Global Interdependence Susan Frederick-Gray November 16, 2014

Transcription

1 Global Interdependence Susan Frederick-Gray November 16, 2014 Readings: If you could see the earth illuminated when you were in a place as dark as night, it would look to you more splendid than the moon. Galileo Galilei, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, This planet is not terra firma. It is a delicate flower and it must be cared for. It's lonely. It's small. It's isolated, and there is no resupply. And we are mistreating it. Clearly, the highest loyalty we should have is not to our own country or our own religion or our hometown or even to ourselves. It should be to, number two, the family of man, and number one, the planet at large. This is our home, and this is all we've got. Scott Carpenter, Mercury 7 astronaut, speech at Millersville University, Pennsylvania. 15 October Sermon: The story that Director Anne told about the people with arms that could not bend at the elbow is one of my favorites. I remember a version of it from Sesame Street when I was a little kid, the story of The Geefle and the Gonk. The Geefle has long arms that don t bend, the Gonk has short arms that do bend. They have to cooperate to eat nectarines, the only food on the planet. The Geefle uses its long arms to pick the nectarines from the tree branches (that the Gonk can t reach), and the Gonk feeds the nectarines to the Geefle and himself. In another telling of the story, it is used to distinguish heaven from hell. In hell, everyone is sitting in front of a table of delicious food, but because they can t bend their elbows, they are unable to eat. They are starving and wailing with hunger. In heaven, the conditions are exactly the same, but people are feeding each other, so everyone is joyful, sharing and feasting on the abundance. Mindful that interdependence is our theme this month, let me suggest to you that this story is not just a lesson in the value of cooperation; it is a good glimpse into the values that lead to hunger and suffering and to those that lead to joy and abundance. For I would suggest to you that we are all people whose arms do not bend at the elbows. Now of course, our arms do bend at the elbow, but what I mean is that none of us can feed ourselves. Whether we pay attention to it or not, acknowledge it or not, none of us could eat, none of us could survive, all on our own. Completely alone, we would starve. Some of you might be saying, wait, a farmer, or a hunter, might be able to attend to his or her own needs. But even then, it is not isolation. For the farmers and hunters would depend on soil, sufficient water, sunlight, conditions to support their plantings and to support their hunted game. As we talked about last week, no living thing -- whether you look at it through the lens of family, biology, ecology, or physics -- no living thing can exist in isolation. There are hundreds, millions of connections, 1

2 nodes or connecting points, that we cannot see that led to this moment, that bind us to the universe, to the earth, to creation and to each other. Now this being said, how we order these connections of interdependence makes a tremendous difference. Imagine again that scene of people gathered around a table of abundant, delicious, food, starving because their arms won t bend and they can t feed themselves. What if a small group figures out how they can feed each other and tells the whole group, We ve found the answer! We ll show you, on one condition. You will feed us first and after we ve had our fill, you can feed each other whatever is left. Facing starvation, most would agree to the condition. And so a small group eats abundantly, perhaps excessively, and then once they are full, they go off to nap or rest, or write poetry and read, play with their children, while those who fed them, now feed each other on the scraps left over. In this story there is still interdependence, but rather than cooperation based on mutuality, there is a power difference that is exploited. At the end of October, I traveled to Tucson and Nogales as part of a border education trip organized by the Unitarian Universalist College of Social Justice. I highly encourage others to look at a trip like this (if you are interested, talk to me because we could even organize a trip from this congregation). It was eye-opening, even for someone like me who has done quite a bit of study and activism on immigrant and migrant justice. Let me share a couple stories from this trip. In Nogales, we went to a Mexican government agency that provides some immediate assistance to people just deported. They offer a phone call and one bus ticket to anywhere in Mexico. At the agency, we talked to a few men who had just been deported. One man was from Phoenix. He was probably in his early fifties. He told us that he had lived in Phoenix for 20 years. Recently, he went to Las Vegas for another job and got stopped and deported. His family, his wife, son and daughter live here in Phoenix. He was planning his return to the U.S. He wanted to reunite with his family. Another man shared a similar story. He was younger, earlier thirties is my guess. He too had children, young children in the US. He too was planning his way back. His family needed him. What strikes me is that while we talk about millions of undocumented people in this country, they are also workers here. They are often exploited, working without basic protections, dealing with being underpaid and wage theft. Add to that the constant threat of being arrested, treated like criminals, separated from their families in terribly inhumane ways. And then they return, to be united with their families, to provide for their families, because they can find work, because it is their best option - and it is not a good option. They risk their lives, they risk dying on the border to get back to their families. Truth is, we ve actually built an economy that depends on an exploitable labor force. US economic and foreign policies are some of the key drivers of migration across the globe. Looking at our history, this is nothing new. From slavery and indentured servitude, to the exploitation of immigrants from China, Asia, Mexico, Eastern Europe, immigrants have been an effective catalyst for growth and creator of wealth in the US. But this wealth is built on the backs of poor. 2

