Showdown in Chicago

I had the opportunity to attend the Showdown in Chicago this past weekend. It was an event put on by NPA (National People's Action), which took place in Chicago during an American Bankers Association conference. Check it out: http://www.showdowninchicago.org/

This was a great event, and because I'm a member of Iowa CCI, I got to go! [Read: you should join CCI :)] http://www.iowacci.org/

Anyway, I saw a lot of people who were really worked up about getting screwed over by the big banks. Their homes had been foreclosed. They'd been victims to predatory lending. They had gotten caught in the horrible cycle of payday lending.

This is where my lack of empathy comes in. It's hard for me to get as worked up as these people about these issues that are clearly unjust and immoral, simply because it hasn't personally happened to me. Why am I so damn important? Sure, I don't have enough life experience to know what having a mortgage feels like, and then I especially don't know what it feels like when the bank tries to steal your money from that mortgage. I'm not going to pretend that I really understand this very well. Definitely not near as well enough as I should.

So, a struggle of mine during this event was simply that I couldn't make it my own. Do you know what I mean? It's easy to be very passionate about something that has affected you personally--it's much more difficult to get worked up about something that you have no first-hand experience of. That's not to say that it's not possible or not necessary--it is both possible and necessary. Just more difficult.

I did, however, realize the simple value of putting my body in a place where it would create the most impact. In this case, putting my body in a group with a thousand other people, because the more people, the more effect. That was the goal, and it was achieved.

I would, however, have liked to bring something more back from the trip than just that. Over are my days of simply going somewhere for the fun of it. I need to get something out of experiences that I have...to learn something, to bring something back to my community for the better, and to somehow affect others with what I've learned.

I took notes during the whole event, just about what the speakers were talking about and other important things. I did, then, write three notes that I wanted to blog about when I got back.

1. "Hard to connect to change it, instead of just leave it." What I was going for in this statement is that, maybe it's the Catholic Worker in me or something, but it was hard for me to realize that we can try to change the system, instead of just opting out of the system and then, possibly, creating your own. Why not just stop using the big banks? Why not just simply avoid dangerous things such as that? Because other people can be harmed by them, I would guess. Because if you have the ability to fight for others' justice, you have a responsibility to do so.

So, what's better? Trying to fix the unjust, current system that oppresses so many, or defecting from the current system, creating your own, better version, and inviting others to join? Should we fix the old or create a new?

I don't know the answer.

2. It's very hard for me to believe that some people are knowingly vicious and predatory. This conference portrayed the large bank executives as knowingly targeting certain populations with bad loans, causing many home foreclosures, and doing all this because of truly un-altruistic reasons.

I have no reason to doubt that the organizers of this event were telling the truth, but the naive person in me still claims that there is good in everyone, and that those people that we think are being purposefully evil and mean, are really just misunderstood.

I know, I know...this is something I need to learn. I just need more life experience--I need to meet someone that is mean and predatory and lies, simply for the sake of being mean, predatory, and a liar; someone who cares not in the least for the human race. I need to meet this person face-to-face before I agree that they exist. It is in this case that I have no faith.

Therefore, it was hard for me to be as harsh on these big banks as others were. And, while I'm aware that my claim that since, "I didn't experience this personally" holds no water, it certainly does make it harder to relate on a personal, passionate level.

3. Somehow during the course of the day, this is a conclusion I came to: "Makes sense to do both--serve and fight--it's the financial industry that's screwing everyone."

Hey, look, it's the Catholic Worker ideal of justice work and hospitality. No one can deny that hospitality work is necessary and valuable. However, the work that probably does more good is fighting the system that oppresses those you serve. Why? Because in the long run, you serving food to that guy on that cold winter night will not save as many lives as you standing up to Goldman Sachs and demanding that Americans stop getting their money taken by big bank to be spent on CEO bonuses.

But you have to have both. It is two arms of the same body. I've heard this time and time again, but every time I hear it it makes a little more sense. You can't just try to convince others to serve. You have to serve. You can't just serve. You also have to fight for those you serve...sometimes using the class and racial status that you may find yourself in.

Those are my thoughts. Enjoy.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/25/bank-protests_n_333155.html