Injustice

Injustice is all around, is everywhere. We are reminded of it on the news, in the metro and from history. This week I was a witness to injustice. First was through the 40 year anniversary of the Soviet invasion on Czechoslovakia in 1968. The second was prejudice that we'd like to believe no longer exists in the 21st century.

On August 21, 1968, Soviet tanks rolled into the sleeping Czechoslovakia to 'reinstate a good communist regime'. The Soviets weren't happy with the Prague Spring that had thrown open the windows of oppression and let people have freedom of speech. The Czechoslovak public did not welcome the interference of "big brother Russia" and pasted the streets with protest art. It is hard fro me to imagine the nations of the west that were spouting words of support for democratic thought and freedom sitting idly by and doing nothing.

My second witness of injustice was on public transportation. I have to preface this with the fact that the Czech Republic is a very safe place to live and the Czechs are some of the most tolerant and open people on earth. Unfortunately, stupid people live everywhere. As H. and I were sitting in the cable car at Petrin Park, a large group of drunk punks got on the cable car. They choose a section where two African-Czech students were sitting. They proceeded to harass the students into giving up their seats and eventually leaving the cable car. There were several other minorities on the cable car-Vietnamese, Slovak, a few tourists and myself. There was silence to the top of the hill. The experience left me with a new empathy for how it feels to be helpless .

I mention these two incidents together because essentially it is the same human ego and defenselessness that drives power-hungry governments to invade sovereign nations or drunk punks to pick on someone who looks different than them. Maybe in another 40 years humanity will have evolved past jealously and egotism, and social justice will prevail...Or maybe we can just start by loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. I'm not sure which is more likely.




http://www.radio.cz/en/article/44313