Voices of Humanity

George Wolfe

Years ago, I recall seeing a bumper sticker which asked, “Can you live without farmers?” We all know the answer to that question is “No,” but rarely do we consider how dependent we are on farm owners and those who labor in the fields to bring us our food. To often we take them for granted, and not just farmers and farm workers, but also truck drivers, grocery store employees and other heroes who are on the job every day to deliver us our “daily bread.”

In addition to those who maintain our food supply chain, we can’t live without nurses, medical assistants, pharmacists, and all the individuals who work within our healthcare system. And let’s not forget sanitary workers and those who recycle our trash, and community first responders, police, firefighters, the National Guard, as well as our schoolteachers who have had to suddenly adapt to the online classroom. The list of underpaid, frequently overlooked professions is long. Our battle against the coronavirus (COVID-19) reminds us that the “last” in our society should be “first,” to paraphrase a well-known gospel verse (Matt. 19:30).

The inequality in our healthcare system has been glaringly exposed as Hispanics and African-Americans are dying in disproportionately higher numbers due to COVID-19. Massive job losses, long lines at food pantries, the need for medical supplies and expanded testing have created the worst socio-economic crisis since the Great Depression. As a result, universal basic income (UBI) and universal healthcare are becoming an integral part of the political conversation.

In addition, we are seeing renewed interest in what has been called the Gaia Hypothesis. Named for the primal Greek goddess of the earth, the Gaia Hypothesis views the earth biosphere, not as a piece of property created for human consumption, but as a complex self-regulating organism. Like other living systems, it has it’s own adaptive evolutionary mechanisms to help maintain stability and ensure its survival when threatened.

In just three months after the coronavirus began its march across our planet, air quality in polluted cities like Rome, New Delhi and San Francisco has improved dramatically. Sea turtles and other threatened species have started to rebound. With more than 16,000 passengers jets grounded and far fewer cars on the road, humanity’s carbon footprint is now much lighter.

These and other environmental changes are providing an unprecedented opportunity to institute green initiatives and real socio-political, economic reform. The most invasive species on our plant, the human species, has been forced to retreat from its exploitive, capitalist, fossil fuel-driven economy. Mother Nature is reasserting her authority, stepping in on a powerful molecular level to curb our planetary abuse, and reminding us that we are not the ones in control.

What will life be like in a post-coronavirus world? Let’s hope we never return to normal, but instead build a more compassionate, equitable and sustainable world.

George Wolfe is Professor Emeritus and former Director of the Ball State University Center for Peace and Conflict Studies. He was the 2018 Green Party candidate for Secretary of State in Indiana, and has served as Chair of the Indiana Green Party. He is also a trained mediator and the author of The Spiritual Power of Nonviolence: Interfaith Understanding for a Future Without War.

George Wolfe

Quick question number 1: Why has the United States not taken out Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, with an aerial drone strike?

Quick answer: North Korea has Nuclear weapons.

Quick question number 2: Would the United States have invaded Iraq in March of 2003 if Saddam Hussein had nuclear weapons and the ability to deliver them?

Quick answer: No.

Quick questions number 3: What message does this send to the leaders of Iran?

Quick answer: To deter U.S. military intervention, get nuclear weapons!

Now when I say, “get nuclear weapons,” I don’t necessarily mean Iran has to build its own. It’s neighbor to the east, Pakistan, already has nuclear weapons. If the Taliban would retake Afghanistan, then subsequently take over Pakistan, Iran could have access to nuclear weapons without ever making it’s own.

This is why the United States military will likely never leave Afghanistan. The United States is trapped in an endless war, held hostage not by an enemy Iranian Ayatollah, but by the threat of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists.

In cooperation with the United Kingdom, Russia, France, Canada, China and Germany, the United States signed a nuclear deal to limit Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting several economic sanctions. It was a carefully negotiated settlement that was working to contain Iran’s nuclear ambitions while reinforcing positive movement towards establishing cooperative relations between Iran and the countries who signed the agreement.

