some us are still there. There’s no valor in death so don’t forget to live.

Secondly, the Buddhist precept of “Do No Harm” oozes throughout each and every season. Simply put, many us of believe that doing things for the wrong reasons to only make things right is acceptable.  In season three’s “Enemies Closer,” Michael quoted, “After a career spent doing bad things for good reasons, it’s hard to say exactly where you draw the line. You might not know exactly, until someone asks.” In the final season, Michael broke the trust of his true love, denounced family as well as killed both friend and foe.

Symbolically, these scenarios occur in everyday life.  From a Biblical perspective, there is a set of laws concerning ethics that has been given by a higher authority. Yet many of us pretend to befriend coworkers, supervisors and claim the love of committed spouses. But secretly we plot. And affirming our own personal righteousness, we slay our lovers, destroy our coworkers and crush those whom we hate.  If we examine ourselves honestly, what are we really aiming for? Most people are not really aiming for enlightenment. They’re not even aiming for liberation. Most people just want to make their samsaric situation – their normal everyday lives – a little bit better. But violating key human principles neither brings justice nor reinforces divine love.

In Philippians, the Apostle Paul wrote, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” These seem to be among the hardest commands in Scripture to carry out. The foundational plot line of Burn Notice in many episodes involved Michael and his friends helping to protect someone else—from clueless civilians of every variety to retired spies. Nobility is not particularly spiritual or even morally grounded, aside from the “good triumphs evil” scenario.

In truth, the one all encompassing lesson is simple. Sometimes, the only way to find yourself, is to lose yourself to the service of others.

With that, as a Buddhist, I ask you to go find yourself.

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Intrinsic Worth is More than GDP

Filed under: Life Lessons, Social Justice
September 2, 2013

indexThe widening gap between executive and worker pay came into sharp relief earlier this week when Wal-Mart announced that CEO Michael Duke made $20.7 million in 2012, a 14 percent pay increase from the prior year. It would take a full-time hourly Wal-Mart employee, who earns $12.67 per hour according to the company’s website, more than 785 years to earn Duke’s annual salary. That’s up by about 100 years from Duke’s 2011 pay package of $18.1 million. This calculation is probably on the low side, as it assumes a Wal-Mart employee works 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, never takes vacation and doesn’t pay taxes.

Other out of whack CEO compensation:

  • Apple CEO Tim Cook’s total compensation is $368 million. It would take over 6000 Apple employees combined to match that salary.
  • Target’s CEO, Gregg Steinhafel earned a paltry $19 million. It would take over 600 Target employees to match that salary. The typical Target employee made $29,000.
  • Indra Nooyi of Pepsi earned $14.1 million while Micheal Dell earned 4.3 million. The CEO of Verizon earned $23 million while AT&T’s guru earned $18.7 million.

Do you think any of the above named CEO’s is intellectually better than an average employee? Not really. Having financial woes takes up so much attention, they often make poor decisions.

“When you are very, very focused on what you don’t have enough of, you do all you can do to get more of it, at the expense of other stuff,” says Eldar Shafir of Princeton University.

When people don’t have enough money, they’re so focused on ways to get more that they don’t make good choices. In real life situations, poorer individuals make more bad decisions when faced with a financial crunch – they pawn more items – a truly awful financial decision – and were twice as likely to borrow money.

Poorer individuals use less preventive health care, fail to adhere to drug regimens, are tardier and less likely to keep appointments, are less productive workers, less attentive parents, and worse managers of their finances. For instance, Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest private employer, recently informed employees that all future part-time employees who work less than 24 hours weekly will no longer qualify for any of the company’s health insurance plans.  In addition, any new employees who average 24 hours to 33 hours a week will no longer be able to include a spouse as part of their health care plan, although children can still be covered.

Living wages are important because when you make $25,000 a year, one typically spends almost all income on food and shelter. Those on minimum wage have no insurance. Thus a major hospital bill places a family deep in debt.

From a Buddhist perspective, the web of economic exploitation has become very complex. Having traveled to so many countries, when I’ve looked beneath the surface of any other religious war, you will always find a hidden agenda of economic advantage behind the conflict. It is only with the admixture of other elements that turns the conflict into a war. If it wasn’t for economic difficulties, in spite of differences of belief, why should different groups want to interrupt ‘business as usual’?

