The new law severely restricts when and where citizens may feed the homeless, making it nearly impossible for charity groups to continue (Alanez). As more cities across our nation enact laws against feeding the homeless, so too are we hearing more stories about individuals who have faced arrest, fines, and jail time for feeding them. Such was the case with ninety-year-old Arnold Abbott. Abbott, who founded the volunteer group "Love Thy Neighbor" in 1991 to feed the homeless of Broward County, Florida, has been arrested, fined, and jailed repeatedly under Fort Lauderdale's new law (E. Goldberg). Laws against feeding the homeless are a violation of both the substantive human rights and the constitutional rights of both the homeless and those who feed them; and they are dehumanizing, counterproductive, and not economically viable.
To understand how laws against feeding the homeless are a violation of rights, one must first learn the difference between substantive rights and constitutional rights. Substantive rights are the basic, human rights of all humankind – rights that are unwritten but recognized universally as absolute and guaranteed by the very nature of our existence (Constitution Society). Constitutional rights are the legal rights reserved by a sovereign people in a written document – like a constitution – to protect against infringement by the government established therein ("Constitution"). Frequently, substantive rights and constitutional rights overlap. Indeed, our Founding Fathers built our Constitution largely upon certain substantive rights, otherwise known as natural, God-given, or inalienable rights. However, not all constitutional rights are substantive, nor are all substantive rights enumerated in the Constitution. .
Substantive rights not specifically mentioned in the Constitution include the right to food. Although the right to food is not a constitutionally guaranteed right per se, it is generally accepted to fall under economic rights, which Messer and Cohen explain is "linked to rights to land, work (just wages), health, [and] a clean environment.
Command does not only involve thinking but actions. ... It's very easy to feed a person who you know in return will do the same. ... Does He still want us to feed His sheep? ... A Christian can not say, "Yes, Lord, I love you" and shrug a shoulder to a homeless person. ... They can not say, "Yes Lord, I love you" and not help a brother or sister out of wrong doing. ...
(Kindle Locations 267-268) " Rousseau describes that in the state of nature, mankind has complete freedom to do whatever he or she pleases, which Rousseau describes as natural liberty. ... This should not be mistaken for the freedom of the state of nature, or doing whatever you desire. ... Kant firmly pressed the idea that freedom is not doing whatever an individual pleases, because this would be an example of succumbing to unnecessary desires instead of following moral law. ... Kantian ethics are also challenged because he does not make note of the tension between desires and morality. ... An...
There are many homeless families that live in the United States. ... They never think of the families that they are trying to feed. ... Is it because they disgrace are sweet and precious nation, or is it because people really do not see these sight for themselves and do not believe they exist? ... Well, those people must not be from America. ... The freedom to say and do as we please. ...
However, when looked at in a global context, this aspect of the fantasy also has another dimension, since it sharpens Vanishing Son's ability to travel and appeal to audiences who may not be so eager to be assimilated into American culture. ... By being persona non grata in both countries, Jian-Wa need have loyalty to neither, and he, as Aihwa Ong might say, becomes a "flexible citizen- [3] able to negotiate transnational culture in a way a rooted, law-abiding, character with a legal visa or green card may not. Within the Chinese diaspora, the unpopularity of many of the People'...