Injustice

It amazes me just how unjust people can be. We are more than willing to recognize the faults of others but are loathe to look at the truth about ourselves, even when that truth reveals us doing the selfsame thing we revile against within another person.

When I was in High School a large number of students from our school went to Europe for the 90th anniversary of the battle of Vimy Ridge. It was an amazing experience! We started out in London, England, then traveled to Dover stopping at a number of historical sights along the way. We then crossed over to France where we traveled to Paris stopping en route at Vimy Ridge. But the part of the experience that I want to underline took place before we even left North America.

It was early morning when we boarded the bus at our school and headed to Detroit, Michigan. There we caught a plane to Chicago and then transferred to an international flight that took us to London. This took place after 9/11, so airport security was fairly high, and that's an understatement. My high school was known for it's ESL (English as a Second Language) program and so we had a large number of students who had recently immigrated to Canada from other countries. As a result of this we also had a high percentage of the student population who ascribed to the Islamic faith, and quite a few of them were going on this trip. It was so sad to see the blatant discrimination that took place as these students, all of them legal Canadians, were forced to undergo more searches and lengthier questioning than any of the others. Because of security staff associating terrorist acts with a culture rather than only with the extremist group who perpetrated such activities these students got the short end of the stick.

It was interesting to later hear some of these students complain amongst themselves as to how they were being treated. And to be honest, I couldn't blame them for it. But the thing that struck me as odd was to then hear these same individuals speak out against the Jewish people as a whole. Now I understand that there has been a lengthy history of anger and fighting between the Israeli people and other Middle Eastern countries, but that's Israel not all people of Jewish descent. It disgusted me that one minute they complained about the United States generalizing against themselves off of one portion of their people, and then the next second they generalized against Jews basing their deductions on just a single group. The hypocrisy and injustice in such a situation astounded and appalled me.

As I look back at that experience I can't help but think of numerous times where others have done the same thing; been angry about something and then turn around and do the same thing to another. That's become one of my biggest pet-peeves, but I'm not saying that I'm immune to engaging in such conflicting action. Though I can't think of specific examples where I've done that, I'm sure that other people could.

In reflecting on such injustice I can't help but wonder why, when each of us can quote the saying "to err is human", do we not cut each other some slack? But I think that the knowledge of such a fact, that each and everyone of make mistakes, is really the problem. We begin to define one another by those errors. Those definitions turn into labels, and the labels then extend to the group rather than the individual. But though it is true that "to err is human", to err does not define humanity. There is so much more about a person than just the mistakes he/she has made, makes today, or will make in the litany of tomorrows.

In allowing the errors of mankind to be the determiner for our actions we blind ourselves to what humanity truly is, and what an individual is capable of. I mean, we don't look at ourselves and just see what mistakes we've made, we acknowledge those mistakes and then strive to make them right. It is in the nature of mankind to err, but it is also in the heart of humanity that sorrow for error takes root and motivates repentance.

So why should we focus on the fact that "to err is human" when that is only one facet of beautiful jewel that humanity is?