We have inherited from past generations, and we have benefited from the work of our contemporaries: for this reason we have obligations towards all, and we cannot refuse to interest ourselves in those who will come after us to enlarge the human family. The reality of human solidarity, which is a benefit for us, also imposes a duty.

-On the Development of Peoples, #17

Legislation is necessary, but it is not sufficient for setting up true relationships of justice and equality...If, beyond legal rules, there is really no deeper feeling of respect for and service to others, then even equality before the law can serve as an alibi for flagrant discrimination, continued exploitation and actual contempt. Without a renewed education in solidarity, an over-emphasis on equality can give rise to an individualism in which each one claims his own rights without wishing to be answerable for the common good.

- A Call to Action, #23

I was looking through some quotations from Catholic Social Teaching for work today and these two jumped out at me because they speak to so much of what I have been feeling of late and they compliment each other nicely. I spend so much time trying to open minds to the first that I lose sight of the second and fail to reflect it in my own behavior.

Of course, I could use both to rail against the right wing, but my energy is spent and I would also be missing their true meaning. Solidarity is in one sense confrontational - to stand in solidarity with one group against an injustice, to give voice to that group's claims, to lay the case against the powerful......yet, too often we lose track of the humanity on both sides. We refuse to acknowledge that solidarity at our own peril - that deeper feeling, that if not trust at least hope that we can find common ground. And, legislation can't create that kind of mutuality - a frustrating thought because it's hard enough to get good laws, but I guess I know that no matter how good the laws are, the behavior (greed, selfishness, nationalism, social darwinism, etc.) won't be changed by them unless there's something personal, relational, communal undergirding them.

Perhaps it should be a requirement that before our legislators make any laws that they should spend a day or a week with each group that would be affected by the laws. I still think it is a much needed thing for all those who rail against welfare to spend several days in the life of a struggling family before passing more restrictive measures. The reality of solidarity (which is compassion itself) is that it imposes a duty to look beyond oneself, to try to see through another's eyes. We are all answerable to something outside ourselves - to someone.

and so it is

...or so it goes. Kurt Vonnegut and Damien Rice - interesting folks to be occupying my thoughts as I take time again to break my silence. Summer lethargy has set in - I swam through the air on the way home tonight. Of course, the humidity serves as a good metaphor for my frame of mind. The air pregnant, weighed down again with the thunderstorm that just quite doesn't happen. My mind like a sponge, soaking so much in of late, but just not quite finding the words to put it all back out into the world, though the release would likely make us all a lot happier. Something cathartic should happen - a clap of thunder that allows the storm to finally roll in, to let loose the energy and undercurrents, the thoughts I try to suppress with more thoughts and as much information as I can get my hands on so that I don't have to think! But since nothing so dramatic happens in my life, I am forcing myself to sit down and write.

A few themes swirling around in my head of late....Live8, G8, and cynicism. For all the Live8 naysayers, I have a serious question - what exactly is YOUR plan? Yes, I suppose it is a bit ironic to see overly wealthy rock stars waxing compassionate (and I'm really not questioning most of their genuineness) about poverty, but do the critics really mean to say that these folks should just shut up and sing and not try to do something positive with their celebrity - as though being famous somehow absolves you of a political conscience (unless of course, you're a Republican and then you should use your celebrity to run for governor)? Sure, a lot of folks were out just to see a good concert, but hell, I'd LOVE to have that kind of captive audience and anything at all that makes people feel empowered in any small way to act for justice is a good thing in my book.

Now as for the policy side of things, I'm no expert, but the critics I've read don't seem to be offering any viable programs to address poverty. Trade "liberalization" programs have decimated fragile economies to the benefit of multinational corporations, NOT the impoverished peoples. It's true that some governments are corrupt, but just how many of those did we prop up in the first place?

And then there's the accusation of paternalism - to be sure there is a grain of truth, but I honestly find it more among the critics than those advocating for trade justice, greater aid, and debt relief - because more of these advocates have actually live in developing countries, encountered directly the needs of peoples, rather than simply being wedded to some neo-liberal economic model they want to impose on everyone else.

This perhaps isn't a fair assessment and does injustice to some with opposing views, but it's their failed policies that the developing world is still trying to recover from. Sure there can be demands and expectations and much of the responsibility falls on developing countries themselves, but we have the power to open the doors, take some of the load off their backs, maybe make a little remedy for the past.

Well, that's not the best I could have said it, but it's out there now. Sure the G8 didn't really deliver, but Live8 got people to start paying attention a little bit more perhaps and bringing people together is always a critical first step. Now the work begins - with our government spending a mere 1.5% of its budget on all foreign assistance, a mere .16% of GDP - we've got a lot of work ahead of us - and yet, it's the very same naysayers who are the ones gutting funding for HIV/AIDS initiatives, humanitarian assistance, core development programs in Congress; the same ones who are pushing the disasterous trade agreement (CAFTA) with Central America. Well, forgive me if I am the one who turns a little cynical.

Don't talk to me about values, love, I already bought some from Duke Cunningham and sold them to Mr. Rove for a loss - though I'm not sure who got the shorter end of the deal.