Helping Others Vs. Keeping What’s Mine

I wake up many mornings feeling like I’m living in an alien land. What I hear on the news (from media moguls, of course), read in the media, see on TV, both in nightly programs and the ads that intrude on them — all make me feel like I better hoard what I can or my kids, if not me, will be in trouble. When I was growing up, even if the American history I was taught bore little relation to any reality (genocide was never mentioned; slavery rarely discussed, let alone the aftermath or racism), most of us seemed to believe it was important to help others who might be less fortunate than we were. I don’t know that most kids took that seriously, but it was listed – in school and certainly in my home – as an important value. Now many Americans clearly feel they don’t stand a chance; working hard won’t get them the golden apple; and their kids are, more than likely, in real trouble. Some folks, like George Zimmerman, believe that it’s young (or not so young) black men that are the problem, and they need guns to protect themselves from this threat. I wonder when I listen to reports about him if other people watching the newscast think he sounds like a deeply disturbed human being, irrational, nuts. Or how many ‘normal’ people think he may have a point. They have to hide behind gates, pull up their ladders, even kicking anyone who might be climbing upwards, and if necessary, carry guns to ‘protect’ themselves from this menace. What kind of society do these folks view as ideal? Are we a few generations away from one that looks like The Hunger Games? I watched Bill Moyers last night, as I usually do on Sunday evening, since he is a light in a very dark tunnel for me. He ended his program with an editorial about a man he had grown up with in Texas who had recently died. The gentleman had a midas touch, but spent a great deal of his lucre helping others. He didn’t just give to charities, he worked hands-on teaching ghetto kids, setting up clinics and struggling to find other ways to ‘give back.’ One of the last times he called Moyers before he passed away he asked, “Moyers, what else can I do to make the world a better place?” What’s happened to that question in the American conscience? Why aren’t more people, rich and not so rich, asking it? What is wrong with this picture, when a man like this seems unusual? I remind myself to not be so grim. What gives me hope is the Occupy movement. MoveOn held a training on Saturday all over the country that I attended, where we watched videos about nonviolent protest movements over the last thirty years, and then sat down in small groups to envision the kind of community we wanted to live in, creating ‘pods’ that would exemplify this new organization of society. I had hurt my back so I left before the event was finished, but the group went on to figure out how to protect themselves from push back against this creative approach to organize local society and perhaps, in time, the entire country. The group went on to choose three local actions for the next six weeks, and went on to plan them. So there is another side to a darkness that seems to be overtaking this nation. In the midst of the ‘gimme gimme’ mentality and ‘stay away from what’s mine’, there is a Moyers, MoveOn events, Occupy, and a real concern about the direction we are taking as a society. That sustains me. At least I know I’m not alone.