Democracy by Bill Droel

 

Democracy requires a thick, independent civil society. Democracy is a fraud when restrictions are placed on churches, when unions are really fronts for the government or the company, when self-supporting newspapers and other media succumb to mega-forces and when there is only one viable political party. It is likewise difficult to impose genuine democracy in a place that does not traditionally have networks of autonomous groups.

The benefits of civil society are multiple. It is through participation in middle-range groups that citizens practice the arts of public life. Further, individuals buffered by civic groups do not have to come directly up against bureaucratic forces like a cable TV provider, a health insurance company or a large government agency.

A small group fulfills two needs--the need to belong and the need to make a difference. Now, some groups are mostly about belonging. And, some groups are almost entirely focused on external action. But the healthy group addresses both conviviality and mission, even if one or the other element is but a pinch of the group’s activity. A healthy group welcomes each member and misses them when they are gone. A healthy group gives each member an opportunity to accomplish something in the world that they could not do on their own.

Democracy flourishes when an individual belongs to three or six or twelve different groups. As members circulate, they bring the needs or interests of one group to the attention of another. And the multiplicity of groups diffuses any dangerous passion that arises when one group dominates.

In that regard it must be quickly noted that a genuine small group aims toward the common good. The Boogaloo Boys and the Proud Boys do not qualify as part of civil society.

                                                          Boogaloo boys

Democracy is a main achievement of modernity. But modernity is accompanied with dissatisfactions born of the emphasis on individual liberty. Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), to mention an example, seeing the downside of excessive liberty, founded the discipline of sociology. Its concern is the loss of community in our modern society. Extreme autonomy, as it turns out, makes for ragged individuals.

                                                                    Robert Putnam

By several measures alienation is getting worse. Harvard University professor Robert Putnam tracks participation in civic groups from the 1890s through today. His books, including Bowling Alone (2000) and Our Kids (2015), approach the topic from multiple angles. He finds a precipitous decline in the number of people who belong to all manner of groups and a decline in the hours they devote to such groups. Proceed with caution if you dispute Putnam’s analysis because he has crunched every statistic imaginable.

Why the decline? It is not because of common assumptions like more women in the workplace. In fact, Putnam finds, employed women are more likely than others to belong to school boards, church committees and the like. There is, he discovers, a strong inverse relation between hours spent in front of a screen and hours devoted to civic groups.

The loss of strong mediating groups and thus the precariousness of democracy is not so much about politics as it is culture. Zygmunt Bauman (1925-2017) calls ours a liquid culture. It adapts its shape, its so-called values and its institutions to circumstances and trends. Our culture is quick to propose short-term remedies to malaise. Among the false resolutions of our unease are celebrity gossip, excessive consumer choices, one-off relationships, New Age fads, negative protest movements and short-lived attempts to turn back the clock.

A sense of community cannot be restored all-at-once by a solitary individual. But glue can be applied two-by-two. The tool is relational appointments that gradually form a culture of encounter. It is tempting to think that if people would just talk to neighbors, porch to porch that community would occur. But the remedy, though it feels strange at first, is at once new and old. The solution is like an art form; sitting with another for a half hour or 50 minutes, reverently listening to the other’s interests. Then, in time, a relational person introduces the interests of one public friend to another.

It is happening among a small number of leaders who are tired of narrowly-focused electoral campaigns and are experimenting with deep canvassing. With awkwardness they make appointments in a precinct only to listen and then to share part of their own story—five, eight or maybe more appointments a week. There are church members who do something similar, meeting with members of those in other denominations. There are some young union activists who go beyond standard spiels about wages and meet for a listening session with consumers, stakeholders and non-union members.  

Democracy will survive and thrive to the extent that people turn off their TV and mobile device and exercise some calculated vulnerability in relational encounters, week after week.

 

Droel edits INITIATIVES (PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60729), a newsletter on faith and work.

