ThirstyFish

Lady Justice was at the Occupy National Gathering held last week in Philadelphia. Justice is a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, or equity. It is also the act of being just and/or fair. Justice, along with wisdom, courage, and moderation, is one of the four Cardinal Virtues. These virtues are knowable by human nature - we "know" internally when things are not just. And these days, things are not just. Now we need to gather our courage and stand up, as this lady and Occupy Wall Street has done.

Justice was not always blind. The personification of justice balancing the scales of fairness and truth can be traced back to goddesses of Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece. Depicting Lady Justice wearing a blindfold became common only since the 15th century. The blindfold represents objectivity and impartiality, without the regard for identity, money, power, or weakness. If justice is not blind, then it is not justice. Or, as St. Augustine of Hippo wrote in the year 389, "An unjust law is no law at all". To all those judges who have removed their blindfolds: it's time to put your blindfolds back on!

More Occupy photos.



Song of the Day: Talkin' 'Bout a Revolution - Tracy Chapman (1988)