The Ice Bucket Challenge has been making the rounds, and doing an amazing job at bringing attention to ALS. But with so many problems out there, will we ever look at the undercurrents of society that brings many more problems with their supposed solution. We’ve all been told that we are a nation of law, but it’s not always so easy to see when it seems to depend on your station in life. We easily create laws, but never seem to think of repercussions that occur when we didn’t take a broad look when making a one-stop solution to an issue. And now people everywhere around the world are looking at the repercussions of one such tactic that has been taken by our respective goverments: militarization in the name of national security.
Orlando Jones wanted to get us to take another perspective when answering a call such as the Ice Bucket Challenge, which has been taken by people from all echelons of society – famous to regular everyday people. Orlando wanted to take the time to make a statement about the militarization of our supposed protective forces who now seem to stand against people who are exercising their rights as citizens (such as the right to protest against wrongs committed by society) – the very same people they have sworn to protect. Take a look at a powerful reinterpretation of the Ice Bucket Challenge, using something that is prevalent in the new actions of militarization:
Talk about a powerful message that has been experienced unequally by citizens within one nation’s society, multiplied by all of the nations in the world.
Every society has winners and losers. We have stories that are written about society at certain periods of time, and there is always one common denominator between all of the stories. The winners dictate how the losers should live. It never even dawns on them that the shoe can be switched in a single blink of an eye. Laws are not applied equally, because laws are created by winners who have control of how society functions.
When a government issues instructions that government officials can’t take a challenge because then it would look like the government is making a stand on a certain issue, then you know that the issue is probably a divisive one. The leaders know that if they take a side, then the one who isn’t supported will comment on their choice. It’s a no-win situation for them. When you’re only worried about your own personal standing, then I guess it would seem that way.
Certain social issues like inequality cross over many barriers and infect all aspects of life. Those who are in the winner’s circle won’t experience the negatives because they’ve designed the “game” of life so that the rules don’t impact them. But when you look at the entire population on this planet, there are a lot of people who are experiencing many negatives that fashion their very thoughts and actions. And when those actions become a trickle-down of bad laws that are tunnel-visioned, those on the outside peering in stand in a downpour of connected consequences from really bad decisions.
Sure, Lady Justice is shown to be blind, but the meaning of her blindness has been perverted over time. When morality comes with clauses, there is no longer true morality that embraces the uplifting forces of life. Laws become mere words that circle in loops that obstruct the true meaning of justice. Justice is not something only available to those who can afford it – it is something that we are all afforded as long as we seek it.
Here’s the real challenge as issued by Orlando Jones to all of the world. Will we finally restructure society so that “liberty and justice for all” isn’t just a pledge, but a promise to us all? Our Supreme Court building carries the words “Equal Justice Under Law”. How our society actually acts when those words are uttered is the true test as to whether we are still enlightened…or devolving into feudalism.
This is a valuable challenge that each of us need to take, for the betterment of mankind and possibly even its future. I’m willing to take it. How about you?
– thanks to Salon and Fusion for this important conversation
