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From some of its darkest hours, the United States has emerged stronger and more resilient.
We have that chance again. 1/x https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/09/opinion/coronavirus-inequality-america.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
We have that chance again. 1/x https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/09/opinion/coronavirus-inequality-america.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
The coronavirus pandemic has laid bare the incomplete nature of the American project — the great distance between the realities of life and death in the United States and the values enunciated in its founding documents.
Las Vegas painted rectangles on an asphalt parking lot to remind homeless residents to sleep six feet apart — an act that might as well have been a grim piece of performance art titled “The Least We Can Do.”
The magnitude of a crisis is determined not just by the impact of the precipitating events but also by the fragility of the system it attacks. We were vulnerable because so many Americans lack the essential liberty to protect their own lives and the lives of their families.
We need a broad and muscular conception of liberty: that government should provide all Americans with the freedom that comes from a stable and prosperous life.
Advocates of a minimalist conception of government claim they too are defenders of liberty. But theirs is a narrow and negative definition of freedom: the freedom from civic duty, from mutual obligation, from taxation....
This impoverished view of freedom has in practice protected wealth and privilege. It has perpetuated the nation’s defining racial inequalities and kept the poor trapped in poverty, and their children, and their children’s children.
The nation’s hierarchies are starkly visible during periods of crisis. The coronavirus pandemic has necessitated extraordinary sacrifices, but the distribution is profoundly unequal. Less affluent Americans will bear the brunt in health and wealth. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/09/opinion/coronavirus-inequality-america.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
The crucible of a crisis provides the opportunity to forge a better society, but the crisis itself does not do the work. Crises expose problems, but they do not supply alternatives, let alone political will. Change requires ideas and leadership. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/09/opinion/coronavirus-inequality-america.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
This moment demands a restoration of the national commitment to a richer conception of freedom: economic security and equality of opportunity. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/09/opinion/coronavirus-inequality-america.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
To give Americans a fair chance in the race of life, the government must begin from birth. The U.S. must reclaim the core truth of the Supreme Court’s seminal decision in Brown v. Board of Education: So long as Americans are segregated, their opportunities can never be equal.
Over the course of this project, we also will examine other ways to equalize opportunity early in life, and also to restore a healthier balance of power between employers and workers.
The United States has a chance to emerge from this latest crisis as a stronger nation, more just, more free and more resilient. We must seize the opportunity. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/09/opinion/coronavirus-inequality-america.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
