This is my homily for today, the 4th Sunday of Lent, Cycle A. Today's readings are here.
Not as we see does God see.
It must have been a bitter irony to the man born blind: not only could he not see his neighbors; it seems that, for all practical purposes, he was invisible to them, too. His neighbors had ignored him so successfully in the past that, after Jesus restored his sight, they weren’t even sure whether he was the same person who formerly had sat and begged.
There are such invisible people around us. They are people whom society seems to have rejected or written off. When I lived in Chicago, there were people on the streets whom one learned to ignore: beggars, homeless people and the like. Of course, they’re not literally invisible; but we train ourselves not to see them. They can be a nuisance, a pest: so needy, so demanding of our time and resources, when we’d rather focus on the more pleasant parts of our lives. When we can’t avoid noticing them, they irritate us: if they would just go away, go somewhere else, anywhere else but here, life would be more pleasant for the rest of us. In Chicago, I learned not to pause to converse with such people; they are people nobody wants to get to know better. They are people whom one hurries past on our way to somewhere else. It’s a habit that, once acquired, is difficult to unlearn.
It seems the man born blind was one of those people. But if that’s how we look upon people like the man born blind, as nuisances, it’s because we don’t see as Jesus sees. When he looked upon the man born blind, he saw potential and promise that the rest of the neighborhood and the world had missed. Jesus saw in this lowly, practically invisible man not a person of no account, but rather God’s instrument – a vessel of God’s light, a living, breathing window into the works of God. Jesus saw something the rest of us didn’t.
This is a pattern with Jesus. We see it from him, over and over again: the people he heals, the people he chooses, the people to whom he reaches out in friendship, the people whom he holds up as exemplars: more often than not, they’re not the beautiful or the powerful or the wealthy. They’re the outsiders, the ones who are socially invisible, like the man born blind; or the hated, like the Roman centurion whose son Jesus healed; or the despised, like the chief tax collector Zacchaeus; or the sinner, like the woman caught in adultery whom Jesus saves from stoning; or the destitute, like the poor widow who gives her all to the temple treasury; or the outcast, like the man with leprosy whom Jesus heals. They are women, or foreigners, or those possessed by devils. They are the ignored, the shunned, the nobodies.
It seems that these are the very people Jesus wants the most to follow him, the ones for whom he holds a special place in his heart.
Not as we see does Jesus see. It’s as true today as it was in the man born blind’s day. There are people, sometimes even in this very room, whom we work hard to train ourselves not to have to see. People with mental illnesses. People who look different. People whose first language isn’t English. Unmarried adults. People hidden away from us because they are in nursing homes, or in prisons, or they are homebound. The list could go on.
But Jesus sees these outcasts and ignored and despised persons differently than we do. Jesus wants to encounter all of us, as he encountered the man born blind, no matter our appearance, our abilities, our wealth, our social grace – any of us can be a vessel of his light, an instrument of his presence among us.
Every Saturday morning, St. Edna hosts a gathering of mostly invisible people from our surrounding community. They are the people who come to us for food pantry and other Outreach services. These are not the elites of the community. Some are homeless. Quite a few are immigrants. Some are suffering from physical or mental ailments. In some ways, it’s a remarkable gathering, because some of the invisible people in our community are, for an hour or so, visible. If you ever have gone to the parish office or the Hurley Center on a Saturday morning, you probably have walked through their midst. If you’re not used to it, it can be a little disconcerting.
Fortunately, St. Edna people are supportive – and I mean that in every sense of the word: financially, communally, spiritually. Earlier this week, I attended a joint meeting of volunteer workers from our Food Pantry and Outreach ministries. I found myself being moved by the commitment and passion of St. Edna parishioners to help those in need in our community – those who tend to be invisible in our daily lives. That is our faith, in action. Your faith is amazing. It’s humbling to me.
But St. Edna parishioners often leave me feeling humbled, because so many of us – so many of you – are God’s instruments. You are vessels of God’s light; God’s work becomes visible in you. Your eyes have been opened, and you are seeing as God sees. For that great gift, let us give thanks.
There is always the question (and I seem to remember it has come up here more than once over the years) of how to deal with the (presumably) homeless and others we encounter begging on the streets. There is no-one that I know of in my general area who runs a food pantry or a soup kitchen, and in general people begging on the streets and in the subway in New York are looking for money, not referrals to charitable organizations that might help them. Sometimes I give a dollar or so, and more often I don't. When I don't, I make a mental note to give a donation to some appropriate charity, but often I forget.
