Growing Income Gap

The Eroding Base

Pew Research published a report about the shrinking middle class. I remember learning that the strength of this country was it's robust middle class. According to Pew the middle class has been eroding steadily for the past four decades.

Looking at the chart below reveals growth of the wealthy ranks and the poorer ranks. The result is an increasing income disparity.

Why does this matter?

According to a report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, there is a reduction in economic growth as wealth becomes concentrated among a smaller portion of the global population.

The International Monetary Fund released a report in June, 2015 that outlined the problems created by the rising inequality in income distribution.

• Inequality affects growth drivers.
• Inequality dampens investment, and hence growth, by fueling economic, financial, and political instability. 

           Financial crises.
           Global imbalances.
           Conflicts.

• Inequality can lead to policies that hurt growth. 
• Inequality hampers poverty reduction. 

You can read more at Causes and Consequences of Income Inequality:A Global Perspective

The prospect of increasing crisis, global imbalances and conflicts does not seem to be a bright prospect. If you take the downturn of the middle class and combine it with the growing ranks of impoverished, you can see the consequences of the continued accumulation of wealth among the top one percent and what it means for the rest of us. 

More Guns - More Violence

I think you've heard the arguments before about...Good Guys with Guns.

If that is true, why are there 30,000 deaths a year from gun violence. Who, exactly, is being deterred?

Emily Badger's blog for the Washington Post questions the logic foisted by pro gun lobbyists.

More guns, less crime? Not exactly.

Pro gun lobbies like to cite research that more guns on the streets reduces gun violence. A 1997 paper by John Lott and David Mustard concluded that "concealed handguns are the most cost-effective method of reducing crime thus far analyzed by economists."

Not So Fast

Turns out Lott and his research have been discredited.  A more recent study written by Stanford's Abhay Aneja and John J. Donohue and  John Hopkins' Alexandria Zhang, goes one step further. It methodically picks apart the existing literature — including Lott's — and reaches a dramatically different conclusion:

Overall, the most consistent, albeit not uniform, finding to emerge from both the state and the county panel data models conducted over the entire 1977–2006 period with and without state trends and using three different models is that aggravated assault rises when [right-to-carry] laws are adopted.

In other words, more guns...more violence.

Food Going to Waste

Not Enough to Eat

People are going hungry everyday. According to Poverty.com 

About 21,000 people die every day of hunger or hunger-related causes, according to the United Nations. This is one person every four seconds, as you can see on this display. Sadly, it is children who die most often. Yet there is plenty of food in the world for everyone.

So Much is Wasted

Remember when mom would try to coax us to eat our vegetables or chipped beef with, "Don't waste your food! Think of all the starving people in China." A friend of mine had a snarky answer, "Name four!" I never would have gotten away with that one.

Apparently the food waste problem is much larger than we thought. According to an article in the Salt Blog by NPR's Alison Aubrey, nearly half of the food produced in America goes to waste.

The UN estimates it is a $2.6 trillion issue. 

Some are Willing To Help

A huge portion of the produce grown in the US is thrown out because it is imperfect. The produce could be donated, but it is cheaper for the farmer to simply throw it out, According to Aubrey's report seven states offer incentives for farmers to donate the food. The hope is that there will be more.

You can find out more by going to Aubrey's blog, including information about the grocery chain that will feature less than perfect produce in its stores.

To Tackle Food Waste, Big Grocery Chain Will Sell Produce Rejects

Why should we care?

The bottom line is that it costs our country more to ignore hunger than it does to do something about it. Check out this video from No Kid Hungry. 

Here's how No Kid Hungry breaks down the costs of hunger.

According to the Center for American Progress, the annual cost of hunger or its threat (i.e. “food insecurity) includes:

• $130.5 billion: Illness costs linked to hunger and food insecurity in America.
• $19.2 billion: Value of poor educational outcomes and lower lifetime earnings linked to hunger and food insecurity in America.
• $17.8 billion: Value of charitable contributions to address hunger and food insecurity in America.

