Posted on by Fred

The Omelas Problem

In a basement under one of the beautiful public buildings of Omelas, or perhaps in the cellar of one of its spacious private homes, there is a room.  It has one locked door, and no window.  A little light seeps in dustily between cracks in the boards, secondhand from a cobwebbed window somewhere across the cellar. In one corner of the little room a couple of mops, with stiff, clotted, foul-smelling heads, stand near a rusty bucket.  The floor is dirt, a little damp to the touch, as cellar dirt usually is.  The room is about three paces long and two wide: a mere broom closet or disused tool room. In the room, a child is sitting.  It could be a boy or a girl.  It looks about six, but actually is nearly ten. It is feeble-minded.  Perhaps it was born defective, or perhaps it has become imbecile through fear, malnutrition, and neglect.  It picks its nose and occasionally fumbles vaguely with its toes or genitals, as it sits hunched in the corner farthest from the bucket and the two mops.  It is afraid of the mops.  It finds them horrible.  It shuts its eyes, but it knows the mops are still standing there; and the door is locked; and nobody will come.  The door is always locked; and nobody ever comes, except that sometimes–the child has no understanding of time or interval–sometimes the door rattles terribly and opens, and a person, or several people, are there.  One of them may come in and kick the child to make it stand up.  The others never come close, but peer in at it with frightened, disgusted eyes.  The food bowl and the water jug are hastily filled, the door is locked; the eyes disappear.  The people at the door never say anything, but the child, who has not always lived in the tool room, and can remember sunlight and its mother’s voice, sometimes speaks.  “I will be good, ” it says.  “Please let me out.  I will be good!” They never answer.  The child used to scream for help at night, and cry a good deal, but now it only makes a kind of whining, “eh-haa, eh-haa,” and it speaks less and less often.  It is so thin there are no calves to its legs; its belly protrudes; it lives on a half-bowl of corn meal and grease a day.  It is naked.  Its buttocks and thighs are a mass of festered sores, as it sits in its own excrement continually.  They all know it is there, all the people of Omelas.  Some of them have come to see it, others are content merely to know it is there.  They all know that it has to be there. Some of them understand why, and some do not, but they all understand that their happiness, the beauty of their city, the tenderness of their friendships, the health of their children, the wisdom of their scholars, the skill of their makers, even the abundance of their harvest and the kindly weathers of their skies, depend wholly on this child’s abominable misery…

They would like to do something for the child.  But there is nothing they can do.  If the child were brought up into the sunlight out of that vile place, if it were cleaned and fed and comforted, that would be a good thing, indeed; but if it were done, in that day and hour all the prosperity and beauty and delight of Omelas would wither and be destroyed.  Those are the terms.  To exchange all the goodness and grace of every life in Omelas for that single, small improvement: to throw away the happiness of thousands for the chance of happiness of one: that would be to let guilt within the walls indeed.

This is The Omelas Problem.  Everyone can be happy, but the price is the endless suffering of one child.  She’s makes it clear in the story (and I can’t recommend highly enough that you read it… It’s brilliant!  I’ll drop a link in the transcript.) that there is no other way it can work.  The rules are unchangeable.  This is the foundation on which the problem rests.  You have two options, and two only.  You can stay in Omelas and enjoy the paradise created by the child’s sacrifice, or you can walk away from Omelas and find somewhere less idyllic to live.  In neither case can you affect the child’s fate.  It will continue to suffer no matter what you do.  What is the morally correct choice?

I’m not going to pretend to know.  I would like to think that, as a matter of conscience, I would choose not to live in such a society, but it’s clear that helps the child not at all.  The child’s sacrifice is, in my case, wasted.  I derive no benefit from his suffering.  Others do.  I don’t.  This doesn’t end his suffering.  It doesn’t even mitigate it. 

So, I can see that I might choose to stay.  My conscience would probably hound me endlessly.  My Prosecutor would never stop.  I would hate myself.  The happiness to be gained by his sacrifice is, again, wasted in my case because I can’t be happy knowing the price being paid for my happiness. 

Ms. LeGuin has presented us with an unsolvable moral problem.    Fortunately, we don’t have to solve it because that’s nothing like our world.  Everyone in our world is free, and few of us are happy.  That’s a fair assessment, isn’t it?

I think our moral problem is a bit more nuanced.  We don’t have one child suffering; we have many millions of people suffering.  We don’t have everyone living the idyllic life of Omelas.  We have a few living in their own private paradises. 

While the Rules of Omelas are unchangeable, the rules of our world are not.   Star Trek: Strange New Worlds recently took up this problem, and they had a line I loved: “Let the tree that grows from the roots of sacrifice lift us where suffering cannot reach.”

Our history is replete with both sacrifice and suffering.  They come in nearly infinite varieties, and they affect nearly everyone at some time or other.  We’ve made sufficient sacrifices to grow a tall, broad, powerful tree, but it fails to lift us high enough to avoid the suffering of uncounted homo sapiens. 

We have the resources to end much of the suffering right now.  We have enough to give everyone a home, to feed everybody, to provide power for the whole world, and to provide medical care for all.  We absolutely can do that.  We choose not to. 

The moment I suggest anything of the sort, people will begin shouting, “Yeah, well who’s gonna pay for it??”

And we instantly tumble into the delusion that money is valuable.  We believe nothing can be done without money.  Why do we believe this?  Why is it impossible, even for a moment, to question that idea? 

In the last few weeks, I’ve taken you to a place where you could choose your own Universe, I’ve let you hear from a Time Traveler, and I’ve described the suffering in our world in horrible detail.  Can I get you to travel along this flight of fancy just a little farther? 

Let’s start by recognizing that money, in fact, has no value beyond the value we have assigned to it.  If aliens invade Earth tomorrow afternoon, I promise they won’t come to get our money.  It’s worthless to them.  Our water might well be valuable.  Our oxygen, our cattle, our farms, and even our people might be resources they could use, but money?  No.  They see no practical function for bits of cotton and linen or digits on a computer. 

A bottle of water has more inherent value than a hundred-dollar-bill.  The value of that bit of paper is that it can be traded for lots of bottle of water.  More people believe in the value of money than believe in any form of God.  It is The One World Religion.  It’s more powerful in our world than all the Gods we have ever posited.  I’ve never heard of any church that doesn’t need it.  Have you? 

I’m asking you to do something even more difficult than questioning your religious faith.  I’m asking you to question the value of money. 

