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Truth and Justice

The never ending battle for truth and justice and the American way.

Superman

The quote, used before WWII, didn’t include “the American Way”. That was added with the Superman television series in 1952. America never really fought the battle for truth and justice for all people. Poisoned fruit came over with the pilgrims and was planted in the New World. It began with land grabs, genocide and unequal rights for women. It continued with slavery and, even though a divided country fought the good fight, the roots and seeds remained and regrew as Jim Crow, race laws, lynching, segregation and bigotry. The American legacy includes Racism: the poisoned fruit of a poisoned tree. We’ve got to work much harder to root it out.

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Guilty

The guilty verdict in the George Floyd murder trial isn’t about police reform or political reform. It’s about personal reform. It’s recognizing that murder is murder whoever does it and that justice represented as “blind and balancing scales” has been out of balance for people of color for a very long time. The verdict is about individuals. People have to care enough about other people to make the right and good choice when confronted with any crime against their fellow man especially murder, the most monstrous. It may mean forgoing privilege, or turning the other cheek or simply standing up, but it needs to be done if we are all to move up, not simply forward. Some folks are extolling this a a milestone or turning point. We need to continue to work, and work diligently towards a society that recognizes and accepts equality for everyone. It’s not the line in the sand. It’s the continued journey.

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Jackie Robinson

“But as I write these words now I cannot stand and sing the National Anthem. I have learned that I remain a black in a white world.”

Jackie Robinson

Jackie Robinson Day, April 15, 2021, the 74 anniversary of Robinson’s historic debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Today, one of the great sights in baseball: an entire league wearing No. 42 as a tribute to the man who broke baseball’s color barrier. But the quote from his autobiography shows he clearly understood and felt the racial injustice in America. As you remember him remember the next Jackie Robinson may be murdered before he has a chance to contribute to the world simply because he’s Black.