Nobody should be going hungry. As individuals we can only do a little. As a community we can do a lot.

The Bike With the Chrome Dipped Frame

This is a story about friendship, community and sense of place.

This story begins in 1948

Milwaukee County built a Velodrome in Brown Deer Park for the 1948 Olympic Trials. Bike racing was part of the Milwaukee areas sense of place. Speed Skating was important to the European immigrants that settled in the area and worked in Milwaukee's machine shops. Many of the skaters from that area populated the Olympic Speed Skating Team. The muscle set used in skating was similar to the set used in bike racing. The races were the skater's way of staying shape in the warmer months after the skating rink in West Allis closed down for the season.

From hollandercycle.com

About a decade later I went to Brown Deer Park to watch races at the velodrome. The State Championships and the Nationals were held at the park that year. Watching these athletes fly around the track was exhilerating.  I was hooked. When the Milwaukee Wheelmen announced there would be stock bike races at their sanctioned races, I signed up. I dreamt that someday I would be racing against those great athletes competing at the velodrome.

One Thing

There was something standing in the way of my dream. I didn't have the kind of bike my competition used. I had a heavy old Schwinn with a coaster brake and streamers coming out of the handlebars. I may have even had mudflaps and a rearview mirror. They all had ten speeds! I tried saving up, but my meager allowance and the few dollars earned mowing lawns meant I would have enough money in about two years.

What I had was Pete. Pete ran the local bike shop. I had been hanging around the shop for a couple of years. Over time we developed a friendship. Our family had close relationships with many of those who provided services for us in the 50's and early 60's. Our TV repairman, the auto mechanic, the lady who ran the bakery at the grocery store, the man who remodelled our bathroom and kitchen, even the people at the haberdashery were all friends. We were loyal to them as they were loyal to us. Those relationships are a lot different than the retail and service experiences today.

 I told Pete what I wanted to do, and he was was willing to help. He had a pile of scrapped bikes in the back, and he allowed me to scavenge parts to try to build a bike. These were castaways. Many of the frames and rims were bent. The hubs were rusted and the brakes worn. The problem was most of the frames and rims were a lot heavier than those on the competition's bikes. I did manage to put together a bike, but the weight was only slightly less than the Schwinn. These bikes weren't anywhere near as fast as the ten speeds being manufactured by Schwinn. I raced with this homemade bike the first summer. I managed to place in a few of the races, but I could never compete on a consistent basis against the the much lighter and faster ten speeds.

A Great Offer

One day while looking for a lighter frame, Pete approached me and offered to help me build a bike from scratch as long as I acknowledged I got the bike from the Brown Deer Bike Shop. It was a marketing opportunity for Pete and a chance to compete for me. I did not hesitate. Through the generosity of my much older friend, I became competitive.

The stakes were higher that summer. The Wheelman had put up a donated track bike as the grand prize. It had a chrome plated frame, and I thought it could be my ticket to competitive sanctioned racing against the best in the state and the country. I won the first race! I was in the points lead. I could almost see myself riding on the chrome plated track bike.

Overcoming Obstacles

At this point some bigger and more athletic boys joined the competition with top of the line Schwinn ten speeds. I rode hard, but I started dropping in the standings. The dream of the bike with the chrome dipped frame seemed to be slipping away. To top it off, the guy with the points lead told me it didn't matter if he won the prize. I felt a pang of injustice. That wasn't the worst of it. There was another racer who was into trash talk, and with each defeat he made sure I heard about it. He boasted he would take over, vault past me in the points race and ultimately win the coveted track bike with the chrome dipped frame. For a while I let him get inside my head.

During the last two race dates, things happened that changed my outlook and built my self-esteem. In the fifth race most of the competitors in the stock bike races were on vacation. As a result, the points leader and I went head to head in a match race. The organizers first said there would be one race. It was a chance for me to pick up five points and be back in contention.  I put everything I had into the race and passed him on the home stretch. I was really tired but quietly happy. Then the organizers said there would be a second race. I had nothing left. He won easily. There was no way I could make up the difference in points in the final race. Still, I had eight more points. I was back in second in the standings.