ReplyDeleteI have noticed recently a slight trend toward more aggressive requests. (This applies to telephone solicitations, too. They won't take a polite no for an answer.) On a cold, rainy night recently I was walking with a friend when I pitiful woman appeared and pleaded for money for food. I didn't have my wallet handy, and I asked my friend to give her something. He gave her a $5 bill, and she proceeded to ask for at least another $5. Just like with the big charities, if you give anything at all, more is expected. I rarely answer my phone lately, because it is almost always someone calling from a charity I already support asking for more money.
David - I'd be really surprised if there wasn't some sort of shelter or emergency housing available to homeless persons in NY. But FWIW, I've come around to the idea that it's okay to give an adult money when s/he is begging for it. If s/he uses it on something irresponsible like booze or drugs - then that's their bad choice. I also think it's worthwhile supporting organizations and agencies who try to help people in the streets. But I don't agree with those who say, "only give money to those organizations; don't try to help people directly". I've learned, through my own ministry attempts, such as they are, that there are a lot of holes in our patchwork safety nets for people without homes. If you are supporting those orgs - great; but realize that there are people, probably quite a few, who are still falling through the cracks.
DeleteVery good, data driven, homily! A lot of facts!. It reminded me of the advice of an early mentor in the mental health system. “Never try to sell data. It will stand on its own.”
ReplyDeleteThe facts of Jesus life speak strongly, especially when they are all gathered together. Sometimes from episode to episode, it might be easy to think that Jesus made an exception.
The facts of the “problem people” of modern life! They are there even though we might try to ignore them.
Finally, the facts of the people in our midst who are doing things to address the problems of modern life are an important part of the picture. It is far better to remind people that some people are responding to the call of Jesus than to let them think that no one is doing anything.
I remember mentioning on the original Commonweal blog one time going to the health department when we were broke for shots for The Boy and a check-up for myself. One of the conservative trolls over there commented, "Sounds like a great place to get bedbugs."
ReplyDeleteIt was one of the many small humiliations you get when you are "on the skids," as Dad used to say. We righted ourselves with extra jobs and Obamacare. And I learned to keep our financial issues a shameful secret from even our closest friends and family.
What we experience now as low income seniors with health issues is isolating and a constant struggle. But it's nothing compared to the problems endured by the people you are serving on Saturdays. And not least of their problems is the loss of dignity and humanity.
So I guess I would like to hear more about them as human beings with feelings and concerns instead of seeing them called them pests, immigrants, the mentally ill.
Your homily, and I apologize if this sounds harsh, sounds a bit self-congratulatory. It extols the helpers even as it fails to see anything human in the objects of their charity.
Jean, years ago when we still had kids at home, they both needed updates on vaccinations. I took them in to our doctor for school physicals. He said he could give them their shots then, but it would cost $70 per. Said if I took them to County Health it would only be $10, but up to me. I thanked him, and that's what we did. And while we were there I got my own DPT vax updated. No bedbugs, just other people there for the same reason we were. There were no financial qualifications for the shots.
DeleteI also took the kids to the community college, where they had a dental hygiene program, to get sealants on their permanent teeth for about a fourth of the cost at the regular dentist.
I think nowadays the required vaxes for school are free (unless one is too MAGA to believe in modern medicine!)
I remember two occasions when we received vaccinations at the Dept of Health. They were free or maybe just nominal fee. I don’t remember trolls, but it was a long time ago, before the spread of Uber- conservative hate. In fact, I don’t remember anyone paying much attention at all to who else was waiting for medical care.
DeleteI guess my point is that we did not have a choice to use public assistance. And so the "bedbugs" comment stung.
DeleteAnd I see a certain similar attitude in the language of the homily. It lumps the poor into groups of undesirables and leaves them there without any attempt at understanding or compassion, except for the people who have to deal with them:
"They can be a nuisance, a pest: so needy, so demanding of our time and resources, when we’d rather focus on the more pleasant parts of our lives. When we can’t avoid noticing them, they irritate us: if they would just go away, go somewhere else, anywhere else but here, life would be more pleasant for the rest of us."
"People with mental illnesses. People who look different. People whose first language isn’t English. Unmarried adults. People hidden away from us because they are in nursing homes, or in prisons, or they are homebound."
"These are not the elites of the community. Some are homeless. Quite a few are immigrants.... If you ever have gone to the parish office or the Hurley Center on a Saturday morning, you probably have walked through their midst. If you’re not used to it, it can be a little disconcerting."
I'm pretty sure I am a pest, annoying everyone here when I talk about my health and financial problems, my bitterness and fear over what the future holds, my inability to help The Boy much, the way being in a precarious material situation erodes self-confidence and faith in God's love. And I know my humiliations are small compared to those of many others.
