Peter Maurin & Dorothy Day
making it easy to be good

A friend wrote today about a “general uneasiness in the country”. I am not sure of the source of uneasiness he describes bit there is one thing that has always made me uneasy. It is the saying that in the USA you can be anything you want to be with hard work and that we are the land of opportunity. Since I was young and vulnerable and heard it from my parents and teachers till last week, now that I am old and hardened, and heard it from a leading politician, this sentiment has made me feel uneasy.

We still tell stories about persons going from rags to riches, from poor immigrants to wealthy tycoons and recently from a man living on the streets to living in expensive rehab center. However, truth be told, opportunity to be who you want to be, opportunity for education, health care, a job and even citizenship is dying, just like the Dream Act did in congress before Christmas.

A child born to unemployed poor woman in the city today has a little chance of getting a good education, health care or a job. If the child is a young African American male there is more opportunity to be thrown in jail or prison than to have a successful career.

In face of this declining opportunity, rises a general denial of the truth. Poor, middle class and rich still want to believe that this is the great land of opportunity; all you need is set you mind to the task and work hard.

How do we return to a ‘land of opportunity?’ The words of Peter Maurin, co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement, come to mind: “We have to make the kind of society where it is easy for people to be good.” War, greed, discrimination and violence do not make this kind of society where it is easy to be good and brings us back to a land of opportunity. How do we do it?

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