The Occupy Wall Street movement is growing and the network is expanding. Organizers said there would be demonstrations in 951 cities in 82 countries. Last weekend in Washington DC, the dedication ceremony of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial and the March for Jobs protest both mentioned and supported the Occupy Wall Street protesters. I got emails from friends who had already attended local meetings and rallies stemmed from this movement in their own cities.
In the Sunday Los Angeles Times Calendar section, there were excerpts of an interview with Harry Belafonte, singer, actor, and social activist. When asked about the Occupy Wall Street Movement, he said, “. . . they could not have picked a more poetic environment than for these young people to show up on Wall Street. It just tells squarely, without ambivalence, here’s the target, here’s the problem, let’s fix it.”
Belafonte, who was intimately involved in the Civil Rights Movement with Dr. Martin Luther King, knows what it takes to move a movement forward. At the heart of any movement is the truth. When he was asked how he worked with Bobby Kennedy in his days, he said, “By listening to his yearning for truth, because he really looked hard to find it. And much to our blessings, once he heard it and experienced it, he never rejected it.”
The truth that the Civil Rights Movement focused on was the equality of all people independent of their skin color. This truth was captured in the opening of the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” By staying with this truth, the movement called our nation to recover its original calling.
What is the truth that this movement yearns for by targeting Wall Street, symbolically and physically? Perhaps, the truth might have something to do with recovering the original calling of money, banks and businesses. This might sounds strange to some: money has a calling? Yes. Everything and everyone, including money, has an original calling, and in most cases, this original calling is benevolent to human communities.
Money is no more than a medium of exchange. It was created to enhance human transactions of exchange. Before money, individuals and communities exchanged goods by bartering. But sometimes, the timing of the availability of goods may not work perfectly. For example, if I farm land and you hunt, bartering would work great during harvest time. But what happens during growing seasons when the harvest is not ready, and I still need meat to feed my family? So we invented money. I pay the hunter with money for now in exchange for the meat, and when it is harvest time, the hunter can pay for the grain with that money. So, money is simply a temporary medium of exchange.
When we lost sight of the original purpose of money and decided to accumulate it as a commodity rather than keeping it moving as a medium of exchange, we created economic problems. Banks were created to help people manage money as a medium of exchange. For example, save some money now so that you can use it later to exchange for things you need for your children’s education or your retirement. But when banks decided to make money, keeping more money than necessary with every transaction of exchange the people made, we got our economic problems. Most businesses and corporations were created to improve people’s lives. For example, car companies make a product that enables people to move to places safely and efficiently. Markets and stores were created to be places where people could exchange goods so that they could get what they needed to live a good life. When businesses and corporations lost sight of their original calling—to enhance people’s lives—and decided to focus exclusively on making and keeping money, we got our economic problems.
When we stay with this truth about money, banks and businesses, we seek to call them back to their original callings. We are asking organizations and individuals who work with money to recapture their soul. However, there are some entities that are created to be harmful to human communities in the financial world today. There are corporations, of which their sole purpose was to make money and keep it, rather than moving it as a medium of exchange. These entities have no benevolent original calling. They have no soul. What are we to do? We have to actively expose them for what they are. This is the truth I believe we must yearn for as we observe, participate, and/or engage in discourse about the Occupy Wall Street movement.
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Gather members of your community for a time to explore the truth about money.
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Reflection Questions for Proper 25 (Year A) Deuteronomy 34:1-12 Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17 Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18 Psalm 1 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 Matthew 22:34-46 |
Eric H. F. Law
Kaleidoscope Institute
For competent leadership in a diverse changing world
www.kscopeinstitute.org
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Come to Los Angeles in 2012 to study with The Sustainist, the first two opportunities: February 27–March 2, 2012 |
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