If you really want to see the poor instead of just patting Church Ladies on the back for "walking through their midst," you tell their stories. And that's what this homily lacks.
Just my opinion, of course.
Jean, thank you! I appreciate the feedback, and it's not harsh.
DeleteThe bedbugs comment sounds appalling. I am sorry that was said to you.
You're not a pest here. Please don't feel insecure about bursting a bubble or two here!
Jean, your perspective is very valuable. Although my family was chronically short money, and my mother lost our home in the divorce - to pay my father’s debts- and I was technically homeless, it was very different from the homelessness experienced by thousands now. My mother got a job at a conference center, and accepted a room as part of her very low compensation. I stayed with family and friends during summer and holidays when the dorms were closed. So I always had a roof over my head. No home of my own for a while, but a roof and heat and food because of the kindness of friends and a couple of family members. Those on the street now seldom have anyone they can turn to. Or they refuse help because of mental illness or maybe even a distorted sense of false pride, often cutting off communication in order to keep their situation secret from their family. This was part of the story in Nomadland - her sister tried to get her to stay with her, but she refused - until the end. A good movie, based on a real person. Another good movie showing the kind of plight that can lead to homelessness is Maid.
DeleteBarbara Ehrenreich's "Nickled and Dimed" is an excellent look at the way low income wage earners fall into the hole. Households where women are the main earners still tend to be in worse shape than those where men make the $$.
DeleteI have not felt I could watch "Maid" or "Nomadland" without wanting to put my head in a noose and jumping off the roof.
"Those on the street now seldom have anyone they can turn to. Or they refuse help because of mental illness or maybe even a distorted sense of false pride, often cutting off communication in order to keep their situation secret from their family."
DeleteOr they've burned through all their goodwill and favors from family members.
As you say, it's complex. There is not a single root cause.
The homeless issues just seem to get worse and worse. I have no answers. Homeless camps pop up regularly in my son’s neighborhood in LA. Eventually the city moves them out, but to where. I read that an area of Phoenix has been turned into a tent city. The story featured a sandwich shop that had been there for 40 years and didn’t know how long they could last. Someone had broken all their windows at some point. The men often urinate on the side of the building. I would think that the cities could at least put portable potties on the sidewalks. In the meantime the food is provided by private charities. Some cities are exploring moving all the tents to one area, outside of business and residential areas. Some are building tiny house developments. But even if the immediate needs for minimal shelter and food are satisfied, how is the problem to be solved long term?
ReplyDeleteInteresting take on solving the homeless issue: https://thetriad.thebulwark.com/p/build-more-housing
DeleteI have heard about the problems in Phoenix. Relatives of relatives live there. Of course that is all mixed up with immigration and border problems, and is being used as a wedge issue. Which means probably nothing meaningful will get done.
DeleteThe Boy works with the homeless in Lansing sometimes. Most of the guys he knows are veterans with PTSD. Some have various addictions. Most of them try to look out for each other. A few prey on the weaker ones. Single men usually don't get spots in shelters, which take women with children first.
DeleteHe says that cramming all these people into a special "district" usually just makes them die quicker. In these districts, they get insufficient tents to go around that people fight over, are fed only sporadically with junk food, have the cops harassing them to stay in their place, and don't get any washing or toileting facilities so disease spreads quicker.
In districts, nobody sees them. So if they're in mental distress from illness or addiction, nobody notices and overdosing and suicide are rampant. Nobody sees diabetics, so they develop gangrenous ulcers or go into comas and die. Nobody sees that there aren't enough shelters to go around, so people die of hypothermia.
But it's nicer for the rest of us.
Jean, nearly everything The Boy has told you about homeless persons in Lansing, applies here, too - except we don't have many veterans here. We wish more were veterans, because our local Catholic Charities has benefits available for veterans.
DeleteFWIW, as a result of COVID, our local network of church-based homeless shelters shut down in 2020; no organizations, even the most compassionate churches, wanted groups of people in their buildings. Most of those churches haven't restarted their shelters, even though the fear of COVID now feels like it's in the rearview mirror. But - in 2020, one of the religious orders in this area, the Viatorians, made a $40,000 donation to our local agency which coordinates the shelter program. The agency used the money to rent hotel rooms for the homeless folks (recall that hotels were virtually empty in the first months of COVID in 2020, so these local hotels were grateful for any business). Since then, local churches (including ours) have made additional donations, and I am certain that the agency also has been awarded government grants. Consequently, some of these local folks have been living in hotel rooms for as long as the last three years. This is a big improvement for them as opposed to the church sites (or to literally living on the street.) They have bathrooms, showers and daily cleaning service. Churches in the area have organized meal delivery to them, so they get three square meals a day at their doors. I don't know if there has been any rigorous study of the health benefits of this hoteling program, but I have to think that the health outcomes have improved.
