Now is our time!

 James E. Hug

It has taken 402 years, centuries of human suffering and humiliation, a vicious and bloody civil war, countless generations of struggle, the dismantling of complex social, economic and political structures and the fathomless courage and dedication of a people who would not relinquish hope to bring us from the day the first African slave stepped ashore in colonial Virginia to the day Barack and Michelle Obama, Malia and Sasha step into the White House as the nation's First Family.

We at the Center of Concern stand in proud respect and in awe at what the Obamas, the African American community and its allies of all faiths and races, hopes and dreams--what we as a nation--have done.

As the inaugural celebrations reach their crescendos and then die down, two rallying cries from the campaign trips all across the country will still echo in our imaginations: "Now is our time!" and "Yes, we can!"

Now is our time!

Barack Obama was ridiculed as having messianic elusions for proclaiming "Now is our time!" during the campaign.  His election victory silenced the public heckling, but to understand that call simply as signaling the political ascendancy of a new generation or a new race in leadership is to trivialize the depth of meaning and opportunity behind it.

"Now is our time" is a call to action, a challenge to face the fact that we have an opportunity over a limited period of time to change the way we live together with other peoples and with all the living systems of our planet.  It is an opportunity for more extensive and profound change than at any other time in many generations--and our very survival depends on how we respond.

At this moment in history we are seeing a phenomenal convergence of interrelated crises. The financial crisis currently generating a global recession began with the bursting of the housing bubble and the freezing of credit.

The food crisis continues to grow because so many small producers have been driven from their land as a result of unfavorable trade arrangements. When there are no jobs for them, they join the migration flows to try to find some way to feed their families.  Food prices continue to escalate because it is now the prerogative of a small number of massive, vertically integrated agribusiness corporations to set them and thus effectively determine who eats.  But their primary concern and responsibility is feeding the pockets of their stakeholders, not the stomachs of hungry people in poverty.

The rise in food costs is woven inextricably with the energy crisis and the increasingly undeniable threat of global warming with the devastation already beginning to appear in its wake--first among those with the fewest resources to respond.

We can all add elements to this disturbing and still unfolding global tableau.  They all have their roots in the quarter-century ideological experiment in market liberalization, deregulation, democratization of government, and diminishment of institutional and policy protections for the common good.  The resulting widespread growth in disparity between the few very wealthy and the many, many impoverished is socially unsustainable.  It erupts in social unrest and provides seedbeds for extremism and terrorism.

The major lesson is increasingly clear.  We are witnessing the collapse of a fundamental view of how to organize life for the good of all and of the planet that has governed political and economic decision-making for nearly three decades, the view that has insisted that everyone will be better off if societies give preeminence to market values, dynamics, and institutions. In fact we can now see clearly that when markets are the most powerful social institution with few social constraints, their dynamics will eventually override treasured values of human rights and community wellbeing at great cost and threaten the survival of the economic system itself.

The obvious question then: Is it too late and is the global meltdown too big for us to do anything about?

I believe the answer is that it is not too late or too big a challenge IF the spirit that Community Organizer Barack Obama stirred across the nations does not stop stirring now that the is President Obama.  He still needs us to step forward saying, Now is our time!  Yes we can!

Yes,  we can! A vision to believe in

Think tanks, non-governmental organizations, corporate lobbyists, academics, unions--countless individuals and organizations have been jockeying for position to get their ideas and plans heard and heeded by the new Administration.  The ideas are, of course, conflicting and contradictory: the contest for the future is fierce.

But some major elements of a vision that we who share the rich Abrahamic social traditions can believe in are emerging.

First, our vision and reach must be systemic and large. 

We have entered an age of extensive global integration that will not let us pull back.  Our thinking cannot be narrow, individualistic, or even nationalistic.  We have to address the global economic, political, social and cultural institutions and systems.

Second, it must be firmly grounded in the priority of human rights and community well being. 

These cannot be conceived as the hoped-for-trickle-down effects of a top down approach; they must be our conscious primary goals.  Human rights and the common good must be the essential bedrock upon which all national and global systems are build and which they are designed to serve.

Third, we must be ready to change ourselves in some very fundamental ways. 

Serious consideration of the ecological limits of our planet and of the vast global disparities that range from unimaginable wealth and luxury to absolute poverty and starvation needs to inspire a deep conviction within all of us.   We cannot let ourselves unconsciously envision a future in which we somehow get through this recession and get back to life as we've known it in the past.  We--especially those of us who live in comfort--must be building a new, more viable and sustainable world community for every person with each step we take in this critical time. (During a recent symposium on the global financial meltdown held in Washington, DC, ILO Director General Juan Somavia reflected on the powerful messaged candidate Obama conveyed in the early days of the financial crisis when he insisted that "We are all in this together." He urged President Obama to turn to the rest of the world with the nation behind him and say again to people everywhere, "We are all in this together.")

The changes we need to make have a simple and attractive core that take us back to the best in our traditions: we need to pioneer a simple lifestyle that shows that we believe our worth and and that of every other person on the planet is in who we are, not what we have.

We need to demand of President Obama and our elected representatives that we build a just global society, not just pursue our own local or national interests.

We need to forge a global society with a "floor" of security that can support the survival and thriving of each person and channel it into the service of the communities we are all part of.

We need to learn afresh to live in harmony with each other and with the systems of our planet.

These constitute key elements in a new spirituality for the next stage of our evolution on earth.  The signs are strong that these are the directions the Spirit is moving in this time . This era of converging crises offers us a unique opportunity to embrace the grace and movement of the Spirit.  It is that grace and power that will guarantee that "Yes, we can"  join in the destructive creativity of our assumptions, comforts and protections that is necessary to renew the face of the earth. 

James E. Hug, SJ, is the president of the Center of Concern.  This article first appeared in the Winter 2009 Center Focus.