Win Some, Lose Some

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Do you ever just need a win? Have you ever just had the blues of the world hit you, causing you to stop and think to yourself, “I need something good right now or I’m gonna lose it”? Where do you normally turn? Perhaps you go outside, maybe you talk with some friends, or maybe you find comfort in literature and movies. These are better attempts to find some modicum of happiness than to look where I normally look: The world of sports.

I am an unbearable Chicago Bulls basketball fan. The season started out promising, with the Bulls competing for the top spot in the NBA’s Eastern Conference. But now, with the playoffs beginning next week, the team I have tied my happiness to has slipped to sixth place in the East. There’s still a chance they win it all, but it’s not looking great. I’ve got to stop doing this to myself.

And before you say it, I already know: It’s not worth it to get so wrapped up in sports. In times where the losses start piling up, I’ve tried to look elsewhere. It’s tempting to turn to friends but, especially as I enter my mid-30s, that can be a disappointing proposition. I enjoy a movie on occasion, but every movie I watch seems to revolve around cops. I read and write for a living, but I do both slower than I would like which is probably why I resonate with what Yelena Moskovich notes in her essay for Jewish Currents: “I’m a loser. So I try to read. I read so slow. Everybody else reads so fast.”

Enough with the pity party. In all seriousness, this week there was a historic win unrelated to sports that lifted my spirits in a dramatic way. Amazon employees at the JFK8 warehouse voted to establish a union! The Amazon Labor Union shirts are a vibrant red. I’ve seen that red before somewhere. Oh — it’s kind of a matador red. Can someone let me know where to buy one? I can pretend it’s a Bulls’ championship T-shirt.

1. Recent Union Wins Mean It’s Time for More Organized Religion
It’s time for Christians — including laypeople — to show up en masse for poor and low-income workers. By Matt Bernico via sojo.net.

2. How Amazon’s Immigrant Workers Organized to Win a Union on Staten Island
A key part of the union’s win was immigrant workers organizing each other to support the union. Interview of Brima Sylla by Eric Blanc via jacobinmag.com.

3. Baruch Hashem
I’m white trash. Jew trash. Immigrant trash. Girl-boy trash. I’m a Casanova without a cause. By Yelena Moskovich via jewishcurrents.org.

4. Asian Americans Are ‘Bringing Heaven to Earth’ by Fighting Racism
But it isn’t AAPI people’s responsibility to end AAPI hate. By Russell Jeung via sojo.net.

5. It’s Your Friends Who Break Your Heart
The older we get, the more we need our friends — and the harder it is to keep them. By Jennifer Senior via theatlantic.com.

6. Critical Race Theory Invites Us to Remember Christ
Our national amnesia needs the rebuke of God in solidarity with the oppressed. By Justin D. Klassen via sojo.net.

7. Amazon Workers Who Won a Union Their Way Open Labor Leaders’ Eyes
The success of an independent drive has organized labor asking whether it should take more of a back seat. By Noam Scheiber via nytimes.com.

8. Christians Need a Renewed Imagination, Not ‘Copaganda’
Police thrillers like ‘Ambulance’ imagine a world of ‘good guys’ vs. ‘bad guys.’ Jesus saw it differently. By Joe George via sojo.net.

9. Judge Jackson Knows ‘We Are Not the Worst Thing We’ve Done’
The Senate’s confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson featured two different perspectives on personal harm and community rupture. By Melissa Florer-Bixler via sojo.net.

10. The Church Must Address Class Divisions
The challenge is no longer asking church leadership to acknowledge the poverty of my generation in preparation for a future, darker time when Millennial poverty is the norm. That future has arrived. By M.K. Anderson via thehourmag.com.