Michael Thompson wrote:
Please assist with the definition of "social justice." Is "social
justice" about equal opportunity, or equal outcome? It appears to me
that the latter is the operant notion in "social justice" rather than
the former. But since it's your term, maybe you can help.
Social justice is respeecting the dignity of every human being. It
implies equal opportunity but also that basic needs are met.
What will happen to you and me when we have to give up our car keys
due to age or some other reason?
I'll call for a ride. I won't automatically assume the government will
be responsible for transporting me all over creation just because I want
to go somewhere.
Who's going to come pick you up during the weekday when your kids
are working? People should be able to live independently in a
way that respects their dignity.
The "collective," as you put it (that is, us) has a responsibility
to the common good. Government services funded through taxes
are how we express our priority and commitment to the dignity of
those in our community.
It's absolutely criminal that the recent service cuts stranded a lot
of disabled people in the inner suburbs. I was at the Met Council
hearings on those cuts and people literally begged the council not
to cut them off from their jobs.
"Criminal" is a strong word, but then again so is "justice" in the
context of transportation. The city has a transportation system. I
believe it is adequate, though it is obvious many don't.
Talk to the many users of transit about how the cuts affected them.
We also have [LRT] to transport the less-well-heeled workers and
citizens of downtown Minneapolis from their mundane workaday lives
(this is how it was sold to us)
It was? I never read anything about "mundane." It's clear you're
just being belligerent.
Nevertheless, when I parse out your apparent logic, all I can come up
with is that, somehow, the government holds the ultimate responsibility
to get people from point A to point B, and government's failure to do so
is criminal.
"The government" is us. And yes, we _do_ have a responsibility to
each other. How should that responsibility be expressed? What's
your plan?
As with most catch-phrases associated with "justice" these
days, it appears to me that transportation is yet another "right" that
people have and, if the populace so lacks it, justice will not prevail.
Do we have a right to opportunity or not? Do we have the right to
worship in our community of choice or not? These are fundamental
American values and when we deny the means to exercise them, we
are sowing injustice.
Services cuts to busses will ultimately continue to happen within a
city, county and state that refuses to curb spending and demands that
everything is a "need" and there are no "want"s. I will contend, or
maybe even agree, that public transportation is a "need" more than a
"want"....... but then a "want" will have to be sacrificed in order to
make it happen (and holy hell will break loose when that individual's ox
is gored). Anyway, when we all finally realize this simple equation,
"justice" may actually prevail.
You have made two flawed assumptions: the first that we must operate
under a system of scarcity. We are a state and country of abundance.
Sharing that abundance is the first step toward justice.
Your second flawed assumption is that the wants of the individual must
necessarily trump the needs of the community. That is an extreme
distortion of our traditional American way of life, twisted into a
system where hyper-individualism, isolation and fear dominate our
very thinking.
David Greene
The Wedge
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