WEBVTT

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[Music]

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chances are high that you know this lady

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Lady Justice is the main image 
of justice we have

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A blindfolded woman 
with scales and a sword

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She is blindfolded because she has
decided not to see

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whom she has in front of her.

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With her scales it's nice to measure 
pain crime and fit that to punishment.

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With her sword she delivers 
her punishment,

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monopolizing its violence.

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Is this adjust image?

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how can we think about justice 
through images?

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these are the questions 
I will ask here today.

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As a woman the accessories of Lady Justice

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suffocate me. That might be because I'm

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not a lady. Maybe it's because I'm not

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dressed to kill. In my talk today my

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companions will be women real women let

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us consider for a moment the blindfold.

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If justice was really blind as she

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claims to be then my question: is why our

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prisons filled mostly with blacks

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foreigners in the poorest among us?

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I think she is blind in order not to see

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the injustices imposed in her name. Not

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to see the pain and meaninglessness

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created by ugly institutions, our prisons.

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Deep down a woman in fact, this lady

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cannot bear to see. When trying to do

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justice when claiming to do justice our

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eyes must be open wide. The men and women

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in our hands are not abstract but real

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human beings. They have been babies with

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a crystal face playful children and have

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grown up men and women among us. They are

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called Emily, Antonio,

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Philip. Brunella. In 1931 a woman called

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Margaret Wilson on her own initiative

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curiosity and interest and also concern

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writes a book called "The crime of

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punishment". She was not an expert she is

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just a woman. She writes this about her

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book she says : "This is a woman's book and

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therefore we shall be is shamelessly

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women as we please and that means we

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shall not consider the law or justice or

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safety or any other abstraction at a

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distance from the meaning they have on

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the lives of men and women, boys and

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girls we love." Lady Justice especially

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proud of her scales we are obsessed with

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the scales but our obsession is

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presumptuous. A very simple tool of crime

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and punishment in time and space shows

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how ridiculous our assumptions are. The

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same crime today, it's not even taken

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very seriously,

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yesterday it was punished with death

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penalty. I'm talking about things like

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killing chicken, cutting trees, stealing

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horses, being a witch, being a witch today

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is even fashionable. The same crime such

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as drug use in Norway is punished with a

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fine in Singapore with death penalty. We

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try for accuracy and precision but

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cannot find it. In fact geometrical rigor

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and human activity do not go together

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well. The algebra of suffering, writes

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Anna Messuti, in her book "Time as

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punishment", is : minus times minus equals

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more. Negative times negative equals

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positive. But do we really believe that

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in order to get rid of

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suffering we need to add additional

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suffering? The sword of justice delivers

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punishment but does not keep a distance

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from it. For this reason the history of

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punishment is not less cruel that the

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history of crime. So is this a just image?

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How can we think about alternative ideas

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of justice through images? Since 10 years

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I work on an alternative idea of justice

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called restorative justice. Restorative

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justice challenges Lady Justice in all

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its elements: blindfold, scales and sword.

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Its eyes and ears are open wide to

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listen to and see the voices and faces

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of those that have been harmed and those

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that have harmed. It does not have the

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arrogance to think we can measure pain

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and equate it to punishment. It deals

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with the irreversibility of human action:

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what has been done cannot be undone.

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There is no equality of pain. Crime and

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punishment are not interchangeable. We

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must move on from this. Restorative

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justice tries to do right from

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wrong. It keeps crime at a distance says

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Claudia Mazzucato.

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It can meet violence but does not

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replicate it, does not use it and

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therefore does not legitimize it.

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Answering evil with evil might seem the

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most obvious but it is not the best way

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to establish an equilibrium.

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Claudia Mazzucato is one of the

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mediators that has created very

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important encounters between

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perpetrators of political violence in

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1970s in Italy and their victims. The

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best argument against violence she

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argues is a critique of violence.

