CISPES: Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador

In the mid-1970s, two Purdue University professors, one in political science and the other in sociology, worked together to establish an Indiana chapter of CISPES (Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador). At the time, El Salvador was in the midst of an internal civil war between the government headed by Jose Napolean Duarte, and the opposition forces under the banner of the FMLN (Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front). The government and military were accused of using "death squads" to intimidate many residents of rural areas from supporting rebel forces. The goal of the Indiana CISPES chapter was to inform community organizations throughout the state of events in El Salvador, and how the U.S. support for Duarte and the military was working against the interests of most Salvadorans. A second goal was to provide support for social and political groups from El Salvador that were traveling in the Midwest to meet with groups in the U.S. CISPES also undertook special projects like bringing a post-graduate student from El Salvador's national university to Purdue to study how field methods could be applied to reach the general pubic in hostile environments like the one existing in El Salvador.

On November 16, 1989, six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter were killed at the campus of Universidad Centro-America in El Salvador. The killings made many think of the killing of Archbishop Oscar Romero who was assassinated while saying mass in March of 1980,when there was a major crackdown by the Death Squads against anyone with sympathies for the FMLN. The first thoughts of the CISPES group was that our former student at Universidad Centro-America was fortunate not to be involved in the attack, but for how long would she be safe? We began efforts to get the student out of El Salvador and into the United States. It was not easy, but we received specific instructions of how to do so. Robert and Carolyn set up a bank account in the student's name at a specific bank in Southern California with deposits in the amount of $15,000. In 2018 dollars, that would be $31,000. All went well, and our former Salvadoran student is now living a full life in the U.S.

Buy American to Create Jobs

In March 2014 we published an article in Sociological Forum that was titled "The Good Society: Core Social Values, Social Norms, and Public Policy." That article had a section called Buy American to Create Jobs. Here is what we wrote.

One of the desirable features of a good society is that it should have a strong and growing economy which provides employment opportunities for all of its citizens. In contemporary America such an economy does not now exist, and much of the turmoil and political conflict is about the best policies to achieve that end. Keeping in mind that our view of the good society is a bottom-up view, not a top-down view, we begin with the things that all citizens can do to create a vibrant economy before we discuss what government can do.

Thus, we begin with a set of prescriptive norms that are meant to guide behavior as consumers. When Americans call upon their government to create jobs, they must be prepared as consumers to take the lead and to exhibit behavior that is consistent with job creation. The first step is to buy autos, home appliances, and electronics from companies that produce in the United States with a high percentage of domestic content in their products. Of course, the imperative to buy American will probably lead to higher costs for consumers, because it will mean avoiding the "big box" stores that attract customers with lower-cost goods that have been produced in low-wage countries. But it is also possible that the development of  community industries would catch on and lead to revitalization of textile production in the United States and be a stimulus to the growth of co-ops and worker-owned businesses.

If you want to know more about these ideas you can read the article or our 2009 book America at Risk: The Crisis of Hope, Trust, and Caring.

Illegal Immigrants

In our 2009 book, America At Risk: The Crisis of Hope, Trust, and Caring, we presented our views on how to deal with the matter of illegal immigrants. Here is what we wrote.

A current issue facing Americans that has great potential for dividing them in warring camps is the question of what to do regarding the estimated the 10 to 12 million illegal immigrants currently in the United States. Most of those undocumented migrants are Mexican nationals, while some come from Central American nations. Most have come to the United States in search of a better life for themselves and their children, and Americans are divided about how welcoming we should be to people who have broken the law and what should be done. Let us exclude for the moment the views of groups that have their own agendas, like political groups that see immigrants as potential voters, union leaders who see them as workers who can be organized, and xenophobic or racist groups defending white supremacy. The remaining Americans who disagree on this issue tend to be divided into those claiming to be compassionate and generous versus those who are firm law abiders.

