Serial

I've been listening to the Serial podcast, which you can find at serialpodcast.org, since the beginning, and I tell you honestly, I've completely missed the meta dialogue. I just now came to understand it. (To quote my favorite teacher ever, Tina Janc, I had an "Aha! moment.") The producer, Sarah Koenig, who will probably, and deservedly, win all kinds of awards for this podcast, is trying to tell the masses about the flaws in our outwardly appearing perfect justice system. I don't mean the justice system is perfect, but that even when it appears to have handled a case perfectly, it also has flaws. Sometimes big ones.

I've been so wrapped up in the murder mystery and the interviews that I haven't really heard what is being told. It's a good story though. What I find troubling is that this thing has been a year in the making and it just happens to land in time for a couple of big side steps by the justice system. It makes me believe that there really are great big ol' holes in the system, and surprisingly an interpersonal discovery that I don't want to believe it. I want to believe in a system that works. A system that brings justice and peace to the people. A system that isn't corrupted by racism and prejudice. I want to believe in it, but I don't think I do.

To clarify, I do not blame the individual laborers of the system. I have very close friends and family on that side, and I can't thank them enough for the work they do. What I'm actually concerned about is a piece from the Pledge of Allegiance that we, as Americans, learn as kids, "and justice for all." We've heard it. We've recited it. We believed it. Is it just the notion of naive children to believe in a pledge of allegiance to a country that owes us nothing? Or are these words conjectural?

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

I don't know. You decide.