Monday, September 21, 2009

Hate and Fear

Repairing Our Broken Justice System is the title of this piece found at Nation Mag, by Gara LaMarche, director of The Atlantic Philanthropies. I wonder if this is possible. Senator Webb's Criminal Justice Commission Act is directed at a similar issue: Hate and Fear institutionalized by wars on terrorism, drugs and now sex offenders.

He writes: The Constitution Project report, from a bipartisan commission chaired by Walter Mondale and William Sessions, provides a blueprint for action by states and the federal government. Implementing these steps must be a central element of infrastructure repair for the justice system.

and,

the new domestic human rights movement points the way to a different future. Here, too, there is a blueprint: Human Rights at Home, a collaborative effort of more than forty organizations moving forward through the Campaign for a New Domestic Human Rights Agenda with a multipronged education and advocacy strategy.

and,

At the center of our vision is achieving the state of justice in which race and gender and ethnicity are not the determinants of who ends up in prison or on an ICE airplane to the Mexican border, or winds up dead at the hands of an abusive husband or an out-of-control cop or soldier. We will have achieved a small but important part of that goal when the Supreme Court looks like the America of those whose rights it is the ultimate guardian. Yes, the Court should have some connection to and empathy with those who come before it challenging a powerful interest, whether it's the state or a rich corporation.

No comments: