“It would work the same way the Guaranteed Income Supplement works for seniors. Now, it’s based on your income. If you’re beneath a certain level you get topped up automatically. People would get a cheque or an automatic deposit to their account on a monthly basis if they’re beneath the poverty line and need to be topped up.
It means you get topped up between what your income may be now — could be zero, could be $600 a month — to about $1,300 or $1,400 a month which would get you to about 75 per cent of the poverty rate. But unlike welfare it would encourage people to work. And if you did work, you could keep a large part of what you earned. It wouldn’t be clawed back, as it is in all of the provincial welfare systems across the country now.
Let’s be clear — provincial welfare systems, however well-intentioned and supported by good-hearted and committed public servants, don’t pay more than 40 or 50 per cent of the poverty rate anywhere in Canada. So it doesn’t lift anybody out of poverty. It actually traps people in poverty because if they try to work — or earn a couple of hundred bucks a month — that all gets clawed back, dollar for dollar. Conrad Black doesn’t pay dollar for dollar on his highest level of income. Why would we ask our lowest income Canadians to be paying tax at that level?”*
*Excerpt from talk about Canadian’s struggle for Basic Income Guaranteed
The collective consciousness of the world is focused in one direction: the pandemic. In and out of the mind thoughts of its effect haunt us: what personal consequences? what systematic consequences? how long? they all roll around vying for our attention and trying to emotionally control our mind. Once we manage these looping thoughts, with awareness that we still have control of this mind, where do we focus our mind?
On a walk outside yesterday I noticed the birds coming closer. I wondered why? Could it be that nature senses our collective fear of the the pandemic, and moves in to comfort us? Or perhaps us US Americans are actually releasing some of the space we take up, developing some humility away from our collective imperialism and exceptionalism? Animals sense our humility. Perhaps this is the first time where the United States acknowledges it has no control. During the past devastating pandemic in the 1800s, the power of the US was not as large and global as it is today. Today, with all the power it wields across the globe, it is and was unprepared for the wrought of a pandemic: an inadequate administration, insufficient public health infrastructure due to individualistic health values and profit over people, a historic underprivileged population of Black, Indigenous and people of color with health disparities more vulnerable to illness and death, low income workers with no collective benefits of health care, paid time off, or vacation time, and a racial capitalist economy that systematically places profit over people: people with white-skinned privilege and power.
Maybe we reflect on how we rebuild today and tomorrow? Are we going to continue along this same path that brought us to this catastrophic place today: a pandemic fueled by big corporations’ greed to destroy our delicate ecosystem and the poor who become caught up in making ends meet in an unjust system; the corrupt governments that are controlled by greed and individualism.
The pandemic broke open the existing cracks, exposing what many of us have been historically experiencing: a racial capitalist system that exploits the vulnerable with no checks and balances. The data showing African Americansand people of color disproportionately being affected by the virus, service workers being kept on the job even if they report symptoms, inadequate protective equipment for all essential workers, incarcerated populations inadequately attended to, etc, etc can wake up the political powerful to act. The action toward change will require not just a verbal acknowledgment of the existing injustices, it will require a heart opening that is prolonged, hurts like it’s our loved ones on all the front lines and dying from this system of inequity and exploitation. Something similar to the heart opening that occurred when US Americans viewed Black children being hosed by firefighters and attacked by police dogs. The white population moved the political leadership into action; some were moved by the heart knowing that the degraded humanity they saw on television was not the humanity they could claim for themselves and their children.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggUt0gJh9U8
This led to action by the political elite that could be implemented only because there was an ongoing Civil Rights Movement enduring the ravages-death- of / by / for a racist America. Today, as we reel from the horror of the inequity in the way this pandemic is disproportionately affecting our most vulnerable and under-resourced populations again, are we waking up? And what will we do now, now that we are woke? Can the image of mass graves being dug in New York break our hearts open again and lean us into questioning how our humanity contributed to this type of massive death of people with no one to claim their bodies?
During these times we cannot physically mobilize. We can virtually organize and mobilize, through webinars and phone calls and petitions, and commentary, op eds and social media. These remain powerful tools…will they be sufficient to affect the heart consciousness of US Americans? Sufficient so that political leadership is moved to act to dismantle the inequitable economic system that consistently under-resources communities of Black and of color, service workers, low income and homeless, and wrongfully arrests Black and brown bodies to warehouse away from the fear of white Americans?
