Local Opinion: Justice for all really just justice for some

Someone once said that all men are created equal. It’s just not true.

(Forget for a moment that women were not included in the statement, or substitute “human” if you wish. That’s a topic for another discussion.)

I reported for grand jury duty today, and when asked if I could apply the law as written to everyone equally, whether I agreed with the law or not, it brought up a moral dilemma. I found myself saying “maybe?” while thinking of the inequities in our system.

Can I say that a young person of color should go on trial for possession of a small amount of an illegal substance while a rich white kid “from a good family” has his much more serious charges dropped? When first-person accounts of sexual abuse are ignored and those survivors denigrated? When our elected leaders and their friends do not pay the price of their crimes? When those who help them avoid the consequences of their actions are actually rewarded? When our money-making prison system contains a population that is so ethnically unbalanced? When needy humans are treated like disregarded animals in cages?

How is this all happening in the great US of A?? What’s happened to us, to our ideals? Did we ever really have them?

If we believe that all people are created equally, then we would treat all people equally, and we don’t. Even at the time the statement was made, people of dark color had to be viewed as inferior or we could not have enslaved them. Before that, anyone with red skin was pushed aside, literally, to make room for white Europeans. Since then, anyone with the power of money and connections seems to be above the law.

It’s horrible, tragic and sad, but not irreversible. We can do better.

We can strive to make recognizing all humans as equally created and treated and respected our goal, individually and collectively. (And don’t get me started on how we treat our planet, which provides everything all of us need.)

I was excused from grand jury duty, and I’m sorry for that. It was an experience from which I could have learned something and give back to my community in the process. I truly regret that I was sent away, though I would not have let me sit on a jury either!

I did learn something. I learned that my passion for equal justice under the law is alive and well, and I intend on doing whatever I can to help move that idea along. I hope you do, too.