At a time when middle class values are besieged from every side, women are often paid less than men for the same work and the income gap may be the greatest in recent history, the title of this column seems strikingly callous and thoughtless. If we replace fair with just, it would be easier to understand his meaning more clearly.
Over the doors of the Supreme Court building is carved, “Equal justice under law.” Justice — not equality of circumstance. Justice has to do with injury and making the injured whole. What this nation has promised is not that every inequity would be eliminated, but that those injured by the accidents of life — battle wound, skin color, lost job or family history — will be made as whole as any society claiming to be just can.
American values do not include looking at the wounded veterans of our many wars and saying to them; “Suck it up. Life is not fair.” We do everything possible to, in the words of the biblical prophet, bring about the day when “justice shall roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Stephen Love, Northwest Dallas
@Steve_Love