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Tikkun LETTERS intent and spirit of the Jubilee is this: to the extent the rent potential of land is abolished, the incentive to hoard land evaporates. At present there is powerful incentive to specu- late in land values, to acquire and under- Readers Respond develop land, and then wait for a rise in mere land value independent of any improvement to that land itself. Where the full rent potential is socialized and thus removed as an objective of A NOTE ON LETTERS TO THE EDITOR the investor, land ceases to be withheld from We welcome your responses to our articles. Send letters to the editor to [email protected]. the market for meeting current housing and business needs. Indeed, a full land value tax Please remember, however, not to attribute to Tikkun views other than those expressed in our compels those with desirable land to put it to editorials. We email, post, and print many articles with which we have strong disagreements optimal market use immediately! If the owner because that is what makes Tikkun a location for a true diversity of ideas. Tikkun reserves the of a site has to pay society the full site rent right to edit your letters to fi t available space in the magazine. value, he will develop that site with diligence in order to derive income. Advocating for this modern version (the INSIDE DISABILITY JUSTICE difference is that today it is the socially gener- land value tax) of the intent of the Jubilee is no Your welcome attention to “disability justice” ated value of land that one cannot be alienated more challenging or idealistic than inveighing in your Fall 2014 print issue found me recov- from without dire individual and social conse- corporations, nations, and individuals to “do ering from a year’s bout with cancer and fac- quences. To the extent that these socially gen- the right thing” and believing that these enti- ing the new experience of using a wheelchair, erated values are privatized, their privilege is ties will do so. Solomon proposes that “tradi- rollator, and cane for post- hospital getting incarnated and a gross injustice is perpetrated. tional land rights should be respected as far as around in New York City. Not only am I now To the extent that the socially generated value compatible with economic realities.” Well that more empathetic with the debilitating effects of land is socialized, the meaning of commu- is as much as conceding Creation to private of illness; I am also newly grateful for those nity is realized. I will supply just two examples: parties just as we have at present. “Compatible pioneers of urban transportation that make First, in a jurisdiction where land values with economic realities” amounts to saying, my city livable for the disabled: beveled curbs, are completely socialized — where the annual “We can’t change anything (much less heal the buses with easy wheelchair access, subways rent potential of “location, location, loca- world).” Such a position is not tikkun; it is in with seats, and laws that favor the disabled. tion” is taken up as revenue for paying for fi re its very statement a broken covenant. These facilities are examples of clearing away protection, streets, education, public transit, — David Giesen, San Francisco, CA structural barriers to justice in urban life. etc. — the sales price of land falls toward zero. Along with this, I fi nd, goes the readiness of Why? Because when anything, including land, EMBRACING GOD’S QUEERNESS many fellow riders to vacate a seat for some- ceases to generate income for its owner, it loses After hearing Rabbi Lerner speak in Ashland, one in a wheelchair or carrying a cane. Turns its sales price. The abolition of the sales price Oregon, this past summer, I subscribed to Tik- out that Tom Shakespeare’s quote from Jean of land destroys land- value- related debt and kun. What a pleasant surprise to receive my Vanier has implications for both the architec- the interest that goes along with that debt. In fi rst issue with the article “Embracing God’s ture and the culture of cities: “The weak teach many places, certainly anywhere that is desir- Queerness” highlighted on the cover. I applaud the strong to accept and integrate the weak- able, half and more of the debt associated with your decision to feature the voice of Joy Ladin ness and brokenness of their own lives.” Seats real estate is the sales price of land. A land speaking from the fringe of religious sensi- on bus and subway are a great continuing value tax would eliminate debt for land, hence bility, whether it be Christian or Jewish. Our reinforcement of that acceptance. ending interest on land debt. religious progenitors were always radicals, defy- — Donald Shriver, New York, NY With this dynamic at play, the prospect of ing established norms. What a breath of fresh paying for a house in seven years isn’t so hard air to read this thoughtful article. Thank you! SOCIALIZING LAND VALUE to imagine. Solomon’s