But the Trump administration foolishly has chosen the path of retaliation that is propagating more anger and hatred. Its decision to renege on the Iran nuclear agreement is one of a long list of betrayals and disastrous foreign policy decisions. This betrayal continues a decline in stability in the Middle East that was accelerated by the 2003 U.S invasion of Iraq. The pull back of American troops from northern Syria has left Kurdish forces feeling abandoned, ISIS remains a dangerous threat with cells in Libya, Afghanistan and Europe, and the airstrike assassination of Iranian military leader Qasem Soleimani has prompted Iran to declare its intention to enrich uranium to weapons-grade levels.

We must also not forget that the Arab world continues to suffer from a massive refugee crisis that has resulted in the displacement of 24 million civilians mostly consisting of women and children, according to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The long-term consequences of reckless U.S. foreign policy decisions erode respect for the United States and the embattled Trump administration. It will encourage, rather than impede, Iran’s motivation to acquire nuclear weapons.

George Wolfe is Professor Emeritus and former Director of the Ball State University Center for Peace and Conflict Studies. He was the 2018 Green Party candidate for Secretary of State and in Indiana, and recently was elected Chair of the Indiana Green Party. He is also a trained mediator and the author of The Spiritual Power of Nonviolence: Interfaith Understanding for a Future Without War.

The Internet, Hate Speech and Higher Education
by George Wolfe

George Wolfe

Back in the 1970s, I picked up a newspaper at a makeshift street-corner newsstand. The newspaper looked rather official, although I soon realized it was not published by the mainstream media. This paper was an underground white supremist forum spewing anti-Semitic and racist rhetoric from right out of the hate-filled, 1930s Nazi playbook.

I was shocked at the propaganda I was reading, but I soon realized that this was a self-published paper, distributed by a fledgling racist group that had minimal funds. In addition, the paper had very limited distribution and influence outside this street-corner location. Our First Amendment guarantees of free speech and freedom of the press allowed for its publication, but I had little concern that its views would prevail in the minds of a well-educated American public.

Today however, our world has drastically changed. With widespread access to the internet, it is now possible to disseminate extremist propaganda worldwide at virtually no cost. Both personal and organizational webpages, as well as social media platforms, are being used to spread neo-Nazi “white nationalist” material that is rooted in a distorted view of culture and of history. Simply stated, history in a totalitarian nation is viewed much like advertising: if you tell a lie enough times, people will eventually buy into it as truth. Only an educated and informed public can tell the difference.

Most of the shootings at synagogues, mosques, churches, Sikh temples, schools, nightclubs, theaters and other social gathering places have been carried out by lone gunmen who were radicalized by material promoted on the internet. Hate crime statistics reported by the FBI show that, in the category race/ethnicity alone, there has been a steady rise in the number of individual hate crimes since 2015, with the sharpest increase of 642 occurring in 2017.

What steps can we take in our country to combat racist rhetoric on the internet?

First and foremost, there must be the underlying foundation of a multicultural, liberal arts education at the high school and college level. It is not enough for students to have multicultural education and history courses in high school. Students need history and multicultural classes in greater depth in the university curriculum.

Recently I performed with pianist Galit Gertsenzon at a Holocaust Remembrance event at the Hasten Hebrew Academy in Indianapolis, Indiana. Our concert featured compositions by Jewish composers murdered in the Holocaust. Never before had I performed at a venue where there were armed guards. This event coincided with the re-opening of a children’s Holocaust Museum. Such facilities around the world are dedicated to documenting the Nazi Holocaust to counter the claims put forth by Holocaust deniers.

I must commend Michael Hicks who in his April 14, 2019 column, “Sending more Hoosier Kids to College,” (The Star Press, Muncie Indiana) takes a stand against authors who minimize and even dismiss the positive economic impact of higher education. He is also critical of the popular political trend to spend tax dollars on professional and vocational programs (i.e., workforce training). Hicks backs up his arguments with economic data and succinctly states it well when he writes, “A good liberal arts education is worth a lot more than a weak professional degree.”

