A good friend, a longtime activist, confronted with injustice, is fond of asking, “Where can I insert my crow-bar and push!” Her question asks where needs are greatest and where effort can be most effective.
Six weeks into the Covid 19 world, many of us privileged folks are seeing clearly the ways we remain insulated while marginalized communities bear the brunt of the pain. Where is the virus most deadly? Communities of color, poor communities, immigrant communities, incarcerated communities. Covid is shining a spotlight on the inequalities built into the fragile prosperity that has blessed too few at the expense of too many.
Gratitude is an important religious discipline. I begin each day by giving thanks. But many of the blessings in which we live…in which I live…are the result of my privileged place. I have a job. I can work from home. I have a home to work from and a full refrigerator. The truth of my privilege requires more of me, and more of many of us, than mere thanks.
We are called to stay awake to the inequities in the normal we knew.
We are also called to activism and to generosity to shift the normal that we knew.
Where should we insert our activism and express our generosity in this Covid 19 world?
If, but only if, your circumstances permit, I want to suggest two places where I believe your generosity can make a difference:
The Oregon Worker Relief Fund of the MRG Foundation is distributing funds directly to eligible Oregon families who are disqualified from receiving Unemployment Insurance or stimulus benefits because of their immigration status. The distribution is through a state-wide table of immigrant rights groups that includes CAUSA, PCUN, Latino Network, APANO and the Innovation Law Lab.
The Community Justice Exchange has opened a Covid 19 Emergency Response Fund . This fund will post bail and bond for individuals in immigration detention and local and county jails. Portland Freedom Fund is part of this network. The national effort will move funds to areas of most pressing and urgent need.
I am deeply grateful for the faithful support of our church and its mission by so many. Our Emergency Fund for Members received generous contributions in March. We are now sharing our plate with Bienestar to support affordable housing for our immigrant neighbors. You are continuing to make your pledge payments while we gather only virtually. Some of you are increasing your pledges and making special gifts. I have very real reasons for gratitude.
If you are hearing the call to greater generosity, consider supporting one or more of these organizations. I am making my personal contributions today. If your situation is feeling secure and you received a payment from the IRS as part of the CARES ACT, perhaps you could offer all or part of that payment to help.
This period tests us all. How we respond will help shape the new normal that will emerge. There are places we can insert our collective crowbars and push toward justice and toward love.
“See” you in church.
Blessings,
Bill