Day Fifteen - January 20th - Day one of week three - "Rules"

Rules -

     I'm not sure how I feel about rules.  I'm probably somewhere in the middle between two extremes.  One end of the spectrum is "rules are meant to be broken" and the other end is defined by an almost compulsive need to follow every rule, no matter what, to the point of paralysis.

     I said in my journal for January 16th that "sometimes the logical decision is the wrong one" and I think this holds true here. Sometimes following the rules makes sense, to keep people safe, to keep things organized, etcetera. Sometimes following the rule is wrong.  Maybe it's based on a flawed notion.

     On this, Martin Luther King, Jr. day, we remember when following some of the rules was finally seen as wrong.  It was the rule that "whites sat in the front of the bus", but not to Rosa Parks.  It was the rule that "African Americans were not allowed to drink from white water fountains" or to "sit at the lunch counter at Woolworths", but not to those who sat there silently in protest anyway.

     I'm sure that there are rules in our society today that are present for the sole purpose of discrimination, but I only know of a few.  (Voter identification laws, anyone?) And each of them has a great "cover story" to make it not seem as if it is simply discrimination.  For instance, it is illegal to sit or lay down on sidewalks in San Francisco.  This clearly targets the homeless, but I'm sure it is covered up by some other rationale.

     My point is this. I'm sure there are rules in place that I haven't considered which discriminate unjustly against specific groups of people, which have a logical "cover story". I just don't know what they are because I am conditioned to accept and follow the rules in place, and assume that they are fair and just without questioning them.