Value life? Then how about health care for all?
I would like to be part of a culture that truly values life. I have ethical problems with - and serious disagreement with - government policy on the death penalty, and with the policies that led to the 100,000 civilian deaths we caused during the Iraq war.
But I pay my taxes because I believe in all of us having clean water to drink, roads to drive on, schools in which to be educated, police to keep us safe - all of which I've benefited from, and for which I'm grateful.
I believe in clothing the naked, feeding the hungry and tending to the sick - partly out of gratitude, but also out of selfishness: it's cheaper to take care of those things up-front, in a preventative way, rather than on the back end, in emergency rooms and jails.
These are difficult issues because the true balance sheet on life is not written in black and white - but they are issues that are worth the continuing hard thought - and dialog - they require.
But I pay my taxes because I believe in all of us having clean water to drink, roads to drive on, schools in which to be educated, police to keep us safe - all of which I've benefited from, and for which I'm grateful.
I believe in clothing the naked, feeding the hungry and tending to the sick - partly out of gratitude, but also out of selfishness: it's cheaper to take care of those things up-front, in a preventative way, rather than on the back end, in emergency rooms and jails.
These are difficult issues because the true balance sheet on life is not written in black and white - but they are issues that are worth the continuing hard thought - and dialog - they require.
