Love in a Sound Bite

I've heard the most poignant recitation of what we're really on about here, no doubt better articulated than I have made it. It was made by Dr. Cornel West, professor of African-American studies at Princeton University, while promoting his autobiographical book Hope on a Tightrope.

"Justice is what love looks like in public, just as tenderness is what love feels like in private."

Justice is the public expression of our compassion for the well being of others, and injustice is the public expression of the opposite. Those who express injustice or "perverted justice" against others in public, are incapable of expressing tenderness in private. They are devoid of compassion. They are vigilantes, downpressers, and molesters motivated by selfish desires. Let us consider that those who haven't been reprimanded for this wrongdoing have also been treated unjustly.

These expressions are connected. If we can not show tenderness in private, as the childlover may express toward a child, or as we as human beings ought to be expressing toward one another in general, we grow incapable of realizing a just world in public. We continue to see disparity where we should see charity, and because of disparity (in class, race, gender, sexuality, and age), we continue to see hatred, bigotry, and fear.

Those who are motivated by an expression of love (like the love for a child) realize their ideal on their own terms, while those who are motivated by that hatred, bigotry, and fear, go the way of the vigilante.