Late Night Thoughts on Justice

I admire righteousness and justice, even though these things are sometimes dangerous, as proven in history.

A statement I once read roughly went as follow: "The cry of the poor is not always just, but if you don't listen to it, you will never know what justice is." The deaf ear is too often the reason for crimes committed in the name of human progress over and over again. Why do we have to regret what we did or did not do when we could open our eyes and ears and minds to learn the lesson, to not regret anymore our crimes?

Regrets, like the historian Howard Zinn wrote, "... [D]eplete our moral energy for the present." The point is not to "grieve over victims and denounce executioners," because, as time went on, we have learned that the line between "victim" and "executioner" isn't always clear. Rather, the point is to uncover the hidden truths by listening to the voices of those we have refused to listen, so that we can no longer deny what once was right but is wrong, so that we can resist what was and could be a cycle of neverending injustice.

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"If we don't act, the window will close, and we will always regret what we did not do in the year 2005" (Jen Egeland, UN Relief Coordinator).