March madness

I am living in a state where today one can buy houses for $100,000 less than they cost to build.  And where one sees a beautiful Jaguar parked in the lawn by a major road with a for sale sign in the window.  Where respected members of the community ( a preacher, musician and another brother) were recently indicted for swindling friends and families in a ponzi scheme and then delaring themselves not citizens of Tennessee, but of an independent nation which they have formed.  Where the state government is struggling to balance a failing budget and proposing to cut in places like schools, mental health, aid to the elderly and indigent, etc.

And where it snowed on March 1st!

Perhaps one day we will get back to the days when we didn't feel we had to have all the money in the world or live in the biggest houses in the world, and getting to know the difference in glut and happiness.

Getting By

As a high school debater, I debated the role of unionism in our society--my favorite position was Negative." We don't need them in this great country where everyone has a chance to earn a living wage. They are anti-American, etc. "
As I entered the workplace myself, I wished for one to join. And I did--NEA helps teachers get some of what they deserve. The closest I ever came to poverty was in college as I worked 40 plus hours a week while trying to pay tuition and books in an entry-level job. My folks raised three children on less than minimum wage--I do not know how they did it and still provided us with shelter and food. My Dad's highest year of salary was probably about $10,000.

I just finished reading a book that raised my hackles and made me ashamed and angry at our society of greed. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. The premise of the book is investigative journalism--Barbara Ehrenreich was assigned to find out how a single woman, booted into the labor market by welfare reform was going to make it on $6-$7 an hour. She worked as a waitress, a housecleaner, an aide at a nursing home, and at Wal-Mart in the months she watched.

Her conclusion, of course, was that they cannot make it--It takes at least $14 an hour for a family to eat, and sleep under a roof. That was in 2000, probably more now.

The poor today are not only underpaid, but also relatively invisible in our society. She calls them
"the major philantropists" of our life in America. "They neglect their own children so that children of others can be cared for; they live in substandard housing so that other houses can be clean and shiny; they endure privation so that inflation will be low and stock prices high." Perhaps my ire rose the highest as she described her job at Wal-Mart. Demeaning, spirit sucking, denying basic civil-rights, this corporate giant deserves the Booby Prize for the Nastiest Corporation of the Decade while its owners top the list of richest billionaries in the U. S.

I decided years ago when I discovered that Wal-Mart would not allow their employees to unionize,but paid them a lower than living wage with teethless benefits, that I would not shop at Wal Mart anymore except under extraordinary circumstances. And so, Target has become my store of choice.

The book is eye-opening, often funny, but very convincing that rather being a haven for those fleeing less democratic nations, the U. S. is instead one of unrelenting rapaciousness ready and willing to take advantage of those who serve us. And please no comments on the "folks who need to buy an alarm clock and get a job." Otter Creek served a woman this year who had no alarm clock and no money to buy one. The choice was food for her baby or an alarm clock--what would you do?

Our Disposable Society

After having been gone for 4 days, I have just finished plowing through all the mail and newspapers that accumulated.

Well over 3/4 of the mail was junk and disposable. I had the newspapers saved because of the crossword puzzles and the coupons. It was a task to look through it all. I began to imagine how many trees had been sawed down to provide the paper. Christmas already has begun with several catalogs every day. More things to buy and store.

It is true we are in a society that loves being surrounded by its possessions and obsessions. The lust for things equals the lust for sex and maybe even overpowers it. I was reading the parable Jesus told about the man who decided to build bigger barns.....the sentence "This very night your life will be demanded from you" lept from the page. Luke 12:20

And then I saw pictures of the devastation of the Malibu canyons--all that luxury gone in a moment of fire. In his discourse on not worrying about what to eat, drink or wear, Jesus says, ",,,the pagans run after these things..." I know some Christians who run too.

Lord, forgive me of being pagan in my gathering and thinking. I know that you provide all I ever need.