| Justice is among the most important values any society can pursue and provide. While it is by no means easy to figure out what people deserve, standing up to ensure that justice is done is a disposition that every decent society needs to cultivate in its citizens. |
| It is especially important to cultivate it among democratic citizens at a time when governments here and around the world don’t seem committed to doing justice. However, standing up for justice is most valuable when we pursue it not just or primarily for ourselves, but are doing it for others. |
| I thought of this as I read a riveting story in the October 16 ABA Journal. It recounts an unprecedented intervention by a judge in a case arising out of an umpire’s decision in a Little League game. |
| The case contained the action of a dramatic tale, with enormous highs followed by quick and devastating disappointment. Whatever its significance for Little League baseball, it is, I think, also an important touchstone for a larger conversation about the pursuit of justice and its limits. |
| The Little League case is one sign, as the philosopher Jared Henderson explains, that “We are a justice-obsessed culture….” But justice is not the only virtue. |
| That recognition is as old as the ancient Greeks and as important today as it was then. Aristotle, who wrote centuries before the birth of Christ, clearly thought that justice was an important virtue. But he recognized that it is one among many virtues that have to be cultivated in a good society. |
| In the Roman Catholic tradition, St. Augustine places justice among four cardinal virtues, the others being fortitude, prudence, and temperance. Prudence means exercising good judgment and right decision-making, the combination of which is wisdom. It helps “people to choose that act which here and now best helps them to move in the direction of their final end.” |
| Without prudence, the pursuit of justice can be taken to injurious extremes. In fact, there is a psychological category called “justice sensitivity” that describes “a strong sense of fairness and a deep need for justice.” |
| But no one could survive and thrive in a world in which they had to right every wrong. |
| Here, prudence counsels having a sense of proportion and a willingness to suffer injury where injury is sufferable. |
| Thomas Jefferson advocated prudence in the Declaration of Independence, saying revolution was only justified by a “long train of abuses and usurpations.” |
| I was brought back to Aristotle, St. Augustine, and Jefferson as I read the ABA Journal article. |
| It tells the story of Marco Rocco, a 12-year-old Little League baseball player, who hit a dramatic home run in the sixth inning of a game that would “send his team to the state championship playoffs.” I get joy from imagining what Marco must have felt as he saw the ball fly over the fence. |
| But the ABA Journal recounts, as he “trotted around the bases…, an umpire ejected him from the game for tossing his bat. Under Little League rules, an ejection also required him to be suspended for one additional game.” |
| What happened subsequently is a tale about the pursuit of justice and its limits. |
| Marco and his father were justifiably frustrated and confused because no Little League rule prohibited bat flipping and because Little League International “celebrates them on its website and on social media.” Surely something was not right. |
| Why should Marco have to miss the first game of the state championship if he didn’t do anything wrong? |
| So, when they could not get redress elsewhere, they filed suit, and in July, a New Jersey judge found in their favor, “reversing the umpire’s call and allowing Marco to play in the next game.” |
| That decision righted a wrong done to Marco and may benefit other Little Leaguers in the future. But I don’t think that the judge’s decision made headlines in newspapers and on television all over the country because the suit exemplified caring about the rights of others. |
| They highlighted changing norms about sportsmanship and decorum in sports at all levels and emphasized how special it was for a father to go to bat for his son. As Marco’s father said, “If you believe you’re right, you take matters into your own hands and find a way to get it done.” |
| But maybe there is something else that we need to teach our children and encourage in all citizens. Let’s call it a sense of proportionality, governed by prudence. |
| Recall the admonition, “Don’t make a federal case out of it.” That once common parlance cautioned all of us against acting as if something “is a much more serious problem, mistake, etc. than it really is.” |
| That phrase was a reminder that not every wrong, no matter how painful, needs to be remedied. Many Americans in all walks of life have forgotten that. |
| We might all be better off if we remembered that even if the umpire was wrong, as the court said he was, it wasn’t worth making a federal case out of it. |
| I am glad for Marco that he got to play in the state championship and that he has a father who cares so much about him. As he grows up, he will have a chance to learn from Aristotle, St. Augustine, and Jefferson about when it is important to pursue justice and when it is wise not to do so. |
| We could all benefit from remembering their teachings. |
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