MY THOUGHTS ON CIVIC RIGHTS

WELCOME TO THIS POST!

A LOVELY FLOWER FOR MY READERS.

An impressive, large Chilean shrub, Azara serrata

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Source: Steve Law, CC BY SA 2.0. Wikimedia Commons

This is a FTSF post, that’s Finish The Sentence Friday, a Blog Hop! The prompt for this week is the following.

My favorite movie of all time is…

My favorite movie of all time is … To Kill a Mockingbird.

CHILEAN YELLOW SORREL

 

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Source: Magnus Manske, CC BY SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons

MY THOUGHTS ON THIS MOVIE

To my mind, this movie is the classic of classics. An incredibly complex story made up of a main stream and several other streams that intermingle with the main one. A real masterpiece and the movie is quite faithful to the book, for once!

This literary masterpiece, Harper Lee’s one and only novel, is so well known, that I won’t go into the details of the story, but rather provide comments and reflections of my own.

The main theme hits you in the face: the rather hopeless defense of an Afro-American in an ambiance of strong racial prejudice, which included an all-white jury, if my memory serves me correctly.

Tom, the Afro-American, is obviously innocent, but is condemned anyway.

The defense attorney, Atticus Finch (a young Gregory Peck in the movie), puts up a strong case in a hopeless situation, thereby providing a great model of the ethics that should rule all judiciary systems, and a confirmation of an age old principle: it is the right of every person, whether guilty or innocent, to be provided with a fair trial. This obviously includes the right to a professional defense.

THE COPAHUE VOLCANO WANTS TO ERRUPT!

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Source: Mono Andes, CC BY 2.0. Flickr

MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.

A few years ago, I was the key “witness for the prosecution” in a homicide trial.

There was no avoiding it; I actually saw the shooting from a very close distance, almost right on top of it, in fact.

I also bore a lot of the weight of all the consequences that this horrendous action caused.  I should clarify that the shooting took place in a passage of a secondary school during class hours and I happened to be the Director of said school, which included 800 adolescents and about 72 members of the staff.

I admit that I had no love at all for the defense lawyers; I wanted the culprit condemned with a sentence of at least 10 years.

In this case, it was the prosecution that faced the hopeless task, we didn’t get 10 years, and the sentence was dropped to 6 years and finally finished up at 4 years on parole. No prison time at all.

The whole judicial procedure dragged on for about 2 years, and strangely enough, it was the principles and models of “To Kill a Mockingbird” that helped me to steer through the stormy waters.

Emotionally, I disliked the defense lawyers intensely. But my rational mind accepted the fact that the guilty person – and we all knew he was guilty – had the right to a good defense.

I’m proud to say I weathered this tempest and came through more or less in one piece. The almost four hours on the witness stand, facing a total of 5 lawyers plus the 3 members of the court, were really hard, but well worth the experience.

THE COPAHUE VOLCANO IS GETTING ANGRY!

 Gas emissions, January 2013

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Source: NASA, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

EVENTS IN CHILE’S RECENT HISTORY.

I have a very clear idea of what can happen when the traditional civic systems break down: I lived and worked through the entire period of the Pinochet military dictatorship.

I won’t go into details; I don’t think that would be the right tone for this Blog Hop.

I do want to say that for many years, the concept of a fair trial was put on hold in this lovely country. In other words, the authorities of that time had no use for roles like that of Atticus Finch, as described in “Mockingbird”

For those of you who would be interested in exploring this topic further, I can recommend a YouTube video called “Dawson, Isla 10”, a Chilean movie.

It’s based on a book of the same name. The video is in Spanish, but I tried it without the audio, and it’s perfectly understandable just by looking at the scenes it shows.

It’s a hard movie, about political prisoners whose normal civic rights were non-existent. This video is a perfect example of what can happen when persons like Atticus Finch cannot fulfill their roles.

I’m not including the actual video; I don’t think it should be included here. 

THE BEAUTIFUL CRATER LAKE OF THE COPAHUE VOLCANO 

I hope it survives the coming erruption!

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 Source: Schlitzer90, CC BY SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons

PRESENT DAY CHILE.

At the present time, Chile is forging ahead on the road to development. It’s been a difficult effort, and there have been numerous mistakes on the way, but this is now a completely different country.

In order to keep the tone as light as possible, I’m including some photos of this lovely country that have little to do with the contents of this post.

I hope you have found this post interesting, and I hope to see you again soon!

LA MONEDA PALACE, THE SEAT OF GOVERNMENT

All reconstructed, no traces of the bombing of September 1973

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Source: Leopard123, CC BY SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons

SPANISH VERSION

(This Blog is bilingual)

Este post surge en respuesta de un desafío presentado por mi grupo de Blogueras y Blogueros, en el que se nos pedía escribir sobre la película que creíamos era la mejor de las mejores.

Elegí “Matar a un Ruiseñor”, ese clásico que nunca pasará de moda. 

La historia es conocida por muchas personas y no es el tema a desarrollar aquí. Sin embargo, me he referido a la importancia del rol del personaje  de Atticus Finch, el abogado defensor que cumple cabalmente con defender a un afro-americano en el período histórico de la extrema discriminación racial en los EEUU.

Si bien es cierto que la defensa de Tom, el Afro en cuestión, está destinada a fracasar, la película muestra el gran valor moral que encierra el profundo principio ético de otorgar a cada cual el derecho a tener una legítima defensa, en un juicio en el que se respete los derechos cívicos que son irrenunciables a mi modo de ver.

En otros párrafos de este post, me refiero a mi triste experiencia como “testigo clave de los prosecutores” en un juicio por homicidio. 

Aquí la situación es al revés, son los defensores los que tienen todas las posibilidades de ganar, y de hecho logran reducir la sentencia del culpable – sobre cuya culpabilidad no hay ninguna duda -  de tal forma que el hechor sólo recibe una condena por 4 años, a cumplir con libertad vigilada. Es decir, cero años en prisión.

Lo curioso es que logré salir adelante en este trance, al recordar siempre los principios éticos ¡que se observan con tanta claridad en el juicio de la película “Matar a un Ruiseñor”. Una gran película, sin duda alguna.

En los párrafos finales de este post, me refiero a los tristes años de la dictadura militar de Pinochet en Chile, años en los que los derechos cívicos de las personas fueron arbitrariamente suspendidos. 

Fue un período que me tocó vivir de principio a fin, y puedo asegurar que el video de YouTube que lleva el nombre de “Dawson, Isla 10” bien vale la pena de ver como registro histórico de esos eventos. 

Hoy en día, Chile forja su camino hacia un desarrollo más pleno. La tarea no ha sido fácil, e indudablemente se han cometido errores, pero éste simplemente ya no es el mismo país que muestra el mencionado video.

El tono de estos acontecimientos no son lo más indicados para este Blog Hop, de modo que sólo estoy incluyendo algunas fotos más amenas para alegrar el tono general de este post.

Espero les haya gustado este post y ¡espero verlos en la próxima!

How is your level of comprehension?    ¿Cómo está su nivel de comprensión?

© 2013  jveronr  (Joan Robertson)

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