One last thought. I question how much we really “value” our employees when we can’t even agree that people have a right to health care or a living wage. If individuals have “intrinsic worth,” then many current business leaders have an odd way of showing it. Seems to me what we Americans value is not individualism, but money. Individuals are valued only as much as they contribute to the Gross National Product.

If we want to stop poverty, we must reverse this reverence of money.

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The Living Wage

Filed under: Do No Harm, Life Lessons, Social Justice
September 1, 2013

indexOne in four Americans work for less than $10.00 an hour. Four out of five U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream. Nationwide, the count of America’s poor remains stuck at a record number: 46.2 million, or 15 percent of the population, due in part to lingering high unemployment following the recession. While poverty rates for blacks and Hispanics are nearly three times higher, by absolute numbers the predominant face of the poor is white.

More than 19 million whites fall below the poverty line of $23,021 for a family of four, accounting for more than 41 percent of the nation’s destitute, nearly double the number of poor blacks.

In an affront to the poor, living wage ordinances are woefully behind. For instance, in January of 2013, the State of Missouri just raised the living wage to $7.25 per hour. That means a fast food worker, flipping burgers, will earn $13,589 after taxes. Unfortunately, Missouri’s Living Wage is about $200 above the Federal Poverty and provides no health insurance.

When discussing Living Wage issues, a blogger wrote the following:

Unskilled, looking for work?  What are your expectations? 

College grad, can’t find a job?  When you enrolled in college – did you have a career plan, or follow a particular field, did you choose a realistic field that would actually have jobs available on graduating [sic].  OR, did you choose the easiest curricula or not have a major in mind until you were forced to choose one your senior year?

Family person, supporting children – there are better places to work – why fast food?   Are you receiving Gov [sic] Assistance for every member of your family?  If so, what are real complaints [sic].

Minimum wage earners – do you regularly have your hair done, nails done, etc., and  have an iphone? [sic]  if so, how have you been paying for these luxuries?

It’s easy to pick on any one of the fast food giants for its salary disparity. During the most recent quarter, revenue at McDonald’s rose to nearly $7.1 billion, up 2% and was in line with analyst predictions. Global same-store sales got a 1% boost after dipping in the first quarter. So what does McDonald’s current CEO earn per year? A paltry $13.8 million dollars, including benefits. McDonald’s previous CEO earned $27.7 million annually. The average fast food employee would need more than a century of work to earn that kind of salary.

Like other McDonald’s executives, the CEO also has access to annual physical exams, a company-provided car for personal use, financial counseling and security and use of the company aircraft for personal trips.

The pay gap separating fast-food workers from their chief executive officers is growing at most fast food companies. The disparity has doubled at McDonald’s. in the last 10 years, while at the same time the company helped pay for lobbying against minimum-wage increases and sought to quash the kind of unionization efforts that erupted recently on the streets of across America.

There is no easy to the loving wage, but like most of us, the Living Wage philosophy is crap.

In Buddhist teaching, happiness can only be recognized against the background of suffering. Unfortunately, what I have to offer will seem contrite. To be really happy, we should cultivate understanding and compassion. It is by getting in touch with the suffering that understanding and compassion arise. Without such understanding and compassion by current business executives, we will repeat the endless cycle of resentment, anger, fear, despair and suffering; and we will continue to suffer, one generation after another.

Thus, the question of pay disparity will not help us find a breakthrough: oneself versus the others, good versus evil, right versus wrong. A more helpful question would be, “How can I better understand myself and those that work for me?”

There must be a better way.

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Two Minutes – What Would You Say?

Filed under: Faith & Doubt, Life Lessons, Right Speech, Social Justice
August 30, 2013

PhillipAgnewPhillip Agnew said it better than all those Washington marchers. Phillip Agnew hoped to deliver his message to tens of thousands observing the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, but time worked against him. Now he’s making up for being cut with an online video. Click Mr. Andrew’s picture to watch the speech.

“This is about more than the speech,” said Agnew in a statement released by the Advancement Project Thursday morning. “It’s about the voices of hundreds of thousands of people across the country that have been silenced for too long. Our generation’s dreams have been deferred for too long. While the words spoken amidst the pillars of the Lincoln Memorial yesterday may have reverberated throughout the nation, the actions, energy and love of the rising generation will resound in history books for centuries to come, like those of giants before us.”

