Values Question

[velvetpage]

Most of you on my friends list are liberals in terms of your social and political philosophies. It has been said that the Left in the U.S. does a very bad job of articulating exactly what it is they hold as their moral values - that the idea of morals has been co-opted by the right, and leftists are seen as having none.

So, Liberals of my friends list - what are your values? What do you believe in, passionately, that sets you apart from people further right, especially the Religious Right? Comment here in sound-bite style phrases, and then those of you in the States could print out the answers and send them to your local democratic candidates.

Comments

[purplkat.livejournal.com]

I believe in walking in the other guy's shoes, or at least trying to imagine what it'd be like to do so.

I believe that if we had a little more economic equality in this country and a little more respect for our poor, then people, both rich and poor, would surprise themselves and everyone else with their capacity for good. I think it's the barriers that we erect between ourselves, saying "that's not my problem", "those people aren't like me", etc is the cause of a very large part of the evil acts that people, again both rich and poor, take, and that the way to begin breaking down those barriers is to begin enacting policies that respect -all- of our fellow man (and woman).

I also believe that we need to educate ourselves. I believe that the arts are what will help us to come together, and science will help us solve some of the persistant problems that have followed us out of the industrial revolution, especially in the environment and in medicine. Thus, we need to shift a lot of funding over the science and the arts so that we can begin really investing in a better future. We also need to really get serious about improving the schools, especially by raising teacher salaries up so that they're on par or close to on par with what highly paid professionals make. With a higher salary, it'd be possible to up what we demand of our teachers -- the extra pay would draw the very best and brightest to the field.