Reflections on Justice
Shelley Lindauer is the Executive Director of the Women of Reform Judaism.
It’s September 11th, 2007. I’m used to feeling sad, angry, and anxious on this day. For some reason, though, this year seems almost like 2001: more painful, more frightening. I’m reliving the day when I rushed, crying and scared, to pick up my son from school. Where were all the other parents? Didn’t they get it? I can’t reach my daughter, a college freshman just beginning her first year away from home, and in Boston, where one of the planes originated. My ex-husband, my son, and I, all huddled, shivering, under blankets in my den, glued to the television set.
So, why is this year so difficult for me? As Women of Reform Judaism prepares for its 46th Assembly, held concurrently with the Union for Reform Judaism Biennial, in December in San Diego, I am reviewing resolutions submitted by our sisterhoods for approval by our delegates. One resolution, “Human Rights and the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp”, has, I realized, brought me back to September 11th, 2001. Our proposed resolution calls upon Congress and the president for the reinstatement of the right of Habeas Corpus, the closing of the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp, observance of the Geneva Conventions and the Convention on Torture in the interrogations of prisoners, and the use of criminal courts, or where appropriate, proper military courts convened under the Uniform Code of Military Justice for the prosecution of the those suspected of crimes with the same rights of any other defendants in either system. I am in complete agreement with this proposed resolution. Yet, after reading our background summary, doubt has crept into my mind. One sentence in particular, which makes the case for restoring the right of Habeas Corpus, has me questioning my certainty: “…the United States is not facing an invasion or a rebellion at this time.” What is an invasion? Do flying planes used as bombs smashing into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon qualify? But, that was just one time, and it was six years ago. Is this an invasion? I go to the Merriam-Webster dictionary for edification: Main Entry: in·vade
Pronunciation: in-'vAd
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): in·vad·ed; in·vad·ing
Etymology: Middle English, from Latin invadere, from in- + vadere to go -- more at WADE
1 : to enter for conquest or plunder
2 : to encroach upon : INFRINGE
3 a : to spread over or into as if invading : PERMEATE <doubts invade his mind> b : to affect injuriously and progressively <gangrene invades healthy tissue>
synonym see TRESPASS I spend a great deal of time thinking about this. Yes, we were attacked by terrorists and continue to acknowledge their threat, but certainly we are not being invaded. As the angst of this past September 11th recedes, I consider whether it was fear that made our legislators take such an egregious action as to suspend portions of the oldest written constitution in force in the world, to ignore the values and protections that make the United States unique among nations? Surely our representatives were subject to the same feelings of violation and vulnerability that I, along with everyone else in the country, felt on that horrific day. But would we not expect them to be able to suspend their personal feelings and consider the bigger, and more lasting, issues? What would the writers of the constitution, our Founding Fathers, have done had they been here on September 11th, 2001? The answer to this question is clear to me – I found it in the constitution.
Pronunciation: in-'vAd
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): in·vad·ed; in·vad·ing
Etymology: Middle English, from Latin invadere, from in- + vadere to go -- more at WADE
1 : to enter for conquest or plunder
2 : to encroach upon : INFRINGE
3 a : to spread over or into as if invading : PERMEATE <doubts invade his mind> b : to affect injuriously and progressively <gangrene invades healthy tissue>
synonym see TRESPASS I spend a great deal of time thinking about this. Yes, we were attacked by terrorists and continue to acknowledge their threat, but certainly we are not being invaded. As the angst of this past September 11th recedes, I consider whether it was fear that made our legislators take such an egregious action as to suspend portions of the oldest written constitution in force in the world, to ignore the values and protections that make the United States unique among nations? Surely our representatives were subject to the same feelings of violation and vulnerability that I, along with everyone else in the country, felt on that horrific day. But would we not expect them to be able to suspend their personal feelings and consider the bigger, and more lasting, issues? What would the writers of the constitution, our Founding Fathers, have done had they been here on September 11th, 2001? The answer to this question is clear to me – I found it in the constitution.