Day 26 Lenten Meditation: Justice

The dictionary defines justice as "the quality of being just; righteousness, equitableness, or moral rightness:to uphold the justice of a cause." (Dictionary.com, 2020). We can break a discussion of justice down into procedural justice, that is the justice of laws and courts, and social justice, the justice dealt with in society and in philosophy and religion (Beyond Intractability, 2020). For this essay, I'm going to focus on social justice.

Social justice is, de facto, the justice of the "other". The majority are comfortable, or at least stable in their well-being. Those who need to be brought into equity are the minority. 

In this day, "social justice" is seen as the realm of liberals who agitate for better conditions for those in poverty, those who have escaped brutal conditions in their former countries, those whose differences have marked them as "other". Perhaps this is because philosophy and religion, to a large part, are failing at their job. 

Religion used to be the force for feeding the poor and caring for the afflicted in hospital; to some extent it still is. But that care often came with strings attached, failing the "other" by rejecting its needs, and that is not social justice. 

It is only social justice if it can be granted to the downtrodden, the sick, the needy who are truly the other, who are not like us. Those who are not practicing social justice need only look to our religious books to see the exhortation to social justice.

References:

Beyond Intractability. (2020). Types of justice. Available: https://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/types_of_justice [March 22, 2020]

Dictionary.com (2020). Justice. Available: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/justice [March 22, 2020].

Day 3 Lenten Meditation: Risk

Without risk, there is no reward. There is only buckling in to the forces inside and outside of us.

Many examples of healthy, responsible risk-taking exist. Investing money for return on investment, dating, expressing one’s feelings, submitting creative works for publication, going up for a promotion. Confronting corruption and injustice, changing the status quo and being authentic also take risks.

Risk instills fear — of rejection, of failure, of loss, of negative consequences. Many people focus on the loss instead of the potential gain, and we call them risk-averse. Avoiding risk has its cost — lost opportunity, lack of progress, and a dearth of fulfillment. 

Choosing risk for its potential rewards may require changing one’s mindset with one or more of the following:

• Examining the fear against the potential return
• Believing that one will survive the worst case scenarios
• Feeling the fear and taking the risk anyway 

Without risk, there is no reward. There is only buckling in to the forces inside and outside of us.

Day 33 Reflection: Justice

A country without social justice is not great.

A country can possess great wealth, or great power, yet it is not great if it neglects its most vulnerable citizens.

A country that subjects its citizens to unequal treatment under the law has imprisoned itself.

A country that cannot reach its hand to feed the poor has starved itself. 

A country that cannot remove obstacles for access by the disabled has crippled itself. 

A country whose immigration policy is based on color and race has exiled itself. 

To make America great again, we must commit to social justice, because we the people are as burdened as the least of us.