A Cornucopia of Victims

Imagine finding yourself in a dream, walking down a very long hall. A man walks beside you, pleasant enough, but gently nudging you along, making sure you keep pace. This seems important, though you don’t really know why. After a moment, you notice a group of doorways beginning just ahead. There are no knobs on the outside, however. All are fastened shut securely with cross beams.

You reach the first doorway, and the man beside you stops. He indicates a small window set in the doorframe. You look, and see a hundred people or so. They are young, old, men, women, all manner of heights, and weights and races.

“Forty of these shall have excellent schools,” the man says. “Twenty will have fair schools. The rest will be placed in schools with bad teachers, or uncontrolled violence, or serious drug or disciplinary problems, and no one will help them. Choose.”

You find yourself taken aback. You have never heard of such a thing. “Why is it up to me?”

“It is how we do things,” the man says. “Choose. Or someone else will chose for you.”

Uneasily you make your choice, and then move on to the next door. Inside is a similar group.

“Fifty of these will be supported by taxpayers,” the man says. “The rest will work to support them. Choose.”

And there are more rooms.

“Twenty will get preference in college admissions. The rest will split up what is left. Choose.”

“Thirty will get health care paid for by the rest. Choose.”

“Seventy will get to decide their own career. The rest will be assigned. Choose.”

“Fifteen can commit crimes and they will be excused of responsibility. The rest will pay the price. Choose.”

“Forty will retain their right to free speech, to an attorney, to trial by jury. To discovery, to cross-examination. To face their accuser. The rest will have their fate decided by a judge, possibly with little or no training in the law. Choose.”

And so it goes until you find yourself at the last room. You take a look inside, and are relieved to find that it is empty. You look over to the man accompanying you.

“That was for deciding who was allowed to believe as they wished and exercise freedom of religion,” the man says. “We don’t use that one anymore.”

If this “dream” sounds like a nightmare to you, it should. And it is all the worse because it is a nightmare that we as a nation take effort to bring further and further into reality each day. For political expediency, the judges and the politicians deny justice, or even the right to due process to those groups out of favor. Mobs pillage, terrorizing the poor and innocent, and the police are restrained in the name of “racial justice.” We wallow over sins of the past, and deny rights and law to the innocent of the present.

Almost since the beginning of mankind, there has been no shortage of victims in the world. Some are victims of criminals. Some are victims of corrupt officials. Each one has a story, and each case is a tragedy, but in each story a ray of hope persists as long as the law remains to address the wrong. Yet now, our nation, and indeed much of the world, is embracing a new form of “justice,” one that states that for one group to receive justice, another must be denied. Two wrongs really do make a right, retribution against the innocent is not only acceptable, but preferable.

And as all of this proceeds, we find that the number of victims does not shrink. It grows. Only now these are not the victims of criminals. They are the victims of law with justice or restraint. They are the victims of everyone who decides in their heart that one person or group is worthy of more than they have, and then use the force of law to achieve it. And they are the victims of those who stand idly by, approving, watching as Saul did at the stoning of Stephen. And they are also the victims of those who do not approve, but still do nothing to stop it.

In this, they are my victims.

I don’t know how to address the ills of the past, as a nation or people. I don’t even know if that’s possible. I don’t know how to make law enforcement perfect, justice as impartial as it should be. In fact, I’m sure that’s not possible. This I do know: You cannot build a justice system that is better by picking and choosing who is deserving of the rights that should be guaranteed to all. You cannot make up for past thefts by taking from those who never stole. And you preserve a nation when you grant any person or group the right to wantonly destroy without consequence to themselves.

This is where we are heading, and we are frighteningly close. And I find that all I can do is pray for guidance from One who already knows where we shall end up. I encourage you all to do the same.