Hi all...
The fact is that after all the county budget kabuki theatre over the
last few months, the County Exec and GOP Co. Leg. majority completely
eliminated the following eight crucial, proven cost-saving, and
pro-active programs-- preventive programs which, now cut (laying off
28 county workers) by their absence, will end up driving up county
property taxes further: [hold 'em accountable now, folks-- before
this all stale]
[250-word letters needed on these eight asap, people-- to
letterstoeditor@poughkeepsiejournal.com, letters@freemanonline.com,
newsplace@aol.com, and editorial@thehudsonvalleynews.com!]
[note: contrast these first three cuts w/GOP drive for new $75
million, 300-bed jail addition; wake up!]
1. GOP eliminated the BOCES GED program in our Jail (program endorsed
even by jail's leadership).
[tho only $87,000/year this program cuts recidivism rate in half for
Transition Unit-- from 56% to 28%]
2. GOP eliminated Project Return (juvenile delinquency prevention)
for 45 kids at county Youth Bureau.
[effectively costing only $24/day to keep youth with
families--instead of $657/day to be incarcerated!]
3. GOP eliminated Mediation Center of Du. Co. (juvenile delinquency
prevention for troubled teens).
[youth in 245 different families served last year in community-- not
$240,000/year each for incarceration]
4. GOP eliminated the senior home care program at our county's Health
Department; workers laid off.
[will end up costing local taxpayers more-- with increasing number of
seniors in nursing home instead]
5. GOP eliminated Senior Friendship Centers at Millerton, Pawling,
and Fishkill-- with workers laid off.
[will end up costing local taxpayers more-- could well end up pushing
local seniors into nursing homes]
6. GOP eliminated our county's Office of Consumer Affairs [we are all
consumers here in Dutchess!].
[according to County Exec, will mean 76% decrease in ability to
handle local consumer complaints]
7.. GOP eliminated county Health Department water lab
http://wwww.RealMajorityProject.blogspot.com .
[even though Dutchess has literally more public water supplies here
than any other county in NYS!]
8. GOP eliminated our county's Human Rights Commission (in spite of
over 900 complaints annually!).
[slap in face to local African-Americans, Latino immigrants, women,
seniors, disabled, gays, lesbians]
So again-- 250-word letters needed on these eight asap-- to
letterstoeditor@poughkeepsiejournal.com, letters@freemanonline.com,
newsplace@aol.com, and editorial@thehudsonvalleynews.com...
[NOW is the time-- to strike while iron is hot, if you will-- to hold
GOP accountable for these cuts, folks!!!]
And-- don't forget-- Dutchess CSEA's Shaun Chesley, Hyde Park's Doris
Kelly, Rhinebeck's Marcia Slatkin, Ruth Boyer, Fred Nagel, Sandra
Oldenburg, and Edmond Roberts, Clinton's Pat Zolnik, Carmen Region,
Milan's Sheila Buff, Fishkill's Josh and Mara Farrell, Wappinger's
Philip Banco, Rich Carlson and Richard Vineski, Beacon's Susan
Osberg, Erika Waldron, and Dan Rigney, Poughkeepsie's Barbara
Lindsey, Scott Patrick Humphrey, East Fishkill's Joette Kane, Red
Hook's Cary Kittner and Doris Soroko, Dover's Nora Edwards, Bangall's
Alison Francis, Millerton's Dianne Engleke and Joan Daidone, and
Pleasant Valley's Sue MacNish all signed
http://www.petitiononline.com/cobudget ...
[our petition to avoid ALL 28 county employees from being laid off--
while eliminating county property taxes-- county-level income tax as
solution to stop county budget/tax insanity for 2011, beyond-- if
it's OK for GOP like Molinaro and Miller to propose income tax to
fund schools, why not this local reform?]
Pass it on...(truly: feel free to fwd this one far 'n wide-- sadly,
local media have ignored almost all this)!...
Joel
444-0599/876-2488
joeltyner@earthlink.net
p.s. Let's also not forget the fact that the County Exec and GOP Co.
Leg. majority also, frankly, decimated county $$$ for Cornell
Cooperative Extension of Dutchess County (scroll down just a bit), leaving CCEDC's
Environmental, Agricultural, and Horticultural programs underfunded
by $327,000 for 2011 compared to this year, left the Dutchess County
Arts Council underfunded by $96,933 for 2011 compared to 2010
left Hudson Valley Mental Health clinics underfunded by $200,000 for
2011 (compared to 2010-- meaning higher costs to taxpayers down the road from psychiatric ward, jail, prison)-- and left the Lexingon Center for Recovery
underfunded by $20,000 (no methadone treatment 50 heroin addicts)...
[recall 12/2 statement: Bardavon county budget hearing on need to
fund treatment for 300, not just 250!]
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
From today's Poughkeepsie Journal...
"Laid-off County Health Worker Worries: Who's Being Helped"
by Larry Hertz • December 28, 2010
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20101228/COLUMNISTS07/12280313/Laid-off-county-health-worker-worries-Who-s-being-helped
Nearly two months have passed since Caridad Cocurullo was rocked by the news she was losing her job.
The shock has worn off, she said last week. She recently found another job — at considerably less pay — that she will begin next month.
But the pain of leaving a "family" of co-workers and a job she loved at the Dutchess County Health Department remains.
For the past four years, Cocurullo has worked as a case manager aide in the Health Department, serving clients with AIDS and HIV. Because she speaks Spanish fluently, part of her job was to reach out to those in the Hispanic community, many of whom are wary of any government agency.
Cocurullo said to gain their trust, she and others in the department did far more for their clients than was listed in their job descriptions.
"My job was to advise them on what medications they needed, how to obtain them and to ensure they were taking them," she said.
Often, Cocurullo said, her clients talked to her about family and financial challenges they were facing. There were times when she gave them some clothes her daughter had outgrown or offered other help or advice.
"It was so much more than a job," she said.
The news she would be leaving the Health Department came Nov. 1, the same day County Executive William Steinhaus delivered his tentative 2011 county budget to the Legislature. The budget called for the elimination of 101 jobs.
Cocurullo knew something was wrong the minute her boss, Linda Squires, summoned her into her office. The two had become close friends over the last four years, as Squires and others in her unit helped her cope with a divorce. It was easy to read the look on Squires' face: Something bad was coming. And when Health Commissioner Dr. Michael Caldwell walked into the office, she realized she was being laid off.
"There was a sadness in that room," she said.
Squires and Caldwell assured her she was not being let go because there was anything lacking in her performance.
"They told me it was the department's loss. They said they would do everything they could to help me — and they have," Cocurullo said.
But she barely heard their words.
"It was surreal. It was like I was watching it all happen to someone else," she said. "And I thought about my clients. I felt I was letting them down."
Cocurullo tells herself she's lucky to have found another job so quickly. But she also questions whether county taxpayers are better off — financially or otherwise.
The salary for her new job is so low that she qualifies for state-funded health insurance for her two children. Other laid-off county workers are collecting unemployment benefits. Some will no doubt qualify for other government assistance that costs tax money.
"I never took anything from the government before — I just paid taxes," she said. "I understand the county having to cut back, and I have no hard feelings against anyone," Cocurullo said. "But I wonder about us all being laid off. Does it really help anybody?"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
From http://www.CCEDutchess.org (Cornell Cooperative Extension of Dutchess)...
2011 County Funding - Impact on CCEDC
On behalf of Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County’s Board and our constituents, we thank our Dutchess County Legislators for restoring as much as they could for CCEDC county appropriations in the 2011 Dutchess County Budget during their December 7, 2010 Legislative Meeting. Their amended budget for CCEDC resulted in restoring our 2011 budget from the County Executive’s initial $150,000 to $520,000 – 56% of our 2010 budget. Please join our Board in thanking our Legislators for doing their best during a challenging process.
The $404,779 (44%) reduction in 2011 County appropriations has resulted in staffing reductions, loss of match dollars leading to grant funding reductions, and reductions or eliminations of educational programming and resources for Dutchess County residents. Specifically:
· 13 positions have been affected: 7 staff in currently filled positions have been laid off; 1 staff member’s term has not been renewed; 1 vacant position has been eliminated; 1 vacant position has been reduced; 3 current staff have been impacted with reduced hours/job responsibilities - - - 35% of 2010 positions.
· All current programs are undergoing restructuring due to funding and staff reductions:
→The $150,000 restored for 4-H Youth Development enables 4-H to continue in 2011
. This 28% reduction has led to a staff reduction from 3 to 1½ staff with a restructured volunteer management system planned for 2011, as well as a reprioritizing of educational programming.
→A $130,718 (41%) county funding reduction for Agriculture/Horticulture has resulted in:
•Decreased commercial Agriculture/Horticulture expertise with some areas eliminated due to staff layoffs/position reductions. Specific program decisions are in the midst of discussion. Commercial diagnostics will continue to be available.
•Diagnostic Lab hours will be decreased from 3 mornings/week to 1 morning/week April through October.
•Community Horticulture, including the educational demonstration gardens will continue through fundraising efforts and volunteer Master Gardeners support.
→2011 grant funding enables Green Teen Community Gardening to continue with program reprioritizing due to the elimination of 100% county funding.
→With 100% county funding eliminated, Financial Management Education is severely impacted with the layoff of the sole county funded educator. Most programming will be eliminated with the Family Budget Volunteer Educators in transition pending further review. Other current programming will remain dependent upon grant funding.
→With the restoration of 63% of the Environment and Energy Program’s county funding, GIS services will be fully available. With a 37% county funding reduction resulting in the elimination of 1 ½ positions, the remaining programming will be reduced and/or eliminated, pending further discussions. Watershed programming will continue through grant funding.
→The28% reduction in county funding for Nutrition Programs, as well as the 44% reduction in county funding for the entire organization, has led to a loss of critical match dollars for a major Nutrition Grant serving food stamp recipients. This loss of grant and county funding has led to layoffs and ultimately less available educational programs for those in need.
→The Relatives as Parents program, currently solely funding by grant dollars, will continue due to that funding.
As Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County looks to 2011 and celebrating 100 years of CCE in New York State, we will also engage in strategic planning for the future including restructuring, shared positions and resources, and other opportunities. CCEDC has a proud past, and although the CCEDC you know and rely on today will be different in 2011, we look forward to continuing to serve Dutchess County residents and welcome any ideas you may have.
2011 County Funding by program area are:
$150,000 for 4-H
$75,000 for Nutrition
$185,000 for Commercial Ag/Hort
$110,000 for Environment ($75,000 specifically for GIS)
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Thursday, December 16, 2010
"A Christmas Carol for Dutchess County"-- Tues. @ Rhinebeck Town Hall!...
Hi all...
You're ALL cordially invited to come see our own twisted version (a
staged, dramatic reading with minimal props) of the holiday Dickens
classic, "A Christmas Carol for Dutchess County"-- this coming
Tuesday, Dec. 21st (my birthday!)...at 7 pm at Rhinebeck Town Hall--
at 80 East Market St. one block of main light in center of village--
three guesses who turns out to be Scrooge in our little version;
lol)...
[also-- tune in today (Fri.) from 5 to 6 pm to hear live radio
play performance of this-- on WVKR 91.3 FM http://www.wvkr.org -- and
if you can't listen then, tune in to hear it Sat. 8-10 am on WHVW 950
AM!]
Note-- if you or anyone you know feels inspired enough to read a
part-- feel free to join us at WVKR studios tomorrow (on third floor
of Vassar College Main Building in back) or at WHVW studios Saturday
morning (at 316 Main St. in Poughkeepsie), k?...
[and we'll also be rehearsing at Rhinebeck Town Hall Tues. starting
at 5 pm; feel free to join us then too!]
So-- let us know if you have any time tomorrow, Sat., and/or Tues. to
help read or make props, folks!...
[...yes, we will be videotaping this, too-- to put on PANDA public
access TV for Northern Dutchess, etc...]
The best birthday present y'all could give me this year-- show up
Tues. (or before) to help on this!...
[have already reached out to some theatrically inclined folks
locally-- but-- could use YOUR help too]
Look it up on Wikipedia-- Dickens wrote original version to make
political point....time for us!...
[note-- check out http://www.CenterforPerformingArts.org -- don't let
our twisted little production of "A Christmas Carol for Dutchess
County" stop y'all from going to see the real thing, courtesy of the
one and only Lou Trapani, Andy Weintraub, et. al. in
Rhinebeck!..."final weekend of performances-- "A Christmas Carol--
Dec. 17-19-- 8 p.m. Friday & Saturday; 3 p.m. Sunday; next in The
CENTER's Saturday Morning Family Series-- The Puppet People's "A
Christmas Carol"-- 11 a.m. Saturday, December 18"...go see!]
Pass it on...
Joel
444-0599/876-2488
joeltyner@earthlink.net
[note-- what's below is a rough draft/outline sketch for production--
got story/dialogue ideas?...costume ideas?...set ideas?...any
ideas?...let us know!...ok, it's just a staged, dramatic
reading...but...let us know!]
###############################################
Still hashing out dialogue specifics (ideas anyone?)...but for now this:
Narrator: "Note-- All of the events, characters and institutions in this story tonight-- "A Christmas Carol for Dutchess County"-- are fictional-- and any similarity to any actual events, or institutions is unintentional and purely coincidential.
So-- let's begin-- our play takes place long, long, ago, in a galaxy far, far away-- in the sleepy little county of Crutches in upstate New York at the early part of the twenty-first century; the setting is the Lardavon 1869 Opera House in Skipperkee-- it's early December, in fact-- and the annual county budget hearing...let's see what the good people of Crutches County are telling the Crutches County government's leadership this evening..."
Tyrone Washington: "My name is Tyrone Washington, I've lived here in Skipperkee for fifty-three years, and I want to tell you why it's important that Crutches County has a Human Rights Commission. Where I work-- at a local retail outlet- I'll keep the name anonymous for now-- I and all of my black co-workers this past fall received a large group of racist emails forwarded to us from our colleagues that were originally from Republican candidate Carl Schmalidino-- and besides this, almost daily for months now, believe it or not, we've had to face near-constant harassment about our skin color-- here and now in 2010. Without a Human Rights Commission here in Smutchess, there is no accountability and no way for us to deal with such insensitivity in the twenty-first century. I some folks think that, with Barack Obama in the White House, that discrimination is a thing of the past, but, as County Legislator Barbara Schmeter-Schmackson recently said during one of the County Legislature meetings, "Let me assure you, racism is alive and kicking in Crutches County."
Ebenezer Steinhooge (on other side of stage): "Bah-- humbug-- special interests; we have to right-size county government here in Smutches County..."
Jose Rodriguez: "My name is Jose Rodriguez, I've lived here in Crutches County for thirteen years; I came here from Mexico looking for work; I was forced to do this (along with many of my neighbors) so that our families could make ends meet-- after the North American Free Trade Agreement made it impossible for our farms to survice. I'm here to tell you that a Human Rights Commission is needed here in Crutches County, still in 2010-- because my children, my wife, and even myself are teased every single day for the color of our skin and for where we came from. If you don't think a Human Rights Commission is needed in Crutches County, please come to my neighborhood and talk with my family and our neighbors-- it's not just us-- all of our kids get picked on, teased, and bullied mercilessly daily in our schools-- aside from what we adults ourselves have to deal with in our jobs. Our county's Human Rights Commission has done a great job reaching out to our community-- to make sure there's communication between us and the police, and to make sure we know we are welcomed here. Please don't end what the Commission has been doing-- have a heart and do what's right for all of us here in Crutches County. We all deserve to have our human rights protected-- no matter what color our skin is."
Ebenezer Steinhooge (on other side of stage): "Hm.... Rodriguez... Rodriguez...rings a bell.....Rodriguez...don't recall any campaign contributions from any Jose Rodriguez-- bah-- humbug- special interests..."
Alice Stevens: "Good evening-- my name is Alice Stevens; I've been living in LaGrange for thirty-six years now; forgive me; I'm a little nervous; I've never spoken before in public at an event like this...But the reason why I'm here tonight is to impress upon you how important it is that our county's Human Rights Commission be allowed to continue to do the important work they've been doing for over three decades now-- not just fighting against discrimination over race issues-- but also effectively addressing unfair treatment of women. Yes, women-- here and now in 2010, folks. And it's not just me-- how do I know this? Because, due to my contacting the Human Rights Commission, I learned that it wasn't just me being discriminated against at my job (I work at a local manufacturing plant; I'll leave the name out for now)-- I also found out, thanks to the Commission, that literally dozens of other women at my job have made similar complaints over the years about being harassed, treated unfairly, and passed over for promotions in favor of lesser qualified, lesser experienced, lesser educated, lesser able male co-workers rising above us. On a national level, the Equal Rights Amendment still hasn't been added to our Constitution, forty years after the 70's began-- but here locally in Crutches County, the very least we can do to stand up for the rights of women, people of color, and all of us, is to keep our Human Rights Commission standing-- and standing strong."
Ebenezer Steinhooge (on other side of stage): "Bah-- humbug-- special interests...."
[...plus......testimony at budget hearing from these twelve below (each time with Steinhooge bah-humbugging at end]
My name is Erica Monroe (senior discriminated against)
My name is Martha Sanborn (disabled discriminated against)
My name is Rudy Gerrickson (gay discriminated against)
My name is Joan Hodges (lesbian discriminated against)
mother of someone cycled in and out can't get GED program at county jail
mother of troubled teen re: Project Return Youth Bureau
mother of troubled teen
Mediation Center's program for juvenile delinquency prevention
senior from Millerton
senior from Pawling
senior from nursing home (senior home care program at county Health Department)
consumer who got ripped off by home constactor (Office of Consumer Affairs)
heroin addict Lexington Center
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Act II [setting: Poughkeepsie Grand Hotel-- Dec. 22nd-- Ebenezer Steinhooge crowing with campaign donor cronies and GOP leadership of Crutches County Legislature-- Cob Ruleson, Scary Scooper, Evangelica Fleeceland, and Stale Boorchart-- crowing on their efforts to out-Norquist Norquist (and shrink county government until it can be drowned in a tub-- 28 county employees being laid off this holiday season...
[visit from Ghost of Christmas Past (moderate GOP President "Ike"
Eisenhower-- unafraid to tax the rich)-- warns Steinhaus of corrupt
government-contractor complex-- rife with kickbacks, conflicts of
interest]
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Act III [setting: Poughkeepsie-- low-income housing projects--
Christmas Eve early evening]-- Ghost of Christmas Present (FDR)
brings Steinhaus (like Scrooge in the original, invisible to those in
the real world) to see poor folks, seniors, youth with love and joy
in their hearts, families pulling together to celebrate holiday
around dinner meal-- with warmth demonstrable in souls despite huge
budget cuts...
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Act IV [setting: Steinhaus home in Pleasant Valley]-- Ghost of
Christmas Future (Eleanor Roosevelt) brings Steinhaus to see what
Dutchess County could well look like in just a few years unless he
and Co. Leg. GOP majority wake up to their right-wing, tea-party, neocon
idiocy-- a jail quadrupled in size as more and more schools shut down
and effective, preventive, pro-active ATI programs are eliminated,
county senior and youth programs stopped completely, an incinerator
doubled in size, sprawl all over-- and smog getting visibly worse
year by year locally as a result; rampant water pollution across the
county, unchecked and unremediated, and perhaps most importantly,
hundreds more county employees laid off-- leaving the county
workforce only a small fraction of what it once was; practically
every county department fully privatized to GOP crony donors (while
local taxpayers subsidize poverty wages, benefits necessary from DSS
to make up difference for substandard pay in private sector)-- all
this, as county government has gotten smaller and smaller-- while
more and more local homeowners are losing their homes and forced to
move away or become homeless as property taxes have skyrocketed more
and more (GOP inability to make changes in tax system to be more
progressive-- from income tax)...