A Christmas Theme by Bill Droel

 

Remember always to welcome strangers, for by doing this some people have entertained angels without knowing it. (Hebrews 13:2)

 

Nativity 

Welcoming strangers is a Christmas theme. It appears in a half verse in the story of Jesus’ birth: Upon arriving in Bethlehem, Joseph and Mary learned “there was no room for them at the inn.” (Luke 2:7) The Mexican Posada tradition creatively dramatizes the incident. But the facts are scant. After all, what did the Holy Family expect showing up without reservations on a busy holiday weekend? Smile.

Let’s admit that a country with completely open borders is a contradiction in terms. And let’s acknowledge that immigrants and refugees present problems to a country that admits them. Yet in the United States, as in many other countries, prosperity utterly depends on an orderly influx of immigrants. At the moment, nearly all agree, our country’s immigration policies are not adequate for what is happening domestically and internationally.

Utica, New York is situated on the Mohawk River and the Erie Canal, just off the New York Thruway. For eight years Susan Hartman researched Utica to write City of Refugees: the Story of Three Newcomers Who Breathed Life into a Dying American Town (Beacon Press, 2022).

Beginning in the mid-1800s Utica became an industrial hub for textile mills, lumber mills and factories. Its residents were Italian-Americans, German-Americans, Polish-Americans and Irish-Americans. In the late 1800s Lebanese-Americans and Syrian-Americans settled in Utica. They staffed or owned dry goods stores and groceries. During the late 1940s the textile industry began to move away, but General Electric and other manufacturers came to Utica. Then in the early 1990s, GE and other employers like Univac and the U.S. Air Force left the Utica area.  

Supporting immigrants at Voces de la Frontera

Hartman doesn’t dwell on who left town, but on who arrived. In the 1980s it was Vietnamese-Americans. Local clergy, school officials, administrators at Lutheran Services and Syracuse Catholic Charities founded the Mohawk Valley Resource Center (www.thecenterutica.org) to assist those from war-torn Vietnam. That ethnic group is now fully integrated in Utica’s economy and society. During the 1980s, The Center and Utica’s leaders likewise greeted immigrants from Laos, Poland and the then Soviet Union. The children of those groups now staff and own furniture stores and car dealerships plus are employed in health care, education and service settings. In the 1990s Utica experienced a wave of immigrants from Bosnia. They are the most successful of recent groups, employed in construction, health care, civil service and the restaurant industry. They, like some previous groups, have rehabbed or built their own housing in previously run-down areas. More recently Utica became a destination for Somali Bantus. They have “a tougher time adapting,” Hartman reports. Their unemployment rate is decreasing, but it is still above the norm.

For the most part, the topic of immigration in our Congress is not about what it is supposedly about. Too often it is cast in partisan extremes. In fact writes Reihan Salam in Wall St. Journal (11/30/22), perpetuating a dysfunctional immigration process only encourages more refugees to cross into our country and more foreign visitors to overstay their visa. Meanwhile, while Congress is posturing on immigration, local elected officials and business leaders want practical reform. There are only two realistic choices: Do nothing to improve immigration policy and settle for a stagnant economy in many towns or cities or reform immigration and weather the difficulties that immigrants initially present.

Realistic citizens can question the cost vs. payoff calculus. How much does it cost to accommodate an immigrant (public assistance, processing expense, salary for border officials and more) before that immigrant is a net gain to the economy and the tax base? The answer, says Salam, varies by country of origin, length of time in our country and place of settlement in our country. At the moment there is a rather quick gain when immigrants come to North Dakota and other states. There is a short term loss in California and elsewhere, though many California families depend on immigrant caregivers, household cleaners, landscapers, service workers and more and the entire country depends on immigrant farm workers.

There is also the question of how much immigration adds to the unemployment of current citizens. In select locales, Salam finds, immigrants can be a short term negative on job prospects for those current citizens who lack a high school diploma. Over ten years the negative impact from immigrants on wages is close to zero.

