Does Social Justice Matter?

 

Photo: David Cain

Crazy Commies

I've heard it before. All my life actually. Those of us who care about what happens to our fellow human beings and think we could be doing so much more are labelled radical, socialists, communists. There's more justification to our argument than you are willing to admit. 

Living in this world creates opportunities for all of us to do so much more. When you are called, will your heart remain cold as you keep it all for yourself? And to what end? What have you gained?

Verse of the day   If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it. - 1 Corinthians 12:26

Voice of the day Personal involvement with innocent suffering, with the injustice others suffer, is the catalyst for solidarity which then gives rise to intellectual inquiry and moral reflection. - Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, SJ ________________________________________________________________ “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”  -Ghandi ________________________________________________________________ “Serve others. The unfailing recipe for happiness and success is to want the good of others. Happiness and success is when I see others happy. Happiness is a shared thing.” – Archbishop Desmond Tutu Sojourners recently shared an article about  "The American Recovery Plan, which lays out a bold and significant investment in the fight against COVID-19 and which has been passed by the House and is now in the Senate, is all three. It addresses the deep inequities of suffering from the pandemic including the racial and wealth disparities, meets immediate and urgent needs of the moment, and is supported by an overwhelming majority of Americans." -Sojourners Let me state something obvious. The act wouldn't be needed if the wealth generated in this country was more fairly and evenly shared. But that isn't the case. Pew research found that just prior to the pandemic, the wealth gap in the United States growing as the economy grew.  "Not all economic indicators appear promising. Household incomes have grown only modestly in this century, and household wealth has not returned to its pre-recession level. Economic inequality, whether measured through the gaps in income or wealth between richer and poorer households, continues to widen." The pandemic has made the situation worse. Can the American Recovery Act swing the pendulum the other way? TIME FOR SOME GOOD NEWS TO THE POOR BY JIM WALLIS Wallis concludes, "Passing the APR would be “good news” to the poor and those facing poverty; it’s also the pragmatic, popular, and, most importantly, principled thing to do. And it could be the beginning of doing much better to help people overcome poverty in America. And that would be good news indeed"

Medgar Evers

Guided By Faith

Medgar Evers was one of many leaders of the civil rights movement that leaned heavily on their faith to give them strength against a system fueled by hate, only wishing to harm black Americans and kill them if need be. Those who would do harm to African Americans for seeking dignity and respect as promised by God, were protected by unjust laws and a system that legalized and encouraged racism.

"As long as God gives me strength to work and try to make things real for my children, I'm going to work for it - even if it means making the ultimate sacrifice."

-Medgar Evers

Medgar Evers was an activist and leader of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and early 1960s. He fought in World War II, and was part of the Normandy invasion. When he returned after the war, despite his service, he found barriers to his willingness to live the American Dream he fought for in the war.

He was undeterred. "Evers soon found that his skin color gave him no freedom when he and five friends were forced away at gunpoint from voting in a local election." (NAACP History) Despite this he enrolled in Alcorn State, majoring in business administration. According to the NAACP History site he soon became an activist as the president of the Regional Council of Negro Leadership (RCNL), a civil rights and pro self-help organization. He led a boycott against filling stations that would not allow Blacks to use their bathrooms. In 1954 he enrolled at the segregated University of Mississippi Law School. The NAACP took up his case and facilitated his enrollment.  In December of 1954, Evers became the NAACP’s first field officer in Mississippi.

Evers, activism made him a target of the segregationists. His public investigations into the murder of Emmett Till and his vocal support of Clyde Kennard left him vulnerable to attack. On May 28, 1963, a molotov cocktail was thrown into the carport of his home, and five days before his death, he was nearly run down by a car after he emerged from the Jackson NAACP office. Civil rights demonstrations accelerated in Jackson during the first week of June 1963. A local television station granted Evers time for a short speech, his first in Mississippi, where he outlined the goals of the Jackson movement. Following the speech, threats on Evers’ life increased.

On June 12, 1963, Evers pulled into his driveway after returning from an integration meeting where he had conferred with NAACP lawyers. Emerging from his car and carrying NAACP T-shirts that stated, “Jim Crow Must Go”, Evers was struck in the back with a bullet that ricocheted into his home. He staggered 30 feet before collapsing, dying at the local hospital 50 minutes later. Evers was murdered just hours after President John F. Kennedy’s speech on national television in support of civil rights. (NAACP History) 

His killer, Byron De La Beckwith, was not found guilty until 1994 because the all white jury deadlocked in the first two trials in the 1960's. New evidence found by the FBI in the early 90's led to his conviction. The 1996 film Ghosts of Mississippi tells the story of the 1994 trial.

There Is Something We Can All Do.

If you are unhappy with the results. If you are distressed by the lack of civility that has led to our deep divide...Doing nothing is not an option.

If change is going to happen...it is in our hands.

And what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
And what'll you do now, my darling young one?
I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin'
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison
And the executioner's face is always well hidden
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten
Where black is the color, where none is the number
And I'll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it
Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin'
But I'll know my song well before I start singin'
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

Bob Dylan - A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall

Remember the post 9/11 line, "If you see something, say something?" How about, "If you see something, do something?" The Blue Eyed Son in Dylan's song went places and saw things, and heard things. He saw and heard so many things that seemed unjust. From a biblical perspective injustice is what happens when someone uses their power to take from someone else the good things God intended them to have: Their life, their liberty, their dignity, or the fruit of their love or their labor. (Jim Martin/The Just Church) Instead of walking away, he decided he was going to do something about the injustices. To the Blue Eyed Son this was all a call to action.