A few days ago the date was 9-09-09,
a fun date to write, but one that didn’t hold particular significance for most
of us. A much more meaningful date in September occurred exactly eight years
ago today. Significant not for the date itself, but rather for events that
unfolded that September morning and even more so, for what has followed in the
eight years since that date, September 11, 2001 is a date that most of us will
long remember and a date that will forever mark a turning point in this country
we call home. Or will it?…
Some of you have received an email
from me every September 11 for the last seven years, upon each anniversary of
that date that will forever live in infamy. For others, you have not received
such an email until today as you are newer acquaintances, only recently joining
the fold of those who receive my email reflections. There are certain dates
upon which I feel compelled to take a few minutes to record some of my thoughts
regarding the significance of historical events and their bearing upon our
lives. Today is such a day.
But my thoughts today differ
dramatically from some of the things that I have written in the past.
Historically my reflections have primarily been upon honoring those who lost
their lives on September 11 and taking action ourselves to make this world a
better place. That is again the tone of this email, but the vehicle that I use
may take some of you by surprise.
My life has changed dramatically in
the past year. And as a result I have a different perspective than I have had
in years prior. Yes we need to remember those who lost their lives. Yes we need
to honor those who gave their lives as firefighters, police officers, and other
rescue personnel that day. Yes we need to commemorate those who have given
their lives since in defense of our freedom. But I cannot sit idly by and not
ask the question that is staring all of us in the face as we do so—What exactly
have they died for? Freedom to do… What?
We speak of ambiguous ideals of
freedom, but is that really what we are representing in this country? I am
proud to be an American and I consider myself blessed to have the opportunity
to live in this country, but I also view that blessing as an obligation to use
the wealth and resources that we have to better the world that we live in. And
sadly, that is not the legacy that we have been leaving.
We have the freedom to prosper, but
the responsibility that comes with prosperity doesn’t seem to exist. I have
read some numbers and statistics recently that greatly disturb me and have
given me serious pause. Did you know that the richest 1 percent of Americans
receive 15% of the nation’s annual income? In the last twenty years the
share of wealth of the rich elite in this country has increased by nearly 90%. Even
more disturbing than this general number are the numbers concerning big
business. In 1960 the ratio of the salary of the average CEO to the average
American worker (after taxes) was 12:1. In 2003 that ratio was 301:1.
That is absolutely obscene. The poorest 20% in this country have had a
negligible increase in wealth or position in the last fifty years while the
upper 20% have amassed more and more wealth and resources. And those resources
are being used for absolutely frivolous and counter-productive pursuits.
We have the influence and resources
in this country to radically change the world. And yet we do not do so. Instead
we pour those resources into our own selfish dreams and into an elaborate
security system intended to protect our amassed wealth.
Our military budget is absolutely
obscene. By 2006 the US military budget was larger than the next 25 nations
combined. That money could be used to do so much good, and instead we use it to
“secure” ourselves. And yet the terrorist threats continue to rise. When does
it stop? When do we say we have enough? Historically…. We don’t. During the
cold war the US and the Soviet Union amassed more than 70,000 nuclear warheads.
It is estimated that since 1940 the United States has spent 5.48 trillion
dollars developing nuclear weapons and the systems by which we can deliver
them. And we have spent even more producing those weapons. And for what
purpose?
Did you know that we had 450
Minuteman II missiles is silos in the Midwest poised for launch at the Soviet
Union for more than thirty years? Many of those weapons and the silos that
housed them have recently been decommissioned, but we still have more than 150
minuteman III missiles in the same region just in case. And now the US spends
$100 million per day to keep such weapons poised and ready for a preemptive
strike. Is that really necessary? Is that where are money, effort, and
resources should be going?
But it isn’t just our own defense
that causes us to produce weapons. We also produce them for the purpose of
selling them to the rest of the world. Today the US produces 53.4% of the
world’s weapons. In 1999 the US weapons industry supplied arms to 92% of the
conflicts in process anywhere on the planet. Today that percentage is even
higher. That includes many of the conflicts in Africa such as the war in
Northern Uganda that Invisible Children has done so much to call to our
attention. What is wrong with us? Do we have any since of morality or decency?
