responsibility - American Mussar

When there is a public catastrophe, who has spiritual responsibility? It is hard to think of the votes to repeal Obamacare as anything but a catastrophe in the making. In Judaism, we place the highest value on human life. And make no mistake, if these bills become law, tens of millions of people will lose their health insurance. And without health insurance, many of these people will die prematurely. As it says in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 4:5) “Whoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.”

It is so easy to blame others. I would like nothing better than to get on Facebook and Twitter to rage against the people who voted for this bill. I’d love to lash out at the people who voted for the politicians who supported this bill. I could write volumes, accusing various politicians and their supporters of being terrible people, and point to various verses in Torah to support my position. But that is not a spiritual answer to this crisis.

In his book “This Is Real And You Are Completely Unprepared,” Rabbi Alan Lew writes that when it comes to a catastrophe, “the only question worth asking about any recurring catastrophe, is this: what is my responsibility for it? How am I complicit in it? How can I prevent it from happening again?”

Therefore, while I did not vote for anyone responsible for the Obamacare rollback, I need to take personal responsibility. Thus, spiritual responsibility is very different than the types of leadership and personal responsibility that we usually talk about. I take responsibility for this situation in the following two ways.

Spiritual Responsibility for the Electoral College

I have never spoken out against the Electoral College. If we had a different system of government, in which the person who gets the most votes becomes President, we would not be in this situation. As a people, we made a vow of Never Again after the Holocaust. But after the 2000 election, when Al Gore won the popular vote, he was denied the Presidency because the supreme court stopped a recount. As a result, George Bush became President, invaded Iraq, and hundreds of thousands of people died. I never demanded an end to the Electoral College after Bush. As a result, we once again have a President who is not supported by the majority of Americans, and who is putting lives at risk.

Spiritual Responsibility for the gerrymandering

I have never taken a stand against gerrymandering, the process of setting up congressional districts to favor one political party over another. The problem is acute, and largely underreported. For example, according to the New York Times, in 2012, 1.5 million more people voted for Democrats in Congress, but the outcome was a 234 to 201 Republican majority. More recently, AP reported that in 2016, gerrymandering resulted in a comfortable Republican majority instead of a narrow one in the House. This fall the Supreme Court will look at whether Wisconsin’s redistricting plan is constitutional. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg has called this case the most important one the Supreme court will hear next term. And, Rabbi Michael Knopf argues that gerrymandering is against Jewish law. He explains that we are all descended from one person, and therefore all have equal value (Sanhedrin 4:5).

Spiritual Responsibility & Mussar Practice

Judaism and Mussar practice in particular, teaches that it is not enough to do no harm; rather we must proactively do good. When it comes to decisions like going to war, or removing healthcare from tens of millions of people, we need a system that awards power to the person with the most votes.

I don’t know if Obamacare will be repealed or not. It doesn’t matter, because as long as the Electoral College and gerrymandering are supported by rule of law, we remain at risk for a continued assault on the values we hold most dear. While the Republican Party is benefitting today from gerrymandering and the Electoral College, that could change in the future. If California and New York were to gerrymander the way Wisconsin and Pennsylvania did, our system would be worse, the the power would shift. We don’t want to live in that world. The Soul Trait of Truth teaches us to distance ourselves from a false matter, and the more we have gerrymandering, the farther we are from the truth.

As a Mussar community, we need to stand against this injustice, and demand an end to gerrymandering and the electoral college. I am firmly convinced that if our President and legislatures are more reflective of public opinion, we will have a government that works for the people instead of putting their lives at risk.

Ok, this is how I am taking spiritual responsibility for this situation. But Mussar, like all spiritual practices, is individual. How will you take spiritual responsibility? Please comment below.

mussar perspective on the chicago police — Responsibility brings empathy. Laquan McDonald Black Friday Mag Mile Protest March by niXerKG via Flickr CC

This week I’ve started practicing the Soul Trait of Responsibility for the first time. It seemed fitting somehow, as I met the Tuesday deadline for the second round of edits to my manuscript. The Hebrew word for the Responsibility Soul Trait can be translated as either “after” or “other.” The “after” translation leads one to interpret the soul trait in terms of consequences – we are responsible when we understand and account for the consequences of our actions. The “other” translation brings our attention to the needs of other people, and thus we are responsible when we are looking out for other people.

I also thought of Responsibility when Rahm Emmanuel fired the police superintendent for the suppressed video of Laquan McDonald’s killing. Emmanuel is the antithesis of responsibility, throwing anyone he can under the bus when it seems clear to me that his interest was served by keeping the video out of the spotlight during his re-election campaign. But it is not for us to kibitz Emmanuel’s spiritual curriculum. I am more interested in the “blue wall of silence” culture in the Chicago PD and other police departments, in which police officers close ranks to cover up wrongdoing by other officers by remaining silent, making false statements, or destroying evidence. Here is my Mussar perspective on the Chicago Police.

Mussar teaches that Responsibility governs our sensitivity to the needs of others, and of the consequences of our actions. Chicago PD shows neither.

Officer Jason Van Dyke, the shooter, has a history of excessive force complaints. One resulted in a $350K payout for excessive force, and in this case, -‘s mother was paid $5M. Here is my solution:

Have 10% of the funds for police excessive force or wrongful death settlements come from the police pension fund.

A police officer’s pension is highly prized, and having a portion of the settlement money come from the pensions gives every officer an incentive to get cops with repeated complaints like Van Dyke off the force. Imagine what would happen if it could cost every officer money if a cop starts to beat up a suspect? The other officers would say “knock it off” to nip it in the bud before it became a systemic issue.

Usually it is a small number of bad actors who account for the majority of excessive force complaints. For example, none of the 8 other officers on the scene fired their weapons, but all of them participated in the cover up. Let’s make a clear consequence, to give each of them an incentive to practice Responsibility. Instead of thinking of their fellow cops first, they must be retrained to be responsible to the public. And I don’t mean lecture training – I mean pocketbook-consequences training.

What do you think?

iAMResponsible

Greg

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Spiritual Responsibility: I Am Responsible For The Health Care Vote

Spiritual Responsibility for the Electoral College

Spiritual Responsibility for the gerrymandering

Spiritual Responsibility & Mussar Practice

The Mussar Perspective on the Chicago Police

Mussar teaches that Responsibility governs our sensitivity to the needs of others, and of the consequences of our actions. Chicago PD shows neither.