Why should I care?

by Lauren M.

So, taxi drivers in the city of Nashville make on average $2.40 an hour.  That's horrible, but how is that really your problem?  The taxi service in Nashville is absolutely essential to the infrastructure of the city.  If this system of transportation were not in existence, can you imagine what our city would be like?  A major metropolitan area like Nashville, with an airport and large businesses and quite a few colleges, would absolutely fall apart without the taxi service.  Besides that, imagine your own life for a moment without the taxi service.  Think about how hard it would be to escape the Vandy-bubble if you couldn't call a taxi.  It certainly seems safe to say that taxi drivers provide an essential service in Nashville.  Surely we all agree that they ought to be paid accordingly.  And if they aren't being paid accordingly, then something ought to be done about it, right?  Of course!

But why should you personally step up and take action?  Because it is our responsibility as citizens of this world to take action when we see that an injustice has occurred.  When we live in America, a country where we are guaranteed "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," it is important that every threat we see to these basic rights be acted upon.  When we see that someone else's rights are being taken away, we have a responsibility to help them if we are to be deserving of the rights that we have. When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was in jail in Birmingham, he wrote that "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."  The suffering of another human being, whether they are halfway around the world or sitting in a taxi right outside our dorm, has a very real impact on society as a whole. We must therefore step up to right the wrong.