Monday, June 8, 2015

Just Justice

An ancient source states: “When the mountains bear grain, people enjoy peace.”
Want increases anxiety; it produces jealousy and desire.  When people have work, when they have income, when dependents look to them for sustenance – they generally act with care and deliberation.  On the other hand, when a society is fearful, when they look for food and find none, when work is sporadic or non-existent – people become suspicious and potentially hateful. 

A just society is one that has both expectations of the individual with attendant responsibilities along with the possibility of being lifted out of poverty when life becomes too oppressive.  We are our brother’s keeper and as such need to learn morality in our religious institutions and schools.  There is a right and wrong.
A great Jewish thinker once suggested that a ‘just society is determined by the way it treats its poor.’  Few people would ever doubt that the privileged are denied justice.  What we need to be concerned with is that the underprivileged receive the same treatment.
I therefore make two suggestions:
1. We need to constantly learn and teach not just mathematics and science but morality as well.

2. Everyone deserves the opportunity to work and learn and eat.  There are times in a person’s life when they are impoverished of spirit.  At such times, it is the responsibility of the larger community to help them reestablish their ability to be self-sufficient and a contributing member of society.

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