Common Good Collective

Reader

This Reader is an expression of Common Good Collective, a vision for an alternative way, rooted in the act of eliminating economic isolation, the significance of place, and the structure of belonging. Whether you come at this from a place of economics, social good, or faith, we hope these reflections help orient your day in fresh, provocative, courageous ways. And most importantly, we hope these lead you into the sharing of gifts in particular communities—into co-creating a common good.

We read hundreds of articles and select the best ones for you by sending them to your inbox on Thursday.

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Gratitude as Subversion

Gratitude is a subversive step, Walter Brueggemann says. It challenges the parsimonious ideologies of our time. Those ideologies turn into public policy and practice, and parsimony turned into structures and systems turns neighbor against neighbor. One antidote: the kind of gratitude that recognizes our place as creatures of a creator who intends good for every creature.

Thanksgiving Day, for all its entanglement with white violence against Native Americans, is a reminder to us that even in such a difficult time as this, gratitude is the hallmark of the Christian life. It is an acknowledgement that we are on the receiving end of life, and it is the generous creator God who is on the giving end of our life. We may well linger over Paul’s rhetorical question:

What do you have that you did not receive? And if you have received it, why do you boast as if it were not a gift (I Corinthians 4:7)?

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Courageous Conversation At the Thanksgiving Table

Reconciliation is not possible without changing material conditions, says one Native elder. The work of changing material conditions starts around tables, at feast days, with acts of remembrance: naming the Native peoples of the land you inhabit; holding important conversations about justice and connections to land; learning to advocate well for Indigenous neighbors. Here are several ideas about working on antiracism with your own family, beginning at the Thanksgiving table.

For Walter Fleming, an enrolled member of the Kickapoo tribe in Kansas, Thanksgiving will be difficult this year because so many Native Americans have died from COVID-19.

“Particularly because it’s been among our elders, the grieving is gonna be that much more,” Fleming said. “These are the cultural guardians.”

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#LandBack: Returning the Land

Four Indigenous voices speak about an essential demand: #LandBack. The dominant imagery of the Thanksgiving holiday glosses over the contestation over land that persists to this day. The four voices here cast a vision into the future: Indigenous sovereignty, the return of land, peace in our time.

from left to right: Krystal Two Bulls, Nick Tilsen, Nickita Longman, Marcus Briggs-Cloud, and reporter Claire Elise Thompson

For many first peoples, Mount Rushmore stands as a monument to oppression. Carved into stolen land as a shrine to American exceptionalism by a sculptor who sympathized with the Ku Klux Klan, the site has become a symbol of Indigenous resistance and a backdrop for protest.

Just before Independence Day, scores of land defenders gathered at the national memorial in the Black Hills of South Dakota as President Trump took the stage for a rally. They came to denounce not just his invective and policies, but the white supremacy, oppression, and violence the immense granite sculpture represents. One demand underscored the protest: Indigenous people want their land back.

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The Space to Thrive

Thriving requires space. There is space as in land – physical space in which to create the social architecture communities need to flourish. And there is space as in distance. That kind of space promotes reflection, self-critical thinking, changes of patterns and behaviors. Khalil Gibran refers to this as “a space in our togetherness.” Both sorts of spaces are necessary for people to thrive.

At Common Good Collective, we want to create the space for better conversations, the kinds that open up space, or that re-orient us to the spaces we occupy. We are trying out a new way of doing that this week. Two weeks ago, we published a post-election reflection by CGC contributor Greg Jarrell. This week, we have three short written responses from other contributors. We invite you to send your thoughts by email or social media as well.

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The Commons Exists Off-Screen, Reflections from Peter Block and Charles Holmes

Peter Block and Charles Holmes have long been calling people into conversations that matter. With his characteristic directness and poignancy, Peter reminds us that we’ve been building for distance for years, at the expense of building for community.

The Common Good Reader makes the point that creating community consciousness is the work, now that election mania has peaked.

The call is to not let us be defined by a media industry and world that makes its wealth from attention. What grabs attention is the illusion that we are a nation divided, that the vote is a measure of citizen engagement, that the contest between rich and poor is among irreconcilable strangers, that celebrities are interesting.

I am not a nation divided. Read more

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