Alone at the top.

The Orioles are in first place. You heard me. We're 1.23% through the season, and Baltimore is on top. Don't call it a comeback. We've been here for years.

I've been reading a lot about globalization lately, as it will figure prominently in my thesis. It really makes me aware of how precarious my life is, and how fortunate I am to be able to do what I do. That priveleged position is also a key source of guilt for me and, I'd wager, for most Americans who are aware of it. It's easy to see why so many people are resistant to the forces of globalization. They present an enormous unknown commodity and challenge our traditional cultural and social identities. I believe that those forces, regardless of their ethical value, a) are unstoppable and b) constantly present us with chances to be better neighbors to each other and better stewards of creation. In my classes, this makes me an optimist.

Today we had a discussion about balancing our sense of justice against foreign cultural values. The case was the treatment of women in Southeast Asia and Mexico, in communities where multi-national corporations take advantage of pre-existing gender roles to generate a largely voiceless, oppressed female workforce. The tricky part is that the gender roles that are exploited are those of daughter, mother, and wife. The way these roles are structured, especially in SE Asia, would be highly offensive to most Americans, but is it our place to try to "correct" them? Against my every instinct, I don't think so, but I'm not sure. Cultures are not absolute. I take issue with the fact that American corporations (Japanese, too) indirectly set up sweatshops and factories in these places with conditions that have been illegal here since the Triangle Shirt Factory fire. As the "greatest nation on earth" we can afford to demand better.

So we all participate in this system. Something you own was made by women who were not allowed to use the bathroom, who were forced to perform extremely repetitive actions for hours on end, and who were verbally and perhaps physically abused at work. It is virtually impossible, as consumers, to be knowledgeable enough to avoid these economic interactions. How do we reconcile that to the fact that these systems, which make us wealthy, are flagrant violations of our basic calling to be people of God? How are we to use the leverage and privelege we have as Americans in a global economy? Someday I want to write a book about that.