| "The finder of something which the owner was | | | | the genetics that placed certain features at certain |
| probably sorry to lose, cannot take it up with the | | | | places, was enough to make her beautiful in his light. |
| intention of withholding it from the owner when he | | | | He decides "to go steady" with her. He falls in love |
| comes to inquire. But when the owner does not | | | | with her, and decides one day, in his college years, that |
| appear, the finder has a right to retain it for himself." | | | | he will marry her. She throws her arms around him, |
| -- Samuel Von Pufendorf, "The Rights and Duties of | | | | and tells him in all sincerity, that this is one of the most |
| Man and Citizen," Book 1, Chapter 13 | | | | beautiful moments of her. They spend hours together, |
| I had always believed, before I was adoringly aquianted | | | | spending time and going through catalogues of |
| with the philosophy of Humanitarianism, Rationalism, | | | | marriage ceromonies. At the same time, the earlier pair |
| and justice, that squatting ought to be a right, and not a | | | | is preparing their funeral. The ghetto boy never had a |
| privilege. To see so many vacant houses, standing side | | | | chance to propose to the one that he loved. All that he |
| by side like disease, and to hear of so many | | | | was allowed was to look at a face that an undertaker |
| unemployed and so many houseless as though they | | | | did his best to ressurect. |
| were the worst lot of humanity -- to see the present | | | | The ghetto child will continue his life, selling dope, and |
| state of conditions as they exist, I had always believed | | | | trying to get on welfare. All his life, he will be wearing a |
| that squatting is a right. On the one hand, there is an | | | | ring he obtained from a claw machine, and telling |
| army of unemployed, houseless, starving, cold, freezing, | | | | everyone that he got it from his lover. Disagree with |
| without even the least sympathetic touch of humanity, | | | | him, and he will be incited to violence. He's walking |
| not reaching out because of their pride, and they exist | | | | down the street, selling crack and marijuana to |
| in the multitudes. And nobody can be blamed other | | | | everyone who has the green for it. The sidewalk is his |
| than megacorporations, whose assets exist in the | | | | turf. He feels the concrete underneath his feet as he |
| trillions. Trillions of dollars, I say! As a close friend of | | | | goes further in his life, and almost for a moment, he |
| mine tells me, in New York City, they can invest to | | | | feels that this will lead to the end of his life. A driveby |
| have enormous television sets sitting on the sidewalk, | | | | comes by and he ducks. His crew his hit. Big G, Master |
| yet every apartment is infested with vermin and | | | | Tar, Mister Kill, all of them go down. But with a keen |
| cockroaches. We have delapidated buildings, beggars | | | | eye, this one student of life ducks. All of his best |
| on the street, homeless children without even enough | | | | friends are hit in the most fatal wounds, while he |
| clothing to pass the decency laws. All this misery, this | | | | suffers a mere shot in the arm. Ambulence arrives. |
| poverty, and this crime! Oh, and of crime! What shall I | | | | Not something that is at all odd in this neighborhood. He |
| say of it! When men are grown up in an environment | | | | is patched up, while one of his friends is pronounced |
| where everyone around gathers their paycheck in the | | | | dead on the scene. By the time they all arrive at the |
| form of a possessed wallet or a confiscated purse, | | | | hosptial, he is the only one alive. On one sad rooftop |
| where their fathers are robbers and members of | | | | watching some story, still scarred with a hosptial patch, |
| thieves guilds. Should we expect the children to grow | | | | and drowned in tears, he puts a gun to the side of his |
| up any differently? Should you take a child from the | | | | head and pulls the trigger. He felt that, without friends |
| ghetto, and honestly ask him that he will grow up to be | | | | who have helped him in every way, there is no point in |
| the CEO of a megacorporation, only that the | | | | life. With no family, there can be no life. This was his |
| megacorpration will be one that exploits and does | | | | creed. He lived by it. He died by it. |
| nothing but destroy the environment and violate the | | | | Take the child whose home was a towering |
| rights of indigenous peoples!? | | | | skyscraper. Imagine what he had to do. Imagine his life. |
| Oh, what destructive, foul, cruel world has been | | | | He had to read the works that his father put to him. |