May 1st March

There’s another incident in the Christmas story that relates to welcoming strangers. The homeland of Mary and Joseph was occupied territory. Shortly after the birth of their baby, the Holy Parents felt their lives were in serious danger. They crossed the border with no visa. In Egypt they found shelter, perhaps among other Jews or maybe at the kindness of Arabs. Joseph presumably found a job in Egypt and there the Holy Family remained until it was seemingly safe to return. Meanwhile the oppressive Romans slaughtered hundreds of Jewish infants. (Matthew 2: 13-18)

A town without any immigrants is not a beautiful utopia. A town with properly welcomed immigrants is not a trouble-free place. The latter situation, however, has a chance to be a Christmas town that participates in God’s continuing redemption.

Droel serves on the board of National Center for the Laity (PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629)

IS THERE SOMETHING TO BE SAID FOR THE NEGATIVE?

                Dachau Concentration Center Memorial Sculpture by Nandor Glid, erected in 1968

 Joanne and I visit the immigrant detention center located out in the Wisconsin countryside, an hour away from our home.  It’s a nice drive but the visit can be a depressing experience.  The detainees are workers, brothers and sisters, locked up without fresh air and a decent meal.  They are not criminals just looking for a creative life without terror.  Their future is at best questionable.

We are with a faith group of about ten people and we meet with detainees and sit at tables with three or four per table.  Most of the detainees are Latinos but we meet with people from all over the world.  We are not lawyers, so we mostly listen.  The stories are tragic – separated families and there is no reason for it. 

When the visit time is up, we form a circle and pray.  This time the man next to me was from India.  I whispered to him “shanti shanti”.  He responded with a smile and said ‘peace.’  It’s a thin place where the ineffable is apparent even in a lock up.

The Working Catholic: Signs of the Times by Bill Droel

How do we become aware that a new age has dawned?

Did anyone in November 1492 proclaim that the modern age began the previous month when Native Americans discovered Christopher Columbus (1451-1506)? Did anyone in November 1517 realize that the modern age began the previous month when Rev. Martin Luther (1483-1546) challenged the Roman Catholic bureaucracy? Yet looking back to those events we trace global commerce, exploration, cultural imperialism, a turn to individualism and soon enough new forms of governance.

Did anyone in December 1947 say that modernity has been superseded by a post-modern age because the transistor was invented at Bell Labs the previous month? Did anyone in August 1954 mark the beginning of postmodernism because Elvis Presley (1935-1977) recorded That’s All Right in a style fusing country with rhythm and blues? Yet those events and others were forerunners to a youth culture, to a pervasive cyber-dimension of life, to a view of the earth from outer-space, to instant and world-wide communication of prices, weather patterns, celebrity gossip, political conflict and more.

The same lack of awareness and ambiguity applies to naming generations. After all, someone was born yesterday and someone tomorrow. So can we really demarcate and easily differentiate Baby Boomers from Gen X from the Millennial Generation?

Yet we need markers to understand our place in history, to understand the forces that shape our lives and contour our agency in our place and time.

Gary Gerstle explores the signs of the times in The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order (Oxford Press, 2022). Gerstle calls each of his stages a type of liberalism. He admits confusion in terminology. For example, today’s neoliberals are usually called conservatives. But whatever the labels, every modern society accepts the basics of classic Liberalism. For example, according to classic Liberalism individuals are not bound by heredity and knowledge (science and reason) is better than superstition. Though the British and others still like the trappings of monarchy, citizens in all classic Liberal societies have a right to participation in governance. Classic Liberalism, no matter the labels of the moment, insists that the rule of law replaces vengeance and property acquired legitimately (including intellectual/creative property) is a protected possession.  

Classic Liberalism was influential in the late 1700s and somewhat in the 1800s. It had an intellectual comeback after World War I, says Gerstle, because of economists like Friedrich Hayek (1899), Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) and others.

Gerstle applies the label New Deal liberalism to the second stage of liberalism.  He associates this worldview with President Franklin Roosevelt (1882-1945), to a degree with President Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969) and with President Lyndon Johnson (1908-1973).

