Dr. Paul Farmer said it best, perhaps. "The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong with the world."
He's devoted himself to those in need; it's folks in Haiti recently. Called 'the man who would cure the world' in literature, he's an impressive fellow. He points to a root; specifically, the idea that some lives matter less.
Things have gotten a bit disjointed in my lifetime. Murder isn't murder if the child you're killing is still in the womb. D&C, D&E, chemical poisoning; with D&X, the baby can be completely outside the womb except for the head which you can then crush. It's not murder if you do it that way.
"Because the cranium represents the largest and least compressible structure, it often requires decompression… Decompression can be accomplished with forceps or by making an incision at he base of the skull through which the intracranial contents are suctioned. If the fetus is in cephalic presentation (head first) with the calvarium well-applied to the cervix, the surgeon can pierce the calvarium with a sharp instrument and collapse it externally." It's restricted by law now, but if you do it, you get fined, not charged with murder. To circumvent the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban, the NAF advises abortionists to kill the baby by injection prior to performing a D&X procedure. Their lives matter less, of course.
This same bizarre and irrational thinking extends throughout western culture. My preferences, my wealth, my success are in competition with the lives of others... but they matter less.
“Globalization is the result of powerful governments, especially that of the United States, pushing trade deals and other accords down the throats of the world’s people to make it easier for corporations and the wealthy to dominate the economies of nations around the world without having obligations to the peoples of those nations.” - Noam Chomsky
Our nation did perhaps have a noble birth. Prospects now are for an ignoble end as America joins the ranks of those who forgot whom they serve and why.
It's hard enough for regular folks. The poor and disenfranchised have no voice in the matter at all, and their circumstances ensure they suffer and die quietly on the outskirts of world awareness. Shall we leave the discussion quietly and resign ourselves to the emerging status quo?
Not a chance. Not even a sliver of a chance.
Issues:
Inequality
Discrimination
Oppression
Segregation
Access
Education
Healthcare
Employment
Advancement
Fair treatment
Fair wages
Fair representation
Prejudice
Hatred
Injustice
Marginalization
Disenfranchisement
Religious extremism
Opportunity denied
Selfishness
Greed
Malice
and
Willingness to do harm to another
We've got some difficult years ahead. How might we provoke the needed change?
Update July 2016: the fact that someone finds it necessary to say, "black lives matter," suggests the roots are deep, permeating more of our culture than we'd thought.