Why is it that we Americans believe safety, health, and a livable wage are privileges to be awarded to the worthy, rather than a set of basic human rights to be ensured as part of civic life?
My reaction to your first question just popped up right away: the problem is we don't believe to be human is to be worthy. One must pass a means test of wealth, power, race, gender--some combination thereof. We don't believe as the Bantu-speaking people supposedly do that "I am because WE are; because we are, I am". Instead we assign value based on criteria that are largely symbolic. I'll stop there.
I need only look out my downtown apartment window to see grizzled beings huddled against the cold in blankets and other assortments of coverings. How to respond? That's the question for me and one you inspire me to consider deeply.
Thank you, Lyn, for your comments and reflections. "The problem is we don't believe to be human is to be worthy" - I find that to be a succinct and sadly accurate statement. How do we enact a commitment to the opposite belief: that to be human is to be worthy? Like you, I consider that question frequently.
Thanks, Liz, for your weekly voice of sanity.
My reaction to your first question just popped up right away: the problem is we don't believe to be human is to be worthy. One must pass a means test of wealth, power, race, gender--some combination thereof. We don't believe as the Bantu-speaking people supposedly do that "I am because WE are; because we are, I am". Instead we assign value based on criteria that are largely symbolic. I'll stop there.
I need only look out my downtown apartment window to see grizzled beings huddled against the cold in blankets and other assortments of coverings. How to respond? That's the question for me and one you inspire me to consider deeply.
Thank you, Lyn, for your comments and reflections. "The problem is we don't believe to be human is to be worthy" - I find that to be a succinct and sadly accurate statement. How do we enact a commitment to the opposite belief: that to be human is to be worthy? Like you, I consider that question frequently.