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Health & Fitness

A "Socially Just" and Proud of it Democrat

A State Senator/candidate is reported to have said that it is un-American to push for the concept of social justice; This while our soldiers are dying to spread this concept abroad.

 

While always trying to give benefit of the doubt when I hear, or read something in print that sounds so indefensible, and that rings so discompassionately in one’s ears that it seems unbelievable, I am at an utter loss for words here. Can our elected official, State Senator L. Scott Frantz really have said that it is fundamentally un-American for us Democrats to push for a concept such as social justice? Please say it isn’t so, Scott! Especially not from someone who has known such privilege in your own life.

What could be more American than to fight for the principles of equality, and solidarity and for human rights right here at home in this country while we have young men and women fighting and giving their very lives on a daily basis to bring these concepts to people in other lands? If we don’t believe in these principles at home, why are we sending our sons and daughters off to die for them in foreign wars in far-off lands?

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When a society is “socially just” it embraces the premises of equality and a commonality between us that is borne of being not only human but humane. As I listen to the hateful political discourse all around us I wonder what has become of our humanity as a people and as a nation.  A “socially just” society recognizes and values the tenets of human rights. Which aspects of social justice should we NOT push for…equal opportunity for all…a level playing field for all…human rights for all…the belief that there is a dignity in all people and in all work that demands respect? Is it not a blight on our country that we have in our history, and right now apparently, a time where these very things are not uniformly acknowledged and accepted as something due to ALL our people and where the dignity and unique worth of every individual is not recognized or accepted? This is in essence what we are saying when we denounce the concepts of social justice.

The National Association of Social Work has said that social justice is the view that everyone deserves equal economic, political and social rights and opportunities. Is this so irrational a thought? It doesn’t mean that everyone will end up equal, that they will take something that is yours, that they will have an equal share of something or anything, but merely that they will have an equal opportunity to allow them to try to get those same things.  I don’t feel demeaned by being referred to as un-American for pushing for social justice for all our people; I feel proud to be one of those people and I feel saddened by anyone who has lost the humanity, or perhaps never had it, to not recognize that the value of human worth far outweighs the baser value of other riches.

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Stephanie R. Paulmeno MS RN NHA

Candidate: State Representative- District 150

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