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Humanities 12th

Justice Project 

Our most recent project in humanities has had us explore the complexities and concepts of Justice. We first learned about the different philosophies of Justice. This includes utilitarianism; all about the greater good, or justice as fairness; everyone should be treated equally. We then moved on to environmental ethics talking about how people's economic value can influence their environmental safety around her home. That low-income areas have much higher health risks because of their environment. this then transferred into the environmental justice of bears ears National monument and its redistribution / resizing. study this topic for a bit getting multiple incredibly interesting you cramps and learning both sides of the issue. We done watched two separate videos about Justice First focusing on if the American prison system is really just. And the second focused on the Standing Rock pipeline protests. To get us thinking about the end of the project we created two Justice monologues environment ethics. You finally finished off the semester with our Justice project which I think was really amazing! Our most recent project in humanities has had us explore the complexities and concepts of Justice. We first learned about the different philosophies of Justice. This includes utilitarianism; all about the greater good, or justice as fairness; everyone should be treated equally. We then moved on to environmental ethics talking about how people's economic value can influence their environmental safety around her home. That low-income areas have much higher health risks because of their environment. this then transferred into the environmental justice of bears ears National monument and its redistribution / resizing. study this topic for a bit getting multiple incredibly interesting cramps and learning both sides of the issue. We done watched two separate videos about Justice First focusing on if the American prison system is really just. And the second focused on the Standing Rock pipeline protests. To get us thinking about the end of the project we created two Justice monologues environment ethics. You finally finished off the semester with our Justice project which I think was really amazing! 

Justice Monologue #1

Your and My Freedoms

Sam A.

 

In this stale courtroom looking in your eyes 

Knowing that it might be your freedom on the line

But what happens when your freedom clashes with mine

Angry and hurt, for justice I lust

I know you have the right to do what you must

I almost want to say this case unjust 


 

But I look around and see a jury of blank faces 

But under the quiet an anger still rages 

Why must we go over the laws of numerous pages?

Why can’t this scum be locked up in cages!

 

I feel the heat in my belly and hot tears in my eyes

The right to judge and jury I want to deny 

Oh god I don’t want them to see me cry

Knowing that you took a life so close to mine


 

I see Him in the courtroom almost to tears

I wish I could tell him, just so he hears

I never saw his mother walking 

when I swerved away from the deer

 

I was driving with my family! I just want to say

Just trying to keep my people safe that day

But I have dug a grave for that I must lay

 

Because as much as I have the freedom to life 

I took that from someone else that night

And as much as I want to fight for my right

Was my freedom forfeited?

I feel my throat grow tight

 

As I look down from my large stand 

How should I justly condemn this man?

The Dali Lama says forgiveness is key 

But the harm this man put on this family

There must be some tax put on his liberty

 

Now what is just I must decide 

Some may call him a killer and say he must die

Some say an accident, that he has not lied 

With this case, my tongue is tied 

What version of justice will I side?

 

Shall I only see the harm from this man

Condemn him to years on an institutionalized land

Send him away to spend years in the can

Is this really my justified plan?

 

Or should I take pity on this man before it's too late

He doesn't seem of the criminal fate

I don't think he had harm in mind when he hit the breaks

Was it just an accident with higher stakes?

How much of his freedom should I take

 

Restorative Justice is about making amends 

But will he do that with the time that he spends

Now I know that this court case must end

Justice or freedom witch side will I defend

How much harshness or mercy will I lend?

The Gavel slams down and I give him 5 to10


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Justice Monologue #2
Justice Project Defense

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My group, also known as Team Trees 2, had a rough start on the project. This was due to the initial assumption that it was just Chris peel and I in the trees group. After a few days of hectic communication, we realized that we had great team members and resources to create a fantastic product! Our goal for this project is to start new regrowth in the areas affected by the 416 fire. We are creating works of public art and a website centered around our fundraising for tree planting! We were trying to work with other organizations to plant trees. Still, because of covid-19, we had a frustrating time communicating, and we didn't get much done on that end. It will be very achievable to do this process by ourselves and by trees from local organizations. My role in the project was mainly creating content for the website. We are already using my prose from my Justice monologue. A second poem is talking about the importance of trees in our environment. Our group mate Taylor created a great website to showcase our project and help with funding. Lindsey and Trevor painted a beautiful mural to bring awareness to our fundraiser. All other parts of the group work so hard to help us get where we are! 

 

This project represented my philosophy of justice because we are completely ignoring the humanitarian element. From my practical values, the greater good must survive, and I'm choosing to view this so that nature is more numerous and more significant than any other species on this Earth, even humans. So if we prioritize to try to help it and I think that will be just as for everyone because everyone lives on this Earth and relies on it for life. Analyzing this, when you start trying to define justice amongst a species, it's incredibly complicated. This is because we inherently give excess value to ourselves that may not even be relevant in the order of natural selection or survival. But if I choose to turn a blind eye to this, I feel like I can genuinely be helping all by trying to help where we live. Almost all justice concepts, whether justice is fairness, compassion as justice, equality, or equity, are all based on human beings. I think this is selfish and maybe not even justice at all.  My version of justice focuses on our environment because it's nonbiased, and it's for all. 

 

As a group, I think we did plenty of good research for this project. Still, I don't feel nearly enough of our group ideas were shared with all my communication, and we didn't quite know where to put the research we did. I remember Landon had come up with multiple good sources that might even pay for the trees that we used to replant or places we can buy trees. Still, we simply never got to share that information around the group. I'm very impressed with how we did, but the situation made group work challenging for me. I felt lost a lot of the time. But that's also why I'm so happy we came out with such a fantastic product! 

Justice Project Reflection
Part 1
Part 2
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