**MORAL CRITIC’S URGENT ALERT: The Heat Advisory Is a Symptom of Our Broken Social Contract**
MORAL CRITIC’S URGENT ALERT: The Heat Advisory is a Symptom of Our Broken Social Contract
A “heat advisory” has been issued for 50 million Americans this week. But as a moral critic, I must ask: have we become so spiritually bankrupt that we need a government alert to remind us to show basic human decency?
The tragedy isn’t the mercury rising to 105°F. The tragedy is that we have engineered a society where millions must choose between air conditioning and buying food. We have normalized suburban heat islands where asphalt radiates cruelty onto the elderly, while the wealthy retreat to climate-controlled gated communities. We have told the poor and the elderly: “Sweat it out. That’s personal responsibility.”