Is it possible we could have done all the things we’ve done without money?  I think so.  Why?  Because we did.  Money isn’t supernatural.  It’s an invention of ours.  It wasn’t handed down to us by a God.  It wasn’t the Obelisk from 2001: A Space Odyssey.  It is an invented means of motivation. 

W.C. Fields, I think, (please don’t trust my memory.  It’s faulty at best.) had a great line in a movie once.  He asks a woman if she would sleep with him for a million dollars.  She thinks it over a minute, and finally says she probably would.  He asks her, then, if she would do it for a dollar.  She gets deeply offended and asks him what sort of girl he thinks she is.  He responds that they’ve already established that, and now they’re just haggling about the price. 

If I offer a bear a million dollars not to kill me, it isn’t going to have any response to that.  I will be dinner, or not, based on its whims.  Money is a magic that is effective exclusively on humans. 

When I taught Elementary School I used a token economy.  It was designed to get students to do what I wanted them to do.  If you answered a question in class, you got a ticket.  If you turned in your homework, or you stayed quiet while someone next to you is talking, or you remembered to push in your chair, or you lined up when I asked you to, or you did anything else I wanted you to do, you would earn tickets.  Tickets could be exchanged for property or privileges once a week.  Students worked very hard to get tickets.  I managed to control a population using something that was, in fact, worthless. 

By the end of the year, students would figure out that tickets were stupid, but by now, most of them were doing what I wanted them to do even without them.  The tickets had accomplished their goal. 

Now that I have some space from it, I wonder if I could have accomplished my objectives in other ways.  All of my students were capable of all the things they did.  The Beatles knew this.

There’s nothin’ you can do that can’t be done
Nothin’ you can sing that can’t be sung
Nothin’ you can say, but you can learn how to play the game
It’s easy
Nothin’ you can make that can’t be made
No one you can save that can’t be saved
Nothin’ you can do, but you can learn how to be you in time
It’s easy

All you need is love

  • Songwriters: John Lennon / Paul McCartney

We have enormous amounts of suffering, much of which could be promptly relieved by giving everyone enough money to survive.  We can’t do that because… why, exactly?  We don’t have enough?  It isn’t water or oxygen or cattle.  It’s not a finite resource.  We can just make some more and hand it out to everyone.  Of course, if we do that, it will cause runaway inflation and money will lose its value.  What value is that?  The value we assigned to it?  That’s the only value it has. 

The tree that has grown from the roots of sacrifice is strong enough to lift us to a place where there is no suffering.  We choose not to allow that because somehow we believe if we don’t have so many people suffering, our world will collapse.  But, you and I don’t live in Omelas.  We live on Earth.  We can make our own rules. 

Change begins with imagination.  Work on imagining Omelas.  See what ideas spring into your mind.  Then let’s see what we can do to make a better world in which there are no children in cellars, and everyone gets to Shine in their own way.  We can do that.  I know we can.  Let’s work on that together.

I love you.

Posted on by Fred

Little Boxes

Little boxes on the hillside
Little boxes made of ticky tacky
Little boxes on the hillside
Little boxes all the same

There’s a pink one and a green one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they’re all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same­

–Malvina Reynolds

I believe I can express opinions about any subject I choose, regardless of how I was born.

No one is required to pay attention to them.  My opinions may be ill-considered or insufficiently informed.  They may simply be wrong.  I’m still, however, allowed to have them and express them in appropriate places.

I didn’t choose to be born straight, white, male, or with the genes that would lead me to diabetes.  I’m no better than anyone else because of how, when, or where I was born.  I’m also no worse than anyone else because of my birth.  I neither invented nor encouraged the privilege I have.  I neither invented nor encouraged the disadvantages I have.  They appeared long before I did.

I’m better or worse because of my behaviors, my choices, and the way I treat others.

No one is disqualified from having an opinion because of their birth.

I would oppose anyone being told they can’t express opinions, even opinions with which I disagree.  I may choose to ignore opinions that have no value to me.  I welcome everyone to ignore my opinions if they have no value to you.

But I won’t be told I’m not allowed an opinion because of things over which I had no control.

I hope you understand.

Fred’s Facebook Page, May 4, 2022, 7:22 PM

In general, I think of myself as a Liberal.  This surprises no one who has ever spent more than five minutes talking to me, reading my work, or scrolling through my Facebook page.  I’m in favor of workers’ rights, the idea that healthcare is a human right, that poverty is an unwarranted evil, and that people should be whomever they choose regardless of the feelings of the majority.  Those are liberal positions.  I prefer AOC to MTG.  Liberal.  I prefer workers to corporations.  Liberal.  I prefer helping people to forcing them to live lives of misery.  Liberal. 

“We all need some therapy, because someone came along and said ‘liberal’ means soft on crime, soft on drugs, soft on communism, soft on defense and we’re gonna tax you back to the Stone Age, because people shouldn’t have to go to work if they don’t want to.  And instead of saying, “Well, excuse me, you right-wing, reactionary, xenophobic, homophobic, anti-education, anti-choice, pro-gun, Leave It To Beaver trip back to the Fifties…!”, we cowered in the corner, and said, “Please. Don’t.  Hurt.  Me.” No more.  I really don’t care who’s right, who’s wrong.  We’re both right.  We’re both wrong.  Let’s have two parties, huh?  What do you say?”

— Bruno Gianelli, The West Wing, Season 3: Gone Quiet, written by Aaron Sorkin

Yeah.  That’s me.  I’m a liberal.  And I take the heat for that.  I’ve lost friends because of that.  And that’s okay.  That’s the price of having opinions.  You can’t change the world without pissing off somebody, somewhere, sometimes.  I don’t go out of my way to annoy people.  I try to be calmer and more thoughtful in the way I put things than Bruno does, but, in the final analysis, I’m a liberal. 

However…

Liberals are supposed to be about rights.  We’re all about ensuring the underrepresented among us have voices that are heard.  We’re about The Outliers on the Bell Curve.  We favor the rights of gay people to get married.  We favor the right for transgender people to join the military.  We favor the rights of women to choose abortions if that’s the right choice for them in their individual situations. 

But, here’s the thing.  I’m told now that I’m not allowed to have opinions about any of these things, or that if I have them, I should be quiet because as a straight white male it doesn’t apply to me.  It’s the Liberals who are telling me to shut up.  My white male privilege disqualifies me from speaking.  And that pisses me off.

That’s what I was saying in my quiet and polite way on my Facebook page. 

