Don't Ignore the Cries of Injustice

I have written more than a few short essays on the death penalty and its machinations. Through those essays I have come to recognize a growth in my understanding and a new enlightenment.

As a young teen I would often hear or read about certain criminal acts that resulted in the death penalty or life imprisonment. I've even casually know a couple of those men. As a teen I never even considered whether they had a fair trial, proper representation or anything of that nature, it never crossed my mind. I took it all at face value. They were convicted, I figured they must be guilty. I never gave it a second thought. Today, I freely but shamefully admit that I was truly naive. It is that very realization that helps me to understand society's naivet'e.

Must one be a victim of injustice to understand or know injustice? In my case, yes. However, must that be the rule? Can it not be the exception? When your child scrapes his or her knee and cries in that certain voice as only a child can, must a mother or a father scrape his or her knee to feel that child's pain? Of course not.

So I say to society at large; don't ignore the cries of injustice. Hear those cries and feel that pain. In closing, I reflect on the words of Robert F. Kennedy, "If not now, then when, If not you, then who?"

Tony Enis
N#82931
P.O. Box 99
Pontiac, IL 61764

The New Abolitionist - February 1998, Volume II, Issue 2
Campaign To End The Death Penalty, Chicago, IL - www.nodeathpenalty.org