Edict #7: I’m outta ideas; let’s hear yours!
By Kendall Haney
Jr. Infectious Disease Correspondent
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
-14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution a.k.a.
Your Personal Guarantee of Equal Protection Under the Law as a United States Citizen
Author's note: When I started this column at the beginning of the year, it was in hopes that we could start a dialogue of ideas. In the interest of making next month’s column more entertaining than your textbook, in the comments below how about you throw some topics you’d like to read about my way? I’ll take every idea you send me, and I’ll figure out a way to weave it into an essay that hopefully leaves you rolling…or at least moderately interested in passing it on! That said, in light of all the news that has happened in the last month, I rather thought this—equal protection under the law as it relates to in-groups and out-groups—is a topic I’d want to share with you…as far as I’m concerned, we’re all an in-group at K12, and I’m glad to be in yours! So, share your ideas and let’s knit an essay of community interest together! Check back here next month for results!
This last month in school has been an exercise in studying in-groups and out-groups. In-groups are the people with all the power, the money, and social acceptance. Out-groups are the people…well, without those three fortunate hobbies. And, because outgroups don’t have that trifecta of ‘acceptable’ pastimes, it causes them to develop all new interests. Typically, those new interests has the effect of getting the out-groups into a lot of trouble.
Did I say a lot? How about….a lot a lot.
My first introduction to the idea of in-groups and out-groups came from reading the book The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton about a year ago. Here is a story written a long time ago about several boys, specifically from the point of view of the main character, Ponyboy. The main characters are considered part of the out-group. Many, especially the rich kids, aren’t fond of them. Tensions rise between the popular kids referred to as ‘Socs’, and the main characters who are all out-group members called ‘Greasers.’ Unfortunate events cause a domino effect, and the story goes downhill for our out-group main characters as time goes on. By the end of the story, some members of the ‘Socs’ feel badly for how they treated at least a couple of the ‘Greasers.’ Sadly, it could all have been avoided if the two groups had realized they weren’t all that different—they just came from different backgrounds, and they shared the same rights as men and women.
U.S. history is a mosaic of in-groups and out-groups, and at one point those groups were hurting each other so badly that an amendment was created for the purpose of protecting the rights of people perpetually pushed aside. In 1867, Congress passed the 14th amendment to protect former slaves. People of African-American descent were still largely oppressed by angry Southerners. The purpose of the amendment was to provide ‘equal protection under the law’ not just for one group, but for all people living in the United States.
But, why is equal protection important?
This might sound a little dry, but it could be the most important amendment to our constitution. In the movie ‘The Judge,’ starring Robert Duval and Robert Downey, Jr., one of the characters remarks to the other, “You see, the law is the only thing that can make all people truly equal.”
Did I sit stunned at that one line? Yes. It actually made the rest of that awful tear-jerker worth it. But, that’s another story.
It’s impossible for opportunities to be truly equal. Everyone’s situation is different, and that leads to an infinite number of different outcomes like fingerprints on a hand. But despite the fact that opportunities will always largely be unequal, the equal protection clause says that all people—all humans—will never be treated unequally under the law.
So where does it all go wrong? Because, quite honestly, when I turn on the news I don’t see a whole lot of groups parading in New York because they are celebrating their equality. In my opinion, I think it can all be traced back to this idea of in-groups and out-groups. When we make laws to protect groups, but then ignore those laws, we violate the very premise of ‘equal protection’ because we aren’t using the rules as they were intended. Instead, we are using the rules to favor one group at the expense of another usually for political reasons. When we make laws that unfairly (and probably unintentionally) single out a group, it causes frequently the smaller group to immediately lose their ‘equal protection’ status.
In short, my conclusion is that the unintentional lack of equal protection under the law for all people causes the strife in our country and outside of it. The effect of inequality under the law is that tensions grow to a boiling point between men of differing groups. Other laws fail to be ‘switched on’ properly that are there to protect people participating in activities that injure others. Those same laws are also there to protect the injured. In my opinion, the purpose of law is not to bully a person into behaving a certain way, but to insure that people live in a fair and just manner in harmony with his or her neighbors and overall community.
And harmony is what a reasonable person would strive for, don’t you think? The law isn’t there to bully people, or make them feel badly. It is there to protect everyone…when enforced properly.
Hit me back in the comments below, and I’ll be looking forward to responding to your thoughts!