There’s an idea now that you’re a member of a team, whether you signed up or not.  The Liberals are required to believe A, B, C, and D.  If you believe only A, B, and C, you’re a traitor to the cause.  The same can be said of Conservatives.  And, to a great extent, those are the only two games in town.  There are subgroups, of course.  Smaller boxes inside of larger boxes into which you are required to fit.  But everyone must get into their box, and everyone must follow the rules of that box. 

https://freestyleacademy.rocks/artm.php?a=15166s&n=19

I object to that idea.  Remember I’m the guy who spouts, “There is no Them; we are all Us,” about 35 times a week.  But, I’m not female, so I’m not Us.  I’m not Black, or Gay, or Transgender, or Gender Fluid, or a Millennial, or an abused child, or a rape victim, or whatever else you’ve got, so I’m not Us.  I don’t fit into those little boxes, so I’m not allowed an opinion.  That is 47 different hues of horseshit.

I’m a human being.  Everyone else, in whatever categories they fit, in whatever boxes they occupy, is also a human being.  I share that with them.  Yes, they have different experiences than I have.  That’s true.  Some of them have had unimaginably horrible, evil, unthinkable experiences.  Many are oppressed.  I don’t deny that my life has been less horrible than many other lives.  It’s been more horrible than many other lives, too.  So what?  So I don’t get to comment on the human condition?  What crime did I commit that caused that right to be taken from me?

I’m about equal rights for Everyone because I believe I’m a part of Everyone, and Everyone is a part of me.  When you deny a person of their right to speak, you deny me mine.  When you deny a woman the right to bodily autonomy, you deny me mine.  When you deny an unborn child the right to live, you deny me mine.  Human rights that are reserved for a few are not human rights.  They’re privileges we’ve decided to grant to some and deny to others. 

Obviously, there are rights for which one must be qualified.  I have no right to drive a big rig down the highway.  I don’t know how to do it properly, and it’s more than a little likely someone will get hurt.  I have no right to perform an open-heart surgery because I’m not qualified.  Those rights, though, are based on my choices.  I didn’t choose to learn how to drive a truck or perform surgery.  If I had, those rights would be available to me.  But… the right to speak?  To write?  To express an opinion?  Nearly everyone is qualified for those things.  They are basic to being human.

I’m not Black, so I can’t have MLK as a hero?  I’m not Catholic, so I’m not allowed to admire JFK?  I’m not a woman, so I’m unqualified to love the messages of RBG or Maya Angelou?  That’s delusional.  I’m also not a Republican, so by this thinking Lincoln is off limits for me.  I am what all of these people are: Human.

Our Common Cause should be making humanity Free.  That’s the point of The American Experiment.  America, however, didn’t invent it.  We’ve been working on it since at least 507 B.C.E.

In the year 507 B.C., the Athenian leader Cleisthenes introduced a system of political reforms that he called demokratia, or “rule by the people” (from demos, “the people,” and kratos, or “power”).  It was the first known democracy in the world. 

https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-greece/ancient-greece-democracy

We can, we do, and we will continue to disagree about how to make everyone free, but let’s at least recognize that’s what we would all like to do in America.  We’re supposed to be “The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.”  I think most of the world wants Freedom, at the very least, for themselves.  I would like it for everyone because I’m a part of everyone and everyone is a part of me.

Some of that means allowing everyone to speak.  History shows us the good guys are never the ones that are silencing voices.  You can ignore them.  You can debate them.  You can find them stupid or ridiculous.  But you don’t get to silence them. 

A good idea for Liberals would be to recognize their friends and refrain from attacking them for having the audacity to state an opinion for which you’ve decided they’re not qualified.  I grant you that straight, white, male, Christian landowners have a history of oppressing everyone who wasn’t a part of that small group.  We have fought against that oppression, with at least some success, for centuries.   Now that we’ve won some power, we’re going to commit the same immoral acts against which we’ve been fighting for so long?  We’re going to oppress our oppressors?  Sorry, I won’t sign up for that.  We’re fighting for equality for all.  Let’s focus on that instead of becoming our own enemy.  Please never tell me again that I’m not allowed to speak.  Thanks very much. 

Posted on by Fred · 2 Comments

Is Government The Problem or The Solution?

Government is the source of more problems than I can count.  If you want to do something, you almost certainly need a license of some sort.  If you live here, they’re going to take your money in the form of taxes.  If you want to have a voice anyone in government hears, you need to have a lot more money than either you or I have.  Things are set up to benefit the wealthy and oppress the poor.  Government is a bureaucracy constructed to ensure nothing ever really gets done without jumping through more hoops than all the animals Barnum and Bailey ever trained.  A single mistake sets a person back for months.

California, for example, said they were covering my Medicare until December, even though I moved to Arizona in October.  Arizona, therefore, while they were perfectly willing to pick up my Medicare, denied the request in November because California hadn’t sent the form that said they were no longer covering it.  This is why Social Security took $510 from my Disability this month to recoup their losses from December, January, and February.  Arizona sent the proper form to Social Security.  It takes 90 days to process that, so I’ll get $170 a month less on which to live until June or July.  I’m not alone in this.  I feel sure it happens to millions of others, and all of us search frantically for the means to survive while the bureaucrats process paperwork.  I’m never moving again.  The only way to get me out of this place is in a body bag.

 Any efforts to pass laws that help us take years, and they can be stopped by a single voice, usually one paid for by those who have the money to deny the rest of us the chance to join the pursuit of happiness that is supposed to be one of our inalienable rights.  Government is the problem, isn’t it?

Americans, after all, rugged individualists.  We hear so often about those who made it all by themselves.  They didn’t need government to become successful.  They are self-made successes.  We should all aspire to such greatness.  They did it all alone, didn’t they?

Did they?  From where did they get the education they needed if not from our schools?  How did they get where they needed to go if not on the roads we built?  From where did they get the currency they needed to exchange for the goods and services they used to become successful if not from the government that printed it?  Who kept them safe if not our police departments?  They almost certainly benefitted at some time from our fire departments, our paramedics, our hospitals, and our concept of freedom that allowed them to live without the fear of winding up disappearing in the middle of the night for speaking out against our government. 

All of us are standing on the shoulders of 200,000 years of human development.  I didn’t invent paper, nor the printing press, nor the computer on which I’m writing.  I didn’t invent the language that allows us to communicate.  I’m using the products of human progress.  I’m not doing this alone.  There are billions of people who came before me to allow me to write this.  The government and The People On The Porch provide me the funds I need to exist.  Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos didn’t do it alone, either.  They couldn’t possibly do it alone.  They made use of (or, if you’re of my frame of mind, exploited) the benefits of the advancements of our species. 

