I don't know about other of "these people," but in my case I start with my past because it's where my political development started.
But didn't end.
Why not carry,
"human and environmental rights" onward? for example.
I believe I am continuing to carry human and environmental rights onward. But the nature of those rights, and the way of carrying them on, changes.
(By nature of those rights I don't mean the broad principles of human and environmental rights, which remain unchanged, but the nature of the barriers to be overcome. For example: in the 60s in the South, simple integration was a priority -- opening restaurants, motels, theaters, shops to blacks, eliminating segregated trains, busses, restrooms, water fountains, etc. That battle has, for the most part, been won, at least legally. The batte for racial equality is not won, but it is being fought on different fronts that require different tactics. Sit-ins, for example, are no longer useful, IMO, as a weapon of social change.)
When I was in my 20s, I was perfectly ready to go to jail -- and did -- in pursuit of social justice. At that time I was resonsible for no one but myself. I was supported by my parents, I had no job to lose, I could spend a week in jail without loss to those I loved, except the heartache of my family on my behalf. I was free to put the cause of social justice for all persons first, because I had no one else depending on me.
Today things are different. It's not that I care less about social justice, but I now have a wife and children who are dependent on me. Their needs become paramount. The most valuable thing I can do for the world is first to take responsibility for my corner of it. My work for social justice, while still vitally important to me, has to be balanced with the needs of the people for whom I have accepted a very specific responsibility. When I went to jail in my 20s, I was the only one who suffered. If I were to go to jail now, people for whom I have accepted responsibility would suffer. IMO, accepting that is not abandoning my principles, but recognizing that I have other principles and obligations I didn't have then.
Secondly, in my youth the only real resources I had to further social justice were my time and my body. Now I have other resources. I have a certain amount of money I can (and do) contribute to those who are now in the position I was in then. I have a certain amount of influence I can (and do) contribute; just yesterday, for example, I volunteered my Saturday to participate as a family law attorney in a workshop to develop ways for our local courtl system to understand and respond better to domestic violence. This is something I couldn't have done 30 years ago, but can now. The commitment to social justice hasn't changed, but the way of supporting it has.
It is said that the older one becomes, the wiser one's parents become. When I was 20 I used to rail at my father for not being more committed to social justice, for sitting in his office instead of being on the picket lines and sitting in restaurants with me. I didn't understand him then. I do now, and know that his commitment to peace and social justice was no less than mine, just differently expressed.
nstead, like CH, who I assume thinks,it is okay to drop these values now, because of personal reasons.
You assume incorrectly. It is not okay to drop those values. It IS okay to understand and and pursue them from a different, I think more mature, perspective.
he is a Fuskie..
Translate, please? I don't know what a Fuskie is. |