The hoteling probably is going to be coming to an end soon, like the other COVID benefits which expire with the emergency declaration. Whether the churches will step up again to fill the gaps in shelter remains to be seen.
I wonder if they've done any cost studies to compare the expense of paying for hotel rooms vs running shelters. I know there used to be a lot more inexpensive hotels where people could rent rooms by the week or the month.
DeleteNice homily, Jim. It sounds like your parish has a good outreach program. I think it is good to call attention to it, so that people know it's still needed, and will continue to support it.
ReplyDeleteK. is on to preach the homily for the daily Mass tomorrow. Lots of water references in the readings; Ezekiel 47, Psalm 46 and "...the stream whose runlets gladden the city of God...", and John 5 with the paralytic at the pool of Siloam.
We have a St. Vincent de Paul society here, and they have a store. Their custom is to do home visits for people who are needing assistance. We weren't doing that during Covid restrictions, but were taking care of needs by phone. Which seemed fine to me. But they want us to resume home visits again now; if we are uncomfortable with that we can arrange to meet them at the store. Which seems better to me. Personally I would not want strangers coming into my house, even if they were people trying to help.
When our Outreach program was a St. Vincent De Paul Society, we did home visits, too. I know it is part of the spirituality of the Society (the idea is, treat the people you're visiting as though they are homeowners welcoming you as a guest into their homes). I have mixed feelings about them. They are an imposition on someone who simply wants a little help. And they could be used for less spiritual, more instrumental purposes, such as trying to gauge whether the person really is in need - e.g. if they have a flat screen television, then the visitors think these folks are actually well off and trying to scam us.
DeleteI used to do home visits, and I came to feel that most of the time it was an imposition on people who already had enough problems. However there were a few people who seemed like they were lonely and wanted to talk to someone. I think it is better to meet at the store because it is neutral territory ( there is an office where the conversations can be private.)
DeleteI never felt that anyone was trying to scam us. But I admit that I was uncomfortable about the pet boa constrictor (in a glass terrarium) in a household where there were children. The woman I talked to said she had to put up with it because it was her live in boyfriend's.
We always make any rent assistance payable to the landlord directly. Same with utility assistance,, directly to the utility provider.
People who keep exotic pets are opaque to me. My impression is, they are always exotic pets that could kill me.
DeleteBoa constrictors do kill people sometimes. Snakes give me the willies and I wouldn't live under the same roof with them even if it was just a garter snake.
DeleteI often ran into Mountain Man types in the U.P. who claimed their dogs were half wolf. The local vet told me that most of them were really half malamute or German shepherd, and breeders would market wolfy looking pups as hybrids to make more $$. Some guys really got off on having a wolf pet.
DeleteRaber's nephew and wife had a boa constrictor. They let it crawl around with their toddlers and took pictures for their Xmas cards. I mentioned that snakes carry salmonella, that a boa had suffocated a baby in Florida, and I hoped they wouldn't be turned in to social services.
There was a guy here in town who stole a bear cub and kept it on his screen porch reinforced with iron bars. He wanted to train it to "rassle." God. The cops shut that down and sent Mr Bear to a nature center for rehab.
Katherine, I read the Bulwark article. Unfortunately it both oversimplifies and overgeneralizes. The comments bring out some of the examples of this. Yes - there is not enough affordable housing. But the reasons for this are barely addressed, and differ from one location to another. And although the article says that “ only” 30% are mentally ill and “ only” 40% have substance issues- they represent a lot of people. It gives minimal attention to the connections and interplay between losing a job, losing housing because of losing a job, and the mental illness and substance abuse problems which may precede OR be the result of homelessness, OR both. Unfortunately we can’t just wave a magic wand and create tens of thousands of new, affordable housing units overnight. Because the reasons that insufficient housing exists are as complex as the homeless problem itself.
ReplyDeleteI didn't get a chance to look at the Bulwark column, but Anne, I agree with your comments. I would add: not all people who are homeless are chronically homeless. Some are homeless for a while and then manage to get back into regular, stable housing. Some sort of bounce back and forth. Mental illness (which is a vast, vast umbrella encompassing many illnesses), physical illness and substance abuse are real problems that make it hard or impossible for these folks to function to a standard that the larger society considers minimally standard.
