With Liberty and Justice for All

On the news right now is the capture of suspect number two of the Boston Marathon bombing that happened earlier this week.  I’m watching my Facebook page slowly fill up with statuses about this currently live event, and it has gotten me thinking.  Thinking about America, thinking about justice, thinking about us.

Since 9/11/2001, patriotism has been hijacked by a sliver of our population and become narrowly defined.  If you are pro-specific things and anti-specific things, you are patriotic.  I am not these things, so I’ve been led to believe I must be unpatriotic.  And you know what?  I’d would like to say to those sliver of folks, “You’re wrong.”

I don’t explicitly talk much about my politics, but I will make an exception.  I am a pacifist.  I am an evangelical Quaker and hold an orthodox understanding of Jesus Christ.  I believe gay people have every governmental right to be married the same as we heterosexual folks.  I hold to a more socialist idea of economics.  I really do not like capitalism as it is practiced here (but I find great value in the free-market system).  I have really complicated views about abortion that can’t be solved with a yes or no vote.  I generally detest big business.  I believe all these things, and I am an American, 100%.

Let me tell you what I love about America:

1. I love that I can vote as a woman, and I love that I don’t fear for my life on voting day.  In fact, I really enjoy the ability to vote by mail in my state, because I’m lazy that way.
2. I have the constitutional right--as in, it’s written IN THE CONSTITUTION of my country--to practice my religion without fear of abduction, torture, or death, and to not have that religion dictated by the government.  It is not lost on me how precious that freedom is.
3. I can speak what I believe about an idea and authorities won’t come to my door and arrest me.  Freedom of Speech is sometimes misused, but it is a wonderful thing, regardless.
4. Especially important, I can outright disagree with my government and I have the constitutional right to do that, too.
5. As a woman, I am a full citizen of my country.  I have the legal right to drive, work, vote, speak out in public, disagree with men, have sex without being married (even if I don’t choose to partake in that right), and dress how I choose.
6. I generally feel safe when I walk out my door.
7. I am so thankful for programs like AmeriCorps which was the only place that gave me employment that will actually get me somewhere in life and that is really fun all at the same time.
8. I believe, as Americans, if we actually actively joined together, we really could make a difference in our government.  The problem if our rich, power-hungry congress is only there because we the people keep letting them back in.
9. I do not have to testify against myself in a court of law. AMAZING (and something I hope I never have to use).
10. My justice system ALWAYS presumes innocence, even when the media presumes guilt.

As I watch the news unfold, and I read the responses, I want to reiterate that last point.  We have become a country that assumes people are guilty because the media tells the story that way, because the authorities call them “suspects.”  But we are also a country of people who have every ability to think for ourselves.  What happened in Boston was a grave tragedy, and whoever did it, be this young man and his brother or someone else, is a coward, but our justice system was set up as it is for a reason and our justice system has something to say us.  Human life matters--all of it.  If we are going to decide to throw someone’s life away, we better do it carefully and with great trepidation.  There better be cause without a reasonable doubt.  

Our justice system is not perfect and at times is even corrupt.  But I choose to believe in it nonetheless because I believe this justice system still, for the most part, seeks truth.  Because of this, I still choose to believe people are innocent until proven guilty and to trust the ultimate verdict reached.  Maybe this idea has almost faded into oblivion.  Perhaps in our biased and untrusting world, it is outdated, but I have decided to stand by it.  Because if I can't believe this to be true, then I can't believe anything good about America.  And I simply refuse to do that.