From the City of St. Louis—More Good News of Humanity’s Nobility

More good news about humanity’s capacity for compassion, and therefore nobility, comes from the city of St. Louis.  In an article entitled “St. Lous Looks to Resettle Chicago Migrants from Venezuela to Reverse Declining Population, Boost Workforce,” we learn that the migrant crisis in Chicago triggered a smart response from the city of St. Louis.

It also, it seems to me, sets a precedent and triggers some much-needed societal moral imagination in place of the tired shouting about migrants and migration at the border.  This story is for citizens and politicians who want solutions and not just slogans. 

There are plenty of places and workforces in America’s (aging) population that need young workers and young families.  Why not create win-win-win solutions like St. Louis offers in this proposal?  This is nobility—and intelligence and common sense and justice and compassion—at work.

Here is the story.  It seems that around 20,000 migrants, most from Venezuela, arrived in Chicago this year, and finding them places to stay has been a challenge.  The well-known Chicago winter is on its way.  At the same time, St. Louis “is currently in a decline of population and employees, and some in the city believe the migrants and the city would be better off long-term if they moved there.” 

The International Institute of St. Louis announced a new “Latino Outreach Program” in October that would attract and accommodate migrants from Latin America.  The vice president of Latino Outreach, Karlos Ramirez, said an agreement “could be the potential for a great relationship between both cities—if the [migrants] are going to be in a better place, St. Louis is going to be in a better place, and Chicago is going to be in a better place….Everybody wins.”*

Seeking solutions where “everybody wins” strikes me as a pretty good working definition of both compassion and justice.  Nobility shines.  Recrimination ceases.  Winners everywhere.  

*https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/st-louis-looks-to-resettle-chicago-migrants-from-venezuela-to-reverse-long-declining-population-and-boost-work-force/

See Matthew Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion. 

And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society. 

And Fox, Creativity: Where the Divine and the Human Meet.

Banner image: “Immigrants Make America Great” in Seattle. Photo by Nitish Meena on Unsplash

Queries for Contemplation

Do you recognize human nobility and intelligent and meaningful problem-solving involving moral imagination in this story?  What other applications of our nobility arise from such stories as these?

Recommended Reading

A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice

In A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox delivers a profound exploration of the meaning and practice of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the future that promises personal, social, and global healing, Fox marries mysticism with social justice, leading the way toward a gentler and more ecological spirituality and an acceptance of our interdependence which is the substratum of all compassionate activity.
“Well worth our deepest consideration…Puts compassion into its proper focus after centuries of neglect.” –The Catholic Register

Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society

Visionary theologian and best-selling author Matthew Fox offers a new theology of evil that fundamentally changes the traditional perception of good and evil and points the way to a more enlightened treatment of ourselves, one another, and all of nature. In comparing the Eastern tradition of the 7 chakras to the Western tradition of the 7 capital sins, Fox allows us to think creatively about our capacity for personal and institutional evil and what we can do about them. 
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a better vision and depth of perception far beyond the grasp of any one single science.  A breath-taking analysis.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, author of Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics

Creativity: Where the Divine and Human Meet

Because creativity is the key to both our genius and beauty as a species but also to our capacity for evil, we need to teach creativity and to teach ways of steering this God-like power in directions that promote love of life (biophilia) and not love of death (necrophilia). Pushing well beyond the bounds of conventional Christian doctrine, Fox’s focus on creativity attempts nothing less than to shape a new ethic.
“Matt Fox is a pilgrim who seeks a path into the church of tomorrow.  Countless numbers will be happy to follow his lead.” –Bishop John Shelby Spong, author, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Living in Sin