What is justice? This question has proven to be a cumbersome one for countless generations. This question has been asked by the innocent child who had for so long been denied the privilege of an education. This question has been asked by the oppressed slave who was once again being sold in a market to a faceless stranger who could not distinguish between a human and a piece of furniture. This question has been asked by the proud mother of five children, who merely seeks to be treated as an American citizen, to have a part in her society. This question has been asked by the boy afflicted with blindness who wondered why he couldn’t learn to read like other boys of his age. This question has been asked by the Somali father who wondered when seeking to provide food, drink, and hospitable conditions for his family in a new country has become illegal for him and legal for a rich Swedish businessman, standing at the next Customs desk. This question has presented itself on the tongues of people of all ages, conditions, and sects. Just as the question has resided in such diverse figures, the answer to the question has also been presented under several different conditions. The answer has been presented by the teacher who wondered whether she should teach the definition given to her by the government or the correct definition she has always known. The answer has been given by President John F. Kennedy when he said in his Inaugural Speech, “whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you.” The answer has been given by Frederick Douglass in his speech “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” when he stated, “At the very moment that they (Americans) are thanking God for the enjoyment of civil and religious liberty, and for the right to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences, they are utterly silent in respect to a law which robs religion of its chief significance, and makes it utterly worthless to a world lying in wickedness.”

            Furthermore, the quotes previously mentioned have undoubtedly opened deep wounds, which have been previously forgotten by certain members of our vast audience of readers. However, I offer a final quote from the famous song “This Land is Your Land” Woody Guthrie writes, “In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people, by the relief office I seen my people; as they stood there hungry, I stood there asking, is this land made for you and me?” (Guthrie 647) Often taken to be lighthearted and repetitive, this song explicates a definition for justice that is perhaps the most precise definition of all. I was born in Alexandria, Egypt to an Egyptian family. As a very young child, I learned Arabic as my first language, and English as my second. I quickly learned that there are differences between my culture, my traditions, my religion, my values and their culture, their traditions, their religion, and their values. We permanently moved to North Carolina, about seven years past. Since then, I have learned to protect my ethnic background, not unlike how a hen protects its eggs. I sought to fit into the new environment while keeping my values and culture intact. However, I found out soon enough that not all Americans treated each other with the sense of equality and unity I studied in the Declaration of Independence. Nor did all Americans treat people of different backgrounds with that sense of unity; respect was obvious in and to all peoples, as were peaceful interactions and tolerance. However, the innermost nature of those people was of a more mollified and subdued version of “separate but equal.” In other words, they did not express the brotherhood in “And crown thy good with brotherhood” (Bates 645) They did not express outward hatred or dislike, quite on the contrary, they sought to interact with polite indifference but never to make one feel that he or she belongs, and that, I believe, makes all the difference between justice and injustice.

            Moreover, it does not do to define justice as the ability to give all people equal rights. This action is obviously a fundamental component of justice. Nevertheless, we should not underestimate the importance of having a sense of unanimity and harmony within the society. We should by no means forget that the United States is, has always been, and will always remain a “melting pot” of different flavors and colors. Hence, it has been so successful a country and so inspiring is its story that it is taught to children worldwide. Nonetheless, we have not lived up to the expectations of our fathers hitherto. We have not lived up to the “liberty and justice for all” so acutely established in the Pledge of Allegiance. True, the government has granted all citizens equal rights, but that is not sufficient. We must seek to overthrow our feelings of individuality, our perceptions of those deep chasms that separate us from our companions, those deep chasms that we ourselves dug, and are, perhaps unconciously, digging. The United States’s railroads were built at the hands of China; the bricks and mortar were brought and placed by the Mexico and South America; the agriculture was brought by the England, Denmark, and Scotland; the technological advances and inventions were established by Japan and the Near East. If we look closely, we find that there is not a country in the world that can claim not to have lain a piece of the puzzle that makes up the United States. However, merely laying out the pieces of the puzzle isn’t enough. In order to create the true masterpiece, one must put the pieces together piece by piece, to get the complete picture. If each citizen refuses to lay his or her piece next to his or her neighbor’s piece, if we remain “separate but equal,” then we shall never truly claim “justice.” For justice is not a word that we can choose to apply in certain sentences and remove from others. Justice is a lifestyle, a mindset which we must learn to adopt, as a country, not as individuals.

            In conclusion, there are many definitions for the word “justice.” The true atrocity is that we do not know which is the correct definition. We have been hearing citizens of different calibers and different backgrounds, offer their own definitions. Now, the time is nigh for us, as a nation, to shed our inner skin of animosity, and act upon our own definition of true justice, not of mere laws guaranteeing equal rights, but of unity from within our hearts. We must allow all citizens to become the “us” in “God Bless America.”(Berlin) My first grade textbook defined the United States as a “patchwork quilt,” I use the same description now, ten years later, to establish that our quilt is as vibrant as ever on the outside, but on the inside, the threads are slowly growing weaker and weaker; unraveling bit by bit until all that remains of the quilt will be strands of colorful threads.

– Ayah Gouda

Works Cited

• Kennedy, John F.  “Inaugural Address.” A Patriot’s Handbook, 1^st ed., 2003, pp. 61-64

• Douglass, Frederick “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings, ed. Philip S. Foner (Chicago: Lawrence Hill, 1999), 188-206.

• Guthrie, Woody. “This Land is Your Land.” A Patriot’s Handbook, 1^st ed., 2003, pp. 646-647

• Bates, Katharine Lee. “America, The Beautiful.” A Patriot’s Handbook, 1^st ed., 2003, pp. 644-645

. Berlin, Irving. “God Bless America.” A Patriot’s Handbook, 1^st ed., 2003, pp. 57