Danielle Levy

Now that it’s old news, maybe we can better digest the fact that GE did not pay taxes. In 2010 it made a $14.2 billion profit worldwide, of this $5.1 billion were from operations within the U.S. Still the corporation paid no taxes. Not only does GE have a whole department and a corporate culture devoted to the strategy of no taxes, it also has powerful lobbyists in D.C. I shared my concerns with a friend, a staunch Republican, and he said, “It’s legal, it’s all legal. The problem is not GE, it’s the government.” The issue is not whether or not it is legal, or whether or not it is the fault of a government whose laws allows this kind of behavior. The problem is whether or not it is right. Not so long ago in our history, discrimination and segregation were legal, but were wrong. The same with GE. What they’re doing may be legal, but it’s wrong. And if it’s wrong we ought not to tolerate it.

R2P, the Right to Protect principle was born after the Rwanda genocide. It is not part of international law per se but rather is “a norm” meaning something to guide and aspire to. The UN Security Council Resolution 1973 which authorized the no-fly zone over Libya stems from R2P. We may have objections to our intervention in Libya and most of these are far from idle. It is also true that there are many unknowns and it is a strain on American forces and budget. But one thing many foreign policy experts agree upon, had there been no Resolution 1973, Gadhafi would have won and followed his victory by a massacre of the thousands who had risen against him. Preventing such a massacre is precisely why R2P exists. The consequences of protecting the innocent may not be convenient or easy, and as drafted and implemented they remain imperfect and subject to errors, but I for one would rather pay the price to implement R2P and whatever it entails, including any mistaken applications, rather than live in a world without it.

Sometimes statistics are so striking they haunt. In 2010 one in five Californians struggled to afford enough food either for themselves or for their families. What’s even more striking is that California is not the exception, only slightly higher than the national average of 18%, according to a recent report by the Food Research & Action Center. But what makes these facts haunting is that according to a new Fidelity Investment survey the wealthiest five percent of Americans hold more than 55% of the nation’s wealth.
We can cry, get angry, give to food pantries or resolve to push for policies that will equalize the disparities and vote for elected officials who will work toward greater social justice.