The Sustainist

Power to Change

The ability to recapture our core values resulting in constructive change is an essential skill that all sustainable community leaders should have.  The United States of America is not a perfect nation, but it has demonstrated, through its democratic process, its ability to change over its short history of being a nation.  The amendments to our Constitution were evidence of this power to change and to correct the course of our nation toward realizing our founding vision—“We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal...”—in spite of resistance and power struggles.

The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is one of the post-Civil War amendments, and it includes the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses, as well as Rights Guaranteed Privileges and Immunities of Citizenship. It was proposed on June 13, 1866 and ratified on July 9, 1868.  The amendment states that all persons born in the United States are citizens, overturning a central holding of the portion of the Dred Scott Case (1857) decision that declared that African Americans were not and could not become citizens of the United States or enjoy any of the privileges and immunities of citizenship.  The amendment requires the states to provide equal protection under the laws to all persons (not only to citizens) within their jurisdictions. The significance of the Fourteenth Amendment was exemplified when it was interpreted to prohibit racial segregation in public schools and other facilities in Brown v. Board of Education.

However in the second section of the amendment, which determined the number of U.S. Representatives that each state would be due in Congress, the use of the words "male citizens" marked the specific and intentional exclusion of women for the first time in the Constitution.  Also in section 2, the counting of persons in each state excludes “Indian not taxed.” While this amendment was ratified as a response to support the status of former slaves, it also showed exclusion of another form.  Subsequent changes to the Constitution, such as the 19^th Amendment, ratified in 1920, and the later movementsto pass the Equal Rights Amendment, were efforts made to correct this blatant exclusion in the U.S. Constitution.  Reading portions of this amendment should generate interesting dialogue. 

Imagine how this amendment was formed, debated and voted upon in the House of Representatives and Senate of the United States.  What knowledge and abilities are needed in order for a leader in Congress to assist the nation to move toward constructive change for a sustainable future? How might this reflection help you assess the candidates running for offices in the upcoming election?

The Fourteenth Amendment

Section. 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Section. 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

. . .

Section. 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Dialogue Process: Inform participants that portions of the 14th Amendment will be read three times. After each reading, participants will be invited to share their reflections using the Mutual Invitation process.  (See 8/13/2012 post for description of Mutual Invitation.) Invite participants to capture a word, a phrase or image that stood out for them from the document while the text is read out loud the first time. Using Mutual Invitation, invite each person to share his or her word, phrase or image briefly. Invite participants to consider the following question as the text is read a second time: Bearing in mind that there would be future amendments to the Constitution, what did you learn from this document about the process of change for nation? Invite someone to read the text a second time. Using Mutual Invitation, invite each person to share his or her reflection on the questions. Invite participants to consider the following question while listening to the text again: As a result of studying this text, what are you being called to do or change (as a person living in the United States) today? Using Mutual Invitation, invite each person to share his or her reflection.

Reflection Questions for Proper 21(Year B) Esther 7:1-6, 9-10, 9:20-22    What did you learn from this story about sharing our blessings? Psalm 124   How do you know God is on your side? James 5:13-20   What is the role of prayers and songs in community? Mark 9:38-50   What does this passage teach you about inward reflection and outward action?

Eric H. F. Law
Kaleidoscope Institute
For competent leadership in a diverse changing world
www.kscopeinstitute.org

Dates set for 2013 Opportunity to Study with The Sustainist: April 15-19 Missional Ministry in the Grace Margin and Holy Currencies Orientation Los Angeles, CA July 15-19 Holy Currencies: Beyond Time, Talent and Treasure Los Angeles, CA August 19-23 Fundamental Skills for Building Inclusive Community and Holy Currencies Orientation Rainbow Lodge Retreat Center, North Bend (near Seattle), WA Register at:  www.kscopeinstitute.org

Power of Words

Words are powerful. Words coming out of our mouths can produce blessings or they can produce curses.  Especially today with computer technology – internet, YouTube, blogs – anyone can publish without getting permission; anyone of us can have his/her own TV channel with the potential to have millions of viewers.  On top of that, for those of us living in the United States of America, we have the right to have freedom of speech and of the press guaranteed by the constitution.  Does that mean we can say anything we want?  Yes.  But we also need to know and be willing to face the consequences.   Last week, we witnessed the reactions to a YouTube video produced by one person, who has the same right to freedom of speech as anyone else in the United States.  The reactions included protests, violence and the tragedy of the loss of the U.S. Ambassador and his staff in Libya.  

We are a very powerful generation.  What we say and what we put out in the world through the various media has tremendous power and influence. As Spiderman’s uncle said, “With great power comes great responsibility.”  We can use this power to spread hate or we can use it to propagate love.  We can use it to control or to empower, to isolate or to connect, spread fear or to build trust.  We can use it to breakdown and divide community, or we can use it to build up and unite a community.

