In Beside Oneself: On the Limits of Sexual Autonomy, Judith Butler talks about the correct path to attain human rights in connection to autonomy and community. Butlers struggle finding the right balance between the two in order to achieve success in the political arena connects greatly with the ideas of Appiah in Race, Culture, Identity: Misunderstood Connections, and my own personal experiences with the law. Throughout Butler’s essay, she struggles with the concept of balancing autonomy and community when it comes to human rights. Butler discusses the struggling that is fighting for our rights early in her essay, and she brings attention to the paradox it creates: “We have an interesting political predicament, since most of the time when
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Does she believe that we must fight for our individualism and remain autonomous in the fight, or should we fight as a group even if it doesn’t completely match our ideals? In my opinion, we must sacrifice some of our views for the greater good, because we are never going to be able to change the law just for yourself. One must find a group that matches their views the best, not perfectly, and fight with that group to try and get as much of the things you support accomplished. Yes, that does mean giving up some ideals that are very important to you, but it’s either giving up a little or fighting for exactly what you believe and accomplishing none of it. In September, I traveled to Washington, D.C. with the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. In Washington, I lobbied for legislation that would impact cancer patients on many different levels. The first was for an increase in NIH funding, the second was for approval of the PCHETA bill, a bill that would help extend palliative care in patients, and a bill to close a gap in medicare policies that left many elderly Americans paying out of pocket for colonoscopies. My team was comprised of seven individuals, including myself, all fighting together to support the passage of these bills. When meeting with our legislators, we brought many personal stories in an effort to humanize the bills we were talking about; to make the legislation personal, about sick individuals, not just “them”. We needed to humanize the people we were fighting for to help persuade our elected officials to support these three bills. This effort to humanize people has a connection to Butler’s argument toward attaining rights, because in her essay she shortly touches on the topic, saying, “It means, for instance, that when we struggle for rights, we are not simply struggling for rights that attach to my person, but
Does she believe that we must fight for our individualism and remain autonomous in the fight, or should we fight as a group even if it doesn’t completely match our ideals? In my opinion, we must sacrifice some of our views for the greater good, because we are never going to be able to change the law just for yourself. One must find a group that matches their views the best, not perfectly, and fight with that group to try and get as much of the things you support accomplished. Yes, that does mean giving up some ideals that are very important to you, but it’s either giving up a little or fighting for exactly what you believe and accomplishing none of it. In September, I traveled to Washington, D.C. with the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. In Washington, I lobbied for legislation that would impact cancer patients on many different levels. The first was for an increase in NIH funding, the second was for approval of the PCHETA bill, a bill that would help extend palliative care in patients, and a bill to close a gap in medicare policies that left many elderly Americans paying out of pocket for colonoscopies. My team was comprised of seven individuals, including myself, all fighting together to support the passage of these bills. When meeting with our legislators, we brought many personal stories in an effort to humanize the bills we were talking about; to make the legislation personal, about sick individuals, not just “them”. We needed to humanize the people we were fighting for to help persuade our elected officials to support these three bills. This effort to humanize people has a connection to Butler’s argument toward attaining rights, because in her essay she shortly touches on the topic, saying, “It means, for instance, that when we struggle for rights, we are not simply struggling for rights that attach to my person, but