In the Frank Capra movie It's a Wonderful Life, George Bailey (played by Jimmy Stewart) and his family run a savings and loan company in the small town of Bedford Falls, New York. Over the years they had helped innumerable families get mortgages at a fair and reasonable rates, and had been patient and caring when the loans couldn't be repaid. As the CEO of his company, George's "bottom line" was not maximum profits, but the flourishing of his community and customers. George, of course, did not get rich with this kind of approach. But at one point in the movie, when he is suicidal, he is given a vision of what Bedford Falls would have looked like if, as he wished at the moment, he "had never been born". What he sees is a community consisting of some wealthy families surrounded by an impoverished, dysfunctional town. Instead of kindly neighbours, there are brutal and self-interested parties in constant conflict with one another. This is what it means to pursue justice.
No comments:
Post a Comment