Winter privilege
Why is it that we Americans believe safety, health, and a livable wage are privileges to be awarded to the worthy, rather than a set of basic human rights to be ensured as part of civic life?
As I write this, from the privileged place of a warm and safe home, with a reasonably secure job, and a reliable safety net of friends and family, I think about all the folks who do not enjoy such privilege.
Why is it that we Americans believe safety, health, and a livable wage are privileges to be awarded to the worthy, rather than a set of basic human rights to be ensured as part of civic life?
Why do workers, such as the thousands who walked out of the University of California system, have to organize and strike in order to earn a decent living? (My own situation as a non-tenured faculty member means my work is contingent year to year. The university I teach for could decide not to renew my contract for the following year, any time, with no explanation and no recourse. Faculty in my situation teach well over half the courses in our department, and our university overall. Tenure, quite simply, costs too much to invest in more tenured faculty.)
Why do we cheer on billionaires as they disrupt the revenue streams of their workers with capricious decisions, and/or inhumane working conditions, but blame workers if they go on strike and disrupt the structures that keep them impoverished?
Where and how are we teaching students this set of values: (false) individualism to the extreme, wealth is its own reward, wealth and power represent ultimate success, if you do not succeed, it is the fault of your character or your will?
We head into the winter holidays over the next couple of weeks. In the Christian tradition, the winter holiday celebrates the birth of a savior, one who goes on to disrupt the wealthy and powerful, to stand with and for the poor.
Ironically, we are trained to celebrate this story by overspending ourselves into (temporary, one hopes) poverty, buying gifts as part of the engine of our consumer economy.
There are many layers to the Christian stories, and I am no theological expert. I do intend to spend these last weeks of the year considering the values that would require us to stand with and for the poor; that would require us to house and feed and nurture all our human family; that would require us to treat our earthly home with the respect and love of a parent for a beautiful, fragile child, a parent willing to sacrifice to give that child the chance at a better life.
As you celebrate the winter holidays and values most meaningful for you, stay well and safe. Your participation in this journey is worthwhile, and deeply appreciated.
Thanks, Liz, for your weekly voice of sanity.
My reaction to your first question just popped up right away: the problem is we don't believe to be human is to be worthy. One must pass a means test of wealth, power, race, gender--some combination thereof. We don't believe as the Bantu-speaking people supposedly do that "I am because WE are; because we are, I am". Instead we assign value based on criteria that are largely symbolic. I'll stop there.
I need only look out my downtown apartment window to see grizzled beings huddled against the cold in blankets and other assortments of coverings. How to respond? That's the question for me and one you inspire me to consider deeply.