What Is Justice?

This week, Judge Self spoke to us. He told us a lot about his career and how he arrived at the title of judge from being a well-to-do lawyer. He actually took a pay cut to take this job. At first, I thought this was strange, but after hearing what he had to say, I understand his reasons more.

Lawyers have the task of protecting and defending, right? You have the prosecutor and defendant in trial cases. In most cases, there is a guilty person and an innocent person involved. Each has a lawyer fighting for them who has taken the time to dig up evidence and facts to present to the court. What is wrong with this? What if the lawyer appointed to the defendant's case feels the defendant is actually guilty? What if, inside his head, the lawyer thinks, "John Doe killed Jane, and I am supposed to prevent him from going to jail?" Lawyers have the cruel task of defending their clients, no matter what their personal convictions are. In this way, there is not truly justice in some cases. See, the results always depend on which lawyer presented the best case, not necessarily who the jury and judge feels is defending the truth. This, in a way, makes our legal system in America very flawed.

When asked how Judge Self keeps legal matters and his personal values separate all if the time, he admitted, "I don't." Not always can Judge Self bring himself to convict an innocent man. He allows his values to sway his judgment every once in a while. This is not entirely legal, but I must own that I felt a little relief in my heart when Judge Self confided in us with that information.

In America's beginnings, Puritan renegade Roger Williams first proposed the idea of separation of church and state in the 1630s. Though it was first rejected -and he, shunned for it- this policy became accepted later years in America, and we still to this day use separation of church and state. This makes sense because well, we are a melting pot. We do not have an official religion, because we allow our residents to believe in whatever they choose to believe. In most cases, separation of church and state is a good idea. However, I cannot escape the feeling that this deprives justice in many cases.

After all, it is like William Blackstone said, "Better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer."

Roots Before Branches

This week, Dr. Thomas Calhoun spoke to us about the importance of STEM Education, but more importantly he gave us tips on how to become great students. Since everything is new to us as freshmen, he told us what we need to keep in mind to, "Keep calm and carry on," as the UK would say. He said five major points that stuck with me.

I. Never take your God-given gift for granted. Don't be cocky with that gift. We will face challenges, and they will force humility on us, so we should always always be grateful for what we were given and use it for great purposes.
II.  Allow yourself to experience ignorance. Be oblivious to certain things, and pick your battles wisely.
III. Try to recognize strengths, weaknesses and interests and set them in motion for your future self and career.
IV. Be able to recognize challenges and take them as they come; also, learn from them.
V. Be able to accept changes in your plan and recognize them as advancement, not taking a step back.

I think the last part is the most helpful to me, currently. We discussed the fact that we are freshmen and it is our prerogative to change our minds...and our majors.

When I was a junior and early in senior year, everyone was shocked and dismayed to hear that I had no idea what my major was going to be. How could I possibly have known my major when I had had no personal experiences yet to show me what I love and what I'm good at? The thing that changed that happened in my senior year. It was a competition that NASA held. NASA partnered with UAH and hosted an engineering competition, in which I was my team's Project Manager. This required me to manage my group and present our project. I discovered that this was my passion and greatest talent.
Without the competition, I still would have no idea what I am meant to do with my future.

On the other hand, there are so many other things I see or take part in that make me think, "What if I should do this instead?" I frequently worry about the amount of hours I am taking and am paranoid over the possibility that I may change my major. What if the classes I take now amount to nothing in my future later? What if I completely change career paths and find that I have wasted God knows how much money on classes that I might discard anyway?

No matter what my decision is, I have to accept that I am always advancing for my future. After all, if I resisted change, I would be taking a step back in my development, not improving anything.

The one thing Dr. Calhoun did not mention that I find very important is to not look back, but accept UNA as our new home. So many people are too easily made homesick and want to go home every weekend, but if they do that, they aren't experiencing anything real. Already, UNA has become my home; I have found my best friends and family (my gosh, my roommate is my mom away from home!). I sleep better in my dorm bed than my house bed. Thank God, the classes are also very interesting and I look forward to going to them.

No matter what happens, I will try to experience everything to its fullest so that I can build my future on what I learn here. And I will keep these key points in mind as I go through life.

"All You Need Is Love..."

I am guessing from the title that you all know what the topic of my blog is about this week: love. We had the discussion in Forum about important values in life; as you know, we had to get in groups and pick up to seven of the most important ones. My group was two, and we picked amazing ones.

They were as follows:
Challenge (my choice)
Love
Integrity
Faith
Creativity
Courage
Passion

These are not in order of importance, mind you. We simply were a team of seven people, and each of us got to pick one value that stood out to us the most. I had picked Challenge because, A. It was relative to me and B. It was number 13 on my list, which is my favorite number.

