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SEARCHING FOR JUSTICE
BY ROB SAWYER
What is justice? Is there justice for the prey bom to feed
the predator? Perhaps ’Tommy", the deaf, dumb and blind child
who is a character in The Who's rock opera of the same name
might tell us — if he could speak? To Afghanistan's Taliban, the
destruction of the great cultural heritage of others is just To Bill
Clinton (and much of the American judicial system) Themis is
a whore sprawled on a filthy blanket aboard a corporate pirate
ship. Unions slamming democracy's ballot initiative door, pharm
aceutical companies paying the manufacturers of generic drugs
not to, Americans saving money by purchasing products tainted
with the blood of oppression
What is justice? Not so long ago a 5 year old girl was
found in a shallow grave near Eugene Her tiny body was almost
entirely covered with bums, bruises, bit marks, open sores.
Her tormentors, driven mad by methamphetamine abuse, had
rubbed isopropyl alcohol into wunds, enough to poison the child
and ensure her last days on earth would be filled with horrible
sickness and pain. Surely we must all agree Tesslynn's torment
was among the worst of injustices. We care about her, if not
enough to intervene on behalf of the child who is — right now,
here in Oregon — being tortured to death. We simply cannot
afford to maintain our lifestyles and invest the necessary
resources to at least try to stop things like this from happening
Just as China can't afford not to blow her children up as they
work producing fireworks
We call for accountability, personal responsibility, as we
sing the songs our leaders have taught us, but we fail to see the
hypocrisy when our leaders fail to hold themselves accountable
Convicted of perjury, a young man from Portland spends time in
Sheridan vtfiile perjurers of means enjoy their freedom. Leonard
Peltier, a man who has widespread support among many well
respected people and organizations worldwide, was probably not
even considered as Bill Clinton handed out pardons to those
who can afford them.
There's a religious revival, of sorts, here in America.
After all, we're a religious nation — people who believe in God
and his ways. Look around you. Do people worship God? No,
people wrship material wealth and material things, all the while
professing a belief in their religious principles as their actions
tell another story Who wants to be a millionaire? It seems the
answer is most of us.
I once asked a lawyer to pursue something I perceived
to be just — to hold a municipality accountable for passing an
ordinance prohibiting free speech, then using it to silence me
He filed a claim for about $2,000,000 against the town. I told
him my entire existence — if reduced to a cash value — would
not be worth so much money Besides, my goal was to simply
hold the people responsible accountable and recover what they
had actually cost me. The lawyer told me the only thing people
understand is money. Yes, sadly, like the lawyer, the only thing
too many people understand is money. Like pigs wallowing in
the filth beside the trough, we clamor over each other, jostling
for position, thrusting our snouts into the cash, gorging ourselves
until our bloated bellies drag in the muck. But when we eat so
much, we must shit as well And the shit is piling up in our pen,
as each generation sells the succeeding one out further We're,
maybe, chest-deep, but without drastic change that comes
quickly, our descendants may be in over their heads.
We know, without a doubt, the burgeoning population
of the world is in trouble Perhaps some kind of apocalypse will
resolve the problems we abdicate to the future More likely we'll
fuck future generations to death trying to get things now that we
don't really need at all We can skin the wrld to make a coat
we like, but in the end the earth is dead and we have no place
we can wear our coat.
What is justice? Justice is mostly a myth, like those
of Themis and Aphrodite It's a myth we should cherish, strive
to realize, but a conceptual myth nonetheless. A better question
to ask ourselves is what is right? Better yet, ask a small child.
Before we teach them to lie to avoid consequences, children,
by nature, tell the truth. They see, with great insight, the things
we learn to be blind to, and seem to, almost instinctively, know
what's right. Before the jaded blade of experience cuts their
souls, small children are shocked by the concept of harmful lies
and appalled by the suffering of others. They know the unadult
erated compassion Christ tried to share with us, the spiritual
cosmos that is the blood of existence So do we We've only
forgotten. The hour is not too late to open our eyes wide.
How much do we really need? Surely we can be happy
without so much I recently took the Max-O-Matic into Portland
As I rode along a man wearing army fatigues boarded, parking
his wheelchair across the aisle He was older than I, maybe 60
or so, very dirty and drunk Both of his legs were entirely gone
The man sat staring at me until he caught my eyes, then
continued staring as I looked into him. It wasn't uncomfortable
— more like looking at an artist through a painting The artist
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NEO-CHRISTIANITY IN TOE USA
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had suffered greatly, learning, grow ng through his pain. At first
I felt pity for the man. but as I gazed into his aged gray-blue
eyes, he silently, compassionately spoke to me. As he left
the train he quietly voiced what he had already told me, saying
"simplify." SIMPLIFY! And so the man I began pitying took pity
on me, becoming my mentor. It's a lesson we can all learn, i.e.
simplify, use what you need, leave the rest.
