Social Justice - Amherst Indy
Arrogant – sycophant – social justice is my rant – honor honor Hierophant –
Bow to Pope – HE is no dope – peasant people – have no hope -
Pay no heed – we have our creed – even if the other bleed –
Wait wait wait – plant this seed – earth and water plant will need -
See her grow – the tree of social justice …….
She spreads her leaves to seed more trees – creatures of the forest feed –
Kingdom LEADERS now retire – no longer domination aspire –
Collaboration becomes our nation – we - he - she - they –
Oppression now will stay away - collective governance – collective play
Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. (WorldWideWeb)
There are Five Principles of Social Justice, viz. Access, Equity, Diversity, Participation, and Human Rights. (WorldWideWeb)
Happily we live in a time when Social Justice is receiving our attention. Unhappily we are still living in a society where “the distribution of wealth, opportunities and privileges” is less than optimum. Social Justice is a vast and important issue for the world, our nation and our town. I will argue here that it should be, along with climate change, our highest priority. Honoring Social Justice will improve everyone’s life, even those that may lose power, privilege and wealth. It is well known from numerous studies that human satisfaction plateaus when basic human needs are met and opportunities are provided.
My campaign mantra has always been INCLUSION and PARTICIPATION. If you want to forward the agenda of Social Justice DO NOT elect LEADERS. We need collaborators, we need team players, we need cooperators. Recently the Town Council and the Planning Board rejected the request for a Moratorium, signed by 1000 citizens, asking for the inclusion and participation of more voice and views. This is an egregious rejection of inclusion, participation and Social Justice. Like latent, invisible racism and classism, I am sure that no one on the Town Council was aware that their vote and that action was a form of domination of the many by the few and a rejection of the basic principles of Social Justice. Any proposal for a new or renovated school or library that does not garner wide spread support, must be the product of a process that was not adequately inclusionary and participatory.
Research has shown that candidates who are narcissistic tend to have a winning advantage. Please, I am not criticizing any person running or elected, I am only trying to point out that our tendency to elect individual with an air of strong leadership and predetermined ideas of what WE need, gives us LEADERS that are tending to be exclusionary and not inviting divergent voices in the formation of priorities and policies. Thus after ten years of planning and hard work we have a library project proposal that has deeply divided our town and runs the risk of rejection.
The principles of Social Justice will be forwarded by Town Councilors who are open minded, listening a lot, and humble in their opinions and practice. Conventional wisdom warns us “you will not accomplish anything”. I challenge that conventional wisdom.
