The Question of Justice

When I was young I followed rules and regs to the letter. I tattled on those who broke these and despised them for doing so. I earned the name “nark” and “tattletale” and was was proud of it. In short I absolutely believed in the system. As with so many things in my life, this attitude started to change after I had real close friends. These friends encouraged change in me and one of those changes was seeing the flaw in the system, seeing the flaws in the rules and regs. I slowly realized that the law may not always be just, and that I should practice forgiveness for those that broke it. I have come to realize that in practicing forgiveness for those that broke it, I was really practicing forgiveness for myself for being unjust. In “tattling” and “narking” on any matter no matter how trivial I was practicing injustice. I was also being a coward–refusing to assert myself on matters that I believed firmly in. In many ways that refusal to assert myself persists to this day–though not at all to the same extent. I guess I’ll finish with a couple quotes from Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 1, Episode 08:

“There can be no justice as long as laws are absolute.” – Jean-Luc Picard

“When has justice ever been as simple as a rule book?”-William T. Riker