My fraternity, Delta Upsilon, holds justice as its founding and most important principle. It is my sincerest belief that this is the reason the fraternity has persisted since it was founded in 1834.
As president of my fraternity, it is often my duty to convey the meaning of justice to potential new members of my organization during rush week. Fraternity rush recently ended, and I can truly attest that conveying such a strong intangible is no easy feat.
Thus, the idea of justice is both extremely important and personal to me.
The concept of justice is both interpretive and intangible. Of life's virtues, justice often can be one of the most difficult to describe or adhere to. Justice is an integral part of life, and I encourage others to reflect more closely on what justice means and how it can be implemented into action and abidance.
A mere definition of the word justice does little justice to its true meaning. Justice must be experienced and felt as much as, if not more than, its meaning must be understood.
My favorite definition of justice is "truth in action." Truth in action is conduct designed to actively promote what is good, self-consistent and righteous. Justice is not a passive quality; it must be pursued actively and vigilantly.
This concept of justice is particularly personal. Pursuing a just course of action is both interpretive and never readily discernible. Often what is right is not what is necessarily easy or clear. One must recognize tendencies to confuse justice with vengeance or self-gratification.
Justice is more than a lofty moral webbing to live by; it is necessary to the successful continuity of society and to preserve natural, unalienable rights for all humans.
Aristotle identified greed and unlawfulness as the opposite of justice. Plato wrote frequently of the Athenian democracy being on the verge of ruin due to excessive individualism and self-service, to which he said justice is the required remedy. Plato goes on to describe justice as a social virtue necessary to maintain an inherently harmonious and good society.
As the ancient thinkers considered justice a necessary component of a functioning, good society, so must we turn to justice to approach the defining issues of our time.
In many circumstances, our country now faces tumultuous and greatly influential decisions to be made. It is essential that both the citizens and the leaders of this country resort to justice when determining the path our country is to follow.
We must pursue justice at home. Our country must work to maintain our shared moral structure. We must strive to maintain the integrity of our justice system. It is one of the most uncorrupted and independent in the world.
We must pursue justice abroad and recognize our responsibility to correct the gravest of atrocities committed against human beings.
We must aggressively work with international efforts to end the most egregious acts of human abuse and take a strong stand as a country against others, such as Iran, that knowingly allow such acts to persist.
We must pursue justice within ourselves and strive to be good to one another.
In the words of Albert Einstein, "In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same."
Bryan Griffin is a first-year law student. His column appears every Thursday.
