I saw this on Tikkun and felt it was worth republishing. I also plan to hang it on the wall in my office as I hope to continue to work in this fashion for whatever years I have left to serve the underprivaleged.
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Ten Real-World Commandments for Americans by Jim Burkloby: Craig Wiesner on April 19th, 2011 | No Comments »
Image Courtesy Glen Edelson http://www.flickr.com/photos/glenirah/
I’m a big fan of Jim Burlo’s “Musings,” often posting them here at Tikkun Daily with his permission. This one reminded me of the Environmental and Social Responsibility Amendment (ESRA) to the Constitution that Tikkun/NSP has been promoting and which once again got introduced in Congress. Check out Jim Burklo’s more individual/personal set of commandments.
1) Thou shalt not separate social from personal responsibility: thou art thine own keeper, and the keeper of thy brothers and sisters, too.
2) Thou shalt provide all children with basic survival needs for health, food, shelter, and safety even if it means bending the rules.
3) Thou shalt honor thy aged fathers and mothers by guaranteeing them comprehensive health care and a livable minimum pension and by paying their caretakers a living wage.
4) Thou shalt strive as a manager to assure, by extraordinary means if necessary, that thy low-wage workers are compensated enough to care for their families.
5) Thou shalt first follow the divine law of love rather than always obeying current laws regarding immigrants, especially as regards the welfare of their children.
6) Thou shalt not bear false witness by waving the American flag while dismantling the support system for America’s most vulnerable citizens.
7) Thou shalt not emphasize the need for individual charity at the expense of the imperative for establishing social justice.
8 ) Thou shalt consider always the possible impacts on low-income families of all public policy and private business decisions.
9) Thou shalt vote with a social conscience and strongly urge all thy neighbors to do the same.
10) Thou shalt vote for justice both with thy ballot and with thy pocketbook, supporting only those businesses that treat their workers fairly.
I wrote these “10 Commandments” after reading THE MORAL UNDERGROUND: How Ordinary Americans Subvert an Unfair Economy by Lisa Dobson, professor of sociology at Boston College. I was moved to tears by the stories she recorded of everyday people trying their best to do right by their kids, their low-wage employees, their patients, and their students – even if it means bending workplace rules or breaking unjust laws. Millions of Americans are put into the impossible moral position of choosing between playing by the rules and following their consciences. When a box-store manager sees that one of her low-paid employees doesn’t make enough money to buy her daughter a prom dress, is pilfering one from the store and giving it to the worker the Christian thing to do? When a clinic worker sees that the child of an undocumented immigrant won’t get antibiotics unless the worker writes the prescription under another insured patient’s name, what’s the proper action to take? The book is a chronicle of the disastrous consequences of the triumph of the “Personal Responsibility Crusade” which obscures the systematic oppression of low-income and vulnerable people in America (p 31). If one’s station in life is solely the result of one’s own good or bad choices, then bosses can wash their hands of responsibility for the well-being of their workers and their workers’ families. But if we understand that personal and social responsibility are one and the same, there is no way to ignore the consequences of a system that does not protect the most vulnerable people.
These “commandments” are also inspired by the concept of civil initiative, as expressed by the late Jim Corbett, co-founder of the Sanctuary Movement, who wrote GOATWALKING and SANCTUARY FOR ALL LIFE. It differs from civil disobedience in that it is focused on establishing law by exercising it from the grassroots upward. By behaving in a just way, being clear and open about what we do and how we do it, everyday citizens model a practical structure of public policy that more closely mirrors the law of love.
The public debate about the federal budget is an opportunity to reflect on our values as a nation. Do we follow the law of love, or the way of greed? Do we want a vigorous free-market system buttressed by a strong social safety net? Or are we opting for untrammeled social Darwinism, where the “fittest” survive and the weaker ones fend for themselves? We need to make explicit our values and the moral and spiritual roots from which these values spring.
JIM BURKLO
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