Who remembers making mistakes as a child? I know I did... and still do. And I think I had a rather comfortable upbringing.
Parents aren’t perfect – we make mistakes. When our kids are small, they quickly dismiss our blunders, convinced of our superhero status. They write essays titled, “My Mom’s the BEST!” They shout, “My dad’s stronger than your dad!” on the playground. We can do no wrong.
But the teen years take down superhero parents like kryptonite. Suddenly, we’re held to account for every slip-up, bad decision and character flaw – it seems that we can do no right.
Smells Like Adolescent Nature.
If good intentions were enough, parenting would be easy. But noble intentions don’t prevent parents from making mistakes that belittle, betray and alienate young adults. We yell when they bring the car home late (again). We search their rooms or read their text messages because we worry about whom they hang out with. We tune out and push harder when they say they’re flunking advanced math because we believe they can do better. This continues sometimes into further years. So I want to leave this thought with you...
Why does a blind eye get turned when our judicial system takes the many years of young lives’? The phrase “Equal Justice Under Law” traces its origins all the way back to the end of the Peloponnesian War at about 404 B.C.E. At the time, the renowned Greek general Pericles gave a famous speech in which he stated: “If we look to the laws, they afford equal justice to all in their private differences.” Equality and justice both represent egalitarianism and fairness. Without equality, true justice cannot exist; and without a way to deliver just verdicts that ensure impartial treatment, the meaning of equality is nothing more than an unenforced altruism.
In every single state, some form of wealth-based discrimination exists in the criminal justice system. Laws that target the impoverished and harsh sentencing practices for victimless crimes corrupt our views of equal justice. From money bail to driver’s license suspensions to statutes that make paying off debts harder for low-income individuals, laws that demand unaffordable payments for freedom are inherently discriminatory. To achieve true equal justice, we must change from within.
From Pericles to modern-day Supreme Court Justices and leaders, the meaning behind “Equal Justice Under Law” has remained the same. However, truth rarely ever completely adheres to the theory. In this case truth is obvious. But we live in this hypothetical world. If Our laws, judges, and processes were completely followed by their intended purposes, we would live in a society that perfectly promotes the due process of law.
BUT WE ARE FAR FROM THAT REALITY.
So please help us get the word out this is more than just one person this is something that really needs to be looked into and reformed and the only way people are going to notice is If they have to live it and go through it themselves or by sharing case files like Blake J. Sheltons.
So please take the time to share this today and really think, If this was you or your child or your mother or your brother or your sister would you be so quiet? I am including a shareable link right here (https://www.change.org/JusticeforBlakeShelton1103277 help be the change for our youth. We spend more money incarcerating and housing than we do on rehabilitation and restitution. We all need to leave by example or we will spend more money with reentry programs and state aid then we would’ve on rehabilitation restitution and reforming. Ty.
sources for story: Equaljusticeunderthelaw.org;Thucydides. (431 B.C.E.). The History of the Peloponnesian War. (Richard Crawley, Trans.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Internet Classics Archive. The Internet ClassicsArchive :http://classics.mit.edu/Thucydides/pelopwar.2.second.html;Supreme Court of the United States. (2009, August 10). Text of the Oaths of Office for Supreme Court Justices. And from Supreme Court of the United States: https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/oath/textoftheoathsofoffice2009.aspx