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Act V [setting: first in morning at Steinhaus home in Pleasant
Valley-- then press conference in front of County Office Building
later that same day to announce the following]-- Steinhaus wakes up
after his rude awakenings from the three Ghosts-- and a new day truly
is dawning in Dutchess--as our County Executive finally makes public
commitment to fund crucial programs in our county budget fully and
fairly with a county-level income tax (that could also easily,
completely eliminate onerous county property taxes), start a
revolving energy-efficiency/renewable loan fund to help local
homeowners save money on electric bills, create green jobs, and clean
air (as in Babylon and Bedford), catalyze solar farms in all our
communities (as Greene County IDA is doing), fully invest in
microenterprise lending (as Orange County has done), embrace an 85%
recycling goal for the county by 2020 (as recommended by Clearwater
and Sierra Club), hold local financial institutions publicly
accountable for their investment in our communities (as Philadelphia
and Los Angeles are doing, and as recommended by the Northern
Dutchess Alliance), put into place campaign finance reform here in
Dutchess on a county level- a $100 limit on donations to county
officials or candidates from companies who do business with the
county as in Rockland (and as recommended by the Poughkeepsie
Journal)-- and enact the crucial re-entry programs in our community
proven to be effective in cutting recidivism, lowering jail
overcrowding, and protecting public safety (as in Newark, Brooklyn,
and Lancaster)...
Act I [setting: Bardavon-- Dec. 2nd annual county budget hearing in
Poughkeepsie]...Steinhaus (Scrooge) repeatedly complaining "bah
humbug" re: "special interests" he's attacked in local papers
describing atrocious impact from his draconian budget cuts...(he's
done this-- over and over again)...
[re: Court-Appointed Special Advocates program for foster children at
Mental Health America of Dutchess County, Cornell Cooperative
Extension of Dutchess County, Hudson River Housing's overnight
shelter program, BOCES Wheels to Work program, Dutchess County Arts
Council, Lexington Center for Recovery, Hudson Valley Mental Health,
the annual veterans celebration at FDR/Wallace Center in Hyde Park,
the sheriff's department, and current, quality 18-B Family Court
assigned counsel program (at least some funding was restored, thx to
Dems pushing GOP Co. Leg., for all of those)]
[...and also re: programs completely eliminated both by Steinhaus and
GOP Co. Leg. majority (Rolison, Cooper, Flesland, et. al.)-- despite
Dem efforts-- Human Rights Commission, Senior Friendship Centers in
Millerton, Pawling, Hyde Park, and Fishkill, our county Health Dept.
home health care program for seniors, Youth Bureau's Project Return
program, Mediation Center of Dutchess County program for troubled
teens, youth mentoring/job training program at Du. Co. Regional
Chamber of Commerce, BOCES' GED program at our county jail, our
county's Office of Consumer Affairs, and our county Health Dept.'s
water lab; county funding decimated as well for Mid-Hudson Library
System, Mill Street Loft, MLK Center, Literacy Connections, Hudson
Valley Mental Health clinics, and Lexington Center for Recovery]
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Act II [setting: Poughkeepsie Grand Hotel-- Dec. 22nd--Steinhaus
gloating with campaign donor cronies, Rolison, Cooper, Flesland,
Borchert-- on their efforts to out-Norquist Norquist (and shrink
county government until it can be drowned in a tub-- 28 county
employees being laid off this holiday season...
[visit from Ghost of Christmas Past (moderate GOP President "Ike"
Eisenhower-- unafraid to tax the rich)-- warns Steinhaus of corrupt
government-contractor complex-- rife with kickbacks, conflicts of
interest]
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Act III [setting: Poughkeepsie-- low-income housing projects--
Christmas Eve early evening]-- Ghost of Christmas Present (FDR)
brings Steinhaus (like Scrooge in the original, invisible to those in
the real world) to see poor folks, seniors, youth with love and joy
in their hearts, families pulling together to celebrate holiday
around dinner meal-- with warmth demonstrable in souls despite huge
budget cuts...
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Act IV [setting: Steinhaus home in Pleasant Valley]-- Ghost of
Christmas Future (Eleanor Roosevelt) brings Steinhaus to see what
Dutchess County could well look like in just a few years unless he
and Co.
Leg. GOP majority wake up to their right-wing, tea-party, neocon
idiocy-- a jail quadrupled in size as more and more schools shut down
and effective, preventive, pro-active ATI programs are eliminated,
county senior and youth programs stopped completely, an incinerator
doubled in size, sprawl all over-- and smog getting visibly worse
year by year locally as a result; rampant water pollution across the
county, unchecked and unremediated, and perhaps most importantly,
hundreds more county employees laid off-- leaving the county
workforce only a small fraction of what it once was; practically
every county department fully privatized to GOP crony donors (while
local taxpayers subsidize poverty wages, benefits necessary from DSS
to make up difference for substandard pay in private sector)-- all
this, as county government has gotten smaller and smaller-- while
more and more local homeowners are losing their homes and forced to
move away or become homeless as property taxes have skyrocketed more
and more (GOP inability to make changes in tax system to be more
progressive-- from income tax)...
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Act V [setting: first in morning at Steinhaus home in Pleasant
Valley-- then press conference in front of County Office Building
later that same day to announce the following]-- Steinhaus wakes up
after his rude awakenings from the three Ghosts-- and a new day truly
is dawning in Dutchess--as our County Executive finally makes public
commitment to fund crucial programs in our county budget fully and
fairly with a county-level income tax (that could also easily,
completely eliminate onerous county property taxes), start a
revolving energy-efficiency/renewable loan fund to help local
homeowners save money on electric bills, create green jobs, and clean
air (as in Babylon and Bedford), catalyze solar farms in all our
communities (as Greene County IDA is doing), fully invest in
microenterprise lending (as Orange County has done), embrace an 85%
recycling goal for the county by 2020 (as recommended by Clearwater
and Sierra Club), hold local financial institutions publicly
accountable for their investment in our communities (as Philadelphia
and Los Angeles are doing, and as recommended by the Northern
Dutchess Alliance), put into place campaign finance reform here in
Dutchess on a county level- a $100 limit on donations to county
officials or candidates from companies who do business with the
county as in Rockland (and as recommended by the Poughkeepsie
Journal)-- and enact the crucial re-entry programs in our community
proven to be effective in cutting recidivism, lowering jail
overcrowding, and protecting public safety (as in Newark, Brooklyn,
and Lancaster)...
You're ALL cordially invited to come see our own twisted version (a
staged, dramatic reading with minimal props) of the holiday Dickens
classic, "A Christmas Carol for Dutchess County"-- this coming
Tuesday, Dec. 21st (my birthday!)...at 7 pm at Rhinebeck Town Hall--
at 80 East Market St. one block of main light in center of village--
three guesses who turns out to be Scrooge in our little version;
lol)...
[also-- tune in today (Fri.) from 5 to 6 pm to hear live radio
play performance of this-- on WVKR 91.3 FM http://www.wvkr.org -- and
if you can't listen then, tune in to hear it Sat. 8-10 am on WHVW 950
AM!]
Note-- if you or anyone you know feels inspired enough to read a
part-- feel free to join us at WVKR studios tomorrow (on third floor
of Vassar College Main Building in back) or at WHVW studios Saturday
morning (at 316 Main St. in Poughkeepsie), k?...
[and we'll also be rehearsing at Rhinebeck Town Hall Tues. starting
at 5 pm; feel free to join us then too!]
So-- let us know if you have any time tomorrow, Sat., and/or Tues. to
help read or make props, folks!...
[...yes, we will be videotaping this, too-- to put on PANDA public
access TV for Northern Dutchess, etc...]
The best birthday present y'all could give me this year-- show up
Tues. (or before) to help on this!...
[have already reached out to some theatrically inclined folks
locally-- but-- could use YOUR help too]
Look it up on Wikipedia-- Dickens wrote original version to make
political point....time for us!...
[note-- check out http://www.CenterforPerformingArts.org -- don't let
our twisted little production of "A Christmas Carol for Dutchess
County" stop y'all from going to see the real thing, courtesy of the
one and only Lou Trapani, Andy Weintraub, et. al. in
Rhinebeck!..."final weekend of performances-- "A Christmas Carol--
Dec. 17-19-- 8 p.m. Friday & Saturday; 3 p.m. Sunday; next in The
CENTER's Saturday Morning Family Series-- The Puppet People's "A
Christmas Carol"-- 11 a.m. Saturday, December 18"...go see!]
Pass it on...
Joel
444-0599/876-2488
joeltyner@earthlink.net
[note-- what's below is a rough draft/outline sketch for production--
got story/dialogue ideas?...costume ideas?...set ideas?...any
ideas?...let us know!...ok, it's just a staged, dramatic
reading...but...let us know!]
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Still hashing out dialogue specifics (ideas anyone?)...but for now this:
Narrator: "Note-- All of the events, characters and institutions in this story tonight-- "A Christmas Carol for Dutchess County"-- are fictional-- and any similarity to any actual events, or institutions is unintentional and purely coincidential.
So-- let's begin-- our play takes place long, long, ago, in a galaxy far, far away-- in the sleepy little county of Crutches in upstate New York at the early part of the twenty-first century; the setting is the Lardavon 1869 Opera House in Skipperkee-- it's early December, in fact-- and the annual county budget hearing...let's see what the good people of Crutches County are telling the Crutches County government's leadership this evening..."
Tyrone Washington: "My name is Tyrone Washington, I've lived here in Skipperkee for fifty-three years, and I want to tell you why it's important that Crutches County has a Human Rights Commission. Where I work-- at a local retail outlet- I'll keep the name anonymous for now-- I and all of my black co-workers this past fall received a large group of racist emails forwarded to us from our colleagues that were originally from Republican candidate Carl Schmalidino-- and besides this, almost daily for months now, believe it or not, we've had to face near-constant harassment about our skin color-- here and now in 2010. Without a Human Rights Commission here in Smutchess, there is no accountability and no way for us to deal with such insensitivity in the twenty-first century. I some folks think that, with Barack Obama in the White House, that discrimination is a thing of the past, but, as County Legislator Barbara Schmeter-Schmackson recently said during one of the County Legislature meetings, "Let me assure you, racism is alive and kicking in Crutches County."
Ebenezer Steinhooge (on other side of stage): "Bah-- humbug-- special interests; we have to right-size county government here in Smutches County..."
Jose Rodriguez: "My name is Jose Rodriguez, I've lived here in Crutches County for thirteen years; I came here from Mexico looking for work; I was forced to do this (along with many of my neighbors) so that our families could make ends meet-- after the North American Free Trade Agreement made it impossible for our farms to survice. I'm here to tell you that a Human Rights Commission is needed here in Crutches County, still in 2010-- because my children, my wife, and even myself are teased every single day for the color of our skin and for where we came from. If you don't think a Human Rights Commission is needed in Crutches County, please come to my neighborhood and talk with my family and our neighbors-- it's not just us-- all of our kids get picked on, teased, and bullied mercilessly daily in our schools-- aside from what we adults ourselves have to deal with in our jobs. Our county's Human Rights Commission has done a great job reaching out to our community-- to make sure there's communication between us and the police, and to make sure we know we are welcomed here. Please don't end what the Commission has been doing-- have a heart and do what's right for all of us here in Crutches County. We all deserve to have our human rights protected-- no matter what color our skin is."
Ebenezer Steinhooge (on other side of stage): "Hm.... Rodriguez... Rodriguez...rings a bell.....Rodriguez...don't recall any campaign contributions from any Jose Rodriguez-- bah-- humbug- special interests..."
Alice Stevens: "Good evening-- my name is Alice Stevens; I've been living in LaGrange for thirty-six years now; forgive me; I'm a little nervous; I've never spoken before in public at an event like this...But the reason why I'm here tonight is to impress upon you how important it is that our county's Human Rights Commission be allowed to continue to do the important work they've been doing for over three decades now-- not just fighting against discrimination over race issues-- but also effectively addressing unfair treatment of women. Yes, women-- here and now in 2010, folks. And it's not just me-- how do I know this? Because, due to my contacting the Human Rights Commission, I learned that it wasn't just me being discriminated against at my job (I work at a local manufacturing plant; I'll leave the name out for now)-- I also found out, thanks to the Commission, that literally dozens of other women at my job have made similar complaints over the years about being harassed, treated unfairly, and passed over for promotions in favor of lesser qualified, lesser experienced, lesser educated, lesser able male co-workers rising above us. On a national level, the Equal Rights Amendment still hasn't been added to our Constitution, forty years after the 70's began-- but here locally in Crutches County, the very least we can do to stand up for the rights of women, people of color, and all of us, is to keep our Human Rights Commission standing-- and standing strong."
Ebenezer Steinhooge (on other side of stage): "Bah-- humbug-- special interests...."
[...plus......testimony at budget hearing from these twelve below (each time with Steinhooge bah-humbugging at end]
My name is Erica Monroe (senior discriminated against)
My name is Martha Sanborn (disabled discriminated against)
My name is Rudy Gerrickson (gay discriminated against)
My name is Joan Hodges (lesbian discriminated against)
mother of someone cycled in and out can't get GED program at county jail
mother of troubled teen re: Project Return Youth Bureau
mother of troubled teen
Mediation Center's program for juvenile delinquency prevention
senior from Millerton
senior from Pawling
senior from nursing home (senior home care program at county Health Department)
consumer who got ripped off by home constactor (Office of Consumer Affairs)
heroin addict Lexington Center
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Act II [setting: Poughkeepsie Grand Hotel-- Dec. 22nd-- Ebenezer Steinhooge crowing with campaign donor cronies and GOP leadership of Crutches County Legislature-- Cob Ruleson, Scary Scooper, Evangelica Fleeceland, and Stale Boorchart-- crowing on their efforts to out-Norquist Norquist (and shrink county government until it can be drowned in a tub-- 28 county employees being laid off this holiday season...
[visit from Ghost of Christmas Past (moderate GOP President "Ike"
Eisenhower-- unafraid to tax the rich)-- warns Steinhaus of corrupt
government-contractor complex-- rife with kickbacks, conflicts of
interest]
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Act III [setting: Poughkeepsie-- low-income housing projects--
Christmas Eve early evening]-- Ghost of Christmas Present (FDR)
brings Steinhaus (like Scrooge in the original, invisible to those in
the real world) to see poor folks, seniors, youth with love and joy
in their hearts, families pulling together to celebrate holiday
around dinner meal-- with warmth demonstrable in souls despite huge
budget cuts...
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Act IV [setting: Steinhaus home in Pleasant Valley]-- Ghost of
Christmas Future (Eleanor Roosevelt) brings Steinhaus to see what
Dutchess County could well look like in just a few years unless he
and Co. Leg. GOP majority wake up to their right-wing, tea-party, neocon
idiocy-- a jail quadrupled in size as more and more schools shut down
and effective, preventive, pro-active ATI programs are eliminated,
county senior and youth programs stopped completely, an incinerator
doubled in size, sprawl all over-- and smog getting visibly worse
year by year locally as a result; rampant water pollution across the
county, unchecked and unremediated, and perhaps most importantly,
hundreds more county employees laid off-- leaving the county
workforce only a small fraction of what it once was; practically
every county department fully privatized to GOP crony donors (while
local taxpayers subsidize poverty wages, benefits necessary from DSS
to make up difference for substandard pay in private sector)-- all
this, as county government has gotten smaller and smaller-- while
more and more local homeowners are losing their homes and forced to
move away or become homeless as property taxes have skyrocketed more
and more (GOP inability to make changes in tax system to be more
progressive-- from income tax)...
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Act V [setting: first in morning at Steinhaus home in Pleasant
Valley-- then press conference in front of County Office Building
later that same day to announce the following]-- Steinhaus wakes up
after his rude awakenings from the three Ghosts-- and a new day truly
is dawning in Dutchess--as our County Executive finally makes public
commitment to fund crucial programs in our county budget fully and
fairly with a county-level income tax (that could also easily,
completely eliminate onerous county property taxes), start a
revolving energy-efficiency/renewable loan fund to help local
homeowners save money on electric bills, create green jobs, and clean
air (as in Babylon and Bedford), catalyze solar farms in all our
communities (as Greene County IDA is doing), fully invest in
microenterprise lending (as Orange County has done), embrace an 85%
recycling goal for the county by 2020 (as recommended by Clearwater
and Sierra Club), hold local financial institutions publicly
accountable for their investment in our communities (as Philadelphia
and Los Angeles are doing, and as recommended by the Northern
Dutchess Alliance), put into place campaign finance reform here in
Dutchess on a county level- a $100 limit on donations to county
officials or candidates from companies who do business with the
county as in Rockland (and as recommended by the Poughkeepsie
Journal)-- and enact the crucial re-entry programs in our community
proven to be effective in cutting recidivism, lowering jail
overcrowding, and protecting public safety (as in Newark, Brooklyn,
and Lancaster)...
Act I [setting: Bardavon-- Dec. 2nd annual county budget hearing in
Poughkeepsie]...Steinhaus (Scrooge) repeatedly complaining "bah
humbug" re: "special interests" he's attacked in local papers
describing atrocious impact from his draconian budget cuts...(he's
done this-- over and over again)...
[re: Court-Appointed Special Advocates program for foster children at
Mental Health America of Dutchess County, Cornell Cooperative
Extension of Dutchess County, Hudson River Housing's overnight
shelter program, BOCES Wheels to Work program, Dutchess County Arts
Council, Lexington Center for Recovery, Hudson Valley Mental Health,
the annual veterans celebration at FDR/Wallace Center in Hyde Park,
the sheriff's department, and current, quality 18-B Family Court
assigned counsel program (at least some funding was restored, thx to
Dems pushing GOP Co. Leg., for all of those)]
[...and also re: programs completely eliminated both by Steinhaus and
GOP Co. Leg. majority (Rolison, Cooper, Flesland, et. al.)-- despite
Dem efforts-- Human Rights Commission, Senior Friendship Centers in
Millerton, Pawling, Hyde Park, and Fishkill, our county Health Dept.
home health care program for seniors, Youth Bureau's Project Return
program, Mediation Center of Dutchess County program for troubled
teens, youth mentoring/job training program at Du. Co. Regional
Chamber of Commerce, BOCES' GED program at our county jail, our
county's Office of Consumer Affairs, and our county Health Dept.'s
water lab; county funding decimated as well for Mid-Hudson Library
System, Mill Street Loft, MLK Center, Literacy Connections, Hudson
Valley Mental Health clinics, and Lexington Center for Recovery]
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Act II [setting: Poughkeepsie Grand Hotel-- Dec. 22nd--Steinhaus
gloating with campaign donor cronies, Rolison, Cooper, Flesland,
Borchert-- on their efforts to out-Norquist Norquist (and shrink
county government until it can be drowned in a tub-- 28 county
employees being laid off this holiday season...
[visit from Ghost of Christmas Past (moderate GOP President "Ike"
Eisenhower-- unafraid to tax the rich)-- warns Steinhaus of corrupt
government-contractor complex-- rife with kickbacks, conflicts of
interest]
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Act III [setting: Poughkeepsie-- low-income housing projects--
Christmas Eve early evening]-- Ghost of Christmas Present (FDR)
brings Steinhaus (like Scrooge in the original, invisible to those in
the real world) to see poor folks, seniors, youth with love and joy
in their hearts, families pulling together to celebrate holiday
around dinner meal-- with warmth demonstrable in souls despite huge
budget cuts...
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Act IV [setting: Steinhaus home in Pleasant Valley]-- Ghost of
Christmas Future (Eleanor Roosevelt) brings Steinhaus to see what
Dutchess County could well look like in just a few years unless he
and Co.
Leg. GOP majority wake up to their right-wing, tea-party, neocon
idiocy-- a jail quadrupled in size as more and more schools shut down
and effective, preventive, pro-active ATI programs are eliminated,
county senior and youth programs stopped completely, an incinerator
doubled in size, sprawl all over-- and smog getting visibly worse
year by year locally as a result; rampant water pollution across the
county, unchecked and unremediated, and perhaps most importantly,
hundreds more county employees laid off-- leaving the county
workforce only a small fraction of what it once was; practically
every county department fully privatized to GOP crony donors (while
local taxpayers subsidize poverty wages, benefits necessary from DSS
to make up difference for substandard pay in private sector)-- all
this, as county government has gotten smaller and smaller-- while
more and more local homeowners are losing their homes and forced to
move away or become homeless as property taxes have skyrocketed more
and more (GOP inability to make changes in tax system to be more
progressive-- from income tax)...