———————————— Transcript —————–——————-

By the time we finish another black boy will lay bleeding in the streets of Chicago and as we rest our heads tonight 300,000 of our veterans lay homeless, and I want to explain how the hate we spread abroad is the reason that hatred washes on our shores….but I only have two minutes.

And, I could tell you that Philadelphia just closed 23 of its schools at the same time it builds a $400 million state of the art prison and that North Carolina and Florida continue to silence its citizens at the ballot box- but I only have two minutes.

I could tell you how as we celebrate Dr. King’s Dream, over 400,000 of our immigrant brothers and sisters languish away in privately owned detention camps…and how we still find our queer brothers and sisters imprisoned in the shadows of closets—but I only have two minutes.

I’d tell you how our mothers, sisters, wives and daughters still earn less, have no control over their bodies, and are traded and trafficked like slaves….or that it’s easier for someone to buy a gun and put it to their head than it is to diagnose the illness within it. – But I only have two minutes.

If there was time, I’d tell you that millions of young people and queer people and poor people and people of color are asking what we do with this anger, fear, disappointment, and frustration. This MAD that we feel??? —but, alas, I only have one more minute.

And with it. This last minute of our conversation I’d like to tell you that…though it may seem that all is lost…that there is a generation of dreamers, fighters, defenders, lovers builders bubbling, bubbling, bubbling beneath the rubble.

And beneath your feet you may feel a collective quaking…tremors of a sleeping giant awakening. Emanating from fault lines at the Arizona-Mexico Border, and Raleigh and Austin, and Cleveland, and Chicago, and Tallahassee, Florida.

And we’ve come here from every crack, crease, and crevice of our country to our Capitol to say, that for all whose cares have been our concern. We will not be co-opted. We will not be bought. But, we are ready.

And for those that doubt our energy, and discipline. We are ready.

For those that believe that future fingers may fail the torch. Fear not. We are ready.

For all those that believe in the power of nonviolence and love as unconquerable. We are ready.

Fifty years ago a man told us of a Promised Land. And for 50 years we’ve wandered and wondered. Where are the youth?…a constant whisper in our ears.

And so we have come, asking neither permission nor questions, but to say that we are here. Believing indeed that we have a beautiful history, and that the one we will build in the future will astonish the world.

And we are ready.

May the outcome always prosper over income. Peace over Profit. Revolution over revenue and all peace and power to the people. Don’t believe us just watch.

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Humanity Hemorrhaged Last Night

Filed under: Do No Harm, Life Lessons, Social Justice

Ahmed-syria-napalmHumanity hemorrhaged last night. As a BBC team reported in the “Walking Dead (Warning: Graphic Video).” Even though the US and UK say the Assad regime killed hundreds in recent poison gas attacks, British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond confirmed Britain would not be involved in any action against Syria.

Consistently, like most dictators, Syria’s President Bashar Hafez al-Assad, backed by Russia, blamed the attacks on rebels or terrorists. And in the wake of international intervention, while you slept, the Syrian government took the fight to the terrorists.

A playground full of children (or terrorists should you believe Assad) in northern Syria was bombed by a fighter jet with a napalm-like substance. Eye witnesses described how a jet had passed the school in Aleppo numerous times, as if it searched for a target prior to dropping its ordinance.

British medic, Dr. Rola, working in Syria with the charity Hand In Hand, told reporters:

“It is just absolute chaos and carnage here. We have had a massive influx of what looks like serious burns, seems like it must be some sort of, not really sure, maybe napalm, something similar to that. But obviously within the chaos of the situation it is very difficult to know exactly what is going on.“

Later, in a moment of reflection, Dr. Rola said:

”We feel like some sort of, not even a second class citizen, like we just don’t matter. Like all of these children, and all of these people who are being killed and massacred, we don’t matter. The whole world has failed our nation and it is innocent civilians who are paying the price.”

And that’s the key. Humanity hemorrhaged and the world failed. In 2010, the world’s declared stockpile of chemical weapons was about 30,308 tons. A total of 71,315 tons of agents, 8.67 million munitions and containers, and 70 production facilities were declared to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).  Since I have a military background, I will make it plain: “That’s a whole lot of shit.”

Additionally, several countries are not members of the OPWC, especially Syria and North Korea, while other member states (including Sudan and the People’s Republic of China) have been accused by others of failing to disclose their stockpiles.