Rather than helping these nations to
survive we sell them weapons to destroy themselves. Between 1998-2001 the US,
Great Britain, and France earned more money as a result of selling weapons to
developing countries than they gave those countries in aid. That is simply
ridiculous!
It is those kind of numbers and those
kind of facts that weigh on me so heavily today. And I can’t help but wonder
what it is that this country truly represents. Yes we have done some wonderful
things, but what legacy are we truly leaving? We consume far more than we
should, we are destroying the planet, and we are destroying the people that
inhabit it, all for our own selfish pursuit of what we think to be happiness.
And most of us completely miss the
point of what life could and should be. I have spent the summer living and
working in one of our nation’s National Parks. I can think of little that I
would rather be doing. The National Park system has been called America’s Best
Idea. I submit that such a claim is absolutely correct. The ideas of
preservation, conservation, and inherent and intrinsic value that lie behind
the national park idea represent a radically different mindset than the
prevailing one in this country. On September 27 Ken Burns’ new documentary on
the parks will premiere on PBS. It will be released on DVD on October 6. Watch
it. I have a feeling that it will represent these values very well, and we
would do well to heed the message that lies behind these values.
We need to fight for something worth
fighting for. Not for the power to rape and pillage, but rather the responsibility
to manage and take care of this world and its people. We are more than we have
become.
And those of us that claim to be
followers of Jesus have done little better, if not actually worse than anyone
else. We focus on maintaining a system of “right belief” and largely ignore the
much more significant issues of social justice, sitting apathetically by as
participants in the theo-capitalist system that this nation has come to
represent. I could go on about this for some time, but I think I will instead
let Brian McLaren sum it up in two very simple statements.
First of all, “Jesus does not
prescribe hell to those who refuse to accept the message of justification by
grace through faith, or to those who are predestined for perdition, or to those
who don’t express faith in a favored atonement theory by accepting Jesus as
their ‘personal savior.’ Rather, hell—literal or figurative—is for the rich and
comfortable who proceed on their way without concern for their poor neighbor
day after day” (Everything must change, 208).
Sound like us? Earlier in the book
McLaren also writes that this world and our nation will not change until,
“instead of pursuing our own selfish dreams—whether they are individual,
ethnic, religious, political, economic, or national—we seek for God’s dream for
creation to come true, and we are restored to our place in God’s sacred
ecosystem” (Everything must change, 132).
We are not fulfilling our purpose.
And we are most certainly not representing the values that Christ stood for. It
is not about believing the right things. It is about what we do with the time
that is given to us, and how we treat our fellow human beings and the world we
live in. We must let go of ourselves and find our identity in a higher cause if
there is to be any hope of significant or lasting change.
I have not attended a church service
since the beginning of May. That is a marked change for me. It has been very
interesting to live in a national park and to not attend an institutional
church. I have missed it, but at the same time, I have connected with God and
been spiritually renewed in much much more powerful and significant ways.
John Muir once said that, “The more
the hills and groves are cut down and hewn into cathedrals ad churches, the
further off and dimmer seems the lord.” Those words powerfully echo in a world
where we have lost much of the grandeur and wonder that once inhabited these lands.
I woke up this morning in the back
of my truck looking out at Chimney Rock in what was once the prairie of
Nebraska. Surrounded by the prairie land no more, the rock still stands as
testimony to a land that once was, where people risked all to travel across the
frontier in pursuit of a better way of life.
Perhaps today we need to embark on a
similar expedition, only this time, instead of crossing the land in pursuit of
a new place to live, we should rather cross the frontier of who we are in pursuit
of a new way of living. Rather than using 9/11 as a catalyst for our “war on
terror” perhaps we would do better to rethink the meaning behind those actions,
to recognize what we are doing wrong, and to let it be the progenitor or a new
way of living. If we are willing to take the journey we may well find,
like John Muir did when he viewed the natural beauty that surrounded him that,
“new beauty meets us at every step in all our wonderings.” And there is nothing
more valuable than the pursuit of truth and beauty.
That is a legacy worth living for.