We humans have done extraordinary things.  We have increased our life spans dramatically.  My mother is 91, and I expect her to live for quite some time to come.  It’s not unheard of for people to live for a century because of our advances in medicine. 

We’ve also made health care into a logistical nightmare, but now an insurance company can’t deny you coverage because of a “preexisting condition” – a term they invented to avoid insuring diabetics and others that are likely to cost them more.  For all the problems inherent in The Affordable Care Act, that’s one part it got right.  They can no longer say, “You’ve outrun your coverage; die in peace.”  Government allowed medical insurance to exist.  That was a problem.  Government kept them from denying coverage.  That was a small part of the solution.  The government is a tide that goes out but comes back in.  It moves in waves, and, like the ocean itself, it does as much damage as it does good.   

“We have to say what we feel; that government, no matter what its failures of the past, and in times to come, for that matter, government can be a place where people come together, and where no one gets left behind.  No one… gets left behind.  An instrument of good.”

­— Toby Ziegler in “The West Wing: He Shall, From Time to Time” Season 1, Episode 12, by Aaron Sorkin

Our Founding Document, “The Declaration of Independence,” tells us that all men are created equal.  That’s an ideal, not a fact.  Michael Jordan is a better basketball player than I am.  That’s a fact.  He was created one way, and I, another.  I am a better writer than a child who will never be able to use language.  That’s a fact.  I was created one way, and he, another. 

“But there is one way in this country in which all men are created equal—there is one human institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller, the stupid man the equal of an Einstein, and the ignorant man the equal of any college president.  That institution, gentlemen, is a court.  It can be the Supreme Court of the United States or the humblest J.P. court in the land, or this honorable court which you serve.  Our courts have their faults, as does any human institution, but in this country our courts are the great levelers, and in our courts all men are created equal.  I’m no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and in the jury system—that is no ideal to me, it is a living, working reality…”

— Atticus Finch, “To Kill A Mockingbird: Chapter 20” by Harper Lee

Will you find corruption in our courts?  Of course you will.  Only hours after Atticus gave that speech to the jury, the court failed to deliver justice for Tom Robinson. 

But this is an example of the idea upon which our country was built.  It’s the idea that we all matter.  It’s the idea that all voices count, even those who spout ridiculous things.  Last year, for example, when I was in Surprise to see my mother, my nephew and I were staying at a hotel.   We went downstairs for a drink, and there we met a woman who spent 45 minutes explaining to me that there are Lizard People from another dimension, or reality, or planet (she wasn’t sure which) who are living here now.  And I want her to be allowed to vote.  Because, as Toby Ziegler told us above… no one… no one is left behind.  I don’t have to agree with you to want you to have a say in how this life we share is governed.  She may be right.  I would be willing to bet everything I will ever earn for the rest of what’s left of my life that she’s not, but I could be wrong.  I remind myself of that constantly.  I think I’m right, but I could always, always, always be wrong.  So could you.  So could she. 

There are times when all the world’s asleep
The questions run too deep
For such a simple man…

I said, watch what you say or they’ll be calling you a radical
Liberal, oh fanatical, criminal
Won’t you sign up your name, we’d like to feel you’re acceptable
Respectable, oh presentable, a vegetable

— Supertramp, “The Logical Song” from “Breakfast In America, 1979

Instead of giving in to the cynicism that tells us it’s too late, that the American Oligarchs have already taken over, and that there’s nothing more to do but live in a dystopian nightmare, we can encourage one another to believe in an idea.  The Cynics, you see, can be wrong, too.  We can believe in the idea of liberty and justice for all.  Our flag lies limp on its pole now, hanging its head in shame, but a good wind can come up at any moment to make it fly in all its tri-colored, star-spangled glory again.   We can begin by protecting voting rights.  We can continue by creating a Health Care System that allows us the medical attention we need without bankrupting us.  We can reach for the stars by providing a Universal Basic Income that ensures all of us have enough to survive.  We can end poverty.  We can reduce the nightmare of income inequality.  We can do anything we choose to do if we can be United.

The oligarchs want to pit us against each other.  “They’re not from America, and they’re stealing your jobs.  They’re the source of the problem.  She’s a woman, and instead of staying home and raising children, she’s out in the workplace, making you replaceable, and reducing everyone’s income.  She’s the source of the problem.  They have different sexual orientations than you do, and they’ve destroyed the moral lives that are the heart of this country.  They’re the source of the problem.  That guy is a Socialist who wants to give away your hard-earned money to someone else for free.  He’s the source of the problem.  This guy is a fascist who attacked the country on January 6.  He’s the source of the problem.  This guy likes the football team you hate.  You just KNOW he’s the source of the problem.”

Sorry.  I don’t buy that.  There is no Them; we are all Us.  We’re all the source of the problem.  I can, and do, disagree with many people.  Even more disagree with me.  But I won’t turn that disagreement into hatred.  Neither should you.  Instead, I want to understand those with whom I disagree, and I hope to make them understand me.  I want to find a way to solve the problems.  I’m not interested in blame.  I’m interested in solutions.  Don’t tell me why we can’t unless that’s your preface to the answer I want to hear: how we can.

In 1940, our armed forces weren’t among the twelve most formidable in the world, but obviously we were going to fight a big war.  And Roosevelt said the US would produce 50,000 airplanes in the next four years.  Everyone thought it was a joke.  And it was, cuz it turned out we produced 100,000 planes.  Give the air force an armada that would block the sun…

Over the past half century, we’ve split the atom, we’ve spliced the gene, and we’ve roamed Tranquility Base.  We’ve reached for the stars, and never have we been closer to having them in our grasp.  New science, new technology is making the difference between life and death, and so we need a national commitment equal to this unparalleled moment of possibility…

— Sam Seaborn from The West Wing, “100,000 Airplanes” Season 3, episode 11, by Aaron Sorkin

A President of The United States was once asked to define America.  He answered, “One word – one word: Possibilities.”

There’s little we can’t do if we work together.  One person can’t defend the country, but millions of soldiers with 100,000 airplanes can.  One person can’t cure cancer or diabetes, but thousands of scientists working together and separately can, and I believe, someday, they will.  One person can’t reshape our economy to relieve the afflicted.  But a government that truly represents the diversity of America can.  One person can’t explore strange new worlds, or seek out new life and new civilizations, but together we all can boldly go where no one has gone before. 