DeleteThere are a few cities which seem to be doing better with homelessness. Salt Lake City, Utah is apparently one of them. Their approach is to try and house people first, rather than insist that they be sober and sane first.
DeleteMy parish passed out forms where we could sign up for this and that in the parish. One of the check marks was the.St. Vincent de Paul Society. But I remember hearing the story of my cousin's daughter getting the third degree from a pair of guys from the Society when she requested aid during her leukemia chemo. So I backed off. I can help people without being a part of a society. But I'd rather do it as part of collective action. But not in a crew of judgemental d-bags.
ReplyDeleteStanley, I'm sorry your relative was given a bad time by a couple of StVDP volunteers. I'd like to think most aren't like that. I hope she made it through treatment and is doing okay.
DeleteThe St Vincent's people in this diocese are also in charge assistance. I don't know much about how it works except that if your parish priest goes to bat for you, you are more likely to get help.
DeleteI go to their store sometimes, and donated most of my work clothes to them when I retired. They have a "career wardrobe" area to help people who need good clothes to work in.
She came through it ok, Katherine. Thanks for asking. It was a treatable blood cancer but she said she doesn't feel like the same person, mentioning something called "chemo brain". But she's still raising her third son just fine. She had three boys by three different guys but the boys turn out ok. They were loved. Her oldest is married now and has a good mechanical engineering job with a recumbent bike company. I threw a few k her way when her sister opened up a GoFundMe. I guess, looked at in one way, she's a screw-up. But another way, she's a really good mother. And nobody got bedbugs.
DeleteI shouldn't generalize about St. V De P but I am affected by personal stories. I think money and private property create boundaries between people and isolation. I hope someday we can find a cure for them or a way to mitigate their evil effects.
When you apply for help from a private organization, they're going to go to great lengths to make sure you aren't an embarrassment to them. SVdP could have spun her as a pro-life story, but maybe there were other factors that played into it.
DeleteJesus, of course, did not calculate whether helping X, Y, or Z would be unwise from a PR standpoint. But I am slowly trying to accept that nobody in any church I belonged to is ever going to act like Jesus. Including me.
Jean, in our SVdP here we honestly don't care if they're an embarrassment to us. I mean how is someone else going to embarrass us anyway? We do have a policy that we're not going to do something like rent assistance to the same person more than once a year, because that runs into quite a bit of money. But they can get a sackful of groceries, no questions asked.
DeleteI'm sure your SVdP people are very nice. I only meant that these programs are only as generous as the people running them. I see lots of Catholic charities offering stories that seem to emphasize that the people they help are hard luck stories through no fault of their own. It certainly leads me to believe they are trying to get only the "deserving" poor.
DeleteWe don't refuse help to people who allegedly are down on their luck because it's their own fault. We do have criteria that determines how much we may help someone, but it has nothing to do with their personal history. For example, people who live outside the parish boundaries, and who have a home to live in, don't get any financial assistance from us, but we do make food from our pantry available to them. Homeless people are entitled to some financial assistance, regardless of where they "live". We don't provide financial assistance to anyone more than once a month, and certain categories of financial assistance, like help with rent, mortgage payment, utilities or car repair, are once per year. If we didn't have those restrictions in place, we'd go broke within a year (and sometimes we come close to going broke, even with those restrictions in place).
DeleteThere's a much-anticipated book (due out tomorrow) that I have pre-ordered called Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond. It may be of interest to some taking part in this discussion. Here is the Amazon info:
ReplyDeleteThe Pulitzer Prize-winning, bestselling author of Evicted reimagines the debate on poverty, making a new and bracing argument about why it persists in America: because the rest of us benefit from it.
ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2023: The Washington Post, Time, Esquire, Newsweek, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Elle, Salon, Lit Hub, Kirkus Reviews
The United States, the richest country on earth, has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Why? Why does this land of plenty allow one in every eight of its children to go without basic necessities, permit scores of its citizens to live and die on the streets, and authorize its corporations to pay poverty wages?
In this landmark book, acclaimed sociologist Matthew Desmond draws on history, research, and original reporting to show how affluent Americans knowingly and unknowingly keep poor people poor. Those of us who are financially secure exploit the poor, driving down their wages while forcing them to overpay for housing and access to cash and credit. We prioritize the subsidization of our wealth over the alleviation of poverty, designing a welfare state that gives the most to those who need the least. And we stockpile opportunity in exclusive communities, creating zones of concentrated riches alongside those of concentrated despair. Some lives are made small so that others may grow.
Elegantly written and fiercely argued, this compassionate book gives us new ways of thinking about a morally urgent problem. It also helps us imagine solutions. Desmond builds a startlingly original and ambitious case for ending poverty. He calls on us all to become poverty abolitionists, engaged in a politics of collective belonging to usher in a new age of shared prosperity and, at last, true freedom.
