A Mighty Girl

First topic message reminder :

Today's Mighty Girl Hero is Zitkala-Ša, a Yankton Sioux Native American woman who made her mark as a champion of Native American rights and as an accomplished author and musician. She and her husband, Raymond Bonnin, founded the National Council of American Indians in 1926 to advocate for full citizenship rights for Native Americans.

Born in 1876 on a reservation in South Dakota, Zitkala-Ša, or Red Bird, was of mixed European and Sioux descent. Her childhood was significantly disrupted when she left her mother and familiar surroundings for a tough boarding school experience in Indiana. Though many assimilation efforts were made to strip away her culture, her spirit and drive persevered.

Public speaking and music lessons were some of the positive outcomes of Zitkala-Ša's time at boarding school. Her talents in music led to a position playing violin with the New England Conservatory of Music, teaching jobs, and recognition for co-authoring the first Native American-written opera, "The Sun Dance."

Zitkala-Ša wrote and spoke extensively, often highlighting the experiences of Native Americans, and advocating for change since, during the early 20th century, many Native Americans who maintained tribal connections were denied U.S. citizenship. Though she did not live to see the passage of the Nationality Act of 1940 which afforded citizenship to all those born in the U.S., Zitkala-Ša is widely respected for her contributions to the struggle for equal rights and justice for Native Americans.

For a beautifully-illustrated picture book about her life, we recommend "Red Bird Sings: The Story of Zitkala-Ša, Native American Author, Musician, and Activist," for ages 7 - 10 at http://www.amightygirl.com/red-bird-sings

Readers aged 10 and up can learn more through Doreen Rappaport's "The Flight of Red Bird: The Life of Zitkala-Ša" -- http://www.amightygirl.com/the-flight-of-red-bird-the-life-of-zitkala-sa

For more stories about Native American girls and women, check out our blog post, "A Celebration of Native American and Aboriginal Mighty Girls for Native American Heritage Month," at http://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=5226

For Mighty Girl stories that explore racial discrimination and prejudice, visit http://www.amightygirl.com/books/social-issues/prejudice-discrimination?cat=71

Define 'distributive equality (access)' and 'proportional equality' in context...?

Tommy Monk wrote:Define 'distributive equality (access)' and 'proportional equality' in context...?

The distinction goes back to Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics:

Aristotle wrote:If people are equal in worth, it is just for their shares of the relevant goods to be equal; however if their worth is unequal, then it is just for there to be an inequality between their shares that matches or is proportional to the difference in worth.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.2041-6962.2001.tb01809.x/abstract

The reason why I say that proportional equality trumps distributive equality is that any parity, as Aristotle intends it, is the product of chance and without moral basis...all ethical systems must have a moral basis or, by definition, they are morally baseless.  The only thing with moral basis is to take into account the relative positions of each participant at any given point.