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Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Superpowers & Chess



Joseph, our youngest, went with me to the grocery store to buy food for a delegation supper.  The night before Mike, Daniel, Joseph and I had talked with a group of high school students from Houston about our work, Nicaragua and poverty among many other topics.  


One student asked if it would be helpful to Nicaragua to have the U.S, a superpower, lend aid in helping Nicaragua sort out its internal problems.  This was the question Joseph and I discussed that led Joseph to explain to me that maybe there is a perception that the U.S. is a superpower…like Loki or Superman.


What a unique perspective!  This was a brand new concept to me…and one that rang ominously true. 

The whole world does refer to the U.S. as a superpower and most of the time this is not a good term.  I tend to think of
our nation as a kind of Batman with more money than we really know what to do with so we end up with the most sophisticated weapons…and then we sit down to play chess.


We set up the pieces and we play with the world either watching or being part of the game itself…and that is our superpower, to move the pieces on the board in the manner we think is best.


The problem with chess and with superpowers is that the rooks and other lowly pieces are expendable…they can be sacrificed for the betterment or security of the “king” or the powerful.


Sacrificing the “rooks” goes against the super hero code…it is the lowly and the vulnerable who are saved by the Super Heroes.  Chess also goes against most religious beliefs and humanistic thinking.
 

Chess, though a great game of logic and competition, is not a game for people to live.  It is not a game for those of us who hold to the concept of the preferential option of the poor…that the poor are loved and we are called to live our lives opting to side with the poor.  The poor are not expendable.  They have been sacrificed enough for power and wealth and gain and the game needs to end a different way.


Maybe the best way for us, the U.S., to change our Super Power status is to use our wealth for the betterment of others…look for ways to side with the poor in our nation and in our world…use our technology not to enhance our Batmobiles or our Batcave or our weapons but use our technology to lift up the poor, the vulnerable, the oppressed…and use our knowledge for good not for check mate...who knows we might actually achieve peace.   -Kathleen