Let’s recognize, at last, that we have more in common with our bitterest enemy than I have with the dog I love with all my heart.  We may have irreconcilably different ideologies, beliefs, agendas, goals, and desires.  But all of us have a heart.  All of us bleed.  All of us pee, and poop, and sleep and wake up.  All of us require the sun to keep us alive.  All of us rose from the same bit of goo 4.5 billion years ago.  Your DNA is nearly identical to mine.  You’re sharing a ride with me on this rock tumbling through space.  You live, you love, you laugh, you cry.  So do I.  You’re here for less than two centuries.  So am I. 

We need to work with the government we have to make it the government it could be.  We need it to become that place where we all come together to discuss our problems and find not the Democratic Answer or the Republican Answer, but the Right Answer. 

As Russia marches, seemingly inexorably, toward World War III, and the nuclear war that would exterminate all life on Earth, we need now, more than ever, to stop fighting amongst ourselves over differences that are superficial and start finding a way out of the terror that lies ahead.  There’s little point in planning for a Utopian future if we’re not going to be around for another year.  

But, for today…

I woke up at 3:40 AM, but that’s because I passed out a little before 9.  Speedy Shine came outside with me, did his business, and jumped immediately into my lap and fell asleep again.  I don’t know why I love that feeling so much.  Having him sleeping in my lap makes me feel alive, content, and at peace with the world.

I wish, so much, everyone could feel such peace.  I think of it as a simple pleasure.  For far too many people, it’s an all but unimaginable luxury.

There is plenty about which to worry.  The chance of nuclear war grows greater all the time.  This will almost certainly lead to the extinction of the human race. I think that’s a good reason to worry.

On the other hand, I don’t believe there’s much I can do about that.  I don’t believe Putin is taking my calls this week.  If he were, I don’t think he could possibly care less about my pleas not to continue the mass murder our species has politely named War.

The best I can possibly do is to convince, if I am absurdly successful, 50 people to believe in the possibilities that liberty holds. I might be able to get them to oppose voter suppression laws, or to support a Universal Basic Income.  I can’t stop the deaths.

If our time on Earth is approaching its end, I want to find all the happiness I can before I’m gone.  Worrying accomplishes nothing of value, and it keeps me from feeling the Joy I want while I can still have it.

It’s not that I don’t care what is happening.  It’s that I can’t change it.

If I can’t change it, I won’t worry about it.  I will hope for change.  I will advocate change.  I will support those who try to make the changes in which I believe.

And then, I’m going to smoke a bowl, play some music, and enjoy the feeling of a dog lying in my lap, allowing me to believe he loves me, and knowing that I love him.

I hope you find a similar sort of Peace.  I love you.

Posted on by Fred

“One Planet, One People… Please?”

Nearly 40 years ago, when I was an adolescent running around in as much of a hormone haze as I now am surrounded by the Fog of Idealism, I was as madly in love as a boy could be with a girl whose intellect and compassion I admired nearly as much as her physical form. When you’re 16, it’s difficult to see much beyond appearance. Or, at least it was for me. Perhaps today’s adolescents are more enlightened than I was.

Among the reasons I fell in love with her was her Idealism was seductively attractive to me. She was a member of a religion of which I had never heard, called Baha’i. I had, even then, no supernatural beliefs, but I loved the idea of unity that was at the core of her religious beliefs. She had on her car a bumper sticker that has the unique status of actually affecting me. It said, “One Planet, One People… Please?” I have never forgotten the words. Now, I believe, she’s off living with her husband on a farm somewhere, and we say hello to each other occasionally on Facebook, but we don’t really have a serious friendship anymore. Her influence over my thinking, however, has only grown in the intervening decades.

She was the water and sunlight that made the seed planted a decade earlier grow and flourish. What planted the seed? It was Star Trek, of course.

I’ve been a lifelong Star Trek fan, and I often think of how The United Federation of Planets evaluates a new civilization. They consider not only its technological situation, but how that civilization treats its people. And, because they’re looking at alien planets, the societies they encounter can have any number of traditions, values, and ideas. They try to be respectful of all of them.

This is the Preamble to their Constitution:

We, the intelligent lifeforms of the United Federation of Planets, determined

to save succeeding generations from the scourge of intergalactic war which has brought untold horror and suffering to our planetary social systems, and

to reaffirm faith in the fundamental intelligent lifeform rights, in the dignity and worth of the intelligent lifeform person, to the equal rights of male and female and of planetary social systems large and small, and

to establish conditions under which justice and mutual respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of interplanetary law can be maintained, and

to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

And to these ends

to practice benevolent tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors, and

to unite our strength to maintain intergalactic peace and security, and

to ensure by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods that armed force shall not be used except in the common defense, and

to employ intergalactic machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all intelligent lifeforms,

Have resolved to combine our efforts to accomplish these aims.

Written by Franz Joseph (Published in the Star Fleet Technical Manual)

I believe the general ideas expressed above are a good starting place for our world. They are asking for us to respect fundamental human rights (although, since they’re dealing with many other sentient species, they refer to them as lifeform rights), to make social progress, and to keep peaceful and friendly relations among the different species.

In order to be admitted to the Federation a planet must have a one-world government. And this idea frightens the hell out of people today. I don’t understand why this should be the case.

One need not forfeit individuality to recognize one’s membership in the human race. Yes, different cultures have different values and traditions. They have different religions. They have different economic structures. Their skin colors and languages are different. Some have different ideas about sex. But, they all have blood, hearts, lungs, and all the other organs all human beings share. We all need to eat, to have a place to sleep, to have medical care, and to be able to spend our minutes in the ways that we choose without harming others.

We have decided, by some sort of universal consent, that time and money are traded one for the other. We have further decided that if one cannot or does not trade time for money, or find other ways of collecting enough of it, a person has little value. Your human value is determined by your market value. And that is simply wrong.

First, let’s recognize the we are at the summit of humanity.

200,000 years ago survival was our only concern. It was all the earliest humans could do to avoid being eaten, or to find a way to eat, themselves. Shelter was whatever they could find, and medical care was, for any serious purposes, non existent. But we did survive, and we did it because we worked together. No single human could have flourished then, and it’s doubtful one could now. If one of us is doing well it’s because of the contributions made by others for the last 200 millennia.