It sounds interesting, I'll have to see if our library has it. I read Evicted, and thought it was good, though it could have used some more editing, both for length and for repetition.
DeleteMatthew Desmond was featured in one of the NY Times daily enewsletters I get. He has an opinion piece up on the NY Times website, here: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/16/opinion/poverty-abolition-united-states.html?campaign_id=39&emc=edit_ty_20230320&instance_id=88181&nl=opinion-today®i_id=87407961&segment_id=128268&te=1&user_id=7bba122dbc8acf5289c69a5c9f2867a2
DeleteMany social scientists would argue that we cannot eliminate poverty because it is all relative. Rich people are people whose wealth, usually defined as income, is substantially above one’s own wealth. Very few people say that they are rich. Poor people are people whose wealth is substantially below one’s own wealth.
DeleteOften people define whether they are rich or poor in comparison to other people in some relevant category, e.g., neighborhood, town, profession.
The perception of one’s own income can depend very much upon whether one considers personal income or household income.
At the time that I retired 20 years ago my personal income was at the 84th percentile of annual incomes well within the range of being what the table defined as an upper-class person (over 75th percentile) but under what it defined as rich (above the 90th percentile). Once I retired, I fell into the middle class (below 75th percentile but above the 45th percentile. Looked like I was well off because I do not have a wife or kids to care for.
However, another story takes place when one considers household income. Sure, I did not have kids to take care of, but I did not have a wife’s income. Before retirement my household income was at the 61% percentile of household incomes, so I was an upper-class personal income in a middle class household living among other people in my neighborhood who have middle class household incomes.
When I retired my household income fell to 45%, just on the edge of being a poor household income.
Things get a little more complicated. My PhD and my senior management positions certainly placed me as what many people would perceive as an upper class but not rich person. But incomes in public mental health are not that high, although we have a good retirement system that prevented me from becoming poor.
However, I was able to save money because I did not have children. Moreover, I am frugal about many things, e.g. I keep my cars for ten years. So, my overall security is probably better than that of most people with my household income. If I had not been careful about how I spent my money, I could have easily come close to being a poor person in a poor household.
I suspect that is the reason that many people tend to blame the poor for their poverty is that many of us recognize how easily we might have become poor through poor money management. The problem with that perception is that while one might be able to keep oneself out of poverty by managing middle -class money better, one cannot get oneself out of poverty by managing a poor income better.
Interesting. Just to depress myself a lot, I went over to see what our percentile is. We are in the "nearly total losers" percentile.
DeleteOn the upside, we did make it into the middle class for many years, which is how we got the house paid off, paid for all that band stuff for The Boy, and saved enough $$ to pay for Raber heart attack.
Looking at data, it becomes clear that your percentile will drop over time even if you continue to get raises. But I don't think that's news to anyone.
What the percentiles don't factor in are paid benefits. I see things like a company car, commuter expenses, and health care as income. Somebody making $70k with all those perks is a lot richer than someone making $70k off gig jobs who has to pay his own perks.
Also factor in paid maternity leave as income. That's a huge one.
DeleteLooking at data, it becomes clear that your percentile will drop over time even if you continue to get raises. But I don't think that's news to anyone.
DeleteYes, that is behind the thesis of Piketty in his best seller Capital in the 21st Century. Most people cannot get rich by working because few people increase their income by 5% each year. The only way to do that is by moving up the corporate ladder or to be in business for yourself.
On the other hand, the rich can usually increase the value of their investments by 5% each year. That means the capitalists will always be getting richer than the workers. The rich do get richer while the poor get poorer. Unless you tax the rich to redistribute their income to others.
You are right about the value of perks. The healthcare I had both while working in the public sector and now after retirement was an important consideration.
The ability to retire at age sixty was also important as well as a retirement system that supported early retirement.
During the time I was working I had essentially a one-week expenses paid vacation each year. Mental Health Boards have the discretion to award more annual vacation that the standard for years of service for public employees. When I interviewed, I asked a four- week vacation when I was eligible for two weeks. They offered me three weeks because that is what my boss was getting, but he told me they had a fund for continuing education at professional conferences, and so I could go to one national conference of my choice each year with my expenses paid. I chose places that I liked: Toronto, Boston, Minneapolis, Tampa.
Each year I presented a peer reviewed paper at a nation conference, so that I could say that I was not only keeping abreast of what the profession was doing, I was also presenting the things we were doing that merited their attention.
