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| A Larger View |
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A Bi-Monthly Newsletter of the Inner Outer Partnership |
| Volume V Edition 2 |
March/April |
2000 |
Material Prosperity, Spiritual Prosperity
The talk of prosperity has many asking, how much longer will it last? Is it a bubble?
Yet few are asking whether it is shortchanging spiritual values. We seem so focused on
the notion of prosperity, we tend to assume it as an end in itself, a majestic word with no
need of a qualifier. We talk of material prosperity as if it were the only kind of prosperity
available. For those who adhere closely to dictionary definitions, that may be so, but for
those who try to hone in on the meaning of words, that omission is telling. Besides our
financial portfolio, there is, or ought to be for some, a spiritual counterpart, an inventory
of our spiritual assets and debits. For every hour spent with a broker, reading financial
tables or surfing financial web sites for quotes, oughtn't there be a similar amount of time
spent on our spiritual investment? We often assume that life teaches us lessons and that
spiritual prosperity grows on its own. With rare exceptions, that is a fallacy, for spiritual
growth requires much nurturing and that nurturing like any other requires time, effort and
is a product of what we are willing to invest in it.
And what of the other side of material prosperity? Even on its own terms, it challenges
spiritual values prompting many to ask, is it prosperity only for the few? The number of
families earning between $100,000 and $200,000 has almost doubled in the last decade.
To be rich now means having at least ten million dollars. True, unemployment is as low as
it can be without alarming too many economists, and inflation is still more fear than
reality, but coexisting with affluence are such facts as half the new births in New Mexico
being paid by Medicaid, the number of working poor increasing or the gap between the
haves and the have-nots widening.
What is this prosperity saying about us? Is it reaffirming what some have already
professed that we are oriented to worldly values, and place greater importance on the
material side of our existence? Still those who are prosperous are not devoid of
spirituality. What spiritual values do they practice? Has their wealth enabled spiritual
growth? Many new millionaires, for example, are creating foundations. There is pressure
for them to do so at a time when public sector giving is shrinking and individual donations
are neither in keeping with the need nor in proportion to the newfound prosperity. There
are tax reasons why such giving is beneficial and too there is the psychological bonus of
saying, I did this, am I not a good person? Are such motives sufficiently spiritual? Are the
causes they address causes that advance the spiritual agenda of humanity? Doing spiritual
good and being spiritually motivated do not always go hand in hand. Is this the case with these foundations? Regardless, they make a positive difference, although from a spiritual
perspective, many questions remain.
If our spiritual portfolios were more prosperous, would it enable us to ascertain how
real this prosperity actually is, and even behave differently? Certainly it would then be
easier to see through the froth, and more importantly to place it in the proper
perspective - one aspect of our lives, no more, no less, and in the long run, not the most important.
Crime Victims In Civil Courts
Increasingly, victims of crimes are turning to civil courts for satisfaction. It is a trend
that is said to have begun with the O.J. Simpson case where the families of his ex wife and
her friend were awarded damages. Now the trend is being extended to third parties,
particularly in the case of individuals such as apartment owners. Suing a defendant who is
likely to be in jail or someone who may not be able to pay damages is not as productive as
suing someone who has the ability to pay. Nearly two-thirds of all judgments against such
third-parties have been won.
Jeff Dion, an Arlington, VA attorney who believes crime victims ought to use
available remedies, has helped organize a group of lawyers to represent victims in civil
courts. He unabashedly refers to these third-parties as "people who were in a position to
prevent a crime and didn't." Owners of apartment buildings where things like rape have
occurred are particularly vulnerable.
While remedies in civil courts exist and it is certainly legal to use them, is it
constructive? Does using civil courts for criminal cases tend to preclude understanding
and compassion? Does it foster a spirit of self-orientation, of revenge or quasi-revenge
instead of justice or certainly of mercy? Motives, of course, come into play. While we may
not be privy to them, certainly not in most cases, the practice does suggest that whatever
is being emphasized may not be falling within the higher values encompassed by
spirituality.
How Can They Grow Under Inhuman Conditions?
Africa has 10 million AIDS orphans. Sudan has many enslaved. In India, Pakistan and
Bangladesh among other poor nations, poverty forces children into harsh labor conditions
where they are maltreated and abused. In South Asia, young girls are often sold into
prostitution. In Brazil as in Romania, not to mention other countries, youngsters live on
the street either being tyrannized by others or tyrannizing weaker ones. In the United
States homeless children often forego school among other necessities.
The question is simple enough: How can they grow under inhuman conditions, not only
grow up to be productive adults, but grow in ways that may be more spiritually significant
when their daily life can't help but be concerned with survival?
