"My Brother's Keeper"

[sheshe2]

Last edited Sun Feb 23, 2014, 12:48 AM - Edit history (1)

snip

For alongside our famous individualism, there's another ingredient in the American saga.

A belief that we are connected as one people. If there's a child on the south side of Chicago who can't read, that matters to me, even if it's not my child. If there's a senior citizen somewhere who can't pay for her prescription and has to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it's not my grandmother. If there's an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties. It's that fundamental belief that I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper that makes this country work. It's what allows us to pursue our individual dreams, yet still come together as a single American family. "E pluribus unum." Out of many, one.

Here is how he said it in his 2008 speech on race in America - A More Perfect Union:
In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world's great religions demand - that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother's keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister's keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.

And so it comes as no surprise that this week President Obama will announce a new initiative titled "My Brother's Keeper."

President Obama will launch a significant new effort this week to bolster the lives of young men of color, seeking to use the power of the presidency to help a group of Americans whose lives are disproportionately affected by poverty and prison.

Obama on Thursday will announce a new White House initiative called “My Brother’s Keeper,” which will bring foundations and companies together to test a range of strategies across the country to support young male minorities, taking steps to keep them in school and out of the criminal justice system, a White House official said. He will also announce that his administration will launch a more vigorous evaluation of what policies work best and publicize results to school systems and others across the country.

Snip

http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2014/02/my-brothers-keeper.html

Out of many, one.

[Cha]

1. Wonderfully presented by smartypants, she..

thank you for bringing it to DU.

I've read about this and thought how awesome it is for President Obama to do this! .. but smartypants has a way of tying the past with the present that makes it even more compelling..

It matters to me..

"A belief that we are connected as one people. If there's a child on the south side of Chicago who can't read, that matters to me, even if it's not my child. If there's a senior citizen somewhere who can't pay for her prescription and has to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it's not my grandmother. If there's an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties."

From your link, she~

[sheshe2]

2. Out of many, one!

Thank you Cha.

together.

[sheshe2]

3. Kick!

[Cha]

4. ..

It made the WaPo.. the brainwashed pseudo "Christian" teabaggers will go elephant shit

President Obama to launch major new effort to help young minority men

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/president-obama-to-launch-major-new-effort-on-young-men-of-color/2014/02/11/cc0f0a98-92cd-11e3-b227-12a45d109e03_story.html

President Obama sheshe~

[freshwest]

5. Beautiful. Like the story of Ubuntu. Thanks, Sheshe. n/t

[sheshe2]

6. Yes~

Ubuntu (/uːˈbʊntuː/ oo-buun-too; Zulu/Xhosa pronunciation: [ùɓúntʼú]) is a Nguni Bantu term (literally, "human-ness&quot roughly translating to "human kindness." It is an idea from the Southern African region which means literally "human-ness," and is often translated as "humanity towards others," but is often used in a more philosophical sense to mean "the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity".


In Southern Africa, it has come to be used as a term for a kind of humanist philosophy, ethic or ideology, also known as Ubuntuism or Hunhuism (the latter after the corresponding Shona term) propagated in the Africanization (transition to majority rule) process of these countries during the 1980s and 1990s.

Since the transition to democracy in South Africa with the Nelson Mandela presidency in 1994, the term has become more widely known outside of Southern Africa, notably popularized to English language readers by Desmond Tutu (1999).

Thank you freshwest!

[freshwest]

8. Remember this post?

namaste interj. literally, "I humbly bow to you"; also used as a greeting or acknowledgement of the equality of all, and pays honor to the sacredness of all.

n. the traditional greeting when saying the word namaste with folded hands and a slight bow:

http://www.carolhansengrey.com/Quotes/Native_Quotes.html

More at the link and a video:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/110217606

Keeping His Promises to the Poor and Vulnerable: Thank You, President Obama!



More at link:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/11028481

[flvegan]

7. Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Obama n/t

[NBachers]

9. Amen

[Igel]

10. I don't want to be my brother's keeper. I'd rather be my brother's brother.

It's messy keeping people, whether they're family or not. You have to feed them, monitor them closely, clean up after them. They're your responsibility, the poor wretches--unable to be responsible for themselves.

I keep cats.

I've taken care of goats.

As a teacher, many people think I should be my students' keeper, as well. But they have keepers. They're called parents. While they may need somebody to take charge of them and alleviate them of their responsibility, no thanks. I also have my own kids to keep. Note that another translation of "keeper" would be "warden" or even "shepherd"--one is in charge of the recalcitrant, the other in charge those willingly led.

(Cain's question to God was never answered in the affirmative or the negative. It was starkly smartass. And since Xians would argue that Jesus is the shepherd and the Tanakh has God as Israel's keeper, retconning the incident would have Cain asking, "Am I God? Aren't *you* our keeper? Where the hell were you when this happened?" The best answer you can read into it is that God said, as Abel's shepherd, that his blood required recompense. Rather like a shepherd, finding a wolf-ravaged sheep, would hunt the wolf to protect the flock.)

But people like being keepers of other people. God's silence is enough of a gap for them to appropriate responsibility for our lessers, which confirms that we're their superiors. No humility in this, no servanthood. Just power. Animal trainer to his charges.

Dostoevsky's Grand Inquisitor would approve. That was one of his points--we all want keepers: to be fed, entertained, and told somebody else will assume responsibility for us. And allow us to regress, like cats back to kittens.

It's hard enough being my brother's brother. We fend for each other, help each other, but always on fairly equal terms these days. If he gets in a real mess I may step in just long enough to help him recover. And I find ample support in the Tanakh and NT for being a brother to other people. But brotherly relations require respect, humility. But there's no way I'm going to use Cain as my authority in this matter, to appeal to Cain's authority as a man of righteousness.

[BrotherIvan]

11. I hope that people read your post and pause to think

There are many important points that you make that require reflection. Sadly, I doubt this will happen. In no way do I read this as arguing for selfishness, but instead you remind me that there is something more that we must search for. I am searching myself for a paradigm shift in my own thinking, because I do believe the road as it is mapped out in modern day terms--i.e. humans under capitalism--can never get us (or me) where we want to be. I don't have any answers, only questions, which seem to be the limits of an individual in the grand scheme of things.

My moniker is a dead giveaway that I am rather in agreement with you as well.