Yesterday, with news that an agreement between Congressional leaders and the President had been reached to end the partial government shutdown and raise the debt limit, someone asked me a question: "Who do you think was/is the greatest American president and why?"
My gut response was quick: "That all depends on what you call great".
That's my gut response because I'm a Christian. I believe in telling the truth. And in my tradition -- the tradition of Old Testament prophets and Jesus, the tradition of Christian prophets like John and Paul -- there's a very different definition of great when it comes to politics. Prophets challenge the economic and political powers-that-be, particularly those that bring oppression and destruction. How often our culture wants to pervert the book of Revelation and ignore its connection of economic power with idolatry. A connection that includes a specific political challenge: Jesus is lord, not Rome. And, I'm quick to add, not America.
I went on to articulate the problem of American "exceptionalism" in economic terms with what I call the story/history of our own "hot spots" of destruction.
What are these "hot spots"? They're the four "sacrifice zones" of late-modern capitalism. Hot spots are places and populations that have been locally exploited -- sacrificed -- for capitalistic growth and corporate greed elsewhere. Media attention rarely, if ever, dwells upon these hot spots, thus the vast majority of Americans are wholly unaware of the costs of capitalistic greed and the rise of the market state, what we mightcall capitalistic imperialism, where markets and corporate profit are seen the highest goods in a given society.
In the tradition of Amos and John, these hot spots demand a calling out. Woe to you, America, for your exploitation in the name of greatness. The blood, sweat and tears of places like the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota; Camden, New Jersey; Welch, West Virgina, and Immokalee, Florida -- that all call out for judgment.
These are four of the poorest places in America today and they tell the story of four different ethnic groups and how each has been exploited and sacrificed for corporate American profit: The Native Americans, inner city blacks, rural whites, and Mexican immigrants.
The story of the Native Americans is a story about land and mining rights, how the Native Americans were pushed off their lands and quarantined on reservations so that corporate American had access to silver and other mining rights in places like the Black Hills, a place sacred to the Native Americans like Jerusalem is to the Jews or Mecca to Muslims. The Black Hills were given to the Native Americans in official US treaties, ratified by Congress, to be theirs forever. As in ... forever. That is ... until silver was found in the hills. Corporate greed then set the genocidal wheels of the American government and its military in motion. Guns and government in the service of capitalism. The effects of this profit-driven genocide are still being felt on Indian reservations which have some of the highest addiction and suicide rates in the nation.
The story of inner city blacks is the story of Camden, NJ, once a thriving multiethnic working class community. That is ... until cheap manufacturing labor was found oversees, breaking unions, shuttering factories, and creating chronic unemployment in many local communities. With massive job loss middle and working class class communities like those in Camden were destroyed, creating ghost towns where libraries and schools were boarded up.
The story of rural whites is the story of how coal mining in the Appalachia mountains has destroyed forests, poisoned water supplies, and covered small towns in coal dust. What's more, as the labor in the mines was increasingly mechanized, rural Appalachian communities suffered massive unemployment hits. Some of the poorest people in the nation along with some of the highest drug use rates are in these rural mountain communities.
The story of Mexican immigrants, legal and illegal, is the story of the Big Agriculture, where cheap labor is being so exploited that it borders on slavery. In many cases it's slavery as workers are locked up and supervised with men holding guns. Florida is ground zero for slavery in America today. Let alone the fact that without unions and collective bargaining power these workers work in some of the most chemically hazardous workplaces in America today (due to pesticides and fertilizers). All to keep labor costs cheap so that corporate profits can be increasingly maximized.
These metanarratives are heartbreaking. But it's the personal stories out of which these metanarratives are composed that challenge our notions of American greatness. My friend yesterday wanted to know who's the greatest American leader. And in Jesus' own words, my response had to turn that question around -- I'd even say "right side up" from the world's "up side down" thinking: "Whoever would be great must be a servant. The first will be last, and the last first".
These more personal and intimate stories of loss, devastation and despair leave me with anything but American pride. I'm left with a deep sense of humility.
And divine rage.
Because even the metanarratives -- but more so the personal anecdotes of fighting for and recovering their dignity and humanity in the midst of capitalistic ruin and rubble leave me with rage. Being a prophet against American exceptionalism isn't for the faint of heart.
Today, some of us will celebrate that American political systems worked. Some will rejoice that we used principled cooperation to reach a goal. Some will say that we've managed to rescue the the world from its suffering.
But did we? I think it's just another day of business as usual. And the poor of these hot spots are still barely existing. All in our backyard.
America the Great?
That all depends on your definition of greatness. As I pointed out yesterday, yeah, America's #1 at a few things we nearly never talk about, like:
The highest poverty rate, both generally and for children;
The greatest inequality of incomes;
The lowest government spending as a percentage of GDP on social programs for the disadvantaged;
The lowest number of paid holiday, annual and maternity leaves;
The lowest score on the UN's index of "material well-being of children";
The worst score on the UN's gender inequality index;
The lowest social mobility;
The highest public and private expenditure on health care as a portion of GDP, yet accompanied by the highest:The shortest life expectancy at birth (except for Denmark and Portugal);
- Infant mortality rate
- Prevalence of mental health problems
- Obesity rate
- Portion of people going without health care due to cost
- Low birth weight children per capita (except for Japan)
- Consumption of anti-depressants per capita;
The highest carbon dioxide emissions and water consumption per capita;
The lowest score on the World Economic Forum's Environmental Performance Index (except for Belgium), and the largest Ecological Footprint per capita (except for Belgium and Denmark);
The highest rate of failing to ratify international agreements;
The lowest spending on international development and humanitarian assistance as a percentage of GDP;
The highest military spending as a portion of GDP;
The largest international arms sales;
The most negative balance of payments (except New Zealand, Spain and Portugal);
The lowest scores for student performance in math (except for Portugal and Italy) (and far down from the top in both science and reading);
The highest high school drop out rate (except for Spain).
How's that for great? Jeremiah and Jesus don't have nice things to say, I know. And neither do I.