[at-l] Stiffed by Hiker

[spiriteagle99@hotmail.com (Jim and/or Ginny Owen)]

LOL!!!!!

Clark -
I'd already gone to bed before this came in last night -- but I wouldn't 
want you to mis-characterize "jarhead justice" as you did.  It rarely, if 
ever, involved "beating up" on anyone - and when it did, it was entirely 
justified.  "Jarhead justice" was far more inventive than you imagine.  And 
far more fair, effective and actual "justice" than what most of those in 
this country mis-characterize as "justice".  I hope you realize that what's 
dispensed in our court system isn't "justice" but the rule of law.  And 
they're entirely different things.

Now - I can introduce you to the "justice system" you envisioned last night 
if you wish. But I don't think you'd like it very much.  In fact, having 
been (a long time ago) much too close to that "justice" system", I wouldn't 
care to go back there either.  There are of course, other "justice" systems 
- have you ever witnessed a "necklacing"?  Swift, brutal, and final, but 
certainly not fair - and the defendant has no "rights" at all.  Then there's 
a friend of mine who spent a year in a Third World jail for dispensing 
"justice" - he beheaded the man who killed his baby daughter, raped his wife 
and then dared him to do something about it.  Vigilante justice is certainly 
chancy - but like anything else, it has its positive points.

Even on the Trail, there's a rough "justice" system that has no relationship 
to courts or lawyers - or beating people up.  Ask the two guys who made 
loud, obnoxious anti-Semitic remarks one year.  The AT is a really tough 
trail when your fellow hikers won't talk to you.  They even tried changing 
their Trail names - it didn't work.  One of them "may" have finished - but 
if he did, he did so alone and friendless.

What you ran into wasn't "justice", had nothing to do with "jarheads" and 
very nicely proves one of the points that I didn't try to make - that 
ultimate "safety", both on and off trail, lies only in your own ability and 
willingness to deal with personal violence - anytime, anyplace.

Walk softly,
Jim




>Jim, you have just made my most important point beautifully by
>contrast.  Regarding my own personal experience last summer on the
>Trail, "Eagle" was exactly like your "jarhead" characterization - ready
>to physically beat me and my hiking partner up for what he just KNEW
>[wrongly, it turned out] was our "crime" - stealing his hiking poles!  I
>firmly believe that it was only because I stood up to him physically
>just long enough to let him learn I was a licensed NC attorney [and -
>thank the Good Lord - we still were in NC, having just hiked up into the
>GSMNP from Fontana] that we avoided "jarhead justice" that fine spring
>day in early April of 2001!  Vigilante justice is tempting, sometimes
>"deserved," but never is it really right, or really justice!
>
>thru-thinker
>
>[promising to say no more on this thread, and instead head off to bed!]
>


_________________________________________________________________
Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com