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Act V [setting: first in morning at Steinhaus home in Pleasant
Valley-- then press conference in front of County Office Building
later that same day to announce the following]-- Steinhaus wakes up
after his rude awakenings from the three Ghosts-- and a new day truly
is dawning in Dutchess--as our County Executive finally makes public
commitment to fund crucial programs in our county budget fully and
fairly with a county-level income tax (that could also easily,
completely eliminate onerous county property taxes), start a
revolving energy-efficiency/renewable loan fund to help local
homeowners save money on electric bills, create green jobs, and clean
air (as in Babylon and Bedford), catalyze solar farms in all our
communities (as Greene County IDA is doing), fully invest in
microenterprise lending (as Orange County has done), embrace an 85%
recycling goal for the county by 2020 (as recommended by Clearwater
and Sierra Club), hold local financial institutions publicly
accountable for their investment in our communities (as Philadelphia
and Los Angeles are doing, and as recommended by the Northern
Dutchess Alliance), put into place campaign finance reform here in
Dutchess on a county level- a $100 limit on donations to county
officials or candidates from companies who do business with the
county as in Rockland (and as recommended by the Poughkeepsie
Journal)-- and enact the crucial re-entry programs in our community
proven to be effective in cutting recidivism, lowering jail
overcrowding, and protecting public safety (as in Newark, Brooklyn,
and Lancaster)...
Friday, December 10, 2010
Eleanor Roosevelt's Universal Declaration of Human Rights turns 62 today-- join us!...
"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world."
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
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Hi all...
Today (Friday) marks the 62nd anniversary of the UN's General Assembly voting to adopt the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, drafted by Dutchess County's own Eleanor Roosevelt...
So-- if you can-- please join Dutchess County Human Rights Commission Director Marilyn Vetrano and yours truly for a special press conference to mark this (esp. now that GOP have eliminated (yesterday at 1:30 am) our county's Human Rights Commission)-- gather with us today (Fri.) at 9:30 am in front of our County Office Building at 22 Market St. in Poughkeepsie-- to wake up media on this!...
Fact: Both Ku Klux Klan and cross burnings have been here in Dutchess County over past two decades.
Fact: Complaints, inquiries, and info requests to our county's Human Rights Commission since 2000:
[from African-Americans, Latino immigrants, women, seniors, differently abled, and gays and lesbians]
2009-- 926 (less than '08 only because DCHRC was unable to process calls for 45 days; budget cuts)
2008-- 971 different complaints, inquiries, and info requests to our county's Human Rights Commission
2007-- 860 different complaints, inquiries, and info requests to our county's Human Rights Commission
2006-- 817 different complaints, inquiries, and info requests to our county's Human Rights Commission
2005-- 676 different complaints, inquiries, and info requests to our county's Human Rights Commission
2004-- 711 different complaints, inquiries, and info requests to our county's Human Rights Commission
2003-- 768 different complaints, inquiries, and info requests to our county's Human Rights Commission
2002-- 768 different complaints, inquiries, and info requests to our county's Human Rights Commission
2001-- 789 different complaints, inquiries, and info requests to our county's Human Rights Commission
2000-- 800 different complaints, inquiries, and info requests to our county's Human Rights Commission
Looking at those numbers above-- would say our county doesn't need a Human Rights Commission?...
[note as well-- our county's Human Rights Commission has also received dozens of complaints about various police departments and our criminal justice system over the past two years alone; the fact is that two GOP county legislators have served for quite a long time as police officers locally-- coincidence?]
Wake up, folks...(before the coffee gets too cold-- hold GOP Co. Leg. majority accountable, people!)...
Letters needed asap on this-- for media to fully cover this-- letterstoeditor@poughkeepsiejournal.com, letters@freemanonline.com, newsplace@aol.com, and editorial@thehudsonvalleynews.com...
[meet with us this Sat. 10:30 am at Palace Diner (194 Washington St. in Poughkeepsie)-- it's not over]
Just say NO to New Barbarism and New Dark Ages-- stop local GOP tea-party idiocy from spreading!...
This IS Dutchess County-- land of Eleanor Roosevelt-- holy, sacrosanct ground-- HOW DARE THEY...
[pass it on]
Joel
444-0599/876-2488
joeltyner@earthlink.net
[from http://www.UDHR.org -- On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the full text of which appears in the following pages. Following this historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and "to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories." (scroll down below for full text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)]
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From http://www.udhr.org/history/biographies/bioer.htm ...
Eleanor Roosevelt
Although she had already won international respect and admiration in her role as First Lady to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt's work on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights would become her greatest legacy. She was without doubt, the most influential member of the UN's Commission on Human Rights.
Unlike most other members of the Commission, Mrs. Roosevelt was neither a scholar nor an expert on international law. Her enthusiasm for her work at the United Nations was rooted in her humanitarian convictions and her steady faith in human dignity and worth. Although she often joked that she was out of place among so many academics and jurists, her intellect and compassion were great assets, and proved to be of crucial importance in the composition of a direct and straightforward Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
With characteristic modesty, Eleanor Roosevelt considered her position on the Commission to be one of ambassador for the common man and woman: "I used to tell my husband that, if he could make me understand something, it would be clear to all other people in the country, and perhaps that will be my real value on this drafting commission!"
The delegates to the Commission on Human Rights elected Eleanor Roosevelt their Chairperson. Like so many individuals throughout the world, the delegates recognized Eleanor Roosevelt's unparalleled humanitarian convictions. During her tenure in the White House she had assisted her physically disabled husband in political matters, serving as his "eyes and ears," traveling throughout the U.S. to gauge the mood of the people. Through this work, she became widely esteemed as a person who both understood and felt the plight of the common man and woman.
Even prior to her years in the White House, Eleanor Roosevelt was actively engaged in politics and advocacy on the local and national level. She was an astute, accomplished, and intelligent woman, thoroughly familiar with the world of political negotiation. Just as she had served as a liaison of sorts between the President and his constituency, so she acted as a liaison between the Commission and the hopes of humanity. She may have lacked certain factual knowledge, but she had a keen sense of what the average person expected out of life - what men, women and children needed to flourish as individuals.
Her common sense approach, constant optimism and boundless energy were integral to the smooth facilitation of meetings. On any given issue, her colloquial style and good humor were engaged not only to win over the majority of delegates who generally supported a particular U.S. position, but to confound those who opposed it. A New York Times reporter who was present at the Commission meetings wrote of the power Mrs. Roosevelt's personality had over certain unreasonable diplomats:
The Russians seem to have met their match in Mrs. Roosevelt. The proceedings sometimes turn into a long vitriolic attack on the U.S. when she is not present. These attacks, however, generally denigrate into flurries in the face of her calm and undisturbed but often pointed replies.
If Mrs. Roosevelt made one sort of impression with her familiar style, she made another with her commitment to produce a universally accepted, "living" declaration. She was recognized as a tireless worker, stating triumphantly at one point, "I drive hard and when I get home I will be tired! The men on the Commission will be also!" Many of the delegates found this aspect of her personality less agreeable than her charm. One went so far as to suggest that his own human rights were violated by the length of the meetings!
Envisioning a declaration with enduring principles that would be perpetually recognized by all nations, she was a strong advocate of true universality within the Declaration. She was adamant that different conceptions of human rights be deliberated during the UDHR's composition:
We wanted as many nations as possible to accept the fact that men, for one reason or another, were born free and equal in dignity and rights, that they were endowed with reason and conscience, and should act toward one another in a spirit of brotherhood. The way to do that was to find words that everyone would accept.
Eleanor Roosevelt's personal sense of accomplishment with the finished Declaration was unparalleled in her life. Her speech before the General Assembly as she submitted the Declaration for review demonstrates the historical significance she placed upon its adoption:
We stand today at the threshold of a great event both in the life of the United Nations and in the life of mankind. This declaration may well become the international Magna Carta for all men everywhere. We hope its proclamation by the General Assembly will be an event comparable to the proclamation in 1789 [of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man], the adoption of the Bill of Rights by the people of the U.S., and the adoption of comparable declarations at different times in other countries...
Eleanor Roosevelt's concern for humanity made her the driving force behind the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Her leadership of the Commission on Human Rights led to the composition of a Declaration that has endured as a universally accepted standard of achievement for all nations. As our respect for and understanding of the Universal Declaration has grown, so too has our gratitude and admiration for this modest woman who passionately pursued what she imagined would become a cornerstone in the struggle for human rights and fundamental freedoms for everyone - everywhere.
She lived her life in the center of what many would regard the Twentieth Century's most consequential events, the Great Depression, World War II, the establishment of the United Nations and the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. She confronted both opportunity and adversity with a sense of optimism and determination. A former Democratic presidential candidate, Adlai Stevenson, once said of Eleanor Roosevelt, "She would rather light a candle than curse the darkness."
Eleanor Roosevelt on Human Rights:
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (December 10, 1948) United Nations.
The Universal Declaration is the primary international articulation of the fundamental and inalienable rights of all members of the human family. It represents the first comprehensive agreement among nations as to the specific rights and freedoms of all human beings. The Declaration has become a cornerstone of customary international law, binding all governments to its principles.
Human Rights and Human Freedom: An American View (1946) Eleanor Roosevelt
As a member of the United States delegation to the United Nations General Assembly, Mrs. Roosevelt debates Andrei Vishinsky, chief Soviet delegate, over the proposed amendment that no propaganda should be permitted in refugee camps against the interests of the United Nations or its members. The success of her argument, based on the idea that such an amendment would violate human rights by restricting freedom of speech and expression, strengthened Mrs. Roosevelt's position as a leading voice in the international defense of human rights.
The Promise of Human Rights (April 1948) Eleanor Roosevelt.
This article, from the journal Foreign Affairs, provides a brief history of the Commission on Human Rights and its efforts to write a draft international Bill of Human Rights, including a Declaration and a Convention. Mrs. Roosevelt discusses both documents, including the articles she thinks are of vital importance, and her views on the Commission's work in general.
Making Human Rights Come Alive (1949) Eleanor Roosevelt.
This speech to the Second National Conference on UNESCO reflects on the Universal Declaration and the problems that had to be overcome in writing a truly international document. Mrs. Roosevelt cites the difficulties in searching for appropriate wording and precedents in law and especially in bridging the gaps between cultures.
Statement on Draft Covenant on Human Rights (1951) Eleanor Roosevelt.
The American delegation proposes that the Draft Covenant be divided into two separate documents of equal importance to be considered for adoption simultaneously; one for civil and political rights and the other for economic, social, and cultural rights. Mrs. Roosevelt argues that differences in terms of the time, methods and machinery needed to implement the various provisions make such a division a practical step.
On the Draft Convention on Political Rights of Women (1953) Eleanor Roosevelt.
Discussing the specific articles of the Convention, Mrs. Roosevelt argues that the objectives of the United Nations are not only to encourage equal political rights for women in all countries, but also to ensure that women fully participate in directing the policy making of their governments.
In Your Hands (March 27, 1958) Eleanor Roosevelt.
Presenting a "guide to community action" on the eve of the Universal Declaration's Tenth Anniversary, Mrs. Roosevelt declares that "the destiny of human rights is in the hands of all our citizens in all our communities." She urges people to improve human rights conditions "in small places, close to home" as the first step towards global progress.
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From http://www.UDHR.org ...
On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the full text of which appears in the following pages. Following this historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and "to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories."
PREAMBLE
Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,
Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,
Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,
Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,
Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,
Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,
Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.
Article 1.
* All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 2.
* Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
Article 3.
* Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
Article 4.
* No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
Article 5.
* No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Article 6.
* Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
Article 7.
* All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
Article 8.
* Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
Article 9.
* No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
Article 10.
* Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.
Article 11.
* (1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
* (2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.
Article 12.
* No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
Article 13.
* (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
* (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
Article 14.
* (1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
* (2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Article 15.
* (1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.
* (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.
Article 16.
* (1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
* (2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
* (3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.
Article 17.
* (1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
* (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
Article 18.
* Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
Article 19.
* Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Article 20.
* (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
* (2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.
Article 21.
* (1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
* (2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
* (3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.
Article 22.
* Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.
Article 23.
* (1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
* (2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
* (3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
* (4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
Article 24.
* Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
Article 25.
* (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
* (2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
Article 26.
* (1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
* (2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
* (3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.
Article 27.
* (1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
* (2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.
Article 28.
* Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.
Article 29.
* (1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
* (2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
* (3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Article 30.
* Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
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Hi all...
Today (Friday) marks the 62nd anniversary of the UN's General Assembly voting to adopt the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, drafted by Dutchess County's own Eleanor Roosevelt...
So-- if you can-- please join Dutchess County Human Rights Commission Director Marilyn Vetrano and yours truly for a special press conference to mark this (esp. now that GOP have eliminated (yesterday at 1:30 am) our county's Human Rights Commission)-- gather with us today (Fri.) at 9:30 am in front of our County Office Building at 22 Market St. in Poughkeepsie-- to wake up media on this!...
Fact: Both Ku Klux Klan and cross burnings have been here in Dutchess County over past two decades.
Fact: Complaints, inquiries, and info requests to our county's Human Rights Commission since 2000:
[from African-Americans, Latino immigrants, women, seniors, differently abled, and gays and lesbians]
2009-- 926 (less than '08 only because DCHRC was unable to process calls for 45 days; budget cuts)
2008-- 971 different complaints, inquiries, and info requests to our county's Human Rights Commission
2007-- 860 different complaints, inquiries, and info requests to our county's Human Rights Commission
2006-- 817 different complaints, inquiries, and info requests to our county's Human Rights Commission
2005-- 676 different complaints, inquiries, and info requests to our county's Human Rights Commission
2004-- 711 different complaints, inquiries, and info requests to our county's Human Rights Commission
2003-- 768 different complaints, inquiries, and info requests to our county's Human Rights Commission
2002-- 768 different complaints, inquiries, and info requests to our county's Human Rights Commission
2001-- 789 different complaints, inquiries, and info requests to our county's Human Rights Commission
2000-- 800 different complaints, inquiries, and info requests to our county's Human Rights Commission
Looking at those numbers above-- would say our county doesn't need a Human Rights Commission?...
[note as well-- our county's Human Rights Commission has also received dozens of complaints about various police departments and our criminal justice system over the past two years alone; the fact is that two GOP county legislators have served for quite a long time as police officers locally-- coincidence?]
Wake up, folks...(before the coffee gets too cold-- hold GOP Co. Leg. majority accountable, people!)...
Letters needed asap on this-- for media to fully cover this-- letterstoeditor@poughkeepsiejournal.com, letters@freemanonline.com, newsplace@aol.com, and editorial@thehudsonvalleynews.com...
[meet with us this Sat. 10:30 am at Palace Diner (194 Washington St. in Poughkeepsie)-- it's not over]
Just say NO to New Barbarism and New Dark Ages-- stop local GOP tea-party idiocy from spreading!...
This IS Dutchess County-- land of Eleanor Roosevelt-- holy, sacrosanct ground-- HOW DARE THEY...
[pass it on]
Joel
444-0599/876-2488
joeltyner@earthlink.net
[from http://www.UDHR.org -- On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the full text of which appears in the following pages. Following this historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and "to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories." (scroll down below for full text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)]
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From http://www.udhr.org/history/biographies/bioer.htm ...
Eleanor Roosevelt
Although she had already won international respect and admiration in her role as First Lady to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt's work on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights would become her greatest legacy. She was without doubt, the most influential member of the UN's Commission on Human Rights.
Unlike most other members of the Commission, Mrs. Roosevelt was neither a scholar nor an expert on international law. Her enthusiasm for her work at the United Nations was rooted in her humanitarian convictions and her steady faith in human dignity and worth. Although she often joked that she was out of place among so many academics and jurists, her intellect and compassion were great assets, and proved to be of crucial importance in the composition of a direct and straightforward Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
With characteristic modesty, Eleanor Roosevelt considered her position on the Commission to be one of ambassador for the common man and woman: "I used to tell my husband that, if he could make me understand something, it would be clear to all other people in the country, and perhaps that will be my real value on this drafting commission!"
The delegates to the Commission on Human Rights elected Eleanor Roosevelt their Chairperson. Like so many individuals throughout the world, the delegates recognized Eleanor Roosevelt's unparalleled humanitarian convictions. During her tenure in the White House she had assisted her physically disabled husband in political matters, serving as his "eyes and ears," traveling throughout the U.S. to gauge the mood of the people. Through this work, she became widely esteemed as a person who both understood and felt the plight of the common man and woman.
Even prior to her years in the White House, Eleanor Roosevelt was actively engaged in politics and advocacy on the local and national level. She was an astute, accomplished, and intelligent woman, thoroughly familiar with the world of political negotiation. Just as she had served as a liaison of sorts between the President and his constituency, so she acted as a liaison between the Commission and the hopes of humanity. She may have lacked certain factual knowledge, but she had a keen sense of what the average person expected out of life - what men, women and children needed to flourish as individuals.
Her common sense approach, constant optimism and boundless energy were integral to the smooth facilitation of meetings. On any given issue, her colloquial style and good humor were engaged not only to win over the majority of delegates who generally supported a particular U.S. position, but to confound those who opposed it. A New York Times reporter who was present at the Commission meetings wrote of the power Mrs. Roosevelt's personality had over certain unreasonable diplomats:
The Russians seem to have met their match in Mrs. Roosevelt. The proceedings sometimes turn into a long vitriolic attack on the U.S. when she is not present. These attacks, however, generally denigrate into flurries in the face of her calm and undisturbed but often pointed replies.
If Mrs. Roosevelt made one sort of impression with her familiar style, she made another with her commitment to produce a universally accepted, "living" declaration. She was recognized as a tireless worker, stating triumphantly at one point, "I drive hard and when I get home I will be tired! The men on the Commission will be also!" Many of the delegates found this aspect of her personality less agreeable than her charm. One went so far as to suggest that his own human rights were violated by the length of the meetings!
Envisioning a declaration with enduring principles that would be perpetually recognized by all nations, she was a strong advocate of true universality within the Declaration. She was adamant that different conceptions of human rights be deliberated during the UDHR's composition:
We wanted as many nations as possible to accept the fact that men, for one reason or another, were born free and equal in dignity and rights, that they were endowed with reason and conscience, and should act toward one another in a spirit of brotherhood. The way to do that was to find words that everyone would accept.
Eleanor Roosevelt's personal sense of accomplishment with the finished Declaration was unparalleled in her life. Her speech before the General Assembly as she submitted the Declaration for review demonstrates the historical significance she placed upon its adoption:
We stand today at the threshold of a great event both in the life of the United Nations and in the life of mankind. This declaration may well become the international Magna Carta for all men everywhere. We hope its proclamation by the General Assembly will be an event comparable to the proclamation in 1789 [of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man], the adoption of the Bill of Rights by the people of the U.S., and the adoption of comparable declarations at different times in other countries...
Eleanor Roosevelt's concern for humanity made her the driving force behind the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Her leadership of the Commission on Human Rights led to the composition of a Declaration that has endured as a universally accepted standard of achievement for all nations. As our respect for and understanding of the Universal Declaration has grown, so too has our gratitude and admiration for this modest woman who passionately pursued what she imagined would become a cornerstone in the struggle for human rights and fundamental freedoms for everyone - everywhere.
She lived her life in the center of what many would regard the Twentieth Century's most consequential events, the Great Depression, World War II, the establishment of the United Nations and the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. She confronted both opportunity and adversity with a sense of optimism and determination. A former Democratic presidential candidate, Adlai Stevenson, once said of Eleanor Roosevelt, "She would rather light a candle than curse the darkness."
Eleanor Roosevelt on Human Rights:
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (December 10, 1948) United Nations.
The Universal Declaration is the primary international articulation of the fundamental and inalienable rights of all members of the human family. It represents the first comprehensive agreement among nations as to the specific rights and freedoms of all human beings. The Declaration has become a cornerstone of customary international law, binding all governments to its principles.
Human Rights and Human Freedom: An American View (1946) Eleanor Roosevelt
As a member of the United States delegation to the United Nations General Assembly, Mrs. Roosevelt debates Andrei Vishinsky, chief Soviet delegate, over the proposed amendment that no propaganda should be permitted in refugee camps against the interests of the United Nations or its members. The success of her argument, based on the idea that such an amendment would violate human rights by restricting freedom of speech and expression, strengthened Mrs. Roosevelt's position as a leading voice in the international defense of human rights.
The Promise of Human Rights (April 1948) Eleanor Roosevelt.
This article, from the journal Foreign Affairs, provides a brief history of the Commission on Human Rights and its efforts to write a draft international Bill of Human Rights, including a Declaration and a Convention. Mrs. Roosevelt discusses both documents, including the articles she thinks are of vital importance, and her views on the Commission's work in general.
Making Human Rights Come Alive (1949) Eleanor Roosevelt.
This speech to the Second National Conference on UNESCO reflects on the Universal Declaration and the problems that had to be overcome in writing a truly international document. Mrs. Roosevelt cites the difficulties in searching for appropriate wording and precedents in law and especially in bridging the gaps between cultures.