3 There is a hymn in our hymnal Our World is One World which reminds us Our world is one world, the ways of wealth affect us all, who are the rich or poor, who stand or fall; it is all connected, interdependent. As part of the trip we had reading assignments and study to do in advance. The readings highlighted the connections we don t often see between nations, connections that are not built on mutuality and respect, but on power difference and dominance. A huge factor in migration from the south was the six million Mexicans displaced after the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the bankruptcy of millions of Mexican farmers that resulted. NAFTA allowed American farmers, supported by huge farm subsidies, to dump excess corn in Mexico, making American corn cheaper to buy in Mexico than Mexican grown corn. Corn is a staple in Mexico and this price drop bankrupted the farmers. This has been beneficial for American farmers and for the US in general, but nothing happens in isolation. While the US went through an incredible wealth boom in the 1990 s following NAFTA, millions of displaced Mexicans came to the US to find work in the booming US economy. It is, however, important to note that the wealth created was not equally distributed across the US. Wealth grew tremendously, but so did economic disparity in the US. Wealth rose for a small sector. For most Americans, wages didn t and haven t risen. A labor force that can be exploited hurts all workers, but it is important to know that while all workers and lower income households suffer, wealth at the top has skyrocketed. We know this. And there are costs throughout the country from this. We are out of balance, which is hurting our economy overall. It s even hurting our health. Studies have shown that health outcomes go down for everyone as disparity rises. It leads to stress, guilt, imbalance everywhere. Another article we read for our trip explained how the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (the IMF) also have these circular financial benefits that end up primarily returning to benefit the loaning country. For example, the World Bank, primarily funded by the US and Europe and developed nations, will make a loan to a developing nation. The loan might be for infrastructure development, like roads, bridges and sewers, but the conditions of the loan are that the contracts for the work must go to a particular company or military contractor from one of the developed nations loaning the money. So the development money generally just cycles back to the loaning country (although from their government to private industry) creating greater wealth in the developed countries. Meanwhile, new things are built in the country but most of the loan money doesn t stay in the country, just the debt. (From Pamela K. Brubaker, Justice in a Global Economy, chapter 12, Reforming Global Economic Policies. One article showed how many of these nations are so bogged down by the debt payments that they cannot fund basic education and health programs; the debt cripples the country. Now, yes, there is corruption. Generally someone made a lot of money in signing on to the loan, the government or a small minority, but the country remains impoverished. Interconnections? Yes. Interdependence? Yes. Relationships of respect and mutuality, of cooperation? Not exactly. 3

