social injustice – Engaging Peace

Amazing Grace

Posted on October 6, 2016October 6, 2016 by kathiemm

In these troubled times, I appreciate more than ever the spiritual Amazing Grace, especially the first stanza:

Amazing grace how sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost but now I’m found.

Was blind but now I see.

I have always found the melody grippingly moving, and always want to sing along, but it was probably the film version of Amazing Grace, based on the true story of the movement against the slave trade in 18^th century Great Britain, that imbued the song with the power it has for me. That world-shattering anti-slavery movement was led by William Wilberforce, who was inspired by English poet, clergyman, and former slave-trader John Newton (1725–1807), who wrote the song.

To me, Amazing Grace is not simply a rapturous expression of Christian faith, although Christianity was the particular vehicle embraced by John Newton to rescue him from the evils in which he had become ensnared. Rather, I see it as a song of redemption and hope that reaches out across estranging and often evilly-manipulated divisions of religion, race, gender, nationality. Also, I resonate to the idea of grace as a force and gift available to all, not restricted to people claiming a particular set of beliefs in a particular religion.

My recent fantasy was that somehow Amazing Grace could become a tenacious torrent of sound that would envelop all the pseudo-Christians, deceived disciples, and lost souls of other religions who profess love and peace but promote hatred and perpetrate violence. And while it was at it, I hoped the torrent would sweep up all the angry, frightened, defensive, and sometimes venemous people who vilify fighters against injustice.

Among the people I would like to see swept up are those who scorn Colin Kaepernick for standing up against racism by sitting down during the playing of a national anthem written by a slave owner, originally including a stanza degrading runaway slaves, and a sadly apt metaphor for a nation awash in centuries of murderous racism.

My grand fantasy for the future is that the world, before it is too late, will replace national anthems and battle hymns of republics with Amazing Grace and other songs that honor love and redemption rather than violence and vicious victories.

People United

Posted on December 29, 2014December 28, 2014 by kathiemm

A dear friend of mine complained that often when she often reads my blog she is left feeling sad and discouraged. The posts remind her of all the things wrong in the world, and the many injustices done by and within our own country, and she doesn’t feel she can do much about any of it. But she can make a difference. We all can.

I can understand how she feels; I can empathize with her sense of discouragement, her wish to be distracted from the evils of racism, the horrors of war, the barbarism of torture. But ignoring the problems won’t lead to peace of mind or safety or a future for our children and grandchildren.

As 2014 ends, and we move into a new year with new possibilities to make a difference, Engaging Peace offers reminders of some of the more positive posts of the past year—the beacons of hope and the guides for the new year.

January 2, 2014. We rang in the New Year with appreciation for the work of non-profits resisting war, combating arms proliferation, and promoting peace and nonviolence. http://engagingpeace.com/?p=7466

January 20, 2014. The post “I, too, have a dream” celebrated Martin Luther King Day. http://engagingpeace.com/?p=7515

January 23, 2014. Guest author Sununda Sharma reminded us that heroism is not out of the reach of a young girl: http://engagingpeace.com/?p=7524

February 16, 2014. Dot Walsh took us along with “Mandela: Long walk to freedom.” http://engagingpeace.com/?p=7586

February 17, 2014. We honored a modern peace president: http://engagingpeace.com/?p=7610

March 27, 2014. Guest author Ian Hansen began a series on whether nonviolent resistance works: http://engagingpeace.com/?p=7704

April 7, 2014. This post raised the question: Is paying taxes is a war crime?: http://engagingpeace.com/?p=7704.

April 10, 2014. We suggested that organizations, like individuals, can be morally engaged and nominate a few exemplars: http://engagingpeace.com/?p=7771

Those examples of individuals and groups working for peace and social justice come from fewer than six months’ worth of engaging peace posts. Join their efforts in 2015. Engage in resistance to violence, racism, and other forms of social injustice. That’s one way to get to feel better.

Today’s Assignment: Human Rights 365

Posted on December 8, 2014December 7, 2014 by kathiemm

Wednesday December 10 is Human Rights Day, a commemoration day for the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The theme this year is Human Rights 365—that is, a reminder that every day should be a human rights day.

Brothers and sisters, we have a long way to go.

Racism violates human rights.
Slavery violates human rights.
Torture violates human rights.
Murder violates human rights.
Prolonged solitary confinement violates human rights.
Even severe poverty is a human rights violation.

Racism, slavery, torture, murder, prolonged solitary confinement, and severe poverty are not things people choose or desire. Nor, according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, do people deserve such abominations, even if those people are different, annoying, foreign, other, scary.

The US government is fond of pointing the finger at human rights violations in selected other nations (not, generally, their allies), but such finger pointing is just another example of “Do as I say, not as I do.” All those human rights violations take place in the US today, every day, and all too many people are quick to find “justifications” concerning why racism , slavery, torture , murder, etc., are not human rights violations if done in or by the United States.

On Human Rights Day, 365 days a year, try to listen to a different drummer. Fight racism, fight slavery, fight torture. Raise your voice against murder, solitary confinement, poverty, forced feeding, unequal opportunity, and all the social injustices that infect our society and damage us all. Make the world a better place. Right here at home. Do what you can. 365.

Bang, bang, you’re dead, Part 1

Posted on September 4, 2014September 3, 2014 by kathiemm

Stop, look, and bristle with anger at the image above. The obscene rates at which American children are gunned down or left with life-altering physical and psychological scars from gun violence should horrify and activate us all.

What’s the story, anyway? Are Americans genetically inferior to Canadians, Germans, the French, Slovakians, and citizens of all those other countries where there are so many fewer gun deaths of of children? Do most Americans lack a kindness gene? Do they uniformly inherit murderous violence?

Is there something in our polluted air that contaminates American minds and hearts, making people blind to the suffering of others, ready to kill anyone, anything that gets in the way?

I think the answer to these questions is No, but clearly the country has a big problem with deadly violence–a correlate, I believe, of structural violence and the corrosive collusion of too many Americans with structural violence laced with racism.

Structural violence is what helps the rich get richer while the poor get poorer. Structural violence means that the powerful get to make the rules in ways they believe (perhaps mistakenly) serve their own interests; if having desperate people available to remove their garbage and tar their roads, then you can be sure the powerful will limit educational opportunity, employment opportunity, and freedom of movement to keep a substantial segment of our society trapped in poverty, undereducated, and locked up or shot if they are in anyway noncompliant. Or look too different.

When you combine social injustice and social inequality with anger, frustration, and the ready availability of guns, does that sound like a mix that can explode in violence? Does that violence have the potential of spilling over in ways that destroy countless lives, including those of children and adolescents? Seems like a Yes to me.