Rightwing authors and politicians erode our inclusive, multicultural democracy by undermining liberal arts curricula and courses that develop a student’s historically informed, moral, innovative and transferable thinking skills. If such a politicized approach to undermining education continues, it is frightening to think that what happened in Nazi Germany could happen again on American soil.

George Wolfe is Professor Emeritus and former Director of the Ball State University Center for Peace and Conflict Studies. He was the 2018 Green Party candidate for Secretary of State in Indiana, is a trained mediator, and is the author of The Spiritual Power of Nonviolence: Interfaith Understanding for a Future Without War.

Reflections on the Fire of Notre Dame

by George Wolfe

George Wolfe

Two of my favorite places in Paris are the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Montmartre and the Cathedral of Notre Dame. One can’t help be raptured by their architectural beauty, enduring tradition and the inspired art that adorns these honored places. But the fire in the Notre Dame Cathedral reminds us of the temporality of these sacred structures and artifacts. Or as the Buddhists would say, “nothing is permanent,” a reality that forces us to look more deeply into what a symbol represents and calls us to ponder.

In the Gospel of John, when Mary Magdalene encounters Jesus after the resurrection, he says to her, “Do not hold me . . .” (John 20:17). It is a teaching of nonattachment, instructing us to let go of the superficial physical form of the master so we may come to know the spiritual essence that the master embodies. And so it is also with Notre Dame.

There is the awe-inspiring sanctuary which moves us as we enter the nave of the cathedral, but this is but a pale reflection of the inner sanctuary which we come to know through meditation.

The problem many of us, both believers and nonbelievers have, is that we are looking for God in the wrong direction. We are imprisoned by the false dualistic assumption that subject and object are separate, that God lies outside oneself.

But God is not an object of perception. Rather one finds the Sacred Presence by looking deep within. It requires a shifting of the awareness that is experienced through meditation or a contemplative practice that ushers us into the sanctuary of our deeper self which is beyond the intellect, beyond the ego, and beyond name and form. It is the experience of awareness by itself, a fourth state of consciousness unique from waking, dreaming and sleeping, an experience akin to what Jewish scripture calls the great “I AM” Exodus 3:14), or what the opening chapter of the Tao Te Ching refers to when it says: “The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth.”

The Hindu spiritual leader, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, states it well when he writes: “We were born with silence, and as we grew up, we lost the silence and were filled with words. We lived in our hearts, and as time passed, we moved into our heads. Now the reversal of this journey is enlightenment. It is the journey from head back to the heart, from words back to silence.”

I am not Roman Catholic, but each year I enjoy attending the Maundy Thursday mass at St. Francis Church in Muncie. It is a service celebrating humility and the sacrificial action that dispels our illusory fabrications of the intellect and ego. It ushers me into the inner sanctuary where I can die within and rest in communion with the Divine Presence “in whom we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). There we come to understand that in this mystery we call the universe, life and death are not opposites. Birth and death are opposites; life is common to both. All is forgiven in the fullness of the sacred sanctuary within the heart.

It is much like an aesthetic experience that we must become receptive to through the act of surrender. In this experience we at last come to realize the great paradox of life, that it is through death that we gain immortality. It is the fire which destroys our conceptual icons and intellectual identity that at last enables us to discover our deeper and truer self.

George Wolfe is Professor Emeritus and former Director of the Ball State University Center for Peace and Conflict Studies. He is also chair of the Muncie Interfaith Fellowship, is a trained mediator, and is the author of Meditations on Mystery: Science, Paradox and Contemplative Spirituality.

George Wolfe

The Dilemma of Roe v. Wade
by George Wolfe

The question seems so easy to answer. Does human life begin at conception or not? If the answer is “yes” then abortion should be illegal. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.

Back in the 1960’s before Roe v. Wade, I was a high school student in a small Pennsylvania town. There was a teenage girl a year older than me who came from a prominent wealthy family in the community.  She was absent from school for a few weeks during which time I was told by a reliable source that she had become pregnant. But she never gave birth. Her family could afford to send her away to a physician out of state who secretly provided an abortion.

