Yesterday I put up a canvas picture in my office. The picture was a painting of a triangle demonstrating Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. If you read previous posts you know that I am a big fan of this hierarchy. It seems that when the needs are meet this truly does make people happy and content.
I like public parks always have I think they are an idea third space. The parks are a third space for me however for some of the less fortunate than myself public parks have become their home. The parks serve as homes unless you are in the city I live in. The city I live in enforces the very unconstitutional no loitering law. I guess the constitutionality of a no loitering law maybe debatable however it is definitely an immoral and unjust law. Here is a pretty good review on why the no loitering law is unconstitutional.
The pillar of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is water, sleep, shelter, clothes and air. The people who have made the park their home and are being kicked out are not even getting the pillar of their needs meet!
In the United States we use capitalism to judge peoples worth and place in society and right to live. If you have enough capital you can live wherever you want and do whatever you want basically (even if you have broken laws you can pay lawyers and judges to make the consequences less sever for you or even go away).
The amount of capital that someone has is a bad way to divide up resources as basic water, sleep, shelter, clothes and air. Just because you have more access to money does not mean you deserve more of anything than anyone else. Honestly if everyone got what they truly deserved we would all be in a big world of trouble.
A society that forces a person to earn their needs through work that has nothing to do with those needs is broken and misguided. Today lets challenge ourselves and see a future that does not measure a persons worth with dollars.
The Corrigan Encore 