Not His Script

Something else happened. The trash talker pointed out during practice next couple of weeks that if he won the next race and I failed to place, he would win second place. He boasted there was no way I was even going to place. He was laughing as he tried to get inside my head. I didn't rise to the bait. All I said was, "We'll see." He laughed again. The way it worked out, if I finished third I would have enough points for second place. I wouldn't win the chrome plated track bike, but I would win a gift certificate to Ware's Cycle Shop, one of the sponsors of the race.

During that final race, I came from back in the pack and finished third just a wheel behind the trash talker. When it became awards time...when they called my name for second...my tormentor stood in disbelief. I hadn't told him where I finished. When I accepted the certificate, I smiled for the camera, and I smiled at him. He still couldn't believe it.

I discovered during the match races that I had so much more in reserve. I found out I could compete and win even if I was not the most gifted, or the fastest athlete.

Out of that group I was the only racer that moved to the next level the next year. By doing so, I joined another supportive community willing to help as I continued to race for another five years.

Continuing the Tradition

My oldest son, Matt, is now racing.  He discovered last year that the bike he bought at a department store was way to heavy for competition. He asked me about where he could buy something lighter. We looked at new bikes. They were way out of his price range. He was disappointed, but I told him not to worry. I took him to a local bike shop in Bloomfield. It's a mom and pop operation. We talked with them about what Matt wanted to do and what he hoped to accomplish. It turns out they have a back room filled with used bikes. We found just what he needed. We've been back to the Bloomfield Bike Shop a couple of time for parts and service. They know Matt and they are willing to help fill his needs. He's experiencing that sense of community and loyalty I did back in the 60's.

Matt races in the State Games next week.

Mainline Protestants in Decline

Mainline Protestants make up shrinking number of U.S. adults

Pew Research has just released research on the decline of Mainline Churches. According to the research the decline is steep. There are 5 million fewer adults going to mainline churches since 2007.

Why?

Mainline churches are getting older. Is it age appeal? the median age for mainline churches is 52, and according to the research Millennials are the leading factor in the group called "nones" (no affiliation). Immigrants are also adding numbers to the ranks of unaffiliated. According to Pew Research, "Our 2014 Religious Landscape Study, a follow-up to the center’s first Religious Landscape Study in 2007, found that one-in-five immigrants said they did not belong to any religion – an increase of 4 percentage points since 2007, when 16% said they did not associate with any faith tradition." 
                                            

Root Causes

These factors don't really get at the 'why.' Once the why is known answers can be found as to how to get people back in the pews in mainline churches. 

Steve McSwain is Speaker, Author, Counselor to Congregations, Ambassador to the Council on the Parliament for the World's Religions, and Spiritual Teacher. He wrote a three part article for the Huffington Post in 2013 on why nobody wants to go to church anymore. In Part One McSwain came up with seven reasons. Some are external forces and some are internal forces. Internal forces include the Leadership Crisis, exclusion based on race, culture or sexual orientation, and hypocrisy. External forces include competition, religious pluralism, changing demographics and technology. Some of the external forces can be used to the advantage of the Mainline Churches like adapting new technologies to reach younger demographics, and embracing diversity. Internal problems can be corrected by making sure our doors are really open to all.

In Part Two McSwain says change is happening...no matter what...the Mainline Church must embrace change and diversity within our churches. He says we need to stop applying labels to people. "Stop Labeling "Nones" and the "Religiously Unaffiliated" as Unfaithful, or Sub-par Christians or, worse, Not Christians at All."  Finally, We should make friends with people who we disagree with.

