Who said the opposite of poverty is justice

Most neighborhoods in America today can assume such access. But people in impoverished communities do without—and that has enormous consequences for their opportunities in life. Justice is not just a fair hearing in court. Justice is the ongoing effort to ensure that all citizens have good opportunities. It is a social commitment to equality—the very thing the Declaration of Independence suggests is the impetus of the American project.

Justice is the most important measurement of how well we are doing as a country. Justice is the opposite of poverty because widespread poverty can only happen in the absence of justice. When we permit large swaths of American cities and urban areas to languish—year after year, decade after decade—without access to quality education, safe and sound homes, decent jobs, and so on, we are failing to do justice. The opposite of poverty, then, is equally nuanced.

Being able to live harmoniously with all creation, taking care of each other. In Alabama and Georgia, where Stevenson spent most of his career, the poor, as well as African-Americans are the most likely to face wrongful incrimination by a wide margin. These are the most vulnerable to injustice. The same trend is true from a global perspective. Those who face the most severe injustices are often from the poorest parts of the poorest countries. These villages are mostly concentrated in Africa, Latin America, and Asia.

Issues like human trafficking prey on populations that have become so desperate for new sources of income and economic opportunity. Even environmental issues see this dynamic play out.

Those from wealthier areas are able to cope with environmental challenges for much longer. Is there some oppression that forces someone to remain in such a community?

How is it that some people avoid being 'trapped'? Could there be a change of belief systems and economic systems that removes the honey from the fly trap? Is it justice to treat people like rats by making them grateful for the cheese you use to trap them?

Is it a wonder if people no longer feel like active participants, as if they have no stake in a society? Is it justice to perpetuate this feeling generationally? Is that what a caring person does? I see here and elsewhere the constant refrains of 'equality, equality, equality'. Equality of what? Equal justice is certainly to be strived for. As a lawyer, if Mr.

Stevenson can find a case where a particular person has been treated actually unequal before the law, then by all means I am for their release from prison. The opposite of poverty is knowledge. The opposite of poverty is courage. The real injustice, the real status quo is, and has been for a long time, that the world has created the injustice and so the world must do something about the injustice. This country has made great strides in overcoming the failures of old worlds.

Opportunity, the opposite of poverty, exists. Charmaine Johnson makes a good point that education is the key, but I would add that with that education should come a willingness to reject so much of what is propagated, to ignore the status quo entirely, not fit into the pre-established role of 'young black men between the ages of 18 and 30' who are more likely to end up in jail, prison, death row.

What is propagated? That 'the system' is set up to make you fail. It seems so, sometimes, I suppose. Most of the walls of any tyranny are illusory, however. The entire nation would benefit if an entirely new way of looking at the world came about by people in low-income communities. The personal successes of a more competitive low-income community will be shared by an overall increase in the standard of living for all Americans.

That success won't come from increasing the wage of the burger flipper, but by creating more opportunities for a person to own their own franchises. Certainly, education would play a part. A cultural change would have to come about as well. How can someone succeed if their community is angered and fearful of their success? Many whites are afraid of the competition; it is counter-intuitive, but such a change toward innovative, ambitious minorities in low-income communities as opposed to oppressed and self-oppressed minorities who rely on government scraps, crime or yes injustice can only create a better nation overall.

I mentioned self-oppression As I see it, many members of low-income communities are afraid of losing their entire identity if they were to actually find a way out of poverty - and find that the means of escape were in their grasp from the beginning. Poverty is the 'devil I know', in other words. To escape injustice, you might have to try new ways of dealing with the world. Stevenson has found some means to success lawyer , but to some extent seems to be preaching more of status quo ideas as to where the injustice stems, as if it is habitual.

Learn what you can from him, but don't be afraid to listen to people with completely different perspectives as well. That's just a thought. I'll just take my invisible backpack and go home now. Bryan's commitment to justice and desire to share the truths he's learned with others who maybe never have had to face or been able to acknowledge. Most Americans admit the horrors of slavery but either don't know or think it's somehow "un-American" speak of the terrible years of the Jim Crow era in our country.