New Deal liberalism differs from the classic type of liberalism in that government, labor unions, associations and consumer groups play a role in society and the economy. The shift recognizes that without countervailing forces individual liberty and laissez-faire capitalism make for “an economic disaster.” The market needs an umpire to enforce contracts, to use the military to stabilize trade, to enforce tariffs and the like. Society also needs government to restrict businesses that disregard the public good, to employ workers when hiring slows, to soften the blows of poverty, to purchase when inflation dampens consumer activity, to tackle big projects (health care delivery, utility delivery, infrastructure construction and the like) when private enterprise is incapable.

Gerstle’s third type of liberalism is called neoliberalism. It harkens back to classic Liberal themes and is thus a reaction against the socially-minded New Deal liberalism of Roosevelt and others. Gerstle associates neoliberalism with Presidents Ronald Reagan (1911-2004), Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and with others.

Neoliberalism promises to recover imagination and serious aspirations in contrast to the deadening bureaucracies of the 1960s and 1970s. It says that private enterprise can be efficient and therefore government should use contractors for toll way collections, public transportation, garbage collection, some overseas military operations, space exploration, schools and more. Neoliberalism favors deregulation, free trade and information technology.

In the neoliberal view all encounters are monetized; that is, everything is for sale—even health care, recreation, personal information and water. Its centers of interest are Wall St., Silicon Valley, Hollywood and tech hubs in the Boston and Seattle areas. For neoliberals “cosmopolitanism [is] a cultural achievement,” writes Gerstle. Regardless of their rhetoric, neoliberalism applies to most Democrat and Republican politicians. Neoliberalism perpetuates an old strain of moralizing common in the rugged individual days. It assumes that some liberty can be denied those who are unable to handle responsibility. Neoliberals distinguish the deserving poor from the undeserving poor.

Gerstle hints that neoliberalism has lost luster and that we might be entering a new phase. The crash of 2008, the disruptions from Covid-19, the incompetence of President Donald Trump’s administration, a brutal war in Europe and more raise doubts about the neoliberal promise. What might be signs of a new era? Reports are welcome.

Droel is affiliated with National Center for the Laity (PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629). It distributes two encyclicals that critique neoliberalism; one by Pope Benedict XVI, the other by Pope Francis ($15 for both).

THE FACE OF GOD – A COSMIC SOLUTION

 

Julian of Norwich brought to consciousness that “God is good and all will be well.”  Such trust is easier to understand with an image, but the usual image, God the benevolent Father,

 

  The triune male god presiding over a Christian world.

    St. Michael Roman Catholic Church, Milwaukee, Wi.

has lost its meaning in a world dominated by the structures of patriarchy opposed to workers' rights and to the very existence of the planet.  Where do we turn?

“A great anxiety has God allowed to the sons of men until all return to the mother of the living.” Sir 40, 1

Our Lady of Guadalupe Spain was modeled on the Egyptian Goddess Isis brought to awareness in the 12^th and 13^th centuries of the Spanish renaissance.

Isis

  The story migrated to Mexico and the Black Madonna became the Brown pregnant Madonna of the Americas. 

                                                 

                                         Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico

Our Lady of Guadalupe immerged as a new Goddess and Creator -  Mother of the Cosmic Christ – Messiah.

A feminine God was not new.  The Isis story prompted other representatives of the Black Madonna in other European countries, for example Our Lady of Częstochowa in Poland.

 

                                            Our Lady of Częstochowa

Such images bring up the problem of idolatry – worship of the metaphor.  Our Lady of the Domes Cathedral features the golden Notre Dame de Domes which towers high next to the Papal Palace at Avignon – a center of corrupt papal imperial power. 

                                                   

                                         Notre Dame-des Domes, Avignon, France

There is an obvious disconnect.

“I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt the place of slavery.  You shall not have other gods besides me.  You shall not carve idols for yourselves in the shape of anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth. (First commandment – Deut. 5.)

