Christine Howe

Explore the relationship between Justice and one or more of these ideals: Truth, Freedom,
Equality, and/orForgiveness

Injustice. This is a word our society is very familiar with. Perhaps the greatest injustice of
all is it’s current nature as something some of us wake up to every day of our lives and some of
us have the innocent privilege of ignoring. But what if, before we were born, without knowing
anything about how injustice would shape our lives based on race, sex, or religion,
we got to choose where we ended up?
This is the theory of “The Veil of Innocence”, first introduced by John Rawls. Basically,
rules should be made and justice should be served without bias, as if you were looking at a
situation through a veil that filtered out your own life experiences as well as the unavoidable
prejudices of society. To me, this makes perfect sense. When putting yourself in someone else's
shoes, you do so with regard for their background, experiences, and needs. If you used “putting
yourself in someone else's shoes'' as a tool to make fair decisions for a large group of people or
for a minority you don’t know much about, it makes sense that you would use the veil of
innocence. It requires less background knowledge, though some is always helpful, and the simple
ability to try to understand the feeling of multiple perspectives.
When you look at justice as a form of punishment through the lens of the veil of
innocence, it gets more interesting. In his book Ethics for a Whole World, the Dalai Lama raises
the question, “What [is] punishment really about...Is it about retribution and revenge--about
making wrongdoers suffer as an end in itself?” (pg 61). I don’t think so. Imagine yourself as the
wrongdoer in this situation. You are being convicted of a crime, and regardless of whether you
are guilty or not you find yourself with the fate of the rest of your life in the judges hands. If you
are not guilty, you yearn for the judge to see the truth of the situation--your innocence. You hope
they will put aside all the biases and prejudices for the sake of mercy and justice. If you are
guilty, you long for the judge to see you for what you are - human, someone who makes mistakes
and has the ability and willingness to change. In both of these situations, the perpetrator has a
sense that if the judge could set aside the filter of bias, both societal and personal, and show
compassion, they would be saved. And isn’t it our duty as humans to seek equal opportunity to
be saved for all of our fellows? Our goal should not be to cause suffering as a form of
punishment.
This conclusion demands that we ask a question from Howard Zinn; “Where is our
greater obligation: to law or to justice?” (Law and Justice, pg 401). Well, if compassion through
the veil of innocence was the law, we wouldn’t have to choose.
 Christine Howe

OUTLINE:
The Veil of Innocence - MAIN FOCUS
Connected to justice as a form of punishment, and the idea that it is more and human to
use the veil of justice when giving out punishment (judge should image themselves in the
perpetrators shoes)

Ethics for a Whole World, Dalali Lama -

“There is a conflict between the principle of compassion, which implies forgiveness, and the
exercise of justice, which requires punishment for wrongdoing…[but] compassion [doesn’t]
demand that we meekly seek justice” (pg 57)
“Maintaining an attitude of calmness and nonviolence is actually an indication of strength, as it
shows the confidence that comes from having truth and justice on ones side” (pg 58)
- Being defensive, violent, vengeful reflect awareness of injustice and uncomfort with the
change that transforming the system/mindset would bring
“Physical or violent measures can only restrain others’ physical behavior, never their minds” (pg
59)
“To kill another human….can not to my mind be right, since it forecloses the possibility that they
may change” (pg 62)
- Connect to chance as in bullet point above
- Changing the system, allowing change, welcoming, seeking

- Condemn wrong actions, prevent/oppose, maintain attitude of kindness, forgiveness,

benefit of the doubt for perpetrators

Example:
“Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy, it is absolutely essential to it...it is
disruptive and troublesome, but it is a necessary disruption, a healthy troublesomeness” (Howard
Zinn, Law and Justice)

“We haven’t learned as a country to apologize” (Bryan Stevenson)

“I’m not so much worried about the system, I’m more concerned about the people who control
the system” (Stevenson)
- If these people cannot accept change injustice continues in our society

Idea -

Ignore the past, turn away from the present, think not of the future. We think, “dwelling on the
past creates uncertainty, chaos. We can’t go back in time to change it, so let’s focus on the
 Christine Howe

present”. But in disregarding the past, we bring it’s injustices forward into the present, and in
refusing to accept that fact, we amplify them.