American Justice

Amen to what Robert Cohen wrote in his column today. I am tired of Americans mistaking revenge for justice. The use of the death penalty in this country has given the word justice an entirely different meaning, leaving us with just a vague notion of the real concept of the word.

The American concept of justice is what allows the Patriot Act to exist, an act which permits the detention of sixteen year old girls for their essays or what makes us feel like we are in a police state when we try to visit places like Independence Hall in Philly. It is this mindset which separates us from the war in Iraq or the lack of a statement of condemnation by our president for the massacre in Uzbekistan. Revenge for 9/11 is still in the fronts of American minds.

We must go back to the beginning, back to Plato's concept of Justice, and work from there. Somewhere, the word Justice became lost in translation. How can we have so little respect for life that we give our government the power to end it? (And those who proclaim they want a "culture of life" are the staunchest proponents of this power!) Is it really television, as Cohen says, that has shaped our concept of Justice? Are we just as barbaric as those who have killed to kill them ourselves?

Justice would be eliminating terrorism, not through killing, but by fixing the problems that create it. We will never eliminate evil; people like Zarqawi will always exist. It is the bane of human existance, the reason religion exists, and the reason that government is necessary. However, we do have the power to eliminate poverty, illiteracy, and ignorance that are tools for monsters like Zarqawi to use in progressing their agendas. When I say we, I mean people, not only Americans. Americans can do a lot in their position of leaders. We don't need to throw money at others- we can lead with our ideas and our technology. Sadly, the "ideas" that have dominated global discourse are the warmongering policies of the past half century. Our universities have become businesses; our schools are a joke. That is why we must first educate ourselves, but we must start from the beginning.