“Justice for All”: Just a Sop for the Masses

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by Alice Cherbonnier*

We feel sorrow and shame for our country, which has strayed so far from the ideals on which it was founded that it hardly seems fitting that we celebrate the Fourth of July at all.

*Ms. Cherbonnier is the managing editor of The Baltimore Chronicle.

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On this nation’s Independence Day, when we’re reminded to celebrate our freedoms, let’s all pause to consider those freedoms. Are we as free and equal under the law as we were before the year 2000? Many of us, wincing under the weight of the USA PATRIOT Act, think not.

President George W. Bush’s announcement yesterday that he has commuted the prison sentence of Lewis “Scooter” Libby shows his contempt for this nation’s justice system. Of course he can override a perfectly correct federal judge’s sentence: he sees himself as the “decider,” the supreme being. He has followed this pattern throughout his time in the White House. He has shown his contempt for the legislative system with his over 750 “signing statements” delimiting and even effectively nullifying laws duly passed by Congress (the elected representatives of the people, remember?), and his contempt for the executive system, so clear in his failure to enforce duly enacted laws and regulations that he disagrees with. Why shouldn’t Bush also subvert the justice system to throw a sop to one of his friends (especially to someone who might otherwise squawk to the press if incarcerated)?

We’ve reached a point in this country where the perpetrators of the biggest crimes (starting a pre-emptive war on false pretexts, for example) go unpunished, while their underlings unlucky enough to get ensnared in the justice system take the fall and get their knuckles rapped–and later become “fellows” of Neocon think tanks. The wealthiest among us have shown it’s quite possible to get away with murder in this country. On the other hand, those who steal a car or shoplift or deal dope or hit somebody over the head with a beer bottle during a bar brawl can count on retribution.

Here in Baltimore, the headmaster of a leading boys’ private school was summarily dismissed a few days ago because, after six creditable years on the job, it was discovered that he had falsely claimed on his resume, and in job interviews, that he had played intercollegiate ice hockey 30 years ago. His public humiliation, his casting-out, for what seems a very minor and even understandable lie (failure to show jock tendencies could sink an otherwise qualified candidate at such schools), shows that this school adheres to its honor code, in the small things as well as the large.

Contrast that with Scooter Libby’s offense. Lying under oath is a heinous offense in this country. He lied–and not about something innocuous like playing a sport in his youth. He lied about a crime–the capital crime of outing a CIA officer, putting the lives of that person’s sources at risk–and thereby prevented prosecution of those responsible for that crime.

We shed no tears for Scooter Libby, who has a stiff fine to pay and (for a while, at least) won’t be able to practice law. He’s become a hero within his coterie, and he’ll have a soft landing. Instead, we feel sorrow and shame for our country, which has strayed so far from the ideals on which it was founded that it hardly seems fitting that we celebrate the Fourth of July at all.

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Anwaar’s articles appear simultaneously here at Truth Spring and at Soul Vibes in The Pakistan Tribune.


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