I don't recall anything in the Bible about God giving
humanity domination over the animals so we could drive them
to extinction. Likewise, I don't remember anything in the Bible
that says God created the world so we can destroy it. But, as
we all know, what the Bible says is open to interpretation. The
commandment not to kill is interpreted to mean don't kill unless
it is socially sanctioned Now we're going to use more public
funds to finance church activities. I recall working alone one
evening when a homeless person came to me asking for food.
Unable to leave, I called a local church and was told all the
churches in the small community pooled their resources, giving
them to the police department. So I called the police department
and was told there was enough money to buy a family gas to
get out of town — if they had a car. The church I called that day
later bought a number of low income housing units, evicted the
tenants, razed the structures and paved the area for parking.
The radicals and outcasts are no less out of touch than
the people who inhabit excessively large homes, driving around
in vehicles that look like they could have been made by Mack
or Freightliner. Who is greater, those who consume little, or
those who consume much? Those in grand homes, or those
who wander? Those who serve the high corporate priests, or
those who resist them? Assuming there is a God. vtfio will she
cast into the fire?
Ah..., the sweet songs of the politician, heavy metal
pounding as they angrily sing of the very place they have led
us to — the soft, gentle lullabies promising change in lyrical lies.
As corporate shepherds guide them with cash canes, our leaders
become followers, adherents to the corporate mantra: Profit
above all. Lulled to half-conscious states by the constant drone
of the money machines, we forget the corporate atrocities of the
past and how companies scurried like hungry rats to gnaw profits
from the burnt bones of war and holocaust As more and more
power consolidates in fewer hands we see our courts, our
political institutions, our lives increasingly controlled by entities
that exist only to profit.
Let the social bloodletting begin Who's to blame for
social ills? Oh yes, it's the poor The lazy scoundrels rest in
subsidized flats sucking from the checks of we who work so
hard If the poor had the lobbying resources available to them
that the wealthy do, we vould know that the money spent
providing welfare benefits is not much compared to the vast
resources squandered subsidizing corporate activities. Did the
poor benefit from the S&L fiasco? No, but we piled on lots of
national debt taking care of a mess created by people handing
out unsecured loans and fat salaries to people who walked away
largely unscathed The examples range from apple growers in
Washington State to defense contractors in Florida, and every
thing in between. The poor have been used as scapegoats by
commercial interests that don't want the American public
directing attention to their activities.
No, poor people do not contribute much to the problems
in America The issues, like most social issues are complex
with many variables and factors to consider. However, the most
obvious seems to be nearly unbridled corporate profiteering We
can understand pharmaceutical companies passing along the
high cost of research and development to consumers. We under
stand that they should be entitled to profit exclusively during the
patent period But when the patent expires and the pharmaceut
ical companies find it profitable to pay generic manufacturers
not to manufacture the drugs many need but can't afford, we've
crossed over to the dark side
Here in Oregon our courts have decided that the bribery
of politicians is free speech. Somehow the voice of the people
failed to reach the court's ears while the sound of moneyed
interests was hear clearly. How this happened is no mystery
to the people who make it a point to see judges sympathetic
to their interests are elected and appointed. Don't believe it?
Check the campaign contributions of the owner of Shilo Inns.
So, lots of problems — how about solutions? If someone
tries to rape you, do you turn on the television, grab a beer and
bend over? No, of course not.The best way to avoid being raped
is education, i.e., don't put yourself at risk and know how to deal
with it if it happens. Americans have been repeatedly financially
raped. Take a look at the national debt (debt in trillions $$$, not
deficit), the demand for taxes, the prices we are forced to pay
for essential goods. We can let the rapists fuck us to death, or
we can educate ourselves and do something about the problem.
For instance, if you know Senators Wyden and Smith want to
expand the guest worker program for personal reasons, you can
help vote them out of office. The need to expand the guest
worker program is justified by Wyden and Smith by a perceived
labor shortage. Never mind the government report that says
there is no labor shortage and farm laborers have seen declining
wages. Never mind the fact that Smith — a produce processor —
stands to benefit at the expense of farm workers if the guest
worker program is expanded Don't worry about the campaign
contributions coming to Wyden from the high technology sector
— a group that wants to drive wages of software engineers
down further by bringing less costly workers from a pool in India.
You see, if we know how corrupt these guys are, we can knock
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