Look

Look

Why do you look the other way? Why do you ignore our suffering and oppression?

AS WE WALKED into the theater, I swallowed nervously. The kids and I were there to see Just Mercy, a movie based on the book of the same name by Bryan Stevenson. An attorney, professor, and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, Stevenson makes a compelling argument that within our American legal system, the opposite of poverty is not wealth, but justice. And as an attorney who has stood in courtrooms on behalf of clients, I know this to be true. If you do not have money, you face a significant disadvantage in the courtroom, no matter the reason you are there.

Popcorn in hand, we watched the story unfold about real people on death row in the 1980s Deep South as a young attorney appealed their convictions. They each had compelling facts suggesting they were innocent as execution loomed, and as the tension mounted during one particularly uncomfortable but not inappropriate scene, one of my children declared a sudden need to use the restroom.

“Stay. You need to watch this part. You need to look. It is truth, and it is important.” I whispered gently, refusing the attempt to escape discomfort.

As we slowly walked back to the car after the movie, we talked about poverty and justice. We talked about young black men and their incarceration rates. We talked about how expensive it is to hire a criminal defense attorney and how completely overwhelmed the “free” public defenders are with unimaginable caseloads. We talked about the tension between victims of terrible crimes and the percentage of innocent people on death row.

Suffering and oppression are not new to the human condition, and we are not asked to have a simple solution or clichéd answer for complex, deeply entrenched injustice. But we are asked to bear witness, to look, to see, to hear, and not turn away.

Lord, confront our tendency to look away from uncomfortable situations. Convict us when we choose comfort over justice for our neighbors, our community members, our brothers and sisters in Christ. Amen.

-Julie

One Good Step: Practice not looking away from things that make you uncomfortable. Start with watching Just Mercy or reading the book by Bryan Stevenson with a friend and discuss this statement: “The opposite of poverty is not wealth, it is justice.”