That’s the way it was done back then, if you were rich. If you were poor, you would have no such privilege. Your secret abortion provider would be an unqualified back alley “abortionist” and the procedure would place the young woman at great risk.

During the presidential primary campaign Donald Trump, who in the past was pro-choice but suddenly became pro-life, said there should be some punishment for a woman who gets an abortion. When pressed by the interviewer to explain what that punishment should be, he said he didn’t know. If human life begins at conception, then intentionally deciding to abort a fetus would be tantamount to premeditated murder, a crime punishable in many states with life in prison or the death penalty. Are states going to issue this kind of punishment to a young woman who chooses to have an “illegal“ abortion?

What about drug-induced abortions. Drugs like Cytotec, Methotrexate, and Mifeprex would have to be outlawed if the Supreme Court ruled that human life is legally determined to begin at conception. Outlawing such drugs would drive them underground, creating a black market that, like other unregulated drugs, would be impossible to control and determine if they are safe.

Then there are pregnancies resulting from abuse, rape or incest, where the woman was forced to have sex against her will. Should not a woman possess the right to have control over her own body?

The common ground in the Roe v. Wade debate is that both sides want to end unwanted pregnancies and see the number of abortions performed in the United States brought down to zero. There is no one I know of who works for any women’s health care agency who is “pro-abortion.”

When people ask me if I’m pro-life or pro-choice, my answer is: “I’m both.” Attempting to end abortion through legislation will not succeed any more than the 18^th Amendment, which was later repealed, brought an end to the sale and consumption of alcohol. The wise and realistic approach is to provide education, counseling, accurate information and birth control so a woman can make informed decisions about her reproductive health.

We must also remove the social stigma of teenage pregnancy and provide financial assistance so a young woman who chooses to carry a child to term can continue her education and not get caught up in the cycle of poverty.

It’s time that we admit to the complexities of the abortion debate, refrain from resorting to simplistic arguments, and stop mixing women’s healthcare, with politics and religion.

George Wolfe was the Green Party candidate for the office of Secretary of State in Indiana, and the former Director of the Ball State University Center for Peace and Conflict Studies. He is also a trained mediator and the author of Meditations on Mystery: Science, Paradox and Contemplative Spirituality.

George Wolfe

Monarch Butterflies and Quantum Computers by George Wolfe

Last August while staying at the poet’s house in New Harmony, Indiana, I caught a glimpse of a Monarch Butterfly while sauntering through the meadow near the Wabash River. New Harmony happens to be on the edge of the Monarch’s flyway as it migrates northward each summer. This creature’s life journey is truly one of the marvels of nature.

I became fascinated with the Monarch’s lifecycle a few years ago after attending a presentation on the Monarch Butterfly at Muncie’s annual Living Lightly Fair. For my readers who are unfamiliar with its yearly journey, most individual Monarchs begin life in Mexico where, after emerging from it’s chrysalis, flies northward into the United States.  It then mates and lays eggs, from which it enters the larva or caterpillar stage. The caterpillar eventually forms another chrysalis during which it undergoes metamorphosis, transforming itself into the majestic orange-winged butterfly that then flies further north. This goes on until the fourth generation at which time the fourth generation Monarch, which lives about two months longer than the previous three generations, knows somehow to fly south and return to its native birthing ground in Mexico.

As I observed the Monarch I saw in that New Harmony meadow, I marveled at how all that information and guidance apparatus could be contained in it’s ultra-small brain. We humans pride ourselves with how computers have become increasingly smaller over the past 70 years. The computing power contained in a modern cell phone used to require hardware that filled an entire room. When it comes to shrinking things in size however, the Monarch Butterfly has us beat by a long shot.

Imagine building a robot with a program in it to emulate the behavior of this specie of Butterfly. It addition to a guidance system and having the ability to reproduce itself, the robot, which would be the size of the Monarch, would have to know to go through its individual lifecycle four times. The fourth generation would then know to fly back to it’s southern home in Mexico where it’s great, great grandparents began their multigenerational lifecycle journey. This algorithm would have to be contained in a computer the size of the Monarch’s brain, which is smaller than the head of a pin.

