Bryan Stevenson11/21/2019 I think Bryan Stevenson's speech is the best speech I've ever been to. It was so great how he uses his own experiences and stories to tell us how to make a change regarding justice. I especially agreed on his argument that in order to truly solve the current mass incarceration problem, we need to "get closer"- get closer to those falsely convicted and imprisoned. Just like what he said, politics sometimes fail to solve these problems because it is too far away. It reminds me of my own experience: before reading Just Mercy, I really supported the death penalty because I strongly believed that if you do something extremely bad, you need to pay for it. Back then, I had little understanding of the negative sides of it. After I read the book, I was surprised to find that my opinion changed as I learned more and more personal stories about the wrongfully convicted individuals. I also understood that the justice system isn't perfect at all. Sometimes, even when the person commits the crime, he or she might be given harsher sentences based on race or economic status. I started to think about what Bryan Stevenson said in so many speeches- sometimes, instead of thinking if the person deserves to die, we need to think about whether we deserve to kill. I think by reading the book, I now am "getting closer" to the experience of convicted people.
About the connection between human rights and justice, I believe they are the same thing. When true justice exists, it is humane. Sometimes people only see one-sided justice, which is not humane. For example, murder is not justice as it harms individuals, which is a human rights violation. However, over-sentencing and mass incarceration are not justice either because the prisoners are human, so they deserve to have human rights. One of Bryan Steenson's story really proved to me the extremely fragile and humane side of one of the prisoners. He talked about a young man who really wanted a chocolate milkshake. It was really touching because usually, people don't and not willing to think about this side of the convicted. Therefore, they let their chosen ignorance to lead their judgment. However, it is only when people put human rights and justice together that they can see both sides of the coin. The justice system, especially, the due process system, is designed to be humane. Although there's still a lot of injustice happening right now, Bryan Stevenson told us to stay hopeful, and he is a good example. He didn't give up when he struggled with getting government funds; he didn't give up when one of the lawyers left his office; he stayed hopeful even after seeing his clients getting executed. He told us that we should "fight against things make us hopeless," which I think is a good point. Just a few days ago, Rodney Reed's case showed that there's hope. I think it has a great connection to Just Mercy, sad yet hopeful. I genuinely appreciate what Bryan Stevenson is trying to do because I can't imagine the hardship he has to go through. He reminds me of a public defender that I met. When I asked him what the feeling of representing what the society called "bad people" is, he said that he just follow the constitution. Overall I think this is a great event that is both powerful and insightful. His speech, combined with Just Mercy, changed a lot of my perspectives and really made me learn a lot.
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