Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of the Emerald Coast
“A Privileged Place”
Rev. Rod Debs
January 23, 2011
Story: (1) “Tico and the Golden Wings” by Leo Lionni
(2) Once upon a time, there was a little bird by the name of Tico. Tico would sit on your shoulder and tell you all about the flowers and trees. He said that when he was young, his wings were so small that no one could even see them. He had to hop around the forest when all the grown-up birds could fly.
(3) Luckily, the other birds were kind and loving. The bigger birds would fly all around the forest and bring him fruit and berries from even the tallest trees. As a young bird, Tico often wondered why he couldn’t fly like the other birds. Tico wanted to soar through the big blue sky over villages and treetops.
(4) At night, Tico dreamed that a magic bird would visit him and give him the strongest, most beautiful wings ever, golden wings. In the daytime, Tico would hop and stretch his tiny wings, practicing for the day he would have his dream: golden wings!
(5) Tico worked so hard exercising his wings, that his dream did come true. Tico’s wings grew stronger and brighter until they glowed golden like the sun. He could fly higher than the mountains. Tico could look down upon towns and rivers. He could soar high above all the birds that used to bring him fruit and berries. He was very happy.
(6) But when his friends saw him swoop down from the sky, they frowned and said, “You think you are better than we are, don’t you, with those golden wings. You wanted to be different.” And off they flew without talking to him any more.
(7) Why had they gone? Why were they angry? What was so bad about being different? Tico thought: “I can fly higher than an eagle. My wings are the most beautiful wings in the world. Why did my friends leave me?” Tico was very lonely.
(8) One day Tico saw a man sitting in front of his hut. He was a basketmaker. He had tears in his eyes. Tico flew to a branch and asked, “Why are you sad?” The basketmaker said, “Oh, little bird, my child is sick, and I am poor. I cannot buy the medicines that would make him well.” Tico thought, “How can I help him?” Then he knew! “I will give the basketmaker one of my feathers.”
(9) The poor man was so happy! “You have saved my child,” he said. “Look! Your wing!” Where the golden feather had been, there was a real black feather, as soft as silk.
(10) From that day, one by one, Tico gave his golden feathers away, and black feathers appeared in their place. He bought many presents: three new puppets for a poor puppeteer…
(11) … a spinning wheel to spin the yarn for an old woman’s shawl…
… a compass for a fisherman who got lost at sea…
(12) When Tico had given his last golden feathers to a beautiful bride, his wings were as black as India ink, soft and strong.
(13) Tico flew to the big tree where his friends gathered for the night. Tico wondered, “Would they welcome him?”
(14) They all chirped in joy, not because Tico had black wings like theirs, but because Tico had done what he could to help others, just as they had helped Tico a long time ago. Every one of them helped make the world a better place!
Message: This morning we sang an Irish tune with lyrics by Tom Mikelson, a fellow Iowan who is pastor of the Unitarian Universalist congregation across the street from Harvard Yard, Cambridge, MA. Tom wrote:
“Wake, now, my senses, and hear the earth call; feel the deep power of being in all; keep, with the web of creation your vow, giving, receiving as love shows us how.”
Tom’s thought is that the earth calls us and that we have a vow to keep with the web of creation, a sacred relationship of giving and receiving as love shows us how. Feel the deep power of being in all, and take not for granted a privileged place, giving, receiving as love shows us how.
Some years ago a study found that we Unitarian Universalists have the highest average member income of the forty or so religious faiths in the United States. Tom Mikelson’s little Irish tune challenges us to “wake, now, my senses” and “take not for granted” our privileged place. What is our privileged place? How shall we make use of it rather than to simply take it for granted?
I would like to show you some slides from the November 27, 2010, Business Insider: “15 Mind-Blowing Facts About Wealth And Inequality in America” by Gus Lubin: http://www.businessinsider.com/facts-about-inequality-in-america-2011-11#and-income-tax-just-keeps-getting-lower-and-lower-for-the-rich-10 . I dare say that any topic I take up, there is someone in the congregation who could speak in greater depth on the subject than I. Yet, I have chosen 10 of 15 graphs for your reflection. How shall we make use of our privileged place rather than simply take it for granted?
(1) The poorest half of America owns 2.5% of the country’s wealth. The richest 1% owns a third of the country’s wealth and the next richest 9% own another third. 10% of us own 71% of United States wealth.
(2) The bottom, poorest 50% of America owns only 0.5% of United States stocks, bonds and mutual funds. The top 1% owns more than 50%! The top 10% own 90%.
(3) The wealth gap has grown in the past 20 years. This slide shows the changing share of capital income earned by the top 1% as compared to the bottom 80%.
(4) The last twenty years were great if you were a CEO or business owner or banker or trader. Not if you were anyone else. Corporate profits up (in green). CEOs’ pay up 298.2% (in blue).
(5) Despite the carrot of social mobility, poor Americans have a very slim chance of rising to the upper middle class. The solid line is upward mobility; the broken line is downward mobility percentages. The Inheritance Tax was designed by the Founding Fathers in order to prevent the United States from having a permanent aristocracy, as in Europe, and to empower social mobility.
