The American Dream and Social Justice:

Today marks 47 years since Martin Luther King said I have a dream. He said those words before the memorial to the president that had the power and the rectitude to actually free a race and by so doing make the words of the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution mean exactly what they so clearly said. Martin Luther King sought social justice for all Americans. Think about that, for if injustice is permitted it does not harm just those who are unjustly treated. It in fact harms us all.

Some people will tell you that social justice is a myth. These people are wrong. While the law cannot make you love your fellow man the law damn well can tell you that you may not lynch your fellow man. I have for years heard the phrase you cannot legislate morality. Perhaps the spirit of justice cannot be imparted to the law. But what you may not do can be delineated. Those that would ignore this dual nature of the law are overlooking the true majesty of the law.

In some ways the law is a sewer in that it attempts to redress those things done by criminal elements against honest citizens. But more than that the law attempts to limit how far a powerful citizen may go when abusing a weaker citizen. That may sound like a shocking statement. And it is. The law does not say one citizen may not abuse another it says that abuse may not go beyond a certain point.

To better see these distinctions consider the payment of interest on borrowed money. Most Americans do not consider the charging of interest against the law. But most Americans would feel that an interest rate of 10% per month excessive. So it becomes a matter of degree not the thing itself. Interest is okay but excessive interest is not okay. The question becomes who says what is and what is not excessive. Those folks who are what I call raw capitalists would say that the folks making the loan have the right to charge any amount they wish. Those with more social scruples would argue that an external agency should regulate to insure the rate charged was not excessive.

The stated purpose of the American system of government is to insure to all citizens equality of opportunity to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These general statements are implemented by a series of statutes that regulate how citizens may treat each other. The most basic of the statutes governing citizen and government interaction is of course the Bill of Rights. Think of the Bill of Rights in the same way you think of the Ten Commandments. The major difference being the Ten Commandments came 3,000 years earlier.


Text