Our Lady of Guadalupe points to Justice and Mercy but we must remember the warnings from the Bible and the writings of Maimonides, Aquinas, Luther and William James – there is an indefinable ‘more’ beyond the imagination of the beholder or artist.

      

 

 

  

            

The Working Catholic: Green Transportation by Bill Droel

         “Bicycles are not only thermo-dynamically efficient, they are also cheap,” says Catholic philosopher Ivan Illich (1926-2002) in Energy and Equity (Harper Collins, 1974). “Bicycles let people move with greater speed without taking up significant amounts of scarce space, energy or time.”

Jody Rosen affirms Illich’s contention in Two Wheels Good: the History and Mystery of the Bicycle (Crown, 2022). Bikes are “a remarkably effective device for converting human exertion into locomotion,” he writes.

Two Wheels Good is informative, though discursive. For example, Rosen presents stories and drawings that supposedly put bicycles in long ago settings, often associating them with angels or goddesses. In fact, the bicycle is a recent invention, as he details. It became a practical means of travel when wheels were teamed with ball bearings in 1869. The invention of pneumatic tires by John Dunlop of Belfast in 1888 added to bicycle efficiency. By the 1890s there was a bicycle mania. Rosen describes the phenomenon in quirky style: reprinting old newspaper stories about wives who, in their husband’s opinion, neglect the family for the sake of riding a bike.

There is a recreational use of bikes but most riders today are workers—migrants, day laborers, couriers, students, factory hands and those providing transportation for tourists or other workers.

“Our economies [and] our laws are designed for cars,” Rosen states. Yet cars are killing us with accidents, pollution and depletion of resources. Electric cars might be an improvement, but their production causes pollution and depletion of non-renewable minerals, he says. The world needs a “new cycling infrastructure,” Rosen insists.

Chicago Dept. of Transportation, like in many cities, has protected bike lanes, secure bike racks, a registry to assist recovery of stolen bikes and a bike-share program. Bikes and scooters are widely available throughout our city, including in my decidedly non-hip neighborhood. Our city’s electronic lock system for the bikes costs about $10 monthly.

The Chicago program is flawed. It squeezes a bicycle culture into its firmly established auto/truck infrastructure. Plus, in my opinion, there is potential for waste or corruption when municipal services, like Chicago’s bike rental component, are outsourced to private companies. Nonetheless, our city and others have made a start. The future of work and “the fate of cities maybe predicated on bikes,” Rosen concludes.

A bicycle culture means bike shops. Chicago has several independent shops for sales, parts and repairs. Schwinn has a small number of its own stores. It and other national brands are sold and repaired at some hardware stores. Big box retail chains also carry bikes.

During the summer prior to Covid-19 I had the opportunity to tour R-Community Bikes (www.rcommunitybikes.net) in Rochester, NY. It is an all-volunteer operation. Its basic idea is that a good bike takes away one obstacle to holding a job, staying in school and doing necessary errands. Thus on each hectic Saturday morning R-Community gives away refurbished bicycles and some tricycles—a total of 31,500 over the past 14 years. A few higher-end bicycles are sold by appointment for about $150 each.

Several churches and agencies sponsor used-bike drives for R-Community. Needy students, workers and seniors can also drop off their own bike for repair. I was impressed that R-Community volunteers, mostly seniors, are sometimes joined by young adults from the neighborhood, eager to learn the trade.

Other cities likely have non-profit bike shops that aid the community. If you know of one, please inform me.

Droel edits a free, printed newsletter on faith and work: INITIATIVES (PO Box 291102, Chicago, IL 60629)

 

Mid-Term Elections: Hannah Arendt on Lies and Politics by Dr. Matthew Fox

 

October 29, 2022

It has been said that the head of the church of Donald J. Trump deserves the title of “Liar in chief” because journalists have counted over 36,000 lies he told as president.  And a few more lies have followed since he was deposed and voted out of office.

 

This includes a new term that has entered our country’s vocabulary– the “Big Lie,” which refers to a very foundational falsehood, namely that President Biden did not win the presidential election of 2020.

