There are also other organizations listed at the end of this this post:

http://www.enoughenough.org/2010/01/haiti-resources/#more-327

and here, in this statement from INCITE!:

http://inciteblog.wordpress.com/2010/01/20/haiti-responding-to-the-situation/

I think this conception of responsibility has a lot in common with the idea that it’s irresponsible to give up material security. In both cases, what’s “responsible” is to accumulate and use coercive power (in one case, directly through the use of force; in the other, the privileges of wealth, which are backed up by the coercive power of the state) in order to achieve desirable, even noble, ends.

Yoder’s response to this — one that initially didn’t work for me, but which I’ve found increasingly compelling — is that as Christians, it’s not given to us to worry about responsibility in this sense. Since we can’t possibly know all the possible consequences of our actions, no matter how much power we accumulate and how much force we use, we can’t ever be assured of success. So our job is not to worry about consequences — our job is to do what’s right, and leave the rest to God.

Yoder talks about activism in terms of efforts to bring about the Kingdom of God, but in secular terms what he’s talking about is the anarcho-syndicalist idea of creating the seed of the new society within the shell of the old. By living as though the Kingdom of God (which, for Yoder, involves radical sharing and the abandonment of coercion) is already here, we help to usher it in.

I think what I’m getting at is that renunciation of worldly power is much easier when you believe that you can contribute to the creation of a new society as much through your powerlessness as through your power — and that, on a fundamental level, that belief is almost always based in faith, not reason.

Thanks so much for this post. You articulated a lot of things I have been thinking about and wondering about. I wrote to Alison Goldberg recently and elaborated on what you said (the email I wrote is below). Thanks for creating this opening for dialogue.

Alison and Chuck did their tax workshop for us on May 13 this year, the anniversary of the bombing of the MOVE house in Philadelphia that killed 11 black people, including 5 children. So I was thinking about how taxes fund this kind of state violence against people of color.

I should also note that taxes pay for a lot of really important and necessary things, like education, healthcare, roads, etc. And of course there is a conversation to be had about how these things are organized according to and perpetuating racial and economic inequalities.

There is also part of the conversation to be had about tax resistance (including discussions of privilege, citizenship, etc.), dual power – community-based institutions that meet people’s needs without relying on oppressive power structures and institutions.

Anyway, thanks for your thoughts. There’s no easy answers on any of this.

Love,
Matt

**********

Hi Alison,

Thanks so much for reaching out. Sorry I’ve been bad at responding. Great to see you at MMMC also! I just made a $50 donation. I’m not making major gifts right now since I gave away a large chunk of my inheritance.

I also have some concerns about this campaign to increase the amount of taxes that wealthy people pay. Much of our tax money goes to subsidizing agribusiness, oil companies, and other corrupt, harmful corporations. And more than half of our tax dollars go to fund state violence (almost a trillion dollars a year!) – nuclear weapons, militarism, policing, and incarceration, and most of this state violence is directed at people of color and poor people. Also what does it mean to want to give more money to the US government – a colonial-settler entity of dubious legitimacy? INCITE! Women of Color against violence argues that the state is one of the primary organizers of violence against women of color. Personally if I had a huge fortune, I would want to give it to grassroots community organizations, not the government. I am echoing a lot of what Tyrone Boucher said on his blog: enoughenough.org.

I do think there are good things that come from huge wealth being reduced somewhat, but I also think that larger wealth redistribution to community-based organizations, reparations for slavery and colonialism, and challenging militarism, policing and imprisonment should be part of the conversation. And I think you all are doing some really important and necessary education about the tax system and economic injustice, which is why I’m supporting you. I know I learned a lot in the workshop that you and Chuck Collins did.

I hope you are well.

Best,
Matt

Sincerely, P.

You and your readers might enjoy continuing the conversation with Tom online at this link:

http://boldergiving.org/site/index.php/2009/11/19/featured-giver-tom-hsieh/#comments

I’m going to put the link to your blog there, too, and send it to Tom. Thanks again for taking the time to share your thoughts. I hope more Resource Generation folks participate in future calls.

Warmly,
Anne

Alot of positive, integrated, wholistic, social justice healing is swarming around me these days which is amazing because it’s so close I can practically taste it. Since being diagnosed with mastocytic colitis (mild inflammation of colon), I’ve been eating more raw and focusing on my colon health which includes yoga, but OH if i could only make a weekly ritual. Why is that so difficult? For myself, it is hard to keep to routine. To take my fish oil every morning and to go to yoga or find a quiet space to meditate. I want this regularity but then I despise and reject it, claiming flexibility and spontaneity as my defense.

I am joining a Be Present support group with some artists and activists. Alot of processing and taking care of people’s needs and desires is involved. Fear and intimacy are all so connected to spirit. A burgeoning Be Present community is forming in Chicago. So much spirit and healing is really front and center. Many organizers are quitting their NPIC jobs because its abusive and scarring of the spirit. Harishi went back to India to meditate in solitude, address hard conversations with his family while going to an outlying warring village as an ally, possibly potentially dangerous if they find out he is American. He comes back in time to join Chicago USSF organizing and share his peaceful mind and insights with us. Lots of self-care services to raise money for grassroots groups. The more integrated, the more spirit-filled, including the VENUS art and resistance event last night. Social justice holds it close and dear.

I do get nostalgic this time of year for choral music, for requiems and large theatrical cacophonies. I grew up Episcopalian. This is about all I love of the church and would prefer Meredith Monk even gregorian chant, more divorced from christian texts. Universal. Omnipresent. But I still find myself listening to the classical station and digging out old choral albums to play on the turntable. We used to go to midnight service to support my dad, enjoy the theatrics, sing along with the horns. Perhaps this year. It might be good to visit old memories.

I’m interested because I missed going to MMMC – have, these past few years – but also feel like its kind of weird to have to pay a large chunk of change just to continue building with incredible folks. I’m wondering if there are other spaces where we can all connect and challenge each other in a cross and multi-racial space. I guess.. Tyrone that’s what the POOR Bay convening was for which I couldn’t make it for either.
And there are others.. like Allied Media and
Social forum, but the intimate, intentional and focused space is so valuable.

Anyway.. just a lil dialogue and probing. thanks.