Statement on Draft Covenant on Human Rights (1951) Eleanor Roosevelt.
The American delegation proposes that the Draft Covenant be divided into two separate documents of equal importance to be considered for adoption simultaneously; one for civil and political rights and the other for economic, social, and cultural rights. Mrs. Roosevelt argues that differences in terms of the time, methods and machinery needed to implement the various provisions make such a division a practical step.
On the Draft Convention on Political Rights of Women (1953) Eleanor Roosevelt.
Discussing the specific articles of the Convention, Mrs. Roosevelt argues that the objectives of the United Nations are not only to encourage equal political rights for women in all countries, but also to ensure that women fully participate in directing the policy making of their governments.
In Your Hands (March 27, 1958) Eleanor Roosevelt.
Presenting a "guide to community action" on the eve of the Universal Declaration's Tenth Anniversary, Mrs. Roosevelt declares that "the destiny of human rights is in the hands of all our citizens in all our communities." She urges people to improve human rights conditions "in small places, close to home" as the first step towards global progress.
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From http://www.UDHR.org ...
On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the full text of which appears in the following pages. Following this historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and "to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories."
PREAMBLE
Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,
Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,
Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,
Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,
Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,
Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,
Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.
Article 1.
* All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 2.
* Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
Article 3.
* Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
Article 4.
* No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
Article 5.
* No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Article 6.
* Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
Article 7.
* All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
Article 8.
* Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
Article 9.
* No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
Article 10.
* Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.
Article 11.
* (1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
* (2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.
Article 12.
* No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
Article 13.
* (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
* (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
Article 14.
* (1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
* (2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Article 15.
* (1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.
* (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.
Article 16.
* (1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
* (2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
* (3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.
Article 17.
* (1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
* (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
Article 18.
* Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
Article 19.
* Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Article 20.
* (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
* (2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.
Article 21.
* (1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
* (2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
* (3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.
Article 22.
* Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.
Article 23.
* (1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
* (2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
* (3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
* (4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
Article 24.
* Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
Article 25.
* (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
* (2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
Article 26.
* (1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
* (2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
* (3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.
Article 27.
* (1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
* (2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.
Article 28.
* Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.
Article 29.
* (1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
* (2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
* (3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Article 30.
* Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.
Daily Freeman sensationalizes, exaggerates, lies-- why?...hold 'em accountable!...
Hi all...
Miss this from yesterday's Daily Freeman?...(only saw this just now)...
"The GOP rejection of a Democratic effort to restore funding to keep the Human Rights Commission open prompted Legislator Joel Tyner, D-Clinton, to shout 'Racist cowards!' as each Republican voted no."
[from "Dutchess Budget Downsizes County Government"
http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/2010/12/09/news/doc4d0042aeae673446392810.txt ]
Sadly, as they have done so many times before in blatantly biased attempts to take me down, the Daily Freeman has proven once again they can't get it right (even when the reporter is in the room at the time-- and even when the webcast of the meeting is easily viewable online)...
[I've already submitted a letter to the editor correcting them on this and setting the record straight-- let's see if they do that(!)....(feel free to submit your own-- at letters@freemanonline.com).]
Seriously, folks-- I urge you all to view the actual webcast of Tuesday night's meeting for yourselves-- at www.totalwebcasting.com/view/?id=dutchess -- to learn the following facts for yourselves on this:
Fact #1: I didn't shout anything; I only made the "racist cowards" statement once.
Fact #2: Not one GOP county legislator was willing to explain why they were (and are) so bent on killing our county's only Human Rights Commission after decades of service to Dutchess residents (I thought that was particularly cowardly-- their unwillingness to make any public statement whatsoever explaining their actions on this; shouldn't legislators be held publicly accountable and responsible for their actions?).
Fact #3: Even over the past two decades the Ku Klux Klan has been active here in Dutchess County-- along with cross burnings as well.
Fact #4: Over 700 Dutchess residents have contacted our county's Human Rights Commission each year for the past decade with various complaints and requests for information-- including dozens over the last two years alone from about police officers. (it's just a coincidence that two of the GOP county legislators bent on eliminating our county's Human Rights Commission have served for decades as police officers?).
Fact #5: Our county's Human Rights Commission has also effectively dealt with complaints from senior citizens, women, people with disabilities, immigrants, gays, lesbians, and many others across Dutchess County.
Fact #6: Just over the last five years the GOP majority in our County Legislature has targeted youth of color and Latino immigrants for racist scapegoating with the GOP's mailings and statements (re: GOP literature mailed out across Dutchess in 2005 against a bail loan fund-- and re: GOP statements against allowing undocumented workers to have driver's licenses).
Fact #7: This week (today, actually) happens to be the 62nd anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (drafted by Dutchess County's own Eleanor Roosevelt) on Dec. 10th, 1948-- as Eleanor said, "where do human rights begin?...close to home"-- it is a huge slap in the face to the legacy of our county's own Eleanor Roosevelt that our County Legislature's GOP majority this week decided not only to eliminate our county's own Human Rights Commission-- but to also do so in such a cowardly fashion (without even having the guts to make any public statement on this whatsoever).
Fact #8: Racial discrimination and all sorts of other discrimination, sadly, is alive and well here in Dutchess County in 2010, contrary to the GOP's efforts to pretend this isn't so; how do I know this?...Watch the webcast of Tuesday night's meeting-- African-American Co. Leg. Barbara Jeter-Jackson reminded all of us that racial discrimination is not just a thing of the past, but still rampant ("alive and kicking" as she put it) here and now in Dutchess.
Fact #9: Check out www.TimWise.org -- all sorts of discrimination is still taking place all over the U.S. here and now in 2010 (yes, even here in the Northeast); Mr. Wise has ably documented this just about as well as anyone else in the U.S.
Fact #10: Gay teenagers all over the U.S. are committing suicide due to teasing and bullying comments (and plenty of this still goes on in our schools here in Dutchess; I know this because I work in them).
Joel
joeltyner@earthlink.net
444-0599/876-2488
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[check out this must-read from Tim Wise posted to RedRoom.com July 10th this year]
"Black Power's Gonna Get You Sucka: Right-Wing Paranoia and the Rhetoric of Modern Racism"
http://www.redroom.com/blog/tim-wise/black-powers-gonna-get-you-sucka-right-wing-paranoia-and-rhetoric-modern-racism
Prominent white conservatives are angry about racism.
Forget all that talk about a post-racial society. They know better than to believe in such a thing, and they're hopping mad.
What is it that woke them up finally, after all these years of denial, during which they insisted that racism was a thing of the past?
Was it the research indicating that job applicants with white sounding names have a 50 percent better chance of being called back for an interview than their counterparts with black-sounding names, even when all qualifications are the same?
No.
Was it the study that found white job applicants with criminal records have a better chance of being called back for an interview than black applicants without one, even when all the qualifications are the same?
No.
Was it the massive national study that estimated at least 1 million cases of blatant job discrimination against blacks, Latinos and Asian Americans each year, affecting roughly one-in-three job seekers of color?
No.
Is it the fact that black males with college degrees are almost twice as likely as their white male counterparts to be out of work?
No.
Is it the data indicating that Chinese-American professionals earn less than 60 percent as much as their white counterparts, even though the Chinese Americans, on average, have more education?
No.
Was it the study that found the lightest-skinned immigrants to the United States make as much as 15 percent more than the darkest, even when the immigrants in question have the same level of education, experience and measured productivity?
No.
Perhaps they finally stumbled upon the evidence suggesting millions of cases of race-based housing discrimination against people of color each year, and this is what has them so incensed?
No.
Or maybe their anger is due to the reports of blatant racism practiced by Wells Fargo, which was deliberately roping black borrowers (to whom they referred as "mud people") into high-cost loans, targeting them for these instruments, and even falsifying credit histories to make black applicants look like greater risks than they were, so as to justify the scam?
No.
Was it the study demonstrating that e-mail inquiries about rental property submitted by people with white sounding names were 60 percent more likely than those with black sounding names to get a positive response from a landlord (meaning an indication that a unit was available for rent), even when the housing had been previously advertised as available?
No.
Maybe they're furious because of the way whites in the New Orleans area conspired after the flooding of the city to keep blacks from returning and being able to find housing on equitable terms, if at all?
No.
Or maybe it's because of the data from the Justice Department, to the effect that blacks are far more likely than whites to have their cars and persons searched after a traffic stop, even though whites, when searched, are more than four times as likely to have drugs or other illegal contraband on us?
No.
Well then, perhaps it's the recent revelations that police in New York City are blatantly profiling blacks and Latinos, stopping and frisking them in massive numbers, even though in 90 percent of all cases, the people they stop are released without any charge because they are found to have done nothing illegal?
No.
Is the source of their anger the data showing that although whites and blacks use and sell drugs at roughly the same rates, African Americans are anywhere from 2.8 to 5.5 times more likely than whites to be arrested for a drug offense, depending on the year? Or perhaps the state level data indicating that in nine states, blacks are arrested at more than seven times the rate of whites, and in Minnesota and Iowa at rates that are more than eleven times greater than white arrest rates for drugs? Or perhaps the additional data that blacks are more than 10 times as likely as whites to be sent to prison for drug offenses, despite relatively equivalent rates of drug crimes? Or the fact that a majority of persons admitted to prison for drug offenses are black, even though there are about six times more white users nationwide?
No.
Maybe they're beside themselves over the fact that millions of black men who are ex-felons and have paid their debt to society are permanently blocked from voting thanks to disenfranchisement laws that were devised for blatantly racist reasons? Surely they are upset that these laws have led to blacks being denied the right to vote after serving their time at a rate that is 7 times the national average?
No.
Perhaps they're enraged by the way white police officers conspired to murder a black man in New Orleans after Katrina, and then cover up the crime, or the way other whites formed a vigilante terror squad and went hunting for black people in the aftermath of the flooding?
No.
Maybe it was that racist e-mail sent by the white Boston police officer to the reporter at the Boston Globe, in which he called Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates a "banana eatin' jungle monkey?"
No.
Then maybe it was the story about that high ranking racist in the Chicago police force who OK'd the torture of black men to extract confessions for years?
No.
Then I bet they must have finally seen that story about the Philadelphia cop who refers to black folks as animals and niggers. That's it, right?
No.
Could it be that they've read and been moved by the dozens of studies that show the cumulative health effects of racism and discrimination on people of color, and which indicate that doctors do indeed treat patients of color differently, and worse, than their white counterparts? Or perhaps the research that finds how even black women with college degrees, decent jobs and good incomes have infant mortality rates for their children that are higher than the rates for white women who dropped out before high school? And the way that researchers believe stresses associated with racial discrimination are implicated in the worse fetal and neo-natal health of these mother's children?
No.
Perhaps it's the research that shows black students being suspended and expelled from school at far higher rates than white students, even though there are no significant differences in the rates at which students of different races violate serious school rules?
No.
Maybe it's the research indicating that teachers set lowered expectations for children with black-sounding names, independent of observed ability, and even when compared to the child's own siblings who have less identifiably black names. These lowered expectations, based on presumptions of lowered competence and ability then result in lower performance by the stigmatized students.
No.
Or maybe it was that troubling story on CNN about how white children and even many children of color seem to prefer white skin, and think that children with black skin are bad, dirty, mean and ugly?
No.
Well then it must be the blatant stuff. Maybe they finally got around to looking at those images of Tea Party protesters and other assorted conservatives coming to rallies with signs advocating the lynching of Democratic party leaders, or portraying the President as an African witch doctor? Or maybe somebody informed them of all the times that conservative and Republican Party activists have sent around blatantly racist e-mails lately, like those portraying the white house lawn covered in watermelons, or once again with the witch doctor imagery, or likening Michelle Obama to an ape, or picturing the President as a pair of "spook eyes" against a black background?
No.
Maybe they're angry at Tea Party leader Mark Williams for calling the President an "Indonesian Muslim" and a "welfare thug?" I mean, that's pretty racialized rhetoric, right?
No.
Or maybe it was the Tea Party leader in Ohio who tweeted about how he wants to shoot Hispanic immigrants, to whom he refers as "spicks?" (sic)
No.
Well then surely it must have been the story about Tea Party candidate for Governor in New York who sent e-mails picturing the President dressed as a pimp and featuring a group of African tribesman performing a traditional dance, which he referred to as the "Obama Inauguration Rehearsal?"
No.
Perhaps what has them angry is the statement by that Arizona Congressman, to the effect that black folks were better off under slavery than they are today?
No.
Maybe it was because of those guys over at the popular right-wing website, FreeRepublic.com who called the President's daughter, Malia, "typical ghetto trash," and a "whore" whose mother likes to entertain her by "making monkey sounds?"
No.
Or perhaps they finally had enough when they heard about how Rep. Ciro Rodriguez was called a "wetback" by one of his constituents and told to go back to Mexico?
No.
Or maybe it was that lawmaker in South Carolina who called both President Obama and Republican Gubernatorial candidate (and Indian American) Nikki Haley, "ragheads?"
No.
Or perhaps they're upset about how the guy who sponsored the law in Arizona, ostensibly to catch "illegal immigrants" (a law they support), turns out to be pals with neo-Nazis? Or the fact that the organization that takes credit for writing the bill has longstanding ties to blatant racists and hate groups?
No.
Or maybe it was the story about how National Review columnist John Derbyshire told Harvard law students that black achievement lags behind white achievement because blacks are biologically inferior to whites?
No.
Well perhaps it was that story about the motorists in Prescott, Arizona who continually shouted racial slurs at artists who were painting a mural on the walls of a school, which featured children of color who go there? And certainly they must have been upset about the fact that initially the school was actually planning to lighten the subjects' skin color so as to appease locals and a right wing talk show host?
No.
Or maybe they're irate because of the report that employees of the Department of Homeland Security have posted blatantly racist comments about Latino immigrants on web boards?
No.
Surely it must be because of the evidence that uniformed American soldiers are joining up with neo-Nazi organizations and even flaunting their membership in such groups?
No.
It is none of this. Neither the evidence of systemic discrimination against people of color in every walk of American life, nor the repeated examples of blatant racism directed towards people of color individually moves them.
But they're angry nonetheless about racism in America.
They're especially angry about the tax being placed on those who use tanning salons. Because this is racist. Against white people. No, seriously.
Oh, and the President criticized a white police officer for arresting a black man for a crime that, turns out, the black man didn't actually commit, according to state law. That Obama would do such a thing--namely, criticize an officer for making an unjustified arrest--means that white police officers are "under assault" from Obama, and that the President is trying to "destroy" the white officer, no doubt because he's white.
Oh, and since people of color disproportionately lack health care coverage, the President's plan for expanding coverage is obviously a racist scheme to get reparations for slavery.
Oh, and the President is deliberately trying to destroy the economy so as to pay back white people for slavery and hundreds of years of oppression.
Oh, and two black kids beat up a white kid on a bus in Belleville, Illinois--something that is obviously due to Obama being President.
Oh, and the President picked Eric Holder as Attorney General. Since Holder has said Americans have often been "cowards" when it comes to discussing race, this proves that Holder is racist against white people, even though he didn't mention white people. He said Americans, and Americans means white people. So he's a bigot. And so is Obama for picking him.
Oh, and the President nominated Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. And she's a Latina, who notes that she sees the world through the lens of her experience, and that she hopes that experience would positively inform her decision-making. And that means she's a bigot. And the fact that Obama nominated her, as well as Eric Holder, proves that he "views white men as the problem" in America, and that the only way you can get promoted by Obama is "by hating white people." Like Tim Geithner, who most definitely hates your honky ass.
Oh, and the President also nominated Elena Kagan, and Kagan once worked for Justice Thurgood Marshall, and Marshall once said the Constitution as originally conceived--which, ya know, excluded blacks from citizenship--was flawed. Imagine. And this means that Marshall was anti-white, and anyone who worked for him must be too.
Oh, and the Obama Justice Department dropped criminal voter intimidation charges against three members of the New Black Panther Party in Philadelphia (while obtaining an injunction against a fourth member). So this proves the Administration is allied with the Panthers, whose Philly leader proclaims that he "hates all white people," and Obama probably agrees with him, and is refusing to prosecute because he doesn't care about white folks' voting rights. In fact, the New Black Panthers are part of Obama's "army of thugs." Even though the same Philly leader of the group didn't support Obama for President, and has called Obama a "puppet" and "slavemaster." And of course, as a point of fact, the criminal charges against the other three Panthers were dropped by the Bush Department of Justice. And there have been no voters who actually claim to have been intimidated by the Panthers. And even a leading conservative Republican on the Civil Rights Commission says the incident is much ado about nothing.
Oh, and since the Justice Department is considering bringing federal charges against the white officer who killed Oscar Grant--a black man--in cold blood in Oakland last year, this proves that we've returned to the 1950s, only this time it's whites who are the victims of racist oppression. Because it's oppression to bring charges against a white cop who kills someone. Naturally.
Yes indeed, they all agree, Obama is a "reverse racist" who has a deep-seated hatred of white people, and who is like Hitler, and we know this because he's proposing a national service corps to help work on various community problems, and this is just like the Nazi SS, well, except for the murdering part. Or if not Hitler, then at the very least he's just like an "African colonial despot".
And for sure, Obama is the reason race relations are so strained: not because of the ongoing discrimination against people of color, which the data indicates is commonplace, or because of the incendiary rhetoric coming from conservative commentators. But because of Barack Obama.
Race relations could never be strained by say, for instance, having a white talk show host fantasize about murdering a black congressman with a shovel.
Or by another host calling undocumented migrants from Mexico "invasive species".
Or by spreading lies about how 5 million so-called "illegal aliens" were given subprime mortgages, as a way to blame the undocumented for the housing meltdown, even though there is no evidence whatsoever to support the fabricated claim.
Or by alleging that ACORN (a community-based organization comprised mostly of people of color) committed massive voter fraud so as to help elect Obama, even though there is no evidence that a single illegitimate vote was cast due to ACORN's voter registration efforts, and despite the fact that when a few ACORN operatives filed phony voter registration cards, it was ACORN itself that alerted election officials to the problem
Or by a prominent conservative commentator insisting that white men are experiencing the same kind of oppression that blacks faced for years, even as that commentator has previously reminisced fondly about the days of segregation.
Or by another radio host and prominent conservative author blaming "multicultural" people for "destroying" the country, or calling Arab Muslims "non-humans," or fantasizing about killing people in the "civil rights business."
Or by another radio host and prominent conservative author referring to the mostly black residents of New Orleans, in the wake of Katrina as "worthless parasites" and "human parasitic garbage" because of their high rates of welfare receipt. Even though, according to Census data, there were only 4600 households in all of the city receiving cash welfare at the time of the flooding, which was less than 4 percent of all black households in the city, and whose annual benefits came to only around $2800 per year.
Or by walking around with a sign suggesting that President Obama intends to put white people into slavery.
Or by saying that President Obama only won the election because he's black, and if he weren't black, he'd be a tour guide in Honolulu.
Or by saying that the only reason Colin Powell endorsed Obama was as an act of racial bonding.
Or by saying that Oprah Winfrey is also successful only because she's black.
Or by blaming the economic collapse on fair lending laws and lending to minorities, even though all the evidence suggests such laws and such loans had nothing to do with the housing or larger economic crises.
Or perhaps by having a right-wing talk show host announce a plan for conservatives to "take back the civil rights movement," and compare himself to Martin Luther King Jr. This, even though conservatives were almost uniformly opposed to the movement and King, and even though the talk show host's favorite authors, whose work he promotes regularly, viewed the movement as a communist conspiracy and referred to civil rights activists as animals.
Or by another conservative comparing himself to Dr. King, and speaking of how much he respects King's legacy, even as he--the conservative--has said he believes private businesses should have the right to discriminate on the basis of race.
No, none of those things could strain race relations, or further racism.
And certainly not when compared to a tanning booth tax.
While on the face of it, these kinds of right-wing inanities may seem so absurd as to hardly merit being taken seriously, it's important to step back and think about the internal logic of even the most outlandish claims. I mean, no one can honestly believe that health care reform is reparations. After all, what the hell kind of reparations is it where you have to get sick first in order to get paid? That's not a good hustle. And no one can really believe that some white kid got beat up on a bus because it's "Obama's America," as if the President had sent a text message to those black guys saying: HEY, YNOT BEAT SUM CRAKA ASS 4 ME, U DIG?
