About Kings County, NB

This is my PART 2 of my blog about outside plaques at the Boston Federal Building during my time at ActiveRain's Boston RainCamp. Here's a link to my PART 1:

http://activerain.com/blogsview/1851194/profiles-of-justice-from-the-american-legal-system-part-1

I believe we should all think about these plaques and their meanings, since sometimes we have to review what they mean and help others remember what their original thoughts might have been. Of the 9 plagues the next 5 are my interpretations!

The 5^th plaque stated: “OUR GOVERNMENT IS THE POTENT, THE OMNIPRESENT TEACHER. FOR GOOD OR FOR ILL, IT TEACHES THE WHOLE PEOPLE BY ITS EXAMPLE. – Louis D. Brandeis, 1928.”

This means our government should set the example to the people. This is done when government can correct the injustice within their own corporations or outside private business corporations and the people they are guarding will watch and mimic by example. Therefore, if we want our people to be just and follow the rules, then corporations & government need to begin with the example, so the people don’t run rampage. An example of this concept is the way President Obama met his obligation to defend the Constitution. Though there was popular consensus by the people that a mosque should not be built in close proximity to ground zero, Obama supported the freedom of religion on which the US was framed.

The 6^th plaque stated: “THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THOSE WHO EXERCISE POWER IN A DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT IS NOT TO REFLECT INFLAMED PUBLIC FEELING BUT TO HELP FORM ITS UNDERSTANDING. – Felix Frankfurter, 1958.”

People in power should represent the people, but should also mold some of the opinions to reflect the understanding of the constitution to those who don’t understand the constitution or the Bill of Rights. Education is critical to the understanding of our rights and religions should never play a role in our laws, since we are a “melting pot of people from all over the world”, otherwise, we are eliminating others to their rights & the laws of our country. Again with my previous example Obama supported the freedom of religion. With the latest issue brought up by the Gainesville, FL minister that wanted to have a public burning of the Koran, Obama supported his freedom of speech. Though the burning of the Koran publicly had popular support President Obama went against the popular support to encourage moderation over an inflammatory issue.

The 7^th plaque stated: “WE ARE CONFRONTED PRIMARILY WITH A MORAL ISSUE. THE HEART OF THE QUESTION IS WHETHER WE ARE GOING TO TREAT OUR FELLOW AMERICANS, AS WE WANT TO BE TREATED. – John F. Kennedy, 1963.”

This I remember from my childhood (this also tells you how old I really am). The Kennedy & MLK years really hit home! We really need to treat anyone from any country the way we want to be treated, period! We can’t go to other countries and be insensitive to their ways, but we should try to improve their ways by creating brainstorming to allow them to change it themselves and only if they want to. People change the country only when they are ready as a people! This is something we should never try to push on others.

The 8^th plaque stated: “THE BEST ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE MAY BE MOST SAFELY SECURED BY ALLOWING THE REPRESENTATION OF ALL CLASSES OF THE PEOPLE IN COURTS OF JUSTICE. – Lelia Josephine Robinson, 1881.”

No matter how mad we are about what a convicted person did to another, we should always give them sound representation, if they can’t afford a lawyer or if they are from another country. We can’t say we are civilized if we don’t treat all men & women from all countries the same in our justice system!

The 9^th last plaque was my favorite and was also the oldest quote, which probably says something about the person who wrote it. It states: “THE DIGNITY AND STABILITY OF GOVERNMENT IN ALL ITS BRANCHES, THE MORAL OF THE PEOPLE AND EVERY BLESSING OF SOCIETY DEPEND UPON AN UPRIGHT AND SKILLFUL ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. – John Adams, 1776.

Hopefully, Congress, who create many of our laws, are thinking about this everyday, so we can jump out of our current economic situation and begin to flourish again. Let’s begin to hold the businesses and their CEO’s responsible for their actions to our country and their fleecing of our people!

Finally, I would love to be able to go into the Boston Federal Building, since the guard did inform me that their were more plaques inside! I hope I can see them one day, but not have to go there for any other reason!

My life right now is in between being an American that is going for her Canadian Citizenship and waiting patiently for the Halifax office to acknowledge our paperwork with $$$ sent in January 2010. I was born in New York City many decades ago!

Today, thinking about the 9^th anniversary after 9-11 and only 11 days before this American-Canadian moves to Beijing, China for 9 months. I remembered going to Boston for ActiveRain's Boston RainCamp this past July 2010 and taking photos of the Boston Federal Court Building outside, since they wouldn’t let me inside unless I had business there! I took photos of plaques outside the building that I really thought made me think about what being an American-Canadian really means. I’ve written this in two parts, since I want to discuss those 9 quotes from the Boston Federal Building.

The first plaque stated “ALL MEN ARE BORN FREE AND EQUAL AND EVERY SUBJECT IS ENTITLED TO LIBERTY AND TO HAVE IT GUARDED BY THE LAWS. – William Cushing, 1783”

To me, that means all Americans, Immigrants & Visitors are entitled to liberty, justice and be protected by our laws. So when we, as a country, allow others to use bigotry & anti-religious connotations, we are definitely not following this principle. We should respect all cultures, religions & race!

The 2^nd plaque reads, “MEN AND WOMEN WERE CREATED EQUAL, THEY ARE BOTH MORAL AND ACCOUNTABLE BEINGS, AND WHATEVER IS RIGHT FOR MAN TO DO IS RIGHT FOR WOMAN. – Sarah M. Grimke, 1937”

With this saying, we have come a long way from the 1920’s but we still have to pay equally to all men & women during the same job, with no difference in pay due to gender. This should include all medical studies also, we should do medical studies for both men & women and not just one gender.

The 3^rd plaque is very relative to this last week of media coverage, “WHERE JUSTICE IS DENIED AND ANY ONE CLASS IS MADE TO FEEL THAT SOCIETY IS AN ORGANIZED CONSPIRACY TO OPPRESS, ROB AND DEGRADE THEM, NEITHER PERSONS NOR PROPERTY WILL BE SAFE – Federick Douglass, 1886”

My feelings with this last week between the protests on the building of a Islamic Mosque near 9-11 site in NYC & the Gainesville Christian Preacher who wanted to burn the Koran, makes me feel ill. We, as Americans are better than this. There are extremists in all religions and we shouldn’t condemn all the extremists as the majority of the religions, when they are a very small minority! We should never oppress, degrade or rob other people’s religions, cultures or countries, or we will NEVER be safe as a country!

The 4^th plaque stated: “THE LAW IS THE WITNESS AND EXTERNAL DEPOSIT OF OUR MORAL LIFE. ITS HISTORY IS THE HISTORY OF THE MORAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE RACE – Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1897.”

This means to me, that if we don’t follow our laws, we don’t have much of a moral life as a nation. We, as a country of a variety of people, must always treat all people the same within the stating of our laws, since that is reflective of ourselves and our moral society. We must treat all war prisoners & convicts the same as we would want to be treated!

The leaders that wrote these quotes understood the constitution and probably studied the true meaning of the “Bill of Rights”. I will use this to guide me for the next year in Beijing and to represent all Americans & Canadians through respect & open thinking!

This is a photo of a sunset I took today, here on Hwy 7, in Grand Bay-Westfield, NB. I didn't realize the mushroom cloud above it, until I downloaded the photo to my MacBook. ENJOY!

The market in Sussex New Brunswick is still strong and looks like its going to stay a sellers market for awhile. The potash mine will start sinking their new shaft in July which means 100's of new jobs and new families coming to the area. Inventory in town and the surrounding areas are starting to get picked over and we are in dire need of new listings.