And if we can endure the obvious answer that they can't - hopefully with at least some
exceptions - then another question arises: What can we do about it?
Fighting Teen Prostitution
South Korea, like Thailand, is a country where the sexual exploitation of young girls is
deeply entrenched. Some estimate that hundreds of thousands of teenage girls are
engaged in prostitution at any given time whether in karaoke bars, sex shops or so called
love-hotels. In Seoul, for example, prostitution is big business. In Seoul's red light district
an estimated 20,000 people annually rake in $88 million from about 260 sex shops.
Enter Kim Kang Ja, Seoul's first woman police chief, a 55-year-old mother of two who
is on a campaign to wipe out teen prostitution in the city. Since there is such a stigma
about women who have been involved in the sex trade, she has begun working with
women's groups and local companies to create half-way houses for them and to help find
jobs for teen prostitution victims. The most controversial part of her campaign was
spurring a law to publicly identify men who consort with teenage prostitutes. In fact her
efforts have now led to a nationwide campaign to do the same thing. Since bribery is so
prevalent and police officers have routinely been bribed, Kim has also put female officers
on patrol with men in hopes their sensitivity to the issue will make them harder to bribe.
While fighting crime does not always call forth higher values this effort does and
makes one hope its spirit along with some of its techniques may be emulated elsewhere. In
the United States, for example, where teenage runaways can be as abused sexually as they
are anywhere else, identifying those who pay for their services may prove effective. Not
too long ago Mary Kay Letourneau, a 36-year-old Seattle schoolteacher who began an
affair with a student when he was 13 and had two children by him (although he admitted
to having been a willing participant and his own mother failed to see him as a victim) was
convicted and deemed a pedophile. If men could be judged by these standards - albeit that
for them pregnancy is never a visible consequence - perhaps both the cause against
gender discrimination and that against teenage prostitution would be advanced.
Hospices In Prisons
Texas may be the state with the most executions, yet it is also in the vanguard of prison
management by being among the first to have a prison hospice. The AIDS epidemic
along with longer prison sentences has led to more people dying while incarcerated. In
1999, for example, about 3000 U.S. inmates died while in custody, 50% more than in
1998. To keep up with the needs of the dying, 12 states including Texas and California
now have prison hospices.
For those who have died while incarcerated, the desolation of the regular prison
environment only added to whatever fears or pains they underwent. Hospices, which are
staffed by volunteers from among the prisoners themselves and where pain medication is
far more available may not be as serene or as comforting as non-prison hospices, but offer
a far better alternative. Those who die in prison hospices usually die earlier than they
would were they to be free and die with far more pain too. Still it is a far gentler death
than it would otherwise have been. Even some victims' rights advocates (who generally object to shortening prison sentences in any way) don't find prison hospices
objectionable. This way they still die in prison, but can die with dignity.
While no formal study has yet been done to confirm it, the presence of a hospice
within a given prison seems to lessen violence. In the same way that executions can
unsettle inmates, so hospices have a calming effect.
There are of course differences among hospices. Some are more restrictive than others.
But regardless of how much freedom an inmate may have, they nevertheless indicate a
sense of compassion for a population towards whom we often neglect to exercise it.
A Prison Hunger Strike
While we have no intention to single out a given State, a related story also comes
from Texas where 48 death row inmates protested their isolation with a hunger strike.
They along with others in "ad seg", administrative segregation, the contemporary
equivalent of solitary, are without human contact save for being accompanied to the
shower and in some cases also to the exercise yard. Two hundred other non-death row
inmates joined them because for them too such extensive and sometimes prolonged
isolation "does something to our minds".
The Texas institution tightened its security after seven inmates were able to escape for
a brief time before being recaptured. Although U.S. prisons frequently use "ad seg" for
security reasons, it is often also used as a form of punishment. For reasons that vary there
now are some 8000 inmates in some form of solitary confinement throughout Texas
facilities alone.
While prison authorities can have a long list of explanations backing their need for
segregating certain prisoners and while some may even be valid, it is difficult to look at
this situation, while remembering both the inevitable humanity of the people involved as
well as the inevitable existence of their inner divinity, and not be keenly aware of the
absence of compassion.
Seed Thought
"A man has many skins in himself, covering the depth of his heart," writes the 13th century
German mystic and thinker Meister Eickart. "Man knows so many other things; he does
not know himself. Why, thirty or forty skins or hides, just like an ox's or a bear's, so thick
and hard, cover the soul."
And he advises:
Go into your own ground and learn to know yourself
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