I have two notable experiences to share from my trip to California that resonate the same theme in my heart.
First while we were in San Diego we took a day off and traveled down to the border town of Tiawana. I was excited because I had never been to Mexico, so my first visit would be a memorable one. Now of course this is a border town so it is different then a normal Mexican city. As we walked through the streets, I meditated on what I was experiencing, and I couldn't help but feel and deepening sense of shame. I realized that this entire city or subculture formed because of us (America). More specifically because of out consumerism/materialism. As I observed the lives that these people were living I was disgusted, not of them but of myself and my people. Here we are the wealthiest people in the world (6% world population with and using 50% of worlds wealth and resources), and we are more than content to let these people live at a sub-standard, while we pursue our lusts in obtaining more and more stuff. Instead of helping them we enslave them. The worst was when we were leaving and and we came upon 3 of the most beautiful little Latino children. As I observed I realized that their parents had forced them to work the street trying to sell "stuff", while prostituting themselves (using there innocence as a selling tool), and my group treated them like stray animals, teasing and laughing. No child should ever have to live like that! But what is there for them, Americans always want to buy something more. I want to cry, and I wanted to scream and curse!
My second experience was when we stopped at a Native American museum in Arizona. As we walked through the halls that depicted what America had done to the Native Americans, and to there children, especially with the "boarding schools", I was overwhelmed. I wanted to cry, and I wanted scream and cuss!
First while we were in San Diego we took a day off and traveled down to the border town of Tiawana. I was excited because I had never been to Mexico, so my first visit would be a memorable one. Now of course this is a border town so it is different then a normal Mexican city. As we walked through the streets, I meditated on what I was experiencing, and I couldn't help but feel and deepening sense of shame. I realized that this entire city or subculture formed because of us (America). More specifically because of out consumerism/materialism. As I observed the lives that these people were living I was disgusted, not of them but of myself and my people. Here we are the wealthiest people in the world (6% world population with and using 50% of worlds wealth and resources), and we are more than content to let these people live at a sub-standard, while we pursue our lusts in obtaining more and more stuff. Instead of helping them we enslave them. The worst was when we were leaving and and we came upon 3 of the most beautiful little Latino children. As I observed I realized that their parents had forced them to work the street trying to sell "stuff", while prostituting themselves (using there innocence as a selling tool), and my group treated them like stray animals, teasing and laughing. No child should ever have to live like that! But what is there for them, Americans always want to buy something more. I want to cry, and I wanted to scream and curse!
My second experience was when we stopped at a Native American museum in Arizona. As we walked through the halls that depicted what America had done to the Native Americans, and to there children, especially with the "boarding schools", I was overwhelmed. I wanted to cry, and I wanted scream and cuss!
I've experienced shame before over things that I have dont, but this is the first time that I have felt a physcially painful shame over something that we have done.
What evil we have done, and what evil we continue too do. But we some how still live in ignorance, and complacency. I grew up hearing about how great America is, and about all the great things we do, and how we a "Blessed", "Christian" nation. Well to hell with that!!! We have so much and we use it all on ourselves, while so many go without.
When will we wake up? When will we repent for the evil we have done, and the great evils that we continue to do? When will we finally realize that we are no different than any other empire that had dominated the world past???????
10 comments:
Interesting how you attribute blame for their poverty to American consumerism and not to Mexican socialism.
A little bit of education in the field of economics might do you a bit of good to help your guilty conscience. The truth is somewhere in the middle, I believe. Consumerism is not the "evil" you have made it out to be in your mind. It is not the aquisition of wealth, but the love of it, which is the root of all kinds of evil. If each of us is responsible for what we have been entrusted with, we can affect change. But lamenting over the poverty of others and assuming that the cause of their poverty is the very economic system which allows people to rise out of poverty is a great injustice to both yourself and those who are oppressed.
Heath, I appologize if I gave the impression that I was trying to or get involved in economics or the various systems there in, that was not my intentions. And your right I am probablly totally ignorant in that regard.
