Justice

Not always necessarily connected with the American way, justice is one of the biggest words in the English language. It defies meaning and yet has meaning to all. In Wikipedia it has pages of definitions. But none of them define it. Aristotle said "It is in justice that the ordering of society is centered." Abraham Lincoln said, "I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice."

Albert Schweitzer said, "The fundamental rights of [humanity] are, first: the right of habitation; second, the right to move freely; third, the right to the soil and subsoil, and to the use of it; fourth, the right of freedom of labor and of exchange; fifth, the right to justice; sixth, the right to live within a natural national organization; and seventh, the right to education."

If justice is a fundamental right, then why is it so seldom found? As Earl Warren said, "It is the spirit and not the form of law that keeps justice alive." Frederick Douglass said, "Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe."

Finally, Hubert H. Humphrey, "It was once said that the moral test of Government is how that Government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped."