Some Questions Prompted By Recent Events

When I was teaching and coaching debate to earn my bread, the young'uns often thought the only reason teachers asked questions was to determine if students knew the right answer. (There were, of course, some young'uns who thought that teachers asked questions because the teacher did not know the answer and needed help.)

While I often asked questions to determine if students knew the material, I also frequently asked questions to determine how they arrived at the conclusions they did. It is in that spirit that I offer the following questions for consideration. 

A. How should a just government deal with situations when an individual's exercise of her rights prevents or impedes another person's exercise of her rights?

B. What is incorrect about the following David French analysis?

1. Slavery was legal and defended morally and (ultimately) militarily from 1619 to 1865.

2. After slavery, racial discrimination was lawful and defended morally (and often violently) from 1865 to 1964.

3. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 did not end illegal discrimination or racism, it mainly gave black Americans the legal tools to fight back against legal injustices.

4. It is unreasonable to believe that social structures and cultural attitudes that were constructed over a period of 345 years will disappear in 56.

5. Moreover, the consequences of 345 years of legal and cultural discrimination, are going to be dire, deep-seated, complex, and extraordinarily difficult to comprehensively ameliorate. 

It’s hard even to begin to describe all the ramifications of 345 years of legalized oppression and 56 years of contentious change, but we can say two things at once—yes, we have made great strides (and we should acknowledge that fact and remember the men and women who made it possible), but the central and salient consideration of American racial politics shouldn’t center around pride in how far we’ve come, but in humble realization of how much farther we have to go. [Emphasis mine]

C. How does one discern the point where the activists one supports have become the Mirror/Mirror image of the extremists one despises? (Yeah, I went to Star Trek for that one.)

D. What is the source of the right to refuse to take steps to prevent the spread of contagion, either wittingly or unwittingly? I am particularly interested in sources available to America's founders such as Locke, Hobbes, Hume, or Rousseau. Sources such as the Federalist Papers or Anti-Federalist Papers are also acceptable.

E. What is the reason to celebrate and commemorate leaders of the Confederacy who rebelled against the United States in order to preserve slavery?

F. Finally, a multipart question: Define community. Explain whether community is important and the reason for your answer. If community is important, what does an individual need to do to help create and preserve it. If community is unimportant, how can isolated individuals thrive in a 21st Century state of nature?

Any anwers should be in complete sentences. Please avoid the use of a color crayon when answering.