Instead of complaining about what's fair, let's start asking what's just

There has been much lamenting over the tone of the political rhetoric and the divide between our political parties. When I turn on the news, it's either divisive rhetoric or pundits discussing the nature and the consequences of the divisive rhetoric. After the last five years, in particular, I'm beginning to see a trend. The overwhelming message from both sides is that the system is not fair.

Have we not been inundated with whining complaints about fairness in taxes, fairness in health care, fairness in wages, fairness in bailouts, fairness in campaign financing, fairness in regulation and fairness in government subsidies for both the poor and the job creators? Each side has its compelling arguments, and each side proposes some kind of measure to restore fairness for its constituents. Could it be that we are overlooking one undeniable fact of life?

No matter what new measure we take after this election and the next, and the next, there will always be people who want to keep their profits. There will always be people who work for poverty wages, or who cannot work, who will continue to need programs in order to survive. Is there really a fair solution for businesses that want to be free of "red tape," or for societies that want to protect valuable but limited resources? Is there really any policy to address our national health care costs that is completely fair?

My ears perked up last Sunday during the children's sermon, when the teacher asked the kids, "Is life fair?" A little girl raised her hand and answered, "No. Life is not fair."

Life is not fair. Yet our current political parties promise that they will fight for fairness. One of our media outlets even promises to be "Fair and balanced." I notice that in our demand for fairness we are acting like my kids. When given a plate of fruit, each grabs for her share and worries who is taking what, and will they have the same amount, and how can they get more? Sometimes I wonder if they ever enjoy the food and the time they are sharing together.

In church, after absorbing the fact that life is not fair, we considered this old story. A farmer goes out to hire field hands. He hires some in the morning, more in the heat of the day, more men in the afternoon, and even in the last hour he goes out to find more. At the end of the day, he pays each of his workers the full daily wage, even the last to be hired. When those who had worked the full day complain, the boss says, "Who are you to question my generosity?"

Can you imagine such a scenario? Perhaps there is a fair answer that we will all some day agree on, but can you imagine what this country would be like if we were defending our generosity, rather than fighting for our "fair" share?

Life is not, and will never be, fair. But does that mean that we cannot be just?

We can choose to be a just society. That is what this nation excelled at in the last hundred years. That was our government's aim from the very beginning when we fought the tyranny of taxation without representation and declared that each man was born with unalienable rights. Can we stop whining about fairness, and instead ask, "What is just?"

I think such a question would enhance our national debate and perhaps lead to some solutions. For example, redistribution of income is not fair. Yet a person can see that the job creators, the top 10 percent of income earners, earned almost half of the national income in 2007. Can anyone argue that such a disparity is just, with one in six of our people living in poverty?

Let's get beyond the charges of "class warfare" and begin to seek out measures that will enable us to be a society that is just. Maybe even a little bit generous.

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Jessica English, mother and student, is a source in MPR's Public Insight Network.

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