We have always made life better by working together, but we began to segregate ourselves into different tribes of one form or another. They can be based on specialization, on shared beliefs, on gender, race, or ideology, or national origin or citizenship in a particular country. But the tribes are there. The separation is there.

I submit the separation is counter to continuing to improve our world. Instead of trying to defeat each other, we need to try to cooperate with each other to find the solutions to our shared problems, and to find ways of making life more pleasant for all of us.

Another element common to all of us is that we have limited time on Earth. We can discuss afterlife at a different time, but our time here is extraordinarily brief. Few of us will be here for an entire century. None of us will be here for two. And, to our knowledge, that’s all the time we get. Ever. Once a minute is spent, it can never be recovered.

You and I will each get, perhaps, 50 million minutes. Why should we need, in the 21st Century, to trade so many of them for dollars? Most of us won’t even get a dollar per minute. If you earn $52,000,000 in your lifetime, you’re among the very few. This world works very well for the few. It works very poorly for the many. “The needs of the many,” as Spock would remind us, “outweigh the needs of the few.”

This doesn’t mean the few should be forced to give their dollars to the many. I’m not advocating that. Instead, I would like to see the dollars of the many used to benefit the many instead of the few. We have enough to ensure that all of us have the basics of survival. We can eliminate the need for slave wages by ensuring no one ever needs to take a job that pays less than a person’s minutes are worth just so one can keep living for a few more minutes. Instead of being about survival, money becomes about flourishing financially.

What would this world look like?

Everyone has enough money for food, rent, utilities, and clothing appropriate to the environment in which they live. Any decent civilization would provide that to all of its citizens. Those that don’t are never viewed well by the Federation.

Everyone has medical care sufficient to keep one not just alive, but healthy. Dr. McCoy never asked anyone for an insurance card. Had the Captain asked him to, he probably would have said, “Dammit, Jim, I’m a doctor, not a bureaucrat!”

Everyone spends their minutes in ways that are meaningful to them, and that contribute in unique ways to making the society a better and stronger one.

Everyone is appreciated as the individuals they are. No one is expected to conform to the expectations of others, so long as they aren’t hurting anyone else. Each of us chooses our own path through life.

Isn’t this world impossible?

No. It’s not. Flying was once “impossible.” Going to the moon was even more “impossible.” Communicating in the way you and I are this very moment was also once “impossible.” Things are impossible only when we decide they are impossible, or they are expressly forbidden by the laws of physics.

What do we need to do to bring about such a world?

First, we have to agree that we want to. Then, we need to try.

What are the logistics?

I don’t have a clue. I’m not an economist. I’m not a politician. I’m a drop of water in the Colorado River. There are experts in such areas. I suggest they work out the details, they do the research, they gather the data, and they work it out. And, to no one’s surprise, people have been doing this for quite some time. Buckminster Fuller spent most of his 87 years (not even the full 50,000,000 minutes we hope to receive ourselves) trying to figure out how to implement plans that would benefit 100% of humanity. The ideas are there.

What are some of the ideas?

Today, we are beginning the discussions about changing our economy in a way that benefits more people. Universal Basic Income is now a fairly well known term. It wasn’t unheard of previously, but no one really had any interest in it after it failed during the Nixon administration. Today, the idea gets airtime, although not much. Is UBI enough? No, of course, it’s not, but it’s a step in the right direction. Medicare for All isn’t enough, either, but we’re moving closer to the public health care we really ought to have.

frededer.home.blog/2019/10/01/which-are-the-people-who-should-die-for-a-lack-of-little-green-pieces-of-paper/

Living wages aren’t the whole answer, either, but they are at least one more piece of the puzzle.

frededer.home.blog/2019/06/11/hard-work/

What Should We Do, Then?

The most important thing to do is to agree on our shared vision. If you see some reason to oppose the Idealistic vision I’ve discussed, I hope you’ll communicate to us what the basis or your opposition is. Why, in essence, should humans suffer unnecessarily?

Having done that, perhaps we can get a few more people to share it, and, in this way, we can begin, as little drops of water, to carve out the Grand Canyon. We can talk about the best ways of improving humanity, and we can share diverse opinions. We can find common ground, and we can move forward to become a world worthy of membership in The United Federation of Planets. I want very much to be qualified to join the Federation. Don’t you?

Wouldn’t it be lovely if Vulcan ships had been monitoring our progress for the last century, and they saw that we have moved toward slowing the spread of racism, at least insofar as we have made it socially unacceptable, illegal in hiring, and making it possible for someone who was not white to become President of the United States? They would see that we have begun to accept that people can have sexualities that differ from the norm, and those differences are no one’s business but their own. We have even accepted their right to marry just as it is given to everyone else. The Vulcans could observe that women have won the right to vote, to be in power, and to live their own lives independent of men. They would see we have begun.

Yes, we have light years to go, but we have begun the journey toward not only the stars, but to the deeper unexplored realms of what humanity can actually accomplish. Let’s keep moving down that road, together.

Posted on by Fred

All We Have to Decide…

My life is, in most measurable ways, much worse than it has been in decades. I’m probably at just about the lowest point I have ever experienced. The idea that it is going to improve much from here is difficult to believe. I have no money. It’s unlikely that I will ever have any. I have been on the edge of the abyss, both intentionally and not, more times in the last 3 years than I have in the 53 preceding them. Homelessness is never far from me. Death is always at its heels.

From that point of view, I ought to be miserable. If I measured my happiness only in material form, my depression would have beaten me as surely as Rawlings once put one of my alter egos, Frank, on his back on the mat looking up through eyes obscured by his own blood dripping into them. (It’s in a story I wrote nearly 40 years ago. “The Boxer” was written when I was in materially better condition.)

https://frededer.home.blog/2019/04/04/the-boxer/

And for all that, I am, in many ways, happier than I have been in my life. At this moment, I’m sitting at my computer, typing this. I just finished another Star Trek book while sitting in the backyard with my soda, a pack of cigarettes, and a very nice bowl donated to me by my best friend’s boyfriend, who is also my landlord. Phil Collins is singing “If Leaving Me Easy,” my soda is on the desk to my right, and, for this moment, I can think of nothing else I would rather be doing.