In order to move beyond the shouting and divided zealots on both sides, it will be necessary to identify a set of values that both sides embrace. For example, if both side in the immigration debate can agree on endorsing the values of family and hard work, then it may be possible to develop legislation that both sides can endorse. Let's call it the Working Family Pathway to Citizenship Law and apply it to the current population of undocumented immigrants. Under this plan, if an illegal is married, has a family, has been employed in the United States for at least five years, has been paying Social Security, has children in local schools, and gets a reference from an employer, than he/she will be on the fast track to U.S. citizenship. At the other end of the spectrum, unmarried immigrants who have been in the United States a short time and have erratic employment records will be eligible for deportation. The law would list eligibility for citizenship according to the family-work conditions of the immigrant, with some becoming citizens and some deported.

We think that a Pathway to Citizenship Law that affirms certain shared values has a chance of unifying Americans who, on the one hand, want to be welcoming because they acknowledge that we were all immigrants once, with Americans who place high value on being law abiding and fair. The goal is to find common ground on divisive issues that identify values that bring Americans together rather than those that divide. That is the only way in which a nation of people that has many identity groups can engender trust of each other.

Cold War Script

We recently wrote a post that argued that people are often guided by "scripts" when they make choices of how do deal with new situations. That post may be found on this blog. We now want to extend the idea of scripts beyond being a guide for individual action, to the idea that there are "social scripts." We propose that one such script may be called a "cold war script." It is obviously based in the political opposition to the new president and his positive views of Russia and its leader Putin. But the anti-Trump theme is often couched in recollections of the long-standing "Cold War" between the US and the USSR. Remember, the USSR no longer exists, but the "cold war script" goes back to the days following World War II and it is presented as if the US was still engaged in a struggle for the "hearts and minds " of many people around the world. (Aside: do you remember the "hearts and minds" script from the Vietnam era?). Anyway, where does the cold war script come from? Obviously, the media love it, because they have to write stories to fill up their pages every day. And they must glean their tidbits for daily stories from those who are politically connected elected officials and members of various foundations and "think tanks."

In the old days there were "cold warriors" who could always be counted upon to provide the media with tidbits for their daily stories. But today, there are as yet no "new cold warriors," at least any who have been identified as such. Again, in the old days, there were many organizations that enjoyed financial benefits from the "cold war," including defense contractors, universities, and think tanks. But who today benefits from the new cold war script? That is our question, and we leave it for you to consider.    

What is a fact?

Robert just finished listening to an early morning BBC show on NPR. It involved a number of journalists discussing the role of the media in overseeing the activities of elected officials. They were all very positive about their new assignment of being "fact checkers" and telling their listeners about who was speaking the "truth" and who wasn't. It reminded me of my first sociology course at Cortland State over 50 years ago. The instructor asked me "What is a fact?" I was baffled by the question and don't remember what I said.

Carolyn and I have written about the meaning of  the national measure of unemployment, about which the media reported during the past week. In our writings on the topic we have discussed the complexity of the generally accepted measure of unemployment, and the many layers of meaning that are hidden in the use of a single measure of the nation's economic health.

So, again we say: what is a fact?

On average, I'm getting screwed

This post is a quick reaction to some comments in the media on 1/22/17 regarding the inaugural address by President Trump. The theme of the comments was about how "dark" the address was regarding the United States, in that it emphasized things that were wrong in America. In contrast, several media figures provided positive statistics that reveal declining unemployment, rising wages, expanding exports, rising stock market, etc. In short, things look good in America so why did Trump emphasize the downside of everything. The answer is that ON AVERAGE everything does look good, but the people who voted for Trump are located at one end of the distribution on income, employment, and wages.   

Galileo's Crime and Social Justice

In 2001, Robert gave his presidential address to the Society for the Study of Social Problems at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington DC. He called upon the members of SSSP to join him in committing Galileo's crime. What exactly was that crime? Drawing upon the writings of the historian Santillana, Robert pointed out that the crime was not really about whether the earth or sun was at the center of the universe, but the fact that Galileo presented his findings not in Latin, the language of the elites, but in Italian, the language of the people. Thus, Galileo was doing public science, and Robert called upon SSSP to commit the crime of public sociology by finding ways to get their research findings before the larger public.

Addendum: As an historical oddity, Robert's father drove a cab in DC for 35 years and his favorite cab stand was the one outside the Mayflower Hotel. Why?  Because he believed that the Doorman of the Mayflower followed the cabbies "fair rules" of never letting new passengers enter a cab that was discharging riders. Instead, the doorman always called for one of the cabs in line at the cabstand.