4 Not every international relationship is exploitative. There are many organizations working together for mutual benefit along common goals, but there is enough that is not fostering cooperation and mutuality that we see the effects in labor strikes around the global and environmental devastation. As Unitarian Universalists, our seventh principle relates directly to interdependence. It calls us to affirm and promote respect for the interdependent web of which we are a part. In an essay on the seventh principle, Unitarian Universalist minister, Barbara Merritt says that too often we promote a a gated community mentality. This is a mindset promoted through fear, a mindset that thinks we need build protective walls around us (whether around our families, our religious communities or our nation) because there is not enough to go around. But what fosters growing poverty and scarcity are the exploitative policies and practices that create wealth for a few and result in tremendous poverty globally. And there is an environmental parallel in the carelessness and exploitation of the environment and natural resources leading to mining disasters, chemical disaster areas, and climate damage that, along with poverty, feed migration. Some people want to stop migration without ever addressing its root causes. We could be a model in environmental standards, a model in trade agreements that reflect mutuality and cooperation. Instead, we choose profit, we choose dominance in the world. Interdependence is a biological, ecological, economic reality. How we live our interdependence is a question of values and ethics and of religious principles. Within teachings and scriptures from indigenous traditions to the teachings of Jesus, from Hinduism to Judaism, from Buddhism to Islam, principles of connection grounded in humility and respect are taught over and over. And yet we lose sight of them. Imagine this... What if Earth came first, as astronaut Scott Carpenter suggests it must, in our reading this morning? Carpenter says, Clearly, the highest loyalty we should have is not to our own country or our own religion or our hometown or even to ourselves. It should be to, number two, the family of man, and number one, the planet at large. This is our home, and this is all we've got. What if our tiny blue planet in the midst of the expanse of the dark universe was the first, the highest of our loyalties? Imagine how we might live differently? Imagine how our world, our society, our lives might be different? This is really a radical notion. Does it make you a little uncomfortable? It makes me a little uncomfortable. For how often do we think that it is good and right to have our highest loyalty be to ourselves, or if not ourselves per se, then to our families, our kids? Family first we often say. After that, we might put our religious community, or our neighborhood, or our country, and then maybe fellow humankind (your order might be different) and then the planet. Overall, we start with the self, the most familiar, and then prioritize our loyalty going out in bigger circles. But what if we started with the planet first? After all, it is what we fundamentally and first 4

5 depend on (even if we take it for granted). What if we started big, with loyalty to planet, then to the family of humanity, and then to our own families? It s a radical revolution in values to be sure. In the midst of the civil rights movement, Dr. King said we needed to undergo a radical revolution in values from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. He said that we would never overcome the giants of racism, materialism and militarism until we learned to value people more than profits. We still need this kind of revolution of values, but given the way that globalization has emerged -- exploiting not only people but the environment in service to the creation of wealth -- the revolution of values we need might be greater than King imagined. It may need to begin first with a loyalty to the planet. Consider this. We often take for granted the idea that our families come first. But consider that if we all place our families, my family first, then we are naturally in competition with each other to some degree. My family s needs and wants will trump the needs of others in my concern, unless we hold a higher value, a higher loyalty. This would not be the same as not valuing our kids, our parents, our lovers, our families. But to be called to set the planet as our first loyalty, as one shared resource -- if that were our first loyalty, we would do better at protecting our planetary home. Imagine industry, mining, our cars, our consumerism, how all of these might be different if loyalty to the care and protection of the planet came first. And it is not that the earth needs our protection, but we need its protection for our own health and survival. It would mean living differently. Merritt actually suggests this -- that living our seventh principle would be noticeable from the outside. You would see it in how we treated strangers in our midst, with dignity and respect. You would see it in how we treated animals. You would see it in how we reached out to others in need and worked with others to combat poverty. You would see it how we lived, in how we made choices about purchases and consumption. You would see it how we worked to reestablish connections with people we might have previously dismissed or disparaged. You would see it in how we worked not just the soil of our gardens, but turned open our hearts to greater compassion, attention and empathy with others. It would make a noticeable difference in how we lived, in ways others might see. I have an invitation for you during this month of exploring interdependence. I invite you to take time to give attention to your connection to the earth, to creation and to each other. Allow this question, of what would it mean to honor our interdependence throughout the globe, across boundaries of religion and nation, across boundaries between humanity and nature itself. What would it look like? What does it look like in your own life? This month I have been trying to be intentional in bringing my awareness to my human dependence on the earth, on the environment. In doing this, I have noticed two things. One, it is a gift to begin the day, to take time in a moment outside to feel connected, a part of creation, the universe is beautiful, its wonder inspiring. But two, attached to my computer, inside my car on the highway, I see the great challenge before us to expand our loyalty to our relationship with earth. As the world grows smaller through globalization, people are finding more ways of building connections of humility and curiosity, partnership and mutuality across the world. We are in a 5

6 time of great change. We can t see fully where it will lead. But we can choose to live our lives in ways that don t just conform to the values of competition and profit. We can actually live our lives differently, act differently, speak of the world in ways that offer a different type of loyalty - to the earth, to our fellow humanity. So, I invite you to chew on this idea and to think about ways that interdependence calls you to live differently. Blessings on the journey. 6