As the sun rises in my window pain, I think of Britain’s inaction. I think of our own indifference and ponder a time when men of goodwill prevented such atrocities.  Sipping coffee, I believe the men of goodwill have given dictators a free pass. Momentarily, I think of the 50th Anniversary of Dr. King’s speech and the march on Washington. Indifference marches onward; the devil is alive and well.

One witness of the Aleppo attack had a message for the United Nations:

“You are calling for peace. What kind of peace are you calling for? Don’t you see this, don’t you see this? What do you need to see?

As a former military member, fighting atrocity is a nasty and ugly business. But as men of goodwill, we must fight the fights worth fighting.  That’s all that separates us from the devil.

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Why Can’t We All?

Filed under: Life Lessons, Religion, Right Speech, Social Justice — 1 Comment
August 28, 2013

Martin-Luther-King-I-have-a-dreamIn truth, it’s awfully hard for me to connect with Dr. Martin Luther King. After all, I was only three years old at the time of his “I Have a Dream” speech.  But because I have several African-American friends, I can understand some level of racism by simply witnessing what they’ve endured.

Today, being a fifty-three year old Buddhist, I remember reading Thich Nhat Hanh’s perspective of Dr. Martin Luther King:

“The moment I met Martin Luther King, Jr., I knew I was in the presence of a holy person.  Not just his good work, but his very being was a source of great inspiration for me … On the altar in my hermitage in France are images of Buddha and Jesus, and every time I light incense, I touch both of them as my spiritual ancestors …  When you touch someone who authentically represents a tradition, you not only touch his or her tradition, you also touch your own . . . When those who represent a spiritual tradition embody the essence of their tradition, just the way they walk, sit, and smile speaks volumes about the tradition.” 

There have been times in my life when I have offended all sides of one issue or another. I have gone beyond meditation to campaign for internal dialogue of peace between colleagues and clients. I have walked in the aftermath of tsunamis,’ earthquakes, tornadoes and other natural disasters.  And I wish I could say I always lived and breathed in the core principles of Buddhism, but I have yet to live each and every moment in complete awareness of the present moment and the abandonment of worldly thoughts.

By walking across this small planet; having encountered and losing the greatest live of my life, I reflected on Martin Luther King’s humble and devout lifestyle. Of all I’ve read, I know Dr. King struggled with his role for many years. Many of his friends were killed. Yet they live on with him. Of course the words and choices were Martin’s. Yet his very words and life remain among us in many forms. His very being, as well as many unknown martyrs, continue with us today. Their spirits live because we live.

Still, my greatest fear is that our nation is becoming a nation of silent onlookers. In the face of hate, we shrug. In the face of brutality, we pass by. And in the face of mass murder, we simply accept. We must not remain silent. America is not merely black American, but all of America.

With that, I end with King’s words:

“It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied together into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. We are made to live together because of the interrelated structure of reality . . . Before you finish eating breakfast in the morning; you’ve depended on more than half the world. This is the way our universe is structured; this is its interrelated quality. We aren’t going to have peace on Earth until we recognize the basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality. “

Dr. Martin Luther King was very Christian, very Buddhist. Why can’t we all?

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Dr. King and Worthy Dreams

Filed under: Life Lessons, Right Speech, Social Justice — 2 Comments
August 24, 2013

the_marchThe New York Times noted civil rights heroes, current movement leaders, labor leaders and Democratic officials addressed a vast crowd that stretched east from the Lincoln Memorial to the knoll of the Washington Monument today.

The New York Times also noted several memorable attendees:

  • One person in a hoodie with the phrase “American Justice;”
  • Several with signs urging “Support Trayvon’s Law” to repeal stand-your-ground gun measures; and
  • “We march because Trayvon Martin has joined Emmett Till in the pantheon of young black martyrs.”

Columnist Jerry L. Barrow was spot on several months ago when he authored, “What Do I tell My Son? “

… as I sit here at my computer more than a year later reading the reactions to the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin, I am gripped in fear. My soul is laminated in a coat of hopelessness at the thought of my son, who is presently enjoying a vacation 1500 miles away, being engaged on the street by someone who finds him suspicious because of his appearance and kills him.”

However, all the evidence in Till’s death points explicitly to race. And colorblind Americans accepted and failed to condemn his killers accordingly. The circumstances in Martin’s death merely suggest that Martin’s race was likely a factor in Zimmerman’s judgment of him.