But the intellectual strength of the claims is not the issue. It doesn't matter. From a political perspective, even the most insane-sounding claim about Obama's supposed hatred for white people makes sense. It's a perfect way to prime white racial fears and anxieties, to say, in effect, they're coming for your money white folks, and then your children. In a nation where the population will be half people of color within 25-30 years, and where the popular culture is now thoroughly multicultural (and thus many of the icons don't look the way they used to), and where the President doesn't fit a lot of people's conception of what such a person is supposed to look like, and where the economy is in the toilet for millions, playing upon white anxiety is the perfect recipe for political mobilization.
They've said very clearly that they want their country back. And if we who oppose the right don't challenge these folks for the racists they are, or continue to shy away from making race an issue (as if it weren't already), they just might get it.
Tim Wise is the author of five books and over 250 essays on race. His latest is Colorblind: The Rise of Post-Racial Politics and the Retreat from Racial Equity (San Francisco: City Lights Books, 2010).
Miss this from yesterday's Daily Freeman?...(only saw this just now)...
"The GOP rejection of a Democratic effort to restore funding to keep the Human Rights Commission open prompted Legislator Joel Tyner, D-Clinton, to shout 'Racist cowards!' as each Republican voted no."
[from "Dutchess Budget Downsizes County Government"
http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/2010/12/09/news/doc4d0042aeae673446392810.txt ]
Sadly, as they have done so many times before in blatantly biased attempts to take me down, the Daily Freeman has proven once again they can't get it right (even when the reporter is in the room at the time-- and even when the webcast of the meeting is easily viewable online)...
[I've already submitted a letter to the editor correcting them on this and setting the record straight-- let's see if they do that(!)....(feel free to submit your own-- at letters@freemanonline.com).]
Seriously, folks-- I urge you all to view the actual webcast of Tuesday night's meeting for yourselves-- at www.totalwebcasting.com/view/?id=dutchess -- to learn the following facts for yourselves on this:
Fact #1: I didn't shout anything; I only made the "racist cowards" statement once.
Fact #2: Not one GOP county legislator was willing to explain why they were (and are) so bent on killing our county's only Human Rights Commission after decades of service to Dutchess residents (I thought that was particularly cowardly-- their unwillingness to make any public statement whatsoever explaining their actions on this; shouldn't legislators be held publicly accountable and responsible for their actions?).
Fact #3: Even over the past two decades the Ku Klux Klan has been active here in Dutchess County-- along with cross burnings as well.
Fact #4: Over 700 Dutchess residents have contacted our county's Human Rights Commission each year for the past decade with various complaints and requests for information-- including dozens over the last two years alone from about police officers. (it's just a coincidence that two of the GOP county legislators bent on eliminating our county's Human Rights Commission have served for decades as police officers?).
Fact #5: Our county's Human Rights Commission has also effectively dealt with complaints from senior citizens, women, people with disabilities, immigrants, gays, lesbians, and many others across Dutchess County.
Fact #6: Just over the last five years the GOP majority in our County Legislature has targeted youth of color and Latino immigrants for racist scapegoating with the GOP's mailings and statements (re: GOP literature mailed out across Dutchess in 2005 against a bail loan fund-- and re: GOP statements against allowing undocumented workers to have driver's licenses).
Fact #7: This week (today, actually) happens to be the 62nd anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (drafted by Dutchess County's own Eleanor Roosevelt) on Dec. 10th, 1948-- as Eleanor said, "where do human rights begin?...close to home"-- it is a huge slap in the face to the legacy of our county's own Eleanor Roosevelt that our County Legislature's GOP majority this week decided not only to eliminate our county's own Human Rights Commission-- but to also do so in such a cowardly fashion (without even having the guts to make any public statement on this whatsoever).
Fact #8: Racial discrimination and all sorts of other discrimination, sadly, is alive and well here in Dutchess County in 2010, contrary to the GOP's efforts to pretend this isn't so; how do I know this?...Watch the webcast of Tuesday night's meeting-- African-American Co. Leg. Barbara Jeter-Jackson reminded all of us that racial discrimination is not just a thing of the past, but still rampant ("alive and kicking" as she put it) here and now in Dutchess.
Fact #9: Check out www.TimWise.org -- all sorts of discrimination is still taking place all over the U.S. here and now in 2010 (yes, even here in the Northeast); Mr. Wise has ably documented this just about as well as anyone else in the U.S.
Fact #10: Gay teenagers all over the U.S. are committing suicide due to teasing and bullying comments (and plenty of this still goes on in our schools here in Dutchess; I know this because I work in them).
Joel
joeltyner@earthlink.net
444-0599/876-2488
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[check out this must-read from Tim Wise posted to RedRoom.com July 10th this year]
"Black Power's Gonna Get You Sucka: Right-Wing Paranoia and the Rhetoric of Modern Racism"
http://www.redroom.com/blog/tim-wise/black-powers-gonna-get-you-sucka-right-wing-paranoia-and-rhetoric-modern-racism
Prominent white conservatives are angry about racism.
Forget all that talk about a post-racial society. They know better than to believe in such a thing, and they're hopping mad.
What is it that woke them up finally, after all these years of denial, during which they insisted that racism was a thing of the past?
Was it the research indicating that job applicants with white sounding names have a 50 percent better chance of being called back for an interview than their counterparts with black-sounding names, even when all qualifications are the same?
No.
Was it the study that found white job applicants with criminal records have a better chance of being called back for an interview than black applicants without one, even when all the qualifications are the same?
No.
Was it the massive national study that estimated at least 1 million cases of blatant job discrimination against blacks, Latinos and Asian Americans each year, affecting roughly one-in-three job seekers of color?
No.
Is it the fact that black males with college degrees are almost twice as likely as their white male counterparts to be out of work?
No.
Is it the data indicating that Chinese-American professionals earn less than 60 percent as much as their white counterparts, even though the Chinese Americans, on average, have more education?
No.
Was it the study that found the lightest-skinned immigrants to the United States make as much as 15 percent more than the darkest, even when the immigrants in question have the same level of education, experience and measured productivity?
No.
Perhaps they finally stumbled upon the evidence suggesting millions of cases of race-based housing discrimination against people of color each year, and this is what has them so incensed?
No.
Or maybe their anger is due to the reports of blatant racism practiced by Wells Fargo, which was deliberately roping black borrowers (to whom they referred as "mud people") into high-cost loans, targeting them for these instruments, and even falsifying credit histories to make black applicants look like greater risks than they were, so as to justify the scam?
No.
Was it the study demonstrating that e-mail inquiries about rental property submitted by people with white sounding names were 60 percent more likely than those with black sounding names to get a positive response from a landlord (meaning an indication that a unit was available for rent), even when the housing had been previously advertised as available?
No.
Maybe they're furious because of the way whites in the New Orleans area conspired after the flooding of the city to keep blacks from returning and being able to find housing on equitable terms, if at all?
No.
Or maybe it's because of the data from the Justice Department, to the effect that blacks are far more likely than whites to have their cars and persons searched after a traffic stop, even though whites, when searched, are more than four times as likely to have drugs or other illegal contraband on us?
No.
Well then, perhaps it's the recent revelations that police in New York City are blatantly profiling blacks and Latinos, stopping and frisking them in massive numbers, even though in 90 percent of all cases, the people they stop are released without any charge because they are found to have done nothing illegal?
No.
Is the source of their anger the data showing that although whites and blacks use and sell drugs at roughly the same rates, African Americans are anywhere from 2.8 to 5.5 times more likely than whites to be arrested for a drug offense, depending on the year? Or perhaps the state level data indicating that in nine states, blacks are arrested at more than seven times the rate of whites, and in Minnesota and Iowa at rates that are more than eleven times greater than white arrest rates for drugs? Or perhaps the additional data that blacks are more than 10 times as likely as whites to be sent to prison for drug offenses, despite relatively equivalent rates of drug crimes? Or the fact that a majority of persons admitted to prison for drug offenses are black, even though there are about six times more white users nationwide?
No.
Maybe they're beside themselves over the fact that millions of black men who are ex-felons and have paid their debt to society are permanently blocked from voting thanks to disenfranchisement laws that were devised for blatantly racist reasons? Surely they are upset that these laws have led to blacks being denied the right to vote after serving their time at a rate that is 7 times the national average?
No.
Perhaps they're enraged by the way white police officers conspired to murder a black man in New Orleans after Katrina, and then cover up the crime, or the way other whites formed a vigilante terror squad and went hunting for black people in the aftermath of the flooding?
No.
Maybe it was that racist e-mail sent by the white Boston police officer to the reporter at the Boston Globe, in which he called Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates a "banana eatin' jungle monkey?"
No.
Then maybe it was the story about that high ranking racist in the Chicago police force who OK'd the torture of black men to extract confessions for years?
No.
Then I bet they must have finally seen that story about the Philadelphia cop who refers to black folks as animals and niggers. That's it, right?
No.
Could it be that they've read and been moved by the dozens of studies that show the cumulative health effects of racism and discrimination on people of color, and which indicate that doctors do indeed treat patients of color differently, and worse, than their white counterparts? Or perhaps the research that finds how even black women with college degrees, decent jobs and good incomes have infant mortality rates for their children that are higher than the rates for white women who dropped out before high school? And the way that researchers believe stresses associated with racial discrimination are implicated in the worse fetal and neo-natal health of these mother's children?
No.
Perhaps it's the research that shows black students being suspended and expelled from school at far higher rates than white students, even though there are no significant differences in the rates at which students of different races violate serious school rules?
No.
Maybe it's the research indicating that teachers set lowered expectations for children with black-sounding names, independent of observed ability, and even when compared to the child's own siblings who have less identifiably black names. These lowered expectations, based on presumptions of lowered competence and ability then result in lower performance by the stigmatized students.
No.
Or maybe it was that troubling story on CNN about how white children and even many children of color seem to prefer white skin, and think that children with black skin are bad, dirty, mean and ugly?
No.
Well then it must be the blatant stuff. Maybe they finally got around to looking at those images of Tea Party protesters and other assorted conservatives coming to rallies with signs advocating the lynching of Democratic party leaders, or portraying the President as an African witch doctor? Or maybe somebody informed them of all the times that conservative and Republican Party activists have sent around blatantly racist e-mails lately, like those portraying the white house lawn covered in watermelons, or once again with the witch doctor imagery, or likening Michelle Obama to an ape, or picturing the President as a pair of "spook eyes" against a black background?
No.
Maybe they're angry at Tea Party leader Mark Williams for calling the President an "Indonesian Muslim" and a "welfare thug?" I mean, that's pretty racialized rhetoric, right?
No.
Or maybe it was the Tea Party leader in Ohio who tweeted about how he wants to shoot Hispanic immigrants, to whom he refers as "spicks?" (sic)
No.
Well then surely it must have been the story about Tea Party candidate for Governor in New York who sent e-mails picturing the President dressed as a pimp and featuring a group of African tribesman performing a traditional dance, which he referred to as the "Obama Inauguration Rehearsal?"
No.
Perhaps what has them angry is the statement by that Arizona Congressman, to the effect that black folks were better off under slavery than they are today?
No.
Maybe it was because of those guys over at the popular right-wing website, FreeRepublic.com who called the President's daughter, Malia, "typical ghetto trash," and a "whore" whose mother likes to entertain her by "making monkey sounds?"
No.
Or perhaps they finally had enough when they heard about how Rep. Ciro Rodriguez was called a "wetback" by one of his constituents and told to go back to Mexico?
No.
Or maybe it was that lawmaker in South Carolina who called both President Obama and Republican Gubernatorial candidate (and Indian American) Nikki Haley, "ragheads?"
No.
Or perhaps they're upset about how the guy who sponsored the law in Arizona, ostensibly to catch "illegal immigrants" (a law they support), turns out to be pals with neo-Nazis? Or the fact that the organization that takes credit for writing the bill has longstanding ties to blatant racists and hate groups?
No.
Or maybe it was the story about how National Review columnist John Derbyshire told Harvard law students that black achievement lags behind white achievement because blacks are biologically inferior to whites?
No.
Well perhaps it was that story about the motorists in Prescott, Arizona who continually shouted racial slurs at artists who were painting a mural on the walls of a school, which featured children of color who go there? And certainly they must have been upset about the fact that initially the school was actually planning to lighten the subjects' skin color so as to appease locals and a right wing talk show host?
No.
Or maybe they're irate because of the report that employees of the Department of Homeland Security have posted blatantly racist comments about Latino immigrants on web boards?
No.
Surely it must be because of the evidence that uniformed American soldiers are joining up with neo-Nazi organizations and even flaunting their membership in such groups?
No.
It is none of this. Neither the evidence of systemic discrimination against people of color in every walk of American life, nor the repeated examples of blatant racism directed towards people of color individually moves them.
But they're angry nonetheless about racism in America.
They're especially angry about the tax being placed on those who use tanning salons. Because this is racist. Against white people. No, seriously.
Oh, and the President criticized a white police officer for arresting a black man for a crime that, turns out, the black man didn't actually commit, according to state law. That Obama would do such a thing--namely, criticize an officer for making an unjustified arrest--means that white police officers are "under assault" from Obama, and that the President is trying to "destroy" the white officer, no doubt because he's white.
Oh, and since people of color disproportionately lack health care coverage, the President's plan for expanding coverage is obviously a racist scheme to get reparations for slavery.
Oh, and the President is deliberately trying to destroy the economy so as to pay back white people for slavery and hundreds of years of oppression.
Oh, and two black kids beat up a white kid on a bus in Belleville, Illinois--something that is obviously due to Obama being President.
Oh, and the President picked Eric Holder as Attorney General. Since Holder has said Americans have often been "cowards" when it comes to discussing race, this proves that Holder is racist against white people, even though he didn't mention white people. He said Americans, and Americans means white people. So he's a bigot. And so is Obama for picking him.
Oh, and the President nominated Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. And she's a Latina, who notes that she sees the world through the lens of her experience, and that she hopes that experience would positively inform her decision-making. And that means she's a bigot. And the fact that Obama nominated her, as well as Eric Holder, proves that he "views white men as the problem" in America, and that the only way you can get promoted by Obama is "by hating white people." Like Tim Geithner, who most definitely hates your honky ass.
Oh, and the President also nominated Elena Kagan, and Kagan once worked for Justice Thurgood Marshall, and Marshall once said the Constitution as originally conceived--which, ya know, excluded blacks from citizenship--was flawed. Imagine. And this means that Marshall was anti-white, and anyone who worked for him must be too.
Oh, and the Obama Justice Department dropped criminal voter intimidation charges against three members of the New Black Panther Party in Philadelphia (while obtaining an injunction against a fourth member). So this proves the Administration is allied with the Panthers, whose Philly leader proclaims that he "hates all white people," and Obama probably agrees with him, and is refusing to prosecute because he doesn't care about white folks' voting rights. In fact, the New Black Panthers are part of Obama's "army of thugs." Even though the same Philly leader of the group didn't support Obama for President, and has called Obama a "puppet" and "slavemaster." And of course, as a point of fact, the criminal charges against the other three Panthers were dropped by the Bush Department of Justice. And there have been no voters who actually claim to have been intimidated by the Panthers. And even a leading conservative Republican on the Civil Rights Commission says the incident is much ado about nothing.
Oh, and since the Justice Department is considering bringing federal charges against the white officer who killed Oscar Grant--a black man--in cold blood in Oakland last year, this proves that we've returned to the 1950s, only this time it's whites who are the victims of racist oppression. Because it's oppression to bring charges against a white cop who kills someone. Naturally.
Yes indeed, they all agree, Obama is a "reverse racist" who has a deep-seated hatred of white people, and who is like Hitler, and we know this because he's proposing a national service corps to help work on various community problems, and this is just like the Nazi SS, well, except for the murdering part. Or if not Hitler, then at the very least he's just like an "African colonial despot".
And for sure, Obama is the reason race relations are so strained: not because of the ongoing discrimination against people of color, which the data indicates is commonplace, or because of the incendiary rhetoric coming from conservative commentators. But because of Barack Obama.
Race relations could never be strained by say, for instance, having a white talk show host fantasize about murdering a black congressman with a shovel.
Or by another host calling undocumented migrants from Mexico "invasive species".
Or by spreading lies about how 5 million so-called "illegal aliens" were given subprime mortgages, as a way to blame the undocumented for the housing meltdown, even though there is no evidence whatsoever to support the fabricated claim.
Or by alleging that ACORN (a community-based organization comprised mostly of people of color) committed massive voter fraud so as to help elect Obama, even though there is no evidence that a single illegitimate vote was cast due to ACORN's voter registration efforts, and despite the fact that when a few ACORN operatives filed phony voter registration cards, it was ACORN itself that alerted election officials to the problem
Or by a prominent conservative commentator insisting that white men are experiencing the same kind of oppression that blacks faced for years, even as that commentator has previously reminisced fondly about the days of segregation.
Or by another radio host and prominent conservative author blaming "multicultural" people for "destroying" the country, or calling Arab Muslims "non-humans," or fantasizing about killing people in the "civil rights business."
Or by another radio host and prominent conservative author referring to the mostly black residents of New Orleans, in the wake of Katrina as "worthless parasites" and "human parasitic garbage" because of their high rates of welfare receipt. Even though, according to Census data, there were only 4600 households in all of the city receiving cash welfare at the time of the flooding, which was less than 4 percent of all black households in the city, and whose annual benefits came to only around $2800 per year.
Or by walking around with a sign suggesting that President Obama intends to put white people into slavery.
Or by saying that President Obama only won the election because he's black, and if he weren't black, he'd be a tour guide in Honolulu.
Or by saying that the only reason Colin Powell endorsed Obama was as an act of racial bonding.
Or by saying that Oprah Winfrey is also successful only because she's black.
Or by blaming the economic collapse on fair lending laws and lending to minorities, even though all the evidence suggests such laws and such loans had nothing to do with the housing or larger economic crises.
Or perhaps by having a right-wing talk show host announce a plan for conservatives to "take back the civil rights movement," and compare himself to Martin Luther King Jr. This, even though conservatives were almost uniformly opposed to the movement and King, and even though the talk show host's favorite authors, whose work he promotes regularly, viewed the movement as a communist conspiracy and referred to civil rights activists as animals.
Or by another conservative comparing himself to Dr. King, and speaking of how much he respects King's legacy, even as he--the conservative--has said he believes private businesses should have the right to discriminate on the basis of race.
No, none of those things could strain race relations, or further racism.
And certainly not when compared to a tanning booth tax.
While on the face of it, these kinds of right-wing inanities may seem so absurd as to hardly merit being taken seriously, it's important to step back and think about the internal logic of even the most outlandish claims. I mean, no one can honestly believe that health care reform is reparations. After all, what the hell kind of reparations is it where you have to get sick first in order to get paid? That's not a good hustle. And no one can really believe that some white kid got beat up on a bus because it's "Obama's America," as if the President had sent a text message to those black guys saying: HEY, YNOT BEAT SUM CRAKA ASS 4 ME, U DIG?
But the intellectual strength of the claims is not the issue. It doesn't matter. From a political perspective, even the most insane-sounding claim about Obama's supposed hatred for white people makes sense. It's a perfect way to prime white racial fears and anxieties, to say, in effect, they're coming for your money white folks, and then your children. In a nation where the population will be half people of color within 25-30 years, and where the popular culture is now thoroughly multicultural (and thus many of the icons don't look the way they used to), and where the President doesn't fit a lot of people's conception of what such a person is supposed to look like, and where the economy is in the toilet for millions, playing upon white anxiety is the perfect recipe for political mobilization.
They've said very clearly that they want their country back. And if we who oppose the right don't challenge these folks for the racists they are, or continue to shy away from making race an issue (as if it weren't already), they just might get it.
Tim Wise is the author of five books and over 250 essays on race. His latest is Colorblind: The Rise of Post-Racial Politics and the Retreat from Racial Equity (San Francisco: City Lights Books, 2010).
Thursday, December 9, 2010
join Rabbi Golomb, Rev. Burger, Pat Lamanna-- 16th annual Holiday Interfaith Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanzaa Candlelight Vigil for Economic Justice!...
Hi all...
Come out if you can to join Rabbi Paul Golomb, Rev. Gail Burger, Pat Lamanna of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Poughkeepsie, and yours trule for the Real Majority Project's Sixteenth Annual Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanzaa Holiday Interfaith Candlelight Vigil for Economic Justice-- next Weds. 5:30 pm (Dec. 15th) in front of our County Office Building at 22 Market St. in Poughkeepsie!...
