Katie Jeffs

When I imagine my idea of a "Just" society, I picture a society that is truly free. Freedom

is the absence of obstacles for an agents action to achieve a goal. A just society is united since

every person has equal rights and opportunities. To have such a society; There must be social

justice, civil rights, and toleration. These concepts would fix such problems as Inequality, Urban

living issues, and unjust government. In the Declaration of Independence is written: "All men are

created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among

these are Life, Liberty, And the Pursuit of Happiness." This concept is an excellent start to

getting to this just society. But somehow, we have fallen short of this reality in our society, in

which this was written.

One of the main reasons we have fallen short of this is because we don't have tolerance

for one another. In our society, there is Racism, Sexism, Ageism, Homophobias, etc. The list

goes on and on. These problems have been in our society since the very beginning. We started off

with having slaves, and women being property. Then going to war and imprisoning Japanese

citizens in POW camps even though they committed no crimes. We were suspicious just because

of their heritage. Since then we have come a long way to getting to this "Great Society." That

Lyndon B. Johnson talks about in Great Society Speech, 1964. But he also agrees that this is just

the beginning of the issues holding us back from achieving this. He states "The purpose of

protecting the life of our Nation and preserving the liberty of our citizens is to pursue the

happiness of our people. Our success is the pursuit is the test of our success as a Nation." I

believe that he is simply saying that to make a just or a great society none of these things could

exist. For everyone to be truly equal and have equal rights and opportunities, there simply could
be no injustice based on Race, Sexual Identity, Age, Religion, Culture, Etc. Every person must be

tolerated and have the right to Freedom, and the pursuit of happiness.

Another problem we could not have is the poverty and urban living issues. In

metropolitan cities, there is Crowding, Poor Housing, Homelessness, Traffic and transportation

issues, and Fiscal Problems. There are so many people living in poverty that these low-income

places are rapidly expanding. Which causes Crowding, there are too many people living together

in such a small home; there are hundreds of people just living within two blocks of each other.

With houses and apartments lining the streets which are often of poor shape. With vandalism,

inadequate heating, and cooling, etc. Residents have low-income and housing is too expensive

which causes homelessness. The number of people that are homeless in these areas is growing.

There are also many problems that are hard to fix because of fiscal problems; the government

doesn't have the spending in these regions to help with, Traffic issues, including street

maintenance, waste removal, and policing.

These problems would have to be resolved. There are ways we could help the problem.

For example, a big percentage of the homeless persons are Veterans, have a Severe mental

illness, and Physically disabled. If we provided proper care facilities for these people that are

affordable and fair, then most of these people wouldn't need to be homeless. Also, If we put more

funding into these areas, we could help fix the traffic issues, inadequate housing, gang violence,

policing, education problems, and much more. We would have to set the poverty line lower and

consider more things than just what it costs for food. We would have to find, Health and medical

issues, housing costs, and things like childcare costs. Many of these things people cannot afford

even though they are above the poverty line. If we fixed these issues, we would take a huge leap

toward a just society.

 Another major issue is the people and their government. Americans especially are very

uncertain and suspicious of their political leaders. They often refer to them as "Political Puppets"

saying that they are brainwashing the American people to do and act as they "should." Which

leads to distrust in the society at its core if we can't trust the people that represent our society,

then who can we trust? There have been many major issues with this, conspiracy theories, Leaks

of federal information, and people not taking advantage of their rights as American citizens. In a

just society, this wouldn't happen. A government cannot keep secrets from the people and expect

the people to trust within it.

In Edward Snowden and the Moral Worth of Civil Disobedience by David DeCosse, He

states "The ethical issue isn't so much what the information is about; the issue is that the

information is being kept secret at all, and ought to be freed, especially so people can make

decisions." When the government is found to be hiding something, then the people immediately

assume the worst and become suspicious. Individuals are striving to help with this problem in

our society. For example, Edward Snowden, he revealed that the National Security Association is

listening and recording, Telephone calls, emails, texts, and web browsing. He stole a massive

number of documents from the NSA as proof. He and other whistleblowers have decided that it

is not only necessary but morally right for the people of our society to know. Therefore, the

information must not be kept secret. The government keeping information secret is limiting our

freedom. It limits our freedoms to make informed decisions and to feel safe, and secure.

In conclusion, my concept of a "Just" society, is a society that is truly free and united since every

person has equal rights. It cannot have injustice, unjust governments, or urban issues. There

needs to be Social justice, civil rights, and tolerance for every person. It would be hard, nearly

impossible, but hopefully one day there will be such a society.