Skip to main content

Injustice Has a Feel to It

If we have any feelings at all injustice has a feel to it. It digs deep within us and causes pain. It gnaws and twists and our insides growl in disgust. It feels ugly and foul and obscene. We see it and we wince. We think to ourselves, God, look at that. That is viciously wrong. That is grossly unfair. That is inhuman. We feel that. We feel it deep within us.

If we don’t then injustice is ignored and injustice ignored allows evil to exist. It shrugs its shoulders at the sight of monstrous wrongs. It is bored with something being right, being fair, being equal. It yawns while the blood of the innocent spills slowly in front of it. Injustice is not moved by violence or death. Injustice turns away disinterested.

Injustice thrives on excusing itself of responsibility. It elevates itself above laws or rights or decency. It struts. It grins. It believes it is invincible.

It was injustice that cleared Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson of any crime for killing unarmed teenager Michael Brown. White injustice. Cowardly injustice. The injustice of a nation teetering on spiritual bankruptcy. A nation so tiresomely racist it leaves most of us exhausted and despondent.

Many blame the victim. That’s the way injustice gets inside the system and turns things awry. Injustice will keep on harping about how big and unruly the black teen was; how he refused to do what he was told; how his persona, his physical build, his bluster caused his death. Injustice says he deserved what he got.

Injustice has not looked at officer Wilson. And it won’t. Officer Wilson is untouchable. Officer Wilson is white and white is always right. And besides, he is the law. And you don’t, in this country, fight the law even if the law panics, even if the law overreacts, even if the law is just wrong.

From his jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama, Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote, “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” Not then, Dr. King. And sadly, not now. Not as long as injustice towers over us and we wave off its corruption and allow it a place of dignity in our society.


© 2014 Timothy Moody  

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

OPINION PAGE:

  OPINION PAGE © 2024 Timothy Moody The apparent assassination attempt against Donald Trump last Sunday afternoon at his Trump International Golf Club was foiled by the Secret Service. Details are still coming in about it, and it's not yet known why the suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, apparently wanted to shoot Trump. The botched attempt was amateurish in every way, just as the one in July was by a kid 150 yards from Trump.  Conspiracy theorists are having a field day.  The former President is, of all things, blaming these attempts on his life with what he called the “violent rhetoric” of President Biden and VP Harris. Of course, that is absurd, especially coming from Trump, who has consistently been guilty of that very thing since he became president in 2016 and even before.  His speeches, X posts, and comments on his Truth Social platform have been endlessly filled with threatening language and incitement to violence.  He suggested those protest...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Losing Strategy

OPINION PAGE (c) 2024 Timothy Moody   The Republican strategy to mock and judge others has passed into some form of insatiable, all-devouring nastiness. It is so poisonous and contemptuous that it is now just evil.  Republican Governor of Arkansas, Sara Huckabee Sanders, suggested to a crowd of Trump supporters Tuesday night that Kamala Harris can't be humble because she doesn't have any children of her own.  When will Americans decide they don't want government leaders who are so arrogantly insensitive, as Sanders was, that they offend everyone?  This crude, villainous rhetoric transcends political partisanship. It’s evil, dangerous, and insulting.  The poet Ezra Pound’s brief lines are appropriate here, “Pull down your vanity, How mean your hates” To suggest that someone cannot be humble because they don't have children is not just a cheap political comment. It's an attack on a person’s humanity and worth.  And that is now, and has been fo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Actions Make a Difference

“We make progress in society only if we stop cursing and complaining about its shortcomings and have the courage to do something about them.” ~ Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Physician/Author Pictured here is Kikuko Shinjo, 89 years old, a survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bomb blast. As a 17-year old nursing student she helped nurse victims of the carnage back to health. Many of them died in her care. She says she holds no grudge against America and encourages interaction between the Japanese and Americans. She has devoted her life to peace, saying, “I want all the people around the world to be friends, and I want to make my country peaceful without fighting.” Today she makes colorful paper cranes and donates them to the Children’s Peace Monument at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.
Post a Comment
Read more