Safe or Free from Danger

Consider these two statements: 

1.  My child is safe in school.

2.  My child is not in danger in school.

Now expand consideration of the core of those two statements.  Is it better to be safe or not in danger?  In a free society, which condition is preferable?  To be able to come and go, when and where desired without the concern for personal safety would appear to be the better alternative.  An artificial level of security or safety derived from bullet proof glass, locked doors, and/or armed guards does not imply the desirable experience of freedom that many fellow citizens would like to believe they enjoy.  Not only that, but what safety measures are ever truly infallible.

The preference to be safe or free from danger should influence the discussions of what to do about gun violence, domestic violence, or violence of any kind that threatens any member of society.

Occupy Rapid City Continues

Occupy Rapid City has been gathering on a street corner in downtown Rapid City in public protest of issues of concern to the members of the group.   The focus for the every Saturday protests is a discussion that persists at the group’s first and third Monday meetings each month.  Some members believe that we should try to align the focus with the major issues of the original Occupy Wall Street group.  Others believe that many other issues are related to those original protests and therefore it is appropriate to bring these issues to the public’s attention.  Bringing issues to the public’s attention has always been a major objective of Occupy protests everywhere.

A local group consensus does exist about the necessity to continue the protests, even if we can’t agree on how we could narrow their focus.  Observers that stop by to engage us in conversation or argument often share curiosity that indicates a desire on the part of these observers to classify and or categorize the protest participants as members of groups that the observers have established opinions about.  The people that want to label the group are generally missing a point that our group has an established a consensus about.  We believe that we represent not just ourselves, but a majority of Americans, the 99%, in our concern for the need to address the issues stated or implied on the signs we display each weekend in protest.

We do not mean to suggest that the 99% are in agreement on these issues.  We do try to draw attention to issues that affect the majority of our fellow citizens.  Our goal is to get people to think about these issues and how they came to be issues.  Another consensus within the group is with regard to the relationship of many issues of concern in the United States and the ever increasing economic inequality.  We aren’t talking about getting hand-outs and freebies as some people might imply.  We are talking about the political and societal environment that has been manipulated and changed over time to favor a small portion of the population. 

The following two books are recommended reading for greater understanding and insight into the positions of the Occupy movement:

The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future

Joseph E. Stiglitz

New York: W.W. Norton & Co., ©2012

Debt: the first 5,000 years

David Graeber

Brooklyn, N.Y.: Melville House, ©2010