Editorial March 30, 2020 Issue

Finding the courage to do what’s right

Barbara Vining

Finding the courage to stand up for what is right is often not easy. In fact, one of the most difficult things can be to look honestly within ourselves to discern if we are holding on to fears or entrenched opinions that keep us from knowing and doing what is right.

Most of us can remember at least one instance in our childhood when we did something we knew was wrong and refused to own up to it when we were found out. Or when we were afraid to tell the truth about someone else because of peer pressure. But happily, we can probably also remember a time when we found the courage to tell the truth even though doing so was difficult.

Both courage and cowardice are on display in the recently released movie Just Mercy. It is based on the book with the same title by Bryan Stevenson, a Harvard Law School graduate whose great-grandparents had been slaves in Virginia. Mr. Stevenson has been devoting himself for many years to helping people who have been prejudicially and mercilessly deprived of justice. The story centers on Stevenson’s efforts—long and hard-fought, but finally successful—to win freedom for a black man sentenced to death row for a 1986 murder he did not commit. Stevenson reports how Alabama officials ignored overwhelming evidence of the man’s innocence in order to get a conviction to satisfy an outraged community. It took unselfish love, integrity, and courageous resolve on Stevenson’s part to defeat the stubborn prejudicial resistance and threats he faced. But courage finally defeated cowardice and won the man’s release.

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