assertion that long- term — Julian Spalding, Ashland, OR I am very pleased to see that through the mortgage debt is inescapable is simply wrong. online addendums to the Winter 2015 issue But it’s wrong only when land is treated as a EMBRACING A UTOPIAN VISION (published at tikkun.org/jubilee) the Jubilee common heritage and a commonwealth, as Thank you for urging us to embrace a utopian and debt sabbatical themes are still very much something that it is heresy and absurd to priva- vision in Rabbi Lerner’s Fall 2014 editorial, alive in Tikkun magazine. I’d like to share a tize. Rabbi Hillel condoned the privatization of “The Big Picture — a Movie I’d Like to Make.” response to Norman Solomon’s online contri- Creation when he conceived the prosbul. Pe- Unfortunately, the visions we view in books bution, “The Jubilee and the Global Economy: riod. He was theologically an apostate in that and fi lms are usually dystopian, fi lled with Lessons from Leviticus.” regard. I don’t condemn him. His position was The economic effect of the Jubilee’s fi fty- expedient in a tenuous time. But it denied God, year family land restoration was to ensure the King of Creation, by substituting for com- MORE LETTERS that all Hebrews had access to the basis of mon inheritance in land the Romanesque legal a livelihood, that they had access to land. In provisions for privatizing land itself. We receive many more letters than we can today’s complex economy it is the same: equal- My second example of how socializing the print! Visit tikkun.org/letters to read more. ity of access to land is the basis of justice. The value of land begets justice in accord with the VOL. 30, NO. 3, SUMMER 2015 | © 2015 TIKKUN MAGAZINE | DOI: 10.1215/08879982-3140152 TIKKUN 3 Published by Duke University Press Tikkun zombies, evil aliens, and killer sharks embody- ing all that is frightening around us. Although I’m merely a lowly public health Tikkun magazine is . specialist and teacher, I have written a politi- . a vehicle for spreading a new consciousness. We call it a spiritual progressive cal novel that also presents a more utopian worldview. But what is that? alternative — one that is postcapitalistic, post- What Do You Mean by “Spiritual”? money, and in which more enlightened edu- You can be spiritual and still be an atheist or agnostic. To be spiritual, you don’t cational, penal, medical, and social systems have to believe in God or accept New Age versions of spirituality. You don’t prevail. need to give up science or your critical faculties. We use the word “spiritual” to — Barry Karlin, Boulder, CO describe all aspects of reality that cannot be subject to empirical verifi cation or measurement: everything pertaining to ethics, aesthetics, music, art, philosophy, religion, poetry, literature, dance, love, generosity, and joy. We reject the notion that everything worthy of consideration to guide our personal lives and our Help Us Reach economic and political arrangements must be measurable. More Bookstores What’s a Spiritual Progressive? If your local independent bookstore To be a spiritual progressive is to agree that our public institutions, corporations, sells magazines, please urge government policies, laws, education system, health care system, legal system, them to order Tikkun from our and even many aspects of our personal lives should be judged “effi cient, rational, distributor, Ingram (magorder. or productive” to the extent that they maximize love, caring, generosity, and ethi- sales@ingramperiodicals. cal and environmentally sustainable behavior. We call this our New Bottom Line. com or 800-627-6247) or Spiritual progressives seek to build “The Caring Society: Caring for Each directly from our publisher, Duke Other and Caring for the Earth.” Our well-being depends upon the well-being of University Press (subscriptions@ everyone else and also on the well-being of the planet itself. So we commit to an dukeupress.edu or 919-688- ethos of generosity, nonviolence, and radical amazement at the grandeur of all 4134). Please also urge natural that is, and seek to build a global awareness of the unity of all being. food stores to order Tikkun If you are willing to help promote this New Bottom Line for our society, you are through OneSource Magazine a spiritual progressive. And if you are a spiritual progressive, we invite you to join Distribution (720-287-5952). our Network of Spiritual Progressives at spiritualprogressives.org. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Send your letters to the editor to [email protected] EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Rachel Adler, Gar Alperovitz, Michael Berenbaum, Chet Bowers, Paul Buhle, Abby Caplin, Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Josephine Donovan, Elliot Dorff, Terry Eagleton, Duane Elgin, Sidra Ezrahi, John Felstiner, Margaret Flowers, Saul Friedlander, Nan Fink Gefen, Laura Geller, Ann Gleig, John P.

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