In Part Three McSwain lists the final six ways the mainline can get people back in the pews. They include not using the bible and worship to promote prejudice and political agenda. End the war on science, biology and psychology. Be who you are. McSwain believes a contemporary service in a traditional setting will not work.  It is time to revise Christian theology,  The gatekeepers of theological and doctrinal thought must lead the way, believing the current crisis is a call to reexamine the Christian story.

Finally McSwain says, "Know that the Church's decline could never mean the death of Christ." If you believe the last point...it will never be too late.

Focus on The Core

Something we did in public radio was to understand the values of the audience that valued our content above all others. We focused our resources on our core audience. We grew. Today public radio has 30 million listeners. We were true to our intended audience. Because we  understood those values and stopped trying to be all things to all people we grew. McSwain got it right when he encouraged the Mainliners...liberal Christians...to be true to themselves. 

The Parable of Baltimore

Jim Wallis recently wrote the Parable of Baltimore. The problems there are long-standing. They go back to the 50's when manufacturing started to leave the city. The good paying jobs that supported so many working class people are gone. The solution is inclusion, not exclusion. Working together...being fair...is good for the economy.

Baltimore's Flash Point

The story behind the violence in Baltimore was so much more than the riots. Pictures of the burning CVS and cars were all over the news. Community leaders were calling for cooler heads. Cable news anchors were wringing their hands over the violence. Wolf Blitzer was wondering why the protesters couldn't be more like Martin Luther King, Jr...failing to discern the difference between the protesters and the rioters. How could this happen?

The reasons are the same as those that caused the riots of the mid to late 60's. Too many people living in our cities are being marginalized, pushed to the edges. Their voices are not being heard resulting in increasing frustrations. Poverty rates in Baltimore are far above average for the United States. Joblessness in the neighborhoods affected by the riot is around 19%.

Long Standing Problem

The Kerner Commission report of 1968 looked at the riots of 1967 and concluded this country was headed toward two Americas....One Black and One White...separate and unequal. From the report were three most intense, deeply held grievances that an investigation found were causes of disorders in the black neighborhoods of several American cities.

• Number one - police practices. 
• Number two - unemployment and underemployment. 
• Number three - inadequate housing.  

Reaching a Consensus

The question is how much have things changed in almost 50 years? Not a lot. The perceptions of the residents and the concerns among the citizens in our poorest cities remains the same as they were in 1967. E.J. Dionne of The Washington Post and Brookings Institution and David Brooks of The New York Times talked about the protests in Baltimore on NPR's All Things Considered. They agreed that the programs put in place after Kerner Commission report may not have gone far enough. To an extent they disagreed on how to approach the problem, but they agreed that there must be a renewed effort to solve the problems created by long-term poverty. It was a consensus between a conservative and a liberal. 

Jim Wallis Offers a Baltimore Parable

The Parable reads in part:

"The undeniable fact that these neighborhoods that are "left out" of jobs, education, and family in our society are overwhelmingly black and brown neighborhoods is a testament to America's lingering "original sin" of racism...

 So if we just focus on the "riots," or even just on policing behavior, we will not be addressing the root causes of these problems.  This is the parable of Baltimore, one that we need to learn from if our responses are ever to be as deep as the problems are. And admitting that the things we accept and don't accept do indeed have to do with race is a first honest step."

If we're about making a change...it starts with the person you see when you look in the mirror. Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?' MLK,Jr.  As an individual we can make small difference. As a community...the change can be exponential. This does not mean that the government is off the hook. Quite the opposite when you consider we are the government. Dr. King was willing to hold the government's feet to the fire.  He expressed quite clearly that government can help end discrimination and poverty.

"We will place the problems of the poor at the seat of government of the wealthiest nation in the history of mankind. If that power refuses to acknowledge its debt to the poor, it would have failed to live up to its promise to insure "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to its citizens." (From A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King Jr.)