 

President Biden is not the president.  The head of the church of Donald J. Trump (CODT) is.

 

But this has been disproven by countless judges (including a number appointed by Mr. Trump); and the congressional committee examining the January 6 insurrection; and secretaries of state who count votes, and even Trump’s former attorney general. AND it has been debunked by many witnesses in the White House who have testified under oath that they heard Trump admit he lost the election. Yet he persists in lying about it to the public.  What are the consequences of big lies like that?

 

.

Hannah Arendt is held in high esteem for her studies on fascism including The Human Condition, The Origins of Totalitarianism, Eichmann in Jerusalem, and On Revolution.     In a recent book containing two of her essays called "On Lying and Politics," she alerts us to how there is an “ever-present threat to democracy posed by lying.”    Democracy depends on some commonly held beliefs and truths. One might be that “all men and women are created equal.”

 

In her essay on “Truth and Politics,” Arendt observes that the survival of factual truth depends on the testimony of credible witnesses and on an informed citizenry.  When facts are degraded into opinions, liars may even come to believe their own fabrications.

 

But something even deeper is involved when political leaders lie. Arendt tells us that cynicism is born of lies. The surest long-term result of brainwashing is a peculiar kind of cynicism— an absolute refusal to believe in the truth of anything, no matter

 

how well this truth may be established.

 

Apparently “alternative facts” carry a price with them. In addition, Arendt warns us that the result of a consistent and total substitution of lies for factual truth is not that the lies will now be accepted as truth, and the truth be defamed as lies, but that the sense by which we take our bearings in the real world —and the category of truth vs. falsehood is among the mental means to this end—is being destroyed. This is what the mid-term election is about.

UNFORGETABLE PROPHETS

 

Two prophetic women:  Margeurite Porete and Julian of Norwich.  One executed, the other an emerging feminist cult hero, both forgotten.  They forge their way now into our consciousness at a time of crisis.  Which one should we follow in the political battle to protect mother earth?

Rabbi Heschel defines a prophet as "one who interferes."

Margeurite Porete

Margeurite, a Beguine, wrote an innovative but controversial theology book in French, The Mirror of Simple Souls.

The Beguines were women of faith who lived in prayerful communities and were dedicated to the service of the poor and needy.  Some wrote their meditations in prose and poetry. These women were independent of the church.  They flourished in the 13^th and 14^th century Belgium, Germany and France. 

A beguine represented in an incunable, printed in Lübeck in 1489.

Margeurite’s book was condemned but she refused to stop promoting her work.  She was burned at the stake in 1310 for disobedience to the imperial pope Clement V based in Avignon, France. 

Pope Clement V

The chief inquisitor at Margeurite’s trial was Dominican William of Paris, O.P.  Margeurite was a mystic; she saw God reflected in the poor.  She was also a warrior prophet, a martyr for the truth.  Meister Eckhart, O.P. scholar and theologian consulted her work.  He too was condemned by Avignon but later reinstated.

Avignon had replaced Rome as the Capitol of the Roman Catholic Church.    Many were burned at the stake by Pope John XXII especially Franciscans who disagreed with him on the meaning of poverty for religious.  Pope John XXII canonized Thomas Aquinas who considered women lesser human beings than men.  

John XXII built a summer castle south of Avignon for vacations.  The castle vineyards still produce fine blood red wine known the world over as Chateauneuf-du-Pape.

Julian of Norwich

   Julian of Norwich (1343 - 1416) lived as an anchorite at a church in Norwich, a northeastern port city in England.  At the time Norwich was the second largest city in the country.   As an anchorite Julian lived in a small room attached to the local church of St. Julian.  Historians don’t know her real name so she is called Julian because of the church.  There was a window to the street in her room for contact with the outside world.  There was also an opening to the church so she could attend Mass and receive communion.  She never challenged the Avignon papacy directly.

