Justice

Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is in an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob, and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.

--Frederick Douglas, April 1886

In our souls we long for justice—for life to be FAIR. I remember wailing at various injustices in grade school. “Nobody else has to go to bed at 8:30!” I would cry. Or, “Everybody else in the whole world has a dog… or a cat! Or just a little kitten! Pleeeeeze??” I begged. Often.

In my case, justice was done: I had three children who also wailed when life was not fair. Because life is NOT fair. Not everyone has an IQ like Bill Gates or Barack Obama. Few women are as beautiful as Hollywood actresses or as brilliant and lovely as Vice-President Kamala Harris. Hardly any are as gifted as the football player Tom Brady or golfer Tiger Woods—or tennis stars Martina Navratilova and Serena Williams—Hey, I played tennis and never got to be in a Big Tournament!

SO… we are not all alike, and that probably wouldn’t solve our many problems anyway. I believe we should thank all the gods there be if we are normal, regular folks, who are upset

when life seems blatantly unfair. Thus, I am submitting a few prayers-for-justice to all of the gods.

1. People who are deliberately mean or cruel to other people should be reborn as fire ants.

2. Those who shoot guns at animals or other humans should be placed with their guns on a deserted island in the middle of the Pacific, and left there to shoot it out.

3. Anyone who thinks that war is a solution needs a lobotomy.