[rationale for gathering?...I assume you're aware of county budget cuts, need for progressive taxation!...(see other recent blog posts)]
Please pass this along (especially if you're going to your church, temple, mosque this weekend)...
[...and-- ask your imam, rabbi, priest, reverend, minister, pastor, or leader of faith to join us Weds. too-- let's celebrate all of the season's holidays-- Diwali, Ramadan, Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa!]
Joel
444-0599/876-2488
joeltyner@earthlink.net
[thx also to Elder Ann Perry of Holy Light Pentecostal Church and Rev. Blake Rider of Christ Episcopal Church for also making commitment to try to come out to join us for this, schedules willing-- we need u!]
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Words of wisdom from the Torah (Old Testament) and New Testament...
[lots of pretty holiday lights all over these days-- here's hopin' we don't forget these holy words too!]
"It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." [Matthew 19:16-24]
"Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless. What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar? To whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your riches?" [Isaiah 10:1-4]
"Blessed are you poor, the reign of God is yours...But woe to you rich, for your consolation is now." [Luke 6: 30, 24]
"They sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. They trample on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed." [Amos 2:6-7]
"The community of believers were of one heart and mind. None of them ever claimed anything as his own; rather, everything was held in common...nor was there any needy among them, for all who owned property or houses sold them and lay them at the feet of the apostles to be distributed to everyone according to need." [Acts 4:32-35]
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[check out this oldie but goodie from Ched Myers-- from July/August 1998 issue of http://www.Sojo.net ]
"Jesus' New Economy of Grace"
The biblical vision of Sabbath economics.
by Ched Myers
The Hebrew Bible's vision of Sabbath economics contends that a theology of abundant grace and a communal ethic of redistribution is the only way out of our slavery to the debt system, with its theology of meritocracy and private ethic of wealth concentration. The contemporary church, however, has difficulty hearing this as good news since our theological imaginations have long been captive to the market-driven orthodoxies of modern capitalism.
Our fears have persuaded us that the biblical Jubilee is at best utopian and at worst communistic. Yet we find it awkward simply to dismiss the biblical witness, so an alternative objection inevitably arises, as if on cue: "Israel never really practiced the Jubilee!" If genuine, and not simply a strategy of avoidance, this challenge is best addressed by considering both the "negative" and "positive" evidence.
By "negative" evidence I mean the fact that Israel's prophets repeatedly and relentlessly criticized the nation's leadership for betraying the poor and vulnerable members of the community. This strongly suggests that the Sabbath vision of social and economic justice remained a measuring stick to which they could publicly appeal.
There can be no question that the Sabbath disciplines of seventh-year debt release and Jubilee restructuring were regularly abandoned by those Israelites who wished to consolidate social advantages they had gained. The historical narratives in the Hebrew Bible indicate that as the tribal confederacy was eclipsed by centralized political power under the Davidic dynasty, economic stratification followed inexorably. Indeed, the prophet Samuel warned that a monarchy would be linked intrinsically to an economy geared to the elite through ruthless policies of surplus-extraction and militarism (1 Samuel 8:11-18).
Prophets and Jubilee
Israel's betrayal of its Sabbath vocation became a central complaint of the prophets. When Isaiah charged the nation's leadership with robbery (Isaiah 3:14-15), he was echoing the manna tradition's censure of stored wealth in the face of community need (see also Isaiah 5:7-8; Malachi 3:5-12). Amos accused the commercial classes of regarding shabat as an obstacle to market profiteering, and of treating the poor as an exploitable class rather than guaranteeing their gleaning rights (Amos 8:5-6; see Exodus 23:10-11; Leviticus 19:9-10; Micah 7:1).
Hosea laments that fidelity to international markets had replaced Israel's allegiance to God's economy of grace (Hosea 2:5). Most telling of all, however, is the tradition that attributed the downfall of Jerusalem to the people's failure to keep Sabbath: "God took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped the sword...to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had made up for its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years" (2 Chronicles 36:20-21; see Leviticus 26:34-35).
But there is also positive evidence that the Sabbath vision was practiced. Jeremiah blasts King Zedekiah when he reneges on his declaration of Jubilee manumission (Jeremiah 34:13-16). Naboth resists King Ahab's attempt to assert eminent domain by invoking his traditional "ancestral rights" to the land (1 Kings 21). And the reformer Nehemiah resurrects the Levitical prohibition of interest (Nehemiah 5:6-13) as well as the Sabbath strictures on commercial production, transaction, and finance (10:31).
There are also eschatological visions of Jubilee. Sabbath redistribution is remembered by Ezekiel (Ezekiel 45:8; 46:17-18; 47:13-23), and the most well-known appropriation of the Jubilee vision is found in Isaiah 61:1-2: the prophetic commission that begins with a call to "bring good news to the oppressed poor" and ends with a proclamation of "the year of the Lord's favor." Of all the possibilities in his scriptures, it is this text that Jesus of Nazareth chose to define and inaugurate his mission, according to Luke's gospel (Luke 4:18-19). And it is in this latter-day Hebrew prophet that the vision of Sabbath economics is wholly rehabilitated.
Jesus and Jubilee
IT WAS THE LATE Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder, in his now classic work The Politics of Jesus, who popularized for my generation the notion of Jesus as a Jubilee practitioner. Yoder rightly pointed out that Luke's gospel is organized around Isaiah's proclamation of "good news for the poor" (Luke 7:22; see 14:13, 21). Only real debt-cancellation and land-restoration could represent good news to real poor people-unless we would spiritualize the entire tradition (against the specific advice of James 2:15-17). Similarly, a Jubilee gospel is usually unwelcome news to the wealthy (as in the Magnificat's annunciation that God "has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty," Luke 1:53; see Mark 10:22). But the evidence goes far beyond a few widely acknowledged texts. In fact, a revisioning of Sabbath economics defined Jesus' call to discipleship, lay at the heart of his teaching-and stood at the center of his conflict with the Judean public order.
The gospels agree that Jesus' first substantive clash with the authorities arose as a result of his practice of "unlicensed" forgiving of sins, which has clear Jubilee overtones (Mark 2:1-12; John 5:9-17). Although the words "sin" (hamartia) and "debt" (opheileema) are different in Greek, there are many indications of their semantic and social equivalence in the gospels. Most of us have noted it, for example, in the Lord's Prayer according to Luke: "Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us" (Luke 11:4). Their correlation is further suggested by the fact that here and throughout the New Testament the same verb (aphiemi) is used to "forgive" sin and "release" from debt. Unlike our society, which refuses to see the economic dimensions of moral and criminal dysfunction, the gospels do not spiritualize "sin" and ignore the realities of "debt," but rather see the two as fundamentally interrelated.
We see this correlation in Luke's version of the story of the woman who washes Jesus' feet with her hair (Luke 7:36-50). Jesus prefaces his "absolution" of the woman's sins (verses 39, 48-50) with an object lesson describing how a creditor forgave debt (verses 41-43). Matthew does the same in his instructions on reconciliation within the community of faith: The exhortation to forgive sins "seventy times seven" (perhaps an allusion to the Jubilary "seven times seven" of Leviticus 25:8; but also to Genesis 4:24) is illumined by a thoroughly political-economic tale about the settling of accounts in the debt system (Matthew 18:15-35).
In Mark's gospel Jesus identifies himself as the "Human One" who has the authority to forgive sins (debts) (Mark 2:10). Shortly thereafter Jesus instructs his disciples to help themselves to field produce, justifying it on the basis of a story about the right of hungry Israelites to food regardless of social convention (Mark 2:23-26). Then comes his punchline: "The Sabbath was created for humanity" (2:27). This is neither a proprietary statement nor a Messianic abrogation of the Sabbath discipline! Quite the contrary: It reiterates the Sabbath as part of the order of God's good creation (Genesis 2:2-3), and confirms that its purpose is to humanize us in a world where so much of our socioeconomic reasoning and practice is dehumanizing. Jesus then asserts his authority to interpret true Sabbath practice (Mark 2:28). In fact, Jesus' central struggle with the political leadership was not over theology, but over the meaning of Sabbath (Mark 3:1-6; Luke 13:10-17; John 7:22-24, 9:14-16). This "Human One," claiming the authority to cancel debts and restore the Sabbath, is a Jubilee figure indeed!
Jesus' Jubilee orientation is also seen in his efforts to rebuild community between socio-economically alienated groups. His "outreach" to tax collectors, who made their living exploiting debtors, is a case in point. Luke begins and ends his narrative of Jesus' ministry with such stories. Following Jesus' call to discipleship, Levi renounces his tax-collecting work and throws a banquet for Jesus and his clientele of "sinners" (5:27-32). Why does this provoke strenuous protests from the authorities? The answer is made explicit in the story of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10). This wealthy creditor is also invited to host Jesus-but he (rightly) understands this to mean he must first practice substantial economic reparation. It is to this program of socioeconomic "leveling" that the official adjudicators of debt object-in Jesus' day and our own.
Leave and Follow
But while Levi and Zacchaeus embrace Jubilee liberation through redistribution, another man with "much property" rejects it (Mark 10:21-23). Jesus expects his followers to enter into the new economy of grace. Interestingly, the formulaic discipleship phrase "they left and followed" (Mark 1:18-20; Luke 5:28) uses the verb aphiemi, which we have seen also means to forgive sin-cancel debt. Jesus promises that whoever leaves "house or family or fields" (the symbols of the basic agrarian economy: site of consumption, labor force, site of production) will receive the same back "hundredfold" (Mark 10:29-30).
Discipleship thus means forsaking the seductions and false securities of the debt system for a recommunitized economy of enough for everyone. In such an economy, which Jesus calls the "kingdom," there are no longer any rich and poor-by definition, therefore, the rich "cannot enter" it (Mark 10:23-25). So contrary is this vision to our accepted horizons of possibility, however, that disciples ancient and modern have difficulty truly believing (10:26).
Jesus' call for radical social restructuring at all levels, from the household (Mark 3:31-35) to the body politic (Mark 10:35-45), is summarized by the Jubilee ultimatum: "Many who are first will be last, and the last first" (Mark 10:31). He typically chooses the venue of table fellowship in order to both show and tell object lessons that illustrate this. Meals lay at the heart of ancient society: Where, what, and with whom you ate defined your social identity and status. Thus the table was a "mirror" of society, with its economic classes and political divisions.
In the extended banquet story in Luke 14, Jesus systematically undermines prevailing conventions and proprieties, while advocating a new "table" of compassion and equality. The opening episode deals (not surprisingly) with a dispute over the Sabbath practice (Luke 14:1-6). Next comes Jesus' attack on the dominant system of meritocracy, with its hierarchies, prestige posturing, and ladder-climbing, and his invitation to "downward mobility" (verses 7-11). He then offends his host by criticizing his guest list, rejecting the reciprocal patronage system of the elite, and calling instead for a focus upon "those who cannot repay" (verses 12-14). The series concludes with Jesus' pointed little fable about an exemplary host who finally understands the bankruptcy of meritocracy and decides instead to build a Jubilee community with the poor and outcast (verses 15-24).
Grace vs. Mammon
There is no theme more common to Jesus' storytelling than Sabbath economics. He promises poor sharecroppers abundance (Mark 4:3-8, 26-32), but threatens absentee landowners (Mark 12:1-12) and rich householders (Luke 16:19-31) with judgment. In order to teach the incompatibility of the economy of grace with the dictates of "Mammon," Jesus spins a parable that portrays a hapless middleman caught in the brutal logic of the debt system who decides to "trade" instead in Jubilee-style debt release (Luke 16:1-13). When faced with a dispute over inheritance rights, Jesus counters with a parable about the folly of storing up wealth (remember the manna!), and then exhorts us to learn the lessons of grace and subsistence from the "great economy" of nature (Luke 12:13-34; see James 5:1-6).
The notorious parable of the talents (pounds) shows how Sabbath perspective as an interpretive key can rescue us from a long tradition of both bad theology and bad economics (Matthew 25:14-30; Luke 19:11-28). This story has, in capitalist religion, been interpreted allegorically from the perspective of the cruel master (= God!), requiring spiritualizing gymnastics to rescue the story from its own depressing conclusion that haves will always triumph over the have-nots (Matthew 25:29). But it reads much more coherently when turned on its head and read as a cautionary tale of realism about the mercenary selfishness of the debt system. This reading understands the servant who refused to play the greedy master's money-market games as the hero who pays a high price for speaking truth to power (Matthew 25:24-30)-just as Jesus himself did.
In light of this evidence, it should come as no surprise that the archetypal manna story, which as we saw in part one represents the foundation for Sabbath economics, should have a central place in Jesus' consciousness. At the outset of his ministry, Jesus must face again the wilderness temptation concerning bread and sustenance (Matthew 4:1-4 = Deuteronomy 8:2-3 = Exodus 16). At key junctures he re-enacts that wilderness feeding-and all who participate "have enough" (Mark 6:42; 8:8). And at the heart of the prayer he teaches his disciples is the double petition: "Give us enough bread for today, and forgive us our debts as we forgive others'" (Matthew 6:11-12).
These are some of the "Jubilee footprints" in the Jesus story. It is important to note that the early church which produced these gospels also practiced Sabbath economics. The most obvious example-similarly maligned or ignored by modern exegetes-is the Acts account of the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost-the Jubilee-tinged celebration of Shavuot (Acts 2). This occasions a portrait of the church's first experiment in wealth redistribution, echoing the manna story with the report that "assets were distributed to any as had need" (Acts 2:45, 4:35). Similarly, central to the itinerant ministry of the apostle Paul was his invitation to the new Gentile churches to learn Sabbath economics by practicing interchurch mutual aid.
Significantly, in his most elaborate articulation of this commitment (2 Corinthians 8-9), the one scriptural justification Paul employs is a citation of the manna story: "As it is written, 'Those who had much did not have too much; and those who had little did not have too little" (2 Corinthians 8:14-15)!
BIBLICAL INTERPRETERS SKEPTICAL of the Jubilee tradition have not found evidence for its practice because they have not been looking for it. But once we restore Sabbath economics to its central place in the Torah, we hear its echoes everywhere in the rest of scripture. The standard of economic justice is woven into the warp and weft of the Bible; pull this strand, and the whole fabric unravels.
If we are going to dismiss the Jubilee because Israel practiced it only inconsistently, we should also ignore the Sermon on the Mount because Christians have rarely embodied Jesus' instruction to love our enemies. But it is time to move beyond such rationalizing theology in our churches. We must rediscover the gospel as good news for the poor, and the economic disciplines of shabat as the path of humanization.
Fortunately, the "subversive memory" of Jubilee has kept erupting throughout church history, among early monks, medieval communitarians, and radical reformers. Even with the ascendancy of modern capitalism-with its fierce antipathy toward Sabbath economics-this vision has not been extinguished. We see it in tracts by the 18th-century "leveler" Thomas Spence in his struggle against the move to enclose (i.e. privatize) the Commons in early industrial England: "Since then this Jubilee/Sets all at Liberty/Let us be glad/Behold each man return to his possession." And we hear it in the 19th-century spirituals of African slaves sung in American fields: "Don't you hear the gospel trumpet sound Jubilee?"
Those of us who would insist that the Bible's ancient socioeconomic and spiritual disciplines remain relevant today have hard work to do. We must diligently and creatively explore what contemporary, concrete analogies might be to Jubilee practices of old. The task is as imperative as it is daunting; the alternative is the "capital-olatry" of the runaway global economy. In all of this, the church can help nurture commitment and creativity by promoting "Sabbath literacy," a spirituality of forgiveness and reparation, and practical economic disciplines for individuals, households, and congregations.
"Who, then, can be saved?" (Mark 10:26). Mark's epilogue to the call of the rich man (Mark 10:17-25) anticipates our incredulity: Does Jesus really expect the "haves" (that is, us) to participate in Sabbath wealth redistribution as a condition for discipleship? Can we imagine a world in which there are no rich and poor? To the disciples' skepticism, and to ours, Jesus replies simply: "I know it seems impossible to you, but for God all things are possible" (10:27). In other words, economics is ultimately a theological issue. And this is why our churches must talk about it, and talk about it in light of our unique tradition of Sabbath economics.
Ched Myers was a writer, teacher, and activist based in Los Angeles, and a Sojourners contributing editor, when this article appeared.
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[and don't forget this one either from Ched Myers-- from May/June 1998 issue of http://www.Sojo.net !]
"God Speed the Year of Jubilee!"
The biblical vision of Sabbath economics.
by Ched Myers
God speed the year of jubilee, the wide world o'er!
When from their galling chains set free,
Th' oppressed shall vilely bend the knee
And wear the yoke of tyranny, like brutes, no more-
That year will come, and Freedom's reign
To man his plundered rights again, restore.
-William Lloyd Garrison, 19th-century abolitionist
"We read the gospel as if we had no money," laments Jesuit theologian John Haughey, "and we spend our money as if we know nothing of the gospel." Indeed, in most North American churches today, it is exceedingly difficult to talk about economics. This topic is more taboo than politics, more even than sex-a subject with which our churches have recently become all too preoccupied. Yet no aspect of our individual and corporate lives is more determinative than the economy. And few subjects are more frequently addressed in our scriptures.
The pre-eminent challenge to the human family today is the increasingly unequal distribution of wealth and power. Since statistics are wearisome, a few must suffice to capture this drift. The United Nations reported in 1992 that income disparities between the world's richest and poorest have doubled since 1960. Today the wealthiest 20 percent of the world's population receives almost 83 percent of the world's income, while the poorest 20 percent receive less than 2 percent! In 1965, the average U.S. worker made $7.52 per hour, while the person running the company made $330.38 per hour; today, the average worker makes $7.39 per hour, the average CEO $1,566.68 per hour-212 times more!
This is "trickle up": the transfer of wealth from the increasingly poor to the increasingly rich. And neoliberal policies of "structural adjustment" are not only hardening this income polarization, they are deepening psychic and social alienation. Whether through plant closings, the demise of the local grocery store, or the crisis of the family farm, we in the First World are now witnessing the epidemic of communal displacement that has already devastated local culture, institutions, and environments in the Third and Fourth Worlds.
Any theology that refuses to reckon with these realities is both cruel and irrelevant. We Christians must talk about economics, and talk about it in light of the gospel. "Churches," asserts Cornel West, "may be the last places left in our culture that can engage the public conversation with non-market values." Yet those who would challenge postmodern capitalism and its self-reflexive market discourses are struggling to find an alternative language and practice, particularly with the apparent discrediting of state socialism. This ideological vacuum offers a unique opportunity for the church to rediscover a radically different vision of economic and social practice-and one that lies right at the heart of its scriptures.
The Bible recognizes that inequalities will inevitably arise in "fallen" society-a realism it shares with the worldview of modern capitalism. Unlike the social Darwinism of the latter, however, the biblical vision refuses to stipulate that injustice is therefore a permanent condition. Instead, God's people are instructed to dismantle, on a regular basis, the fundamental patterns and structures of stratified wealth and power, so that there is "enough for everyone." This socioeconomic vision is articulated in a variety of ways in both testaments: through Exodus storytelling (Exodus 16), Levitical legislation (Leviticus 25), Deuteronomic exhortation (Deuteronomy 15), prophetic pronouncement (Isaiah 5), gospel parable (Matthew 25), and apostolic pleading (2 Corinthians 8-9). This article will examine the Hebrew Bible roots of this tradition; the sequel will look at how Jesus appropriates and renews it.
Manna and the Sabbath
The Biblical standard of social and economic justice is grounded in God's call to "keep the Sabbath." The word "Sabbath" comes from the Hebrew verb shabat, which means "to rest or stop working." It first appears in the Bible as the culmination of the story of creation: "God rested on the seventh day from all the work God did" (Genesis 2:2). Here a primal pattern is set: "Good" work (Genesis 1:31; Hebrew tob, better translated as "delightful") is followed by Shabat. This Shabat is "blessed" (2:3), just like the creation itself (1:22, 28). Richard Lowery points out that "in a delightful twist, 'rest' is signified as a verb in this passage and 'work' as a noun." Sabbath, he contends, captures the double theme of this creation story: abundance and limits.
