If you are anything like me, you may have stopped spending much time reading the daily news. The endless headlines about our president’s tweets, lies, corruption, and assaults on the foundations of our democracy threaten to drown out everything else.
Yet, countless positive actions are taking place across this country that get little publicity. This week, quite by chance, as I scrolled past the usual list of depressing headlines, I came across a series in the New York Times “50 States, 50 Fixes,” highlighting local solutions in each state to environmental problems. The one this week was about how Iowa City made its buses free. Traffic cleared, and so did the air. As Americans, we need to find ways to clear the traffic of social media from our minds, reach for the clear air, and as the Civil Rights activists used to sing, “Keep our eyes on the prize.”
Inspiring a new generation
An inspiring article that captured my attention this week was by Audrey Clare Farley, in the New Republic, headlined “Zohran Mamdani’s Moral Revolution.” The young, newly elected mayor of New York, who was born in Uganda to Indian parents, has energized young voters like no other politician in recent years. Seventy-five percent of those aged 18-29, many of whom were voting for the first time, supported him. We hear a new, radical voice with a compelling message, a voice that is not afraid to frame the message in spiritual terms.
Audrey Clare Farley writes, “I’m not alone in discerning something eschatological and not merely political in Mamdani’s rhetoric. Christians, Jews, and Muslims have mutually commented on the theological valences of his project to uplift the dispossessed, whether in Gotham’s warehouses or in Gaza. And data shows that Mamdani did well across faith communities—no easy feat, considering opponent Andrew Cuomo’s and others’ efforts to peg him as a jihadist who hates Jews.” She called the speech “prophetic.” Speaking to his supporters, “Mamdani essentially announced that the hour of the poor had arrived. He proclaimed good news for laborers with ‘fingers bruised … palms calloused … knuckles scarred.’”
As someone who believes America needs some elements of faith-based democratic socialism to address our glaring and growing inequities, I find this news very encouraging. We do need a higher minimum wage, universal health care, and access to affordable housing and childcare. It will be challenging for Mamdani to deliver on any of what he promotes; but his approach may inspire a generation of new leaders to work alongside him.
The Catholic Church speaks up for immigrants
Another welcome development was the “special message” on immigration by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops following the lead of Pope Leo XIV. It stated in part, “We are disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement.” By a vote of 216 to 5 the bishops endorsed the statement which opposed “the indiscriminate mass deportation of people” and prayed for an end to the “dehumanizing rhetoric and violence.” The pope has also stated that a person cannot truly be considered “pro-life” while supporting the “inhuman treatment of immigrants.” A consistent life ethic requires respect for human dignity in all stages and situations. A clear affirmation of this by American Catholics would be a significant counter to the current stance of the majority of evangelicals who are Trump’s biggest supporters.
The walls came tumbling down
What constructive part can each one of us play in an environment where there are increasing assaults on truth, justice, and and compassion? This past Sunday, at our multi-racial, multi-cultural church, Bishop Andrew Doyle preached on the passage from Luke’s gospel where Jesus warns his disciples, who are admiring the temple, that a time will come when “not one stone will be left on another. There will be wars and uprisings. Nation will rise against nation…there will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilence … and they will persecute you and put you on prison.” But “I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.”
Then, surprisingly, the bishop talked about English Ivy, a vine so strong and resilient that its root system can penetrate mortar, widen existing cracks, and weaken a wall’s integrity, potentially bringing it down. It’s often spread by birds that eat its dark berries and disperse the seeds in their droppings far from the parent plant.
English Ivy is frequently described as an invasive species. But reframing this to convey a spiritual truth, the bishop told us that our task is to be birds that carry seeds of new life. Each of us can carry the experience and message of faith, truth, and compassion. Over time, these seeds will become embedded in the structure of our society, exposing the lies and injustices and ultimately bringing down the structures of evil.
Bishop Doyle recalled the faith of the Israelites who on God’s command, marched with priests carrying trumpets around Jericho’s formable city fortifications for six days. On the seventh day the priests blew a long blast on their trumpets, the people shouted, and as the African American spiritual goes, “the walls came tumbling down!”