To continue our dialogue in preparation for the upcoming election in the United States, I invite readers to study a very famous speech given by Abraham Lincoln.  As you listen to this short speech given on November 19, 1863 at Gettysburg, PA, pay attention to the carefully chosen words.  In just over two minutes, Lincoln invoked the principles of human equality espoused by the Declaration of Independence and redefined the Civil War as a struggle not merely for the preservation of the Union, but as "a new birth of freedom" which would bring true equality to all of its citizens. Instead of using words that would divide and further polarize the people in the country, he chose words that illuminate, clarify and refocus people to what is truly important for the sustainability of the future of the country. 

As the people of the United States move toward the election in November, I would invite readers, who are citizens, to consider the words that the candidates use.  I invite you to evaluate the candidates based on whether they are careful, gracious and truthful in choosing the words that they use in their speeches and in the media they use to put forth their ideas and passion for the future wellbeing of the country.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.   

President Abraham Lincoln
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
November 19, 1863

Dialogue Process: Inform participants that Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address will be read three times. After each reading, participants will be invited to share their reflections using the Mutual Invitation process.  (See 8/13/2012 post for description of Mutual Invitation.) Invite participants to capture a word, a phrase or image that stood out for them from the document while the text is read out loud the first time. Using Mutual Invitation, invite each person to share his or her word, phrase or image briefly. Invite participants to consider the following question as the text is read a second time: How might the words in this speech be relevant today for the people of the United States? Invite someone to read the text a second time. Using Mutual Invitation, invite each person to share his or her reflection the questions. Invite participants to consider the following question while listening to the text again: As a result of listening to this speech, what are you being called to do or change (as person living in the United States) today? Using Mutual Invitation, invite each person to share his or her reflection.

Reflection Questions for Proper 20(Year B) Proverbs 31:10-31    What did you learn from this text about being a partner in a relationship? Psalm 1   What does it mean to meditate on God’s law day and night? James 3:13-5:3, 7-8a   How do you gain wisdom from above? Mark9:30-37   How does this passage challenge your idea of being a follower of Jesus?

Eric H. F. Law
Kaleidoscope Institute
For competent leadership in a diverse changing world
www.kscopeinstitute.org

Dates set for 2013 Opportunity to Study with The Sustainist: April 15-19 Missional Ministry in the Grace Margin and Holy Currencies Orientation Los Angeles, CA July 15-19 Holy Currencies: Beyond Time, Talent and Treasure Los Angeles, CA August 19-23 Fundamental Skills for Building Inclusive Community and Holy Currencies Orientation Rainbow Lodge Retreat Center, North Bend (near Seattle), WA Register at:  www.kscopeinstitute.org

Characters of Greatness

Booker T. Washington, as a boy of 9, remembered the day in early 1865:

As the great day drew nearer, there was more singing in the slave quarters than usual. It was bolder, had more ring, and lasted later into the night. Most of the verses of the plantation songs had some reference to freedom.... Some man who seemed to be a stranger (a United States officer, I presume) made a little speech and then read a rather long paper—the Emancipation Proclamation, I think. After the reading we were told that we were all free, and could go when and where we pleased. My mother, who was standing by my side, leaned over and kissed her children, while tears of joy ran down her cheeks. She explained to us what it all meant, that this was the day for which she had been so long praying, but fearing that she would never live to see. [Up from Slavery (1901) pp19-21]

We continue our dialogue series on important documents of the United States of America this week with the Emancipation Proclamation, which was an executive order in 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. Although the Emancipation Proclamation did not immediately free a single slave, it fundamentally transformed the character of the war.

The proclamation was not a law passed by Congress but a presidential order under Article II, section 2 of the Constitution. It was issued in two parts. The first part, issued on September 22, 1862, was a preliminary announcement outlining the intent of the second part, which officially went into effect 100 days later on  January 1, 1863.  It first affected only those slaves that had already escaped to the Union side, but as the Union armies advanced in the south, thousands of slaves were freed each day until nearly all (estimated at 4 million) were free by the summer of 1865. Some slavery continued to exist in the border states until the entire institution was finally wiped out by the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment on December 6, 1865.

Abraham Lincoln was the president when the United States was most divided and self-destructive.  Who was Abraham Lincoln? Some would call him one of the greatest presidents.  What made him great? What was his wisdom and strengths that allowed him to sustain the country while he worked to undo a longtime injustice against a major population in the country? 

As the people of the United States move toward the election in November, it is appropriate to discern the characters that Abraham Lincoln possessed. Using Lincoln, one of the most respected presidents in our history as a yardstick, how would you evaluate the qualifications of the candidates?  Do the candidates running for office possess characters comparable to Lincoln?  

Amendment XIII - Slavery Abolished.

1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

--

By the President of the United States of America:

A Proclamation.

Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:

"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

. . .

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.

And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.

And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.

