The local NPR station local call-in program has three judges on the air, discussing "justice." And all the answers have to do with systems and procedures and outcomes of conflicts.
And I want to call and tell them "the opposite of poverty is justice." Because "The opposite of poverty is not wealth, the opposite of poverty is justice."
But I know they wouldn't understand me; especially lawyers. Especially the lawyer who just lost her bench in Harris County (in the last election) and has just been elevated to the Texas Supreme Court by Gov. Abbott. Her stated ideal of justice is that everybody gets punished equally in a court of law; rather than everybody gets treated equally in a just society (and equal treatment in a just society is not the same thing as equal treatment in a legal system.) Because her stated ideal is the one lampooned by Anatole France: “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread.”
That ain't nobody's idea of "justice."
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