Law v. Justice and the Social construction of law

I was driving home from a hearing today--I had unsuccessfully contested a ticket for running a stop sign on my bicycle--and I was suddenly fascinated by law. Law, like politics, is a realm of study that never appealed to me; I associated law with small print, dry texts, and hokey paralegal commercials (I associated politics with negative campaign ads and empty promises).

I ran the stop sign; I broke the law; it's not contestable. However, the stop sign has been ignored by thousands of bikers in the three years I've lived in the area, and even though there's an almost constant presence of police there, I've never seen any biker pulled over--why was I singled out? Is it fair, is it just, to suddenly decide to prosecute an individual without warning?

When the officers pulled me over (using lights and sirens--a little excessive in the wake of the RNC image problems), one of the officers who got out of the car told me that she was giving me a citation because the laws were in place to keep me safe. That struck a chord. Law is a social construction, a group effort to help keep the society safe. If that's the case, who does the society encompass? Is the society made up of the elite, of the majority, of the minority? While societies are social constructions, laws are applied geographically. If there are people who live within a geographic area but are not a part of the dominant society of that area, it may not even be possible for them to receive justice.

Minnesota law states that bikers have the same rights and rules as drivers of motor vehicles. Bikers certainly don't have the same rights as the drivers; bikers hardly have the right to exist and the infrastructure of the city rarely keeps bikers safe, bikers are responsible for their own safety. There's an imbalance. So, here's another musing. What is the balance between rights and regulations?

So, if anyone has made it this far, I have two requests. The first is to post your own ideas on law v. justice and the social construction of law. And second, do you have any book suggestions (preferably those with medium-sized print and a little bit of pop culture to soften the edges for us newbies).

I am the Lorax, I speak for the trees

I'm busy, I told him, shut up if you please.

Happy Earth Day! Do you feel like you're a Lorax or a Onceler today? Is earth day for kids, or for all of us? Are you doing anything to celebrate? I bet the Oak Park Elementary students are planting seedlings in their recycled milk cartons today. My work in the media lab today unfortunately won't be so tactile and wholesome.

(my fifth grade class about to plant flowers downtown on Earth Day)

When I was in elementary school I would dress up like a Swomee Swan and put on the Lorax in front of kid painted truffula forest backdrops. My costume was a pretty standard yellow and blue felt bird costume. My favorite costumes, or the costumes I thought were the funniest, were the truffula tree costumes; because you can't chop down a painted tree, some kids dressed up in striped pajamas with tutu's on their heads so that the oncelers could chop them down. The painted sheets were hung in my best friend's back yard and about twenty of us kids participated in the production, under the direction of Liza's mom. It was a great event. We'd spend weeks practicing and in the end we'd get to skip a whole day of school. Early in the morning on the day of the performance we'd be out in the crisp air applying Dr. Seuss theatrical make up. (Can you imagine what a bunch of ten-year-olds trying to turn each other into Dr. Seuss characters will do to each other?) Once everything was ready, we'd sneak up to the top of the hill and spy on the street, to see if the first classes were walking over from the elementary school. There were always many fun false alarms.

What a great childhood experience! I can't wait to live in a neighborhood where I can round up the kids and reignite the tradition.

Free Arts Minnesota

I want to post a link to Free Arts Minnesota because I recently discovered and became involved with the organization. Free Arts Minnesota is a non-profit org that provides art to neglected, abused, and at-risk children. I love what they do. I immediately joined the events committee and had the opportunity to tour a space for NE Minneapolis' Art-a-Whirl last Thursday. It was great to meet Andrea, Keith, Jane, Esther, and Ashley; Esther introduced herself and assured me that in no time the FAMN volunteers would feel like my family members.

So, check it out for yourself. Just see what it is. It's an organization I'm really excited about.

www.freeartsminnesota.org


(I also referenced Art-a-Whirl; for more information: http://www.nemaa.org/webpage.php?webpage_name=ART-A-WHIRL)

A little more than 140 characters

My first blog was a poetry blog. Nobody knew about it except me. I was attracted to the romanticism of blog hopping. (Look at the bar across the top of this page; do you see the "Next Blog" button?) I'd found traveler blogs, dieter blogs, and mommy blogs, each belonging to a different dynamic person. I really wanted to be a different dynamic person, but not publicly.

My second blog was a travel blog: "mon voyage: france take two." The purpose of that blog was to keep my friends and family updated on life in Montpellier, France, and it was fun to documment the experience. It's still up at http://abbie-defiel.blogspot.com/ because I hope to return to it for france take three.

Here we are at blog three. I'm starting this blog because I'm entering into the long phase of my life during which I can be proud and excited about being a different dynamic person.

So here it goes, the next round, and it starts with a job interview tomorrow for a company I don't want to say anything about--unlike the dieting moms and hidden dynamos, I realize that this world-wide web is quite small.