This is a challenging time to be an American...

When our jazz band was in Turkey last month, before our last gig one of our local sponsors and I had a long conversation. We spoke of religious tolerance, culture, the state of Turkish politics, the value of sharing jazz music and the growing loss of US influence and status throughout the world. (NOTE:  for the sake of this blog there may be times when I refer to the US in the popular form - America - like David Bowie did in "I'm Afraid of Americans."  I apologize in advance to my Canadian friends as well as my other American cousins in Central and South America.)  It was a sobering and honest conversation that I am grateful to have shared because I have been realizing this myself for the past 10 years.

Let's face it:  we're between a rock and a hard place right now.  The Standard and Poors rating agency just "removed the United States government from its list of risk-free borrowers on Friday night, citing concern about the rising burden of the federal debt." (NY Times) This will make borrowing more costly and have a negative impact upon the already anemic economic recovery.    

In addition, the credit rating agencies have said that a downgrade of government debt would probably be followed by downgrades of other entities backed by the government. For example, the said, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-controlled mortgage companies, would be downgraded, raising rates on home mortgage loans for borrowers. Dozens of counties and even a handful of states — including Maryland, Virginia, and New Mexico — might also be downgraded because of their local economies’ strong ties to Washington.

The United States has maintained the highest credit rating for decades. S.&P. first designated it AAA in 1941, reflecting a steadfast belief that the richest nation in the world would not default on its debt payments. The rating was also bolstered by the role of the dollar as the world’s leading currency, ensuring that demand for American debt securities would remain strong in spite of burgeoning deficits. But the recent turmoil, in which the government came to the brink of default in a showdown between Democrats and Republicans, has shaken that confidence. Although there is little doubt about the United States government’s ability to pay back its debts, the political stalemate over the recent negotiations raised questions about Washington’s willingness to pay.   (NY Times @ http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/06/business/us-debt-downgraded-by-sp.html?partner=rss&emc=rss)

A recent opinion poll by CBS New/NY Times shows that 82% Americans believe that their elected representatives are a failure - and the investment downgrade reflects the toxic nature of politics in Washington, DC.  For a super-majority of us, it feels like things are coming apart at the seams in the US - and it isn't going to get any better in an election year. Our bridges and roads are falling apart and we can't build a consensus to take care of ourselves and our children.  Our schools continue to have to cut to the bone - something we've been doing since the last major recession in the 1980s - and now many face massive lay offs.  But all the arts and sports programs are already gone. There are no more deferred maintenance programs to defer.  So we'll throw away the teachers - and the children of the poor - rather than rethink our priorities.

The rhetoric of the hour wants to blamesteachers' union - who have not always been the best advocates for some children - but Americans are always looking for scape goats.  So let's be clear:  providing health and pension benefits for America's teachers - and safe work and study conditions for everyone in our schools - is NOT the reason for this failure.  This is born of greed. Our unwillingness to share taxes, time, compassion and trust in pursuit of the common good is what is devouring us right now.  Not "big government," but greed and fear and the slick manipulation of those truths by Norquist and Rove et al.

Malcolm X once said in an overly cocky way after JFK was assassinated, that this was an example of the "chickens coming home to roost." It was insensitive - and offensive to many middle class, white Americans - but his point was true:  you can only act selfish, greedy, arrogant and stupid for so long before the chickens come home to roost.  You can only be violent and destructive so long before the chickens come home to roost. We were coming to a day of reckoning in America and then MLK was assassinated followed by Bobby Kennedy. And rather than look inward and explore why violence and greed is such an American obsession, we chose a scapegoat and elected Nixon to distract us from facing ourselves.

In the aftermath of September 11th, we ached for a scapegoat again.  So once more we devoted time, talent and treasure to making ourselves feel powerful by waging two wars.The "Godfather" of conservative politics, Ronald Reagan, created the template in Central America and W simply followed his lead - with steroids.  And for ten years we've spent money and armaments and precious lives trying to convince ourselves that American arrogance and power is God's will. 

It has been ugly and divisive. It has been costly in every way imaginable - and it hasn't worked.  We are mistrusted, feared and sometimes even ignored more in 2011 than ever before AND our arrogant scapegoating has driven the US into an economic stalemate that is filled with uncertainty and trouble. We haven't been able to take care of the unemployed at home, we haven't been able to win the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq, we are indebted to China in ways that are incomprehensible and we're blaming somebody else.  My Turkish friend put it like this:

"Ten years ago, when I visited your country (and he taught in both Michigan and California throughout the 70s and 80s) you were a country on the move.  When I returned this past Christmas for a vacation, I noticed an explosion of obesity. Why do you think this has happened?" he asked in all sincerity.  I know part of the answer is food subsidies - we pay corporate farmers to grow corn and then saturate our foods with sweeteners - and I know part of the answer is that supermarkets lose money selling food in poor neighborhoods so lower income diet is filled with junk food.  But that is just the tip of the iceberg.  The deeper issue is a soul sickness - a spiritual hunger - that is literally trying to be filled with junk gadgets for our houses and junk food for our bodies and junk drugs for our pain.  My friend in Turkey lamented this junk - and saw it as a sign that the days of American empire are waning. 

I think he was right: there is an emptiness and sickness in the American soul that has NOTHING to do with big government.  The Tea Party knows it - and knows how to manipulate it, too.  But the healing does not come more fear and scapegoating... It begins with confession - owning our failures and flaws and sins - because unless we can name them, we're enslaved by them. 

Like St. Paul I believe that God can work good in all things - even this soul sickness - but we must sincerely yearn to be instruments of God's peace.  The alternative is more of the same. 

Tomorrow presidential hopeful, Rick Perry of Texas, will join with a host of fear-based - and often hate-filled - leaders of different Christian traditions.  I don't pretend to know what is in their hearts. But I do know that they will call for repentance in America when what they mean is giving in to the fear.  This will be more religious and political manipulation and scape goating.

Our friends - our hosts - while in Turkey have a better way. I was moved and encouraged to see how the religious leaders of Beyoglu created an inter-faith celebration to mark the end of the first day of fasting in Ramadan. Their public demonstration of faith and repentance resonates with me. They welcome everyone who loves God and one another and make certain that there is a place at the table for every person. No exceptions. (check it out @ http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=beyoglu-municipality8217s-iftar-unites-clergy-of-all-religions-2011-08-03) 

Turkey lived through the glory days of their empire - and its collapse.  Now they are striving to find another way.  It isn't perfect - they will make horrible mistakes and they have a lot of confessing to do for their own sins - and yet they have something to teach us, too.  What could my country be like AFTER empire...?