Human Value

I have continued to mull some of the responses to the Texas Vigilante shooting in Texas, both on this blog and elsewhere in the blogosphere. I find it quit interesting that many people feel that since these two men from Colombia were here illegally and had criminal backgrounds they deserved to die. It appears that their value as human beings was reduced by both demerits, to the point that being shot in the back with a 12 gauge shotgun as they were fleeing is "justice." It is important to keep in mind that these men were unarmed and committing a burglary, they were not threatening the well-being of anyone. Even the neighbor was clear that he was "not going to let them get away with this," not a concern for his safety as much as a desire to mete out justice.

This sliding scale of human value seems to be everywhere today. For instance, most of us don't blink when we hear that 23 insurgents were killed today, but we likely pause if we hear 6 American soliders were killed by a roadside bomb. In fact, I would wager that no person truly values all human life equally! For instance, a parent is biologically predisposed to value the lives of their children over the lives of strangers. I wonder if the same goes for cultures? Are we programmed to instinctively value people who are similar to us over people who are different?

Of course the social manifestation of such a sliding scale has resulted in some of the worst acts of human history, including slavery and the holocaust. In both cases it seems that the underlying racism was based on perceived differences between the human value of each respective group. As soon as we have objectified a group of people to "insurgents", "japs", "n*ggers", "illegals", etc, we have removed our own moral barriers to acting inhuman to them. It seems this human tendency to objectify the "other" is one we must continually struggle against!

If I am wrong and human value really is dependent on some extrinsic factors, perhaps we should define a worth spectrum? For instance, 1 U.S. soldier = 75 Iraqi "insurgents" in overall human value, or 1 U.S. citizen equals 20 "illegal aliens," or 1 U.S. taxpayer = 5 people on welfare. If we could establish a tidy spectrum of human value, this would greatly aid our Country in making policy decisions, enacting new legislation, allocating budgets, deciding to go to war, etc. We could simply ask, what is the human value of the respective decisions? If we go to war with Albania, we might loose 700 U.S. soldiers, but gain natural resources that would benefit millions of Americans. If this resulted in the deaths of 20,000 albanians, but the U.S. to Albanian worth ratio was 1:25, clearly the decision would be prudent and justified.

Illegal Immigration - A Red Herring

I am really tired of the illegal immigration political discussions and have felt all along that this is a red herring. I mean, of all the critical issues in the United States and abroad, does illegal immigration even begin to merit the amount of attention and energy that it has drawn over the past few years. Granted, it does appear that illegal immigration puts a drain on state and federal resources, to the tune of 10 billion a year according to one study. I don't feel this shouldn't be a issue, but should it be one of the central issues? I mean, the Iraq war is now estimated to cost 2.4 trillion dollars, which is equivalent to over 200 years of illegal immigration based on today's costs!!!

The hurricane Katrina devastation in Louisiana is estimated to cost anywhere from 200 to 300 billion dollars, equivalent to 20-30 years of illegal immigration costs. Given the fact that much of the devastation from hurricane Katrina was preventable with foresight and better safeguards, doesn't it seem that a much better use of our politicians time is finding ways to prevent future events with similar disastrous results, as well as setting up infrastructure to respond quickly in the event that a natural disaster does happen. I mean, how much money would we save if we could react quickly and decisively to massive flooding or spreading wildfires? I would wager it would easily pass the 10 billion mark on an annual basis.

The problem is that illegal immigration is a flashpoint for conservatives and proves to be a strong rallying issue, as well as a distraction from other pertinent issues (Iraq war, failed recovery efforts in New Orleans, etc). Unfortunately the news media blithely comes along for the ride, breathlessly reporting each new development on the illegal immigration front. It drives me batty, as "solving" the illegal immigration issue (i.e. keeping Latin American's in their own damn country) will not provide substantial benefit to the United States, not to mention the moral failures of a country that becomes exceedingly selfish at hoarding their resources from those who have nothing. When will we learn...