American Fantasy

Here is an article written by the UCC minister of public education, Jan Ressinger.  She is my friend and we had breakfast together when I was in Cleveland last fall.

Jeannette Brown

Christ Church Summit

UCC Representative

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American Fantasy

Written by Janice Resseger
December 10, 2012

Our society also holds tight to a second narrative that features the individual freed from the bonds of the commons. This is the American Dream—the idea that we live in a meritocracy where all Americans can succeed if we work hard—where we all play by one set of rules and if we are strategic and patient, we can all win—where we rise or fall pretty much on our own.

In a fascinating book, The American Dream and the Power of Wealth, sociologist Heather Beth Johnson explores how citizens explain the narrative of the American Dream. Johnson and a group of researchers conducted in-person interviews. Here is one transcript:

Interviewer: “Do you think there are some ethnicities, races, groups in this country that are more disadvantaged than others? Responder: “Yeah.” Interviewer: “So you think there are certain groups… as a whole that have a harder time making it today?” Responder: “Sure. Definitely.”

Interviewer: “Okay, now, what about the American Dream? The idea that with hard work and desire, individual potential is unconstrained… everyone gets an equal chance to get ahead based on their own achievement?” Responder: “That’s a very good definition.” Interviewer: “Do you believe that the American Dream is true for all people and that everybody does have an equal chance?” Responder: “Yes. Everybody has an equal chance, no matter who he or she is.”

In interview after interview participants tightly hold both beliefs: some people have it much harder in America, and everyone has an equal chance. Johnson concludes the contradiction persists because we rarely openly discuss money. Mentioning wealth is taboo; “the intergenerational transmission of it and the purposeful use of it are normally hidden from public view.”

Today’s Congressional debate about the so-called fiscal cliff and the federal budget is as much about the narratives we believe as about actual dollars and their allocation. Extreme versions of the American Dream castigate those who use government services as lazy, even though millions of those citizens are veterans or public school children, or senior citizens who have paid into Social Security through their entire working lives.

The American Dream does not describe today’s America, where child poverty is 22 percent, highest in the developed world. Seven million of those 16 million poor children are trapped in extreme poverty with annual family income under $10,000. Social mobility has stalled, residential segregation by income increased, and inequality skyrocketed, while federal revenue is lower, as a share of GDP, than any time since 1950. Congress will need to shape the federal budget based on fact not fiction; realities about poverty and wealth must underpin choices about taxation and government’s responsibility.

The United Church of Christ has 5,194 churches throughout the United States. Rooted in the Christian traditions of congregational governance and covenantal relationships, each UCC setting speaks only for itself and not on behalf of every UCC congregation. UCC members and churches are free to differ on important social issues, even as the UCC remains principally committed to unity in the midst of our diversity.

Mission 1 Repreive.

You can't get away from hunger.  If you listen to as much TV news as I do it is always there. ( Have the TV on in the background because of tinnitus).  So ABC News has a program in which you can donate help the hungry called Feeding America.  It was the Thanksgiving news.

In our family we only hosted my extended family, my neighbor and three of her six kids.  We had hoped her son with come.  He is 16 and we bought enough food to feed him!  In fact he had planned to eat at my house and his girl friend's house, but he did not make it to my house.  We wanted to invite, and we did invite people who needed a dinner, but they did not come. Some of the leftovers went to my neighbor yesterday.  She is not proud and young enough to be my daughter (46).  So her kids are my honorary grand children!  Yeah!

The reason for this blog today is that the director of Bread for the World was on "Religion and Ethics Newsweekly" today. Combating Hunger. This is a PBS program on Channel 13.  It will be rebroadcast on Sunday afternoon ( November 27.) if you want to see it or else follow the link to see it online.

As I said I will be collecting food monthly.  Next collection date December 13.!  I will take it to the Somerset county food bank on the Monday after that.

Jeannette Brown
UCC Representative

Mission 1 Cost of Peanut Butter going up

"A staple of school lunches nationwide may soon be in short supply and what is available will cost more, the result of good cotton prices and bad weather, according to an article on the website Harvest Public Media. 

"We have quite a peanut shortage this year," agricultural economist Tiffany Arthur is quoted as saying. Arthur works for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency, which makes emergency loans to farmers. "Things are snowballing and prices are sharply rising.""

The shortage also comes at a tough time, Arthur says, adding that peanut consumption normally increases during hard times, like now. Since the recession started in 2008, peanut butter consumption has jumped by 10 percent, the USDA says. Peanut butter consumption usually goes up just 1 or 2 percent in a regular year.

Source: harvestpublicmedia.org/article/787/pricier-pbjs-forecast-thanks-peanut-shortage/

Why do I feature this article?  You can probably afford to pay the increase in cost to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for your children's lunch box.  But think of the people who live in poverty as the article above says peanut butter consumption goes up during a recession since it is a cheap source of protein.

It is one of things on the  list that the food banks want.  But if you decide to donate peanut butter make sure it in unbreakable plastic containers.  Also since we want healthy food make sure that the oil and sugar content is low which makes it even more expensive.

 Here is the list of the most wanted items for the food bank.

Peanut Butter (no glass please)

Jelly (no glass please)

Canned Meats (tuna, chicken, ham)

Canned Vegetables

Canned Fruits

Pasta

Pasta Sauce (no glass please)

Cereal

Rice

You may start bringing food to church and place it in the boxes starting the beginning of November.

Remember November 13 is the big food donation day.  Bring food and a friend to church on that day.

Jeannette Brown

UCC Rep

Mission 1 Census Data

This is the poster that you may have seen in the hall in Christ Church.  Mission 1 is based on the UCC motto That they may all be one.

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"One in seven Americans are living in poverty, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today -- the highest level since 1994.
But the increase in the federal poverty rate, to 14.3 percent last year from 13.2 percent in 2008, was notably smaller than the 15 percent many experts had been predicting as the country has struggled to emerge from a painful recession.
"The bad news is that poverty is high and it's going up, but not as dramatically as we had feared," said Sheldon Danizger, director of the National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan.
An estimated 43.6 million Americans in 2009 were living off incomes below the federal poverty line, or around $11,000 for an individual under 65 or $22,000 for a family of four.
The total number, an increase of 3.7 million over 2008, is the largest in 51 years, since the government first started tracking poverty data. "

The above is a quotation from one of the ABC TV stories about Hunger in America.  For the full article go to   http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/poverty-rate-increases-recession-highest-level-1994-census/story?id=11652753


This is another reason for the need for food. 


Jeannette Brown
UCC Rep.