It can be argued that I am lazy. That may even be true. I’m not convinced, anymore, though, that Sloth is a sin. The universe can continue to unfold whether I go and do unpleasant and exhausting activities or not. I’m not hurting you by sitting here. You could argue my food stamps are taking your tax dollars, and I have no right to that. I would disagree. You know me, by now, well enough to know I’m an Idealist. I believe all of us deserve the basics of living, simply for being here, and because life is all too brief to waste it on unhappiness. In either case, I am living within the system that is now present, and I am finding my own way as best I can.

And I am spending my time in ways I find to be best for me. I had no alarm clock to destroy my morning. I still have them in my life, but not with the daily horrors they once held. On Sunday, I had to face a 3:30 AM alarm so that I could get to Prescott to teach my Defensive Driving Class. The real fear wasn’t just the alarm. It was that I might end up in the hospital in the time following it. It’s dangerous for me any time I exhaust what is left of my body. I just got out of the hospital, for the 13th time in 3 years, last week. But I redoubled my efforts to ensure my health was as good as I could make it, and I took the necessary precautions to allow myself to help myself when I was so far from home. I had both food and insulin with me at all times. I needed the food, but the insulin was left untouched. I did well. And now I don’t have to face that horror again until next Sunday. Until then, I am free to choose what to do with the time that is given to me. And I find happiness in that.

Would I be better off going back to my last post-teaching job selling DirecTV to unsuspecting old women? I would then be earning money, but I would despise myself again. I’m not making the world better; I’m making it worse. I’m depriving people of their money by offering them something that isn’t worth what they’re spending. They submit themselves to commercials that interrupt whatever they might have been enjoying prior to their invasion. Netflix is cheaper by far, and it’s free of commercials. I see no contribution to the world in my efforts. I see only that I am trading the minutes of my life for little green pieces of paper. I would rather have the minutes and do with fewer dollars. I can do good things with my minutes. This is one of them.

I get to experience some happiness this way. Is there more I would like? Certainly. I would be thrilled to have enough money to go to California every time Sara Niemietz and Snuffy Walden play. I would love to be able to have nicer equipment for my podcast and my videos. I could really use a new backup drive for my music. A nice car would be lovely. But, I can live without those things, and I can find happiness in what is available to me.

Gandalf told us, “All we have to decide is what we should do with the time given us.” I think we all need to be more capable of making those decisions. I don’t believe life should be merely a struggle for survival. I don’t think it has to be. I think we can do better as a civilization for those who inhabit this planet, if we decide we want to do that. I would never want to dictate to people what to do with the time given to them. But I would very much like for all of us to be able to decide.

How can we help them do that?

I’m not in charge of the world, and I make decisions for no one but myself. But, for those who do have the power, I would recommend this: Give all of our citizens enough money to ensure they can meet their basic needs, and then let them each decide how to better than themselves, and for some of us, how we can better the rest of humanity. What are the logistics of this? I don’t pretend to be an economist, but Andrew Yang, a fairly obscure Democratic Presidential Candidate, has some ideas about how to do this. If you don’t like his ideas, there are others that might accomplish the same goal that you might consider. My concern isn’t the logistics; it’s the idea. How can you object to the idea that our citizens ought, actually, to be Free?

Freedom isn’t merely the absence of coercion. Freedom is the ability to see choices, and the education to select the choice most likely to bring about the desired outcome.

If there is one thing upon which all Americans, whether they be Democrats or Republicans, Socialists or Capitalists, Atheists or any variety of Theists, Anarchists and Legalists, all agree, it is that we should be Free. Freedom is the first door that must be opened before anyone can begin the endless search for happiness, for meaning, for purpose, or for passion.

Let’s free our citizens from the oppression of poverty. Let’s not worry about what they will do with their lives once they are free. If we really believe we must enforce The Puritan Work Ethic with the threat of poverty, of homelessness, of death, I don’t see that we’re The Land of the Free and The Home of the Brave. Life need not be unduly unpleasant in order to be worthy of living. For this moment, I have the Freedom to enjoy the Time that’s been given to me by my choices. For this moment, so do you, lest you wouldn’t be reading this. Freedom is the natural state of life. Let’s work together to find a way to allow people to spend their lives doing what they want. Let’s find a way to set humanity free.

What have I decided to do with the time given to me? I’m going to try, and almost certainly fail, to change the world. What will you do with yours?

Posted on by Fred · 1 Comment

Which are The People Who Should Die for a Lack of Little Green Pieces of Paper?

“You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.” – Adrian Rogers

Which are the people who should die because they lack Little Green Pieces of Paper? Let’s identify them quickly, find them, and give them each the shot we use to end the life of the dogs we love who can no longer live a decent life, and then get around to getting health care covered for everyone else.

I am not qualified to judge who is worthy and who is not. I don’t know their whole story, and neither does the worker at the welfare office punching information into a computer that will apply an algorithm to determine if they deserve any help at all, and if so, how much.

I understand the archaic need for The Puritan Work Ethic. I also know that Sloth was once considered a sin. It’s one of the Seven Deadly Sins, in fact. It shares its distinction with other equally evil things such as Pride and Greed. I don’t think Pride is a sin. I think Greed is. I know many people who believe Greed isn’t, and Pride is… and some who believe none of them are sins.

Early in our history, failing to work as hard as one can was, in fact, quite possibly lethal. Per Hansa and Beret, in Giants in The Earth, had to work ceaselessly in order to survive. He had to do all of the work of building a place to live: cutting the trees, making them into something he could use, and then assembling all the pieces to build his house. He had to raise his own food. His wife had an equal portion of difficult tasks to complete. There was no time for them to consider sitting down and reading a book, or even, most of the time, getting around to watching a nice sunset. They were simply too busy. Any moment spent not working put them in possibly mortal danger.

Ben Franklin told us that, “Sin is not hurtful because it is forbidden; it is forbidden because it is hurtful.” Sloth was undoubtedly sinful at one point in the history of our world.

Because of Per Hansa and Beret’s work, and the work of hundreds of thousands like them, our civilization has grown and prospered. No one has to build their own houses anymore. We can get our food at the grocery store. We have time to trade ideas on Facebook.

The idea that relaxing is evil, that someone who is unable, or unwilling, to collect large stacks of Little Green Pieces of Paper is somehow worse and less deserving than other people, is no longer valid. It’s not up to me to tell anyone how to live. It is, however, as a society, as a civilization, necessary to ensure that our citizens can all, at the very least, continue to live as long as possible.

No one deserves to be homeless, regardless of how much I may disapprove of how they live the life they have in that home. No one deserves to be hungry, even if I think badly of them. It turns out my values are not the only possible values to consider. I don’t have a monopoly on the truth, but I don’t want anyone to be without the basics of survival.