Human beings are to imitate God in practicing Sabbath. The next place we encounter the term (now as a noun, not a verb) is in the archetypal story of hunger and bread in the wilderness (Exodus 16), sandwiched between two stories of thirst and water (Exodus 15:22-27 and 17:1-7). The people have been sprung from slavery, but must now face the harsh realities of life outside the imperial system. Their first test of character, not surprisingly, is how they will sustain themselves. The ancient Israelites-like modern North Americans-couldn't imagine an economic system apart from the Egyptian military-industrial-technological complex that enslaved them. "Would that we had died at the Lord's hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread! But you have led us into this desert to die of famine!" (Exodus 16:3).
The manna story is not just a feeding miracle. It is a parable that illustrates Yahweh's alternative to the Egyptian economy (Exodus 16:6). God "raining bread from heaven" symbolizes cultivation as a divine gift, a process that begins with rain and ends with bread (see Isaiah 55:10 and the parallel between the wilderness manna and the produce of the settled land in Joshua 5:12). This story narrates a "test" to see if Israel will follow instructions on how to "gather"-a symbol in traditional societies for harvesting (Exodus 16:4). The people's first lesson outside of Egypt concerns economic production!
Moses' instructions give us the three defining characteristics of this alternative economic practice. First, every family is told to gather just enough bread for their needs (Exodus 16:16-18). In contrast to Israel's Egyptian condition of oppression and need, here everyone has enough: "Those who gathered more had no surplus, and those who gathered less had no shortage." In God's economy there is such a thing as "too much" and "too little." (This contrasts radically with modern capitalism's infinite tolerance for wealth and poverty.) Exodus 16's "theology of enough" is underlined by the (probably later) version of the manna story in Numbers 11, in which the people's persistent "cravings" are punished with a plague of "too much" (Numbers 11:33-34; see Psalm 78:20-31, 106:13-15).
Second, this bread should not be "stored up" (16:19-20). Wealth and power in Egypt was defined by surplus accumulation. It is no accident that Israel's forced labor consisted of building "store cities" (Exodus 1:11), into which the empire's plunder and the tribute of subject peoples was gathered. (This too prefigures capitalism, whose dictum, according to Marx, was: "Accumulate, accumulate, accumulate-this is the Law and the Prophets!"). The Bible understands that dominant civilizations exert centripetal force, drawing labor, resources, and wealth into greater and greater concentrations of idolatrous power (the archetypal biblical description of this is found in the story of the Tower of Babel, Genesis 11:1-9). So Israel is enjoined to keep wealth circulating through strategies of redistribution, not concentrating through strategies of accumulation.
The third instruction introduces Sabbath discipline (Exodus 16:22-30). "On the sixth day, when they distribute what they bring in, it will be twice as much....Six days you shall gather; but on the seventh, which is a Sabbath, there will be none" (Exodus 16:5, 26). We Christians regard the Sabbath at best as merely one of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:8-11), at worst as a quaint Jewish custom. But here we see that it is instituted even before the covenant at Sinai. Indeed, it is reiterated in ultimate terms at the conclusion of the covenant code: If the people do not practice Sabbath, they will die (Exodus 31:12-17). Not only then is Shabat the crowning blessing of creation; it is also the "beginning and end of the law."
We Christians therefore trivialize (and even "profane") the Sabbath if we regard it merely as a day when Jews do as little as possible, or as a code of nit-picking prohibitions. Torah's Sabbath regulations represent God's strategy for teaching Israel about its dependence upon the land as a gift to share equitably, not as a possession to exploit (see for example the rituals enjoined in harvest festivals, Leviticus 23:9-25). The prescribed periodic rest for the land and for human labor means to disrupt human attempts to "control" nature and "maximize" the forces of production. Because the earth belongs to God and its fruits are a gift, the people should justly distribute those fruits, instead of seeking to own and hoard them.
"Sabbath observance requires a leap of faith, a firm confidence that the world will continue to operate benevolently for a day without human labor, that God is willing and able to provide enough for the good life," writes Lowery. "Sabbath promises seven days of prosperity for six days of work. It operates on the assumption that human life and prosperity exceed human productivity."
This first lesson was fundamental: The people were instructed to keep a jarful of the manna in front of the covenant, so as never to forget Sabbath economics (see Hebrews 9:4). The manna story, in sum, illustrates human dependence upon the divine "economy of grace." Sabbath observation means to remember every week this economy's two principles: the goal of "enough" for everyone, and the prohibition on hoarding. This vision is, of course, utterly contrary to economics as we know it. And our incredulity is rather humorously anticipated in the story itself: "Manna" means "What is this?" (Exodus 16:15).
THE SOCIAL JUSTICE CODE of Exodus 23 extends the Sabbath cycle to a seventh year: "You shall let the land rest and lie fallow, so that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the wild animals may eat" (Exodus 23:10-11). The Sabbath year restores equilibrium by restraining the activity of "productive" members of the economy and freeing constraints upon those the economy has marginalized, both the disenfranchised (the poor) and the undomesticated (wild animals)!
The ecological and social wisdom of the Sabbath year goes beyond the agricultural good sense of letting land lie fallow. Kentucky philosopher-farmer Wendell Berry articulates Sabbath economics in his notion of the "two economies." He believes the all-encompassing and integrated system of nature should be understood as the "Great Economy," upon which human systems ("little economies") by necessity depend. The problem, Berry writes, is that our modern industrial economy, with its managerial penchant for control and its lack of limits, "does not see itself as a little economy; it sees itself as the only economy. It makes itself thus exclusive by the simple expedient of valuing only what it can use-that is, only what it can regard as 'raw material' to be transformed mechanically into something else.... The industrial economy is based on invasion and pillage of the Great Economy."
The Sabbath rest commanded for the land and the laborer restores the primacy of the Great Economy, and forces humans to re-adapt to its limits. As Rabbi Arthur Waskow puts it, "This shabat betokens the peace agreement ending the primordial war between ourselves and earth which began as we left Eden-which came from a misdeed of eating and brought us painful toil and turmoil in our eating."
The Deuteronomist goes even further, interpreting the Sabbath year to include debt release (Deuteronomy 15:1-18). This was intended as a hedge against the inevitable tendency of human societies to concentrate power and wealth in the hands of a few, creating hierarchical classes with the poor at the bottom. In agrarian societies such as biblical Israel (or parts of the Third World today), the cycle of poverty began when a family fell into debt, deepened when it had to sell off its land in order to service the debt, and reached its conclusion when landless peasants could only sell their labor, becoming bond-slaves. Since there were no banks in antiquity, it was larger landowners who acted as creditors-and who foreclosed, adding to their holdings.
The prophet Isaiah railed against precisely this process of economic stratification by which wealthy creditors "add house to house and field to field, until there is room for no one but you" (Isaiah 5:8). He saw it as a betrayal of Israel's vocation to be "God's pleasant planting; God expected justice, but saw bloodshed" (Isaiah 5:7).
The Sabbath year debt release intends to safeguard both social justice ("there will be no one in need among you") and sound fiscal policy ("creditor nations will not rule over you," Deuteronomy 15:4-6). But anticipating the human tendency toward selfishness, the practical Deuteronomist specifically forbids people from tightening credit in the years immediately prior to the Sabbath remission (15:7-11). The remission applies to debt slaves as well, not only freeing them but demanding that they be sent away with sufficient resources to make it on their own (15:12-17). Whether or not the community will enjoy the blessing of the land is contingent on its fidelity of this Sabbath discipline, which Deuteronomy, like Exodus, grounds in the memory of being liberated from Egyptian slavery (Deuteronomy 15:15; see 5:15).
THE FULLEST EXPRESSION of Sabbath logic is the Levitical "Jubilee": a comprehensive remission to take place every "Sabbath's Sabbath," or 49th-50th year (Leviticus 25). The Jubilee (named after the jovel, a ram's horn that sounded to herald the remission) aimed to dismantle structures of social-economic inequality by: releasing each community member from debt (Leviticus 25:35-42); returning encumbered or forfeited land to its original owners (25:13, 25-28); freeing slaves (25:47-55). The rationale for this unilateral restructuring of the community's assets was to remind Israel that the land belongs to God (25:23) and that they are an Exodus people who must never return to a system of slavery (25:42).
The Jubilee was perhaps already prefigured in the "Feast of Weeks" (Shavuot, later the feast of Pentecost), a celebration of the first fruits of the harvest (Exodus 23:16; Leviticus 23:15-25; Deuteronomy 16:9-12):
Feast of Weeks: "From the day after the Sabbath, from the day on which you bring the sheaf of the elevation offering, you shall count off seven weeks....You shall count until the day after the seventh Sabbath, fifty days; then you shall present an offering of new grain to the Lord" (Leviticus 23:15-16).
Jubilee: "You shall count off seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the period...gives forty-nine years....And you shall hallow the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants" (Leviticus 25:8, 10).
This suggests that "Sabbath economics" applied at each harvest, not just every other generation.
Lowery acknowledges that the Sabbath vision is diametrically opposed to our modern assumptions about economics. The two main assumptions of classical economics are: 1) scarcity; and 2) unlimited need. These, he writes, "breed resignation to systems of distribution so unequal as to guarantee homelessness and starvation. On the other hand, they create an imperative toward unlimited economic growth." Sabbath economics, however, based on "the principles of abundance and self-restraint, turn this classical economic approach on its head. If you assume that resources are abundant, sufficient for the survival and prosperity of human life, and that human needs and wants are limited, then no one need starve or suffer the elements through lack of housing or clothing." The conclusion we must draw, says Lowery, is that "long-term, systemic hunger, homelessness, and poverty can be viewed only as a failure of human will."
If Sabbath economics is an unfamiliar notion to North American churches it is not because it is obscure or incidental to the scriptures. Rather, it has been marginalized by interpreters who seek to legitimate the very concentrations of wealth and power that the biblical tradition denounces. It is important to point out that many of the texts cited above probably did not take their final Torah form until after the Babylonian Exile (sixth century B.C.E.). This means that the ancient vision of Sabbath economics that originated among tribal Israel was revisioned almost half a millennium later, under very different circumstances. It is a radical vision that has continued to surface among justice-seeking Jews and Christians ever since.
Ched Myers, the author of The Biblical Vision of Sabbath Economics (Church of the Savior, 2001), worked with Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries in Los Angeles when this article appeared.
Come out if you can to join Rabbi Paul Golomb, Rev. Gail Burger, Pat Lamanna of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Poughkeepsie, and yours trule for the Real Majority Project's Sixteenth Annual Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanzaa Holiday Interfaith Candlelight Vigil for Economic Justice-- next Weds. 5:30 pm (Dec. 15th) in front of our County Office Building at 22 Market St. in Poughkeepsie!...
[rationale for gathering?...I assume you're aware of county budget cuts, need for progressive taxation!...(see other recent blog posts)]
Please pass this along (especially if you're going to your church, temple, mosque this weekend)...
[...and-- ask your imam, rabbi, priest, reverend, minister, pastor, or leader of faith to join us Weds. too-- let's celebrate all of the season's holidays-- Diwali, Ramadan, Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa!]
Joel
444-0599/876-2488
joeltyner@earthlink.net
[thx also to Elder Ann Perry of Holy Light Pentecostal Church and Rev. Blake Rider of Christ Episcopal Church for also making commitment to try to come out to join us for this, schedules willing-- we need u!]
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Words of wisdom from the Torah (Old Testament) and New Testament...
[lots of pretty holiday lights all over these days-- here's hopin' we don't forget these holy words too!]
"It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." [Matthew 19:16-24]
"Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless. What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar? To whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your riches?" [Isaiah 10:1-4]
"Blessed are you poor, the reign of God is yours...But woe to you rich, for your consolation is now." [Luke 6: 30, 24]
"They sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. They trample on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed." [Amos 2:6-7]
"The community of believers were of one heart and mind. None of them ever claimed anything as his own; rather, everything was held in common...nor was there any needy among them, for all who owned property or houses sold them and lay them at the feet of the apostles to be distributed to everyone according to need." [Acts 4:32-35]
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[check out this oldie but goodie from Ched Myers-- from July/August 1998 issue of http://www.Sojo.net ]
"Jesus' New Economy of Grace"
The biblical vision of Sabbath economics.
by Ched Myers
The Hebrew Bible's vision of Sabbath economics contends that a theology of abundant grace and a communal ethic of redistribution is the only way out of our slavery to the debt system, with its theology of meritocracy and private ethic of wealth concentration. The contemporary church, however, has difficulty hearing this as good news since our theological imaginations have long been captive to the market-driven orthodoxies of modern capitalism.
Our fears have persuaded us that the biblical Jubilee is at best utopian and at worst communistic. Yet we find it awkward simply to dismiss the biblical witness, so an alternative objection inevitably arises, as if on cue: "Israel never really practiced the Jubilee!" If genuine, and not simply a strategy of avoidance, this challenge is best addressed by considering both the "negative" and "positive" evidence.
By "negative" evidence I mean the fact that Israel's prophets repeatedly and relentlessly criticized the nation's leadership for betraying the poor and vulnerable members of the community. This strongly suggests that the Sabbath vision of social and economic justice remained a measuring stick to which they could publicly appeal.
There can be no question that the Sabbath disciplines of seventh-year debt release and Jubilee restructuring were regularly abandoned by those Israelites who wished to consolidate social advantages they had gained. The historical narratives in the Hebrew Bible indicate that as the tribal confederacy was eclipsed by centralized political power under the Davidic dynasty, economic stratification followed inexorably. Indeed, the prophet Samuel warned that a monarchy would be linked intrinsically to an economy geared to the elite through ruthless policies of surplus-extraction and militarism (1 Samuel 8:11-18).
Prophets and Jubilee
Israel's betrayal of its Sabbath vocation became a central complaint of the prophets. When Isaiah charged the nation's leadership with robbery (Isaiah 3:14-15), he was echoing the manna tradition's censure of stored wealth in the face of community need (see also Isaiah 5:7-8; Malachi 3:5-12). Amos accused the commercial classes of regarding shabat as an obstacle to market profiteering, and of treating the poor as an exploitable class rather than guaranteeing their gleaning rights (Amos 8:5-6; see Exodus 23:10-11; Leviticus 19:9-10; Micah 7:1).
Hosea laments that fidelity to international markets had replaced Israel's allegiance to God's economy of grace (Hosea 2:5). Most telling of all, however, is the tradition that attributed the downfall of Jerusalem to the people's failure to keep Sabbath: "God took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped the sword...to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had made up for its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years" (2 Chronicles 36:20-21; see Leviticus 26:34-35).
But there is also positive evidence that the Sabbath vision was practiced. Jeremiah blasts King Zedekiah when he reneges on his declaration of Jubilee manumission (Jeremiah 34:13-16). Naboth resists King Ahab's attempt to assert eminent domain by invoking his traditional "ancestral rights" to the land (1 Kings 21). And the reformer Nehemiah resurrects the Levitical prohibition of interest (Nehemiah 5:6-13) as well as the Sabbath strictures on commercial production, transaction, and finance (10:31).
There are also eschatological visions of Jubilee. Sabbath redistribution is remembered by Ezekiel (Ezekiel 45:8; 46:17-18; 47:13-23), and the most well-known appropriation of the Jubilee vision is found in Isaiah 61:1-2: the prophetic commission that begins with a call to "bring good news to the oppressed poor" and ends with a proclamation of "the year of the Lord's favor." Of all the possibilities in his scriptures, it is this text that Jesus of Nazareth chose to define and inaugurate his mission, according to Luke's gospel (Luke 4:18-19). And it is in this latter-day Hebrew prophet that the vision of Sabbath economics is wholly rehabilitated.
Jesus and Jubilee
IT WAS THE LATE Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder, in his now classic work The Politics of Jesus, who popularized for my generation the notion of Jesus as a Jubilee practitioner. Yoder rightly pointed out that Luke's gospel is organized around Isaiah's proclamation of "good news for the poor" (Luke 7:22; see 14:13, 21). Only real debt-cancellation and land-restoration could represent good news to real poor people-unless we would spiritualize the entire tradition (against the specific advice of James 2:15-17). Similarly, a Jubilee gospel is usually unwelcome news to the wealthy (as in the Magnificat's annunciation that God "has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty," Luke 1:53; see Mark 10:22). But the evidence goes far beyond a few widely acknowledged texts. In fact, a revisioning of Sabbath economics defined Jesus' call to discipleship, lay at the heart of his teaching-and stood at the center of his conflict with the Judean public order.
The gospels agree that Jesus' first substantive clash with the authorities arose as a result of his practice of "unlicensed" forgiving of sins, which has clear Jubilee overtones (Mark 2:1-12; John 5:9-17). Although the words "sin" (hamartia) and "debt" (opheileema) are different in Greek, there are many indications of their semantic and social equivalence in the gospels. Most of us have noted it, for example, in the Lord's Prayer according to Luke: "Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us" (Luke 11:4). Their correlation is further suggested by the fact that here and throughout the New Testament the same verb (aphiemi) is used to "forgive" sin and "release" from debt. Unlike our society, which refuses to see the economic dimensions of moral and criminal dysfunction, the gospels do not spiritualize "sin" and ignore the realities of "debt," but rather see the two as fundamentally interrelated.
We see this correlation in Luke's version of the story of the woman who washes Jesus' feet with her hair (Luke 7:36-50). Jesus prefaces his "absolution" of the woman's sins (verses 39, 48-50) with an object lesson describing how a creditor forgave debt (verses 41-43). Matthew does the same in his instructions on reconciliation within the community of faith: The exhortation to forgive sins "seventy times seven" (perhaps an allusion to the Jubilary "seven times seven" of Leviticus 25:8; but also to Genesis 4:24) is illumined by a thoroughly political-economic tale about the settling of accounts in the debt system (Matthew 18:15-35).
In Mark's gospel Jesus identifies himself as the "Human One" who has the authority to forgive sins (debts) (Mark 2:10). Shortly thereafter Jesus instructs his disciples to help themselves to field produce, justifying it on the basis of a story about the right of hungry Israelites to food regardless of social convention (Mark 2:23-26). Then comes his punchline: "The Sabbath was created for humanity" (2:27). This is neither a proprietary statement nor a Messianic abrogation of the Sabbath discipline! Quite the contrary: It reiterates the Sabbath as part of the order of God's good creation (Genesis 2:2-3), and confirms that its purpose is to humanize us in a world where so much of our socioeconomic reasoning and practice is dehumanizing. Jesus then asserts his authority to interpret true Sabbath practice (Mark 2:28). In fact, Jesus' central struggle with the political leadership was not over theology, but over the meaning of Sabbath (Mark 3:1-6; Luke 13:10-17; John 7:22-24, 9:14-16). This "Human One," claiming the authority to cancel debts and restore the Sabbath, is a Jubilee figure indeed!
Jesus' Jubilee orientation is also seen in his efforts to rebuild community between socio-economically alienated groups. His "outreach" to tax collectors, who made their living exploiting debtors, is a case in point. Luke begins and ends his narrative of Jesus' ministry with such stories. Following Jesus' call to discipleship, Levi renounces his tax-collecting work and throws a banquet for Jesus and his clientele of "sinners" (5:27-32). Why does this provoke strenuous protests from the authorities? The answer is made explicit in the story of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10). This wealthy creditor is also invited to host Jesus-but he (rightly) understands this to mean he must first practice substantial economic reparation. It is to this program of socioeconomic "leveling" that the official adjudicators of debt object-in Jesus' day and our own.
Leave and Follow
But while Levi and Zacchaeus embrace Jubilee liberation through redistribution, another man with "much property" rejects it (Mark 10:21-23). Jesus expects his followers to enter into the new economy of grace. Interestingly, the formulaic discipleship phrase "they left and followed" (Mark 1:18-20; Luke 5:28) uses the verb aphiemi, which we have seen also means to forgive sin-cancel debt. Jesus promises that whoever leaves "house or family or fields" (the symbols of the basic agrarian economy: site of consumption, labor force, site of production) will receive the same back "hundredfold" (Mark 10:29-30).
Discipleship thus means forsaking the seductions and false securities of the debt system for a recommunitized economy of enough for everyone. In such an economy, which Jesus calls the "kingdom," there are no longer any rich and poor-by definition, therefore, the rich "cannot enter" it (Mark 10:23-25). So contrary is this vision to our accepted horizons of possibility, however, that disciples ancient and modern have difficulty truly believing (10:26).