This would undoubtedly require something on the level of a “quantum computer” and an advanced form of artificial intelligence far beyond what we have developed today. Perhaps there is even awareness on the subatomic level which some risk-taking scientists are referring to as a “quantum consciousness.” According to an article by Steve Volk in the March 2018 issue of Discover Magazine, quantum physics may play a role in plant photosynthesis and in birds that migrate using the Earth’s magnetic field. It may also help explain how one-celled animals like paramecium know how to navigate their environment and find food without having a brain or nervous system.

In addition to the multigenerational lifecycle of the Monarch Butterfly, the possibility of awareness at the quantum level could explain how electrons and other subatomic particles behave differently when being observed, as if they know when they are being watched.

Indeed, quantum consciousness may be the metaphysical “light” of the universe, the first expressed manifestation from what theologian Paul Tillich called the “Ground of Being.” In our ambitious search for life beyond our world, perhaps we will soon discover that the infinitely subtle universe knows that we are here!

George Wolfe is the Green Party candidate for the office of Secretary of State in Indiana, and the former Director of the Ball State University Center for Peace and Conflict Studies. He is also a trained mediator and the author of Meditations on Mystery: Science, Paradox and Contemplative Spirituality.

George Wolfe

Are We Headed into an Economic “Black Hole?” by  George Wolfe

Back in 1991, George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton were squaring off as leaders of their own respective presidential campaigns. Bush was seeking re-election, and Clinton was making a formidable challenge that would eventually result in him winning the White House. But there was third candidate stirring up the political waters, business tycoon Ross Perot. Perot had garnered enough support to earn him the right to be included in the presidential debates.

In one of the debates, both Bush and Clinton began harping on Perot’s lack of experience in government. When Perot was given the opportunity to respond, he agreed, but then added the following zinger: “I don’t have any experience running up a three trillion-dollar debt!”

That was when the United States’ federal debt was roughly three and a half trillion dollars and 58% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a figure that caused many Americans to shutter in their shoes. Today the national debt is well over TWENTY TRILLION, or 104% of GDP. It’s an amount that makes the 1991 debt seem like pocket change. By some estimates, the debt increases by roughly two million dollars a minute with the average current monthly interest being 31.7 billion dollars.

So, is this the right time, when corporate profits are high, to drastically cut taxes, driving up our ballooning national debt even more? Several economists, including Federal Reserve Board Chairperson Janet Yellen, are skeptical, noting that high deficits in the Republican tax plan will make it difficult to fight recession.

In a 2012 article written for the Business Insider, economist and author John Mauldin draws a parallel between a cosmological black hole, it’s “event horizon,” and the global economy. For my readers who may not be up on black holes and Steven Hawking, when a star collapses to form a black hole, the gravitational pull becomes infinite, so there is no escape velocity. Even light, which travels faster than anything else in the universe, cannot escape once it’s crossed the black hole’s event horizon. Furthermore, in a black hole, the laws of physics break down; our formulas simply don’t work anymore.

Mauldin postulates that a huge economic debt bubble, which is what we have today in the U.S. economy, is analogous to an expanding black hole. Once your debt and the interest it accrues have passed the point where no amount of productive earnings can pay it off, you’ve crossed the event horizon. The economic theories and formulas based on the assumptions of the growth paradigm break down, and any attempt to revive the economy by further raising the debt makes things worse.

This debt bubble is being made even more difficult to deal with by the enormous costs of hurricanes, wildfires and other natural disasters that have befallen the U.S. The cost of recovery from hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, and the wildfires in California, totals in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Such disasters are increasing in number due to human caused global warming and the current administration’s denial of the science that has been warning us for years.

Tragically, we seem to be careening very close to being sucked in by this economic abyss. The gap between the rich and poor keeps getting wider, the population of working poor individuals is expanding, and a wealthy oligarchy, which benefits most from the Republican tax cuts, is replacing our “government of the people” democracy.

Donald Trump, however, is used to this. After all, he’s declared bankruptcy several times. It’s distressing that our Republican-controlled congress is following him into this economic black hole for short-term political gain, potentially spiraling our nation, and most of the world for that matter, toward economic doom.

