I will pick up where I left off. I'm surprised, because I had starting talking about the subamendment, one that I had said before is a very reasonable one. It calls on what? It calls on public servants to testify regarding the redactions made to the documents in question. What is wrong with that? Why would we want to muzzle our public servants, who have performed so admirably during the pandemic?
I had a conversation with a friend of mine earlier today, who was asking me about all of the various programs and how they're actually put together. It is a truism in politics that we, as elected officials, quite often if not always, get credit. That should not be the case. Our public servants deserve so much credit, because they have played such a great role when it comes to the policy design of the various programs, and we know what those programs are.
But what's at stake if we don't adopt the subamendment, if we don't allow public servants to come to explain to our committee why they decided to make certain decisions regarding redactions, I would say to you and say to my colleagues, is that we would violate a very important principle relating to fairness. Fairness is ultimately a question of justice. That is not something that is just a recognition on my part. There's a long-established philosophical tradition in liberalism in general, but I think if you look across the philosophical spectrum, if I can put it that way, you will find conceptions of justice that are ultimately rooted in fairness. Ultimately, when we talk about fairness, we're really talking about justice.
For me, Mr. Chair, it's about John Rawls. I'm passionate about politics for many reasons, but—