Yeah, I presented peer reviewed papers every year, too, but colleges and universities don't pay for conferences for nontenured English profs.
DeleteOne of the reasons we continued to attend was so the tenured fac could not use it as an excuse to justify the pay diff between them and us. A fairly large cohort of tenured faculty began to believe that we were deficient because our pay was about half theirs. But if we presented at the same conferences they did, that was harder for them to claim.
Tenured faculty were notorious for trying to keep nontenured out of the bargaining unit by claiming that we weren't real scholars. Again, presenting at conferences helped dispel that idea and eventually some colleges did open the bargaining unit to nontenured.
That and pointing out that we outnumbered them by about 3 to 1 and if they didn't let us in, we would happily cross their picket line and teach their classes for more money.
I was an adjunct for a couple of years back in the 80s. The tenureds didn't welcome us into their bargaining unit either. I made enough to pay rent on my crummy, roach-infested apartment but not enough to have a car.
DeleteMy brother is a part-time adjunct at a public university in Michigan, and they are in the bargaining unit. Just FYI.
MSU formed its own nontenured bargaining unit. Then the university declined to renew contracts for those who had passed out union cards. No repercutions with the NLRB that way, and you can get rid of the people who are most pro-union.
DeleteOne of the roadblocks was the "spousal appointee." Universities find a job for spouses as part of the main hiree's package. Spouses never wanted to sign cards because they didn't want the scrutiny of performance reviews. The rest of us wanted reviews as a path to continued appointment and raises.
Well, I could write a long book of grievances about how colleges and universities have long been putting money into jocks and buildings instead of paying staff. But I enjoyed teaching, I was good at it, and it was less soul-sucking and no less precarious than dancing for The Man in corporate and nonprofit organizations.
And we did have a car and never had roaches, so I guess there's that.
Ah, Universities and Colleges! Temples of Knowledge and Enlightenment. Islands of progressivism in a sea of ignorance. Well, apparently not. As American as apple pie, SUVs, guns and racism. And fully on the dole with the military-industrial complex. And yes, the neverending damned sports.
DeleteHaving had a variety of experiences in higher education, parishes, and the mental health system, higher education in my experience has the least accountability
Delete.
As one of my graduate professors said “When we hire for a tenured position, if any faculty member expresses any negative opinion, then we don’t hire. When we hire new Ph.D. without any teaching experience and little beyond their dissertation, people ask if anyone has anything against the candidate and then we hire the person.” When I was a postdoc at U. Mass Amherst, and outstanding neuropsychologist from the West coast let it be known that he would like to move to U.Mass. He was never hired because most of the faculty were not in his league.
When I taught at Ball State even though I had excellent student evaluations, the department chairman was more concerned that a few students had dropped my course because it was too difficult. At the end of the semester one Black woman thanked me. “This is the first course that I have ever taken in high school or college where I was required to read to textbook. All the other professors told me what was in the textbook. I am glad to know that I can read and understand a textbook.”
There is more accountability in the parishes. People can complain to the bishop, Mass attendance may suffer, and contributions may go down. All that can result in performance scrutiny.
The most accountability occurs in public mental health in Ohio. County mental health board fund agencies and while they cannot fire individual staff members, they can choose to send more or less money to agencies. Board meetings are public, and there is a place on the agenda for public comments. When agencies mess up, both consumers and family member organizations are likely to know. They have many formal and informal ways of making their opinions known.
The hiring practices you describe in higher ed don't jibe with my experiences.
DeleteI taught at two public unis and one private college, and I would say that hiring, oversight, and review of pedagogical knowledge and ability are all over the map.
And the fact that there there is no standard is a problem in itself.
Jean said
ReplyDeleteIf you really want to see the poor instead of just patting Church Ladies on the back for "walking through their midst," you tell their stories.
Much of the progress that has been made in mental illness in our county has been made because consumers have been able to tell their stories. Our initial successes forty years ago in raising mental health levies occurred because the local newspaper in collaboration with one of our staff members and consumers did a series of stories.
The board logo is You.Me.Us. There is no them. The idea is that mental health is everyone’s problem, not someone else’s. The Board has been successful in doing that for mental health. Substance abuse has been much more difficult. Sexual abuse even more. Sexual abuse is seen as the victim’s problem, or the perpetrator’s problem, or those who turn their head. The victim is not seen as one of us, nor the perpetrator, nor the enablers.
When I retired from the Board staff 20 years ago, the Board established an award at its annual dinner to honor a mentally ill person. They named it after me because of the work that I had done to promote recognition of the mentally ill. I declined to serve on the committee that makes the awards but told them to find as many different ways as possible to honor consumer achievement. They have done that well.