Jesus' call for radical social restructuring at all levels, from the household (Mark 3:31-35) to the body politic (Mark 10:35-45), is summarized by the Jubilee ultimatum: "Many who are first will be last, and the last first" (Mark 10:31). He typically chooses the venue of table fellowship in order to both show and tell object lessons that illustrate this. Meals lay at the heart of ancient society: Where, what, and with whom you ate defined your social identity and status. Thus the table was a "mirror" of society, with its economic classes and political divisions.
In the extended banquet story in Luke 14, Jesus systematically undermines prevailing conventions and proprieties, while advocating a new "table" of compassion and equality. The opening episode deals (not surprisingly) with a dispute over the Sabbath practice (Luke 14:1-6). Next comes Jesus' attack on the dominant system of meritocracy, with its hierarchies, prestige posturing, and ladder-climbing, and his invitation to "downward mobility" (verses 7-11). He then offends his host by criticizing his guest list, rejecting the reciprocal patronage system of the elite, and calling instead for a focus upon "those who cannot repay" (verses 12-14). The series concludes with Jesus' pointed little fable about an exemplary host who finally understands the bankruptcy of meritocracy and decides instead to build a Jubilee community with the poor and outcast (verses 15-24).
Grace vs. Mammon
There is no theme more common to Jesus' storytelling than Sabbath economics. He promises poor sharecroppers abundance (Mark 4:3-8, 26-32), but threatens absentee landowners (Mark 12:1-12) and rich householders (Luke 16:19-31) with judgment. In order to teach the incompatibility of the economy of grace with the dictates of "Mammon," Jesus spins a parable that portrays a hapless middleman caught in the brutal logic of the debt system who decides to "trade" instead in Jubilee-style debt release (Luke 16:1-13). When faced with a dispute over inheritance rights, Jesus counters with a parable about the folly of storing up wealth (remember the manna!), and then exhorts us to learn the lessons of grace and subsistence from the "great economy" of nature (Luke 12:13-34; see James 5:1-6).
The notorious parable of the talents (pounds) shows how Sabbath perspective as an interpretive key can rescue us from a long tradition of both bad theology and bad economics (Matthew 25:14-30; Luke 19:11-28). This story has, in capitalist religion, been interpreted allegorically from the perspective of the cruel master (= God!), requiring spiritualizing gymnastics to rescue the story from its own depressing conclusion that haves will always triumph over the have-nots (Matthew 25:29). But it reads much more coherently when turned on its head and read as a cautionary tale of realism about the mercenary selfishness of the debt system. This reading understands the servant who refused to play the greedy master's money-market games as the hero who pays a high price for speaking truth to power (Matthew 25:24-30)-just as Jesus himself did.
In light of this evidence, it should come as no surprise that the archetypal manna story, which as we saw in part one represents the foundation for Sabbath economics, should have a central place in Jesus' consciousness. At the outset of his ministry, Jesus must face again the wilderness temptation concerning bread and sustenance (Matthew 4:1-4 = Deuteronomy 8:2-3 = Exodus 16). At key junctures he re-enacts that wilderness feeding-and all who participate "have enough" (Mark 6:42; 8:8). And at the heart of the prayer he teaches his disciples is the double petition: "Give us enough bread for today, and forgive us our debts as we forgive others'" (Matthew 6:11-12).
These are some of the "Jubilee footprints" in the Jesus story. It is important to note that the early church which produced these gospels also practiced Sabbath economics. The most obvious example-similarly maligned or ignored by modern exegetes-is the Acts account of the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost-the Jubilee-tinged celebration of Shavuot (Acts 2). This occasions a portrait of the church's first experiment in wealth redistribution, echoing the manna story with the report that "assets were distributed to any as had need" (Acts 2:45, 4:35). Similarly, central to the itinerant ministry of the apostle Paul was his invitation to the new Gentile churches to learn Sabbath economics by practicing interchurch mutual aid.
Significantly, in his most elaborate articulation of this commitment (2 Corinthians 8-9), the one scriptural justification Paul employs is a citation of the manna story: "As it is written, 'Those who had much did not have too much; and those who had little did not have too little" (2 Corinthians 8:14-15)!
BIBLICAL INTERPRETERS SKEPTICAL of the Jubilee tradition have not found evidence for its practice because they have not been looking for it. But once we restore Sabbath economics to its central place in the Torah, we hear its echoes everywhere in the rest of scripture. The standard of economic justice is woven into the warp and weft of the Bible; pull this strand, and the whole fabric unravels.
If we are going to dismiss the Jubilee because Israel practiced it only inconsistently, we should also ignore the Sermon on the Mount because Christians have rarely embodied Jesus' instruction to love our enemies. But it is time to move beyond such rationalizing theology in our churches. We must rediscover the gospel as good news for the poor, and the economic disciplines of shabat as the path of humanization.
Fortunately, the "subversive memory" of Jubilee has kept erupting throughout church history, among early monks, medieval communitarians, and radical reformers. Even with the ascendancy of modern capitalism-with its fierce antipathy toward Sabbath economics-this vision has not been extinguished. We see it in tracts by the 18th-century "leveler" Thomas Spence in his struggle against the move to enclose (i.e. privatize) the Commons in early industrial England: "Since then this Jubilee/Sets all at Liberty/Let us be glad/Behold each man return to his possession." And we hear it in the 19th-century spirituals of African slaves sung in American fields: "Don't you hear the gospel trumpet sound Jubilee?"
Those of us who would insist that the Bible's ancient socioeconomic and spiritual disciplines remain relevant today have hard work to do. We must diligently and creatively explore what contemporary, concrete analogies might be to Jubilee practices of old. The task is as imperative as it is daunting; the alternative is the "capital-olatry" of the runaway global economy. In all of this, the church can help nurture commitment and creativity by promoting "Sabbath literacy," a spirituality of forgiveness and reparation, and practical economic disciplines for individuals, households, and congregations.
"Who, then, can be saved?" (Mark 10:26). Mark's epilogue to the call of the rich man (Mark 10:17-25) anticipates our incredulity: Does Jesus really expect the "haves" (that is, us) to participate in Sabbath wealth redistribution as a condition for discipleship? Can we imagine a world in which there are no rich and poor? To the disciples' skepticism, and to ours, Jesus replies simply: "I know it seems impossible to you, but for God all things are possible" (10:27). In other words, economics is ultimately a theological issue. And this is why our churches must talk about it, and talk about it in light of our unique tradition of Sabbath economics.
Ched Myers was a writer, teacher, and activist based in Los Angeles, and a Sojourners contributing editor, when this article appeared.
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[and don't forget this one either from Ched Myers-- from May/June 1998 issue of http://www.Sojo.net !]
"God Speed the Year of Jubilee!"
The biblical vision of Sabbath economics.
by Ched Myers
God speed the year of jubilee, the wide world o'er!
When from their galling chains set free,
Th' oppressed shall vilely bend the knee
And wear the yoke of tyranny, like brutes, no more-
That year will come, and Freedom's reign
To man his plundered rights again, restore.
-William Lloyd Garrison, 19th-century abolitionist
"We read the gospel as if we had no money," laments Jesuit theologian John Haughey, "and we spend our money as if we know nothing of the gospel." Indeed, in most North American churches today, it is exceedingly difficult to talk about economics. This topic is more taboo than politics, more even than sex-a subject with which our churches have recently become all too preoccupied. Yet no aspect of our individual and corporate lives is more determinative than the economy. And few subjects are more frequently addressed in our scriptures.
The pre-eminent challenge to the human family today is the increasingly unequal distribution of wealth and power. Since statistics are wearisome, a few must suffice to capture this drift. The United Nations reported in 1992 that income disparities between the world's richest and poorest have doubled since 1960. Today the wealthiest 20 percent of the world's population receives almost 83 percent of the world's income, while the poorest 20 percent receive less than 2 percent! In 1965, the average U.S. worker made $7.52 per hour, while the person running the company made $330.38 per hour; today, the average worker makes $7.39 per hour, the average CEO $1,566.68 per hour-212 times more!
This is "trickle up": the transfer of wealth from the increasingly poor to the increasingly rich. And neoliberal policies of "structural adjustment" are not only hardening this income polarization, they are deepening psychic and social alienation. Whether through plant closings, the demise of the local grocery store, or the crisis of the family farm, we in the First World are now witnessing the epidemic of communal displacement that has already devastated local culture, institutions, and environments in the Third and Fourth Worlds.
Any theology that refuses to reckon with these realities is both cruel and irrelevant. We Christians must talk about economics, and talk about it in light of the gospel. "Churches," asserts Cornel West, "may be the last places left in our culture that can engage the public conversation with non-market values." Yet those who would challenge postmodern capitalism and its self-reflexive market discourses are struggling to find an alternative language and practice, particularly with the apparent discrediting of state socialism. This ideological vacuum offers a unique opportunity for the church to rediscover a radically different vision of economic and social practice-and one that lies right at the heart of its scriptures.
The Bible recognizes that inequalities will inevitably arise in "fallen" society-a realism it shares with the worldview of modern capitalism. Unlike the social Darwinism of the latter, however, the biblical vision refuses to stipulate that injustice is therefore a permanent condition. Instead, God's people are instructed to dismantle, on a regular basis, the fundamental patterns and structures of stratified wealth and power, so that there is "enough for everyone." This socioeconomic vision is articulated in a variety of ways in both testaments: through Exodus storytelling (Exodus 16), Levitical legislation (Leviticus 25), Deuteronomic exhortation (Deuteronomy 15), prophetic pronouncement (Isaiah 5), gospel parable (Matthew 25), and apostolic pleading (2 Corinthians 8-9). This article will examine the Hebrew Bible roots of this tradition; the sequel will look at how Jesus appropriates and renews it.
Manna and the Sabbath
The Biblical standard of social and economic justice is grounded in God's call to "keep the Sabbath." The word "Sabbath" comes from the Hebrew verb shabat, which means "to rest or stop working." It first appears in the Bible as the culmination of the story of creation: "God rested on the seventh day from all the work God did" (Genesis 2:2). Here a primal pattern is set: "Good" work (Genesis 1:31; Hebrew tob, better translated as "delightful") is followed by Shabat. This Shabat is "blessed" (2:3), just like the creation itself (1:22, 28). Richard Lowery points out that "in a delightful twist, 'rest' is signified as a verb in this passage and 'work' as a noun." Sabbath, he contends, captures the double theme of this creation story: abundance and limits.
Human beings are to imitate God in practicing Sabbath. The next place we encounter the term (now as a noun, not a verb) is in the archetypal story of hunger and bread in the wilderness (Exodus 16), sandwiched between two stories of thirst and water (Exodus 15:22-27 and 17:1-7). The people have been sprung from slavery, but must now face the harsh realities of life outside the imperial system. Their first test of character, not surprisingly, is how they will sustain themselves. The ancient Israelites-like modern North Americans-couldn't imagine an economic system apart from the Egyptian military-industrial-technological complex that enslaved them. "Would that we had died at the Lord's hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread! But you have led us into this desert to die of famine!" (Exodus 16:3).
The manna story is not just a feeding miracle. It is a parable that illustrates Yahweh's alternative to the Egyptian economy (Exodus 16:6). God "raining bread from heaven" symbolizes cultivation as a divine gift, a process that begins with rain and ends with bread (see Isaiah 55:10 and the parallel between the wilderness manna and the produce of the settled land in Joshua 5:12). This story narrates a "test" to see if Israel will follow instructions on how to "gather"-a symbol in traditional societies for harvesting (Exodus 16:4). The people's first lesson outside of Egypt concerns economic production!
Moses' instructions give us the three defining characteristics of this alternative economic practice. First, every family is told to gather just enough bread for their needs (Exodus 16:16-18). In contrast to Israel's Egyptian condition of oppression and need, here everyone has enough: "Those who gathered more had no surplus, and those who gathered less had no shortage." In God's economy there is such a thing as "too much" and "too little." (This contrasts radically with modern capitalism's infinite tolerance for wealth and poverty.) Exodus 16's "theology of enough" is underlined by the (probably later) version of the manna story in Numbers 11, in which the people's persistent "cravings" are punished with a plague of "too much" (Numbers 11:33-34; see Psalm 78:20-31, 106:13-15).
Second, this bread should not be "stored up" (16:19-20). Wealth and power in Egypt was defined by surplus accumulation. It is no accident that Israel's forced labor consisted of building "store cities" (Exodus 1:11), into which the empire's plunder and the tribute of subject peoples was gathered. (This too prefigures capitalism, whose dictum, according to Marx, was: "Accumulate, accumulate, accumulate-this is the Law and the Prophets!"). The Bible understands that dominant civilizations exert centripetal force, drawing labor, resources, and wealth into greater and greater concentrations of idolatrous power (the archetypal biblical description of this is found in the story of the Tower of Babel, Genesis 11:1-9). So Israel is enjoined to keep wealth circulating through strategies of redistribution, not concentrating through strategies of accumulation.
The third instruction introduces Sabbath discipline (Exodus 16:22-30). "On the sixth day, when they distribute what they bring in, it will be twice as much....Six days you shall gather; but on the seventh, which is a Sabbath, there will be none" (Exodus 16:5, 26). We Christians regard the Sabbath at best as merely one of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:8-11), at worst as a quaint Jewish custom. But here we see that it is instituted even before the covenant at Sinai. Indeed, it is reiterated in ultimate terms at the conclusion of the covenant code: If the people do not practice Sabbath, they will die (Exodus 31:12-17). Not only then is Shabat the crowning blessing of creation; it is also the "beginning and end of the law."
We Christians therefore trivialize (and even "profane") the Sabbath if we regard it merely as a day when Jews do as little as possible, or as a code of nit-picking prohibitions. Torah's Sabbath regulations represent God's strategy for teaching Israel about its dependence upon the land as a gift to share equitably, not as a possession to exploit (see for example the rituals enjoined in harvest festivals, Leviticus 23:9-25). The prescribed periodic rest for the land and for human labor means to disrupt human attempts to "control" nature and "maximize" the forces of production. Because the earth belongs to God and its fruits are a gift, the people should justly distribute those fruits, instead of seeking to own and hoard them.
"Sabbath observance requires a leap of faith, a firm confidence that the world will continue to operate benevolently for a day without human labor, that God is willing and able to provide enough for the good life," writes Lowery. "Sabbath promises seven days of prosperity for six days of work. It operates on the assumption that human life and prosperity exceed human productivity."
This first lesson was fundamental: The people were instructed to keep a jarful of the manna in front of the covenant, so as never to forget Sabbath economics (see Hebrews 9:4). The manna story, in sum, illustrates human dependence upon the divine "economy of grace." Sabbath observation means to remember every week this economy's two principles: the goal of "enough" for everyone, and the prohibition on hoarding. This vision is, of course, utterly contrary to economics as we know it. And our incredulity is rather humorously anticipated in the story itself: "Manna" means "What is this?" (Exodus 16:15).
THE SOCIAL JUSTICE CODE of Exodus 23 extends the Sabbath cycle to a seventh year: "You shall let the land rest and lie fallow, so that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the wild animals may eat" (Exodus 23:10-11). The Sabbath year restores equilibrium by restraining the activity of "productive" members of the economy and freeing constraints upon those the economy has marginalized, both the disenfranchised (the poor) and the undomesticated (wild animals)!
The ecological and social wisdom of the Sabbath year goes beyond the agricultural good sense of letting land lie fallow. Kentucky philosopher-farmer Wendell Berry articulates Sabbath economics in his notion of the "two economies." He believes the all-encompassing and integrated system of nature should be understood as the "Great Economy," upon which human systems ("little economies") by necessity depend. The problem, Berry writes, is that our modern industrial economy, with its managerial penchant for control and its lack of limits, "does not see itself as a little economy; it sees itself as the only economy. It makes itself thus exclusive by the simple expedient of valuing only what it can use-that is, only what it can regard as 'raw material' to be transformed mechanically into something else.... The industrial economy is based on invasion and pillage of the Great Economy."
The Sabbath rest commanded for the land and the laborer restores the primacy of the Great Economy, and forces humans to re-adapt to its limits. As Rabbi Arthur Waskow puts it, "This shabat betokens the peace agreement ending the primordial war between ourselves and earth which began as we left Eden-which came from a misdeed of eating and brought us painful toil and turmoil in our eating."
The Deuteronomist goes even further, interpreting the Sabbath year to include debt release (Deuteronomy 15:1-18). This was intended as a hedge against the inevitable tendency of human societies to concentrate power and wealth in the hands of a few, creating hierarchical classes with the poor at the bottom. In agrarian societies such as biblical Israel (or parts of the Third World today), the cycle of poverty began when a family fell into debt, deepened when it had to sell off its land in order to service the debt, and reached its conclusion when landless peasants could only sell their labor, becoming bond-slaves. Since there were no banks in antiquity, it was larger landowners who acted as creditors-and who foreclosed, adding to their holdings.
The prophet Isaiah railed against precisely this process of economic stratification by which wealthy creditors "add house to house and field to field, until there is room for no one but you" (Isaiah 5:8). He saw it as a betrayal of Israel's vocation to be "God's pleasant planting; God expected justice, but saw bloodshed" (Isaiah 5:7).
The Sabbath year debt release intends to safeguard both social justice ("there will be no one in need among you") and sound fiscal policy ("creditor nations will not rule over you," Deuteronomy 15:4-6). But anticipating the human tendency toward selfishness, the practical Deuteronomist specifically forbids people from tightening credit in the years immediately prior to the Sabbath remission (15:7-11). The remission applies to debt slaves as well, not only freeing them but demanding that they be sent away with sufficient resources to make it on their own (15:12-17). Whether or not the community will enjoy the blessing of the land is contingent on its fidelity of this Sabbath discipline, which Deuteronomy, like Exodus, grounds in the memory of being liberated from Egyptian slavery (Deuteronomy 15:15; see 5:15).
THE FULLEST EXPRESSION of Sabbath logic is the Levitical "Jubilee": a comprehensive remission to take place every "Sabbath's Sabbath," or 49th-50th year (Leviticus 25). The Jubilee (named after the jovel, a ram's horn that sounded to herald the remission) aimed to dismantle structures of social-economic inequality by: releasing each community member from debt (Leviticus 25:35-42); returning encumbered or forfeited land to its original owners (25:13, 25-28); freeing slaves (25:47-55). The rationale for this unilateral restructuring of the community's assets was to remind Israel that the land belongs to God (25:23) and that they are an Exodus people who must never return to a system of slavery (25:42).
The Jubilee was perhaps already prefigured in the "Feast of Weeks" (Shavuot, later the feast of Pentecost), a celebration of the first fruits of the harvest (Exodus 23:16; Leviticus 23:15-25; Deuteronomy 16:9-12):
Feast of Weeks: "From the day after the Sabbath, from the day on which you bring the sheaf of the elevation offering, you shall count off seven weeks....You shall count until the day after the seventh Sabbath, fifty days; then you shall present an offering of new grain to the Lord" (Leviticus 23:15-16).
Jubilee: "You shall count off seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the period...gives forty-nine years....And you shall hallow the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants" (Leviticus 25:8, 10).
This suggests that "Sabbath economics" applied at each harvest, not just every other generation.
Lowery acknowledges that the Sabbath vision is diametrically opposed to our modern assumptions about economics. The two main assumptions of classical economics are: 1) scarcity; and 2) unlimited need. These, he writes, "breed resignation to systems of distribution so unequal as to guarantee homelessness and starvation. On the other hand, they create an imperative toward unlimited economic growth." Sabbath economics, however, based on "the principles of abundance and self-restraint, turn this classical economic approach on its head. If you assume that resources are abundant, sufficient for the survival and prosperity of human life, and that human needs and wants are limited, then no one need starve or suffer the elements through lack of housing or clothing." The conclusion we must draw, says Lowery, is that "long-term, systemic hunger, homelessness, and poverty can be viewed only as a failure of human will."
If Sabbath economics is an unfamiliar notion to North American churches it is not because it is obscure or incidental to the scriptures. Rather, it has been marginalized by interpreters who seek to legitimate the very concentrations of wealth and power that the biblical tradition denounces. It is important to point out that many of the texts cited above probably did not take their final Torah form until after the Babylonian Exile (sixth century B.C.E.). This means that the ancient vision of Sabbath economics that originated among tribal Israel was revisioned almost half a millennium later, under very different circumstances. It is a radical vision that has continued to surface among justice-seeking Jews and Christians ever since.
Ched Myers, the author of The Biblical Vision of Sabbath Economics (Church of the Savior, 2001), worked with Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries in Los Angeles when this article appeared.
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