Tariffs & deportations: what’s actually the core problem

 Thankfully someone kicked the hornet's nest confronting our views of tariffs and deportation.  Politicising these topics only camouflages their clarity, now it’s time to actually examine our ethical standards. 

Why did much of our manufacturing and agriculture relocate in the first place?  Canadian lumber isn’t straighter than Montana’s.  We don’t buy electronics from overseas because they are higher quality, yesterday it was transistor radios, today it’s big screen TVs.  South American beef or the frozen fish from Vietnam in our grocery store isn’t better than our domestic staples.  

Our imported gadgets, garments, and gym shoes are mostly manufactured in places like China, India, or Sri Lanka by people chained to a factory floor.  We’re enabling what essentially amounts to modern-day slavery; but our conscience is sheltered from our passive dehumanization by an ocean of separation while our insatiable appetite for toys and trinkets perpetuates a practice that is less than rewarding for the workers.

Additionally, we are too important for menial labor or to allow our children to be dishwashers or enter any of the service industries, so for a generation we have basically treated our goodhearted Hispanic neighbors like indentured servants.  We don’t habitually move into Hispanic neighborhoods, we move out when they move in and “white flight” takes place.  We aren’t hiring qualified Hispanic school teachers or police officers by the droves, we aren’t partnering with them in our small businesses, electing them as the Mayor, or having them over for supper either.

The rage over tariffs/deportations is only a symptom, we need to ask ourselves what is at stake and why the uproar now?  Our addiction to material goods and cheap labor that’s beneath us has blinded us and the outcry over tariffs and deporations feels disingenuous, something feels inconsistent within our character considering that what we’ve become accustomed to is now at risk of becoming inconvenient.

Again, our dependence on cheap labor & goods is blinding us while overseas manufacturing facilities function as a buffering agent shielding our conscience -- where has the authentic compassion for our Hispanics, disadvantaged Asians, and the dejected citizens in America’s farmlands & Rust Belt been for the last 40 years?  The sting of tariffs and deportation means higher prices for the consumer but what if instead of freaking out about higher prices we consider the mere possibility of how the American rancher and farmer might thrive and our folks in the Rust Belt might regain their dignity and become productive and prosperous once again if these proposed tariffs and stricter immigration policies are as dangerous as they appear to be.  

Here’s what we’ve perhaps lost sight of: “You shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns.” (Deut 24:14) 

Consumerism is not a Red or Blue issue between the conservatives and progressives -- sadly we are too preoccupied with our own self interests as if tariffs and immigration were simply economic/social issues instead of seeing them for what they are at their core, spiritual conditions of the heart.  More to the point, what if we evaluated our purchasing habits and stopped taking advantage of foreigners, farmers, and factory workers, because that’s exactly what we are guilty of doing independently of whichever administration happens to occupy 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Originally published in the Kingsport Times News : https://www.timesnews.net/living/faith/craig-cottongim-its-time-to-examine-our-ethical-standards/article_457e694a-f533-11ef-8eea-d31641a92942.html

 

Recipe for real relationships

 

Tammy and I have been married for nearly four decades, and I believe one of the reasons our marriage is so strong is because we actually enjoy being together.  As elementary as that sounds, enjoying time with your spouse is essential for a strong, healthy, and vibrant relationship -- unfortunately too many couples miss this basic fact.   

Sadly, many couples seem distant and dissatisfied in their marriages.  One of the first questions that comes to my mind when I hear that a couple is struggling or they seem like strangers living separate lives together is how often do they cook together?  There is a powerful pleasurable transformation that relationships benefit from whenever you cook together.  

Yes we enjoy traveling together, going to a show or a host of other "fun and exciting" things couples do, but we also derive a lot of enjoyment in the mundane chores of life.  Like cooking together.  We really like to cook together; I can't recommend this enough to you.  

We like to eat at home since it's healthier and more economical, though we don't mind going out too, but going out to eat oftentimes seems disappointing when we compare the meal out to our own excellent cooking.  I think couples do need to go out on date nights, but there's more bonding that takes place in your own kitchen in my opinion; you learn more about each other and fall deeper in love over the oven than in a restaurant booth, I think.  

You share an equality as you learn together a new recipe and as you choose the menu.  As you share the workload of the prep and actual cooking, you feel closer and again experience an equality.  Cooking together provides an excellent opportunity for drawing closer to each other through more authentic one on one time.  

Tammy and I laugh together, relax, share our day, tell stories, grow closer together and communicate a lot while we are in the kitchen.  I am convinced that cooking together deepens, builds, and reenforces the foundation of your marriage.  And, together you experience the unique sense of satisfaction which accompanies the sense of accomplishment together of a well planed and well prepared tasty meal, together.   

My folks fought all the time and they were always miserable, I can't remember my parents ever cooking together.  I hope the opposite for my children and grandchildren, I hope they can't remember a time when Tammy I weren't cooking together and that they will remember us a happy couple.

If you want other parts of your relationship to sizzle instead of fizzle, I don't know all of the reasons why cooking together strengthens your relationships, but it really is a recipe for better relationships.  As you contemplate cooking together more often, I'll leave you with this, here's a recent meal we cooked together. 

Are we on the brink of an American Revolution?

 

Here's a revelation if you too woke up to the news this morning that those opposing the Trump administration are calling for a Bastille day type French revolution: Hoping a sitting president fails is like force-feeding your pilot NyQuil and quaaludes before the plane takes off.  Passive aggressive attitudes and the negative immature rantings will not move a country forward.  

This is a free country, you don't have to like the president, and everyone is free to voice their opinion.  If you don't like the direction our country is going, come up with a better plan, find positive contributions that improve the situation, be proactive with helpful actions.  

Read more history books, we don't erect statues to cowardly saboteurs for a reason.  Also for your own safety, of a heavily armed population with more firearms than citizens in our country, I feel like the folks supporting the Trump agenda are probably the majority of the ones carrying.