It's about Dignity, stupid...

Breakingranks asks us to put ourselves in the out-there Other's shoes:

Despite splendid cross-cultural efforts like Mosaic, we tend to think about the problems of Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, Israel, Afghanistan, etc. as being "over there". The violence of war is something that happens on the other side of the TV screen. However, the issue of "dignity" is universal.

This is the key to getting past the "happening somewhere out there" mentality. The deprivation of dignity is happening right here in the U.S. The deliberate deprivation of dignity might be most prevalent in the "bad neighborhoods", but rest assure, rankist tactics are working their way up the social scale. When you see the Lebonese woman pleading for her dignity, imagine yourself making a similar plea to your boss. What would you do if your plea was ignored or met only with laughter? How far back do you draw the dignity line? I'm willing to bet that for most of us dignity is more important than any amount of pay, and people take their biggest risks in life to try to defend it.