No Justice, No Peace.

Ravi Somaya & John F. Burns, "Riots Continue to Rattle Britain In Worst Unrest in Two Decades," in The New York Times, August 9, 2011, at p. A1. 

Verena Drobnik, "Wall Street Protests Gain Steam," in The Record, October 4, 2011, at p. A-5. (More protests and some violence may be expected in other American cities.) 

The violent events in London should serve to remind Mr. Cameron that aristocrats are not the only persons in the British islands who have ancestors. 

During the Chartist upheavals in Britain, around 1830, working class Brits fought, bled, and died for the extension of the franchise and universal rights to education against a greedy and comfortable Aristocratic class led by "propertied gentlemen." 

The historical analogy found in the Chartist movement to this week's bloody events or "working class revolt," as E.P. Thompson would say, is highly apt. 

The burden of restoring Britain's finances cannot continue to be placed, overwhelmingly, on the shoulders of the poorest and least powerful British people. New Jersey may face the same contradictions and injustices. ("New Jersey's Filth, Failures, and Flaws.")

Denials of education to UK children and young people who now find university costs prohibitive, for example, is the surest way to guarantee further social unrest. 

Millions of persons in the UK will not tolerate or accept the status of glorified slaves. 

Americans feel much the same sense of betrayal from their government that is indifferent to the theft of billions of dollars by Wall Street "financiers" and to the darkening future of America's young people of all races, religions, ethnicities, genders and sexual-orientations. 

Mr. Obama, "this is our moment." Please do not lose the opportunity to make a lasting difference in the world, Mr. Obama. 

The lesson provided by the riots in London should be heeded in Washington, D.C., where America's ruthless war on the poor -- led by a tiny group of Right-wing politicians who have seized control of the Republican party and much of Congress -- is breeding powerful and highly dangerous forces for rebellion in the land. 

On the day when I first posted this essay, August 9, 2011, riots broke out among teenagers in Philadelphia. 

More such incidents are likely in cities throughout the country if the economic situation does not improve and contempt for African-American lives is displayed by law enforcement. Young people must have some hope for the future and some sense that public violence is restrained by law. We need jobs, Mr. Obama, and opportunities for education for everyone. 

Americans are a Revolutionary people. Americans will not be oppressed by anyone, whether internally or externally. London has provided us with a dark mirror in which we may glimpse our immediate future: there must be change or there will be violence because things cannot remain as they are.

New Jersey's spectacle of legal corruption and ineptitude should be a source of shame to U.S. lawyers everywhere. More frightening is the inability of a divided society to deal with pressing -- or even life-threatening crises -- because of ideological fissures in the body politic. 

The whole world is watching. 

Indeed, our enemies are gleeful over the unraveling of our hopes in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, as well as our economic meltdown at home. This is not a tolerable level of self-destructiveness for any nation. ("Manifesto for the Unfinished American Revolution.") 

We must not lose or abandon the sense of national purpose -- what Walter Lippman described as "The National Interest" -- collective welfare over particular goods or partisan gain.

Foremost in our national concern is the Constitution's insistence that tolerance for the violation of anyone's rights -- including the fundamental rights of the most humble persons -- amounts to
the violation of everyone's rights. See Walter Lippman's classic: The Public Philosophy (New York: The New American Library, 1955). 

Violation of rights is also what we see in Somalia. Rights to food, shelter, basic education and health care are enshrined in the UN Charter, but are meaningless in practice in many settings. For instance, despite attempted strangulation and starvation (I have experienced much the same!) of the Cuban people under the embargo, no one today claims that Cuba is Somalia. 

Cuba is one of the few countries providing assistance to Somalia's hungry and desperate people as is the United States of America. 

Given the economic realities that Cubans live with, American experts believe that Cuba could easily "decohere" into a situation of desperate need and violence. 

Unlike many Right-wing Cubans in Miami and New Jersey I do not wish such horror on the Cuban people. I wish and fight for prosperity and peace for Americans and Cubans through the lifting of a cruel embargo imposed upon millions of innocent persons who have been tortured enough already. ("Time to End the Embargo Against Cuba.") 

Cruel embargos against millions of persons, we are told, are "necessary" to feed our appetite for consumption (oil?) and sense of moral superiority concerning human rights issues. I disagree.

Hunger is also a human rights issue. Health care is a human rights issue. Education is a human rights issue, especially if we are concerned to defend free speech rights that readers see violated (or ignored) by government officials damaging these texts at my blogs with complete immunity from prosecution for their crimes. ("How censorship works in America" and "What is it like to be censored in America?" then "What is it like to be plagiarized?" and "'Brideshead Revisited': A Movie Review.") 

The lopsidedness and blindness in American consumption habits is profoundly unjust and creates a dangerous world, a world likely to explode in rioting and revolution at any time.

Lybian celebrations of the "success" of that nation's revolution may be premature until the various factions in the opposition can be sorted out. True revolutions are always "unfinished." Syria and Lebanon have now also exploded, along with Yemen and, soon, Oman.