George Wolfe is Professor Emeritus at Ball State University and former Director and Coordinator of Outreach Programs for the Ball State University Center for Peace and Conflict Studies. He also chairs the Muncie Interfaith Fellowship, is a trained mediator, and is the author of The Spiritual Power of Nonviolence: Interfaith Understanding for a Future without War.

George Wolfe

What is Authentic Patriotism?
by George Wolfe

Recently, a former student of mine posted some thoughtful questions on his Facebook page regarding the topic of patriotism. The questions he asked were a result of National Football League players kneeling for the National Anthem to protest police brutality and racial injustice. His thoughts provoke us into asking, “How should we define what is, or is not, patriotic?”

When I watch people on television during the performance of our National Anthem, there are many who appear to just be going through the motions, people who are not appreciating the words of the anthem, much like a person in church saying the Lord’s Prayer or the Apostle’s creed without thinking deeply about what is being recited.

What about those individuals who stand for the National Anthem but do not place their hand over their heart, or those who choose not to sing the words. And how about people who do not display the American flag outside their homes on Memorial Day or Veterans Day. Are they exhibiting a lesser degree of patriotism?

My mother was a dedicated elementary school teacher for over 30 years. I recall her being frustrated by a few students in her classes who refused to say the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag each morning. They were children of parents who were from the Jehovah’s Witnesses Christian denomination. Were they being unpatriotic in observing their right to abide by the dictates of their religious beliefs?

Vice President Pence, who is not shy about professing his religious beliefs, objects to NFL players kneeling for the National Anthem, but in other contexts kneeling is considered an expression of devotion. Roman Catholics and Episcopalians genuflect or kneel before the alter in their churches. So why is it that kneeling for the National Anthem, particularly if a person also has their head bowed as if in prayer, should be considered unpatriotic?

What I object to is to how politicians use patriotism to score political points. Donald Trump, calling on NFL team owners to fire players who kneel for the National Anthem, and Mike Pence walking out of a Colts football game while insisting the players are disrespecting the flag and military personnel, are not the only high-ranking politicians to evoke the “sin” of being unpatriotic. At the beginning of the U.S. preemptive invasion of Iraq to oust Saddam Hussein, President George W. Bush declared that people who didn’t support the war were unpatriotic.

Clearly, authentic patriotism should not be defined by the necessity of agreeing with a particular political policy or practice. The freedom to dissent lies at the heart of our democracy. If anything is unpatriotic, it is any action that interferes with this right.

I enjoy watching the NFL games on television, and occasionally attending a Colts game, but let’s not turn patriotism into a political football.

George Wolfe is Professor Emeritus and former director of the Ball State University Center for Peace and Conflict Studies. He is also chair of the Muncie Interfaith Fellowship, is a trained mediator, and is the author of The Spiritual Power of Nonviolence: Interfaith Understanding for a Future Without War.

George Wolfe

Sculpture Provokes Reflection on the Homeless
by George Wolfe

While walking through the Valparaiso University campus, I came across what appeared to be a man wrapped a dirty blanket, sleeping on a park bench. As I approached the bench, I began to suspect the image might be a sculpture. My insight was confirmed when I saw the wounds in the man’s feet. A plaque in front of the bench revealed the title of the artwork: “Homeless Jesus.”

This fall semester I have been teaching at Valparaiso University, filling in for a faculty member who is on sabbatical. This sculpture suddenly jolted me out of my academic “ivory tower” mindset to reflect on the growing plight of the homeless in the United States. I couldn’t help but compare this representation of Jesus to the iconic “Word of Life” mural by Millard Sheets on the University of Notre Dame campus, referred to by fighting Irish football fans as “Touchdown Jesus.” The Sheets mural, which depicts Jesus with his arms raised, received renewed attention when Notre Dame decided to renovate its football stadium to provide a better view of “Touchdown Jesus” for the fans seated in the stadium.

