ON REPRESENTATION
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Something caught my ear this morning
while getting my daily NPR update. It was about all the Representatives
going back to their own districts to face constituents.
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The issue of the moment is health care.
The question in my mind was who the Representatives represent.
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The big thing on their minds, I hear,
is that many of them face re-election races in the fall. Does that mean
they may really be thinking first about their own survival, in which case
they primarily represent themselves?
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After reading “Moyers on Democracy”
by Bill Moyers, one would be naïve not to assume that these representatives
are paying attention to those lobbyists for special interests who contribute
to political races. In which case, don’t Representatives really represent
the people who finance them?
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It is also reported that Representatives
have been sent home with “talking points” supplied by their political parties.
Are Representatives locked in to partisanship which they are expected to
represent?
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Since this reminds me of some of my
long ago (but occasionally updated) biblical studies, the issue of partisanship
is not new. I skim my memory, but suspect it has depth.
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There were always those claiming to
represent God who actually represented some special interest. The Old Testament
is full of stories of competing loyalties. I am suspicious, for instance,
that it was the Priestly influence that placed keeping the Sabbath (going
to church?) and tithing (supporting the church?) as “God’s law.”
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I seem to remember that there were “patriotic
prophets” who spoke to please the king. Then there were prophets like Jeremiah
and Amos and Micah – and others – who spoke in behalf of the poorly represented,
like the widow and orphan and sick and poor. They didn’t win any elections.
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Who did Jesus represent? In one sense,
everyone, but in particular the most marginalized in society – those not
represented by the powerful. It was not a popular position. It cost him.
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One looks hard to find any spokespersons
for the pharmaceutical or insurance industries demanding that our Representatives
develop a health plan that includes everyone. One looks equally hard to
find Representatives who will demand some plan that brings the U.S.A. up
from the bottom of free world nations at least to the level of Canada. Canada’s
plan, much-maligned as it is, is the 6th best in the world.
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I guess my hope is that representation
will risk all to stand with those who have little power but great need.
There are millions who need such representation.
– Art Morgan, August 11, 2009
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