“The Quest for Peace and Justice” : From Martin Luther King Jr. to the 2012 US Presidential Election

Prescription #9  of “Some Prescriptions For Productive Goals” is : Consider voting for candidates (e.g., President of the United States) based upon levels of intuition in addition to other areas you believe deserve consideration (see “The Voter Scorecard”, Healthy Change : Part Five — Some Prescriptions For Productive Goals, #1 ). One goal is to increase the use and usefulness of The Voter Scorecard  © 1988, 2011 to obtain good election outcomes. Toward that end,  The Voter Scorecard © 1988, 2011 Scoring Version 1.0 on 2012 Presidential Candidates has been presented. Please note that the time period to receive free scoring report results on The Voter Scorecard © 1988, 2011 Scoring Version 1.0 on each of the eight 2012 Presidential Candidates currently included in the scoring system has been extended until the end of January 2012 and can be accessed from a link in the sidebar. The author plans to develop The Voter Scorecard © 1988, 2011 to enhance its use and usefulness as a method to obtain good election outcomes. Additional 2012 United States Presidential candidates may also be included. To help enhance the use and usefulness of The Voter Scorecard © 1988, 2011, a “Survey of The Voter Scorecard ©  1988, 2011 Scoring Version 1.0 On Eight 2012 US Presidential Candidates” consisting of five questions was also presented for all readers to complete and can also be accessed from a link in the sidebar as well as below. A summary of the results will be sent to the e-mail address you provide at the end of the survey free of charge.

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Below is an identified transcript excerpt from the January 7, 2012 GOP Presidential (2012 ABC/Yahoo!/WMUR New Hampshire GOP primary debate [Transcript]) Debate (https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/post/2012-abcyahoowmur-new-hampshire-gop-primary-debate-transcript/2012/01/07/gIQAk2AAiP_blog.html; obtained on 1-10-12) :

“STEPHANOPOULOS: Congressman Paul, while — while we’re on the subject, the speaker said that you’ve had a history of inaccurate statements. There has been quite a bit controversy over this newsletter that went out under your name, a number of comments that were perceived as racist, as inaccurate. You’ve said that even though they were written under your name, that you’re not necessarily — that you didn’t necessarily know they were written, you don’t necessarily stand by them. Can you really take the time now and explain to everybody what happened there, how it was possible that those kind of comments went out under your name without you knowing about it?

PAUL: Well, it’s been explained many times, and everything’s written 20 years ago, approximately, that I did not write. So concentrating on something that was written 20 years ago that I didn’t write, you know, is diverting the attention from most of the important issues.

But the inference is obvious that — and you even bring up the word racial overtones. More importantly, you ought to ask me what my relationship is for racial relationships. And one of my heroes is Martin Luther King because he practiced the libertarian principle of peaceful resistance and peaceful civil disobedience, as did Rosa Parks did.

But, also, I’m the only one up here and the only one in the Democratic Party that understands true racism in this country is in the judicial system. And it has to do with enforcing the drug laws.

Look at the percentages. The percentage of people who use drugs are about the same with blacks and whites. And yet the blacks are arrested way disproportionately. They’re — they’re prosecuted and imprisoned way disproportionately. They get — they get the death penalty way disproportionately.

How many times have you seen a white rich person get the electric chair or get, you know, execution?

But poor minorities have an injustice. And they have an injustice in war, as well, because minorities suffer more. Even with a draft — with a draft, they suffered definitely more. And without a draft, they’re suffering disproportionately.

If we truly want to be concerned about racism, you ought to look at a few of those issues and look at the drug laws, which are being so unfairly enforced.”

“This problem of spiritual and moral lag, which constitutes modern man’s chief dilemma, expresses itself in three larger problems which grow out of man’s ethical infantilism. Each of these problems, while appearing to be separate and isolated, is inextricably bound to the other. I refer to racial injustice, poverty, and war.”

At another point Martin Luther King stated during same the lecture :

“So it is obvious that if man is to redeem his spiritual and moral ‘lag’, he must go all out to bridge the social and economic gulf between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ of the world. Poverty is one of the most urgent items on the agenda of modern life.

There is nothing new about poverty. What is new, however, is that we have the resources to get rid of it. More than a century and a half ago people began to be disturbed about the twin problems of population and production. A thoughtful Englishman named Malthus wrote a book¹³ (“13. Thomas Robaert Malthus [1766-1834], An Essay on the Principle of Population [1798]”) that set forth some rather frightening conclusions. He predicted that the human family was gradually moving toward global starvation because the world was producing people faster than it was producing food and material to support them. Later scientists, however, disproved the conclusion of Malthus, and revealed that he had vastly underestimated the resources of the world and the resourcefulness of man.”

All of the 2012 US Presidential Candidates apparently need to continue to address these three issues : Racial injustice, poverty, and war. The Hygiology Post challenges each 2012 US Presidential Candidate to address explicitly what he or she will do, if anything, to help ensure that all people have access to and can realistically obtain adequate nutritious food and health care independent of current and forecasted economic conditions.

The 2012 United States Presidential Candidates themselves or their representatives are each invited to comment, make  recommendations, and/or add to the information in The Hygiology Post. Also, all of the 2012 United States Presidential Candidates are invited to be interviewed (for almost any purpose and in basically any format they choose to be interviewed) by and write an article for publication in The Hygiology Post.

The author plans to expound upon Prescription #9 (Prescription #9  of “Some Prescriptions For Productive Goals” is : Consider voting for candidates [e.g., President of The United States] based upon levels of intuition in addition to other areas you believe deserve consideration) with additional information in The Hygiology Post.

The Hygiology Post welcomes feedback from readers on all six parts of the series (individually and/or as a total package) upon completion of the series as to whether the articles help fulfill its vision and mission.

Louis DeCola, Jr.                                               Copyright © 2012 The Hygiology Post