Such sophistry
Firmly on the bench
But
What if
Everybody did that
Judging propriety
Smudging property
An intolerable act
My conscience
He decreed
Must fall
Into line
With Kant
Where every reason
Reduced to rant
It’s the leash they can do
In such a fine whirled
Of ethical confinement
And duly deputized
Might be right
As I thought
With unparalleled infection
Of making love to my wife
Only to arrest my life
At the notion
What if
Every body did that
And the orgy in suing
As just us
Endures a courtly rendition
Sow evident
Out of the question
As signs everywhere
Of legal violation
This poem was inspired by my encounter this mourning with a Toledo Municipal Court judge. I appeared in court to address putting address labels on light poles. The labels called for justice for Danny Brown, a local man who has endured 32 years of legal violation, including 19 years in prison for a crime he did not commit [see Justice for Danny Brown]. Also not having committed that crime, I feel as a kindred spirit to Danny. Putting labels on light poles incited a criminal mischief charge, a third degree misdemeanor. I was definitely more guilty than Danny Brown for this crime. I made a statement that whatever cost may be associated with label residue on poles, it pales in comparison to the outstanding injustice Danny brown endures. In simply monetary terms, compensation for his wrongful imprisonment would be over $900,000. Interest alone, at 3%, would be $27,000 each year. However, since Lucas County Persecutor Julia Bates continues to hold Danny on a person of interest list, linking him to an “active” (sic) case, he cannot apply for due compensation. Danny is living in this legal, yet immoral, limbo indefinitely. I consider my stickering a simple act of civic responsibility, working for justice for Danny brown as a person of interest in this case.
In a stunningly predictable statement, the judge asked the rhetorical question, “What if everybody did what you did?” My poem is one answer to this question. I can sleep well at night meditating on the question: what if everybody took risks for one another in working to ensure justice for all?
The judge’s Kant do attitude, whether knowingly or unknowingly, is a reference to the German philosopher Immanuel Kant’s best known contribution, that of the moral imperative, of universalizing a proposition to see what would happen, and making a judgment informed by that perspective. Of course, if everybody fined me for a low level misdemeanor, then I would be in financial ruin — hardly proportional to the so-called crime. I am not mocking Kant so much as the poor application of such logic by the judge. In any case, and there will probably be more, while the judge is firmly on the bench dispensing with justice, I’ll be in the streets addressing justice for Danny Brown.
P.S. the reference to “my wife” represents poetic license, not a marriage license. My sweetheart of 17 years is still my official muse, though unofficial “wife.”
