The Homeless are Not Legitimate Members of a Community Essay -- Argume

The Homeless are Not Legitimate Members of a Community In most every community in the United States there exists an ever-growing population of disenfranchised individuals, created by the absence of a home. Their place in the community allows them, at best, the socioeconomic status of â€Å"the homeless-members in our community.† But, are these homeless-members actually legitimate autonomous-members of a moral community? In this paper I will first argue that the homeless are not legitimate autonomous members of a community. Second that the community as a whole has a moral obligation to extend membership to the homeless by meeting their need for a home, and so legitimize their autonomy within the community. A moral community can most practically be defined as â€Å"†¦an entity constituted by all those people who have to work out meaningful ways of living together" (Ethics 98). It is the process of participants gaining access into a vast network of â€Å"communal relations/negotiations† which allows an individual the possibility to define and articulate his or her identity - with a sense of belonging. The grooming for participating in one’s community starts primarily at home in family life, as an individual - embedded in a social group - develops a moral-identity through the negotiation process of choices and actions that has its full expression within the greater community. The homeless, at least to some degree, have little or no part in these communal negotiations in their community due to their transient unstable condition. The community has not openly excluded the homeless from negotiations, it is simply an inadvertent social reality that is ignored by the greater community. If a moral community is an inclusive integrated network in whi... ...tion, must negotiate a directive where the â€Å"Good† of that community can be fully realized by the inclusion of all persons worthy of membership – worthy of a home. Otherwise, an unarticulated, disenfranchised human population in our community will continue to emerge on the other side of the economic-divide; inducing an â€Å"increased social dissonance.† For how can members of a moral community exclaim, â€Å"there’s no place like home† if persons in their mist lament, â€Å"there’s no place - for us!† In the words of Peter Singer: â€Å"If it is in our power to save someone’s life with little cost to our own lives, then we our morally obligated to do so, and not to do so is morally reprehensible† (Ethics 55). Works Cited Abbarno, G. John M. ed. The Ethics of Homelessness; Philosophical Perspectives: Value Inquire Book Series, Vol. 86. Rodopi (Amsterdam, Atlanta, Ga), 1999.