| wrought by that thing which we have called greed, that | | | | He had to put to studies that his tutor gave to him. He |
| interest of a few to generate wealth! | | | | spent his time with useless physical exercises. All day, |
| Our children are raised in this environment, our | | | | he was trained. He was turned into something. He was |
| adolescents grow up in these schools, drugs become | | | | not an individual. He was turned into something by his |
| a commen part of life. Crime, drugs, poverty, misery, | | | | superiors. As much as it pains my heart, I must say |
| these are not things that are common parts of just life. | | | | this: he was not much different than the ghetto child. |
| These are common parts of OUR LIFE. It is something | | | | No, he did not search for dinner in garbage can. No, he |
| that we must deal with EVERYDAY. It is not | | | | did not hold up liquor stores when he was drunk |
| something that we can escape. | | | | enough. No, he did none of that. For all of his life, he |
| Let us speak of crime. No man, who has held virtue as | | | | was trained that everything he does must have his |
| a great thing, who has described justice as the most | | | | father's consent. His life was very opposite of the |
| blessed of all things, no man will ever condone theft. I | | | | ghetto child. No, no, no.... While the ghetto child had no |
| agree. There is nothing more unjust theft. That is to | | | | father, the father of the corporate to-be CEO was |
| say, there is nothing more cruel, thoughtless, and | | | | overimposive. He does not demand that his son does |
| heartless than to take from one man what he has | | | | all that he can, that he admire justice, that he gives |
| earned through his hard, sweating labors. I admit all of | | | | some time to the moment of tranquility. No, the CEO |
| this. We are all in agreement here. But, there is | | | | father demands more than that. He demands that his |
| something that must be considered beyond this. | | | | son agrees to hate, that he looks the other way at |
| Then, consider a child who is born in the ghetto. | | | | injustice, that he has no remand for the goodness of |
| Imagine that he has no father, imagine that his mother | | | | mankind. Trying to console his position with friends, he |
| is a crack-cocaine addict. Imagine that his only | | | | finds that they all must suffer the same distress, that |
| education is avoiding truancy officers and breaking into | | | | every parent who can will force his child to be the |
| cars to steal CDs and coins. Imagine that he turns | | | | greatest that they can be. A doctor, an accountant, a |
| fourteen years old. At this age, he starts selling | | | | lawyer, a banker, all these positions are forced on us, |
| crack-cocaine. He starts selling reefer in the halls of a | | | | without our consent. All because adults have this ideal |
| school that he never attended for education. Imagine | | | | that they can mold the world in their own reflection. |
| that he falls in love with a beautiful girl, but she's of a | | | | So we find both of these children, the ghetto child and |
| different color. He takes her dinner, and his enemies | | | | the CEO child, homeless, on the streets of the United |
| decide to deliver a surprise. He is left there crying, | | | | States of America. It seems that the land of the free |
| holding her bleeding body, thinking of what it was like | | | | is also the land of the poverty and the land of the |
| for his mother to read his stories in bed before she | | | | cruelty. We, as free and independent agents, have |
| became addicted, thinking of the beautiful color of her | | | | recognized our own rights, not by some old document, |
| eyes before she was lying lifeless in his arms. At the | | | | not by some sacred scrolls, not by some absurd and |
| same time that he feels the death of her body, he | | | | ridiculous religiion, but by the fact that WE ARE |
| feels the life of her memory, and he refuses to let go. | | | | HUMAN, and as such, we deserve the right to be in |
| The drivebay was enough to break everything he | | | | control of our own lives. |
| thought he knew about life. | | | | There are empty buildings occupied by no person. |
| Now let's consider another child. Consider someone | | | | There are people with no place to live. |
| who is born in the wealthiest of familiest. He goes to | | | | This is not a liberal or conservative matter. It is matter |
| school. He meets friends. And among the students, he | | | | of justice. |
| takes a particular liking to a beautiful girl. He believes, in | | | | Legalize squatting. And legalize it now. |
| the sincerity of his heart, that the mascara, the jewelry, | | | | |