Privilege

"Privilege" as defined by the Oxford Living Dictionary is "a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group of people."

I am white. (Privilege) I am a woman (Second class and subject to all sorts of discrimination). I am educated. (Privilege) I am broke. (Profoundly disadvantaged) I live in North America. (Privilege) I am 55. (Disadvantaged when seeking employment)  I am reasonably attractive. (Advantage) I live with mental illness. (Invisible disability.)

And on and on it goes.

Do I know privilege?  Yes!

Do I know discrimination?  Yes!

I completely understand the "Black Lives Matter" movement and find the objections ludicrous. 

I am not black. But I know injustice and discrimination, and stand against it in all its forms. There is absolutely no question that black people in the United States face a terrible disadvantage that is deep and insidious and all-pervasive. To think otherwise is denying the evidence of generations. To point to one's own "rights" as somehow invalidating the outcry for justice for people of colour says more about the denier of the issue than about the legitimacy of the outcry.

Wow. Just, wow. How ridiculously insecure are these privileged people, and what, exactly, do they think they lose by extending compassion and justice to a greater portion of the human race?

As a way to open my heart to seeing my white privilege, I have been meditating on privilege as: "something which supports me but is invisible because I take it for granted."

This has been tremendously helpful in opening my eyes to all the advantages I actually enjoy. I am realizing how quick I have been to see the injustices in my life but blind to all the advantages. This particular lens ("what do I take for granted?") has cracked open a new way to appreciate all the things for which I can be grateful. I have been blind!

I can breathe. (Some people struggle to.) I have readily available clean water. I have a comfy bed in which to sleep with no bug infestation. I have more than enough food and treats and a bunch of body fat off which I ought to be able to live before I starve to death. I have lots of abilities (if I could just find paid employment...). Best and brightest: I have someone to kiss goodnight and who is with me for the long haul, whom I adore.

I am truly blessed. 

I think as humans we can't help but look for how we can improve our lives. But when I do that too much, I lose sight of how many blessings I already have. Instead, I compare what I have to those who have more. I compare my life to what I EXPECTED it should be at this point in my life, (house paid off, freedom to travel) not to how blessed it genuinely is. I still look at what I want rather than what I already have.

Comparison of my life to what I wish it was leads me to dissatisfaction. Comparison of what I have in relation to those who have more leads me to resentment and a narrative of victimhood.

Why do I do that?

It doesn't serve me at all.

Being grateful for what is serves me far better.  It is a new phase of my spiritual practice to look for all the things I get "for free" and to be grateful. That doesn't mean I am not allowed to notice the injustices. It does open me to seeing ways other people suffer things that I don't simply because of being born into a different country or family or skin color or orientation.

I will continue to support the cry of "Black Lives Matter" just as potently as I stand for women in ministry and loving inclusion of different gender presentations.

"Treat others the way you want to be treated" remains my spiritual cornerstone. 

May I grow in gratitude for the privilege of clean air and water and relative health and safety, even as I fight to see such rights extended to everyone on the planet. 

May I grow in recognition that even the ability to fight for these things is a privilege.

A Right or a Privilege? A Dual American/Canadian's Thoughts on Health Care

A Right or a Privilege?

I grew up in a conservative corner of Pennsylvania, indoctrinated in the ideas that the America was the best country, that taxes were bad, and that injury or sickness made me a financial burden.

While my parents never overtly commented on the cost I was to them when I broke an arm or needed that emergency appendectomy, the undercurrent was there.  I was costing them money, and money was scarce.  It was a terrible thing to feel as a child.

In my early twenties I married a Canadian and moved to Ontario.  It was then I began discovering an ethos akin to, "we are all in this together, and we all chip in to support each other."  It was kind, trusting, inclusive, and didn't let me assume any one person's superiority or worth as compared to another.  It was eye-opening.  It was refreshing. I found I much preferred it and still do.

"Membership" in Canada includes higher taxes, yes.  It also includes a Health Card.  It is the Health Card that the health care providers ask for. They look at it and hand it back when I go in for any service.  "Membership has its privileges."   Canada works hard to provide basic human rights for its citizens---for the "card-carrying members," if you will.  A country should do no less.

When I go in for a check-up, the first question asked is NOT, "How are you going to pay?"   When I became pregnant and wanted appropriate prenatal care, no one presented me with a bill. Ever. When I delivered, no one even showed me a sheet that reminded me how much it would have cost me if I didn't have health insurance.  

When our daughter had a fainting spell while visiting the US, we were presented with a bill for $11,000.00 for a few hours in emergency and (an unnecessary) night of observation.  I felt like I had been kicked in the stomach.  Thank God Canada has coverage for travelers and we didn't have to pay a single (wildly inflated) penny.

Education is considered a right in the United States.  But health care is not.  That doesn't make sense to me. Should health care be a right, or a privilege?  I know where I stand on that (along with most of the developed world).  Yes, there are divisions, where we can consider some procedures discretionary, but that argument does not negate the basic question. Health care is a basic human right, not a privilege.  

For the many, MANY in the "have not" category in the United States there are ways to get some support for for health care, but it requires waits in long lines, often in ugly, emotionally cold spaces, to speak with a hard-eyed person behind bullet-proof glass, so that one might have a chance to try to prove one is bad-enough off to deserve the support.  It is time-consuming, humiliating, degrading, and soul-killing.  I know.  I have had to live through it.  It is seared into my memory.

The United States is the only developed country in the entire world that doesn't see health care as a right. Health Care remains a privilege. The gutted Obamacare is a start.  But it is struggling to be born amid an oppressive cloud of irrational fear and crazy rhetoric.  I just don't get it.  Is anyone looking at the evidence from the many countries with socialized medicine that their population is happier and less stressed, and therefore the whole country benefits? There is no down side, other than higher taxes, which is far from the worst thing in the world.  It seems as if the US fear of paying taxes, disconnected from any sane understanding of the POINT of taxes seems to be dominating the discourse.  Taxes are not the problem.  Human disconnection from the worth and dignity of other human beings seems a much deeper concern.  For a country with so many professing Christians, where is the Christian value of caring for the sick and the poor?  "Let someone else do it, (not me through my taxes)" just doesn't wash.

Yes, we pay much higher taxes in Canada, as they do in the Netherlands and Denmark and Sweden and Germany etc, but for that we get peace of mind, excellent care, lower post-secondary education costs, among many other benefits.  My experience, having lived in both the US and Canada, is that I far prefer Canada's philosophy, outlook, and intention, which includes treating all of its citizens with worth and dignity, than what I experienced in the United States.

I am thinking about this especially I have been called to pastor a wonderful little church in New England, and will soon have to navigate the US health care system again.

Heaven help me.

Well, here is one vote and one voice returning to the States, who is a FIRM believer in the marriage of socialism and capitalism, and the overall benefit to humanity's well-being as a foundational value, not "saving money" separated from compassion.  We are all in this together!  If one is suffering, we all are, period.

If you agree with me at all, please like this blog posting, and maybe even share it!

peace

Rev. Alison