(6) Tax cuts have significantly increased the wealth gap. In 1962, the wealthiest 1% of households averaged 125 times the wealth of the median household. Business Insider shows the wealth gap growing, the wealthiest 1% averaging 190 times the wealth of the median household.
(7) Income tax just keeps getting lower and lower for the for the highest-income households in the last fifty years.
(8) The income gap is NOT growing in other countries, like France. This graph compares the relative changes of the top 1% of income in France and in the United States.
(9) This shows the relative income gap among the states. Inequality is worst around Wall Street and Oil Land.
(10) With 1979 as a base line, the top 1% have seen their share of America’s income more than double. The bottom 90% have seen their portion shrink. Gus Lubin writes, “If you aren’t in the top 1% of America’s earners, you’re pretty much screwed.”
(11) So I return to the original point of this article in Business Insider: The poorest half of America owns 2.5% of the country’s wealth, while the richest 1% owns a third and the next richest 9% own another third. Together, the richest 10% of us own 71% of United States’ wealth.
I suspect that you and I are not among the top 1% or even the top 10% of income within the United States. But on the global scene, we are certainly among the most privileged.
Jeannette and I have hosted sixteen foreign exchange students for their school year in the U.S. You may remember Dragana, Ivana, Ella, Timur, and most recently, Feriel. For all our efforts to host working-class children, several came from privilege in their own countries. Maids cleaned their family homes every day and cooked and laundered. Ella had a chauffeur drive her to boarding school each week.
Privileged children lacked basic skills to clean up after themselves and had an aversion to getting their hands dirty. Girls as well as boys could not cook or clean the dishes. They knew nothing of sharing household chores, something we negotiate daily. They did not think of themselves as privileged. They took it for granted.
Compared to my parents’ generation, I have been submerged in privilege slowly increasing throughout my lifetime. I prepare meals a good bit but eat out several times a week. I grow virtually no food. I raise rabbits, but I don’t eat them. Like most Americans, I have become dependent on low-paid grocery, restaurant, and agricultural food service industries. I am dependent on car mechanics, computer technicians, appliance and air-conditioning service providers.
Take not for granted a privileged place. What shall we do with our privilege?
Charity, compassion is an evolutionary brain function in 98% of humans, neutralized by stress’s oxytocin. Who among us can bear to see the hungry face to face? The homeless without a place to sleep cold nights? The sick or injured without medical assistance? Charity is an expression of our humanity. Yet charity is not justice.
After the example of Martin Luther King, Jr., many work for economic justice. I think of social/economic justice in two parts: Distributive Justice and Contributive Justice.
Distributive Justice is when workers get a living wage and fairly share in the fruits of their labors. In an unregulated economy, distribution is seldom just. Unjust distribution creates spirals of poverty and dependency among the poor, and among the rich it creates extravagance and dependency.
Contributive Justice is the recognition that human health and wholeness requires that poor and rich alike contribute in some meaningful way to the general good. The poor are not treated justly if they do not have meaningful work to contribute to society. That’s why so many advocate for a safety net of food, housing, medical care and universal education of a higher quality than mere competition for the highest paid occupations. Each person needs to be educated to perform useful and meaningful work in society. A healthy society requires it.
We wealthy are not treated justly if we do not make meaningful contributions to society either. It’s a matter of relational health and wholeness. Without contributing to society, humans feel alienated, disconnected. Recent retirees know how it feels not to be needed for your contribution. When I came home from college between terms, my father recognized the state of meaninglessness when he said, “You look lost.”
Children who learn to share making useful contributions to their family and then to their community are the kids who thrive. Their lives have meaning and worth which they themselves recognize. They are not merely slaves to the dopamine surges of entertainment nor of the latest commercial products nor of sports competitions beating the other side nor of trouble-making.
Social Justice for the privileged as well as for the poor involves each person finding a place of meaningful, useful contribution without which, we die inside.
Three Christian Gospels recount a story of Jesus in dialogue with a very upstanding, rich, young man. He has followed all of the Jewish law. Jesus says that there is one thing lacking: he should sell all he has and give to the poor (Mark 10:17-31; Matthew 19:16-30; Luke 18:19-30). We could focus on whether the Gospel writer believed a conquering Messiah was soon to come, rendering all possessions of no long term value. Or whether the Gospel writer was really speaking of “all” properties the rich man owned, or of all those short of rendering himself poor as well.
But I would focus on the charge that the rich man “give to the poor.” What do we have to give to one another? Certainly there are material essentials of food, clothing, shelter and medical care that we can give. But there are further gifts of greater value that others need from us. Poor and rich alike need to find places of meaningful contribution to society.
Privilege gives us, the rich, an opportunity to “give to the poor” mutual empowerment of one another’s contributions to society. “Take not for granted a privileged place.” Our privilege is a calling to serve, to find meaning and wholeness in empowering others to contribute. It’s our gift.
“Wake, now, my senses, and hear the earth call; feel the deep power of being in all; keep, with the web of creation your vow, giving, receiving as love shows us how.”