April 24

Today is Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, and marks the day in 1915 when the Ottoman Empire began rounding up Armenian leaders—scientists, clergy, politicians, and teachers—and deporting them. As our own government adopts such tactics with immigrants and also targets intellectuals in academia, it is important to connect the dots between these historical acts of genocide and what our leaders are currently doing in depriving people of due process. One and a half million people were killed in this genocide which, like the Holocaust of World War Two, also has its historical deniers among contemporary fascists.

Today is the feast day of St. Mary Salome, called Salome in the gospels. She was one of the female witnesses to the crucifixion and helped clean and prepare Jesus’ body for burial. She was the wife of Zebedee, mother of James, and possibly sister to Mary the Mother of Jesus and aunt of Jesus. Along with the other women present for Jesus’ crucifixion and burial, she is revered for her faith and courage in standing with Jesus against the tyranny of the Roman empire.

Today in 1932, Benny Rothman organized the mass trespass of Kinder Scout, because wealthy landowners had begun fencing off parts of the Scottish countryside. Freedom of movement was and is part of Scottish culture, and this event caused walker’s rights across the countryside to be written into law. 

Reflection:

If you live in the United States, in most places you can find your county tax assessor’s website and pull up a map of land with information about who owns what, and what they pay in property taxes. Frankly, it’s a bit creepy, but it’s also fascinating. What you will notice by looking at such maps is that nearly every square inch of this nation is owned by someone. If you are a human being born in this country, from the time you draw your first breath, you have to pay rent or have permission from someone to occupy physical space. There are few places like “The Commons” of the past, land protected or held in trust for the public good. Even in our public parks, benches and architecture are designed to be hostile to unhoused people who have nowhere to sleep. Land is property here, and you are hardly allowed freedom of movement, or even existence, unless you are in a motorized vehicle or are paying rent or a mortgage.

As common land disappeared in Scotland, though, people held onto the tradition of being able to walk in nature across open fields and woods. It is a right. Rock walls often have steps to go over, if they do not have a gate, so that people can have access to open land. I marvel at the fact that people can walk nearly anywhere without being threatened with guns, dogs, or arrest.  

While I recognize that housing, property rights, traveler’s rights, and squatter’s rights are complex issues, I admire the people power and the culture that declares property rights are not absolutely exclusionary, and that freedom of movement must be respected. I can’t help but wonder how our culture would change if we viewed land not as something to be owned, but something to be stewarded for the greater good of the world, and walkers not as trespassers but as guests. 

This is the first half of an anonymous poem from 1821 called “The Goose and the Common”

Genocide, of course, is the extreme opposite of a belief in freedom of movement and the right to life. Both the fascist and the oligarch share in common a belief that they should be able to decide who exists where.

Prayer: God, we are but tenants on this world of yours, and we own nothing forever. Help us to be generous sharers of your abundance. Amen.