I don't really have a specific topic yet so I thought I would just write a little bit and see what comes out. It's been awhile since I've written anything so I just wanted everyone to know that I am still alive and thinking about writing on my blog -- I just haven't done it. My not-so-busy life got a whole lot busier when I started my full-time internship a few weeks ago, which is normally more than 40 hours a week plus at least half an hour commute each way, sometimes more depending on traffic. The day after I started the internship the tutoring company that hired me a couple months before finally got a placement for me so I agreed to be a math tutor for a couple of hours each week. Then I also started training a couple of hours every week for a job that I will get after my internship ends. Today at church another person asked me to be a Spanish/geometry tutor for their daughter and I agreed to that so that's another couple of hours of work each week. (But money is money when you only get a stipend for your internship...)
I had said that I was going to write a few posts about the topic of money but I haven't come up with any brilliant ideas lately so maybe I should stop announcing beforehand what I am going to talk about in the next post since that hasn't been working out for me thus far. To not just drag on about nothing I think I will just leave a quote for thought and call it good. This quote was by the American revolutionary Thomas Paine:
"Rights are not gifts from one man to another, nor from one class of men to another… It is impossible to discover any origin of rights otherwise than in the origin of man; it consequently follows that rights appertain to man in right of his existence, and must therefore be equal to every man.” (P.P.N.S., p. 134)
I think about this in the context of "the right to" vs. "entitled to" Does every man have a right to health care or is every man entitled to health care? (or you could choose a different issue such as property or education etc.) Do you think there is a difference?
2 comments:
Your question reminds me of Elder Oaks' "Where Will it Lead" address at BYU. The whole talk is great, but specifically I'm referring to this passage:
"First, I am concerned about the current overemphasis on rights and underemphasis on responsibilities. Where will this lead in our public life? No society is so strong that it can support continued increases in citizen rights while neglecting to foster comparable increases in citizen responsibilities or obligations. Yet our legal system continues to recognize new rights even as we increasingly ignore old responsibilities. For example, so-called no-fault divorces—which give either spouse the right to dissolve a marriage at will—have obscured the vital importance of responsibilities in marriage. Similarly, I believe it is a delusion to think that we help children by defining and enforcing their rights. We do more for children by trying to reinforce the responsibilities of parents—natural and adoptive—even when those responsibilities are not legally enforceable.
"The same principles apply in public life. We cannot raise our public well-being by adding to our inventory of individual rights. Civic responsibilities like honesty, self-reliance, participation in the democratic process, and devotion to the common good are essential to the governance and preservation of our country. Currently we are increasing rights and weakening responsibilities, and it is leading our nation down the road toward moral and civic bankruptcy. If we are to raise our general welfare, we must strengthen our sense of individual responsibility for the welfare of others and the good of society at large (see Dallin H. Oaks, “Rights and Responsibilities,” Mercer Law Review, 36 [1984–85], no. 1 [fall 1984]: pp. 427–42)."
The whole talk can be found here: http://magazine.byu.edu/?act=view&a=1689
I think those that work hard are entitled. Those that sit around waiting for handouts should get nothing.
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