Breach
of contract
Most Americans understand intuitively that as citizens
of a democratic society they are involved in a social contract with
the government. This is not something people give much thought to
until there is an emergency. Back in 1994 Newt Gingrich rose to
power in the Republican Party reminding citizens of their “Contract
with America.”
Criticisms on the Internet of the conduct of some of the African
Americans who have fled from Hurricane Katrina refute their contractual
status. Some reporters and commentators even insisted on referring
to those fleeing New Orleans as “refugees.” This term
usually applies to a person who has fled to a foreign country to
escape danger.
It was poignant to see on television that blacks in the Houston
Convention Center were protesting against their designation as refugees.
They asserted quite forcefully that they are American citizens,
not refugees.
The author of the complaint on the Internet stated, “people
on T.V. (99 percent being black) were demanding help. They were
not asking nicely but demanding as if society owed these people
something. Well the honest truth is we don’t. Help should
be asked for in a kind manner and then appreciated.”
The individual complaining was a white volunteer who unrealistically
expected that poor people, after suffering the ravages of a category
four hurricane, and feeling abandoned by their government, would
be inclined to observe the rules of etiquette.
The response of American citizens to the Katrina emergency has been
generous. Nonetheless, citizens have no duty to volunteer their
assistance. The contract for assistance is between Americans and
their government. The individual complaining seems not to acknowledge
such a contract. According to him, persons displaced by a natural
disaster become mere charity cases.
Michael Ignatieff, writing in the New York Times Magazine, takes
a different view. He asserts that the social contract’s “basic
term is protection: helping citizens to protect their families and
possessions from forces beyond their control.” Ignatieff continues,
“Citizenship ties are not humanitarian, abstract or discretionary.
They are not ties of charity. In America, a citizen has a claim
of right on the resources of her government when she cannot —
simply cannot — help herself.”
Ignatieff claims that “the Constitution defines some parts
of this contract, and statutes define other parts, but much of it
is a tacit understanding that citizens have about what to expect
from their government.” Clearly there is differing political
opinion about the nature of the social contract.
Poor citizens of New Orleans know that the government has not been
overly attentive to their interests. The quality of their lives
has been plagued by sub-standard housing, poor health care, inadequate
police protection and poor schools for their children. It is not
inconsistent for the poor and blacks of New Orleans to expect to
be abandoned during a natural disaster.
Franklin D. Roosevelt said that a society is judged by how it helps
the poorest citizens. So that America would not be judged delinquent,
FDR launched the New Deal. George Bush wants to end the New Deal
and substitute “Compassionate Conservatism,” whatever
that means. It apparently does not require that FEMA must be professionally
competent to rescue American victims of a natural disaster.
“For a while, I thought the government
had completely forgotten about us.”
|
Melvin B. Miller
Editor & Publisher
Bay State Banner |