They began the first year by honoring one of their own. There was a middle-age woman who regularly volunteered in the board office. She did very simple things like shredding paper and floppy disks. She came on her better days and usually brought something she had baked. The board staff is small, about a dozen people. She was very comfortable in doing important things to help the Mental Health Board. I was very glad the Board did not neglect the consumer on their doorstep.
The ceremony at the annual dinner begins with a Board staff reading the Board resolution. That is followed by one of the County Commissioners reading their resolution of honor, the Ohio House Representative reading their resolution, and the Congressional Representative reading his entry into the Congressional Record.
At the time I was taking a course at ND on the desert solitaries. How much they would have rejoiced at the honor shown this woman. Someone whom the world thought unimportant, and who never thought of herself as important is seen very differently through the eyes of God.
In other news: Anyone else been checking their news feed periodically to see if Trump gets arrested and sparks another riot today? I think his political influence is dwindling in favor of DeSantis.
ReplyDeleteBut a lot of MAGAs still see Trump as the granddaddy of unapologetic white Christian nationalism and will raise hell if he is marched off with a top coat draped over his handcuffs.
I guess it all hinges on whether the grand jury believes that porn star Stormy Daniels was telling the truth about the $35k hush payment and that former Atty and convicted felon Michael Cohen truthfully testified that the $35k check Trump wrote to him was the source of Daniels' payment.
The WaPo is running a big photo of the check in its feed.
Actually, it was $130,000, not $35k. The $35k check was a partial reimbursement to Cohen.
DeleteApparently the folk who monitor the MAGA social media and websites report that there isn’t a strong positive response to the request to go to New York and “protest” because it’s a trap, and they will get arrested. I also read that this afternoon there were more anti- trump people there than MAGA.
I just wish he would go away and leave the country alone. Buy an island in the Bahamas and stay there.
I've been kind of watching the news about that. I have mixed feelings. I really want him to get nailed over what he did to cause the events of Jan 6, 2020. The Stormy Daniels thing is smaller potatoes and I wish it hadn't come up before the worse stuff. Of course anytime he gets a felony conviction it's good, because doesn't that disqualify him from holding office again?
DeleteDeSantis is trying to be Trump's mini-me. He's awful, but I don't think he can prevail.
I think DeSantis is more dangerous than Trump. Trump just wanted to be president to make noise and throw his weight around. DeSantis is laser focused on advancing the agenda of the religious right without the Trump tendency to shoot himself in the foot. I doubt Uncle Joe could beat anybody the GOP puts up except for Trump.
DeleteSooner or later DeSantis is going to have to go up against Trump. Trump's vanity and ego is such that he will have to try to take him down. My fantasy is that they'll be like the gingham dog and the calico cat, and eat each other up.
DeleteKatherine, I’m also worried that this case isn’t the one that should be pursued. There are others that are more important.
DeleteHeather Cox Richardson’s most recent essay highlights reasons why the hush money payment is more important than many of us believe,
Deletehttps://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/
Last word on poverty, Matthew Desmond, mentioned by David above, was on Fresh Air here: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/03/21/1164275807/poverty-by-america-matthew-desmond-inequality
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link, Jean, interesting listen. And to David for the reference to Desmond. Desmond makes many good points. Especially that the more you gots, the more you gets from the government. Subsidizing luxury SUVs (not sure that still exists), tax credits for buying Teslas. I don't mind advancing electric car technology if that support leads to electric vehicles affordable to everyone. But I don't see that happening. Electric public transportation, which we used to have a large amount. I think Desmond touches on this when he points out that public facilities suffer when private spaces increase. And the final point Desmond makes. I agree that I would be happier in a country with fellow citizens free from poverty and the anxiety of falling into poverty.
DeleteYes, he points out that "private opulence, public squalor" is a no-win for everyone.
DeleteRaber's background is in architectural preservation, and he occasionally gets on a jag about the demise of civic pride in public buildings as a measure of social health. When I worked for the state library association, it was a common truism that you could tell a lot about how much a town valued community spirit by what its library looked like.
And how about New Jersey? Quite heartening that a state can decide that inequities should be addressed and not wait for the feds to pony up.
Yes. The NJ thing surprised me. There are a lot of five acre fake farms with McMansions on them. I am somewhat familiar with northern NJ. I'd like to see how that really pans out. My divorced friend lives in an apartment complex in Long Valley which has a lot of hoity-toity houses. Perhaps the apartments fulfill the requirements. I'll have to ask him. He's usually savvy in these things, especially if it gives him another thing to be angry about.
Delete