Norman Wirzba sees a moral vacuum at the heart of the presidential campaign: He says candidates are ignoring society's most vulnerable citizens.
Wirzba is a professor of theology, ecology and agrarian studies at Duke Divinity School who also teaches environmental ethics at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment. His books include "The Paradise of God: Renewing Religion in an Ecological Age."
Transcript:
Intro: From Duke University, this is "Glad You Asked," where we consider the question "What should we be talking about this election season?"
"My name is Norman Wirzba, I'm a professor of theology and ecology here at the divinity school. One thing I'm very concerned about is that we're not talking very much about vulnerable populations in our society. We're not talking about the people who don't have power, who do not have a voice.
First, I would put on that list, are children. I have a daughter who has just started teaching in the public schools. I'm absolutely horrified to see how they are being underfunded, under-appreciated.
If you were to go and simply listen to the teachers and say "what are you seeing about our society?," they will tell you lots of stories about children who don't have enough to eat at home.
These kids are being shaped with an imagination that teaches them that they really don't matter, that people don't really care for them.
We also need to think about people who are suffering from mental health issues, about the mass levels of physical illness that people have.
I think one thing that would be fabulous is if people who are running for office were required to spend time in public schools, in the prison system, in the Wal-Marts of our society, where you see people who are barely walking -- I mean they're walking around with oxygen tanks! They're being told in unmistaken terms that they're basically throwaway people. They just don't count in our society and their vote does not matter.
We talk about America being this shining light, a moral example to the world. And I think our record with how we are treating our vulnerable populations suggests that we have basically abandoned them.
When you look at the way many of our front-running politicians are talking, those people don't even show up on their radar screen.
I think what we've got now is a conversation about economics without a conversation about the morality of our economy."