Disdain for the suffering of the poor in America is evil, Mr. Boehner, and short-sighted. No one will accept hypocrisy and injustice for long in today's televised global reality. In the words of Dr. King: "No lie can live forever." Dr. King's statement includes the racist and sexist lies that insist that some persons are "inferior" to others and, thus, less worthy of moral concern. 

Equality is not a request or privilege. Equality is not a gift of the powerful few to the powerless many. Equality and freedom leading to justice are OUR human endowment that will never be abandoned without struggle. 

It is now more true than ever that without justice for the majority of humanity there will be no peace for the tiny number of rich and well-fed persons in the First World, and elsewhere, who presume to decide the fate of 99% of us:

"One of the greatest barriers to rational distribution in politics is the unexamined feeling that one's own preferences and ways are neutral and natural. An education that takes national boundaries as morally salient too often reinforces this kind of irrationality, by lending to what is an accident of history a false air of moral weight [or necessity?] and glory. By looking at ourselves through the lens of others, we come to see what in our practices is local and non-essential, what is more broadly or deeply shared. Our nation is appallingly ignorant of most of the rest of the world. I think this means that it is also, in many crucial ways, ignorant of itself." 

Martha Nussbaum, "Patriotism and Cosmolitanism," in M. Nussbaum, et als., For Love of Country? (Boston: Beacon Press, 2002), p. 11. http://www.beacon.org/ ("Nihilists in Disneyworld.") 

Sources: 

C. Cutter & P. Gogoi, "Brace for a Rough Day: Volatile Markets Expected After Rating Cut," in The Record, August 8, 2011, at p. A-1. (The CIA's new spokespersons explain that "only militants have been killed in Pakistan's robot bomb campaign and that there are no civilian casualties" -- even the seven-year-olds are "militants" say U.S. officials.) 

James M. O'Neill, "Toxic Landscape: ARSYNCO INC., Carlstadt -- After Years of Delays, Cleanup Getting Close," in The Record, August 8, 2011, at p. A-1. (N.J. leads the nation in illegal dumping of dangerous chemicals due to corruption among health inspectors and government agencies. Cancer rates continue to soar because of this lucrative sideline for the mafia. Perhaps Exxon officials may be entrusted with dealing with this issue?) 

Patrick Quinn & Kimberly Dozier, "SEALS Downed on a Rescue Flight: Helicopter Called to Help Rangers Under Fire," in The Record, August 8, 2011, at p. A-9. (Worst day of the war in Afghanistan, even worse may be yet to come. Sadly, there may be much worse in Iraq and Pakistan in the weeks and months ahead. $2 BILLION per month and the loss of an occasional $40 MILLION helicopter in addition to American casualties in the thousands and many more persons shattered for life, but many Republicans nonetheless call for more warfare in Syria and elsewhere.) 

"A Better MVC Agency Says Service Will Improve," (Editorial) in The Record, August 8, 2011, at p. A-11. (Where but in New Jersey can you purchase a valid driver's license bearing the name "MATT DAMON" or "LIAM NEESON" for $2,500-$3,500, cash money? It is a little more if you want "GEORGE CLOONEY" on your driver's license as a non-English-speaking immigrant. The INS will never know?) 

Stan Choe, "Fed Decision Helps Markets Rebound," in The Star Ledger, August 10, 2011, at p. A1. (You must be joking, 2013?) 

Portia Walker, "As Britain Debates the Reasons, It's [sic.] Angry Young People Rage On," in The Star Ledger, August 8, 2011, at p. A3. (This is not Masterpiece Theater, folks. British proposals to deal with this violence in the future include curtailments on free speech, further blanket monitoring, and other "enhanced security provisions" comparable to the measures adopted by Bush/Cheney. Zig hail, Mr. Cameron!) 

Jason Grant, "Prisoner Admits He Ran Gang From Cell: Racketeering Plea [sic.] Reveals He Led N.J. Bloods Since '94," in The Star Ledger, August 8, 2011, at p. 27. (N.J. Democrats may ask inmate, Vincent Young, to run for the state Senate where he would fit right in with Mr. Sweeney and Mr. Codey.) 

Angela Delli Sante, "His Life Redirected, McGreevey Aims Spiritual Efforts at Inmates," in The Star Ledger, August 8, 2011, at p. 27. (McGreevey is lucky that he is not an inmate. Efforts to revive McGreevey's reputation for a future run for office, as a Republican perhaps, are unpersuasive.) 

Andrew Tangel, "Wall Street Takes a Wild Ride: Computers Drive Volatility," in The Star Ledger, August 10, 2011, at p. A1. (How many computers got rich in the market? I'd rather listen to Bloomberg News.) 

John Reitmeyer, "N.J. Paying Lobbyists' Pensions: Bills to End the Practice Stuck in Legislature," in The Record, August 10, 2011, at p. A-1. (Only New Jersey pays for lobbyists who get rich by getting your tax dollars -- which they share with politicians -- while enjoying "public pensions" as non-governmental officials because they bestow a "public benefit" on society through assisting in political corruption efforts.)