Blog #9: Injustice, Speech Rough Draft
Draft of My Speech
Injustice
The first thing to establish is…what is justice? To me…it is fairness and righteousness. It is preserving honor and trust in society. It is doing the right thing, the just thing, no matter who is watching. Injustice, or, a lack of justice, has affected me ever since I was little. When I was 4 or 5 and I would watch Disney movies, whenever the villain lied, or did something that was unfair, I was positively outraged. Like in the Little Mermaid, when evil Ursula puts a spell on Ariel, it’s not fair, because Ariel can’t do anything about it, and she even trusts Ursula, which made me really scared, because then Ursula could take advantage of her, and so on and so forth. I remember when I was about 10 years old, I was playing a soccer game, and the other team had the ball on one side of the field, and I was sprinting back to stop them when, all of a sudden, something clipped the back of my ankle, and I slid across the field (grass, dirt, rocks) face first. I looked up to find that the referee had (accidentally) tripped me. Before I could get up the other team scored. I understand that the referee didn’t mean to trip me, and of course he immediately apologized, but, I was so outraged that he had tripped me and then the other team had scored. I don’t know if it would have made a difference in that game, but, we lost, and I couldn’t stop myself from thinking that maybe, if I had run back, I could have stopped them, or maybe I could have scored a goal for my own team. But the reality of the fact is, I couldn’t play for the rest of that game, not because of physical injury, because aside from a few scratches, I was perfectly fine, but, emotionally, I was distraught, I was taken with seemingly uncontrollable tears, and I was unbelievably mad at the same time, I couldn’t believe it. I was so caught up in the unfairness that I felt, that I couldn’t focus on the task at hand, I was stuck in the past, and I was so emotionally affected by the experience, that I couldn’t play. That’s the problem, I can’t just let go of injustice and things that I feel aren’
t fair, I just keep thinking about them, and I get more and more frustrated about the fact that I am helpless to change the situation.
When I did my monologue for the Shakespeare competition, I chose to do a speech in which Joan of Arc has just basically been disowned by her own father, and then she pleas for her life in front of a court of people. She has been unjustly accused, and she knows it, and she knows that she will be avenged for her innocent death by heaven almighty. The important part is that she pretty much knows that she is going to die, but she knows in her heart that she was unjustly accused. That is what I could relate to, the passionate feeling of defending herself against injustice. Only the problem is, I haven’t yet developed the use of Shakespearian prose to argue my point, in fact, I am usually so outraged at injustice that I either explode with anger, or I break down crying, but sometimes, I hold it in, as if in rebellion, like I am wearing the mask that I am simply indifferent so that I don’
t even give them the satisfaction of seeing my anger or tears. It is complicated, and it always affects me in a deep way, no matter how I deal with it or
choose to show it. For me, it is a problem, because it affects me to a large extent whether I show it or not. If I show it, I am almost uncontrollable, either with tears, or anger. If I choose to hold it in, then it affects me emotionally, I am cranky, I often refuse to talk, feel like I am on the verge of tears. It is a fault. I can’
t just let it go and move on, try to make things better, or just try to live in the moment. It is a problem that I struggle with on a somewhat regular basis.
I feel injustice often and it affects me quite deeply. At the last Varsity Basketball game of the season, I was slightly out of control, in terms of the fact that I kept yelling at the referees, it was really bad, and embarrassing, when I think back on it. The referees kept on calling fouls on our players, to the point that two of our players fouled out (one of which was Nicki Speed, I was outraged when I looked at the face of Nicki Speed, a senior, at her last Marlborough basketball game, who fouled out as a result of what I felt was unfair refereeing. When there was about two minutes left in the game and the Mustangs had about a 15 point deficit, when she realized that they were going to lose and tears came streaming down her face, and I knew, whether or not they would have won the game, the referees decided the outcome of that game. That is not supposed to happen. The refs should protect the players from dangerous or unfair play, but it seemed like they called a foul every time our players touched the other team.
I remember experiences throughout my life of times when I have felt injustice, often in great detail, because it is something that is very important to me. I want to preserve justice, make people trust each other, and create trust in society. Maybe someday I’ll be able to achieve some of these things, but, for now, I don’t know. My deep reactions to injustice are in some ways, good, because they show that I want to preserve justice and am outraged when people do things that are unfair or unfair things happen. But in some ways, they are bad because at times, I am out of control, or if I choose to hold my feelings in, then I bubble up and almost get even more angry, because I am keeping my fermenting anger in, instead of just letting it out. I have to figure out for myself, how to deal with my frustration about injustice in a positive and embracing way. I have to figure out how to live in the moment and try to make things that are unjust, just, instead of just constantly thinking about experiences of injustice I have had, and thinking about how frustrated I am about them. I don’
t know if I will ever figure out how to overcome injustice for myself, and if I will ever be successful in overcoming justice in society. What I do know, though, is what my goal is, whether or not I will ever be successful, I have identified that I want to overcome injustice, whether just for myself, for society, for women, for the human race, I want to overcome injustice, and that is my goal.
Showing instead of telling, doing it instead of having to explain it (in relation to saying: this speech is almost like a blog for me or this speech—
breaking the 4th wall)
Zoot suit. I felt very frustrated at the unfairness and clear racial prejudice of the jury against the chicano young men. It was clear that no matter George said in their defense, the young men were going to get convicted because that jury and the city of Los Angeles at that time was so caught up in racial discrimination, that they weren’t able to see through the prosecutions pathetic attempt at making the boys look like they had done it. It reminds me of the movie “To Kill a Mockingbird”, when Atticus so valiantly and passionately fought for innocent Tom Robinson, and the prosecution clearly made some obvious mistakes. It would have only taken a little bit of common sense to see that Atticus clearly proved, with concrete evidence, that Tom didn’t do it, but it was almost as if the jury’
s eyes were veiled by racial discrimination. The Court of Law is the epitome of justice. People expect it to preserve justice in society and make people feel safe and secure, and trust in the courts and the police who protect society from the effects of injustice to do their duty and punish those people who deserve to be punished [I forgot to blog before Sunday night this week. But this was posted on Wednesday, I am so sorry, I only remembered just now.]
