Tikkun Daily Blog Archive (https://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/category/politics/page/162/)
Posts about politics and social change, from a spiritual progressive perspective
It’s rare for me to cry while reading dense academic prose, and yet that happened to me when I started reading “The Wealth of the Commons.” Something else is possible, because it once existed.
Discriminatory practices of health insurance companies have led to poor access to care and inadequate coverage, leaving only a fraction of those with mental illness getting treatment. But under the Affordable Care Act, people suffering from mental illness will no longer be left unsupported.
In the Anthropocene Age of the human, we can see that our actions have caused high impact of global geophysical change and we are now living on a new planet that is different than that of our ancestors. As beings who have come from the elements of the earth, we need to learn to appreciate them before we cause our own destruction.
Let us no more attend to what is missing when we do not forgive. Give attention rather to what is present when we do. To forgive is to correct the false impression that you- Christ in you- has been harmed, or ever can be.
In the struggle for workplace-related religious freedom, Muslim women have, perhaps unwittingly, blazed a new trail. While on the one hand the hijab makes them a target for unfair practices, it also becomes a beacon for the legal system to rally under. For most judges and juries, the fact that a woman would be fired due to her dress is such an obviously unfair concept that it begs retribution. And although the Abercrombie and Fitch lawsuit is arguably the most popular, it certainly isn’t the only one Muslim women have fought in recent times.
Ada Glustein writes about the awakening process she and others might face upon discovering that the “new home for Jews” came along with the displacement of the Palestinians. She offers compassionate advice of what can be done to rid the Jewish community of fear and ignorance and replenish it with love and care.
Craig Wiesner details the speedy success he had when looking into what effects the Affordable Care Act could have on him and his small business.
I have always believed that, at some point, the Israeli prime minister and his lobby would lose their grip on U.S. Middle East policy. At least I’ve believed that since 1982 when Tom Dine, AIPAC’s most successful executive director,explained how it would happen. It was during my four year stint at AIPAC that I asked Dine if a president of the United States could take a position opposed by the lobby,in a case where U.S. national security interests were clearly at stake,and prevail. Dine responded that although he hoped that day wouldn’t come, he did not think a president could make Israel do anything it didn’t want to do given the power of AIPAC and “our friends in Congress.” In other words, as long as politicians need AIPAC-directed campaign funds, it wouldn’t happen.
In so far as any good news can be attached to the case of a man who is dying of cancer after 40+ years in solitary, this is good news: Herman Wallace, of the Angola Three, who was framed decades ago, was cleared by a decent judge and allowed to go home. Amy Goodman had a piece on it yesterday. I am no expert in this case, but I learned about it when a British magazine asked me to respond to a rather starry-eyed article by an English minister who liked the Christian approach of the warden of Angola Prison. Researching Angola became a critical piece of education for me as a white immigrant to this country who lived here for 30+ years without educating myself about the extent of racist injustice in the criminal legal system, the extent of torture (solitary is torture) and the fact that slavery continues legally (the 13th Amendment allowed it for convict labor) in American prisons. No excuses: just one big insight into how easy it is to be white and oblivious, which contributes in a big way to this society’s racism.
Consumerism is the religion of the masses. How do we overcome the attraction of pretty colors, alluring products and never ending commercials appealing to our lowest cravings so we can make wise purchasing decisions and is there anything we can do about marketing tactics?