Empathy

It’s Not So Easy to Be Rich

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I had my first true inkling that being rich might have its own challenges in the mid ’80s, when I was in a relationship with a millionaire. At the time I was living in a tiny apartment on Columbus Avenue in Manhattan, which was still in the early phase of massive gentrification. More than once, I remember him standing at my window looking at the people walking up and down the street, and saying: “They all want to be where I am.” More than the words, it was the unmistakable tone of melancholy that I heard in his voice that affected me. Nothing in his demeanor resembled happiness.

Education

Why the Occupy Movement Should Address the Need for Educational Reforms

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A major step in healing the injustices being challenged by the Occupy Movement is to understand that the conceptual roots of today’s injustices can be traced to the long tradition of mis-education that has dominated the West since the rise of the Industrial Revolution. Sustaining life in the face of the major injustices –which range from the growing gap between the super rich and the growing number of poor, the increasing control of corporations and the military in promoting legislation that furthers their special interests, and the efforts to create a global economy that reduces the need for workers while at the same time undermining the government’s safety nets–is especially challenging. The immediate difficulty facing a large percentage of the population is meeting the bare necessities of obtaining shelter, health care, and food. Added to this scenario of injustice are the people being forced out of the middle class as a result of the market liberal ideology that promotes replacing workers with computer-driven machines, and by the swelling ranks of students who face a huge burden of debt with little prospect for repaying it. In addition to forcing today’s students into, what for many, will become a lifetime of debt, there is also a growing awareness that public schools and universities continue to reinforce the patterns of thinking and values that fail to take account of the cultural roots of the ecological crisis andthe community-centered alternatives to a consumer-dependent lifestyle.

Gender and Sexuality

Obama's Declaration, North Carolina's Gay Marriage Ban, and Next Steps in LGBT Organizing

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The vibrant coalitions that developed this year in North Carolina, where activists fought simultaneously against a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and against anti-immigrant and anti-worker legislation, offer a vision for a more expansive and radically engaged form of LGBT organizing than the narrower struggles for marriage equality that have dominated the activist landscape in recent years. It’s a model that I hope organizers in other states will look to in this moment of renewed energy.

Culture

Occupy the Farm and the Conditions of Academic Freedom

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For two weeks now, a group of food justice activists, University of California students, Albany residents, and occupy movement stalwarts have been farming and living continuously on a couple acres of UC-owned land, known as the Gill Tract. Those farming didn’t ask the university permission before tilling and sewing the plot, setting up tents and a food station, or holding daily educational events for children. Instead, upon learning that much of the Gill Tract was slated for development – including for a Whole Foods – organizers simply made a plan for where and how to plant some vegetables on the tract, invited supportive people to join them, and started digging lines in the ground.

Healing Israel/Palestine

'Occupy Zionism' Activists Visit US

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These two young Israelis met with some Occupy activists in the US, but unlike that movement–which so far has succeeded more in terms of symbolism and public discourse than concretely–the Israeli movement has already affected government policies.

Christianity

Who Would Moses or Jesus Vote For?

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I urge us to consider, in the face of the banal predictability of the national election campaigning, to discern whether voting is an expression of civic duty or is a form of collaboration with a corporate scam. Our future and the future of our planet are at stake.

Culture

musings: desconocido

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Friend and prophet Rev. Jim Burklo shares his thoughts on a quite powerful border experience in his latest “musing.” I’m honored that he lets me share this with all of you on Tikkun Daily. Click here to visit his blog site, Musings. DESCONOCIDO
A small wooden cross stands next to a cholla cactus in the desert of southern Arizona. Across it is written a word in Spanish: DESCONOCIDO.

The Economy--Wealth & Poverty

Having Pressured Trader Joe’s into Fair Food Agreement, Coalition of Immokalee Workers Turns to Publix Super Markets

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Last week, at the end of a two-year campaign, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers finally succeeded in getting Trader Joe’s to sign on to its Fair Food Agreement. This agreement will further stabilize income for tomato pickers in Florida, as well as ensure decent working conditions for over 4,000 farm workers in the region. Trader Joe’s capitulation was a major victory, but the coalition’s work is far from done. This week it is continuing its work with a six-day fast for fair food outside the corporate headquarters of Publix Super Markets. With the support of allies, faith leaders, and students, the group is urging the Publix Corporation to join its campaign for farm worker justice. The fast started on Monday, March 5.