WHAT IS JUSTICE????
I don’t know the author of this exercise, and I don’t know if it actually happend, but I think it is believable, and revealing. If I knew, I would give attribution.
First day of law school class, the lecturer walked in.
The first thing she did was ask for the name of a student sitting in the front row:
- "What's your name?"
- "My name is Nelson."
- "Get out of my class Nelson and never come back!" she ordered him.
Nelson looked confused. The teacher was angrily heading towards him, he got up quickly, packed up his stuff and quickly left the classroom.
Everyone was scared and outraged but no one was talking.
- "Very Good! Let's get this started. What are laws for?" asked the lecturer.
The students were still scared, but slowly they started answering the question.
- "To have order in our society."
- “No!"
- "So that people pay for their actions."
- "No! Does anyone know the answer to this question?"
- "For justice to be done," spoke demure shy young student..
- “Finally! Finally! Justice! But what is justice?"
Everyone was starting to get mad at the lecturers attitude. However, they kept answering.
- "To protect the rights of the people."
- "Okay. But still?"
- "To differentiate good from bad, to reward those who do good."
- "Okay, so answer this question: Did I act correctly when I kicked Nelson out of class?"
Everyone was silent, no one responded.
- "I want an unanimous answer!"
- “NO!" They answered with one voice.
- "Could we say I committed an injustice?"
- “Yes!"
- "And why has nobody done anything about it?
Why do we want laws and rules if we don’t have the will to practice them?
Each of you is obliged to speak up when you witness an injustice.
All of you. Don't ever stay quiet again!”
"Now go and get Nelson. After all, he is the teacher of this class, I'm from another one.”
So now you know that when we don't stand up for our rights, they will be taken away. Vote wisely this year and always, if you don’t want to become a subject….
God bless you, Dave