rodney coates on jusice and punishment,a tale ofa madman-gctid37724

[kweku, afro olmec]

On Justice and Punishment – a tale of the Madman
   Rodney D. Coates

Shifting uneasily in her chair, an mother continued to watch as Mustafa spoke on many things.  Her eyes, grey with sadness, seemed ever on the brink of tears.  Her cloak, torn and tattered, bespoke of more pleasant times.  In her hands she clutched the trinket where her most precious position was kept – a picture, now yellowed with age, of a boy of just a few summers.  She would open it, gaze into that face so young –whose eyes only hinted of the ones that looked upon it.  As she looked between then and now, her tears began to break as she then did speak to the Madman.
     
   "Why, why would they take and break such a one as my son." She cried.  "What crime, was so severe that he would be ripped from his life and forced to live in darkness and abandonment.  Hardened is now the boy who once only dreamed of life and love, new days and new wonders –whose only crime was to be born poor. What say you –Mustafa the mad –tell me how justice is served by stealing the youth of our children."
     
   Mustafa, gazing upon the mother, did to begin to weep. An eternity passed, as their tears filled the voids between their souls.  And then, in the midst of his weeping, the Madman did speak:
     
   "Why is it that we hide our indignities within the cloak of justice, and drape our arrogance in the guise of punishment?  How can those with impure hearts judge the hearts of the innocent?  Upon what laws do we pretend to uphold that would make of youth a crime?  What is more severe a society which denies its youth a future, or the youth who acts out of frustration?  What is the crime –the society which destroys the hope or the youth who acts out of hopelessness?  Why is it that we can hold the one harmless while holding each of these others at fault?  
     
   We continually create systems that withhold sustenance, societies which deny responsibility, and institutions which continually fail the most defenseless, the least powerful, and the most disadvantaged.  How is it that we look at generational failure and not see the systemic links to our own greed, avarice, and selfishness?  How is it that we can justify a cruel system that would sustain massive levels of poverty?  Which set of laws decreed that generations of thievery would overtime be sanctified, while those stealing to eat are marginalized?  And why does a national system of exploitation seem just, while individuals are criminalized?
     
   Pausing, the Madman looked again at the mother, her tears still flowing.  Again, he spoke "Mother, your son is innocent, and shall be free.  His crime was that he was born poor, and such crimes should be rewarded for their very presence is the crime of our world.  What God would decree that poverty would be the punishment of the innocent.  If only there was justice, for true justice would rule that the true crimes are poverty, ignorance, and disease.  True punishment is when such evils are presumed to be just."

Moving over to the window, beckoning to the Mother, he pointed –"Look, just over the crest of the yonder hill, comes your son. Embrace him, for there is a Higher Power –and that Power has decreed Justice."