Justice with Tea and Cucumber Sandwiches

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Justice with Tea and Cucumber Sandwiches
by Heather Roscoe

If you want to confuse yourself to no end, just contemplate the meaning of the word 'justice' while looking at the 1990s or ahead into this brave new century. Increasingly, justice is either completely ignored or treated as some sort of demented favor, served complete with tea and cucumber sandwiches.

Where has the justice gone? I am not referring primarily to capital punishment -- although an execution was the most recent appearance of this party favor. I'm taking the broader definition. Justice refers to making the correct judgments on every person who comes into question, whether it be for wrongdoing or for something honorable.

In order to be just, a leader has to make correct and wise decisions. Here's the fun part: How can anyone make correct and wise decisions when there are no absolutes? In order to be 100 percent sure that you've made a right and just decision you have to have a standard, a plumb line or an absolute right.

Absolutes are the beginning of justice. After that you have to have wisdom. A weak leader -- B. Clinton, for example -- cannot make just decisions because he is devoid of wisdom. The man may be smart and clever, but he's not wise. Note the difference: Smart people get good grades in school. They graduate with honors and all become Rhodes Scholars. But being smart didn't prevent one of the most sordid, messy sex scandals of this generation.

Yes, he's clever. He had the cunning to avoid expulsion from the White House, but cleverness will not get him elected again, and cleverness cannot save his deteriorating image. A person who is truly wise would never have stained his fingers with the dealings of Bill Clinton.

We all know that Mr. Clinton wants to leave a legacy. What man doesn't? But I'm afraid that he's lost his opportunity. He may go down in history as a scheming liar or a middling featherweight, but not as a great leader. He had such an incredible opportunity! Think of the possibilities that a president can bring to the country; think of the potential for greatness and the direction he can offer to his citizens. FDR calmed us during tough times, Eisenhower let the country rest, JFK passed the torch to a new generation and Ronald Reagan tore that wall down. All Mr. Clinton has left behind is a legacy of twisted plots.

The person chosen to come in and clean up the mess will have to have a standard of absolute right. That someone else may have the privilege of going down in history as one of our great leaders.

Everyone makes mistakes, of course, and most people learn from them. Mr. Clinton seems to learn quickly how not to repeat the same mistakes, but he has not yet learned that his mistakes are all of the same nature: self serving nonsense.

If we do not condemn Mr. Clinton then history will do it for us. A weak leader, who often produces more weak leaders, is afraid to have strong leaders serving below him. Men and women of strong character pose a great threat to the weak minded. A strong leader wants to have others with strength working with him. He is confident that they will not challenge his power but instead challenge him in his decisions and opinions -- keep him on his toes, so to speak.

This quality, justice, is one of most important which must be ingrained in the character of our nation's leader. We need to consider that a just man will probe for answers and strive to find truth regardless of what truth might do to his image or his career. A just leader will put his country before himself.

The question of justice was recently put to the public with the execution of convicted criminal Gary Graham.

The morning of Graham's execution, news programs and talk radio shows were giving Texas Gov. George Bush a trial by media. With Graham scheduled to be 'put down' in several hours, the hosts were scrambling to find the most emotional and touching words capable of whipping the public into a frenzy.

Bush held his ground and took a position that may or may not have helped his chances as prospective president of the United States. After declining intervention in the Graham case Mr. Bush said, "After considering all of the facts, I am convinced that justice is being done." He had a standard of justice and he held to it regardless of the fallout and possible negative effects to his campaign.

Rev. Jesse Jackson and company disagree, but that can't be helped.

Let me suggest that justice is more than holy retaliation, it's also an indirect expression of respect. When a criminal is put away, we are telling the public that we respect them enough as citizens that we want to protect them from harm. When people protest abortion they are saying that they respect human life too much to see it thrown away like a piece of rotten fruit.

Those who ignore justice bring to mind Samuel Johnson's put down of his detractors, "The truth, Sir, is a cow that will yield no more milk to such men. So they have gone to milk the bull."