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The sword of justice cuts between victims

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and offenders innocent and guilty,

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partisans of one and the other, relevant

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from irrelevant fact. As a mediator

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Mazzucato likens her word to another

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image that of the plough it is in the

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nature of the plough to work for many

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years it is in the nature of the sword

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to work but one minute it takes years

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and years to nourish and maintain human

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lives and human relations but is the

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plough a good image of restorative

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justice claudia matsukata herself finds

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anchorage in another image this is a

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logo of the Constitutional Court in

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South Africa it was made by a woman

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artist called Carolyn Perron this image

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you see in this image you see people

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sheltered under the branches of the tree

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to symbolize a justice that protects it

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is bait based on traditional African

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communities where people were literally

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sitting under a tree to discuss their

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disputes and conflict through dialogue

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the image also tries to represent

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another concept the concept of Ubuntu

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this concept refers to humanity but

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humanity made possible only through the

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existence of other people in fact in the

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images you will notice that dark and

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light are distinct the the branches and

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the people in a way artistic black black

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and white but on another level you will

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see that they are not distinct you do

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not see where does one start and where

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does the other end in my work in

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restorative justice I have been very

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inspired by scholars like Claudia

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matsukata but also others who feel the

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need to step outside their narrow field

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these scholars find anchorage in arts

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and literature I think in our field we

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need contamination we need to step

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outside otherwise we remain a closed

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system this image was made by street

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artist here in lovin and it refers very

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clearly to what I think a closed system

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is listening to oneself only speaking to

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oneself only if we ignore arts and

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imagination we lack the tools that will

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give us the necessary inspiration to

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understand what do we do why do we do it

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and how can we imagine things being

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otherwise but our brains are not

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instruments of representation they are

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instrument of action this is the reason

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why I'm very conscious of the importance

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of action and therefore I do like art

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that acts that moves that touches that

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represents and shows another image of

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what is possible I want to talk to you

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about another woman this our Dean Ian

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artist Mary Ally she died four years ago

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at 98 93 years old I was very lucky to

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meet her two years before she died in an

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Italian in Sardinia in 1981 Maria led me

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the truly unique piece of art in her

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hometown in ullas I for her art work she

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started talking to the people in town

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listening to their stories among the old

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stories told one story caught her

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imagination The Legend of the blue

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ribbon the legend told of a little girl

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who was in a cave with two older men and

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the cave falls down the girl holds on to

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a blue ribbon she sees in the sky and

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gets saved the men do not believe her

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and die under the cave now the legend is

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built on a real event that took place in

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olice I where when the mountain that

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stands on top of the town fell down and

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caused a tragedy it was this legend and

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the imagination of the little girl that

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gave the artist the right tools to start

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her project merchants from

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all over Italy donated meters and meters

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of blue fabric she asked the inhabitants

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to cut long blue ribbons out of the

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fabric of course some just watched

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because some people were very hesitant

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to to participate and but most people

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did especially children did once the

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blue ribbons were ready she asked the

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inhabitants to tie the town into itself

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tie every house to each other as people

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started to do this a problem emerged

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people were telling her they did not

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want to tie the house to the house of

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the neighbor because there were enemies

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the artists worked with this resistance

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and ask people to tie the houses anyhow

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but when there was friendship and to tie

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loaves of bread into the nodes or put

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colorful clothes to symbolize it also

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reminding us that friendship is rare and

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she told them to put nothing where there

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was no friendship now as the houses were

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being tied into each other a helicopter

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flew in float flew in and tied the whole

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town to its mountain in order to make

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peace with it now I know this image

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belongs to an art museum and not to a

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courthouse I also know that it's very

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impractical to tie our courthouses with

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blue ribbons but I want this image to

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make us think think of what justice that

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restores and repairs would look like I

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think time has come for Lady Justice to

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grow up and become a woman a 93 years

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old woman is this how can how can we

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think about just images probably we have

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to think a little bit further about that

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but let me leave you with one thing

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tonight

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when you go home

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tonight tomorrow please look and think

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about images of justice when you go into

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a courthouse bow in respect in front of

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the statue of Lady Justice

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but look further for alternatives I hope

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our courthouses

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and our municipalities will lounge

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public forums inviting artists students

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and others to work together and imagine

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a justice otherwise and if it can be

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imagined it can be done

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thank you

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[Applause]