If someone breaks into Paris Hilton's mansion, she will probably call 911. We don't suggest that because she's rich, she doesn't need access to the police--or deserve access to the police any more or less than any one of us.
Conversely, having access to the police department doesn't deprive Paris Hilton of her right to hire a personal bodyguard to protect her from the paparazzi.
So why does the negative team keep arguing that facilitating access will somehow take rich people's choices away?
Perhaps they would rather we lived in a feudal society where the ruling class hire private knights to protect them from danger and the rest of us live at their behest.
We believe that nations should be democratic--that people should share the resources. Don't we all at least deserve the basics? Isn't that why the Declaration of Indepedence says that all men are created equal? Isn't that why the Constitution asserts that governments "provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare?"
Defense against invasion, harm or theft?
Defense against medical epidemics, pandemics, disease?
Is the health of individuals not an inherent component of general welfare?
Can we continue to call ourselves a just society while millions of Americans get up everyday, walk to the bus stop and ride for hours to make it on time to a job that pays minimum wage?
They wait our tables, cook us breakfast, pick our strawberries, mow our lawns. And you know what? If one of them cut his or her finger off, he or she would be out of work and out of luck with no access to medicine or care.
No one, with a straight face, can call that justice.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment