U.S. Senator Wayne Allard's Hierarchy of Life

I was listening to KGNU recently [October 9, 2001] and heard Senator Wayne Allard say that American lives are more valuable than other lives. He justified this by saying that this is true for him because he is an American. Applying the same logic, does this mean that Colorado lives more valuable than New York lives, males more valuable than females, Caucasians than people of color? It made me wonder if, to him, the lives of senators are more valuable than that of ordinary citizens. I doubt very much that Senator Allard would agree with the latter, but what is it that makes this hierarchy based on nationalism acceptable, while the others would be deemed false?

Some might say the nation is the entity that we financially support and which represents our common interests. Yet if the world situation has anything to teach us (and it has much), it is that we have interests in common with peoples all over the world, and certainly with the other life forms we share this planet with. I think our growing edge is to move beyond thinking any one group is superior to another and see the utter equality of human life. If we could move beyond such factionalism, perhaps someday we would move beyond war and become a truly mature species.

Jasmin Cori
Boulder