“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” -Martin Luther King Jr. in “Letter from Birmingham Jail” It is the precedent set by one that justifies the actions of thousands. This rather imperfect manner of thought has existed throughout the course of human history as made evident by horrendous events of injustices—the Holocaust, to name
Category: Adult
Justice For All
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial “outside agitator” idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be
The Key-Board to Freedom
Victor Hugo suggests that education is liberating. In fact, his famous literary character, ex-convict Jean Valjean, learned from something totally foreign — the morals of Bishop Myriel. The indelible act of mercy that Bishop Myriel showed Valjean changed the projection of Valjean’s life permanently. Perhaps Hugo was thinking of Valjean when he said, “He who
Justice in Modern Society
Injustices seem to permeate every aspect of our daily lives. Cable news and social media platforms boardcast the injustices around the world, bringing the worse of our society before our eyes. We consequently became cynical, even pessimistic, about the future of our world when nothing seems just and fair. Martin Luther King Jr. serves as
Understanding and Replying
It is amazing, isn’t it, how much we speak, yet how little we listen. We want to be heard, yet refuse to hear; we want to be understood, yet refuse to understand. We think we know what others are saying, but deep down we know we don’t. We live in a tone-deaf world, a world
Breakdown the wall, Build a bridge
A few years back, there was one picture that touched many hearts; a single shot which showed numerous sad truths of our current world. It was a picture of a 4 years old Syrian child raising her little hands for a photographer. “Actually, I was using a telephoto lens, and she thought it was a
Everyone deserves a shot at becoming a success
Using the United States as a case study, the number of uneducated individuals incarcerated is incomparable to those that have an average level of formal education. In this context, “uneducated” refers to an individual that cannot read and write. According to the article US Prison System Plagued by High Illiteracy Rates (Observer, Michael Sainato, 17
To Eternally Strive: The Search For Justice
The words that stay with us the most tend to be imprecise. In his ‘Letter from the Birmingham Jail’, Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. says that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” This is, in itself, pithy and memorable; the stark contrast between the two presented poles stands out in the memory in
The art of understanding
“You have to understand, No one puts their children in a boat, Unless the water is safer than land” – Warsan Shire. The first thing that came to mind when I read this were immigrants. Lately there’s wars sparking up everywhere in the world, and the one who suffers the most is the civilian
Refugees and Us
The journey from Syria to Europe takes weeks. During this period, from trafficker to trafficker, from violence to violence, from fear to fear, it would be your life, as you struggle from one region to the other, always on the run. During this period, you would experience the best of humanity, the worse of humanity,
Will Imparting Education Reduce Crime?
All societies are going down in terms of moral values. This decline in morality has caused an increase in crime rate. Violence, stabbings, murders, robbery and child abuses are daily occurrences today. Violent crime is widespread and it is growing faster. The number of inmates in prisons and juvenile homes is increasing. When we go
The Change Begins With You
“Most people don’t listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply”- Stephen R Covey. Do I agree? Yes. It’s something most of us often do without even realizing and I am no exception or at least that’s how I used to be up till a couple of years ago. I
He who opens a school door, closes a prison
Blaming people for crimes without having given them the opportunity to experiment a good life in a desk, is to commit another crime without being blamed. People need to understand that education must be enabled for all citizens so that they can be able to read and interpret laws to avoid committing crimes. But blaming
Listen with Your Mind, Darling
When the author, Stephen R. Covey, made his observation that most of us listen with the intent of replying rather than understanding, he hit on one of the most important concepts of modern human communication. There are several reasons we do this. If we wish to change and become better listeners, it will help a
Communication as a Give-and-Take
I agree with Mr. Covey, most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply. That in itself is not too bad. People like to be heard. People want to voice their opinion, People want to share their side of the story. This is our nature, This is
Integrity: a pillar of fortuity to build
“He Who opens a school door, closes a prison”, as said by Victor Hugo, does apply, but only as a principle valuable in those times: no education was indeed a route that led to hardly any opportunities or choices in life. But the need for emotional and ethical balance on top of this completes the
I Want a Reply
According to Stephen Covey, “Most people don’t listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” Once, this was true. People were able to pay enough attention to formulate a response in interactions with others, which usually occurred live, often among humans who were familiar with each other. This was before.
Practicality in Justice
The meaning of this is obvious, if we were to allow injustice to fester it will grow and become contagious. In Martin Luther King’s context, injustice was being done to the African American community in Alabama, and though he was based in Atlanta he had decided to travel all the way to Alabama and even
Education – The Open Door
The words of Mr. Hugo, “He who opens a school door, closes a prison…” are fitly spoken in any culture or time-period of history. What convincing proof is there that this is true? Education opens the door of the mind which travels the hallway of possibility exploring the rooms of ideas. The reason this value
The Wrong End Of The Ring: The Insidious Issue of Marital Status Discrimination
The world stomps on single people, not only socio-culturally, but also in law, finance, and business. The U.S. federal code alone has over 1,000 laws that privilege married people over unmarried people. In a 2013 Atlantic article, my colleague and I calculated that this institutionalised “singlism” costs the average unmarried American at least one million