We can live in faith that justice will reign down. And while we breathe and stay grounded so we see clearly and make wise choices, we can roll up our sleeves and collect names to send to our local, state, and federal political representatives, with specific ways we want them to shift systems of economic, social, spiritual, and emotional oppression. We can organize and organize. We can call and send emails; we can share on social media. We can start a petition or donate to the many funds that are serving those impacted by COVID19-and those who have been serving our vulnerable communities before COVID19. Every state and local jurisdiction can be demanding compassionate care for the incarcerated, for the homeless, appropriate protective equipment for essential workers and other frontline workers, that a basic minimum income should continue forward, not only during the pandemic. Living wages in every state should be passed, tuition forgiveness for college debt more than 10 years, health care for all, funding for an effective public health infrastructure, immigrant camps dismantled, more affordable and less luxury housing development, low-income landownership, participatory democracy, resourced public education. This list is not comprehensive. Find something that you can stand up for, let the energy of renewal fuel you into action, and keep standing after the pandemic has passed.
This is the time for each of us to take responsibility for how we come out on the other side of the pandemic. Will we continue on as before? Or will we rise up together and act collectively for justice. To do nothing is to show no respect for the thousands of people who have lost their lives to this man-made pandemic, fueled by greed and corruption, and consumption. How will you act in your sister’s and brother’s name?
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Ways to support those impacted by COVID19
Petition to keep workers with symptoms safe at home, sign by April 13 2020:
“To protect our young people, those who work in these facilities, and the broader community, we must immediately reduce the number of young people in custody as quickly as possible.”
Pausing in the midst of the storm allows us to ground ourselves, root into the solidity of the earth, remain calm. This pause allows us to reconnect inside, remember who we are and the depth of goodness and generosity we are, to be present. Then, only then, can we turn this attention to those around us. Our solidity becomes the beacon of light for others near and far. In that moment we reconnect with all of our planet. This is justice, inside and out.
Because this too will pass. And what will we remember about this time? Will we talk about how we lived in fear? Or will we remember how we remembered to love? Will we talk about the moments we remembered the elderly person living down the block and sent kindness to them? What we do today becomes the foundation for how we continue tomorrow. And if we are aware, today already contains tomorrow in it. So remember, this will pass and how will we remember this time, what actions will remember us?
It’s a difficult time yes. Yet there is an opportunity for us to evolve toward a greater humanity. To secure our wellness and safety and stay focused on how much benefit a calm mind brings to society, instead of a distracted, fearful, impatient, or angry mind with no awareness. We may be practicing social distancing if this is an opportunity for us. Or taking the preventive care we can so we stay well in the midst of working. Some may be practicing breathing, staying calm and sending that energy near and far to maintain a more calm world. Some of us will share information via social media. Others of us are on the ground delivering food or serving take-out food. Others are on the front line engaging with those of us affected directly by the virus. Others are driving some to work. Whatever we are doing, the collective consciousness of our society is one-pointed at the moment. Consider the power of one-pointed kindness, in body, speech, and mind.
In these moments of focused awareness, we can also turn our attention to kindness. For every thought of ‘the virus’ we can also remember to breathe. Or send a thought of kindness to a stranger tucked away in China, or Venezuela, or Italy, or Haiti, or Australia. Maybe send an email to that friend we haven’t talked to for a couple years: ‘Hello there, hope you and those around you are well’. This is taking care of the collective consciousness.
It is time to balance our thoughts and intentions toward a positive outcome for all. Time to not run away from our worry or fears; to hold them, acknowledge they can be there, right along with the hope, kindness, and compassion.
So while we think about this pandemic, its effect on the world, the disproportionate way it is and will affect our most vulnerable populations (Black, Indigenous, and people of color, the poor and low income, homeless and those living in group settings, incarcerated, immigrants at risk, elderly and immunocompromised) remember to balance these thoughts with kindness. Kindness for yourself and kindness for others.
Remember something you are grateful for and write it down:
at least 5 times during the day. Each morning write down what you will do to
enjoy yourself that day, and do it. Rest and do not feel compelled to: produce
(that’s why we’re in this mess now!). If you feel the social anxiety to produce
maybe take some time to reflect: “where does this come from? Can I start to let
some of this go?”
Because this is the time friends. This is the time for us to
evolve into the beautiful and noble next iteration of who we can become. Do not
let this moment escape. Tomorrow may be too late, so remember now.
