People Before Things

A Personal Plea for Standing Up and Speaking Out

Recently, driving from Sherrills Ford to Lincolnton, and back again, I noticed how many crepe myrtle trees were in full bloom. It seems to be a favorite around here. I see them around banks and other businesses, and adorning private homes. With good reason, I think, for the beauty of the blossoms and the graceful legginess of well pruned trees that sway gently in the wind. I noticed first and foremost the pink ones, the bright pink and the deeper colored, almost magenta ones. When I noticed the white blossomed crepe myrtles, I smiled, remembering my mother’s opinion of the blanched blossoms when compared to the warm pinks. I remember her fuming a bit -- why would you plant something with plain white blossoms when you could have pink or purple or magenta?

I tend to agree with her. I love the pinks and purples and magentas, too. Although, I have come to some appreciation of the elegance of white blossomed crepe myrtles. That green and white floral color scheme conveys a sense of timeless, classic beauty and grace.

Beauty, it seems, really is in the eye of the beholder. And this is based just on personal preference. Our opinions. Everyone is entitled to their opinions.

Opinions, however, are not created equally. As my ninth grade history teacher and my dad both taught me --- my rights (to my opinion or my right to anything) ends when it causes someone else to lose their rights. We can see things differently, but that acceptance hinges on whether we cause harm to others by our insistence that what we believe is the only way to see or act.

These days, it seems hard to reconcile how differently people can see and understand the same current events. A few days ago, as I watched a North Carolina panel discussion that included elected officials and media writers and reporters, I smiled as both “sides” claimed the good that has happened in the last decade or so in North Carolina, and those things that were not so good were laid plainly at the feet of the “other” side. How is it possible to hold such diverse opinions about the same events?

Parker Palmer, an American educator, author, and activist, wrote recently about something he called “bearing witness.” * He discussed in clear terms this phenomenon that we are experiencing with division in the United States on core concepts about “love, truth, and justice.” He suggests that bearing witness is not trying to convince MAGA devotees that what they believe is wrong, but that we simply define our own commitment to love, truth, and justice as central to who we are, even if that declaration effectively ends our relationship with individuals who do not share the same viewpoint. Hard stop.

In other words, bearing witness is not about winning an argument on what is right or wrong, or who is right or wrong, but a declaration of who we are and what we are willing to courageously stand against or for, even in the face of our own fears.

As someone who most often tries to avoid confrontation, usually in the form of silence or avoidance, this is personally challenging for me.

It is not simply the matter of opinion on color preference for crepe myrtles. I can agree to disagree most of the time with those who see things differently. But right now, I simply cannot ignore what is happening in this country, and really what is happening around the world. Real lives are being threatened and even lost. People are being denied human dignity, where life-saving organizations or programs are being de-funded. It is simply too much to ignore.

This morning, in our online worship with The Lakeshore Collective, we looked at value structures in the human experience. Jesus shares a parable in the Gospel of Luke (11:1-13) about a rich landowner who puts his trust in the fruit of his own labor, his own wealth, instead of being “rich toward God,” instead of trusting God. One idea that resurfaced for me out of this scripture is something I learned from La Leche League, a breastfeeding mom’s support group. As a first time mom, I learned early on their philosophy of “people before things.” This lesson, learned when my kids were little, and entirely dependent on me and their dad, has helped me in other life situations as well.

If we use that idea, people before things, as the metric by which we make decisions in our personal life, I believe we follow the two great commandments, according to Jesus -- love God, love your neighbor. On a macro level, if we collectively put people before things, that really changes outcomes on a grand scale. So, deporting people without due process, sending them to prisons in other countries or holding them in concentration camps that do not meet even the minimum standards of safe food and shelter, well, that is not a “people first” concept. This is what is happening now. The claim that mass deportations rid our country of “violent criminals” simply doesn’t hold water. Only 7 % of those detained are actually serious criminal threats. * This is not a “people before things” approach. There are numerous other examples -- defunding public education, demanding compliance to preferences of the current presidential administration from universities, NPR and other news organizations, cutting SNAP benefits for children experiencing food insecure situations, legislation that causes millions to lose their medical care and also results in rural communities losing access to hospitals and health care, cutting benefits for veterans or senior citizens, well, the list is long. None of these things are “people first” ideas.

For me, and for many others, we cannot simply agree to disagree. We must speak up, take action, hold elected officials accountable for dismantling institutions and programs that have long helped form a safety net for those among us who are most vulnerable.

This is not a preference for pink versus white crepe myrtles. It is not a “good people on both sides” situation. Good people do not let other people starve to death, lose vital medical care, or any number of life threatening challenges caused by changes to public policy. Sometimes we forget that justice is not only about equal opportunity, but also a demand for accountability for wrongs perpetuated on people, usually people with the least access to make their voices heard.

I am baffled when I see people claim the mantle of Christianity while simultaneously voting for, supporting, and cheering on those who would deny love, truth, and justice. The lyrics to a song by Jon Guerra, Citizens, come to mind:

I have a heart full of questions

Quieting all my suggestions

What is the meaning of Christian

In this American life?

I’m feeling awfully foolish

Spending my life on a message

I look around and I wonder

Ever if I heard it right

Coming to you ‘cause I’m confused

Coming to you ‘cause I feel used

Coming to weep while I’m waiting

Tell me you won’t make me go

I need to know there is justice

That it will roll in abundance

And that you’re building a city

Where we arrive as immigrants

And you call us citizens

And you welcome us as children home **

All of this meandering thought is simply to say, publicly, through my words and my actions, it is not ok. I will not comply, I will not accept policy that fails to put people first. I will not turn my head and look away. I urge you, gentle reader, to do the same. Pretending that none of this is happening is not acceptable. Be a good human. Be a person of faith who bears witness. You can keep your white blossoming crepe myrtles, and I can keep my pink ones. But on bigger issues that go beyond personal opinion or preference, I will practice putting people before things. I insist in no uncertain terms that those elected to represent me, and my neighbor, also put people first. Always. People before things.

*To read all more from Parker Palmer:

** YouTube video of the full song, Citizens by Jon Guerra here: