From: eyc@acpub.duke.edu (EMIL CHUCK)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.bush,alt.rush-limbaugh
Subject: Re: Individual rights Re: Mr. Waffle King
Date: 7 Nov 92 19:40:18 GMT
Followup-To: alt.politics.bush
Organization: Duke University; Durham, N.C.

mwertz1@cc.swarthmore.edu (Melanie Wertz) writes:
%kmitche@eis.calstate.edu (Kenneth Mitchell) writes:
%> (Melanie Wertz) writes:
%>>  (Mike Best) best@anasazi.com writes:
%>>>>Conservatives believe in limited government and the empowerment of the 
%>>>>individual (the sanctity of individual rights a la Locke) to allow people
%>>>>the freedom to seek their own happiness rather than to stand in a line
%>>>>at a federal office waiting to receive what the liberals have deemed as
%>>>>todays portion of happiness.
%>> 
%>> Conservatives give you rights if you are
%>> a) wealthy
%>> b) Christian 
%>> c) white
%>> d) heterosexual
%>> e) male
%> 
%> FALSE. Conservatives don't GIVE people ANY rights; Conservatives believe
%> that we were ALL born with EQUAL rights, and deserve equal opportunities.
%> (Notice that I don't say "equal results"; results come from what you DO
%> with your opportunities.) 
%> 
%Ken,
%
%Do you really believe that someone, say, born into the inner city, where
%the schools are terrible, where violence rules, where the only possible
%sources of economic  support are welfare, a minimum-wage job at Burger King
%(with no insurance or health benefits), or selling drugs, actually has
%equal rights and opportunities?  Do you really blame THEM, and not the
%social structure, for "unequal results"?  
%
%"We seek not equality as a right and a theory, but equality as a fact and
%result."

The person does not have rights and opportunities equal to that of your
own. (But if you want, you can gladly switch places with that person if
it makes you feel better.) But the person does have opportunities. The
options you gave are not the only options one has when he/she is young.
One outlet many inner-city youth have is found in sports activities, and
the hope that they can be their best and work hard to be their best.
Now, they may not make it into pro sports, but what must be changed
isn't the social structure; you will always have rich people and poor
people. What you must change is the attitude of despair and hopelessness
into a desire for something better and to work hard to get there. Work
is not a social program that lasts for the rest of one's life. You don't
decide which job to get necessarily because of the health benefits or
the pension fund or the vacation periods or family leave policy; you
first consider how much it pays. Then you must work in order to keep
your job and get promoted so you can get more money. This is one problem
in the inner cities that no amount of cash from the government can
cure. This is where conservatives and liberals differ; liberals do think
that government can cure this problem while conservatives think that
private enterprise is the solution. It isn't an issue of which party
gives people rights; we have those rights anyway, but it is what WE do
with our opportunities that decides our fate. We should not be looking
for equality as a "fact" or a "result." We should be looking to make
ourselves better.
-- 
Emil Thomas Chuck	eyc@acpub.duke.edu	Biomedical Engineering 1993
	THANK GOD IT'S BASKETBALL SEASON!!!!!
I don't have to have a 4.0 GPA to succeed in life because I'm 
good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me.
Newsgroups: alt.politics.bush