From a personal perspective, when I think of Delbert Belton brutal killing by two black teenagers, I respond by asking a similar question, “What do I tell my 83 year old father?”  And truth be told, I have not seen Melissa Harris-Perry cry on television for Christopher Lane, a 22-year-old student at East Central University who was shot in the back and killed by three black teenagers while jogging in Duncan.  Similarly, I have not heard if NAACP Chairman Roslyn M. Brock tweeted about how the black community failed to raise their children in an abundance of love and proper role models (and that’s not saying they don’t).

So I sit and wonder, what would Dr. Martin Luther King think of today’s era of racism and the 50th anniversary of the Marches in Washington, D.C.? Maybe Dr. King would emphasize Americans seem blinded to matters of color.  The racism strewn through every cornerstone of Dr. Martin Luther King’s day is the same racism that lives today.  Yeah, the time is different. True the people have changed. But the roots of oppression are from the very same weed.

Delbert Belton, Christopher Lane and Trayvon Martin should have never been killed. But I refuse to March in Washington, D.C. this week simply because someone believes Trayvon Martin is a civil rights hero or martyr.  Trayvon Martin was neither. But I will march in Washington for the following reasons:

  • The black unemployment rate last year was 14.0 percent, 2.1 times the white unemployment rate (6.6 percent) and higher than the average national unemployment rate of 13.1 percent during the Great Depression, from 1929 to 1939.
  • After adjusting for inflation, the minimum wage today — 7.25 — is worth $2.00 less than in 1968, and is nowhere close to a living wage.
  • More than a third of non-Hispanic black workers (36 percent) do not earn hourly wages high enough to lift a family of four out of poverty.
  • A report by the Violence Policy Center found black males are nine times more likely than white males to be the victims of homicide — 29.50 out of 100,000 black males compared with 3.85 out of 100,000 white males.
  • A study found the gap in standardized test scores between affluent and low-income students had grown by about 40 percent since the 1960s, and is now double the testing gap between blacks and whites.
  • The imbalance between rich and poor children in college completion — the single most important predictor of success in the work force — has grown by about 50 percent since the late 1980s.

For the above reasons, I will stand by your side and fight the fight worth fighting, for these reasons are worthy of Dr. Martin’s dream.

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Serious Reform Remains Illusive

Filed under: Life Lessons, Right Speech, Social Justice — 1 Comment
August 17, 2013

us immigration reformRep. Michele Bachmann, no stranger to outlandish claims, once said: “It appears that there has been deep penetration in the halls of our United States government” by the Muslim Brotherhood.

At the time, a member of the Brotherhood responded to the Minnesota congresswoman’s rant by quipping: “We can’t even penetrate our own government.”

Traveling across America, I ask a broader statement of America: “Are we big enough to make room for the liberal, secular and more traditional religious segments?”  The ideological fight in America wages onward and mirrors extremism found in the Arab Spring.

A negotiation instructor once said, I can deal with the person who cares too much and the person who cares too little. It’s almost impossible to deal with one who doesn’t give a shit. Remarkably, American’s are really adept at not listening to each other. Our own internal dialogue faces tough challenges against the philosophy of limited engagement. In the wake of draconian voter bills, legislatures fighting to protect the lives of unborn children, while hurting the living; lack of support for healthcare, the budget crisis and an environment that doesn’t proactively create work, our society should worry.

Will America experience an Arab Spring? Probably not like that of Egypt’s. For instance, the U.S. “Day of Rage (September 17, 2011),” a set of peaceful protests against corporatism and corporate money in politics, went mostly unnoticed. But Occupy Wall Street did not. Unfortunately, the appetite for serious reform remains illusive.

So … from a Buddhist perspective, what should I be doing and thinking to defuse these tensions and break through egoism? Motive-mongering and demonetization must be called out – stand up just as you would if it were something that was racist or sexist. If we avoid the demonetization, disagreements can be more positive.

Eliminate the use of extremism. While I hate to solely pick on Fox News, but Mother Jones noted the network’s inaccurate and often times bigoted coverage of LGBT issues. Some of the worst examples of contrived hate from just the past two months include:

We need to be more careful about the things we say — about the things that might inadvertently create a hostile climate. But the larger picture is that polarization emanates from the elites. Congress has become extremely polarized and this then drives polarization in so many other realms of society.

We must build relationships, we are always interdependent. I cannot live without you and you cannot live without me.

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