Link - Writing Assignment 1

     What the city of Belo Horizonte has accomplished in regards to food allocation is truly awe-inspiring. The various groups and committees that comprise the local government have firmly embraced their role as dutiful protectors of the people. The government saw that the general welfare of its people was being threatened by a lack of access to quality food. The resulting programs enacted by the government sought to maximize happiness not by giving food away, but by enabling local farmers to sell quality goods at low prices to the people who need it most. This arrangement is beautiful, bordering on utopic.
     Food, one of the most basic human necessities, is something I never considered as a human right. Rights always seemed to be something much loftier, often something based in principle rather than reality. But really, if my government has made sure I have the right to carry a weapon, could it not also insure that I have the right to not die by starvation? Personally, I would love for the access to food to be considered a basic human right. Such a right would communicate an intense sentiment of goodwill between a government and its people, something to the effect of, “Hey, you're not just another taxed citizen. You're a person who belongs to a community that wants you to be happy and healthy.” In America, I feel like this could work on a very small scale. Unfortunately, capitalism seems too important to the mindset of American society and economy for a program such as this to have any hope of functioning on a nationwide scale. In small numbers, it is easy to feel a sense of duty towards each other. But in large groups, people lose their humanity and become numbers and statistics.