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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Srexley who wrote (133722)	3/27/2001 5:11:32 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

why I am LUCKY to be an Amercian We're all lucky to be Americans. But the circumstances under which we live, which provided us opportunity, did not come about just by luck, and are not equally distributed among Americans. Nor do they remain in place by some law of nature; they are continually subject to erosion. The liberal position does not say that luck is the primary ingredient in success. It says that hard work, opportunity and luck are needed for success. Opportunity is very often based in the systemic structures under which we live -- for example, what education is available?-- and is man-made. The impulse to provide equality of opportunity for all citizens is a liberal impulse. The impulse that thought up the concept of individual citizenship, as opposed to giving more rights or fewer to members of groups, is a liberal one. Traditionally, governments have provided this equality of opportunity by defining the rights of citizens, providing rule of law, defending property rights, providing infrastructure such as roads, and providing education and health care. It is in the liberal tradition to notice and oppose inequalities in opportunity, just as it is in the convservative tradition to ignore or support those inequalities.