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Law in Contemporary Society
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JustinPerez's JournalThe past three weeks have been extremely trying for me. One of my family members has become very sick and two others have exhibited mild symptoms to the virus that is affecting us all in one way or another. Reflecting on myself as the student, son, brother, and friend this period has led to a collision of these several personalities. Throughout my 21 years, I have never mixed these several statuses, and never thought of them to be different. Learning in this environment is a struggle not because of the Zoom structure (although it is annoying), but because I feel this period is teaching me things I would not otherwise learn in a classroom. On the other hand, listening to your lectures in this format is more helpful because of my ability to reflect without the everyday worries of whether I am performing how I should in my other classes. The move to Pass-Fail has also allowed me to actually feel like I learn in law school for the first time. I am no longer reading the casebook to find what my professor would like me to take from it, but what the principles and doctrines that I will adopt for my career and how I see them affecting me today. This past week as I have started to enter into a routine, I have also reflected on how I would like to see in my career. Your point of who I would like my clients to be has led to a lot of reflection on how I envision my life. To this point, I believe I want to serve youth from underserved communities, who represent someone I could have easily been if I had made different decisions, or simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. I find happiness in watching people develop, and turn their lives around because the only thing that separates most people between failure and success is opportunity. Providing legal aid to juveniles in some capacity will be part of my work in the future. As I continue to think about what my career or livelihood will consist of exactly, I do envision personal relationships with my clients that extend past a legal relationship.Today's discussion about injustice and justice made me think about the prisoners being released early within the U.S and in other parts of the globe due to the threat of Coronavirus. The states released many of these individuals fairly easy and without public uproar for the most part. These events led me to think why did we have them in prison in the first place or even for the sentence they were facing if the only circumstance that changed was the fear of Coronavirus. The governing bodies of these states decided these individuals were not a big enough threat to society that they can be free. My belief up to this day was that justice is difficult to obtain and that most of the work lawyers do is fighting to stop injustice. The two are different in that justice is an uphill battle to reach an objective, while injustice is persistent and present in every aspect of the law. The prisoners being released in this case succeeded in avoiding injustice from poor and unhealthy prison conditions, unlike those in Parchman, Mississippi. They have not succeeded in obtaining justice in that they likely served sentences that would have been better served in alternative rehabilitative settings that actually reduce recidivism. I myself am motivated by injustice because it is the war I can win a few battles in my lifetime. I hope to one day reach a point in which, I have fought enough injustice and my colleagues have done the same to the point where we can turn our efforts toward obtaining justice, But at this moment I see too much injustice , and my fight for justice would leave those helpless without a voice. If 40 million people suddenly became enslaved, I am not sure the U.S would erupt in protest if the government somehow justified its reasoning.Today, we see thousands of Americans dying from Coronarvirus, but no one is protesting the handling of the virus by the government. There are over two million people in prison, and their incarceration in inhumane conditions is justified, with divided feelings over its acceptability. I would think a fair amount of Americans would rise up, but the government through hits military power could effectively quiet this unrest. The thought of those events occurring seem like an impossibility to me, but could be quite feasible under the correct circumstances. When we say never again, we really mean not so obviously.
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