If we acknowledge that truth then we take a giant step toward understanding race relations in this country today. Then maybe we can work together to build a future community we can be proud of. As he said, the opposite of poverty is justice To keep being brave and continue to approach injustices with optimism despite my intermittent inner thoughts of skepticism.

Everything that Mr. Stevenson has spoken about answered my childhood question and confirmed my belief: Q: Why is it poor people in this world and why don't "they" help them.

B: If everyone could work no one will have to steal or kill to get money and then there will not be any jealousy or hatred. My grandmother said, "To me you have too many questions that can't be answered and too many opinions that can't be spoken to loud so, hush child". From this I've learned that our morality and outlook on life is instilled in us not just from our extended family but from our personal experiences and very importantly our stance in society.

So, I ask, where do you stand? Shine on! His concern for humanity for Justice inspired me! Our past is romantic and glorious. What we haven't done is understand what we are saying about who we are. I think we have to increase our shame — and I don't think shame is a bad thing. It's a requirement in many states that you have to show remorse, even if you have a perfect prison record, before they will let you out. We require that because our sense of comfort, our sense of safety, is compromised if we don't think you appreciate the wrongfulness of your criminal act.

In faith perspectives, to get to salvation — at least in the Christian tradition — you have to repent. There is no redemption without acknowledgement of sin. It's cleansing. It's necessary. It's ultimately liberating to acknowledge where we were and where we want to go. We haven't done that collectively. I have several million follow-up questions to ask you here. I want to put a pin in shame because I want us to talk about shame in a couple of minutes. But I want to spend another moment on the built environment.

When I began preparing for this interview and hearing you talk about the way the South looks to you, I thought a lot about a trip I took to Germany a number of years ago. I was there to observe the political convention of the Social Democratic Party. In Germany, you cannot get a more anti-Hitler party than the Social Democrats. They were jailed for their anti-Nazi position. But I remember being there and being at the convention and realizing something was physiologically very wrong in me.

I was very upset. I was very anxious. My heart was racing. It took me a minute to figure out what was going on. What was happening was that I was walking through halls hearing German on loudspeakers. For me, being Jewish, that had a very powerful physical effect on me. What does it feel like to be an African-American man going to Robert E.

Lee High School or walking by a Jefferson Davis statue? What is the lived experience of that? I think people can conceptualize why maybe it is abstractly unjust, but what role does it have in your daily life?

I grew up in the segregated South. My mom was one of these people who could answer any question in the world you asked her even though she didn't go to college, and no one in my family had gone to college. She really valued education. The only time I could remember my mom not asking answering my question is when we would drive pass the public school and I would ask my mom what the word public meant.

She didn't want me to understand that it meant I should be able to go to that school but instead we're going to this little shack called the colored school. There is an accumulated burden when you have to keep dealing with these things, when you are excluded and disfavored, when you are presumed dangerous and guilty. They wanted to eradicate polio, and they wanted all the children to get polio shots.

I remember we didn't have a doctor in our county. They made everybody go to a building where they were supposed to get shots.

Of course, the white kids went to the front door and got their shot first, and the black kids had to wait outside the back door. Finally, when they got to the black kids, the nurses who were administering these shots were tired because it had just taken a long time and they'd run out of lollipops to give the kids to help temper the sting of that needle.

By the time they got to the black kids, they were just rough. My sister was in front of me, and they grabbed my sister by the arm and they picked up the needle and they jabbed it into her arm, and she started screaming.

My mother was this amazing kind, loving person. She was a minister of music. She was so gentle. When they grabbed me by the arm, I started screaming for my mother.

The nurse was about to put this needle in my arm. Then all of a sudden, I heard all of this glass breaking. My mother had gotten so angry and frustrated. She walked over to a wall.

She picked up a tray of beakers and started throwing them against the wall. She was screaming, "It's not right. It's not fair. You made us wait out there; it's not right. The doctor came in and said, "Call the police. One of them actually fell to his knees and said, "Please don't call the police.