Injustice or misfortune?

Is the lack of health care for so many millions of people an injustice or merely unfortunate? Blogger/Essayist Terrence Heath explores this question. Your answer is probably based on whether you think health care is a right. If it is a right then, in the same manner as women's rights, civil rights, and gay rights, delaying health care for all is equivalent to saying (in the words of Martin Luther King) that justice delayed is justice denied. And moderates wanting progressives to slow down and allow the rest of society to catch up is only fueling the injustice. These moderates are for justice, but we just can't be rushed into things.

That means the health care bill (currently in doubt) has already been watered down and compromised and sliced-and-diced (from the progressive perspective) and still moderates say we are moving too fast. Are they immune to the stories of insurance nightmares? This is an issue of justice! Another MLK phrase comes to mind, "Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice." The next sentence should be, "Because countless hands reach up and bend it sooner rather than later."

If the lack of health care is a misfortune there is no urgency. Misfortunes are not something we can do much about. Not only is there no urgency, there is no responsibility to act. We can easily justify our inaction (except if we take the words of Jesus seriously…).

Democrats have not chosen the side of justice and are now groveling merely to get a bill -- any bill -- passed. Have we bent the curve towards justice? Hard to tell.

Injustice or misfortune?

The same question can be applied to the earthquake in Haiti and what seems to be an almost annual megadisaster over the last several years. David Rothkopf of Newsweek has a few things to say about it. 100,000 -- likely more -- dead in Haiti, not to mention those now homeless and unemployed. 70,000 dead from an earthquake in Sichuan, China in 2008. 150,000 dead from cyclone Nagris in Myanmar. 90,000 dead from an earthquake in Kashmir. 250,000 dead from the Indian Ocean tsunami. And we get bent out of shape when someone threatens 250 people on an airplane or when hundreds (have we gotten that many?) die from the H1N1 flu virus.

There are a few things these megadisasters have in common.

* The victims are the world's most vulnerable, reduced to living on treacherous soil.

* Scientists warned the area was precarious.

* Local governments didn't enforce building codes or provide infrastructure for warning, escape, or rescue.

* International aid is only enough to buy peace of mind, to get the incident out of the news.

But these are all disasters that can be managed in the same way that pandemics can be managed. We can promote those building codes and the building of infrastructure to prevent an Act of God from killing so many. Expensive? Compared to what? The cost of all this emergency aid? A standard Wall Street bailout? The cost of lives lost? Injustice or misfortune? With the threat of climate change and the likelihood of more violent weather, Haiti won't be the last megadisaster. Perhaps the international community can use Haiti as an example of how to make the necessary changes.