Vacation Privilege Harmony UU Podcast

The following is a transcript of the sermon written and delivered by Harmony members Gretchen Johnson and Doren Cook on July 2, 2023.The concept of “vacation privilege” is something I didn’t really think about until fairly recently. And it’s ironic; I was texting with Paul Smith and he let me know he was not going to be here today because he’s in Africa with his family. And he said, how ironic, you’re talking about vacation privilege, and here I am in Africa.But what we want to talk about today is there’s a lot more, you tend to think about socioeconomics when it comes to where you vacation. There’s a lot more to that and we don’t all have the ability to travel safely everywhere. So Doren and I hope to create awareness and then in discussion talk about how we can support others and be a force for change. So it’s said there are three types of wealth in the summer.Some of you who are older may remember these days. There’s the people that have central air conditioning, likely a lot of us here in this room. There’s the people who have one room air conditioner, usually in the parents’ room. And then there’s people who have no air conditioning, who swelter in a hot room and all fight over who gets to sit in front of the fan. That was my house growing up. So.Thinking about vacation, I know the pictures are kind of small, but I’m hoping when you look at this, you probably relate to one of the photos. You have taken a vacation in your lifetime. You look at a budget. You pick a destination. You talk about if you’re going to fly or drive.That’s what vacation is to you. However, according to Bankrate, more than a third of the people in this country can’t take a vacation of any kind. And that was sobering for me. I did not realize it was that high. So they’re bombarded with guilt because all we hear is take your kids on vacation, go on vacation. Your teacher says, where did you go on summer vacation?And there’s a lot of people who have to say nothing. I didn’t go on vacation. There was an article called Summer Vacation Really Sucks When You’re Poor. And it talked about how expensive it is to be poor in the summer. You’ve got higher electrical costs if you are lucky enough to have air conditioning. You have to figure out how to feed your child because they’re not going to school and perhaps getting a free lunch.You’ve got guilt because you’re not able to take your kids on vacation or to Kings Island like everybody else. We used to think if you were poor you’d go to the YMCA camp—at least that was the town I grew up in. Most Y camps today cost more than $200 a week. So if you figure that for a summer, chances are you’re not using that for child care. So a lot of folks are working two jobs, three jobs. They have to be away from their kidsSo what do the kids do? Unfortunately, a lot of them are either staying home alone, maybe with an older sibling if they’re lucky, or the more fortunate ones are staying with relatives. But it’s certainly not the situation that many of us encounter. So if you’re in this situation, what do you do? You have no money. You Google it. That’s what I did. What do people do when they have no money and want to take their kids on vacation?And I will tell you, it was very sobering and very sad. And I know some of you who work in social services are aware of this. The two answers that came up first, vacation is expensive. Save 5% to 10% of your income to plan for it. Now, if you are living paycheck to paycheck, you can’t feed your family. Obviously, you can’t do this. And it said, this is a quote, “Almost any family,