One is tempted to think that Election Day settled all matters regarding the future course of our nation. The harsh and divisive rhetoric and the cult of personality have been characteristics of a campaign that has been a far cry from revealing the virtues and values of our democracy that we all cherish. The weeds of discord and distorted images of a “clash of civilizations” have flourished in this toxic context.
Yet, honesty demands that the challenges that our nation faces were already deeply rooted and calling for the best of our better angels, long before this electoral cycle. These challenges were virtually ignored in the debates and discussions by our presidential candidates. They are worthy of deep and sober conversation and action, by all citizens and residents, at the local level, wherever we are. In a speech exactly one year before he died, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. articulated these challenges as the giant triplets (of evil): poverty, racism and militarism. One would add climate change or environmental degradation as a fourth arena.
Poverty: 15.8 million American households (13 percent) are food-insecure, meaning that they are at risk of hunger in any given month. Even as we experience unprecedented housing unaffordability in the Puget Sound region, it would take
7 million apartments or houses nationwide to address homelessness. Skewed tax systems, such as our highly regressive system in Washington, leads the poorest 20 percent of the population to pay more than 17 percent of their income on state and local taxes, while the wealthiest pay a small percentage of that.
Racism: Black Lives Matter. Just as the Black church has done over decades, we need to assert with courage and clarity the primacy of race-critical analysis as central to undoing the damage done by the oppression of the African-American community and other communities of color. Racism underlies the messaging of one of our campaigns this year. But, the focus on personal expressions of overt racism obscures the systemic nature of racism, how it pervades our society and the truth-listening and reordering of privilege that will be necessary for us to grow up as people of conscience.
Militarism: While the commitment to rebuild our nuclear arsenal has to date slipped through public scrutiny, our country finds itself increasingly engaged with active U.S. personnel in conflicts and wars throughout the Middle East. Little mention is made of the consequences of the timeless “war on terror,” which led us into two wars, veterans not well cared for, relentless harm to civilians (and massive numbers of unwelcomed refugees) and loss of moral credibility in resolving other crises.
Climate Change and Environmental Degradation: While the Paris Agreement to reduce CO2 emissions has been ratified by the U.S., industry “scientists” have created doubt about a reality that threatens our planet.
Actions such as the Native leaders have taken at Standing Rock to stop the Bakken oil pipeline help us to connect the dots between the need for conversion from fossil fuels and the sacredness of the lands and water that we should not take for granted as ours in order to feed our appetite for limitless consumption.
Rather than despairing over the monumental task ahead of us, we need to have a spirit of “local villages” with agency and capacity to act to “be the change we want to see.”
The great religion writer Karen Armstrong spoke in Seattle two years ago about “compassionate cities being uncomfortable cities.”
This means taking risks for a society built on social, economic and racial equity. It means rooting our word and deed in perennial values of “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” and the common good. It means addressing the vulnerability so many are facing, prioritizing our children. Finally, it means overcoming fear, so that the image of the “lifeboat” that some would have us believe turns into the reality of a “banquet table” where participation by all is cultivated and experienced. We have the technology of right intention, the will to course correct and the humility that we have much to learn from each other. Now, let’s get to work.
Michael Ramos is the executive director of the Church Council of Greater Seattle.