Dialogue Process: Inform participants that parts of the Emancipation Proclamation will be read three times. After each reading, participants will be invited to share their reflections using the Mutual Invitation process. (See 8/13/2012 post for description of Mutual Invitation.) Invite participants to capture a word, a phrase or image that stood out for them from the document while the text is read out loud the first time. Using Mutual Invitation, invite each person to share his or her word, phrase or image briefly. Invite participants to consider the following question as the text is read a second time: What characteristics does a government leader need to have in order to issue such a proclamation?  Invite someone to read the document a second time. Using Mutual Invitation, invite each person to share his or her reflection the questions Invite participants to consider the following question while listening to the document again: As a result of listening to this document, what are you being called to do or change (as a person living in the United States) today? Using Mutual Invitation, invite each person to share his or her reflection.

Reflection Questions for Proper 19 (Year B) Proverbs 1:20-33    How and where do you listen to Wisdom? Psalm 19   What did you learn from this psalm about God as your strength and redeemer? James 3:1-12   What does this passage say to you about leadership? Mark 8:27-38   How does it mean to set your mind on divine things?

Eric H. F. Law
Kaleidoscope Institute
For competent leadership in a diverse changing world
www.kscopeinstitute.org

Dates set for 2013 Opportunity to Study with The Sustainist: April 15-19 Missional Ministry in the Grace Margin and Holy Currencies Orientation Los Angeles, CA July 15-19 Holy Currencies: Beyond Time, Talent and Treasure Los Angeles, CA August 19-23 Fundamental Skills for Building Inclusive Community and Holy Currencies Orientation Rainbow Lodge Retreat Center, North Bend (near Seattle), WA Register at:  www.kscopeinstitute.org

Rights and Responsibilities II

In last week’s blog, I proposed a dialogue process for local community to listen and reflect on the first 4 Amendments of the Bill of Rights.  This week, we continue with a dialogue on Amendments V and VI, both of which have to do with proceedings in the court of law in the United States.  If you watched television’s numerous courtroom drama shows in the United States, you have been exposed to phrases like double jeopardy, no one is compelled to be a witness against himself, due process of law, a speedy and public trial, impartial jury, etc.  These famous phrases all came from these two Amendments.  There are probably volumes of book and cases written in the interpretations of these terms and phrases.  The purpose of our dialogue process is not to replace the kind of teachings, debates and interpretations taught in law school or how they are used in the court of law.  Our purpose is for you and members of your community to listen to the original text on which so much of what goes on in the U.S. legal system depends.  We are simply inviting the participants to listen to them and to attempt to understand them and even interpret them as they relate to their own experiences.    If there are lawyers or judges in the group, please invite them to refrain from giving their legal opinion until everyone in the group has shared their thoughts. 

Why are these “rights” for people living in a democracy? How do these rights enable us to discern the truth?  Why are these rights important to create a sustainable community?  If we don't have these rights spelled out in the constitution of the nation, what would happen to the poor and powerless in our society?  Even though these are explicit rights for all members of our society, how have the U.S. system not honored them for certain groups or individuals?   In the context of the upcoming election, which candidate running for public office will use the power given to them to uphold these right for all and not just for the powerful few?  

Amendment V.

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Amendment VI. 

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

Dialogue Process: Inform participants that Amendments V and VI of the United States Constitution will be read three times. After each reading, participants will be invited to share their reflections using the Mutual Invitation process. (See 8/13/2012 post for description of Mutual Invitation.) Invite participants to capture a word, a phrase or image that stood out for them from the document while the text is read out loud the first time. Using Mutual Invitation, invite each person to share his or her word, phrase or image briefly. Invite participants to consider the following 2 questions as the text is read a second time: What fears were driving members of the first Congress of the United States to write and ratify these two Amendments? How have these amendments been interpreted in recent years in favor or against certain individual or groups? Invite someone to read the document a second time. Using Mutual Invitation, invite each person to share his or her reflection the 2 questions? Invite participants to consider the following question while listening to the document again: As a result of listening to this document, what will you do to make sure that the U.S. government uphold these rights for all persons and groups livint in the U.S.? Using Mutual Invitation, invite each person to share his or her reflection.

Reflection Questions for Proper 18(Year B Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23    What is God’s attitude toward the rich and the poor? Psalm 125   What does it mean to trust in God? James 2:1-17   How does having faith with work apply to your life? Mark 7:24-37   In order for you to have faith, what needs to be opened?

Eric H. F. Law
Kaleidoscope Institute
For competent leadership in a diverse changing world
www.kscopeinstitute.org

Dates set for 2013 Opportunity to Study with The Sustainist: April 15-19 Missional Ministry in the Grace Margin and Holy Currencies Orientation Los Angeles, CA July 15-19 Holy Currencies: Beyond Time, Talent and Treasure Los Angeles, CA August 19-23 Fundamental Skills for Building Inclusive Community and Holy Currencies Orientation Rainbow Lodge Retreat Center, North Bend (near Seattle), WA Register at:  www.kscopeinstitute.org