For the past few weeks our church here in Austin has been using the following video from Trade as One to encourage us to buy Fair Trade this Christmas season. (Which is one of the reasons I love our church here.)



The great thing about this is that it uses the system itself to work for justice. While undermining our consumer capitalist world-system may ultimately be necessary, it's not replaceable overnight, and those of us who are still going to shop for Christmas presents and still need to buy other things from time to time as well need ways that we can make a difference even within this system. So if you're going to shop, buy Fair Trade wherever and whenever possible.

BTW, for some reason as I watch this video, I keep thinking of one of the most ridiculous arguments against Fair Trade that I've ever heard, which is that Fair Trade won't work because it asks people to pay more for no tangible benefit to themselves except the "Fair Trade" label, and the warm fuzzy feelings they get from helping others. And yet we consumers choose to pay more all the time for even more ridiculous intangible benefits like designer labels, brand names, etc. and the warm, fuzzy feelings they get from being "hip" and "stylish" (even when you can buy something that looks exactly the same for a fraction of the price at the discount store down the road). If people can be induced to make purchase decisions for these sorts of silly reasons, why can't we hope that people can also be persuaded to choose Fair Trade items for much better reasons. And why not let it start with you and me this holiday season?

Labels: Fair Trade, social justice

A good friend of mine recently got married to a great Jewish guy. She is an emergent Christian who is an active part of a Presbyterian emerging church. As you can imagine, there are some unique challenges that go along with a committed Christians marrying a practicing Jew. In characteristic fashion, my friend has enthusiastically dived head-first into these challenges and is passionate about helping others who are also experiencing them. As part of this she has started a new blog called Fifty Percenters: in praise of the non-traditional Jewish family. As she put it to me:

I am working on a blog project with a woman in Montreal that is trying to create an online community of people who are engaging Judaism in non-traditional ways. We are trying to move beyond the discussion of whether or not intermarriage will destroy the Jewish people by working from the premise that it will not, that it is here to stay and that some of us need to take leadership roles for how to constructively help Judaism adapt to this new dynamic.

It seems like a worthwhile project to me. If you or anyone you know are touched by this issue of Jewish intermarriage or you're interested in simply being a support or finding our more, I'd encourage you to check it out and pass along the link to others.

Labels: Judaism

Of course no piece of legislation is perfect, and quite frankly I personally wanted something far more radical and yes, "socialistic", than this current bill (which, despite what you'll hear from the Right, bears almost no resemblance to anything that could justifiably be labeled "socialism"). Nonetheless, I am very excited that the House finally passed an honest to goodness health care reform bill that seems to actually have some decent features that will directly make life better for me and my family. I haven't looked closely at every aspect of this bill yet, so I can't speak to all of its shortcomings (of which it's sure to have many), but here are a few of the things I like about it:

1) A public option, which, besides creating real competition that will force insurance companies to actually serve their clients better, will also give folks to chance to opt-out of the crappy private system if they want to, and stop sending 30% or more of our premiums to line the pockets of insurance company shareholders.

2) Creates a health insurance exchange that will enable individuals like me who don't get insurance through an employer to get the same benefits that group buyers do.

3) Caps out-of-pocket expenses, which for me and my family can currently be more than $20,000 annually.

4) Prevents insurance companies from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, which is the major reason Julie and I currently have absolutely no choice in which health insurance we use and therefore no recourse whenever Humana decides to screw us over. If other insurers would cover us, we could shop around for a better plan and actually let the market work the way it's supposed to.

5) Subsidies to help poor Americans get coverage - another measure that might benefit my family directly, since, as a graduate student, I currently have very little actual income. I also think that, whatever other nice features the bill offers, the most important thing is making sure that the millions of people who can't currently afford health care are in fact covered. No one should have whether they live or die or can live healthily be determined by how much money they (or their parents) make.

6) An amendment to keep federal funds from covering abortions (though individuals still have the right to pay for their own abortion coverage). While I know most liberals won't like this one, I for one am glad that this issue will be taken off the table and therefore cannot be used as a red-herring by the Right to block the entire bill. I also think its fair that those of us who disagree with the practice of abortion shouldn't have to have our tax dollars used to pay for them.

Anyhow, here's to hoping these features survive in the Senate's version of it. It's exciting to think that something might actually happen with all of this. That substantial change for the better is in fact possible.

Labels: politics