[SB] Sabbath Blessing

[Molly Wolf]

*Warning: this is strong stuff.*

Seven Generations

It was a Mohawk grandmother from Brooklyn named Myrtle (it does not get 
more strong-minded than a Brooklynese Mohawk grandmother!) who first gave 
me the Aboriginal line: when you make a decision, think of what it means 
for the next seven generations.

Now, this seems at first to contradict the Gospel notion that we're to 
trust in God for the future and concentrate on the present. But I think 
it's one of those "both-and" things instead of an "either-or". We are to 
trust in God  instead of spinning in useless anxiety -- but we're also to 
think about the future consequences of our present choices. We are to be 
both faithful and responsible. Or, as the Prophet supposedly said, "Trust 
in God and keep your camel tied."

This popped up again this week because there was yet another gun death in 
Toronto -- this time, a bright, athletic, appealing 15-year--old girl, an 
innocent bystander shot in the face during in an exchange of gunfire 
between two gangs, right downtown.

So what's the connection?

During the 1990s, the government of Ontario made a whole lot of decisions 
that effectively wrote off a whole underclass of people -- kids who 
couldn't achieve in school, poor families, inner-city families. The 
government's tax policies favoured the already-prosperous suburban middle 
class.  Welfare took a 20% across-the-board cut. The notion was that people 
can scrabble their way out of poverty by sheer determination, and if they 
don't scrabble their way out, they just aren't determined enough. The race 
was to the swift and devil take the hindmost. At the same time, the 
government messed around with ill-thought-out curriculum changes that now 
give us a 30% high school drop-out rate, with a high proportion of boys. Of 
Ontario's children, 20% live in poverty. It's a bad combination.

So: if you're a poor inner-city young guy coming from bad social housing, 
facing persistent discrimination, failing in school, and having few 
prospects in a society that's effectively turned its back on you, what are 
you going to make of yourself? Kids have found an answer: gang violence. 
That's how you gain respect from others; that's how you establish that 
you're a person of significance. They've also found hand guns. Toronto had 
52 gun-related deaths this year, which may not be much by American 
standards but is appalling by Canadian ones.  One young man was shot dead 
as he attended the funeral of a friend who had been shot dead. A 5-year-old 
boy still suffers from his wounds from a drive-by shooting.

We've got ourselves into this mess largely because when the government made 
decisions, it didn't think ahead even seven years, much less seven 
generations. It didn't take into consideration the practical, pragmatic 
outcomes of its ideological choices. People do not vanish because we've 
written them off; they're still there, still human, still aspiring to 
something -- dignity, vocation, safety, stability. But they struggle with 
despair. They have no sense of a viable future for themselves. They see no 
reason to respect a society that so clearly disrespects them. They know 
perfectly well that in writing them off, we've judged and dismissed them -- 
but how would we feel if that happened to us? If we set up barriers to 
protect our own prosperity, while taking from the poor what little they 
have, aren't they going to be angry? And what will they do with their 
anger? How will it come out?

There are those who believe strongly that in matters of sexuality, we've 
turned our backs on Christian principles. I'm not going to argue with that 
position. I would, however, argue that in our contempt for the 
marginalized, our lack of forethought, our failure to care for children, 
our idolatry of  wealth and prosperity, and our failure to love those who 
are different from us, we have *really* turned our backs on Christian 
principles.

God (thank God!) takes the very, very long view: not just seven generations 
but however many millenia our time, _chronos_ has left.  God sees how even 
this mess might be redeemed.  God will judge justly and with mercy -- but 
God won't let our failure go unconfronted, nor let us off the hook for the 
consequences of our choices. I trust in God for the very long term; I'm 
having trouble finding faith in where we are today. My failure, God; 
forgive me.

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I'm about to hit some sacred cows, and they moo so badly. -- Phyllis 
Tickle, aka The Divine Miz T.