It is amazingly easy to become quietly complicit with the violence of U.S. border policy—even for those whose ancestors once fled violence themselves. How can so many of us live in denial?
2013
A New Social Contract: Social Welfare in an Era of Transnational Migration
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In the twenty-first century, more and more people will live their lives across borders and belong to several communities at the same time. Just as money follows opportunity, so labor also moves toward brighter horizons. Today’s migrants are moving in a world of economic crisis, neoliberal restructuring, precarious jobs, and major cutbacks in social welfare.
2013
Living in the Shadow of SB 1070: Organizing for Migrant Rights in Arizona
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The predatory escalation of immigration enforcement in Arizona has continued to worsen in the wake of Arizona’s 2010 immigration law. In response, migrants have organized Barrio Defense Committees, Freedom Rides of undocumented activists, and more.
2013
Creating Sanctuary: Faith-Based Activism for Migrant Justice
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When would-be migrants die in the desert, it’s not just an ethical issue, it’s also a religious crisis. Arizona groups have put their faith into action for decades, defying federal law and offering humanitarian aid.
2013
Rethinking Immigration With Art
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To reorient this country’s immigration policy toward generosity and compassion will require serious creativity and vision. Let’s look to art for inspiration!
2013
How to Stop a Deportation
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Individuals often endure deportation proceedings in isolation, but it doesn’t have to be this way. The stories of Steve Li and Laibar Singh show what is possible when communities mobilize in response.
Editorials & Actions
The Violence of Organized Forgetting by Henry Giroux
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Henry Giroux is a frequent contributor to Tikkun and our blog Tikkun Daily. In this article, which appeared first on TruthOut, he summarizes much of his recent thinking brilliantly. Please take the time to read it! –Rabbi Michael Lerner
The Violence of Organized Forgetting
Monday, 22 July 2013 00:00 By Henry A. Giroux, Truthout
(Image: Jared Rodriguez / Truthout)”People who remember court madness through pain, the pain of the perpetually recurring death of their innocence; people who forget court another kind of madness, the madness of the denial of pain and the hatred of innocence.” – James Baldwin
Learning to Forget
America has become amnesiac – a country in which forms of historical, political, and moral forgetting are not only willfully practiced but celebrated.
Editorials & Actions
Trayvon Martin and Tisha B’av: A Jewish Response
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The acquittal by jury of George Zimmerman who shot and murdered the unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin was emblematic of the consistent racism and double standard used in the treatment of minority groups or those deemed “Other” in the U.S. and around the world. Where is there justice in a world in which so many people suffer oppression and in which those who choose to use violence as a way to address and deal with their hatred and fear often seem to triumph? Jewish theology holds that there is a karmic order, so that evil actions will not always run the world. Justice and compassion are both essential to the survival of the planet. Unlike many religions that focus on individual sinners and imagine that they will be punished in some future not currently verifiable—for example in a heaven or hell after life, or in a reincarnation in some form that provides rewards or punishments for how one lives in this world, most of Jewish theology sees karma as playing out on a societal scale, and over the long run.
Activism
An Interdependence Day Celebration for July 4
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Faced with July 4th celebrations that are focused on militarism, ultra-nationalism, and “bombs bursting in air,” many American families who do not share those values turn July 4th into another summer holiday focused on picnics, sports, and fireworks, while doing their best to avoid the dominant rhetoric and bombast.
Articles
Why “Voting Rights, NO, Gay Marriage, YES” from the Supreme Court?
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The Supreme Court’s decision on voting rights reminds us that racism against Blacks remains far more deeply implanted in America’s economic and political institutions, and in the consciousness of many Americans, than the horrendous homophobia that may now be somewhat receding. Yet it is also a testimony to those in the gay world who refused to be “realistic” when told that gay marriage was unthinkable. We need that same kind of unrealistic thinking to revive the necessary struggle against American racism.
Articles
Dollarocracy and the Fight to Get Money Out of Politics
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That the corporate-driven “medium” overcomes almost any conceivable “message” is one of the clearest lessons of the election of 2012. A review of Dollarocracy: How the Money and Media Election Complex is Destroying America by John Nichols and Robert W. McChesney
Editorials & Actions
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We at Tikkun are proud to announce that Rabbi Arthur Waskow and his wife and partner Rabbi Phyllis Berman will be co-leading High Holiday services with Rabbi Michael Lerner on Yom KippurSept. 13-14. You don’t have to be Jewish and you don’t have to live in the Bay Area to decide to do the High Holidays with Rabbi Lerner and Beyt Tikkun Synagogue-Without-Walls which will be holding the services at Zaytuna Institute and the Pacific School of Religion one block north of the U.C. campus (people in the past have come from as far away as Israel, Australia, Russia, South Africa, Canada and South America). Registration information will be on line at www.beyttikkun by the end of June, but it’s not too early to mark your calendar now and decide to come: Rosh HaShanah (1st eve: Sept. 4, 1st and 2nd day: Sept 5& 6) plus Yom Kippur Sept.
28.3 Summer
An Evangelical’s Call for Immigration Reform
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I belong to a group called the Evangelical Immigration Table, a loosely connected group of evangelical Christians who are advocating an approach to immigration that is rooted in Judeo-Christian principles like respect for the dignity of life, the rule of law, and the importance of family.
28.3 Summer
Border Insecurity: Immigration Reform on “The Line”
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The entrenchment of Border Patrol agents, military contractors, surveillance technology, and fencing on our southern border has not made us safer. The last decade of border spending has left the border more deadly and more corrupt than ever before. We hope that Comprehensive Immigration Reform will bring relief to many families who will no longer fear that going out to buy milk could end in a deportation. We look forward to a day when fewer people have to trek through the desert to reunite with their families.
Editorials & Actions
How the Market Economy Undermines Ethics
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The author of this article ignores the environmental threat to the survival of the human race that global capitalism has become, but his thinking about its destructive impact on the ethical climate is significant (and in part it is the decline of the ethical climate which has contributed to the sad passivity manifested even by that majority of Americans who understand the urgency facing us and yet who feel unable to act in concert with others to challenge the upcoming disasters). –Rabbi Michael Lerner
Capitalism is killing our morals, our future
Commentary: In a Market Society, everything is for sale
Paul B. Farrell
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/capitalism-is-killing-our-morals-our-future-2013-04-27
April 29, 2013
(reprinted from Market Watch)
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — Yes, capitalism is working … for the Forbes 1,000 Global Billionaires whose ranks swelled from 322 in 2000 to 1,426 recently. Billionaires control the vast majority of the world’s wealth, while the income of American workers stagnated.