Starting
Point The
perils of Afghanistanism
By PAIGE BYRNE SHORTAL
Back before I discovered the
Catholic church, I was going to be a journalist -- a chip off the old Dad. I
took a few journalism classes at the University of Oregon, the institution
where I wasted my fathers money until he came to his senses and made me
start paying for it myself and I came to my senses and stopped wasting my life.
But thats another story.
In one journalism class, I learned the term
Afghanistanism. It refers to the questionable editorial policy of
reporting the bad news from far away and ignoring the troubles in ones
own community.
I was thinking about how outdated that term is now. Far
away is getting closer all the time.
Its easy, and maybe safer, to ignore the troubles at home.
And yet the message in the gospel stories these past weeks seem very pointed,
as if Jesus is looking at us -- at me -- right in the eye and saying, Do
you see? Are your eyes open yet? Do you see my people?
Jesus tells us of the persistent widow and the unjust judge. Too
often we interpret this parable to mean that God is unyielding and we have to
wear him down with our repetitious prayers like drops of water on a rock. But
is this how we picture our God? How Jesus speaks of his Abba? I dont
think so. The point of this parable is that those to whom Jesus is speaking --
the poor, the disenfranchised, those who count little in society -- should not
grow discouraged because God does hear the cry of the poor.
Or consider the story of the Pharisee and the sinful tax collector
who pray in the temple. Oddly, Jesus says that God counts the prayers of the
humble tax collector as more sincere than the oh-so-righteous observant
Pharisee. Or the passage later in Luke about the poor widow who gives only a
penny in the collection and yet God counts it as more than lavish gifts of the
rich from their surplus.
Yes, injustice close to home is very uncomfortable. But in my
parish, there are people who work hard, very hard, and do not make enough money
to rent their own apartment. And who pays these wages? Members of the same
parish.
I just finished the new book, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not)
Getting By In America. The author, Barbara Ehrenreich, is a journalist who
went under cover and worked at entry-level positions in three
cities in the United States. She worked as a waitress, an assistant in a
retirement center, a cleaning woman and a clerk in Wal-Mart. Her goal was to
just get by, to rent an apartment and eat. She couldnt do it. She worked
alongside women who didnt consider themselves homeless because they had a
car to live in. Seven dollars an hour is just not enough money anymore. It was
when I was young. I lived on $50 a week and had my own apartment and even went
to the movies once in a while.
But times have changed. The disparity between rich and poor is
growing all the time, both throughout the world and at home. What are we going
to do about it? We kneel down together at worship. We hear the same gospel and
receive the same Jesus in holy Communion. What are we going to do about making
sure that we obey not just the letter of the law as we pay minimum wages, but
that we follow the teaching of this man Jesus? Jesus, who seems to be looking
at us -- at me -- right in the eye and saying, Please! Open your eyes and
see my people.
Paige Byrne Shortal is a pastoral associate in a parish in
rural Missouri.
National Catholic Reporter, November 2,
2001
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