Immediately the thought ran through my head: “Valparaiso University; this Lutheran affiliated school really gets it.” And what an appropriate time to confront the issue of homelessness when this university, as well as protestant churches around the world, are commemorating the five-hundredth anniversary of the Reformation. This bronze sculpture is by Timothy Schmalz, a Canadian sculptor. It was first displayed in 2013 at Regis College at the University of Toronto. In addition to Valparaiso University, casts of “Homeless Jesus” have been installed at several locations in the U.S. including St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Davidson, North Carolina, Central Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas and outside the Archdiocese of Chicago’s headquarters for Catholic Charities. It is also on display at Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland, and in Rome outside the Papal Office of Charities.

This artistic masterpiece, which has been met with some controversy, stands in stark contrast to the usual depictions of Jesus as the Christ of glory adorned as a person of royalty. It is a humbling and profoundly meaningful representation of the Christ that captures the heart of the gospel message as it relates to the marginalized members of American society. It further calls attention to the increasing role religious organizations must play as more and more people lose health care, struggle in low paying minimum-wage jobs, and enter the ranks of the working poor. As our government continues to turn a blind eye to the problems rooted in poverty, religious and secular community organizations need to provide support in the form of food pantries, educational assistance and occupational counseling so people can receive help as they struggle to climb out of poverty.

George Wolfe is Professor Emeritus at Ball State University and former Director and Coordinator of Outreach Programs for the Ball State University Center for Peace and Conflict Studies. He is also an ordained interfaith minister, chairs the Muncie Interfaith Fellowship, is a trained mediator, and is the author of Meditations on Mystery: Science, Paradox and Contemplative Spirituality.

George Wolfe

Sexual Harassment — an age-old problem
by George Wolfe

If you have ever been to a show at the new Charles W. Brown Planetarium at Ball State University, you may have heard the person leading the program point out a constellation in the night sky known as the Pleiades. It is a fairly easy constellation to identify as it is directly overhead, and its visibility is relatively unaffected by city lights. Little do people realize that the Pleiades has a connection to Devils Tower in Wyoming and to the pervasive problem of sexual harassment.

Three years ago while visiting Boulder, Colorado, I drove northward to Devils Tower to see this famous landmark. There I learned of one of the myths that Native Americans used to explain this natural wonder. Here is my paraphrased version of the myth that comes from the Kiowa Tribe.

Seven maidens were walking in the forest when suddenly they were spotted and pursued by several bears. The maidens began running away, but the bears were catching up with them. The Great Spirit came to their rescue and caused the earth to rise up, placing the girls on top of Mateo Tepe (meaning “bear lodge”) which is the original Native American name for Devils Tower. The bears however, continued their pursuit by trying to climb the cliffs on each side of the rock formation. The vertical striations found on Devils Tower are said to be the result of claw marks left by the bears as they tried to climb the tower. As the bears closed in on their prey, the Great Spirit again intervened, placing the maidens in the sky where the bears could not reach them. The seven maidens then became the Pleiades star cluster, more popularly known in astronomy lore as the Seven Sisters.

In her book, Beast and Man (Routledge Classics, 2003), British moral philosopher Mary Midgley asserts that humans are more like animals than we may want to admit. Our inherited, primitive predatory instincts continue to shape our social and anti-social behavior, as revealed by the many recent high-profile revelations of sexual harassment.

As I pondered the meaning of this myth, I wondered how many male predators have left their claw marks on women’s lives. These are the scars that will never heal, inflicted by men who have not made peace with their own sexuality, who haven’t learned to restrain their sexual urges, respect women, and be guided by a higher moral consciousness.

So, next time you hear of powerful men harassing women in the workplace, pursuing teenage girls, or engaging in nonconsensual, sexually inappropriate behavior, remember the bears and the young girls in the Native American myth. Those seven maidens are among the lucky ones who got away.

George Wolfe is Professor Emeritus and Coordinator of Outreach Programs for the Ball State University Center for Peace and Conflict Studies. He is also chair of the Muncie Interfaith Fellowship, is a trained mediator, and is the author of The Spiritual Power of Nonviolence: Interfaith Understanding for a Future Without War.