My point was to point out the financial (economic) discrepency between the rich and poor in the world (lack of justice - OT), and what I have percieved as the failure of our nation to take responsibility in pursueing that justice in the world, which seems to me to be the defineing quality of a "christian" society. Especially one that controls so half of the world resources.
my heart broke and still breaks thinking about looking those children in the eyes knowing that they are being forced to sell their childhood away.
No worries...
I just feel like you may need some context with which to evaluate your experiences. I was in Juarez, Mexico (a border town next to El Paso, TX) when I was 15 and 16 on missions trips, and I experienced many of the same emotions you are going through. As I have been able to reflect on those experiences over the past 15 years, I have come to understand what I saw a little better.
It is easy to look at statistics such as America having 50% of the world's wealth and miss what they mean. Econimics is not a static field, in that there is not just one "pot" of money from which everyone's wealth is divided. A nation's wealth is directly dependent upon the number of times that money and goods/services are traded. For instance, the same $20 can be used 500 times a year in America, and appear as $10,000 on our Gross National Product (the measure by which a nation's wealth is measured.) But it is still just $20. Hence, a free market system such as ours appears to be wealthy (and in fact is wealthy) precisely because the money in those nations is exchanged numerous times during the course of a year. Nations such as Mexico, which have a socialistic base and restrictive markets, prohibit trade and reduce it's GNP, making it a poorer nation. Wealth in these nations is generally centralized in the government and aristocracy and very little trickles down to the poor. What money is spent by the wealthy in a closed market system is usually used to purchase products manufactured by other countries which deepens the trade defecit and increases unemployment. The very reason so many immigrants are flocking to America from Mexico is that the government of Mexico has severly hindered people's ability to provide for themselves. They see in America the very opportunity that their own government is denying them. The really tragic fact of what you saw is that without the trinkets to sell, those children would be in even more deperate circumstances because their government simply doesn't care.
Consumerism is not a bad thing. For every car we buy there are factory workers (both in America and abroad) whose livelihood depends on the sale of that vehicle. If people did not buy pizzas I would currently be unemployed. People have jobs because people buy stuff. And that is actually a very good thing because it provides people with a sense of independence and self worth. The danger comes when the "stuff" ceases to be tools and instead become idols.
My reason for responding to your post was to point out the fact that you and I really do live in the greatest nation on earth. The financial opportunities that we are given have come to us because of the great sacrifices made by generations past. Because others do not have the same opportunities we enjoy should not be a cause of shame on our part, but rather a reminder of our responsibility to work for the opening of the same opportunities in oppressed nations (such as our neighbors to the south). We can give them money or food, but that will only last for a day or two. What is really needed to overcome poverty in this world is the expansion of free markets which will allow people to become self-sufficient. "Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime."
BTW, feel free to stop by my bible study next time you are in town. I promise I don't bite. :)
oh no steb.. you let heath get to ur blog..
hahahaha
two people who love debating..hmm... :o)
BTW, thanks for the link. I am returning the favor...
Steb, I am so proud of you! It is so inspiring to hear your thoughts on these issues! I (obviously) agree 100%!
Man we gotta talk...
I love you!
I think along the same lines as Heath in a lot of ways; however there is also the affects of the American welfare state causes and continues to create dependency for the disinfranchised on this country and many immigrants. Essentially government programs and forcing then in perverbial "boarding schools", "plantations" and "internment camps". We are in the most free country in the world; however that does not mean that this is going to be a perfect place, but so many people want to come here because it is so much better than where they are coming from. Thanks Steb!
I think along the same lines as Heath in a lot of ways; however there is also the affects of the American welfare state causes and continues to create dependency for the disinfranchised on this country and many immigrants. Essentially government programs and forcing then in perverbial "boarding schools", "plantations" and "internment camps". We are in the most free country in the world; however that does not mean that this is going to be a perfect place, but so many people want to come here because it is so much better than where they are coming from. Thanks Steb!
steb,
thank you for your perceptive self-reflection and desire to take personal/communal responsibility on an issue of injustice.
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