"___ isn't always on time" : Justice
- Michael Apollo Lira
- Jul 7, 2022
- 4 min read
Justice, karma, comeuppance.
Whatever you believe in or want to call it…much like love, it isn’t always on time.
...
You didn't click on that link, did you?
Well then, I'll simply imbed it right here!
This has been on my mind a lot lately.
Justice, I mean. I think in part because of recent news stories such as:
R. Kelly being sentenced to 30 years in prison for sex trafficking going as far back as the ‘90s.
Ghislaine Maxwell being sentenced to 20 years in prison for her role in the trafficking and abuse of minors with Jeffrey Epstein, also going as far back as the ‘90s.
Joaquin Ciria (now 61 years old) was exonerated after spending 32 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit due to false witness testimony and police misconduct…wait, did that also happen in the ‘90s??
A 101-year-old former Nazi Guard was sentenced to 5 years in prison for accessory to murder at the concentration camp he was a guard at in World War II.
The mass consensus response to these events has been “good!”
--to which it IS because you should go to prison for those crimes, and you should be let out of prison if you didn’t commit said crimes (or not sent in the first place at all)!
But I am absolutely perturbed that for these victims to get any type of closure, it would take this long.
I don’t know about you, but I really, REALLY like my karma and justice to be expeditious.
But that all just lends to this notion that we live in an ideal world in the first place…is it too much to want these things? Every internal argument I have with myself over it all brings me back to the same point: the world is simply unfair.
Any one of us could spend years or maybe even a lifetime hoping for justice. And the kicker is, it may happen after we die, or possibly never at all.
I don’t know what it’s like to die with something like that hanging over my head…and maybe it’s different for everyone.
Maybe there are some out there who believe that justice is an inevitability – something that happens regardless of time passed, and they know that sooner or later, somehow, justice will happen in some shape, fashion, or form, whether it can be tangibly gauged or not. That somehow justice always finds a way within this complex existence.
Maybe there are others out there that die with a feeling of loss, knowing that they are departing with important matters left unresolved.
And maybe there are some who decide that their quality of life cannot be ultimately dictated by a past event that they no longer have control over?
Maybe it’s different for everybody. But it’s been on my mind after realizing how long it took some of these people to come to justice.
What are you supposed to do when something terrible happens, and you see no light?
The obvious answer seems to be to try to continue living your life. But that sounds a lot easier said than done. And it leaves me wondering, though justice has been served in the aforementioned cases…how do you make those years lived between then and now ok again? What happens with that period of time in the victims’ lives?
I know that despite it all, as people we NEED purpose and fulfillment. And many times, we find ways to achieve it even in the face of adversity, despair, or hardship. Creating meaning in our lives, no matter how much chaos or dysfunction we may be immersed in, is at times akin to being that flower that grows through the cracked concrete; that beauty and mystery often finds its way despite circumstances.
This age of instant gratification has sullied a lot by way of setting realistic expectations and the discipline to properly investing oneself towards personal enrichment. I wish that impatience could be redirected towards more expeditious justice.
A lifetime is a long time to wait, merely hoping for a wrong to be made right.
...
On the general subject, what are some injustices you have encountered, seen, or heard of in voiceover? The world going digital has certainly made it a smaller place in a lot of ways. It has made voice acting work much more far-reaching, which has conversely come with its own precautions to be smart about. Robert Sciglimpaglia wrote a great book titled Voice Over LEGAL to help empower VO artists navigate what can sometimes turn into muddy waters.
Have you experienced or seen predatory practices? Baiting and switching? Outright VO scams? I’d love to hear what you may have to share. Was there a resolution or justice that came from it?
Be safe out there, people.
If you enjoy reading my blogs, I bet you'd like some of the other voice over blogs that I really love! Take a minute and check out these truly wonderful voiceover blogs. Reading these is always a big highlight in my busy life!
I find that remembering this: People are people and they will ALWAYS be people...and people disappoint us (and also remember you are a people and will/have disappointed others)...goes a long way toward tempering the unfairness of life. If there is something you can do, something you can control, then you should do it...but if not, then you only destroy yourself and everyone around you by obsessing/worrying about it.
It's a sad state of affairs for sure, but at least SOME people ultimately get the justice they deserve. Yes, the wheels of "justice" (and I use that term loosely) here in the US turn slowly...in some ways that is good, because it MAY reduce the number of innocent people who ar…
I SO wish I had something to comment in the vein of voiceovers...but I just don't. However, justice is a VERY familiar front in our household...my wife and I being victims of cyberstalking. It went to the FBI even, who arrested him last year and then the case was dropped, presumably to repursue him later with more charges. Who knows. But back then, it was painful on an excruciating level, and we endured it for years. The birth of our firstborn, a time that should have been full of joy and celebration, was spent fighting off our cyber assailant and having to deal with a maddening court system. So the wheels of justice DO turn slowly. The lines between d…