   Julian of Norwich wrote theology in English.  She is credited as being the first woman author to be published in English.  She lived at one of the worst times in human history:  the bubonic plague, the One Hundred Years War between England and France, the condemnation of John Wycliffe (1328 – 1384) for his theology and his followers being killed.  At the same time the Catholic Church was ruled by corrupt Popes in Avignon. 

"Nature is God."  Julian of Norwich

Julian’s advice to her visitors at her window was positive: “God is good.  All will be well.” She denied sin as a reality and wrote, all is one.  She rejected the duality of the time. For Julian God is nature; God is not relegated to the supernatural.  The soul is the defining aspect of the person not a separate entity – the soul is sensuous.  Christ is mother, the universal presence of God in each and every person – Emanuel, a challenge to imperial patriarchy.

The stories of these women are inspirational in facing today’s challenges of fascism and industrial destruction of the planet.  Margeurite Porete can be remembered by union members fighting for democracy and saying NO to corporate imperialism. Julian inspires us all in the seemingly lost struggle to save mother earth by reminding us of what we all know – “God is good and all will be well.”

The Working Catholic: Identity by Bill Droel

        The pro-ethnicity movement of the early 1970's made some sense.  Michael Novak (1933-2017), to mention one proponent, convincingly argued that the elite Hollywood and Wall St. and Beltway culture might not be "good for children and other living things." He foresaw that the modern emphases on achievement, bureaucratic efficiency, tech-obsession, celebrity status and quick results v may people behind, especially those who live in de-industrial cities and in smaller towns.  Novak's The Rise of the Unmeltable Ethnics (Macmillan Co., 1971) championed alternative sub-cultures of families, ethnic groups, neighborhoods and solidarity.  He urged political leaders and policy makers to bank on families and local communities, and the institutions the support their way of life. 

Roots: the Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley (1921-1992), to mention a second example from the early 1970s, was a surprising success upon its release as a book (Doubleday, 1974) and as a TV series. Roots not only appealed to Blacks but also fueled a big interest in ancestry among the general populace.  

To a degree, the pro-ethnicity movement is a reminder that in our pluralistic society a person's self-confidence begins with security in their particularity.  Our civic unity emerges out of respect for our variety (Epluribus Unum).  Cautions are in order, however.  

First, a healthy mediating group must aim toward the common good.  One that exists in isolation and stokes resentments will soon enough poison its members and turn against society.  

Second, the standard of judgment in our beautiful country is ultimately not ethnicity race, gender, lifestyle, religion or ascription.  As Dr Marin Luther King (1929-1968) put it, people are "not judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."  

Third, no group identity is privileged above another, Women are not ipso facto better than men; New York residents are not ipso facto better than Pennsylvania residents; Protestants are not because of denominational choice better than Muslims.  All lives matter.

Give respect and equal treatment to all interest groups over the vast geography of our country, said James Madison (1751-1836).  Then the cross-fertilization and bargaining among those many groups will minimize hostility and foster pluralism.  Each person is more than his or her identity group.  Group identity can be a good and healthy starting point.  But a group identity confers no unique knowledge, talent or civic standing.  Immediately dismiss anyone who begins a conversation by asserting, "Speaking as a white, male, Irish-American..."  or similar claim to knowledge.  Don't bother with anyone whose basis for authority is their gender, their ethnicity, their race, their religion, their aristocratic lineage or their age.

The recent revelation about attitudes in the Los Aneles City Council makes vivid the prejudice about group identities.  The Los Angeles example also shows that class can be a group identity; that successful Mexican-Americans can belittle those Mexican-American groups whom they consider inferior.

Finally keep in mind that some group identittes are made-up political constructs.  There is, for example, no such thing as a Hispanic or a Latinx.  These categories and others like them are used in business or in electoral politics to compress particularity for the sake of appealing to "a target audience."  Our country desires unity but no imposed uniformity.  

Droel edits a printed newsletter on faith and work, INITIATIVES (PO box 291102, Chicago, IL  60629).