Have we forgotten?
Jun 21st, 2009 by ethicalimpact
Listening to NPR this afternoon and a wonderful song about a deaf mother, a blind guitar playing father, a sister who played the tambourine. The singer sang of sleeping along the road, of never going hungry, of the love his mother and father had for each other and the richness of their marriage.
Today’s music is self-focused, full of angst and loss; the struggle to find one’s self or rage at what others are doing. Have we forgotten life?
Would people celebrate the union of a deaf woman and a blind man or would they shake their heads? Which life is richer, the life of song or a protected life in the Social Service system as foster children?
What stories are we telling now? They are stories of riches; gotten and lost, but the only riches we acknowledge as being worthwhile are those connected with money, but real wealth is ignored.
I am hopeful that this financial crisis as it unfolds will get back to reality. Bankers are sacrificing others in the shallow hope that some how in doing so they will not lose money and creating lose, lose situations for everyone in the process. I’ve heard stories where some banks are working to keep people in their homes by renting them back and this is certainly better than making people homeless and creating empty property that no one is really responsible for and that becomes both an eyesore and a safety hazard, but it’s not enough.
Ethics are really about relationships. To be sustainable all the relationships need to be sustained. In the economic crisis we have: worker/employer, lender/borrower, resident/city, supplier/organization, city/resident, child/family, family/school system, school system/city all involved. The focus has been on the LENDER. That is not sustainable!
