JUST

Somewhere in the mid-1970s I wrote this poem:

JUST

counting the cost

those who wave the banners

of liberty and justice

desperately scream:

just us

Justice is a relationship word. It encompasses ideology that includes fairness, equity, mutual respect, and egalitarianism. Justice presumes that all people are of equal value and deserve the same rights and opportunities. While everyone having the same amount of everything is neither realistic nor intrinsic to the concept of justice, incorporated is the belief that every human being has a right to enough . . . at least enough of the basics of existence (food, shelter, clothing, education, etc. – see the 1948 UN Declaration of Human Rights).

Justice necessarily involves give and take, and the giving is done voluntarily by individuals who are willing to have less for the good of their neighbor. A concern for the good of the community trumps greed. The “liberty and justice for all” of the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance is more than just words for people who understand what the phrase means.