Building Community

Late last week I was asked to read scripture at South United Methodist Church. The request came about the time I was formulating this blog. The service that day was about building a Christian Community. The lesson was from Romans 12: 1-8. The lesson focuses on the gifts all of us have from God. It is important to understand those gifts are not the same for all people. We are a diverse group, but through our diversity we are stronger.  The point is if we work together bringing our individual gifts with us...the community benefits.

 6 We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; 7 ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; 8 the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.

The Cost of Discrimination

The message is that we can become stronger as a community...working together toward the common good. The community means all of us. That includes those living in poverty, and those being discriminated against because of our biases. We are underutilizing our resources by excluding through discrimination. In 2013 the Kellogg Foundation published a report that stated that if health service and educational services were made more equal and the average income of minorities were raised to the level of whites, the total earnings of US workers would increase by $1 trillion dollars. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would rise by $1.9 trillion by 2030.

We can change the outcomes if we become inclusive and work together.

More on the Kellogg Foundation report can be found by linking to "The Case for Racial Equity."

This Land Is Your Land

Change the National Anthem?

I saw a posting about keeping the Star Spangled Banner as the National Anthem the other day. I wondered what the motivation was for the posting. Debate about the National Anthem seems like such an irrelevant issue to me. There is opposition to the militaristic nature of the lyrics. There has always been opposition to the Star Spangled Banner. Your can read about it in the Washington Post.

It was written during the war of 1812. It didn't become the official anthem until 1931. Although it became a favorite of the military during the civil war. At that time Hail Columbia and Yankee Doodle were also unofficial national anthems. America the Beautiful and America are often mentioned as replacements today.

To me it seems a distraction. A side issue. This will all work itself out...or not.

What About Woody?

My thoughts landed on "This Land is Your Land by Woody Guthrie." I remembered the song from grade school. We sang the first and second verses....sometime the third. I also remember this as being part of the songbook for the Folk craze of the late 50's and early 60's. This Land is Your Land launched thousands of budding folk singers with inexpensive nylon string guitars. I had one. It cost about $25 with the case.

This Land Is Your Land

Words and Music by Woody Guthrie

This land is your land This land is my land

From California to the New York island; 

From the red wood forest to the Gulf Stream waters 

This land was made for you and Me.

As I was walking that ribbon of highway, 

I saw above me that endless skyway: 

I saw below me that golden valley: 

This land was made for you and me.

I've roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps 

To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts; 

And all around me a voice was sounding: 

This land was made for you and me.

Going Deeper - Not Going to Happen

First, Guthrie was a communist. There's a lot of baggage associated with communists in this country. It's a label meant to imply that he or she is not part of us. Once that kind of label is applied, it is easy to discriminate against the person and dismiss any ideas as invalid. No matter how valid the issues, if they are presented by a "the other", they are demonized and dismissed. Based on that alone, his song would never fly here. Digging deeper, there's a references to Great Depression and the ecological disaster that went along with it, the Dust Bowl. Thousands of farmers lost everything. This started a migration. Many choose California and the land of opportunity. They were met at the border and not allowed in. There's a verse about that discriminatory practice.

"As I went walking I saw a sign there, And on the sign it said "No Trespassing." But on the other side it didn't say nothing, That side was made for you and me."

There's also reference to the millions who were seeking work, but could not find any. We were promised two chickens in every pot and a car in every garage, It was the American Dream. The dream was dashed by greed.  

"In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people, By the relief office I seen my people; As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking Is this land made for you and me?"

In the final verse, Guthrie promises to keep speaking out about the injustice of a system that has allowed so many to fall through the cracks.

"Nobody living can ever stop me, As I go walking that freedom highway; Nobody living can ever make me turn back This land was made for you and me."

Obviously, it's a protest song. It was controversial then. It is still controversial today. We didn't know that in grade school.  Yet, the ironies 75 years later are striking. There's a severe drought in Southern California and large portions of the West, and there are millions of working Americans cannot make ends meet because they are working poor paying jobs. Of course, The Great Recession was brought on by greed,

Today, I find myself admiring the message of inclusiveness in the face of exclusion.