Below is the exchange I had with Dr. Barbara Ley Toffler, who is running for re-election to the Teaneck town council. See my letter to all the candidates that I posted yesterday. I'm not commenting on the response - I think you can all make your own determination on where the Councilwoman stands on these issues.
Please be respectful. I'm turning on moderation for this post.
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COUNCILWOMAN TOFFLER: Dear
YD (wish I knew your name, Always more comfortable to write to real person!)
I think your questions fall under the broad category of
distributive justice. How do we distribute limited resources among a wide range
of stakeholders. For such questions I like to think about the philosopher John
Rawls “Theory of Distributive Justice” which addresses many questions about the
“fairest,” most just way of giving out limited supplies of what is needed.
For example, Rawls’ theory was used to develop the triage plan
for rescuing battlefield injured. While for most of us
the answer for who to rescue first would be: the most severely injured, the
actual triage guideline is to rescue the most severely injured who are likely
to survive if they receive early medical intervention. The most severely
injured who will die no matter what, are to be left til later.
Another example is research funds. If any granting institution
were to say that they will divide monies equally among all proposals, chances
are no one would receive sufficient money to get the research done. Thus
criteria are set, and distribution is done by those criteria, leaving some
worthy recipients empty-handed.
And of course there are situations where equality is the just
decision. As I used to talk about with my children: How should all the ice
cream in the world be divided up. Answer (tho not usually from them) is:
Equally!! (each of the kids would say “so I get the most!”)
Where am I going with this? The key to effecting the
Rawls’ theory is his concept of the “original veil.” As a decision-maker, one
must put oneself behind an original veil, i.e. one must think of oneself as NOT
YET BORN: not knowing what your race, religion, ethnicity, socio-economic
status, country of birth, etc. will be. Then – look at your distributive
question, and decide what criteria for a just decision you would set NOT
KNOWING who you would be.
Would be interesting for a group of
us to sit together and tackle your questions behind the original veil.
Best regards,
Barbara
YD: Barbara,
Thank you for an interesting and
thought provoking response. I apologize for writing under a pseudonym.
Please understand that as a moderator of a blog where controversial and
often emotionally charged issues are discussed I really need to keep my identity
hidden.
I understand making decisions under
the principle of the "original veil", I just don't know if people
should vote under that principle. In other words should they vote having
in mind the interests of all of humanity? Or should they have in mind
their own interests and allow democracy to select the candidate who represents
the interests of the most individuals. Regardless of how people
"should" vote we all know that most people choose the latter.
All that aside, simply on the basis
of fairness we need to ask whether or not the public subsidy of education
should at least in part be available to those who choose to send their children
to a religious school (though certainly we wouldn't expect the public to fund
the religious studies). So I'm asking you what your opinion is on that.
If you choose not to answer I understand. But I think it's fair of
voters to ask the question.
Finally I just want to confirm that
you are ok with me making this conversation public on the web.
Thank you again
for your time.
_______
COUNCILWOMAN
TOFFLER: Certainly you may make our
conversation public on the web. When I was young, I desperately wanted to
attend a private school for children in the performing arts. My cousin was a
successful child actress and attended one such school. My parents would have
none of it. They believed in public education, period, I could take drama
and dance lessons (or religious, art or swimming classes) after school. Doesn't
exactly answer your question, I know. Have a good Shabbos.
