Whether you are a red Republican or a blue
Democrat;
a Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist,
agnostic, or atheist;
living off entitlements or pulling in $1,000,000+;
straight or gay;
parent of a 6 year-old who attended Sandy Hook;
or a grandfather whose greatest delight is to take his
granddaughter deer and pheasant hunting;… this blog's for you. It offers no good answers, but
it suggests where good answers might be found.
Have you ever considered the burden
upon a judge to make truly just, objective decisions, irrespective of personal interests and feelings
(positive or negative) for the litigants and their respective attorneys?
Or, much closer to each of us, the
responsibility we bear as participants in the body politic (e.g., as voters) to
fairly discuss and decide what is our most rational and sound way forward,…
just and fair, even though an alternative option may be in one’s most immediate
personal interests (e.g., granting or eliminating an “entitlement” or a tax
increase or a tax cut)?
In a sense, as participants in the
body politic we are continually coming together to discuss the terms of the
optimal social contract and we decide many societal questions concerning:
-the vesting of power and
privileges;
-the proper exercise of power (and
appropriate limits);
-the distribution of limited
resources;
-the boundaries between personal
freedoms and prohibited behaviors;
-the level of care for the
disabled and disadvantaged;
and the list goes on and on.
We participate and decide such
matters in various ways, many unrecognized. But how SHOULD we participate? By
what approach and with what perspective?
John Rawls (1921 - 2002) urged that we
participate in such inescapable discussions and decisions behind a presumed
“veil of ignorance,”… as if we do not know the circumstances into which we (or
our children) are born. Let us have the discussion and each take our respective
stand as to what is most sound and just,… and only afterwards “turn the cards
up” and “pull back the veil of ignorance,” and discover our lot in life,…
whether we are female or male, brilliant or dull, black or white, handsome or
homely, strong or frail, gay or straight, born into wealth or desperate
poverty….
With the veil pulled back, we will
discover that some of us are born in the Hamptons and named “Edmund” with a
high Roman numeral behind something like Rockefeller or Kennedy or Gates or
Walton. Some of us are born “Tyrone,” HIV positive, in “the projects” to a
single mother, and no Roman numeral nor even a last name. Some of us are born
“Hamid” in the Sudan, and some “Lightfoot” on a Federal Reservation in North
Dakota. Some of us are born with the genetic makeup of “Michael” … Jordan,
Phelps or Tyson; others are born with severe spina bifida or with the genetic
makeup that will announce M.S. or terminal cancer at age 40. But this is the
thing: We do not know who we are, or who our children are, until we first take
a stand as to what is fair, what is right, and the kind of world in which we
really want to live.
When I discover that I am born to
an HIV positive street beggar in Burkina Faso who will not live to my 5th
birthday, I shall be glad and affirmed to have “voted” with charity and
compassion on issues of global health and poverty alleviation (while I was
still behind the veil of ignorance). That seems obvious.
But is it not just as obvious that
I should be equally satisfied to have “voted” for a compassionate, charitable,
and tolerant society when I discover that I have been born “Prince Charles,
Heir to the Throne”? Or a N.Y. banker earning $1+ million per year? Or a well
funded Islamic, Christian, or Hindu fundamentalist? Is it not that commitment
to community, charity, compassion, and tolerance that we desire to distinguish us from the beasts?
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