3 Clear Steps to Justice

I think Kevin Blue's Practical Justice really does a great job describing how to approach injustice. He brakes it into into a three part progression of going toward justice. First we are called to provide direct relief to those who are hurting. In other words, we should "give a man a fish". This is straight forward but overwhelming, as there are millions across the globe that need help today. The second act toward justice is teaching people skills. Distributing practical skills is a direct way ti enable people to help themselves, or "teaching a man to fish". The last step in the progression toward justice is to learn to deal directly with the system as a whole. To address the larger inequalities that are affecting people, or "fixing the pond". If the ponds polluted, the first two parts will be ineffective or just band-aids on the larger bleeding. Structural is pivotal because it gets to the root cause of the problem and hopefully addresses it. I have no problem with working on the first two but you have ask yourself if something greater is going on to keep folks from thriving. The disparity in the world is shocking and I believe that there are many systems in place to keep people while only a few greatly profit.
Unfortunately, with money comes power and those with money want to stay in power so they leverage both to keep the current system in place.

Shane Claiborne chimes in on the fish adage as well. "We've all heard the saying, “Give someone a fish and they’ll eat for a day, but teach them to fish and they’ll eat for the rest of their life. The problem is that nobody is asking who owns the pond or who polluted it?” I believe this statement couldn't be truer.
I believe the church is really good at the first two parts of doing justice, but are really missing the boat on the last. The church spends a ton of time giving out fish and teaching people how to fish, but it can only be so helpful when the pond is polluted or once the church leaves, the fence comes back up. To the churches dismay, when they come back and see folks hungry again and might become discourage by the overwhelming need. Why? could the pollution or the fence have anything to do with it?

I am asking you, probe deeper, ask more questions? Could systemic poverty come into play here? What can I do to rid the many cycles of poverty. How can people be given a realistic chance to achieve. I don't have answers all the answers and neither do you. Theres no magic bullet but if we keep pushing and start working together, maybe we can get some of these things figured out and bring a little heaven on earth.

Why? Someone is Paying Attention

I thought he said no lobbyist in the White House. Well I guess this isn't the White House but to appoint the Vice President of Crop Life which lobbies for Monsanto, Dow, and Syngenta to be the Chief Agricultural Negotiator in the Trade office is kind of disappointing. Islam Siddiqui will now be in an executive position for US agriculture pushing a chemical intensive policy not only in the US but also attempting to convince other countries that more chemicals are the way to go. He will be trying to trade and push GMO's to other countries, saying that GMO's are a great new technology to create more crops. This appointment is really a step in the wrong direction.

At first I thought... hmm maybe I shouldn't post this but hey, its my blog and I guess I can post whatever I want to. Its just a fuller taste of me. I hope you like it.

A Prayer for Obama, Psalm 109:8 Are you f'ing kidding me!

Have you seen this? Some radical Christian groups has decided to make these bumper stickers that say "Prayer for Obama Psalm 109:8". Of course I could not rattle off Psalm 109:8, so I looked it up. "May his days be few; may another take his office." verse 9, "May his children be orphans, and his wife a widow" Taken literally, this is terrible way to use the bible to describe ones hate. I wanted to shout at the top of my lungs in anger. It actually swing my mood for the evening.
First things first, lets clear up this bible verse for what it actually means. You have to look at in the context of Deuteronomy 28 and God's covenant. In this Psalm, David is pouring out his heart to God that God stay to true to who God is. David is crying out from oppression believing he has done right. I feel like this text is an example that God is bigger than Caesar or any ruler for that matter. I think many people will be let down if they put their faith in leaders. The Bible can be a really scary when tweaked for ones own motives. This script-texting is deplorable and and anti-kingdom. We have to be bigger than the left and the right and this action is not showing it. All I can do is hope and pray that grace and love enters the peoples hearts that are harboring hate and using the bible to justify it.

Obligatory Health Care Piece

I must say, I'm not pleased with where we are in the healthcare bill. Although I do not know a ton about the logistics, from what I do understand, its not the change we need. First off, I don't even like many of the arguments. The Dems are saying that we need more competition and the Conservatives aren't really saying anything. So the Public Option was invented to limp into the race dominated by health insurers. NOO! Thats part of the problem. After watching the documentary Money Driven Medicine, (you can watch it here)I think things become very tricky when helping someone is all about profit. This creates an entirely inefficient system when the end result is dollars and the only check is expensive lawsuits. Don't get me wrong, dollars isn't a bad thing, but when that becomes the primary purpose than I think it should cause concern.

Regardless, thats not working so hot either. I'm all for helping people out, but even if your not others are to blame for your increasing insurance costs. The way its been told to me, is that well wealthy people can afford expensive health insurance so they buy it. Poor people can't but they will be covered by the government. This leaves the middle class who can't afford health insurance and are too poor for government help. So, many people in the middle class wait till they cannot any longer and go to the hospital. They get their procedures done without insurance and costs thousands of dollars. The number one cause of bankruptcy and foreclosures in America: medical bills. So many middle class people cannot pay off their medical bills and those costs are absorbed by everyone who has insurance.

I know a talking point for politicians is that many foreign dignitaries sometimes will come over to the US to get complicated procedures done. This is very true and yes America has the best specialized surgeons, but we really aren't doing so hot at everything else. Specialized surgeons get paid the most in the medical field. Primary care doctors are the most important in catching problems before they get worse and helping people forgo unnecessary surgery but get paid the least of doctors and are in highest demand. Medical school is expensive, and I don't blame doctors for wanting to pay off their huge debt in less years. We need change, real change.

My personal opinion is that we should go toward a PREVENTATIVE form of healthcare. It will be cheaper and will keep people healthier. Single payer will take a lot of the incentive of money out of medicine, maybe. If we took out the middle men and paid doctors well and came up with a good system to hold them accountable to preventative medicine I think we could be in a good place.

But How Much Will This Corn Cost 10 Years From Now?

So Elizabeth Palmberg wrote an interesting article about food speculation and global hunger. So thats what I'm going to talk about. To be clear we are not going to talk about our incredible harmful industrial farming tactics. That is conversation for later. To me, her article is a great example of a non-controversial chance to restore justice. Stock Brokers are trying to make money off the future price of basic commodity foods like corn, wheat, and rice. They are dumping money into the future of some foods while pulling money from others. With no limits these investors are bouncing the prices of these basic foods up and down. This greatly affects the current supply in demand. To maximize profits investors are pooling together to skyrocket prices of some foods while bottoming out others. This is crushing farmers and the food economy around the world. Without anything close to a stable price for these foods, farmers are forced to either try to hold out until they can get a fair price for their food or go all in on a good price. This hugely affects the supply and demand of these products. The food riots last year happened not because we temporarily ran out of food, it happened because investors tipped the scales to much and everything collapsed.

I agree with Elizabeth that we need some regulation so that food prices can stabilize and there wouldn't be a run on certain crops. This will create a more accurate picture of what crop prices are at.

By fixing this one regulation (which the Dodd regulation bill has the potential to do), food prices will not be ridiculously inflated and can hopefully arrive at a point where it accurately reflects the prices of the commodities not just magical speculative cost created by investors making money off the future price of food.

The Stuff That Will Go Here

Maybe I'm going to talk about life. Maybe I will hold your interest. Maybe we can move in an upward manner. I hope so.

Peace and Love-ev