Justice

May 9, 2023

Life is unfair. John F. Kennedy

Today a jury in New York found that former president Donald Trump is guilty of sexually abusing his female accuser. Mr. Trump plans to appeal the jury’s verdict, but whatever the outcome of that appeal, the case is a straightforward example of one individual claiming that she was harmed by another individual.

But since time immemorial women as a group have been mistreated and abused by men. Not by all men, but by many men. Does that mean that all males should be punished for their gender’s misdeeds?

This question is on my mind because the issue of revenge and reparations has been in the news a lot lately. King Charles III was crowned monarch of Great Britain a few days ago, but in the events leading up to the coronation it was reported that at least one of Britain’s former colonies – Jamaica, I believe – is considering demanding that Britain pay it reparations for the monarchy’s role in the slave trade centuries ago.

Some women in South Korea feel that Japan still owes them compensation for the Japanese military’s forcing them into sexual slavery in World War II. Russia has been accused of war crimes against humanity for its torture, rape, and murder of civilians in Ukraine, and Ukrainians and others are demanding that Russia pay the cost of rebuilding Ukraine when the war finally ends.

And here in California, a state task force just announced that it recommends that the legislature pay black Californians up to $500 billion in reparations for past school segregation and discriminatory lending practices. California never had slavery, but California taxpayers may be asked to pay a heavy price for the aftereffects of that Southern institution that ended with the Civil War.

Holding individuals accountable for bad behavior is far easier to understand than punishing all men or all white people or all Californians for something that most of them never did. How far back in history should we go to demand restitution from perpetrators? Should Spanish taxpayers now pay for the sins that their ancestors committed against the Incan, Mayan, and Aztec peoples? And should the descendants of the Incan, Mayan, and Aztec people pay reparations to the descendants of the Indian tribes that their ancestors subjugated? What about the descendants of the Comanche people in Texas and Oklahoma – should they be forced to compensate the descendants of the Apache and Navajo people who were forced off of their lands by the Comanches?

In other words, how do you measure to whom is owed what, when the history of the human race is one long list of suffering inflicted by individuals, tribes, and nations upon one another? And who gets to decide who the winners and losers are in the competition to see who wins the victim lottery?

I’m not suggesting that societies should never be held accountable for national misdeeds. But at this stage of human history, I’m more interested in seeing healing and amends on behalf of our common home, planet Earth. Our survival as a species depends on all of us realizing that we must stop exploiting and harming the home we share with each other and with trees, plants, and animals. Yes, the Russians need to pay their debt to Ukraine. But we all need to pay our debt to Mother Earth, Gaia. The oceans, forests, and animals all deserve our appreciation and protection.

Justice? Fairness? I’m more concerned with the future than with the past. Let’s start with service to our Earth mother.

Happy Mother’s Day.