The end (of the novel we're reading)

We just finished reading To Kill A Mockingbird in class, and, boy, was it something. This is the third or fourth time I've taught this book, and I haven't gotten bored. It's so rich on so many levels.
I like the ending. You know right from the start of the book that the end is going to be about how Jem gets his arm broken, and it is. I don't feel like I need to know anymore about the charaters after Scout stands on the Porch and looks at the world from Boo Radley's perspective. My only regret is that Harper Lee never wrote another book. But I don't want a sequel to this one. I know what happens to Scout and Jem: they grow up to be right thinking citizens.

Justice

Today I asked my students to write about injustices in the world and what people can do to change them. We're reading To Kill A Mockingbird, and we just got through with the trial, where Tom Robinson doesn't get justice. Injustice exists on so many levels in society. I don't know that I see it all, but I try to be aware of it. Sometimes I am the one inflicting injustice, not on purpose, but because I forget, as Atticus says and Scout learns, to step into someone else's shoes. And sometimes, justice isn't what's required at all, but mercy. I actually try to be pretty fair or just in my dealings with students. However, I need to remind myself to be merciful at times, too.
Once injustice in the world at large: my friend who gets harassed by the police for nothing at all just because he looks Mexican. (oddly enough, he's not.) He used to drive a big, old car, and one day he was pulled over under a tree waiting for the overheated old engine to cool down when the police stopped and ordered him on the ground. He managed to convince them of his innocence. Another night he stopped to help a woman in distress and other people thought he was the one who was distressing her. Even now, when he drives a nicer car, he still gets bothered.
Other injustices are being done to so many people throughout the world. And the thing about injustice is, it's done by the people in power. Atticus says that someone who cheats a black person is trash. I'd say nowadays that anyone who takes advantage of their position of power to hurt another person is wrong. Of course, later, Atticus tells Scout that you shouldn't hate anyone, even Hitler. Which makes doing right even harder. Sometimes hating is just the easiest thing to do, but that doesn't make it the best.