Whatever happened to economic justice for its own sake?

Over the next few days I will be posting my reflections on the Sustainable Enterprise Conference which I just attended. But right now I am troubled by a trend I see, and want to comment on it.

I've known for some time that neither major political party cares about the poor, but I didn't realize that this trend had taken over the discourse about poverty.

Most of the people who attended SEC2007 are privileged, and somewhat myopic with it, but I didn't realize this could be willful until I began to weigh the evidence.

Our speaker late morning today, Carol Misseldine, Sustainability Coordinator for the City of Oakland, said, "The resentment and restlessness of the poor is a barrier to sustainability."

Seems to me the poor have a right to be resentful and restless, and we have an obligation as fellow human beings to address their plight in its own right, not because it gets in the way of sustainability.

It's funny, you know - I am one in church circles who is always asking why we are looking at only human issues and ignoring the concerns of the rest of creation. But in groups like the SEC crowd, I end up being the one angry about neglecting human need, class inequalities, etc., as we attempt to address systemic problems.

I found a similar thought expressed in the introduction to Food Fight by Fred Kirschenmann. He writes that a reason for sound agricultural policy is a stable society. "Malnutrition and starvation breed terrorism and social unrest."

Well, malnutrition and starvation are just plain unconscionable. They are wrong in their own right, not because they cause behaviors and movements which upset our comfortable lives.

(But - don't let that stop you from reading Food Fight. It has great information on why the farm bill matters to all of us.)