We all agree that everyone deserves a free and appropriate public education. That’s PL 94-142, and no one objects to the idea that all children go to school. We’ve done it that way for a very long time, and there’s nothing remotely radical about that idea now.

Why can’t we also have public health care?

I believe Health Care is a Human Right. Someone this morning told me it’s not, because I have no right to someone else’s labor. That’s an interesting point.

On the other hand, I never asked parents to pay me to teach their kids. I was paid by the state for my labor. The only right the parents had to my labor was that their taxes paid for it.

Why can’t the state set up public hospitals? Go, when you need to, without insurance, without a bill. You show up. The doctors and nurses fix you. You go home. All done.

Is it because Doctors would have to work for less money? No doctors want to work for teacher pay? Okay… then pay them properly. Are doctors, who I admire and respect, more important than teachers? If so, point to the doctor who became a doctor without any teachers.

Imagine this …

Sylvia is a 23 year old mother of a 16 month old girl, Christina. She works 40 hours a week as a shift leader at Olive Garden, and is earning $16.50 an hour. After taxes, she brings home $568 a week. Her total monthly income is $2272. Rent in her 2 bedroom apartment is $1400 a month. Day Care is $1350. Groceries for herself and her daughter run $250. The cell phone she uses to connect with the world has mobile hotspot and tethering so she can get online with her computer. She pays $150 a month for all that. Gas runs $100 a month. Utilities come out to about $250 a month. For just these basics of survival, she comes out $1228 in the hole every month. If she wants auto insurance to keep her car from getting impounded, that’s another $150 a month. Even though she owns her car free and clear (it’s a 2004 Camry), so she has no car payment, there’s no way she can survive on what she has.

Therefore…

She lives with her roommate, Bethany, a 25 year old Amazon employee who packs for shipping. She makes 15.00 an hour, also working 40 hours a week. This comes out to just under $2000 a month. She has the same expenses as Sylvia. Living on her own, she would be $300 a month in the hole.

Living with her roommate, Bethany has $575 a month left over. Sylvia has $947. They should be fine. They really should. Unless…

A car breaks down. That’s going to cost anywhere from $100 to $1000. They might be able to afford that, though.

Or…

They need new clothes, or they want to see a movie, or go out to dinner, or, God forbid, take a trip somewhere. Suddenly the money evaporates.

Or…

One of them gets sick. See, in the budgets above, guess what we didn’t consider? Yes… that’s right: Health Insurance

.

The average cost for health insurance without an employer paying for it is about $450 a month for an individual. It’s about $1350 for a family. They each need health insurance, and they can’t use the family plan to cover all three of them because Sylvia and Bethany aren’t married. Sylvia’s $947 is now gone. She has a baby to insure, as well. Bethany’s $575 is down to $125… and it’s not even enough to cover the difference between Sylvia’s earnings and her health insurance costs.

Health Insurance might cover as much as 80% of covered procedures. Rarely does it cover more than that. If your hospital stay is $100,000… and that’s a reasonably cheap visit… you still owe $20,000. How are the girls ever going to pay that? They’re finished. It’s really no wonder the suicide rate keeps climbing. When one loses hope, life is pointless.

Add to this problem that when one of them gets sick, the income for the whole household drops. They didn’t have enough to make ends meet in the first place, and now they have even less. Now they start figuring out which bills to pay, and which bills to blow off until they can afford them. And, when they’re late, late fees get added, and they’re in even deeper trouble.

What would be your solution to the problems these women face?

There are some I wish to eliminate off the top.

  1. It’s their problem, not mine! They should have…. whatever. This isn’t a solution. It’s dodging a solution. I have no idea what they deserve. Neither do you. I can, however, observe what they need. They need affordable healthcare.
  2. They should work more. Then they could afford it. I’m not buying this solution, either. You work LESS when you’re sick, not more. And, at 40 hours a week, they’re working full time. There’s little point in living if you can’t enjoy any of it.
  3. They should get healthcare from their employers. That would be helpful, but some employers offer it; others don’t. Even with insurance from their employers, they’re out of pocket any time they need to see a doctor. They really can’t afford to be.

Now, as Sherlock Holmes once said, “… when you eliminate the impossible, what ever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.”

I’m looking for a solution that allows these women to live a decent life. I have a suggestion.

In a few years, Sylvia will be able to send her daughter to school. This will eliminate much of the cost of Day Care. And… you know how much she’ll pay to send her daughter not only to be cared for, but actually taught, by highly trained professionals? Yes… that’s right. Zero dollars.

No one ever asks how to pay for public schools because we’ve had them since 1635. They’re simply accepted. There’s a LOT of debate about how MUCH to spend on them, and what teachers should be paid, and what they should be doing within those taxpayer funded buildings. But their need to exist is never even questioned. We all understand that education is essential to being a member of society. We actually punish parents who don’t send their kids to school if they don’t at least home school them.

I believe Education is vital. I would go so far as to say it’s a human right.

I believe the same about healthcare. And it seems to me the solution is the same as we used for Education. Let’s make it free and appropriate and public.

Public hospitals exist in which Doctors and Nurse and Staff are all employees of the state, just as Teachers and Aides and Staff are at a public school.

It costs nothing to go to the public hospital, just as it costs nothing to go to the public school. If you’re dissatisfied with the public hospital, you can do just as parents do when they’re dissatisfied with the public school: pay to go to a better one.

Now Sylvia and Bethany can make it again. If they get sick, they’re still going to take a hit on monthly income, but they have the money left to get by for a little longer.

I’m not going into the deep logistics of Economics here. I would suggest that if we have to raise taxes a bit to pay for it, then so be it. We won’t need to raise them so much that it costs an extra $900 a month, and every dime below the $900 is a savings for Sylvia and Bethany. And it’s a savings for all of the Sylvias and Bethanies out there. More importantly, it give us all the means to live a little longer. Isn’t that what we all want for all people?

A life spent doing nothing but working in order to do nothing but survive is a stolen life. There’s no point in living without being able to enjoy living at least a little. We’re not settlers in the wilderness anymore. We’re the crowning achievement of our species working together for 200,000 years to advance to a place where, finally, we can provide more than the basic necessities of life for everyone who wants them. Why don’t we do that, then? Let’s work together to make life better for Bethany and Sylvia and Christina, and all those out there like them, and all those who will follow them in the future. Let’s create a world in which we all want to live.