The People of Latta's Will

Source: Moore's Facebook page.

The Huffington Post reports that, despite the people of Latta, SC even changing their form of government to overrule and repudiate him, Mayor Earl Bullard has defied their wishes and refused to re-instate the long-time police chief, Crystal Moore, whom he purportedly fired because she is a Lesbian. His defiance shows him to be one of those conservatives who isn't too concerned with "the people's will" when it doesn't agree with his goals. On a more positive note, the people of Latta have provided us with yet another example of one of the most heartening phenomena of social change in the last twenty-five years or so. You see, when LGBT people become known to people as brothers, sisters, cousins, friends, neighbors, public officials, etc. they cease being strange, alarming abstractions and become normal, flesh-and-blood people -- the kind of people you want to share a meal with, call on when you need help, and look out for when they are in danger.

Living Wages

Credit: Our Walmart

A study just released by Dēmos indicates that Wal-Mart could pay an average annual wage of $25,000 if it just halted the practice of buying back its stock at a cost of billions of dollars per year. This buy-back mostly benefits current stockholders, particularly the heirs of founder Sam Walton, who in 2009 owned about 42% of the company. A direct result of this siphoning of profits into the coffers of the have-mores is the sad tale of a Wal-Mart in Canton, OH where employees have set up donation bins at the Thanksgiving season to collect food from employees for distribution to other employees in need.

How extreme must the contrasts become before the Waltons realize that sharing wealth is a sustainable approach and hoarding wealth isn't? Perhaps, when their employees are so poor that they can't afford to shop in their own stores?

But pragmatism shouldn't be the primary impetus towards economic justice. I can say the following without qualification or hesitation: if you can afford to pay your employees a living wage, it is immoral not to do so.