As the class went on, I really tried to pay attention to other groups' reasons for the values they picked. And, though it was comical, I have to say that I agree with our infamous Chuck more so than anyone. Love truly is all you need, as he professed. In everything you do, love should not even be questionable. It should be apparent in your actions. I can demonstrate what I mean using some of the values I listed on my personal que.

WISDOM can be gained through love: achievement of falling in love, maturity of that love and loss of love as well. All of the stages of love make you wiser, particularly the demolition of love.
ACCOMPLISHMENT could not be possible without fervent love for the task one tries to complete. It is achieved by he who applies flourish to each thing he does. Only then, can one truly be an accomplished person.  
COURAGE: Okay, we've all heard of this one. When a soccer mom is able to lift her van off the ground to save her child from being crushed beneath it. Do you seriously believe she could dare to believe she could do this without love? No. The mother has an unconditional love for her child, causing her to have the courage to lift the van at all costs.
CHALLENGE creates a drive inside us. That drive may be selfish, but it is a love for accomplishment, power, reward. Without the loving dedication we give to each challenge, each challenge would be failed.
And my favorite mentioned in this blog:
HOPE. "Hope requires the contender Who sees no virtue in surrender. From the cradle to the bier The heart must persevere." -Dean Koontz, Odd Thomas Koontz himself says in the last line of this quatrain the word "heart." "The heart must persevere." Not mind, not body, nor spirit or soul. Heart. Believe me, I could preach a day's sermon on the many aspects of this poem, but today's focus is on love, right? What Koontz is saying is basically this,"Who ever hopes for something must not let giving up be an option, no matter the cost. From first to last breath, should your heart keep you going." Ever since I read this in, say, tenth grade? I fell in love with the quote, and decided to make it one of my life's mantra. I have hope in all things, and I do so because I am in love with life itself.

Love: a four letter word. Easy to spell. Hard to believe. Love is everything. Love is a noun, a verb, and altogether lovely. It is altogether perfect.

Love is, all you need.

*If you have never seen Across The Universe... this will convince you to watch it.

Lions, Tigers, Bears and Honor Students: Oh My!

So far, my experience at UNA has been incredible. The first weekend of classes, I took a trip with the Honors Program freshmen -as you well know. As if being tossed into new culture at UNA was not enough! we were thrown into the raging chaos that is Memphis, Tennessee. As a well-traveled woman, I can honestly say that no other big city I have ever visited had such unique people...and smells. 

My friends and I, as shown below, decided to eat at a barbecue place -after all, isn't barbecue a Memphis specialty? We all loved our food, I would say. It was a nice little place with old movie posters posted and a modern-day jukebox. 

Immediately after eating, we roamed around Beale Street. In case you didn't know, Reader, Beale street is a little nook tucked inside the heart of Memphis; it offers diversity in music, culture and beautiful urban decay (f one can picture such a place). On Beale street lie barricades. I wondered why the street was blocked off early in the day time, until the answer fell into my line of view. There were multiple men in their, oh say, early twenties? doing acrobatic flips, tumbles and "fulls" down Beale street. The Memphis natives seem to judge each other's stunts and then give rounds of applause suitable for the difficulty and execution of each person's performance. 

Before the day was done, the group went down by the river and took pictures, while contemplating the meaning of life... I am totally joking. We did take pictures, though. We talked about back home and our families, but mostly we made connections with each other. This is where most of the bond began for us. After a long, long, and -did I say long?- walk around the park, my friends and I went back to Beale street, got ice cream, and returned to the hotel for the night. That did not mean our fun was over, however.

Once we returned, the group decided to go down to the pool and swim. We discussed some of our absolute favorite literary works and movies. We made a comparative analysis of The Little Rascals: the show versus the movie. Again, this was an excellent opportunity for us to reach out and meet everybody.

The following day, we went to an art museum in which we took on the airs of "upper class intellectuals" and "artistic devotees." Though some may have actually known what they were talking about, I will admit it is always hilarious to see men try to impress women with their knowledge of everything. We proceeded to the zoo! This was a blast for all of us. We saw every kind of animal I had personally hoped to see. Better yet, the animals were responsive; they were active and playful, as compared to Leo and Una... No offense to our beloved mascots. It is, after all, a lion's job to sleep...all day...and never be questioned for it. 

The entire trip was just an amazing opportunity that I am so thankful to have had. The bonds we form now are sure to last for the next four years as we, the best kids on campus, take on our futures hand in hand. Roar, Lions!